Author: Laura James (page 1 of 1)

It has been a struggle for me to fully understand and make sense of homelessness and what we do to combat it in New York City. Solutions always appeared simple – take those on the street and give them cheap affordable housing, provide them with health and mind care, and help to integrate them back into the working class society. Up until recently, I could not comprehend why this was not being done. We have enough space – I see abandoned buildings every couple blocks. We have enough compassion – although we are busy and often ignore the homeless, we care for them. So why are there still 60,000 humans of New York City that are still without a home?

Visiting Capitol Hall helped me to understand that while the homelessness problem is plenty worthy of attention and action, several barriers exist within our city government and real estate factions to prevent proper action. And more than anything, this is disheartening. Although single resident housing buildings like Capitol Hall are cost-efficient in the end, many cannot see past the initial price tag of building such housing. And without more buildings being dedicated to low-income housing, we will continue to have thousands of individuals out on the streets resenting new luxury housing going up under a roof that could have saved his/her life.

My favorite policy that Goddard tries to abide by is the “housing first” policy. Those in need of homes and shelter – one of the basic human needs, should not have to fit certain pre-requisites to provided with such. How can one be expected to be properly treated for mental ailments on the street? It is important to bring these people in first and then help them receive treatment – whether it be for mental illnesses or addiction. Moreover, I think it is important for Goddard to consider allowing in residents that do not have any income and then helping them to acquire an income after housing them.

While there is still much for me to comprehend when it comes to the homelessness crisis, I feel confident that visiting Capitol Hall has brought me closer to understanding and deeper into caring.

Laura James 

Broken windows, when it first came about, was a logical solution to crime as it paid attention to the human instinct to follow the influence of their peers and more inadvertently, their environment. I believe there to validity in the fact that humans will be more likely to act out in areas of chaos rather than those of order. However, I think broken windows policing has become an enemy to society as soon as it began to border along racial lines. A larger number of enforcements was put into black and Hispanic communities over white ones. This made it so almost all of the arrests for minor infractions were of people of color. As soon as this became the norm, people of color also became the majority of people arrested for minor infractions in predominantly white neighborhoods. Broken windows policing was further ruined with the inauguration of police quotas. This, obviously, would turn the public against the police force — as harmful arrests were made for harmless people.

Had broken windows policing focused on stopping crimes that could have actually led to further crimes, among ALL people, without the pressure of quotas… maybe it could have become a system we could all agree on.

Laura James

Though the MoveNY movement seems to be at bit of a gridlock itself at the moment, I remain hopeful for its eventual support by our lawmakers. What is troubling is that a plan as sensible as reducing tolls where there is less traffic and raising them where there is plenty, is the subject of debate. It makes me think that those opposed to the plan do not see the revenue going to more reliable and far reaching subways or maybe a free-flowing midtown cab commute, like I do.

What I wish Sam would have discussed more with us about his book. I believe he said that it would be called Street Smart and focus on automated vehicles. I have been interested in this field for a good bit of time, being that my father his heavily involved in it. As an engineer, my father has become known as the “father of connected vehicles”.  He was the first in the country over 20 years ago to propose using connected vehicles and connected infrastructure to automate vehicles and improve vehicle safety. At Virginia Tech, he founded the Smart Road where he designed the facility for testing automated vehicles and concepts.  While equalling and fairly evaluating tolls seems like the first necessary step for proper traffic flow in the city, automated vehicles seem like the most important step that will hopefully come soon.

At the moment, I am happy to sign MoveNY’s petition. But I would like to see much more than this put into action. I want to see automated taxi cabs that do not honk at parked cars and get you where you need to be in the most efficient manner.

Laura James