OTHER SIGHTS AROUND NEW YORK CITY--
February Valentines in the Big Apple                         

From the High Line we can see the nearby Hudson River.

The second week in February, Valentine's Day week, traditionally features the lowest show prices of the year.  I guess it's because the New York City weather in February is unpredictable and few people vacation at that time of year.  Hotel prices are significantly reduced.  Rooms that go for more than $350 in the summer were only $109 with breakfast included.  And Broadway shows offer special features.  This year we saw "A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder," "Shear Madness," and "The Humans"... all in one extended weekend.  And wheeling our little travel bags on Metro North meant no parking fees or gas costs.

Unusual sculptures and pieces of art adorn
the pathway along the High Line.

But in between performances, the free breakfasts at our hotel, and some selective dining, we hiked miles around the city.
From 14th Street, where we disembarked from the subway and walked through the old Meat Packing District near the Whitney Museum, we located the entrance to the High Line.  This trail in the heart of the city follows the old elevated train tracks for almost two miles to around 34th Street.
Completed in 2014, the 1.45-mile trail is a linear park built in Manhattan right on the elevated section of the disused New York central Railroad spur called the West Side Line.
Winding its way between buildings and soaring several stories above the street level, the elevated freight line trail provides incredible views of the Hudson River on Manhattan's West Side, secret nooks of peaceful natural preserve with overhanging trees and carved benches, interesting native plants, smooth pavement walkways for biking and roller blading, and most of all unique and rare samples of art.  It's another free entertainment in New York City.  We made the most of it on a brisk clear day in February; we walked the entire trail.  As the sun broke through in the mid-morning and the winter skies warmed, more walkers joined our trek.

Walkers, joggers, browsers and athletes of every sort
take advantage of the crisp winter weather to be outdoors.

"If it is this popular in February," said Andy, "just imagine what this must be like in the summer!"
Maintained by the surrounding apartment buildings rather than by the city, the High Line is a model, well-kept park.  It is owned by the City of New York but maintained and operated by Friends of the High Line.  Even in February volunteers swept the walkways and pruned the twigs.  Nowhere did people abuse the privilege of strolling high above the mayhem of New York streets.

Unused rail cars sleep at the end of the High Line as
Friends of the High Line work to raise funds for this
final section of high-in-the-sky city parkland.

Founded in 1999 by community residents, the Friends of the High Line fought for the High Line's preservation and transformation at a time when the historic structure was under the threat of demolition.  It is now the non-profit conservancy that works with the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation to make sure the High Line is maintained as an extraordinary public space for all visitors to enjoy.  In addition to overseeing maintenance, operations and public programming for the park, Friends of the High Line work to raise the essential private funds to support more than 90 percent of the park's annual operating budget and to advocate for the transformation of the High Line at the rail yards, the third and final section of the historic structure. 

The badly damaged globe reminds
visitors of the tragedy of
September 11, 2001,
 at the World Trade Center.

Another February day in the city, we walked the Battery Park Promenade, following the path for several miles along the river and crossing through Liberty Park where excursion ferry boats waited to take passengers to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island.  This time a brisk breeze reminded us that spring was still a few weeks away.  But the weather was much warmer than the times we had taken this walk in winters past.  Near the tip of the 92-acre planned residential community at the southwestern tip of Manhattan, we found the remnants of the World Trade Center globe, badly damaged but recovered after September 11th and erected here as a memorial to those who died and a symbol of liberty for those who live.  Workers raked and cleared the leaves and brush from the construction site, lines of visitors chattered away outside the ferry terminals, and anxious pan handlers hawked their souvenirs or strummed guitars along the footpaths nearby, but the park looked closer to being finished than it had last year in February.

Franklin D. Roosevelt's State of the Union address is
memorialized at Four Freedoms Park on Roosevelt Island.

Our final afternoon in the city involved a trip to Roosevelt Island, originally called Welfare Island.  We walked past the new construction for a New York City campus for Cornell University, along the water to the southernmost point of Roosevelt Island in the East River between Manhattan Island and Queens, a section called Four Freedoms Park that honors Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
The four-acre memorial celebrates the Four Freedoms that Roosevelt articulated in his 1941 State of the Union address on January 6, 1941.  He proposed that people "everywhere in the world" ought to enjoy the freedom of speech, the freedom of worship, the freedom from want, and the freedom from fear.  He delivered his speech eleven months before the U.S. declared war on Japan, December 8, 1941.  This State of the Union address before Congress was largely about national security and the threat to other democracies from world war that was being waged across the continents in the eastern hemisphere, a war that would be called World War II.  In the speech, he made a break with the U.S. tradition of non-interventionism that had long been held by U.S. politicians.  Instead, he outlined a new U.S. role in helping allies already engaged in warfare.

Park land increases the attraction of the big city. In addition to
memorializing native sons and remembering our history,
it offers residents a place to unwind and relax.

The park in his memory was dedicated in a ceremony on October 17, 2012.  Tom Brokaw served as master of ceremonies.  Participants included former President Bill Clinton, Governor Andrew Cuomo, former Mayor Michael Bloomberg and relatives of Roosevelt.
Cuomo said, "New York became the laboratory of progressive democracy, and F.D.R. was the scientist creating formulas for addressing a broad range of national problems and social ills."
Clinton noted the location of the memorial.  "As we look out on this bright new day," he said, "we are close to the U.N., which F.D.R., more than any other soul, created."  Four Freedoms Park became a New York State park when it opened to the public on October 24, 2012. 
A photographer was positioning models for a photo shoot in the late afternoon sun.  But they weren't reading the plaques or studying the signs.  They must have been freezing as the wind picked up off the water.  With hats, scarves and gloves, we were prepared.  We know New York.