The Paw Print

A news publication created by Baruch's College Now high school journalism class

Manhattan

Girl Scout Council Relocates After 20 Years

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After over twenty years on the sixth floor of 43 West 23rd Street in Manhattan, the Girl Scout Council of Greater New York (GSCGNY) is moving to Wall Street due to an increase in rent.

GSCGNY is just one of hundreds of councils in the US. A Girl Scout council presides over a specific geographic region and is in charge of creating the bylaws by which the Girl Scout troops must abide by. In this case, GSCGNY presides over New York City, including roughly 28,000 girls and 9,000 volunteers who roam in and out of the office throughout the day for a multitude of reasons.

In an email sent on Tuesday, April 8, 2014, Barbara Murphy-Warrington, the CEO of GSCGNY, announced the relocation of the council’s headquarters. The move is to take place in early 2015 “when our current long-term lease expires,” Murphy-Warrington said.

The office space that GSCGNY currently occupies is not available for a lease renewal at the same price that is currently offered. The dramatic escalation of rent prices in the Flatiron District, where council is located, inhibits council from remaining on 23rd Street.

The council will move to the seventh floor of 40 Wall Street, a 17,500 square foot area in lower Manhattan. GSCGNY looked at over 50 locations and found 40 Wall Street to be the most economical choice that still provides a quality space for both the council employees and the scouts that come in and out of the office throughout the day.

“I wasn’t aware the council was planning to move until my leader told me, but I’m happy they are moving to a bigger and better place,” Girl Scout Rosie Lu said.

A Girl Scout for the past twelve years, Lu often travels to the council building after school for meetings and workshops. “I’m happy that they found a bigger office. They always seemed a little overcrowded during the workshops, when the girls and the council employees were confined together,” she explained.

While looking for a new office, GSCGNY had a list of requirements the building needed to meet in order to best accommodate the scouts, volunteers, and council employees who would occupy the building. These requirements included a 20 year lease in a building in a safe location, up to 19,000 square of space for employees to work and for girls and volunteers to meet, easy access to public transportation, and affordable amenities (restaurants, etc.) nearby.

Ellen Wong, a Girl Scout troop leader from Queens, appreciates the council’s concerns for the girls during the move. “It’s in a safe neighborhood for the girls to go to during the week and is accessible to anyone coming from the outer boroughs, and I really appreciate that,” she said.

A leader for girls aged 16 to 18, Wong’s scouts often meet after school, traveling to the the council office by themselves. This causes Wong to worry about the safety of the girls as they travel. “Knowing that they are traveling to a safe neighborhood with multiple routes to get there gives me peace of mind,” she said.

Anyone with questions or concerns about the move were told to contact Charmaine Chung, the Vice President and part of Membership & Volunteer Services, Human Resources and Council Operations, at [email protected] or Murphy-Warrington at [email protected].

The Horrors of 50 Rivington’s Basement

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“The washing machines are really old and they tend to break down a lot,” said Eli James. He is not the first to complain about the washing machines in his building’s basement. Residents of 50 Rivington Street have had just about enough with machines that break down while doing their laundry.

Residents not only have a problem with the machines breaking down but also with an invasion of rats. Complaints of how the landlord should have replaced the machines by now have been going on for a few years. Ramona said, “I remember we didn’t always have the machines. They came in when I was about 15 and I am now 56 years old still washing with the same machines!”

There are frequent complaints of rat encounters even though the landlord said he would take care of that problem months ago. When all the residents of building at 50 Rivington spoke with him outside the building, they said that he ignored all their complaints and did nothing. Residents say that Landlord Alex has told them that the machines are fine and if they break down he will be able to fix them and not have to buy new machines.

The basement is a place where children can easily get hurt going down to help their parents with the laundry. “My daughter has fallen countless times because they haven’t sanded down the floor,” said the mother of 6-year-old Katie. She no longer wants her daughter coming down to the basement because she is worried that one day she could badly hurt herself.

Few residents are now considering taking their laundry and doing it elsewhere. Residents understand that since the building is old, there would be some problems. One, Kevin Munoz, told everyone “It’s not a good thing having rats crawling around with our clean clothes. I know it’s a basement but there has to be some standard here.”

Let’s Talk about Food.

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With classes as early as 9 a.m. during the summer, students need time to take get away from the classroom. After all, it is summer! Students in the Baruch College Now summer program rely on lunch to talk, eat, relax, and not worry about hectic schedules  that are always in their face. Given three choices of restaurants and a different card every week to get any food they want, students can get about anything within the $7 dollars. The lunch plan may seem as if it is practically amazing. However, students’ opinions on the lunch vary.

