Fort Tryon Park

The Daily Plant : Tuesday, September 26, 2000

NEW YORK CITY’S LORDS AND LADIES GATHER FOR MEDIEVAL FESTIVAL AT YE OLDE FORT TRYON PARK

Malcolm (Cinema) Pinckney

On Sunday, September 24, Commissioner Henry J. (StarQuest) Stern along with Councilman Stanley (Falcon) Michaels joined knights, lords, ladies, and jesters for the annual Medieval Festival in Fort Tryon Park. Throughout the afternoon New Yorkers could travel back in time as the park was transformed into a medieval market village.

Thanks to the many performers and the work of the coordinators of the festival, Fort Tryon Park truly looked like a medieval village. The festival allowed visitors to view such spectacles as a model of a 20-foot long moving dragon and see stained glass artists, manuscript illuminators, and blacksmiths in action. The greatest attraction was an actual jousting match between knights on horseback-something people don't get to experience very often in the hustle and bustle of modern-day Manhattan.

The park's natural beauty is pleasant to visit any day of the year. Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. helped turned Fort Tryon into a combination of great open views of the Hudson River and New Jersey's Palisades with promenades, terraces, wooded slopes, a heather garden, and eight miles of pedestrian paths. The nearby Cloisters museum adds a touch of medieval grace to the park every day. Also present for the festivities were Jane (Heather) Schachat, Manager for District 12, and festival organizers Dennis C. Reeder, Rose M. Santo, and Ellen Merle-Rao.

THIRTEEN YEARS AGO IN THE PLANT
(Tuesday, September 29, 2000)

STREET TREE CONSORTIUM OFFERS FREE COURSES IN TREE CARE

Some people think trees are just for the birds. But skeptics would turn green if they realized how dirty our air would be without the help of our 2.7 million arboreal friends who call New York City home. Trees labor day and night pumping oxygen into the atmosphere. In one growing season a single mature maple tree can remove the airborne lead emitted by cars burning 1,000 gallons of gasoline, according to Executive Director of the Consortium Marianne Holden.

Thirteen thousand street trees die every year due to neglect. This fall the New York City Street Consortium is asking New Yorkers to help reduce the number of trees which die by learning how to care for them. Beginning next week, the Consortium will offer a course in basic tree care and pruning.

QUOTATION FOR THE DAY

Why faintest thou? I wandered till I died. Roam on! The light we sought is shining still, Dost thou ask proof? Our tree yet crowns the hill, Our scholar travels yet the loved hillside.

Matthew Arnold (1822-1888)