Month: December 2016

The first Salsa Sunday event at Industry City courtyard takes place between two factory buildings. Men and women dance to salsa music and sip on beers while eating Puerto Rican food. But just outside a protest is ongoing, by other local residents. Residents hold signs and wave flags reading, “No displacement”. Fearing that the development of these buildings and the community around it will eventually force them out of their homes, their neighborhood.
Industry City was once a freight-handling terminal, dealing with both sea and rail transport. It is now a 35- acre complex designed to “attract designers, makers, and content creators”, according to their website. The complex houses retail spaces, a fitness center, shopping venues, a beer distillery, five acres of open spaces, a coffee bar, a cafe, billiards, and work studios for rent. Many artists, makers, and local food purveyors are renting out these studios. Employees and creators who work at Industry City are quickly moving into the surrounding area. Helping to shift a working class family based neighborhood into a more roommate based hipster vibe.
According to Census data from the years 2000 to 2010 there was a 42.8 percent increase in roommate based. The amount of Non-family households has increased from 5,882 to 8,397, with non-relative households nearly doubling in that time. This coincides with a 24 percent increase in rental prices of the neighborhood from 1990 to 2014.
“Things have been changing in the neighborhood, pretty rapidly actually. We’re seeing more twenty somethings, yeah. In the last few years alone, with the Park slope boom declining a bit, people are starting to expand down to Sunset.”, says real estate broker Katherine Angelucci.
Industry City has brought in an immense amount of business and employment opportunities to the Brooklyn Waterfront area. Employment in the complex has more than doubled since 2013. Though that seems significant, the original number from 2013 has not been released. About half of the people working there have moved into the surrounding area, says Industry City directors.
Industry City’s CEO plans to create more than 20,000 jobs by the year 2025. They have already placed about 100 local residents in jobs by using their Innovations Lab hiring initiative.
These changes however has been met with some pushback from the local community. Residents at a community meeting expressed feeling “left out”, scared of what is happening now that new neighbors are moving in. An elderly man talked about no longer knowing the people in his building, saying “all of them work on the waterfront! You know it use to be nothing!”
The Salsa Sunday event was only one of the community events held in Sunset Park and sponsored by Industry City. Artist and makers have lived in the complex for years now. In 2014, an exhibition was held at the vast complex. The exhibit was titled “Come Together: Surviving Sandy, Year 1”. It explored the damage and rebirth that took place in the city of Manhattan after Hurricane Sandy decimated many neighborhoods. Well-known artists displayed their art amongst beginners just finding their footing in Industry City and Sunset Park. As Industry City’s notoriety grew, so did the rent on their workspaces. Many of them the founding artists featured in “Come Together”. Artist were forced to find new studios due to the rising cost of living in Industry City. The waterfront of Brooklyn became a mecca for new businesses.
Restaurants and nightlife brought new life into the once forgotten area. Old warehouses are now venues for all night dance parties. Club Lust, a hip hop oriented strip club on 47th street has hosted parties with the likes of Rihanna, Travis Scott, Kid Cudi, Danny Brown and even Alexander Wang in attendance. Brooklyn Hangar, another dance venue hosts independent parties well into the morning, as well as concerts. It is in a secluded location on the waterfront, allowing for loud parties with little complaints about noise. This new found energy in the community and its new influx of people have brought developers just like those at Industry City looking to bring more transportation options to the area.
The Brooklyn Queens Connector (BQX) is a proposed street car light rail to connect the Brooklyn-Queens waterfront. The BQX website states that it will “link neighborhoods along a 16-mile route from Astoria to Sunset Park.” And “connect to up to 10 ferry landings, 30 different bus routes, 15 different subway lines, 116 Citi Bike stations, and 6 LIRR lines. It will travel primarily in dedicated lanes, separated from traffic and bicycles along the route.”. It is being proposed by the City of New York and is heavily back by Mayor de Blasio, though many in the community don’t trust that the connector will benefit the current residents of the area. Gloria Sanchez, 62, has lived in Sunset Park for the last thirty years and she doesn’t see how these new projects are helping out her community, “All I see us people having to leave us. Whole families are leaving that have been here for generations. How is this going to benefit us when we already are having trouble just making ends meet.” Protest have been increasing within Sunset residents who believe the plan is a challenge to their intelligence. As prices of apartments rise so do try the fears of the new living situations that are popping up in the community.

When you walk outside of Madison Square Garden into this windy 7:00 PM air, filled with rowdy Knicks fans pouring in the arena with orange, blue and white colors on, it is a Knicks wonderland. It is 19,812 fans ripping off the Spike Lee fashion line that thankfully, does not really exist. It is not until you find a way to blend blue and orange with everything and walk around Manhattan with no shame, where you can really say you are a New York Knicks fan.

However, this night is not a moment to cherish because of the New York Knicks. After all, the lights outside of the ‘World’s Most Famous Arena’ should look quite unfamiliar for most Knicks fans. There is no orange and no blue being highlighted for team spirit tonight. All you see is the color purple.

No, this is not an ode to the Steven Spielberg movie with Whoopi Goldberg because there is only room for one director at Madison Square Garden and that is Spike Lee. Sit down Spike, I got you covered.  The color purple means something much more to the Garden.

It is something you can’t recite in the lyrics to Frank Sinatra’s New York, New York, or Jay Z’s Empire State of Mind, and definitely not Nas’ N.Y. State of Mind because, you know, the company’s slogan is not ‘be having dreams that I’m a gangsta,’ although that line is a classic New York rap line. It is a dream that a Knicks fan can’t dream of but can help manifest for others in need through, the Garden of Dreams.

“The Garden of Dreams foundation is a non profit charity that makes dreams come true for thousands of children facing obstacles each year. The Madison Square Garden company has granted wishes and opportunities year after year,” says Daniel Armstrong, a Madison Square Garden Employee.

This non-profit organization works with 25 partner organizations throughout the New York tri-state area. In order to reach the children, who could face obstacles like poverty, illness, homelessness or foster care,  the foundation would work with hospitals, community-based organizations, and wish organizations.

Since 2006, the ‘Garden of Dreams’ foundation has created once-in-a-lifetime moments and experiences for more than 275,000 children in need including their families.

