On August 13, a warm sunny day in Manhattan, four men armed with a pistol entered Kaplan Brothers Blue Flame Corporation, a wholesale ranges and stove-supplies on 125th Street between Broadway and Manhattan Avenue. Upon entering, one of the intruders struck a male employee, named J.B.. In reacting, the store’s owner, Charles Augusto, did not hesitate to pull the trigger of his shotgun, never used before. When he was finished, two of the men lay dead and the other two, wounded.

The incident seems to have shaken business owners in the area and it particularly raised the alarm two doors down from Augusto’s store at the daycare center located in the basement of a church.

Shortly after the shooting, Janet Walters, a 40-year-old instructor at the Antioch Baptist Day Care Center, lined up her class of 2 to 6-year-old children to take them to the park. When she opened the door, she saw a dead body lying on the street and she shut the door quickly so the children couldn’t see.

“I just could see his feet because it was completely covered and I slammeed the door to make sure the kids did not see the body,” Walters said. “We work in the basement and we didn’t hear anything.”

Walter recalled that families of the children were “scared” on the day of the crime.

Since the fateful day, Pam Czar, the accountant at the daycare center, acknowledged that security has become a major concern for the school.

“Nobody thought about security before. But now we all are more conscious,” Czar said. “We always try to close the door from the street and lock it.”

“Now we always keep an eye on our security cameras, and we want to hire a security guard to make sure he filters the people entering here,” Czar, a mother of a teenager, went on. “You have to be careful because it might happen again and we deal with very young kids.”

The daycare center has reason to be concerned. According to recent police reports, robberies in Central Harlem have increased in 2009 by 1.6 percent since last year, a year that witnesed 189 of these crimes.

In 1990, the area was much more crime-ridden. Statistics show that then the area experienced 786 robberies. Overall crime in central Harlem has decreased by 77.60 percent from 1990 when this neighborhood had 3,380 crimes.

Nearly five months after he used his shotgun, Augusto and his employee J.B., who only uses his initials, have no regrets. He sat on a chair in his store last month, resting his back on the wall of a narrow hallway full of stoves, refrigerators, fryers and toasters. He read the paper, resting his right elbow and feet on an old wooden table, lit only by a small lamp.

“Some people told me that I should have killed them all,” said Augusto with a quiet voice. “You know, this time they got two prisoners, but next time there will be no prisoners. Either they kill me or I kill them.”

Augusto was not arrested for the shooting, despite using a pistol with an expired permit, police said. Bernard Witherspoon, 22, and Shamel McCloud, 21, the two men that attempt to rob Kaplan Brothers are both charged with robbery. McCloud, from East Elmhurst, Queens, was released on August 15, after pleading not guilty, on a $60,000 bond.

Augusto’s male employee, J.B., 35, sat at the very end of the long dark hall holding a Bible with his skinny fingers. J.B. got into a fight with the 29-year-old gunman James Morgan and got hit on the head.

“Augusto did what he had to do. I don’t feel remorse. They came here to do evil things and it turned around on them,” said J.B,. keeping a straight look. “All four should have been killed.”

Augusto says he feels more secure now after the incident.

“Now I feel safer because they won’t come back,” said Augusto.

Not all store owners around Kaplan Brothers, in 125 St, feel the same way.

David Rosa, the manager of the new 99 cents store next to Augusto’s place that opened one month ago, fears other incidents might occur.

“We weren’t here when it happened,” he said. “But, of course it’s something we are afraid of. It has already happened and may happen again.”

Rosa said that he has placed security cameras in his place and has hired a guard for the entrance.

“We try to keep our eyes open all the time, especially after that,” he said.

Down the street on Amsterdam Avenue, Jose Bravo, 24, watched the furniture store he manages from his desk.

“I think all store owners around [here] are somewhat afraid, but we try to go on,” said Bravo. “I personally try to be friendly with everybody, but always keep an eye on the cameras.”