There are over four classes within the College Now program and three lunch places to go: The Hidden Café, Gramercy Star Café and Gramercy Grill. The majority of students have at least one favorite out of the three. Jordan from the business class said, “I like the options given to us. It’s way better than last year.” By that he refers to students not given a card to get anything but discounts meaning they still had to pay for food. He talked about how he likes being able to use the card given to him to buy either breakfast or lunch. Jordan’s classmate Elijah said, “ Overall I like the food, but I feel that we should have more options….The food is kind of repeated a lot.”  

A lot of students felt that the food overall was really good but that it was repeated.

However when Queena and her friend from journalism were interviewed they said that it wasn’t the food they didn’t like, it was the service they received.  “The food is really good actually I like the Gramercy Star Cafe but I do not like how the people in The Hidden Cafe treated us, Queena said. Her classmate Evelyn agreed and said, “They rushed us to order and they seemed to be annoyed and the food wasn’t even all that great.”

Many other students at the Baruch Program have said that the amount of time for lunch is too short. Some students have to work on projects and others have said the lines at the restaurants are long due to the amount of students.

When asked whether they would change anything about the lunch, OFabiola from Journalism said, “I would add another restaraunt because the Gramercy Cafe and Gramercy Grill are just alike.” Louis from journalism said, “I wouldn’t change anything about it. The food is good, especially since it’s free. It’s pretty great.”

Winged Students Residing on Campus

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Sparrows on the 6 floor in the Baruch Vertical Campus Building
Sparrows on the 6 floor in the Baruch Vertical Campus Building

Some say they have only heard them, others are not even aware of their existence, and few have been privileged with a glimpse of a fast blur. They are Baruch College Vertical Campus’s five-inch students.

“I hear them every morning. They live here,” said a maintenance worker who has worked at the college for 11 years. “I thought I was imagining things,” said Yvette Branson, VITAL program initiative coordinator, as she recounted her first sight of them.

These mysterious students are sparrows. Nobody seems to know exactly how long they have been in the building or how they got there, but their presence marks an unprecedented, peaceful coexistence of nature and college students amid a bustling urban scene like Lower Manhattan.

At college, students are responsible for some kind of financial contribution, and these birds are not an exception. They pay their own type of tuition. For one thing, they help with sanitation by eating any food left behind by the other students. There are no complaints of the sporadic feces flying down from above that their cousins, the pigeons, are notorious for. They also welcome guests into the building early in the morning with their loud, resonating chirps.

Like any college students, the sparrows have favorite “hangout” spots. According to Felix, a sophomore, they can often be sighted on the seventh and eighth floor near the lounge space facing the large glass window. This is especially true during lunch time when the birds seek out food. Otherwise, they can be spotted sitting on the ledges of the glass wall that face the Baruch Information and Technology Building.

Though they cannot be credited with impeccable attendance of classes, their fellow classmates have only good things to say. “Pretty cool” was Raymond, a freshman’s, description of his winged schoolmates. He added that he had fed different types of birds at Madison Square Park to reinforce his positive opinion of them.

A College Now student, Julian, who noticed the birds last year when he first came to Baruch, said that they showed him how open and natural the school space was.

According to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, sparrows are known to nest in buildings and keep in close proximity to people. Two Baruch students confirmed that these birds do not seem afraid of humans at all and often come very close to the benches where other students are sitting.

After spending so many years in college, these sparrows should be extremely smart, but according to the maintenance worker, they “come to college, but are not smart enough to go out.” Do these birds long to return to their homes outside the glass wall or have they become so attached to college that they never want to graduate?

Out of the International Battlefield and into a Personal War

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Yvette Brandon at her VITAL information booth at the Baruch Vertical College Campus.
Yvette Brandon at her VITAL information booth at the Baruch Vertical Campus.

“Have you killed anyone? Have you shot someone?” These are just some of the routine questions students at Baruch College ask when they find out some of their classmates are U.S veterans. With the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan over, many soldiers are returning home to continue life where they left off, in college and university classrooms.

Veterans Integration to Academic Leadership, VITAL, is an outreach program created solely to help U.S. service men and women feel welcome and relaxed with their adjustment to college. Information desks set up at different colleges in America, including the Baruch College Campus in New York City, give veterans access to several areas. “I think it’s something very right the government is doing on behalf of people who served in our country,” said Yvette Branson, an initiative coordinator for the pilot program VITAL at Baruch College.

After the danger of war becomes routine for these veterans, integration back into normalcy is a challenge for some. Studies done with PW Research Organization in 2012 showed only 5 percent of veterans asked said they would have an easy time putting down their weapons to pick up a text book, sparking the idea for VITAL.

