I saw the news that a jogger was given one grand ticket for running in the Central Park at 4:30am, and wonder if it's OK to ride bike in the park at night (dangers from crimes notwithstanding), say after midnight?

Closed as far as I know. Just about all parks are.

Starting midnight? Is there a physical gate/fence that keeps one from entering (could it happen that I enter from the west side and can't exit from the east side?)?

You can enter. But you can also get ticketed. Not sure of exact times. It's been a long time since I hung out in city parks after dark.

Central Park is closed from 1 a.m. to 6 a.m. daily. They can't physically keep you out, but will ticket you.

City that never sleeps?

I guess not.

This is why when I go in there at night, I creep through the bushes dressed all in black and wearing a balaclava.

Thanks for the info. When I occasionally ended up in the Park in late evenings seeing few people around, I would wonder if I could be "locked inside".

Be careful, the police may shoot at anyone they consider "suspicious".

I know the secret handshake.

I've walked across the park after that and haven't had issues. It does close between 1am and 6am officially, but I think they just don't want people riding around the loop at that hour. This morning registration opened at 5:30am in the park and there were no issues with the parks department.

A lot of people are in the park running/cycling starting around 5. The cops typically leave them alone, but technically they are not supposed to be there.

Permitted events, like CRCA / Spring Series races in the park are a different story. Since they have a permit to hold their event at those hours, they're allowed to be there notwithstanding that the park is still closed.

only the criminals are legally allowed in ...

And the drunk and clueless tourists wait a second could there be a connection here...

Some of the city sleeps in the park. They don't want bikers disturbing their rest.

Why would it be ok at 12:30AM but not 5? Those hours don't make sense.....

More like closed from 10PM to 4AM.

It's closed from 1AM to 6AM whether or not you think it makes sense.

That's funny

Why does 10pm make any more sense? I ride through the park pretty regularly at ~11pm coming home from activities way uptown.