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ENG 151
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Fahmy, NYPD Surveillance After Muslims
NYPD Surveillance After Muslims
Have you ever walked down the street of New York and felt a number of eyes staring at you? Almost as if you have eyes on the back of your neck and you can literally feel strangers just look you up and down. I can guarantee you that no matter how often this may have happened, the unease and anxious feeling that comes along is not easy to get accustomed to. But “who cares,” you may say to yourself, “they’re just strangers that I will never see again.” Right? But what happens when it is no longer a creepy man on a street corner? What happens when you are constantly being watched, and no I’m not talking about that creepy man, but instead a group authoritative figures? The ones that are supposed to protect you, yes, the NYPD, have now become that uncomfortable feeling you get down your throat.
New York City is unlike any other city in the world. Known to be a beautifully diverse city with a mix of many different cultures, races, and religion, New York is the center of the universe. However, within the recent decade, a specific group of people have been singled out, watched, and targeted due to an incident that should not have even caused such hatred toward them. Muslims have been the main victims since the 9/11 attacks, carried out by only 19 Islamic extremists, yet somehow changed how Muslim Americans are perceived in this country for nearly 15 years now. Since 2002, the New York City Police Department’s Intelligence Division has occupied themselves with the religious profiling investigation of Muslims in New York City and beyond. 1 This marginalized a large segment of American Muslims, however protesters and advocates believed that these racial and religious reporting demonstrated ineffective policing and considered it a “wasteful amount of tax dollars.” 2 According to the FBI, anti-Muslim hate crimes are approximately five times more frequent than they were before 2001. Singling out Muslims included the establishment of the secret surveillance program by the NYPD that mapped and tracked the daily lives of typical Muslim Americans throughout New York City and beyond. The New York Police Department mapped a picture of the American Muslim Community throughout the five boroughs of New York, also along New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Connecticut. The Intelligence Division argued that regardless of its impact on American Muslims constantly being watched 24/7, spying on a community is “harmless because it is clandestine and that those who are targeted should have nothing to fear, if they have nothing to hide.”3
However, the New York Police Surveillance did not originate amongst the Muslims. According to “Mapping Muslims: NYPD Spying and its Impact on American Muslims,” by The Creating Law Enforcement Accountability & Responsibility (CLEAR) Project CUNY School of Law, surveillance of minority groups has been traced as far as 1904, when Italian immigrants were monitored by the “Italian Squad.” In 1906, the NYPD also focused on anarchists and labor activists by a group known as the “anarchist squad.” Within the last 15 years or so, the NYPD primarily focused its attention on religion and religious practices, mosques, student associations, organizations, businesses, and random Muslim individuals. This impacted students on college campuses, as they are afraid to discuss any conversations relating to civil right issues or international conflicts simply because they feel it would draw greater NYPD investigations. Since 9/11, many Muslims have put in effort to improve and develop causal relationship with their local police districts, yet when interviewed by the CLEAR Project CUNY School of Law, day-to-day interactions such as reporting a stolen cell-phone or simply asking for directions became a worrisome task for Muslims and therefore caused them to keep their distance from the NYPD in general. Additional to invading Muslim American’s privacy in focused areas such as Brooklyn and Manhattan, the NYPD also sent undercover officers into less suspicious neighborhoods filled with restaurants, halal shops, and hookah bars to “listen to neighborhood gossip” and to get a “feel of the community.” 4 The NYPD even went as far as sending native language speaking officers into Egyptian communities for deeper investigations.
Of the results of the NYPD surveillance towards Muslims, interviewees found that the surveillance impacted the way Muslims practiced their faith, their religious life, and the way they physically expressed themselves the most. Suppressing religion and places of worship disrupted their ability to practice freely. It is evident to say that these law enforcement policies deeply affected the way the Muslim faith is practiced in New York City. The mosque, a place of worship for majority of Muslims went from being a peaceful haven to becoming the “Hot Spot.” 5 The “Demographics Unit,” an intelligence division subgroup doing the monitoring, mapped at least 250 mosques, not only in New York City, but in the surrounding areas such as New Jersey and Pennsylvania. For many Muslim individuals, the risk of being in a police file triggered them and resulted in them no longer attending the mosques or praying with other Muslims. “I used to go to the masjid [mosque] quite a lot. That stopped as soon as they [the NYPD] knocked on the door,” said Ashan Samad, a 26-year-old Brooklyn resident and one of the 57 American Muslims interviewed for the purposes of identifying and documenting these impacts. However, the United States Supreme Court, Everson V. Board of Education of the Township of Ewing, 6 once stated that “No person can be punished for entertaining or professing religious beliefs or disbeliefs. For church attendance or nonattendance.” Ironic, right? Ultimately, this surveillance continually raised concerns of the Muslims rights to practice their religion freely without interference of the state.
Further interviewees also noted that simply appearing Muslim due to the physical attributions of these individuals invited unwanted attention from the NYPD Surveillance. This outward identification includes traditional activity such as wearing a hijab or a niqab, which is a full covering of the woman and simply seeing men with outgrown thick beards. Assia (no last name given), an interfaith community organizer stated that “There’s always been a sense of stereotyping about dress. But now the veil thing has become more than just about being different. It has become charged with suspicion. A hijab or a beard isn’t just about being different and not fitting in. But now, it’s not just that, it’s also that people will see me as prone to violence.”7 Another Brooklyn College student claimed that parents began voicing their concern of their children’s choice of dress. In attempt to cover any indication that these students were Muslim, some parents did not want their children attending Muslim Student Associations or even wearing a Muslim hat for males. Some parents went as far as asking their daughters to discontinue wearing their headscarf, just so they do not “look Muslim.” 6
As if places of worship were not enough, campus life was not necessarily a very friendly environment either for many Muslims. The Muslim Student Association on campuses across New York City share a similar suppressed atmosphere, but additionally prove the impact the NYPD Surveillance had on younger students. These repercussions on students significantly affected their discussions, events hosted, and any other engagement they had within their school. Unfortunately, the NYPD infiltrated a number of these Muslim Student Associations, including Baruch College, Hunter College, La Guardia Community College, City College, Brooklyn College, St. John’s University, and Queens College. According to MACLC, CLEAR, and, AALDEF, the NYPD also established a group of undercover police officers into Muslims Student associations to act as students, even sending one to attend a whitewater rafting school trip.9 This resulted in the lack of a trustworthy environment amongst Muslims themselves, because it was hard to distinguish spies from students. A 19 year-old CUNY student raised such concerns when he revealed his experience with a spy. He claimed,
“I met him (the informant) through the MSA’s Facebook connections. He had told me he wanted to become a better person and to strengthen his faith. So I took him in, introduced him to all of my friends, got him involved in our extracurricular activities. I would wake him up for prayer every morning. He even slept over at my house, and I let him in even though he smelled of marijuana but I tried to look past it because I knew he was new to Islam. when I was texted the news (that he was an informant), the shock caused me to drop my phone. It took me 24 hours to get myself together and to respond, everyone on Facebook was waiting to hear what I would say, because I’m the one who introduced him to them.”
For such young adults age 17 to 22, having to deal with surveillance by a supposedly trustworthy department, affected many Muslim student’s college experience especially compared the non- Muslims students on the same campus.
Overall, it is evident to conclude that the NYPD Surveillance has impacted every aspect of American Muslims, such as place of worship, places to eat, and college campuses in New York City. This not only resulted in a lower number of visitors in mosques, an uncomfortable and unwelcoming atmosphere in colleges, but also mainly a mistrust of residents towards law enforcements. It is unfortunate that 9/11 has caused a religion to be seen by many as synonymous with terrorism.
Notes
- “Factsheet: the NYPD Muslim Surveillance Program” American Civil Liberties Union.”
- “Mapping Muslims: NYPD Spying and its Impact on American Muslims” The Creating Law Enforcement Accountability & Responsibility (CLEAR) Project CUNY School of Law.
- Ibid.
- Ibid.
- Ibid.
- Ibid.
- Ibid.
- Ibid.
- Ibid.
Bibliography
· ACLU. “FACTSHEET: THE NYPD MUSLIM SURVEILLANCE PROGRAM” aclu.com. 2017.
https://www.aclu.org/other/factsheet-nypd-muslim-surveillance-program
- Diala Shamas, Nermeen Arastu. The Creating Law Enforcement Accountability & Responsibility (CLEAR) Project CUNY School of Law. “Mapping Muslims: NYPD Spying and its Impact on American Muslims”
www.law.cuny.edu/academics/clinics/immigration/clear/Mapping-Muslims.pdf
Ahmad, Theoretical Footprints
Sharfa- Hospitals
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Sharfa Ahmad
HON 122, Section 13060
Professor Karacas
May 26st, 2017
Theoretically, if you were standing a few yards down from the intersection of Brielle and a street that cannot be named for security purposes, you could perform a magic trick. There is no special training required for this disappearing act. For one moment, you would appear standing there on the side of the street and in the next you would no longer be a part of this world. To duck through that nondescript opening in the fence is to find yourself in an Alice in Wonderland worthy rabbit-hole. But only theoretically of course because this particular property, once known as the New York City Farm Colony, is owned by the city of New York and Raymond Masucci, a developer based in Staten Island (Dunlap). If you find yourself on the more interesting side of the fence, you are “trespassing.”
According to Cornell Law School, trespassing is “the act of knowingly entering another person’s property without permission” and this act is a crime because “such action is held to infringe upon a property owner’s legal right to enjoy the benefits of ownership.” However, in the eyes of urban explorers, it is “generally assumed that such laws are antiquated or unjust” (Jonathon H). If I were to empathize with the art of urban exploration, it would be an easy argument to claim that trespass on abandoned buildings does not infringe upon the owner’s rights in any manner. Despite the colorful walls of the Farm Colony’s buildings, entering this space is a moral gray area. The tendency of abandoned and potentially unstable buildings to be illegally repurposed for unregulated and “unsavory” activities such as illicit drug use, urban exploration, and vandalism, has created a stigma against their existence in the community that is not condoned by all members of society.
