As we worked on our tours and traded bits of knowledge, my Brooklyn colleagues supplied the first lesson on Prospect Park: "Olmsted and Vaux designed Central Park, learned from their mistakes, and then designed Prospect Park." That claim seemed to be an audacious bit of Brooklyn boosterism, anticipating the unabashed cheerleading of its eventual borough president, Marty Markowitz. After all, everyone knew that Central Park was the greatest park in the world; how could it be challenged by its smaller and younger sibling?