March 31, 2017 - New York guest Blog

Post date: Apr 05, 2017 12:39:18 PM

Note: My wife Christine joined me in New York City and the following additional blog is from her notes

A New York minute

On my last day in New York I had to add money to my subway card, but I'd underestimated the amount. 

One of the places we'd been heading was to a bank so I could replenish my cash and I was down to zero. Following Simon through the turnstiles I got stuck back for insufficient funds. I squawked to Simon who had gone ahead. Before he had time to turn around a little middle aged woman was at the turnstile swiping her card multiple times and saying "go, go". It took me a beat to realize she was swiping her own unlimited card to demonstrate its unlimited-ness so I wouldn't hesitate. Once I figured that out I went on through. When I turned around to thank her she was gone. This left Simon and I to ponder together our appreciation for the people in this City.

Visit to La Guardia Community College

Traveling with Simon today I was able to experience some of what he has been up to during his visits with Community Colleges. Most of Simon’s time this afternoon was spent meeting Science department faculty at La Guardia Community College while I waited on soft chairs reading a book. This followed lunch in their main cafeteria and an upbeat conversation with a local about broken chairs—one of the spare cafeteria chairs fell apart whenever it was lifted and this occurred every 10 minutes or so when someone new tried their luck with the chair. The local at our table, a young man, joked it was the booby chair and you win a booby prize if you get that chair. 

The chair went along somewhat with the facility. It appears to be an older school, A guess of the date the building as built is around the time CCSF’s Gough St. was built. The school is rejuvenating one building and the rest are well tended and well lived in. This didn’t diminish from my overall impression of the school though because every hallway was lined with classic information posters on the humanities, the history of colleges, art, civil liberties—you name it, they had well researched information posted on it somewhere. There was some chipped paint occasionally and some signs of a struggle with graffiti but the halls for the most part were painted and the floors were clean. Wedged into corners and halls were lounging seats for students to study while passing time between classes. 

They have a Performing Arts Center. When Simon finished his meetings we went searching for their “PAC”. After getting turned around a bit we found the doors to their 749 seat main theatre and the department offices next door. We were fortunate to be able to speak to the Department Chair. 

He described the programs that he had been able to build around their Performing Arts Center with a mission toward art created to address social injustice. He said that La Guardia has the most diverse student body anywhere. That they have been host to shows representing many international communities reflected in their student body. Some of their students just come to school to learn how to drive a cab. Then they learn to speak English in the non-credit classes and then are gently guided toward the credit classes that lead to a higher level of education. Beyond that mission this PAC plays host to many dance groups and local “off, off” Broadway groups that need a venue this size. 

We described to him some of the struggles City College has had in building their Performing Arts Center. There were a few differing circumstances that have likely made the climb more uphill for CCSF, beyond that of the obvious state takeover and accreditation crisis. The president of La Guardia (CUNY) is solidly onboard and active in both the promotion and the fundraising for the LPAC (La Guardia Performing Arts Center). 

The local communities have embraced the LPAC as a venue, recognizing that it’s size fits a unique niche in the needs of the community and it’s mission echoes the altruistic goals of the area. The Department Chair said “everyone” comes there to speak, uses the larger auditorium for events such as the Governor’s State of the State addresses, the Mayor’s State of the City addresses and Bernie Sanders held an event here. 

In looking at the larger auditorium I mentioned that CCSF’s plan has been for about a 600 seat theatre. His eyes got bright and right away he said:

“that’s perfect”.

When we viewed the smaller theatre, a 199 seat theatre, roughly the size of the Diego Rivera we met the current playwright who is artist in residence. who is working on a piece called “The Arts” about funding for the arts. It turns out to be a timely coincidence that this piece is being released now. It also happened that the artist, Kevin Doyle, is a former City College Professor. Previously he very happily taught playwriting at our Ft. Mason campus and he described CCSF’s programs there in glowing terms.