Artists Fear Privitization Of City Parks

On March 24, 2010 The New York City Parks Department released a notice in The City Record announcing new regulations for artists and vendors who set up in public parks. The plan’s regulations, which will more than halve the number of artists and vendors that normally set up in the city’s parks, have many artists claiming the plan is a violation of their First Amendment Rights and an attempt by the city to privatize parks.

Parks says the new regulations will relieve some of the congestion created by vendor tables, making it easier and safer for the public to utilize park space.

"There are places where there are so many vendors that you can't get down the sidewalk," Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said on his weekly WOR-AM radio show. Bloomberg added that he felt courts would be sympathetic towards the plan in parks where narrow pathways are an issue.

A lot of people feel that safety isn’t the motivating factor behind Parks proposed regulations.

"The Parks Department has been trying since 1994 to eliminate street artists,” said Robert Liderman president of the organization A.R.T.I.S.T (Artists' Response To Illegal State Tactics) . “I've been meeting and negotiating with the Parks Commissioners since 1994 on these issues,” Linderman said.

Robert Linderman and the members of A.R.T.I.S.T. have won more than once against the city in First Amendment Federal lawsuits. Linderman feels the new regulations are all about concessions, corporate promotions and privatization—he openly expressed this in the testimony he submitted to The Parks Department on April 23^rd’s Public Hearing.

The Parks Department earns $90 million a year from private concessions, revenue goes into the city’s general fund and is then redistributed after viewing the city’s budget. Private restaurants, The Green Market and The Holiday Bizarres all operate within the city’s parks at a fee. The city, however, makes no money off vendors.

On April 7, 2010 The New York Post reported that the Parks Department struck a deal with the Queens-based company Culinary Engineers, Inc. granting them a permit to operate a cupcake cart in front of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The deal will earn the Parks Department $108,000 for the company’s first year of operation.

“Almost a 100% of the people who opposed the artists on April 23^rd were members of Parks or business advocacy groups,” Geoffrey Croft of New York City Park Advocates said. New York City Park Advocates is a non-profit, non-partisan watchdog group dedicated to preserving the safety in parks and restoring public funding. “The public seems overwhelmingly against the move,” Croft said.

April 23^rd’s five hour public hearing held in a Chelsea gym brought hundreds of artists and public supporters who adamantly disapproved of the proposed regulations. Among the crowd of artists were several community board and neighborhood groups who felt the regulations would bring order to the city’s parks.

“Parks has been after the artists for awhile,” croft said referring to Robert Linderman’s numerous cases against the city. “ They’d make more money if they had their own vendors and concessions,” he said.

Under the Parks proposed plan the 300 artists that set-up in Union Square, The High Line, Central Park, Battery Park, around the Metropolitan Museum of Art and at Columbus circle will be reduced to 81 collectively, that’s a 75% decrease in vendor space. The way it has been proposed the plan will allow vendors to set-up daily on a first-come-first-serve basis.

"The city needs to find a better way to balance these interests," City Councilwoman Melissa Mark-Viverito (D-Manhattan), who is chairwoman of the committee that oversees the parks told The New York Times on April 23^rd.

The drastic 75% decrease in available vendor space has artists has many wondering how the city plans to enforce its regulations and define "artist."

“There’s a lot of crap that is sold—DVDs’, stock prints,” said Esteban Kremen, 37, a painter and self acclaimed “street artist” who has been selling his wares in Union Square for two years. “The city needs to draw the line, only those who are selling their own original pieces should be eligible for a spot,” Kremen said.

Based on lawsuits that Lenderman and ARTIST won in 1994, under the city’s laws paintings, photos and sculptures, defined as “expressive matter,” and protected by The First Amendment, can all be sold in parks without a vendor’s license. DVDs, CDs, VHS tapes, cassette tapes and books can also be sold without a vendor’s license.

As of the public hearing on Friday, April 23^rd, New York City Parks Department has made no public comment on the approval or dismissal of the proposed regulations.

“Parks will now review the testimony from the public hearings and make any adjustments its feels necessary to the original proposal,” Vickie Karp in the press department of Parks said on May 3rd. “The rules are about balanced and fair use of the park, not content. “

Eatin' Good in the Neighborhood

With the horror of films like “Fast Food Nation” and “Super Size Me,” in recent years more attention has gone into encouraging Americans to eat healthier. The rise of books like Michael Allen's In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto and the increase of farmers markets and stores like Whole Foods has brought a lot of awareness to what we eat--but even in the national push to be healthier many communities have been ignored. Low income and minority neighborhoods nation wide suffer higher obesity rates and more deaths from diabetes and heart disease than their wealthier and often whiter counter parts.

