The local paper for the Upper er East Side WEEK OF
THE HISTORY OF KID LIT
29- 4
JAN
CITYARTS, P.10 >
FEB
2015
OURTOWNNY.COM
OurTownEastSide @OurTownNYC
In Brief
LOOK, UP IN THE SKY! THE DEBATE OVER DRONES NEWS As drones capture public fascination, they also raise legal, privacy concerns BY GABRIELLE ALFIERO
From Amazon’s plans for package delivery with unmanned aircrafts to aerial wedding photography, drones are, if not yet physically everywhere, then certainly permeating our consciousness. Even the trailer for the final season of NBC’s sitcom “Parks and Recreation,” set in the very near future, imagines drones as a common
presence. “It is the most advanced camera motion tool we’ve ever seen,” said Randy Slavin, a commercial and music video director who founded the aerial cinematography company Yeah Drones. The New York City Drone Film Festival, which takes place at the Director’s Guild of America Theater on West 57th Street on March 7, will showcase expertly shot aerial film captured by filmmakers who know how to pilot the unmanned aircrafts expertly. What seems like a niche topic garnered plenty of interest. The festival is already sold out. “It’s easy to get a drone in the air
and it’s easy to get footage, but there’s a lot of complex elements in drone cinematography,” said Slavin, noting that, like commercial airline pilots, skilled drone operators log hundreds of flight hours to become adept at the technology. “It’s akin to any type of photography. You can buy a really expensive camera, but that’s not going to make you a better photographer.” But what Slavin sees as revolutionary video technology has engendered controversy and some rightful concern, particularly regarding safety and privacy concerns. Unmanned aerial vehicles are highly regulated by the Federal Aviation Administra-
THE HISTORIC BLIZZARD ... THAT WASN’T
tion, which works to ensure that the new technology is safely integrated into airspace. In 2013, a Brooklyn man died when his remote control helicopter hit him in the head, and commercial airline pilots have reported seeing drones, according to an in-depth investigation by The Washington Post. As recently as this week, a drone crashed near the White House lawn, sending the Secret Service scrambling. Currently, any commercial drone operations, from Yeah Drones to Amazon, must seek an exemption
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TACKLING NEW YORK’S DEADLY TRAFFIC PROBLEM Survivors and family members of victims trade stories, problems and solutions at forum on pedestrian safety BY DANIEL FITZSIMMONS
Editor-in-Chief Kyle Pope, left, and a new public awareness ad from the DOT
© jbflanders/Bigstock.com
During a forum punctuated at points by grief and anger, New Yorkers and officials from across the city gathered to discuss what increasingly is feeling like a public health crisis: pedestrian fatalities on the streets of New York.
Do you know where this is?
“There’s a growing recognition that there’s an epidemiological element to this,” said the city’s Dept. of Transportation Commissioner Polly Trottenberg, one of four panelists at the forum, which was organized by Straus News, publisher of Our Town and The West Side Spirit, and held at the New York Society for Ethical Culture on West 64th Street. Also on the panel was Councilmember Helen Rosenthal, former
New York Times executive editor Jill Abramson, and Dana Lerner, the mother of 9-year-old Cooper Stock, who was struck and killed just over one year ago while crossing West 97th Street with his father. “This is Cooper,” said Lerner, pointing to a photo of her son that was projected onto the wall. “He was very gregarious and he
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Subways were shut down. Roads were closed. Millions of office workers were sent home early -- and all for a winter blizzard that largely didn’t materialize. According to the National Weather Service, just over six inches of snow had fallen in Central Park as of midday Tuesday -- far short of the 20 to 30 inches predicted as part of what had, at various points in the week, been billed as potentially the biggest storm in New York City history. (The current record-holder in 2006 clocked in at more than 26 inches in the park.) By Tuesday afternoon, sheepish city officials were playing the better-safe-than-sorry card, and scrambling to get subways and buses, which had been pulled out of service in preparation for the onslaught, back in service. In addition, parents were forced to find ways to keep a city full of school kids entertained, businesses faced empty offices despite very passable roads, and local retailers were forced to stay closed after telling employees not to report to work on Tuesday. How could weather forecasters had gotten it so wrong? Meteorologists said the storm made two unexpected, late-inthe-game shifts: first, it swerved further eastward than they had thought, and second, it moved faster than expected, keeping snowfalls relatively low. The result was an unexpected vacation day for much of the city, and one of the biggest phantom blizzards in history.
Jewish women and girls light up the world by lighting the Shabbat candles every Friday evening 18 minutes before sunset. Friday January 30 - 4:53 pm. For more information visit www.chabaduppereastside.com.