Author: dylanforgione

Liew’s “The Shadow Hero” challenges and displays various Asian stereotypes throughout the story through its characters and events.

For one, the main idea challenged in the story is the idea that Asian American men are weaker or pejorative in comparison to white men or men of other ethnicities and backgrounds. The main character Hank challenges this stereotype by becoming a super hero and defeating the underground rulers of Chinatown.

The story also challenges the idea that Asian people are less emotional, or at least worse at showing emotion, than other ethnic groups. It is clear that in the story, while Hank’s mother has a rather stoic beginning, she develops a very headstrong and rather funny personality when she tries to force Hank to become a super hero.

Lastly, just the fact that the story’s main characters are Asian challenges the standards for writing and other art forms, in which the typical characters are usually white. Asians are often left to the roles of sidekicks or weak counterparts to the protagonist, and to have a strong asian protagonist exemplifies how The Shadow Hero breaks the traditional mold.

Asian Immigration:

Immigration reform in 1965 led New York City’s immigrant population to grow substantially, and by the 1990s there was greater variety of cultures than ever, including Caribbean, East
Asian, Latin American and Russian. New York’s immigrant groups challenged the city socially due to various conflicts that arose among them.

As New York natives fled to the suburbs, immigrants acted to revamp and revive bleak neighborhoods, like the way Russian Jews changed Brighton Beach’s demographic after a first wave in 1979 and a second wave after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1989 sent many Russian Jews to America. Luckily, their backgrounds facilitated learning English and getting work in a post-industrial economy.

For Asians, things were not as easy. The Chinese were the first immigrant group to suffer exclusion, which lasted from 1882 to 1943. They were not allowed in a lot of occupations, so they had to do their business in an underground way by running restaurants and laundries. They also remained outside of American politics because they were prohibited from becoming citizens.

But in 1965, Chinatown’s population exploded. While they got work easily, it was mostly cheap and harsh labor in factories. As other Chinese peole immigrated from Hong Kong and Taiwan, they scorned the less educated and poorer migrants, and tended to move uptown and away from Chinatown. These well to-do Chinese brought money that spurred construction of apartment buildings in and around Chinatown, which led to controversial gentrification of the area, and a lot of poorer Chinese moved out to Brooklyn and Queens.

Chinese Americans began to organize politically after they were allowed to become citizens in 1943. In 2009, John C. Liu became the first Chinese American citywide official, and two immigrants from Hong Kong were elected to the City Council. But as the community grew economically and politically, it faced difficult and unfair stereotypes.

Many Koreans and Chinese had college educations and technical or professional careers in their home countries, but when they immigrated to America, they lost their titles. Therefore, many parents pushed their children in the direction of college and professional or technical careers. This led many working class Chinese and Koreans who were limited by their socioeconomic statuses to feel ashamed because they couldn’t fulfill their parents’ goals set for them.

While most well to-do Koreans refused to live in Korean communities, their presence in Flushing, Queens became increasingly apparent. Eventually, Koreans formed business associations to protect their interests as they faced dislike from Europeans and Chinese in Flushing. Although we tend to group all Asian cultures together, their differences and complicated histories make alliances and relations between Asian groups difficult.

 

Latin American Immigration:

Puerto Rican immigrants are another prominent immigrant group in New York City. They enriched the city with their culture, music, and strong family traditions. They also became a political force when Herman Badillo became the city’s first Puerto Rican Borough President and congressman, and when Olga Mendez became the country’s first female Puerto Rican legislator in 1978.

Tensions rose between the Puerto Ricans and Dominicans as Dominicans became the largest group of immigrants to settle in New York. Despite their transnationality, Dominicans became avid participants in local politics by creating strong community organizations and electing their first city councilman in 1991.

Their economic experience, however, has been varied, especially for Dominican women. They filled the demand for factory workers, but were restricted by low wages. But in general, earning wages helped Dominican women become more prominent parts of their families, especially because they formed social networks to help them cope with the difficulties of life.

Women also play an important role in the Dominican community of Corona, Queens, as they acted to culturally bridge their own culture with those of other Latinos, African Americans, and Europeans. They did so by forming alliances and social congregations within their neighborhood, and went beyond their typical maternal roles.

