Sensor journalism and ballet @CrosbyVenture @rcj7

Check out our work on sensor journalism and ballet with the Tow Center for Digital Journalism!

http://towcenter.org/blog/sensors-pierce-crosby-rachael-johnson-on-%E2%80%A8motion-sensing-the-ballet/

Not so "Fired up And Ready to Go'

Mott Haven residents waffle about re-electing Obama*

By Rachael Johnson

Outside the Bronx Preparatory School in Mott Haven, passerby Orville Brown leaned back and sighed deeply, "No. I'm not voting for him again," he said. A Jamaican-born, night school teacher who’s lived in Mott Haven since 2007, Brown did not feel 'fired up and ready to go' as the President's campaign message suggested four years ago. “I campaigned for him, volunteered for him, went to the inauguration and froze my ears off for him, but I’m thoroughly disappointed,” Brown said.


Brown voted for President Obama in 2008, but said that this time around he’s voting for the Republican nominee Mitt Romney because he hasn’t seen enough of the changes that the president promised. “He’s an intellectual," Brown said of Obama. "He doesn’t have a grasp on how the economy works.”

Brown also said the President wasn’t strong enough on foreign policy issues, “He told Medvedev that he would think about the issues in Russia after the campaign was over.”

In the middle of the same block, a mix of 6th, 7th and 8th graders lingered in front of a colossal blue door to the front of the schoolwaiting for their parents to come pick them up. But Terrence Debrecourt, a parent, was already there looking for his two kids. The single dad of three children has struggled for several months to find work. “It’s tough. I live here in the Bronx and we have the highest unemployment,” said Debrecourt. “The President of the United States is afraid to stand up for black issues.”


Unemployment in New York City is 9.1 percent and 14 percent in the Bronx, according to reports by the New York Times. The U.S. Bureau of Labor statistics reported that while the nation’s unemployment rate has dropped to 7.6 percent, black unemployment remains high at 14.1 percent. Mott Haven’s population is 25 percent black. This crushingly high unemployment rate in the black community has effectively made politicians consider it a ‘black issue’.


“I’m not sure that Romney will help, but Republicans are smart enough to know that if we hurt, they hurt too,” expressed Debrecourt who voted for Obama in 2008, but thinks that since that time the president has not done enough to address black issues. “He wants to let them know that ‘I’m with you’ and not necessarily with us,” he said.


Four years ago, Mott Haven residents and businessmen were some of the presidents’ strongest supporters. But on the corner of Alexander Ave and E 138th St, there’s not a consistent voice of support for the president despite the fact that the city was deep Obama territory in 2008.


Kimberly Rodriguez, 24 said that she wouldn’t vote for Romney. “Obama picked up the pieces and got us this far and Romney is going to put us back in a sink hole,” Rodriguez said. “Honestly, when I saw the post of when Osama Bin Ladden was dead, I felt that peace.”


She also said that she felt shut out by Romney’s comments about the fact that 47 percent of Americans won’t vote for him because they are victims who believe the government has a responsibility to care for them. “Anyone that doesn’t have a high income, they are going to shut off these programs to the people living in poverty.” Rodriguez said that she voted from Obama in 2008, but she hasn’t decided if she will vote in this election, “They benefit. The politicians. It’s not my vote, it’s their vote,” she said.

Kim Haden walked around the green subway gate behind the NYPD’s 40th precinct to avoid bumping into people entering the underground No. 6  station. "I'm voting for Obama because he's getting stuff done," said Haden, who had just picked up her two sons from school. "He's a black president!" exclaimed Elijah Woods, Haden's 7 year-old son. "I think about what he's doing now and [will do] in the future. For my children's future; is why I'm voting for him," she said.
  
Sabrina Ramirez, 24, was headed home to 145 Brook Ave from working as a receptionist at a flower shop. "I'm not voting this year,” said Ramirez who voted for Obama in 2008. "I haven't seen any changes," she explained.


But, Ramirez also said that people haven’t given Obama enough of a chance, “You can’t do what you need to do for the whole country in four years,” she said. Ramirez, who was out of work for almost two years before finding employment, said she wanted more job training programs to assist with finding work.  “It’s [still] so hard now to get a job,” she said.
 