A 2006 study done by the New York City Department of Mental Health and Hygiene focusing on Bushwick and Bedford-Stuyvesant (two low-income, high minority populations) found that 8 out of 10 stores in both areas are bodegas. The problem with that is though bodegas have convenient locations and hours, they lack the majority of them lack the fresh food options that super-markets do and they often sell fresh food (if they have it) at higher prices. Milk at bodegas in Bed-stuy will cost you 79 cents more than milk at a supermarket ,in Bushwick it will cost you 19 cents more. Only 6% of bodegas in both neighborhoods carry leafy greens and 28% carry apples, oranges and bananas. Additionally,13% of the areas 168 restaurants are national fast-food chains. (Click here for the full release on the 2006 study).

Cities are starting to take notice of the great divide between privileged and under-privileged populations in the availability of healthy foods. As a result new initiatives are being added to the budget to allow for fresh produce in neighborhoods that might not had the option before. In Baltimore a program in which customers order their food online, pay with cash, a card or food stamps and pick their purchases up at the public library has been added by the city. The Virtual Supermarket was launched last month by Baltimore's health department. Currently the program is offered at two library branches on opposite ends of the city, one is in a working class, predominantly African American community and the other is in a racially diversified and economically mixed community.

"These areas lack large, competitively priced supermarkets within walking distance -- sometimes called 'food deserts,'" NPR journalist Donna Marie Owens said in her article Check It Out: Get Your Groceries At The Library about the initiative. "Both communities have plenty of fast-food and corner stores, but many tend to offer less healthy fare," Owens explained.

After only a month, it is still too soon to tell rather The Virtual Supermarket is a success or not. Baltimore's mayor, Stephanie Rawlings-Blake feels the new program is an innovative solution that will provide better food options for the community until more supermarkets develop in the area. "I'm so proud that we have the use of technology to fill in that gap till development catches up," mayor Stephanie told Donna Marie Owens for the NPR story.

New York is dealing with this issue as well. In 2008 the city approved 1,000 Green Carts (fruit and vegetable stands, click here for more) the stands will be placed in areas around New York that have minimal fresh produce options. According to the New York Times article Customer's Prove There's A Market for Fresh Produce,written by Glenn Collins, June 10, 2009, as of June 2009, 200 of the 1,000 approved Green Carts had made it to street destinations. Under the 2008 initiative the 1000 approve Green Carts will break down like this: 50 permits for Brooklyn, 350 for the Bronx, 150 for Manhattan, 100 for Queens, and 50 for Staten Island.

When it comes to food, in a country like the United States, access shouldn't be an issue. It's good to see more initiative in providing healthy food options to communities who need and deserve them.

The Science of Spirituality

It’s not uncommon for you to meet someone who has had a near death experience or encountered something of the supernatural sort. Many people talk about seeing “the white light at the end of tunnel,” claim to have met their guardian angels or credit their spiritual meditation for their union with life or a higher power. With the exception of the creation story, science has really steered clear from dissecting the mind of a spiritual until now that is. NPR did a feature on the recent scientific findings done on the brain's response to spirituality (click here for the full NPR interactive story). "Is this your brain on God?" The collaboration (Maria Godoy, Brian Cordyack, Erin Killian and Barbara Bradley Hagerty of NPR) produced on May 22, 2010 explores the way the brains of those who claim spirituality (rather through meditation prayer or a supernatural encounter) respond when they feel closest to God.

The first section of the five part series titled "The God Chemical" explores the connection between substance and spirituality. A topic that has been on the minds of scientists since the 60's when acid trips and mushroom highs and a whole lot of exploring was done amongst the nation's people (think the hippie days). In 1962 Marsh Chapel, a professor at Boston University, did an experiment on 10 divinity students by administering LSD and observing its affects: he wanted to see if the drug would trigger any scared experience. The use of Psychedelic drugs as means to study the connection between substance and the divine was common in scientific research up until the 70's. As the article points out, the use of substance to connect with the scared is not new; the Navajos used Peyote to transcend into a scared state where they could do healings, the Egyptians and the Mayans had Water Lilies to aid in their rituals (click here for more on about the Water Lilies) and our modern day society has done its fair share of experimenting. In 1803 morphine was created. Nicknamed “God’s own medicine” by physicians because of its ability to ease and treat pain the drug’s overuse resulted in prescribed heroin as means to treat addiction amongst patients (click here for A Social History of America’s Most Popular Drugs).

