CENTRAL PARK
CENTRAL PARK
Gee, so long since a blog entry. Even got a few e-mails asking about the seeming silence. No, nothing's amiss. Just busy, and not able to focus on the blog of late. There are a few entries-in-progress in my "Blogress" folder, in various states of "not quite ready to post."
Hmmm. Blogress. Maybe I should submit one that to Blogicon!
Since I feel compelled to post an entry, having not done so in way too long, here's a factual account of some events of yesterday.
Got a late start into the city to attend a meeting. The appointment was on a somewhat floating schedule, as we'd just agreed Friday afternoon to hold the meeting. My contact with this group is local, but the others were coming in from elsewhere. We finally agreed to meet for a late lunch in the city.
The ride in was a breeze! No traffic, no problems. The meeting, however, was in smack-dab Midtown Manhattan, which meant that finding parking would be a struggle. One finds a garage, one doesn't find a spot in the middle of the day in Midtown Manhattan. When one retrieves the parked car, it is more akin to handing over a ransom than it is to paying a bill. My wallet content was greatly reduced of greenery when I eventually did get the car back. But more on that in a bit.
We'd been communicating via cell phones as I drove in, and it was decided that since it could take anywhere from 40 minutes to two hours for me to get into the city, that they would go to a nearby restaurant and meet me there. In keeping with the spirit and fortune of the day, the cell phone even seemed to work through much of the areas known as "Cellular Hell." This is where reception and clarity vanish, and either intelligibility is gone, or the conversation sounds like it is being conducted from that spacecraft that got lost, and then ended up in either Roswell, NM, or some other Area-51 type location.
Lucky for me, after a search period almost as long as the drive in, I found a garage around the corner from the restaurant. In my next life, I want to own a piece of a NYC parking garage. Now that's one lucrative business!
I had established that this was a casual dress meeting. No suits, no ties. Knowing that I am a major Yankee fan, my contact had asked if I'd be wearing my "signature" Yankee Cap. Yes, I replied, and my Yankee Jacket, as well. This is so much my trademark that at professional meetings people I haven't yet met are told to "look for the guy in the Yankee Cap." One of these years I'll scan the classic "professional meeting Yankee Cap" picture, and post it here. There I am, in my black blazer, Yankee Cap, and a cell phone by my ear.
So I walk into the restaurant, looking for the one person I'd recognize of the assembled group of four I'd be joining. As I walk in to the restaurant, a fellow I'd never met before calls out, "You must be Dean. Say, are you a Yankee Fan by some chance?!"
My reputation precedes me.
We had a very nice late lunch at this little French Bistro. As we talked business it was established that we had numerous acquaintances, associates, and business dealings in common. I am in a business where everyone seems to know, or know of, everyone else. We further got it straight that we were of a common mind about how to conduct business, and mindful of with whom and on what basis we choose to operate. A productive, open, satisfying meeting.
Among the topics we discussed: how long can (will?) WorldCom's stock plummet, and how low can it go? Also, how long can Bernie Ebbers hang on , and will the company be broken up in order to shed some debt and get back in the black? Little did any of us know that the next day it would be announced that Ebbers would resign and a restructuring would be taking place. Wow, a day later, does it ever seem that we are visionaries, clairvoyants, seers.
Then we do a classic New York move. Or maybe this is a "big city" move, but it seems so very New York to me.
These fellows I was meeting with are from a publicly held company. The two top execs had flown in for a day of meetings. They were using one of the conference rooms at their corporate attorneys' New York offices for the day. We adjourned from lunch and went back to the attorneys' offices.
I was rather taken by the offices. Original, signed artwork throughout the lobby. Works of note by artists of note. Either the firm is big in the art world, or they invest their earnings in fine art for the office. Wow!
Nice conference room, but nowhere near as impressive as the artwork adorning the entry hallway area.
In the conference room we got down to brass tacks. The more serious aspects of beginning a business relationship. We talked turkey. We got right to the point, as the hour was getting late, and two of the out-of-staters had to get to the airport to catch their flights back home. Remember: these days one gets to the airport plenty early, as security and the screening process can take quite some time.
They leave, and then it is my contact, a consultant to the company, and me. We go over some ancillary matters, play "do you know" re some people in the business, and decide it is time to depart as the clock is approaching 5:00PM.
