City Views, Country Dreams

Good evening from New York.

I've delayed attempting a new post because this has been a tough week.  It seems longer than ten days since our Election Day.

I cannot believe that Donald Trump will be sworn in as President of the United States of America in January.  I am 71 years old.  When I was 18 and in my first year of college just about this time of the year, President Kennedy was assassinated.  Classes were cancelled and we were allowed to leave for an early Thanksgiving vacation.  Thanks were given for different reasons at different family dinners.  My parents were not Kennedy fans.

I remember Nixon, the Vietnam War.  I remember being amazed that Reagan could be elected President, and then that he dismantled the union movement in this country.  What I mean to indicate is that I have seen a series of historic changes.

I remember growing up in the segregated south.  I remember being in college before I actually met a black person as a classmate.  My private college allowed black students to enroll in order to have Federal funds help to renovate the Library building.  The funding laws had been changed.

Starting back in the Nixon years, I volunteered on many political campaigns, and my recollection is that the candidates I supported lost, but I continued to volunteer in other years.

I remember being disappointed by President Clinton, and not voting for him in his re-election attempt.  I voted for a third party candidate.  The second President Bush took office, and I took part in anti-war marches, not that different from those I participated in back in the Vietnam years.  I remember many things, and try as I might, I cannot stop being a news junkie.  Lots of "I" this and that in this post, but these are my memories.

I was glad to be able cast my vote electing President Obama.  

This year was difficult.  I am not a fan of Hillary Clinton, but felt that Donald Trump was and is beyond the pale.  And now, he will become President.

Over on my Instagram page I have posted my first ever video that shows folks passing through the underground passageways of the Union Square subway station where a spontaneous conceptual art project has taken off.  Anyone can leave a post-it sticker message about the election.  It is true freedom of speech.  Write and stick whatever you wish.

Those of us who were living here when 9/11 took place remember all sorts of messages being left around the city from friends and relatives seeking information about the whereabouts of their friends or relatives feared to have perished in the terror attack.

The visual appearance of these subway messages reminds me of those days, even though the messages are coming from very different impulses.  The earlier messages were and these are very moving.

The farmers market continues to offer autumn harvested bounty to us city dwellers.  Life's routines continue.  We hug friends, get flu shots, meet for coffee, bundle up on chilly days. select our favorite apples, dark green leafy vegetables and pretty potted plants.

Meanwhile, I keep on painting my Christmas cards and finishing complicated knitting projects and reading borrowed library books.  And...I keep tuned into news reports, hoping that there might be some sort of glimmer from the President Elect suggesting that he might want to throw a bone to those who did not vote for him.  That bone has not yet been tossed.

Today I took a long walk diagonally across Central Park to Fifth Avenue and 57th Street.  The weather was lovely.  My favorite luxury shop had a giveaway with purchase offer at a cosmetics counter I favor.  

Just across 57th Street from the shop is where the week's news has centered.  There have been numerous protests at street level, and many floors above, the President Elect has been making news by the process he has chosen to select people to fill his Cabinet.  The 56th Street block between Fifth Avenue and Madison Avenue is closed to traffic.

The 57th Street intersection is a very busy one, particularly as the Christmas, or holiday as many deem it here, season arrives.  Many tourists are in the City to enjoy next Thursday's Thanksgiving Holiday.  Fifth Avenue is not a wide avenue.  Currently, police are everywhere, news trucks and news camera crews are everywhere.  Barricades extend beyond the boundaries of the sidewalks taking up two lanes of street.  Pedestrian and vehicular traffic moves very, very slowly, even when there is no ongoing demonstration.

The sound of an ambulance siren is different from that of a police car or a fire truck.  While I was briefly in this area, I did not witness any such emergency vehicle trying to make its way along Fifth Avenue.  I did notice that the many various NYC buses whose route includes Fifth Avenue did seem to be few and far between.

Yesterday, the Mayor met with the President Elect to try to work out some way to make this area safe for all.  It is unclear whether the President Elect has chosen to actually live full time at the White House, or whether he prefers to commute between DC and NYC.

The President Elect and his family, including the grown children involved in his campaign and the family business, are spending the weekend at a Trump golf club in New Jersey.

After taking these few photographs to give you all an idea of the scene, I walked home, passing by yet another Trump property (in name anyway...I don't know if he actually still owns this building) where opportunity knocks.  The building is at the corner of Sixth Avenue and Central Park South.  The former tenant was Whiskey Bar.

Thank you all for visiting here and for your comments.  I hope to be a little more cheery in my next post.