New York City

A win for New York’s libraries: The promising investment

August 6, 2019 by CHRISTINE BASCOMBE Leave a Comment

On June 14, Mayor Bill de Blasio and New York City council were able to secure 33 million in additional funding in the FY20 executive budget for New York’s three library systems.

Many were shocked when Mayor de Blasio, an avid user of the park slope branch in Brooklyn, wanted to slash the New York City’s library system’s funding. Mayor De Blasio proposed cutting the funds at $10.4 million in operating funds from the city’s three public library systems in his latest budget proposal. The libraries seem to have grown under de Blasio’s watch by 88 million according to Spokesmen Raul Contreras with the Daily News. However, with a cut in New York City’s libraries, they would be unable to provide programming, updated facilities, more staff and security, and longer branch hours.

Unable to deal with the decrease in funding of all three Library systems in New York City (New York, Brooklyn, and Queens) banded together in #InvestInLibraries.The increase in funding would allow the systems to maintain their current upkeep as cost arises, but also continue to provide for New York communities for generations.

Advocates such as actress Sarah Jessica Parker were able to speak for the public on the investment in libraries, “Libraries mean a great deal to me and my family. I have been visiting my local library and borrowing books for as far back as I can recall. For the past couple of decades, Jefferson Market Library in Greenwich Village has been my local branch, and for my family and our community it is not only a regular neighborhood stop for books, programs, and more, it is a cornerstone, a beacon, and one of the most beloved buildings in our community. I don’t know what we’d do without it. I recently learned that the City is proposing budget cuts that would significantly impact services—fewer hours, fewer librarians, fewer collections, fewer programs, fewer classes.” Even if not as famous as Parker people were able to send in over 120,000 letters and 5,000 sticky notes according to Tony Marx the New York’s public library president.

The additional funding in New York City’s libraries further proves the importance the libraries are to the New York community. New York’s community relies upon and well as uses the library for all it’s purposes no matter the need or want, the libraries provide it.

A library is more than a place that provides books and computers they provide a community. Whether you are rich or you are poor, the library is a place where you can study, read, go to one of the various enrichment programs they provide, play games, have storytime, the library can bring everyone together regardless of race, class, and or gender. The investment in the libraries is a win for all as the libraries of New York City continue to show importance in New York’s diverse and expansive community.

Craving for Community

August 12, 2015 by Nicole Yapijakis Leave a Comment

The city evolves with the times. However there are few places where locals and tourists alike can escape the repetition made by New York’s arrays of concrete, glass and brick edifices. The High Line has become a park where people seek refuge from such order.

The High Line has become more than just a popular tourist attraction due to the opening of the Whitney museum in the Meatpacking District. The park now captures the essence of New York’s changes and diversity.

Western_Electric_complex_NYC_1936 — The High Line in the 1900’s

The park has steel framed perspectives of the city streets and river views. These frames capture the old brick warehouses, modern glass hotels and apartments, and the historical cobble stoned streets intersecting with freshly paved asphalt. Yet they also appear to be ombré images of New York’s development.

In 2009, the first section of the High Line opened to the public. What once was a railroad track for transporting goods to and from the Industrial District, has become a public park that attracts thousands of visitors each day.

People from all over the world and right around the block come here – people of different cultural backgrounds and social classes. Yet here society draws no division. Melina Franco, a tourist from California, was brought here by her aunt. Franco says, “Here there is no judgement from people around you. Everyone is doing their own thing.”

The High Line has become a must-see place for not only tourists, but also to those who are or used to be fellow New Yorkers. Joseph Whelan used to live in New York City before the High Line was a public park and now comes here to “play tourist.” John Reverol comes once a month all the way from New Rochelle, “to have some alone time, even though I’m never really alone because there are so many people. It’s very relaxing.”

Love can also be found at the High Line. Couples flock to the park to see the hidden sculptures, variety of foliage and views of the river and city or to just sit and talk. Ninety year old, Marion Needlman, comes every three months from Chapel Hill, NC to spend time with her high school sweetheart Herbert Oppenheimer, a local. Together they look at the interesting public art projects that can be found all over the High Line and architecture of surrounding buildings.

The High Line has become a place where visitors seek refuge from the extreme summer heat and the smelly streets. Visitors can enjoy the cool breezes and pleasant olfactory experiences of the park while resting on the many benches scattered along the park.

3706235356_309fdbb904_o — Where the past meets the present

Noelle Franco, a local, says, “New Yorkers crave greenery!” This can be confirmed by many of the locals who come to to the High Line. However this isn’t just true for them. Tourists such as Deepa Manjanatha like “the integrations of plants and the juxtaposition of nature and industrial Meatpacking District.”

