Central Park

The Daily Plant : Tuesday, August 27, 2002

PEP OFFICERS SAVE THE DAY (AND A LIFE)

Orchard Beach is a beautiful man-made beach in Pelham Bay Park that draws crowds for its calm waters, soft sand, and ample recreational facilities. It’s one of 7 New York City beaches that collectively stretch for 14 miles and it’s the only beach in the Bronx. On the evening of August 17, there was a flurry of activity and the Parks Enforcement Patrol shined.

PEP Officers Emmanuel Alonzo and Jose Zaruma were conducting shoreline patrol just after the beach had closed and the lifeguards had gone off-duty. During this routine duty, Alonzo, riding on an All-Terrain Vehicle, advised a man in the water to come to shore. After repeated requests, the swimming man refused to exit the water, despite the fact that he was breaking Parks rules by swimming without a lifeguard there to protect him.

Within just a few short minutes, the man went down. Alonzo swiftly entered the water, along with a park patron, and successfully pulled the man to shore. Officer Zaruma helped clear the area of patrons and contacted Central Communications to request that EMS respond. NYPD and some lifeguards that had been on duty came to the scene. After receiving oxygen, the patron was transported to Jacobi Hospital and it was determined there that the man had been swimming while intoxicated.

Thanks to the PEP officer’s professionalism, dedication, and quick-thinking, a man was saved from a possible drowning. Beaches are open everyday until September 2 from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., when lifeguards are on duty.

Many people have written the old professor regarding the debut "Ask Professor Ginkgo" column in last Thursday's Daily Plant (August 22). In it, I explained that Central Park's Obelisk (which has a twin in London) is the oldest monument in any New York City park. However, I neglected to include the date of the Obelisk. Many also questioned whether the Column of Jerash (which stands in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park) might be older. I will respond to both now:

Thutmosis III, who ruled from 1479-1425 B.C., built the two Obelisks in honor of his thirtieth year of reign. That places the exact date of the Obelisks' construction at 1449 B.C. The Column of Jerash is relatively much younger. The Romans erected it as part of the Temple of Artemis, in the ancient Jordanian city of Jerash, in 120 A.D. Therefore, the Obelisk in Central Park is 1,569 years older than then column.

(Tuesday, September 5, 1989)

Call it the "Central Park Zoo Diet," a strict regimen of 10 to 19 pounds of fresh fish and four hours of outdoor lap swimming daily, summer and winter. That’s the fitness program of some of the healthiest New Yorkers in town, the California sea lions at the Central Park Zoo.

The sea lions have inhabited the Central Park Zoo since it re-opened in August 1988, after the City renovated the facility at the cost of approximately $30 million in cooperation with the New York Zoological Society, which now runs the zoo.

The web of relationships in the sea lion pool reads like a plot synopsis from "Soap Opera Digest:" Gretchen, the grand dame at 10 years old, is Suki’s mother. Fin, a bachelor, has fathered no offspring so far, and Scooter is companion to all three.

"The Great Society is a place where every child can find knowledge
to enrich his mind and to enlarge his talents....
It is a place where the city of man serves not only the needs
of the body and the demands of commerce but the desire for beauty
and the hunger for community....
It is a place where men are more concerned
with the quality of their goals than the quantity of their goods."

Lyndon Baines Johnson
(August 27, 1908–1973)

Know Before You Go

Harlem Meer Center (formerly Lasker Rink)

Harlem Meer Center