fabiochiu/medium-articles huggingface dataset:
“For every store, there is a family, an entrepreneur, even an executive grieving the closing of those doors.”
By: Bobbie Gossage
Tags: New York City, Entrepreneurship, Small Business, Business, Economy

After New York magazine published a cover story cataloging 500 notable New York City businesses that shuttered for good during the pandemic, writer and director Julio Vincent Gambuto wrote about the heartbreaking loss that happens behind the scenes for entrepreneurs and their families. His own father’s entrepreneurial woes were one of the foundational experiences of his childhood, he writes, one that still seeps into his work as a film director. “Despite our family’s best efforts to save my father’s quest for the American dream from devolving into an American nightmare, we lost that business,” he recalls. “We would go on to lose four more, year after year, as my father struggled to stem the bleeding with an annual venture and a new set of business cards.”
Orlando City Loans Mason Stajduhar to NYCFC
By: Chris Hockman
Tags: Orlando, New York City, New York City Fc

Photo: Orlando City SC

ORLANDO — Orlando City has sent goalkeeper Mason Stajduhar on loan to New York City FC for the duration of the CONCACAF Champions League tournament the team announced on Monday.

The loan for Stajduhar will only be for the continental tournament and he will return to the Lions immediately after the tournament ends for NYCFC. It could allow for Stajduhar to make his first appearance in a competitive game for an MLS team as he has yet to make his debut for Orlando.

With the remainder of the tournament to be played at City’s Exploria Stadium it made it an easy option for the Cityzens to pick up an Orlando net-minder to give cover for the open position in their line-up and help the NYC fans breathe easier.

That gap in the squad was created when starting keeper Sean Johnson was unable to make the trip to Orlando for COVID related reasons. The goalkeeper had come too close to another player who tested positive and as such the safety protocols deemed him ineligible.

Three New York players tested positive in recent days, which not only forced a shuffle of the squad but also necessitated travel arrangements being changed. The team only arrived in Orlando on Tuesday, just hours before its quarter-final match.

It’s going to be a tough ask for NYCFC, 1–0 down after the first leg in March, and coming back to a venue that will give them nightmares, home of their infamous 2020 MLS Cup Playoffs loss.

New York will face Mexican side Tigres in the quarter-final at 10pm on Tuesday night with Stadjuhar expected to start on the bench for the Cityzens.

This article originally featured at Florida Soccer Report
Biking upstairs
By: Ben Taha
Tags: Sketch, Brooklyn, New York City, Life, Parks

Photo by Mohamed Nohassi on Unsplash

Biking upstairs

Since everything basically shut down and we’ve mostly been inside, I’ve grown to appreciate mundane happenings. Yesterday, I spent some time with my girlfriend strolling around Prospect Park. I love this park for a multitude of reasons, the main reason being life. It’s a pleasant reminder that real people exist.

Immediately after making echo-noises with my fellow humans under the mossy ‘Cleftridge’ bridge and juking away from a speeding mini, bike-riding spiderman, we climbed the short set of stairs onto the bridge that crosses the ‘Lullwater’ lake.

On a Sunday while walking this bridge, you might find a newly-wedded couple getting coached by a professional photographer to your left, a group of clout-chasing teens sharing a joint behind bare branches to your right, roasting their weakest link for mixing up the names of two important rappers (Which baby is it?), and a funky jazz band playing ‘Red Clay’ at the Boathouse across the pond. It’s the perfect space to evade the Sunday Scaries, a term that only residually applies to me from being in college, but definitely applies to the 9–5ers who have to wake up at 8am the next morning to coordinate god-knows-what for rich upper-west-siders. Even now as we approach freezing temperatures, Prospect Park beats the cooped-up feeling of a stuffy apartment ten out of ten times. With nowhere to go and little to look forward to, a pandemic in the concrete jungle realigns a person’s priorities.

As we approached the three steps down, a scraggly man with an old black peacoat and bootcut jeans approached the three steps up, mounting a Citi-bike. He was presumably going to climb the stairs with his circular wheels and minimal momentum. He moved slowly with a Michael Jordan level focus like he’d been there before. I fought my instinct to critique his plan because I wanted him to succeed. I imagined him smiling cheek to cheek while morphing through the obstacle in one swift motion with his head and shoulders floating above the concrete and his legs cycling under the bridge. It was a sight to be seen. Unfortunately, nobody saw it.

My guy, now moving at a snail's pace, lifted his front wheel with a vigor that only someone with a strong fringe-belief system could. When the wheel tapped the third step, his force rebounded. This is the conservation of energy, I think. On his journey backward, he twisted his handlebars sideways while his ass slid off the seat and his foot hopped and planted into the dirt. I can only imagine how his gonads felt from the squeeze of the seat.

