A substantial crowd gathered at the Waldorf Astoria on February 4 for the annual “new yorker for new york City” gala to honor the city’s most distinguished citizens. Among the honorees was Karen Cohen, Founder and President of the Randall’s Island Sports Foundation (RISF), who accepted the Brooke Russell Astor Award for Philanthropy. The award, presented by Fire Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta, recognized Ms. Cohen’s vision and leadership with RISF, as a leading sports and leisure facility serving over 11,000 children from Harlem, the Bronx and Queens. After visiting the Island in the early 1990s and experiencing an overlooked and desolate public space, Ms. Cohen saw the importance and need for an athletic, entertainment, and leisure destination for all new yorkers to enjoy. She recognized the potential for Randall’s Island to fill this need and started RISF in 1992. Over the past 15 years, Ms. Cohen has dedicated her time to develop one of new york’s most valuable public parks with over 480 acres of land. Today, RISF is a successful public-private partnership that is empowering children through athletics and recreation, leisure, special events, and nature preservation.”It is to no surprise to see Karen Cohen recognized amongst this year’s honorees at the Citizens Committee gala,” said Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe. “Recipients of the prestigious Brooke Astor Award, like Karen, show a tremendous passion for improving the quality of life for all new yorkers. I am proud to congratulate Karen for her success with the Randall’s Island Sports Foundation and look forward to continuing our efforts to better the city’s parks and recreation facilities.” With the inception of RISF also came one of the most important initiatives for the Foundation - the Randall’s Island Kids program (RIK). RIK was founded as a way to address the needs of local children and take advantage of a unique open space. Every summer over 5,000 children attend the RIK Summer Camp where they are exposed to free programming in a variety of sports including softball, volleyball, soccer, tennis, golf, and fitness training and participate in nature workshops.”This tribute is one that the community as a whole can be proud of,” said Adam Clayton Powell IV, new york’s 68th District Assemblyman. “Randall’s Island Sports Foundation has provided access to our local communities to a healthier, cleaner and more beautiful environment for children to play and learn in.” Randall’s Island Sports Foundation, founded in 1992, is a public-private partnership with the new york City Department of Parks and Recreation that seeks to realize the unique potential of 480 waterfront parkland acres anchoring Manhattan, the Bronx and Queens. RISF strives to empower under-resourced children through sports and recreation with an investment of over $300 million over the next five years in world class facilities, playing fields and programming. QUOTATION FOR THE DAY”Whenever I hear any one arguing for slavery I feel a strong impulse to see it tried on him personally.”Abraham Lincoln(1809 - 1865)

Cloning Our Way To A Million
Cloning has arrived to new york City — but we’re not cloning sheep or an army of storm troopers. Instead it is historic trees that are being duplicated as part of Million Trees NYC.On January 10, Commissioner Benepe joined Division Manager of Bartlett Tree Experts David McMaster, Executive Director of the new york Restoration Project Drew Becher, and 11th and 12th grade students from John Bowne High School in Flushing, Queens, to take cuttings from a European Beech tree in Central Park. This is the first of nine different tree species of historical and environmental significance throughout the five boroughs that will be cloned as part of an initiative to preserve and protect new york City’s historic trees, many of which are well over 100 years old and found in public parks and on streets. Over the next week, a team of arborists from Parks and Bartlett Tree Experts, a Stamford, Connecticut-based company, will take cuttings from a total of 25 trees throughout the five boroughs. These 12-inch cuttings, gathered from high in the treetops, will be shipped immediately in Coleman coolers to Schichtel’s Nursery in Oregon. The nursery will then grow and care for the saplings to produce ten genetically identical clones of each original tree. Upon growing to two- to three-feet in height, the saplings will be replanted throughout new york City as part of Million Trees NYC, a PlaNYC initiative to plant one million trees throughout the five boroughs over the next ten years.Throughout the cloning project, agriculture students at John Bowne High School will track the growing progress of the cloned new york City trees as part of a new curriculum on arboriculture. The Tree Research and Education Endowment Fund will fund this educational opportunity.The tree that was cloned in Central Park is a 100-year-old European Beech tree, a classic Victorian landscape tree believed to be imported from Europe to America during the colonization period. Originally an ornamental tree, the European Beech is now a tree that is fully-integrated into the City’s wild landscape. It provides nutritious beech nuts for squirrels as well as provides ample shade with its sweeping, majestic branches.The event is sponsored by Bartlett Tree Experts, The Coleman Company, Inc. (coolers and base camp operations), Marmot Mountain LLC (outdoor clothing and apparel), The Tree Research and Educational Endowment Fund, and David Milarch, co-founder of The Champion Tree Project International.Million Trees NYC is a citywide, public-private initiative with an ambitious goal: to plant and care for one million new trees across the city’s five boroughs over the next decade. By planting one million trees, new york City can increase its urban forest - our most valuable environmental asset made up of street trees, park trees, and trees on public, private and commercial land - by an astounding 20%, while achieving the many quality-of-life benefits that come with planting trees. Million Trees NYC-launched by the Parks Department and new york Restoration Project-is a collaboration of many partners, including community-based and non-profit groups; City, State, and Federal Agencies; corporations and small businesses; private property owners; and all new yorkers.QUOTATION FOR THE DAY”There’s nothing that keeps its youth,So far as I know, but a tree and truth.”Oliver Wendell Holmes(1809 - 1894)