The West Indian American Carnival promotes pan-ethnicity, which unites people from different countries. But just like other ethnic groups, West Indian immigrants have faced issues in American since their first significant migration in the 1920s during the Harlem Renaissance. West Indians are classified as black in America, but had a tendency to feel superior to African Americans because of their British background and accents. Therefore, success of West Indians in business and professional sectors led to resentment by African Americans.

However, these tensions diminished during the civil rights era, and some West Indian candidates won elective office in African American communities. West Indians became aware of the fact that racial prejudice effected them as much as African Americans when West Indian men were murdered in Howard Beach, Queens in 1986 and Bensonhurst, Brooklyn in 1989. These tragic events strengthened the feeling of common cause between them.

 

Rudy Giuliani:

While mayor LaGuardia promoted the expansion of public service and freedom of expression, Rudy Giuliani advocated to privatize public services. He believed that public programs and services promoted laziness, and was the first mayor to request that New York State reduce funding for Medicaid and welfare programs.

He eliminated 600,000 people from the welfare rolls, but the state soon realized that he was denying deserving recipients of food stamps, Medicaid, and other services. An increase in homelessness showed that less people on welfare did not mean less poverty.

He then required any able bodied adults on welfare to work for their stipends. Some thought this was a great idea and would increase incentive to work, but others found it to be totally heartless. Plus, since the requirement to work while on welfare also applied to college students, over 16,000 CUNY students were forced to drop out, which countered their attempts to get out of welfare.

Giuliani’s tax cuts that helped big businesses, budget allocations for wealthy private institutions, and tax breaks for big corporations made matters worse for the poor and working class people of New York. Furthermore, in the school system, he shifted supervision of school security to the NYPD, instituted citywide testing, and attempted to disband the Board of Education. He increased spending on books and computers, but cut spending on schools’ operation and construction.

When Giuliani appointed Herman Badillo as special education monitor, things became progressively more conservative in the school system. They both advocated merit based payment for teachers, standardized testing, and student uniforms, all as a part of the “standards movement” that became very popular throughout the country in the 1990s. When Badillo became chairperson of CUNY’s Board of Trustees, he helped end their policy of open admissions in 1999.

Giuliani displayed his conservative nature once again when he attempted to censor art at the Brooklyn Museum because he felt it was “anti-Catholic.” City Council President Peter Vallone declared that he was abusing his power. The Brooklyn Museum sued the city in federal court and won. Giuliani also attempted to limit the freedom of the press by refusing to give interviews to even city and public officials, so they had to sue in order to obtain information about city agencies. Furthermore, he limited what groups and how many could protest in City Hall Park.

When the attacks on the World Trade Center occurred on September 11^th, 2001, Giuliani’s response involved imparting strength and calm upon the shaken city. He expressed great sympathy for those killed in the attacks and even attended funerals. While, in comparison to LaGuardia, Giuliani limited people’s freedoms, attacked the education system, and cut social services that helped poor people, he may be viewed as better than LaGuardia simply because he became the paragon of patriotism after 9/11.

Similar to Irene in “Passing,” Emma Lou in “The Blacker the Berry” is an unreliable narrator because of her bias and view points toward certain people and situations.

For example, Alva clearly does not have very strong feelings for Emma Lou, is relatively lazy in his decision to not work summers because “it was far too hot” (Thurman, 105), and freeloads off of Emma Lou because she is blinded by love and willing to give him money. But Emma Lou excuses his lax and lazy personality by agreeing that “there was no sense in working in the summer” (Thurman, 106).

However, when she talks about Alva’s roommate Braxton, she views him as a lazy and conceited person, even though Alva is very similar in his action in terms of his lack of work and using other women for monetary benefits.

Moreover, Emma Lou can be viewed as an unreliable narrator due to the way that she views all of the people that Alva introduces her to. It becomes clear that she is paranoid that everyone is out to “make fun of” (Thurman, 116) her and make her feel bad. However, all Alva’s friends did was discuss the problems of intra racial discrimination in a lighthearted manner.

Throughout the novel, there are many instances in which the word “passing” is relevantly used or its definition is alluded to. The main usage of the word is to mean “passing as a white person.” This definition is present as a basis for the novel. In the beginning, Irene worries that she will be found out to be black as she sips tea at a cafe in Chicago and Clare stares at her.

