Cool at heart, Downtown looks to cool the skin too

By Ronda Kaysen

Downtown might feel like a toaster oven with temperatures soaring into dizzying digits, but there are sanctuaries from the swelter that make the latest heat wave actually – gasp! – fun.

On Wednesday, the mercury hovered at 96 degrees Fahrenheit at 4:15 p.m. – with a heat index that made it feel like a mind bending 104 degrees. Con Edison broke its own energy usage record from Tuesday by 2 p.m. on Wednesday, making this summer responsible for four of the 10 highest energy usage days ever. Emergency cooling centers opened across the city and the Parks Dept. extended the hours of operation on outdoor Olympic-sized and intermediate pools until 8 p.m. By noon, the state had issued an air quality health advisory warning about ozone and fine particulate matter. And Senator Hillary Clinton called on President Bush to help low-income New Yorkers foot their energy bill. What can we say? It’s hot.

But New Yorkers are a hardy bunch and rather than wilt from the heat, many have discovered many an oasis Downtown.

“People come into the beautiful Winter Garden and have an ice cream and sit under a beautiful palm tree and pretend it’s not 100 degrees outside,” said Debra Simon, executive director of World Financial Center Arts and Events, which operates the Hudson River Festival. The Winter Garden in the W.F.C., with its vaulted ceilings and marble steps, is home to Custard Beach, an ice cream parlor, and numerous other shops and eateries.

Diana Dos Santos, over at the River Project at Pier 26, doesn’t mind the withering weather much at all. “We have a swim off the dive dock and collect samples from the river,” she gushed. The River Project is a marine science field station intended to protect and restore the Hudson River ecosystem. “We collect a whole lot of samples when it’s really hot.” Dos Santos is most excited about a little blowfish captured recently and the sea horses the project is attempting to breed. “We’ve got lots of sea horses.”

Ronda@DowntownExpress.com

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