Uptown Radio

By Willow Belden

Linda Marzulla, the director of a crisis pregnancy center in Brooklyn, tells a group of pregnant women that they've made the right choice not to terminate their pregnancies. Photo by Willow Belden.

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The Expectant Mother Care center in downtown Brooklyn is located on a busy street near Borough Hall. It’s looks kind of like a doctor’s office. There are clipboards with medical questionnaires, two rooms with examining tables and a woman in a white lab coat. The waiting area feels more homey. Four young women lounge on leather couches. A video about the development of a fetus is playing. It explains that by the fifth week, the embryo develops hand plates and cartilage.

Down the hall, a 23-year-old woman is getting an ultrasound. She’s nine weeks pregnant, knows she wants to keep her baby, and came for an early ultrasound so she could show her mother a picture of the fetus. Linda Marzulla, the director of the pregnancy center, pokes her head into the sonogram room.

“Here, let me show you,” she says. “This is an ultrasound.”

She swivels the screen toward the expectant mother and the reporter. “We’re going to get his heartbeat now,” she continues, turning up the speakers until a muffled thumping noise is audible.

“This is a human being right here, OK?” Marzulla says. “It has a heart beat. It’s a baby.”

This facility is a “crisis pregnancy center,” or CPC. There are about 15 of them across the city. They offer free pregnancy tests, ultrasounds and counseling. But they’re not medical clinics. They aim to steer women away from abortions.

Marzulla says her center’s agenda is no secret. She walks back into the waiting room and points to a poster above the TV.

“The sign’s up already,” she says. “‘Free Abortion Alternatives.’ Here, look. ‘Pregnant women need support, not abortion.’ ‘Don’t panic, there’s a help line.’ These have been up for years.”

But some people say centers like this one are deceptive. So City Council decided to regulate them. Last week, the Council passed a bill requiring pregnancy centers to post signs saying they’re not licensed medical facilities and that they don’t offer abortions or emergency contraception. They’ll have to mention that on the phone as well, when women call to make appointments.

“It’s designed to be a truth in advertising bill,” said John Moore, a spokesman for Councilmember Jessica Lappin, who wrote the bill. “We’re targeting places that are not doctors offices but are trying to give the impression that they are.”

Some crisis pregnancy centers have a doctor on hand once or twice a week, for prenatal checkups. But the staffers administering pregnancy tests and sonograms aren’t licensed medical professionals. And the pamphlets they hand out include disputed facts about abortion. Moore says women need to know that.

“There’s a real harm in them thinking that they’re going to the doctor when they’re pregnant and not being at the doctor and not getting that medical care,” he said.

But administrators at the crisis pregnancy centers say their clients are getting the services they want.

“Not a single woman in 26 years has filed a complaint against us,” said Chris Slattery, the president of a chain of privately funded CPCs across the city, including the one near Borough Hall. Slattery dismisses his opponents’ criticism.

“They can detest what we say to women in a pregnancy center,” he said. “But our advertising of our centers has been legal and truthful.”

Slattery plans to sue the city over the new legislation. He says it’s a violation of first-amendment rights.

“It only applies to pro-life centers,” Slattery said. “So therefore, it’s regulation based on the content of our viewpoint and the content of our speech.”

Earlier this year, a federal court in Maryland ruled that a similar law was unconstitutional.

But Katharine, an attorney for the New York Civil Liberties Union, says this law is different. She says the Maryland law specifically targeted centers that don’t offer abortions, whereas the New York City bill applies to “entities that appear to be medical facilities — not based on the services they do or do not provide.”

Bodde says she expects the New York bill to withstand a legal challenge, because it applies to any center that looks like a doctor’s office but isn’t one.

“For instance, let’s say a crisis pregnancy center opened up tomorrow in New York City, and it wasn’t an anti-choice center; it was a pro-choice center,” she said. “That center would be covered under the bill.”

But Chris Slattery and the CPCs aren’t giving up without a fight. Slattery has hired a lawyer and plans to file for a restraining order as soon as Mayor Bloomberg signs the bill on Wednesday.

