Columbia Journalism School Innovation Showcase
On Saturday, April 27th, Columbia Journalism School will be hosting its First Annual Innovation Showcase. The New York World, a project of the J-School, will be featuring a sample of our digital projects that you can find linked below.
The event takes place from 12 to 5 at Columbia Journalism School, 2950 Broadway, at 115th Street.
Hope to see you there. For those keeping score, #cujshowcase is the hashtag.
The 2013 NYC Mayoral Election Hunger Games
The countdown ends, the pods open and the 2013 Mayoral Hunger Games begin!! We know the leading contenders want to be mayor. But if it came to a gladiatorial death-match to satisfy New Yorkers’ depraved appetite for political blood, who would survive?
City Council speaker Christine Quinn, Comptroller John Liu, NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly, Public Advocate Bill de Blasio, and former Comptroller Bill Thompson, who lost the last election, are all expected contenders - a.k.a tributes - at this point. We also threw in one-time golden boy, now disgraced former Congressman Anthony Weiner. Why? Because we needed six people for the poster and Scott Stringer isn’t funny.
Amid tracker jackers and other crazy stuff, who will win? You tell us and why. We’ll report back. Here’s how we see it:
John Liu (District 3 - Queens)
Special Ability
Gifts from secret sponsors
Weapon
Strongly worded statements
Weakness
Stunted from childhood sweatshop labor
Ray Kelly (District 1 - Manhattan)
Special Ability
Can stop, question and frisk black male tributes. Watch out, Bill Thompson!
Weapon
That gun that can shoot down a plane
Weakness
1st amendment, The World Will be Watching
Christine Quinn (District 1 - Manhattan)
Special Ability
Joining the Career tributes
Weapon
Thought to be in league with the gamesmakers
Weakness
Bright red hair defies any attempt at camouflage
Other notes
Can get married if she survives the Hunger Games
Bill De Blasio - (District 2 - Brooklyn)
Special Ability
Invisibility - no one knows who he is.
Weapon
Has none. He is the public advocate
Weakness
Tried to file a lawsuit to end the hunger games, ended up as tribute
Bill Thompson - (District 1 - Manhattan)
Special Ability
Was killed in the last hunger games and came back from the dead
Weapon
Surplus pins from Thompson 2009 campaign — very sharp edges
Weakness
Knows the taste of defeat
Anthony Weiner (District 2 - Brooklyn)
Special Ability
Screaming opponents into submission
Weapon
Twitter direct messages
Weakness
All footage of him preserved for the record
Report from inside the bus during scaffolding collapse
By Sasha Chavkin
On my way to work this morning at the New York World - an investigative website covering New York government - a story very nearly fell on my head. A scaffold collapsed directly on top of my bus on Frederick Douglass Ave, leading frightened passengers to flee from rubble that appeared to crash through the bus windows.
The Bx15 bus was heading west across 125th St at about 9:20 AM, and pulled alongside the curb at Frederick Douglass Ave to pick up new passengers. As it moved forward, a crashing sound came from the back. For a moment it appeared that we had hit something on the side of the street.
Then a cloud of dust or smoke began filling up the bus behind me. I was seated near the front, and the haze made it impossible to see beyond the middle of the bus - it was an articulated bus connected by an accordion in the middle.
Passengers began running from the back of bus to escape the damage behind me. Several were screaming, and one woman was carrying her baby as she ran. It was unclear what had happened or why the bus had filled up with dust or smoke.
For about a minute, the bus driver kept the doors closed as passengers ran toward the front. Passengers were asking each other if everyone had made it safely, and it appeared that no one on the bus had been injured. The bus was about half full at the time of the accident.
By the time the driver opened the doors, the police had arrived on the scene. An officer shouted for all passengers to exit the bus, and the police hurried us across the street to the south side of Frederick Douglass Ave.
From across the street, it was clear what had happened: an entire scaffolding had collapsed on top of the back half of the bus. The back of the bus was covered in rubble, and appeared to be heavily damaged. Dozens of police and firefighters were pouring onto the scene.
I took a short video of the damage and the police and firemen arriving:
After a few minutes, I walked westward away from the scene. I began speaking with a teenage boy who had also been on the bus, and said he had actually been in the back when the scaffold collapsed.
He said that the rubble had broken through the windows and fallen into the bus while he was still inside. “I thought I was going to die,” he said.
