Autistic man draws skyline from memory

By Joanna Gonzalez

Published: Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Updated: Tuesday, June 8, 2010 19:06

 Every artist knows that it is nearly impossible to paint or draw a replica without looking at another depiction of what it is you're trying to copy. For Stephen Wiltshire, it sure is possible. This man has numerous artworks from around the world and is mostly recognized for intricate pieces of famous city landscapes.

His biggest and most recent piece right now is the replica of our New York City Skyline, which took him only four days to complete on a 20-foot long panorama. Wiltshire drew the entire skyline from memory after only riding in a helicopter for 20 minutes around the City's borders. His exhibition is being held right now at the Pratt Institute of Art in Brooklyn, as he tells Gothamist that, "My arm starts to hurt sometimes, but I push on."

Originally from London, Wiltshire was diagnosed with autism at age three, a rare disease that conflicts with a child's social motor skills. At age five, he was sent to Queensmill School where it was evident he was born with a knack for drawing. Before age nine, Wiltshire was mute, he could not communicate with anyone and all he could do was paint and draw.

Wiltshire's website states that at "Age eight, Stephen started drawing cityscapes after the effects of an earthquake (all imaginary) as a result of being shown photographs of earthquakes in a book at school." With so much talent and no means of being able to express his feelings or reasons for all of his marvelous depositions, he was eventually forced to learn how to speak by the teachers of Queensmill.

In his biography on the website, "The teachers at Queensmill School encouraged him to speak by temporarily taking away his art supplies so that he would be forced to ask for them." And believe it or not, "Stephen responded by making sounds and eventually uttered his first word – ‘paper.'" In 2006, he was awarded the MBE.

From Oct. through Nov. of 2003, "Thousands flocked to the Orleans House Gallery in Twickenham, near London, England, to see the first major retrospective of Stephen's work. The exhibition covered the 20-year period, from 1983 to 2003 and comprised 150 examples of Stephen's drawings, paintings and prints."

Stephen was first recognized in 1987, on the BBC QED program. According to his website, "Stephen was introduced by Sir Hugh Casson (past president of the Royal Academy), who described him as "The best child artist in Britain. Stephen has been featured in many books and his own third book, "Floating Cities" (1991), was number one in the Sunday Times Bestseller List."

Since May 2005, Wiltshire has illustrated many landscapes including Rome, London, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Frankfurt, Jerusalem, Madrid, Dubai and of course his latest piece, New York City. In 2006, "It was announced that Stephen was named by Queen Elizabeth II as a Member of the British Empire, in recognition of his services to the Art world."

Wiltshire currently has his own gallery, which goes by the name of the "Stephen Wiltshire Gallery in the Royal Opera Arcade," in Pall Mall, London.

Stephen Wiltshire is a truly original and unique artist who has appreciated cities around the world. He is now in our city, admiring it for its beauty, intricacies,  and all that it entails from the flick of an eye.

Smoking ban enforced in some New York City apartments: Secondhand smoke to blame for the ban

By Joanna Gonzalez

Published: Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Updated: Thursday, June 17, 2010 12:06

Smoking will soon be banned in some New York City apartments. With concerns of secondhand smoke, landlords are not allowing their tenants to smoke and will evict them if they do so.

According to New York City Citizens Lobbying Against Smoker Harassment (NYC CLASH), in December 2002 Mayor Michael Bloomberg signed the INTRO 256-A (NYC Smoke Free Act). The law banned smoking in restaurants, nightclubs, bingo halls, pool halls, bars, convention halls, catering halls and any enclosed public area.

With the threat of eviction if caught smoking in their apartments, tenants are having a hard time trying to find a place to smoke at home. Landlords are not only prohibiting smoking inside of apartments buildings, but even on the sidewalks and terraces that wrap around the buildings themselves.

According, to The New York Times, "Pan Am Equities, a real estate management company, may have been one of the first in New York to introduce a smoking ban to an apartment building."

Pan Am Equities properties at 270 Park Avenue South, 145 West 67th Street and 60 West 23rd Street are all now smoke free. Tenants who already lived at these residences before the ban started, about 18 months ago, are still allowed to smoke. Only new tenants are not allowed to smoke in the building.

Pam Am Equities has influenced other apartment complexes in the five boroughs of New York City, where people are closely living together and breathing each other's air, to carry out the same rules and regulations in and out of the apartments.

Some properties located in and around Battery Park City also have a smoking ban. The properties: TriBeCa Park, the Caledonia and TriBeCa Green all have a no smoking ban.

Some experts say, according to The New York Times, "there is no known law in the United States that prohibits landlords from banning smoking in their buildings," but "many trial judges have sided with the non-smoker," simply because this issue has taken an immeasurable toll surrounding the lives of people in this city and the country all together.

"I am for the restrictions on smokers. If there are designated places to use the restroom and designated places to throw out the trash, cigarette smokers should have designated places to smoke. The odor is repulsive and harmful to the surrounding people. Plus, cigarette buds pollute our streets more than anything else, so then designated places should have a place to dispose of them," junior Michael Sanicola said.

According to Science Daily, a new study was published on Sept. 29, "researchers find that smoking bans can reduce the number of heart attacks by as much as 26 percent per year." This statistic is conjured from only one year, the percentile may increase throughout the years if this regulation continues to expand and passes it as a law in all 50 states.

Science Daily also stated that, "According to projections by the authors, a nationwide ban on public smoking could prevent as many as 154,000 heart attacks each year. Direct smoking doubles the risk of heart attack. Second hand smoke increases the risk by 30 percent."

The Web site also reiterates that Meyers and Schroeder, the two doctors who did this study, "encourage clinicians to support community smoking bans and other tobacco control measures increases on cigarettes, expanded cessation services including telephone quit lines and educational campaigns."

