They crossed the Hudson River from Jersey City, Franklin Township and other parts of New Jersey to attend a free concert by Bon Jovi, the rock group from the Garden State that once released an album titled, simply, “New Jersey.”

“I would say 98 percent of the state loves Bon Jovi,” said Cheryl Vergara, 33, an administrative assistant from Clifton, N.J., one of thousands of people in a line that stretched for about 15 blocks on Fifth Avenue alongside the park on Saturday afternoon as they waited for the entrance at East 72nd Street to open.

. . .

On Saturday, about two hours before the concert began, Mr. Bon Jovi, wearing sunglasses, and three of his bandmates sat on a bench outside their dressing room trailer and answered questions from reporters about scalpers (“We did what we could for our fans,” he said), their set list (“Nothing but hits, baby”) and the experience of playing Central Park.

“I wanted to get a closer look at the waterfalls, and then it sucked us in,” said Vladimer Spector, 37, one of the two men plucked from the East River by the NYPD Harbor Patrol.

He and Bert Rosenblatt, 36, were part of a group of real estate developers who left Red Hook for a tour of the falls with the nonprofit Long Island City Community Boathouse.

As they approached the waterfall, they started to lose control of their boat, police said.

“They were too enthralled with the waterfalls,” said John McGarvey, one of the outing’s coordinators.

By the time the pair realized the power of the water, it was too late.

“I lost my shoes because the current was so strong,” said Rosenblatt, who lives in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn, and owns Vicus Partners on Madison Ave. “My life didn’t flash before my eyes or anything like that, but I was definitely scared.”

Yet that is where New York’s newest sculpture park will be established: on a recently cleared block owned by the Episcopal Trinity Church, paralleling Juan Pablo Duarte Square on the Avenue of the Americas.

“When they’re idling in traffic trying to get through the Holland Tunnel, they’ll have something to look at,” said Maggie Boepple, the president of the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, which will curate the sculpture park on behalf of Trinity Real Estate, managers of the church’s extensive holdings downtown.

“It’s a tremendous gift to the city,” Ms. Boepple said.

Because Trinity has no current redevelopment plans for the 37,000-square-foot, trapezium-shaped site, it may remain a sculpture park until 2010 or 2011. “This is a temporary arrangement, but we expect it will be temporary for a couple of years,” said Carl Weisbrod, the president of Trinity Real Estate and a member of the cultural council board.

. . .

Beyond that, the girls looked a lot alike, particularly when it came to accessories: pendant earrings, orthodontia, camera phones. All this week and part of last, the cast and crew of “Gossip Girl,” the CW network series based on the young adult novels, have been camped out on 93rd Street between Madison and Park Avenues. They are shooting an episode at the grand Georgian complex that in its workaday life houses the Synod of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia.

. . .

Three from Hunter College High School, the public magnet school a block away, edged toward the gates of “St. Jude’s.” They said they had been taking all their free periods, plus lunch, here. “Not that we’re obsessed or anything,” Alexa Levy said.

“We saw the person who plays Dan,” said her friend Sophie Zucker. “He’s actually, notoriously, like, nice.”

“It’s really refreshing to see a star who’s like that,” said Charlotte Weiss.

“Because she knows so many, of course,” Miss Zucker said, teasing her.

“Do you want to know the honest truth?” Miss Weiss said. “It’s based on private school girls, and they’re very superficial. The woman who wrote the novels said it’s based on Nightingale. We go to Hunter. It doesn’t relate.”

“So these girls –” Miss Levy gestured around her. “These are the girls it’s making fun of.”

Some Islanders may not know art, but all know what they want: Funds to be spent on sorely needed mass transit improvements here.

. . .

The federal government requires that one-half to 5 percent of a project’s budget be dedicated to art, said MTA spokesman Jeremy Soffin.

“Art is one critical element of our stations program that has a considerable impact . . . for a small fraction of a project’s budget,” Soffin said. “We are at the lower end of the recommended guidelines, well below 1 percent.”

So it isn’t possible to eliminate the art requirement without risking the loss of the entire $1.3 billion federal contribution.

Mary DiChiara of Pleasant Plains was in no mood for explanations, “We can’t get off this Island and they put aside $4 million for artwork for Manhattan? Take the $4 million and fix this bridge.

“They think we’re living on Fantasy Island, and nobody ever wants or needs to get off.”