Tag Archives: New York City

Risky Business: Being Muslim in NYC

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On November 18, an estimated 2,000 people turned out in downtown’s Foley Square to protest the rising trend of Islamophobia in New York City – from police harassment and surveillance, all the way down to smaller, everyday incidents, bigoted comments or strange looks on the street.

The latest survey put out by the mayor’s office suggests that a full 80 percent of NYC’s 600,000 Muslims have experienced some sort of discrimination and harassment in the city. Four-fifths of those who said they’d faced prejudice didn’t report the incidents to the authorities, out of fear – fear that they wouldn’t be heard, or worse, that they would be further discriminated against.

Hate crimes against Muslims, too, are on the rise: After falling steadily since their peak in 2001, in 2010 the number jumped by nearly half from the year before.

As New York City’s Muslim community struggles to stop the hate and the bias, hear from two women who’ve experienced the harassment themselves. The video below spotlights the stories of Khadeejah Bari and Sundus Arain, both students at New York University and active members of the college’s large, involved Islamic Center.

The Entrepreneurs of Zuccotti

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The protestors at Zuccotti Park style themselves as anti-corporate, and some even go as far as to call themselves anti-capitalists. Despite the movements aversion to private money, the occupation has seen a number of ambitious and industrious individuals make a buck or two off the encampment in downtown Manhattan.

From selling buttons in support of the 99% to making t-shirts, these entrepreneurs of Zuccotti support the movement, but have nothing against making some money on the side.

An expat returns

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Alec has not been back to America in years. After graduating from Columbia University, he moved to Vietnam to teach English, joining thousands of Americans who travel to Asia for adventure or wealth by rite of being a native speaker. Sporting a new beard and an unruly mop of hair, Vietnam has obviously changed Alec. Here, he muses on his experience.

[audio:http://cdn.journalism.cuny.edu/blogs.dir/383/files/2011/10/audioalec.mp3|titles=Alec Talks About Vietnam]

Amazing Grace: A flute player’s journey from Juilliard to Ground Zero

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Emi Ferguson at the 9/11 10th anniversary memorial, 9/11/11. Photo courtesy of Emi Ferguson.

Emi Ferguson is only 24, but she’s been playing the flute for more than three-quarters of her life.

After starting her training at the tender age of six, Ferguson moved on to the prestigious Juilliard School, where she earned her Bachelor’s degree and is currently working towards her second Master’s as a Paul and Daisy Soros Fellow. Over the span of her career to date, she’s played in more than a dozen countries, including China, Japan, and Switzerland. Though she grew up in Boston, Ferguson now resides in New York, where she plays in a variety of local groups. There, she also co-founded an ensemble, the PUFF! Quintet.

In September 2011, Ferguson was invited to play “Amazing Grace” at the 9/11 10th anniversary memorial, which aired around the world. She was one of just four musicians selected for this honor, alongside Paul Simon, James Taylor, and Yo-Yo Ma.

Below, hear about her path in music, and how she reached the national stage at such a young age.

Emi Ferguson, flute player by ewthor

The Corner

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Spend 10 minutes on the corner of 124th Street and Lexington Avenue and you’ll get a quick glimpse into two longstanding issues in East Harlem: drug addiction and homelessness.

Jose Gonzalez sorts through his bag of recyclable items. (Photo: Sarah M. Kazadi)

There are seven recycling machines stretched along the wall of the Rainbow clothing store on the corner, offering money in exchange for aluminum, plastic and glass. The most common visitors of the recycling engine, also known as a redemption center, are either homeless or living in local shelters, says manager Auto Ferril, and many of them are either still on drugs or recovering drug addicts. Ferril opens the center at 6 o’clock every morning. In some cases, the change his visitors earn in exchange for digging through garbage for recyclable materials is their only income.

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“In It To End It”: Avon Walk for Breast Cancer 2011

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Step into Central Park on any regular Sunday, and you’ll see the usual assortment of power walkers, bicyclists, and families. The scene in the park this past Sunday, however – October 16 – was a riot of pink: pink balloons, pink sweatshirts, pink wigs. An estimated 3,500 people in pink gathered to kick off the annual Avon Walk for Breast Cancer, a two-day, 39.3-mile event aimed at raising funds for breast cancer research and awareness.

The Walk began in New York in 2003, and has now spread to nine major U.S. cities, including Boston, San Francisco, Chicago, and Washington, D.C. In the nine years since the event’s inception, it has raised more than $380 million for breast cancer research. This year’s New York walk alone raised an estimated $8.4 million.

The Avon Walk is held as part of October’s National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, now in its 27th year. Though more effective treatments for the disease have become available in the last 20 years, breast cancer is still the leading cause of cancer deaths among females of all races, affecting about one in eight women, according to the American Cancer Society. “That’s why we still do this,” said Sara Shaw, a volunteer coordinator for the Avon Walk. “People think that because it’s gotten easier to treat breast cancer, it’s not an issue anymore. But almost a quarter of a million new cases are diagnosed each year. How is that not an issue?”

