Taboos Brought to Life on La MaMa Stage

Raïna von Waldenburg (photos by Alexander Berg)

In a small theater in East Village, the smell of french toast slowly drifts into the audience. A lone woman stands on the stage, soaking more pieces of bread in egg-milk mixture as the griddle hisses in the corner and clips of radio news echo in the air. The setting is the legendary La MaMa Experimental Theater, and the woman on stage is Raïna von Waldenburg, the writer and performer of Oysters, Orgasms and Obituaries. Von Waldenburg’s one-woman tour de force takes its audience on an unpredictable ride into the core of taboos as it touches upon pedophilia, mother-child murders and childbirth.

The play is a consciously physical one from the very first moment on, as von Waldenburg nonchalantly thanks the audience for coming and transforms into the characters in what almost feels like a lecture - fittingly, von Waldenburg teaches drama at the New York University. As a German grandmother, she comes to terms with her husband’s pedophilia as she casually offers the audience sausage. She draws a peculiar yet believable connection between Andrea Yates, who infamously drowned her five children in Texas in 2001, and another character, an anger-management coach for mothers. Von Waldenburg turns the soaking of the french toast into a powerful metaphor of drowning the children, and suddenly the smell lingering in the air is more nauseating than sweet.

In the darkest back seat of the audience, far from the toast, sits director Zishan Ugurlu. Raïna von Waldenburg has been Ugurlu’s main actress for seven years, and the two created Orgasms, Oysters and Obituaries as a collaborative artistic project. “The idea stemmed from Raïna - she wrote the play, and together we finalised the shape of it,” Ugurlu, who is also an associate theater professor at Lang, says. “We knew we were creating something bigger than us.” Presenting taboos in an unconventional, almost light-hearted way was a challenge, and Ugurlu says that making the audience wonder if it’s appropriate to laugh was something they were aiming for. For Ugurlu, the architecture of the creative room is important, and imagining the space the writer creates is a crucial part of her interpretation. When designing the set, Ugurlu kept the physicality of the play in mind and only picked items which could be used on stage every night. “The most thing important thing about the play is being in the present moment,” she says. “Whatever happens in the room will be in the play.”

One of the most challenging aspects of the production - both artistically and physically - was presenting the concept of orgasmic childbirth. Von Waldenburg had researched the rarely discussed subject before the birth of her own child, and eventually experienced eighteen hours of labor. In the play von Waldenburg retells the experience of pain and plaeasure as she crawls on the black dirt that surrounds the stage - but not before offering live oysters to the audience. A single light bulb descending towards the middle of the stage serves not only as an appropriate ending to the birth scene but also as a reminder of what Zishan Ugurlu says is at the very core of the stories told: hope.

Blue and White Meet Stars and Stripes

A traditional national costume at
the Finnish Independence Day celebration

In a city like New York, the self-proclaimed cultural melting pot, trying to stay true to one’s roots can feel like a futile effort. For residents of a country the size of Finland - with only a little five million residents - finding countrymen abroad is a challenge of its own. On December 6th, Finns gathered to celebrate their country’s 94th Independence Day at the Park Avenue United Methodist Church in Manhattan. The annual event is a celebration truly reflective of its origins; a distinctly introverted and peaceful country. Finns choose to pay tribute to their homeland in a quiet and reflective manner, traditionally lighting two candles in every window of their houses at 6PM and watching the annual president’s reception on television - habits that may seem strange and somber to those who are not familiar with the secluded Northern country.

For some of the over 3,000 first and second generation Finns living in the Greater New York area, the celebrations at the Park Avenue Methodist Church serve as a vital connection to their roots - even when home is half a world away. This year’s attendees, many of them in traditional national costumes, quietly listened to speeches held by Ambassador Liisa Jolkkonen and Lieutenant Colonel Esa Valonen. The afternoon came to an appropriate end as pianist Kalle Toivio performed the brooding Finlandia by Jean Sibelius.