The man didn’t complete his “square peg in a round hole” venture, but he sure-as-hell impressed me. He had nothing to lose, he gambled that nothing into an impossible task, and he broke even. Love that energy.
The Things We Must Face
By: Matt Milligan
Tags: Covid 19, New York City, Pandemic, New York, James Baldwin

Despite what we frequently read in the media, there is nothing unprecedented about 2020. We are experiencing problems that have been with us for generations, problems that stem from divisions. And those divisions are rooted in money, politics, religion, race, and other things one should not talk about in polite company. But these social taboos are the very things we must talk about — and face — as Mr. Baldwin also famously said, or they will keep splitting us in two over and over again.

A couple of weeks after the stay-at-home order went into effect, the half of us who remained in the city had to navigate a familiar but unknown landscape. My neighborhood was as empty and quiet as my office had been. When I went on walks or the occasional errand, I photographed the changes I saw. I also turned my camera inside (because we were inside all the time!); it was a natural response to the confinement. I began to see repeated images and symbols, sometimes subtle and sometimes overt. I realized that if I was sensitive to them, they could bolster the symbols of the past that Baldwin talked about and help me navigate what I was encountering and feeling. As Thomas Merton, a Trappist monk, said, “the true symbol does not merely point to something else. It contains in itself a structure which awakens our consciousness to a new awareness of the inner meaning of life and of reality itself.”

Making these photographs was a cathartic experience for me. It brought to the surface my human “constant preoccupation with pleasure and pain… our pursuit of this happiness,” as fourteenth-century Japanese writer Yoshida Kenko said. It also — thankfully — brings Merton’s new awareness that, without his and Baldwin’s help, I would not have found. This process and these writers taught me that before I say anything about the problems I see out in the world, I must first look inside and face myself.
11 BACK To SCHOOL ESSENTIALS You NEED To Be COOLER | Affan Bangi
Tags: New York City, Students, Back To School, Schools, Students Life

As we know due to the corona pandemic our schools were closed and as the vaccines were found some nations have appropriately opened the schools and the remaining nations are going to open the schools soon.

So here are a bunch of things that are essentially needful for your schools.

1) A signatur COLOGNE.

Boost your confidence by getting compliments from friends, girls.

2) An everyday HOODIE.

See that it fits you perfectly and that will make you look more modern.

3) A dope BACK PACK.

I’ll suggest you a leather back pack because that looks more cooler and will make you look more masculine.

4) SNEAKERS that LOOK More EXPENSIVE but aren’t.

[ Eg. Vant old school, Adenos continental]

🙂

5) BLUE LIGHT BLOCKING GLASSES.

Now as your classes got online it’s necessary to protect your eyes from the blue light that emits from your phone, tablets,or laptops and Blue light blocking glasses will help you in protecting your eyes.

6) BUY a HYDRO FLASK, a WATER BOTTLE.

When you’re in school you need to have a flask/waterbottle as water is very much necessary to keep you body haydrated.

7) BLACK & BLUE JEANS.

You just need them two and you can wear them by interchanging them, as these are basic.

8) A COOL BIKE.

As these are eco-friendly and cheaper from cars.

🙂

9) GREY SWEATS.

10) An iPad.

As it can do everything a laptop can.

11) A BUNCH of T-SHIRT.

Thank you GUY’S so much for reading and I’ll be back with similar stuff soon!

Visit my site for more stuff related to fashion, fitness, lifestyle,skincare,grooming,home workouts and more.

Hit that subscribe button above and enter your email to get my blogs directly in your inbox, so that you don’t miss any of my upcoming content!

Stay SAFE ! Stay HEALTHY!
Early Voting Begins In Special Election For Former Seat Of Disgraced Bronx Councilmember
By: Gloria Cruz
Tags: New York City, Special Election, Election 2020, City Council, Bronx

In the last election of 2020, early voting for the special election to replace former Bronx Councilmember Andy King begins on Saturday.

The election is for District 12, which covers the northeast section of the Bronx, including Baychester, Eastchester, Co-Op City, Edenwald, Wakefield, and Williamsbridge, and was prompted after an extensive investigation into years-long allegations of ethics violations led to King’s expulsion earlier this year.

King’s ouster was the first time a Council Member was removed without being convicted of a crime.

Early voting is scheduled to take place until December 20th, and the special election day is December 22nd. Voters can find their early voting and election day poll sites here.

The deadline for voters to request an absentee ballot was Tuesday, December 15th. Mail-in ballots must either be postmarked by December 22nd or dropped off at a polling site during early voting or on election day.

The three confirmed candidates in the race are Pamela Johnson-Hamilton, Neville Mitchell, and Kevin Riley. Because the election is nonpartisan, each candidate will be running on their own ballot line.

Johnson-Hamilton, who has previously run for this seat in 2013 and 2017 is on the “Social Change” line. She identifies as a community activist advocating for small businesses and refunding the Summer Youth Employment Program. She has raised $6,781 in private funds and $45,836 in public funds, and if elected, Johnson-Hamilton will be the first woman to represent District 12.

