Community
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. […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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, […]
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 […]
For the love of chess and, sometimes, money
By Sarah Levine The younger man bounded down the four steps to the basement of a Tenth Street brownstone, punching a secret password into the keypad. Its green checkmark flashed. The older man opened the door and waved him inside. Four hundred dollars was that Tuesday night’s prize at the Marshall Masters Chess Club. Somewhere […]
From Ecuador to the US, selling her wares
By Jasmyn Centeno Mercedes Masaquiza places her handmade, crocheted keychains, beaded bracelets, and blouses across the fold-up table she placed on a spot at the Columbus Circle entrance to Central Park. She sits down, then, on second thought, she gets up to adjust the hats on the rack and re-position her palm-sized crocheted flowers in […]
Learning English to make an American life
By Sophia Lian At the U-shaped table, six adult students looked intently at their classwork with their pencils in their hands, ready to learn a life-changing skill. Those students come to that Lower East Side location from Sudan, Guinea, and Haiti. And they do so for one reason: to study a new language. “If you […]
LES arts, activism center to reopen
By Mariyatou Jabbi When Victoria Law walked through the doors of that Lower East Side organization all those years ago, she planned to help the nonprofit hand out meals at Thompson Square Park. She went there as she was wondering who she would be as a grown-up. “‘I don’t have to be a doctor or […]
One church’s 132 years of justice, arts activism
By Jordan Gay Pointing to a decades-old fountain on the corner of Washington Square South and Thompson Street, Keen Berger, 80, gives some background on Judson Memorial Church, the congregation she joined 42 years ago. “That little corner thing that has the spigot, it used to have water,” said Berger, who chairs Judson’s board of […]
Skateboarders demanded a space of their own
By Tarak Jayachandran It’s 5 p.m on a Friday in July in the East Village. The sky is overcast. The National Weather Service has registered the day’s high at 96 degrees, 10 degrees above the norm for this time of year in New York City. The skaters pile in, mainly guys, but also one girl. […]
“Flushing Community Fridge” Bonds Neighbors, While Filling Hungry Bellies
By Nicole Wong Thrilled to provide fresh produce, hygiene products, and other necessities to community members free of charge, rising high school seniors Kaitlyn Noemi and Isabel Noemi are celebrating the launch of the Flushing Community Fridge. Mutual aid finds strength in communities by ensuring that those most affected by issues like poverty are also […]
Churches Create Safe Ways to Worship, Serve Communities During Covid-19
By Baijun “Jack” Jiang Spectrum staff Unable to gather for worship in the sanctuary, youth leaders of Bethany Church sang and prayed from the rooftop of the Wyckoff, N.J., building where, before a pandemic, they usually gathered indoors. The people for they whom sang and prayed either sat inside or stood beside vehicles in the […]
Supporting Community via Social Media
By Shruti Vadada Spectrum staff Using proceeds from a GoFundMe campaign that attracted, among other donors, Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, one youth group donated 200 masks and 400 medical gowns to a nursing home. Another youth organization has partnered with several public libraries on Long Island to teach seniors, via Zoom, how to stream […]
Youth Show “God’s Love” For Puerto Rico
By Lelah Tekhna Staff writer Before leaving Manhattan to help rebuild some of what Hurricane Maria tore down in Puerto Rico, 11 youth from Middle Collegiate Church researched what they might expect to see. Even so, Christian Unthank, 13, said nothing prepared those kids from that East Village congregation for what they saw. “This was […]
“Colorblind” Church Wants Diversity
By Samuel Hyland Staff writer Since the Bible Crusade Assembly of God opened its East Village branch in the 1970s, the core of its mission has been to make sure its membership is racially diverse. It’s still working to reach that goal. “We don’t want this to be a black temple or a white temple,” […]
Tackling Anti-Muslim, Anti-Immigrant Bias
By Vanessa Handy Spectrum staff The sound of feet shuffling toward seats subsides. The lights dim. The chit-chat of a waiting audience goes silent. The piercing screech of the sole microphone on stage fills the room. The first performer, a woman wearing a hijab, steps to the mic, sighs and opens her mouth. I am […]
Selling Chess Sets, Creating a Community
By Ryan Kim Spectrum staff Chess pieces clack against tabletop chess boards with peeling paint and scratched wood. The sound of orchestral strings streams in. Seated on opposing sides of the boards, the chess players murmur. They ponder their next move. Standing behind what doubles as a display case and sales counter at Chess Forum, […]
Activists: “Families Belong Together”
By Isabella Calix Spectrum staff Lee el version del Espanol aqui The woman’s story silenced the room. She is a wife, a mother of two and a registered nurse studying for her masters degree. She has built a life in the United States. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents already took her passport. They have […]
Cemetery for Powerful, Prominent Hosts Open House
By Trin Caviness Spectrum staff About 46,000 people die every year in New York City. But at the historic New York City Marble Cemetery, an exclusive burial site for the famous or the rich or the cemetery’s founders, just one or two bodies go into the ground annually. Unless your departed loved ones meet those requirements, […]
LES Club Grooms Girls for Better Future
By Mia Wright Spectrum staff Minutes before boarding a bus bound upstate for Camp Fowler, 50 members of the Lower East Side Girls Club were grabbing their bags and saying their good-byes. They were chatty, darting about and downright giddy. “Traveling with my friends helped me grow without my mother there,” said camper Denise Bates,13, […]
Finding Homes for Abused, Abandoned Animals
By Nina Curran Spectrum staff Approximately 1.5 million animals in kill shelters are euthanized every year, according to the American Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. Social Tees Animal Rescue, a no-kill shelter in the East Village, is working to change that. Enter the shelter’s 325 E. Fifth St. home and, to the left […]
Arts-based Activism at Loisaida Aims to Stop “Harmful” Changes to the Lower East Side
By Lisseth Aguilar Spectrum staff Walking down a stretch of Third Avenue on the Lower East Side, the street scenes transform from those of people wining-and-dining at outdoor cafes to community gardens smack in the middle of blocks of sometimes rundown apartment buildings and homeless people camped out on the sidewalk. Persons with less money […]
Comfort Food: “God’s Love” Gives Meals to Thousands of Sick People
By Jisu Choi Spectrum staff God’s Love We Deliver, a non-profit organization that cooks and delivers meals to the sick, started in 1985, when Ganga Stone brought food to an AIDS patient. That one act of kindness turned into many more just like it. Volunteer Chuck Piekarski‘s last name means “baker” in Polish. He’s been […]
Dog Pee Kills Trees (Really)
By Karoline Xiong Spectrum staff So, you think dog urine is top-grade tree fertilizer? Huh? Think again. Dog pee’s a killer. Dog urine taints soil and, thereby, the stuff that grows from the soil in a couple a ways, said Sam Bishop, 37, education director and arborist for Trees New York. “It’s either nitrates in […]