A Tarantula. Photo by Sascha Grabow

Tempura-Battered Tarantula

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“What I do with a tarantula when I’m going to prepare it, the very first thing I do of course is freeze it and defrost it. I don’t want to cook with a live tarantula – that would be a difficult one.

But I also take a sharp knife and I cut off the abdomen, that big round part of the body that’s really full of fluid; that’s pretty much all it is, is fluid. So I take that and I discard it.

And then using either a cigarette lighter or something like that – a crème brule torch – I actually will singe off all the hairs on the tarantula. Usually on the bottom, on the abdomen, there are hairs in particular that the tarantula can shoot – almost like people think about porcupines doing (although that’s a myth). But they can actually release these hairs and they actually create a very itchy sensation if they get lodged in your skin. So singeing off all the hairs is a really good way to prevent that from being an issue.

And then I can take the body, spread the legs out nicely – so you get a nice even spread – drop them into tempura batter, make sure that it’s coated all the way through and then put it into the hot oil and fry it up.
And that’s the basic recipe for tempura-battered tarantula.”

–David George Gordon, a.k.a. The Bug Chef. He is the author of the “Eat-a-Bug” Cookbook.

—–

Orthopteran Orzo

*Orthoptera is the umbrella name for grasshoppers, crickets, locusts and other bugs

Yield: six servings

Ingredients

3 cups vegetable broth

1 cup orzo

1 cup two- or three-week-old cricket nymphs

1 tablespoon butter

1 clove garlic, minced

½ cup chopped onion

½ cup grated carrot

¼ cup finely diced red pepper

¼ cup finely diced green pepper

2 tablespoons chopped parsley

Bring broth to a boil, then stir in the orzo.

Continue boiling the pasta until it is tender (about 10 minutes); drain any extra liquid, then quickly add carrot and red and green peppers. Mix evenly and set aside.

In a separate skillet, melt the butter, adding the minced garlic, onions and crickets. Sauté briefly, until the onions are clear and the garlic and crickets have browned.

Combine cricket mixture, including any liquid, with the orzo and vegetables, top with parsley and serve.

From “The Eat-a-Bug Cookbook” by David George Gordon (Ten Speed Press)

Click here to listen to the full radio story.

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Japan is still reeling from its biggest earthquake in history, which slammed into its northeastern Coast this morning. The 8.9 magnitude quake shook buildings in the capital city and shut down Tokyo’s trains and mobile networks and left millions of homes without power. The official death toll is at more than 300 hundred.

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Japan is recovering after a 8.9 magnitude earthquake and tsunami.  Alex Alper speaks with John Armbruster, a seismologist at the Colombia University’s Earth Institute about the intensity of the quake.

Uptown Radio also speaks with Honolulu resident Matt Seymour who heard the tsunami warnings in Hawaii.

Buildings are submerged after an earthquake-triggered tsunami hit Yamamoto town in Miyagi prefecture, Japan, Friday March 11, 2011. Photo by: The Yomiuri Shimbun / AP.

Protests Wednesday March 9, 2011 in Qatif, Saudi Arabia. Activists in Saudi Arabia's Shiite Muslim minority have issued Internet calls for a "Day of Rage" on Friday. Photo by Associated Press.

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Activists are calling for a “day of rage” in Saudi Arabia, as a stand against the Sunni dominated government and ruling family.   Zachary Lockman, a professor of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies at New York University provides insights for this latest uprising call and the history of local Sunni-Shia tensions.

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By Larry Tung

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced in his weekly radio address that the city will help direct donations to the victims of Japan’s earthquake and tsunami. He described the deadly earthquake as sad news.

Bloomberg: If anybody wants to donate money and help, and I don’t know if they need money yet, but if they do, the mayor’s fund will arrange for public money to be sent over.  We did that with the earthquake in Haiti and Chile.

The mayor urged those who would like to make a donation to call the city’s information hot line 311.

Days of heavy rains up and down the eastern seaboard have caused flooding in the region.  More than a dozen school districts in the Hudson River Valley were closed or delayed because of the flooding.  In New York City, no major flooding was reported but several major roads going into Westchester County were closed.  In northern New Jersey, senator Frank Lautenburg is calling for federal aid to clean up the areas affected by major flooding. The National Weather Service says no major rains are expected this weekend but the water is not going to recede in some areas for at least a few days.