Mitchell, who previously ran in 2012, is a veteran public defender with the Legal Aid Society’s homicide task force. Mitchell, who has raised $100 in private funds, is running on “Bronx 12 Matters” and has focused his campaign on providing a better path for the younger generation.

Kevin Riley, who appears to be the frontrunner in the race given the swell of support from members of the Bronx Democratic Party, is a Democratic district leader and director of community relations for state Assembly Speaker Carl E. Heastie. He is running on “Justice and Unity” and has prioritized mental health, education, and housing for his campaign. Riley is also leading in campaign funds raising $48,700 in private funds and $132,077 in public funds.

This will be the last election before New York City moves to ranked-choice voting ( maybe). The winner of the special election will serve until the end of 2021 to fill the remainder of King’s term, then there will be a primary election for the District 12 seat in 2021, as all elected city government positions will be up for grabs next fall.
New York Diners Kicked to the Curb Again
By: Simon Mclaren
Tags: Outdoor Dining, New York City

Let’s face it. Being in Manhattan now is like skateboarding in your neighbor’s empty swimming pool after they’ve left for the winter. Getting vertical on the pool walls may be cool and edgy, but regardless, it’s still freezing and desolate.

Photo by Gary He

Sunday will be a big night in Gotham. It’s the last night we’ll be able to enjoy indoor dining. Starting Monday, if you dare dine out and brave the elements, you may find yourself in a Daniel Boulud Igloo, a Jean-Georges Yurt, or perhaps under the Topiary at Lola Taverna that miraculously stays alive despite the propane flames blasting from underneath and the searing wind on top. And no matter where you may find yourself for dinner, you will be staring at a locked up restaurant from your pothole placed curbside table.

If it’s too cold for you, and you don’t cook, there’s always the joys of Doordash, just remember to shut off your CITIZEN App notifications so you don’t see appetizing headlines like the one that just crossed my phone “!!INCIDENT: MAN RUNNING WITH MEAT CLEAVER THREATENING PEDESTRIANS ON EAST 73RD STREET/THIRD AVENUE”.

Be brave. Dress warm. If you need to skip town for a couple of days, do so. But don’t you dare abandon our great city. If you do, we may not invite you back.
Daft New York Calls
By: Monty Burns Kate Crubs
Tags: Imy, New York City

“It’s 2am your time. Why you calling me so late?”

“Thinking of you. Missing you.”

“Goodbye. I need to sleep.”

“Listen. I want to sing you a song:

Why you gotta be so rude? I’m gonna marry her anyway

Marry that girl Marry her anyway

Marry that girl

Yeah no matter what you say…”

I smiled ear to ear in darkness

I loved those daft calls from New York at an inappropriate hour

I think of those calls often lately

It’s the excessive familiarity of falling out of love with a person made those calls perpetual

December is never so cold in the Bay Area

I miss New York
Not a Haiku
By: C.T. Jackson
Tags: Autumn, New York City, Mortality, Poetry, Haiku

Haiku by Matsuo Bashō: “Quietly, quietly, / yellow mountain roses fall — / sound of the rapids”

There comes a time in late September when one no longer wants to kill flies,

seeing how they fly slower, hum lower,

bumble confused on the window sill

like an elderly person who can’t remember how they ended up

locked in the stairwell, too embarrassed to ask how to get back in.

They would wander the SRO where I stayed when I first came to this City. Whole floors smelled of cabbage. Some rooms were dorms,

the young and the old checkerboarded together

With our hot plates, our minifridges, waiting.

Down the hall lived a girl that my landlord

-if the host of an illegal six-week sublet can be termed a landlord-

called The Fucks-a-lot Girl.

She was loud. A drama student of course.

As we drank wine out of plastic beer cups,

My not-quite-landlord would squat and try to peek through her keyhole,

then spring up and try to peek through the peephole

Which of course never works, at most you’ll get

a giant fisheye right back at you,

but I liked the hint of violence in his thighs

as he crouched and rose and crouched again.

The Alzheimers lady from #302 drifted back and forth behind us,

cooing, burnt-orange cardigan hanging to her knees.

I suppose it was ill advised to sleep with the not-landlord

before moving in, a bad idea to hand over

twelve hundred in cash and leave with nothing in writing.

But he was a Bulgarian pianist and I was in my Slavic phase,

having liked Dostoevsky in college.

I saw on Facebook he has some serious disease,

and also male pattern balding.

Both are honorable fates I suppose.

Has it really been a quarter century?
NYC Opportunity’s Matt Klein, Named One of the World’s 50 Most Influential People Revolutionising Government
By: Nyc Opportunity
Tags: Government, New York City, Innovation, Influencers, Civictech

Apolitical: Agile 50

Apolitical, a London-based organization that works to promote effective government worldwide, in collaboration with the World Economic Forum, has named NYC Opportunity’s executive director, Matt Klein, to its inaugural “Agile 50,” a list of “the World’s 50 Most Influential People Revolutionising Government.” He was one of four “Local Government Heroes” on the list.

