New York’s Growing Up NYC: Matthew Broderick Remembers “Playing in Washington Square Park, all day basically”; Was Georgina Bloomberg’s Entry Curtailed…?

Mike and Georgina as a child

This week’s New York Magazine features celebrity remembrances of  Growing Up New York. It’s a mixed assortment, some obviously more interesting than others but two entries I found notable. First, actor Matthew Broderick’s memories in relation to Washington Square(he still lives in the Village with wife Sarah Jessica Parker and their children):

I remember playing in Washington Square Park, all day basically. It was not as finished-looking as it is now—you could play pickup games of softball or catch on the fields. Now I think you’re not even supposed to walk on them. We would play Frisbee around the fountain. We played handball against the arch. We played handball against the other buildings, and we played sometimes on the courts that are on Sixth Avenue between 3rd and 4th. We also just walked around and ate slices of pizza—a lot of pizza. And large drinks—though not as large as what they’re up against now. We’d get an Orange Julius and a slice of pizza on 8th Street. And we ate lots and lots of Blimpies. I guess it’s a miracle we’re all alive.

You can read more of Broderick’s recollections — his is one of the best ones in their collection of “39 Memories of Growing Up in New York” — here.

Then, there is something that seems unusual. Georgina Bloomberg, Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s younger daughter (one of two), is ‘featured’ in a curious way. The whole piece is laid out with some of the celebrities spotlighted in larger segments with photos and a ‘pull quote’ highlighted, all in black type, and then there are some smaller pieces that are written in different color type and not as large, small columns inserted within. Georgina’s piece is laid out as if it is one of the larger features. There is a large picture of Georgina Bloomberg with her dad – see above, Mike Bloomberg looking remarkably sullen (some things don’t change?), she is asleep. (This picture was provided, by the way, “Courtesy of the Bloombergs.”) There is this ‘pull quote’ — “I definitely was naughty. I thought I could get away with anything.” — and that’s it. Nothing else. It defies the layout of the whole rest of the collection. (You can’t tell from the online version since it is not laid out the same way.)

It’s hard to imagine this is all she said. I can’t help wondering … did her father intervene … did they pull the rest of the text for some reason? Georgina is considered the more ‘renegade’ daughter and wrote a book a few years ago that was believed to be modeled partly on her life as an equestrian and daughter of a billionaire.

I tried reading Mike Bloomberg’s biography, Bloomberg by Bloomberg, written before he was Mayor, about a year ago. It was hard to read … so self congratulatory, not in an interesting way. (I have no idea how it has that many good reviews on Amazon.com by the way. It sold about 8000 copies.) I wonder how much he was around during Georgina’s childhood. Publicly, it seems like he is supportive of her and vice versa. She seems like she is making her own path tho’, so to speak. It would be interesting to read more of what she said (presuming there was more) about “Growing Up New York.”

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