Author Archives: Katti Gray
In Chinatown, displacement continues
By Kevin Chen Behind the frosted display, 10 flavors of rolled ice cream and 15 toppings — mango yellow, strawberry red, blueberry purple — line the counters of Minus Celsius. Qiming Li settled into his store on the corner of Grand Street and Allen in 2016, when the average monthly rent in Chinatown was $1,028. […]
Food and fellowship at a senior center
By Eliana Mercedes The green sign at the entrance lists what Greenwich House Center offers: Lunch, arts, music, culture, crafts, games, health, well-being, friends and fun. June Grancio, 85, participates in several of those activities. Especially, she loves the friendships and the Tuesday shopping trips to the supermarket. Sometimes, she dines there at the center. […]
Pro dancing is more than just making a living
By: Mariana Zepeda The stiff competition. Being rejected during auditions. Not knowing your next income source. Those are some of the reasons why many aspiring dance professionals get asked, “What’s your backup plan?” Yet, for many of them, dance is more than just a way to make a living. “I would do it for free […]
Teaching martial arts, creating community
By Arianna George Clouds of dust rise into the air from a sandpit across from the Washington Square Fountain. Exchanging blows and throwing kicks as they spar, members of the NYC Fight Club stir up that haze. What began three years ago as a search for a place where Martin Cheung, 35, the fight club’s […]
An exhibit on flag-burning artists of 1970
By Nayla Nernekian The first items viewable to those entering 80WSE Gallery on Sept. 9 will be a wall-sized U.S. flag, photos of Christian crosses and a plywood table from the church that hosted “The People’s Flag Show,” an open-call art show protesting war, racism, patriarchy and government surveillance in 1970. If those visitors follow […]
A short, growing list of women firefighters
By Sharika Dhar Maya Torres, 31, was motivated to become a firefighter after a family member took her around the job. After serving eight years, being there for fire victims is what makes her most proud. “I always knew I wanted a career where every day mattered,” said Torres, one of the Fire Department of […]
Fighting City Hall and a roaring A/C generator
By Ariella Allariez The decibel meter Claus Habermeier ordered online was delivered on July 16, 35 days after a generator the length of a short school bus started roaring outside the New York Police Department’s 9th Precinct on his block of East Fifth Street. He plans to measure, from different angles of his neighborhood, how […]
Stopping for a celestial, New York moment
By Sophie Yang Briefly, Manhattan forgot to be in a hurry. For three fleeting minutes — along some of the city’s busiest east-to-west cross streets — strangers stood still, shoulder to shoulder, their gaze fixed on a sliver of sunset. “It’s so aesthetically beautiful,” said Noelia Grardy, a Brooklyn College student. “Compositionally, it’s really beautiful […]
How The Bowery helped birth New York City
By Olivia Rimpel Before it became the oldest roadway in New York City, the 1.25-mile-long Bowery Street was a trail for Lenape traders and travelers. The most storied buildings would later include havens for Black people who’d escaped slavery or gave birth to vaudeville and places that became the earliest cultural hubs for LGBTQ New […]
‘Bee boxes’ revive a buzzing population
By Keerthisri Senthilkumar Outside a Brooklyn apartment building, manmade bee hives shoot up from flower pots. In Manhattan’s Cooper Square, they dwell in flower beds. Bees buzz and fly in, out and around. Through those and other in The Horticultural Society of New York’s network of Borough Bee Boxes, bees can find repose. Over a […]
Rage and resolve over co-op’s Israel boycott
By Charlie Akira Mochizuki Removing peanut puffs, matzah, shampoo, conditioner and other goods made in Israel did more than change product placement on the shelves of the Park Slope Food Coop. Their absence has sparked ongoing conversations. “Money is power,” Grace Roebuck, 27, said in early July, weeks after she was one of 4,551 […]
Outdoor produce market feeds local community
By Alexia Mena As soon as she stepped through the community garden’s front gates, Jhovana Samano paused to admire the native wildflowers growing along the path. After the COVID-19 pandemic left her stranded at home and out of work, the garden went from just being a tranquil spot in the neighborhood to being a food […]
Where dogs’ play, size doesn’t always matter
By Chloe Minja Lee Cheng Frankie weighs roughly 15 pounds. One of his best friends at George’s Dog Run is Matilda, a golden retriever several times his size. Monica Matta, 37, jokingly calls 3-year-old Frankie, whom she fostered for a month before adopting him last week, the “irritant” of the dog run. He loves rough […]
Less reading means less literacy
By Evelyn Ramirez As the popularity of physical books and bookstores continues to decline, John Kruth tries to make the shop he helps manage a comfortable place for people who love and buy books. I “can’t imagine going through life without having so many books. Just like albums and records, [they] have made a difference […]
Bowery church aids recent African immigrants
By Finn McKeinle Elise Gardella, a mentor and guide at St. Mark’s Church in-the-Bowery’s Welcome Center, pointed around the nave, directing a visitor’s attention to different tables. To her left in that church sanctuary, two civic advocates sat across from two immigrants, discussing ways to secure their special immigrant juvenile status, one pathway to a U.S. State Department […]
Debate over an East Village homeless shelter
By Jaeda-Li Blair Some neighbors of Project Renewal Shelter for homeless people argue that having it on East Third Street has disrupted their community and are actively pushing for its removal, while others see it as an essential resource. The shelter is intended to provide temporary housing and support services for the citizens in need, […]
Citi Bike price hikes deter some, not others
By Sebastian Urrutia For those who don’t pay an annual membership fee, it costs $4.99 to unlock either a non-electric or electric Citi Bike, with the latter immediately charging 41 cents per-minute to ride and the former offering the first 30 minutes for free. So what makes the bike ride — versus hopping the subway […]
How far would you go for fro-yo?
