While most New Yorkers won’t attend the 9/11 memorial, everyone in the city looks forward to the Tribute in Light. It is a lasting public art installation that remains a constant, commemorating the events of that day – honoring those who lost their lives and celebrating the unbreakable spirit of New York. 

Standing six blocks south of the World Trade Center Memorial, on the roof of the Battery Parking Garage, the twin beams reach up to four miles into the sky and are positioned into two 48-foot squares, echoing the shape and orientation of the Twin Towers. Tribute in Light was created by several artists and designers who were then brought together under the Municipal Art Society of New York. They can also be viewed from a 60-mile radius around lower Manhattan.

Tribute in Light consists of 88 vertical searchlights arranged in two columns of light to represent the Twin Towers. Presented six months after 9/11, Tribute in Light began as a temporary commemoration, becoming an annual event every year thereafter. 

Cosmo Wilson, a lighting designer for the National September 11 Memorial & Museum, has been helping with the operation of the two-week long process of Tribute in Light since its inception.

“We have 90 fixtures. We’ve had 90 fixtures for I think 18 years, and they all still work. We’ve never had one go down, and if we have a lamp burn out and we replace it, we have two spares in case we need one,” said Wilson.

The annual preparation usually begins on the first day of September. “We are trying to give ourselves enough time, we got to take them out of storage,” he said. This year, however, due to rain, the process began two days later than usual, but everything worked out in a timely manner.

Every year, for approximately 50 weeks, the lamps are stored and then are taken out prior to the event. They have to be put back in place. “They’ll have to be placed in their footprint properly and measured to maintain the design,” Wilson said.

“Then we have to run, we have to run the cables to them. You run the power to them. And so that is generally the first day, we get them set in position. On the second day, we get power to them.”

Once turned on, an inspection is done, making sure all of the lights are working properly. On the third day, focus shifts to the alignment of the lights. At ground level, the lights are adjusted with the help of spotters with binoculars to make sure they’re straight, which Wilson says can be time consuming.

“We also do a thing called bench focus where you focus each fixture so that the beam is the same size – not too fat, not too thin. So that’s just focusing the light, then you actually focus the beam in the sky, and that takes two nights,” Wilson explained.

The process can be time consuming, with potential delays. 

“The problem is when it’s raining, we can focus here on the ground, but they can’t see it from the distance, so we have rain nights like this. We come in usually the night before, the 10th, and we turn them on just to check them one last final time.”

Once everything is finalized, the beams are illuminated from dusk on September 11th until dawn the following morning. With periods of 20 minutes in between, the lights are turned off to allow migrating birds, affected by and trapped in the beams, to escape.

The lights are then disassembled and stored. “We pack them up on September 12th. We check the lamps out again, we seal them, we put covers over them. We store them in an enclosed area so the weather doesn’t get to them. They sit there for 50 weeks and then we pull them out,” he said.

“Most people just think they’re always there and they think they’re at the fountains and I think they just think they’re on all the time, but they’re on one specific day, and it’s September 11th.”

Moziah Sterling reports.

The government shutdown didn’t stop New Yorkers from flooding the state’s healthcare exchange website on Tuesday, the first day of enrollment for the Affordable Care Act.

Though the coverage doesn’t begin till January, the website had over two millions hits within the first 90 minutes of being up, said New York Secretary of State Cesar Perales at the Queens Central Library.

“It’s clearly there, people want the opportunity to get affordable healthcare and take advantage of it,” said Perales. “The fact that so many of them are trying today already, indicates that there is enormous interest.”

Perales and Department of Labor Commissioner Peter Rivera were just two of the several elected officials attending events to inform New Yorkers about the Affordable Care Act.

“Even with the brochures and all the information, you still need that human contact,” said Rivera. “Even though it’s been communicated on a daily basis for the last two or three weeks, I’d imagine that a lot of people still don’t know today it starts.”

However, Carmen Quintuna, Queens resident and mother of twins, air jordan 10 said she was no longer eligible for Medicaid after her twins were born in 2008 and has been looking forward to this date.

