People to see, places to go, not enough time!

It's been more than a week since my last post, and I have a lot to write about.  Ideally I would have updated my blog at least twice since last Tuesday- but life has a way of intervening to screw up your plans.  Suffice it to say, the working part of the working mom was extremely busy last week.  And at the end of the week, I had to say enough, and retreat.  More on that later.

Last Wednesday, there was a jam-packed Landmark Preservation Commission meeting at Restoration Plaza, with over 400 residents showing interest in the process for landmarking Bed Stuy.  In what may have been the biggest shocker to me, this meeting was just the beginning of an extremely long and involved process for three out of the four proposed landmark districts.  In order to landmark a neighborhood, the LMC needs to at minimum gauge the support of the community for the effort and create a report on the historical features and significance of the proposed area.  Seems simple, but both of these activities take a long time.  The LMC gauges community support by working with the local community board, and holding several meetings with the residents whose homes will be affected by the landmarking.  More surprising to me was the length of time it will take to create the report that will provide the basis for the LMC's final decision.  Prior to the LMC vote, LMC staff photograph and create a narrative for each building within the proposed district.  And Bed Stuy has a whopping 8,000 buildings that are potentially part of the proposed districts.  Check out this map of the four proposed areas. When a resident asked the LMC Executive Director Kate Daly how long it may take for Bedford Corners, Stuyvesant East, and Stuyvesant North to become landmarked, she replied, "under 60 years", with a smile and then an explanation of the workload associated with cataloguing the buildings of Bed Stuy.  The Stuyvesant Heights extension had already been "calendared" by the LMC, and if all goes according to plan, this district will be landmarked in the next year.  So, clearly Bed Stuy residents will be discussing landmarking for quite a while.  For a complete rundown of the meeting particulars, check out this article in Bed Stuy Patch.

I am really glad that I attended the meeting.  But because we needed some unforseen house repairs done, and the husband began a job with crazy hours, and because the little one (being advanced) has hit the terrible twos hard -  I really couldn't afford to take the time and I ended up playing catch up all week.  But as it so often happens when you have a family and a job and personal interests, this is not the exception, its the rule.  What has really been bugging me lately about this negotiation of time between family, job, and personal interests is that you cannot forsee from week to week how the different portions of your life will interact with each other.  You can be the most organized person in the world, and still not be able to do everything you need to do each week--forget what you want to do. By the way, full disclosure- I am far from the most organized person in the world, so you can imagine how messy my life can get.   I try to mentally give myself a pass on certain things that don't get done on weeks like these.  But the compromising sucks.  How do you all deal with it?  I will tell you what I did- I ran home to my mommy :) and took a break.  I am the luckiest girl in the world to be able to live in Bed Stuy, and have family to visit in rural Virginia.

Finally, some good news to report on the playgroup front.  Thanks to a reader/member of the Stuyvesant Heights Parents Group on Yahoo, it looks like we might be able to have a play group meet at La Table Exquise on Saturday mornings.  I have an appointment to talk with Chef Sebastien tomorrow to talk through the logistics.  I will post the details later this week.