The urban explorer is an advo
Peguero, Affordable Housing in New York City
Affordable housing has played and continues to play an important role in New York City. The city has the oldest public housing system in the entire country, with the first public housing developments created in New York in 1935. This occurred two years prior to the Housing Act of 1937, which began to subsidize housing on a national level. Along with being the oldest in the country, New York City also contains the largest public housing system in the nation. In “Next Generation NYCHA,” Alicia Glen, the Deputy Mayor for Housing and Economic Development, states that “Today, the Authority is home to more than 400,000 New Yorkers,” (Glen 2015). Despite the importance of affordable housing to the city, New York finds itself in a state of crisis in regards to issues of affordable housing and homelessness. Levels of homelessness throughout the city are at an all-time high, and conditions throughout the public housing system add to the level of crisis.
Homelessness in the City
As of 2015, “the number of homeless New Yorkers sleeping each night in municipal shelters is now 64 percent higher,” than it was ten years’ prior (Coalition for the Homeless 2015). This increase does not account for the many New Yorkers who find themselves sleeping in the streets and on subway trains. The city is attempting to decrease the number of people living on the streets through the creation of ninety new shelters within the next five years. But what exactly causes this problem? Although there are many immediate causes for homelessness such as job-loss and eviction, one of the main causes of homelessness is the lack of affordable housing. According to the National Coalition for the Homeless, “Federal support for low-income housing has fallen 49% from 1980 to 2003,” (National Coalition for the Homeless 2009). The lack of federal support for low income housing makes it much more difficult for many to afford already high rents which take up a large percentage of income. The increased cost of living in New York City also adds to the problem. Over the last twenty years the average monthly rent has increased by approximately forty percent. One of the main reasons for this lack of housing is the alluring essence of living in the Big Apple. Rather than leaving after retirement, many older residents are staying in the city, and young people ready to start families are preferring to stay in the city rather than to go live in suburbia. Add this to the incoming masses pouring in from other states and around the world. Nikita Stewart at The New York Times, discusses that the city could possibly reduce twenty-five percent of the shelter population by creating policies focused on rental subsidies and creating more affordable housing units, (Stewart, 2017).
What Exactly is Affordable Housing?
Housing is deemed affordable when, a family spends no more than 30% or their income in order to live there. In order to identify which groups qualify for affordable housing programs the government uses the Median Family Income (MFI), which is “what the family right in the middle of the income distribution earns,” (Mangin and Woo 2009 p. 18). In New York City, the MFI is $61,600, with the Bronx having the lowest MFI at $38,000 and Staten Island having the highest at $83,000. Despite having the lowest MFI, the Bronx is not the borough with the most New York City Housing Authority(NYCHA) units, but Staten Island, with the highest MFI is the borough with the least NYCHA units. The various types of housing programs are directed at different income categories within this Median Family Income. Within the affordable housing system there are various variables that account for who receives housing. Some of the factors that come into play when looking at housing on a private scale are: rents are often times based on income off of the income of other tenants or what the landlord says and very long waiting list. The average time a family spends on a waiting list is eight years.
Throughout the city there are a variety of affordable housing programs such as Section-8, Mitchell-Lama, 80/20, and the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA). Most of these programs use subsidies, but most housing throughout the city has some form of subsidy, whether affordable or not. Just because affordable housing exists does not mean it is accessible for everyone below the Median Family Income. Section 8 housing exists in two forms: Tenant Based Section 8 and Project Based Section 8. Both of the programs are very similar, with the major difference being that for project based Section 8 tenants cannot take their vouchers elsewhere and apply for specific buildings. In order to encourage landlords to create affordable housing units the government provides them with subsidies and tax incentives. The problem is the level of difficulty there is in order to get into Section 8, with thousands of people on waiting list. The program is more accessible to “domestic violence victims, referrals from Children’s Services, or participants in the witness protection program,” (Mangin and Woo 2009 p.51). In Section 8 housing tenants only pay thirty percent of their income, relying on vouchers to account for the rest. Another program is the Mitchell-Lama program, which was started in 1955. The Mitchell-Lama program targets moderate and middle income families. In order to qualify for this program, “a family’s income must be less than seven times the annual rent for the family,” ((Mangin and Woo 2009 p.). The 80/20 program gives developers tax breaks it they leave twenty percent of units in their building for very low income families. The main program that the included map entry focuses on are the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) developments.
NYCHA
NYCHA was established in 1935 in order to provide affordable housing for lower income families. The New York City Housing Authority, “serves 174,282 families and 396,581 authorized residents,” (New York City Housing Authority, 2017). Despite serving so many families there are approximately 250,000 on the wait list for public housing and currently only about 180,000 public housing units in existence with the vast majority of them being occupied. About twenty years ago former Govenor George Pataki ceased providing subsidies to NYCHA, due to a lack of state and federal funding, NYCHA’s developments saw a decline in their condition. Living in NYCHA developments myself, I have been witness to some of the deteriorating conditions and lack of services that occur. Many across NYCHA developments find themselves, “living with leaky roofs, mold, unreliable heating systems, broken elevators, and a host of other problems at any given time,” (Glen 2015). The issues that occur throughout NYCHA are to blame on the extreme deficit of millions of dollars each year. Rather than focus on funding repairs, NYCHA focuses on the cost of operation.
Next Generation NYCHA
Mayor Bill De Blasio’s proposed solution is a ten-year plan called Next Generation NYCHA. The main goals of Next Generation NYCHA are to :“1. Achieve short-term financial stability and diversify funding for the long term, 2. Operate as an efficient and effective landlord, 3. (Re)build, expand, and preserve public and affordable housing stock, [and] 4. Engage residents and connect them to best-in-class social services,” (Glen 2015). Next Generation has already started implementing these goals through various ways. One such way is through the creation of the NYCHA App so that residents do not have to deal with slow customer service. Some developments have even included cameras to ensure the safety of residents. Through Next Generation NYCHA “5,663 residents [have] been placed in jobs” and “10 new youth councils” have been created ( New York City Housing Authority 2, 2017). Within the first two years Next Generation NYCHA has made significant improvements.
Conclusion
It is very important that housing be affordable and safe for everyone. The lack of affordability within the housing system and the long waiting list cause levels of homelessness to be at an all-time high, and increases the amount of people turning to shelters. Even though there are multiple programs to provide affordable housing it is difficult for many to obtain housing. For those who currently live in affordable housing due to the lack of funding conditions are not always ideal, as their health and safety consistently put at risk. In order to address this issue of lack of affordable housing much reform must be done. Through the efforts of programs such as Next Generation NYCHA, the public housing system in New York City should be able to see much needed change.
Bibliography
Coalition for the Homeless. 2015. New York City Homelessness: The Basic Facts. Prod. Coalition for the Homeless. January.
http://www.coalitionforthehomeless.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/NYC-Homelessness-Fact-Sheet-11-20145.pdf
Glen, Alicia. 2015. “Next Generation NYCHA.” New York City Housing Authority.
http://www1.nyc.gov/assets/nycha/downloads/pdf/nextgen-nycha-web.pdf
Mangin, John, and Rosten Woo. 2009. “What is Affordable Housing? NYC Edition.” Edited by John Mangin and Rosten Woo. Envisioning Development /Guide No.1 (The Center for Urban Pedagogy).
http://welcometocup.org/file_columns/0000/0011/cup-fullbook.pdf
National Coalition for the Homeless. 2009. “Why are People Homeless?”
http://www.nationalhomeless.org/factsheets/why.html
NYC. n.d. Our Current Affordable Housing Crisis. Accessed April 20, 2017.
http://www1.nyc.gov/site/housing/problem/problem.page.
New York City Housing Authority, 2017 “NYCHA 2017 Fact Sheet” Accessed March 21st, 2017.
https://www1.nyc.gov/assets/nycha/downloads/pdf/factsheet.pdf
New York City Housing Authority 2, 2017 “Next Generation NYCHA: Two Years of Progress”
http://www1.nyc.gov/assets/nycha/downloads/pdf/ngn-2-year-anniversary.pdf
Stewart, Nikita, “Harder for Homeless to Enter N.Y.C Shelters, Report Finds” The New York Times, March 21st, 2017
NYCHA Developments Across the City (Yeniliz)
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 | Total population-463 Development Outage- Compactor 1010 East 178th Street New York, United States of America |
 | Total Pop-69 728 East New York Avenue New York, United States of America |
 | Total pop-191 1052 Teller Avenue New York, United States of America |
| Total pop-170 Development Outage- Gas 1740 Madison Avenue New York, United States of America |
| Total pop-165 1090 Rosedale Avenue New York, United States of America |
| Total pop- 83 1090 Rosedale Avenue New York, United States of America |
 | Total pop- 553 20 Lewis Avenue New York, United States of America |
| Total Pop-442 228 East 28th Street New York, United States of America |
 | Total pop- 241 50 Pitt Street New York, United States of America |
 | Total pop- 386 185 Nevins Street New York, United States of America |
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NYCHA Developments Across the City (Yeniliz)
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| Total population-463 Development Outage- Compactor 1010 East 178th Street New York, United States of America |
| Total Pop-69 728 East New York Avenue New York, United States of America |
| Total pop-191 1052 Teller Avenue New York, United States of America |
| Total pop-170 Development Outage- Gas 1740 Madison Avenue New York, United States of America |
| Total pop-165 1090 Rosedale Avenue New York, United States of America |
| Total pop- 83 1090 Rosedale Avenue New York, United States of America |
| Total pop- 553 20 Lewis Avenue New York, United States of America |
| Total Pop-442 228 East 28th Street New York, United States of America |
| Total pop- 241 50 Pitt Street New York, United States of America |
| Total pop- 386 185 Nevins Street New York, United States of America |
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NYCHA Developments Across the City (Yeniliz)
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| Total population-463 Development Outage- Compactor 1010 East 178th Street New York, United States of America |
| Total Pop-69 728 East New York Avenue New York, United States of America |
| Total pop-191 1052 Teller Avenue New York, United States of America |
| Total pop-170 Development Outage- Gas 1740 Madison Avenue New York, United States of America |
| Total pop-165 1090 Rosedale Avenue New York, United States of America |
| Total pop- 83 1090 Rosedale Avenue New York, United States of America |
| Total pop- 553 20 Lewis Avenue New York, United States of America |
| Total Pop-442 228 East 28th Street New York, United States of America |
| Total pop- 241 50 Pitt Street New York, United States of America |
| Total pop- 386 185 Nevins Street New York, United States of America |
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Del Vecchio, A Plague on Staten Island and the Court’s Involvment
Drug Rehabilitation in Staten Island
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 | Location of Staten Island Treatment Court. Staten Island New York, United States of America |
 | Outpatient drug rehab 475 Seaview Avenue New York, United States of America |
| Outpatient drug rehab 375 Seguine Avenue New York, United States of America |
| 1688 Victory Boulevard New York, United States of America |
 | 263 Port Richmond Avenue New York, United States of America |
| 56 Bay Street New York, United States of America |
| 14 Slosson Terace New York, United States of America |
| 1915 Forest Avenue New York, United States of America |
| 201 Forest Avenue New York, United States of America |
| 444 Saint Marks Place New York, United States of America |
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A permanent fix takes a multi-faceted approach. Heroin addiction has become rampant on Staten Island because people that were using prescription pain medication no longer had access to pills or built a tolerance. Efforts have been made to end fatal drug use in Staten Island by District Attorneys and through the Staten Island Treatment Court. Substance abuse treatment is a better response to drug use than incarceration. Although jail is a form of rehabilitation it does not combat addiction effectively. While legislators, judges, and other public officials cannot eradicate heroin themselves. They can help their communities by allowing people go to drug rehabilitation and advocating for the resources that allow them to do so.
