Overview
Here are some articles on major challenges facing NYC. They are short but I understand if you can’t read all of them. Do read at least one article from each subject.
Articles on the city’s economy and impact of covid
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/24/nyregion/eric-adams-jobs-pandemic.html
- What are some of the main reasons that the article makes about how many in the city aren’t doing well despite the fact that the city has regained the jobs it lost during covid?
- In what ways did the city’s poor suffer more from the covid pandemic than the city’s wealthier residents?
- What has happened to income disparities in NYC since 2009? How have the types of jobs that the city has created influenced that?
- What do the living conditions look like for those at the opposite ends of the income spectrum in terms of education, housing, and health?
- What do the authors recommend to address this situation?
Articles on immigration to NYC
https://www.osc.state.ny.us/files/reports/osdc/pdf/report-7-2016.pdf.
- At what point in the 20th century, did immigrants represent the largest percentage of the city’s population? What was the percentage when the article was written (2015)?
- Where have many of the new immigrants to NYC been coming from in the last 20 years?
- In what way are immigrants good for the city’s economy according to the article?
- Why does this article say that slowing immigration to NYC is a problem?
Article about Bangladeshi immigrant community in Brooklyn neighborhood of Kensington
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/13/nyregion/little-bangladesh-kensington-brooklyn.html
- What main things did you learn from the article about this community?
Articles on Housing
https://www.thecity.nyc/2022/11/14/23453999/hochul-crisis-affordable-apartments-housing.
- What does the Adams administration want to see happen?
- What does the Real Estate of New York (REBNY) and developers think should be done?
- Why do opponents of bringing back 421a oppose it?
- What do owners of rent regulated buildings want and who opposes it?
- What do tenant groups want and what is the “Good Cause Eviction” Bill?
Short interview with Christine Quinn and Robert Hays https://www.wnyc.org/story/how-suspending-right-shelter-might-impact-nycs-homeless
- What does they suggest that the mayor could do in terms of the homelessness crisis and in terms of the recent crisis created by new immigrants being bused to NYC by Texas governor?
Preparing for Climate Change
Article on how the city is preparing for climate change. https://news.climate.columbia.edu/2019/04/26/new-york-city-preparing-climate-change/.
- What is the basic overall strategy the city has in terms of preparing for climate change?
- What are some specific things it is implementing and planning on implementing in this area?
Article on actions taken by the state to deal with climate change
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/18/nyregion/greenhouse-gases-ny.html
- What actions does the 2019 law require the state to do and by when?
Editorial on Crime in NYC
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/24/opinion/new-york-rising-crime.html. This is an editorial with a particular point of view but I think it lays out different ideas in a fair way.
- Is crime in NYC really that high compared to other U.S. cities according to the editorial?
- What are the main proposals that Mayor Eric Adams is making?
- What concerns and disagreements does the Times have with Adams’ proposals?
- What does the Times’ think are some of the broader solutions that need to be pursued?
Public Education
https://gothamist.com/news/new-yorks-schools-are-still-the-most-segregated-in-the-nation-report
- What does the report say in terms of how the public schools are serving all children?
- What does the report recommend to help make things better?
https://ny.chalkbeat.org/2022/9/8/23341882/nyc-schools-back-to-school-first-day-education-issues.
- What does this short article say are some key challenges facing the schools?
Articles on How to Make NYC a more livable City and build more mass transit
Article on how to take back the city back from cars. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/09/opinion/sunday/ban-cars-manhattan-cities.html#:~:text=The%20space%20cars%20take,space%20back%20to%20New%20Yorkers%3F.
- What’s the author’s overall argument? What are some stats in the article on how much space cars and parking for cars take up?
Article on the City’s Open Streets program. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/11/nyregion/open-streets-nyc.html.
- What is the Open Streets program? When was it started? Why do some people like it and others have problems with it?
Article on congestion pricing https://www.nrdc.org/stories/what-is-congestion-pricing#:~:text=Benefits%20of%20congestion%20pricing,Saving%20time%20means%20saving%20money.
- What is congestion pricing and what are the reasons the article says it would benefit the city’s working class and poor?
Article on plan to build public transit line connect Brooklyn and Queens
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/20/nyregion/hochul-interborough-express-brooklyn-queens-transit.html
- What areas would the new line connect?
- What is the argument for building it?