Election Season

Madeline worked as a poll worker again in June, then helped one of the candidates clean up the neighborhood. As he picked up discarded election materials, he wondered what happens to everything his competition didn’t tear down. So Madeline went looking.

City Council District 47 had four candidates on the ballot in June. Madeline followed Steven Patzer around July 11 as he cleaned up three different sites in the district even though it was already offi cial he’d lost the race. While one volunteer was excited to fi nd a dollar and a lucky 8, Patzer was eager for a good picture of hypodermic needles to post.

Before After

Back again in no time

The two pictures on this page were taken Thursday, four days after a crew of volunteers picked up all the garbage on this beach. The way the storm drains are designed, garbage from the streets is being dumped constantly into the creek.

After cleaning up part of the beach around Coney Island Creek, Patzer showed Madeline where all the storm drains send run off and garbage—right to the creek. Four days later Madeline followed a trail of masks to see how they end up buried in the sand.

Wish th ere wasn't so much garbage here!

Opportunities everywhere

While preventing beaches from regularly being covered in garbage sounded like a winding trip through bureaucracy, Madeline had plenty of other chances to interact with government outlets during the summer.

The 311 app is great for reporting cave-ins and a blocked driveway, but trying to figure out what permit goes with all the tags that appeared one day is a deeper dive into the city website.

These campaign posters are believable but not real.

A health fair promoted by the state assembly member

FOREVER YOURS

BY MADELINE STRUM PHOTOGRAPHY