Rehabilitation offered by the court tries to help Staten Islanders. Someone charged with a drug-related offense may qualify for a treatment program. According to the Drug Court Initiative Annual Report 2015, “In March 2002, the Staten Island Treatment Court (SITC) opened in Richmond County as an alternative to incarceration for drug-abusing felony offenders.” 1 The concept for drug treatment courts in New York State came from Miami’s efforts to end recidivism. If someone goes to jail addicted and gets no drug rehabilitation when they get out of jail they will still be addicted. Since they are still addicted, they may repeat the offense. In order to end this cycle there needs to be treatment for their addiction. The Drug Treatment Courts are a part of New York’s Problem-Solving Courts. The treatment courts are a collaborative effort from the defense, prosecution, rehabilitation site, addiction education, and law enforcement. In order to accommodate the needs of their populace, all of the drug courts are locally based. This enables them to respond to the needs of each community. As of 2015, 2,529 defendants have been referred to Treatment Court in Staten Island. In Treatment Court a defendant can plea that if they graduate from a drug treatment program their charges will be dismissed. Despite rehabilitation efforts by the courts, there are still other problems that plague the program.
Underfunding and people with no intent to stop using drugs hinder the success of the program. Upon failure of graduation from a treatment program defendants are incarcerated. Since failure from the program results in jail time, judges and defense attorneys urge the defendants not to take the plea unless they are serious about getting clean. If a defendant does not want to stop using drugs, the defense attorney would try to get a different plea for them. The suggestion not to take the treatment unless they are serious also comes from the judges’ knowledge that the programs are underfunded and overcrowded. Only allowing people serious about becoming sober into the programs could also lead to a higher success rate. Sometimes, after defendants take a plea for a treatment program they have to wait in jail for a couple of weeks until a spot opens in the rehabilitation facility. In Treatment Court, “1,057 (41%) have taken a plea and opted for treatment. Of the 1,472 who did not take the plea, 447 (30%) refused to participate.” 2. Most of the people that enter rehabilitation programs graduate and their charges are dropped. However, less than a quarter of people in the program did not graduate. Among the people that failed to complete the program, “37% of the failures were involuntary, 41% of failures were voluntary and 22% were deemed inactive.” 3 The failures of the program include people that failed their drug tests and were arrested again before graduating the program. 8% of defendants that applied for a drug rehabilitation program were deemed ineligible by the District Attorney’s office. One could be deemed ineligible because they were admitted in the program on other occasions and failed to graduate. People should not take the plea unless they want to become sober, but people with one misstep should not be exempt from receiving treatment in the future.
The rehabilitation programs yield long term positive results for the people that graduate. The most recent report published in 2015 shows that 73% of people in the programs graduated. Since the inception of the program, among the people that graduated, “61% of graduates were either full or part time employed… 23% … were either in school, full or part-time and, 10% …received vocational training.” 4 More funding should be allocated towards these programs because it causes a ripple effect in communities. By putting a drug free person back into their neighborhood they can work more efficiently and give back to their community. People can become more productive members of the society by sobering up through the court.
Different Districts Attorney have different approaches to drug treatment through the courts. The previous District Attorney, Dan Donovan, and the current District Attorney Michael McMahon both accepted rehabilitation as an alternative to incarceration. When Donovan was District Attorney he tried to fight the prescription drug crisis. One point of his strategy was to focus on rehabilitation. He continues to try to fight substance abuse issues in Congress by trying to pass comprehensive opioid legislation. Donavan advocated for the 21st Century Cures Act. The bill included, “$1 billion in grants to be awarded to organizations that provide opioid addiction prevention and treatment.” 5 Although the bill does not have a certain amount of money set aside for funding in New York, it will still be beneficial for the communities that receive the funding. Before him, District Attorney William Murphy was in office for over twenty years. He was in office when Staten Island Treatment Court was established so, he saw treatment being put in place. District Attorney McMahon allocates more money towards treatment programs so more defendants are able to enter them than Congressman Donovan did.
District Attorney McMahon started the HOPE program in an attempt to combat substance abuse. Someone arrested for a drug related offense can receive treatment if they want it. Upon completion of treatment, they will have no record. Frank Donnelly from Staten Island Live describes the Heroin Overdose Prevention & Education program as, “a groundbreaking new initiative designed to combat the borough’s heroin and opioid scourge.” 6 McMahon explained heroin use on Staten Island as, “an epidemic that’s become a plague.” 7 The Drug Court Initiative Annual Report- 2015 states that, “Heroin was the primary drug of choice” among offenders that sought treatment through the courts. 8 However, McMahon said that although some people think of Staten Island as “Heroin Island”, he sees it as an “Island of Hope.” 9 If someone relapses after graduating the program and is charged with a “low-level drug-possession”, that does not “automatically disqualify him or her from entering it again.” 10 That part of the program troubled Assemblyman Ronald Castorina slightly because even though he supports HOPE he does not want repeat offenders to avoid jail by abusing programs in place. The chance Castorina’s fears may come to fruition does not eclipse the benefits of the program.
It seems that District Attorney McMahon’s allocation of more funds to court rehabilitation would positively impact the community. However, this past year over 100 people have overdosed in Staten Island. A reason for this is most overdoses do not happen out in the open they occur in homes. John Surico from Vice News asks McMahon where it is on the island and he replies that it is not one specific neighborhood, it is everywhere. McMahon said, “It used to be in the shadows: under train stations, or in dark alleys, and in sort of suspect neighborhoods. But now, the people are overdosing in their own bedrooms, their own homes, in cars, in diners, in restaurants, in parking lots. So it’s sort of come into more mainstream, in terms of location, which is just a shocking development.”11 In addition to HOPE, McMahon implemented the Overdose Response Initiative. Before ORI overdose deaths would be treated as accidental so there would be no investigation to find who the dealer was. McMahon says, “Now a file is open on each overdose death, and for some of the naloxone [overdose-reversing drug] saves.” 12 But still, if an overdose takes place in a hospital and they die there, there may not be a record due to doctor-patient privacy. McMahon thinks, “there’s probably 30 percent more (deaths) that we don’t know about.” 13 Beyond McMahon’s efforts through his various programs, he believes that prevention and drug addiction curriculums should be taught. If people learn to stay away from drugs early in their lives there is a better chance that they will not use them. For people that are already addicted, they can learn how to prevent an overdose and how to treat an overdose. Ideally, people would go to rehabilitation but not everyone can do that. Addicts that cannot go to rehabilitation should be as safe as they can while using drugs. In a borough where the drug overdose rate is so high, education is a key first step.
Everyone has to address the roots of addiction and help people become clean and educated. Even if only one life is saved from increased funding for rehabilitation it is a success. It brings down the amount of people addicted to drugs and can contribute to the end of drug addiction and use on Staten Island. People know drug use is prevalent in Staten Island and think it is sad but most do not see anything they should do to if it does not affect them personally. However, Staten Island is not the world. Threats of cuts persist at the federal level under an impending health care bill that would leave it up to states to decide if they want to cover drug treatment. Some people look at addicts as burdens on society, but empathy and advocacy are imperative for the health of Staten Islanders and Americans as a whole.
Notes
- Edwards, Darren, and Tara Begley. “Criminal Court of the City of New York Drug Court Initiative 2015 Annual Report.” July 2016. 20.
- Shapiro, Rachel. “House passes bill funding $1B for opioid addiction.” SILive.com. November 30, 2016.
http://www.silive.com/news/index.ssf/2016/11/house_passes_bill_funding_1b_f.html.
- Donnelly, Frank. “New HOPE program offers treatment instead of jail to Staten Islanders with drug problem.” SILive.com. February 15, 2017.
http://www.silive.com/news/index.ssf/2017/02/new_hope_program_offers_treatm.html.
- Edwards, “Criminal Court of the City of New York Drug Court Initiative 2015 Annual Report”, 20.
- Donnelly, “New HOPE program offers treatment instead of jail to Staten Islanders with drug problem.”