Yikes, I think. 5 o'clock! Oh, no, here I am in Midtown Manhattan, at the very start of Rush Hour. So I make one rather crucial cell phone call to my office, then walk to the car. I pay the ransom. While waiting for the kidnappers' henchmen, I mean garage attendants, to get my car, I call Susan to tell her that I'm in the city and to see if we can meet. She works about 20 blocks and one avenue north of where the car was parked, so we agree that she will walk toward where I am, and I'll look for her on the East side of the avenue as I drive north.
In rush hour traffic.
But let's look at things. It had been a pretty good day so far. Accomplished all sorts of work and made progress on various projects in the morning. The drive in to the city was like a charm. Nice late lunch. Productive meeting. So far, so good. Timing such that I can pick up Susan as both of our workdays come to an end.
Now our late afternoon turns into somewhat of a fantasy from a Woody Allen movie, minus the neuroses.
I get out of the garage with utter simplicity, easing into the street and the traffic is minimal. As a New York event, this qualifies as a red-letter moment, a gold star, and exclamation point. Making my way uptown, the lights are green, there are but a few cars on the road. Incredible! This is like a dream!
Do I have the wrong film auteur reference here? Maybe it isn't a Woody, maybe it's a Walt! Whatever the case may be, again, it is a delight. Not even any horns blaring or the sound of a siren in the distanceÖ.a rarity when driving in New York.
Gee, so charming, so magical....maybe this was a Frank Capra film?!?!
Driving up the avenue I get about halfway between the garage and where Susan works, and there she is. Amazingly, there is no car parked by where she is, and it isn't a bus stop, so I just pull over and she hops into the car. Does this sound like a film, or what?
Fearing major rush hour traffic, with overcast sky conditions to boot, I decide to drive through Central Park. It is the better way over toward the West Side Highway (also known as The Joe DiMaggio Highway, courtesy of former NYC Mayor Rudy Giuiliani).
We take a casual drive through the park. Central Park is utterly beautiful. Despite the somber skies, the early Spring colors of the park are wondrous. As we find ourselves approaching the West Side of the park, where we would normally exit and make our way over to the West Side Highway (that's the Joe D. to those in the know) Susan suggests we keep going. And so we did. Three times we traversed the Park Drive, taking in the sights and enjoying the spectacular visual treasure that is New York's Central Park.
The 5:00 crowd was there. This is comprised of the joggers, in-line skaters, the dog walkers, and those just walking through the park on their way home from work. People of all sizes, shapes, colors, national origin. The melting pot that is New York is fully represented in the park. Even the bag ladies, a few bums (excuse the politically incorrect term - when I was growing up, they were bums -old habits are hard to break - I mean no derision, other than any inference you might draw from such a description - but I didn't call them vagrants, derelicts, or criminals!) and a woman in about five layers of outerwear who was undoing an easel. Maybe she's a painter who can't tolerate even the slightest chill!
We were talking about the beauty of the park, the layout, the design, the total wonder of it all. Susan noted that shortly after Frederick Law Olmsted had designed and completed the development of the park, some stuffy old city father had questioned his work. "It was just there, naturally? What did you do?" the snotty bigwig had said to Olmsted. The true fact is that Central Park was designed and veritably sculpted by Olmsted. HGTV did an informative piece on this, highlights of which can be found here.
Each drive through the park gave us more to look at than the prior once-around. We have a friend from Germany who visits New York a few times each year. His wife has an ancestor who was a former mayor of New York City. There's a of him statue by 5th Avenue somewhere in the 70s, which we noticed was recently cleaned, shined, and generally gussied up. The entire park looked, in a word, glorious.
http://www.danheller.com/images/NewYork/CentralPark/central-park-a-big.jpg
Photographer Dan Heller (perviously unknown to me) takes some beautiful pictures. You can almost smell the air, feel the atmosphere.
More of his work: www.danheller.com">
Among my favorite lines (repeated a few times) in the movie Arthur, starring Dudley Moore, is when Arthur says to Bitterman, his chauffeur, "Take the Park, Bitterman. Drive us thorugh the park. You know how I love the Park!" Yes, we certainly do.
The Central Park Conservancy offers a wonderful site, on which you can take your own tour of Central Park.
And rounding out our spectacular experience after we left the park: no traffic jams, tie-ups, or even slow-downs as we rode up Riverside Drive to the bridge, and made our way home.
This was a day of good fortune, good business, enjoyment of nature, and no traffic troubles. Wow, what a wonderful thing!
