The Battery

The Daily Plant : Thursday, September 13, 2001

PARKS’ ROLE IN CITYWIDE RESCUE EFFORTS

In every borough, Parkies are dedicating their best efforts toward making New York City as safe as it can be. Parks, playgrounds, and recreation centers are open. In some places, vigils are being held for the victims of the attack on the World Trade Center the morning of Tuesday, September 11.

Operationally, Parks has been called on to ready its vehicles and heavy equipment. Six light towers were retrieved Tuesday, and sent to downtown Manhattan. Pick-up trucks were mobilized and passenger vans used to transport victims to St. Vincents Hospital. In every borough, vehicles have been gassed and drivers assigned to remain on stand-by, awaiting orders from the City’s command center. The Bronx is operating its fuel stations 24 hours. Queens’ entire fleet of vehicles and machinery including vans, container trucks, and shovel loaders, has been assembled at Shea Stadium. The Worlds Fair Marina, also in Flushing Meadows Corona Park, is open to ferries transporting medical personnel. All other marinas are closed for use.

Battery and Columbus Parks in Manhattan were filled Tuesday with New Yorkers. As of Wednesday morning, those parks were the site of debris but not major damage. City Hall and Carl Shurtz Parks were closed. PEP are dispersed throughout the city and also concentrated in lower Manhattan, helping to keep Hudson River Park and Battery Park City, among other sites, secure.

Orchard Beach is prepared for use as a helicopter landing. The Flushing Meadows ice rink may be adapted for temporary use as a morgue. In Staten Island, Midland Beach was readied for temporary use as a morgue until that function was transferred to Gateway National Park.

In every borough, gloves, goggles, and dust masks have been collected for efficient distribution. Everywhere, Parkies are in a state of readiness. They have reported to work wherever they could. Staten Islanders who could not reach work in Manhattan operated out of Staten Island instead.

The Daily Plant sends its support to Parkies and their friends and family, and its thanks for their hard work and bravery. Parks is following Mayor Giuliani’s instructions to help the City in its return to normalcy. Its goal, as always, is to ensure that New York’s green spaces are safe, clean, and open for peaceful activity.

Those who would like to give blood should call 1-800-933-BLOOD. Many thanks to those who have already donated.

(Thursday, September 15, 1988)

For five years, the Daily Plant has faithfully chronicles the latest in the world of flora and fauna in our 26,000 acre park system. From the "Plant Almanac" to "Notes from the Overground," the Plant has covered it all.

The newest addition to the department’s daily newsletter is a rotund uniformed cartoon duck who shall remain nameless for the moment in order to give our readers a chance to name him or her. A creation of Graphic Artist Cliff Harris, the new mascot will be featured periodically in the Plant. The comic strip will take nature lovers on tours of the city’s parks and generally keep an eye on things.

"Show me a hero and I will write you a tragedy."

Francis Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940)

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The Battery