NYC Sentinel

There goes the Neighborhoodr

By Alexander Hotz
At its essence, Neighborhoodr is a wiki — a Web site that can be edited and read by any number of people. Uploading content to the site is easy. Visitors simply select one of New York City’s 60 neighborhoods from a main page before uploading pictures, videos, links or text relevant to that area. No registration or creation of a username is required. Content can even be uploaded via email or iPhone.

The Mice of WC Bryant High School

Mouse is a nonprofit that gives kids a leg up in our increasingly digital world. Today over 200 high schools in the United States have a Mouse Squad that lets students play an important role in the technical support of their school.

— Alexander Hotz and Alexandra Waldhorn

Writing for those he left behind

For all the hand-wringing about the financial woes of the journalism industry, a free press remains a sacrosanct component of American democracy. While American journalists are worrying about losing their jobs, some foreign journalists have much more at stake when they go to report a story.
Habtamu Dugo has lived in New York with asylee status [...]

DA’s office, Verizon team up for victims of abuse

Domestic violence hits close to home for Kings County District Attorney Charles Hynes. He grew up with an alcoholic father who frequently used Hynes’ mother as a punching bag.
“I will never forget the first time I saw my father beat up my mother,” Hynes said. “I was just 5.”
This past made Hynes particularly proud to [...]

Love in the time of activism

By Lynsey Chutel
There are few places in New York City as romantic as the top of the Empire State Building. For a couple using wheelchairs, this would have been an impossible sight until 1994. Nadina La Spina and Daniel Robert met at the landmark’s foot protesting its inaccessibility. Today, they still protest for the right to proper healthcare and the chance to marry.

Navigating a Foggy World: The independent life of Lavar Phillips

By Lynsey Chutel
Lavar Phillips is living in his first apartment. Like most people his age, Phillips is trying to assert his independence. Almost legally blind, his disability makes his life one of adjustments and adaptations. His determination to live that life on his own terms makes him part of a history of civil rights for people with disabilities.

First drink at the “Blind Bar”

“This place is kinda packed for a Wednesday.” Lavar Phillips ushers his friend Shoniqua Hamilton into a midtown dive-bar. Hamilton turned 21 a few months ago, and this is her first visit to such an establishment.
The Limerick Pub near 23rd Street and Sixth Avenue is an Irish pub full of all the clichés. Four-leaf clovers [...]

Mart 125: Changes afoot for a long abandoned building

By Spencer Bailey
Filmmaker Rachelle Gardner captures the problems of Mart 125, which housed a public market on 125th Street, in “Mart 125: The American Dream,” a 75-minute, nine-year work-in-progress documentary film that she began screening this year. For the building, abandoned for nearly a decade, there are also plans afoot.

Organizing Action: Disabled in Action monthly meeting

There was a certain informality, bordering on disorganization, about the monthly Disabled in Action meeting held in the first floor auditorium of Selis Manor in Chelsea on Sept. 13. Although chairs had been put out, many members rolled their wheelchairs right up to circular tables arranged around the room. By 1:30 p.m., the meeting had [...]

Morning train derails: None injured, commute slowed

A Brooklyn-bound No. 2 train derailed Monday morning at the Park Place station. New York City Transit officials said no one was injured and that all commuters were safely evacuated.
The derailment, still under investigation by New York City Transit, halted both No. 2 and 3 trains in both directions. Service still was halted on both [...]