Daily Archives: April 23, 2021

Roger Asmar opened a Mexican seafood restaurant in Brooklyn in February last year only to shut down a month later when COVID-19 made indoor dining risky business.

The King of Fish known as El Rey de Pescado in Spanish reopened two months later at its Fifth Avenue location in Sunset Park but struggled to survive on take-out orders alone.

Then something unprecedented happened.

Last May, the citys Open Streets program began. That allowed eateries like Asmars to serve diners in the roadway each Friday, Saturday and Sunday through October, as barriers cordoned off three blocks of Fifth Avenue from vehicular traffic. Car-free zones emerged between 40th and 41st Streets, as well as 45th and 47th and the King flourished.

The Open Streets saved my business, my friend, Asmar told THE CITY.

Now, small businesses are hoping to repeat the success of last years program, said David Estrada, executive director of the Sunset Park Business Improvement District. And for the first time, new citywide rules will allow retail shopping in the roadway along with dining and drinking.

But the group faces a major hurdle: a lack of money.

Last year, and this year, not one penny of city funding has been dedicated to this time-consuming, intense task, Estrada said.

To turn roads into open spaces, Estrada explained, his group needs to raise enough money to pay staff to monitor the closures a feat not easily accomplished in the working-class, largely immigrant and Latino community slammed by the pandemic.

The Sunset Park BID started a GoFundMe campaign last week, aiming to reach a goal of $38,000 to fund 27 closures on Fridays and weekends, up from 17 last year.

As of Wednesday, more than $4,700 had been raised.

The BID is looking to open up more blocks for pedestrians, cyclists and diners this year, Estrada noted, enough to cover the north, south and central parts of Fifth Avenue within the groups geographic region.

Weve proposed to close 39th to 42nd, 45th to 47th, and 55th to 59th, he said.

Estrada noted that the job of street monitoring isnt just about safety. Theres all sorts of little things where you just need someone there to keep an eye on it, he said.

Councilmember Carlos Menchaca (D-Brooklyn), who represents Sunset Park, said he backs the Open Streets program but shares local concerns about its implementation, including the lack of financial support.

Especially for immigrant communities like Sunset Park, where language barriers already make it hard to understand city initiatives and policies, the city needs to be intentional about making sure every business can participate if it wants, Menchaca said.

Mayor Bill de Blasio announced last month that the Open Streets program would become permanent citywide. His Department of Transportation is accepting applications from community and business leaders to manage their Open Streets zones.

A slide accompanying the relaunch indicated that the 2021 program would provide better signage, new barriers and more support for community partners. But de Blasio has not detailed what form that support would take.

This years program also allows retail stores to sell products in Open Streets zones an expansion from last year when only restaurants were permitted to sell outdoors.

In his State of the City address in late January, de Blasio promised that equity and inclusion will be at the heart of the Open Streets expansion, with underserved neighborhoods getting new opportunities to participate.

A spokesperson for the mayor told THE CITY that the de Blasio administration is taking steps to ensure the program is feasible for the long haul and encouraged anyone interested in running an Open Streets program to fill out an application.

When open space mattered more than ever last year, New York City created the biggest Open Streets program in America, said the spokesperson, Mitch Schwartz. It was a success, and its here to stay. Were working hard to build a permanent program thats equitable, accessible and inclusive to give every New Yorker the space they deserve to enjoy the outdoors safely.

This years relaunch has not been smooth in some areas that have already reopened streets.

Last week, video footage captured a man stealing barricades in Brooklyns Greenpoint neighborhood before loading them in a delivery van, prompting a local volunteer group to suspend the areas Open Streets. Locals eventually uncovered five barricades on the shoreline of Newtown Creek, as well as two in the water, Gothamist reported.

For want of funding, the Sunset Park BID is going to start out scaled back.

The BID initially plans to open streets on Saturdays only, slated to begin on May 1 until enough money is raised to pay staff to add Fridays, followed by Sundays, Estrada said.

This year, Open Streets blocks will run between 39th and 42nd Street, 45th and 47th Street and 55th and 59th Street.

Asmar said only one day of open streets per week isnt going to cut it.

You have to take into consideration that a lot of times during the summer, it rains, he said. If it happens to be on a Saturday that it rains, and thats the day that we have the open street, then were screwed. No ones gonna sit outside.

Sam Goetz, owner of nearby caf and bar Judys, told THE CITY that Open Streets, along with the state authorizing the sale of take-out alcohol and de Blasio greenlighting outdoor seating, saved our bacon.

Goetz said he immediately changed his business model when the pandemic hit last year, launching a new website within two days of the states shutdown orders to become a to-go wine and craft beer bottle shop.