The New York City Comptroller John Liu has rejected a 20-million-dollar contract to recruit public school teachers.  The New Teacher Project would recruit teachers from non-traditional backgrounds to serve hard-to-fill positions, such as special education and English as a second language teachers. Liu says 20 million dollars seems excessive at a time when the city is looking to lay off thousands of teachers. The Department of Education plans to resubmit the contract within 30 days.

A New York City program to help homeless people get out of shelters may suffer from the state budget cut. The Advantage program offers rental subsidies to people in homeless shelters who find stable jobs. But now the city’s department of homeless services says it will not be able to accept new applications after next Monday. The city will have to build 70 new shelters if the program is eliminated.

The police are still searching for a man who allegedly killed his ex-wife in a Midtown hair salon yesterday afternoon. Police say the 42-year-old Michael Kenny, stabbed his ex-wife, Denise, at her workplace before fleeing with her wallet and the money from the cash register.

Larry Tung, Columbia Radio News

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By Linette Lopez

“10 years is too long!” was the rallying cry at a protest held on the steps of City Hall today. The demonstrators included a small group of parents, advocacy groups, and public officials that are demanding that the Department of Education move faster to remove harmful chemicals, called PCBs, from city school buildings. State Assemblywoman Linda Rosenthal lead the protest, and has been working on this problem since 2008.

“This whole issue began when there was botched window replacement project in a school in my district, PS 199. We found out that there were high levels of PCBs in the calk. At that time I introduced a bill to test every school for caulk. Right now what we’re focusing on is PBC in light ballasts in schools that were constructed or remodeled between 1950 and 1978,” said Rosenthal.

PCB is short for Polychlorinated Biphinyls. They are toxic chemicals that the government banned them in 1978. Before that, they could be found in a lot of building materials; materials that were used to build city schools. Children are most susceptible to the affects of PCBs. That’s why advocates like Gigi Garzon, from New York Lawyers for the Public Interest, are demanding their immediate removal.

“It can cause disruption to their immune systems, to their development to their reproductive systems, to their respiratory system, neurological, so it’s a whole host of problems particularly with low-level long-term exposure,” said Garzon.

Current EPA safety guidelines set acceptable PCB levels at 50 parts per million. Councilman Erik Dilan, represents parts of Brooklyn. In his district, they’ve found PCB levels of 600,000 parts per million- the highest in the city. That’s 12,000 times the acceptable level. He wants the city to be open about the problem, because his constituents are getting worried.

“Lets uncover the engine of this car and see what’s really under the hood. I attended a meeting on Monday and the staff was sitting there making conscious decisions as to whether they should come to work or not. The parents were doing the same thing with their children,” said Dilan.

The city has presented a plan that would replace all lighting ballasts over the course of ten years. But parents and public officials think that’s too long. JeanAndre Sassine is a father of two from in Queens Village. He thinks the city should listen to the EPAs recommendation that all schools get tested, and that light ballasts are replaced in two years.

“Its still 2 years of children sitting in this environment but it is what it is if that’s the quickest we can do it lets get it done it 2 years and not this 10 year “one light at a time” program that the Mayor’s proposed,” said Sassine.

Most of the opposition to the 2-year plan comes from those concerned with the City’s budget. But Councilmember Vinnie Ignizio, from Staten Island, pointed out that the cost of replacing light ballasts would be covered by the money the City would save by installing greener lighting fixtures that use less energy.

“We agree with doing more with less. There are companies that will come in, change the lighting in our schools, within the 2-year time frame and the city would be on the hook for nothing,” said Ignizio.

An overwhelming majority of the City Council disagrees with the ten-year plan. That means the Department of Education will have to go back to the drawing board. Parents will be watching.

Guacamole with chips and fried grasshoppers at Mexican restaurant Chiles & Chocolate in Park Slope. Photo by Anna Maria Jakubek

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By Anna Maria Jakubek

Chiles and Chocolate is a Park Slope restaurant that serves authentic food from Oaxaca, Mexico.