The “Agile 50” list shines a spotlight on “politicians, civil servants and entrepreneurs driving agility in governments all around the world.” It was selected from over 300 recommendations made by global business leaders, tech startups, civil society organizations and public servants, following a call for nominations made at Davos in January 2020.

The final selection was made in collaboration with the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on Agile Governance. (There is more on how the selection was done here.) In its announcement, Apolitical noted the work that NYC Opportunity does to “design, test and oversee new programs and digital products, evaluate anti-poverty approaches, and facilitate data integration across agencies.”

Among the other people named to the list this year are Paola Pisano, Minister for Technological Innovation and Digitalisation of Italy; Iain Forbes, Head of the UK Centre for Connected and Autonomous Vehicles; and Wendy Flores, the Director of Regulatory Improvement, Ministry of Economy, Industry and Commerce for Costa Rica.

In its announcement, Apolitical noted the special challenges posed to government officials this year:

“Long before the pandemic, governments were grappling with how to seize the opportunities of innovation — such as autonomous vehicles, the internet of things, artificial intelligence, and biotechnology — while mitigating the risks,” it said. “The COVID-19 pandemic has amplified this challenge, increasing the need for governments to enable new ways of doing things in the face of widespread social and economic disruption.”

Apolitical is a global learning platform for government. It equips public servants to do their jobs through free access to courses, articles, events, and connections to other public servants. Apolitical is co-designed and funded by governments, and used by public servants in over 160 countries.
The Hamptons Extended Season Demands Prime Meats and S. Ottomanelli Delivers!
By: Lillian Langtry
Tags: Covid 19, Delivery, New York City, Foodies

S. Ottomanelli & Sons

Since 1900, the family-run butcher S. Ottomanelli & Sons Prime Meats has been a New York City staple. Now, with many New Yorkers waiting out the Covid-19 pandemic in the Hamptons, Ottomanelli is delivering its top-quality chops from Manhattan all the way to Montauk.

“Right now, people are thinking about their health,” says Frank Ottomanelli, who operates the innovative Ottomanelli Butcher/Restaurant concept in Woodside, Queens. “People want transparency. They want Premium Quality All-Natural meats that are antibiotic free, steroid free, growth hormone free. I am making it easy for New Yorkers who are concerned about going into a shop right now to access that.”

Over their 120 years in the business, the Ottomanelli name has become synonymous with the best dry-aged steaks, pork, poultry, and wild game meats money can buy. Frank Ottomanelli continues that tradition today, cherry picking the best hanging beef from the best dealers in the business and delivery it anywhere in the New York City area.

“I’m dealing with some of the same vendors that my father dealt with in the 1940s,” says Ottomanelli. “We’ve been doing it so long. We have these relationships going back four and five generations and that means that we get to select the best quality.”

That old school approach to business even carries through into the digital age through Ottomanelli.com. When you order a prime aged porterhouse steak — or any other specialty item or steak — you’ll receive Ottomanelli’s signature service until the moment it arrives at your door.

Most meat delivery service companies use third party services to cut, pack or even freeze their meats for delivery. But when you place an order with Ottomanelli, Ottomanelli handles every step of your order in house. Your meat will be fresh cut and delivered same-day by an Ottomanelli driver in an Ottomanelli truck.

“Everybody outsources these days,” says Ottomanelli. “We never will because we refuse to compromise on quality. That’s why when someone buys an Ottomanelli steak, they aren’t buying a steak they are buying a taste of New York history,” says Ottomanelli.

For more information, visit: ottomanelli.com
Fall Expectations for all Viruses
By: Daniel Cashion
Tags: Covid 19, Data Science, New York City

A storm rolled through my town in July. A large tree of my on my neighbor’s lot fell and landed in front of my car’s bay of my garage. My neighbor, my son, and I took out chainsaws and chopped it up. One week later, we were all cover in poison ivy.

I went to the hospital, where an NYC-based 40 year old female doctor shot me with some steroids to calm my epidermis issues. To elicit small talk, I asked “Doc, how do you think we are doing with this pandemic?” She quickly responded “we are all morons.” Somewhat shocked, I asked “why?”. She said “if we are smart, we would want to get this virus in July when all of our immune systems are strong, not wait until cold & flu season later in the year.”

I thought about this long and hard on this statement. And while I am not an epidemiologist, I have studies logic and data and determining fact from fiction on Wall Street for > 25 years. This is my specialty.

We know viruses are seasonal and we know why. Our personal experience and collective data intelligence supports this claim. We approximately knew Covid19 characteristics by mid summer 2020, but did not factor in logic in seasonality to set expectations for the public for the cold & flu (Covid19 is of the same virus family) season.

Leadership involves knowledge, strategy, and expectation setting. We did not know Covid19 in March as we knew it in July, so we support the closing of economies to determine what was the virus. But then we got to know it. And yet, the leadership was non-existent.