Still a pilot program, VITAL intends to assist in the transition from soldier to student in several different ways, encompassing the different needs of veterans. All services are free and range from Veteran Work Study opportunities to T’ai Chi with civilians who volunteer to help. Those civilians can be students and even teachers at Baruch–or whichever college where the program is located. Veterans are only allowed to participate if they have a civilian partner and vice versa. Through these paired or group activities, veterans get a chance to ease back into life before the war zone. Information sessions will also be available to the VITAL faculty and volunteers in order to create a

better understanding between them and the veterans.

“I would like to get a better insight since we learn about wars in school,” said Julian Jimenez, a rising college freshman, when first told about the VITAL program. A survey done around the Baruch Vertical Campus showed that many students and faculty did, in fact, know that they were among former soldiers, but the majority did not know of VITAL. When further questioned on whether they would volunteer to help veterans, few were honest and said no, but many said if they could fit it into their busy schedule they would be willing to help. It would be the civilian’s turn to serve those soldiers who once put their lives on the line to protect America.

Citi Bike Riders Choose Convenience Over Safety

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Citibike in New York City was created to provide convenient and affordable transportation. However, does the program favor convenience over safety?

Apparently so, according to some New Yorkers. Currently, the Citibike stations do not rent helmets since helmets are not required in New York City for people over 13 years old.

“There are some safety concerns. However I think the convenience override the safety concern,” says a Citibike user. “I don’t always know when I will ride the bike, so there will be times when I ride without a helmet.”

Many bike users do not want to carry helmets around with them throughout the day. People want to be able to take out the bikes without all the messy work.

The official Citibike website states that helmets are recommended and that there are two ways to get a helmet. Some helmets are provided at events held by Citibike, where ambassadors answer questions and talk about how Citibike works. The second way would be for bike users to buy their own. Helmets may cost from $30 to $150. For some, this may be a good investment while for others it is simply something they cannot afford.

According to Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, 70 percent of cyclists killed in 2010 did not wear a helmet. “I think that the safety concern should be addressed because not a lot of people are informed about the risks,” said a New York biker.

Bikers who do not wear helmets are not only responsible for themselves but for other people. “Seeing bikers riding in crowded areas is frightening,” said a bystander. “I know people who have suffered from head injures and it is so not worth it to not wear a helmet.” However, there are some people out there who are still willing to take the chance.

Greenmarket Vendors Enjoy Their Work Despite Challenges

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Scott stands behind the display of treats for sale at vegan bakery Body and Soul.
Scott stands behind the display of treats for sale at vegan bakery Body and Soul.

Walking into Union Square on a Monday gives a feeling of community. Tents selling everything, from cookies to flowers, line the square and people walk though, looking for the products they need. This is the Union Square Greenmarket, a hot spot for tourists and native New Yorkers.

Many farmers and business owners work at the greenmarket to make a living. They experience problems like weather and people not wanting to buy their goods, but they are also able to work in a pleasant, unique environment unlike most people.

“It’s a nice place to work,” said Scott, who works at a vegan bakery tent called Body and Soul. He added that he liked being outside.

But when asked about the problems of working in the greenmarket, he answered “the weather,” saying that the sweltering heat in the summer and freezing cold in the winter are some of his main problems. Overall though, Body and Soul has been pretty successful. Over half of its reviews on Yelp, a food rating site, are 4 or 5 stars.

A lady selling flowers who asked to remain anonymous had bigger problems than the weather. She said that it’s been hard for her to sell her flowers in recent years due to the recession. People are only buying goods they need, like food, so flower sales are going down.

She has been selling flowers since 1986, and even though times are hard for her now, she still wants to continue. “I like to grow my flowers, that’s my passion,” she said.

Also in Union Square, right outside the greenmarket, a row of stands with blue umbrellas sell art.

Yuri Bobrykov, an artist who sells paintings of New York City landscapes, said that Union Square is a great community for artists.

He originally chose to set up a stand in Union Square because of all the traffic it gets. Now he has been there for five years and really enjoys it. He said that Union Square is “comfortable for me and comfortable for my art”.

The Union Square Greenmarket was started in 1976, according to the website of GrowNYC, the organization that runs greenmarkets all over the city. It started out very small, with only a few tents, but it has gone through a lot of growth since then.

Now, according to GrowNYC, “in peak season, 140 regional farmers, fishermen and bakers descend upon Union Square to sell their products to a devout legion of city dwellers who support local agriculture with their food dollars.”

With such a large amount of competition, and the always-changing weather conditions, it may seem daunting to set up a stand in Union Square. But as Scott from Body and Soul said, “all in all, it’s fun to work outside”.