Salmon marinated in orange juice, green pepper stuffed with chicken and cheese and Mole Negro with grilled veggies. But there’s one item that really jumps out: fried grasshoppers. For a dollar you can get a bowl of them to go along with your guacamole and chips.

“Green. Mushy. And bits of tomato. And legs. Grasshopper legs,” said Valente Villarreal, a waiter at Chiles and Chocolate. He was born in Mexico but grew up in Brooklyn. He says the owner gets the grasshoppers from Mexico, already fried and seasoned, and very much dead. Villarreal opens the container and shakes its contents.

“Do you hear that? They’re jumping right now. I’m trying to pick out a big one,” said Villarreal.

And then he sinks his teeth into one.

“Here we go. Crunch. It’s very crunchy,” Villarreal said.

The grasshoppers are about an inch in length and half that wide. They’re spicy and red from the chili seasoning and they taste like the lime juice they were dipped ini. They’re really not bad, not bad at all. Villarreal says grasshoppers are as popular in Oaxaca as potato chips are over here. Bugs are also part of the diet in other countries. In Japan they eat wasps, in South Africa it’s giant caterpillars, and in Bali dragonflies are on the menu.

But in our culture, insects aren’t food. Gabriella Petrick is a food historian at NYU.

“And there are many things – like, you know um a pencil! – Not food. Probably not a good idea to eat a pencil. Or grass. Or you know there are many weeds in your lawn – as long as you don’t put chemicals on it, you could pick and eat, but we don’t do it, because we ascribe a different category to that,” said Petrick.

She says that in the U.S. this practice of eating bugs will never fly. There’s a social hurdle: people judge you on the things you eat.

“So if you’re eating bugs or you know grasshoppers and the people around you think it’s vile and disgusting, you’re going to bealienated. Food is a social expression as well,” said Petrick.

In other words, you are what you eat. And no one wants to be thought of as a pest. Yet, bugs are actually good for you. Really good for you. The sixteen hundred or so edible varieties are rich in protein, minerals, vitamins and other nutrients. They have lots more protein than you’ll find in beef. They’re also better for the environment than other meat. That’s why some scientists and foodies advocate that we Westerners get on the bug diet. Arnold van Huis is a tropical entomologist at Wageningen University in the Netherlands. He’s been researching edible insects for over a decade and urgently believes they’re the answer.

“We cannot go on like the way we are doing just because of the growing world population and most of people are going to eat more mat and we just don’t have enough agricultural land to make this possible,” said von Haus.

He says all it’ll take is a paradigm shift.

“You often see if people don’t know that they’re eating insects, they may find it delicious. At the moment you tell them it’s an insect, they start vomiting. Just to show that it’s completely psychological,” said von Haus.

In fact, we don’t think about this but we’re actually eating insects already. According to a spokesperson for the FDA, it’s impossible to produce food completely free of pests. The agency publishes a booklet that lists the max number of insect and vermin parts allowable for each type of food. This Defect Levels Handbook, as it’s called, is scary to flip through. 100 grams of chocolate – or just a little over two standard Hershey’s bars – can have 60 insect fragments.

And there are other arguments for why our take on bugs doesn’t make sense. David George Gordon, a.k.a. “The Bug Chef” is a science writer and author of a cookbook of  bug recipes. He routinely does bug cooking shows across the country, and likes to point out how arbitrary our food habits are.

“I always say to people ‘what’s so glamorous about eating one of these? They look kind of like reptiles,” said Gordon.

Gordon remembers an 11-year-old boy who went back for four or five helpings of cricket and orzo pasta at one of the cooking events.

“And I was kind of teasing him – I said, ‘don’t they feed you at home?’ And he said, ‘this is way better than anything my mom ever made.’ So that was kind of, that’s like my greatest testimonial right there,” Gordon said.

The benefits of eating insects are definitely there. But while we may convince our minds, winning over our stomachs is another matter.

Click here for bug recipes.

Cristina Ojeda and Monica Alcota eating dinner at their home in Queens. Photo by Juliana Schatz

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By Juliana Schatz

Cristina Ojeda and Monica Alcota have been married six months and are giggly and affectionate. Ojeda, who is from California, speaks English. Alcota, an Argentina native, speaks mostly in Spanish. They often finish each other’s sentences.  Even when they talk about their wedding.