He hopes Open Streets continues as it did last year, but the insufficient funding is presenting a problem for the local business community, he said.

Unfortunately, when the city doesnt contribute anything at all, what youre going to do is youre going to give advantages to the richer BIDs throughout the city, Goetz said.

That puts Sunset Park businesses at a competitive disadvantage, he said, when neighborhoods nearby like Park Slope already have full-blown open streets.

I know the city is low on money, Goetz said. But I dont think they realize by setting the system up that theyre also going to put different neighborhoods on different footings against each other, which is kind of a bummer.

For now, he said hes trying to spread the word so people donate to the fundraiser.

De Blasio and the City Council Speaker Corey Johnson committed to setting aside 100 miles of streets for pedestrians and cyclists last year, but fell short with just 83.

The popular program has become the nations largest street-closure initiative of its kind, significantly altering the way New Yorkers imagined streets in the five boroughs while offering a much-needed reprieve from life indoors in the time of coronavirus.

But it has also exposed inequities, says the Open Streets Coalition, a bloc of 63 groups citywide that helped facilitate the program for the last 10 months.

While New York City is home to the biggest Open Street program in the nation, there are still neighborhoods that do not have access to this valuable program, the coalition wrote to the mayor days before his relaunch announcement last month. Communities such as the South Bronx and the North Shore of Staten Island still lack corridor-wide Open Streets.

The coalition which includes Transportation Alternatives, a nonprofit advocating for cyclists, pedestrians and public-transit users followed up with a critique of Open Streets earlier this month, noting that de Blasio doubled-down on the community group model, rather than relying upon the NYC DOT, to select and operate areas for Open Streets.

In the long run, we believe that this model is unsustainable and inequitable, the coalition wrote, noting the numerous burdens placed on volunteer organizers.

Open Streets groups need a dedicated stream of city funding to hire staff that can be fairly compensated, the coalition continued.

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De Blasios Open Streets Closed to Ailing Businesses Scraping to Raise Cash - THE CITY

The $4.75 trillion wellness industry is all around us, Deepak Chopra would argue.

Its in the air you breathe, the trees in your backyard, the spa with a garden, even right in your pocket. And if you dont see it all those places just yet, you will soon.

Thats because the health guruspiritual adviser to Oprah Winfrey, founder of the humanitarian- and wellness-oriented Chopra Foundation, integrative medicine physician, and author of 90-plus bookssees wellness as an interconnected web of digital tools, individual soul-searching, and interpersonal experiences.

A relaxing massage at Chopra retreat

Source: Chopra

His work has him engaging in all of those fronts. During the pandemic hes organizedtwice-monthly group retreats at luxury resort Civana, where participants convene in the town of Carefree, Ariz.,for six days to rid their bodies of toxins and learn to tap into primordial sound meditation. (Sometimes he makes a personal appearance; other times he leaves the program in the hands of resort physicians.)

In Januaryhe releasedDigital Deepak, which uses artificial intelligence to offer spiritual guidance that feels like its coming straight from the master himself. For $70 a year,his Chopra app is putting meditation and self-care onto small screens everywhere; it came out in August on the Apple Store with Android still to come.

All this makes Chopra the leading authority on what wellness travel looks like amid the pandemicwhen we all need itbut may not be traveling muchand how it is poised to evolve in the near future.

Traveling in nature is one way to help build mental resiliency, Chopra says.

Photographer: massimo colombo/Moment RF

Some travelers will flock to the usual spotsthe Miravals and Canyon Ranchesto lose the weight theyve gained during the pandemic, but Chopra believes that more will seek out experiences that relate to spirituality instead. Of course people want to reinvent their bodies and resurrect their souls, Chopra says. But theyre looking for a reconnection to existence.

In the future well see travel combine wellness with exploring nature in all its amazing diversity: birdwatching, walking through rainforests, connecting with the life in the savannah, spiritual sites like Bali, he says. Youre going to see an influx of wellness travel for more than one reason.

All this relates to holistic mental health and building mental resiliency, Chopra says. In the last year, he says, the people whove found acceptance and opportunityrather than feelings of grief and losswere divided by their awareness and interest in fundamental reality or spirituality.

Experiences that connect us to nature, that assert our place in the world, and link us to others, he adds, are what make us mentally fit, helping us become accepting of challenges and able to grow in our personal and professional lives.

Attendees at one of Chopras retreats.

Source: Chopra

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Group travel amid a pandemic? Choprassold-out retreats, at Civana and elsewhere,illustrate that theres an appetite for itone thatwill likely grow in step with vaccinations and the rest of the travel industry.

