Winter in Battery Park City, New York

Down in Battery Park City, as in much of downtown Manhattan, the wind is on steroids. Strong, and stoked by tall buildings and narrow streets, the winter wind saves its best work for west of the big highway where the Hudson River adds its two bucks.
On any given day, the air feels at least ten degrees colder in Battery Park City, especially in seasons where you need every degree on the your side of the tote board.
The wind whistles through spaces in the windows of our 18th floor apartment; it pounds on our walls and makes us huddle close to the space heater and under a comforter on the couch.
This brutality is payment for the beautiful summers down here when Battery Park City is spared the sweltering stench of the rest of Manhattan, where the same tall buildings create oven walls to contain the heat.
The Hudson River relents, and the mad, mad space makes you close your eyes and spin around without knocking anyone over. Among the joys of summer: The Esplanade, Rockefeller Park, and the North Cove where the yachts are moored, the World Financial Center Plaza where PJ Clarke's and South West have hundreds of outside tables, the fountains, and the places where you can just sit outside, undisturbed.
I count the days until March when I get my annual reminder that March is still a winter month. Okay, I'll count til April then, which for some is the "cruelest month," but not for me!

The Berlin Wall: A Reminder in Battery Park City

This piece of the Berlin Wall sits outside my apartment building in Battery Park City in lower Manhattan.
The plaque reads:
"In November 2004, the 15th Anniversary of the dismantling of the Berlin Wall, the city of Berlin donated this piece of the Wall to Battery Park City. These segments were originally located in downtown Berlin in the area between Potsdamer Platz and Leipziger Platz. They were not exposed to the West ("Outer Wall"), but part of the Inner Wall that was designed to prevent East Germans from entering the heavily guarded death strip between the Inner and the Outer Wall."

Since I moved in a year after the donation, I had no idea where the cement slab came from. I walked by this piece of history a few times wondering if the painting depicted a chicken or a sexy snake. Eventually, I was curious enough to read the plaque. Sometimes a chunk of cement is more than just a chunk of cement.