Peter Goldwasser is the executive director of Together for Safer Roads, a nongovernmental organization that works with businesses and city agencies to improve trucking safety and prevent crashes. The group’s ultimate goal is to eliminate traffic fatalities and severe injuries.
On Sundays, Mr. Goldwasser, 45, a triathlete, is often running around Brooklyn, literally. He lives in a Park Slope brownstone with his wife, Marie Clare Katigbak, 48, a beauty and wellness consultant; their daughter, Tessa, 14; and the family sheepadoodle, Ollie.
EARLY INSPIRATION I get up early, especially on the weekends, like 5 a.m., because I love to go for long runs. I have a route I do every Sunday, which is down Vanderbilt into Prospect Heights, Vinegar Hill and then through the park to the old Fairway. I find it surreal, being in this city of millions of people and there’s no one, nobody around at that hour. Running always makes me feel better. It’s when I come up with some of my best ideas. I’ll run pretty much exactly either 10 or 12 miles.
TRIBAL When I get home at 6:30 or so my wife will take the dog for a walk, and then Tessa will wake up and I take the orders for food. That usually involves me getting on a Citi Bike. Breakfast is from Shelsky’s in Carroll Gardens. They make the most ridiculously good bagels and lox — my daughter gets the Member of the Tribe, which is the classic lox, cream cheese and capers. I get that as well. My wife gets the Great Gatsby, which is this amazing pastrami-flavored lox.
I bring the bagels home, we hang out and then I’ll get the weekend papers. I always get them from the same guy, at Seventh Avenue and Union. And I always get the ones three copies down. I was debating whether to say that — I don’t know if it makes me sound neurotic, but it’s true. I think it’s so much more satisfying to read The Wall Street Journal and The Times’s print version. My daughter jokes that I print the internet.
UNEVEN APPETITES Before we know it, it’s lunchtime. For my wife and my daughter, food is definitely their love language. I usually want to walk over the Manhattan Bridge into Chinatown, but we negotiate and take the Q train sometimes, which is nice because you get to see the city. I bring the paper. We like dim sum a lot, so typically we’re doing dim sum at Jing Fong on Centre Street. It’s loud and chaotic in there and just really fun. We’ll read the paper and eat. The girls do all the ordering — pork buns, shrimp, rice noodles, sesame balls. They have more specific choices than me. I’ll eat pretty much anything. I don’t eat a ton. They eat more than me. That’s how it’s always been. Marie Clare and I have been married 15 years. We met on the subway.
FASHION BOP After we eat, we’ll walk around Chinatown and the East Village, looking at nothing in particular, bopping into places. Tessa really loves thrifting, so sometimes we’ll go to thrift stores in Manhattan and Brooklyn. There’s a ton in Park Slope. Tessa has great style. She just got some Doc Martens, which, it’s weird that they’re back in fashion. She’s probably going to be super embarrassed that I’m saying this.
TO THE STACKS Early afternoon we have to get back to walk Ollie. Then Tessa and I will walk over to the central branch of the Brooklyn Public Library. We’ll put books on hold during the week and go pick them up, mainly for her. I’m a big fan of the public library system. I’ve been involved with the Brooklyn Public Library a long time in terms of supporting them. When I was much younger, I started the Brooklyn Eagles, their junior board. I’ve stayed involved. I think they’re a critical civic institution.
SAFETY FIRST When we’re walking as a family or when I’m running or cycling I think about road safety a lot. I think in particular about trucks and how large they are and the blind zones. A lot of the work of our organization is figuring out, how do you make trucks and fleets safer? You’re thinking about how small you are and how they can’t see you. It brings home why you do the work, how important it is.
MILES TO GO I like to catch up with friends when we’re back from the library. I’ll take a long walk with one of two friends, usually an hour and a half or two hours. We’ll stop at Salter House on Atlantic Avenue. They have really good coffee and treats. When I come home, I like to do some work, mapping out what the week ahead will look like, figuring out the programs and projects I’ll focus on. Before you know it, it’s time to go grocery shopping. Marie Clare and I will walk over to Whole Foods, or if we’re feeling lazy we’ll go to Union Market, around the corner.
COCKTAILS, MUSICAL CLASHES I can’t cook, but I make excellent cocktails. Marie Clare’s favorite is a sidecar. I make drinks while she’s cooking, and she’ll have a cocktail at dinner. I love to listen to music, but we can never agree on the Spotify playlist. She thinks I make terrible choices — if it were up to me it would be bluegrass and Broadway tunes, but we usually go with M.C.’s choice, which is yacht rock. Tessa’s had enough of us by then. She’s ready to be by herself.
SIBLING SHOUT-OUT Later I’ll call my sister in Worcester, Mass. I kind of just call to annoy her. We don’t usually say anything to each other — we just kind of yell at each other, like it’s middle school. We talk a lot. Around 10 o’clock it’s bedtime. We go to bed earlier than Tessa, which she finds embarrassing. I fall asleep instantly.