Alex James, the musical director at the Bronx Temple Seventh-day Adventist Church in Mott Haven, has seen the changes put forth by the president.  “Folks aren’t aware of what he’s done. The programs in place for housing; and in 2010 he stopped the abuses of the banks,”he said. “With what I’ve seen him do, he’s gone over the top to get my vote. Not because he’s a person of color, but all he’s done.”

Despite the lack of excitement by those who were once ‘fired up and ready to go’ for Obama in 2008, James said there’s a certain amount of activity for the president in the neighborhood. “The Hispanic involvement is strong. They seem to function as one heartbeat,” he said.

Romeo Valentino grew up in Mott Haven and attended St. Jerome’s Church on 138^th St and Alexander Ave. His business is within walking distance from St. Jerome’s Church on Willis Avenue.  “As a business owner, I am a Republican. My whole family is Republican, but I’m definitely voting for Obama because he supported immigration laws for this area,” said Valentino.  Valentino owns a driving school and said that under President Obama, the community will get stronger. “With the Dream Act, people will help build the economy, get driver’s licenses [and] people working behind the restaurant [counters] can get out and really work,” he said.

Briseida Bravo crosses in front of St. Jerome’s Church and speed walks to a Yoga class. Next week, Briseida plans to vote for Obama. She explained that the last four years under Obama have been better for her than under President Bush. “The government is peaceful,” she said in broken English. “A lot of money and a lot of persons killed,” she said referring to the war in Iraq that started under President Bush’s presidency, but ended in President Obama’s first term. She doesn’t feel connected to Romney because she fears that he’d be “racismo” and not for the interest of all people.

It’s expected that President Obama will win all of New York’s 31 electoral votes on Election Day according to the web site fivethirtyeight.com, a New York Times well-respected blog, but the people who choose to support him hope their voices will be heard this time. “There is still opportunity out there to live the American dream,” said Valentino.

*This story was reported in November 2012

Council members take lead on immigration reform

New York Council Members Pass Resolution Putting Pressure on Congress and the President

By Rachael Johnson

A City Council committee unanimously passed a resolution urging Congress and President Obama to take action on immigration reform legislation this year.

Daniel Dromm, a Queens council member and chair of the Committee on Immigration, said he hopes the resolution will put pressure on Congress to pass comprehensive reform. He said that New York and others states are “taking things in to their own hands” by putting forth legislation at the local level in order to put pressure on Congress and the president to move forward at the federal level. They’re hoping that if enough local and state governments pass these resolutions that Congress will take heed.

The council committee’s resolution will now go to the full council for more debate and a final vote. The resolution includes specific proposals modeled after legislation that failed at the federal level that the council seeks to revamp and enact at the local level. These include the DREAM Act, which would allow states to provide higher education benefits to immigrants living in America illegally; the Uniting American Families Act (UAFA), which include the definition “permanent partner” to include same-sex couples in order to grant them the same protections in the Immigration and Nationality Act; and the POWER Act which sought to expand the U-visa to give immigrant victims of labor law violations the opportunity to apply for legal status. Their hope is that this kind of legislation at the local level will address some of the problems that immigrant families face.

These problems include college-level students without legal permission to live here who face barriers to higher education; immigrants victimized by fraudulent immigration service providers; and allowing sponsorship for immigrants in same-sex relationships. According to the bill, there are some 475,000 immigrant workers living in New York State who are facing these problems. The goal is to help immigrants who are  living in New York State illegally, but looking for a path to citizenship.

 “This city was built by immigrants,” Dromm said after casting his vote. “[We] should not deny inclusion.”

The last four sessions of Congress have failed to pass any immigration reform bill.

Jumaane Williams, a Brooklyn council member who voted for the resolution said that rallies on Capitol Hill during last year’s election and currently have kept the immigration issue front and center. “We try to pretend that immigrants don’t make this country run,” Williams said before delivering his vote. “I proudly vote aye” in favor of the resolution.

Council Member Mathieu Eugene of Brooklyn, who cast the fifth vote, is the first Haitian-born member of the City Council.  Not surprisingly, Eugene voted in favor of the resolution, and said that he knows what it’s like being an immigrant in the United States. “We have to give other immigrants the same opportunities,” he said after casting his vote. “The concept of America is that everyone can come in.”