The foundation is most proud of the 500+ events they have a year for the foundation, include the Garden of Dreams fashion show, the annual talent show at Radio City Music Hall, and the prom in theater at Madison Square Garden. Most notably, there are toy and coat drives, turkey drives during the Thanksgiving with the either the New York Knicks or New York Rangers helping out, and the ‘Make a Dream Come True’ program.

Madison Square Garden recently had $1.1 billion transformation to make the arena the magical place it is today. Now, the company expanded its legs through the Garden of Dreams foundation by rejuvenating places like neighborhood playgrounds. Last but not least, they even included scholarship and internship opportunities to high school seniors apart of the foundation’s partnered organizations.

One employee at Madison Square Garden, Jacob Moser, 21, helped grant a kid’s wish to be in the New York Knicks locker room and on the court. The kid’s name is Michael. Michael is a teen from the Make-a-wish Metro NY who received an invite to Madison Square Garden to meet Derrick Rose. He ended not only meeting Rose, but Jacob, the tour guide at the Garden who showed him around.

Jacob said, “I can’t lie. That was awesome. Everyone is congratulating me. Apparently I was on TV which is cool. But nothing beats showing this kid the Knicks locker room. I don’t think anyone has appreciated my tour more than him.” After the tour, Michael became an honorary Knick and warmed up with the team before the night’s game.

The Garden of Dreams foundation also opened fundraiser lines at MSG networks to raise money. The fans would have opportunity to win tickets, autographed basketballs, hockey sticks and player’s jerseys as well. Dave, a Radio City Musical Hall employee says, “The thing I love most about being apart of the fundraiser lines is I have real fans call to receive the memorabilia. Sports fans aren’t known to be the most generous people ever. But these fans really care.”

A New York Knicks lower bowl season ticket holder, Rovin, has a Knicks collection like no other through bids, a little bit of luck, and the garden of dreams. “I collect things like old hall of famers’ Knicks jerseys. Autographed basketballs. The Garden of Dreams definitely makes that possible. My apartment is pretty much a Knicks museum at this point.”

Larry Johnson, known for being on the Knicks and pulling off the 4-point play,  granted a wish to everyone by meeting fans at the Garden and the kids in need at the Empire State Building. Larry Johnson shares with MSG Networks, “You know, it was my first time in the Empire State Building. So the youngsters and to see them, how excited they were, messing with them, talking to them. I enjoyed it. It was fun. Garden of Dreams, it is a great thing we are doing. I’m just soaking up the moment.”

March 28 of next year, will be a special day for the charity. Tracy Morgan, Chris Rock, Jerry Seinfeld, John Oliver, Leslie Jones and many more will team up for the Garden of Laughs in theater at Madison Square Garden. Obviously, that is a lot of funny on one stage. Besides, they spend a lot of time joking on the court side seats of a Knicks game anyway, it is great they’ll use these laughs to benefit lives and the Madison Square Garden Company.

The most recent event was the Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer Musical in theater at Madison Square Garden that some of the kids attended and were apart of. Employees at the Garden, during the day, also came together to make fleece blankets and pillows. So, it may be the end of the Garden of Dream’s week at Madison Square Garden, but it is sure not the last you’ll here of it.

On the surface, many of Donald Trump’s policies on education may seem attractive, even to those who are affiliated with the Democratic party.

For example, on Trump’s rhetoric of giving K-12 students a voucher to choose the school that they want to attend, what K-12 student do you know would disagree with that?

But here is where Trump’s policies become tricky next.

And this is because what sounds empowering and promising on the surface, can actually negatively affect those who felt or imagined that Trump’s educational policies would cater to them in reality.

So with that now written out, and despite my belief that our present educational system still has many flaws, here is some evidence anyway as to why my assertion above regarding Trump’s educational policies may be accurate anyways.

For example, some of Trump’s educational policies include using the public’s money to fund private education, getting rid of Common Core, getting rid of the Department of Education; and implementing his own idea of a voucher system which will allow K-12 students a chance to pick the schools that they attend.

In fact, Trump even touts that his policies will allow many low-income students to now attend private universities. But here is where things turn sour (well at least to me anyways).

For one, one of Trump’s intents is to completely remove the Department of Education in America. Wow, what a mighty proposal. But what are some of Trump’s justifications for such an intent?

Well firstly; Trump feels that the states should have more control of schools.

Next, Trump has many objections to the way the Department of Education operates, and feels as if the government shouldn’t even charge interests on the loans that they provide to students (which thus enables the government to make a profit on the money that they give the public).

Furthermore, Trump feels that our educational system caters more to teachers and unions than it does for our American students.

And so with such criticisms that have been made by Trump himself on the US’ educational system and/or policies, it is those criticisms then, which are parallel to many of Trump’s own explanations for why many American students still continue to fail…

And of which supports Trump’s belief as to why he must change the way that our system of education plays out in our America too.

But here is where my criticism of Trump kicks in.

For example, even if we assume that Trump’s criticisms of our current educational policies aren’t wrong, and that our government really should not be able to make money off the citizens they educate for instance.

This still should never indicate to any person, American or not; that Trump’s own policies over education in America are to be even more effective than the one’s currently in place.

Anita Zheng, a college student who emigrated from China, but who now attends her course lectures in New York City felt this way about Trump.

“He doesn’t seem to really know what he’s doing as it relates to government, and so my hope is that the changes he will bring to our educational system does not turn out too bad as well.”

But what does Trump himself feel that an improved system of education would entail?

Perhaps it is the fact that Trump himself believes in privatized education.

In fact, his recent selection of Betsy Devos as his Secretary of education is a person who is the chair of the American Federation for Children (AFC).

And in case you are unfamiliar with them. The AFC is an organization whose goals are to give students more of an ability to choose more private schools.

But what is so wrong with privatized education? Well if everything was perfect about it, then perhaps there wouldn’t be any thing in it of itself that is wrong then.

Yet as with many of the glamourized intents of our politicians, the ways things play out in reality are very different from how such intents are described vocally.

So a privatized system of education means this to me.

It means an educational system that exists with a vested interest of personal profits and revenue.  Which is a system to my beliefs that would undermine a student’s Academic integrity.

And so for example, if he gets what he wants, Trump would abolish many (if not all) federally provided grants which are backed by our Department of ED; such as with the PELL grant.

At the same time however, Trump proposes that $20 Billion dollars’ of federal funds should come from taxpayers to help alleviate the burdens of low income students who are to enroll into charter or private schools.