Park Avenue Methodist Church

For one of New York’s Finns, bringing a piece of home to the city is more than just an attempt to stay in touch with one’s origins. Jaana Rehnström moved to New York from Helsinki in 1982 for a common reason - love. Dr. Rehnström, a practicing gynecologist who has two children with her American husband, is also the president of the Finland Center Foundation. The foundation describes itself as “the meeting point of Finnish and American culture, commerce and community”. “Our goal is to advance Finnish values and culture in New York City,” Rehnström says. “There is a lot of activity within the community, but no clear meeting point.” The past few decades have seen a change in Finnish immigrants; instead of blue collar workers who used to travel to America for jobs, these days the ones who take the leap across the pond are often students or newlyweds. “In a lot of cases, a Finn marries an American and it’s very important for them to raise their children to speak Finnish as well as English - which can be a challenge,” Rehnström says. “Families like that often seek out Finnish schools and some sort of network to keep their Finnish side alive.”


The Finland Center Foundation host various events throughout the year and, while currently located at the Salmagundi Club on Fifth Avenue, wish to get their own space soon. “Finnish activity in the city is scattered,” Jaana Rehnström says, “and we attempt to gather everyone under the same roof, both figuratively and physically speaking.” At the Independence Day celebrations, the attempt was successful in both ways. As the imposing notes of the national anthem filled the Upper East Side church, the attendees belted them out proudly in unison.

Forgotten Block Turn Into Forgotten Open-Air Gallery

On a quiet strip of Willoughby Street in Downtown Brooklyn, stores stand empty but distinctly different from those on surrounding blocks. In one window, a black cardboard elephant stretches its trunk in the air. In another, an illustration shows a bony woman pushing her head through the breaking ground. This splash of art on an otherwise seemingly unremarkable block raises questions; who made these pieces, and perhaps more importantly, who put them here?

The history of the Willoughby Windows, as the installation is officially called, traces back to 2009. It was then that Metrotech BID, a non-profit organization that focuses on the revitalization of Downtown Brooklyn, got its eye on the vacant block awaiting demolition and contacted its owners. The property’s possessors agreed to let Metrotech, along with self-proclaimed “cultural think tank” Ad Hoc Art, use the space to display the art of fifteen local artists. The idea was not only to gave the local art scene a boost, but to also completely re-create the rejected block which would have otherwise stood grey and vacant. Oddly enough, Metrotech’s interest 

in the project has fizzled over the years although the art still stands on Willoughby Street. “[Willoughby Windows] is not an active project of ours,” a representative for Metrotech said when asked for a comment. “The art will stay there until the whole block is demolished in a few years.” When asked why the project is left unattended, Metrotech had no comment.

In a city like New York, where vacant storefronts are something that one comes across quite often, the Willoughby Windows project was a promising change in scenery. While development project often stall for years - as seems to be happening in this case - building sites stand unused. Metrotech has attempted to revitalize the Downtown Brooklyn area for years, and has undoubtedly succeeded in many ways; for example, a campaign targeting the area’s sidewalk cleanliness brought the percentage of “acceptably clean” streets from forty to ninety-five percent in only a few years.

Small projects can easily get trampled by bigger ones, and the rejected art at Willoughby Windows seems to be an unfortunate example. While the pieces still stand under bagel store and dry cleaner signs, they have a hopeless aura to them like animals waiting for slaughter. A graffiti written in delicate cursive on one of the store windows offers an ironic take on the project: “It seemed like a good idea at the time.”

The Aftermath of the Graffiti

The fresh paint was barely dry on Kellen Gallery’s walls as the New School’s students and faculty gathered in a Town Hall meeting on on November 28th. The meeting, which was hosted by the University Student Senate, offered a chance to voice concerns and opinions about the school’s involvement with the Occupy Wall Street movement and what the future of the gallery holds. The Senate let the students take the stage - president Van Zandt and provost Marshall opted to observe from front row - and the event turned out heavy with drama but futile with resolutions.

Opinions ranged from indignant to hopeful, but the one wish everyone seemed to agree on was simple: something needs to happen, and fast. Many speakers noted that the school’s reputation as a radical one gives an advantage for civic engagement, but also builds pressure to react. One student compared the school’s situation to that of UC Davis, where peaceful student protestors were pepper sprayed by university police earlier this month. “We have this amazing opportunity where our president is actually offering us a chance to express ourselves and be involved,” the student said, drawing supportive nods from Van Zandt. Those speaking in support of the Occupy movement expressed regret about the fact that the actions of a few individuals  can taint the image of the whole movement. “Let’s not talk about what happened here in the gallery anymore,” one pleaded. “Instead, let’s talk about what’s going to happen now."

