Adults Should Also Write Their Way To The Top!

Canarsie organizations and elected officials are always sponsoring essay contests for our youths. I enjoy reading the topics at hand – such as, “What would you do to improve your community?”…“How would you ease racial tensions in your neighborhood?”…“How would you stop bullying?” and “Who inspires you to perform at your best?”

 

Essay contests are typically open to students who will receive an honor at some community event – like the Canarsie Bridges Festival. Some teens are honored by local councilmen and assemblymen – awarding the winners with scholarships, savings bonds and a citation for their well-written ideas and excellent display of civic engagement. 

Parents - get out your pen and paper!

The ideas some kids present are great when it comes to improving their community. However, their ideas aren’t tainted by political red tape and dead ends. We can only hope their experiences in school help them develop independent ideas that they can utilize when they become adults.

Ah…Adults… Whether you want to admit it or not they, or we, are a BIG part of the problem when it comes to improving our community. So why isn’t there an essay contest for older folks who need a lesson in civic and quality of life improvement?

To answer this question, I formally propose that civic leaders, politicians and other organizations host an essay contest for adults! Whether you know it or not – or agree with me or not – grown-ups need lessons in making our quality of life better, too!

We’re asking young people to conjure up ways of making their community a better place to live – but then you’ve got a disrespectful neighbor, who’s an adult, blasting music all hours of the night and blocking the sidewalk with their vehicle. You’ve got adults, who refuse to go to meetings and help make a difference, complaining about changes that need to be implemented! Then, you’ve got sloppy residents and local business owners who dump their trash anywhere they want and contribute to deplorable conditions. And we say what’s the matter with kids these days?

Let’s get real! If someone in the community hosted an essay contest for adults, they could use the following themes to get residents thinking about how bad they treat their community:

• “As a tenant/homeowner, I can stop being a nuisance to my neighbors by…”

• “I keep to myself instead of talking to my neighbors about what’s going on because…”

• “The excuses I make for not going to community meetings to help myself and my fellow neighbors includes…”

• “Instead of dumping my household trash somewhere it’s illegal and deplorable, I can…”

• “Instead of playing loud music in my home while having a get together during the summertime, therefore disturbing everyone on my block, I will…”

• “As a driver/pedestrian, I can help prevent accidents by…”

These are just a few essay topics that will get ADULTS to realize they can improve the neighborhood themselves – and that a lot of problems stem from THEIR lack of consideration.

What can adults get out of this literary challenge? I think many will come to realize just how hard it is to get their ideas on paper – and believe me, plenty of us need to brush up on our basic writing skills (remember, officials are asking YOUTHS, who are still in school and write all the time, to formulate their ideas. If you’ve been out of school for decades, you’re probably a little rusty when it comes to English 101). I also think an adult-only contest will generate ideas that are applicable in real life.

And what’s the incentive gonna be? I propose contest sponsors offer generous gift cards for various retail shops and restaurants, along with an honorable plaque that declares the residents’ selfless civic awareness.

Consider this - children who enter essay contests don’t yet own a home, pay a mortgage or deal with property taxes. They’re not paying for home renovations, so they don't feel the need to dump their old furniture and fixtures in the back of an alleyway and leave it there. Our youths are usually not the ones calling 9-1-1 or 3-1-1 about suspicious activity in a common driveway, stolen cars on their block and garbage pileups. Most of the problems here are caused by ADULTS and can only be solved by…ADULTS!

Sure, you want to train youngsters to think about their habits before they grow into that selfish mind frame. But let’s look at all of the people who can make a difference in the our community and get them to put their ideas on paper. I’m sure we’d get some interesting feedback from our neighbors on the “write” way to conduct ourselves!

Talk To The Hand – The Only Body Part That’s Actually Listening!

Teens who need emotional support might not feel all that comfortable talking to adults about their problems. With depression and other mental health issues at the forefront of growing up – coupled with fitting into an academic environment – the toxic combination of feeling alone and like an outcast,  a teenager can make some dangerous life decisions.

"Help, I'm addicted to my cell phone!"

I experienced a short bout of “depression” when I was 13 – but I now know that it wasn’t really depression. It was a period of time where I just didn’t feel like I fit in with my peers.  Had cell phones existed and were popular back in the early 1990s, I would have known not to tell my counselor at Bildersee Junior High School that I had thoughts of ending my life – because I could have texted someone for support.

Text someone for support?

Talking to a trusted counselor, psychologist or therapist recently went out the window when Chiara de Blasio and the Health Department’s First Deputy Commissioner Oxiris Barbot helped launch a pilot program called “NYC Teen Text,” which kick started at about a dozen city schools.