“Today is the day I have been waiting for almost five years,” said Quintuna. “I was constantly worried about getting sick because I knew I could not afford any medication or treatment.”

There are 16 insurance companies on New York’s marketplace. Choice in doctors vary based on the plan chosen but each company must adhere to 10 core benefits called the Essential Health Benefits. Some of these benefits include maternity care, mental health and substance use services, hospital stays, prescription drug coverage and pediatric services.

The enrollment through the marketplace will remain open until March 2014. After this time, those who remain uninsured will have to pay a penalty of either $95 or 1 percent of their income, and will increase to as much as $695 or 2.5 percent of income by 2016.

President Obama in the Rose Garden of the White House deplored the government shutdown and said it doesn’t accomplish the Republican opponents stated goal because it doesn’t affect funding for the insurance exchanges.

“The Affordable Care Act is a law that passed the House, that passed the Senate, the Supreme Court ruled Constitutional,” said Obama. “It is settled, and it is here to stay.”

The sun shone brightly on crowds of Brooklyn College students as they exited the black wrought iron gates of the beautiful, grassy and tree-laden East Quad campus on Bedford Avenue.   Waiting outside, rain or shine, are several shiny metal food vendor trucks with menus designed to lure hungry students over for a quick bite to eat before their next class or before boarding a bus home.

Mario Rojas, 41, a slightly built man with a graying moustache, goatee and bronze-rimmed glasses, leans back against his rectangular-shaped steel food truck; it is strategically located at the corner to catch foot traffic from every direction.  One side is flipped up to provide shade to Rojas as he waits patiently in his usual outfit of blue jeans, baseball cap, gray Polartec zip-up hoody and latex gloves.  Students from the diagonally opposite corners of both the nearby Midwood High School and West Quad campus buildings wait patiently for the street lights to turn green so they can flock to his small truck in droves.  roshe run hyp qs It advertises breakfast and lunch specials with pictures of hamburgers, hot dogs, knishes, beef patties and more, but Rojas also sells soft tacos, which attracts many Latino and Hispanic students who welcome the idea of eating familiar food and conversing in Spanish with him.

A young Hispanic girl from the high school was walking briskly and talking on her cell phone when she stopped suddenly to greet Rojas in Spanish and ask for a beef patty.  “He cooks the gyros good, the tacos too,” she said.   Rojas smiled and gave a small laugh as he opened up the hot patty and put some shredded cheese and hot sauce on it before wrapping it up and placing it with a napkin in a brown paper bag.

People pass his truck all the time, but how many have wondered about the man on the corner who works from morning until night and is always there to provide relief to the hungry.  This is his story, but it is also just one of many immigrant stories in New York City.

Rojas was born in Mexico and lived in a small house with his parents, four brothers, and four sisters.  About 40 families also lived within a small radius of his house in this poor town where the summers would swelter to over 100 degrees.  They grew a variety of fruits and vegetables, and raised chickens and other farm animals to sustain themselves, but longed for a better life.

Rojas was 17 years old, with a third grade education, when he decided to leave the poverty of his home and walk across the border into the United States to pursue the American dream.   He has been back and forth a few times, returning with his wife on his last trip back to the U.S. 17 years ago.   At that time, his mother sold some of her land to put together the $5,000 as payment to arrange to have Rojas and his wife come to the United States.  “Now, it costs $7,000 each to come to the U.S.,” said Rojas.

Rojas struggled to make a living when he first arrived here.  He worked at a supermarket and then a restaurant in Manhattan, but was fired one day over a disagreement with his boss.  He was out of work and out of luck until a vendor, who currently works down the block from him, helped him out by making a deal with him.  He told Rojas that he would sell him his truck and allow him to use his permit for two years if he paid him $23,000. Rojas took the offer, but once the two years was up, he was asked to pay an additional $15,000 to use the permit for another two years.

