Thursday, December 24, 2009
News from Stuyvesant Square Park; East Midtown survives early snowfall
LOOKING AHEAD by Wally Dobelis
Rushing through the Stuyvesant Square East Park on a mid-December Monday, I ran into Christy Dailey, our NYCDPR gardener until a year ago, driving a tiny park-suitable pickup truck, loaded with bags and bags of tulip bulbs. I suggested that our park now has more bulbs than Holland, which was disputed, but it was impressive anyway. Is it Obama money at work?
Also, met the new gardener, Gosha Mosiej, another young energetic woman who speaks of also planting quantities of daffodils, muscari and snowdrops, and has big plans of renewal. A third young woman, Teresa Flores, the Park and Recreation Manager for the entire Manhattan, just happened to come by, checking on the holdup in the planting process, and clued me in further, about rebuilding the water supply and changing the fountain in the West Park, which was spurting water straight-up, into a more picturesque spray, and other renovations that do not change the landmarked character of the old historic park.
They are happy to work with the organizations that look after the Park. The oldest is Stuyvesant Park Neighborhood Associations (SPNA), est. 1968, to support the Park’s needs. Address: www.neighborhoodlink/StuyvesantPark/html, and POBox 1320, NY 10276. Its founder and President is Rosalee Isaly, and SPNA has an annual street fair, contributing about $8,000 to the Park’s budget, and has a tax deductible status. Some 30 ytears ago SPNA raised funds to restore the Park's historic fence, and was material in establishing the Stuyvesant Square Historic District and protecting its values. The new group, Stuyvesant Square Community Alliance, est. 2006, President Phyllis Mangels, has the objective of facilitating improvement of the Park and providing events that bring people together. SSCA has an official Facebook site.
This may be a good time to review the history of Stuyvesant Square Park, a gift from old pegleg Director General’s great-great grandson, Peter Gerardus Stuyvesant, who deeded it to NYC in 1836, (He also gave the land for St. George’s Church in 1846.) After his accidental drowning at Niagara Falls in 1847, nephews Gerard Stuyvesant and Hamilton Fish developed the property, building the surrounding houses, and when the city left the parks neglected, the powerful Fish (he was Governor of NYS, then Senator and US Secretary of State) forced the city to evict the squatters and their pigs. The longest free-standing historic fence was built around the parks, and SPNA raised $500,000 or so to restore the western one in 1980s; alas the eastern one is still in need.
All the neighborhood parks, including Union Square, Madison Square, Gramercy and Stuyvesant Town, are properly celebrating the holiday season, with Christmas trees and menorahs, and carolers are gathering for the celebrations. On the more commercial side, the throngs of shoppers on 14th Street obviously deny the existence of a recession, and the holiday market in Union Square Park (closing December 24) has 120 booths offering decent gift items - it is my source for scarves and Scandinavian winter hats.
If the parks are ready for the winter, are the rest of us? The threat of a sudden heavy snowstorm on Sunday 12/20 brought masses of shoppers to the supermarkets on Saturday, selling out such items as jumbo eggs, canned soups and roasted chicken. That was wise shopping, since by 8:15 AM on Sunday there were no more flakes in the air, the snow was down, up to a foot high. Streets were empty, except for a lonely dog walker or two, and there were no footprints in front of food stores. The only sound was the clatter of apartment-house ice-removal equipment. The streets showed no trace of snow shoveling trucks having passed through, and eventually a garbage truck with a front shovel appeared on 16th Street, traveling east. Parked cars showed no signs of people trying to move them, and the ordinarily traffic- heavy Third Avenue was still fully snow- covered, with only a narrow track on the northbound side showing though the asphalt . The very spotty southbound traffic moved gingerly on the west side of the avenue, fearful of slipping, and rolled into crossings at a crawl. Only 14th Street was snow- free, probably because of the massive bus traffic crushing the icy snow surfaces.
By 11 AM Third Avenue sidewalks had been swept, people were gingerly walking on the pavements, more so when crossing the snowy side streets. The occasional sounds of snow shovels clacking on the sidewalks were still the loudest noises in this ordinarily siren-dominated world. Northbound traffic was moving more freely, , while the southbound cars still crawled , buses seemed rare, and trucks even more so, and the light traffic still had not managed to break up the snow and ice and cut through to the asphalt. The sun, having partly broken through the white cloud cover, was shining on the white beautiful rooftops, promising slushy streets to come, to the relief of those of us who fear falls on black ice.
