flora at Termes

a peculiar organ

aged in the midst of green

Earth: an aerial view after. . . .

Petro Chemicals in Water in Tenafly?

Photographed on November 2, 2012 at 1:39am. The junction of the stream that connects the pond in the Tenafly Commons that flows into Tenakill Brook and then flows to United Water which is the source of Tenafly's tap water.  Is this dangerous to our health? We chased the geese from the pond to the Tenakill farther downstream adjacent to the High school's playing field. What good has the damage to the Commons' pond done?

 

 

where I would rather be

December 7, 1941: my birthday

Pearl Harbor Attacked by Japanese bombers; Roosevelt speaks to the United States; The USA engages directly in World War II; the day that would live on in infamy has been long forgotten and the US in 2012 has eyes and ears only for September 11. How times have changed. Who remembers. For sake of international relation even The New York Times did not note the significance of December 7, 1941.

 

 

Skies : a prelude

The day began with blue skies and white clouds swirling through space, but then the sky darkened as ominous clouds moved in, obscuring  the blue and challenging the sun's primacy.  

Two Sides to New York City or one: Real Estate

  

Razor Wire and Graffitti, West Side Highway, 135th Street 

 

Park Avenue , Office Tower, 50s


Although the office tower clearly denotes wealth, oddly enough, the graffitti and razor wire do too. Columbia University is building a satellite campus on the west side of Manhattan, in an area beneath the viaduct and between Broadway and The Hudson River. In addition to  two shining residential towers,  an arts center and perhaps a science center will be located on this tract as well. This was a commercial area, a meat market for many years, just as the area of the Trade Towers and the HiLine were. Now butchering is done elsewhere; it has been moved out of Manhattan where every inch of land has become a major investment opportunity. Columbia University began to purchase all the buildings around its campus on 116th Street and Broadway in the last century, expanding farther and farther in all directions. Housing for poor and lower middle class people became increasingly expensive marginalizing them in the Social Darwinian movement instigated by Reagan and carried out by his successors. Many lost housing and services. Broadway has witnessed a resurgence of the homeless, the despised poor. But what does that have to do with razor wire and graffitti? Are these unwelcome or welcome? They appeal to some who consider these manifestations of distress as cutting edge -no pun intended, as chic, as gritty, and thus desirable for the fantasists. More graffitti has appeared on the walls of Riverside Drive Park then in preceding years. It is bolder, colorful, hip. Undesirable or desirable? Does its efflorescence signal a new assertiveness, a resistance to marginalization or is it encouraged by  Columbia University to give the new campus a certain art flavor? It reminds me of the Hi Line where the stroller cannot step onto the grassy areas and get close to a flower -pretty as a picture, but don't pick my daisy, yet beneath this boardwalk are vestiges of its recent past. And these remain in place. Is intentionality present here by the haves or the have nots. Can it be argued that it  enhances the value of the area and communicate an allure of transgression. I  wonder.
 

 

 

Graffitti returns to New York City

as seen from the West Side Highway at 136th Street

December 1: the first day of the last month of 2012

the maenad dances on

yet surely winter is now upon us

November 30, 2012: so ends this month