Natalie Ross and Michelle-Marie Heinemann.

On the first Wednesday in May, a rather large tent pops up behind the Vanderbilt Gate on Fifth Avenue between 104th and 105th Streets with the sole purpose of shielding the over-the-top headgear of 1,300 ladies who lunch, a handful of men and one Martha Stewart from the elements as they duke it out for millinery supremacy at the Frederick Law Olmsted Awards Luncheon—or, as anybody who’s anybody calls it, The Hat Luncheon. At this year’s event, the tent proved unnecessary, as honorees Jenny and John Paulson had pledged a cool $100 million to The Conservancy Fund, the exact dollar figure necessary to ensure perfect weather.

Arriving on the scene, the Transom quickly sussed out an early front-runner in the hat arms race: Carole McDermott, a sprightly darling decked out in heritage pearls and a Chanel suit. She skipped the small-time weaponry and went straight for the nuclear option with a towering scale replica of Central Park strapped to her dome, complete with an adoptable bench.

“I have every year gone a bit bigger, and I’ve never once regretted it,” said Ms. McDermott, who stands at 5-foot-3 sans heels but checked in at close to 7 feet with her choice chapeau, which she said took an estimated three months to put together.

We then found the gorgeous Lizzie Tisch standing contrapposto, surrounded by an iPhoned throng. She was wearing an anatomically correct garden snake made entirely from mother-of-pearl. The “hat” was apparently the handiwork of Aaron Keppel, an artist who, Ms. Tisch was quick to note, is not to be confused with “your grandmother’s milliner,” a sentiment echoed by gal pal Amy Fine Collins, who was wearing a snow-white barn owl on her forehead, precariously perched.

“He’s just the most incredible artist. Look at the detail—the wings were made from tearing up thick stock paper and putting it back together,” Ms. Fine Collins said of Mr. Keppel’s handiwork. “The eyes! Look at the eyes! They’re perfect replicas of the real thing. He even constructs them as they would be found in nature. Breathtaking.”

The Transom had only a moment to acknowledge the breathtakingness of the owl peering over her forehead before Ms. Tisch and Ms. Fine Collins continued almost in unison: “Our park is truly our city’s greatest gift. What better way to tip our hat to it than to literally tip our hats to it?”

Making our way into the tent for lunch, we found Gillian Miniter, former president of the Conservancy’s women’s committee, wearing a fluorescent firecracker above her head. We asked her about the logistics of something so delightfully impractical.

“The real art is getting past your doorman in one of these things without him making some slick remark,” she said, gesturing toward the large group of gathered women who would help raise $3.3 million while nibbling on avocado lobster salad. “People fly in from around the world for this lunch,” she continued. “People slave for months getting their hats ready; people open their checkbooks and really have a chance to make a lasting gesture to the city they love. One hundred percent of the money raised here will go to park programs and initiatives, and I think that’s just great.”

As we eventually teetered out of the tent after one too many white wines, clutching a Tiffany tote bag (the perfect Mother’s Day re-gift) stuffed with Estée Lauder’s finest, the Transom had a hard time disagreeing.

It is also home to one of the city’s longest-running construction projects, the Second Avenue Subway, which has disrupted residents, merchants and traffic farther to the east for the last seven years. But the end is in sight. The project is slated for completion in 2016. And the removal of those barricades and final silence of the jackhammers will just be harbingers of the renaissance of a transportation corridor, and the neighborhood surrounding it. The advice of many a real estate professional: Buy soon if you can, rather than kick yourself later with 20-20 hindsight when the subway is done.

In recent years, the Upper East Side has, according to some experts, lost some of its luster as the magnet for the young, the hip and the cool arriving in New York to make their mark. But with its great schools, parks and amenities, it remains a draw for families, and others looking for a good value in a city that, even through a severe downturn, remains strong, vibrant and safe, and where owning even a tiny piece of the pie is an investment that seldom goes sour.

Robert Schulman, associate broker and executive managing director at Warburg Realty, says that now is a great time to buy on the Upper East Side, because the neighborhood is where you can get the best value. “In the past few years, it wasn’t appreciating as fast as other neighborhoods, so you get the most for your money,” he says. At the same time, he cautions that the opportunity to get great value won’t last long. “Prices on condos, co-ops and townhouses are steadily increasing.”