Ironically, Rojas was able to obtain an operator’s license as long as he paid taxes, roshe run suede but he was unable to get a permit because there is a 10-year waiting list for one. “The city is so hungry, so hungry,” said Rojas.  “They need money, money, money, money, but they won’t give me my permit,” he continued, stating that the permit only costs $200.  “If I had my own permit, I wouldn’t have to pay $15,000, but the city has a very bad system.  They give the license to a lot of people, which only costs $60,” Rojas said with bitterness in his voice.  “This city is a very bad city,” he said.  “I have a tax I.D. and pay taxes so I can get this,” as he held up his license, “but they won’t give me a permit.”

On a typical work day, Rojas wakes up at 4:00 a.m. to get to his truck, which he keeps at one of over a dozen garages located around the city and cater to his profession.   He prepares it for the day and gets to his corner by 7:00 a.m., then works through the day until about 6:30 p.m. at night.  He works Mondays through Fridays when the schools are open and when they are not, he goes to other locations in the city.

“It’s hard work,” he said.  But then he also said, “I like it.  Nobody tells me do this, do that.”  He said how it was a little difficult when the weather is cold.  “Oh, oh,” he said animatedly in his Spanish accent.  “Over here, the weather changes so much – hot, cold, hot cold.”

And it’s not just the weather.  When the high school lets out, large crowds of students surround his food truck and often take snack bags that hang off the truck when he is not looking.  It’s a small problem compared to his other woes.  He complained about his expenses and said that he has paid $10,000 in tickets over the last two years, which has caused him hardship. “Sometimes, I don’t pay the bills and I have to pay a $25 late fee for rent,” said Rojas.

He got a $1,000 ticket last year because he forgot to bring his license with him to work one day.  “What did you give me the ticket for?” Rojas asked the inspector.  “Because you don’t have your license,” the inspector replied.    So Rojas was given the ticket, but he went to court to fight it because he said he had his license at home and was going to get it.

The judge didn’t care that Rojas had the license at home.  “You’re working with no license so you have to pay the ticket,” the judge told Rojas.  Rojas complained that he got numerous other tickets from the many inspections that are carried out every two weeks to see if he is in compliance with city codes and regulations.   “I don’t know.  It’s crazy,” he said.  It became an issue not just for him, roshe run nm br but many vendors who were complaining about the city’s aggressive ticketing policies.

He said that he attended monthly meetings at the Urban Justice Center’s Street Vendor Project, which advocates for people like Rojas.  The problem seems to have abated lately because of the attention.

Rojas gets by with help from his wife who sometimes helps him, but also works as a housekeeper two to three days a week in the neighborhood.  He says she makes $10 per hour but sometimes she is not treated well.  Together, they have four daughters, 17, 14, 10 and nine, and live in a one-room apartment for $1,100 a month in a neighborhood not too far from where he works.

He said that he set up his business three years ago and was doing well, but within one month, another bigger truck set up right next to him and took a lot of his business.    He looked bitter and resentful as he said that since the other truck came, he can barely make enough to pay the rent and telephone bill.

Rojas gets very busy when classes let out.   “Hello.  How much for a hot dog?” a girl asked. Rojas told her it was $1.50 and she ordered two.  Then, a crowd of about a dozen noisy students wearing Team Hyper Bowl sweatshirts approached Rojas.  “How much is the ham omelet?” asked one.  “How much is the chicken wrap?” asked another.   They lined up as Rojas did his best to keep an eye on his truck and prepare food for the crowd.

Michael Kinsley, 14, a freshman in high school, came by to see what Rojas had to offer. “How much is a cheeseburger?” he asked.   “$3.00,” Rojas said.  Kinsley hesitated and then ordered the cheeseburger.  It was late and the sky has turned dark.  Kinsey, who was just coming out of track practice said,  “I knew Mario since 6^th grade when I used to come here from Marine Park Junior High School to hang out here.”  “He makes good food.  It tastes good,” he continued.  Rojas smiled as he placed the burger on the grill.  An aromatic cloud of steam rose from the burger as it sizzled and cooked.   “You want ketchup amigo?  Hot sauce?  Barbecue?”

It’s been a long and busy day for Rojas, but only one of many as he does what he must to make a living and raise his family.

