is New York City dead?

just curious, I haven't been to NYC in years, but was Century 21 destroyed in 9/11 or just damaged?

If I recall correctly It was closed for awhile like everything else down there but wasn’t damaged

https://gothamist.com/news/pandemic-economy-could-turn-deserted-hudson-yards-even-bigger-taxpayer-money-pit

that place was horrible before the pandemic

I say wall it off permanently, for the quarantined and convalescing

i'm voting lazer tag

would prefer paintball, with bunkers like Vera Wang Bridal House—but yes that'll do

I’m into dead malls and such so it’s right down my alley, been meaning to go back since it reopened

i have no particular insight into whether nyc schools *should* be open for in-person classes -- i suspect not, but i don't have to balance the other considerations besides everyone's health. but suddenly changing your mind three days before schools were to reopen is just fucking with people

he is so bad at literally everything

presumably it's a combination of the union and his terribleness at negotiating with the union or with anyone really

My impression is that there are bad conditions in a minority of classrooms that could probably be remedied with a portable HEPA filter or something (i.e classes in old buildings where there are neither HVAC systems nor windows that open). I have also seen that the MORE caucus of the UFT is making unreasonable demands (MERV-17 filters and ACH 6 in every class, which is basically the conditions of a state-of-the-art operating room or precision robotics lab, and very hard to achieve). I am normally very pro-teachers union, but I really feel that the teachers here are kicking the can down the road and trying to avoid going in for as long as possible, and while I can't *entirely* blame them, it's not realistic to wait to reopen schools until there's a vaccine, and experts say we can return safely with modest precautions.

Kicking the can down the road until other school systems all around us and around the country collapse and go back to distanced/digital classes is EXACTLY the point. I knew that when the union treated the 11-day delay like a win in the press. There was nothing substantive that 11 days was going to to allow them to do--they can't hire 2x the qualified staff, they can't find more money, they can't renovate buildings or rebuild windows or HVAC systems in that time--so what was the point? The delay was the whole reason, because cases are going to cascade when students start to gather, and schools everywhere are going to go back to 100% online.

My second school is one of the 56 (so far) schools where a staff member has tested positive before kids even start. So multiple staff are quarantined bc of potential contact, and the remainder had their building wifi crash. Instead of getting the wifi fixed, they were told to go down the street and work from out of my first school, but because they don't know who's potentially asymptomatic, they won't go in the building because it puts the OTHER school's staff at risk, so they're teaching from folding tables on the cement play yard. Fantastic.

MORE is speaking from the fringe of the UFT btw because they can say things that can't be taken as the official UFT position. And it would be stupid to go into any negotiation only asking for what you think you can get. That's 101.

Of course, but you also don't start with an absurd position. I am involved in negotiations all the time, and we would never demand a settlement we know a company is financially incapable of covering.

In any case, that may happen, or it may not. Many school systems are open around the world without having had explosions in cases necessitating re-closing. How long does that need to *not* happen for us to decide it's safe to go back in person? Because even a vaccine isn't going to entirely prevent outbreaks.

If you work for the NYC DOE and have kids you're basically fucked. You have to go into the school where you work, even though it is empty, and your kids do...what? You just pay huge amounts on childcare for them, even though you probably can't afford that on a teacher's salary. Why not let those people work remotely? Is there any advantage to having them in a school building?

And any news on the program announced to help out with stuff like this seems to have gone completely silent: https://www.schools.nyc.gov/enrollment/enrollment-help/learning-bridges

TBF, even teaching from home does not really enable you to care for your kids and you may wind up needing childcare anyway, especially if they are younger and not able to 100% manage remote school on their own. Source: my wife is an NYC DOE teacher.

Yeah, my wife is an NYC DOE teacher too. Friend of ours is a single mom and a teacher in NYC. She would rather take the chance of managing both kids + job from home and save the $$$ if possible (especially as she can't really afford it). But her principal is giving her a hard no on WFH.