By 4 PM the street snow had been cleared. There’s still hope for humanity's survival.
Rushing through the Stuyvesant Square East Park on a mid-December Monday, I ran into Christy Dailey, our NYCDPR gardener until a year ago, driving a tiny park-suitable pickup truck, loaded with bags and bags of tulip bulbs. I suggested that our park now has more bulbs than Holland, which was disputed, but it was impressive anyway. Is it Obama money at work?
Also, met the new gardener, Gosha Mosiej, another young energetic woman who speaks of also planting quantities of daffodils, muscari and snowdrops, and has big plans of renewal. A third young woman, Teresa Flores, the Park and Recreation Manager for the entire Manhattan, just happened to come by, checking on the holdup in the planting process, and clued me in further, about rebuilding the water supply and changing the fountain in the West Park, which was spurting water straight-up, into a more picturesque spray, and other renovations that do not change the landmarked character of the old historic park.
They are happy to work with the organizations that look after the Park. The oldest is Stuyvesant Park Neighborhood Associations (SPNA), est. 1968, to support the Park’s needs. Address: www.neighborhoodlink/StuyvesantPark/html, and POBox 1320, NY 10276. Its founder and President is Rosalee Isaly, and SPNA has an annual street fair, contributing about $8,000 to the Park’s budget, and has a tax deductible status. Some 30 ytears ago SPNA raised funds to restore the Park's historic fence, and was material in establishing the Stuyvesant Square Historic District and protecting its values. The new group, Stuyvesant Square Community Alliance, est. 2006, President Phyllis Mangels, has the objective of facilitating improvement of the Park and providing events that bring people together. SSCA has an official Facebook site.
This may be a good time to review the history of Stuyvesant Square Park, a gift from old pegleg Director General’s great-great grandson, Peter Gerardus Stuyvesant, who deeded it to NYC in 1836, (He also gave the land for St. George’s Church in 1846.) After his accidental drowning at Niagara Falls in 1847, nephews Gerard Stuyvesant and Hamilton Fish developed the property, building the surrounding houses, and when the city left the parks neglected, the powerful Fish (he was Governor of NYS, then Senator and US Secretary of State) forced the city to evict the squatters and their pigs. The longest free-standing historic fence was built around the parks, and SPNA raised $500,000 or so to restore the western one in 1980s; alas the eastern one is still in need.
All the neighborhood parks, including Union Square, Madison Square, Gramercy and Stuyvesant Town, are properly celebrating the holiday season, with Christmas trees and menorahs, and carolers are gathering for the celebrations. On the more commercial side, the throngs of shoppers on 14th Street obviously deny the existence of a recession, and the holiday market in Union Square Park (closing December 24) has 120 booths offering decent gift items - it is my source for scarves and Scandinavian winter hats.
If the parks are ready for the winter, are the rest of us? The threat of a sudden heavy snowstorm on Sunday 12/20 brought masses of shoppers to the supermarkets on Saturday, selling out such items as jumbo eggs, canned soups and roasted chicken. That was wise shopping, since by 8:15 AM on Sunday there were no more flakes in the air, the snow was down, up to a foot high. Streets were empty, except for a lonely dog walker or two, and there were no footprints in front of food stores. The only sound was the clatter of apartment-house ice-removal equipment. The streets showed no trace of snow shoveling trucks having passed through, and eventually a garbage truck with a front shovel appeared on 16th Street, traveling east. Parked cars showed no signs of people trying to move them, and the ordinarily traffic- heavy Third Avenue was still fully snow- covered, with only a narrow track on the northbound side showing though the asphalt . The very spotty southbound traffic moved gingerly on the west side of the avenue, fearful of slipping, and rolled into crossings at a crawl. Only 14th Street was snow- free, probably because of the massive bus traffic crushing the icy snow surfaces.
By 11 AM Third Avenue sidewalks had been swept, people were gingerly walking on the pavements, more so when crossing the snowy side streets. The occasional sounds of snow shovels clacking on the sidewalks were still the loudest noises in this ordinarily siren-dominated world. Northbound traffic was moving more freely, , while the southbound cars still crawled , buses seemed rare, and trucks even more so, and the light traffic still had not managed to break up the snow and ice and cut through to the asphalt. The sun, having partly broken through the white cloud cover, was shining on the white beautiful rooftops, promising slushy streets to come, to the relief of those of us who fear falls on black ice.
By 4 PM the street snow had been cleared. There’s still hope for humanity's survival.
# posted by Wally Dobelis @ 3:46 PM 
