City Limits (https://citylimits.org/author/melissa-cooper/)
The plan soon to emerge from the Bronx segment of the governor’s Empire Poverty Reduction Initiative will set the stage for the most important question: Will the state apply adequate resources to addressing, rather than diagnosing, poverty?
Artists are hoping to produce work relevant to the issues facing neighborhoods and connect with people leading the fight for change.
In a span of three weeks, Kilusan Bautista experienced the fear and rejection of being evicted, living on the street and being denied for new places to live. From that dark place, he created a one-man show exploring the human impact of gentrification and displacement. A video story by Melissa Cooper.
Added Value Farms is an urban farm and compost operation in Red Hook that offers healthy food and community training. Damage from Superstorm Sandy threatened all of that.
As developers target buildings and neighborhoods that used to offer affordable studio space to artists, more and more practitioners are finding it difficult simply to find a way to do their work. One nonprofit is trying to preserve room for creativity.
East New York has long faced problems like poverty, disinvestment and crime. Now its worries concern gentrification and displacement. In a neighborhood confronting so many different risks, what role can community artists play?
A look inside an alternative high school, where personalized learning serves kids who have been unable to succeed elsewhere.
An improving job market looks less inviting to those with little education or an inconsistent work history. But there are ways to navigate around those obstacles.
Data indicate that the number of businesses owned by women have increased 43 percent in the last decade. Behind each of those data points lay ambition, ideas and hard work.