Later, she remembers who Clare is and where she knows her from: she was known rather infamously in their home town for passing as white and riding around with older wealthy white men, who would wine and dine her, spend lavishly on gifts for her, and take her to various parties and social events.

The unfortunate fact is that passing is very much so rooted in ideas of self hatred or struggling for power, or often a combination of both. Clare soon admits that she hates her husband and his racist ideas, and wishes that she could tell him off and be true to her self and her race, but of course she can’t because it would completely blow her cover and ruin her life as it is.

In the more literal sense, “passing” in the novel also sometimes means a passing of time, as in the two years that pass between Clare and Irene meeting in Chicago and Irene receiving Clare’s letter. It’s other meaning in the literal sense is Clare’s death that comes at the end of the novel, when Irene pushes her out of the window in a panicking and jealous rage.

Writing journal entries has been a lot like the way it is described in the syllabus: sometimes it is a pain to get through, and other times it is a great way to flush out my ideas into writing after reading an essay or watching a movie. I have the hardest time on the summaries. I feel like they always take me way longer than they should. I think that I should try to take more notes about the reading as I read so I don’t have to go back and read too much of the lengthy text, but even after note taking I could do a better job of deciding what to include in the summary and what to leave out. I generally end up including way too much in my summaries and I would like to try to edit my ideas more as I read and after I read so that I only include what’s really necessary.

On the other hand, I usually enjoy the regular journal entries. They allow me to think critically and a bit more analytically than I usually would about the text that I read or the movie that I watch. However, I think that I could probably do a better job of analyzing the text or movie that I have to write about. To do this, I think that I should read over the question or questions before reading or watching so that I have an idea in mind of what to look for as I read or watch.

In comparison to note taking, journaling is a bit more fun and free. I don’t feel so pressured to discuss everything or take note of everything. And I’m usually still able to remember the overall meaning and summary of the text or movie because the journal entry requires me to think critically about important parts of the text or movie.

In section 3, there is a sequence of photos in which the protagonist is confused because he is having trouble finding foods that he is familiar with, like bread and milk. He is offered some odd looking foods by a man and his son, but is reluctant at first to try them.

I feel that this sequence of images is symbolic in a few ways. For one, it symbolizes the lack of familiarity that immigrants are faced with when they leave their home country and go to a place that they know very little about. Customs, practices, and most obviously food in this case, may not always be the same or similar to what the immigrant is used to, so they must assimilate to whatever the norm is in their new country.

This sequence is also symbolic of the cultural diffusion that occurs due to immigration and mixing of different kinds of people within a region, which is the good that comes out of the sort of “forced assimilation.” The man and his son were glad to show the protagonist how to eat the unfamiliar foods, and seemed to explain to him what they were so that he could become more comfortable and knowledgeable about them.

Horatio Alger’s Ragged Dick tells a rags-to-riches tale, and reinforces the idea that it is possible to make it to the upper classes even if your life begins in an impoverished state. On the other hand, Stephen Crane’s Maggie: A Girl of the Streets was about a girl who was a product of social Darwinism’s bad side, in that she was unable to rise above her poor beginnings.

In the late 19^th century New York City was becoming an epicenter of power and prosperity, and earned the name the Empire City. Respected industrialist, philanthropist and mayor Abram Hewitt believed that New York was bound to be the greatest city in the world no matter what, but philosopher Henry George, Hewitt’s major opponent in the 1886 mayoral election, believed that New York needed to reform its governmental systems to prevent the city from reaching its demise.

The Empire City’s economy revolved greatly around robber barons like John D. Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie, who were aggressive and ruthless businessmen who made the city America’s economic empire during the Gilded Age. Rockefeller was the quintessential robber baron, complete with the rags-to-riches story. With control of 90 percent of America’s petroleum refining businesses, he moved his Standard Oil company from Cleveland to New York in 1882. Due to his Darwinist ideals, he felt it was normal to eliminate competitors, and that even in business it was about survival of the fittest.

Soon, consolidation in business became common place and the Great Merger Wave swept through America. As a result, government began to further regulate business practices, but since these regulations were initially weak, merging continued to flourish, and by 1892 a third of the country’s millionaires lived in the New York area, and by 1900 it was home to two-thirds of the nation’s biggest businesses.