Travelers are not just looking to shrink they're waistlines, either. Theyre looking to engage holistically with the world around them. That explains why some of the ideas that took shape in 2020greater awareness for climate change and the positive environmental impacts of staying home, an urgency around social and economic justice issues, the inequities of global health careare being incorporated into the way we think and talk about wellness. What we need now is collective conversation, Chopra says. This pandemic has given us an opportunity to create a more peaceful, healthy, and joyful world, but we have to rethink everything.

The best way for that to happen, he argues, is through the kind of intentional human connection that happens in intimate group settings, removed from the stresses and anxieties of our day-to-day. The retreats at Civana includeAyurvedic spa treatments as well as health consultations, meditation classes, and whole health education" classes;another, at the Fairmont Mayakoba in Mexico, helps participants find themselveswith the help ofPranayama breathwork and Chakra toning.

Trying to connect over Zoom is "like trying to eat a meal by eating the menu, Chopra says.

Photographer: LeoPatrizi/Getty Images

When people are in contact with each other, Chopra says, it influences and strengthens our limbic, or emotional, brain. Examples of that include real physical contact like that of a mother and baby, hugs, embraces, and even direct eye contact, he adds.

Exercising your limbic systema set of brain structures that includes your hypothalamus, frontal lobe, and hippocampus, all responsible for regulating memory, emotion, and behaviorcomes with many benefits.When your limbic system feels disconnected from others you feel depressed, he says. And if you feel connected with societies and communities, there is something that happens called limbic resonance, which decreases inflammation and anxiety.

None of this, he explains, can be accomplished over Zoom. Its like trying to eat a meal by eating the menu, he says. The menu gives you an idea what it tastes like, but you need to be given the actual meal.

Kyoto, Japan, is on Chopra's spiritual bucket list.

Photographer: Anton Petrus/Moment RF

Each trip you take doesntneedto be builtaround spa services and meditation classes, but Chopra encouragestravelers to prioritize places that reduce their existing anxieties rather than add to them. Every vacation needs to be a restoration of the spirit, he says.

That means a repudiation of overly commercial destinations, which lead people to end up even more burnt out than when they left. If he were to build a spiritual bucket list, the places on it would be Kyoto and the islands off of Japan, Indonesia, and the islands of the South Pacific. These are the types of places, he says, that dont steal your attention to a consumer product or service. They invite your attention because you fall in love with the experience itself.(Most of these remain closed to a majority of international travelers, so plan well ahead.)

Shiratani Unsui Gorge, Yakushima Island,Japan.

Photographer: Ippei Naoi/Moment RF

Its not just that these destinations are more focused on shrines than shopping. Theyre also places to slow down, intentionally focus your senses, and restore a practice of mindfulness. When is the last time you listened to a song and wondered when it would end, or read a poem and wondered when it would finish?Chopra asks.Thats our attention span now. We read emails and speak to people and gobble sandwiches at the same time. Were addicted to technology.

Luckily, its possible to find these types of restorative experiencesin your own backyard, whether you live inthe Pacific Northwest or in Queensland, Australia.

But these days, the anxieties around travel are greater and more complicated than ever before, as people navigate vaccination requirements, Covid caseloads, border policies, and frequently changing rules and guidance.

For that, Chopra turns to a tried-and-true mantraone that hes told his children daily throughout their lives. Find your moksha,he says, employing the Sanskrit word for freedom or liberation.

Make today more uncertain than yesterday, he continues. Once you live with uncertainty, nothing ever goes wrong.

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Deepak Chopra Predicts The Future of Wellness Travel After Covid - Bloomberg

Congratulations to all the 2021 College of Arts and Sciences teaching and research awards winners! These teaching recognitions honor faculty whose distinguished performance in classroom teaching is exemplified by their ability to educate and motivate students to develop the full range of their intellectual talents, while the research and creative activity awards recognize graduate faculty for preeminent achievement in research or creative activities that demonstrate originality and distinction.

Learn more about the award recipients:

In his teaching philosophy, Dr. Paul Davis writes, My courses are aimed to be mind-expanding, challenge assumptions, induce critical thinking, and yet be arming students for a successful future in a world that values productivity, outcomes, and competition. Students write that Davis teaching is infectious and inspiring and opens possibilities and instills purpose, inspiring confidence in them that they carry with them as the proceed with their education and careers. He takes genuine interest in students and the academic development and prepares his courses with thought-provoking material, integrative group work, and challenging exams that require high levels of critical thinking but also help students experience and internalize very difficult material.