This fear does not seem to affect the neighbors of this touristy and colorful street who seem to recall that August 13 with apparent tranquility. Most of them seem to sympathize with and support Augusto. However, one Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) employee, Tracy Brown, has a different take.

“The owner of that store should pay for what he did. He killed two men and he has not been arrested. If he were black he would be in prison,” emphasized Brown.

BRONX New York—-All it took was one second to change fifteen-year-old Vada Vasquez’s life. She was walking home from school with her best friend just before four o’ clock on November 16th when she was shot in the back of the head by a stray bullet. The bullet pierced the left side of her skull, and hit her brain before going all the way though her head.

“We just want her back, I can’t wait until she opens her eyes. I just want her to open her eyes and return to normal,” said Vasquez’s older sister Mandy Boodram, 33, as she waited for her sister’s full recovery in the Lincoln Hospital waiting room.

Eight days after the shooting, Boodram and the rest of Vasquez’s family got what they hoped for. Vasquez woke up from a medically induced coma and uttered her first word, ‘Mom.’ Because of the nature of her injuries, doctors at Lincoln Hospital are stunned at her pace of recovery, said Renalda Walker, a hospital spokeswoman.

The shot heard around the Bronx happened on Home Street near Union Avenue. Vasquez was just two blocks from Bronx Latin School, where she is a sophomore, when a man opened fire with a .40-caliber handgun at about 3:45 p.m. Her family and neighbors have not been the same since—and the shooting has prompted support for anti-violence measures in the city.

“I call her my lil’ punk rocker; this is a terrible tragedy,” said Ruben Pinero, a superintendent in a building next to Vasquez’s home, which ironically, is on the same street where police gunned down Amadou Diallo in the early morning hours of February 4rth, 1999.

The shot, police said, was really intended for Tyrone Creighton, 19, who is the brother of two men who are currently in jail on Riker’s Island. Police believe that a fight involving his two brothers sparked the shooting two weeks ago.

“We believe the shooting was in retaliation to a beating that was given by someone who is in Riker’s Island,” Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said.

Five young men have been arrested in conjunction with the shooting. They all remain in custody at Riker’s Island.

The youngest of the five is 16 year-old Carvett Gentiles; police have named him as the shooter. Gentiles and the other four are charged with attempted murder, assault, and criminal use of a gun. Police said they are part of the gang Gorilla Stone Blood.

Two days after the shooting, Boodram and her family celebrated when they learned the shooter had been arrested.

“They got the shooter,” said the victim’s sister a few hours later, with the Daily News clutched in her hand. “My sister is fighting for her life. But it is a shame that the guy who shot her is 16, just one year older than her.”

Vasquez is the youngest of five sisters in a tight knit family that live in the same house in the Bronx, She is particularly missed by her niece and nephew, Boodram said.

“She took my kids trick or treating. She is such a good auntie,” said Boodram of her younger sister. “My son keeps asking ‘When is Vada coming back mommy?’”

The tragedy took a while to sink in, Boodram said about the tragedy.

“I always hear her play music in the mornings before school.” Boodram said. “The morning after, I thought it was a bad dream until I didn’t hear her music.”

Her sister Mandy describes what it was like when her family found out.

“I was cooking an early dinner and my mom was in the car waiting for Vada so they could go to a parent teacher conference,” she recalled.

But when Vada’s mom’s cell phone rang it wasn’t Vada on the other end, but her mother screaming that Vada had been shot.

“I ran to the car, pushed my mom aside and tore off to the hospital,” she finished. “I must have tore through a lotta red lights on my way, I was just focused on getting to Vada.”

This shooting has not only resonated with the Vasquez family, but also with the community.

“It’s been rough, the Bronx used to be kind of good when I was little,” said Jay Bonds, standing guard next to his grocery cart on Westchester Ave. “Now it is just about gangs, they are everywhere.”

