Author: JACQUELINE MORENO

Travis scott, well known hip-hop artist held a 2-day festival for his album Astroworld, it was held in Houston Texas. About 50,000 people were in attendance, and many people know Travis Scott is known for holding chaotic and lively performances. Once the concert began, the crowd of people surged to the front of the venue. However, that caused the people in front to become compressed. It became worse and worse as the performance continued. People pressed against each other, lack of air, space, some even say they weren’t able to move at all in that compressed crowd. Suddenly people are passing out left and right in the crowd. People are fainting, having heart attacks, seizures, and screaming for their lives. Travis Scott decided to continue on with his performance, 10 people were reported to have died, two being 14 and 16. Which many people think there were more..

I’ve been to two concerts so far and I plan to go to one next week and January. While at both concerts, I was in the front. My first concert was seeing Don Toliver. I obviously expected mostpits, but even before the concert began the crowd began surging. There was this moment where everyone fell like dominos but we all managed to get back up. Since I’m not the tallest person, I was being pressed against the person in front of me, my mind began thinking about the tragedy that happened at Astroworld. It was a hot summer day, the air felt hot and dense, and I saw 2 people pass out, one right in front of me. The second concert I attended, which is supposed to be calmer since it was R&B, wasn’t too bad but I saw again another person faint in front of me. This is all scary, being at these concerts just trying to see artists I love listening to not knowing that I might be the one to faint in the crowd next. Travis Scott has a concert in December, which I would like to go to, I obviously won’t be in general admission but this tragedy has just made me paranoid to be in tight and aggressive crowds.

https://www.nytimes.com/article/astroworld-festival-what-to-know.html: Astroworld 2021 | Blog Post

I take 3 trains to get to Baruch, and without a fail I have to at least see one person avoid paying the fare. Whether it’d be hopping the turnstile, ducking underneath, going through the emergency exit door, you name it. Some people, like I forget that the MTA has implemented AI recognition in some of the train stations. During July 2023, the MTA has implemented AI softwares into 7 subway stations and plans to add more at the end of the year. The increased price of the fare has only led to more people want to avoid paying it. From $2.75 increased to $2.90, it leads fellow New Yorkers like me to believe the fare is basically $3 if you round it up (which eventually adds up)

This AI facial recognition has yet to be confirmed if the MTA will start using it to flag people, which in my opinion seems like they will start implementing it once technology starts advancing. For now, the AI software is being used to count how many people avoid paying the fare and their methods on how they’re doing it. This raises a question to concerns, will the people of New York ever be able to navigate privately, there has been in increase of surveillance almost everywhere. Will this new technology strip us from living a so called “private” life.

The MTA has lost $690million to fare evasions in 2022, and they plan on implementing more technology and police onto train stations. People are still facing unsafe train stations, delays, dirty stations, and more. So what are we really paying that $2.90 for?

https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/nyc-subway-using-ai-track-fare-evasion-rcna93045: MTA Fare Evasions | Blog Post

https://www.tiktok.com/@luxuryloso/video/7262454655370726698

A Tik Tok about the rise of the MTA fare

Hi, my name is Jacqueline and you can call me Jackie if you’d like. I chose to study at Baruch since I’m planning to major in finance which, as many of you have heard, Baruch is a great school for that. 

I’m on the women’s tennis team and I’ve been playing tennis for about 2 years now, but it’s something I find fun and calming (when I’m not playing matches). The only reason why I started playing tennis was for the cute tennis skirts but I actually ended up liking the sport. I have 2 cats at home, my older cat’s name is Vaski and her son’s name is Oreo. Vaski was a stray cat, but I insisted my family to take her in since we’ve been setting out a plate of food for her for about 5 months straight. When we took her in we saw that her belly was a little bigger than usual and it turns out she was pregnant with 3 kittens. I had to become a veterinarian for a day and help her during labor. They all turned out to be healthy and I kept just one, because having 3 little kittens hiding and running around my home was a little stressful. Something about me is that I love being in the city, I love the ambiance and how many stores there are to get food or even shop at. Of course when I’m walking around the city I need to be listening to music. My favorite artists right now are Brent Faiyaz, Future, and Playboi Carti. So far I saw Brent in person 2 times already and hopefully I’ll see Carti in January. 

A recap of my summer has been going out to eat, some concerts, working at a summer camp, and just spending time with my boyfriend. Below I chose this photo since Brent has been one of my favorite artists for many years. Knowing every word to every song and just hearing him perform live completed me. It felt amazing being able to sing my heart out to every song I’ve been listening through my Airpods, and in that moment I felt sort of emotional. Feel free to reach out to meee