At the selected schools, the program allows teens to get help from an anonymous professional source by using their mobile phones Monday through Friday from 2:30 to 9 p.m. and on the weekends from 1 to 9 p.m. What if you’re a teen who’s up late at night – at home – and you desperately need to talk someone? Guess you’re plumb out of luck!

Forget about confiding in your parents, with whom you live – you know, the ones who are raising you? I think the first thing we need to do is encourage teens to speak to adults – maybe even educators –who can guide them in the right direction. For those who don’t want to talk to their parents or live with grandparents, aunts and uncles, there has to be someone who KNOWS these teens in real life and THAT’S who should be the go-to guidance.

Chiara boasted the program in March through the New York City Health Department, saying trained crisis counselors with access to mental health services will provide ongoing support to those who need it. How receptive will teens be? The only way this program will be proactive is if the recipient of the desperate text can advise the teen to talk to a REAL LIFE person who will feel out the severity of a teens’ “crisis.”

By the way - cheers to Chiara!! Your dad just lifted the cell phone ban from public schools and THIS is one hell of a way to facilitate and exercise your right to carry a phone with you at all times.

Another thank you to the Health Department, which claims teens feel a lot more comfortable texting their woes with their fingers instead of using their voice to express themselves to someone face-to-face. I guess this is the reality we want our teens to accept.

Let’s get real!! A lot of teenagers you see on the streets, trains and buses are CONSTANTLY on their phones. This is the age of technology – where kids cling to their devices like infants sucking on a pacifier. Youngsters are also being robbed, attacked and harassed for their phones…So you’re going to encourage them to whip their gadgets out in school and remain attached to the electronic while they’re telling a stranger their deepest, darkest secrets?

By the way, what teen is willing to stay in school until 9 at night so they can hash out their problems to someone they’ve never met and probably never will?

NYC Teen Text is a nice idea – in theory. But the person on the other side – skilled or licensed – doesn’t even know if the plea for help is real or just a joke. Our teens are distracted enough with Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat… forgive me if I’m out of the loop on the dozens of other networking sites – I have a tendency to live in the real world and get help from REAL people who can see my reaction to their advice.

These days, most people let their fingers do the talking about everything – but when it comes to this pilot program, they can talk to the hand!

Let’s Not Waffle On This Type Of Food Control!

From Coney Island to Union Square you’ll find those elusive unlicensed vendors – usually women – selling delicious churros to the public. Delicious? Okay, most churros, by the time they hit the streets, are hard and cold. But they’re supposed to taste like soft and tubular waffles decorated with cinnamon sugar.

Hail to the churros!

Selling churros – and other foods that I like to call free-for-alls, meaning it doesn’t matter where you sell it or to whom you sell it – is no big deal in New York City. We’re always looking to save a few bucks on a snack by purchasing something on-the-go. We also trust that the vendor hasn’t poisoned or spit in our food. Vendors usually don’t know who their customers are and they’re simply looking for a way to make quick cash selling their homemade portable goods.

There’s one little – okay BIG – thing wrong. These vendors aren’t licensed by the Board of Health and the Health Department hasn’t issued any paperwork that permits them to operate. Unlike hotdog vendors, who are mandated to obtain permits and other licenses, there’s nothing legal about standing in the middle of a crowded walkway with a shopping wagon and a huge tray of pastries.

I don’t feel bad for the women who were recently victims of the NYPD’s crackdown on churro sales. I understand some of these women have families to feed – but they’re selling illegal goods to the public that could make them sick. The food is most likely stored and handled improperly – you’re lucky if you don’t get a stomach virus or food poisoning.

A few times when I went to Canarsie Pier during the summer, there were guys selling homemade empanadas for a few dollars apiece. Stored in plastic coolers, the salty, meat-filled pastries were sold in tin foil. Under what conditions the guy – or maybe his wife – made these Spanish treats, I have no idea.

If you happen to go up East 92nd Street, near the Canarsie Courier’s office, you’ll sometimes catch someone selling food from the back of their SUV. Complete with Styrofoam containers and plastic cutlery, a woman pulls up on any given day and dishes out mounds of rice and chicken to the mechanics working at the nearby auto body shop. How safe is this food? We want to believe that she’s simply providing a hearty and warm meal, but how old is that food? How long was it sitting in her car before she brought it to our streets?

When you’re buying food off of someone in the street whose environment isn’t regulated by the government, you don’t know if the person had bugs in their house or if they practiced good hygiene habits.

Let’s get real! It’s bad enough that the “roach coaches” people get their meals from legitimately are under close scrutiny from the city. Vendors receive letter grades – just like restaurants receive – for cleanliness and confirmation that their vehicle has been inspected. Wouldn’t you want to know that the person you’re buying your lunch from has undergone some valid legal process?

