Wealth and Distribution

           As we look at New York City most people think shopping, fancy buildings, party and fancy dinners. What they don’t see is the other side of the rood were family are struggling to make the minimum wage, to pay rent, or buy food for their family. When people think New York they think of time square, anything that’s downtown, but don’t see the Bronx, Brooklyn, Harlem. The reason is because those people are not being as exposed as the downtown area.  I believe the wealth is not being distributed correctly the reason in the places like the Bronx, Brooklyn and Harlem that do need the money for the street and bettering the school or the parks and the buildings are not getting it. But the government is giving more money to places that already are in a good place that don’t need more improvement. This is what Leeds me to believe that the money is not being distributed correctly.

            In the documentary Park Avenue: Money, Power and the American Dream by Alex Gibney explain and show the life of people that are being affected by this situation. In this documentary you really get the sense of the separation in wealth, from in this documentary show the two different lives from the wealthy to the poor. I believe that this documentary really shows you what the other side of New York is like and not the good looking fancy one but the one where people struggle everyday just to bet bye.

Work Cited

“Park Avenue: Money, Power, and the American Dream.” Dir. Alex Gibney. 2012. Documentary.

Is New York City As Rich As Its Claims?

           My topic for this essay is, Is New York City as Rich at Its Claims? The reason I picked this to be my main question it’s because I have notice a lot of injustice in the way the money is being distributed in New York City. The reason I say this is because you go to visit downtown New York all you see is glamorous building and al the healthy styles are in downtown but when you visit uptown or the Bronx, or Brooklyn it almost feel like you’re not in New York anymore, because of the difference in how everything looks. Buildings that are just breaking down the parks are not in good conditions for the kids to play in. Things like this are the reason why I believe the money in New York City it’s not being distributed properly. In this I would be showing three sources that I found that agree with my argument.

            In the documentary Park Avenue: Money, Power and the American Dream by Alex Gibney explain just what I am talking about. According to PBS In the documentary Park Avenue: Money, Power and the American Dream show that, “Park Avenue in New York. 740 Park in Manhattan is currently home to the highest concentration of billionaires in the country. Across the river, less than five miles away, Park Avenue runs through the South Bronx, home to the poorest congressional district in the United States, (Park Avenue: Money, Power & the American Dream)”. In this documentary it shows how wealthy one side of New York City can be right next to could have the poorest areas in New York City.

The other source that supports my topic is an Article in the Daily News. This article talks about also the inequality that there is in New York City. According to James warren, “Of the 30 most populous American cities, New York is tops in the inequality between the rich and poor. Of major cities, New Orleans and Miami come close but don’t surpass New York, according to Adam Bee, an economist in the income statistics branch of the bureau. Poverty persists in New York, (James warren). This shows that it’s a major problem in New York City that we are that separated in wealth. It seems like the places that need the money are not getting it but in a place like downtown where is full of money the government keeps giving to them.   

Works cited

"Park Avenue: Money, Power & the American Dream." PBS. PBS, 1 Nov. 2012. Web. 9 Apr. 2014.

Warren, James. "Annual American Community Survey Shows New York City Has the Largest Gap of Income Inequality in United States." NY Daily News. 19 Sept. 2013. Web. 10 Apr. 2014.

Why Central Park?

              Central park is the 1^st urban landscape park to be built in the United States. Many people may wonder why build a park so large, that takes up so much space? The purpose of the park was to refute the European view that Americans lacked a sense of civic duty and appreciation for cultural refinement and instead possessed an unhealthy and individualistic materialism that precluded interest in the common good, (Waxman, Sarah). The park was built to live up to what society thinks of New York. A park where the wealthy can have a piece of mind and get away cruises through the park and also socializes. The poor could appreciate the environment of a beautiful park. Back in the 1800’s the city was not a good area there was a lot of violence and was loud. People used the area of central park to get away mostly where the cemetery was at and got a piece of quite. Now in day’s people use the park to go to for dates, love, celebrations, exercising jogging and others. With a park that is consists of 843 acres, 2.5 long and 0.5 wide there is so much to enjoy and more to love.

