Tag: New York City

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Adamant About Being on Top

This past weekend I joined friends for the 30th birthday of one of my friends, Aysel. Aysel upon first meeting could be considered an Eastern European or Mediterranean Charlotte York (of SATC fame). Exactly she’s Azerbaijani; today Azerbaijan, which represents one of the largest countries around the Caspian sea region (aside from Russia) resulting from the USSR dissolve in 1991. She has a very straight forward, no-nonsense toughness with a slight air of family royalty, and overall engaging to have as company.

We entertained dinner with her gracious family and friends at Serafina; some whom came up from Miami. The wine and hospitality overwhelmed the dinner. Although it was a quick night for me, we later had the roof top overlooking Times Square, of the Dream Hotel for an after party and I washed down a square of birthday cake with some Perrier-Jouët.

Happy Birthday Aysel!

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Dem Smart in Duh Citay

Watching NY1 per usual to catch the “In the Papers” section where they read the top headlines and stories for us non-paper subscribers… when I caught a quick story on the Nation’s city High School Graduation rates and more specifically that New York City is among the worst large cities in the country: .45 percent of all New York City high school students graduate within four years. That ranks New York 43rd among the top 50 cities.

Less thank half the kids in New York City graduate high school in 4 years (if at all)! That’s incredible!

What does the NY Dept of Ed have to day about this? Uh well that this is an IMPROVEMENT! “Department of Education said that the city’s graduation rate has risen six points since the study was conducted”

In the America’s Promise Alliance study Mesa, Arizona, faired the best where 77 percent of students earned a diploma. The worst was Detroit, where just a quarter finished high school.

Some other interesting stats: Asians more than any other ethnicity graduate more (80.2%), females more than men (73.6%) and kids from the suburbs graduate more than those from rural, towns, and urban districts.

My hometown areas faired well: San Jose was ranked #2 (Mesa beating only by 0.1%), San Francisco ranked #5, Sacramento ranked #9 but Oakland edged just above LA and New York at #41.

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New York breaks out in feather flurries

I heard the news of the upcoming event and my first instinct was very juvenile, “Right On!” and sadly I turned slowly to the horrific what ifs…. But I wasn’t going to let those stop me from attending New York’s first public pillow fight event in Union Square. This event is not restricted solely to New York, but an International affair of like minded cities looking for an exercise of frustration relieve. Winter is closing, and this event will certainly bring out kids in everyone who didn’t get a chance to play in the snow this year.

Here’s a few pictures and a link to my gallery of others taken by me and other photographers.