Culture has a right to move out of the Barrio: Puerto Rican and Latino artists emerge at El Museo Del Barrio

By Joanna Gonzalez

Published: Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Updated: Tuesday, June 15, 2010 17:06

After 17 months of renovations, El Museo Del Barrio is reopened, revamped and the only museum in the City's well-known Museum Mile that houses Latino art and cultural pieces.

The museum was first established in 1969 after the orphanage that resided in that area was stripped down.

Now, as more people find their way into one of the largest cities, a director of the museum, Julián Zugazagoitia, told The New York Times that it "tweaked its mission to focus not only on Puerto Rican culture, but also on Latin American and Latino art."

"Culture has the right to move out of the barrio too. For Puerto Rican culture to be integrated into Latino culture and then into the larger world culture — that was always my vision," Raphael Montanez Ortiz, the founder of this new Hispanic cultural scene said.

The new $35 million renovation portrays the practical environment of most museums, as The Daily News states, "six-years-in-the-making rehab work has added a welcoming new glass facade and a cafe, redesigned the courtyard and refurbished the galleries and shop at one of the city's most revered Latino institutions."

"Pan-Latino café will serve comfort food such as tacos, chuckwagon chili, tostones, and rice and beans," according to NewYorkKidsTimeOut.

El Museo Del Barrio "will kick-start its polished new life with exhibits featuring everything from ancient pre-Columbian artifacts to a multimedia celebration on the role of Latino culture in New York City," according to The New York Daily News.

From the day of its reopening until Feb. 28, 2010, El Museo will be exhibiting, with the help of curator Deborah Cullen, "Nexus New York: Latin/American Artists in the Modern Metropolis," according to the museum's web site, Elmuseo.org.

The exhibition will include art work that dates back to the beginning of the 20th century, which will be, according to The New York Daily News, "Starting in 1910 with artists that tackled Realism and Expressionism, like Puerto Rican Miguel Pou y Becerra, and Dominican Celeste Woss y Gil;  and wraps up with Surrealism, with artists such as Ecuadorian Camilo Egas and Chilean Roberto Matta."

For the very first time, The New York Daily News also stated that "a 1933 Diego Rivera painting of a Communist worker grabbing a hand with a bloodied knife, done after Rivera's controversial Rockefeller Center mural, will be exhibited at El Museo."

Another exhibit, "Voces y Visiones" (voices and visions), "features over 150 pieces of the museum's 6,500 objects, including works of arts and historical objects tracing the growth of El Museo from its founding in a brownstone by artist Raphael Montañez Ortiz in 1969, to the present."

According to Artknownledgenews.com, "El Museo is one of only a handful of Latino museums in the U.S. that has a permanent collection," which ironically, is called the Carmen Ana Unanue Permanent Collection, a benefactor to the museum who also happens to be the wife of the founder of Goya Foods.

It appears to be that the museum is heading down the right path by incorporating Latinos and non-Latinos into their art scene. They are able to give both sides of the spectrum, literally, which increases their notability.

Zugazagoitia tells the people of the city, "We want to be the gateway into the neighborhood. Families can come here, see an exhibit, have a meal, go to the Museum of the City of New York next door, see the Conservatory Garden, discover the stores—really make a day of it. We want this part of the city to become a destination. We want it to be very welcoming. We are warm, and the colors will tell you that."

Bloomberg announces plaza is permanent on Broadway

By Joanna Gonzalez

Published: Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Updated: Thursday, March 11, 2010 20:03

Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced on Feb. 11 that the Broadway Pedestrian Plaza will now be permanent. The Plaza has created 2.5 acres of space for tourists and residents.

In May 2009, the Department of Transportation (DOT) announced a program, Green Light for Midtown, to shut down the parts of Broadway to traffic that run through Times Square and Herald Square.

The program was put in place to reduce traffic in popular Midtown tourist destinations. "Anything that slows down these taxi drivers is alright by me," sophomore Danielle Davis said.

According to GPS data and statistics, the program has improved New York City's (NYC) streets. Before the program was put into place, the intersections at these tourist destinations were constantly cluttered with people, cyclists and vehicles causing some of the most traffic accidents and pedestrian deaths throughout the entire city.

Although 6th and 7th Avenues may carry more traffic now, the amount of travel time going north, east and west of these locations in decreasing. Traveling south is increasing by forcing vehicles to find other routes rather than to cut through one of the intersections.

Now, according to Nyc.gov, "northbound travel speed in West Midtown improved 17 percent from fall 2008 to fall 2009, 6th Avenue buses are running 13 percent faster, motorists and passenger injuries declined 63 percent, while injuries to pedestrians dropped 35 percent."

"I agree with [what] they have done on 42nd and 34th St but now the M7 bus line doesn't run on that block, it's a block away to get to the M7 bus," junior Marlenne Rojas said.

The M7 bus has now been moved to 7th Avenue. Data reports show that the bus line is running more often since it is no longer getting stuck on the intersection of 6th Avenue and 42nd Street. This only allows more passengers to catch the bus more frequently even if it's only one avenue away.

These two new Plazas have created a haven for tourists and residents of NYC. There has been a six percent increase of foot traffic in Herald Square and an 11 percent increase in Times Square, according to Nyc.gov.

With the program now permanent, which is the first of many plazas that Mayor Bloomberg looks to create, he also stated that he will provide "enhanced landscaping" and more durable chairs and tables that will last longer for the years to come.

"I love the Plaza because it is a pleasant tourist feature that allows members of the community to sit and relax and not worry about getting run over," sophomore Ivanna Coello said.