The BAT

Have you ever heard of the Brooklyn Army Terminal. Most people in New York haven’t even heard of it. They are more familiar with the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Well, the Brooklyn Army Terminal ( also referred to as the BAT) has a rich history and once was the center of a massive railroad system and served as the largest military supply base in the entire United States throughout World War II.

    In 1918, the BAT was commissioned  by the federal government  to serve as a supply base and military depot. It was designed by the famous architect Cass Gilbert (whom I will speak of later on). The entire complex is five million square feet and was a major accomplishment of its time. It was finally finished in 1919.

The BAT was also referred to as the “U.S. Army Military Ocean Terminal” or “The Brooklyn Army Base.” During World War II, the base  had fifty-six thousand military and civilian employees. When stated that it was the largest military supply base in the U.S., it was not a joke. Over three million troops passed through the base. Thirty-seven million tons of supplies passed through the base.

Today, the base still serves the surrounding community and helps the economy in a big way. It is a fully functional commercial and industrial complex that houses a number of corporate tenants and different industries. There is even a “secret” F.B.I. unit that is stationed there (I say “secret” because they were trying to keep it that way until they were exposed).

Some of its railroad system is still active today, and you can go down and see for yourself. Every morning there usually is a huge freight train that passes through First Avenue. It is an amazing sight for those who are unfamiliar. The BAT is one of the greatest assets of Brooklyn and more people  should familiarize themselves with the BAT. You might even find a great career there.

 

Work Cited

"History", BKLYN Army Terminal, BKLYN Army Terminal, 2014, Web. 19 April 2014

Where Did All Of The Housing Programs Go?

The Rental Assistance Voucher program helps 2.2 million low income families to rent housing at an affordable cost. Most of these households are headed either by senior’s, or people with disabilities but most are families with children. In these households the maximum income is $12, 500, and that is actually below the poverty level line. The Government and independent researchers have recognized that the voucher program is effective in the avoidance of homelessness. However, because of funding limitations only one in four eligible households receive a housing voucher or some other type of federal rental assistance, there are long waiting lists for assistance in every community and in order to be eligible or top priority you must be in a domestic violence situation or victim of a fire. During the Bush Administration, the unbalanced federal budget and priorities were questioned. The budget deficits emerged in 2003 and 2004. By the year 2007 many rental assistance programs were ended because of the budget. Congress and the Administration began to go under the scope because of it. The unbalanced budget affected many rental assistant programs, too many to mention however, Section 8 rental assistance program was greatly affected, it was created in 1970; owners were enticed to participate of secure and stable by budget authority approved up front by congress. This program assisted low income families pay their rent in trying to avoid homelessness. During the Bush Administration, the unbalanced federal budget and priorities were questioned. The budget deficits emerged in 2003 and 2004. By the year 2007 many rental assistance programs were ended because of the budget. Congress and the Administration began to go under the scope because of it. The unbalanced budget affected many rental assistant programs, too many to mention however, Section 8 rental assistance program was greatly affected, it was created in 1970; owners were enticed to participate of secure and stable by budget authority approved up front by congress. This program assisted low income families pay their rent in trying to avoid homelessness.

Charter Schools

Every parent wants the best education for their child. Most parents have no idea where to get it. If you live in a low income neighborhood odds are the public schools in your area are terrible. So they think, Private school! But that’s too expensive and chances are they can’t afford it. The next best thing is a charter school. So they think.                            

Charter schools are independently run schools that are funded by the government. Charter schools are free but like private schools, spaces in charter schools are very limited. By law Charter schools most hold a lottery. Anyone can start a charter school. Parents, teachers and even community leaders may submit a proposal to open a school. “In New York there are three authorities: the New York State Board of Regents, the State University of New York Board of Trustees, and the local board of education”  (“Frequently Asked”) they approve the opening of a new charter school.

