Those long promised WiFi hotspots spots are all active (more or less) in city parks, although it’s always a good idea to check on status before you take your laptop out in the hope of sending some emails or doing some live blogging. City park WiFi comes in two forms: that which the city has installed in 17 parks (map and list, above) and that which NYCWireless, a nonprofit, has installed in a number of locations, including an additional 10 parks. (There are other NYCWireless hotspots that users have added, which you find on their map.) The Brooklyn locations are Prospect Park (at the Boat House and at the Picnic House), Brooklyn Bridge Park in Dumbo (the city part of the park) and the Brooklyn Museum. The Prospect Park locations are city-installed. The Dumbo and Brooklyn Museum spots are courtesy of NYC Wireless. Our own experience is that coverage can be a bit spotty and the connections are kind of slow, so don’t plan on a lot of heavy duty uploading and downloading. If you simply need to do some garden variety surfing and emailing, though, they definitely do the trick. (NYCWireless requires you to register to access the hotspot.)

That’s the city map above, which you can find by clicking here. The NYCWireless Map is below, which you can find by clicking here. Only the Blog Knows Brooklyn has also thoughtfully posted the NYC city parks hotspot list, which you can find here.