In the Middle of Post Storm Crisis, NY's Mayor Bans Food Donations to Homeless Shelters

 I couldn't resist posting about this-- under the rule that political posts related to urban issues are a big part of what this blog is about. Also, this is an extreme example of policies that exist in other cities.

From The New York Post

"For over a decade, Glenn Richter and his wife, Lenore, have led a team of food-delivery volunteers from Ohab Zedek, the Upper West Side Orthodox congregation

They’ve brought freshly cooked, nutrient-rich surplus foods from synagogue events to homeless facilities in the neighborhood. (Disclosure: I know the food is so tasty because I’ve eaten it — I’m an OZ member.) The practice of donating such surplus food to homeless shelters is common among houses of worship in the city."

The city may no longer accept this food which might not meet safety standards or the city's strict new guidelines limiting portions, salt, fat content and nutrition.

What's involved here is of course something much more important, the right of both donors and recipients to share a sense of community.

"The beneficiaries — many of them senior citizens recovering from drug and alcohol abuse — have always been appreciative of the treats he and other OZ members bring. It’s not just that the donations offer an enjoyable addition to the “official” low-salt fare; knowing that the food comes from volunteers and community members warms their hearts, not just their stomachs.So you can imagine Richter’s consternation last month when employees at a local shelter turned away food he brought from a bar mitzvah. "

The danger is also that breaking the bonds and ability to provide private charity undermines the basic safety net -- which ultimately has to go beyond government. As many city neighborhoods endured 5 or more days without power the city was held together by private networks and neighbors helping each other far more than official aid.

A growing number of cities have made it illegal to distribute food to the homeless.

From The LA Times

"In Philadelphia — where the ACLU launched a lawsuit last week attacking the ban on the outdoor feeding of homeless people, enacted June 1 — the plaintiffs in the suit include Chosen 300 Ministries Inc., the Rev. Brian Jenkins, the Welcome Church, the Rev. Violet Little, the King’s Jubilee, the Rev. Cranford Coulter and others, according to the Pennsylvania Record.

“Food sharing programs for the homeless also express an important message about the desperate circumstances of the poor,” the suit says, according to the Record. “The programs have been hugely successful, furthering the religious mission of the plaintiffs and providing, at no cost to the city, a needed social service. The programs have functioned continuously without significant interference by government officials or adverse effect on the public interest""ybe he’s just anti-food? Maybe put this one to a vote — it’s hard to imagine what harm fresh soup and bagels (two items that have already been turned away) could do to a hungry person"

Far Rockaway was dumping ground for mentally Ill warehoused in Nursing Homes

Part two of my Hurricane Sandy/ Far Rockaway post. Sadly, the story gets much worse. Not only was Far Rockaway a dumping ground for housing projects far away from opportunity and community, it became the place to put even more vulnerable populations.

From the NY Times

"The units are just the latest development in the troubled evolution of New York's mental health network over the last half-century. As the state continues to empty out its costly psychiatric hospitals, it appears to be moving even further from what it says had been a fundamental goal: helping the mentally ill gain independence and self-sufficiency to live within a community.

The investigation of the nursing home units shows that the mentally ill residents -- many in their 30's and 40's and physically healthy -- often receive little in the way of rehabilitative therapy and are chiefly left to wander the halls or languish in their rooms. The residents are not violent and have not been involuntarily committed by a court."

"Gain independence and self-sufficiency to live within a community." Really, by being warehoused on a very isolated barrier island almost 2 hours out of Manhattan and far away from most public services?

It should have been clear to any responsible caring person, that this location was very exposed to storms. in fact, Hurricane Irene and many other storms had impacted the island.


For some reason, I am having trouble embedding the videos.

Here

Yet the google map shows the area is loaded with nursing homes and care facilities.

I understand a big part of what happened is that Rockaway became an easy place to put things other communities might reject having- but morally, this is still a poor excuse.

Anyway, it gives some insight into reality of how the "liberal" governments of NY and many cities actually operate.