“I had never seen her so nervous. Nunca. She was shaking. She couldn’t put the ring on,” said Ojeda.

Alcota left Argentina on a tourist visa ten years ago, fleeing what she called daily harassment.

“You couldn’t live a normal life. You had to pretend you were someone you weren’t,” said Alcota.

She says you couldn’t live a normal life there. That you had to pretend you were someone you weren’t.

After the couple met, they commuted by bus between New York and Buffalo, where Ojeda was in graduate school. Alcota, who works in antique restoration, kept a low profile. But on their way back to New York City one night, immigration officers boarded the bus.

They arrested Alcota and took her to a detention center in Niagara Falls. Then, Ojeda was sent home.

“I came back on the bus and we just drove. I had to leave her there. I mean it was so hard because I didn’t know what was going to happen,” said Ojeda.

Eventually, Alcota was held in a facility in Elizabeth, N.J.

“You had to shower and everyone could see you. You couldn’t go to the bathroom… It was the most horrible thing that has happened to me in my life,” said Alcota.

She calls it was the worst thing that could have happened to her. She and other detainees ate, slept and showered in the same rooms.

Right after she was released, three months later, the couple went to Connecticut, one of five states in the U.S. that permit same sex marriages. After the wedding, Ojeda bid for Alcota’s I-130 form – her green card.

“But it’s going to be denied because DOMA because marriage has to be between a man and a woman,” said Ojeda.

The couple has an attorney who is trying to delay proceedings until the government decides what to do about DOMA.

But legal representation might not help them, says Arthur Leonard, a professor at New York Law School.

“There is a lot of suspicion that attaches to of people who marry under these circumstances, because the might be marriages of conveniences for the purpose of giving the foreign bliss a place to stay,” said Leonard.

Leonard, who founded the Gay and Lesbian Bar Association over thirty years ago says even though Alcota felt persecuted in Argentina, the couple will not have a strong case before an immigration judge.

The only way they would, he says, is if their marriage could be recognized federally.

“If a same sex couple is legally married they should be entitled to the same treatment as different sex couples who is legally married for purposes of the immigration laws,” said Lenoard.

Monica Alcota and Cristina Ojeda know that’s far off, but are optimistic and looking forward to their second deportation hearing in two weeks.



Iranian protestors face off against police in anti-government protest in Tehran, Iran, Monday, Feb. 14, 2011. Photo courtesy of Associated Press

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By Alex Alper

A few weeks ago it looked like the green revolution that opposed Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmaninejad’s reelection had revived. Thousands of Iranians gathered illegally in downtown Tehran—shouting “death to the dictator.”

“The wind of protests have reached Iran but the Iranian government has doing I guess a good job of stopping any protests in its tracks,” said Azzedine Layachi, a professor of political science at St. John’s University in New York.

“By stopping the protests,” Layachi means the police have managed to turn well-attended weekly protests into small gatherings, using batons and tear gas.

He says Iranians are not about to overthrow the government.  But authorities are nervous: they’ve kept opposition leaders Mir Hussein Moussavi and Mehdi Karoubi on house arrest for almost a month.

Reformist former president Hashemi Rafsanjani resigned from the powerful Assembly of Experts. Many say he was forced out.

But Layachi says Iran’s image in the region is strong.

“Iran is a great regional power and is likely to play an increasing role if those who are friendly with the United States come to collapse,” said Layachi.

For example former Egptian president Hosni Mubarak, who supported lots of American policies in the Middle East: He opposed Iran’s nuclear program, kept peace with Israel, and refused passage through the Suez Canal to Iranian ships.

But last month, two Iranian warships pass through the Suez for the first time in over three decades.

“That was unthinkable under Mubarak’s regime and it became possible after Mubarak fell,” said Layachi.

Layachi also points to Bahrain as sign of Iran’s growing Influence. Bahrain’s Shiite majority is protesting decades of rule by its Sunni king. If that king is toppled, Shiite Iran would have an ally in Bahrain.