Many people find the mélange “funny because you see these plants and then there is like scaffolding and art.” Although some may consider it a mess or confusing, most see the beautiful flowers and other perennials hidden in the grasses and the seemingly random placement of trees as beautiful and interesting. Rosemary Klassen is from a part of Florida where nature thrives. She finds that the park is a nice “combination of the familiar (nature) in an unfamiliar place. A place where urban meshes with nature.”

unnamed 2 — Views from the “Urban Cloud”

Despite the attraction, the High Line is also used as a form of transportation. Visitors can walk over traffic in an “urban cloud” all the way from Gansevoort and Washington Street to 34th Street and 12th Avenue. Natasha Pereira works at the Whitney Museum and due to the convenience and proximity, travels uptown through the park.

Yet despite the endless reasons why people enjoy and come to the High Line, what people really love is the sense of community that it provides. The way people come together at the High Line reflects how New York has come to be the city where diversity is commonality.

A Fresh Look at Food

August 6, 2015 by Nicole Yapijakis

The aroma of fresh harvested produce surrounds those who pass through. Curious locals peer at the peculiar variations of produce. As they become immersed in the Union Square Greenmarket, time ceases to exist; at least compared to the fast paced New York life. However, customers are doing more than just buying groceries.

The market offers ethical, healthy and organic products that the standard supermarket wouldn’t offer. John Hayton, a cheese maker and vendor at Cherry Grove Farm, says,”Our cows are grass-fed and at our farm there is a small herd of cows that we make our cheese from. This makes the flavor more natural.”

“I come three times a week because I live in the area and it is convenient. I enjoy supporting local farmers instead of buying from large supermarkets,” says Erin Stair, a regular at the market. Many customers, like Stair, help promote small businesses and the local economy.

Buying local is better for the environment because it cuts down on the processing, packaging and shipping of food produced by large corporations. By supporting the market, customers helps cut the amount of waste sent to landfills, which also decreases greenhouse gas emissions.

Although the market is the center of consumption, it is also a big contributor to recycling what most urbanites would waste.

It offers a convenient compost collection, where locals can bring produce scraps, breads and grains, beverage waste and other compostable things. Once the compost is collected at the market, it is transported to a compost site. There it is made into fertile soil for local farming and gardening projects. This collection doesn’t only cut down city waste, but decreases the amounts of greenhouse gases released into the air.

There is also an inviting textile recycling collection, where locals can drop off unwanted clothes and textiles that would otherwise be thrown away. Instead of wasting, the collection service finds ways to reuse these items. The usables clothes are redistributed to markets with a high demand for second hand clothing and the scraps are used as cleaning rags or recycled into car door panels and insulation

Volunteers from City Harvest come at the end of the market on Saturdays to collect thousands of pounds of leftover food. You can see them in green t-shirts, talking to vendors, bagging produce or pushing around packed bins of food. All this is loaded onto the City Harvest truck parked on the corner of Union Sq West and 15th Street. All of the food is distributed to food pantries, shelters, soup kitchens and other food programs around the city free of charge.

People from all over New York come together four days a week to be a part of an interactive, community minded experience. What most visitors don’t realize is that this market is a model for a sustainable and environmentally conscious community.

The Health Craze is Not Just a Phase, But a Gaze into History

July 29, 2015 by Nicole Yapijakis

Merriam Webster needs to make revisions to its dictionaries because society has altered the definitions of beauty and success once again due to the increased popularity of the health craze.

As a new resident of the Chelsea/ Flatiron neighborhood, I wasn’t surprised to find numerous Starbucks locations at my disposal, yet when I explored the area they appeared scarce compared to the overpopulation of juice bars. I never expected to stumble upon 7 spinning studios – 3 of which were SoulCycle.

SoulCycle reinvented indoor cycling when it opened its first studio in 2006 and became one of the top 10 NYC Google Searches of 2012. Ever since then, spinning studios have become part of the New York City lifestyle.

Companies like Juice Press and Blue Print have become popular names in the juice industry and they too are being integrated into our lives. They no longer just offer a trendy beverage for those who can afford it at $10 a bottle, but the companies, like spinning studios, have become part of our regimen.

“We see detoxing as a path to transcendence, a symbol of modern urban virtue and self transformation through abstinence…we indulge in expensive cold pressed juices and SoulCycle classes, justifying these purchases as investments in our health,” says Lizzie Crocker, journalist at the Daily Beast.

These days it seems like trends are ever so fleeting, but a few like these have become a part of who we are as a community.When you look into history, you see the trends that defined beauty and success have transformed drastically, while reflecting the times.

Look at the corset for example. In the 16th century it was meant to create a cylindrical figure, while flattening and raising the bust line. By the 18th century it transformed into an unhealthy device that created a hourglass figure. A trend that became a part of society for over 2 centuries evolved and changed to the point where it no longer was one.