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First Flush At Madison Square Park
When you’ve got to go, you’ve just got to go. Now it has become easier for new yorkers to do their business as an Automatic Public Toilet (APT) was officially unveiled at Madison Square Park on January 10. While Parks has been opening and renovating comfort stations in parks across the city, this APT is in ‘loo’ of a regular comfort station. Commissioner Benepe joined Deputy Mayor Daniel L. Doctoroff, Department of Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan, and Cemusa North America CEO Susan Baron to unveil the first of 20 APTs to be installed under the City’s Coordinated Street Furniture Franchise with Cemusa, Inc. The 20-year contract also calls for Cemusa to build and maintain 3,300 new bus shelters, 330 newsstands, 37 Sheltered Bike Parking Structures and provide $1.4 billion in new revenue to new york City. Like all of the new street furniture, the APTs have a simple, contemporary design, created for the City by Grimshaw Architects, incorporating stainless steel and tempered glass. The APTs clean themselves after each use, and tamper-proof automatic doors that open from the inside will ensure security.The APTs cost 25 cents to operate, with a time limit of 15 minutes and will be open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Each APT is climate-controlled and includes a toilet, a wash basin with running warm water, and a mirror. An automated system controls the door and prevents unauthorized entrance, and the APTs are fully compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act.After 12 minutes of use, an acoustic alarm and red flashing lights go off for three minutes before the door opens. Once a user has exited, the APT doors will close and the 90-second automatic cleaning cycle will begin. During the cleaning cycle the interior surfaces of the APT are cleaned and dried. Once the self-cleaning process is complete, a new user can access the APT.Since June 2006, Cemusa has installed 1,010 new bus shelters and 39 new newsstands citywide, and the city’s first four Sheltered Bike Parking Structures are now in place in four boroughs. The franchise has already delivered $118,460,000 to the city, and by manufacturing at least half of all franchise structures locally, Cemusa has helped to create more than 150 jobs in the new york City. Cemusa has also provided the City with valuable advertising space on its street furniture in cities around the world, which the City has used to promote itself as a tourism destination. QUOTATION FOR THE DAY”Illegal aliens have always been a problem in the United States. Ask any Indian.”Robert Orben(1927 - )

The Waterfalls Of new york City
No need to go to Niagara Falls to view majestic waterfalls. Come this summer, four monumental, man-made waterfalls are coming to new york City for a limited time.On January 15, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, First Deputy Mayor Patricia E. Harris and Public Art Fund President Susan K. Freedman announced that a major new work of temporary public art by internationally acclaimed artist Olafur Eliasson, The new york City Waterfalls, will be on display from mid-July to mid-October 2008. Commissioned by the Public Art Fund, the project consists of four man-made waterfalls installed for three months at four sites along the shores of Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Governors Island. One will be by the Brooklyn anchorage of the Brooklyn Bridge, one between Piers 4 and 5 in Brooklyn, one in Lower Manhattan at Pier 35, and one on the north shore of Governors Island. The 90 to 120-foot tall installations, which have been designed to protect water quality and aquatic life, will operate from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m., seven days a week, and will be lit after sunset, adding a striking element to new york City’s iconic skyline. Conceived by Eliasson and commissioned by the Public Art Fund, The new york City Waterfalls will showcase new york City’s natural environment alongside the City’s industrial and commercial landscape. Sited in the historic new york Harbor, which has served as the gateway to America for nearly four centuries and a point of origin for the City’s growth, the Waterfalls will introduce a breathtaking element into the heart of new york’s waterfront.Born in Copenhagen in 1967, Eliasson is considered one of his generation’s most influential artists. Throughout his career, he has taken inspiration from natural elements and phenomena, such as light, wind, fog, and water, to create sculptures and installations that evoke sensory experiences. He is perhaps best known for The Weather Project (2003) at Tate Modern in London, a giant sun made of 200 yellow lamps, mirrors and mist that transformed the museum’s massive Turbine Hall and drew over 2 million visitors during its five-month installation.Eliasson’s work often involves industrial materials that, when brought together, create dramatic installations that are as beautiful as they are unexpected. The new york City Waterfalls will be constructed using building elements that are ubiquitous throughout new york: scaffolding is the backbone of the structures, and pumps will bring water from the East River to the top; the water then falls from heights of 90 to 120 feet back into the river. Fish and aquatic life are protected by filtering the water through intake pools suspended in the river. The new york City Waterfalls will be visible by land and boat, and because of their proximity to one another, viewers will be able to see multiple waterfalls from various vantage points in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Governors Island. Dedicated boat journeys to view the Waterfalls, organized by the Public Art Fund in partnership with Circle Line Downtown, will leave from Pier 16 in Manhattan and will provide up-close views of the installations. The Circle Line will provide free and discounted trips daily for the public. The free Governors Island Ferry, which will run every Friday, Saturday and Sunday for the length of the project, and the Staten Island Ferry will also provide views of the waterfalls at Governors Island and between Piers 4 and 5 in Brooklyn. Recommended viewing sites and bike routes along the waterfront will be made available on free maps provided on the Waterfalls website, www.nycwaterfalls.org, and distributed throughout the City.The new york City Waterfalls is an example of the Administration’s continuing commitment to cultural life and support of public art as a way to highlight the vitality of the City. It also provides an opportunity to highlight and celebrate the dramatic revitalization of the City’s waterfront. Over the past six years, the City has launched a number of key initiatives to open the waterfront for public use, including several significant capital projects, such as the creation of the Harbor District and the development of Brooklyn Bridge Park, Governors Island, and the East River Waterfront promenade in Lower Manhattan. QUOTATION FOR THE DAY”Don’t go chasing waterfalls, please stick to the rivers and the lakes that you’re used to.”TLC

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