To keep up with the city’s blossoming economy, the new riches of New York began to shape the city accordingly. For example, the Brooklyn Bridge was built and opened in 1883, which combined art and technology to exemplify the city’s innovation. Another example is the Statue of Liberty, which replaced the Liberty Bell as America’s symbol of freedom when it was completed in 1886. But as New York City grew, its political atmosphere became increasingly more corrupt as the city came under control of the Tweed Ring.

Between 1865 and 1871, William M. Tweed was the master of the city. He was raised in the working class and entered politics in 1848 after organizing a volunteer fire company. He went on to hold many positions including congressman, senator, and school commissioner. With the ability to control various jobs, contracts, and licenses, he became the country’s first true political boss. While he promoted democracy by reaching out to the working and middle classes, he also subverted it by rigging votes in his favor to ensure his success. By 1868, Tweed ruled both the city and state of New York and had plenty of his comrades in various government sectors and was very powerful and wealthy.

Cracks in Tweed’s armor did not begin to show until a rebellious movement developed in Tammany and violence subsequently erupted in the streets. The 1871 Orange Riot erupted when Irish Catholics protested and fought against the Irish Protestants celebrating Boyne Day. Newspapers across America supported the Protestants in their anti-Catholic sentiments and their right to march. The New York Times used the riot as an example of how poorly Tammany ran the city, and finally when the Tammany Ring’s book keeper died, he was replaced by a Tweed opponent who gave information of Tweed’s dishonest practices to the Times. The news became widespread on July 22, 1871, and within months, Tweed faced disaster.

On September 4, the city’s prominent men gathered to reestablish their own power in the government and address the issue, and a Committee of Seventy was set up to help stabilize New York’s economy and government. Tweed attempted to flee once to New Jersey and once to Spain, but eventually died in Ludlow Street jail at age fifty-five. The truth about Tweed left the country to make sound governmental practices a national priority, and to ensure that the masses were attended to.

But even still, the difference between the wealth extremes in New York posed problems for the people and society, and many debated over the causes of poverty. Journalist Jacob Riis played a key role in undermining social Darwinism and informing the public of the true reasons for poverty. He traveled to the Five Points daily as a police reporter for the New York Tribune, and began photographing the awful conditions he witnessed and showing them to church groups in New York. He then published How the Other Half Lives in 1890, which further shed light on the issue of poverty. Creating a new Committee of Seventy, New York reformers elected reformer William L. Strong as mayor from 1894 to 1896. And in 1896, the struggle against Tammany had carried over into public school reform and the state reorganized New York City’s schools under a centralized system. In the town of Jamaica, working-class African Americans fought against the racial segregation of schools, and in 1900 Theodore Roosevelt signed the desegregation of public schools into law.

Shaw Lowell was a good example of an upper-middle-class American who became more educated about poverty and changed their views accordingly. As the first female commissioner of the State Board of Charities and head of the New York Charity Organization Society (COS), she refused to partake in services that would encourage government dependence. But after discovering how low wages really were and how they prevented people from rising up socially and economically, she began to advocate for a living wage. In 1891 she became president of the New York City Consumers’ League, which focused on unfair working conditions for women, and by 1896 they got New York state to set minimum standards for working conditions. After this, many other public organizations set their sights on combatting poverty in New York City. Settlement houses, the Salvation Army and the Children’s Aid Society were organized.

After a financial crisis in 1873 led to a surge in unemployment and wage reductions in 1874, laborites and socialists gathered in Tompkins Square Park on January 13, 1874. Since the police had revoked permission for the rally last minute, protestors were met with unexpected violence and assault by the police. A peaceful protest for the national railroads held in July of 1877 was also met with fierce and violent opposition from the police.

In 1877 a cigar makers strike was organized by the Cigarmakers’ Union under Samuel Gompers. He felt that the only way to combat unfair poverty and working conditions was to have protests that were organized by and for the people, and by late October he had over fifteen thousand strikers and their families to support. And while the Union raised money to aid these people, funds dwindled into December, and by the end of January the strike collapsed.

In 1886 labor activism peaked when the Central Labor Union (CLU) organized a horse car drivers’ strike. Their biggest weapon in their fight against unfair pay and hours was boycotting, which surged to an amount of 165 in 1886. But when boycotts were deemed illegal and a bomb killed seven policemen at a protest in Chicago in May, the repression of unions greatly increased.

