The Leaves Are Beginning to Turn--Autumn Around the Pond in Central Park

 

  

 

Update on Central Park Storm Damage

More than 200 trees were felled in that brief Tuesday storm. 

The Central Park Conservancy, already operating on a reduced budget, needs your help.

Storm Damage Update

 

"The staggering cost of clean-up is estimated at several hundred thousand dollars, but it is impossible to attach a monetary figure to some of the losses. "We had a wonderful chestnut tree at 100th Street and Central Park West," said Neil Calvanese, VP of Operations for the Central Park Conservancy. "Records indicate the tree was planted by the Park's designer, Frederick Law Olmsted, more than 150 years ago." The tree was devastated by the storm and will be removed."

To remind yourself how terrific the park is:

Teeny tidbyte from stormin' Cayce

Central Park Devastated by Tuesday's Storm???!!!

I barely remember Tuesday's storm, but apparently over 100 trees were toppled during that night's mini-hurricane.  Read about it in The New York Times.

"Tell Us How You Really Feel"...or "Let Me Buy You a Thesaurus"

In April, on one of the first beautiful days of spring, I brought a group from California to Central Park.  The trees were in bloom, the crowds were out, and a variety of entertainers were performing for those of us enjoying a leisurely Sunday afternoon.  There was even a wedding at Bethesda Terrace.  Could the day be any more pleasant?

I sat beneath my favorite tulip tree and waited for my group who had disappeared among the hundreds on the western steps to watch a well-known tumbling/comedy act.  It seemed to me that everyone was having the time of their lives.  No one could possibly be experiencing any emotion other than euphoria in this perfect spot on this perfect day. 

Around this time, a young man in his twenties, walking his parents through the park, stopped by my tree.  His father and mother who were from out of town were drawn to the crowds on the steps and asked him if they could watch the entertainment.

His eloquent reply:

"No, that's stupid.  Those are stupid people doing stupid things and it's stupid."

Central Park's April Flowers

These pictures were taken this month in Central Park.  I try to pull as many of my groups here as possible (hardly a Herculean task) and we go for nice, long, leisurely strolls on many of the 58 miles of pedestrian path.

Realize then that there are usually at least thirty or forty people just out of frame.  The last couple of pictures gives you an idea of the circumstances surrounding my shoots.

 

 

 

The Vandalism at Bethesda Terrace

(Photograph by Jen Chung/Gothamist)

At the beginning of the month, The Gothamist posted photos of the graffiti wilding that took place at Bethesda Terrace on Saturday night, January 31st.  Less than two years after the arcade was finally reopened to the public, it was criminally defaced by four socially defective morons--David Gonzalez Jr., 20, Aisha Calow, 18, Victoria Deniaminova, 16, and Sabrina Santiago, 16.  I would print their addresses if I had them.

My first view of the damage (estimates for its repair range from $50,000 to $100,000) was on Sunday.  Heartbreaking and infuriating.  My photos after the break. 

A Byte of Balto

 

To continue the top dog theme of the week (not including yesterday's Lincoln tribute) here's our Balto blog, originally posted on March 27th:

While giving tours, I sometimes yield the floor to a specialist in the group--an engineer, architect or historian--or to a student who might have just finished a report on the subject for school.  On a recent stop at the statue of Balto in Central Park, an eighth-grader volunteered to tell the story.  Since she was from Ohio, I thought it possible that she was an authority--the real Balto lived out his life at the Cleveland Zoo and was subsequently stuffed and put on display at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History. 

Judging from her lecture, quoted below, her research was clearly not conducted at a museum but came exclusively from the 1995 animated movie.

"Balto inspired the Iditarod race, because he brought medicine through a snowstorm all the way to a far part of Alaska.  They needed it or people would die and nobody thought he could do it.  The other dogs made fun of him and there was a rival dog who didn't want him on the team and there was a lot of prejudice because he wasn't a purebred, he was part wolf..."

I cut her off before she got to the love interest or Balto's comic sidekick, Boris the goose.  I had to explain that there were some differences between the movie and history and pointed out the well-known fact that, besides humans, only reindeer make fun of each other.