- Surico, John. “How Did Heroin Overdoses Get So Common in New York City?” Vice. October 25, 2016. Accessed April 30, 2017. https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/heroin-overdose-addiction-new-york-city-staten-island-michael-mcmahon-da.
Bibliography
Donnelly, Frank. “New HOPE program offers treatment instead of jail to Staten Islanders with drug problem.” SILive.com. February 15, 2017.
http://www.silive.com/news/index.ssf/2017/02/new_hope_program_offers_treatm.html.
Edwards, Darren, and Tara Begley. “Criminal Court of the City of New York Drug Court Initiative 2015 Annual Report.” July 2016.
New York State Unified Court System. “Drug Treatment Courts.”5 Jan. 2017.https://www.nycourts.gov/courts/problem_solving/drugcourts/overview.shtml
Shapiro, Rachel. “House passes bill funding $1B for opioid addiction.” SILive.com. November 30,2016.http://www.silive.com/news/index.ssf/2016/11/house_passes_bill_funding_1b_f.html.
Surico, John. “How Did Heroin Overdoses Get So Common in New York City?” Vice. October 25, 2016. Accessed April 23, 2017. https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/heroin-overdose-addiction-new-york-city-staten-island-michael-mcmahon-da.
Xu, Mobile Food Vendors
Popular Food Trucks in Manhattan
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| The Cinnamon Snail sells vegan sandwiches, burgers, and pastries. It has a rating of 4.5 on Yelp and 722 reviews. West 33rd Street & 7th avenue, Manhattan, NY 10005 |
| Wafels & Dinges sells Belgian waffles and has many locations throughout NYC. All of the carts' average rating is 4.5 and has 1,471 reviews all together on Yelp. 66th Street - Lincoln Center New York City, United States of America |
| Wafels & Dinges sells Belgian waffles and has many locations throughout NYC. All of the carts' average rating is 4.5 and has 1,471 reviews all together on Yelp. 42nd Street - Bryant Park (B,D,F,M) New York City, United States of America |
| Wafels & Dinges sells Belgian waffles and has many locations throughout NYC. All of the carts' average rating is 4.5 and has 1,471 reviews all together on Yelp. 81st Street - Museum of Natural History (B,C) New York City, United States of America |
| Wafels & Dinges sells Belgian waffles and has many locations throughout NYC. All of the carts' average rating is 4.5 and has 1,471 reviews all together on Yelp. Central Park-Center Drive New York, United States of America |
| Nuts 4 Nuts sells natural honey-roasted nuts. This location has a rating of 4 and 35 reviews on Yelp. West 46th Street New York, United States of America |
| Nuts 4 Nuts sells natural honey-roasted nuts. In this location, it has a 4.5 rating and 7 reviews on Yelp. W 42 St / 7 Av New York, Vereinigte Staaten von Amerika |
| Nuts 4 Nuts sells natural honey-roasted nuts. This location has a 4.5 rating and 11 reviews on Yelp. 5th Ave & E 72nd St New York, NY 10021 |
| Rafiqi's sells halal food. This location has a rating of 3.5 and 34 reviews on Yelp. 52ND St And Park Ave New York, NY 10022 |
| Rafiqi's Delicious Food sells halal food. This location has a rating of 4 and 57 reviews on Yelp. 44TH St And 5th Ave New York, NY 10036 |
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In the busy streets of Manhattan, mobile food trucks are one of the main places where people get their food. Breakfast carts, halal carts, hot dog carts, and ice cream trucks are just a few examples of the variety we have today. We did not have such a wide range of food trucks before. In the early 1600s, immigrants had chuck wagons and pushcarts instead of modern mobile food trucks.[1] The concept of food trucks has not changed much since the 1600s, except for pushcarts not having any cooking equipment. Even though, it is only one change, it is a huge significant change. This meant that they could only sell items that were prepared beforehand in comparison to today where all the food is cooked on the spot. Some of the foods that were sold on pushcarts were clams, oysters, and fruits.[2] Immigrants were the first ones in the United States who used them as a platform to sell food and miscellaneous items to make a living.[3]
The early mobile food trucks that first showed up in the 1600s were called pushcarts.[4] Dutch immigrants in New York City, also known as New Amsterdam at the time, sold food and other items with them. These immigrants who operated the pushcarts were called pushcart peddlers. The next form of mobile food vending was chuck wagons.[5] Chuck wagons were mobile kitchens, invented by Charles Goodnight in the mid-1800s, made for the purpose of feeding his cattlemen.[6] He redesigned a surplus US Army wagon by attaching a chuck box to the back, which was used as a cooking surface when folded down and when it was not folded down, it was used as storage for cooking equipment and easy-to-store food like coffee, beans, cornmeal, bacon, potatoes, biscuits, and salted meats.[7] There was also a water barrel attached on the side.[8] While the chuck wagons were crucial in the development of the modern mobile food trucks, pushcarts did not disappear. Pushcarts were still sources of cheap lunches for the working class. They were, however, also looked down upon because of their unsanitary conditions. It was not until 1936 that William Fellowes Morgan, Jr., the President of the Middle Atlantic Oyster Fisheries, attempted to change this industry for the better. “The enclosed market simply represented the latest approach in a decades-old effort by various civic, political, and business interests to conquer the ‘pushcart evil,’ regulate street commerce, and extend Progressive Era crusades for a beautiful, clean, and efficient city.”[9] This attempt obviously did not really turn out well since hygiene problems still existed until the 2000s.
Hot dog vendors started appearing in the late 1800s near areas like Coney Island and East Coast universities and ice cream trucks started appearing in the 1950s.[10] As a result of these ice cream trucks being sought after by little kids and teenagers, mobile food vendors began increasing in popularity.[11] However, the growing concerns related to hygiene eventually prevented them from flourishing in the food industry.[12] People were concerned about the unsanitary conditions and started calling them “roach coaches.”[13] This view was finally changed during the 2000s when many chefs were laid off due to economic decline.[14] When these chefs were left without a job, they decided to either work at or start their own food truck business. One of the main reasons for this action was that it was cheaper to open a mobile food vending business rather than a permanent restaurant.[15] Inspections and regulations also started having higher standards.[16] There are now annual checkups done by health inspectors where the overall state of the equipment and the cleanliness is checked.[17] There are also fire codes to be met and stricter sanitary measures like how everybody that touches the food is required to have gloves on.[18] With chefs now working at food carts and the higher standards for inspections and regulations, the public’s view of them have slowly changed over time.[19] People feel like Michelin chefs have more knowledge than immigrants in cooking and trust them more.[20] Nowadays, eating at a food cart is as safe as eating in a restaurant.
The place with the most food trucks in New York City now is Manhattan. They have firmly set themselves as a strong force in the food industry. The cooking equipment in food trucks have upgraded a lot and most of them now even have sinks. They have come a long way considering how pushcarts used to not even have any cooking equipment. While the whole structure of mobile food trucks has evolved over time, the food variety has increased as well. Halal carts, hot dog vendors, waffle trucks, breakfast carts, ice cream trucks, popcorn trucks are just a small part of the variety. The options are endless and some have even made a name for themselves. Some examples for this are Wafels & Dinges, Coney Shack, Uncle Gussy’s, and Korilla. Although, it is now more part of our daily lives for us, eating at a food truck was trendy at one point. It is amazing to think that our streets did not have something so convenient before and how they have increased in quantity over the years.
With the quantity steadily increasing, the competition for business is also increasing along with it. The locations of food carts are mainly concentrated in spots where there are normally a lot of people or where tourists usually go to. Some have a smaller target niche like children or nearby companies where employees look for a convenient place to get lunch. Ice cream trucks park near schools or parks where children or teenagers are often at. However, even before all of that, they would have to be able to get their desired location first. Three obstacles are always in the way of food truck business expansion. One of them is the intense competition that takes place in all the “good” spots.[21] New York City is already small, but there are rules like how food trucks are not allowed to park in metered spots.[22] This makes the options very limited.[23] Another obstacle they have to face are restaurant owners. Restaurant owners think the food carts a threat to their business and are “disrupting their status quo, upstarts who break the traditional ‘rules’ of cooking.”[24] “We park on streets with a lot of restaurants because that’s where hungry people are. Even with lines going out the door, apparently, we are still a threat.”[25] “I once got to a spot at 46th and 5th at CVS headquarters, which is the best spot for lunch in New York City. For that place, we get out at 3:45 a.m., because any time after 4 there it’s impossible to get a spot. But then the cops came and shut everyone down at 11. Why? Because, even though we were in a meter-free, totally legal area, there were ‘noise complaints.’ We didn’t make noise, but you could see restaurant owners peeking out to watch.”[26] The third obstacle is the New York City government. There are 36 pages in the manual for regulations for mobile food vendors alone.[27] All food carts and trucks in New York City must have the Mobile Food Vendor Personal License and have a Mobile Food Vending Unit Permit, which is a decal permit and the permit expires every two years.[28] Although, mobile food trucks were opened due to cheaper pricing compared to a permanent location, it is very hard to operate one. These three obstacles are big ones and they are stunting the growth of this field of business.
The current mayor, Bill de Blasio, is not exactly being helpful either. In an effort to sink a bill that would nearly double the number of food-vendor permits in the city by 2023, he is claiming that each hot dog and kabob cart causes more pollution than a truck ride to Los Angeles.[29] This new bill was going to increase the number of permits to 8,000 by 2023 and also have extra enforcement for violations.[30] Businesses and residents throughout the city were not too happy about the increasing vendor permits but were supporting increased enforcement.[31] They are not thinking from the perspectives of the owners of food trucks, who have already been waiting for 35 years for an increase in permits.[32] “Since 1983, the number of street-food vending permits has remained steady at 4,235.”[33]
What was originally a way of living for the Dutch immigrants has now flourished into something much more. Mobile food trucks are no longer looked down upon and some of them even have chefs that worked at Michelin star restaurants. Mobile food trucks have evolved in terms of food quality, cooking equipment, hygiene, and the consumers’ trust in them. Despite this process taking around 400 years, the effect it brought to our lives is profound. They made purchasing food more accessible and affordable. Food trucks originated from the working class and are still targeted at them. They are the working class’s hidden treasures.
