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A Busy May in New York, Boston, Miami Beach

Posted by Mark Sullivan on September 2, 2019

Posted in: New York (Home). 1 comment

May ended with a visit from my brother Pat, his wife Jenny, and our 18-year old nieces, Molly and Lydia. Here the girls enjoy mocktails in a heavenly outdoor setting at Public by Jean-Georges. They reported to their grandparents that it was the best restaurant they’d ever been to. What lovely guests they were!

In contrast with the first part of this year, May was a busy travel month. And when we weren’t traveling we usually seemed to have visitors, as happens in New York.

After our return from Italy we had one quick week at home before heading to Boston (Cambridge, really) for our 30th class reunion from graduate school at the Harvard Kennedy School. We had a great time seeing around 40 of our classmates — a pretty good showing 30 years out. And I will personally take some responsibility for that good showing because I got involved and really worked the Facebook messages, email prods, and text messages to help drive the crowd.

I also worked with two of my classmates, Jenny Spalding and Dara Menashi, to organize a couple events: a Friday open house at Dara’s house in Brookline and a Saturday evening reception at a restaurant in Cambridge. Because these events were organized by us (instead of the school) they were by far the most fun events of the weekend!

Because the reunion fell just a few days before my birthday, Jim suggested it made no sense to go straight home. So instead we caught a flight to Miami Beach to spend the birthday week in one of our favorite happy places. We’ll let the pictures tell the rest.

In early May we had a visit from my former business partner Nathaniel as he was passing through the city going from DC to Vermont. At the last minute he discovered that his sister Eve just happened to be passing through at the same time. Since we all hiked the Inca Trail together some years ago, it was a really fun reunion.

Jim with Dara in the Kennedy School courtyard at the reunion

Out for a walk along the Charles river with Keith

Jim with Keith and Deborah at an opening night reception at Dara’s house in Brookline

Over the last 30 years I’ve only seen Joan at class reunions. Every time I swear we are going to do better because she is so much fun!

Catching up with Jon and Dara. At the Kennedy School, Jon and I shared the distinction of being the only two graduates of the University of Michigan in our class.

At our Saturday evening reception I had a blast catching up with Deborah and Shari

Outside the busy reunion activities, we did squeeze in time for a wonderful dinner at our old neighbors’ place. So here we are with Ann and Bart and Wil (the tall one who gets taller every time we see him).

As if the reunion weekend did not have enough fun packed into it, we just happened to run into my graduate school landlord, Steve Nil. It was wonderful to catch up with Steve!

Following all the reunion activities it was nice to land in Miami Beach for a bit of relaxation

For my birthday celebration we spent a fun evening with a friend and roommate from U of M, Allan Kleer, who lives in Miami Beach

And even better, we met Allan’s partner Mauricio for the first time. He is an artist, a former model, and a super interesting guy.

I love the colors of everything in Miami Beach — the sky, the sea, the greenery, and especially the iconic lifeguard stations

And yes, we did have a few days here and there in New York in all its glory this month

Art on the High Line in New York

More culture — at the beautiful Jean-Michel Basquiat exhibit at the Brant Foundation, which happens to be six blocks from our apartment

Jim’s brother Albert suggested that we meet Kasey Altman, whose father is a coworker of his in San Diego. For some reason we assumed Kasey was a guy, but he turned out to be the most delightful young woman, who shares our passion for travel and adventure.

I love to discover idyllic little reading spots around the city

A very busy May ended on a high note with the visit from Pat, Jenny, Molly, and Lydia

Early April in New York

Posted by Jim St. George on August 14, 2019

Posted in: North America, USA. Leave a Comment

Sven, Ajay, Fiona, and Mary Beth celebrating our new condo with us

A chunk of the early part of April was spent waiting and waiting for word on going to closing on the Cooper Square condo we were trying to buy. The unit we were buying had previously been part of a larger unit before being split off on its own. Because the occupancy permit stayed with the rest of the unit – which was in fact occupied by the owner – we had to wait for a new occupancy permit before closing. Wait and wait and wait. Of course, all that waiting saved us plenty of money; she was paying property taxes and condo fees while we were using the time to develop the floor plans that we would submit when we finally owned the unit.

And then, when the occupancy permit finally came through – Hooray!! – the owner wanted to delay the sale even longer. The purchase agreement had said we would close within a week or 10 days of issuing the occupancy permit, but her lawyer thought it would take longer than that and she wasn’t going to be in the city until the end of the month and on and on. And then there were questions about building permits she had taken out that were still open. The purchase agreement said that they would be responsible for ensuring they were closed, but her lawyer basically said “Yeah, we’re not going to do that.”

The tiny New York Marble Cemetery, quite near our temporary apartment, is the oldest non-sectarian cemetery in the city.

Frustrating, ugly, nasty … what a process. The night before we were scheduled to close it looked as though the whole thing was going to fall apart, at least for a few weeks and maybe even months. Finally, that night, frustrated and angry, we accepted her lawyer’s position on the work permits, agreed to take responsibility ourselves (since our work was going to be a total gut job renovation anyway) and we went to closing. Frustrated and angry instead of joyous, but we closed. And then held a little champagne lunch party with 10 friends to celebrate.

