There have been jobs I’ve ducked or moved from. I was afraid of one client so I resigned and passed on offers to collaborate with people who would not be a good match. Living in this city I come across so many examples of brave employees or those given rough or risky assignments. I feature some here. None of my situations reach the level of these.

Three years ago I illustrated a post “Service of Inquiring Minds,” with photos that capture risky jobs. I wrote: “I marvel at people who work in precarious situations and have snapped shots of some. Is being fearless like this something you can acclimate yourself to?”

I continue to be fascinated at how construction happens in midtown Manhattan and feature a few new, recent images and I include two others: One is of a woman placed at the entrance of the popular restaurant of a major department store offering to spray patrons with perfume. [Most give me a headache,] Who wants to eat lunch with a possibly annoying lingering scent? Luckily, I didn’t detect a trace of any kind of perfume. Talk about being set up to fail.

In another I caught two police people questioning a driver. These days they could be flirting with danger.

Have you been faced with hard jobs? Can you name a few you’ve observed?

   

This post is about crowdfunding for money, but some crowdfunding platforms are used to gather momentum for causes which is a crucial mention on September 11 and the day after a vicious politically motivated execution.

Philip Galanes, “Social Q’s” New York Times columnist, advised a reader about whether or not to warn a cousin that she was “damaging her reputation” by asking for help, through crowdfunding, to pay a $5,000 vet bill. The cousin’s young dog had died suddenly. The reader said her cousin had double the amount in savings, a good job and was going on vacation. She thought her relative should cancel the vacation to cover half the cost rather than resort to soliciting funds from others. “Now, people are asking me about her financial condition,” she told Galanes.

While it came with reasons, in short, the columnist’s response was to “leave your cousin alone.”

Do you think it’s easier to ask for money from an online community than to call friends and relatives?

Have you been asked and contributed to a person or joined an initiative in support of a cause?

Under what circumstances is crowdfunding for money appropriate: To start a new business or project? To keep the wolf from the door? To cover the cost of a lifesaving medical procedure?  A facelift? How often should a person reach for help in this way?

   

I’ve covered this subject from diverse perspectives over years. This morning as I watered plants I thought of a friend who died recently who’d given me some of the ones I nurture. I’d similarly think of her as I watered them when she was alive.

The same thing happens when I catch sight of a gift given me. The measuring spoons in the photo above are an example. Those who advise you toss things you haven’t used in a year don’t have sentimental feelings about some belongings nor are they caretakers of generations-old family possessions.

Twice a week, I send emails to friends with highlights of my posts here. Since 2008, when I started doing this, I’ve lost some dear pals. I think of them especially then and also on holidays and my birthday when they always sent me cards.

I’ll pass by a once-favorite restaurant, [or the storefront where one once served customers], and think of the friends I’d meet there.

On hearing a juicy tidbit I often want to share it with a friend or relative who is no longer here. Conversely, as news scares or horrifies me, I’m relieved they are no longer around to worry too.

One friend does the kind of sweet things my mother used to do. Bells ring when this happens.

When I see a vintage movie on TCM that I first saw decades ago, my reaction to some of the characters is strikingly different which underscores how society and I have changed over years. Sometimes I remember the person with whom I first saw the film. Mom and I saw “Wait Until Dark,” and “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” together and stood in line outside “The Graduate” for an hour in 4-degree temperature.

What triggers your memories whether you want them to seep into your mind or not?

   

A few weeks ago, the NY press reported that the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s inspector general shared results of an investigation in which 80 percent of lost items given employees never made it to the system’s Lost and Found.

“In a field test, more than 80% of items that auditors from the Office of the MTA Inspector General (OIG) gave to NYC Transit personnel were never logged in to the agency’s lost and found database. Only one of the 24 items that were turned in, a keychain with an email address on it, was recovered,” wrote Dominique Jack for WPIX.

That makes me sad.

As I’ve written previously I’ve regularly found credit cards on the floor of an upstate NY high-end grocery/plant store. I’d hand them in to someone at the customer service desk. I assume they tracked down the owner. Recently I found a phone with credit card in a Manhattan Trader Joe’s and again, I gave the essential items to the customer service desk.

I was able to find the owner of a mobile phone left behind on a commuter train. Same with a wallet left on the seat of a cab and one lost on Third Avenue in Manhattan.

San Francisco International Airport rescued my prescription reading glasses that fell off my lap during a late-night incoming flight. I was elated because they cost a fortune. I got to the airport early for my return flight to sift through a box of lost glasses and there they were.

My husband constantly lost things from hats, gloves, scarves and umbrellas to small electronic devices. I don’t recall his ever seeing any of them again except for the small recording device filled with contact reports from business meetings. He’d left it in his London hotel room. He dropped by to retrieve it on his way home from Italy.  [That’s a story for another time.]

I once stood in line at the Metro-North Lost and Found hoping to retrieve a hat he’d left on the train. In front of me was a young couple in search of a tiny, fuzzy purse. Lost and Found had it and inside was $300. They didn’t have his hat.