Let’s be honest parents are running to the opportunity to anything other than their zone school. Charter schools are smaller than public schools, have less students, therefore offer smaller class sizes. That also means your child has more one on one time with their teacher. Charter schools tend to cater to the locals. For example if the community the school is in, is big on baseball, the charter school will have emphasis on their baseball team. Charter schools have to meet certain public school guidelines but not all of them. Mainly they have the keep the authorities that approved them happy by maintaining high score and leading the school properly. Other than that they are free to teach the student in different ways to help obtain their goals (“GreatSchool”). Any parent would jump to that opportunity.

Unlike public schools, charter school teachers lack a union. So teachers are forced to work a ton of hours for very little pay. Because of that most charter school teachers tend to change profession. Furthermore, most teachers in charter school are new hires and have little to no experience teaching (Russom). This then compromises the grades in charter school. Not saying that the quality of teachers aren’t good because they are new but older teachers normally know what works for them, while new teachers are still “figuring it out”. Differing from many peoples beliefs, charter schools don’t always produce better grades than public schools. In fact many charters schools close down due to academic failures (and many more reason).

Parents need a better understanding of what a charter school is. They need to do a deeper study into the schools they are sending their children too. Just because it’s a charter school doesn’t mean it the best.

Work cited

“Frequently Asked Questions About Public, Charter Schools”. uncommonschools.org. N.p. N.d. Web. April 24, 2014

GreatSchool Staff. “Seven Essentials about Charter Schools”. Greatschools.org. GreatSchools Inc. N.d. Web. April 24, 2014

Russom, Gillian. “The case against charter schools”. International Socialist Review. N.p. May 2010. Web. April 24, 2014

Tenure

Tenure for teachers is job protection so to say. Teachers go through a lot of observations and evaluations, with tenure teachers cannot be disciplined or fired without being taken to court first. Some say it is meant to protect teachers with more experience from being fired to hire younger teachers with less pay. Tenure was given to teachers after working 3 years in a school; this was called your probation period. The teacher would then have to be recommended by the principle of the school to receive tenure. 2.3 million Teachers received tenure as of 2008(“Should teachers”). Former Mayor Bloomberg and the Department of Education recently issued a new tenure-decision making framework for principles as a guide when choosing who to recommend for tenure (“Tenure for”). This made it more difficult for teachers to receive tenure. They now had to work for it. Tenure is meant to recognize outstanding teaching but it seems that for many years it was just given to anyone.

           It all sounds pretty fair, good deserving teacher get job protection. How about the teachers that have tenure and don’t deserve it? Over 6,000 teachers are up for tenure this year, yet student’s grades have not progressed in years; the numbers aren’t adding up. It would be senseless to entirely put the blame on teachers, but if the educators aren’t highly affective, the child suffers. One wonders, if a teacher isn’t highly affective, why then reward them with job protection. As unfair as it is, a teacher’s effectiveness is tied to student’s achievements. If the teacher cannot teach then the teacher should not be teaching, and definitely not granted job protection. Who’s to say that these teachers that already have tenure won’t stop teaching at their best potential? They will still be evaluated but by the time they are reprimanded and taken to court, students have already suffered.

Essentially, what needs to change are the evaluations teachers undergo and a drastic reconsideration and thorough look at those already granted tenure.  

Work cited

 “Tenure for Newer Teachers”. UFT.com. United Federation of Teachers. N.d. Web April 10, 2014

