Rich, poor or middle class, if you live in Manhattan, you depend on public parks for recreation. One sign that Gotham is failing at yet another task of keeping people with resources in the city: Columbus Circle Park has been barricaded to visitors for three hot months, and city officials can’t agree on who’s to blame.

For New Yorkers who stuck it out on the concrete island for pandemic summer, the only thing to do in town was to go outside. In a vague nod to the need for more public space, the de Blasio administration closed some roads to cars in favor of pedestrians and cyclists and let restaurants operate on the street.