He shakes his head and stares up at the elevated train. “Poor girl,” he said. “She was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

Long time neighbor Ruben Pinero is also in disbelief over the tragedy. Pinero says the neighborhood has been deteriorating for a long time and he often fears for his own kids when he sends them on a bus to school.

“I’ve known Vada since she was three years old,” Pinero said. “ It is so sad that kids can’t even walk home safe because of some punks.”

The New York Police Department does not keep statistics on people shot by stray bullets, but according to the New York Times and other media reports, seven people have been shot by stray bullets this year up from four in 2008. Of those seven, three have been teenagers.

Since the shooting, Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly announced they had broken up an illegal gun-sales operation in Brooklyn. And in Times Square Rev. Al Sharpton’s National Action Network gathered supporters for a “day of outrage” on November 23rd.

These events are happening against the backdrop of Vasquez’s shooting. In a recent press conference Mayor Michael Bloomberg asked all of New York City to keep Vasquez in their thoughts.

“It’s a terrible tragedy,” Bloomberg said. “Hopefully she will find some way to pull through this.”

Vasquez’s life continues to hang in the balance since getting shot on Nov. 16.

Since the shooting, Vada’s mother, Gemma, has not left her side and her family is still trying to come to grips with what has happened.

“My mom is crying enough for all of us,” she said. “I need to be strong for her and my kids.”

Boodram also says much of her family has been fighting feelings of guilt since the shooting happened.

“We ask ourselves, why hadn’t they been there or what if she had been picked up from school that day?” Boodram said. “The last time I saw her was Sunday night when she came down to say goodnight and have some lasagna.”

Such feelings of guilt are normal in a situation like this, according to Ronald Feldman, Dean Emeritus and Professor at Columbia University’s School of Social Work.

“Such acts of violence are extremely destabilizing to two of the most important protective factors needed within a youth’s community: physical safety and psychological safety,” Feldman said. “This is especially the case when an act of violence is widely publicized throughout a given community.”

In early December, Vasquez was moved out of Lincoln Hospital and into a rehabilitation center in the Bronx.

“I just can’t wait for her to open her eyes one day and say ‘Hi Mandy’ and then make fun of me,” said her sister.

BEDFORD-STUYVESANT– Steven Hill, 15, loved by many and cherished for his vivacity, lay peacefully in his ash-gray, pin-striped suit which matched his ash-gray casket. He appeared to have the peace in his death that he did not have when he was alive. Hill’s right hand had been delicately placed on top of his left hand to conceal one of the several bullet wounds that contributed to his murder on September 10, 2009.

“He was my baby boy,” his father, Larnell Hill said in the lobby of the funeral home; he could not bear to stay in the room with Steven’s casket. “When I was growing up parents were not supposed to bury their children. Nowadays, that’s just the name of the game.”

Today the name of the game is murder, according to police, community members and the Kings County District Attorney’s office, and Bedford-Stuyvesant is a neighborhood where it too often rears its head. Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brownsville and East York had the highest homicide rates in Brooklyn last year. Murders are down by an average of 10 percent from last year, according to the 79^th and 81^st precinct statistics, but that’s little comfort to the friends and family of the 28 people who have been murdered in Bedford-Stuyvansant streets.  So far this year, more murders have happened here than anywhere else in  Brooklyn.

Bedford-Stuyvesant’s teenagers have been particularly hard hit.  Youth murder rates here are more than twice as high as in other neighborhoods in the city.  And that’s saying something potent in a city where homicide is the leading cause of death for teenagers between 15 and 19, according to the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. In Bedford Stuyvesant, 49 youth lose their lives to murder per 100,000 compared to 20 per 100,000 in other neighborhoods.

Police blame an aggressive gang culture and the proliferation of guns. Clergy and community organizations such as the Bed-Stuy Safety Task Force blame cyclical social patterns of poverty and lack of opportunities for teenagers.