For example, when asked in mid June if people were ever going to shake hands again, Dr. Anthony Fauci responded “I do not know if we will ever go back to shaking hands.” Wrong answer. A educated epidemiologist leader would have responded “We know that trust is instilled within our society by shaking hands, and our objective is to get back to that paradigm as quickly and as safely as we can.”

While opaque, this instills the confidence that people need to relate with others. The world needs personal relationships, and shaking hands, breaking bread, or going for a walk with people is critical to our sanity and survival.
Mayor Vows to Rush Vaccines to Communities of Color
By: Gloria Cruz
Tags: Covid 19, New York City, People Of Color, Vaccines, Black

Photo by Daniel Schludi on Unsplash

Mayor Bill de Blasio promised on Thursday that communities of color, where infection rates are high, would not take a back seat in vaccine distribution for the coronavirus

“We’re not going to allow the vaccine just to go to the highest bidder, but to actually go to who needs it most,” said de Blasio in his daily briefing.

As New York City prepares to receive the first shipment of the Pfizer vaccine, expected to arrive on December 15, followed by the Moderna vaccine on December 22, de Blasio and Health Commissioner Dave Chokshi noted the need to repair the distrust of vaccines in black and brown communities tied to historic cases where they were used as involuntary subjects of medical experiments.

The officials stressed the importance partnering with the trusted messengers such as faith leaders and community-based organizations.

“It’s not just about the message that we deliver, but about the messenger, and sometimes that’s about passing the baton to someone else with respect to delivering the message,” said Chokshi.
The Time a Plane Accidentally Crashed into the Empire State Building
By: Nicole Henley
Tags: Accident, Disaster, New York City, Tragedy, History

On the morning of Saturday, July 28, 1945, with World War II still roughly a month shy of finally ending, residents and businesses of the Big Apple were going about their morning. Meanwhile, a B-52 Mitchell bomber aircraft with two pilots, including Captain William F. Smith, and a passenger was on a routine personnel transport mission going from Massachusetts to New York City despite some hazy weather. Smith, having led many dangerous missions in Europe during WWII, was the pilot behind the plane.

Upon arriving in the New York area, when weather conditions worsened, and with the fog made visibility increasingly difficult, Smith requested a clearance to land but was advised not to, and so he pressed on. After making a turn which found him heading over midtown Manhattan, it was then that some clouds broke apart, and Smith recognized the skyscrapers among them.

Not long after this, at 9:40 a.m., the bomber aircraft tragically collided into the north side of the Empire State Building, between the 78th and 80th floors, leaving an 18-by-20 foot hole, and killing Smith, the other pilot, Staff Sergeant Christopher Domitrovich, and their passenger, Navy Aviation Machinist’s Mate, Albert Perna¹.

At the time, the crash further killed eleven civilians working within the building’s walls and left many more injured. The impact caused one of the plane’s two engines to fly through the south side opposite the crash and go as far as the next block over. It then dropped a further 900 feet before finally coming to a rest on the roof of a nearby building, leading to a fire. The plane’s second engine and part of the landing gear were later found down an elevator shaft; the resulting fire was extinguished within 40 minutes. It remains the only significant one of its kind to be contained at such a height.
Where is the Pink Man?
By: Up-Archically Thrilled
Tags: Strange People, Pink Man, Homosapien, New York City

Please let me know who has last, and where, spotted the rare species of sapien known as the ‘Pink Man’ — Is he one man, is he many men? Are they clones, or does he travel in time? Dr. Pink Man perhaps….

(.. this one’s for Jon — a fellow pink-man-asaurian expert and tracker (any sightings in NYC these days?)

The Pink Man in the wild

Here he is, a rare sighting of a even rarer sapien (homo? ,, one doesn’t know, all speculation!)
Connecting Small Businesses with Their Community: Meet the Dashible App
By: Kendra Muecke
Tags: New York City, Marketing, Food And Drink, Apps, Savings Tips

Connecting Small Businesses with Their Community: Meet the Dashible App

Meet the Dashible app, a relatively new discount and deals app founded in the NYC area.

Dashible is a New York City based company that strives to connect local businesses with prospective customers and locals. Vendors can sign up with Dashible for free. People then download the app, also for free, where they have access to use deals around town. The intention is to showcase local businesses and provide a way for consumers and vendors to connect.

During the unprecedented times of 2020, the Dashible app has taken on a new role of importance in the community. Since many around the world are observing stay-at-home recommendations and organic foot-traffic has dissipated, vendors are looking to maximize their reach and discoverability online, on social media, and on apps such as Dashible.

Available on both the Apple App and Google Play store, Dashible provides a platform for locals to discover restaurants, boutiques, and services in their area directly from the comfort of their phone.

It’s perfect for discovering a new coffee shop in an area of the city you want to explore. Use the app to create an adventure outside of your normal walking route, to pick up a new type of food across town, and most importantly, to save money along the way.