Even in this past winter, the season when the market typically slows, Jacky Teplitzky, managing director, Douglas Elliman, and leader of the Jacky Teplitzky team, says open houses have attracted steady traffic, and sales have been strong. She only expects those numbers to improve with spring.  “In relative terms, there is more to choose from in terms of housing as there is more inventory, unlike most of Manhattan,” she says, explaining why the Upper East Side will always be popular. “The options are diverse and there is a range of price points.”

Today’s buyer wants everything in mint condition. “They don’t want to do any remodeling,” Ms. Teplitzky says. “The ideal properties are move-in-ready. Buyers are specific in what they want regarding amenities as well, such as a doorman building, gym, storage and bike room. Buyers also want views and plenty of natural light.”

And they want condos. While 75 percent of the housing on the Upper East Side is co-op, luxury condo developments are what are really on the rise, so to speak, and large apartments in these brand new structures are selling out at the highest numbers. Among those buildings and developments are: The Skyline Development at 200 East 79th Street, The Lucida at 151 East 85th Street, The Brompton at 205 East 85th Street, the Georgica at 305 East 85th Street, 135 East 79th Street, and The Chatham, new luxury townhomes on East 65th Street, and The Helmsley Carlton House at 21 East 61st Street, formerly a hotel, now a condo building offering the luxury amenities of a hotel.

“In the case of The Lucida, The Brompton, Georgica, and 170 East End Avenue, we see that luxury condominium offerings are moving north and east,” say Adrienne Albert and Jacqueline Urgo of The Marketing Directors, a development advisory and master property marketing and sales force that works on behalf of owners and builders of new homes. “Expanded retail offerings and higher demand from a greater number of market segments means that the coming years will be good ones for residential real estate on the Upper East Side.”

Among the developments moving north and east, the Azure at 333 East 91st Street is a sort of hybrid co-op/condo (it’s legally a co-op but has condo rules). With its far east address, on First and 91st, the building might be seen as off the beaten track, but that is not what its co-developers, The DeMatteis Organizations and The Mattone Group, are finding. For one thing, several private schools in the area, Spence, Sacred Heart and Trevor Day, are all building athletic facilities nearby, which will further enhance the neighborhood. And the building is already 75 percent sold, with two-, three- and four-bedroom units on the 21st through 34th floors remaining. The developers built the building so that two two-bedroom apartments can be combined for larger family apartments, and the developer offers to do the combining itself, saving potential buyers many contracting headaches. The building also offers some 6,000 square feet of amenities, including a large dining room with catering facilities that residents can reserve and use for entertaining.

“The area is very popular among families because the neighborhood has the best public and private schools in the city,” says Douglas MacLaury of the Mattone Group, “and because it is near both Carl Schurz and Central Park.” The development even included the building of a public school, M.S. 114, a middle school with 530 seats, and a totally separate entrance, under a program which helps the city to get new and needed schools, and developers to get certain tax breaks.

The completion of the Second Avenue Subway will benefit those who buy into the Azure, and many others. “We predict that by the time the construction is complete, the face of Second Avenue retail will have changed completely, making way for high-end stores, markets and restaurants,” say Albert and Urgo of The Marketing Directors. “This will cause property values on Second Avenue and the nearby streets on the Upper East Side to rise. Plus, the new subway line will create easier access from the Upper East Side to other neighborhoods in the city, making it a great place to live.”

The spring will come. Really.

Officially, spring begins tomorrow. In actuality, it will be yet another 40-degree day in what now appears to be an endless stream of borderline freezing days. The ongoing chill is enough to sap the energy and optimism from even the most cheerful of hearts. The Observer, whose own heart is not in this category, will almost certainly lose another pair of gloves before the end of the week in an act of forgetfulness/subconscious rebellion against the never-ending winter. If the gray skies and finger-numbing conditions continue, we may well start absentmindedly leaving our coats and sweaters behind on the subway as well.

But perhaps we can all learn a lesson from the Central Park Conservancy, an organization that not only believes the seasons will change someday soon, but started acting on that belief sometime ago: planting, hauling mulch, testing sprinkler heads.

This may not seem like acts of extraordinary faith, but for those of us who are not much given to religious feeling and who find the winter not only miserable, but interminable, it is quite impressive. As the chirpy and fact-filled email that landed in our inbox this afternoon informed us: the Conservancy started preparing for spring months ago.

