Ninth in a series of stories by Hunter students describing their communities and especially focusing on their methods and strategies for getting important news information that could effect their lives. The project was inspired by the reported death of newspapers around the country followed by future obits about the demise of the news print industry. Requiescant in Pace.
Pictures by Andrea León
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Communities can be much more than a geographical delineation and are continually adapting to their cities’ and countries’ demographic, cultural and ethnic changes. Each neighborhood and community can be effected daily by numerous issues and, therefore, it would be wise for community residents to be informed about the latest news and widespread concerns.
Bronx, Mott Haven, residents where I live experience more difficulties in receiving healthcare than those residents in New York City overall, according to census information on the web site of the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. In the past decade, death rates due to HIV disease have decreased in the community but it still has the third highest HIV related death rate in the city. City death rates have also dropped, however, in Mott Haven they have remained consistently higher than both the Bronx and the city overall.
The main cause of premature deaths in New York City, the Bronx, and in Mott Haven overall is cancer. However, Mott Haven has the highest proportion of adults with diabetes in the city and there is a bigger probability that those who are obese are much more likely to have diabetes than non obese adults. In a violent crime comparison per 1,000 residents, my chances of becoming a victim in the Bronx would be 1 in 102 while in New York it would be 1 in 221. Property crime rates show that chances of becoming a victim would be 1 in 36 and 1 in 46 in New York City. Annual crime rates are reported and according to those, a person would be a little bit safer in New York City than in the Bronx.
There are a variety of ways for individuals to be informed. Cablevision’s News 12 is the local news channel for Bronx news but also serves Brooklyn, Connecticut, Long Island, Westchester, New Jersey, and Hudson Valley. The network also has its online version, News12.com, keeping Cablevision subscribers informed with the latest news and topics of great concern.
While residing in the South Bronx, the Mott Haven area of the Bronx, apart from viewing News 12, this writer is well versed on news updates and community concerns because of the online version of the Mott Haven Herald Newspaper. It has not been long since its first day of publication; however, it is very useful and precise with updates and news on the Mott Haven area.
Mott Haven is precisely located in the Southwest Bronx and its boundaries start from the north and rotating clockwise are, East 149th street to the North, the Bruckner Expressway to the east, the Major Deegan Expressway to the south, and the Harlem River to the west. The neighborhood is served by the NYPD’s 40th precinct and the IRT 6 line running along east 138th street; it is only about 15 to 20 minutes away from midtown Manhattan. It has high numbers of Puerto Ricans along with a population of African Americans and an emerging community of Central and South Americans along East 138th street.
The community is slowly but very productively renovating and cooperating as a whole to keep the area cleaner and safer for its residents, especially the many children who attend the schools in the neighborhood. The 139th street area is one of the blocks with the most compose and it is rare not to see children playing right outside their homes. The street can be filled with two and three-floor houses and brownstones. It is the same around the whole Mott Haven area; those who know each other because they have lived there for so long will always say their hellos as they pass.
I am not only a member of the Mott Haven community but also belong to the Ecuadorian community and the larger Latino community in New York City.
As a member of a several communities, it is imperative for for me to use a variety sources of information for knowledge on the latest news and concerns and also become informed about city, state, national and international happenings. This reporter is displeased with some city newspapers, such as the Daily News, that rely on over-sized headlines and photographs for many stories. I prefer news and concerns that are straightforward and not packaged as though they were advertisements to lure people to purchase the newspapers. This reporter prefers direct facts and information.
The 40th Precinct: 257 Alexander Ave., Bronx, NY, 10454.
When I have purchased the Daily News, however, I have looked for a second source afterward, either online or on television. I used to purchase the New York Post and the New York Times but as my daily schedule becomes hectic there is no time to read a whole paper. Sometimes I skim a printed Times and go online when I can. City, state and national news are updated on the Times website and a convenient feature online for me is the archive section that allows research. I also find some national and international news on that same website and in some cases comments on some articles.
This reporter has subscribed to CNN.com for its Breaking News e-mail alerts, which she receives on her smart phone. She is most interested on important issues, such as, the state of the economy, the stimulus bill, threats of H1N1 influenza, the immigration reform that she hopes President Obama will provide in the near future, crime rates around New York City and in her neighborhood, and the progression and latest news of her native country, Ecuador.
For news in my native language I watch the Spanish channel Univision and sometimes skim through the newspaper my father purchases every day, El Diario. I also read online El País of Spain which provides worldwide news. Given that every daily newspaper is online, this writer usually spends some time on each newspaper about three times a week. She recently started reading online El Mercurio, an Ecuadorian newspaper. An Ecuadorian, she doesn’t read that paper as much as others that are online simply because it can only be purchased in certain places in Queens, such as travel agencies or Ecuadorian stores or restaurants.
This reporter had a few conversations with friends who were sometimes more informed than she was on certain subjects. She learns about situations in Ecuador because her mother calls there once a week. Alternative news sources, such as social websites, also exist, but this reporter doesn’t rely on them as much. She also checks social websites like facebook, Twitter and youtube.
St. Ann's Avenue ...
The Public Editor of the Times, Clark Hoyt, wrote this past June 21 that the “Times raised its newsstand price to $2 for the daily paper and $5 or $6 for the Sunday paper, depending on where you live.” The price increased and some sections were also no longer in the paper. Hoyt said, that “readers felt slighted,” they did not like a section omitted and a price increase. The paper had removed whole sections, including zoned sections for local news in the New York Area.
Many readers were upset, including Bruce Einsohn of the Bronx, who was angry that there was no longer a section for live local news in the Sunday paper. Hoyt quoted him in his column as saying, “I understand the need for cost cutting, and I understand the desire of The Times to market itself as a national paper, but what about us locals?”