Rubbing Salt in the Wound: NYC Assemblyman Proposes Ban on Salt in Restaurants

With rising public interest and awareness in the relationship between food and health, city officials across the country have jumped aboard the grassroots bandwagons with enthusiasm, proposing and then passing laws to eliminate trans-fats from restaurant foods, require restaurants to prominently display calorie and other nutritional information on their menus, grade food establishments on a letter-grade scale, and tax soda/soft drinks sold in stores. The debate that has resulted has been heated, but mostly civil and sparking genuine opinions about the pros and cons of such government involvement in public dietary guidelines and eating choices. Even if one disagrees with the proposed legislation, and whether the laws work or not, at least leaders are making points based on informed research, right?

Apparently not always.

According to recent news reports, NYC Assemblyman Felix Ortiz has proposed a bill to ELIMINATE ALL SALT in all restaurant kitchens. That's right, ALL SALT. The idea apparently being that salt (1) is bad for you, (2) is not essential to the cooking process, (3) is simply a condiment that can be added at the end, (4) is not naturally occurring in food ingredients. Choice is good, but like salt, it is best used in moderation.

That's not a proposal based on sound health or scientific reasoning. That's insanity. You need salt to preserve foods and ward off bacteria. Salt helps give bread flavor and texture. Salt is a natural part of many foods, just as sugar is naturally essential to fruits and many vegetables, too. The notion that salt is somehow unhealthy even in trace amounts is absurd, so much so that I cannot take Assemblyman Ortiz's proposal seriously in any way. This is a good thing because if I even thought his proposed bill had a chance in heck to pass, I'd be feeling panic and outrage instead of stunned sadness as I sit here shaking my head at his folly.

This is a particular shame because it is coming from Assemblyman Felix Ortiz of southwest Brooklyn, of NYC's 51st District which includes Red Hook, Boerum Hill, Sunset Park, Borough Park, South Park Slope and Windsor Terrace. A local political and community leader who, until now, has had a pretty good record on pushing relatively popular health and community-centered issues such as farm-to-school advocacy, funding for eating disorder clinics and domestic violence. This issue, however, is likely going to weaken any prospect he had for higher office.

Fortunately, salt will in all likelihood not get wiped off our plates. Unfortunately, until the bill is officially rejected, talk on blogs, news shows and in pundit-land will continue.

photo credit: Earl53 at Morguefile.com - http://mrg.bz/kNUZB6

Canarsie, Brooklyn: Terminal Eyes New Beginning

Check out Terminal Eyes New Beginning, a multimedia package on the Brooklyn Terminal Market that Jessica Simeone, Robert Voris and I created for the NYCity News Service.

Subway MTA Workers Protest Planned Layoffs and Silent Union

Reported by Amber Benham, Heather Chin and Jacqueline Linge
NY City News Service
for NYC On Deadline

Update (May 11, 2009): Following approval from the New York State Legislature for a $2.26 billion bailout of the Metropolitan Transit Authority, the agency’s board voted today to raise subway fares and road tolls by 10 percent instead of the proposed 23 to 30 percent. The commuter and subways/bus hikes will take effect on June 17 and June 28, respectively. The compromise also reduces service and staff cuts to only those coming from retirement and workers quitting.

Hundreds of transit workers - train conductors, bus drivers, track inspectors and station agents - joined New Yorkers outside the Metropolitan Transit Authority’s Midtown headquarters last Thursday to protest everything from transit layoffs and budget cuts to fare and tuition hikes. Their massive presence and loud cries punctuated a campaign that began over six months ago when the MTA announced a budget shortfall of 1.2 billion dollars. Since then, the deficit has ballooned as tax revenues fall.

Proposals for closing the budget gap include a 23 to 30 percent fare hike effective June 1, the reduction of commuter bus, subway and train service, and the elimination of up to 3,000 jobs, 1,100 through immediate layoffs and the rest after workers retire or quit, according to the MTA. Transit Workers Union Local 100 estimates the removal of at least 819 bus operators, over 700 station attendants and 317 managerial administrators.

The proposed hike would mean one-way subway fares of $2.50 from the current $2. A 30-day unlimited Metrocard would cost $103, up from $81.


