This week features a day trip to Long Island. The itinerary was an indoor flea market, an outlet mall, and the town of Port Jefferson.
Day tripping
The outlets had great bargains including a windbreaker for Fall and a bundle of books at a discount.
Port Jefferson offered Red Shirt Comics and seafood at PJ’s Lobster House where we dined indoors for only the second time since March!
As of this writing indoor dining will return to Manhattan on September 30th.
Women’s Rights
2020 is the Centennial of the Vote for Women in America. New York dedicated its first statue of real women’s rights pioneers on Literary Walk.
Also marking the 200th Anniversary of Susan B. Anthony’s birth, this new monument is long overdue.
Central Park Wonders
I took a nature walk through the ramble recently. This is an area of the park with interconnected paths that twist through scenic woods. Bird watching here is fantastic.
A young Jazz Saxophonist played. A group of guys enjoyed a game of beach volleyball. And the police keep guard over a statue of Christopher Columbus.
The Conservancy takes great care of Central Park. Maintaining the lawns, trees, benches, and the rest every day.
This Summer has been hot and sunny most of the time. My husband and I are staying put in New York for now. These days I love my city. Have you looked at the weather across the country lately?
Park Summer
The Conservatory Garden
Located at E. 105th Street & 5th Avenue across from The Museum of the City of New York, this garden is a treasure with flowers, romantic paths and fountains placed well. A quiet zone perfect for escape from the chaos outside.
9–11–2020
19 years after the attacks on U.S. soil of 3 American planes used as missiles destroying the Twin Towers, damaging The Pentagon, and crashing in Pennsylvania killing over 3,000 people, Corona Virus has killed over 200,000 Americans.
We will all pause to remember 9/11. But never forget that then & now we had a President not duly elected by the people.
Just a few of the things that keep me busy. Our city has seemingly become more normal than it has been in months. Traffic patterns are gradually building back up on 5th Avenue and Lexington Avenue.
Summer has become one long weekend for me. I break the season down as follows: June is Friday; July is Saurday; August is Sunday; September is Monday.
I know Americans think Labor Day is the unofficial end of the season. September is still quite warm. Cool weather really arrives the week of Halloween.
On a recent walk around I noticed the local teenagers have begun to return. Most of them disappeared for July. Many are not wearing masks or have taken to wear them around their necks. In better times the young often act badly; during this hard time they are opening themselves up to potential disaster.
My photos have captured people in their moments of distraction. Too many still babble away on their phones breaking the otherwise wonderful quiet of the park.
Activity is always abundant in the city that is coming back to life.
Just Being
New Yorkers are a hearty lot. The energy is on regardless of the times. It’s uplifting to see people each day. Walk, run, togetherness and beautiful dogs everywhere!
Fair weather opened August with gentle breezes. The Summer is beginning its annual winding down. Soon we will be reminded of the number of weeks, then days until Labor Day!
A group of teenagers were gathered to play. No masks in sight. Wide open space in the park is generally quite safe but i wonder if they are being too careless. Near the 96th Street Entrance/Exit a man sits with his best friend.
A man reads his newspaper; By foot, on rollerblades, on bike to stay active.
You feel a commonality with the people you see around in the park or on the street. No matter the activity, we are all trying to maintain a sense of hope, a spirit of neighborliness.
Young or old or somewhere in between everyone just does their thing. The 21st Century has kids enjoying a very old toy—the scooter. The boy on the far left took out his electric skateboard dressed quite fashionably too. My mates and I never looked that well heeled at his age! In the middle a Mom tends to her child while a man takes to bare feet after what seemed to be a painful run. At the right a trio of kids on their scooters. They wore masks.
Day Camp groups are playing games.
Hockey anyone?
I nicknamed the inner roadway of the park the ‘autobahn’ due to the speed of the cyclers. Things have changed. So many people use Citi bikes (New York’s bicycle share program) you would think they are all training for the Tour De France!
A runner falls into a walk while cyclists glide by in the adjacent lane; an intrepid Senior takes her walk following the tropical storm!
Although bikes are supposed to be walked on certain paths in the park it’s unusual to see people actually doing it. Friends? One man is masked, one is not. Odd.
Dear Readers: As Summer begins to wane I hope you can stay healthy and enjoy as much as possible…’til next week…
Tourists? Group of four in masks who are very close.
I was just thinking how we were told back in January to write out the full 2-0-2-0 when dating important docs. Who knew that it would be almost exclusively applied to receiving unemployment benefits.
My Dear Readers: Updates from New York City. July ends. USA continues to deny the impact of Covid—19 despite the largest recorded drop in its economy in history!
If you reside outside of North America you may have heard about how poor our safety net is here. This is showing up now during this unprecedented crisis.
I only glance at the headlines each morning. It takes until late in the day to realize how much more our country has slid in the eyes of the world.
New York City has sport once again with its expensive corporate stadiums empty. Overpaid athletes are playing with piped in crowd noise.
Several athletes in baseball are now sick. Games are getting postponed. I think baseball should cancel the season.
No Broadway/ Off—Broadway theater. No museums. No movie theaters. Broadway and Hollywood had both reached their commercial summit. I do not believe this will happen again.
If we have cinemas the interior of those spaces will have to be reinvented along with Broadway and Off—Broadway theaters.
Personally, my fear is that America will be vunerable like never before to a new authoritarian reality. Already the President floated the proto-fascist notion of delaying the Fall Election. This never happened in America before this con man took office.
People are waking to see how much damage has been inflicted upon regular people over decades of blindly adding police to streets. This has resulted in the brutality seen in recent days.
The people were empowered to fend off the awful notions of power hungry office holders. Our struggle for greater Democracy will continue.
With such heavy issues hovering over us I refuse to conform to the reactionary nature of certain friends and family. I just read “Twilight Of Democracy” by the historian Anne Applegate, seen below in the picture, argues strongly for Democratic ideals. She is hopeful Americans will reject the anti—democratic platform of Donald Trump.
Highly Recommended to everyone who cares about Democracy.
My photography is an outlet to express what I see daily to counter the ugly forces at play in today’s world.
Despite it all I am having a lovely Summer. What else can I do? November will be chilly. And by then our biggest Election will be upon us.
Museums
5th Avenue from E. 86th Street to E. 103rd is called Museum Mile. There are several along this route on the East Side. The Museum of the City of New York, The MET, The Guggenheim and The Jewish Museum are my favourites. I took pictures of their facades over the past three months. Devoid of crowds. A silence. Mourning? Will they come back as strong as before the shutdown?
The grand Metropolitan Museum of Art sits in waiting.
The Guggenheim with its famous spiral design by Frank Lloyd Wright has never been so deserted. I took several images to capture angles and represent a fuller vision of its contemporary beauty.
The Museum of the City of New York, The Cooper-Hewitt Design Museum, and The Jewsih Museum are seen below:
Exhibits frozen in time. Not changed since March.
Candids
Another component of taking images on walks are the people you see in moments. So distracted are these strangers that I could not resist capturing them in time. What follows are the first results of my observations.
L—R: A Father calls to a friend to take a cooler and other gear into the park; A dog walker; Two kids with their scooters.
A romantic stroll in the park.
August Arrives Tomorrow
Major League Baseball attempted to start a shortened season but finds itself in a bind now that the Miami Marlins team is ill with Covid—19. Then the Phillies were struck then the St. Louis Cardinals.
All of the hot spot states are only beginning to require masks and think about shutting down again.
The Republican party is making this crisis a partisan issue; their leader floats proto—fascist ideas daily.
Here in New York City while we have settled into our Phase 4 lives a new month starts tomorrow!