Nicole Guzzardi’s first experience living in Manhattan was, to say the least, cramped.

She had gotten herself a sub-300-square-foot studio in the Lower East Side, but space was so tight when her cousin came to spend the night he ended up relegated to bunking in the bathroom — with half of his body on the tile floor and half in the flat-bottomed shower.

“I had no room for anything. I obviously had no kitchen table. I had a desk but I barely ever sat in it because it was kitty-cornered and very uncomfortable,” said Guzzardi, who had just gotten into graduate school and needed a place where she could commute easily to New York University. “So I ate on my bed, I did my homework on my bed, I slept on my bed. … I had my small dog, and she just sat around all day in this little box. It was not fair to her.”

Claustraphobic living experiences like Guzzardi’s are not unusual in one of the world’s tightest, priciest residential real estate markets. air jordan 6 And it’s an experience that could become even more common after Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s “micro-unit” apartments start filling vacancies.

Last July, Bloomberg and other city officials announced adAPT NYC, the pilot program seeking new and affordable housing models for a growing number of one- or two-person households.

Thirty-three developers submitted proposals for the units, which are expected to be between 275 and 300 square feet — about 100 square feet smaller than what is currently permitted under city zoning regulations. (Guzzardi’s Lower East Side apartment building was constructed before a 1901 law regulating the minimum square footage.)

The winning proposal for the adApt NYC program could be announced as early as today.

The Bloomberg administration wants the developer to build as many as 80 micro-units at 335 E. 27 St., in Manhattan. The units are intended to be affordable housing for one- or two-person households, which the latest census data found to be a rising demographic in the city. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, there are 1.8 million one- and two-person households, but only one million studios and one-bedroom apartments.

But some have called the micro-units tenements for the 21st century, though at an expected $2,000 a month and a 10-by-30-foot layout, they would certainly not be housing large, low-income families. They also would likely be out of the price range of most people within the target demographic — single New Yorkers. According to the city comptroller’s office, 81.2 percent of single tax filers in the city made under $75,000 in 2009, with the largest group — 36.6 percent – earning under $20,000.

“It doesn’t really fit the need for families and for growing a family or staying long term in the city,” said Matthew Dunbar, the advocacy and community relations manager for HabitatNYC, the local branch of Habitat for Humanity. “Anybody who wants to expand their families would not be able to use a micro unit to be able to do that.”

City officials said the micro-units will help to meet the changing needs of New Yorkers and are “critical to the city’s future economic success.”

“We hope that this pilot will turn out really well,” said Catie Marshall, a spokeswoman for the city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development. She added that the city hopes and expects to develop micro-units across the city.

Policymakers in other U.S. cities are also considering tiny apartments to deal with the scarcity of affordable housing.

In San Francisco, lawmakers have approved that city’s smallest apartments, allowing the construction of 220-square-foot units, expected to range in rent from $1,200 to $1,500, according to the Los Angeles Times. In Boston, one firm displayed a 300 square-foot apartment in the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center, as a housing option submission to a research program launched by Mayor Thomas M. Menino in 2004 aimed at finding a way to better serve the one-in-three Bostonians between the ages of 20 and 34. They are expected to cost about $1,500 a month.

In China, Japan and Paris, micro-units, sometimes no larger than a compact car parking spot, have also become increasingly popular.

THE SIZE OF A MICRO-UNIT

To understand the size of a micro-unit, try picturing half of a No. 6 train car, furnished. Imagine your bed — likely a sofa bed because of spatial constraints — in the middle.  That’s the living room. Replace the poles and seats with a kitchen sink and a bathroom, complete with a tub. Now add in clothes, books, a computer, maybe a dresser  —  feeling crowded?

But what people might not get in terms of space they get in location.

“If they want to live in Manhattan, they have to forego a lot of things, and space is one of them,” said Zaida Farnham, an agent with Prudential Douglas Elliman.

Another real estate expert, Jeff Rothstein, vice president in charge of rentals and sales at Prudential Douglas Elliman, said that, for most young people, an apartment is “just a bed.”