That would make other Middle Eastern powers with sizeable Shiite minorities nervous, says Forham University Professor John Entelis.

“There’s a genuine fear on the part of the Saudis who obviously feel threatened by the Iranians, that the Shiites in the eastern provinces might get activated, mobilized, reacting to the Shiites in Bahrain,” said Enteils.

Shiite protests in Saudi Arabia today point to this. But Entelis, who studies politics in the Middle East, says its important not to overestimate how much foreign policy plays a role in the protests.

“What the Egyptian, Tunisian and other uprisings are showing is that peoples priorities are domestic,” said Enteils.

Egyptians and Tunisians overthrew their leaders because they wanted more jobs, and more freedom, he says. Not because they supported Iranian foreign policy goals, like crushing Israel.

Entelis says it’s too soon to know how the balance of power will shift in the region. In the meantime some Iranian ships may appear in new harbors.

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Jodie Singer, 13, at home with her iPad. Photo by Gianna Palmer

By Gianna Palmer

When people refer to autism, they’re actually talking about a set of five developmental brain disorders known as autism spectrum disorders. The symptoms of autism and their intensity vary, but often include difficulties with communication and social skills.

Thirteen-year-old Jodie Singer, like many children with autism, is not conversational. She tends to repeat phrases and words over and over. Earlier this morning, before her school bus arrived, Jodie listened to children’s songs on her iPad.

A lanky bundle of energy, Jodie alternates between bites of Cheerios and excited hopping to the tune of Old MacDonald. Her mom, Alison Singer, says the iPad is able to hold Jodie’s attention in ways that other toys haven’t.

“She likes the farm a games, the baking cooking games, the animals games. So there’s certainly  a lot of  things that interest her on the ipad. But I think more importantly is she’s able to be independent. She can listen to music, she can watch youtube videos and she can do this independently. Which with other toys she really needs much more assistance,” said Singer.

Singer is also the founder and president of the Autism Science Foundation and keeps close track of emerging tools for kids with autism. She says the iPad has been a boon to the autism community. Kids really love it, she says, in many ways much more than other devices specially developed for them. Singer also points out that iPads can actually help some children communicate. For example, there are applications where a child can type in words, and the device will read them aloud. But Singer doesn’t see the iPad as a therapeutic in and unto itself.

“Think about it like a workbook. Some children can use workbooks independently, some children love to do workbooks, some children really gain great skills from doing , and some just do it for fun. It’s the same with an ipad. I mean an ipad can be fun, it’s something kids can do independently, and it can also be a very valuable tool in hands of trained, skilled therapist,” Singer says.

Dr. Howard Shane specializes in communication disorders, particularly with children on the autism spectrum,. Though Dr. Shane uses iPads in the autism language program he directs at the Children’s Hospital Boston, he agrees with Singer that  the iPad is not, by itself a clinical intervention.

“The clinical procedure of choice is for the child to be looked at to see what their strengths are and their weaknesses and then try to find apps and hardware that’s going to match those abilities,” says Shane.

Shane says one of the most important things about the iPad is that it doesn’t cost nearly as much as the specialized medical computers that came before it.

“We used to, you know, we could justify suggesting 7,8, 9,000 dollar pieces of equipment that now, you have the same functionality in an iPad,” Shane says.

Shane and his colleagues at the Children’s Hospital Boston use many different technologies in their research into communication disorders. And as for the iPad—

“We think its emerging an tool and its going to be an important one, but its certainly not the only thing that we, the only arrow in the quiver,” said Shane.

Rhonda McEwen is trying to quantify the impact of that arrow. She is a professor at the University of Toronto, and is currently conducting phase two of a study examining touch technologies, including the iPod Touch and iPad. Her studies put these technologies into Toronto classrooms and worked with students with autism.

“We actually did measurements of baseline communication measurements before, during and after the study, and we see increases in their communicative ability over so many categories, but particularly in the areas of social interaction and peer-based interaction” McEwen says.

McEwen says that so far, her research supports putting iPad in classrooms with autistic children.

“The teachers have demonstrated that they have been able to find use for it as a supplement to their curriculum in all of the classes that it was introduced to,” McEwen says.

