January 10, 1993

ON a wet, cold December morning, Officer Stephen J. Bocian, the most-decorated member of the Port Authority Bus Terminal's police force, was making his rounds through the huge midtown Manhattan complex. Within less than an hour, he talked with more than a dozen homeless people. "Hi, Bill, how are we doing today?" he inquired of a grizzled man, wearing a coat with one sleeve, who sat with his back against a wall and responded, "We got to get out of the cold, don't we?" But the man accepted Officer Bocian's offer to get him to a shelter for the homeless.

Amid strong signs that the recession was lifting its grip elsewhere in the nation, Martin A. Gardner braced against a cold wind here the other day, waited for his train to Manhattan and described the ordeal of being out of work for 20 months. "Maybe, if I were a carpenter, I'd go to Florida," said Mr. Gardner, 55 years old, who has a doctorate in communications and 30 years' experience in advertising, sales and management. So far, he has sent 300 resumes to New York area companies.

When Paul J. Maglio bought his two-bedroom condominium for $120,500 in 1986 there was a waiting list of 200 people eager to buy at the 393-unit Governor's Park in this town on Boston Harbor. Since then, however, apartment values have fallen 50 to 85 percent. About 80 percent of the units had been bought as investments; their owners can no longer charge enough rent to cover taxes, mortgages and condominium fees. Some of these investors owe the condominium association back fees, which total $275,000.

Park Avenue gained two new official landmarks Tuesday. One of them -- the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, between 49th and 50th Streets -- seems so obvious a choice that New Yorkers might be surprised to learn it is only now designated. The other is the former Mount Morris Bank Building, 75 blocks north at 125th Street, a Romanesque Revival work from the 1880's by the firm of Lamb & Rich. It has been abandoned since the late 1970's but is still "one of the most impressive buildings in Harlem," in the words of the Landmarks Preservation Commission, and "retains its architectural integrity to a surprisingly high degree."

During the third week of the ABC series "Laurie Hill," DeLane Matthews, who played the title role, had a dream. "I was at this five-star restaurant," she says, "and they served me this heaping dish of food. Then I turned away for a moment, and when I looked back, the plate was gone and there was a box of Cracker Jacks." The dream would prove prophetic. That same week, ABC executives told the show's award-winning creators and writers, Carol Black and Neal Marlens, that the series was going on hiatus, although its ratings were more than respectable (it ranked 22d that week among 102 prime-time programs). The hiatus turned into formal cancellation, with the last episode broadcast on Oct. 28.