A few examples of awesome discounts available on the app are:

10% off for first time customers at LashPower

[28 W 30th Suite # 304, Manhattan, NY 10001]

Manicure & Pedicure for $23 at Stone Spa & Nails

[3406 Broadway, Astoria, NY 11106]

10% off pick up & online orders at Sushi Star

[462 9th Ave, New York, NY 10018]

90 minutes of bottomless drinks during brunch for $25.95 at Calle Dao — Chelsea

[461 W 23rd St, New York, NY 10011]

Free cocktail with any entree purchase at Cafe Nunez

[240 W 35th, New York, NY 10001]

$75 worth of merchandise for $50 at Aum Shanti Bookshop & Crystal Gallery

[230 E 14th St, New York, NY 10003]

The people behind Dashible also are active in creating a sense of community in the neighborhoods of NYC. By partnering with local businesses on events called Dash Drops, Dashible helps bring customers into businesses looking to grow their outreach. Dash Drops normally include a super awesome deal or freebie at participating vendors’ locations on the day of the event. A few examples of previous Dash Drops are:

Free hot milk tea at Squarrel Cafe

[572 Atlantic Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11217]

Free baklava at Brooklyn Baklava

[42 4th Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11217]

25% off a lobster roll at BK Lobster Williamsburg for their grand opening

[340 Bedford Avenue (Bet. S 3rd & S 2nd) Brooklyn, NY 11211]

Download the Dashible app today and learn more here: https://linktr.ee/xplore_mktg
The girl in the yellow cab
By: Devika Naik
Tags: Hustle, New York City, About Me

Photo by Lerone Pieters on Unsplash

Life in New York can be fast, and I sometimes feel I think about doing things more than I actually get stuff done. I have been meaning to write for a long time but juggling between work, late-night coding sprints, daily runs, and Netflix kept me pretty much occupied. Today, I decided to change that and write a few lines.

From spending almost 21 years of my life in Goa, a beautiful coastal state in India to moving to my dream city, life has definitely changed a lot. Taking up Computer Science major back in undergrads was not a very conscious decision, but I’m glad I did it. It definitely gave me an opportunity to come to this country to pursue my grad studies in Data Science and appreciate my educational background more. Being able to create a product out of scratch definitely feels empowering. There have been times, I thought about some idea and spent weekends building that idea out which until then was just a figment in my mind.

So talking about my move to New York, it wasn’t an easy ride. Coming from a country that had a completely different culture, tastes, and sentiments, fitting in this new world was definitely tough. I did have my fair share of initial embarrassing moments. But the move eventually turned out to be the best decision of my life. This city helped me churn my interest and inquisitiveness in fintech into a full-blown career and passion.

This city is full of hustle, full of energy that I never saw anywhere else. Even during the pandemic, New Yorkers tried their best to survive and rise up again. There is nothing you can’t accomplish in this city if you have the courage, patience, and enough hard work to sweat it out and achieve your goals.

After writing numerous lines of code, working for one of the top global banks, and spending the last 4 years gaining a deep understanding of building fintech products, I am embarking on a new challenge to use my cross functional development skills and industry knowledge to build great products and convert ideas from 0 to 1.

To my forever love for New York City, I’ll always be that girl in the yellow cab chasing her dreams.
#1 Limousine and Car Service from Boston to New York with baby seat
Tags: Airport Transfers, Boston, Airport Transportation, New York City

#1 Limousine and Car Service from Boston to New York With Baby Seat

Are you looking for a car service from Boston to New York or JFK Airport?

to New York (Manhattan) is providing one of the best car service in the Boston area. Our primary center is to give solid and moderate vehicle from Boston to JFK Airport.

If you are looking for a minivan car service from to , you can employ our vehicle administration in any of the objective in Boston. Our Limousine minivan car service has a group of well-educated drivers; they offer very comfortable service to the customers. Our car service provides Boston to New York car service 24 hours a day so you do not need to worry about night plans. Our vehicles Luxury Sedans and SUVs are offering car service with baby seat from Boston to New York. The distance between Boston to New York is about 4 hours so you need a comfortable journey. Our drivers are experts and have good information about all the routes in the Boston area. We also provide car service from Boston to various areas such as Harrison, Baldwin, Brentwood, Centereach, Dix Hill, Elmira, Glen Cove, Albany, Commack, Eastchester, Freeport, and Peekskill.

New York is the educational hub among all the countries. There are many college and universities in New York such as Cooper Union, Rockefeller University, New York University, Barnard College, Columbia University, Rockefeller University, Yeshiva University, and New York Institute of Technology. The understudies from different spots come here to contemplate. If you want to book Limousine car service for any of the college or university, you can contact us anytime.

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21 Total Contract Signed
By: Albert Moy
Tags: Market Update, New York City, Real Estate, Contracts, Condo

November 30-December 6

Last week, there were 21 total contracts signed at $4M and above. Since September 1, 2020, 227 contracts (at $4M and above) have been signed, compared to 219 from the same period in 2019.