In the past, a full figure meant you were wealthy enough to eat rich food. Due to this, such a figure became the definition of beauty and success for both women and men. Yet now, being skinny and fit has become the epitome of beauty. Just like in history, only those who can afford it have the opportunity to become society’s ideal image.

In an interview with the Huffington Post, Eugene Lee Yang, video producer at BuzzFeed, said, “We’re so often preoccupied with current trends that we lose perspective on how fleeting our obsession with physical perfection has historically been.”

This recent health craze isn’t just a trend that reflects how we are fixated on obtaining society’s idea of perfection, but how perfection is made for the rich. If Merriam Webster needs help revising its definitions, here is a suggestion, “Beauty & Success: If you can afford it!”

Why Does the Gunman Shoot?

August 7, 2013 by LOUIS CASTILLO

When one is informed of tragic events that happen on a world scale one may ask himself thought-provoking questions about how this could happen. Some may say that evil is the creation of God. Another would disagree, likening it to the actuality of dark and cold. But consider this. Acts of violence cannot only be attributed to the absence of God but also to inclinations within the human condition. In other words, the human race has the inclination to do something wrong whether it be to cheat on a test or to go so far as to commit an act of violence. The presence of God is what prevents one from committing a wrong thing.

When arguing the validity of God and Christianity some would say that God created everything. In addition to that, some may even imply that, if God created everything, then God created evil since evil exists. Therefore according to the principal that our actions define who we are then, God is evil.

Coming to this conclusion is logical but the flaws in this logic must be exposed. Liken this to the existence of cold. One may say that cold indeed exists simply based on the reason that they have felt cold. In fact cold does not exist. According to the laws of physics, what we consider cold is in actually the absence of heat. Everybody and every object is susceptible to examination when it has or transmits energy, and heat is what makes a body or matter have or transmit energy. Absolute zero is the total absence of heat; all matter becomes incapable of reaction at that temperature. In actuality heat, on Earth, can never be absent. Rather it can vary in its intensity.

One may also believe darkness exists based on what they have experienced. Once again this empirical evidence is baseless and invalid. Darkness is in reality the absence of light. We can study light , but not darkness. We can use Newton’s prism to break white light into many colors and study the various wavelengths of each color.

You cannot measure darkness. How can one know how dark a certain space is? You measure the amount of light present. Darkness is a term used by man to describe what happens when there is no light present.

Now ask yourself does evil exist? Evil in fact does not exist, or at least it does not exist unto itself. Evil is simply the absence of God. It is just like darkness and cold, a word that man has created to describe the absence of Jah. God did not create evil. Evil is not like faith or love that exist just as light and heat do. Evil is the result of what happens when man does not have God’s love in his heart. It’s like the cold that comes when there is no warmth or the darkness that comes when there is no illumination.

The actions of men are those that come from overwhelming inclinations that stem from the human condition. When one does things that seem to defy our nurtured reasoning, that is evidence of the natural inclination of man. Philosophers like Thomas Hobbes and Kongfuzi believed that humans all have a sense of evil within them that must be contained in one way or another. Kongfuzi believed that men should understand the order of respect and mutual respect. He felt that if all men understood those levels of subjugation, evil would have no place and if those who have liberating powers, like fathers and leaders of countries, practiced ultimate benevolence evil would have nowhere to take root.

Thomas Hobbes on the other hand expressed his radical conservativism towards the autocratic subjugation of peoples whether it be brutish or benevolent. To Hobbes all humans were evil and needed to be subject to a higher power. He once said, “The condition of man…is a condition of war of everyone against everyone.” Hobbes implies that men do what they want within the confines of their own material gain. He felt men create a “social contract” between one another so that they may be able to coexist without mutilating one another because that is their natural tendency.

To both of these philosophers of old evil is the constant and goodness is simply a catalyst. However, evil is not the constant. Goodness, kindness and benevolence are the constant but, like heat, vary in intensity. One may ask oneself that if we have this “social contract” why do men kill other men? Well to simply answer, it is the absence of God.

In 2010, America suffered a homicide total of 12,966, 67.5 percent of those homicides were firearm related. This is an ever-so-often occurring issue in America. We hear about these events and then wonder how does God allow these things. Why are they happening? The fear of God is not in the hearts of the men who commit them. They kill for pleasure and even as a quick fix to their own problems. They have disregarded Hobbes’ “social contract” and Kongfuzi’s hierarchy of respects. Evil has outshined the light of goodness.

How can politics solve a problem that is simply more than just crime? This issue is not about how many guns are in the nation. This issue is not about how many bullets are in a clip. This issue is not about some conspiracy to disarm the nation. This issue is an issue within the fabric of humanity and has been and will always be. A man will kill when he feels he wants to. The only way to control this is by regaining the goodness we were born with. We regain it through God.

Citi Bike Riders Choose Convenience Over Safety

August 7, 2013 by QUEENA CHIU

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.