In the Singer’s Scarsdale home, Jodie is on her way out the door to the bus. After a morning spent playing with her iPad, she wants to take it with her, but her mom has her leave it behind. For now, the iPad is not a part of her school day.

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KING: Let me make it clear today that I remain convinced that these hearings must go forward and they will. To back down would be a craven surrender to political correctness and an abdication of what I believe to be the main responsibility of this committee to protect America from a terrorist attack.

DANIELEWICZ: Democrats on the committee criticized the hearings for singling out Muslims, but King insisted that the threat was real.

KING: There are realities we can’t ignore—for instance the pew poll which said that 15 percent of Muslim American men between the age of 18-29 could support suicide bombings. This is the segment of the community l Qaeda is attempting to recruit. To combat this threat moderate leadership must emerge from the Muslim community.

King, was joined by Republican Representative Frank Wolf of Virginia in directly attacking one organization that many have seen as moderate—CAIR, or the Council on American Islamic Relations…

WOLF: As we deal with the growing threat it is troubling, Mr. chairman, to see a group such as the Council on American Islamic Relations, commonly known as CAIR, attempt to stifle debate and to obstruct cooperation with law enforcement

There were many Muslim voices present at the hearings. One of the first to testify was Representative Keith Ellison, The Minnesota Democrat who was the first Muslim elected to Congress. Ellison opposed the hearings and he expressed worry that they could make things worse…

ELLISON: As leaders we need to be rigorous about our analysis of violent extremism. Our responsibility includes doing no harm, I am concerned that the focus of todays hearing may increase suspicion of the Muslim community, ultimately making all of us a little less safe.

ALPER: Representative King will hold more hearings on the subject of violent extremism throughout the coming Congressional session.

Reporting by Sandhya Dirks.

Walmart might be coming to Brooklyn. Photo courtesy of Timothy Kincaid

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By Kaitin Ugolik

When Alap Vora opened Concord Market near the Brooklyn Bridge last year, he envisioned a sleek, gourmet store that would cater to health-conscious Dumbo residents.

Some of his regulars did want gluten-free pasta. But a lot of them also wanted Cheerios and cheap soft drinks. So, he adjusted quickly–an advantage he says his little store has over a national chain like Walmart. He also says he’s created 20 full-time jobs in the past year—and questions what kind of work Walmart will offer.

“They’re gonna create hundreds of jobs – but at what level? At what rate?” asked Vora. ” How much is that family or that individual employee gonna take home?  I think that’s what’s more important.”

Walmart is one of this country’s biggest employers—and one in Brooklyn will likely attract job seekers from all over the city: the unemployment rate is now around eight percent. Walmart polled small business owners in all five boroughs and found two-thirds of them approved of the plan to move in. The Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce did its own poll: and found two thirds of participating small businesses did not want Walmart as a neighbor.

Some powerful New York City politicians agree. Here’s City Council Speaker Christine Quinn.

“Study after study has shown that Walmart’s business practices are in a word, predatory,” said Quinn.

Quinn was speaking at a hearing in February. At the same meeting, Brooklyn Councilmember Charles Barron used even stronger language.

“We will not be your slave workers in your plantation, cause that’s what Walmart is, it’s nothing but a plantation, and we’re not accepting it,” said Barron.

Walmart is fully aware of this terrible press, and has adjusted some of its best known rules –promising to work with a construction union, for example, when building a New York store.

In lieu of attending this hearing, Walmart’s community affairs department issued a letter requesting City Council look into how stores like Target and Home Depot have affected small business here.

Walmart also launched a promotional website–WalmartNYC-dot-com. It features a news reporter character who asks people on the street what they think about the City Council’s objections.

So do you think it’s fair that Target has been allowed to build in New York but Walmart hasn’t?

“Really? I didn’t know that. – Yeah, it’s been blocked,” wrote one visitor.

“I don’t even understand why because Walmart is like – we as consumers and people, that’s where all the deals are, and in this recession, we need to save money,” another visitor commented.

But it’s not clear who is going to shop at Walmart in New York City.

Sean Crockett is a behavioral economist at Baruch College in Manhattan. He says Walmart’s New York clientele will probably skew wealthier than the average big box customer.