“Should Teachers Get Tenure?”. ProCon. ProCon.org. N.d. Web. April 9, 2014

A Famous New Yorker I Admire

Shawn Corey Carter was born in Brooklyn, New York on December 4, 1969. He responds to his nick name 'Jay Z', in which I would be referring to in my post. Jay Z grew up in Marcy Projects in Brooklyn, New York. His neighborhood and living conditions were not the best and was not easy at all. I admire the fact that he did not become a product of his environment which is very easy to do however, he did not settle or use his mishaps as a crutch to continue to live and struggle in those conditions which seemed that there was no ending and certainly not enough of anything to live comfortably. After he was succesful as a artist he opened his own record label company Def Jam. He was able to sign his friends that he actually went to school with to his label. All of whom he signed went on to be big artist themselves. Jay Z started releasing records in the late 80's. He has accomplished the releasing of platinum records, he created a urban clothing line 'Roca Wear', that is extremely sucessful, he has his own sneakers which was the biggest-selling sneakers and opened his first sports bar 40/40 club in 2003. Because all of his accomplishments, Jay Z has employed thousands of people in all of his establishments around the world. He has employed people from his old neighborhood in Brooklyn also which was uplifting for their community. After retiring in 2006, He left his presidency of Def Jam and sold his remaining stake in Rocafella to found Rock Nation in 2008. He is now married with a lovely toddler daughter and is part owner of the Nets baseeball team. He continues to bring jobs to the brooklyn community, and has done so by building the Barclay Center which is located downtown brooklyn. Anyone looking for a basketball game, concerts or any entertainment can visit the Barclay Center in Brooklyn there is always entertainment there. Work Cited J.M. "Jay Z Biography", www.imdb.com/celebrity/Jay_Z/biography.html, n.d., 1990-2014 IMDb.com, Inc, Web, April 17, 2014

New York City Tourist

New York City may be voted as the number one dirtiest city; however our city attracts so Many people living in different Parts of the World. Most people dream about coming to our city to make changes in their life’s or just tour and see what we have to offer. Despite the fact that New York City is voted for being the dirtiest, loudest and rudest New York gets one third of Tourists who prefer visiting our city than any other city. Even if they already Aware that New York is not the cleanest place to be they rather come to New York.

New York City is where most people may dream about coming even if it’s for vacation or just to see the city with their families. According to the New York Times (Kate, Taylor) stated that New York City “Welcomed Record 52 Million Tourists in 2011.” Even though we get so many tourist in New York our mayor still expect more tourist, Michael Bloomberg stated that the goal is to get 55 Million visitors by 2015. In the Article “A Record year for New York Tourism"(Kate) Stated that when it was asked about the reason why they came to visit New York the most popular answer is cultural institutions. However there are other things that attract the tourist to visit such as the Bicycle lanes and Pedestrian Plazas which have sparked an International Attention to Tourism.

New York is neither the cleanest place nor the dirtiest place.  I think it doesn't  matter if its clean or dirt  in new York  because the tourist still comes to the city with their families even if its looks  or smell bad they are here, although they are complaining about how bad  the city smells , they prefer being in New York city. We have about 1 million people visiting the city every week According to (ken McCarthy).  We still get so many visitors coming from the entire world to see our Museums or Statue of liberty and take pictures of the twin towers.  The tourist loves New York City even at its worse they still prefer our city then any others. 

Work Cited

Kate Taylor "A Record Year for New York Tourism". NYTimes.com . December 31, 2013 

Web April 14, 2014

Ken McCarthy  "The Importance of Tourism". Commercial observer.September 12, 2013

Web April 14,2014

Policies affecting homelessness in NYC

Policies are always changing in this country, some for good and some for bad. For homelessness there has been very strict policies that make life harder for the poor. One program that is continuing to fail for the Bloomberg administration is the advantage program. This program helps to pay for rent for the homelessness. Recently Mayor Bloomberg announced his administration is going to stop paying rent for "approximately 8,000 families still receiving subsidies under the advantage program." Many households that weren't homeless no more have become homeless again. Without a proper subsidy to assist the people they will not be able to afford there rent. Another government program is section 8. They provide rental assistance to families in need. Recently they have put a hold on the applicants and no one else can apply. They are not taking any more applicants unless they have a family because they are prioritized or have been in shelters for a significant amount of time. Homelessness is not simply a result of a bad economy, it is also caused by the shrinking number of affordable housing options available to poor and working people in New York City. New York is trying to make progress in creating affordable housing, but the pace is too slow to keep up with the city's needs. Policies need to be fixed and created to help the needy instead of working against them. We are all New Yorkers and we should work as a whole to fix this problem. Although Mayor Bloomberg has contributed greatly to the increase of homelessness let Mayor Bill De Blasio be reminded that what affects homeless families affects all of us.



 Giselle Routhier "Mayor Bloomberg’s Failed Homeless Policies Are Affecting Landlords Too" Coalitionforthehomeless.org  February 27, 2012 Web April 11,2014