Down Town Association

The sailing club had their annual dinner at the Down Town Association on Pine Street last night. Quite pleasant, and nice to see all the people dressed up instead of dressed down. The Commodore has arranged to take over the management of the North Cove for the next decade, which is sweet, but best of all he has Dennis Connor as the front man. America's most famous and successful sailor certainly cannot hurt the cause of making New York's harbor a center for recreational sailing. The Commodore, Michael Fortenbaugh, is an exceptional character who has done a great deal to put Manhattan back in touch with it's roots as an island on a great river and expansive harbor open to the world.

The Down Town Association is itself quite fascinating. Franklin Roosevelt was a member, and I can't help but feel the vibe when I walk in that this is one of those placed hidden in plain sight where you can get in touch with the long history of New York. Waiting for K at St. Paul's Chapel In felt like I could step right in to an Edith Wharton novel. Lower Manhattan is for me a sacred space, not because of 9/11, but because of Alexander Hamilton, Robert Fulton, that old peg-legged Dutchman Peter Styuverstant, Edith Wharton, P.T. Barnum, all the Roosevelts and even Abe Lincoln on his way up Broadway to give his address at Cooper Union that would propel him to the White House. It is, for me, where the spirit of the pragmatic Dutch founders, the vibrancy and diversity of trade and port culture and the stream of all humanity striving to start anew made the vital and critical contributions to American character that made this nation great. It's Manhattan.