Neuroscientist Solomon Snyder said in an interview with Barbra Bradley Hagerty for the NPR story "If we assume that the psychedelic, drug-induced state is very much like the mystical state, then if we find out the molecular mechanism of the action of the drug, then you could say that we have some insight into what's going on in the brains of mystics."

Snyder is cochairman at the Neuroscience Department at John Hopkins Medical Center in Baltimore. He has observed the research of neuroscientist Roland Griffiths (also at John Hopkins Medical Center) and along with other scientists believes that the major brain chemical that comes into play when an individual is experiencing a mystical experience is serotonin. Serotonin is the chemical messenger in the brain responsible for the regulation of moods and sleep.

Neuroscientist Solomon Snyder explains that drugs like Peyote, LSD and most psychedelics look a lot like serotonin in the brain and activate the same receptor. NPR correspondent and author of the book Fingerprints of God: The Search for the Science of Spirituality, Barbara Bradley Hagerty breaks the process down a bit.

“Think of that serotonin receptor as a bouncer at a nightclub. The party's a bit tame, and when the bouncer spots the fun chemical — the active ingredient in psilocybin — he lets Mr. Fun into the club. Suddenly, the party picks up and the brain chemicals are burning up the floor. Let the spiritual experience begin,” Hagerty explains.

Research done by neuroscientists such as Roland Griffiths and Solomon Snyder are helping fellow scientists explore how spirituality affects the brain. Many like Griffiths wonder if the brain is inherently set up for spirituality. “Why has the human organism been engineered, if you will, for this experience?" Griffiths asks his essential question and the question science is just beginning to consider.

Five things you should do instead of Facebook

Look, I like Facebook as much as the next person, but I can think of a ton of things that are five times more inspiring than looking at someone else’s pictures of how much they enjoyed themselves in Cancun and how much they want to go back. Yeah, now that you think about it, its not that exciting in the first place.

GET INFORMED:

Get a new perspective on the news. www.collateral.blip.tv is a site that covers news stories that don’t normally get big media coverage. The site has a wide range of perspectives on stories you might have heard but ups the bar with humor and animation. indymedia.org.uk is another site that focuses on those stories less covered. This site boasts a variety of “off the beaten path” news, a radio station and allows readers the opportunity to self publish.

WATCH SOMETHING ELSE: www.newday.com is a film cooperative with a focus on Social issues. The films are by independent filmmakers from around the world, and cover different issues. It even has titles Netflix can’t get its hands on.

GET INSPIRED: www.stumbleupon.com is well known, but It’s still a valid place to find some off the wall inspiration. www.43things.com is a good place to start personal aspiration lists and get support in doing them, and www.Flickr.com is an amazing place to glace at photography and find new perspective.

GO OUTSIDE: Remember being little? Even if you lived in the city you probably stuck your hands in the dirt and your feet in the mud at least once. Take a walk get some exercise, walk your dog, watch someone else watch their dog. Do some people watching… people are interesting and never fail to be entertaining-- approach a few. The world outside is far more responsive than the one at your fingertips.

GET SOME SLEEP: You always glance at your bedroom before you get on your computer anyway. Now here is your excuse, somebody, anybody is telling you do to it so go right ahead. Hell, its even good for you. Doctors say that as we get older our bodies require less and less sleep; however, it seems the other way around! Plus, maybe if you weren’t on facebook all the time you'd be able to keep your head up when you're trying to get your work done.

How and Why You Should Make a Practice of Doing Nothing

Doing nothing is a privilege these days and it’s almost impossible to do. With the ever-increasing advancement of ways to distract yourself (think stumbleupon.com, twitter, the iphone and Farmville on Facebook), it really can be impossible to step away from it all.

It may sound arbitrary and perhaps a bit pointless to you to make a practice of doing nothing on a regular basis…in fact you might be sitting there saying, “How am I supposed to get things done if I am doing nothing.” Valid question, but it has its benefits I assure you. A little “nothing time” is important because it helps us recharge, be present and check in with what’s really going on in our lives. Instead of signing onto facebook, flipping through a gossip mag or sitting in front of the tube watching the Kardashians-- turn your phone off, flip of that nonsense TV show, shut the computer down and step outside. You can walk to that place you always wanted to have coffee at, or that place with the menu that caught your eye or just keep walking until you find something that really interests you. Or use your nothing time to start a project (one of personal interest); do that one thing you’ve always wanted to do: paint, write, pick up your guitar again or pull out your favorite CDs.