Given that we’re currently in a pandemic, how is it possible that sales are performing better than last year? It’s a combination of a few things:

Low-interest rates

Reduction in prices

Hot stock market

Optimism about a vaccine

We’re also seeing that the pandemic is affecting how large of a condo is being purchased. In the last 14 weeks, the average size of a condo purchased is 5.5% larger than the same period from last year. This is most likely due to many now working from home, which means they need more space, such as an office.

The most expensive contract signed last week was 157 West 57th Street, Residence #58A. They were originally asking for $24.8M in March but later reduced their asking price to $22.5M. This corner condo features 3 bedrooms, 4.5 bathrooms, with their living and dining room overlooking Central Park in the 4,483 square feet residence.

157 West 57th Street, Residence #58A — Living Room overlooking Central Park

Let’s take a quick glance at the breakdown:

Breakdown of Sales by Property Type

Condo: 66.7%

Co-op: 9.5%

Townhouse: 23.8%

Breakdown by Location

East Side: 6

West Side: 1

Midtown: 4

Downtown: 10

Quick Stats
Repeated Fires in Vacant Building Raise Suspicions
By: Siegrid Tuttle
Tags: Middle Collegiate Church, New York City, 7th Street Fire, Fire, Womens Prison Association

Repeated Fires in Vacant Building Raise Suspicions

Screenshot via @DukeToddIsAlive.

A fire on East 7th street that began just before 4:50 a.m. on December 5 left four firefighters with minor injuries and completely destroyed Middle Collegiate Church. The massive fire required over 200 firefighters to put out, but there were no deaths.

The fire started on the bottom floor of a vacant building but quickly spread to the neighboring Middle Collegiate Church, which was built in 1892. A police officer on the scene told a woman attempting to get to offices inside the church that “the roof is gone and everything is flooded.”

The Middle Collegiate Church is holding a Zoom meeting to mourn their destroyed church tonight. The Church’s minister, Rev. Jacqui Lewis, tweeted “No fire can stop Revolutionary Love,” in response to the blaze.

The neighboring Women Prison Association’s Hopper Shelter also had to be evacuated.

Middle Collegiate Church and the WPA shelter have stood side by side since 1891, promoting similar messages of love, justice, and activism. The extent of damage to the women’s shelter is currently unknown. Both are currently accepting donations — you can donate to Middle Collegiate Church here, and you can donate to the Women's Prison Association here.

The cause of the fire is under investigation. In February, a three-alarm fire caused by electrical wiring happened in the same vacant building. The New York City Fire Department said this fire was “unrelated” to that one. There was reportedly a third fire in the same location about a year and a half ago, according to bystanders. While Local could not find evidence of a fire at this location in 2018, there was a fire at the same intersection in 2015.

This pattern of fires has raised suspicion among bystanders. On Twitter, a commenter said the fire was “not a coincidence.” Other Twitter users echoed his suspicions.

Christopher, an actor who lives near the church, said, “It seems like somebody was trying to cash out to me. Especially because nobody was living in either building, it seems too convenient.”

The idea of landlords burning their own buildings to cash in is rooted in New York City’s recent memory. In the 1970s, fires ravaged across the Bronx. Nearly half a million people were displaced and some census tracts lost more than 97% of their buildings to fire and abandonment. A popular quasi-myth attributed these fires to landlords burning their own buildings. While arson did hit record highs in the 1970s, the high number of fires was actually mostly a result of old infrastructure and cuts to the fire department budget; even at its height in the late 1970s, arson was never responsible for more than 7% of fires. Still, that widespread myth means the idea of arson is not alien to New Yorkers.

Despite this, the notion that the fire on 7th Avenue was set by a landlord is not backed by any evidence except the suspicious pattern of repeated fires in the same building.
Bureaucracy has black and brown children in a vice grip: tales from the NYC Department of Education
By: Rumi Black
Tags: New York City, Remote Learning, Covid-19, Education Technology, Education

Bureaucracy has black and brown children in a vice grip: tales from the NYC Department of Education

Worried more about the perception of how data may be interpreted negatively or the phantom pushback by principals or the press. Central stakeholders tend to make the most conservative decisions on where the city should put its time and treasure rather than grappling with the hard and very challenging and uncomfortable reality that we don’t know the answer on how to face this pandemic; and that reality is negatively impacting our children.

There are city-wide staff calls where senior leadership decides to focus on discussing the great work the DOE staff are doing rather than discussing the challenges we face and underscoring the critical need for all of us to double our efforts in the unprecedented time of COVID-19.

So much so, the zoom calls sound more like a DJ giving shout outs at a happy birthday party! “I just want to give a shout out to my office and the great work they are doing” . This was how many of the deputy chancellor’s started their segment.

One of many lost opportunities to summon a rally cry to come together in the time of crisis. I’ve stop attending the calls as I now see them as a suck on time and resources to make those at the top levels of our municipal system feel validated.

