Connecting the Dots

I have some catching up to do. Before talking about the latest happenings at CUP, I would like to reflect (because that’s what service learning is all about, right?) on last Friday’s morning seminar and afternoon visit to the Fortune Academy. Between the group activities in the morning and the presentations and tour we received later in the day, last Friday was definitely my favorite CUSP Friday so far.

During our morning session we broke up into small groups to discuss our experiences at work and to find creative solutions to group members’ problems. This was a great way to structure a reflection that related directly to our internships without taking up the entire morning. In the small group reflection I learned that many of my group members were having difficulties because CUSP’s schedule does not correspond with their agencies’ programming schedules. For instance, Christine arrived at The Point at the end of their after-school program. She has been planning summer activities for two weeks and will leave in the middle of the summer program. Andrea will not be able to attend any of the follow-up court dates for the Legal Aid Society clients she has worked with because all of their next court appointments are in August. And I will not really have the opportunity to see a lot of the behind-the-scenes work that I am doing at CUP take center stage later in the summer. I think most people in CUSP feel that the program is not long enough because now, after almost one month, we are just starting to get into the groove at our organizations. Extending the program to ten weeks would be one way to solve this problem. However, that is an expensive solution which probably involves a lot of bureaucratic nonsense. A shorter-term solution might be to push the CUSP schedule back a bit to align with public school calendars. Then, everyone working with children would be in more in synch with their organizations, and all participants would have more time to prepare and get to know their organizations even better before arriving in NYC.

After our morning workshops we headed uptown to a Dominican restaurant and then to the Fortune Academy. The Fortune Academy building, referred to as “The Castle,” is very impressive; Fortune Society’s programs are even more impressive. Fortune employee and client Barry Campbell gave us a tour of the building, but first he described the work that Fortune does. He explained how some clients have been in prison for so long that they are unfamiliar with current technology and culture. Total reintegration is required, and Fortune provides many services to address this need. From the time the clients leave Rikers Island until they are ready to move out on their own and even after that, Fortune provides education, counseling, shelter, and overall support. Kate Ruben from the Bronx Defenders also spoke to us about her Reentry Net program and the legal and social support provided for clients at that organization. To me, the comprehensive approach described by both Barry and Kate seems to be the only effective way to help previously incarcerated people to get back on their feet.

In fact, I’m beginning to realize that a comprehensive approach to any social justice issue is the only sustainable approach. In many ways, this is an exhausting realization. Assisting someone who has just left prison with reintegrating into society is not as simple as providing job training and a housing subsidy. Preventing the construction of high-rise condos which will be detrimental to a community’s well-being is not a matter to be left completely in the hands of developers and real estate people. Every single issue is multi-faceted and requires the knowledge of experts in many different fields.

My experience at the Fortune Academy brought this fact to light, and my work at CUP this past week has reinforced it. I am working on a one page information sheet about the U.S. Department of Housing and Development (HUD) for a toolkit that CUP is developing to help people understand the changes that are taking place in their neighborhoods. I thought this assignment would be as simple as reading a few Wikipedia articles and perusing the HUD website. However, I soon learned that a meaningful information sheet on HUD would have to include information about the structure of the federal government and the budget, the relationship between Cabinet-level agencies and Congress appropriations committees, mortgages and mortgage insurance, public housing programs, statistical designations and census data, and the process for determining income levels and eligibility for federal assistance. In addition, all of this information has to be sifted through until the most salient facts are presented through extremely simple language and graphics. The creation of this single handout has involved hours of research. Over the past few days, I have had to develop a basic understanding of many seemingly disparate and complex topics. The challenge of presenting HUD, its activities, and its effects in a holistic manner is minor compared to CUP’s grander challenge of helping communities to learn about and respond to development. At this point, the necessity of a holistic, comprehensive approach to social justice issues both frightens and excites me as I explore new territory and try to connect the dots.

I Love a Parade

I never thought of myself as a parade enthusiast. Parades involve crowds, police, and anxiety- producing chaos. But since I arrived in New York, I have observed and thoroughly enjoyed three parades. That's one parade per week. In the middle of an intense SoHo shopping spree (totally justified because I needed appropriate work clothes), I stumbled into the middle of a parade down Broadway. After a few minutes, I determined that it was part of a rally to pass a Domestic Workers Bill of Rights in the New York legislature which would recognize the workforce and establish basic labor standards such as a living wage and basic benefits.


I think this is a good idea. The revelers were a diverse group (a lot of older Latina women and disheveled college students), and they whole-heartedly shouted all of those catchy call and response things that people usually shout during protests. The event wasn't particularly inspiring, but the fact that I could stumble upon such a happening during an ordinary shopping trip reminded me of the many differences between a place like Ithaca or my hometown of Wallingford, Connecticut and New York City.


The second parade was the 50th Annual Puerto Rican Day Parade. My aunt, a resident of Manhattan, warned me that this would be a wild and eventually dangerous event--I was intrigued. I went to the parade early and left at about 12:30, but even in that short time I got to see Geraldo, a young rapper called Young Adult, and...Ricky Martin! Cool! I bought a Puerto Rican flag although I am not sure if the "Everyone is Irish on St. Patrick's Day" principle applies on Puerto Rican Day. The enthusiasm of the crowd was really impressive, and despite admonitions and media hype, I detected nothing but positive energy and pride. My decision to leave before Jennifer Lopez made her surprise appearance was the only bad part of this parade.