The Kings County District Attorney’s office is aggressively working with both groups to try to crack down on violence. Part of the plan is to hold more gun buyback programs which enable people to turn in their guns for cash. The police have also ramped up patrols around the neighborhood.

“It’s all these guns on the streets, and we have no idea where these guns are coming from, if we knew we would not have this problem,” said a police source in the 81^st precinct who did not want to use his name. “We’re aggressively trying to find the people who are dealing these weapons.” (good that you got this)

But people living on Steven Hill’s street say the police need to try harder. (good transition) For Steven Hill, it all ended on September 10, 2009. According to police, Hill was one of three teenagers sprayed with a barrage of about 20 bullets in a drive-by shooting just before 6 p.m.. just outside Hill’s apartment stoop on 217 Bainbridge Street.

“I hear shots like that all the time, but these ones were really close,” Joann Hill, Steven Hill’s mother said pointing out the second story window in their apartment. “Then I hear someone calling ‘ma, ma’ and my husband heard it. It was Steven.”

The Hills say by the time they got outside to the stoop, a pool of blood circled Steven from multiple gunshot wounds. Not too far from their son, 20 year-old Antoine Stokes was struck and killed with at least eight bullets. The third teenager Derrick Henry, 16, barely survived, police said.

“I held him in my arms and I thought the only place he was shot was his hand,” Steven’s father said. “But then he was also shot near his heart and by the time we got to the hospital, I knew it was too late.”

Three months later, no one has been arrested for the murder and the bullet holes are still indented in the metal doorframes and white walls of the apartment building’s entrance. For neighbors like Tony Grant, 52, who’ve lived on Bainbridge Street for decades, it hurts every time he sees them.

“It’s painful, it’s very painful,” Grant said, counting up to 12 holes. “[Steven] was taking out the garbage and [Antoine] was just eating his Chinese food right here, then this happened, it’s not fair, everybody loved those kids.”

According to police, the murder was no accident. The gunmen had specifically targeted Steven Hill and his friends because they associated with a rival “group” the gunmen had a beef with, but Hill’s father says his son was an ace student and wasn’t up to trouble.

In Bed-Stuy, Steven Hill’s Street is one street behind Chauncey Street—an infamous alleyway, known as “Smurf Village,—that connects two housing projects: The Brevoort Houses and the Fulton Park Plaza Houses.

According to Grant, ever since he was young, the Brevoort Houses have been home to the Blood gang and Smurf Village has been home to the Blood gang’s biggest rival, the Crip gang.  Police believe the gunmen hailed from the Brevoort Houses and drove down Bainbridge when they spotted Steven.

“Steven wasn’t with the Crips, he just hung out with them to fit in,” Grant said, walking around the eerily quiet housing complex of the Brevoort Houses just after nightfall. “He was a good kid, a jokester, but he was just a follower.”

The problem with kids following gangs in Bed-Stuy is nothing new. But, the board for Community District 3 reports that within the last two years there has been a rise in gang recruitment and “turf” battles all over the neighborhood, including Chauncey Street.

Grant, also known as the “Mayor of Bainbridge Street” knows this all too well. He says a problem area is, “The Colosium”—a basketball court surrounded by bleachers in semi circle shape at the Brevoort Houses.

“They deal drugs here, they bet on basketball games,” Grant said pointing towards two young men playing basketball in the pitch dark. “See them over there? They can’t play in the day time or they might get shot, so they do it in the dark because you can’t see them. It’s dangerous here.” (great quote)

Reverend Robert Jackson, a former social worker for 27 years and current Youth and Family Service Committee member for Councilwoman Annette Robinson, says gang culture, gun proliferation and violence are just by-products of a social system that has disproportionately failed black youth in predominately black neighborhoods like Bed-Stuy. For example, he points to the information from the New York City Department of Education that only 56 percent of black students graduate from high school compared to75 and 78 percent of their white or Asian counterparts respectively. (I rounded up the numbers)

“They don’t see success in front of them, they’re not getting jobs. They’re fighting poverty, they don’t have a lot of parenting because parents are working even two jobs.” Jackson said. “So they attach themselves to gangs to fill that void.”