It may seem a little self indulgent at first, but get used to using your “nothing time” to catch with your self, your passions and get away from your typical schedule. Do something spontaneous –make your “50 Things to do before I die” list and use this time to get a start on a few of them (click here for a personal list to get inspiration for your own, also here's site that might be helpful in really completing some of those goals). Practice doing nothing as means to improve what is required of you, as an excuse for a little “me time” and as a tool to improve your quality of life and be present (click here for a little artice on being present, because it has a lot with the practice fo doing nothing).

You might feel you already know how to do nothing so you may think a how-to-do-nothing guide is just complete BS, but this wiki how provides some perspective an few tips.

In today’s fast pace culture (especially in the big city) sprinting through life is simply the most common way of getting things done; but there's nothing scarier than the idea of running through life only to get to the finish line and realize that you’ve passed up the things that mean the most to you. So slow down, schedule some time in, put your feet up or down in the sand and breathe. Reflect, think, feel and recognize the present. Practice doing a little of nothing so you can reflect on those things that are really important to you…there really is enough time in the day.

Love thy Self

If you’ve watched TV lately you may have seen the Victoria Secret’s commercial in which a few of the world’s most toned bodies dance around in their bras and panties and individually proceed to tell you “ l love my body.” If you’re anything like me you’re immediate reaction is something along the lines of “And why wouldn’t you, you’re perfect. 5”10. Perfect abs, great skin. 34”- 25”- 36”. Stupid commercial.” But why wouldn’t the model look perfect on TV, isn’t her whole job based around looking that way? Even so, perfection always looks that way from afar. We all see flaws in ourselves the rest of the world may not even consider, and you never realize that “Perfect” has problems too.

Maybe the fatal flaw of humanity is that it can never find contentment in its own perfection. Humanity is too concerned with being bigger, better, more stylish, fabulous and always finding the next best thing. Terrible predicament really, the human race is quite a spectacular breed; we have fingers complete with thumbs, the ability to reason, and of course, YouTube.

On an individual level learning to love yourself and see your own perfection seems like one of life’s biggest lessons. There are so many ways in which we find reasons to put ourselves down: “I don’t make enough money. My job sucks, and I’m not doing shit. I need to lose weight. Everything would be better if I had a nicer car, bigger home and a better education. I can’t do it because...” And the list goes on.
Rarely does the average person tell him or herself: “Wow, you did amazing, you’re really making progress. You worked hard. You deserve a rest. It’s tough now but you’re really getting somewhere.”

Louise L. Hay, metaphysical lecturer, teacher and author of the book The Power is Within You says that loving yourself cures all problems. A cancer survivor herself, Hay links self-love to power, and believes strongly that the power of love can cure even the most deadly of diseases. I think that this idea can sound a little wacky at times, perhaps more so because in Western society modern medicine treats only the body and ignores a mind body relationship. If you ever pay close attention to your body when you’re angry you will notice that certain parts of your body tense up, I notice that my shoulders hike up and my stomach gets tight. It’s true: emotion does manifest itself on a physical level. A loving relationship with yourself means a healthy relationship with your thoughts and emotions—you are not a victim to negative thoughts or a slave to the intensity of your emotions—which means you can healthily let each negative thought pass and release each feeling. Your body is free from the deeply rooted thoughts that manifest feeling such as resentment, rage and even loneliness.

Hay says that “self-love is the most important gift we can give ourselves, because when we love who we are we will not hurt ourselves,” I know this sounds kind of obvious but the thing that surprises me about really obvious things is that people still don’t do them. The part of loving my self to the fullest I struggle with is all the negative bs I tell myself. Like most people, I am my toughest critic, and on days when I feel like I didn’t do my best I really have a way of beating myself up. I let negative thoughts take over like lakes that flow into oceans, and sometimes I get so muddled under the mess of negativity that I forget I control my thoughts they don’t control me.

“In order to consciously create our lives we must first become aware of our unconscious thought patterns. Our minds chatter incessantly, all day long judging ourselves and everything we come into contact with,” author and artist Lalania Simone says. The thing about negative thoughts, and the majority of thoughts you may have on day-to-day basis is they’re not new. A meditation practice will show you that you think in patterns, often bringing up the same garbage, you turn worries around in your mind like it’s a power source but the energy you use to do so leaves you feeling depleted. SARK, author of the book Make Your Creative Dreams Real: A Plan for Procrastinators, Busy People, and People Who Would Really Rather Sleep All Day says instead of just letting negative thoughts run wild you can “learn to dialogue with them, give them new jobs, turn them into allies or you can dismantle or exterminate them.”

There truly is a lot of power that comes with self-love. When you love yourself fully you’re a step ahead of the game, you can stop finding reasons to make yourself miserable and start actively pursuing your interests, you dreams and your bliss.