Notes
[1] “History of Food Trucks.” TitleMax.com. Accessed March 03, 2017. https://www.titlemax.com/history-of- food-trucks/.
[2] “History of Food Trucks.”
[3] “History of Food Trucks.”
[4] “History of Food Trucks.”
[5] “History of Food Trucks.”
[6] “History of Food Trucks.”
[7] “History of Food Trucks.”
[8] “History of Food Trucks.”
[9] Bluestone, Daniel M. ““The Pushcart Evil” Peddlers, Merchants, and New York City’s Streets, 1890-1940.” Journal of Urban History. Vol. 18, Issue 1, p. 68. 1991. Accessed March 20, 2017. http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/009614429101800104?journalCode=juha.
[10] “History of Food Trucks.”
[11] “History of Food Trucks.”
[12] “History of Food Trucks.”
[13] “History of Food Trucks.”
[14] “History of Food Trucks.”
[15] “History of Food Trucks.”
[16] “History of Food Trucks.”
[17] “History of Food Trucks.”
[18] “History of Food Trucks.”
[19] “History of Food Trucks.”
[20] Saxena, Jaya. “An Illustrated History of Food Trucks.” First We Feast. First We Feast, 20 Oct. 2016. Web. 24 May 2017. http://firstwefeast.com/eat/2015/09/an-illustrated-history-of-food-trucks
[21] “50 Food Truck Owners Speak Out.” FoodTruckr | How to Start and Run a Successful Food Truck Business. N.p., 01 Aug. 2016. Web. 24 May 2017. http://foodtruckr.com/2013/10/what-i-wish-id-known-before-starting-my-food-truck/
[22] “50 Food Truck Owners Speak Out.”
[23] “50 Food Truck Owners Speak Out.”
[24] Rodriguez, Eddie, Dennis Fulton, Adam Wears, Amanda Mannen, Chris Radomile, Carolyn Burke, Jacob Trowbridge, Ted E., Eric Yosomono, and Rev. Les Crowley. “6 Things Chefs Don’t Want You to Know About Food Trucks.” Cracked.com. N.p., 18 Apr. 2015. Web. 24 May 2017. http://www.cracked.com/personal-experiences-1694-street-fights-explosions-6-reasons-food-trucks-are-crazy.html
[25] “6 Things Chefs Don’t Want You to Know About Food Trucks.”
[26] “6 Things Chefs Don’t Want You to Know About Food Trucks.”
[27] “What Mobile Food Vendors Should Know.” nyc.gov. NYC Health, Web. 24 May 2017. https://www1.nyc.gov/assets/doh/downloads/pdf/rii/regulations-for-mobile-food-vendors.pdf
[28] What Mobile Food Vendors Should Know.”
[29] Gartland, Michael. “De Blasio Administration Finds a Way to Ruin Food Trucks.” New York Post. New York Post, 27 Oct. 2016. Web. 24 May 2017. http://nypost.com/2016/10/27/de-blasio-administration-finds-a-way-to-ruin-food-trucks/
[30] Gartland, Michael. “De Blasio Administration Finds a Way to Ruin Food Trucks.”
[31] Gartland, Michael. “De Blasio Administration Finds a Way to Ruin Food Trucks.”
[32] Gartland, Michael. “De Blasio Administration Finds a Way to Ruin Food Trucks.”
[33] Gartland, Michael. “De Blasio Administration Finds a Way to Ruin Food Trucks.”
Diodato, Thrifty Chic
Thrifty-Chic (Diodato, Alexandra)
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 | 7 West 14th Street New York, United States of America |
| 111 East 12th Street New York, United States of America |
| Pippin Village Thrift Shop 112 West 17th Street New York, United States of America |
| Beacon's Closet 10 West 13th Street New York, United States of America |
| Hamlet's Vintage Thrift Shop 146 West 4th Street New York, United States of America |
| Star Struck Vintage Clothing 47 Greenwich Avenue New York, United States of America |
| 7 West 14th Street New York, United States of America |
| Pilgrim Vintage 70 Orchard Street New York, United States of America |
| 180 1st Avenue New York, United States of America |
| Stock Vintage
143 East 13th Street New York, United States of America |
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Thrifty-Chic: Thrift Stores in Manhattan
Some of the most popular stores found throughout the streets of Manhattan are either thrift stores or consignment shops. With the consistent repetition of old styles from other decades such as the eighties and nineties, thrift and consignment shops have been gaining popularity. Of course thrift stores are the perfect way to get the vintage style without breaking the bank, but there are other stores that sell vintage items. So, the question is, why thrift shops? What is the psychology behind saving money and how did these shops come to be?
It’s a known fact that people get a rush or get insanely excited from saving money. The mere thought of the latest coupons or Groupons could make a person ecstatic. What does something like saving money do to your brain? How exactly is your brain reacting to saving $3 on a certain product or engaging in a buy one get one free sale? Many people believe that money saving and spending habits are inherited from parents or taught as a child, but there are other aspects that people neglect to recognize as well. Your brain is programming your mind when you spend or save money, which affects the decisions you will make (Kearns).
Suzanne Kearns of Money Crashers discussed a study done in her article “The Psychology of Money—How Saving and Spending Habits are Programmed in Your Brain.” Kearns brings up the study published in the Journal of Consumer Research conducted by Cyder, Rick, and Loewenstein that involves the brain’s connection to buying decisions. Basically, the study involved participants making fake purchases and every time a customer “purchased” an item, the researchers would analyze the participants’ insula area of the brain. The insula is an area of the brain that is stimulated when something unenjoyable or unpleasant happens to the person. The insula is triggered often due to purchasing decisions. Savers love to save their money and get a rush from it because it will prevent them from spending so much money and to savers, spending money activated their insula. According to researchers, those who have more insula activity in their brains are savers and those with less insula activity are spenders (Kearns).
So it’s obvious that people like to save their money, some could even say people strive to achieve a level of savings in order to make purchases in the future much easier. How, then, does this tie into the fashion industry? Thrift stores have only just recently gained extreme popularity, whether it be from the return of the vintage style or the aftermath of the hit song “Thriftshop” by Macklemore and Ryan Lewis. The idea of thrifting was frowned upon for centuries. Thrift shopping was denounced as far back as the colonial era. Buying old and used goods was seen as a negative thing because the goods were considered “unwholesome.” This idea, however, could have been related to anti-Semitism because it was aimed at the Jews who owned Pawn Shops. One of the early stories that shows a negative connotation of the idea of buying used items is the story called “The Blue Silk.” In this short story, the main character is considered an outcast for wearing an old dress previously worn by someone else. She also contracts small-pox from purchasing the used dress. The story also says the woman behind the counter of the store was Jewish. This story not only put a certain prejudice in people’s heads about thrift shops and the people who own them, but it also induced fear into people because who wants to buy something that has the potential of getting them sick? It’s no wonder people stayed so far away from thrift and consignment shops (Moniz & Stanton).
How exactly did the thrift shop achieve its “claim to fame?” It was actually partially the influence of the Christians as well as influences from the changing twentieth century. A large part of the change was due to Reverend Edgar J. Helms. He instituted Goodwill, a name well known today when it comes to buying used goods. His idea was to gather used goods and used people, the poor or disabled in need of jobs, to bring both back to their restored purposes. Many people had a new outlook on the principle of buying used goods because it was endorsed by a Christian, so they felt it couldn’t be bad. The motto for Goodwill even changed in 1922 and became “not charity, but a chance.” Another reason for the growth in secondhand goods was the influx of immigrants throughout the twentieth century. There was a large number of immigrants who came to America for whatever reasons, but a lot of them were in need of goods but needed them at a cheaper price, so secondhand goods seemed like the most plausible option. There was also less room for storage of unused goods, so there was a lack of unused, new goods (Moniz & Stanton).
Economically, shopping secondhand made sense during the early twentieth century due to the changes in living conditions and the population. Today, however, there are many alternatives in which people can purchase clothing for a cheap price, for example, H&M, Forever 21, and Primark. Why have thrift shops remained and increased in popularity even with other options? A lot of the popularity is centered around the teenage community because of the increase in vintage style. A large group of teenagers are looking to thrift stores in order to find some cheap, unique additions to their wardrobe. Current fashion trends are inspired by certain styles previously worn in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. One of the best ways to get fashion from that time period is to buy the clothes that are from that period, thus, this is where thrift and consignment shops come into play. Without them, the market for unique clothes would be much smaller and keeping up with today’s fashion would be extremely difficult.
According to Jim Gibbons, the President and CEO of Goodwill Industries International, the thrifting culture is on the rise. USA Today says that the percent of consumers who shop at thrift or consignment shops on a regular basis has raised from 14% in 2008 to around 20%. This number is probable to increase due to the changing fashions year after year. With the fashion changes, certain items may be in higher demand than others, thus raising the demand for thrift shops. Thrifting also helps teens, as well as others, get the best bargain for their buck. It’s a way for people to stretch out a small amount of money by purchasing many different articles of clothing at such a low price (Gibbons).
The big question with thrift and consignment shops is where exactly does one shop? There are now so many different thrift shops it can be difficult to pick the best places to go. According to Untapped Cities, there are a wide number of great thrift shops in many different areas of Manhattan. Some of these stores are great for finding specific items. For example, if you are in need of a great dress, one of the best places to buy a secondhand dress from would be Shareen Vintage on W 17th Street on the second floor of the building. If you are looking for a mix of both casual and high-end items, a great option would be Star Struck Vintage Clothing. Located in the West Village, 47 Greenwich Avenue, this store has been around for over thirty-five years and has all of their items organized by style and color and from casual to couture. If high-end designer fashion on a better price is what you’re looking for, Fisch For The Hip would be the perfect place to visit. This Chelsea consignment shop is perfect for finding certain designer pieces from Alexander McQueen and Armani (Untapped Cities).