By: Emilee Youn At the start of an hour of shifting her weight from one foot to the other as she waited for a taste of yogurt she’d seen on TikTok, Maria Kadaba, 18, was the 57th customer in the line. “I mainly came to visit the city because I wanted to try out Mimi’s,” […]
Chaplain ministers to fire responders and victims
By Adrie Quinn By Adrie Quinn For the Rev. Pamela Holmes-Saxton, few workdays are the same. A morning may begin, as it did recently, with a plaque dedication honoring a fallen firefighter. From there, she might make hospital visits to injured first responders or stop by firehouses and emergency medical service stations to counsel those […]
Table talk on peace, Palestine, Israel
By Mia Baghout From a distance, an onlooker watched the man approach and study the poster board-sized sign. “I’m Palestinian. Ask me anything,” it read. What the man said in response, said Liliana, was this: Get up. I want to sit in your chairs, change places with you. Liliana and Romeo – who, fearing for […]
Free female products reduce ‘period poverty’
By Ashanty Rosario In New York City, the demand for menstrual products in shelters, schools, and street outreach vans keep rising but the supply doesn’t keep up. With about 350,000 individuals – a third of them being women and girls – unhoused and inflation pushing basic goods out of reach, advocates for these women urge […]
Having a main gig and a side hustle
By Sharnali Zaman Cardboard boxes of Honeycrisp apples, maraschino cherries and roma tomatoes were lined up horizontally on the top shelf of Mike Jones’ metal food vendor cart. It was 93 degrees on that corner of Greenwich and Chambers Streets, where he stood tending to that rolling cart and his customers. His face was wet […]
Fashioned-stamped in New York City style
By Briana Mirville The everyday, seen-on-the-street fashionistas of New York are unapologetically themselves. A woman wearing a flamingo pink tutu sitting over a white formal ball gown on a Tuesday may not be a remarkable occurrence for those used to the city, but for newcomers, it might spark inspiration. Using their curated clothes to express […]
Young voters and a young mayoral candidate
By Jack Tergesen Coming from a background where “money was always an issue,” Saha Guerrero, 21, is especially understanding of how his community is being affected by the current skyrocketing inflation of everyday essentials, including housing and food. This understanding prompted Guerrero, the former president of New York University College Democrats, to join a record […]
Where the sidewalk is an art studio
By Liz Namgung In the winter of 2000, Fejzo stepped onto the jet bridge at John F. Kennedy airport, bags heavy with art supplies from Albania. He began drawing as a child. Now, at 48, living in his adopted city, portrait sketching has become his full-time job. His workspace isn’t the standard walled, windowed studio. […]
Women hiring women in film
By Ellie Kourkoulakos A young man was motioning to passersby to avoid the Washington Square South sidewalk where cameramen were peering through lenses and others on the film crew were assembling equipment they pulled from plastic containers. The directors’ chairs lined up on the sidewalk would eventually seat Lena Dunham and Natalie Portman, actresses who […]
Thrift-buying but at higher costs
By Isabella Hong Two young adults stood by a rack of button-up shirts at Thrift NYC on East 14th Street, sorting through their finds. One was holding three shirts in their hand. But, at $20 each, Andrew Bochnovich, 27, said he might only walk out with one. “If they were, like, $15, I’d feel a […]
Immigrant raids: ‘People don’t want to risk it’
By Denise Velazquez The man and woman were scribbling down orders and handing Mexican take-out to customers at their food truck. When she heard this reporter say “immigration,” her demeanor changed. Her smile disappeared. She scanned her surroundings. “I don’t want to talk about it,” she said. Across New York City, it’s not uncommon for […]
Loving and reading books, as literacy declines
By Marvely Gonzalez Sitting on a bench in Washington Square Park, with his partner beside him, Thomas Hummel was reading “The Communist Manifesto.” That book by Frederick Engles, Hummel said, gives the reader “a world of knowledge beyond your immediate experience.” It lets Hummel, who works in IT at the Queens Public Library. “ learn […]
Blacks own a fraction of beauty supply stores
By Keva Ellie From behind the counter, a smiling Bashir Amadou waved goodbye to one customer while conversing with three customers at Sahel Beauty Supply, the hair extension, wig and cosmetics shop he owns and has run for 23 years in Brooklyn. His customers feel like family, he said. Mainly, they are Black people, patrons […]