I’ll walk you to your car, dear

/ June 24, 2014
Lone car in the lot.

Lone car in the lot.

With working downtown comes parking downtown.

A year ago, the company that followed the big daily changed locations, and my dear wife Karen decided after a few months of parking in the old surface lot behind the former building to switch to a new multi-leveled garage blocks closer to the new office.

It was good this past winter, having the car under shelter, and not having to brush and scrape ice and snow off the windshield, roof and hood, Karen related. On the downside: A higher monthly fee and a white liquid goop that seems to seep through the concrete structure when it’s damp. That I saw on her car with my own eyes as I’ve helped scrape it off.

A few times I’ve driven my Chevy to meet Karen for an after-work event, then walked her to her vehicle afterward.

Friday, after the Polish Fest, we walked up ramps instead of taking the elevator. And I went to the top level, no roof, for the first time.

“There’s a good view,” she said.

Beauty this way.

Beauty this way.

I ran this way and that with my iPhone 4, my breath taken away.

“Yes,” Karen, I answered. “Yes.”

Close by.

Close by.

I enjoyed what I imagined to be the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade effect, a narrow alley of a street between the garage and the neighboring building immediately across the way.

Nighttime getaways.

Nighttime getaways.

I appreciated what it might be like to invite your friends over for a rooftop barbecue, cooler and a case of beer stowed away for after-work get togethers on the biggest free piece of space on your building.

Now that's night falling over Syracuse.

Now that’s night falling over Syracuse.

And I looked even higher, and I was glad the folks who run this garage keep it open until 9 p.m. so Karen and I could appreciate a night-approaching sky over Syracuse at an angle I’ve never been privy to in my 31 years of living in this city.

Have you ever been given a different view than you’ve expected, and why did that happen? What are some of your favorite downtown city views and why? Where’s your next city trip to take your camera, and what sort of pictures to you want to come back with?

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49 thoughts on “I’ll walk you to your car, dear”

  5. Sweet post, hermano! What a beautiful skyline where you live! I love taking pictures in San Francisco or anywhere on the very edge of the coast because it’s hard to get a bad shot. Much like your beautiful Cape escape!

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  6. When I lived in Lincoln Park, in a high-rise, my rooftop deck was the gem. At night, the cityscape lit for my enjoyment. During the air show, a perfect view over the lake. I lived in a tiny boxy studio in that building but the view–well, the view made up for everything:).

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    • That is a perfect illustration of the trades made with downtown living, Kay. Thank you for pointing this out. The views up, tremendous, rooftop deck, wow! Walking past this garage at ground level so many times during the 29 years I worked in downtown Syracuse I had no clue the wonders it held just by walking six levels above.

      Then you had your tiny boxy studio that gave you that vantage point, and you thought it was worth it. Thanks for that city view!

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  8. I don’t get many high up experiences in any city. But on the few that I have, I have loved them. I can understand why people love that. Being in the city. Being up. And seeing things so differently. I like the pictures. And that you were so excited about being up there. 🙂

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  9. Perspectives are amazing, aren’t they? As i looked at the pictures I thought about the roofers who installed those roofs, the electricians who wired the buildings, the plumbers, the bricklayers, the street sweepers, the HVAC people. The systems that those buildings are wrapped around and that pemeate their cores in order to make them the habitable homes and businesses. we take for granted. The sanitary engineers with plans and pumping stations and piping and valves. tTe list goes on and on. So many perspectives and systems both seen and unseen. Imagine viewu them through an infrared camera where temperatures ar mapped. I was speaking to an city engineer the other day and he was telling me that they were rolling out a locator sytem for the entire municipality of Ottawa, that used 3-D GPS mapping of every city service and assett buried in the streets and buildings. So if an underground water valve was failing,, they could pinpoint it to within a few inches in 3 dimensions and could dig it up with no guessing. Imagine the maos that would generate.

    Even something as simple as flying over the city gives a perspective that is very different. Ha! I had a room monthly in a private home where a couple of teenagers lived with their Mom. The area was mature and had 12 foot high cedar hedges between all the properties. When Google Earth came on line some years ago, the teens were scanning the neighborhood and realized that popping through one hedge would put them in a neighbor’s backyard on the next street over who had a pool they didn’t know existed. That was good for a few dips until they got caught. No harm done, but again-perspectives.

    Great post Mark on a fascinating concept and something I think about quite regularly.

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    • This is a fantastic comment, Paul, and why you must think about starting your own blog. Your perspective is interesting, deep, and worth sharing on a regular basis. That’s my opinion. I see you jumping in on a lot of my regular reads here on WP, and you have much to share with the world, my friend.

      Do me a favor.

      Think about it.

      Perspective, like you said. You can be the teens popping through the hedge. What’s the harm?

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      • Thank you very much for the compliment Mark. It is my intention to try blogging and I am saving my pennies for a new laptop. The old one I have now doesn’t have the memory or processing power to set up a blog – I tried. I’m even running XP, which is no longer supported. So, Coming Soon to a Screen near you -Ha! Thanks again for the vite of confidence, it means a lot to me. You’ll be among the first invited to the blog warming.

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    • Thank you, Mrs. B, I was sort of startled to find that at the top of our climb up the garage ramps.

      As for my dear wife Karen, what she brings to my life every day, that’s the least I can do when I bring her into to my blog. 🙂

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  11. Love this post Mark and not surprisingly my mind went immediately to other applications of ‘being given another view’. When we are given another a view, we receive a bigger picture of the bigger picture. Being open to the views others give us is truly a gift we can give ourselves and those sharing their views.

    Remember the old story of the blind mice describing their view of what an elephant is? All of their views were different, yet combined they were the total truth.

    Back to your post, I love those shots and if I lived in a building with roof-top access, I would spend a lot of time there in the summer!

    Diana xo

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    • I felt like all my shots were needed to get the total feel of what it was like up there, Diana, because each direction unveiled a different ‘scape of the city. I was kind of like those blind mice, in a way!

      Yes, the rooftops should be very busy now. Come winter, not so much. 🙂

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  13. Syracuse has a big city feel to it, when you look at it from different angles, and this is especially true when you’re standing above everything else. A buddy and I used to hang out on top of one of the Downtown buildings, which I’m not going to mention. But we would get into intelligent discussions about life, music, politics, etc. that felt different being at such a different level and above everyone else. Not that we couldn’t have discussions below, but it this was similar to a childhood fort for adults.

    When you’re on top of a structure, looking over and across the city, there is an optimism that grows in you.

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  15. Its often the simplest things that have the most profound effect. Its amazing the things you notice just by looking up from the daily grind, things that may always have been there, you just never noticed them before. Thanks for reminding me…

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  17. oh, i love the pictures, you are getting really good with the lens, young man. hie that you went into your rooftop bbq fantasy scenario from that point. and i also love when you really ‘see’ something for the first time, even though it’s been right in front of you for a long time. a new perspective breathes new life into things and leads to a better understanding and appreciation for them.

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    • Who would have thought that all of this perspective was on top of a parking garage that is really quite a nothing from the outside, Beth? Notice that there are no shots of the outer portion of this building!

      Thank you for your kind words about my iPhone 4 camera work. With practice comes improvement. And I really enjoy seeing things through the little box I hold up in my mind’s eye these days. 🙂

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    • It is one of the happier things about reaching this point in life that I look at things with an inclination toward interpretation and surprise and delight rather than where-do-I-have-to-be-in-5-minutes, Mimi. I guess that’s a great thing about born-in-1957. Discerning eye, as you put it so well. Thanks, my friend!

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