Refinery 29 also has a great list of exactly where to shop for each certain item desired on a person’s wish list. Band t shirts and varsity jackets are a staple at Ladies and Gentlemen in the East Village. 80s and 90s classic style pieces are a definite at Mr. Throwback located on East 9th Street. If vintage jewelry is on your wish list, the ultimate spot is Pippin Vintage Jewelry on W17th Street. There are certainly specific stores tailored to the needs and wants of thrifters across Manhattan (Refinery 29).
The thrifting culture has grown widely over the past few years and has become nothing more than a normal occurrence. Shopping in consignment and thrift stores has become a cultural norm as opposed to a cultural taboo as it was in the early eighteenth century. The industry continues to grow each day and with each day comes new fashion as well as new unique pieces. What seems useless to someone could be someone else’s most talked about fashion staple.
Works Cited:
“48 of Manhattan’s Best Consignment, Vintage and Thrift Shops By Neighborhood.” Untapped Cities. January 09, 2017. Accessed March 04, 2017. http://untappedcities.com/2015/06/29/43-of-manhattans-best-consignment-vintage-and-thrift-shops-by-neighborhood/.
Gibbons, Jim. “Thrifting Across America.” The Huffington Post. April 19, 2013. Accessed April 30, 2017. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jim-gibbons/thrifting-across-america_b_3118761.html.
Kearns, Suzanne. “The Psychology of Money- How Saving and Spending Habits are Programmed in Your Brain.” Money Crashers. Accessed April 30, 2017. http://www.moneycrashers.com/psychology-of-money-saving-spending-habits/.
Lee, Vivien. “A Brief History of New York City’s Vintage Shopping Scene.” Racked. December 31, 2016. Accessed March 04, 2017. http://www.racked.com/2016/12/31/14116302/new-york-city-vintage-shopping.
Moniz, Caitlin, and Zach Stanton. “How the thrift shop, once widely denounced, became popular in America.” The Wilson Quarterly. November 24, 2014. Accessed April 30, 2017. http://wilsonquarterly.com/stories/how-thrift-shop-once-widely-denounced-became-popular-in-america/.
Us, Fashion • NYC Consignment Shops • Shopping • Vintage • What To Buy Now, and Photographed By Meagan Long. “An Insider’s Guide To Shopping Vintage In NYC.” Best Vintage Shopping NYC Guide. Accessed March 04, 2017. http://www.refinery29.com/nyc-vintage-shops.
Manitta, Rebuilding and Preventing: Effects of Hurricane Sandy on Staten Island
Lisa Manitta - Hurricane Sandy on Staten Island
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| Tottenville High School served as an evacuation center during Hurricane Sandy. 100 Luten Avenue New York, United States of America |
| Curtis High School served as an evacuation center during Hurricane Sandy 105 Hamilton Avenue New York, United States of America |
| Susan E. Wagner High School served as an evacuation center during Hurricane Sandy. 1200 Manor Road New York, United States of America |
 | A FEMA Disaster Recovery Center was set up at this location in the wake of Hurricane Sandy 6450 Hylan Boulevard New York, United States of America |
| a FEMA Disaster Recovery Center was set up at this location in the wake of Hurricane Sandy 10 Richmond Terrace New York, United States of America |
| A FEMA Disaster Recovery Center was set up at this location in the wake of Hurricane Sandy. 239 Fingerboard Road New York, United States of America |
| A FEMA Disaster Recovery Center was set up at this location in the wake of Hurricane Sandy. New Dorp Lane New York, United States of America |
| A FEMA Disaster Recovery Center was set up at this location in the wake of Hurricane Sandy. 1581 Hylan Boulevard New York, United States of America |
| This location served as an evacuation center during Hurricane Sandy 455 Huguenot Avenue New York, United States of America |
| This location served as an evacuation center during Hurricane Sandy 20 Houston Street New York, United States of America |
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Rebuilding and Preventing: Effects of Hurricane Sandy on Staten Island
Staten Island was one of the hardest hit areas in New York City during Hurricane Sandy. Some may blame the time taken for Staten Island to recover on the government not providing enough protection and resources to islanders, due to Staten Island’s reputation as the forgotten borough. However, it is more likely that Hurricane Sandy had such a big impact on Staten Island due to the geography of the borough, and it likely took so long to recover due to the extent of damage left behind. This was a learning experience for both Staten Islanders and government officials, and steps for recovery and future prevention are still in progress.
Hurricane Sandy formed in the Caribbean in late October 2012. Sandy progressed from a tropical wave to a tropical depression, then a tropical storm, and finally a hurricane.1 Jamaica was the first place to get hit by Sandy on October 24, and then came Cuba and finally the Bahamas were hit by Sandy, which had strengthened to a Category 2 Hurricane at that point.2 In the time between October 24 and October 27, Sandy had claimed at least sixty-seven lives in the Caribbean.3 Sandy traveled north towards the United States and landed on the northeastern coast on October 29, claiming over 100 lives. Sandy set records for its strength, storm surge, and size. When measuring the strength of a hurricane, a lower pressure correlates to a stronger storm, and Sandy “had the lowest barometric reading ever recorded for an Atlantic storm to make landfall north of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina.”4 Sandy also brought a record storm surge of 13.88 feet to New York City as well as record waves at 32.5 feet.5 The only hurricane on record that had winds stretching a further distance than Sandy’s was Hurricane Olga, which hit the Bahamas and Florida in 2001.6 Sandy destroyed homes throughout the Caribbean and across the northeastern coast of the United States. People had to put their lives on hold for a week in order to clean up the destruction. There were also power outages and fuel shortages throughout the affected areas making relief efforts even more difficult.
Prior to Hurricane Sandy hitting the northeastern coast of the United States, government officials stressed the importance of heeding evacuation warnings as well as how severe Hurricane Sandy could be. On Staten Island, the College of Staten Island even sent out a Severe Storm Survival Guide in order to educate the community on how to properly protect their properties. This guide also provided important information regarding Staten Island flood zones and the locations of evacuation centers. However, there was only so much that could be done to protect Staten Island from Hurricane Sandy due to its geographic location and the way the Island has been settled.
Staten Island was hit harder than any of the other boroughs during Hurricane Sandy, suffering over half of New York City’s total deaths. This is largely due to Staten Island’s location along the New York Bight, which is an indentation in the sea floor.7 The New York Bight and the positions of Long Island and New Jersey helped funnel the storm towards Staten Island. Once the storm hit Staten Island, the Raritan Bay, along the southeastern shore of Staten Island, prevented flood waters from receding.8 Thus, Staten Island’s location makes it very susceptible to flooding. During Hurricane Sandy, storm tides on Staten Island reached sixteen feet.9 It also didn’t help that parts of Staten Island’s marshland had been built on. According to the author of the article “Rebuilding Staten Island: After Sandy” from The Economist, “[a] century ago, the south-eastern parts of the island were mostly uninhabited swamps. Development should never have been allowed.”10 Building homes in this neighborhood not only puts the people in that specific neighborhood at a higher risk of flooding, but those in the surrounding neighborhoods as well. When marshes are not built upon, they can function as natural flood protection because, “[m]arshes also help to reduce damage caused by a flood by storing and slowing the water.”11 Thus, developing areas like Oakwood Beach not only puts those residents in danger, but also the rest of Staten Island. The expansion of residential neighborhoods into wetlands resulted in Staten Island consisting of “the highest percentage of people living within the flood plane, according to a city report,” and “16% of the borough was inundated with flooding, impacting approximately 75,651 residents” when Sandy hit.12
The location and development resulted in the severity of Hurricane Sandy on Staten Island reaching the extent that it did. Despite Staten Island being the least populated of all the boroughs, the Island suffered the most deaths during Hurricane Sandy. Most of these deaths occurred along the southeastern shore, consisting mainly of Zone A flood zones. The leading cause of death was drowning, likely because many decided to ignore the evacuation warnings and ride out the storm at home.13 “Evacuation orders were in effect for 375,000 people in low-lying neighborhoods across the city, though many didn’t heed them. Only 3,100 people, and 73 dogs, had taken up residence in 76 city public-school shelters.”14 One reason for this could be that Hurricane Irene, which hit Staten Island in August 2011, provided a false sense of security to those living in flood zones. Hurricane Irene was downgraded from a hurricane to a tropical storm just before it hit New York City, and it left behind very little destruction in New York City while other areas of the world were hit much harder by Irene.15 This false sense of security combined with not wanting to leave the comfort of their own home is most likely what made many people ignore the warnings to evacuate. Hopefully people will not make the same mistake the next time there is a dangerous storm.
Alan Benimoff is a geology professor at the College of Staten Island and William Fritz is the president of the College of Staten Island, and they both have PhD’s in Geology. Michael Kress is the former Vice President for Technology Systems at the College of Staten Island, and he has a PhD in Computer Science. Through the use of the College of Staten Island’s Supercomputer, Alan Benimoff, William Fritz, and Michael Kress were able to formulate a five-point plan in order to prevent future destruction. In their plan, they stress the importance of educating the public so the public understands the importance of heeding evacuation warnings. However, they stress the importance of education not just for residents but also for builders. Education should “guide appropriate building codes and construction styles when decisions are made to rebuild.”16 Today it is clear that some areas of Staten Island have realized the importance of how their homes are built, especially in hard hit areas such as Midland Beach and New Dorp Beach. When driving in these areas it is hard to avoid seeing a house that has now been rebuilt on stilts, which hold the home about ten feet above the ground in order to prevent flooding. Other steps in their five-point plan include “rebuild[ing] and restor[ing] coastal dune fields and marshes,” as well as “rezoning high-risk areas for day use and recreational purposes.”17 It can be seen that these steps are in progress through the state buyout, which approximately 300 homeowners are participating in, that will prevent future development of the neighborhoods that were built on wetlands.18 According to Seth Diamond, the director of the state’s Office of Storm Recovery, these areas will be turned into “an area of natural resiliency, protecting thousands of residents of Staten Island from future flooding.”19 There are also visible signs that these steps are in progress. For example, while driving along Father Capodanno Blvd, one can see the sand dunes that line the beach, which weren’t present prior to Hurricane Sandy.