As a mentor, Davis not only provides valuable advice on how students can succeed, he gets to know individual students abilities, strengths and characteristics. Harim Won writes that his mentorship goes far beyond just developing students skills in the laboratory, as they were encouraged to publicly present their work and prepared to submit competitive applications to scholarship competitions and leading professional programs in the country. Students who have worked in his lab have earned an amazing number of university and national awards including: 6 students selected as the outstanding major in biology, biotechnology, chemistry; 5 lab members placed at Harvard as the next place of training; 4 Nebraska Academy of Science awardees; 3 Goldwater scholars; 2 commencement speakers; 1 Fulbright recipient; and multiple student award recipients at UNOs Research and Creative activity Fair.

Dr. Claudia Garcia best sums up Davis abilities as a teacher: Not only is Dr. Davis one of the most dedicated teachers I have ever met, but also his commitment to students springs from a deep calling to serve others. Dr. Davis dedication to teaching goes beyond his role as a professor and is integrated into the ethical worldview that permeates his words, attitudes, and actions inside and outside of the classroom.

Dr. Samantha Ammons compares her teaching of sociology to teaching painting, whereby she provides students with the materials, different lenses or gazes a student can adopt, the challenges and advantages of each lens, and a demonstration of proper technique. The end result, she writes, is that everyone learns together, yet what emerges at the end of the semester is different for every student and she admits that she has changed as well. Nothing is as it was.

Ammons department chair, Dr. Daniel Hawkins, wrote that her teaching is characterized by seemingly oppositional values: intentional and passionate. She is intentional in how she designs her classes to optimize opportunities for her students to become passionate about the material, which is the source of her inspiration to students. Student letters support this observation. Students write how Ammons teaches them understand a problem they need to understand the problem. She challenges students to make connections between course content and everyday life, and that, in the end, how important it is that students learn more than just answers to questions by engaging with the questions to develop their own ideas. Ammons students observe that in her classes learning is enjoyable because she has a contagious enthusiasm that inspires excitement.

Ammons cares about her students, recognizes their needs, and helps them achieve their goals. Sometimes we dont acknowledge enough the teachers who quietly and reliably teach their students exactly what they need to know; who deal with student issues compassionately and effectively without drama; and who empower their students to discover and get to where they need to be in school and in life. Ammons is precisely this kind of teacher.

Dr. Bob Darcy is an outstanding teacher. He has written two teaching philosophiesone practical, one etherealin which his goal to help students both learn and discover. Teaching literature, he writes, is not about relating data or information per se, but about getting students acquainted with their own ability to ferret out a thought from the briar patches of their own minds, with his ultimate goal to use literature to prepare students for all the terrible complexities life will have in store for them.

He treats students with respect and his student testimonials reflect Darcys passion and professionalism...respect for students...his passion for Shakespeare. One student wrote that after receiving a C- on her first paper, Darcy worked with her to recognize and address the serious problems with her paper that she admits needed correcting. She explains this experience not only made her a better writer; it helped her understand the importance of visiting a professors office, noting that had he not been the understanding, compassionate, interested, dedicated and kind professor he is she probably would have withdrawn from the class in a move that would have changed her life (she ended up an English major). Students write that they consider it a privilege to take his class and observe that his classes are among the most memorable.

Perhaps one of Darcys colleagues explains the key to his success with students: Bob does an excellent job of responding to, validating, and evaluating students observations and orchestrating them (even if hes not in complete agreement) into an overarching understanding of the texts richness and complexity. Darcy has a remarkable ability to encourage, respect, and validate students, reflecting an exceptional level student-focused teaching.

Dr. Katie Shirazi joined the Biology Department as a full-time instructor in 2016 shortly after receiving her PhD in Medical Microbiology and Immunology from Creighton University. In her role, Shirazi teaches courses that support UNO's pre-health students, namely Biology I, Human Physiology and Anatomy I and II, and the Biology Department's 2000 level Microbiology class. Chair of UNO's Biology Department, Dr. LaReesa Wolfenbarger, says that Shirazi's teaching and mentoring impacts well over 500 students a year. Even before the current pandemic, Wolfenbarger called Shirazi's teaching "innovative in her use of dynamic, active exercises, including online polls, short skits, [and] supporting video content."

Of her own teaching philosophy, Shirazi states, "I do my best to stay up to date on the most cutting-edge technologies so that I may discuss them in my courses, and when appropriate I have my students utilize web-based and computer-based applications." Furthermore, she says, "I help my students understand the relationship between their coursework and society by including case studies with real life scenarios in my lectures. I also do my best to impress upon them that what they learn in my courses applies to many aspects of their lives such as their health and their impact on society and the environment."

Students agree. Former student Cristina Franco says, "Professor Shirazi wants absolutely nothing but to see her students succeed and will do anything to her fullest ability to achieve that."

