From the macrocosm that is Occupy Wall Street, emerges one group of City University of New York Graduate students aiming to take on the problems they see with their university.

They call themselves Occupy CUNY, and they are protesting a myriad of grievances they have against one of America’s largest public universities, from adjunct and faculty job security, to healthcare, to course load.

One of the most pressing issues for students is the recent increase in tuition. In November, CUNY’s Board of Trustees approved a series of new tuition hikes. The hikes will raise tuition that is currently a little over $5000 a year, by $300 a year for the next five years.

Even with tuition hikes, CUNY still offers a bargain compared to other private and public institutions across the country. But for many students, the increase in tuition means a decrease in access to a public education. “The whole thing is very totalizing,” says Nick Gamso, a 25-year old Ph.D. student in CUNY’s English department, who is also a teaching adjunct at Queens College. Noting a lack of fellowships and meager teaching wages, he adds that at the university, “everyone’s lives become a part of being indebted or are affected by debt.”

But for Gamso and others involved in Occupy CUNY, the protest won’t merely end when, and if, conciliations are made between CUNY’s Board of Trustees and its adamant opposition. The protests are also a way for those who pursue the often-insular life of the mind to take to the streets.

“It’s become resonant for all of us because we’re studying this too,” he says. “Academics naturally have a lot of contempt for what they see as the commodification of ideas, of culture, of the university itself. To see it underscored, and enacted in real time, it’s really incredible.”

Sitting in the driver’s seat of a U-Haul van, Lance Corporal Elewis Martinez pulled two handwritten letters out of the front pocket of his camouflage jacket. One was a letter from 14-year-old Steven Rodriguez.

“I’m studying hard so my mom could stop crying because my dad does not find work and can not buy a pair of shoes or a jacket for my sister and me,” Rodriguez wrote. “I pray to God and to you to help us this Christmas to have a few pairs of shoes and coat for me an my sister.”

Within the next few weeks, Martinez plans to make a trip to Rodriguez’s house in Jamaica, Queens, to personally drop off what he asked for, plus a bag full of toys.

“I wasn’t the richest kid, but I didn’t have to worry about having clothes,” Martinez said as he drove from the New York Toys for Tots warehouse at Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn.

Every year, the New York City Marines Toys for Tots program collects hundreds of thousands of toys for low-income city kids. The toys are corralled from shop and office drop-boxes and fundraising parties and brought to the warehouse for sorting.

The toys are usually distributed to kids by churches and other organizations that ask the Toys for Tots organizers for a certain number of toys for the appropriate age range.

But this year, the Marines are making individual house calls themselves as well.

I visited the Toys for Tots warehouse at Floyd Bennett Field earlier this month and spoke with some of the Marines there.

Greenpoint Reformed Church Pastor Ann Kansfield, 36, had to come through a lot of hurdles because of her sexual orientation. In 2004 she went to Massachussets to get married to her Co-Pastor Jennifer Aull, 38. Ann’s father, Norman Kansfield,  a Reformed Church of America minister, was suspended from his post as a president  of New Brunswick Theological Seminary for officiating the wedding that violated the church law. He was only reinstated this year.

Ann’s own career was also complicated by her openness about being gay. In the following video piece she recounts the story of her ordination by the denomination, different from the one she currently serves…

Bay Ridge small businesses are starting up and shutting down faster than ever, residents say, and that might just be because those who live there but work in Manhattan would rather shop in Manhattan.

But this tendency stretches beyond the far reaches of Brooklyn. Throughout New York City and across the country, those who aren’t happy with the shopping options in their neighborhoods venture to other neighborhoods to get their groceries and other goods, according to my sparse survey results.

Convenience may trump the price, variety and quality of foods and other goods for some however. So it remains unclear exactly why new stores Bay Ridge are struggling.

According to my survey, which I circulated via social networks last month, out of nine respondents who said they’d rather live in another neighborhood if money were no object, only three are willing to travel out of their way to find better variety, prices or selection.

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I conducted my survey on people’s perceptions of Occupy Wall Street, and whether or not they believed it would alter the 2012 elections. I was curious to see if people thought the movement could transcend Zuccotti Park to have any tangible effects on policy. Unfortunately, both low turnout and a skewed survey pool shed little light on the issue.

I repeatedly advertised my survey on both Facebook and Twitter — and while Twitter offers great exposure to people outside of your immediate circle of friends, Facebook is more specific. My Facebook friends are by no means monolithic in their political views, but I feel like the people who would take the time to fill out a survey on the occupation are generally supportive.

On the technical side, I could not find an embed code for the survey. I think maybe because my chart was restricted to a table, it wouldn’t allow for embedding? Was I not allowed to make a chart because I had non-multiple choice questions on my survey?

https://www.google.com/fusiontables/DataSource?snapid=S324155fq9U

Last week, on Nov. 16, a meeting was held by the East Harlem Chamber of Commerce that included the 23rd Precinct speaking about whether there was a need for a curfew, as gang violence in this neighborhood in on the rise. It is clear that the rising levels of youth and gang violence in East Harlem are a major concern for members of the community.

To find out more about what people’s thoughts on the issue is, I conducted a survey on “stop-and-frisk” in East Harlem. The sample size was fairly small, at eight people, so it isn’t exhaustive. However, it can at least be an insight into what a few people think of this issue, even if it can’t be much of an authority in terms of the numbers. Below is an analysis of the results.

Who do you think should be in charge of taking care of this issue?

As can be seen from the pie chart of the responses, “government or city agencies” had the largest number of votes, though this was still less then half of the respondents at 37.5 percent. This suggests to me that the spread of responses could have been more diverse had the sample size of the survey-takers been larger.

None of the respondents picked the option “the youth themselves” in answering this question. So at least of the people who took the survey, the respondents seem to feel that the issue isn’t one that can simply be solved by young people in the community attempting to mitigate the situation by organizing themselves, and that it is more complicated and needs the attention of people from the outside this section of the community.

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