 

Work’s cited

 

Waxman, Sarah "The History Of  Central Park" NY.com, 1994-2014, Mediabridge Infosystem.Inc.Web.  April,10,2014
Sowder, Adam "Central Park, History and Development of New York's Central Park" About.com, 2014, About.com. Web. April,10,2014
FAQ "Central Park" Central Park. 2004-20014, Greensward Group. Web. April,10,2014

 

Common Core State Standards

The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) is intellectually rich standards set in mathematics and ELA, English language arts/ literacy. The state of New York adopted these standards on July 19, 2010 with a full implementation to take place in 2013-2014. These standards aren’t only for New York State schools, but for the entire country. With the exception of Texas, Alaska, Nebraska, Virginia, Indiana, Puerto Rico and Minnesota (Minnesota has only adopted the ELA Standards) who haven’t adopted the standards, everyone else is on board. The Common Core State Standards create necessary steps in education regardless the zip code, race or language.

Although each state designs their own curriculum their standards are set the same across each state. They are also meant to match up with international standards as well. The Common Core State Standards are set across the country to ensure that when our students graduate from school they are prepared for college, career and the rest of their life.

Not everyone agrees to the new standards being set on our children. Many educators and parents are opposed to it. It is stated that the Common Core has never been tested on a real school to prove the amazing outcomes it promises to produce; hence there is nothing to back it up (Heitner). Like the “No Child Left Behind” (NCLB) act passed in 2001 the Common Core is supposed to help our children, but is it really? NCLB changed testing from every few years to every year for grades 3-12. It has not shown improvement in students’ grades and educators feel they’ve stopped teaching important material to prepare students for these rigorous tests (Turley). The Common Core State Standards are added on top of the NCLB test with challenging standards, which teachers say they haven’t received proper training for. Schools were pressured into adopting the standards due to fear of losing federals funds (Heitner).

            Before the tests were changed under the Common Core Standards 47% of New York City students passed the ELA test and 60% passed the Math test. With the new standards only 26% of New York City students the ELA test and 30% passed the Math test. Those are passing grades from third to eighth grade (Hernandez). Truth is the tests are difficult and meant to push the students to high thinking levels. With proper training and materials our students can flourish and be college and career ready.

Work Cited

Heitner, Ethan. “The Trouble with the Common Core”. Rethinking Schools. Rethinking Schools. 2013. Web. April 8, 2014

Hernandez, Javier and Gebeloff, Robert. “Test Scores Sink as New York Adopts Tougher Benchmarks”. The New York Times. The New York Times Company. August 7, 2013. Web. April 8, 2014

Turley, Jonathan. “Common Core Standards= No Child Left Behind on Steroids”. Johnathan Turley. N.p. June 29,2013. Web. April 9, 2014

NEW YORK BIKE SHARE.

Bike Share is a new phenomenon that has been gaining popularly across many big cities in Europe (Paris, London), and the United States.  Boston, Washington D.C have introduced bike share in their transportation system long before New York City. The former Mayor of New York City and his administration was the fierce advocates for the bike share for the city. On May 21012 the former Mayor, touting some of the benefits of the program declared “Subways and buses don’t always go where you want to go, and that can mean a long walk or taxi ride. Now New Yorkers will have another option-hop on a Citi Bike” (Coscarelli).

After some delays the Citi Bike Program was launched in May 2013. The program is about sharing bikes in regular bikes stations.  We can find bike stations mostly in Manhattan neighborhoods, Downtown Brooklyn, and Williamsburg.  So far I have not seen any bike station in the Bronx.  We can have access to these bikes by purchasing a Daily, Weekly or Annual Membership.”  Annual members through August 13 were 71,395” (Flegenheimer).