Jackson says as a result of these tough social conditions, black youth have become immune to violence when it happens. Just ask 18-year-old Ronald Polite.

“I’m numb,” Polite said. “There are certain things that shouldn’t be normal but are normal now.”

But numerous organizations are now fighting back and hoping to give the youth in Bedford-Stuyvesant a chance. Like the Project Regeneration’s Foot Soldiers. The Foot Soldiers are a youth organization created to help teenagers in Bed-Stuy beat the system of idleness, lack of education, violence, and crime. They do anything from cleaning the streets for pay, to resume¢ writing workshops. Polite joined the group three years ago, after he got beaten up.

“I feel like I owe them so much, I can’t even pay them back for what they’ve done for me,” said Polite, who lives on the infamous Chauncey Street and walks 30 minutes to the group’s headquarters everyday just to participate. “People don’t have anything positive to do around here and [it’s] is one place you can fill your time with something positive.”

But for the Hill family, filling their time is painful. Three months later, the Hills say no matter what happened with Steven, the permanent absence of their last born child will never be replaced.

“He is always on my mind,” his mother said looking at the front door. “I still wait for him to come through the door from school, but he doesn’t.”

After the closing bell rings, the Financial District notoriously transforms into a ghost town. The only evidence of life is the occasional taxi honk or catcall from a construction worker. Outside lighting is a luxury and many streets are so narrow, barely a sedan can meander through.

For women who work the night shift in downtown office buildings, the neighborhood can seem particularly dangerous. Safety is always a chief concern. Almost six months after her friend and co-worker was murdered at 2 Rector Street, Luz Reyes is still on medication to cure her anxiety.

“It was like a shock at the beginning,” said the 54-year-old cleaning lady. “I was really scared. I did feel like something like that could happen to me. It could happen to anybody at night.”

Reyes worked alongside Eridania Rodriguez at 2 Rector St., just a block away from Wall Street. Rodriguez was a Washington Heights resident and mother of three who went missing in early July. Police found her body several days later, still dressed in uniform, with tape strangling her head. The medical examiner’s autopsy later found that Rodriguez died of asphyxiation.

Rodriguez’s murder reminded the dozen cleaning ladies at 2 Rector St. that the dangers of working at night could affect anyone. For women, homicide is the leading cause of workplace fatality, according to the Center for Women in Government. It is the second-most common for men.

“It makes me very nervous to work,” said Reyes. “You are afraid to die every day. I keep working because I need [the money].”

In New York City alone, there were 18 workplace homicides in 2008, according to data compiled by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Compared with the 15 workplace homicides that took place in 2007, this was the first increase in the city in five years.

The number of workplace homicides has been found to correlate with the health of the economy. A study by Christpher A. Janicak, a professor of Safety Sciences at Indiana University of Pennsylvania showed the monthly tally of workplace homicides went up, as did unemployment rates in varying regions.

At the time Rodriguez was killed, New York’s unemployment rate was at 9.3 percent – the highest it had been since 1992.

Several local newspapers reported that prior to her death, Rodriguez had expressed concern about working in a largely empty office building late at night.

Changes in security were instituted immediately following the incident, said Reyes. Portable radios were given to the cleaning ladies five months ago, so that if there were to be an emergency, they could announce it over an office intercom within minutes for everyone to hear.

Also, Reyes said, her supervisor checks on employees more often, and if anyone shows up late, they immediately begin a search party.

The 2 Rector St. supervisor and most of the other cleaning ladies said they are still too upset about the incident to speak with the media.

At the front desk, a security guard waved employees out of the building at the end of a workday. It is mandatory for them to sign in and out, and for guests to take a picture, which is then is registered into a computer system, before they go upstairs.