 

20 Million Visitors, How Many Crimes?

The annual stats for reported crimes broken down by precinct are in for 2008.  When we shot this video, the number of crimes committed in Central Park for the previous year (2006) was 101.  In 2007, the total rose to 103.  And 2008?  Drumroll please..........97!!!  For details on the kind of crimes committed, see the Central Park pdf.

The Battle for Belvedere Castle

It's snowing again today and I was reminded of the Battle for Belvedere Castle, a massive snowball fight waged last February.  This is a repost (2/2008) of that epic confrontation:

During the season's first winter storm last Friday, a day when most news outlets focused on the Serbian protesters setting part of the U.S. embassy ablaze or on the Turkish forces crossing into Iraq to engage Kurdish rebels, a much less publicized battle raged at Belvedere Castle, high above Turtle Pond.  It was my mission that morning to lead an unruly squad of forty-two eighth-graders and four of their teachers across Central Park.  After stocking up on rations in Times Square, we were transferred by the local B to our starting point at 81st Street.  A few in the ranks reported that the Metropolitan Museum of Art was closed due to snow, but they were from California and didn't know the difference between the Metropolitan Museum and Metropolitan College or whatever school would have announced its closing on the news that morning.  I ignored them and entered the park through the Hunter's Gate.     My plan was to march them south, then east to the Swedish Cottage, where we would turn north and then east to cut between the Delacorte Theater and the Great Lawn, slipping below the East Drive via the Greywacke Arch to reach Fifth Avenue and approach the Met from the south.  At the West Drive, however, I decided that we couldn't rush through such a beautiful winter landscape and I led them instead into the Ramble and up the windy path to Belvedere Castle.  I alerted my fellow guide, who was responsible for an additional forty-eight students and teachers, to our whereabouts.  He replied that they too would make the climb.

This Week's Quiz--Our Largest Parks

1--What is the largest park in Manhattan?  (This is too easy...name the second and third largest.)

2--What is the largest park in the Bronx?

3--What is the largest park in Queens?

4--What is the largest park in Staten Island?

5--What is the largest park in Brooklyn?

6--In what three boroughs can you can find a park exceeding 1000 acres?

7--Which borough has the most acreage of parkland?

8--Where does Central Park rank in the city's largest parks?

9--What park is pictured?  Where is it located?  (Hint:  It has the largest public garden with unrestricted access in the city.)

Columbus Circle and Audrey Munson

Someone in one of my groups recently asked for information on America's most sculpted model, Audrey Munson.  This video was part of our walk up Broadway from Bowling Green to Columbus Circle.  Further notes and credits can be found at 1 Green, 3 Parks, 6 Squares, and a Circle.

Stroessenreuther in the Park

This was originally posted on the old blog on September 12th at the close of this season's Shakespeare in the Park.

Travis Stroessenreuther, friend, fellow guide, and Little Byter (Slaves and a Haircut, Madison Avenue, Park Avenue Part One:  Death Avenue) has agreed to share my favorite story (his own) about the lengths people will go to claim those free tickets to the productions at the Delacorte. Travis is also a great actor and a company member of the improv troupe Eight Is Never Enough.

Here's Travis:

Let us start at the very beginning.....

I'm a stable man.  I like simple pleasures, good food, good music and the like.  While I am spontaneous, I do go forth in life with, I feel, a clear head--I know the difference between good and bad ideas.  And when I'm foggy on that detail, I turn to my wife, Julianna, to help me.

Which is why I don't know why on earth she let me go and do the thing I was about to go and do.....

THE FRENCH GARDEN IS BLOOMING

Off Fifth Avenue, above the Reservoir and just south of the Harlem Meer, is the Conservatory Garden, a triptych of formal plantings within the massive landscaped project that is Central Park.  The three gardens are based on European models:  English (seemingly overgrown with trees and hedges and a variety of flowers); Italian (with an expansive, tree-lined lawn, a fountain and an arbor) and French (with a meticulous, geometric layout). 

I spend far more time in the Italian and English gardens, but twice a year the French one draws focus--in the spring, when 20,000 tulips are planted around the Untermeyer Fountain, and right now when those beds are filled with thousands of Korean chrysanthemums.

 

October in the French Garden:  fall foliage and flowers.