Slog, Slog, Slog

First of all, I did finally go to Health Services today about my thumb/elbow/shoulder pain. I walked out with a referral to a physical therapist and a wrist brace.

Then I tried to navigate the NYC Parks Department bureaucracy to get some background info on the park I was planning to write about for my “portrait of a block” assignment. Apparently, the legacy of Robert Moses lives on.* In a voice-mail exchange, I was told that all press inquiries – even from “lowly Columbia J-school students” – had to go through the Press Office. So, despite Professor Padwe’s admonition against dealing with P.R. departments, I called the Press Office. With the promise that “someone” would get back to me, I trudged off to the subway and up to the Bronx.

Two subways, a bus, and a few blocks’ walk later, I was back at Joseph Rodman Drake Park, the subject of my story. Over the course of several hours, I managed to befriend a pigeon-feeder, a truck driver, and local business owner playing catch with his golden retriever. And when the Parks Department maintenance crew showed up, I was able to wander around the cemetery at the center of the park – it’s only unlocked when they’re there to tidy up.

It was a worthwhile if exhausting afternoon, but at the end of the day – after I’d sweated through my clothes and hadn’t eaten lunch until about 4PM – I still didn’t think I had enough sources. Ugh.

*If you don’t know what I’m talking about, I invite you to read Robert Caro’s The Power Broker, a biography of Robert Moses that was our recommended summer reading for the J-school. It clocks in at 1162 pages, not counting the extensive Notes section.