The security guard refused to comment or confirm any of the changes in safety, which were instituted since Rodriguez disappeared. She said that because the investigation into the incident is still ongoing, she is not legally at liberty to speak on the issue.

Cleaning ladies in the neighborhood still go about their work, despite the murder of their colleague. Some are more scared than others. Luz Reyes, a cleaning lady at 2 Rector St who emigrated from Colombia in 1982, begins her shift at 5 p.m. and ends around midnight. Her 2-hour commute by subway, bus and car to her New Jersey home means she does not get back home until after 2 a.m.
However, the trip home does not bother her.

“I’m not scared because I don’t have to walk alone because there’s a lot of people with me. Everyone’s getting off their job then,” said Reyes, who socializes with other commuters, reads, listens to music or plays Sudoku to keep busy on the subway.

She tried to get a job closer to home to avoid traveling during such late hours, but found that office buildings in Lower Manhattan pay twice as much as she could make elsewhere.

Mary Kaw, 57, a cleaning lady at a department store near 2 Rector St., ends her work day at 8 p.m., much earlier than Reyes, but she still feels shakey about walking alone in the area at night.

“I’m scared to be here late, so I run to the nearest train stop,” said the Burmese emigrant of her nightly commute home.

But many of the security guards in office buildings and residencies say that Lower Manhattan is one of the safest areas in the whole city. New York Police Department statistics reveal that this may be true. Lower Manhattan, with 15 murders this year, has experienced less than half the number in Upper Manhattan.

“It’s a pretty secure area,” said Emmanuel Manny, 66, a concierge, doorman and security officer. “Nothing bad happens here. No robberies. Nothing.”

Reyes won’t buy his argument. She said that her friend’s murder will always be in her mind but she feels lucky to have a job – even if it is during the night shift.

“I’m still thinking about [Rodriguez],” said Reyes. “But every day’s different. And you have to live with that.”

New York City got its first mass transportation line in 1837. It will get its newest one in 2018.

The arrival of the New York and Harlem railroad, as the first line was called, proved to be the catalyst for the development of Upper Manhattan. And today, the Upper East Side, known for its Museum Mile and the Gold Coast of stately mansions along Fifth and Park Avenues, is one of the city’s most affluent neighborhoods.

Will the installation of the long anticipated Second Avenue Subway line have the same kind of dramatic effect as the first tracks did? For its part, the Metropolitan Transit Authority estimates that by 2020 about 30,000 new residential units will be built as a direct result of the new line. And while real estate experts do expect to see an increase in property values on the far East side, in the range of 10 to 20 percent, they don’t foresee a transformation on the same scale as the one that converted green pastures into Gracie Mansion.

“The major thoroughfares on the East Side will still be Fifth Avenue and Madison,” said Jeffrey C. Peisner, a broker at The Ripco Realty firm. “East of Second Avenue is still only full of drug stores and banks. The greatest impact one could expect from the new subway is an across the board increase in the price [of real estate] between 10 to 20 percent. You aren’t going to see them open up an Abercrombie & Fitch because of a new subway line.”

The Second Avenue subway Project was initially proposed in the 1920’s to alleviate commuter congestion along the East Side, which contains nine avenues at its widest.

Over the last 90 years, three major groundbreakings have taken place, but outside factors like the city’s financial crisis in the 1970’s grounded construction. This latest push, the brainchild of Mayor Mike Bloomberg, has seen its own share of hiccups, from displacement of some 32 residents to the forced shuttering of at least 14 business, according to Community Board 8, which covers the portion of Manhattan’s East Side where construction is currently taking place. For residents along the construction route, it’s been a more than 24-month onslaught of noise, congestion and inconvenience.

In addition, the expected opening date for the new subway line has already been pushed back twice. With the current price tag set at $5.728 billion, the first phase of the so-called T Line is expected to open in 2018. It will run from 96th to 68th Street along Second Avenue. Eventually, once all four phases of the construction are completed, the so-called T line will run from 125th and Second Avenue to Hanover Square in Lower Manhattan. Once complete, residents of East End and York Avenues will see their commute to a subway station cut in half.

