Archive for the 'Manhattan' Category

Starbucks: PS 11’s Lunch Stop

Published
by
T Vaughan
on April 7, 2008
in Chelsea, Manhattan and Uncategorized
. 1 Comment

starbucks

Ever tried to get a seat in Starbucks on Eighth Avenue between 22nd and 23rd Streets around noon during the work week? It’s almost impossible trying to compete with PS 11’s tween crowd out on their lunch break. The girls stroll in with pizza, Chinese food or other food items that are not on Starbucks’ menu. A few might get a coffee beverage but most just get water. Every now and then one girl might buy a pastry and take it back to her table where her friends haggle over who gets a bite. “It is quite a cafeteria scene,” said a female customer ordering a non-fat latte.

The baristas rush to serve their guests unfazed by the cloister of young girls. One staff member on his break even went over and sat for a chat with the girls before having to give up his seat to new arrivals, late in joining their friends.

But as soon as they were done with their meals they dispersed, just a suddenly as they had appeared as if they had never been.

         
 

Distorting The Neighborhood

Published
by
T Vaughan
on March 25, 2008
in Chelsea, Manhattan and Uncategorized
. 1 Comment

The posting of posters in Chelsea is prolific and unattractive. Posters can be found on the temporary walls around every construction site in the neighborhood, even though there are signs that read, “Post No Bills.” The content on some of the posters contains subjects that should be censored from young children. However there seems to be no stopping these overnight vandals. Since according to Section 145.30 of the New York penal code the law prohibits affixing advertisements to someone else’s property.

Where is the Neighborhood Going?

Published
by
T Vaughan
on March 10, 2008
in Chelsea and Manhattan
. 0 Comments

somewhere in chelsea

Strolling down 22nd Street pushing a stroller with my charge, I strike up a conversation with an accompanying mom of two. The subject is the number of stores closing in the community. “Are you aware that the hardware store on the corner of Ninth Avenue and 23rd Street will be closing in 3 months?” she asks. It was my turn to be shocked. The news that Dan’s Chelsea Guitar, an icon of Chelsea might be closing up shop and moving by the end of summer had barely been digested, and then this. Where is the neighborhood going?

“Whoever came up with this idea?” asked Danny, the owner of Dan’s Chelsea Guitar. “Do they think Europeans fly here all the way from Europe to see shopping malls! What are they going to do? Buy a Jamba!” He continued in his scorn against the commercializing of the community. Chelsea is fast losing all its originality and with the asking prices for rent, only high-end merchandise stores might be moving in.

Two More Depart, Heralding Chelsea’s Changing Face

Published
by
T Vaughan
on February 25, 2008
in Chelsea and Manhattan
. 0 Comments

french-dry-cleaners.jpg

Chain and Mom and Pop stores, alike, are unable to withstand the exorbitant rent increases in Chelsea. Recently two more stores have joined the ranks of the departed. Ben and Jerry’s, the ice cream chain on 23rd Street between Seventh and Eight Avenues, seemed under renovations over the past few weeks, but on investigating the site, it proved to be closed. Neighbor, Royal Choice French Dry Cleaners at 320 W23rd Street, between Eight and Ninth Avenues is also closing its doors on Friday of this week.

“I have used them for 5 years,” said Mary S., 43, a mother of two, who has a busy schedule and depends on the dry cleaners reliability and close proximity to her home. With the store closing down due to a rent increase of five to seven thousand dollars, the owner, who got a lease extension last year, has no other choice but to close up shop.

“There is a place across the street from him,” said Mary S., “but they look so crowded.” She, like others in the community, is struggling to find substitutions for the stores they have loved and trusted.

Another One Bites The Dust

Published
by
T Vaughan
on February 21, 2008
in Chelsea and Manhattan
. 0 Comments

ClearviewLiving and working in Chelsea over the past 6 years has made clear that nothing is permanent. With so many luxury apartments being constructed and the neighborhood property values increasing, it is no wonder so many businesses are closing out and families moving to the other side of the river to Brooklyn.

The most recent business to go is the Clearview West Theater, which has been in operation for 11 years. The theater which sports twin auditoriums and is known in the neighborhood mainly for its big movie premiers, showcasing celebrities such as Joaquin Phoenix and Mark Wahlberg, has had poor attendance in recent years.

So it’s not that great a surprise that it is closing and that so few people are aware that it is no longer in operation. “It’s closed!” exclaimed a front desk staff member at New York City Sports Club, located on Eight Avenue between 23rd and 24th Streets, on Friday when asked if he knew of the closing. An usher at Clearview Theater to the East of Eight Avenue on 23rd Street, confirmed the closing, however he was unclear as to what would be replacing the theater, “Possibly a parking lot,” he suggested, which is greatly needed around here.

However, through further investigation it has been uncovered that the School of Visual Arts will be using the venue as a showcase and laboratory for the arts produced by the school in film and moving image. It won’t be a commercially operated theater anymore, but will boast a full calender of special events.

Know the facts when finding a Nanny job

Published
by
T Vaughan
on May 15, 2007
in Manhattan and Uncategorized
. 0 Comments

park

So you have decided that you are good with kids and you would like to become a nanny instead of working in an elementary school. The one on one situation suits you better. Some of the ways in which to go about finding yourself a job would be through an agency, an online nanny service or on your own; searching newspapers, walking the parks, pediatrician offices and other children/parent friendly atmospheres. After you have decided which route is best for you, find out what you will need and what to expect.