Hurricane Sandy was devastating to the Staten Island community, but there are signs present today that show that Sandy was a learning experience and steps have been taken to prevent future destruction. The devastation left behind by Hurricane Sandy was largely due to Staten Island’s unfortunate geographic location, but other factors include the expansion of residential areas as well as the rising sea level. There also would have been fewer fatalities had people heeded the evacuation warnings. This was an important lesson for Staten Islanders to take evacuation warnings seriously, and it was an important lesson for government officials and builders about where and how to build homes.
Notes
- Sharp, Tim. “Superstorm Sandy: Facts About the Frankenstorm.” LiveScience. November 27, Accessed May 19, 2017. http://www.livescience.com/24380-hurricane-sandy-status-data.html.
- Ibid
- Ibid
- Duke, Alan. “Superstorm Sandy breaks records.” CNN. October 31, 2012. Accessed May 19, 2017. http://www.cnn.com/2012/10/30/us/sandy-records/.
- Ibid
- Ibid
- Gammon, Crystal. “Why Hurricane Sandy Hit Staten Island So Hard.” LiveScience. November 07, 2012. Accessed May 19, 2017. http://www.livescience.com/24616-hurricane-sandy-staten-island-effects.html.
- Ibid
- Ibid
- “After Sandy.” The Economist. March 16, 2013. Accessed April 30, 2017. http://www.economist.com/news/united-states/21573587-struggle-to-work-out-how-or-whether-put-things-back-together-after-sandy.
- “Why are marshes important?” Gundersen Envision. March 21, 2014. Accessed May 19, 2017. https://gundersenenvision.wordpress.com/2014/03/21/why-are-marshes-important/.
- Dejohn, Irving. “Sandy’s Wounds Still Fresh In Staten Island, Which Saw Most Storm Deaths”. NY Daily News. N.p., 2017. Web. 29 Apr. 2017.
- “Mapping Hurricane Sandy’s Deadly Toll.” The New York Times. November 16, 2012. Accessed May 26, 2017. http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2012/11/17/nyregion/hurricane-sandy-map.html?_r=0.
- “Hurricane Sandy hits New York City in 2012.” NY Daily News. October 29, 2015. Accessed April 30, 2017. http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/hurricane-sandy-hits-new-york-city-2012-article-1.2416531.
- Dolnick, Sam. “Recovery Is Slower in New York Suburbs.” The New York Times. August 28, 2011. Accessed May 26, 2017. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/29/nyregion/wind-and-rain-from-hurricane-irene-lash-new-york.html.
- Benimoff, Alan I., William J. Fritz, and Michael Kress. “Superstorm Sandy and Staten Island: Learning from the Past, Preparing for the Future.” Learning from the Impacts of Superstorm Sandy, 2015, 21-40. Accessed March 1, 2017. doi:10.1016/b978-0-12-801520-9.00003-1, 49.
- Ibid
- Dejohn, Irving. “Sandy’s Wounds Still Fresh In Staten Island, Which Saw Most Storm Deaths”
- Ibid
Zeng, The Chinatowns of New York City
Alana Zeng
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 | This is where the first Chinatown came to be in the mid 1800s. When some Chinese people could no longer afford the rent in the apartments here, they started moving out to Flushing and Brooklyn where they could own homes of their own. Chinatown New York City, United States of America |
 | This is the first BCAA on 8th avenue. If BCAA was not established, 8th Ave would not be known as the Chinatown of Brooklyn. This neighborhood was only known as a Chinese community before the first ever Lunar New Year Parade in 1988. This was actually the first parade out of the three boroughs. |
 | Main Street is where most of the stores and restaurants are. If you have ever been there you would know that the streets are always filled with people. This area is also know as "Asiatown" because there are a significant number of other asians who live in this area. For instance, there are a lot of Koreans who live and have stores in this neighborhood. Flushing-Main Street New York City, United States of America |
The Chinatowns of New York City
Have you ever wondered if there was anything different about the three Chinatowns in New York City other than their location? Did you ever question why they are where they are? Well, in the mid 1800s, people from China started to emigrate to the United States. Of the five boroughs of New York City today, there are three where most of the first Chinese immigrants who came to the United States settled. Those three boroughs are Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens. The Chinese communities of these boroughs are located in Chinatown, Sunset Park, and Flushing respectively. The first borough to have a Chinese community was Manhattan since that was where most new immigrants would settle in New York. The next borough was Queens, which was then quickly followed by Brooklyn.
Initially, Chinese immigrants consisted of mostly men. When the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 was passed, the immigrants believed that if women do not start emigrating to the United States, their race would eventually cease to exist in the country. As a result, they resorted to illegal immigration. “In 1900, there were only 40-150 women for the upwards of 7,000 Chinese living in Manhattan.”[1] In 1965, the Hart- Cellar Act was passed, which removed all individual country quotas and replaced them with an overall annual limit of 120,000 immigrants from the Western Hemisphere and 170,000 from the Eastern hemisphere, both man and female Chinese flooded in to the country
The primary reason for the Chinese coming to this country was to be able to make more money. Most of the money that was made would be sent back to the families that these immigrants left behind in China. This caused an increase of tenement housing and sweatshops. The men would rent one room with several others in order to pay as little as possible in order to save as much money as possible. Chinese immigrants sacrificed their freedom to help their families live a better life. Women who gave birth to children would often send them back to China to be raised by their grandparents in order to be able to work from day to night. When the children were old enough to attend school, they would come back to New York. Basically, work and money was more important than having any fun and being happy. Although, in the minds of these immigrants, being able to make money for their family probably made them happy.
In “The City of Dreams,” Tyler Anbinder writes, “The illegal immigrants worked overwhelmingly in one of two kinds of places – either Chinese restaurants or garment factories.”[2] In a restaurant, waiters had the highest paying jobs and knowing English was required.[3] The language was harder for older immigrants to master, which is why the younger immigrants would take these jobs. Female immigrants would work in garment factories. Compared to the sweatshops from before this time, the factories consisted of mostly women. Pressing is the only job that is considered a “man’s job”.[4] The tasks and conditions, however, were still somewhat the same. Fire exists were padlocked, the women would work long hours in crowded, dusty, and stifling conditions without ventilation. It was required to pay every worker at minimum wage, but because the employer assumed the workers were illegal, he would ignore the law.
At present day, Chinatown is not only home to the Chinese but to other races as well. When Chinese immigrants first settled in Manhattan, they resided around Mott street and Canal street. Later on, they moved to other streets including Mulberry street and Little Italy. Initially, the Chinese were not welcomed by the Italians with hugs and kisses, but with rage and anger. When streets signs were translated to Chinese, the people who did not welcome them would spray over the Chinese as a racist act. Furthermore, the Italians of Little Italy only allowed the Chinese to stay if they agreed to leave alone the commercial spaces on the street level of the apartments. Since the immigrants agreed, there were no longer any problems in that neighborhood.
In the 1960s, after the immigration quota for China was lifted, about 22,000 Chinese immigrants settled in New York.[5] From then on, this number never dropped. Families began to come together and they needed a bigger and better home to live in, so, they started moving to Flushing, Queens. In Reconstructing Chinatown, Jan Lin writes, “A factor pushing immigrants to settle in Flushing was diminishing availability of adequate and affordable space in Manhattan; a factor pulling them was a desire for home ownership among those that had adequate savings to purchase property in Queens. Another important pull factor was low commercial rents in Flushing.”[6] Even though there is a large number of Chinese people living in Flushing, it is known as “Asiatown.”[7] Anyone who has been to that area could see that it is also populated with Koreans and people from other Asian countries. Thus, it is known as a very diverse Asian neighborhood and also as the Chinatown of Queens.
Sunset Park, Brooklyn was a Scandinavian neighborhood from the mid 1800s to the mid 1900s. When the Brooklyn waterfront (main source of employment for the immigrants) closed, the families who lived there sold their homes and left. This was around the time that Chinese immigrants started moving into the neighborhood.[8] Before 1988, Brooklyn’s Chinatown, located on 8th Avenue, was only known as a Chinese community. On January 19th, 1988, the Brooklyn Chinese-American Association (BCA) was established. This association is a non-profit organization where volunteers would help the immigrants who did not speak and understand English well in the community. Less than a month after the organization was established, it organized the first Lunar New Year Parade in Sunset Park.[9] This parade attracted the media, and people from other neighborhoods. On the BCA website is written, “No one could have ever conceived of a “Brooklyn Chinatown” before 1988. After the parade, a “Brooklyn Chinatown” seemed inevitable.”[10]
The one thing that all the Chinatowns definitely have in common is that they are all occupied byhinese people. Chinatown, Flushing, and Sunset Park have plenty of stores, but some are more common on one area than the others. If you ever need to get jewelry, it is best to go to Chinatown, Manhattan since it has a handful of jewelry stores to choose from. If a mall seems overrated, but you want to look through more than a few stores, Flushing, Queens is your destination. Last, but not least, if you ever need to get groceries and want to compare prices from several stores, 8th Avenue, Sunset Park, Brooklyn is the perfect place to go. Now, this does not mean that there are no grocery stores in Flushing or that there are no clothing stores in Chinatown, but it is a fact that there is an abundance of one type of store in each neighborhood.
In Chinatown, Manhattan, there are over two dozen jewelry stores. All if not most of these stores sell gold and jade. Gold is valued by Chinese people because it represents wealth. For example, when a girl in a Chinese family gets married, her parents and grandparents would give her gifts, which would usually be gold or money (cash). Examples of what the bride might get are necklaces, bracelets, rings, and pins. Jade is also something that Chinese jewelry stores might have. It is a metamorphic rock that is green and there is a myth that comes with jade and it is that jade keeps away sickness and brings good health. Most of the jewelry stores in Chinatown are located along Canal Street and Bowery Street and because there are so many of them, there are plenty of designs to choose from.