Here is a starter list to developing a loving relationship with yourself, feel free to add more and change what doesn’t apply to you:

1. Power is always in the present moment. If you’re not willing to love and respect yourself now, you may never be ready to.

2. You must first belief it is possible to be the person you picture and love everything you are even in progress.

3. You must be prepared to release old thought patterns and face your own negativity.

4. Be persistent, negative thoughts are persistent. But for all the negative thoughts you have accepted you have dismissed a positive one…it is possible.

Like Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “make the most of yourself, because that is all there is of you.”

East West Café Makes Move to Accommodate Recession .3

New York City, Union Square; East West Living, one of Manhattan’s few holistic health supply and spiritual bookstores has made a move to downsize the expense of its café to increase revenue storewide and battle the effects of the economy.

“We are moving away from preparing our own food to reduce overhead costs” said Ronn Goodmen, East west’s IT Manger. Goodmen has been an employee for six months and oversees store operations. “It works out more cost effective to have the food prepared by an outside location than in the store,” Goodmen said. The transition from preparation-based-food made on the premises to snack food imported from other business has resulted in the lay-off of the chef and cut hours for the café’s four employees. The flow of customers was inconsistent, which meant that fully prepared food would often go to waste and extra employees would work shifts with little to no customer interaction, Goodmen explained.

East West Living has called Fifth Avenue home for over 25 years. The store closed its doors five years ago to remodel and obtain the proper documentation needed to run a kitchen. East West has always specialized in carrying spiritual, metaphysical and holistic health books and supplies, as well as been a place to sponsor events for the area’s yogic and spiritual community. The café portion of the business has been up and running for three years.

“In running any business the major challenges are with making sure your staff, clients and customers are happy. During this time in the economy its the struggle of balancing the two,” Khadijah Farmer, the Café Operations Manager said. Farmer, 30, a New York native has worked at East West Living as the Café Manager for the past three years. The main concern with the café in relation to the store as a whole was that the café wasn’t bringing in much of a profit. $1000 was being spent weekly to supply the café with the necessities to prepare a full selection of vegan and vegetarian meal options.

The New York Department of Labor on March 10, 2010 issued a press release that shows the unemployment rate in New York state is at it’s highest since 1992, having reached it’s peak (8.4%) in 2009. In Manhattan the unemployment rate (10.2%) is slightly higher than the state average (8.8%), but as a whole New York State is still below that national average (9.7%). New York Department of Labor Liberal Market Analyst, Jim Brown, explains that Manhattan is the place of Business Services mainly accountants, lawyers and consulting firms; the industry of Business Services has been hit hardest by the economy, which is why Manhattan has the highest unemployment rate in New York.

“Customers have been walking in for hot food and then walking away,” café employee Tyler St. Clair said. St. Clair, 19, has worked at the café since July. Since the new transition St. Clair’s hours have been cut and his tips have diminished. He says he thought about getting another job because the café is no longer financially supportive, but if he were to leave now the café would suffer immensely. “We don’t have the man power to train another person at this point, “ St. Clair said. St. Clair says he feels like the transition in the café has been a cause for lost business. “ I think it’s been a loss for the community,“ St. Clair said.

There are 249 bookstores in Manhattan, over 100 Starbucks and 43 Dunkin’ Doughnuts. “Being an independent coffee shop in Manhattan with the slugfest of Starbucks and Dukin’ Doughnuts is tough,” Market Analyst Jim Brown said. According to the Small Business Association small businesses pay 44% of the United States private payroll and have provided 64% of new jobs over the past 15 years.

East West brings in the majority (80%) of profit through the store portion of the business, with the café bringing in the remaining 20% of profits, Goodmen said. “One of the main reasons for the change is to focus more on a business-meeting cafe with evening events and not so much a food service cafe. We are always looking at the overall health of the whole business and making changes as we discover things that need improvement, “ Goodmen said.

“Restaurants are a tricky business because of service demands and restrictions and the trend for bookstores is tough with inventions like Kindle and books on the Internet,” Brown said. Despite the difficulty of the Business Services industry and the Retail industry the Restaurant industry is on a steady rise. “Manhattan is a big place for profit and business in general, there’s a lot of wealth there,” Brown said, explaining that a small business like East West has potential for a large amount of customers in Manhattan but the café/bookstore trend is a tough one in today’s market place.

The transition from full service café to snacks and beverages began only three week ago. No additions to events have been made to the events calendar, and while it may be too soon to tell what effect the move has had on profit and revenue in recent weeks there have been notably less customers in the café around lunch time.