Celebrate Alternate Side Parking

Who knew?

While everyone, even disgruntled drivers, acknowledges that the return to twice a week alternate side parking reduces the trash on our streets, reduces the rat population, and adds to community pride, who knew that it also impacts the presence of guns in our community?

While alternate side parking may seem like an annoyance to those who own cars, but all New Yorkers want cleaner streets. To that end, DSNY’s mechanical brooms are the best tool to clean the most trash, filth, and feces. As DSNY says, “We just want people to follow the law so that we can get the streets clean.”

And those street sweepers? Their mechanical brooms can pick up to 1,500 pounds of trash each go-around. And cleaner communities are safer communities.

The Amsterdam News reports that:

“Some of the spaces I’ve seen [trash is] overwhelming, to the point where you can’t even vaguely consider using the space, because of overgrowth of vegetation and the accumulation of trash—small trash items become massive trash items, they’ll become abandoned cars, and abandoned appliances and abandoned furniture,” said Dr. Charles Branas, chair of epidemiology at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health. “So to the extent that that can be changed, that’s a real structural change of benefit to communities that brings people closer to their local spaces in their neighborhood and to each other, which lead to all kinds of benefits down the road.”

Branas refers to it as the “busy streets theory,” a counter to the “broken windows theory” that argues that bustling neighborhoods indicate safety and comfort for the locals. Clean streets play a part in encouraging residents to leave their homes to participate in community efforts.

Additionally, Branas mentioned the practice of alternate side parking could potentially offer an inadvertent byproduct for flushing out illegal firearm stashing.

“[In] a couple of the studies we did, one of the mechanisms for the storage of illegal guns is to park a car—often an abandoned car as well—in front of abandoned buildings or lots, and to put illegal firearms in that car,” he said. “So to the extent that you can regularly move that car, there’s opportunities to also disrupt illegal guns in neighborhoods.”

To see the full article, click here.

The Moth at The Schomburg

The Moth x Daughters of the Movement
Date and Time
Tuesday, August 9, 2022, 7 – 8:30 PM
End times are approximate. Events may end early or late.
Location

Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture
Fully accessible to wheelchairs
Free Event
Register
Event Details
Tinted headshots of Gina Belafonte, Hasna Muhammad, Dominique Sharpton and Suzanne Kay.

Join us for an evening of storytelling and conversation with The Moth, featuring Gina Belafonte, Suzanne Kay, Hasna Muhammad, and Dominique Sharpton.

ABOUT THIS EVENT | IN-PERSON

The Moth is true stories, told live and without notes. Gina Belafonte (daughter of Harry Belafonte), Suzanne Kay (daughter of Diahann Carroll), Hasna Muhammad (daughter of Ossie Davis & Ruby Dee), and Dominique Sharpton (daughter of Al Sharpton) are Daughters of the Movement. They represent a group of women who sat at the feet of those who were on the front lines of the Civil Rights Movement. They carry the oral history, cultural values and wisdom passed down to them by some of the revolutionary leaders who turned the tide of American history. Join us at the Schomburg Center for an evening of Moth-style storytelling and a conversation illustrating a legacy of sisterhood.

PARTICIPANTS |

Artivist Gina Belafonte is the Executive Director of Sankofa.org a non-profit which educates, motivates, and activates artists and allies in service of grassroots movements and equitable change. An award-winning producer, director, and cultural organizer, Gina is driven by the most urgent social and political issues of our time using art as a tool to fulfill the mission of Sankofa.org. As a visiting professor, lecturer, and public speaker, Gina works with diverse artists, activists, and organizations worldwide to promote cultural and civic engagement and has assisted in mobilizing one of the largest cultural gatherings of artists in the world.

Suzanne Kay is a writer and filmmaker currently working on a documentary about her mother, the late actress Diahann Carroll, among other projects. She produced and co-wrote a feature film, Cape of Good Hope, which won numerous awards and nominations, including Honorable Mention for the People’s Choice Award at the Toronto International Film Festival, National Board of Review, and NAACP Image Awards. She has been published in Huffington Post, the Southampton Review and BigCityLit.

Hasna Muhammad is a visual artist, writer, and educator whose work focuses on family, social justice, and the human condition. As an advocate for education as justice, Hasna provides professional preparation for executive leadership, diversity management, and community engagement for the purpose of diversifying educational and political leadership forces. Hasna was a 2018-2019 Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture Fellow.

Dominique Sharpton is an actress, producer, and activist. As the National Director of Membership for National Action Network, one of the nation’s oldest legacy civil rights organizations with more than 100 chapters and 40,000 members across the country, Dominique works to activate and engage the next generation of community activists and impact systemic change through local community development. She also produces live cultural events to activate and inspire change.

The Moth is true stories, told live and without notes. We celebrate the ability of true, personal storytelling to illuminate both the diversity and commonality of human experience. Our work allows people all over the world and from all walks of life: astronauts, students, a dental hygienist, a hotdog eating champion, a mechanic, exonerated prisoners, veterans, Nobel laureates and everyone in between, to share their stories on stage in front of a live audience. Through live and virtual shows, storytelling workshops, a podcast, Peabody Award-winning Radio Hour, and The New York Times best-selling books, The Moth brings the power of personal storytelling to millions of people each year—creating community and building empathy around the world.

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PUBLIC NOTICE AND DISCLAIMER

IN-PERSON | By registering for this event, you are acknowledging that an inherent risk of exposure to COVID-19 exists in any public place where people are present. By attending an in-person program at The New York Public Library’s Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, you voluntarily assume all risks related to exposure to COVID-19 and agree not to hold The New York Public Library, its Trustees, officers, agent and employees liable for any illness or injury. If you have symptoms consistent with COVID-19 or suspect you have been in close contact with someone who has tested positive, please stay home.

FIRST COME, FIRST SEATED | Events are free and open to all, but due to space constraints registration is requested. Registered guests are given priority check-in 15 to 30 minutes before start time. After the event starts all registered seats are released regardless of registration, so we recommend that you arrive early.

GUESTS | Please note that holding seats in the Langston Hughes Auditorium is strictly prohibited and there is no food or drinks allowed anywhere in the Schomburg Center.

AUDIO/VIDEO RECORDING | Programs are photographed and recorded by the Schomburg Center. Attending this event indicates your consent to being filmed/photographed and your consent to the use of your recorded image for any all purposes of the New York Public Library.