The Conservancy has no other choice, of course, as the Park will soon be mobbed with thousands upon thousands of visitors a day. But still. Reading the email reminded us that sometimes one must act in accordance with, and in preparation for, expected and projected outcomes, rather than based on one's current, rather cold and unbearable situation. In other words, we should stop dwelling on the parts of the forecast that focus on, in painful detail, the wind and cold that will persist through the rest of this week, and look to the brighter side of things, like "the Green Mountains and Adirondacks getting what could be their last blast of winter." Last blast of winter. Or at least what could be the last. (On a sidenote, we find The Wall Street Journal's weather journals to be surprisingly poetic and oddly moving.)

So what has the Conservancy been doing to prepare for this alleged start of spring? Planting 57,000 flowers, testing and activating 1,400 sprinkler heads, turning on eight decorative fountains and hauling vast quantities of materials: 850 tons of mulch for garden beds, 500 tons of clay for ballfields, 200 tons of crushed stone for the bridle paths and 108 tons of sand for the sandboxes. Most inspiring of all, the Conservancy is already mowing 276 acres of what appear—to the horticultural layman—to be dead lawns and ballfields. The Conservancy tells us that the lawns of snow-covered yellow-brown grass are not, in fact, dead, but like the promise of this new season, alive and growing.

kvelsey@observer.com

Tree damage in Prospect Park. (Prospect Park Alliance)

On Sunday, it was fun to settle in at home with popcorn and movies. On Monday, the hurricane hit, a frightening and fraught time. On Tuesday, the city took stock of the devastation. On Wednesday, well, Wednesday was the beginning of many frustrations: frustrations with ongoing power outages, frustrations with being cooped up for yet another day, frustrations with working from home, school cancellations extending through the end of the week, and the difficulty of borough-to-borough travel.

In the midst of these frustrations, the many islands of green scattered across the five boroughs started to seem very, very tempting. A tantalizing emerald escape from stuffy apartments, boredom and the tedium of days stretching ahead. The only problem is that New York City parks are closed, for fear of falling branches and dangerous debris, until at least Saturday morning. Not that the barricades and ominous signs posted at the entrances were enough to stop the many outlaw walkers, runners, bicyclists and parents desperate for a breath of fresh air. On Wednesday morning, The Observer wandered into Fort Greene park, scooting past a whirring wood chipper at the entrance to find dog walkers, parents pushing strollers, precocious tots climbing on freshly cut logs and runners hungrily sucking in the suddenly cool autumn air. Workers were working to dismantle a huge tree splintered in three sections at the base of the hill, a dead bird was crushed into the muddy path around the perimeter of the park, and one mother was pointing out the felled tree to her son, but most of the frolicking Brooklynites seemed oblivious. In fact, it was busier than a Saturday in early September.

On Thursday afternoon, Prospect Park was decidedly quieter, with a parks employee stationed at the Grand Army Plaza entrance turning away cyclists and runners. But almost as many were streaming out of the park behind her. And at Prospect Park West and Third Street, streams of people scurried past a barricade that had been unceremoniously swept to one side. Just beyond the stone fence, a group of flannel-clad hipsters picnicked on a blanket beneath the swaying tree branches.

Many runners were dutifully sprinting around the perimeter of the park, but beyond the fallen trees and stumps, The Observer could see bicyclists whirring around the loop and dog walkers distractedly gazing into the distance as their pets sniffed the freshly disturbed foliage. On the western side, a runner who had circled half the park on the exterior sidewalk spotted a discreet opening in the stone wall and after looking around furtively, disappeared into the brush.

A Parks Department spokesperson admitted that some scofflaws have been ignoring the barricades and signs, but noted that parks employees and barricades are blocking a number of parks entrances. The Central Park Conservancy, which is rushing to clear the park before Sunday's marathon, estimates that some 250 mature trees are uprooted or compromised and on its website begs everyone "to help the Conservancy by staying out of the Park until further notice." The Parks Department has also scheduled volunteer work days on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. But in a city where so much more pressing work remains to be done, with resources allocated to cleanup rather than policing, the policy at most parks is, by default, enter at your own risk. And it's a risk that many New Yorkers, especially those burning with cabin fever, are apparently willing to take.

kvelsey@observer.com

This is not to suggest that unsafe cycling is ever acceptable, but as more people take to bikes, and the city's population continues to grow, park pathways are bound to get busier. Action by users is important, but also be operators.