 The program has been gaining popularity months and months and causing challenges to the company.” In its opening months, New York City’s bike share system has found itself locked in a perpetual race against its riders- to remove bikes from fully occupied stations, and to refill stations before the supply runs dry”(Flegnheimer). According to Emily Badger who is a former staff writer at the Atlantic Cities,”NYC bike system toppled 7 million trips, and more than 100,000 have signed for annual membership” (Badger).

Another challenge the company has been facing off is financial difficulties Due to low revenue generated by the bikes. Many issues contributed to the low revenue, including “damage to the equipment during super storm Sandy, software glitches, and the harsh winter” (Kusisto, Brown, and Tangel).

                                                              Work cited

Emily Badger,” Why DC bike share is flourishing while New York’s is financially struggling”, Washingtonpost.com April 1, 2014, washington post web April 5, 2014.

Joe Coscarelli,” NYC Bike share Program Is Citi Bank Blue and Pretty Pricey”, nymag.com, June 7, 2012, nymagasine web  April 5 ,2014.

Laura Kusito, Eliot Brown and Andrew Tangel,” Citi Bike Needing  Millions of Dollars Looks for Help”, wsj.com, March 20, 2014, wsj wed, April 5, 2014.

Matt Flegenheimer,” The  Balancing Act That Bike –Share Riders Just Watch”, nytimes.com, August 13, 2013. Nytimes  web, April 5, 2014.

Job oppertunities in New York City

   Throughout my life in New York City, I hear how people from other countries and regions struggle to make it to New York, because they think that New York has it all. For example, high paying jobs, better education, and better opportunities. However, I wonder, does New York City actually offer better job opportunities than other regions of the United States? 
While researching on this topic I found that more Americans actually are moving to Texas than to any other state. In the past year Texas has added 274,700 new jobs. In fact, Texas created almost one third of the country’s highest paying jobs. However, I believe that many are not aware of that kind of information because, many people don’t do any research before moving to a new state.  For me New York City represents the state of hard working people. 

                                                                      Work Cited
Sager, Ryan  "Tyler Cowen’s 10 Reasons Texas Is Our Future" Time N.P Oct. 17, 2013 web. April 4,2014

Sources for the BAT

My final research paper is about the Brooklyn Army Terminal. The Brooklyn army terminal (which I will now call BAT) is a facility that was used as a Army supply depot, which later became a manufacturing haven. It wasn’t hard finding sources. There is so much information about the Brooklyn Army Terminal.

    One of the sources I chose for y paper was New York City Bioscience Initiative. They have a section on the BAT and explain the economic potential the BAT can provide. Its gives an overview to the entire concept. It talks about the laboratory and bio-manufacturing uses.Theres also a part where it talk about how New York City is the ideal place for biotechnology due to its “intellectual assets” (“Brooklyn Army Terminal”). It provided me with a good example and answer to one of my topic questions about the BAT and the economy by explaining employment opportunities. The site even list economic incentives. It was ery informative.

    Another one of my sources is Bklyn Army Terminal. Yeah, Brooklyn is spelled that way. This is the actual website to the the BAT. It didn’t have that much information as I had expected but it still proved to be very informative and guided me to other sources. The site gives you a brief history. It has some pictures which you can view. It has a pretty good explanation of how it went from military to manufacturing.

    My third source, which is one of my favorites, has a treasure trove of information. It is called Military Railroads and Locomotives of the New York Metropolitan Area. This site tells you everything you need to know about all the railroads that went through Brooklyn and the rest of the city. It has maps, blueprints, pictures, and everything! This source is definitely one of the best for my paper. So far it has the best explanation of the the Armies role in Brooklyn, the BAT, and the its use of the railroads.

Work cited

“Brooklyn Army Terminal”, New York City Bioscience Initiative. Partnership for new York City. 2013. Web. 1 April 2014

“History”, Bklyn Army Terminal, Bklyn Army Terminal. 2014. Web. 1 April 2014

“Brooklyn Army Terminal/ Army Transport Center”, Military Railroads and Locomotives of the New York Metropolitan Area. N.P.. N.D.. Web 1 April 2014