Since I have been Press Secretary for the Department of Buildings, I have received a number of things to aid me in my job. From a gold, two-star badge to a laptop to a beeper to a cell phone – I have always flipped out when I received a perk like this. But of all the things that I have received since my tenure as DOB’s Press Secretary began – nothing compares to my latest acquisition.

Considering the fact that I live so far away from my office on Hudson Street in Manhattan that I have to walk over ten blocks to take a bus to take a train, I finally gave up and asked for a City car, which is issued to certain employees that are members of the Executive Staff. Given my distance to public transportation and my position in the Department, my boss and the Deputy Commissioner for Administration agreed and gave me a City car.

The car I received was a 1989 Oldsmobile. While it may have been almost fifteen years old and had over one hundred thousand miles on it – I didn’t care. I was just happy that I no longer had to walk to a bus to a train. The fact that I was able to avoid public transportation made me so happy that I would have accepted a Yugo. So the car’s age and year did not bother me – I was just happy that I no longer needed my feet or a Metrocard to get to work.

A few weeks ago, the Fleet Coordinator asked me for my car keys and told me that he was taking the car away. When I asked him why, he told me he was replacing it – with a brand new 2001 Chevy Impala.

At first, I thought he was kidding, because who would ever think that they would get a brand new car for free. But when he gave me the keys and I went downstairs to drive it home for the first time – I knew he was not kidding.

The factory sticker was still in the window and the car’s speedometer had only fourteen miles on it. As I started the engine for the first time, I was truly amazed that this car was now mine to drive. While I may not own it and I am not allowed to drive it unless I am going back and forth to work – just the fact that I am in a position that enables me to receive a car that cost over twenty thousand dollars for absolutely nothing is to me, a true accomplishment.

So now my trips to and from work no longer consist of standing on a bus or a train with my fellow “nine to fivers”. Instead – I enjoy the luxury of sitting in a brand new car listening to the radio and feeling the air conditioner on my face as I drive down the path I used to walk and pass the people that used to wait with me at the bus stop and the train station.

And people wonder why this has been the best year of my life.