Yeah I get it, a tightrope juggling act is still better than not being able to make rent. But it sucks.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPWfaIUnvdg

https://not911.nyc/app

Intriguing. From a cursory glance at their website it looks like they're tech bros who describe themselves as "bleeding edge" so ymmv. Possibly nicer than your average tech bro, but...a lot may depend on how well they do their outreach homework to partner with actual community-based frontline groups.

pretty bare bones really and more of a suggestion for a future app than a fully functioning piece of work but any option is likely better than the cops right now.

Well sure. It's an interesting idea that needs to be backed up by adequate resources to be affective.

There are lots of online community resource databases--some are geographically arranged, some are searchable by type of resource...some are proprietary, some are public. Single Stop, Aunt Bertha, I forget more names right now but...the idea is out there. The problem in my experience is having them actually connect to sufficient, relevant resources in the community where they're needed.

Taking that model from a service agency "secret" to a public-facing tool is interesting! But did it need a whole new group to "invent" it?

Please excuse my skepticism--I've been to so many workshops over the years that promise to somehow reveal new and amazing resources, and it's just another one of these things. I mean, they're GOOD as far as they go, but imo they all end up falling short, partly because the RESOURCES AREN'T THERE to meet people's needs.

yes and yes.

"affective" = effective. Wth is wrong with me? Sorry.

they're teaching from folding tables on the cement play yard

def a practice to replace before February

https://www.curbed.com/2020/9/28/21492749/heres-what-we-know-about-the-guy-who-dumped-two-sacks-of-eels-into-prospect-park-lake

"is that all eels?"
"yeah like i bought them from the store"
"yeah but that's like a hundred eels"
"I don't care"

Here is a video from the bystander- “Yo you’re not supposed to be dumping eels here dude” https://t.co/uVAERyNF8S pic.twitter.com/gDMs8c5QXB

— chelsea lee greenwood (@ChelseaLee) September 28, 2020

amazing

gross!

have those who left New York come back? it appears ... not.

Manhattan's residential trash is still way down as of August. almost everywhere else, it's up.https://t.co/chj4N1hKAw pic.twitter.com/qK7MYUERk8

— Rachel Holliday Smith (@rachelholliday) September 28, 2020

i want to move to manhattan!

Meanwhile:
https://nypost.com/2020/09/24/brooklyn-home-sales-boom-as-manhattan-market-struggles/

I live in Nassau County and real estate in our tiny village is crazy right now with people leaving the 5 boroughs.

My brother & his partner just sold their house in Durham for the asking price in like 4 days, to a family from NYC apparently.

anyway VOTE EARLY NYC
https://www.voteearlyny.org/

This piece is weeks old but not linked here I think? And it's so badly argued that it makes me feel like New York City can't actually be dead if this guy thinks it's dead

https://medium.com/@jaltucher/nyc-is-dead-forever-heres-why-1b4646dc5e03

I cringed when I saw the name James Altucher but then I couldn't remember how I know of him or why I dislike him

yeah, this was the guy that Seinfeld responded to in the NYT, fuck em both imo

Guy better not show his punk face around my block

I cringed when I saw the name James Altucher but then I couldn't remember how I know of him or why I dislike him

― longtime caller, first time listener (man alive), Thursday, October 1, 2020 11:18 AM (forty-one minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

reminds me of frau blucher *horses whinny*

#UPDATE: A source confirms that Steve Barnes (of Cellino & Barnes) and a female relative were on the plane that crashed in Genesee County.
There are no survivors. pic.twitter.com/jC9YvF6U3e

— Jeannie McBride (@jeanniemcbride_) October 2, 2020

I wonder if Cellino has an alibi.

RIP TO AN ICON

damn, I just read the New York mag's behind-the-scenes-of-the-breakup piece
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/cellino-and-barnes-breakup.html

Every NY Post story about Manhattan from now on should describe events as taking place “within miles of where Rick Moranis was assaulted” https://t.co/kIvA0f4GW4

— Tom Gara (@tomgara) October 9, 2020

"Have you been to that new falafel place in Queens that's 1.3 miles from where Rick Moranis was assaulted?"

(i have a friend who had a computer date with Rick Moranis who said he was a heavy MAGA-head. it was not a love match)

I want to move to wherever Elizabeth moss is