As the gallery’s latest exhibition was being noisily cleared out in the back, the meeting slowly fell apart as well. After heated opinions turned into repetitive complaints, most of the crowd cleared out well before the two-hour mark and left the student senate with no choice but to promise to propose a way of voting for the movement’s future. “Use these next two weeks to do something radical,” a member of the faculty said to the students, “You have been given a gift - use it. Please.”

Four Decades Later, Struggle Against Graffiti Continues

Graffiti in Williamsburg, Brooklyn

Graffiti has been a part of New York’s street scene since the late sixties, and the gradual battle between self-proclaimed graffiti artists and city administrators is still going strong. In an effort to eliminate the controversial form of self-expression from the city’s streets, the Mayor’s office presented a plan called Graffiti Free NYC in 1999. 
The program offers free graffiti removal to properties anywhere within the five boroughs - all that's needed is a form offered on the city government’s website. The requirements are fairly simple - nothing higher than the second story, and private properties only. Statistics boast that over 170 million square feet of graffiti have been cleaned since the program's inception over a decade ago.

Graffiti begun its steady climb in popularity with hip hop culture over forty years ago, and was first noted by the media in the early 1970s. In 1971, The New York Times ran an article about a local graffiti artist called TAKI 183. “Why do they go after the little guy?” the artist was quoted saying about authorities who removed his work from subway stations. “Why not the campaign organizations that put stickers all over the subways at election time?”

Since the days of TAKI 183's generation, New York’s graffiti scene has grown into a world-renowned art concept. The long-going battle between the city’s administrative parties and the artists - and those who just like to doodle on walls - first started in 1972, when Mayor Lindsay declared war against graffiti.
Since then, various mayors have encountered setbacks; the rise of world-renown street artists in the early eighties, as well as triumphs; the last graffitied subway train ran in 1989. In 1995, in one of the biggest anti-graffiti programs in the country’s history, Mayor Giuliani put together an initiative called the Anti-Graffiti Task Force. While New York’s streets are less covered in tags and pictures than they were in the early days of the graffiti movement, the war against it still far from over.

In addition to the Graffiti Free NYC program, The Mayor's Paint Program encourages communities and neighbors to take matters into their own hands and clean graffiti themselves. Once the Mayor’s office approves a removal project, they will provide the applicants with up to twenty-six gallons of paint and roller sleeves.
The program's website also encourages New Yorkers to stay alert and contact the NYPD should they see graffiti painting take place. The efforts to end graffiti do not seem to phase local artists, who have expanded their craft around the world.
“We don't advocate breaking the law,” online graffiti art gallery Art Crimes claims on their website, “but we think art belongs in public spaces and that more legal walls should be made available for this fascinating art form.”

Cyclist Deaths Put NYPD Under Fire

Transportation Alternatives Director Paul Steely White (middle)
and Mathieu Lefevre's family (right) at the press conference
on October 26th. (photo: BikeNYC)

Recent concerns about cyclist safety in Williamsburg were proven justifiable on the evening of October 18th, when another life was cut short on two wheels. 30-year-old local artist Mathieu Lefevre was riding on the corner of Morgan Avenue and Meserole Street when he was fatally struck my a flatbed truck. According to the NYPD, Lefevre was biking next to the truck when it turned right and ran over him. The driver of the truck initially fled the scene - it is unclear whether he was aware of the collision or not - but his identity was discovered two days later when the truck was found unattended a block away from the scene of the accident.

The NYPD’s ultimate decision to not press charges against the driver came as a shock to the victim’s family, who held a press conference on October 26th outside the NYPD headquarters. “We want to know what happened to our son, and the police are not telling us anything,” the victim’s mother, Erika Lefevre said. Paul Steely White, the director of Transportation Alternatives, also spoke at the gathering and expressed concerns towards the police department’s way of handling cyclist accidents. The official statement which NYPD released about October 18’s accident offered a grim conclusion: “There was no criminality involved. That’s why they call it an accident.”