But here is where things may become interesting.

For example, in 2016 the Pell grant has spent over $22.5 Billion dollars in non-repayable grant money for many college students of financial need.

So even if Trump disagrees with federal funding, his own policies are not devoid of such a practice either.

Yet at the same time however, Trump’s policies over the US’ education system if implemented; would contribute even less to millions of students of need, than Trump’s privatized educational system claims to not wanting to fail.

And so what this means for students who already have a difficult enough time paying for the costs of their tuitions; and even with Uncle Sam’s support, well now you can turn to the private sector for support instead (as if that is the more effective option for us).

So even though Trump who says that he will help poorer students to attend private schools, what Americans perhaps should really expect is that an even lesser amount of poor students would be funded under Trump’s management.

But now here is where things can get really (potentially) selfish.

So for one, a privatized educational system means that tuitions and enrollment costs goes toward a business man’s own bank account rather than back to the government.

And so even if Trump himself criticizes the government for making a profit off of their students, he himself doesn’t offer a statement to morally justify that it is ok for the private-sector to now make money off of the public instead, right?

And so here is where things can get even more interesting.

Trump, who is set to propose tax exemption for schools, any school, in turn is actually seeking to create tax breaks for any of the private schools that make money off the public, but now – potentially pay zero or lesser taxes for doing just as that!

And now here is another problem too.

Without the Department of Education which regulates many of the schools, colleges; and federally funded programs in America, students in turn would be left to obtain student loans from banks.

But why is this potentially more awful than obtaining loans from the government?

Well for one, banks can reject loans for those they do not deem as credit worthy (many of whom are non-white American youth).

And Trump who says “That’s probably one of the only things the government shouldn’t make money off” when he talks about federally provided loans option, doesn’t exactly have any issues with US tax payers paying for a voucher system which provides profits for the private-sector however.

And here’s the kicker, even if there is merit in the belief that our government should not profit off of the citizens that they provide loans for.

At the same time however, it is important still for us not to forget the fact that students often prefer to borrow from the government anyway.

Since often times government loans have several times less interest than the loans which are offered by private instructions.

And thus here in lays my problem with Trump, which is this…

Trump’s criticisms of the United States’ educational system should never necessarily suggest that Trump himself would adopt any more effective, (or less profiteering) practices when his policies are implemented in reality.

And so who is threatened the most by Donald Trump when it comes to his educational policies?

Well first there are Dreamers and DACA recipients, who are about 5 million or more undocumented students that attend school in the US.

In Fact, Trump plans to erase many of funding behind initiatives such as DACA, DAPA, and the Dream Act.  Because Trump “want[s] dreamers to come from this country [first]” as he stated himself at a press conference in Hanahan SC.

Now to my beliefs, what group of American students are threatened next by Trump’s educational policies?

Well my guess would be it is the students who are of a lower-socioeconomic bracket, and of which a large portion of such students are of Hispanic or Black heritages.

But how are less affulent students to be threatened by Trump’s educational policies if he speaks about giving Americans not just a choice, but a voucher for getting to the schools that they want? Well here’s my views for it.

Well at the very least, here are my views for that.

Most of Trump’s rhetoric on his voucher system pertains to K-12 students, and not those who are college bound.

Beyond that point, however, if Trump does get rid of government funding as he intends for, then students who still wish to go to college; should just take out loans from the banks or private institutions next right?

Of course, because Banks or organizations from among the private-sector would most definitely offer lower interest rates, and more loan forgiveness than our government that exists now does, this shouldn’t ben an issue for many American Students anyway; right?

But that is me being sarcastic.

Last but not least, who is the next largest group of people who are at a risk because of Trump?

It is our professors and teachers. But how so exactly?

Well if Trump gets rid of the Department of ED intends for, you can say goodbye to many of the teacher unions that exist in this country too.

And so if you are left uncertain about the future of America’s school under Trump, then you are definitely not alone with such feelings either.

In fact professor Nicholas M Juszczak who teaches undergraduate psychology classes at Baruch College, had this to say about Trump’s educational policies.

“I don’t think Donald Trump has really articulated any real policy, he ran a campaign on sheer demagoguery”.

In addition, Juszczak followed up this point by saying “The best indication right now as to [know] how his policies may emerge rises from looking at his cabinet choices, and so far I don’t like what I see.”

“The devil is in the details,” says Juszczak, who adds that “ [Trump] is really engaged in what I call smoke and mirror”.

And by the end of our conversation Juszczak eventually just told me “I just don’t know how it will play out”.

Black inmates line the fields of Angola, the Louisiana State Penitentiary. Since 1880, the 8,000-acre slave plantation turned prison has housed thousands of inmates. Most of them now, serving life sentences. All of them subject to forcible employment.

 

Prisoners at Angola (named after the area in Africa where its original slave inhabitants came from) that are cleared by the prisons physician can be forced to work with punishment used as incentive to comply.

 

Prisoners can make as little as 2 cents an hour for their work in the fields, the kitchen, or the manufacturing warehouses but legally they do not have to be compensated.

 

Angola is just one instance of forced prison labor in the United States made possible by the thirteenth amendment of the US Constitution.

 

The thirteenth amendment states that “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.”

 

Basically, if you have been convicted of a crime the United States can subject you to “slavery” or “involuntary servitude”, which is exactly what the US government is doing.

 

In 1979, Congress created the Prison Industry Enhancement Certification Program (PIE). It provided private companies with incentives to contract prison labor.

 

According to the National Correctional Industries Association, PIE is “designed to place inmates in a realistic work environment, pay them the prevailing local wage for similar work, and enable them to acquire marketable skills to increase their potential for successful rehabilitation and meaningful employment on release.”
However, it has been shown statistically that that is not what is happening. States like Georgia, Texas, and Arkansas don’t pay their inmates at all. Prisoners around the country are subject to incredibly low wages, a dangerous environment and some are sent to solitary confinement if they refuse to work.

Along with the Congress backed PIE, the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), has played a central role in the United States prison system expansions.

ALEC’s website states them as, “a nonprofit organization of conservative state legislators and private sector representatives that drafts and shares model state-level legislation for distribution among state governments in the United States.”

Meaning that private corporations invest money into conservative state legislators to draft state level legislation and introduce said legislation to the courts.

