"Every small time peddler, crook, and fence in Chinatown does business in Columbus Park, but they only do it with our permission. That permission costs money."
Columbus Park is one of rackets in Godfather Five Families. Its the fourth racket in the neighborhood chinatown.
The Columbus Park racket is based on the real life Columbus Park in Chinatown in Lower Manhattan. Bounded by Baxter (formerly Orange), Worth (formerly Anthony), Bayard, and Mulberry Streets, the site has alternatively been named Mulberry Bend Park, Five Points Park, and Paradise Park. Columbus Park is situated in the heart of one of the oldest residential areas in Manhattan, adjacent to the infamous "Five Points" and "The Bend”.[1]
Though this park feels distinctly Chinese, it wasn’t always the case. Until 1808 the site for the park had been a
swampy area near the Collect Pond (now Foley Square) and hosted a set of tanneries. In 1808 the pond was filled and became Pearl Street. When the filling began to sink, a foul odor emerged which depressed the living conditions of that neighborhood. As a consequence, the area became host to one of the world's most notorious tenements, known for its wretched living conditions and rampant crime, earning such names as "murderer's alley" and "den of thieves."[2]
Mulberry Bend Park 1903 - Now Columbus Park
The area where the park stands now and the surrounding streets eventually became known as Five Points, an infamous, crime-ridden slum depicted in the book and movie “Gangs of New York.” The area earned the name of Five Points because five of its streets converged at one point, on the site of what is now Columbus Park. City officials decided to raze most of the neighborhood in order to eliminate this hub of gang warfare, violence, poverty and crime. The park was built where the streets once existed in 1896. Of the original five streets, only three remain. Worth (formerly Anthony) Street on the south, Baxter (formerly Orange) Street on the west and Mosco (formerly Cross) Street on the east. [3]
Mulberry Bend Park was planned in the 1880’s by Calvert Vaux, co-designer of Central Park. Vaux saw this park as an opportunity to bring new life and order into the depressed neighborhood. Danish newspaperman Jacob Riis remarked of Vaux’s newly designed park that it is "little less than a revolution" to see the slum housing replaced by trees and grass and flowers, and its dark hovels infused with light and sunshine and air. The park opened in the summer of 1897, with bench-lined curved walkways and an expansive, open grassy area. Columbus Park was renamed in 1911 after Christopher Columbus (1451-1506), the Italian explorer credited with discovering America, or at least with awakening Europe to the opportunities there.[2]
Requirements[]
Unlock after upgrading Chinatown mansion to lvl 7.