The police department’s dismissive attitude towards the cyclist death is not a unique occurence; since August, four bikers have been killed in Williamsburg but no charges have been pressed in any of the cases. On August 3rd, 29-year-old Robert Doyle was hit by a truck on Metropolitan Ave when he was trying to pass it on his bike. On August 30th, Erica Abbott, also 29, was riding on Bushwick Ave when she hit a pile of construction debris, fell off her bike and was run over by a car. On September 2nd, 24-year-old Nicolas Djandji was fatally struck by an SUV while cycling on Roebling Street. According to investigations, Djandji ran a red light - according to witnesses, however, if Djandji ran a red light then the driver must have too. The drivers were not charged in any of the cases. At the Lefevre press conference on October 26, Transportation Alternatives called driver negligence and NYPD ignorance an epidemic. “The NYPD has consistently failed to file charges against drivers for their lethal behavior,” the director said.

Memorial for Erica Abbott in Brooklyn (photo: Towngrump.com)

Erika Lefevre’s fight for justice for his son has not received a response from authorities so far, but she is not alone in her battle. Transportation Alternatives are approaching the subject fiercely, and a statement released shortly after Mathieu Lefevre’s death showed a plea for change: “The NYPD's blame the victim attitude reveals their disheartening acceptance of traffic violence,” the statement read. TA encourages cycling New Yorkers to take action and contact Police Commissioner Ray Kelly directly with a letter they provide on their website. “Commissioner Kelly, more people are killed in traffic than murdered by guns in New York City,” the letter says and asks Kelly to add more resources to the Accident Investigation Squad and commit to a goal of less - preferably none - cyclist and pedestrian deaths in New York City. NYPD and Commissioner Kelly’s office refused to comment.

Stuyvesant Town-Peter Cooper Village

Credit: newyorkcondoloft.com

Walking down 14th Street, it’s hard to see what lies behind the neatly rowed red brick buildings. Seemingly endless lines of them continue from First Avenue to Avenue C and from 14th to 20th Street, forming a perfect rectangle on the East end of Manhattan. This building complex is Stuyvesant Town, an 80-acre residential development and home to over 50,000 people.

When the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company started the development of Stuyvesant Town - or Stuy Town, as it is known by its residents - in 1943, the area had been known for its enormous gas storage tanks, giving it the unappealing nickname of Gas House district. With this new apartment complex, MetLife promised New Yorkers the possibility to “live in a park.” Soldiers returning from World War II were promised a priority position when tenant applications started pouring in. Robert Moses, who was the Park Commissioner at the time, took interest in the project early on, and Robert Caro has described Moses as a “dominant force in the creation of Stuyvesant Park.” The development thus became a public-private partnership and the City Planning Commission backed the project by fifty million dollars. Moses’ involvement came with controversy, however, as his Commission and MetLife decided that African-Americans were not allowed to live in the complex. A very similar building complex called Riverton Houses, which in turn did not allow Caucasian residents, was soon built in Harlem by MetLife.

Stuyvesant Town today is a community unlike any other in lower Manhattan. With densely populated streets and rents starting at a steep $2,500 for a single bedroom apartment, it fits all the characteristics of living in Manhattan but still somehow stands on its own like a distant cousin of a bustling city. Walking down the looped streets of Stuy Town, watching children play around the massive water fountain in the heart of the complex, it’s hard to imagine that you’re in one of the biggest cities in the world. With its fitness centers, movie theater and playgrounds, the complex is nothing short of its own community. A Stuy Town Security officer rolls down the street in his golf cart as families return home from work and the sun sets behind the seemingly identical buildings. On the other side of them is New York City with all its raw glory, home to countless fates and an anchor for this strange little shelter nestled on the edge of it.

Urbanized

The director of Helvetica and Objectified (both IFC Center hits) completes his design trilogy with this fascinating examination of the lives of cities.  Delving into the issues and strategies behind urban design, he visits the world’s foremost architects, policymakers, thinkers and activists.  75% of the world will call a city home by 2050.  But while some cities are growing explosively, others are shrinking.  Exploring a diverse, international range of urban design projects, URBANIZED frames a global discussion on our urban future.


http://www.ifccenter.com/films/urbanized/


From NYT's review:


“Urbanized” is less focused on the history of cities than on the way they are adapting to the challenges of the present and future, notably climate change and population growth. This slant leaves some inevitable gaps — the David-and-Goliath battle between Robert Moses and Jane Jacobs is mentioned, but important earlier figures like Daniel Burnham and Frederick Law Olmsted are not — and there is a distinct bias in favor of Jacobs-influenced new urbanism and against other approaches to city planning.
[...]
Like a really good class taught by a team of enthusiastic professors, “Urbanized” supplies grist for many late-night arguments or solitary ruminations. It is worth venturing out of your room, climbing on your bike or boarding a low-emissions bus and fighting your way through a crowd to see.

