assembly

Like each other great city, New York looks big, but is much bigger than it looks.  Across from my law firm is a public school building that houses an elementary school in the lower floors and a high school in the upper floors, about ten stories in all.  They are conducting a fire drill on the sidewalks.  A sea of children - about three thousand in all, I'd guess - organized into tight rectangles managed by teachers, each with a red binder.  I can see them out the window, sunlit and looking like confetti in their bright, juvenile clothing.  The short youngsters towards East 57th Street and the lanky teenagers on East 56th.  The motorcades to the U.N. General Assembly pass in the orange-coned special lane, heads of state with their entourages, yet another layer to this phyllo dough city.