ALEC has backed bills in favor of anti-immigration, voter ID, Stand Your Ground, Shoot to Kill laws, anti-greenhouse gas initiatives and the infamous “three strike” rule.

By allowing private corporations to invest into conservative legislators we are essentially allowing these corporations to make laws that only suit them and their interest.

For years’ members of ALEC were even sitting in on officials voting. The Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), was the chair of the crime task force within ALEC but had to step down after being caught “voting on the SB 1070 legislation in Arizona that would have put—that was designed to put more immigrants in detention facilities and jails for immigrants…”, says the Center for Media and Democracy.

With the help of the PIE and ALEC the private prison system expanded from only five private prisons in 1990 with a population of 2,000 inmates to a hundred private prisons with 62,000 inmates by the year 2000.

How does PIE, ALEC, private prisons, and inmate labor all have in common.

Well just about everything. By Congress creating PIE and ALEC being made up of state legislators and private corporations. The inmate work program became a gold mine that private corporations could profit off of as well as the private prison industry.

Inmate are the most efficient human workers an industry could ever want. They are always one the premises. They aren’t able to call in sick. Inmates can’t go anywhere on holidays or even take a day off. They are paid significantly less than their free citizen counterparts and have less overhead to deal with. Prisoners don’t need insurance and many work more than eight hours a day.

The list of private corporations under ALEC is vast. Some members of the Corporate Board are AT&T, Coca-Cola, ExxonMobil, Johnson & Johnson, Koch Companies Public Sector, Kraft Foods Inc. and State Farm Insurance Co. Members involved for profit range from 1 800 contacts to American Express, with things like Bank of America, Best Buy, and Wal-Mart in between.

Inmates make many different things for companies. Like in Angola the prisoners tend to the fields of cotton on compound, others work in the electrical manufacturing warehouse. In other prisons inmates are outsourced to factories. They make shoes, bedding, extension cords, chairs, desks, batteries, canoes, surge protectors, even firearm targets. The company Unicor hires inmates to be call representatives, and advertises it as, “the best kept secret in outsourcing.”

Sau takes slow, careful steps from the Grand Street train station as more people come pouring out from behind her. There’s an elderly woman selling steamed rice wrapped in bamboo leaves on a newspaper on the ground. Sau moves past her, careful not to knock any over. She walks slowly four blocks over to Open Door Senior Center, on the edge of Chinatown and Little Italy. By the time she makes it to the kitchen at 8 am, she is only the second to arrive. She begins preparing meals for the day.

The 7,000 seniors in Manhattan’s Chinatown navigate their days with incredible independence even though more than half live below the poverty line. Overlooked and ignored by the rapidly changing city around them, they look  to each other for support, and some try to function on their own.

Sau’s back is bent slightly at the middle from decades of leaning over a stovetop or cutting board or sewing machine. Her hands, knobbed and smooth from work, haven’t stopped working since she arrived from Hong Kong in 1975. Her commute from Sheepshead Bay to Chinatown takes an hour each way.

The people she serves at work are not unlike her. The 200 or so seniors spend a majority of their day there taking turns on a karaoke machine, chatting with friends, or playing chinese chess. Some of the more active seniors take advantage of the ping pong table in the back or join the dance group that performs at community events.

Hau is in is early seventies and lives with his wife in a small apartment a few blocks away from Open Doors. He spends most of his days here, in the ping pong room. He’s one of the best players at the center and can beat almost any challenger handedly. He moves lightly on his feet, but never overexerts or moves more than he should. “That’s the good thing about ping pong,” he says. “I’ve been playing for so long, I know exactly what I have to do. Never more, never less.”

One of the lucky seniors, he is retired. After working for a shipping company in Chinatown, he and his wife have saved enough to live comfortably in addition to the help they receive from their two adult children. They have lived in Chinatown since they immigrated in the late seventies. He’s never left because of convenience and his rent-controlled apartment. All of his friends live nearby, and his grocer, butcher, laundromat, and train station are all within a two block radius of his apartment.“There isn’t really a better deal for living in Manhattan,” he says laughing. A bell rings indicating that lunch is ready and his eyes light up.

After cooking and serving meals at Open Door, she and the rest of the kitchen staff take all the pots and pans to be cleaned at another kitchen facility on Chrystie Street. (A younger coworker in his fifties rolls the cart over.) They clean and begin preparing meals for the next day. Sau packs some leftover boiled sweet potatoes and cornbread for herself and takes the train home.

The plight of Chinatown’s seniors isn’t unique to the area– other ethnic enclaves in the city have shown alarming rates of poverty among immigrant groups. In Sunset Park, a densely populated immigrant neighborhood, half of the foreign-born citizens are living in poverty. Flushing is home 52 percent of all Korean seniors living in poverty.

Ethnic enclaves have created a unique situation for many of the immigrant seniors living in New York. Chinatown’s self-sustaining ethos has provided more freedom for it seniors, while at the same time limiting them. While the neighborhood has everything these seniors may need, the language barrier to receive resources outside of the area is extremely difficult to overcome. In addition to this, many seniors who live alone lack any exposure to the resources provided in the community itself.

The Chinese Planning Council started as a grassroots movement in the mid-sixties in response to the rapid influx of Chinese immigrants after the Immigration Reform Act of 1965. It helped provide resources to help families settle into their new homes. Today the organization offers everything from education and training services, child care services, advocacy, and home care attendants. The CPC also helped to establish Open Doors in 1972 as one of the first senior centers catered to the Chinese community.

—

The Father’s Heart Ministries has served hot breakfast in their Alphabet City building since 1997. On any Saturday, the line outside stretches around the block and continues for another. The number of people served each week reaches over 600 and is growing, say Carol Vedral, the Co-founder and executive director of the program. The Father’s Heart sees everyone from homeless, to low income families of all ethnicities. But recently the program has been seeing more elderly Chinese attendees. They’re the earliest to show up on the line though they travel the farthest distance, huddling in bunches in the cold. “For some of these people, this is the only hot meal they’ll have this week,” she says.

As the doors open, a band plays music to welcome guests that echoes loudly off the high ceilings. The thirty-something volunteers line the walls ushering guests to their seats. The Chinese seniors come in together in pockets sitting at the same table. As soon as they’re seated, volunteer serves start giving each person a plate with eggs, hashbrowns, and a slice of bread. Another server brings bowls of cereal and canned peaches. When seated, they eat quickly, taking multiple servings. Though it’s not allowed per food regulations, some take the hot food home, sliding an egg into a plastic bag under the table.

