It isn't an idle question. If park managers could figure out how to count their customers, they might make a better case for funding. Park managers can usually tell you how many people came out for a specific event, such as an evening concert. But if you want to know how many regular users a park has -- picnickers, runners, frisbee throwers, boombox listeners or squirrel feeders -- you're out of luck.
Partly this is because parks are by their nature open places with permeable boundaries. You can't easily count the people entering the way a retail store counts heads coming in through the front door. But it's also because park managers aren't as interested as they should be in finding out the answer.
As usual, NYC's Bryant Park offers a solution. Each day at 1:15 pm, a groundskeeper walks the park with two click-counters, one to count men and the other women. He also notes the weather, temperature, whether the main lawn is open and if there are any special events taking place in the park. This way, park managers have real data to use when deciding where to spend their money.
