An acquaintance once, in a moment of amusement, told me that I had a cushy job. My first reaction was to laugh the statement away, but in retrospect she made me think about what other members of my community might be thinking when they see a nanny pass by on the street pushing a stroller or sitting in the park while the children we take care of run around. I wonder if they know the responsibilities that our job involves. The risk, the discomfort we experience knowing our every action, every word is being scrutinized, not just by our employers but by almost every resident we come in contact with in the community, even the children we take care of.
“Cushy,” its an interesting view of a nanny’s job. Speaking with a fellow nanny, Helen, on Thursday on the subject of what nannies experience on his/her job she said, “We are treated as one dimensional beings on the job, as if we don’t have lives outside of our jobs.” Most adults we come in contact with still treat us as if we are in the 19th Century, like servants not professionals.
With the re-emergence of the decade old case involving convicted babysitter, Audrey Edmunds, 45, for the death of 7-month-old Natalie Beard, I am freshly reminded of the risk my colleagues and I take each day we go to work. We are expected to always have a clear head. Moments of anger can be detrimental, not only in the extreme cases like Audrey Edmunds but on a mental level. Most of us, nannies, are integrally involved in the first five years of the children we care for, hence a fit of anger, that could be seen as normal with another adult, is “scary” to a child.
[Sources - starbuckseverywhere.com (left) and beta.plazes.com (right)]
On February 15 while I was interviewing a source for an article in the crowded Starbucks on 41 Union Square West (next to McDonalds; near 17th St), a teenage girl went hysterical when she discovered her missing book bag, after leaving it unattended to go order. A cop arrived and started to jot down a report, as though this was a routine action. He eyed a homeless man close by and started to question him. The homeless man looked either too drunk or drugged to answer. He slowly gathered his belongings and left the coffee shop pushing a shopping cart.
Several seated customers, many surrounded by laptops and blackberries, stared at the unfolding action. One young man in his twenties said that he visits this Starbucks location often and witnesses people getting their belongings stolen all the time. The baristas behind the registers do not seem to be frazzled by the commotion, since none of them stopped by to see what has happened.
According to the most recent 13th Precinct crime statistics for the week of April 2 to April 8, grand larceny was the biggest crime with 29 incidents in this area. One police officer, who asked to be anonymous, believes that pick pocketing especially in this Starbucks is the biggest crime in the Union Square neighborhood. He stated that stolen laptops in the coffee shop occur very often, since it is a popular hangout where one can have access to the internet. Many times, the victims are non-NYC residents, who leave their belongings unattended while they order their coffee, he said. There is also another Starbucks in the area on 10 Union Square East.
As summer approaches many homeless people will be taking to the parks and street corners in New York City. In the five years I have worked and lived in Chelsea, this has been the pattern. Some of these street side residents are teenagers who have been sexual and physically abused, put out by family members, or are suffering confusion due to their sexual-orientation.
I am grateful to learn from the Chelsea Now, that the Safe Horizon’s Streetwork Project will be opening a brand new 24-hr shelter program in Chelsea for young people living on the streets.
Picture avaliable at http://www.umich.edu/~ac213/student_projects/fp/images/WashHeights.jpg 
The members of Community Board 12 recently met to discuss important information. At the board’s monthly meeting, held on March 27, 2007, they released their list of district needs for the 2008 fiscal year. The list included additional monies for local libraries, community centers, and schools. The following week on March 4, 2007 a meeting was held to brainstorm different uses for the George Washington Bridge Redevelopment Project. The multi-million dollar project is meant to stimulate local businesses and services. Both the list of district needs and the brainstorming process seem to be an attempt from the neighborhoods to thwart the negatives of gentrification. The list of district needs called for additions to affordable housing and the brainstorming process listed possible local recipients of the project’s money. As always both meetings were held open to the public at the familiar Columbia University auditorium. For further information and updates on both communities, visit the Community Board 12 website.