New York City Asian Population Tops A Million: Images From Flushing Queens

From The New York Times

"Not so long ago, the phrase “New York’s Chinatown” meant one thing: a district in Lower Manhattan near Canal Street. Now it could refer to as many as six heavily Chinese enclaves around the city

Koreatown was well known as a commercial zone in Midtown Manhattan, but now parts of Flushing, Queens, where tens of thousands of Koreans have moved, feel like suburban Seoul. The city has spawned neighborhoods with nicknames like Little Bangladesh, Little Pakistan, Little Manila and Little Tokyo.

Asians, a group more commonly associated with the West Coast, are surging in New York, where they have long been eclipsed in the city’s kaleidoscopic racial and ethnic mix. For the first time, according to census figures released in April, their numbers have topped one million — nearly 1 in 8 New Yorkers — which is more than the Asian population in the cities of San Francisco and Los Angeles combined."



This area, Flushing, Queens is one the city's emerging ethnic downtowns dominated primarily by a huge Taiwanese/Chinese community and the largest Korean population in the city. Flushing, which is not far from Laguardia Airport, now has many offices and hotels.

As you can see from the images-this is a place of considerable wealth and dynamism.

Under Bloomberg, transit and bus hubs are being rezoned to encourage the development of alternate, business districts to encourage more two way commuting. Although this trend has been going on naturally for a long time.

If you never leave Manhattan, You really don't know New York.

Several Posts About New York, History, Transit and Urbanism On The Way

Hope it isn't too annoying to Pittsburgh and Cleveland readers if a bunch of reflections about my trip in NY show up here. My stated goal here was always to not just talk about any one place but create a forum to contrast, compare and learn about all cities both inside and outside the region. Also, this was supposed to be a group blog in which many people are posting about events, opinions and experiences.

New York is sort of the Rosetta Stone of American urbanism, in that at least in part it learned many of the basic rules of being a city and applied them very well.

For starters--one must admit that some part of the city's success as a financial center in recent years has had a lot to do with corrupt, insider political connections and that a large number of it's largest banks should have failed.

Even so the city's dominance in so many fields; finance, insurance, real estate, law, accounting, publishing, film, music, theater, food, fashion, design, journalism architecture, Art, medicine, education, consulting, tourism and it's ability to both evolve and attract new people and regenerate itself over a long period is something few U.S. cities can claim.

BTW, NYC was until fairly recently also a very, very large manufacturing city and is now an important location for technology companies.

Some would say, New York's deep large harbor; solid rock for large scale skyscrapers and early settlement gave it a huge leg up, but clearly something about the way the city formed--the early adoption of a clear simple street grid, investments in transit played a huge role.

I will post some of my thoughts-as someone who knows the city pretty well. Obviously, I see some lessons to be learned in both it's life, and near death experience in the late 20th century.

Agni Gallery installation images

Hello everyone,
I have been extremely busy installing the shows at Digging Pitt and Digging Pitt Too over the last two weeks. I had meant to post these installation images last week, but with John Morris in New York at Agni, I have had my hands full.

Anyway, here are some installation shots that I took just before the reception started. There are some obvious gaps, so if you have images, please send them to me and I will post them forthwith!

Some Thoughts about Manhattan's West Side

The Armory Show ( which was not in an Armory ) put me in an area I haven't been in while and got me thinking about recent development of the West Side. So I decided to republish an old post I did that seems to fit in.

I ended up in a discusion on another blog about the relationship of highways to cities. In so many cities this relationship is an unstable and abusive one, but are there alternatives to it? New York once had a major highway on the west side of Manhattan and the tale of it's birth, death and future is a great one.

This was a highway that seemed to pretty much everyone to be an absolute necessity and in fact, a much larger replacement was planned. Then over a period of years it just kind of fell apart. The rather amazing rebirth of the West Side of Manhattan and the way that the city has adjusted to this change is someting to study.

Many cities have this type of highway, a by product partly of a time period when, for a variety of reasons, waterfront property was considered the place to thread ugly roads and needed infrastructure. The damage and cost of these roads started to become more clear as cleaner waterways and the movement of industrial uses out of central cities opened up the water as a valued asset. I think that part of Boston's (Big Dig fiasco) was an attempt to fix that type of highway by burying the road. The story isn't over, but the energy and oportunity that seems to have been opened up for NY by the collapse of that road has helped to reveal it's true cost. Heres a link to the Trump project on the way and here is the dreaded road as it is now in Chelsea.