Read more and view the AUDIO-SLIDESHOW here.

Live-Blog: Dismantling the Cradle to Prison Pipeline

Reported live on Wednesday, February 11, 2009

The Children’s Defense Fund’s New York chapter is holding a one-day summit in Central Brooklyn called “Connecting the Neighborhood Dots: Promoting Solutions to Dismantle the Pipeline to Prison.” Hosted by CUNY’s Medgar Evers College in partnership with the Casey Family Programs, the day has been scheduled full of panel discussions and presentations by leaders in the children’s advocacy and juvenile justice organizations.

I will be chronicling the start of the conference and the back-to-back morning sessions that focus on the disproportionate impact of prison and the criminal justice system on specific communities in New York City, mainly in the Bronx and Central Brooklyn, and how community-based strategies can promote healthy children, families and neighborhoods.

Read and watch the full coverage here.

A Season of Hope: Holidays on Wall St.

By Heather J. Chin

The Christmas melodies of Gavin deGraw and Aretha Franklin were two of the main attractions at the New York Stock Exchange’s annual tree lighting ceremony this year. Beyond the glitz of Rockefeller Plaza, Wall Street’s celebration has the distinction of being organized by New Yorkers for New Yorkers, with plenty of holiday cheer permeating the gloom that become a familiar part of our days.

Hundreds of New Yorkers past and present gathered downtown for an evening of celebration, rumination and time with family before facing a new year and uncertain economic times.

Larry Lampiasi came downtown to watch his granddaughter sing with her schoolmates in Brick, New Jersey’s Monsignor Donovan Choir. As a self-employed salesman, he says he’s felt the economic pinch, but thinks the holiday season will help.

Jack Ruppenthar, also present to support his grandson in the choir, agreed, noting that the current economic recession would hurt those with financial investments and retirement savings and 401Ks. But with the holiday season upon us, he thinks it “will make people think more, being a little more frugal … putting more thought into the quality of gifts over the quantity of gifts.”

The ceremony outside the NYSE building on Broad Street between Wall Street and Exchange Place is quite possibly the most personal, meaningful and even oldest of all the high-profile holiday events in New York City, as it takes place in the heart of old New York and has been a tradition since 1923.

This year, while Mr. DeGraw and Ms. Franklin’s drew audience members who recognize their music and name, the evening’s entertainment and festive atmosphere also catered to the younger generation. Performances from local teen musicians were featured: Long Island rock band Push Play and 14-year-old Tiffany Giardina – her music is included in an upcoming movie, “Another Cinderella Story” – who grew up in New York.

Also on hand was 25-year-old jazz pianist and singer Peter Cincotti, whose blend of traditional jazz and classic styles with rock and pop made his song “December Boys” and his Christmas-themed melodies transfix crowd members of all ages.

Alceste, a New Jersey native and former retirement center COO who moved to Florida several years ago, noted the impact of the current economic crisis on both the younger and older generations.

"Where did the prostitutes go, Mommy?"

By Heather J. Chin

Sunset Park – Prostitutes have long plied their trade along the Gowanus Expressway’s southern end in Brooklyn, coexisting quietly with their working class neighbors and largely ignored by police. But when residents began complaining in late September that men had begun soliciting sex from young girls and teachers at a nearby elementary school, the cops took fast action.

A series of morning crackdowns over three weeks resulted in 39 arrests along 56th and 57th streets between Second and Third Avenues, according to Deputy Inspector Jesus R. Pintos, of the 72nd Precinct. But the prostitution busts were only part of a larger effort that shows how local law enforcement can involve community organizations to find long-term solutions for neighborhood crimes.

The campaign began with getting the offenders off the streets. In what Inspector Pintos described as “precinct-based enforcement,” officers arrested 21 johns – the term used to describe the predominantly male clientele of prostitutes – and eight prostitutes. They also arrested nine others for related crimes of car theft (cars used by those arrested) and drug use or sales. Five vehicles were also confiscated at the scene.

