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Center. Only a few myriads of spectators have clear view of the
lighting, so stake out your spot early!
    December 2003 is the 100th anniversary of the first powered
airplane flight by the Wright's in North Carolina. All year there were
exhibits, like the one in August at Rockefeller Center. Now we have a
series of talks in various City parks and at the Science, Industry,
Business Library. The ones in the parks are all the same presentation,
spaced around the City so everyone gets a chance to hear them.
    The American Museum of Natural History's SuperSaver ticket is now
$32, with a couple extra features, up from previous $29.

New York
 ------
    November saw happy times in the City! On the 19th the Lower
Manhattan Development Corporation unveiled the finalist eight designs
for the World Trade Center memorial. These are now on display in the
Winter Garden, World Finance Center during December for you to
inspect, comment, and vote.
    The plans embody the four classical elements of the world: earth
(bedrock, bathtub walls), fire (lamps, sunlight), water (pools,
cascades), air (open sky). All in one way or other honor each of the
2,900 victims of the Twin Tower collapse and those from the 1993
attack; a couple include specific remembrance of the 92 countries
represented among the victims.
    I visited Winter Garden a few days after the unveiling. The plans
are exhibited in dioramas around the walls and in museum-style cases.
Go to the main level of Winter Garden, where the bamboo trees grow,
and walk under and behind the curved stairs. From there you can go on
the patio overlooking Ground Zero to visualize the designs.
    On November 22nd, the World Trade Center station of the Hudson
Tubes, or PATH, reopened! It's a temporary depot, replacing the rail
works squashed out of existence by the collapse. I inspected it on the
26th, when many businesses let out early for Thanksgiving, so the
crowds were thinned out by evening when I got there.
    The main entry is a barebones pavilion on Church Street facing St
Paul's Chapel. It's ringed by chest-high bollards as buffers against,
erm, errant cars. The lights are shielded and recessed into the
canopy, supported by simple trusses and tubular pillars.
    I skip the details, but the depot has two levels. The first is
that of the late shopping concourse. The second is, as far as I can
suss out, a recreation of the old fare control hall. The two are
connected by the apparently same arrangement of eightish escalators as
in the late terminal.
    The entire place is ambient with the outside air. The walls have
open grill sections where you can look into the campus as never before
allowed to the public. It was chilly that evening. I needed my coat
while deep inside the depot; metal fixtures were cold to the touch.
There is no HVAC at all, being that this is a remporary station.
    There is only one convenience in the whole place, a small Hudson
News stall for newspapers and snacks. The only decorations are photo
murals of Lower Manhattan scenes on various walls.
    Signs every where proclaim the validity of pay-per-ride subway
MetroCards. These are the ones you continually refill with money as
fares are nicked off for each ride. The unlimited cards don't work.
PATH promises to moxie the turnstiles to accept them by next spring.
    Despite the holiday, there were several hundred people in the
halls, interfering somewhat with my photography. No one intercepted
me, altho there were lots of PATH workers and agents milling around.
    I examined the new passages to the IND subways. It restores the
entrance at the bumpers, until now all boarded over. One emotional
feature at this entrance is a swath of original marble pavement, with
scuffs from the debris shoved along it during the collapse!
    During some errands by day I wandered thru Wall Street. After World
Trade Center the area was laced with highway barriers, guard booths,
obstacle vehicles; the place looked like a warzone. In late November
work started on replacing these with more aesthetic access controls.
Wall and Broad streets, where the district's holiday tree is set up,
already has some of the barriers removed.
    The tree, by the way, is the lineal descendent of the City's first,
from the Dutch era. They put up a holiday tree at the head of the main
canal of New Amsterdam, which decades later was filled in to make the
present Broad Street.
    When the makeover is finished in spring 2004, Wall Street will have
the full access control and security needed, but will be open and
transparent to visitors and workers. Part of the plan gives certain
streets to pedestrians during the work hours, like Nassau Street now.
    A more general boon for New York, this one enjoyed by the whole
nation, is cell number portability, kicking in on November 24th. Now
when you change cell phone service, you can keep your old number. The
old and new services work out the transfer.
    The switch should take a couple hours by a visit to the new
company's office. However, many complications can stretch this
procedure out over a full day or two. Never the less, by Thanskgiving,
about a full ONE MILLION cityfolk put in for the change of service!!
    Thanksgiving 2003 in the City was a sunny mild day, requiring only
a light jacket to view the parade. 2-1/2 million people lined the
parade route from the American Museum of Natural History to Herald
Square, with a further 60 million watching it by television.
    It was a festive affair as always, with a mix of free-flying

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