One table of Chinese seniors take the bread from their plates and make a small pile in the middle. They smile at me when I ask in broken Chinese if they don’t like bread. Each seat in the 200 person dining room is filled. As soon as someone finishes their meal, their place setting is cleared and cleaned by volunteers with pit crew efficiency. The processes is repeated until everyone has eaten. By the time they’re done eating, the table’s pile of bread has grown into a small mountain. Before they get up to leave, two women at the table take the bread and pack it into tupperware containers in their bags.

Many of Chinatown’s seniors are trapped. Unable to leave their community, too prideful to ask for assistance from family, and limited by finances, the seniors in Chinatown are barely scraping by. These “forgotten ones” live quiet, strife-filled lives on their own.

—

Despite the resources available, many seniors in Chinatown still struggle to make ends meet. Either because they don’t know about the resources available (language barriers are often the main cause) or they are too prideful to take help from others. Walking through the Chinatown, you’re bound to see a “canner.” At night, these elderly women dig through trash collecting bottles and cans for recycling. They sort the materials and carry the large bags (or push them in a cart if they’re so lucky) and bring them to a collector who buys the sorted bags off the canners.

 

In a new phenomenon, other seniors pressed to make ends meet will ride one of the many casino busses from Chinatown or Flushing, not to gamble, but the make a few extra bucks. Seniors purchase bus tickets which includes gambling credit from the casino, take the 2 hour bus ride to sell the credit to a casino goer, and return home with $18 in their pockets.

 

In August, The Atlantic covered Kin-Sing Ng, an elderly woman living alone in Chinatown. The mini documentary follows her on a normal night in the winter– digging through the trash at a bakery, looking for bread to eat. She then meets an elderly friend who trades some of her bread for a few dumplings, and later her younger, middle-aged friend give her some soup that she takes home and eats in a cockroach ridden apartment. The video ends saying that sometime after the film was shot, Ng was struck by a car on her regular evening walk. The video shocked many when it was first released and prompted the question– where were her children?

The difficulties of navigating senior care in a Chinese-American context is difficult. These ethnic enclaves formed as a main point of entry for many immigrants. But after going to school and finding higher paying jobs, most of the next generation wants to leave. Seniors are less likely to part ways with their home because of the familiarity with their environment. The level of independence is much greater in Chinatown, than it is in other ethnic enclaves in Queens and Brooklyn.

Culturally, it’s customary for the elderly to live with their children, but in New York, it happens less and less as space and cultural change becomes a major barrier. For the children of immigrants, having their parents live with them isn’t always a viable option, and many times, the parents are comfortable and feel independent in the ethnic enclave. At the same time, this leaves seniors uncared for while their extended families live elsewhere.
Sau comes home to the Brooklyn home she’s lived in since the seventies. When she gets home she warms the sweet potato in the microwave and warms some soup she made last night. She eats and goes to bed early to be well rested for the next day.  Occasionally she gets a call from her only daughter– my mother, to check in on her.

Several hours after a regular school day, P.S. 019 reopened its doors to residents in Corona, Queens for an informational forum. Many attendees, consisting of parents, walked in with children in hand while others brought their younger ones in strollers. As they sat in the auditorium’s old wooden chairs, some were reading the numerous pamphlets they were given at the entrance while others were chatting with other parents about the occasion. As the adults interacted, children ran around and laughed seemingly easing an otherwise tense evening.

Officials finally took their seats on stage introducing the panel, which consisted of various representatives from numerous city agencies. They had arrived to provide information and answer questions focused on the topic of the night: immigration under President Trump.

Although residents had been asked to hold their questions until the end of the panel, one woman stood up from the middle of the audience and asked, “We were told idNYC would be safe for us, but I heard the incoming government can use the information we submitted to find and deport us. Is that true?”

Her question was one of many concerns the audience now felt in every aspect of their lives ever since Donald Trump, who vowed to increase deportations, was elected president.

“It’s a difficult situation. Many people are suffering over thoughts of what will happen such as deportation, having to leave their families, or leaving their children. It’s sad,” said Martha Gualotuna, a resident who was worried about her future as well as those in her community.

Amid increasing worries and fear, officials and community groups have begun responding throughout the city by pledging to protect and defend immigrants.

In Corona, this has shaped into an effort to actively inform immigrants about their rights and provide them with supportive resources, especially as immigrants have increasingly sought immigration counsel after Election Day.

In the cold early morning of Dec. 1, officials from the Department of Consumer Affairs (DCA) and local groups stood throughout Corona Plaza handing out handbooks and fliers to residents. Underneath the roar of the 7 train, the material was distributed to residents as they strolled past the plaza on their way to join the morning rush.  

The handbook was created by the DCA to provide consumer tips for immigrants about tax preparation, finances, employment agencies and immigration services. In particular, the material was a response to fraudulent immigration services in the area that had provided unreliable legal advice. The problem was alarming not only because many were taken advantage of financially but also because the false advice had jeopardized the cases of some immigrants and resulted in deportation.

“It’s good that people know about this information because honestly there is a lot of fraud, many public notaries and lawyers don’t do the right thing,” said Gualotuna.  

Gualotuna herself had been a fraud victim in 2001 when she had filed her immigration case with a lawyer who failed to resolve her status. She was among numerous people who were defrauded and eventually reimbursed damages after lawsuits were filed against the lawyer.  

“In these times of fear and worry, there are unscrupulous people who are offering to solve the problems of immigrants but the reality is they are completely unqualified,” said Vicente Mayorga, Civil Rights and Immigration Organizer of Make the Road New York, who was among those distributing material.

“Some people received us well, others are afraid,” said Mayorga. “They believe we are offering something illegal.”

Local elected officials also assisted the distribution and announced their support to the immigrant community in front of numerous news outlets including NY1 News, Univision, and Telemundo.

“The reality is after Election Day there was total fear in our city and why we are here is to let people know that New York will always stand by them,” said District Councilwoman Julissa-Ferraras Copeland.

As part of their efforts in Corona, officials followed the handbook with a forum at P.S. 019 on Dec. 5 for immigrants to learn about their rights under Trump’s presidency. In attendance were representatives from the DCA, Department of Education, NYC Commission of Human Rights, idNYC, New York Police Department, and immigration attorneys, indicating the vast influence Trump could have in terms of immigration.

