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Summer in the City: Parks, Pocket Parks and Patches

Summer in the City

Hot town, summer in the city
Back of my neck getting dirty and gritty
Been down, isn’t it a pity?
Doesn’t seem to be a shadow in the city
All around, people looking half dead
Walking on the sidewalk, hotter than a match head

– The Lovin’ Spoonful

It’s some time since I spent the entire summer in the city. Yes, it’s hot. And just before they pick up on garbage day, the side streets can whiff a bit. But so far so good. It certainly makes you appreciate the city parks and the tree-well plantings, pots, and patches that brighten up the streets. Below, a few pics from the morning strolls which on these very hot days is before breakfast.

Planting on Riverside Drive

The La Luna Farm flower stand at the twice-weekly farmer’s market on Broadway.

Morningside Park

Ivy climbing the wall on Morningside Drive

Straus Park – a triangle between Broadway, West End Avenue and 107th Street. It was built by subscription in memory of Isidor and Ida Straus who had lived nearby. They died when the S.S. Titanic sank in 1912. The inscription on the rear of the Memorial pays tribute to Ida’s decision to remain aboard with her husband rather than save herself by boarding a lifeboat with the women and children.

A set back area of benches and planting on Morningside Drive overlooking the park and with views out over the rooftops of East Harlem.

You learn to appreciate the care people take with their window sills, pots, and foundation plantings.

A carefully tended tree well on Broadway at 112th street. Across the street, obscured by the tree, is the diner Tom’s Restaurant, made famous as Monk’s Cafe on the sitcom Seinfeld

The view out across the Hudson at Wave Hill in the Bronx.

A glimpse of an old house from across a lawn from a patch of rhododendrons will inevitably take me back to childhood and Lydiard Park. This is Wave Hill in the Bronx.

A shady path through the woods at Wave Hill.

And a turtle on top of a turtle. Morningside Park.

This toddler has the right idea. In the sprinkler in a play area on Riverside Drive. .

And to finish: A little old-time 1966 rock from the Lovin’ Spoonful

JosieHolford

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View Comments

Sheila Morris says:

July 25, 2022 at 12:08 pm

Wow - a new perspective for summer in the city for me!
Bravo - loved it!
Ashley says:

July 25, 2022 at 6:40 am

Not how I imagined NY to look. Thanks for the tour, Josie 🌹🙋‍♂️
Jackie says:

July 24, 2022 at 9:08 pm

Most people i know would never imagine New York City to be like this….but i have been lucky enough to see various parts of the City over the past 50 years, the streets, parks and the riversides. Now, though unable to be there, you have brought me back to share it with you…and it looks a lot improved from the days when parks like Central Park could be dangerous and vandalised. But it looks cared for. And, as here in London, lockdowns and climate change have encouraged some to enhance and appreciate close at hand. Out of bad has risen some good..please may it continue…meanwhile enjoy and appreciate…
Gert Loveday says:

July 24, 2022 at 7:28 pm

Love the song and your photo study. It makes me feel so nostalgic for New York (although I have only been there once in 2019) You capture the feel of the New York where people live and care about their city.
Carolyn says:

July 24, 2022 at 4:46 pm

Lovely to see flowers in the city. At least a small connection to Nature.
John Hodgson says:

July 24, 2022 at 3:15 pm

I’ve always found the phrase “summer in the city” evocative, and your post gives the feeling a new objective correlative, as T.S.Eliot pompously put it. It puts care and colour in place of the usual city associations of haste and greyness.

Summer in the City: Parks, Pocket Parks and Patches