The diversity of Flushing explains the types of stores that are located in the area. Most of the beauty shops in Flushing are opened by Koreans because they are known for their cosmetics. There are also small boutiques opened by Koreans that sell clothing from their country. In addition to all the Korean stores, there are also American stores just as Macy’s and Target to shop from as well. In the Flushing area alone, there are over 15 places to get makeup and over 10 places to buy clothing.
Walking down 8th Avenue is the worst in the summer. Why? Because there are over 10 markets along the avenue that sell groceries and these markets having melting ice that keeps seafood fresh on to the streets. Despite the horrible smell, there are enough markets for you to go around for a day. This provides a variety of produce and prices. Other than markets, there is also plenty of gift shops. In these shops, you can get school supplies, clothes, stuffed toys, and much more.
By 2014, about 388,000 Chinese immigrants settled in New York, which is almost twenty times more than the number of people who came in the 1960s. According to the United States Census Bureau taken in 2010, about 7.3% of New York’s population is Asian (not specifically Chinese). In Brooklyn, Queens, and Manhattan, the boroughs are 10.5%, 22.9%, and 11.3% Asian respectively.[11] These immigrants have relied on one another since they first came to the United States. As shown in Figure 1, most, if not, all of the Chinese communities in New York are relatively close to one another. Since the Chinese immigrants first came to New York, they have settled in groups because they relied on each other. For example, they would rent apartments and rooms together even if they were strangers. It was very unlikely for a Chinese family to live in a neighborhood “alone.” This is true even today.
[1] Sarah Waxman, The History of New York City’s Chinatown, https://www.ny.com/articles/chinatown.html
[2] Tyler Anbinder, The City of Dreams (New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2016), 528.
[3] Ibid., 528
[4] Ibid., 529
[5] Ibid., 575
[6] Jan Lin, Reconstructing Chinatown: Ethnic Enclave, Global Change (Minnesota: University of Minnesota Press, 1998), 110
[7] Ibid., 110
[8] “A Bluer Sky: A History of the Brooklyn Chinese-American Association, accessed April 25th, 2017. http://www.bca.net/eng/about.html
[9] Ibid.
[10] Ibid.
[11] “Quick Facts: New York,” accessed April 26th, 2017. https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/table/RHI405210/36
Bibliography
- “A Bluer Sky: A History of the Brooklyn Chinese-American Association, accessed April 25th, 2017. http://www.bca.net/eng/about.html.
- Anbinder, Tyler. The City of Dreams. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2016.
- Lin, Jan. Reconstructing Chinatown: Ethnic Enclave, Global Change. Minnesota: University of Minnesota Press, 1998.
- “Quick Facts: New York,” accessed April 26th, 2017. https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/table/RHI405210/36.
- Waxman, Sarah. The History of New York City’s Chinatown. Accessed April 25th, 2017. https://www.ny.com/articles/chinatown.html
Vitiello, New York Citi Bike
Vincent Vitiello, Most Active Citi Bike Stations
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 | New York United States of America |
| New York United States of America |
| New York United States of America |
| New York United States of America |
New York Citi Bike
Biking has become increasingly popular in the New York City area within the last decade, especially with the rise of Citi Bike. This program has provided an easy to use bike for everyone throughout the boroughs: “Citi Bike is the nation’s largest bike share program, with 8,000 bikes and 600 stations across Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens and Jersey City. It was designed for quick trips with convenience in mind…” 1 The program has been a large motivating factor for increasing amounts of people to utilize bicycles as a form of transportation. Citi Bike has stations in areas such as Central Park and Times Square along with outside many city colleges and museums. These key locations make it possible for quick, easy, affordable, and fun transportation around New York City.
The use of Citi Bikes’ bicycles has many benefits to both New Yorkers and visitors alike. Whether a resident or tourist, the use of the bicycles as a form of transportation allows riders to gain a true insight into city life. For example, a person can visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art located approximately at mid-Central Park on 1000 5 Avenue. After an entertaining trip to the museum, a person can check out a Citi Bike at the station right outside the museum located on 5 Avenue and East 78 Street. They can ride the bike around Central Park for 30 minutes for only $12. Central Park is a gorgeous place for riding a bicycle. On a bicycle, a person can truly explore the park. I love riding through the bike path that passes through Strawberry Fields and runs around The Lake and the Central Park Model Boat Sailing. As a Beatles fan, I love passing through Strawberry Fields and visiting the John Lennon Memorial. 3
This is a beautifully serene site to simply sit and relax enjoying the passers by, weather, and nature. When done with the Citi Bike, there is a station along the path leading back to the outside of Central Park. Since the bike can be checked in at any station, it can be left at 5 Avenue and 73 Street. By the end of the day, you feel tired yet refreshed.
There are several methods for a person to rent one of these Citi Bikes. One way to rent a bike is by buying the day pass for only $12. This guarantees a person thirty-minute rides throughout the entire day. This means that you can only have the bike away from a stand for thirty-minutes but can immediately find another bike and begin to ride again. If a person was to exceed this time period, it will cost an additional $4 for every fifteen minutes. The second way you can rent the Citi bike is to buy the three-day pass for $24. The time you are allowed to ride the bike and the late fee are the same but you are allowed to rent a bike over a 72-hour interval. The last way you can rent a Citi Bike is through the annual membership. For $163 per year, or 14.95 per month, you are able to use a bike for 45-minute intervals every day for up to a year. The late fee for this membership is only $2.50 for every 15 minutes.
The feeling a person receives when riding a bike through New York City is indescribable. There are many benefits of biking rather than driving. On a bike, a person can roam the grounds where cars may not be able to drive. Biking withholds more benefits than most people realize. A few benefits include biking being a great form of cardiovascular exercise, an affordable and efficient means of transportation, and a way to save the planet from climate change be reducing emissions. Biking is a great and fun way to exercise for those who may not like to be enclosed within a gym setting. Biking is a more affordable means of transportation than a car due to the fact that there is no registration payment, insurance payment, nor gas payment. Additionally, looking for parking will no longer be problematic because most building have bike racks directly outside the front door. Further, riding a bike to work or to local places aids in reducing traffic and congestion within New York City. New York City is one of the most densely populated cities in the United States of America. At approximately 8.5 million residents living within New York City, there is bound to be large amounts of traffic – especially in the more popular areas. With “approximately 8,000 bikes and 500 stations throughout Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, and Jersey City.” 4 Citi Bikes and bike paths can help in largely decreasing traffic within busy areas. Bike paths have become a growing implementation into the streets of New York City. As of 2017, there is approximately 18.5 miles worth of protected biking lanes within New York. These lanes include both lanes that are protected by a barrier or just a line separating the lane from those of the cars. By creating these protected bike lanes, it encourages people to bike throughout the city and avoid harm or accidents.
Citi Bike’s bike share program provides New York City with additional revenue. A large amount of that income probably come from Citi Bike’s most popular stations within New York City which include “Cadman Plaza East End Red Cross Place, West 52 Street and 9 Avenue, West 54 Street and 9 Avenue, Broadway and West 53 Street, and Broadway and West 32 Street.”5 These stations were the most active of all the stations throughout New York City. This means that bikes were taken from and returned most frequently at these stations. The most recent monthly operating report is of February 2017. In February 2017 alone, the Citi Bike program brought in $470,218 in annual memberships, $177,857 in casual memberships, and $3,892 in other options as shown in Figure 3 below. Overall, the Citi Bike bike share program has been extremely beneficial to New York 6 City and its inhabitants.
Citi Bike’s bike share program is a convenient, efficient, and affordable method to transport yourself around New York City – especially for one way and local trips. Biking around New York City can also be an exuberant way to learn more about the city and make new discoveries about one of the greatest cities in the world. Further, the bike stations are dispersed throughout the City including many popular areas. The bikes are available for usage at all hours in order to accommodate all people. Moreover, biking provides for a quick workout while on the way to work or to a social event when we might not have the time to go to the gym or do not like being enclosed in a gym setting. The bikes make it possible to stay healthy in a busy lifestyle. The bikes, also, make it possible to start taking the steps to leading a greener lifestyle. By using the bicycles when making local trips or, even, longer distance trips, people can emanate less emissions making less of a carbon footprint in an already polluted City. Using Citi Bike’s bike sharing and rental service is beneficial to the person utilizing the service and all other people living in the City.
Notes
1 International, Inc. Motivate. “Citi Bike: NYC’s Most Popular Bike Rental Program.” Citi Bike NYC. Accessed April 30, 2017. https://www.citibikenyc.com/how-it-works.
2 Conservancy, Central Park. “Strawberry Fields.” The Official Website of Central Park NYC. Accessed April 30, 2017. http://www.centralparknyc.org/things-to-see-and-do/attractions/strawberry-fields.html?referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F.
3 (Figure 1) As illustrated on Conservancy, Central Park. “Strawberry Fields.” The Official Website of Central Park NYC. Accessed April 30, 2017. http://www.centralparknyc.org/things-to-see-and-do/attractions/strawberry-fields.html?referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F.
4 International, Inc. Motivate. “Citi Bike Questions Answered.” Citi Bike NYC. Accessed April 30, 2017. https://www.citibikenyc.com/how-it-works/faq.
5 “Here Are the Most and Least Popular Citi Bike Stations in New York City.” Nerve. June 19, 2014. Accessed April 30, 2017. http://www.nerve.com/life/most-popular-least-popular-citibike-stations-new-york-city.
6 (Figure 2) As illustrated in “February 2017 Operating Report.” Citi Bike. Accessed April 30, 2017. https://d21xlh2maitm24.cloudfront.net/nyc/February-2017-Citi-Bike-Monthly-Report.pdf?mtime=20170329110448.