With that behind us, the next steps would be just as challenging. Our architect had to put the final touches on the plans to submit to the condo board’s architect who has to approve them to ensure we are not doing anything that would affect the building’s structure or that would be too disturbing to current residents. After that we go to the city for permission. In other words, it could still be a while.

The south view from our condo in what will be the living room

Meanwhile, while not spinning our wheels waiting or working with our architect on the plans, we tried to enjoy spring in New York. There’s a lot to like about the city in April, including an early visit to the Botanical Garden out in the Bronx (we’re getting around, even leaving Manhattan!) where they had a stunning orchid exhibit.

And then, the day after closing, it was off to London where we were to spend a few days before meeting my brother and his wife for a two-week tour of Italy. To be honest we weren’t too keen on leaving so soon after getting the keys to the apartment, but, well, it is Italy, so how bad can that be?

Here Mark is with the keys. Finally! Now it’s off it Italy.

Toasting our new condo with fancy champagne glasses, a gift from our realtor (who did very well on the sale…)

Mary Beth and Mark celebrating our closing, standing in what will be the dining room. That drop ceiling towards the back will be removed during demolition giving a much better view of downtown when it’s done.

A beautiful spring day in the New York Botanical Garden up in the Bronx with Mary Beth

Orchids the likes of which we’ve never seen

Feels like spring!

Mark had to go to a hospital for a fairly routine medical exam … and was greeted by this large portrait of David Koch, one of the most vile libertarian/Republican funders. On the good side though the hospital was really nice and everything checked out fine for Mark.

February in New York

Posted by Jim St. George on June 8, 2019

Posted in: New York (Home), North America, USA. Leave a Comment

Moving gently into the role of hosts, we had our friends Sven & Mary Beth over for drinks one night before going out to dinner. Soon we would face our fears and insecurities and actually cook a meal for guests.

This whole “Catching Up” process hasn’t gone so well. I was pretty happy back in April when I wrote up our final stop in Brazil, and then in May when Mark posted our January doings. But here it is in June and instead of having caught up … well, we haven’t. And it’s not as though we’re super busy or anything. I mean, retirement leaves a lot of spare time.

At any rate, back to February. The big deal for the month was getting a household set up after not having a household for nearly six years, but there’s not much interesting to write or say about that. We started the scary process of inviting people over for dinner; after six years of not cooking our skills were a little rusty. Mark’s parents came for a visit, our first house guests though we were pretty confident not our last.

It was a mild winter in New York and only once in February did we get any accumulation of snow at all. That once was enough for me to go down to the Battery at Manhattan’s southern tip to enjoy the views.

A lot of the month was just getting to know our new home town. Turns out it’s a big city with a lot to do. We’re trying to embrace the cultural opportunities here so we joined both the Metropolitan Museum and the New Museum, a modern art exhibition center just a couple blocks from our apartment. We even went to a “Music in Time” lecture an old graduate school classmate was giving on the Upper West Side. He’s mostly retired from the CEO-ing he did after graduate school and instead puts his energy into researching the relationship between music and political history. In this case it was Verdi’s role in the Risorgimento, Italy’s reunification campaign of the 18th century. It was a fundraiser (in an apartment on Central Park West) for a music scholarship program where his lecture was interspersed with real opera singers doing some of Verdi’s arias. Very New York.

Speaking of very New York, we absolutely love this view of uptown from our Lower East Side apartment

And then of course there was the seemingly interminable waiting to close the contract on our new loft at 62 Cooper Square. We wanted to close as quickly as possible to get the whole process rolling but that was not to be. The previous owner had had some construction done and needed to get an occupancy permit for the unit before the condo board would allow the sale to go through. You see, she had previously owned both the 11th and 12th floors, with a staircase connecting them, since no one could be expected to live in just a single full-floor unit. But she was downsizing and had the staircase removed and the floors created as separate units, meaning ours needed the occupancy permit. Now, all the work had been done; it was a perfectly livable with toilets and a kitchen and all that. It’s just that the city bureaucracy, particularly in the Department of Buildings, can move at a glacial pace. So we waited. In the meantime we were working with our architect to design the space (assuming we would be able to buy it eventually) while the then-current owner was paying taxes and condo fees. Frustrating to have to wait but ultimately not a bad deal for us.

As the month closed though we had no occupancy permit and, more frustrating, no idea whatsoever when the city would get around to issuing it.

Our first house guests, Mark’s parents, enjoying pre-dinner snacks and cocktails

Classic New York street scene near our apartment

One of New York’s new “pencil towers” on what is becoming known as Billionaire’s Row up near Central Park

We met Tamara in April 2014 when we first discovered the fabulous Temple Lodge in Bali. We bonded with her, stayed in touch, and even visited again with her in Bali in January 2017. While she still travels a lot, she lives over in Brooklyn so she was our first dinner guest. She appears to have survived.