Maybe entrepreneurs feel it’s too expensive and inconvenient to get a vending license. Won’t the vendors, who are whipping out churros and getting fined or arrested, pay in the end anyway? I don’t think illegal vendors have any right to fight for, well, their rights!

News reports stated that cops consumed one churro vendor’s goodies after they arrested her. For real?? Okay, maybe it’s disturbing that they’re eating “criminal evidence,” but there’s no justifiable reason to complain once your unlicensed stuff is confiscated by law enforcement.

In addition to food being confiscated, the penalties should be harsher for ANYONE selling food that’s not prepared in a legal and safe/clean setting. Hungry people already have to worry about their health and safety when they order food from a normal eatery!

Whatever food you’re looking to bake, fry, handle and sell to the public, you’re better off selling to people you know, like close friends and family. Those convenient – yet illegal - treats might be a good money-maker in theory, but if you can’t afford to get a vending license – eat your heart out  and get ready to answer to the law!

What The Force Needs Is A Little CPR – Camera Prodding Rituals

Courtesy…Professionalism…Respect…These words – along with the acronym CPR –adorn thousands of NYPD patrol cars. Whether or not New Yorkers believe that officers abide by this creed is up to them and their personal experiences.

I’ve been to many meetings where residents said they’ve been to the local precinct station house and were addressed in an irate manner. Other residents at meetings said they’ve sought the help of police but were treated unfairly.

About five years ago, I encountered a professional run-in with a few officers at the Canarsie's police precinct. While I was there to simply talk to Community Affairs officers and introduce myself as a reporter with the Canarsie Courier, one of the desk officers came down on me as if I were personally a thorn in his side. I didn’t cross the gate that led into the main area inside the precinct, but he stood up, mumbled something and looked at me as if I’d been there for hours nagging him for something petty. To him it was definitely petty, but there was no respect for my position as a reporter. Was this the type of courtesy he was trained to display to the public? There was no proof of the exchange that took place when I was at the precinct. 

Fortunately – or unfortunately – it’s becoming more common for civilians to capture their failed communicative efforts with police officers on video. This is something that's not going to work in the NYPD’s favor. It’s going to prove to the public that we might need to be protected by some officers whose job is to protect us! Where's the CPR there?

An Uber cab driver in the city experienced the worst of the NYPD a few weeks ago when a detective pulled him over and spoke down to him during a berating rant. There are a few questions I have, as always, and I hope the answers will change the way police officers deal with the public.

Don’t cops realize that they could be recorded on video and that their reputation will affect the way many New Yorkers look at trained officers? It wasn’t necessary for the detective to tell the Uber cab driver, “You’re not important enough.” Is that how cops feel? We don’t want to judge all officers by this irate detective’s bad bedside manner, but...

Why would a police officer bring up how long someone’s been in this country to further intimidate them? Okay – if an officer personally has something against foreigners, that’s their business. Would they talk to their commanding officer and a public audience - many whom are from different countries – this way? Now that this detective was candidly caught losing control of his temper, something I think police officers need to be counseled in, will this change the way other officers conduct themselves? Do they realize they can’t deal with everyone they stop and question in a universal fashion?

In my opinion, police officers need to conduct themselves as if they’re always being recorded on video – and not just the ones they have on their dashboards. 

Let’s get real! 

When people see videos like the one brought to the public’s attention by the passenger in the Uber cab, their perceptions of law enforcement changes – even if they’ve never had a run-in with a cop.

How many more police officers out there haven’t been captured at their worst? How many will soon be exposed for treating civilians like we’re in some boot camp no one prepared us for? How many officers exhaust their anger and personal problems on civilians when it’s not called for?

Admittedly, civilians don’t know what it’s like for police officers who deal with treacherous situations on a daily basis. We don't know what type of day they’ve had and we don’t know what transpired from other crimes and criminals they had to deal with that week or day. 

Does that mean they’re allowed to break protocol and talk down to those who need their help?

YES! If some ruthless thug is resisting arrest and is in possession of weapon – and is talking smack to officers – they shouldn’t be treated with respect! When a law enforcement official has reason to believe their safety is in danger and that their lives are at stake, they have every right to lash out and demand order. In this respect, excessive use of force is justified.

However, if you’re simply sitting in your car and complying with the law – and you have it on camera – what justifies an officer losing control and making derogatory statements?

If you ever feel like you’re on that show “Scared Straight,” where officers and security guards get right in your face, whip out your cell phone and record the moment! The NYPD wants the public’s help when they release surveillance of a potential criminal – but the public will now be asking for help with the release of their own civilian surveillance. 

Unpublished as of April 7th 2015