Dromm pointed out that New York State has the second largest group of immigrants in America, 4.3 million, and thus passing this resolution would benefit the entire state. Only California, with 10 million immigrants, has more. Texas is third with 4.1 million immigrants; Florida almost 4 million and New Jersey came in fifth with 1.8 million immigrants.

Dromm  said he expects the bill to pass in a upcoming full council meeting.  “It’s important for Americans to be part of the American dream,” Dromm said.  

Mayor Edward Koch's Final Tribute

Mourners say goodbye to one of NYC's finest

By Rachael Johnson

With the eulogies finished and the organ playing “New York, New York,” the wooden casket containing the body of Mayor Edward Koch was carried through the throng at Temple Emanu-El in Manhattan’s Upper East Side.

And then something unusual happened: The mourners burst into spontaneous applause.

“I’ve never been to a funeral where people clapped as the casket went by,” said mourner Edward Summer. “He was a straight shooter.”

“It was a nice tribute,” said Fernando Ferrer, former Bronx borough president and now the acting chairman of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. “A nice send-off.”

For a little over an hour on Monday morning, the sanctuary was filled with hundreds who had come to mourn Koch, who died Friday at the age of 88. The crowd included family, friends, such politicians as President Bill Clinton and Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and fellow New Yorkers who knew and loved Koch.

“No mayor ever embodied spirit like Ed,” said Mayor Bloomberg. “He knew that New York was more than a place, but a state of mind.”

Bloomberg said that before he began his run for office, he asked Koch for advice. “Be yourself. Say what you believe and don’t worry about what people think,” Bloomberg said. “God knows he didn’t.”

Later on, when Bloomberg turned to him again for political advice about how to improve the city’s health system, Koch told him, “Limit the size of sugary drinks; no one will notice,” he recalled as the audience chuckled.

Koch was the city’s 105^th mayor. He was born in the Bronx, and graduated from New York University School of Law in 1948.

In 1966, he was elected to the City Council from Greenwich Village.  After leaving the council, Koch served in the U.S. Congress for five terms and then served as mayor from 1978 to1989. He served three terms, becoming the first mayor in history to receive both the Democratic and Republican nominations in 1981.

“He said, I’m still liberal, but I’m sane,’” President Clinton said. “He had a big brain, but he had a bigger heart.”

Koch’s close friend, James F. Gill, whom Koch appointed as chairman of the Joint Commission on Integrity in the Public Schools in 1988, also spoke at the funeral. Gill recalled a time when the two walked down the street after his fourth mayoral campaign ended in a loss to David Dinkins. People told Koch that he should run again. “He’d reply, ‘No. The people threw me out and now the people must be punished,’” Gill said, drawing laughs from the crowd.

Longtime friend John LoCicero, who first met Koch in 1963 when Koch was the district leader in Greenwich Village, said that he cherished his friend’s honesty. “He was real and didn’t cater to anyone, and that came through,” LoCicero said.

Outside, friends gathered around the temple after the casket was driven away to the cemetery.

Former NYC mayoral candidate Mark Green noted that he, too, came to celebrate Koch’s life of service. “Ed and I had a contentious start, but we respected each other.”

We Are Organized

Frustrated Bronx tenants warn future buyers of decrepit building*

By Rachael Johnson

The signs taped to the inside windows of a first floor apartment building may be homemade, but passersby can’t help but take notice. “Buyer Beware”, “We Are Organized” and “We Know our Rights” are not just idle action words. Several residents of 1265 College Avenue in the Bronx are in the third month of an ongoing litigation against College Management, a private company cited as New York City’s number one worst landlord.

 “That’s the tenant’s association,” said Angel Caballero Rodriguez, a resident of the building, referring to the maker of the signs.  “To let them (potential buyers of the building) know that we have issues here,” and that the tenants were not pushovers.  Rodriguez formed the association and was one of several who joined an action to bring a 7A claim –an administrative removal of the current landlord -- against College Management. In essence, petitioners have asked the court to appoint an administrator to run the building in place of the owner. “It’s the last resort,” said Ian Davie, attorney for Rodriguez and the other tenants, “once you notify the landlord, and call the city.”