Taking action for their cause, the CLU nominated popular reformer Henry George to run for mayor in 1886. Tammany offered George a seat in congress if he dropped out of the race, but he refused, so Tammany and the Democrats nominated Abram Hewitt, who had a more Darwinist point of view. George worked around the clock publicly speaking and campaigning, while Hewitt preferred to keep his campaign more formal. Despite many accusations of cheating and manipulation in the polls, Hewitt won the election. Even though George lost, his campaign was important because it was one of the most serious challenges to the current order and government at the time, and it led many other labor candidates to enter politics. Gompers later formed the American Federation of Labor in 1886, which was the most lasting legacy of the George campaign.

However, the Brooklyn Trolley Strike of 1895, in response to severe wage cuts, proved that there was still much left to fight for. And despite great support by the community, the strikers were met with violence and brutality by the police, and the strike collapse after five weeks. But in 1899, newspaper boys or “newsies” gathered in City Hall Park to form a union and call a strike against child labor and its unfair practices. They prevented the sale of newspapers and in two weeks they won their fight. The reason for their success had a lot to do with the fact that they were children and gained a lot of sympathy for their cause.

In The Godfather Part II, directed by Francis Ford Coppola, there is a scene during which Michael Corleone’s sister Connie pleads with Michael to make amends with his brother Fredo for Fredo’s sake, since their mother has just died and Fredo “is so sweet and helpless without [Michael]” (The Godfather Part II).

During this scene, the camera angle on Connie is slightly high angle, which is an angle that creates a sense of vulnerability. This angle makes sense because she clearly acts very vulnerably toward Michael when she begs him to forgive Fredo. She even admits that she understands that while they have not always seen eye-to-eye, that Michael was “just being strong for [the family]” (The Godfather Part II).

In contrast, Michael sits in a chair and is filmed at eye level. While this angle is usually used to make the audience feel more comfortable with the character, Michael’s stern expression and and physically looking down upon Connie creates a slight feeling of dominance and power on his part.

The shots of both Connie and Michael in this scene are close-ups, for only their faces and shoulders are visible. This allows the audience to more clearly observe the characters’ emotions, which is necessary in this scene because of the tensions that exist between Michael and Connie, and Connie’s vulnerable and pathetic state.

Between 1881 and 1914, 2 million Jews emigrated from eastern Europe to the United States, and 75 percent came from Russian lands. Moreover, nearly three-quarters of these immigrants settled in New York City, and by 1910, Jews became the largest immigrant group in the city with a population of 1.4 million. The majority of the emigrants in the early stages were shtetl (small town) people, who were not skilled workers, but by the turn of the century, most of the eastern European Jews who immigrated to America were skilled or semiskilled workers. About 40 percent of these Jews became employed in the garment industry, and many others became machine & metal workers and food industry workers.

After 1905, severely oppressive behavior by the czarist government in Russia led many more immigrants to go to America, including those who were more well-educated and politically involved. They were also less religious and more likely to have received secular education than those who emigrated before them. And in comparison to other immigrants, whose returnee rates were around 30 percent, Jewish returnee rates from 1905 to 1920 were never more than 8 percent.

As more and more Jews swarmed into New York, the Lower East Side became the most congested district in all the five boroughs, and Yiddish became its dominant language. In fact, the Lower East Side’s Jewish population continued to rise until it peaked at 542,061 in 1910. However, new bridges and subways that connected Manhattan to Brooklyn led lots of the Jewish population to spread out into areas of Brooklyn including Williamsburg, New Lots, and Brownsville, whose Jewish population drastically grew from 4,000 in 1890 to 230,000 1915. And even still, the Lower East Side remained the epicenter of Jewish cultural and political life for most of the 20^th century.

Facing an increase in anti-Semitic views, German Jews became determined to Americanize the people of their community, so they established associations including the Educational Alliance, which provided career and citizenship training. But since the immigrating Jews resented their patronizing behavior, the Alliance was forced to ease up and by the turn of the century, people had become more responsive to their programs.

