Two Weeks Notice

Have you seen the movie with Sandra Bullock and Hugh Grant?   Her life's work is to save neighborhoods from being destroyed by developers and the movie is a romantic comedy about her efforts to do this.   Well, I channeled Sandra Bullock the other night when I spoke to our Community Board 7 (CB7)  for the upper west side.  The Department of Education has proposed tearing down the school (PS 199) right next door to us and rebuilding it with the school on the bottom and a residential tower (30-50 stories) on the top.  Kudos to the Department of Education for a creative way to have a world class school built and maintained without any cost to the city.  It really is pretty clever.  However, their cleverness would deeply impact our building.  We would lose our views of Central Park, three years of construction mess would be a nightmare on our relatively quiet street, and quite frankly it would have a huge impact on the property values of our building.  There are lots of other reasons it wouldn't be a good thing and I felt  our voices needed to be heard.   The first thing that irritated me about this is that the Department of Education had already solicited plans from developers and because of some crazy statute, they were not obligated to notify the neighborhood association about their plans.  The plans were randomly discovered by some parents and word got filtered down through the school and then eventually to us.  My new friends in the building (about 12 of us) decided to attend the CB7 meeting and express our feelings about the project.  Fortunately the CB7 members were similarly distressed over the proposal so I thought I was off the hook and wouldn't have to get up and plead our case.  My friend had different ideas and kind of shamed me into speaking to the board and about 100 other people who were attending the meeting.  My friend spoke first and very eloquently asking questions about the process and how much influence we could yield as a neighborhood on the Department of Education.  You are only given two minutes so she finished and I stood to speak.  I had written something out and it was a list of my concerns if the proposal moved forward.  Apparently I touched a few hearts because after I finished speaking everyone started clapping.   Can I just say that for a few brief seconds I felt like a star. Had they carried me out on their shoulders, I wouldn't have felt better.  The applause has died down, but I am fired up now and will lie down in front of the first bulldozer that arrives to tear down our precious PS 199.!

Once you see the picture, you have to vote for Paul as the most thoughtful, clever gift giver of all time.  This is what I saw when I entered the living room Christmas morning-- my very own subway sign!  Please plan to make a stop if ever you find yourself on the Janhattan line. 

Swinging, Swinging, All the Day

There is a fortress at 66th & Park Avenue called the Park Avenue Armory.  It originally served as the headquarters and administrative building for the 7th New York Militia Regiment, known as the Silk Stocking Regiment due to the disproportionate number of its members who were part of the city's social elite. The building is known for detailed interior rooms that are furnished with ornamental woodwork, marble and stained glass depictions of moderately disapproved behavior.   The armory has been leased by a non-profit cultural organization as a center for unconventional works in the performing and visual arts, while maintaining and restoring the historic aspects of the building. 
Okay, enough history lesson now for the fun part.  One of the art exhibits in the armory that Paul and I visited over the holidays was the Swings exhibit.  The photo could not possibly capture the amazing experience nor can I adequately describe the sensation of swinging on this huge swing all the while watching this huge white piece of fabric swaying in the middle of the armory as if it were a floating, puffy cloud.  The swings, hooked up by ropes and pulleys were the engine that moved the fabric.  Trust me, this was a fabulous experience.  I think I may have drooled while swinging----and who doesn't? 

Hurrican Relief

While I was wringing my hands wondering how people would ever clean up the mess left by Sandy, others were springing into action.  It didn't take long to get word out that our stake would be volunteering in the Rockaways for two weekends.  The family wards were assigned to go on Saturday and the singles wards would meet for a brief Sacrament meeting and head out on Sundays.  We were instructed to wear work shoes and bring gloves and our own lunch and water.  Because Paul is the Bishop of the Lincoln Square YSA Ward, I decided to serve with them on Sunday.  It was about a 90 minute ride on the D train to school buses and then to our destination in the Rockaways.  Missionaries had been working in the area since the storm and had identified hundreds of homeowners who wanted our help.  We divided into groups of ten and were give two addresses.  At the first home, all we did was carry furniture and appliances from the backyard to the curb.  The second home had been flooded and as the waters receded, tons of sand mixed with oil had been deposited on their driveway.  While some of our team mucked out the basement of the home, the rest of us scraped and swept the driveway.  It was a gooey mess, but we finally got enough of the sand off to hose it down.  With dish detergent and lots of brooms, we were able to clean up the driveway and left the homeowners with a little hope of returning to a new normal.  Having finished our assignments we found another home that had been flooded and started tearing out the basement.  This home had been flooded up past the 1st floor.  We tore out soaking wet wallboard and insulation and hauled it to the street.  Let me stop here and say that this is what is called "mucking out."  The full time missionaries have been mucking out four days a week for the past three weeks.    While destruction is more in my strike zone than rebuilding, this is heavy and difficult work.  Everything had to be ripped out from the floor to the ceiling including the ceiling.  We came home tired and soaked and satisfied.  The people were so grateful for our help.  While we got to come home and have a hot shower, most of the people we helped were still living in their homes without power and running water and no heat.  And yet, many seemed very positive and hopeful and grateful.  The second week was much like the first week except that the water had drained out of the walls and insulation so it wasn't quite as difficult.  We totally gutted a woman's house.  As we were cleaning out the cupboards it was amazing to see how high the water had come up during the storm.  The dishes in the cupboard above the sink were filled with water!
As we walked through the neighborhood we were greeted by many other volunteers from local church groups.  And many people had come on their own just looking for a way to help.  One food truck owner from Chicago drove his food truck to Coney Island and parked for three days serving free hot food to anyone who was in need.   There are countless stories like this of people who didn't wait to be asked;  they just came and did their part to relieve the suffering of so many. 