Finally, this past weekend I caught the tail end of the Gay Pride Parade on 5th Avenue. Prior to the parade, a friend and I were discussing whether this was the type of event to which you would bring children. (We weren't sure how risque it would be.) After seeing the costumes, hearing the music, and feeling the love flowing down 5th Avenue I decided children, old people, animals, friends, acquaintances, enemies, and everyone else in the whole world should come to next year's event. I don't know very much about LBGT issues, and I wished I could have collected more educational literature, but I suppose there are other times and events for education. The celebratory atmosphere of and excellent soundtrack to this parade were incomparable!

I know that the purpose of this blog is to document the Urban Scholars Program experience, and weekend activities like parades often take a blogging back seat to the internship and the academic components of CUSP. Still, I feel that such activities are just as, if not more meaningful, and these parades have been an integral part of my city experience so far. The pride, passion, and diversity captured in these celebrations has altered my notions of urbanism to include and privilege the city's inhabitants as its driving, most valuable force.

Reflections on Orientation--> Big Money and Big Changes

What did you learn about NYC that surprised you?

For me, the walking tour and panel discussion exposed the commercial interests which really drive development in New York City. Perhaps this point-of-view was emphasized by Bob Balder during the tour because of the nature of his work in real estate. However, almost all of the panelists mentioned the branding of different neighborhoods and the role that corporations and commercial interests play in shaping the streets, buildings, and policies of New York City. Although I was abstractly aware of a looming commercial presence in the city, both of the tour and the panel discussion really transformed it into a concrete reality for me. My awareness was so heightened by the orientation activities that I identified a “new” neighborhood marketed by developers as SoHa (South of Harlem) as a euphemism for Harlem’s increasingly white, gentrified areas just a few days later.

What area did you find most interesting and why?

I think areas in transition are fascinating. My group did an ethnographic study of Central Harlem where the contrasts between the newly renovated brownstones in gentrified neighborhoods, the older residential districts, and the 125^th Street commercial area were extremely stark. The Lower East Side is another transitional area where a bohemian community, young yuppie hipsters, and various immigrant groups have been trying to find a harmonic balance for several decades. Observing the old and new aspects of these two neighborhoods and anticipating how they will function in a few years is very exciting for me.

What would you like to see in NYC that you did not see?

I would like to see every single part of the city (except maybe Staten Island because I’ve heard that it is the most boring borough). There are so many distinct neighborhoods, each with its own personality, and I would like to visit as many as possible this summer. Perhaps I will explore New York further through the lens of cuisine, sampling different types of food from all the boroughs. That is a really great excuse to go out dinner!

Week 1--> Exhausting and Positive

My history in New York City spans the last twenty years, but most of my interactions with "The Big Apple" (see Note 1) up to this point have been strictly touristic. Living and working in the city is a whole new ball game. I grew up about 10 miles outside of New Haven, Connecticut. I'm an Urban and Regional Studies major with a possible concentration in Architecture. I like walking and playing outside. I'm having a really hard time writing this paragraph because I don't want it to be boring and/or annoying. To me, community service and the word "service" in general have a weird connotation that I can't verbalize, so I'm not going to address it right now. I decided to participate in CUSP because cities (and their infrastructure) are my principle academic interest, and it's hard to develop an understanding of them without first-hand experience. I also feel some kind of obligation to try to do things that are good. Perhaps I will identify and clarify this feeling as the summer progresses.

I'm working at the Center for Urban Pedagogy (CUP...CUP, CUSP, confusing) in Brooklyn this summer. It is a small organization dedicated to educating people about places and how they change. (I got that blurb from the CUP answering machine message.) CUP started as an artists' collective, and now they run educational programs with schools, host public programs like lectures and film screenings, link designers with community-based organizations, and produce publications about the politics of the built environment. There are only two people working full-time in the CUP office and a whole lot of projects going on so I will be helping out wherever I'm needed for the next two months. I'm really excited both to learn about the specific topics of CUP's current projects and to see how a very small, very interdisciplinary non-profit is run!

Before my internship began, I wondered whether working for an "architectural organization" of sorts was social justice-y enough for me. However, in the past few days I have seen how CUP has helped high school students to learn and discuss difficult issues like gentrification and police brutality in their neighborhoods and how they link other public service organizations and social justice-minded individuals together for their mutual benefit. I think CUP provides the very necessary service of managing large projects, drumming up publicity, and helping to make the work done by others more accesible to the public. Without this service, community organizations voices could not be heard.

Note 1. How did New York City come to be known as "The Big Apple"?

There is no single, authoritative answer as to why New York City is known as The Big Apple. That the term is now widely known may be due to a tourism publicity campaign launched by the New York Convention and Visitors Bureau in 1971.

Certainly, the term was used before that. The most recent research traces the phrase back to a book published in 1909. In a New York Times article of February 1, 1989, David Shulman refers to The Wayfarer in New York, a collection of essays edited by Edward S. Martin. On page xiv of that book, Mr. Martin wrote that the rest of the country "inclines to think the big apple gets a disproportionate share of the national sap." This is the earliest use of the term yet brought to our attention.

Previously, the phrase had been linked to jazz slang, or to the popular dance named the Big Apple. The Dictionary of American Slang (Wentworth and Flexner) and The Morris Dictionary of Word and Phrase Origins both trace the phrase in this way, but this only takes it back as far as the 1930s.

John Ciardi (New York Times, 7/19/78) relates the phrase to the Spanish term "manzana principal," which denotes a city's main section. He goes on to say: "Translated as Big Apple by New Orleans jazzmen around 1900 with the sense "the big time," the idiom passed into show bizz..."


(http://www.nypl.org/research/chss/faq.html#apple)