“It’ll be people with a car, that are willing to drive, you know because they have a car they’re willing to drive to get savings, and maybe some of those people are already driving out of the city to a Walmart,” said Crockett.

New Yorkers are already driving to the suburbs and spending millions at Walmart.

So Crockett says, if anything, a Walmart in the city or one of the outer boroughs might bring money back in. He also says a lot of New York City stores rely on foot traffic, which isn’t something Walmart will be able to take away easily.

Alap Vora of Concord Market says there’s room Walmart and small businesses in Brooklyn. He’s confident that he’ll keep being able to offer things they can’t.

Walmart isn’t on City Council’s March calendar, but a Council press officer says she expects there will be a special meeting before the end of the month.

Early signs of construction at Hunters Point South in Long Island City, Queens. The city will build a 5,000 unit apartment complex, school and manicured waterfront. Photo by Joe Danielewicz

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By Joe Danielewicz

At a ground-breaking in mid-February, Mayor Michael Bloomberg explained the importance of the city’s newest housing development.

“Hunters Point South is the first large scale, middle class development to be built in our city in more than three and a half decades,” said Bloomberg.

The last large affordable housing developments were Co-Op City and Starrett City.  In housing terms, “affordable” generally means costing 30% or less of your income on shelter.  60% of the 5000 homes at Hunters Point South will be set aside for middle income families.  The rest will be available at market rates.

Hunters point south is part of Long Island City, it’s mainly a bundle of industrial building on the East River…Trucks and the occasional semi make up most of the traffic…But when the project is complete, this will be landscaped with water-front walkways, a new public school and new store fronts.

Some Queens residents say they want to move to Hunters Point South, but can’t afford it.

“Queens residents had a lot of hope about Hunter’s Point South,” said Farzana Morshed, who  organized residents in 2008 to fight for more a bigger share of affordable housing when the plan was first debated. Morshed says she needs affordable housing.

“When we think about food cloths, and house rent, it is too difficult to survive,” said Morshed.

Morshed and other people in Queens have two problems with the development: Number one – not enough units were created…

“We see it as a drop in the bucket,” said Morshed.

Anna Dioguardi is the director for “community organizing and development” at Queens Community House – an advocacy and social services group.

“It’s complicated to understand the allotments of housing at, the most staggering thing is there’s no apartments for families earning $25,000  or less,” said Dioguardi.

And that leads to problem number two – the income limits on the development don’t match the community make up.

Queen’s median household income is 55-thousand dollars a year…  the income range for “affordability”  at hunters point south will start at $55,000 to $158,000 for a family of four. That leaves half of Queens residents out in the cold.

Judy Calogero is the CEO for the New York Housing Conference – a group that researches and advocates for affordable housing. She says developments sometimes need a mix of incomes to get off the ground or remain viable…

“It’s easy for anyone of us to say that ‘gee I wish that 50% or 75% of the units at Hunters Point would be to serve people that are below 60% of median income,’ that would be a great goal to do, but what is the cost of doing that?” said Calogero.

And Calogero says the income range is by design.

“There is a desire to have a mix. And not just have it be exclusively just one income group whether they’re middle income, or low income or upper income,” said Calogero.

For some families – the cheaper rent from new construction works in their favor. Lisa Desimone moved from the East Village to Williamsburg in September.

“I was paying $1,000 for 450 square feet but I was in a tenement slum filled with mice and a landlord that didn’t take care of anything,” said Desimone.

Now Desimone rents a 2 bedroom with her husband and daughter for 12-hundred dollars at The Edge apartment along the waterfront.…

Farzana Morshed still feels left-out from the affordable housing debate.

“You know, working families – city needs working families, city needs immigrant..  without working families, the city can’t build it’s economy very good,” said Morshed.

For the time being…  Morshed and her husband have decided hold off starting a family… Morshed says she just can’t afford it.

“I’ve been married five years.  I need a baby, but I can’t.  I have work.  So if I work, how can I have a baby? said Morshed.

The first part of construction at Hunters Point is scheduled to this month… with the first apartment buildings finished in 2014.