Throughout the night, officials informed residents about taking necessary precautions such as carrying a valid id and obtaining immigration services from sponsored city groups. In addition, they explained the possible expectations such as the revocation of President Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). Although residents welcomed the information, it was apparent they still felt uneasy. At the conclusion of the night, many stayed afterwards forming long lines to talk to officials about their own situation until security had to close the school.

“As a mother, I’m worried the most about being taken away from my children. They need me to take care of them and I can’t imagine being separated from them,” said Maria, who was given a pseudonym to protect her identity.

Many parents at the forum like Maria feared providing any personal information more than ever out of fear of putting themselves at risk. The forum was even aware of the issue and allowed questions to be submitted anonymously on paper to make them feel comfortable.

In addition to these city efforts, community groups have also noticed the community’s concerns and stepped up efforts to aid immigrants in Corona.

“We’re doing as much as we can,” said Anthony Posada, a staff attorney from the Legal Aid Society, who was present at the panel to provide legal information.

Posada explained that although he understood immigrants were afraid during this time, the organization had built trust with the Corona community through its collaborations with other groups and presence in other neighborhoods. In addition, he stated their efforts in removing ICE from Rikers Island and denouncing immigrant lawyers that defrauded immigrants were significant in maintaining their reliability.

“Those kinds of actions let the immigrant undocumented community know that we have their back and are in in the fight with them,” said Posada. “That helps us overcome a lot of the bad stereotypes that are sometimes attached to free legal aid services.”

Local community organization, Make the Road New York, has also taken a prominent position in Corona voicing its support of immigrants in the community and preparing them for January.

“Our immediate response was to go out on the streets and inform everyone that those threats to immigrants won’t be allowed to happen,” said Mayorga.

According to Mayorga, the organization has already participated in numerous demonstrations and has several planned in the next few weeks including two trips to Washington D.C. on Dec. 14 as well as Jan. 20, when President-elect Trump will be inaugurated. The movement has also established a presence in the neighborhood, where a demonstration was recently held on Roosevelt Avenue to declare Jackson Heights a hate free zone for all, he said.   

“The most important thing right now is that our community needs to come together, organize itself, stay informed, and participate because that’s the best way to be ready,” said Mayorga.

In addition, the organization has used its open weekly forum to promote information among visitors and build a supportive group for those who are afraid.

On the evening of Dec. 8, approximately 50 people filled the seats of the organization’s large reception room. Those in attendance pertained to all age groups, from children with their school bags to seniors who lived in the area. Some were members of the organization, who sat in the front. Others were new to the forum and sat towards the back and sides.

“Well, who’s getting ready to leave?” joked Mayorga as he walked in and was met with laughter from the audience.

As Mayorga opened the forum, he welcomed the audience and asked each person to introduce themselves and their background. 

“My name is Carlos and I am from Mexico.”

“My name is Juanna and I am from Ecuador.”

People from numerous backgrounds including Honduras, Guatemala, Peru, Colombia, and even Spain stood and confidently presented themselves, exemplifying the neighborhood’s diverse background and creating a sense of unity among one another despite being from different countries. 

Mayorga soon began addressing the overall feelings of the room and asking people how they felt in relation to the results of the election and their current situation.

“Afraid,” replied an audience member.

“We’re all worried aren’t we?” asked Mayorga as he was met with a unanimous yes from the crowd.

Carlos Martinez, a member of the organization, expressed his concerns to Mayorga and the audience over recent news and felt that racism against the hispanic community was more evident.

“It makes me feel like things are not going to go well, he said.

Another resident said she heard rumors that some teachers were willing report undocumented parents. She also noticed incidents in the community where people were insulting Spanish speakers. “We have to worry not only about deportation, but racism as well,” she said.

Mayorga explained those reasons indicated the importance of spreading information and said the community still has basic rights regardless of their legal status.

“We need the community to be informed,” Mayorga said as he encouraged the audience to attend forums and spread the word to others as well as participating in demonstrations.  

Despite this, some feared they might be arrested for attending protests. However, Mayorga reassured their safety as he said the organization acts responsibly and attains necessary permits and supervises events.

At the conclusion of the forum, Mayorga reminded the community to remain positive and active during the next few weeks. 

“We’re here to stay neighbors, we’re not leaving,” he said.

Juana Donato, who attended the forum, felt hopeful despite having experienced the effects of deportation firsthand when her husband was deported 20 years ago. 

“It’s not easy but we need to keep fighting and moving forward,” she said.

http://www.baruch.cuny.edu/ote/evals/

Brianna Arscott Grant is an African-American student who has been attending the University of Pennsylvania since fall of 2015. Her goal is to earn a bachelor’s degree in international relations and French.

Since joining University of Pennsylvania, her experience was largely positive. She became the secretary of the Black Student League and joined the executive board of Penn for Hillary and Black Pre-Law Association. She is also a member of the National French Honor Society and Big Brothers Big Sisters. When Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign gained pace, she gained an internship in Clinton campaign’s Pennsylvania headquarters.

When Clinton lost the election, Arscott Grant felt disappointed.

However, an incident that took place on Nov. 11 turned her disappointment into fear of her fellow students.

“For those who do not know, today the Black freshmen at the University of Pennsylvania were added to a group called ‘Nigger Lynchers,’” Arscott Grant posted on her Facebook page. “They suggested daily lynchings and anti-nigger GroupMes. They went so far as creating lynching events to which they invited Black students.”

The Southern Poverty Law Center claims that in the 10 days following the election, 867 hate crimes have been reported. However, there is no data showing how many more may have gone unreported. There is also no data showing how many hate crimes were committed against college students who, like Arscott Grant, were victims of online or verbal harassment. Thus, different colleges found different ways of dealing with the fallout.

“People have experienced harassment at school, at work, at home, on the street, in public transportation, in their cars, in grocery stores and in their houses of worship. They most often have received messages of hate and intolerance through graffiti and verbal harassment, although a small number also have reported physical interactions,” the SPLC website states.

Because some of the attackers used Trump’s name during the attacks, the SPLC explained, it was easy to link those crimes to Trump’s election.

One such incident took place on Dec. 1, when three Trump supporters attacked a Baruch College freshman of Muslim background.

