Central Park is masterpiece of urban planning. Olmstead is a hero to me. If you go there on a summer day "elitist" is the last thing that will come to mind. It still meets the aim he had in creating urban parks - to create egalitarian spaces open to everyone. Go up to Great Hill on a summer day when you'll see big families having BBQ's and grad students wine picnics on the lawn and families having birthday parties.
The CPK reporting station is as far from pavement as you can get in Manhattan and probably as representative of the median conditions across the 5 boroughs as you can get.
And in the winter.