I’ve seen so many promising initiatives die on the vine rather than get the backing because of the perception that the uncovering of the facts would cause political upheaval.

In the final months of the Mayor’s Bill de Blasio administration, the leadership that suppose to sail the proverbial education ship through this storm has jumped ship. The first deputy chancellor took a job in Atlanta at the height of the pandemic this late Spring. Some deputy chancellor’s have taken other positions and/or “retiring”.

These are dark times for public education and even more bleaker for black and brown students whose families can’t afford to hire a private teach to teach a pod of students. Whose parents can’t support their children during the school day to monitor their focus to school work in a distance learning format. At the kitchen table or the living room couch. A home not set up for learning, just bearly for living.

COVID-19 has us all in not the best of states. But I will argue that it is brucracy. that is exacerbating the pain and has put our most vulnerable students in a vice grip.
Corona Diary (November 24–30)
By: Re S Public Collective
Tags: Coronavirus, Mexico, Covid 19, New York City, Diary

Like everyone, we are currently experiencing challenging times due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Regardless of our nationality, age, or cultural practices, social distancing has rapidly become the norm. The following is a weekly series of thoughts and experiences across five different cities and countries, in the hope of making connections and distinctions in a strange and uncertain time.

Brooklyn, New York, The United States

by Jon Gayomali

This week was Thanksgiving! I wasn’t sure what I was going to do until the last minute. My brother and sister in law invited me to a small dinner in Bed Stuy. Total, there were 7 people including me. I was a bit nervous, as I wasn’t sure what kind of etiquette to use. At first, we were all unsure of how to act. My brother, sister in law, and I seemed to be the most cautious, as we kept our masks on for mostly the entire night except when eating. The hosts were great. The wife (or girlfriend, not sure) was pregnant, and they were undergoing a move. We chatted for a while while they finished cooking and waited for the other couple to arrive, and spent a lot of the time talking about the pregnancy, the move, COVID, and cooking. It was a great time. Socializing has pretty much been non-existent for me lately, so it was refreshing getting to meet some new people. We didn’t stay too late, and the spread was very impressive. They were very good cooks.

Two days after that, the statistics began to show the effects of that day. As cases have spiked through the roof. Epidemiologists have wanted that the effects of the holiday weekend in the U.S. will definitely cause a rise in cases and deaths. Infectious disease experts and epidemiologists tracking the coronavirus have warned that holiday gatherings have the potential to fuel virus transmission and boost an ongoing national surge that has seen 1.1 million new cases over the last seven days alone and pushed total deaths above 267,000. Although the vaccine is close to distribution, there are many hurdles that are taking place, from people being sceptical, to controlling the storage, controlling distribution, to administering the vaccine itself. Personally, I think I’m going to lay low for a bit and try to lock down as much as possible.
Elijah Thomas: Rising Above Adversity
By: Urban Upbound Nyc
Tags: Nonprofit, Covid 19, New York City, Humans Of New York, Urban Upbound

by Stephanie Kalele, Donor Relations Manager

As the positivity rate resurges in New York City, at Urban Upbound we are hard at work supporting families still reeling from the impact of the first COVID-19 wave. Elijah Thomas, a resident of Johnson Houses in East Harlem, lost his older brother to the pandemic, which also took away his job. Dealing with these tragedies at the same time took a toll on Elijah, both mentally and financially. A father of two, Elijah knew that he had to stay strong and be creative when searching for new opportunities to support his family.

Elijah hoped that his 17 years of experience in security work would somehow help him find a job in a different field. The former amateur boxing champion was looking to work with his hands. Unfortunately, his initial job search efforts did not pan out. Then he saw an Urban Upbound flyer posted in his building advertising our virtual OSHA 30 training. At that moment he decided that this was a new skill he needed to learn.

Completing the 30-hour course, offered over a two-weekend period, meant Elijah had to sacrifice important moments, such as missing his daughter’s birthday. Yet, he was happy to participate and even happier with the results. “The [OSHA 30] training really taught me a lot. I even learned things that I wouldn’t have even thought about related to worker’s safety,” he told us. Elijah also shared that the course made him feel more comfortable to accept a job with a landscaping company that would require him to be frequently suspended 15–30 ft in the air.

Elijah is grateful that he can again provide for his family and he is now working with an Urban Upbound financial counselor to shape up his finances. The father of two is really thankful for the donors who made it possible for him to get the OSHA 30 training and the various other free services he is receiving at Urban Upbound.

“I wouldn’t have the means to take part in this training if it wasn’t because of the generosity of the donors,” he shared.

Our COVID-19 Relief and Recovery Efforts continue to serve the families who need an extra hand during this difficult period. From food and direct financial assistance to employment and financial counseling, your donation makes it possible for us to keep providing these key services. If you’d like to learn more about our impact and work, please follow us on social media (Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter) or subscribe to our newsletter.