When you find something, do you try to track down the owner or do you give it to a random employee or to someone in customer service? After learning about the shameful results of the MTA investigation, will you, in future, try to locate the owner of the item–if it’s something like a credit card, phone, wallet or keys with ID?

   

The first thing you should do is to choose a date when the opposition will be unavailable to attend: Thursday before Labor Day is perfect, because many people take off to enjoy the last official summer weekend.

Plan a second hearing on a weekday during the hours of 9 to 5. That way many potential attendees who oppose your proposal will be at work.

Next, choose a venue that can’t hold many participants and control who is allowed to enter favoring the folks who support your initiative. Ideally, the auditorium should be largely filled with your supporters when you make your presentation to the decision makers.

Does this sound like a draft of a proposal for a potential client who wants a license to introduce a controversial addition to a residential neighborhood?

It’s not.

It’s what’s happening in Manhattan especially to residents in zip codes 10017 and 10016 who don’t want a casino to spoil our neighborhood. And not just any casino or a discreet one. This one is projected to be 500,000 square feet. By comparison, Mohegan Sun boasts 364,000 square feet, Foxwoods 344,000 and some of the largest in Las Vegas, 150,000. [These stats thanks to Google AI.]

Following are my observations of the first hearing that took place last Thursday in the basement of Scandinavia House on Park Avenue in a hall that holds 150 people where decision makers heard the yeas and nays. I’d never been to a hearing before.

The real estate developer in charge of Freedom Plaza, an initiative to build this giant gaming house on First Avenue between 38th and 41st Streets, was in control of the hearing. For 20 years the business had a license to build apartment houses in the stretch of land on the other side of the FDR Drive, facing the East River, but never did.

I stood in line outside the meeting place only I wasn’t allowed in. Nor was anyone opposing the casino. The door was open only those in favor. The entrance was flanked by security. One of the guards, dressed in black, was nearly 7 feet tall and in buff shape.

After the pro-casino folks were plucked from the line, a few of us were permitted in the building. We gathered in the hallway outside the auditorium but weren’t allowed into the hearing. All the seats were taken. We missed the developer’s presentation*** to the Community Advisory Committee {CAC]. The members will determine whether Freedom Plaza gets the go-ahead to build a casino, giant garage, gargantuan hotel, and apartments—at affordable and conventional prices—in a residential area.

***As I wasn’t allowed in the room, I don’t know if there were two presentations–one by the real estate developer and one by an entity that opposed the casino in this neighborhood.

Each speaker was given two minutes [see photo below] and was asked to state name and ZIP Code. Most of the pro-casino speakers that I heard [I left at 7:15 pm and the hearing was scheduled to continue until 9 pm] did not live in or near the district. When the moderator suggested that speakers stop giving their zip codes the uproar of dissent from attendees chased away that idea.

I recommend to any speaker at a hearing to state their position first thing. Some were cut off before saying.

The casino supporters represented people with interest in the project, such as union construction workers, a few real estate agents and others mesmerized by the promise of low-cost housing. One speaker touted the architectural benefits as a handsome addition to the neighborhood. I counted two pro casino speakers who said they were in the affected zip codes.

I’m pretty sure that many of the speakers in favor had been given scripts prepared by professionals. One of the relatively few anti-casino speakers asked who would be happy if a casino appeared across or down the street from where they lived.

The moderator pleaded with the audience to remain silent during and after each speaker. Those against the casino didn’t listen even when threatened that they’d be expelled from the room. We clapped and cheered anyway. We also booed loudly when a speaker spoke of enhanced real estate values as just the opposite is true.

A man representing a construction union caused the room to break into laughter when among the benefits of the project he noted the inclusion of a gambling addiction support group on premises.

Anti-casino residents have another way to be heard. We can write to the Freedom Plaza Community Advisory Committee: FreedomPlazaPublicComment@nystec.com.

Most of the points I had in my letter were made by speakers: A potential uptick of crime and holdups; the intrusion of millions of visitors to upset the character of a residential area; increased traffic/pollution; patients in ambulances caught in gridlock impeded from getting to nearby NYU Langone Hospital promptly and should the city endorse an addictive and potentially destructive activity by authorizing a venue that celebrates it? I mentioned that the neighborhood closes down for a week in September to accommodate the visitors to the UN General Assembly. What will the city close down to accommodate a casino?

What we both missed pointing out [at least in the time I attended]: What does NYC have more of than most cities–and doesn’t need more of? Entertainment.

The anti-casino speakers were at a disadvantage because they weren’t organized and their comments strayed to other aspects of the project diluting the impact of their remarks. A few on both sides touted benefits of low-cost housing included in the project because the city is in dire need of it. True, but off topic.

As we left, there was a buffet no doubt paid for by the developer. Not sure an oponent to a casino will be swayed by free sandwiches, fruit, cookies and soda, but you never know.

Have you been to a hearing? Did you feel that one side of the argument had control of the conversation? Are you surprised that New York State allowed this to happen?