But inevitably, various illegal activities became a problem on the Lower East Side due to its poverty. The most rampant problem the neighborhood faced was prostitution, and three-quarters of the prostitutes from the district who were tried in court between November 1908 and March 1909 were Jewish. Then in September of 1908, an anti-Semitic piece in the North American Review by New York City’s police commissioner Theodore Bingham stated that Jews were simply more likely to commit crime by nature. This led the German Jews to take action and create the New York City Kehillah in 1908. This congregation of Jewish organizations sought to educate Jews and help them deal with social issues. Although crime rates decreased, the Kehillah never did unify the community because of its Reform Jewish leader.

As Jewish interest in unions grew, landsmanshaftn were created. These were associations that offered a variety of social services to their Jewish members. But as the Jewish population grew, the number of similarly benevolent organizations in New York City also grew, and projects were launched that were more ambitious than those of the landsmanshaftn, one of which being the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society.

The eastern Europeans’ urban experiences prepared them much more suitably for positions in commerce and manufacturing than other immigrant groups, and by 1900 one-third of the Jewish immigrant population were involved in those fields. With growing numbers of customers, Jewish immigrants did indeed have the ability to save their way up the social ladder. Jews began dominating the garment industry, and made up three-quarters of its labor force by the end of the 19^th century. However, unhealthy and unsafe working conditions, low wages, and long hours led garment workers to protest and strike.

Between 1909 and 1914, union membership grew sharply, and the International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union emerged. On November 22, 1909, a dramatic strike was held by female workers of shirtwaist shops in New York City. The importance of unions became very clear and prominent after the Triangle Shirtwaist fire of 1911, after which 100 constituent unions had a total of 250,000 members.

While Jewish immigrants were in support of socialist unions, they usually did not join the socialist party officially, and in 1912, the district with the lowest percentage of registered voters was the predominantly eastern European Jewish Eighth. At the local level, Jews either voted for Tammany, because he got lots of Jews in office, or whatever party had ideals similar to their own, including criticism of czarist Russia, support for immigration, and plans to improve working conditions. But the true beginning of the Lower East Side politics was Morris Hillquit’s candidacy for a seat in Congress in 1906. While he was unable to overcome Tammany’s monetary influence, another Socialist party candidate named Meyer London won a seat in 1914.

Due to the immigrants’ view of their new country, the impact of urban life on their religion was very evident. Some people remained truly orthodox, but most only practiced some aspects of the religion. Since the synagogue is a place of both socializing and worship, and since young Jew were the target audience for the religious reform, the Young Israel movement was formed in 1912 in order to draw more people to synagogue. Then in 1913, the Conservative movement aimed to merge the traditional practices and the new changes, which many young people were attracted to.

Young Jewish immigrants were less interested in religion mainly because they were more concerned with the important of secular education. Some teachers were known to be overly harsh, and punished students for speaking Yiddish, while others were praised for changing young people’s lives. Overall, Jews did very well in school because of their enthusiasm. But when it came time to go to high school and even college, facilities were limited and most kids had to work instead of going to school.

As a form of entertainment, twenty Yiddish daily newspapers were established between 1885 and 1914. These dailies represented every type of belief in the Jewish community, from secular to orthodox. While the dailies provided local and national news, they also included columns with advice on adapting to America. Within a decade of its debut on April 22, 1897, Foverts became the most popular Yiddish daily in the world, with 140,000 readers by 1912. This was mainly because of the paper’s editor, Abraham Cahan. The paper promoted a new, more religiously tolerant kind of socialism, advocated for Americanism, and provided advice and assistance on a wide array of problems involving adaptation to American life.

Other forms of entertainment, including dance and street games, also became popular with Jewish immigrants. But nothing compared to the popularity of the Yiddish theater. These theatres produced many cheesy comedies and skewed versions of European dramas, which the common people loved because they usually reflected immigrant life in lighthearted and comical ways. However, the Yiddish intellectuals called for serious theatre. Luckily for them, a talented playwright from Russia named Jacob Gordin arrived in 1891. He collaborated with acclaimed director, Jacob Adler, who established the Independent Yiddish Artists Company, and they created intellectually artistic theatrical productions.

Despite the small town beginnings of the first Jewish immigrants, it is clear that they established themselves culturally and socially in New York City. The Jews made their way up the social ladder, established a variety of organizations that were aimed at helping the Jewish community, and enthusiastically sought after education. They set up forms of mass and intellectual entertainment in the city, and although some began to stray from their religion, religious reform helped keep their faith intact as their lives were reshaped by the dynamic environment of New York.