Backgammon in Lower Manhattan

Liberty Park is back, and much better looking than it was, it must be said. (I know Liberty Park is not its official name. But I'm sure it will no more be called Zuccotti Park than Sixth Avenue is called Avenue of the Americas, or the West Side Highway is called Joe DiMaggio Highway.)

Judging by the photos up at Curbed, the chess players are back as well. But the real question is whether the backgammon players will return. They left after September 11, of course, and eventually found a new, more central venue: Bryant Park.Will they desert midtown and its magnificent conveniences for the memories of the windswept Liberty Park of old? In the years before September 11, Wall Street would regularly face off against the semiprofessional backgammon hustlers, sometimes for very large stakes indeed. Bryant Park is probably nicer, but I suspect the pickings are better downtown.

Posted by Felix at 21:43 EST