Category: Uncategorized

NYC First ‘Latin’ Mayor

If you’ve ever wondered what it is like to grow up as a third culture kid, this is the shit we have to deal with. It is very difficult to be accepted / seen as part of “our culture’s general population.” This frustrates me every damn day.

“Clearly, one’s ‘racial’ roots and one’s cultural heritage are very different,” Thomas J. Basile said. “Mayor Mitchel had Hispanic ancestry by virtue of a connection to Spain, but was certainly not Latino. Mitchel didn’t identify himself culturally during his public life with the broader Latino population globally or in the city. It’s not just about who someone’s great-grandfather was but much more about how you connect not only racially but also with the culture, people and lives of those who share that common heritage. It’s not just about where you’re from but how you live and perceive yourself in relation to others of that heritage.” 

Recently, I’ve been thinking that I’m not Latino enough to check other people’s “diversity” checkboxes. Because I grew up in the midwest, I am seen as another privileged white guy. Yet, I am a college drop out and have struggled to be where I am. It is frustrating to live in the middle and not be accepted by either side…

Economists generally agree that one of the distinguishing factors between rich countries and poor ones is that it is much easier to start businesses in rich countries. In Ecuador, for example, it takes about 56 days and 13 separate procedures to get all the legal paperwork done to start a new business. In the United States, it’s an average of six days and six procedures. But if you want to open a mobile-food business in New York, it’s essentially like starting a business in Ecuador — and that’s if you can somehow arrange a permit.

The Food-Truck Business Stinks – NYTimes.com

Pretty illustrations aside, this logo is representative of New York in more ways than one: In its adherence to the grid it reflects that of the city (if you can count, you can find your way around here); in its bulkiness it’s allusive to the power of New York as a center of culture, arts, politics and sports; in its shoulder-to-shoulder tightness it is a painful reminder of how little space there is here, but how much we enjoy and thrive in our proximity to each other; and in its openness, where anything can be framed or drawn inside it, it evokes the ability that everyone here has to make their own story, in their own way.

Brand New: I ♥ Wolff Olins

[NY Senator] Ms. Huntley subsequently wore a recording device in cooperation with the government, making secret recordings of seven elected officials and two others who did not hold office. Prosecutors said some of those recordings yielded useful evidence. It is not clear if others besides [NY Senator] Mr. Sampson will be charged.

Corruption Charge Expected for Senator – NYTimes.com

nycedc:

NYC BigApps Jobs and Economic Mobility Hackathon

Photos and blog post by Noelle Marcus, Project Manager, Center for Economic Transformation

The two-day NYC BigApps Jobs and Economic Mobility Hackathon at New Work City on April 20-21 featured speakers and experts from New York City’s top organizations fighting poverty and solving key workforce development challenges.

We kicked off the weekend with two stirring keynotes from Tom Hilliard, a senior fellow at the Center for an Urban Future, as well as an inspiring testimony on the power of civic technology from Austin’s hottest socially driven startup, Aunt Bertha. Fourteen teams demoed their projects and apps on Sunday night to a notable group of judges from The Huffington Post, Aunt Bertha, Robin Hood, Coatue and Blue Ridge Foundations.

$5,000 in cash prizes were awarded to three great teams whose apps best address problems related to Jobs and Economic Mobility: 

First Prize: Child Care Desk
Child Card Desk helps you find quality child care near you. We aim to show real time availability and social rankings for this essential service, making a terrible experience pleasant and useful.

Second Prize: Plexx
Plexx is a training center in your pocket. We build a mobile training portal where young people without a college degree can learn the skills they need to obtain an entry level job and build a career.

Third Prize: App.lied.at
Job seekers apply for a lot of jobs through various job board sites. It’s hard to keep track of where you applied. We’ve fixed this problem.

Honorable Mention: Helping Hands
Helping Hands is a mobile app and website that hopes to take some of the luck out of the equation, and make the help that’s out there more accessible, organized, and give people a positive voice from their peers. 

Browse all the Jobs NYC BigApps projects!

But even now, in an era of hyper-localization, of neighborhood blogs and Patch sites, many of us have little sense of what our community boards are doing, little time to pay attention, and the boards in turn often are short-staffed and cannot possibly disseminate information on every issue.

Sharing Bikes and Fury in New York Neighborhoods – NYTimes.com