There are few laws that protect domestic workers, hence when entering the field make sure you know what you are getting into even if you are only doing the job to pay the bills and don’t intend to make a career of it. The NannyNetwork.com provides valuable legal information that many individuals entering the field are not aware of.

I conducted a survey in Thomas Moore Park in Chelsea and at the Chelsea Piers yesterday and was disappointed to find that approximately 60 percent of the 10 nannies interviewed did not get there taxes paid by their employers.

I then called a mentor of mine in the field to share the information with her and find out if her employers of six years paid her taxes and was told, “Taxes! Oh no they would never do that.”

Starbucks baristas plea for better working conditions

Published
by
Jessica Baptiste
on May 13, 2007
in Manhattan
. 3 Comments

caramel_mocha_frap.jpgstarbucks-logo.gif        

Credit: marynewton.typepad.com and carryonamerica.com

Starbucks coffee shop is a popular establishment which serves as a meeting place, hangout spot, office space, reading room and other uses. In the high traffic Starbucks in areas like Union Square, the store serves about 2,000 customers a day. With such a high volume of customers, baristas don’t have the time to look out for crime, which has become a problem. “We’re supposed to be keeping an eye out for suspicious activity, but we have a lot of customers,” said Tomer Malchi, who works at the Union Square East Starbucks.

The Starbucks’s toilets in Union Square and in other areas of the city are often in decrepit conditions since they are open to public. Malchi said that they often find needles in the bathroom and suspects that people do drugs there.

Along with the crappy toilets are the low wages. Malchi believes that this all the CEO cares about - keeping wages low. Malchi belongs to the Starbucks Union, an organization fighting for better wages and working conditions for Starbucks employees.

Professional and Personal “Separate but Equal”

Published
by
T Vaughan
on May 6, 2007
in Manhattan and Uncategorized
. 2 Comments

The article referred, The New Nanny Dairies Online, is two years old, but provides a good example of the conflict between a nanny’s personal life and her job. The nanny in the article may not be showing good judgment in what she reveals about her personal life and where she does it. However, the issue discussed is a common struggle for most members of the profession, “How to perform the job and have an active personal life at the same time that doesn’t conflict with the job. How to find the energy and the attention needed for both without short changing the other.”

Sandy, a nanny, said, “I went on a date recently, and I found it hard to maintain a conversation. I have gotten to the point where I only know how to converse with parents and kids. It’s hard to talk with single people.”

The demands of the families that nannies work for are high and all consuming. There is a lot of overtime, weekends and traveling with very little personal time or space. Time-offs are almost impossible to get because there are no nanny assistants.

The Noisy Heights

Published
by
Matty V
on May 4, 2007
in Manhattan
. 7 Comments

noise

Image avaliable at vivrlatino.com

With the summer approaching many residents of Washington Heights are looking forward to the sunnier days, fireworks, and the ice-cream man. A growing number of residents however, are dreading the the season for it brings more kids (since school is out), more block parties, and more noise.

“These kids don’t have to get up to go to school, but I still have to get up to go to work,” said Juanita Vasquez, a community resident, on the noise the summer brings. “I go to bed at 12 o’clock just to get awakened by the noise three or four hours later.”

According to community board records, noise complaints to the 33rd and 34th precincts spike in the summer months. Andrew Capul, deputy inspector of the 34th precinct stated that school being out, a rise in block parties, and the opening of many nigthclubs were factors for the spike in noise complaints, at a recent community precinct meeting.

The close of April brought two rather warm and sunny days and also brought over one hundred calls to 311 over quality-of-life related complaints in the Washington Heights area. It seems this is a sign of things to come. With the opening day of summer about a month away, both local precincts and many local neighborhood-watch groups are gearing up for what is sure to be a sticky, noisy, complaint riddled season.

PETA’s plight to stop elephants’ cruelty in circuses

Published
by
Jessica Baptiste
on April 30, 2007
in Manhattan
. 2 Comments

 

elephant.jpg 

Credit: circuses.com

This is a picture of the elephant sculpture that PETA wanted to install in Union Square Park

Circuses are seen as wonderful attractions – trapezes, clowns, jugglers, lions and elephants coming together to do amazing tricks beyond our wildest dreams. While circuses have a glamorous side, there is also a dirty side – cruelty to animals. According to a People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) fact sheet “Circuses: Three Rings of Abuse,” it documents all the decrepit working conditions that animals, especially elephants are subject to including confinement to small spaces in cages while traveling across the country up to 11 months a year in the famous Ringling Bros and Barnum and Bailey Circus.

For example, PETA’s fact sheet states, “physical punishment has always been the standard training method for animals in circuses. It is standard practice to beat, shock, and whip animals to make them perform—over and over again—tricks that make no sense to them.”

PETA submitted a proposal in March to the Parks Department for a permit to install a baby elephant sculpture for three-four weeks in Union Square Park in May or June 2007, in protest against the harsh treatment of circus animals.

In the April 12 Community Board 5 meeting, the board voted in denial of the proposal saying, “Community Board Five questions whether the sculpture should be considered art for it would not be reviewed by the Art Commission and appears more in the nature of a political billboard.”

On the decision, Bob Chorush, the Special Projects Coordinator for PETA’s Captive Animals and Entertainment Issues, reaction is, “It seems that Community Board 5 would prefer art with no message, since it cannot be rationally argued that Harry Bliss’ rejected elephant sculpture is a message with no art. The discussion of this work was heated and prolonged speaks to the impact, influence and feelings that this work of art evokes.”

« Older Entries