As it has done with Prospect Park, following another spate of high-profile injuries, the city's Department of Transporation and Parks Department have reached an agreement to change the arrangement of traffic lanes to make more room for bikes and runners and less for vehicles. The measure is meant to make everyone safer.

“Central Park is New York City’s recreational oasis and this redesign will provide park visitors with safer and wider paths to walk, jog or bike,” Parks Commissioner Veronica White said in a release.

"Central Park's signature drives will now have even clearer markings to help every park user have the best and safest experience possible," echoed DOT Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan.

In almost every place, the number of vehicle lanes will be reduced to make for wider lanes for bikes and joggers. The one exception is in the lower loop, where a defacto carriage lane exists and one must remain for cars. There, new dividers will be put in to try and separate bikers and joggers, keeping everyone separate and safe.

Will this prevent all injuries? Of course not. People need to pay attention and respect everyone. But as we see time and again, the power of the paint can be quite powerful.

Besides marble in such abundance that our head was soon swimming, there is a Jacuzzi, media systems and an aroma/chroma-therapy steam shower—a set-up where you can add essential oils to the showerhead, then watch a kind of light show as you shower to regulate your moods.

But you know who did know all about these things? The owner, Neil Witriol, the retired president of steam bath and shower company Steamist West. Naturally, Mr. Witriol thought that such features belonged in his five-bathroom condo, now listed for $44 million with Sotheby's broker Roberta Golubock.

But apparently, not even the perfect bathroom(s) were enough to keep Mr. Witriol, who apparently decided that it was time to make a splash in the current trophy market by asking more than double what he paid for the units a few years back. Public records show that Mr. Witriol bought 24A, a sponsor unit, for $7.8 million in 2008. Then he bought 24B from his neighbor for $8.8 million in 2010, paying a total of $16.6 million. Although he did do a gut reno to combine the two apartments, according to The Wall Street Journal, which also wrote about the sale.

The ask, while ambitious, is at least in the vicinity of what other resales in the building have commanded. Unlike the $95 million listing on the 35th floor, which involves the combination of two units purchased for a total of $18.8 million. Even Sandy Weill's spectacular $88 million sale in the building, the benchmark which all other trophies seem to be using these days, was a little less than double the $43.7 million that Mr. Weill paid. And he also did a renovation.

In any event, Mr. Witriol's "captivating tower combination" joins the ranks of listings at the famed building. There's the place on the 32nd floor that wants $27.7 million, for example, and a 4th-floor spread that would like  $26 million. That's a lot of trophies for one building. But at least buyers will really be able to shop around for the best value.

kvelsey@observer.com

Olmsted, himself. (Flickr)

A dilapidated farmhouse bedecked with exterior virtues from the same hands that influenced many of the city's greatest parks might soon become available to the public.

Frederick Law Olmsted, famous for Central and Prospect parks, among so many others, once remade a Staten Island farm to fit his vision of urban pastoral, according to The Times. Perhaps that claim to fame alone is enough to yield renovations from the city. But then again, probably not.

Carlotta DeFillo, librarian and reenactor at Staten Island’s Historic Richmond Town, as well as a former resident of the house, sold it to the city’s Parks and Recreation Department in 2006 for $600,000. Even so, the real estate has yet to see any renovations come to fruition. Nor have any projections been made as to financing them. Ms. DeFillo told The Times that she hopes it will someday become open to the public for viewing.

“We used to roll down that hill in the summers and sled down it in the winter,” she told The Times, reminiscing on growing up in the house. “Every time anybody asks me about this house, I’m kind of overcome.”

Without renovations starting anytime soon, the next alternative to preserving its historic virtues is the possibility of putting it in the hands of the Historic House Trust, which maintains 23 old homes throughout the city.

Hopefully someone steps in before the house goes totally to seed.

Picturesque but murky waters. (www.bobguskind.com)

These days, Prospect Park's shadowy groves are as likely to be littered with discarded toys as hypodermic needles. The Park has, much like Central Park, undergone a revitalization in the last few decades, bringing it closer to Frederick Law Olmstead and Calvert Vaux's vision of artificial nature.