Recently, Coffee Shop, a trendy Union Square restaurant, was closed for a few days when the Department of Health slammed it with 102 health violation points, the blog Gothamist pointed out. It found issues with its inadequate hand-washing stations for food preparers, contaminated food, food utensils not properly used, ‘choking aid poster’ not displayed, plumbing problems, and other concerns.
The abrupt Coffee Shop closing has raised eyebrows. “Even if it’s done as a scare tactic for the other restaurants in the area, I agree that it’s a severe health violation. Since I live in the area, I feel personally affected by what’s been in the news lately,†said Baruch senior, Glenn Geis who lives in Alphabet City, a neighborhood that is near Union Square.
The New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene has been closing down restaurants ever since a video of rats invading a KFC/Taco Bell in Greenwich Village was released on February 26. City records show that at least 235 New York restaurants failed a health inspection in the nine days after the rats video, said the Associated Press.
With all these violations surrounding unsanitary restaurants, there is concern about whether the Health Department is trying fill overdue quotas or have began to crack down on restaurants?
The owner of Coffee Shop, Charles Milite told The New York Times that he felt the eatery was “caught in the cross hairs of this unfortunate Taco Bell Situation,” since Coffee Shop had operated for 17 years without incident.
Image appeared on stefanella.blogspot.com/2006 03 01 archive.html (image may be scaled down and subject to copyright)
Washington Heights is a community made up of many poor, immigrant families. Having financial issues is a common occurence amongst these families. Thanks this year to The Northern Manhattan Coalition for Immigrant Rights (NMCIR), tax season won’t be one of those. NMCIR has recently instituted a program called “Cash Back 2007″ which is meant to assist recent immigrant and low-income families, who are residents of upper Manhattan, with their taxes free of charge. Services are available from 4:00 - 8:00 pm, Monday through Friday. Anyone seeking further information should contact them by phone at (212) 781-0355 or by email at info@nmcir.com.
As some of you may already know, The Athena Group is building a high rise condominium in Harlem on 110th and Lenox Avenue, across the street from Central Park. Prices for them are starting at $1.5million…which means that people who have been in the area forever will never be able to afford to move in, and may be forced out….
http://www.111centralparknorth.com/
http://www.theathenagroup.com/
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Two summers ago as I wandered after my charge in the Clement Clarke Moore Park, affectionately known as the “Seal Park” by the local parents due to the two seal statues that spout water for the children to cool-off in during the summer months, I noticed a gray haired man approaching individuals and inquiring whether they were residents of Chelsea. He asked them to sign a petition to stop the General Theological Seminary (GTS) from building a structure that did not fit the criteria of the historical district and would change the skyline of the neighborhood.
In October 2006, GTS unveiled a revised design of its controversial 17-story tower at Chelsea’s monthly community meeting reported in the October 20 - 26, 2006 issue of the Chelsea Now. Although the revised plan previews a slimmer, shorter tower with less glass and more brick material befitting the historical design of the neighborhood, the community board still withholds its approval. The community’s opposition to the plan despite the good deeds performed by GTS in the neighborhood is expressed by David Ferguson in Talking Point in last week’s edition of Chelsea Now.
The installation of electronic time schedules at the Union Square and many other stops on the L line like Myrtle Ave and Jefferson Ave, makes waiting for the train a piece of cake. Now, you can tell exactly when your train is supposed to arrive since the timetables predict the approximate number of minutes until the next train arrives in both directions.
For now, the signs are only possible on the L trains since they are computerized. Hopefully this means there wouldn’t be any more late trains. This $17.6 million project is unfortunately faltered by some delays, riders have noticed. So everyone who uses mass transit, be wary, this may be a sign for the future of trains.
See how the New York Times critiqued the new system by clicking here.
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On the morning of Feb. 21, 2007 a fourth grader fell from his fifth floor window. The young man was apparently trying to retrieve a fallen air conditioner with some sheets. The boy’s father, a livery driver, was so distraught that after the occurrence he was sent to New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center for treatment. The fall is currently under investigation by the NYPD. Check out the full article at AM New York.
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