Despite making life easier for the East Side’s straphangers, the completed line isn’t expected to shake up the city’s real estate market. In more than 20 interviews, brokers, community leaders and other leading observers of the New York real estate world say that the new subway line is not going to cause a dramatic overhaul of the area, mostly because the neighborhood is already largely developed. Other obstacles, experts say, might prevent a brand new day for the area. Those include a lack of vacant lots and a high concentration of small apartment units.

And with so many other factors in play, such as an unstable housing market, no official projections exist on the impact the new subway line will have on the private real estate market. Moreover, leading observers point out that even though it takes the residents of the far eastern fringe of the Upper East Side longer to trek to the Lexington Ave. subway, it is still a popular neighborhood.

“The East Side has always been attractive,” said Michael Slattery, the vice president of the Real Estate Board of New York (REBNY).  ”It’s already a high price area. The subway will definitely make life more convenient for residents. But for development and an entirely new market. No. This area is too established as it is.”

One neighborhood that could experience a major transformation as a result of the subway is East Harlem, Slattery said. Once construction on the Second Avenue subway is fully completed it will end at 125th Street and 2nd Avenue, a location in the heart of East Harlem, which, according to the 2000 Census, has the highest concentration of public housing in New York City.

The area is already experiencing a bit of a resurgence, thanks to its first rezoning last year since 1961. According to the quarterly statistics provided by the REBNY, East Harlem, along with Battery Park City, was the only city neighborhood that saw its average price per square foot grow during the economic crisis from the second quarter of 2008 to 2009. In East Harlem, the price per square foot was $672 for the second quarter of 2009, almost 30 percent lower than the price per square foot below 96th Street on the Upper East Side. This past year also saw the opening of a Costco in East Harlem, the first in all of New York City.

But with the phasing in of the new zoning regulations and the complications brought on by the financial crisis, leaders of East Harlem are worried about the present housing reality more than the real estate panorama a decade from now. Opponents of the rezoning, led by New York City Councilwoman Inez Dickens, are worried about gentrification in the region.

“People here are not concerned about the effect the subway will have on their rent. It’s too far away,” said Robert Rodriguez, the chair of Community Board 11, which covers East Harlem. “Nobody’s thinking about it. What’s worrying them is the short term effect of the construction.”

For the last two years, construction has turned the area around 96^th Street and Second Avenue into a sea of heavy equipment, fencing and narrowed sidewalks and streets. Street closings and traffic snarls are common everyday occurences. But those that can think in the long term see the inconveniences as temporary.

“The small radius around construction is not so thrilled,” said Barry Schneider, the co-chair of the Second Ave Task Force run out of Community Board  8.  ”But the people who are visionary and can see beyond the hole in the ground? Yes, they are happy.”

Among the major real estate firms doing business in the area, brokers from the Massey Knakal firm, even foresee the potential for a makeover of the area because of the new subway.

“The biggest boon will be for retail-driven buildings,” said Tom Gammino Jr., a broker at Massey. “Because of the new subway, people will be going over to Second Avenue. That will cause a demand for more services. And in turn, that will drive up the value of the area. For investors, some are willing to suffer in the short term during construction, because long term they know it’s a homerun.”

When the T line opens in 2018, the first stops will be at 96th, 86th and 72nd streets. And it’s safe to assume that the impact of the new market will be closer to 20 percent near the new subway stops, said Jeffrey Peisner, of the Ripco firm.

According to Colleen Power, an associate broker at DGK residential, some residents on the Upper East Side are already keeping their eyes on the futures market.

“Nobody wants to live where there’s construction going on,” she said. “But the decrease will be almost insignificant because a lot of people think in the back of their heads that their property will gain a lot of value once the subway is done. Incidentally, few people are selling and the ones who are buying now are paying almost as much as before the construction because they know it’s actually a good deal in the long term.”