Town Hall

On October 26, students and faculty of the New School gathered to discuss current issues at a University Town Hall meeting. President David Van Zandt and provost Tim Marshall presented the packed Wollman Hall with plans and agendas for the future, but an hour and a half seemed to only scratch the surface of what is going on in the university community.

Van Zandt opened the meeting by presenting a few of the university’s recent successes, such as the smooth transition between e-mail platforms, a new bell system to unify class schedules, and the massive new university building currently rising on the corner of 14th Street and Fifth Avenue. Van Zandt’s cheerful tone was soon darkened by less positive news: as the university’s enrollment decreased by 5.1 percent between 2010 and 2011, rising rates of tuition are something that the school and its students may have to face in the near future. The president didn’t let the bad news dispirit him, and instead reminded the crowd that the New School’s reputation as a non-traditional and civically engaged learning institution will continue to preceed itself and attract new students. “We’re the New School,” Van Zandt reminded the crowd, “we should think innovatively.”

The Q&A portion turned out to be the most intriguing part of the meeting. Anthony Whitfield, an associate professor at Parsons, expressed his concerns about the school’s diversity, claiming that explicit discussion on the matter has disappeared. “How can we improve what is not even talked about?” Whitfield asked. Tim Marshall and David Van Zandt were quick to claim that diversity discussion had not disappeared. “Look around this room,” Whitfield encouraged. “If [diversity] is not seen here, it’s not seen in the curriculum.” He wished to see the university treat diversity less as a series of politically correct anecdotes, but instead as an intrinsic part of the curriculum. Whitfield’s opinions gained applause and agreeing comments, with another faculty member noting that diversity has actually decreased within the faculty.

Other expressed concerns touched upon rising tuition rates and the ratio between freshmen and seniors in classes. The issue of diversity, which Tony Whitfield had quite unexpectedly put on the table and president Van Zandt didn’t seem to know how to approach, seemed to leave a veil of uncertainty over the remainder of the meeting. As the crowds made their way out of Wollman Hall, it appeared as if more questions had been asked than answers given.

Re: New York City Council Member Margaret Chin

Margaret Chin has been the District 1 council member since January 2010. Chin, a Democrat, was the first Asian American woman elected to city council. (THE FIRST TWO SENTENCES COULD BE TURNED INTO ONE TO GET THE READER INTERESTED MORE QUICKLY) She has been actively participating in the fight to protect schools, senior citizens, and community organizations from budget cuts, having “called on Albany to support an additional surcharge on the top 2% of New York households,” according to her city council website.

Chin moved to the United States with her family from Hong Kong, China, when she was nine years old. Chin grew up in Chinatown, attending P.S. 130 and JHS 65 (THESE ARE A LITTLE CONFUSING IF YOU'RE NOT FAMILIAR WITH THE SCHOOL SYSTEM) for school. After attending the Bronx High School of Science, she attended the City College of New York, receiving a degree in education.

Following college, Chin became very active in enriching the rights of Asian immigrants. She helped found Asian Americans for Equality, a group that was designed to help Asian Americans and other immigrants who were in need. Chin served as the president of the group from 1982 until 1986. Chin also worked at a continuing education community college, helping immigrants get a college education. (A BIT REPETITIVE W/ THE WORDS "COLLEGE" AND "EDUCATION") Chin’s father came to America before the rest of his family did, and his struggles during that time period have always motivated Chin (SOURCE/QUOTE?) to helping improve the quality of life for immigrants.

District 1 in Manhattan in made up of the lowest parts of Manhattan. Canal Street serves as its northern border, going all the way down to the bottom of Manhattan. District 1 includes the Financial District, Battery Park City, Tribeca, Ellis Island, and Governor’s Island. (ALL THIS INFO IS A LITTLE OVERWHELMING AT THIS POINT. COULD THIS PARAGRAPH BE MOVED/SOMEHOW INTERTWINED WITH ANOTHER PARAGRAPH?)

