Author: Joseph Morales

Research at Street Level

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By Joseph Morales

Imani Phillips is an account manager for the management consulting firm Griffin Consulting. She has worked for 25 years helping companies determine what steps to take to improve their profit margins. Imani has helped businesses do everything from better managing their financial resources to developing more positive cultures. Another core part of her job is overseeing projects and ensuring that other analysts also make strong contributions to solving problems for businesses.

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6s in Queens

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By Joseph Morales

It is 2:15 PM on Saturday, August 8th in Forest Hills, Queens. 30-year-old sneakerhead Liam Anderson just woke up from what was a long night’s sleep at his apartment on Austin St and Ascan Avenue. In addition to being a sneaker fanatic, Liam is also a recreation specialist at the Al Oerter Recreation Center in Flushing and an aspiring fashion designer. The job entails developing and implementing programs in order to provide people with fun and enriching activities. He loved his job since it allowed him to help the community and develop new fashion design programs at the center. The programs would help people build skills that could be used to make clothing, such as sewing and tie-dying.

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Wonder in New Dorp

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By Joseph Morales

It is around 6PM on Friday, July 24th, 2026 at the field on Cedar Grove Avenue a few blocks from Cedar Grove Beach on Staten Island. 12-year old Justin Russo and his brother James are walking back home after Justin finished playing soccer with their friends. The two had spent most of the day at Cedar Grove Beach with the clique before going to the field. While it was a fun day overall, James was bummed that his parents wanted him to stay at the field to watch Justin play soccer. They told him that it was because they wanted James to expose himself to some sports so that he can ultimately choose one to play. Besides wanting him to play something, his parents also wanted him to be more well-rounded and enjoy something other than academics.

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Riding to a Summer Job

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By Joseph Morales

It is an 80-degree summer day in Bayside, Queens, and 16-year old Christina Kramer is waiting for a train at the Bayside LIRR Station. These days were her favorites, warm enough to catch summer vibes but cool enough not to melt away in the Northeast humidity. She really enjoyed taking public transportation since it gave her a chance to explore communities more personally. Specifically, Christina felt like walking and being in a public vehicle allowed her to see and hear more than she could in the metal box of a vehicle. She absolutely adored the freedom transit gave her when she lived in Downtown Brooklyn. There, the number of subway lines available made her feel like she lived in an international airport with flights to different parts of the city instead of different continents. Christina would take countless adventures going practically anywhere. This included the electric zoo of Times Square, the cosmopolitan streets of Jackson Heights and so many other places.

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The Interborough Juror

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By Joseph Morales

*In real life, Marble Hill Playground is owned and operated by the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation.

Carmen Gonzalez is a nurse at the Moses Campus of Montefiore Hospital in the Norwood section of The Bronx. Her husband, Andrew, is a curator at the American Museum of Natural History on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. They have been married for 40 years and share an apartment in the Marble Hill neighborhood, overlooking the northern tip of Manhattan Island. The couple bonded over the ambition they both have in their unique crafts and a desire to do the best they can for the people they serve. For Carmen, that means racing around the hospital floor ensuring that all of her patients are as pain-free as possible. Meanwhile, Andrew’s time was spent doing endless research and making constant phone calls to meticulously gather a set of artifacts for immersive exhibits about the history of the universe.

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Cranberries in Crotona Park

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By Joseph Morales

It is a hot and humid summer day at Crotona Park in The Bronx. The date is Friday, July 3rd 2026, and it is the start of Fourth of July Weekend along with the middle of a historic heat wave. This Friday is only the second time since 2012 that it has hit 100 degrees in New York City. The last time it was this hot, Robinson Cano was the best player on the Yankees and many of the modernist buildings that are visible from the Cross Bronx Expwy didn’t exist yet. Though much has changed, the things that make a summer day in The Bronx special have not. Dozens of people from all age brackets are lined up on Fulton Ave, anxious for some time to cool off in the olympic-sized Crotona Park Pool. The jingle of Mister Softee combined with the roar of the Metro-North Railroad and Cross Bronx Expressway make for a track more distinctive to the West Bronx than any hip hop mix created. Vendors known as piragüeras or piragüeros, pace the sidewalk hoping to sell their homemade piragua, filling the air with an ambrosian smell no other treat can match.

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Can Central Avenue See Bus Rapid Transit?

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By Joseph Morales

SOUTHERN WESTCHESTER’S BUSIEST THOROUGHFARE

Central Park Avenue is one of the busiest streets in the New York Region outside of New York City. It starts at the Bronx-Westchester line in Yonkers before traversing Lower Westchester to the county seat of White Plains. The street is often referred to as Central Ave and the street is known for being a major shopping corridor with large retail plazas flanking both sides of the roadway. Central Ave also provides direct connections to Ridge Hill and the Cross County Shopping Center, which are among the largest outdoor shopping malls in the New York Metropolitan Area. Non-retail destinations include the Westchester County Center, Empire City Casino and the Nature Center at Greenburgh.

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Major Infrastructure Upgrades Coming to Multiple Bus Depots

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By Joseph Morales

 Functioning bus depots are critical to the MTA being able to provide bus service to riders across New York City. At any of the MTA’s 38 depots/facilities, there are a plethora of infrastructure components that are essential for the safe storage and maintenance of the bus fleet. These include chassis wash stations, specialized maintenance bays and fuel storage locations. Even parking areas for buses are meticulously designed so that buses have clear and safe paths to enter and exit the depot. Due to the importance and complexity of bus depots, the MTA is dedicating $370 million to them in its 2025-29 Capital Plan.

Buses parked at the West Farms Bus Depot in The Bronx.
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Extension Coming to Bronx SBS Route Following MetroCard Retirement

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By Joseph Morales

The Bx6-SBS/LCL is one of the most critical bus routes in The Bronx. This route traverses 163rd/161st Sts in The Bronx before connecting to 155th St in Harlem via the Macombs Dam Br. Commercial areas served by the route include Concourse Village and the area surrounding the Hunts Point Av(6) station. In addition, the Bx6-SBS serves major destinations such as Yankee Stadium, the Hunts Point Terminal Market and Bronx County Courthouses. This route also provides connections to nine subway routes, two Metro-North lines and a plethora of bus routes. Overall, the route served over 6,300 riders on an average day in 2024.

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Is College Point’s Transportation Infrastructure Ready for New Housing Development?

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By Joseph Morales

College Point is a residential neighborhood in Northern Queens located just west of the Whitestone Expwy(I-678). This area of the expressway is often known as the Van Wyck Expwy, which is also the official name for I-678 south of Northern Blvd. The community is known for its urban-suburban blend that offers larger homes and still includes access to a variety of amenities. Shopping strips on both College Point Blvd and 20th Ave offer residents the ability to run errands without leaving the neighborhood. 20th Ave includes popular grocery and big box stores including Target, ShopRite and BJ’s. On the other hand, College Point Blvd hosts more of the small businesses you would typically expect on a NYC commercial corridor.

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