A Little over a decade ago, the NYPD took over training for School Safety Agents.
Since then parents, students and civil rights groups say they are too aggressive with students and want them reined in.
The City Council had the first hearing on a bill that would hold Safety Agents more accountable for their actions and more than 100 supporters rallied on the steps on City Hall urging council to pass it.
Tammy Mutasa reports. Produced by Kelly Koopmans.

What charges by the minute and talks while it’s working? A New York taxi cab of course. Well, the last part may be changing.

Taxi Phone Ban Confessions from Rory Kress on Vimeo.

There are ten law schools in New York City accredited by the American Bar Association. Only one is publicly funded – the Law School of the City University of New York. Not even 30 years old, the school is on the verge of a game-changing move to a new site. And as Dan Fastenberg reports, that decision is ruffling some feathers.

CUNY Law School On The Move from James de Mellow on Vimeo.

One thing a construction project like the Second Avenue Subway guarantees is a lot of noise. Aaron Lee and James de Mellow went to 82nd Street to hear it for themselves.

2nd Avenue Subway Noise / Columbia J-School from Aaron Lee on Vimeo.

By Yepoka Yeebo

Clutching candles, rainbow flags and home made posters, hundreds joined a vigil for murdered gay teenager Jorge Steven Lopez Mercado on the Christopher Street Pier Sunday night, joining thousands around the country.

“An attack against any American because of their sexual orientation or gender identity is unacceptable,” New York City Council speaker Christine Quinn told the cheering crowd at Pier 45 on the Hudson River. “It will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”

Eighth District City Council Member Melissa Mark-Viverito joined Quinn in criticizing Puerto-Rican Gov. Luis Fortuño for not denouncing the murder.

“Silence condones the hate that continues to breed in our community,” said Mark-Viverito.

The body of 19-year-old Mercado’s was found by the side of a deserted road near the town of Ceyey in central Puerto Rico on Nov. 14. He had been decapitated and dismembered, and his remains had been partially burned.

Campaigners say Mercado was murdered because of his sexual orientation. Juan Antonio Martínez Matos, 26, who told police he thought Mercado was a woman when he gave him a ride and panicked when he realized he was not, confessed to the murder three days later.

“It’s just horrific, being Boricua, that my own people did this,” said Romeo Robero, shaking his head. “And people were saying that as a gay man he should have expected this, like he deserved it. Nobody should expect to be murdered.”

Joined by politicians and activists, the crowd called for Mercado’s murder to be prosecuted as a hate crime under the Matthew Shepherd Act, which mandated attacks based on sexual identity a federal hate crime. It is still unclear whether the attack will be prosecuted as a hate crime.

Amy Pang, clutching a red votive candle, repeated a common sentiment: “It was horrific, really, just really horrific. “

“It proves we need the hate crime laws,” she added, looking over to a small group holding banners reading “repeal hate crimes laws” and “justice not vengeance.”

“A murder is a murder,” said Mark Ensler, who was carrying one of the signs. “Calling it a hate crime is not going to change what happened, and it is not going to stop killers.

This should be about making sure everyone gets justice.”

The vigil included speeches from campaigners and personalities, including fashion designer Malan Breton. Author Stephanie Jones also read a letter from Mercado’s mother, Miriam.

“When my son told me he was gay, I told him, ‘Now, I love you more,’” the letter read.

“Hatred is not born with human beings, it is a seed that is planted by adults and is fostered creating a climate of intolerance and violence. We must change our ways and understand that anyone could have been my son.”

Carrying a baby swaddled in a brightly pattered blanket, Noelle Maris said the brutality of the attack had scared into action.

“Living in the West Village, you forget that it gets this bad, those days aren’t over.

I had to come out here and do something,” Maris said, lifting a corner of the blanket to check on the baby.

The candle lit vigil was followed by a service at nearby St Luke in The Fields Church.