“Most young professionals are never in their apartment anyway,” he added.

The New York micro-unit’s expected rent is 40 percent higher than the median New York City household can sustain without infringing on basic necessities. The Census found that city residents’ per capita income is $30,398, and that the median household has an income of $50,285 and is made up of two to three people. That means, for an average household making $50,000 per year, affordable rent should not exceed $1,250 per month.

Although the developer will have the final say on the cost of rent, the $2,000 per month cost undercuts the average market price of a downtown Manhattan studio, air jordan 7 which has grown to $2,669, according to September’s market report from Prudential Douglas Elliman. One bedrooms go for $3,528.

Rothstein said he expects the micro-units to be filled by young professionals and graduating college students, like Guzzardi, looking to stay in the city.  But, according to a salary survey published by the National Association of College and Employers, the average starting salary for college graduates is $44,259. Affordable rent for that income is about $1,100 a month.

That salary looks about average when compared to a report issued by the  city Comptroller in May that showed 68.3 percent of New York City tax filers earned less than $50,000 in 2009.

A different report issued by the Comptroller in September found that half the households in New York City couldn’t afford their rent.  Forty-nine percent of New York City households pay more than 30 percent of their income on rent, and of that, 30 percent are paying more than half of their income on rent.

Rothstein said the micro-unit project might be part of the solution to the affordability problem.

“I think that it’s something proactive; that the mayor is taking responsibility to keep young professionals in Manhattan,” he said. “The average one-bedroom is, what, $3,500?  So, how can a young professional just starting a career in Manhattan afford that? Unless they get subsidized by a parent or they work another job.”

Joseph Gabriel, project manager for Blesso Properties — which submitted a micro-unit plan to adAPT NYC — said he expects micro-units to be a success, and cited the response of a recently opened apartment building in Chelsea as evidence. He said eight of the nine units were 450 square-foot studios, costing as much as $3,200 a month at the higher end. Gabriel said his firm received favorable responses after renting most, if not all, the building’s units shortly after putting them on the market.

Gabriel said he hopes to win Bloomberg’s competition, but added that he expects to implement the housing model around the city regardless of whether the Blesso Properties’ proposal is chosen.

“We’re hopeful that any zone changes or code changes do allow for a more flexible and more progressive type of development than has historically been possible in New York,” he said.

BIG CITY LIVING IN TINY SPACES

Despite the growing cost of rent, shrinking salaries and lack of job opportunities, people continue to move to Manhattan and other expensive neighborhoods in the outer boroughs. Renters are willing to cut back spending elsewhere to call a piece of the city their own.

“Even though it’s the size of a shoe box, it’s their own apartment,” Rothstein said. “They don’t have a roommate situation where somebody ate their yogurt.”

Guzzardi moved to Manhattan in 2011 to pursue a graduate degree in journalism at New York University.  Like many young adults, she wanted to live on her own.

As a full-time student balancing school, social life and work as a blogger for the Huffington Post, it was unlikely she could spend a considerable amount of time at her East 11th Street apartment.

Guzzardi originally set a $1,500 budget for rent, with the money coming from financial aid for school and money from her father, but upped it to $1,600 after initial apartment hunts came up dry.  air jordan 9 When she found the studio, perched atop Tu-Lu’s Bakery on 11th Street in the Lower East Side, she settled for $1,750.

“It was wicked nice, though,” she recounted.  “Everything was redone.  It had marble countertops and a pretty nice shower and a little balcony. I was like, whatever, I can deal with living in this amount of space. It’ll be fine.”

That optimism proved to be short-lived as the days wore on and the lack of space became more of an issue; she left after her lease was up. She now lives with a roommate in Gramercy.

Guzzardi said she wouldn’t choose to live in the same cramped apartment outside of her budget again, but she doesn’t regret her choice either.  “If this is going to be my only [New York City] experience, I’m glad it was in Manhattan.”

___

Image courtesy of the mayor’s office. Mayor Michael Bloomberg and HPD Commissioner Mathew M. Wambua at launch of adAPT NYC (July 2012), via GothamGazette.com.