No Mere Walk in the Park

Adrian Benepe, 52, has been the New York City parks and recreation commissioner since 2002. He and his wife, Charlotte Glasser — they were married in Central Park — live on the Upper West Side with their son Erik, 18. Their other son, Alex, is 22. ALAN FEUER

RISE AND SHINE I’m up pretty early — usually by 8 o’clock. I’ve lost the ability to sleep late in middle age. The first thing I do is have a cup of coffee, make some sort of breakfast and look at the paper. I usually cook myself an omelet: jalapeño peppers, onions, scallions and some kind of cheese.

THE SUNDAY PAPER I have this bad habit, according to my wife, of squirreling away the sections I haven’t read yet. Right now, the pile’s about a foot and a half tall. If I have a light weekend and I’m not working, I’ll go through 50 or so old papers and clip out photographs. I save them for decorating presents. I wrap the gift with regular paper, then put a picture on it and make some sort of comment. It’s kind of a family tradition.

THE WORKOUT Generally, in the late morning or early afternoon, I’ll get in some extended vigorous exercise, usually a long run or a bike ride or a walk in Central Park or Riverside Park or the Hudson River waterfront.

AND THE WORK The only problem is, I can’t relax in a park. My wife went walking with me recently in Central Park and said, “This isn’t a walk. This is a sector patrol.” It’s way beyond taking mental notes. My BlackBerry has a camera, which has actually become the bane of all parks department employees. I take pictures and e-mail them to people right away. Or I’ll see someone stomping through a flower bed or letting their dog run where it shouldn’t and I have to get involved. When people ask me “Who are you,” I usually tell them I work for the parks department.

AND THE PAPERWORK Every Sunday, I go through the biweekly reports from my senior managers. When the weather’s nice, I’ll take it outdoors and sit on a bench and watch people go by. Riverside Park is my backyard. I once read a piece about a guy who wrote a novel on a bench in Riverside Park. I’m pretty sure I’ve seen that guy.

FOOD I don’t do brunch. I just can’t see spending too much time indoors on a Sunday and I can’t see drinking alcohol that early. But Sundays are one of the few nights at home when I actually have time to cook. I’ll make a homemade spaghetti sauce, heavy on vegetables, or a tomato sauce with something interesting like ginger, anchovies, capers and hot peppers — sort of an arrabbiata-puttanesca combination. My wife doesn’t eat meat, so it’s always vegetarian or, if we’ve thought about it in advance, I’ll cook some seafood. Occasionally, in the winter, I’ll make a beef stew.

IDLE, AND HAPPY Sunday is the one day I can count on not doing something. I’m usually at functions five nights a week and I’m always doing something even on a Saturday. It might be taking 50 economic-development people from Amsterdam on a bike tour down the West Side waterfront, but it’s still work. Sundays, I relax.