Rodriguez, who lives in building 1265, apartment 2A, has lived there for more than 50 years and said that getting the landlord, Eli Abbot, to complete repairs was an ongoing struggle. “We have repairs and he refuses to do them. Now that we’ve sued, he’s making it look like he’s doing all this work,” he said. Rodriguez pointed out that recently contractors had come in to paint parts of the building. “I’ve been doing all my repairs,” Rodriguez said as he walked up the stairs. The landlord is supposed to do the major fixes, the plumbing or electrical work, he said. Instead, Rodriguez, who had holes in his walls, a vermin problem, and needed repairs to his kitchen, said that he has done minor fixes, like sheet rocking, plastering and painting. “You wait for the people to come do the work, but sometimes they aren’t experienced enough, so I do it myself,” he said.

Rodriguez said that 1265 was once a nice place to live, but today, with poor or no repair work being done, a landlord who appears indifferent, the building in foreclosure, tenants in litigation, a building that’s for sale and in the middle of negotiations to be sold for the third time in just a few years, it’s certainly not what it used to be. “It’s an old building and if you don’t keep it up, it gets worse,” said resident Danielle Cipriano.

Abbot’s company, College Management, had a combined 724 violations for three of its buildings, according to the NY office of the public advocate. Tenants in each of the three attached buildings-- 1259, 1265, and 1269 College Avenue -- have reported Class A, B or C violations. Building 1265, where Rodriguez lives, has 232 violations, 26 of them are Class C violations. Class C violations, described by Wiley Norvell, a spokesman for the office of the public advocate, are “anything immediately hazardous. Urgent, needing to get people out of the building; an exit problem, if the building has no hot water, lead paint, especially if there are children.”

“Kids are constantly running. They could get hurt,” Rodriguez said about the worn metal material peeling off  the window seals on each floor. “You’re not safe going up and down the stairs,”he said, pointing to visible cracks on the stairs of the walkup building. “It’s not livable.”

In courtroom 560 last Thursday, Abbot sat quietly at the defendant’s table making his first appearance since the trial began in June. He was listening to testimony from his contractor Robert Riviera about the painting he had completed in the building. Every so often, Abbot would put his hand on his head and rub his brow. According to the Housing Preservation and Development office (HPD), Abbott is listed as the head officer of College Management, but College Management is not included as a party on the foreclosure complaint.

College Management is listed as the buildings’ owner on the Department of Buildings’ sign that hangs above the tenants’ mailboxes in 1265. Rodriguez’s name, along with 36 additional tenants --including 10 “John Does”-- are listed on the foreclosure complaint. Davie confirmed that the property was being foreclosed on, but there are several other oddities about the case. “There’s a different name on the deed to the building,” Davie said.  “It’s not really clear [what’s happening].”  

It was a little after 5p.m. and Danielle Cipriano was just home from work.” We have every kind of rodent, every kind of problem,” she said standing in the first floor hallway. Mice and roaches have found their way into 4A, Cipriano’s apartment. Vermin are classified by HPD as a Class B violation, posing a threat to one’s health, but not an immediate threat. According to a building registration summary report compiled by the HPD, she has reported nine violations in her apartment. Six of those are Class B violations.

“The buildings are old and not kept up properly,” said Cipriano, who has lived at1265 College Ave for seven years. Cipriano has  dealt with several problems, she’s had water leaking in her bathroom since 2006 and said that a contractor was just sent to do the repairs. “It’s constant, they just replaced my pipe,” she said, leaning against a wall that she didn’t notice had fresh paint on it. “Ugh,” she sighed while looking over her shoulder at the marigold-colored on her suit jacket. “I smelled it. I just didn’t know where it was.” There was no sign to warn residents that the walls were still wet.

According to the building registration summary report, Cipriano also reported a Class C violation in January of this year, under Section 27-2005, 2007 of the housing code, which describes “the illegal fastening of a lockable slide bolt installed onto the exterior of door (egress room).” It appeared as though Abbott had illegally barred her from entering her own apartment. “The landlord tends to harass them,” said Ian Davie, the tenant’s attorney. “He’ll walk through the building on Sunday morning, banging on doors to collect rent. He’s been doing that for years.”

Davie will litigate two more cases against Mr. Abbot. Dominga Sanchez, also Davie’s client, is one of several others who live at  1259 College Avenue (adjacent to building 1265) and who joined a separate suit.