At 10 p.m. on Dec. 1, Jasmin Seweid was waiting for an uptown 6 train to take her home from a Women in Business fashion show that took place in Baruch College that evening. However, her commute home was interrupted when three men allegedly attacked her and tried to rip off her hijab.

In a Facebook post recalling the event, Seweid explained that the men who attacked her called her “a terrorist” and told her to “go back to [her] country.”

“Trump’s name was repeatedly said & it finally clicked in my head. No matter how ‘cultured’ and ‘Americanized’ I am, these people don’t see me as an American,” Seweid’s Facebook post also states.

Seweid went on to explain that when she did not answer the attackers’ comments, they approached her and told her to “take that rag off [her] head.” When she refused, they first ripped off her handbag, then attempted to rip off her hijab. In the end, she escaped without physical harm.

Seweid also claimed that while the incident was witnessed by other commuters, no one stepped in to help her and stop the attackers.

However, the New York-based media outlets that covered the incident were unable to find any recordings of the incident and there were no witnesses to support Seweid’s story. A week after the incident took place, Seweid told NYPD that she fabricated the story. She is now facing a year of jail time.

In response to the incident, Daniel Dornbaum, president of Baruch College’s Undergraduate Student Government, posted a statement on the organization’s website to show his support for the Baruch community.

“Baruch USG prides itself in our school’s diversity and there is no room for Islamophobia and misogyny at this college,” the statement posted on Dec. 3 states. “As members of the Baruch community, we cannot stay silent when act like this occur. Please speak up against hatefulness of any kind as playing the role of bystander is not an option.”

College students across the country had various responses to Trump’s presidency. Some, like the College of Staten Island, were openly cheering Trump’s victory. Others, including Baruch College and the University of Pennsylvania, embraced the ideas of safe spaces in their colleges and openly protested the choice of the electorate.

Clifford Michel works at The Banner, College of Staten Island’s student newspaper. In an email interview, he explained that CSI’s mood post-election reflected the vote of the borough.

“Staten Island being a primarily Republican borough, I did see a lot of high-fives being exchanged and a few pro-Trump chants,” Michel said. “I think since CUNY campuses are so diverse, a lot of his rhetoric and policy ideas hit home with swats of the community. To the vast majority of students that I’ve spoken with since, they view his success as a way of legitimizing those ideas.

At the time of the interview, the college did not organize any events in response to the election. However, Michel noted that an online petition has been circling to make CSI a “sanctuary campus.”

As the petition explains, a sanctuary campus is a place that protects its members from “intimidation, unfair investigation, and deportation.” It also “demonstrates [the college’s] commitment to supporting some of the most vulnerable members of [its] community.”

In Baruch, the response to Trump’s election was much more somber.

“Obviously more student have been upset about at the outcome of the election,” Dornbaum said. “I think that our campus is most left-leaning, but there are certainly some students that were excited about the outcome.”

To accommodate the group of students who were upset about the outcome of the election, Baruch’s Office of Student Life held a safe space event where students could come in and share their feelings and fears. The college also ran a safety pin campaign, which urged members of its community to wear safety pins to show that the campus is a safe space for discussion.

Andrew Windsor, a representative senator in Baruch’s USG, organized a self-defense seminar to promote safe environments and teach students how to protect themselves if a situation similar to Seweid’s was ever to take place again.

“I had felt that [Office of Student Life]’s and the rest of the campus’s approach to post-election worries was not enough,” Windsor said in an interview. “I thought that if there was a real worry about the safety of our students, we should have a self-defense seminar or a few of them just so people know how to protect themselves if there are real worries.”

The seminar took place on Thursday, Dec. 8 and lasted for two hours. During that time, Public Safety Officer Peter Flores showed the students how to escape an arm grab and various chokes. While the event did not generate a large attendance, this might have been caused by the fact that the event was organized three days before it took place.

Other students resorted to protesting. Bianca Monteiro is a sophomore intending to major in journalism. During the week when Trump was elected, she participated in two anti-Trump protests.

In an interview, Monteiro explained that she never attended any protests; the anti-Trump protest that took place on Wednesday, Nov. 9 was her first. Though she anticipated a lot of disorder, she was surprised to see that the crowd was moving without much confusion. Along the way, she saw police officers making sure that both the protesters and other New Yorkers were unharmed.

She left the protest around 34th street, when the police threatened to arrest protesters who continued marching on the street instead of the sidewalk. Monteiro believed that the peaceful behavior of the protesters was part of the reason why the police did not react with violence.

When asked why she chose to participate in the protests, Monteiro said that, as for many others, it was a way for her to express herself and find comfort among other New Yorkers.

“I honestly felt so distraught and I felt like I needed some outlet to express my anger and disbelief. The protests I participated in were nonviolent but just having people around you understand exactly the fear you’re going though, the fear of regression and hate, makes you feel like maybe there is hope. That, despite Trump becoming president-elect, we’re going to regress and we’re going to do what we can do [to] help move forward,” Monteiro said.

The second protest she participated in took place on Saturday, Nov. 12. Though others have been organized, she chose not to attend them.

While many worry about what will happen to them once Trump is inaugurated, some acknowledge that the hate crimes that are currently happening are not the direct result of his presidency.

“I don’t necessarily think [Trump’s] election was the direct cause of [the GroupMe incident] but I don’t think that would have happened if he hadn’t been elected,” Arscott Grant said. “I would say the direct cause was racism, bigotry and hatred. Donald Trump did not cause any of those. Rather, he enabled a platform that said all of these were acceptable in present-day America.”

In the meantime, college students are trying to find a way to cope with the new norm.

“I do know that there are many who are still very much afraid,” Arscott Grant said. “Because I am not necessarily afraid that there will be another GroupMe incident or something similar, that doesn’t mean that I’m not fearful for the state and future of this country, because I definitely am.”

Casey Marie Mollón

Feature Article Writing: Final Magazine Article

12.12.2016

 

It’s Friday morning, about 6 a.m., the sun has just risen and the air is bitterly cold – a rough morning for any person living on the streets in New York City. Now picture this: not only are you a homeless woman who has just spent the night sleeping alone in Prospect Park, freezing and damp from a perpetual shivering sweat in your only items of clothing, but, it is also that time of the month for you.