Chin has been dealing (DEALING HOW? POSITIVE/NEGATIVE?), as has everybody in the area, with Occupy Wall Street. She has come under fire recently for not marching with on Zuccotti Park with other members of the City Council, despite being one of the most liberal members of the Council. Multiple articles have sighted (CITED?) that while in college, Chin was a member of the Communist Workers Party. (THIS IS INTERESTING - ANY MORE BACKGROUND INFO WOULD BE GREAT) Her response for why she was not at the march was due to a “scheduling conflict”, adding, “I have been to so many marches.”

Chin also serves as the Lower Manhattan Redevelopment Committee Chair, having recently conducted a research project about furthering preliminary cancer research. Chin is married to Alan Tung, a public school teacher, and has a son, Kevin, who graduated from Syracuse University. (I FEEL LIKE THIS PARAGRAPH IS OUT OF PLACE AND DOESN'T END THE ARTICLE VERY SMOOTHLY. IF ALL THE INFO ABOUT HER FAMILY/BACKGROUND WOULD BE IN ONE PARAGRAPH, IT COULD BE EASIER TO FOLLOW.  SOME MORE QUOTES FROM HER WOULD HAVE BEEN GOOD. IN GENERAL, I THOUGHT THIS PIECE WAS A GREAT SUMMARY OF HER AS A COUNCIL MEMBER. THE STRUCTURE'S A LITTLE CONFUSING, ALTHOUGH THE LAYOUT'S GREAT!)

Life at Zuccotti Park

As the Occupy Wall Street movement marks its one-month anniversary, the protesters seek different ways to treat their bodies and minds.


Link to slideshow

Team South // College Students Occupy Wall Street

Local Pharmacy Struggles to Remain in Business

Photo by Michael O'Brien

This November will mark the one-year anniversary of the opening of a two-story, anything-you-could-need-and-more Duane Reade drugstore on Bedford Avenue, Williamsburg. The national chain opened its first franchise in the area to quite a bit of controversy, when locals protested against the location of the store – directly across the street from Kings Pharmacy, which has served the neighborhood for over eight years.

The neighborhood has struggled against gentrification for a good part of the new century, as local establishments have had to bow out due to rising rents and companies ranging from Whole Foods to Starbucks have been eyeing locations in the area. For years West Williamsburg, a small sliver of land nestled between the East River and the Brooklyn-Queens expressway, has been the place to migrate to for young adults looking to escape Manhattan’s ever-increasing rents. But now, some say, it’s time to escape Williamsburg. “The rents are doubling and places like [Duane Reade] are forcing the locals out. Williamsburg is losing its old charm quickly,” resident James Wilburn, 26, says.

As for King’s Pharmacy, the fight is far from over. Although the storeowner could not be reached for comment, a sign posted on the entrance of the store speaks for itself.  “Help us […] fight the corporate bully. We look forward to serving you in the years to come. Let’s keep Williamsburg independent!” reads the note, which has been on the door ever since Duane Reade opened across the street. However optimistic they may appear to be, the beloved local could be in trouble. Across the street, Duane Reade boasts cheaper prices, more products and a not-so-secret weapon – a beer bar. Customers can fill glass bottles from taps, with nine different beers to try. These advantages, in addition to the fact that Duane Reade is open 24/7 and Kings closes at the relatively early hour of 9PM, may ultimately lead to the latter’s demise.

When Duane Reade opened, locals distributed fliers and opened a Facebook group boycotting the store. Although the online group has not been updated since last November and the complaints were never taken to a higher level – the community board, for example – some shoppers still are still willing to battle. “I refuse to shop at Duane Reade,” said Fiona Pho, 31, walking out of Kings with plastic bags in both hands. “I don’t really care about big stores in general, but I want to keep Williamsburg local. I shop at Duane Reade and Walgreens in Manhattan sometimes if I need to, so it’s not like I boycott them all,” she said. Other local establishments in the neighborhood – The Bagel Store right down the block, for example – have struggled to pay the increasing rents and it’s rumored that Starbucks is looking at possible open spaces along Bedford Avenue. With a 1.42 billion dollar operating income, the coffee giant should have no problem paying the rent, but could cost the neighborhood an essential part – its residents.

