How the Urban Fellows almost ended up in Sex and the City…

An adventure today:
Wednesday mornings are Urban Fellow seminar days, where we meet with a public figure or go on a field trip. This morning we took a tour of the Brooklyn Navy Yard, an example of public-private partnership to turn an old navy yard into a large-scale commercial and industrial space. Part of the trip involved taking a tour of Steiner Studios, a movie production company that is one of the tenants. We were supposed to meet one of the executives, take a tour of the largest sound stage outside of Hollywood, then move on. However, today they were filming a big scene from the upcoming Sex and the City movie (man, that thing is everywhere…) with LOTS of extras. When our little bus pulled up in front of the studios, someone was there to meet us and quickly asked us, "Are you here for friends and family?" Before anyone could really register what she said, she just turned around and said, "Follow me. We'll take you to hair and makeup and get you through wardrobe." So before anyone knew what was going on, we were herded into a big room filled with beautiful people in very fashionable outfits. At one end of the room stood a row of hair stylists and make-up artists; at the other end, a huge spread of Dunkin Donuts and coffee. We were instructed to have a seat, and our guide left us. At this point, our director starts to realize we're probably in the wrong place. While she's figuring things out, official-looking people keep wandering by our group, asking somewhat skeptically, "You guys have already been cleared by wardrobe??" Apparently our business attire wasn't making the grade… Anyway, eventually it was determined that we were, indeed, not the "friends and family" extras and we had indeed crashed this party with beautiful people, nice dresses and free pastries. Alas, sadly, we were herded back out and did not get to make our movie star debut…

However, coincidentally, we did get to see Mayor Bloomberg give a press conference about the opening of a navy yard historical center (and he got to make a cameo in Sex and the City, or so we heard...) That was pretty cool, although it was FREEZING COLD. And apparently, if you're a politician, you aren't allowed to wear coats. That's a silly rule.

Don't they look cold???
In other news, Sunday was the marathon, and it was a perfect day for running. My fellow Fellows Sarah and Lesley joined me at the finishline to hand out heat sheets (those tinfoil-ish blanket things) to the runners, and we welcomed fellow Fellow Dave as he crossed the finish in an amazingly fast 3:19. It was a lot of work, but worth it. For hours beforehand, we had to pull the perforated heat sheets off what looked like a giant roll of Saran Wrap, and stuff them in the fence for when the big rush. There were 40,000 of the things stuffed all up and down the road. we climbed in them piles of big shiny leaves, ostensibly to smush them down to make room for more. When the runners came through, we were supposed to throw our arms around them and wrap their shoulders, although during the peak traffic it basically devolved into people madly snatching them out of my arms as I ran back for more. What made it most exciting, though, was knowing next year I'll be seeing the view from the other side!!

Sarah, Holly, Dave (runner extraordinaire) and Lesley.

Trick or Treat

Soooooo, sorry I have one more piece of press. Well, I won't promise that, actually. But this op-ed piece from the NYTimes is interesting. I like that it says there are no easy answers, because that's the one thing I've come away with after this first month of work.

Last night was Halloween, and I bought some candy in case we were going to get trick-or-treaters. I'm not sure how that works in New York City with all the apartment buildings, and living in a convent last year certainly didn't give me any insight. Sadly, we didn't get any trick-or-treaters, but I went for a run in neighboring Park Slope and literally had to dodge whole sidewalks full of mini Spidermans and witches. Park Slope is known for its stroller-pushing population anyway, and they were out in full force! It was also cute to see parents and their little kids all sitting on steps of their brownstones waiting to hand out candy.

Oh yes, also this week I went to my first NYC literary event - a reading and book signing of the Storycorps book, Listening is an act of love. I know I've talked about Storycorps before: my friend Grant (whose blog, btw, is listed at right. He's spending a year in Sierra Leon teaching radio and journalism skills) worked there, and I went with two Mercy Center participants last year and made recordings. It's a great program, and at the reading they had people read their own stories that had been published, and there was a not a dry eye in the room. I even got suckered into buying a book, which I've been reading on the train, and thus get off to go to work a little teared up everyday. The book comes out for real on November 9, so look for it in bookstores. And turn to page 277 for Grant's name!

