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Post Oaks in Pelham Bay Park
by Bram Gunther 09/27/2004Neighborhood: Bronx
We were looking for the old oak trees, the ones rumored to be down by the shoreline. The day was already sweat-lodge hot, at 8 a.m., the seagulls circling lazily in the morning light. We stood in the parking lot, plotting our route; the sweat boiled up under our long sleeved shirts and long pants—protection [...]
For the Birds
by Angela Cardinale 03/12/2004Neighborhood: Murray Hill
This week’s meeting of the New York Companion Bird Club of Manhattan was held at the Jackson Hole Restaurant. This would be the first bird club meeting of my life. I have never liked birds very well. In my last year of undergraduate college, I transferred to San Francisco State University, and discovered that the [...]
Unleashed
by Bram Gunther 07/16/2003Neighborhood: Central Park
I was a New York City Urban Park Ranger usually stationed in Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx, but for this day I was detailed out to Central Park, the park of my childhood. In Van Cortlandt Park I knew where the hophornbeam trees lived in a valley of white oaks and tulip poplars. I [...]
David Brown’s Flower Shop
by Thomas Beller 09/18/2002Neighborhood: West Village
What follows are some stories about David Brown and his flower shop. But before I tell you about him, I have to explain why, whenever I look into the store window I now see, in addition to all the flowers, a face. For a period of several months David Brown was absent from his own [...]
Outward Bound on the East River
by Dorothy Spears 07/11/2002Neighborhood: Multiple, The East River
It was the beginning of summer and my two young sons had taken to counting Jaguars. “There’s one!” Alex, then eight, would cry, elated, from the backseat of the car. “Oh, there’s another one.” “Look over there—there’s two more!” five-year-old Ferran would trill. Anyone unfamiliar with the Hamptons might have assumed we were on a [...]
Street Tree Forest
by Bram Gunther 05/03/2002Neighborhood: Uncategorized
From mid March to early June (and again from mid October to mid December), the New York City Parks Department plants approximately 7,500 trees on the sidewalks in front of people’s homes, in front of businesses, and on street medians. This is no small thing. A little bit of nature is being transplanted on your [...]
Raccoon Killers
by Bram Gunther 02/04/2002Neighborhood: Central Park
On January 25 at 7:30 in the morning, two raccoons were found dead by Central Park personnel. One was found just below the reservoir and the other in the tangled stems of Shakespeare garden. Instead of just cleaning them up, as they might have done in different circumstances, they called the Urban Park Rangers. The [...]
The Fate of the Pear Trees at Ground Zero
by Bram Gunther 11/10/2001Neighborhood: World Trade Center
Two weeks after the shock of September 11th, I was sent to “ground zero” by the Parks Department Commissioner to make a quick evaluation of the damage to the plant life in the area. The Commissioner wanted to know what had survived, what plants would need to be replaced, how much it would all cost. [...]
The Campers
by Patrick J. Sauer 11/02/2001Neighborhood: Central Park
Growing up, there were certain inarguable rules Mom set forth to ensure her kids’ safety: don’t take candy from strangers, power tools are off-limits unless your Father is present, avoid the yellow snow, and never, under any circumstance, spend the night in Central Park. But over Labor Day weekend, my girlfriend, Kim, and I threw [...]
The Commissioner
by Brad Tuttle 01/07/2001Neighborhood: Manhattan
“Have you thought about what your Parks nickname should be?” Parks Commissioner Henry Stern asks me. He sits hunched over on a couch at his office inside a turret at the Arsenal, a red brick castle overlooking Central Park that for years was a military base and now serves as headquarters for the New York [...]
