Quotes

Friends, make me an instrument of your peace,
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light;
Where there is sadness, joy.

Mother Earth,
grant me the strength that I may not so much seek to be consoled, as to console;
to be understood, as to understand;
to be loved, as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive.
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are reborn into stars.

My mother posted the English version of St. Francis’ prayer. I’m tweaking it as a secular statement.

It was on the train, with its steely rhythms, its rattle-ty bang, that is so often so stimulating to a composer – I frequently hear music in the very heart of the noise… And there I suddenly heard, and even saw on paper – the complete construction of the Rhapsody, from beginning to end. No new themes came to me, but I worked on the thematic material already in my mind and tried to conceive the composition as a whole. I heard it as a sort of musical kaleidoscope of America, of our vast melting pot, of our unduplicated national pep, of our metropolitan madness.

Rhapsody in Blue – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Compiling information in a central location is the first step toward understanding the size and scope of the data that is in the city’s possession. “It’s the equivalent of going to a library, and know you have a card catalog you can go to,” Noel Hidalgo, executive director of the Open NY Forum, a civic data meetup group that was part of the coalition of non-profits that advocated for the law.

In the meantime, some omissions from the new lode are glaring. For example, precinct-level crime data, released on a weekly basis by the NYPD, does not appear to be housed in the portal. The NYPD currently hosts that information on its own website, and makes it available only in PDF format, which makes it nearly impossible to extract and use the data to track crime trends and patterns.

Local Law 11 requires agencies to convert data posted on the web portal to a format that can be used for other purposes, like building applications and running analyses. “Not having it in machine-readable format is almost a disservice, or it’s creating an obtuse government,” said Hidalgo. “Willingly creating data that is not easily consumed by computers, you’re not in 21st century.”

New York’s data deluge begins | The New York World

It’s a baby step in the right direction, but it’s a pretty big baby step,” said Noel Hidalgo, executive director of the Open NY Forum and Code for America’s local program manager. “You cannot reinvent the architecture and the practices of government within a year.

Happy Birthday To NYC’s Landmark Open Data Law – The Eye-Opener | Gotham Gazette: The Place for New York Policy and Politics

Using mobile technology and creative solutions, the developers behind the winning apps of the Financial Empowerment Hackathon have thought strategically and creatively about how best to approach the challenges facing consumers today,” said Rachel Haot, Chief Digital Officer. “Their apps, which do everything from send automatic phone messages about appointments with financial counselors to quickly pinpointing the nearest Financial Empowerment Center, will help consumers become smarter managers of their money. Once again, New York City’s local technology community has proved an effective partner in serving New Yorkers through technology, and we appreciate these innovative contributions.

Department of Consumer Affairs Names ‘Remind Me’ App Winner of the 2013 Financial Empowerment Hackathon

to see why midtown residents and commuters can’t trust the city to make sure that its subway system keeps up with daytime population growth, just look to Brooklyn. Nearly a decade ago, in 2005, the City Council approved Bloomberg’s rezoning of much of Williamsburg and Greenpoint to allow for dense residential construction. Ridership on the L train into Manhattan soared. Between 2005 and 2010 weekday ridership increased by a third to nearly 132,000 people. Even as the MTA increased service, rush hour trains remained overcrowded. The state-run MTA noted in 2011 that “trains continue to carry loads above guidelines,” meaning that standing passengers don’t get their allotted three square feet. Commuters could wait for three trains to pass by before they could squeeze on.

Nicole Gelinas on midtown rezoning and subway congestion | City & State