Brooklyn community board 1

District 1 shown in orange, illustration courtesy of luventicus.org

Brooklyn’s community district 1 encompasses Williamsburg and Greenpoint, two neighborhoods in the middle of tumultuous changes. The area, which has been the frontier of New York’s gentrification in the last couple of decades, had 142,942 residents in 1980 and 160,338 in 2000. The latter was the latest reported number, leaving one to wonder exactly how many new residents have arrived within the last eleven years. The area has served as a jumping ground to local artists for decades but has lately made headlines when residents complain the neighborhood is losing its originality.

The community board for district 1 meets monthly to discuss plans, ideas and problems concerning the area. The fairly young average age of the district’s residents – 30 percent of them are between the ages of 25 and 44 - is reflected on the issues brought up in the meetings. In April’s meeting, for example, over forty bars and restaurant applied for liquor licenses and renewals. Other issues included requests to open a martial arts club, a sidewalk café and a taxi service. The latter was presented to the board by David Yassky, chairman of the Taxi and Limousine Commission, who claimed that getting a yellow cab in Brooklyn is difficult and forces about 150,000 people a day to hail down unlicensed “gypsy cabs”. The solution to the problem, according to Yassky, would be a legitimate taxi service that would provide the neighborhood with marked cars that could be stopped on the go.

Community board 1 has influenced a bigger project as well. In 2005, mayor Bloomberg’s administration approved a rezoning plan concerning the neighborhoods of Williamsburg and Greenpoint. This plan will eventually result in 50 acres of new parkland along the East River, including a 1.6-mile long public esplanade. The community board has had its share of complaints about the changing neighborhoods, and hopes are high for the new waterfront plans. According to the waterfront master plan, the changes are intended to “create a balance between active and passive recreation opportunities to serve the diverse recreation needs of the community.” The vision, which was developed with the help of the community board 1 and is a significant step in the ongoing gentrification of the area, will undoubtedly prove to be a much-discussed topic in the years to come.

Illustration of the upcoming Greenpoint-Williamsburg waterfront, by Donna Walcavage

The Dangers of Two Wheels

The first weeks of autumn have been grim for Brooklyn cyclists. In two tragically similar accidents, two young bikers were killed only days from each other in Williamsburg. On August 30^th, Williamsburg resident Erica Abbott, 29, was riding down Bushwick Ave when she tried to pass a pile of construction debris and was fatally struck by a car. On September 2^nd, fellow Brooklynite Nicolas Djandji, 24, reportedly ran a red light while cycling on Borinquen Place and was hit by an SUV. In both accidents, the drivers of the vehicles stayed at the scene and were not charged. These unfortunate accidents so close to one another inevitably raise the question of safety within the cycling community – are the city street too merciless for flimsy bikes?

According to cycling advocacy group Transportation Alternatives, the annual fatality rate for bikers has ranged from 12 to 26 within the past five years. Nicolas Djandji became the tenth victim of 2011, keeping this year’s number relatively low so far. Although the first bike lanes in Brooklyn were opened back in 1894, the amount of cyclists has skyrocketed within the past decade; the numbers of New Yorkers who commute by bike daily rose by 13 percent between 2009 and 2010 alone. Estimates on how many people overall use their bikes in the city every day vary, but it’s agreed to be somewhere between 200 000 and 300 000. With this many cyclists on the streets every day, city officials are under pressure to keep them safe. The Department of Transportation came up with an ambitious idea of completing 200 miles of bike lanes in three years, and they met their goal in 2009. While Transportation Alternative’s executive director Paul Steely White comments that the streets are “definitely getting safer”, some Brooklyn cyclists disagree. “Drivers have no respects for cyclists what so ever,” says local cyclist Neil Simone, who rides his bike between his home and work in Williamsburg daily. “I see near-accidents all the time.”

On September 16^th, city officials announced plans to launch a bike share system in Manhattan and Brooklyn next year. With 10,000 bikes and 600 stations planned, the system is intended for short-time rides and commutes. If the project succeeds, it means a definite increase in the amount of bikers on the city streets. The Department of Transportation promotes cycling safety with events like Bike Month – which takes place in May – and by giving out 20,000 free helmets at DoT locations. While the amount of bikes in the city only seems to grow, the city seems to be taking the safety of the people riding them more and more seriously.