WALKERS ENTER CENTRAL PARK
GATHERING FOR THE WALK
REGISTERING TO WALK
FAMILY SUPPORT
WAITING...
DOING IT FOR THEIR LOVED ONES
AT THE WALL OF HOPE
A RIOT OF PINK
VOLUNTEERING AT THE WALL OF HOPE
WALL OF HOPE, UP CLOSE

[Show slideshow]

Charlie Sheen = winning. Me = not so much.

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Two words for this week’s assignment: Epic fail.

I tried. I really did. I put up posts on Facebook and Twitter promoting my question blog post…

…and I got exactly one comment, which can’t be reprinted here. (It was a joke from a friend of mine.) Looking at the posts as they’re laid out here, I wonder if the issue was partially visual. I don’t know how to insert a thumbnail pic into a link posted on Facebook, but I clearly need to figure that out, because the posts look kind of hideous and unappealing without images. I don’t know that I’d click on them, either!

For my survey blog post, I’m focusing on the connection between the crime rate and the economy in Brighton Beach. Most crimes are actually down in the neighborhood, but burglaries have jumped 17% in the last year – which I think makes sense, in a difficult financial time.

I tried to think outside of the box and post on Facebook groups devoted to Brighton Beach. Unfortunately, the only such groups focus mostly on the TV show “Russian Dolls,” or on comparisons to “Jersey Shore.” So the handful of replies I received were irrelevant and spammy. But, for the sake of transparency, here are the original posts, just from my own Facebook and Twitter pages:

So after this assignment, here’s what I know about social media promotion: Just putting the post up – no matter how many times you do it – isn’t gonna get you automatic audience engagement. Like so many of my classmates have commented, much to learn…

Are You Shopping Locally?

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Behrens Pharmacy in Clinton Hill

Mohammad Rahman has been working at Behren’s Pharmacy in Clinton Hill for decades. He is one of the millions of workers employed at a small business, the lifeblood of the American economy (PDF).  And to New Yorkers, and Green Point and Clinton Hill, Brooklyn residents in particular, small businesses are a way of life. The threat of their disappearance is enough to incite protest, as seen with the Atlantic Yards development.

But, according to Rahman and workers at other businesses in the neighborhood the deadliest small business killer is less tangible than the Atlantic Yards and local residents have less control over it’s operation: it’s the American economy.

Rahman, standing behind the pharmacy counter waiting for customers said business was very slow, but doesn’t blame people for not shopping locally.

Unless people have a disposable income – unless they have money in their pocket, this economy can’t work…people don’t have the jobs, how will they spend the money?

Rahman said local residents are shopping online at places that don’t have the overhead that a local store like Behren’s does.

Down the street at the cafe Tillies of Brooklyn barista Khephran Riddick echoed Rahman’s sentiment.

“It’s been a little show…It’s tough to find jobs out here.”

Still, small businesses seem to be holding on, despite the continued economic downturn.

Where do you fit in?

If you are a small business owner in Fort Greene or Clinton Hill:

How has your business been affected by the ecomonic downturn?

And residents:

Are you still shopping locally and eating out?

Please respond in the comments.

Would You Miss the City’s Worst Post Office?

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The Post Office in Kensington, Brooklyn

The post office in Kensington, Brooklyn. Photo reproduced by permission of Jim Henderson

The recession, budget problems and a decline in the amount of mail being sent and received have combined to force the government and the United States Postal Service to consider drastic measures.

Postmaster General Patrick Donohoe publicly outlined a plan that would cut service, create massive layoffs and potentially lead to the shutdown of thousands of processing centers and post offices across the country.

CNNMoney reports that President Obama recently spoke out in favor of ending Saturday mail service as a way for the Postal Service to save money and avoid cutting jobs. The news cite previously discussed how the layoffs, potentially 120,000 of them would effect one of the nation’s largest employers of minority workers.

For the residents of Kensington, Brooklyn all this doom and gloom might not be such bad news. Their local post office has often been referred to as the worst post office in New York City. Complaints range from slow waits and rude staff to mail delivery well after business hours. Several years ago a Wiki page sprang up collecting complaints from customers and even local politicians. The site also links to a popular Youtube video of an enraged man literally “going postal” on a rude teller.

So you might expect that people in Kensington won’t be too upset if their mail service is cut, since it can’t get much worse. You might even think that many residents wouldn’t shed a tear if the branch closed completely.

“It’s still the worst.” Said Connie Lambropoulos, a local restaurant owner.

Lambropoulos however, along with many other local residents say that the post office still has plays a critical role in their daily lives. “I do need it for my business. I use it for all my business mail” She admitted. “So I would miss it if it was gone.”

How much do you still use your local post office? If your neighborhood had the “worst post office in New York City,” would you miss it?