Meet Cullen the Cardinal.
This bright and bold bird is The Post’s suggestion for the new Parks Department mascot – and he’s a figure that holds deep meaning for both the city and its parks.
Cullen is named for legendary New York literary figure William Cullen Bryant, a poet, abolitionist and longtime editor of The Post, who wrote an editorial in 1844 that led to the creation of Central Park.
“If the public authorities, who expend so much of our money in laying out the city, would do what is in their power, they might give our vast population an extensive pleasure ground for shade and recreation in these sultry afternoons, which we might reach without going out of town,” he wrote.
Bryant felt the city had reached a point by the mid-19th century where it deserved a park on as grand a scale as those in London and Paris.
Eventually the idea of grand, manicured open space with winding paths, streams and ponds took hold. Nine years after the editorial, the state authorized funds for the park.
Bryant is also the namesake of one of New York’s most beautiful green spaces, Bryant Park, behind the New York Public Library in Midtown.
Cullen the Cardinal not only recalls the legacy of a great New Yorker, but serves as a symbol of the northern cardinal, one of the most common birds in the city’s parks.
Like other typical New Yorkers – and much like Bryant’s paper, the New York Post – the cardinal is a bird with a lot of chutzpah. They are impeccably attired, they fight fiercely for bird real estate in trees, and many of them are great singers, after they finish their day jobs collecting seeds.
With his green vest, Parks logo badge and stylish hat, Cullen is sure to become a popular and recognizable symbol of our city’s beautiful parks.