Cyclists on Havemeyer Street, Williamsburg

9/11

As the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks nears, scattered memories of that fateful day re-emerge slowly. It seems like everyone has a story, and for former NYPD lieutenant commander Michael Sweeney, the memories are distinct. Sweeney was working undercover on a narcotics case in New York on that warm September day, but when the first plane hit the towers, he was quickly told to make his way to the Financial District. “We were driving down there when the second tower collapsed,” Sweeney recalls. “By the time we got to south of Canal Street, everything was covered in dust. You couldn’t see where the street began and where the buildings used to be; it was just pitch black.” Radio communication within the police force had gone out, and the officers had no idea how many of their own were dead or trapped in the debris.

Sweeney’s team’s first concern was to get the people away from the scene as fast as possible. Power had gone out, and many were now stuck in elevators in the neighborhood with no way of calling for help. “At first we were looking for survivors stuck in various traps,” Sweeney says. “Fairly quickly it turned into a search for bodies and parts of them. We knew that everyone who had been in the WTC towers were gone.” After staying at the scene until four in the morning, Sweeney was told to go home and rest. “I hadn’t actually looked at myself until I got home, and realized that my uniform wasn’t blue anymore. My face was covered in dust, it was as if someone had poured baby powder on me,” he recalls.

Sweeney lived in what he describes as a blue-collar neighborhood – “plenty of cops and firemen with their families.” His neighbor, a firefighter, had been working at the scene of the attacks and his wife hadn’t heard from him all day. Sweeney told her that communication was difficult in Manhattan - at this point, he had no way of knowing that his neighbor had died when the buildings collapsed. Early the next morning, Sweeney was back in the midst of the mess. Standing on top of the bits and pieces that had been two skyscrapers less than 24 hours before, the vastness of the destruction started to sink in. “It wasn’t until I was on a bucket brigade that I realized how much had been destroyed, and I thought – what a fool I had been to give that poor woman hope that her husband might some day return.”

Cleaning the debris was a long and tiring process, and especially difficult since you had to be very thorough. “Even the smallest bit of bone could help with the DNA investigations and give closure to someone,” Sweeney says. “We had men working down there for 24 hours a day, seven days a week, for months.” As for the future safety of New York, Sweeney has a grim vision. “It’s not a matter of if, it’s a matter of when,” he says of another attack. Sweeney is aware of the impact that 9/11 had on the country. “It changed how we view security and it changed the police, the military, everything,” he says. “The whole world changed that day.”

Roebling St

On a warm September afternoon, Roebling Street is quiet. Summer is stretching its last moments before autumn takes over and the people who are out to enjoy it calmly stroll along. Located in the heart of north Williamsburg, Brooklyn, the street has witnessed all of the recent changes in the neighborhood that have been widely and publicly discussed. Worries about rising rents and gentrification, however, are notably absent in the everyday life of the area. On a small block between North 4^th and 5^th Streets, the residents seem pleased. “I’ve lived on this block for a couple of years and I really love it here”, 29-year-old Aimee Hunt says. The block, with its orange bricks and little shops, is typical for the neighborhood – comfortable but exciting at the same time. A short train ride from Manhattan and a few blocks’ distance from the hustle of Bedford Avenue are enough to create a homely but metropolitan atmosphere that so many of the new New Yorkers have learned to love. Roebling Street is a prime example of what Williamsburg is today – a constantly growing neighborhood that attracts young movers but is not free of problems. “You can definitely see how everything around here has evolved”, Aimee Hunt says, “but not everything has changed.”

For years, residents and passers-by have been getting their coffee fix from Oslo, the café situated on the same block as Hunt’s apartment. In 2003 a couple that had recently moved into the area decided to start their own coffee shop and due to heritage named it after the Norwegian capital. Oslo blossomed with the neighborhood and is now widely considered one of the best coffee establishments in the city. This kind of local entrepreneurship is appreciated and encouraged in Brooklyn, where the residents pride themselves in being part of a community seemingly more than in Manhattan.

Recent rumors about Whole Foods opening a store location in Williamsburg have caused uproar from the locals, who could more likely be seen carrying as Oslo cup instead of a Starbucks one – not that you could find Starbucks this side of the L train. Some would – and have – called this new wave of so-called hipsters irritating and bad for the neighborhood, while others have applauded them for putting Brooklyn “back on the map”. However you look at it, Roebling Street and the rest of Williamsburg continue to grow. New waves of hipsters will pour from Manhattan, new coffee shops will thrive and even Whole Foods might become a local. Through all this, the orange block of Roebling Street will remain a great spot for an afternoon walk.