But even the most diligent efforts cannot rid the park of one its most fearsome (albeit natural) adversaries: pond scum. The Wall Street Journal reports that fighting the scum is an ongoing battle. Certainly, one can skim the scum off, but like a many-headed hydra, the efforts of even the most diligent Parks Department employees cannot get beneath the surface of the problem. The Harlem Meer in Central Park is similarly plagued.

The green stuff, mostly duck weed and azolla is natural; its growth encouraged by the potassium-enriched tap water that New York City drinks. The thick slimy layer can be skimmed off, but never vanquished. That said, the gunk, if left unskimmed, sinks to the bottom of the pond and starts to rot, killing off the plants and creatures of the pond. The process, known as eutrophication, is common in bodies of water around the U.S., but in many other locations is caused by agricultural runoff. Also, it's really unappealing to visitors.

Prospect Park even has an employee who devotes several hours a week to the task. The man, Martin Woess, rides astride a strange anti-scumming machine—dubbed the Lake Mess Monster—that "licks the scum into the belly of the boat," as The Journal (rather excellently) describes it.

“The lake isn’t alive,” Mr. Woess told the Journal. “But it’s full of life and needs to breathe.”

Way to be gunk-ho!

kvelsey@observer.com

When a tree falls in Central Park, everybody hears about it.

Looks like the leafy canopy in Central Park will finally receive a much-needed trim, thanks to the City Council’s decision to more than double the budget for tree pruning.

The council added $2 million to the existing $1.45 million budget to be used for snipping the park’s overgrown limbs, The New York Times reports. The additional money was part of $30 million in last-minute funding restored to the Parks Department’s budget after citizens and council members cried out against the proposed cuts.

While we’re not looking forward to the awkward growing-out phase of blunt limbs that will soon border the park’s walkways, the decision will help alleviate the city’s fear of falling limbs.

“Tree pruning is something where you don’t see the impact of deferring until there’s a tragedy,” Councilman Brad Lander told The Times. “As incidents have shown, there’s a real risk, and, hopefully, getting pruning back on a better schedule will mean New Yorkers will be safer.”

The Parks Department summons outside contractors to trim 600,000 street trees, whose falling branches have caused severe injuries and one death in recent years. Lawmakers and city officials also added $16.8 million to the budget to preserve job-training program to secure about 845 full-time maintenance positions, The Times reports.

But even with additional funding, the forecast for efficiently pruning the trees is somewhat dismal.

In years past, pruning was mandated far more often than it is today. The Times noted that the current pruning cycle takes place once every 15 years (thanks to budget cuts)–in 2008, pruning was mandated every 7 years.

Looks like the city needs a little more green to maintain its green.

sgrothjan@observer.com

Fight! Fight! (getlstd property)

The buzzing food vendors that pepper Central Park aren’t the only ones battling to shill their overpriced wares to tourists. Bicycle rental companies are warring over the right to wheel and deal by one of the Park entrances, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Bike and Roll, a bike rental company, is playing the pitiful role of a besieged business, trumped by aggressive competitors. The rental company purchased the rights to use some prime real estate by a Park entrance—paying the city $65,000 a year plus a share of rental fees for the privilege.

Chris Wogas, manager of Bike and Roll, notes that his is the only company licensed to rent bikes and accompanying equipment near the park.

But despite Mr. Wogas’ monetary claim to the space, his competitors feel it’s a blow to their rights.

“Why is that they should be allowed to be there just because they shell out money?” Kenneth Winter, manager of Bike Rental Central Park, located on West 57^th Street, asked The Journal.

Apparently, Mr. Winter’s viewpoint is also embraced by other vendors. The streets are interspersed with various bike stands as well as peddlers who lures customers to nearby bike shops.

Mr. Wogas's “informal estimate” of the opposing vendors’ profits was $400,00 a year, which Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe told The Journal he believes is a little high.

But it's not only about the money. Mr. Wogas claims that the other vendors often irritate tourists, rent poor-quality equipment and conduct business illegally on park property–which may well be true, but we expect that's dismay over unexpected competition talking.

The dispute has even turned physical, and it's not limited to quaint techniques like letting the air out a competitor's tires. Mr. Wogas told The Journal that his employees have been threatened—with knives—by the other bike rental vendors and even has a protective order against a vendor who threatened to shoot Mr. Wogas’ field manager after a dispute.

Knife fights and gun threats? It sounds like McCarren Pool.

sgrothjan@observer.com