Mall Walking....

"Once upon a time in America, great leafy high-arching cathedrals of American elms lined the streets of villages and cities from the Atlantic to the Rockies, casting a deep cool shade upon life's turmoil...  By 1970, 77 million of these trees had fallen prey to Dutch Elm Disease. "

Washington Post, 2001

That's me, walking down the Central Park Mall a few years back. These beautiful elm trees were once the most common tree in North America, but Dutch Elm Disease devastated something like 90% of the elm population over the last century or so.  This remains the largest "stand" of elm trees on the Eastern Seaboard of the U.S.  There is a dedicated crew, on salary with the The Central Park Conservancy, whose only job is to care for and keep these trees alive (each tree is constantly inspected for the beetles that cause all the destruction.  As soon as one is detected, the entire branch of that tree is removed and destroyed). 

I used to make a habit of dashing to the Mall (a name that continues to confuse both locals and tourists alike...not a Cinnabon or Auntie Anne's Pretzels in sight!) as soon as it started snowing hard, as it becomes so picturesque (well, it's picturesque any time of year, actually).  I handed my camera to a woman walking her dog and asked her to take this shot.  I wonder if she knows what a great photographer she is! (and with an old disposable camera, to boot!). 

Not to put a damper on all this loveliness, but just last February, on almost this very spot where I'm standing, a man was killed by a falling branch in just such a snowstorm (from a tree just to the right of the lamp post on the right of the photo), as he dashed home from work. Man killed by falling branch in Central Park - NYPOST.com .

Sorry....didn't mean for this posting to be such a downer!  But it goes to show you:  You just never know....

Tavern on The Donald?

Well, this could be good news for some nostalgic New Yorkers--or more correctly, for dreamy-eyed tourists who considered the now-closed Tavern on the Green restaurant in Central Park to be "real New York". 

According to the New York Post Donald Trump to ask City to allow him to reopen Tavern on the Green - NYPOST.com the indomitable Donald Trump has once again ridden to the rescue of a bedraggled Central Park landmark (as he very prominently did in the 80's with the Wollman Skating Rink, which had fallen into disgraceful ruin under the Koch administration's bungling). The Donald is proposing taking over TOtG, which is currently being used as a makeshift "tourist center," after Mayor Michael Bloomberg, exercising a personal vendetta, basically drove the former long-time proprietors, The LeRoy Family, out of business. Granted, the restaurant was inexplicably in bankruptcy, despite being the "most profitable restaurant in the world," so there was clearly something fishy going on behind the scenes.  One of the main sticking points in reviving the restaurant under new proprietorship has been the iron-clad union contracts with the Hotel and Motel Trades Council union.  Trump claims to have loosed the logjam and is prepared to put up $20 million to make the landmark "more beautiful than it ever was in the past," as he put it in his usual understated fashion. 

I, for one, am very heartened to hear this news.  It's tough to find any Manhattan resident who will admit to being sad to see it gone.  "A tourist trap with over-priced, lousy food," would be a typical New Yorker's review.  But I always felt there was something really enchanting about the place.  Not so much in the gaudy "Crystal Room" inside, but outside, on the patio beneath the thousands of twinkling lights and Chinese lanterns in the towering London Plane trees.  On certain summer nights, they'd have live music and a dance floor overlooking the verdant Sheep's Meadow....well, one would be hard-pressed to imagine a more romantic setting than that.  So, if he's sincere--and it seems that, in his own way, he is--perhaps we'll have Tavern on the Green back, and soon (he's saying he can get it all done in less than a year).  Then maybe, while he's at it, he can somehow resurrect The Rainbow Room and Café des Artistes, too?  New York could use some "white knight" action...and like him or not, we've got The Donald.