 

“This has to be the worst part, right here. Waking up extra early so you can change yourself – only to find out half the time that you’re too late and now you’ve got a stain,” [giggling] SJ says in an interview in Prospect Park, “I mean these are my only clothes, so…”

 

Sadie James, or SJ as she prefers, is a 24-year-old woman who calls the streets of Brooklyn her home. She grew up in a one-bedroom apartment in Brownsville, Brooklyn with her mother, Jade, who worked as a cashier at their local C-Town. Jade took to selling drugs on the side to help with money, SJ says, “I’m sure my mom thought I didn’t know,” she giggles again. When Jade got mixed up with some “bad dudes,” as SJ refers to them, she started owing people a lot of money. Eventually, SJ, 15-years-old at this point, and her mother were evicted from their home and were forced to live in a shelter.

 

“Let me tell you, those places are nastier than the streets,” SJ says, “trust me, you’d rather sleep out here.” She and her mother lived in and out of various shelters for about a year and then SJ says they parted ways. “It’s just easier to travel alone out here, you know, I worry about myself and that’s it; It’s just me.” SJ says there are so many things she has learned while living on the streets, but the one thing that will never get easier that most people don’t think about is that one week of the month every woman endures: menstruation.

 

39.7% of all homeless people in the United States are women, according to the US Department of Housing and Urban Development. Every month these 224,344 women will experience their period without the sufficient or healthy ways to care for themselves. SJ and I went to Duane Reade to explore the tampon options. The cheapest option was a box of 18 tampons for $4. If you do the math and average each period to be about 5 days long where you use about 4 tampons per day, that comes out to a total of 20 tampons each cycle. That one $4 box would barely cover a single period cycle. According to a poll I took, 94 out of 100 women asked, said they use about 4-6 tampons each day of their period; so the estimate of 20 tampons per cycle is actually quite skimpy.

 

“When I finally save up or get $4, tampons are not at all what I want to get,” SJ says, laughing, “I’m hungry man!”

 

New York is the first state to pass a bill that indicates all public schools, homeless shelters and jails must provide free tampons and other feminine products to women. Although this law is definitely a step in the right direction, SJ says that there are quite a few stipulations in order to make this bill work for you. SJ takes us through a day in the life of a homeless woman experiencing her period, a bodily function that she, nor any woman has control over.

 

“I try to sleep pretty close to a public bathroom and know exactly where it is,” SJ says, so that when she wakes up she can run straight to the bathroom and change herself. On this Friday morning SJ goes to use one of the public restrooms in Prospect Park. “I kind of just do a quick temporary change first thing before Starbucks opens,” she says, “I’ll usually put some toilet paper rolled up until I can wash myself for the day.” If there is no toilet paper, which SJ says there often is not, she will use a thick sock. She has three designated socks for this purpose that she washes and reuses.

 

At around 9:30 a.m., in the hopes of avoiding some of Starbucks’ rush hour, SJ orders a trenta sized tap water (that is Starbucks’ extra-large size). She uses this cup and water to wash herself each morning. She will vary among Starbucks and fast food restaurants in the mornings. “Yeah I live on the streets, but that doesn’t mean I don’t have hygiene, common,” SJ says.

 

After washing herself SJ says that’s when she will use a cleaner more efficient absorbent, such as a tampon or pad if she can get one. She explains some of the stipulations about getting free tampons now, “right, so we just did the math together, I can’t just go into a shelter and ask for a box of tampons every month.” The tampons in shelters are primarily for people who stay in the shelter, and even so, SJ says that you can’t ask for how many you will actually need for the whole cycle. “They won’t just like, dole out 20 tampons for all of us,” SJ adds.

 

On this Friday, SJ had two pads left over from a pack she stole from a 99 Cent store. She says that tampons are much more ideal because they are less messy than pads. On the street, being clean is already difficult, so during a menstrual cycle it is really important to be as efficient and clean as possible. SJ rolls the cotton from the pad into a tampon and uses part of the plastic wrapper as the string.

 

It is recommended, on all tampon boxes, that you don’t leave one in your body for longer than eight hours. That is, if the tampon lasts that long, which they often don’t. SJ says a big problem is infection when you leave a tampon in for too long. She says urinary tract infections are a common side-effect of leaving a tampon in for too long among the homeless female community. “At that point, you’re no longer saving for a tampon, but for cranberry juice,” SJ says, “and lots of it.”

 

Erin O’Mahoney, an Emergency Room Nurse at Northwell Health Hospital, agrees that leaving a tampon in for too long can cause an array of infections and problems for women. “The list is really endless, but UTI’s are very common,” O’Mahoney says, “toxic shock syndrome is up there too, blood infections which would require antibiotics and so many more.” O’Mahoney also volunteers at homeless shelters during the holidays to check out the sick homeless community. She says a lot of the problems among the women are UTI’s or other infections relating to feminine hygiene.

By about 7 p.m. SJ has gone about her day and is now out of tampons or pads. “Now it’s time for the socks,” she says, “I hate this part, I really do.” Upon depleting her grim selection of tampons, for this cycle, she will have to bring the three socks into rotation. These three socks are stored in SJ’s backpack and each time she uses one, she will wash it in a public restroom and hope it dries by the time the second and third are used. “In the summer this process is way easier just because they dry so much faster when it’s hot out,” SJ says, “in the winter…[laughs] good luck.”

 

The only good thing about winter, SJ says, is that you don’t have to drink as much water to keep hydrated, which is helpful because urinating multiple times with the same tampon in can also cause infection. Whether the idea of not drinking a lot during your period is accurate, O’Mahoney does actually concur with SJ in saying that urination while the same tampon is in can cause infections more easily than if you either use the bathroom less with each tampon or change your tampons pretty frequently. O’Mahoney does note that drinking less during your period is not good because you are already loosing fluids and hydration more than a normal day.

 

Any day is not an easy venture for a homeless person because they don’t have access to basic human needs: food, water, a bathroom with toilet paper, a shower, clean clothes, a roof to sleep beneath and many more. However, being a homeless woman entails all of these obstacles plus one week of each month of what can only be described by SJ as, “it’s pure hell.” While the state has taken some measures to ensure people have access to feminine products, as SJ was saying, there are quite a few loop holes that make those products still seem so far for some women.

 

“Of all the daily struggles,” SJ says, “hands down, periods are the worst and most difficult to deal with.”