CUNY Center for Urban Research

​If you redistricting fanatics out there were lamenting the fact that the drama around the drawing of new Congressional lines in the state is starting to wind down, fear not! Every ten years, states across the country redraw district lines based on new U.S. Census population counts. In the wonderful land of Albany, that can lead to chaos and exhausting all-nighters. On Monday, federal judges imposed a court-drawn revision of the state's Congressional districts -- marking somewhat of a conclusion to the long drawn-out battle (but the excitement's never really over, is it?)

Here at the Voice, we've focused our attention to some of the immigrant advocacy groups that have been pushing for a fair redistricting process that draws lines that are accurate reflections of the city's changing demographics.

One of the groups that has been making recommendations from the get-go is not taking a break from redistricting advocacy and today began devoting its attention to the next frontier: City Council districts.

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​Stop-and-frisk has already been a hot topic in 2012 with folks rallying for better police accountability and others screaming at the mayor at a recent visit to Harlem.

Today, advocates from the New York Civil Liberties Union are going after what they see as a very peculiar form of stop-and-frisk -- one that brings police officers into the private homes of city residents.

But this time around, they are not actually targeting the New York Police Department, but instead calling on the Manhattan District Attorney's office to release data about this specific kind of police action. The group has criticized the NYPD for its methods of stops and interrogations, which they say are forms of racial profiling and sometimes illegally violate privacy rights.

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​Rayon McIntosh, the McDonald's cashier who was videotaped beating two unruly customers with a metal rod in October, was cleared of all charges after eleven days of grand jury testimony. The Daily News reports McIntosh, who had previously served almost ten years in jail for a manslaughter rap, was being held at Rikers on assault and weapons charges. The two women who were ruled to have provoked McIntosh still are facing charges, including criminal trespassing and disorderly conduct. [NYDN]

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Mind further blown.

​Today in mind-blowing but otherwise completely immaterial news (we think): Today is 11/11/11. It is a once in a lifetime opportunity to see all those ones together in one date! Also! When your clock turns 11:11:11 it will be particularly moving, especially when you realize that your clock shows the seconds. Not everyone has that.

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NewsOne

​Coalition for the Homeless, an organization that develops cost-effective strategies to end mass homelessness in NYC, released their annual report today. According to the report, homelessness increased 8% in the past year, and has gone up 34% since Mayor Bloomberg took office in 2002.

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​There's been quite a bit of discussion around these parts about the word "hipster," especially after the New York Times' standards editor put the kibosh on using it yesterday. But what's the cumulative total? And what's our role in propagating this trend?

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​Prompting traumatic flashbacks and striking fear into the hearts of liberal arts graduates, people so traumatized by a TI-86 that they still can't bring themselves to buy an iPhone, and anybody who's ever had a nightmare about those numbers-obsessed Chasid stalkers in Pi... New York City is getting a Math Museum.

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​Even as the rest of the world begins to hate us a bit less, we still aren't happy. According to a new Pew Research Center survey, by and large, Americans are bitter, angry, cranky, bitchy, distrustful, and cantankerous. And then there's the acid reflux.

According to the report, we've found ourselves in a veritable "perfect storm" of government-hating conditions, what with "a dismal economy, an unhappy public, bitter partisan-based backlash, and epic discontent with Congress and elected officials."

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​Uh oh, people. The job market in New York City is officially perking up. Which means ... that old "nobody's hiring" excuse is just not going to fly. If you want to stay home and eat peanut butter and watch Law and Order all day, you better at least call yourself a "blogger" or something. Not that we'd know anything about that.

But, seriously, this is pretty great news, because we know how it feels to want a job and not have one (see YourUnemployedDaughter). And it was only a tablespoon of peanut butter, for your information. That Jesse L. Martin sure is handsome!

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Soooo awkward

​So today's your last day to fill out the census (supposedly) before you can expect some lovely government-enabled body to come pound on your door demanding facts and figures and being generally pushy and bureaucracy-oriented. And since we personally have been alternately bored/confused/tired/guilt-ridden/very briefly contented to our core (by the sound of the mailbox door closing) throughout this whole census process, we can't help but address our conflicted, hormone-fueled feelings on the issue.

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