This award is just the latest in a series of accolades Shirazi has accumulated here at UNO, including curricular grants and the 2019 Award in appreciation of leadership and collaboration for the UNO and UNMC Building Excellence in Academics through STEM (uBEATS) program.

Elisha Novak teaches both SOC 2800 Major Social Issues and sections of SOC 3300 Sociology of Gender and has since 2015. Novak is a long-time UNO Maverick, having first received her BA in Foreign Languages with a Spanish major and minors in Latino and Latin American Studies and Womens Studies (now Womens and Gender Studies). She received her MA in Sociology from UNO in 2012 and has taught at the community college, state college, and regional university levels.

Novak states in her teaching philosophy that I like to think of myself as an applied sociologist and strive to help my students apply sociology. After receiving her BA degree, Novak worked for several area non-profits including Justice for Our Neighbors and the Juan Diego Center as well as holding a position as Special Assistant to the Mayor, working with South Omaha Urban Affairs and Community Engagement. She brings these experiences as an applied sociologist into the classroom, and it has a profound effect on students.

One quality great college instructors share is the ability to develop a following, and Novak is no exception to this. One of her student nominators states that she enjoyed Novaks course on gender, immigration, and employment so much that she sought out Novak the following year to take another course with her. Another student nominator was moved by Novak's energy to pursue a minor in Sociology. Department chair Dr. Daniel Hawkins confirms this by stating in his letter, "I am inevitably contacted by at least one or two students at the end of each semester who are considering majoring or minoring in Sociology because of their experience in her class."

Hawkins continues by saying Novak is a wonderful departmental citizen, contributing to the departments assessment efforts and pedagogical improvementsall above and beyond the service expectations for a part-time instructor. Her teaching is also informed by her ongoing active research interests in immigration, human trafficking, and gender and social inequality.

Most importantly, Novaks passion for her subject matter is matched by her empathy for students. When one student faced a required work-related trip in the middle of a semester, she was not only willing to help me make sure I could complete my assignments, but she was also genuinely excited for my opportunity to go on such a trip. Another student faced with personal issues says, Ms. Novak made sure I was doing well, not only in the course, but in my personal life as well. And finally, one student nominator says, [a]ddled with anxiety during 2020s tumult, Professor Novak responded to my concerned emails with great rapidity, care, and empathy.

Dr. Ryan Wong conducts research at the frontier of biology and neuroscience and focuses on what remains elusive to researchers: how the genetic make-up of individuals interacts and causes the variation in individual traits. Wong studies stress and stress coping mechanisms in animals, with two broad themes: 1) identify the neural and molecular mechanisms underlying stress coping styles, and 2) identify the effects of stress coping and stimuli valence on cognitive biases [e.g. learning and memory] and associated neural and molecular mechanisms. The Zebra fish is his research organism.

To this end, his research lab has allowed him to collect behavioral data for research leading to multiple scientific peer-reviewed publications per year. He has multiple grant awards from the most competitive grant agencies, NIH and NSF (including a prestigious NSF Faculty Early Career Development Award) totaling over $1.5 million. Such funding indicates the valuable contributions his research has for society. Wongs research is internationally recognized and scholars from around the country write how they look forward to seeing the results Wongs future research.

Dr. LaReesa Wolfenbarger writes: Dr. Wong is an outstanding researcher who has a distinguished record of excellence. The quality of his work is exceptional and the value of his research significantly increases our fundamental knowledge of the challenging connections and interactions between genetics and observable traits in organisms. The results of his research translate to biomedical applications that will enhance human health and wellbeing.

Dr. Ramazan Kln, writes that the research questions he engages in are at the intersection of comparative politics and international relations, focusing on the role of religion in politics. Since receiving his Ph.D. in 2008, he has written or co-written two peer-reviewed published by Cambridge University Press, over 10 peer-reviewed articles (two of which earned awards at outstanding papers at the American Political Science Association), and composed over a dozen review essays and book reviews, among other aspects of scholarship and public engagement.

He is also editor of Siyasa, an on-line form for opinion and background pieces on Middle East politics. In addition, he has received over $450,000 in collaborative research grants and $18,000 in individual research grants. He has reviewed more than 100 article manuscripts and 10 book manuscripts and chaired more than 20 sessions at professional conferences.

His colleague from the University of Washington writes that Kln is a leading scholar of religion and politics, in particular on issues related to a states relations with minority and religious communities. Clearly Kln has accumulated an outstanding record of scholarship that is richly deserving of this award.

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Celebrating CAS Faculty Award Winners 2021 | College of Arts and Sciences - University of Nebraska Omaha