Riverside Park

The Daily Plant : Monday, September 11, 2000

ROAD RUNNERS RACE TO BROADWAY

Photo by Malcolm (Cinema) Pinckney

On Sunday, September 11, Commissioner Henry J. (StarQuest) Stern kicked off the Road Runners Club's Broadway-on-Broadway race. Competitors sped from Central Park West and 75th Street to Times Square, the perfect location to watch the Broadway on Broadway festivities, featuring singers and dancers from major Brodaway productions performing for free in the open air.

HUNGARIAN PRESIDENT VISITS PARKS' MONUMENT TO HUNGARIAN INDEPENDENCE

Amidst the many international cultural exchanges occurring in New York City last week, several prominent officials from the Hungary visited New York's Riverside Park to view the newly restored Kossuth Statue, which celebrates Hugarian independence. Hungarian President Ferenc Madl, Consul General Dr. Laszlo Molnar, and Deputy Consul General Dr. Gabor Foldvari were joined by Manhattan Borough Commissioner Adrian (A-Train) Benepe, Riverside Park Administrator Charles (Razorback) McKinney, and Director of Art and Antiquities Jonathan (Archive) Kuhn for the event on Friday, September 8. A Parks capital project helped restore this handsome bronze monument to the 1848 revolution that liberated the Hungarian people. The stonework in the statue has been repaired and the bronze restored to its original shine. These improvements are part of a $470,000 project, funded by Manhattan Borough President C. Virginia Fields, to restore Kossuth triangle. New plantings and benches, repaved walkways, and restored steps will make Kossuth triangle a top-notch location for relaxing in the great outdoors. The meeting of Parks and Hungarian officials at the Kossuth statue in Riverside Park reflects the on-going partnership between the cities of Budapest and New York. Budapest and New York have been Sister Cities since 1992, promoting programs that enhance the global stature of both cities.

THIRTEEN YEARS AGO IN THE PLANT
(Monday, September 14, 1987)

PARKS' VENDOR PATROL MAKES GOOD

The Manhattan Vendor Patrol Unit, a division of Parks Enforcement Patrol (PEP), searches for unlicensed vendors peddling wares without permits on park property in all five boroughs. Parks is the only city agency besides the Department of Ports and Terminals to be recognized by the Police Department as a "vouchering agency," giving the patrol the legal right to seize and impound property and to issue summonses. "Previously, when we confiscated perishable goods such as ice cream, it often went to waste," said Chief of Citywide Services William F. Dalton. "I thought it was a shame that perfectly good food went uneaten. As former Chief of Urban Park Services, I initiated the donation of confiscated perishables to the Children's Foundling Hospital in Manhattan. Since July 1986, Parks has donated 13 boxes of ices, 186 boxes of ice cream and eight boxes of hot dog buns to the hospital."

QUOTATION FOR THE DAY

Break a vase, and the love that reassembles the fragments is stronger than that love which took its symmetry for granted when it was whole.

Derek Walcott (b. 1930)

Know Before You Go

Riverside Park

West 79th Street Boat Basin

Riverside Park (79th Street)