The marathon is drawing near and I'm so excited! And I love the way the whole city gets into it. The subway stations are plastered with a great ad campaign showing scenes from around the city with the slogan, "NYC is my running partner" and picturing various city dwellers in their daily lives handing out water to passing runners. I especially liked this one, with the Hasidic Jews, because that's who I see a lot of in my own neighborhood.

The heat is on

So I went to a running group on Monday night, and it turns out that one of the other runners was college roommates with my 12th grade English teacher's daughter. A stretch, I know, but see what I mean about New York not being that big a place? Oh, and speaking of running, I ran my 8th road race this morning in Central Park. One to go, and I'll be qualified for next year's marathon!

Erika, Maren and I went to the opera today. Or rather, we went to see an opera a converted bathhouse called the Lyceum in Brooklyn. We visited during the open house weekend earlier in October, and decided to check out an opera in an attempt to broaden our cultural horizons (and they had student discounts, which helps considerably in the broadening of cultural horizons). The show was Beethoven's Fidelio and it had the makings of any great performance: cross-dressers, love triangles, evil rulers and near-deaths, but overall, I don't think opera is for me. Oh and Saturday night, the roomies and I tried out Juniors, which is famously good Brooklyn cheesecake. We're doing our best to try out the Brooklyn landmark establishments.

By the way, the media storm about the intake policy has not died down. On the contrary, as last week there was a city council hearing about the issue. Here's one more article about the homeless prevention programs, from the Gotham Gazette. It blasts the department and it's programs, draws links between our programs and other programs that don't actually exist, and don't use named sources, but it is one point of view, and also gives you some more idea about what my department does. Sorry about the duluge of links in recent weeks. I'm just not used to being part of something that generates press, and I'm interested in all of it!

Tomororow, another workweek begins. Best of luck to us all.

Oh yeah, and they turned the heat on in the building. Guess it's officially cold...

Ups and downs

So the work on the new policy continues, and there have been several late nights. The NYTimes came out with an editorial today - here's what they have to say about the matter. On another end of the spectrum, here's what the NY Daily News had to say.

On a more positive note, however, I got to go observe the lease-signings for clients who are moving out into apartments. These clients have made their way through the shelter system and happily exiting. Here, everyone was happy and excited to move into a new place. I also got to talk with several clients, and I was very impressed with them and the amount of work they've done to get try and get back on their feet. I think I needed to see that end of things after a spending a week at the intake center.

In weekend update news, this weekend was abosolutely gorgeous! On Saturday Hana from Westerville/MIT came into town we got to do some touristing around. Today, I got a camera, which was terribly exciting, and I tested it out as Erika and I took a sunny walk through Central Park. Oddly enough, I ran into my boss in the middle of the woods in the Ramble. New York is not such a big place after all, I don't think.

The first picture taken with the new camera. I'm so excited to have one again. Location: City Hall Park.

Central Park, with fall leaves and spring-like weather.

The past few days have been super hectic. I worked Sunday evening and late on Monday and Tuesday at the intake center in the Bronx. DHS is working on implementing this new policy and for the first few days it was an all hands on deck kinda thing. Even new hands, like me, although I didn't have too much of a role. The first day I directed families through the intake process, and the rest of the days I helped keep track of reporting numbers. There is a lot of press surrounding this new policy because it's pretty controversial. I'm not even sure what I think about it, yet (and even if I did, I'm guessing it wouldn't be a great idea to post it…). I do know, though, that it was incredibly sad to see the amount of families coming through each night. From an office perspective, the phrase "homeless families" is one thing, but when you see all the kids with their backpacks on or in strollers – it really is heart-wrenching.