Sandy Arrived

Bobby Roberts sings "Big Sandy" in contrast to Terry Allen's "Little Sandy."  "Sandy Here on Earth" was song by John Fahey but who can forget Carlene Carter's "Too Bad About Sandy?"  However so many New Yorkers are singing the song from Grease, "Sandy my darlin, you hurt me so bad, you know it's true....."   Sandy did hit and she left her mark.  Many will be figuring out how to rebuild, clean-up, or move on.  The relief effort continues and not surprisingly there are so many willing volunteers.
Watching a news conference the other night, Mayor Bloomberg said, "We'll get through this, we're New Yorkers!"  I turned to Paul and mentioned that the mayor's remarks made me a little bit teary eyed and it obviously had the same affect on Paul as he was caught wiping away tears.  In unison we called out, "we're New Yorkers!"  I like the sound of that. 
 I need to give a big shout out to so many friends and family who contacted us during the Hurricane named Sandy.  She struck on October 29-30, and Paul and I didn't feel a thing.  Paul was in Hong Kong and I was in Austin.  We were following the news closely because we have many family members,  dear friends and colleagues who were in harm's way.  We were grateful to get reports that all had survived although trees were down and power was out.  Some still do not have power and this is November 6. 
Paul arrived home Thursday after the storm and enjoyed a 21/2 hour ride home from the airport.  Traffic was obviously crazy and the entrance to the Triboro Bridge was down to one lane because they were doing checks on cars to make sure at least three people were in each car.  If not, you were turned away.  (Didn't apply to livery cars or taxis).  My trip home the next day was another story.  I arrived in 30 minutes because people couldn't get gas and just weren't on the roads.  It remained this way right through the weekend. 
We walked through Central Park on Saturday and found many large trees that had fallen during the storm and countless branches.  Interestingly enough, the buildings in our neighborhood that have decks and large trees on the decks, appear to have no damage.  The trees are still swaying in the breeze.  Go figure.
In an earlier post I mentioned our adventure on Jane's Carousel in Brooklyn.  The photo shows how dangerously close the water came to damaging this beautiful landmark. 

Sandy has left us, but we're not singing "why, why, why;" we're saying "we'll get through this, we're New Yorkers!"

Columbus (has his) Day

That's right.  I am writing this on Columbus Day.  Recent books about Columbus don't shed as positive light on him as did our Social Studies teachers, but I will leave my opinions on that topic for another day.    There is a 20 foot statue of Columbus atop a column in Columbus Circle which is probably about 70 feet tall all together.  Recently as part of a public arts project, the artist Tatzu Nishi created an apartment around the Columbus statue so that the public could "discover" Columbus up close and personal.  We walked up six flights of stairs that were part of the scaffolding around the column and entered a fully furnished apartment.  The television is  playing CNN News, magazines are available for reading while sitting on the sofas and Columbus is atop a coffee table in the middle of the room.   The windows provide spectacular views of Central Park and Central Park South.    We had so much fun looking at the finer parts of the statue (made of marble, by the way) which cannot be scene from the street level.  Just another fun thing to do in New York. 

Remembering

I'll never forget where I was and I am sure that you never will either.  I had just come home from my run in Austin, TX and turned on the news and heard Katie Couric say, "we have just been informed that an airplane has struck one of the towers in the World Trade Center."  The video made it appear as if it were just a small plane and perhaps the result of a pilot losing control.  It wasn't long before we understood the true cause and that it was no accident.  We remained glued to the television news that day and cried as we discovered the extent of the lives lost and the lives changed that day.  Little did we understand what it would mean to all of us and how it would change the world.
It has been interesting to talk to those who were in the city when all of this occurred and the changes they have felt as a result.  Each person has mentioned that it changed the way New Yorkers treated each other.  People became much nicer and neighbors reached out to each other in a way they hadn't before.  It is reassuring to know that out of tragedy, positive changes can also occur.

New York City has created some beautiful ways to remember  9/11 and honor those who died.  At dusk on 9/11 a tower of light that extends hundreds of feet into the air is lit and it stays on all night and slowly fades as the sun comes up.  This photo was taken from our bedroom window and you can barely make out the "pillar of light" that lit up our room that night and helped us remember.