In apartment 1B, Sanchez slides her foamy leather couch back from the wall exposing the sinking, warped and peeling flooring. She points to a part of the ripped flooring while finishing up a phone call and then walks into the kitchen. When she hangs up, she explains through a Spanish language translator that three months ago, pieces of the kitchen ceiling started to break off and fall to the floor. Then  she motions to the bottom of her fridge which has collected brown stains from rust and decay. She said she’s been waiting, ever since the day she moved in -- a year and eight months  -- for a new fridge.

“Repair it and let us live as human beings,” she said in Spanish as Rodriguez translated. “No one should live like this, not even animals.”

Susanna Blankley, director of housing organizing at the Community Action for Safe Apartments (CASA) worked with the tenants of 1265 so they would be in a stronger position to assert their collective rights for fairer housing conditions. Blankley declined to give details about specific issues tenants had with Abbott and the building during a phone interview, due to the sensitivity of the buildings’ current business negotiations, but did confirm that the building had been up for sale, and that they are currently negotiating for a new owner to purchase buildings 1259, 1265 and 1269.

"Whoever gets the building, there are people here who have had longevity, and I hope the changes are better off for everybody,” Rodriguez said.  Davie said that their main focus was to help the tenants. “We have no problem with the building being sold, so long as it’s sold to a responsible purchaser who won’t put the tenants through the same problems they’ve experienced for so long.”

*This story was written but not published for the web in November 2012.

What to do about media coverage

Should the media change the way it covers mass tragedies because of how frequently these events have started to occur?

As far as I know, there's no preceded recorded tragedy in American history like what happened at Columbine High School in 1999. But regretfully, after the Columbine shooting so many more of these mass tragedies started to occur: Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Va., Fort Hood, outside Killeen, Tx., Casas Adobes, Az. and now Century 16 in Aurora, Colo.

Yesterday, I watched part of a round table discussion NBC News' The Cycle where journalist Toure said this:

"Psychologists say that there's a deep-seeded long festering rage that stems from feeling marginalized and feeling powerless; that leads to wanting to do something to get back at the world."

"Also sobering is the way we in the news media may be feeding these people's last wish. They want recognition, they want infamy, the want power after what they feel is a tiny insignificant marginalized, misunderstood life. What happens after they shoot up the school or the multiplex, every news network rips up its plans and sends reporters to the scene and does days of non-stop coverage."

(see the full clip here: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/#48263305)

I agree.

This is not to say that we should not have strict gun laws and work tirelessly on figuring out a profile for these kinds of people, but is the endless media attention giving the killer what he wanted? James Holmes' name will go down in history in a wretchedly infamous way, as the "Batman Killer". According to CNN, the shooter "entered the sold-out movie theater dressed in black, wearing a ballistic helmet, a tactical ballistic vest, ballistic leggings, protectors over his throat and his groin, a gas mask and black tactical gloves was wearing full body armor." Police also said that Holmes had colored his hair red and told police that he was "the Joker". The Joker's character didn't fear years in prison or death, but the character was a sociopath who wanted to be infamous for his crimes. 

Was Holmes playing a character?

How can we report stories without giving these murders what they want? Just by doing their job, the police learn everything about the suspect and the media has a duty to give this information to the public. I've seen less coverage of the suspect and more coverage of the victim, which may be a solution.

Unfortunately, in 1999, America had to learn how to prepare for mass public murders when Columbine happened. This was a person tragedy for me because I'm from Colorado. And, I grew up in Aurora, Colo.

The Columbine shootings occurred when I was headed to college, but I remember one of the photos in Time magazine showed a picture of teenage girl running out of the building, crying. I recognized her instantly. We took ballet classes together, in fact, she was one of my good friends in class. We stood next to each other at the barre, and always joked and laughed. A few months later, I came home from college and went to the mall to finish up some Christmas shopping and I saw her. She was working at one of the kiosks. I could tell that she recognized me as well, but her demeanor was so different from what I knew of her. It was like, she didn't want me to approach her.

This kinda of trauma changes each person who goes through such tragedy in many different ways but, it does beg questions to be answered about the gun laws here in the US.

Is it reasonable for private citizens to carry automatic weapons. Because the only instance when those weapons are "needed" are when an actor plays a character in a movie - in war too, but is war always necessary? - and the setup is a character seeking something from the world that he/she wasn't given.

What do you think?

China sends its first female astronaut in to space

http://www.cnn.com/2012/06/16/world/asia/china-space-launch/index.html?hpt=hp_t2