Within days, the only signs that illegal activity had taken place were used condoms and other debris scattered on the sidewalk. The Brooklyn D.A.’s office lent several hands to deal with that. Kings County District Attorney Charles J. Hynes assigned individuals sentenced to community service hours in the neighborhood to assist the precinct in sidewalk clean-up.

To maintain the quality of life in the area and prevent the problem from simply relocating, police increased surveillance. First they installed Sky Watch – a surveillance tower that extends via mini-crane atop an NYPD car, traveling between high crime areas in the city – along the main intersection on Third Avenue and 56th Street during the two weeks following the arrests. Precinct officers were also assigned to conduct regular sweeps of the problem corridor, making arrests when necessary.

For residents and schoolchildren, the effect of the changes was immediate. “Where did the prostitutes go, Mommy?” one grade-schooler asked her mother on the way to school a week following the first arrests. The grateful mother shared the story with Deputy Inspector Pintos at the monthly Community Council meeting. Says Pintos, “We’re making headway, but we’ll continue to monitor the problem.”

Others are trying to help those arrested in the busts. The Red Hook Justice Center, in collaboration with the 72nd precinct, is offering first-time offenders an alternative to trials and jail. Instead they have to attend “Project Respect,” often called the Brooklyn John School. The six-year-old program puts offenders face-to-face with former prostitutes, videos of sexually abused children and images of the diseases inflicted on them.

EPIC (Ending Prostitution In our Communities) and “Saving Teens at Risk” are two programs targeting prostitutes above age 21 and younger girls, respectively. They offer educational and rehabilitative services to help these women find other options and to deal with the issues that originally caused them to turn to the streets. Kings County DA statistics note that 80 to 90 percent of the women prostituting themselves have been sexually abused. The U.S. Dept. of Justice says that girls enter prostitution at an average age of 13.

According to Gerianne Abriano, Bureau Chief at the Brooklyn D.A.’s office, “the vast majority [of offenders] that come to Red Hook go through these programs. Anyone with a prior record, we try to get them drug [or other] treatment. [And as for] the prostitutes, they tend to be the most accessible. We have good results with them.”

New York Times Hoax Fit To Prank

article by NYCity News Service Staff
video reported by Heather Chin

In this piece, a team of reporters from the NY City News Service canvassed New York subway stations hit by volunteers distributing a faux special edition of The New York Times, declaring the Iraq War over, among other liberal utopian headlines.
I shot the accompanying video piece.

For the original article and video, go here.

Election Night Festivities Unite New Yorkers

(previously published here at www.nycitynewsservice.com)

In the evening hours before results of the 2008 Presidential Election were announced, people around the country gathered outside to wait for news and celebrate whatever outcome resulted. In New York, the main gatherings were in Harlem and Times Square, each area filling up with hundreds and even thousands of revelers.

In Manhattan’s Times Square, a festive atmosphere reigned as poll results trickled in on the outdoor jumbo screens. And amidst the neon lights, crowds erupted into cheers, whoops, car honks and all-around exuberance when Barack Obama was announced as the President-Elect of the United States of America.

In a city where strangers can go entire rides on the subway without acknowledging one another, people of all ages, backgrounds and histories blended together in a jubilant mass, posing for photos with each other and hugging and smiling at one another. The atmosphere was akin to a New Year’s party, but with a uniting theme: hope, change and a new future.

Click on the image above for a slideshow of the night's festivities.

Ecofest 2008: It's Easy Being Green

By Heather J. Chin

Kermit the Frog said it, now average New York-area residents are, too.

As the green movement gains momentum in cities and small towns across the country, citizens are becoming more aware of both the issues being discussed and the ease with which they can live a greener lifestyle. Especially now that fuel prices have shot through the roof and oil and gas are such hot commodities, people - and governments - are more willing to embrace everything from recycling and reusing water bottles to shutting of light-switches and faucets.

Helping support green education this year was New York City’s 20th annual Ecofest celebration at Lincoln Center. Held on the alternately rainy and sunny last Saturday of the month, the festival was full of clothing and food vendors, school parents, community organizers, dancers, tourists and volunteers, this event serves both as a reinforcement and a new introduction to environmental living.

Read more and listen to interviews here.