Cry Me a River

My new route to work takes me down the west side of Manhattan along the Hudson River and serves to remind me why I live here. I love rivers, I love wide rivers with historic pasts (though I guess any major body of water has some sort of "historic" past but you know what I mean). I could live in Kentucky if I were situated on a hill looking down on a river. The ocean is better, but rivers do it for me too. They put me in a state of contemplative, just-this-side-of-melancholy meditation (a good state for me).

The photo here is evidence of what must be considered progress, again, in the realm of beautification. Not much to look at now (and kind of post-apocalyptic in a cool kinda way) but this is just part of "Segment 3" of the sprucing up of the 550 acres of Hudson River park, which includes 400 acres of open water that will, according to the Friends of Hudson River Park, provide an exciting public venue for boating, touring, fishing, swimming and many other activities.

Zoning Schmoning

Most temperate days, I walk to work. Over on King Street (where I live) to Varick and then down to the World Financial Center in a zig-zagging fashion, down Hudson to Spring, down Greenwich to Chambers and on down to my office across from Ground Zero (to the east) and the new, under-construction monolith that will be the new Goldman Sachs headquarters.

Speaking of construction, it's nuts down here. And up there (through Tribeca to my neighborhood). The place is awash with trucks and equipment and materials and dust and workmen in hardhats everywhere you look. At lunch time, it's easy to stumble over the men sitting on the ground leaning against nearly every building as far as the eye can see. In a way, it's inspiring (progress!) and at the same time it's depressing. Bad for the environment, bad for the once-unique neighborhood, bad because I can't afford any of these new luxury apartments.

Nice write up here.