Jackson Heights Life

There's a Groupon today for 62% off Ferrari.  Go for it!

Go to http://queenspridehouse.org/, scroll down to the Donate button.

Noah's Ark on 37th Ave at 85th Street - full service.  They take care of your companion animal and you.  Dr. Tello saw my cat on an emergency basis on a Christmas Eve.  Their staff is excellent - kind, compassionate - exactly what you want from people caring for animals.  We've been clients/patients for ten years and adore them as a clinic and as neighbors.  They're proactive for your animal and keep you accountable for your companion.  A model of service and clinical integrity.

Thank you for asking.  These are the words of Kathy Stevens, the Director of the Catskill Animal Sanctuary.

Fallout for animals:

"Gestation crates.  Veal crates.  Tens of thousands of chickens grown in a single building, sitting in their own filth, the ammonia from their excretions damaging their eyes, lungs, and throats.  Grown so quickly that the chicken industry now knows the percentage of birds that die of violent heart attacks because their organs can't handle the stress of being forced to grow to slaughter weight in just six weeks.  People chop off animals' tails, chop off their toes, chop off their beaks, all without anesthesia, because on modern farms, animals packed together peck and claw and bite each other . . . and god forbid the meat be damaged.  Every aspect of agribusiness is designed to maximize efficiency and profit despite the costs to the "product" (in this case living animals) and the consumer."

Fallout for us:

"I think most of us even know that the consumption of animals products is killing us.  Certainly the link between many forms of cancer, heart disease, stroke, obesity, type 2 diabetes, gout, high cholesterol, and other diet-related health problems Americans suffer from has been part of the public conversation, despite the fact that the medical establishment and the pharmaceutical industry might prefer it not be.  They make money from our sickness."

If you choose to eat animal products then please educate yourselves as to where they are coming from.  Buy them from the Green Market system if you need to eat these things.  The Green Market has a rigorous vetting process whereby the nasty stuff is weeded out.

You can check out their suppliers here:  http://www.grownyc.org/greenmarket/ourfarmers

All I'm saying is that if you choose to eat these things then please do so in the most informed way possible.  The meat available in Jackson Heights (not the Green Market at Travers Park) is probably from questionable sources at best.  If anyone in JH Life is in the local restaurant business and would care to comment, please do.

For 97% of the animals products consumed in this country please watch this video - Glass Walls - by Sir Paul McCartney:
http://www.meat.org/

I do not want to consume suffering, stress, adrenalin, antibiotics, pesticides and fungicides in my food.  I also do not want to exploit the workers in these environments.  The only thing worse than cruelty is delegated cruelty.  No thank you.

I'm glad you asked this important question.

I had a vegetarian burrito from Chipotle for a quick dinner - flour tortilla filled with grilled onions and green peppers, black beans, rice with cilantro, roasted corn salsa and guacamole  No fallout for me or any animals.  Now that's delicious!

I'd rather my dollars go to what I'm putting into my mouth as fuel for my body now than pay a fortune in cardiology and oncology fees in the years to come.  I look around at the citizens of our neighborhood and sometimes it is just heartbreaking to see so much obesity.  There is much discretionary eating on the street of bad food choices.  I'm thinking of approaching Danny Dromm about this serious health issue that our neighborhood faces.  Our schools, hospitals, police and firestations should be forward thinking in their food initiatives.

Feeding yourself well has to be a priority.  You're putting food in your mouth and expecting your body to run off this stuff.  You can't make excuses for something so elemental as three meals a day.  I saw the article in today's NYTimes in the Money Section on antibiotics in animal agriculture and am so further committed to feeding myself from food sources that I have knowledge of.  FarmSpot rules!

And so do cooking clubs.  Why not here in Jackson Heights, people?  The best food and the best people are in this lovely neighborhood in this great borough of the best city on the planet.

Wow,

I have much to say about the Bronx Zoo.  First, just to be clear, I love it.  Yes, even as a Vegan I love it.  To fact check, the zoo is 250 acres.  It is part of the great Bronx Park which also comprises the New York Botanical Garden and Fordham University.  There are so many wonderful architectural elements about the Bronx Zoo.  I did my senior thesis on the design of that zoo.  A few things to note (of many).  One of my favorite buildings in the entire city is there (perhaps the world)  -- The World of Birds designed by Morris Ketchum, Jr. and Associates.  From a bird's eye view it is a nest sitting on a hilltop aerie.  As a matter of fact the NY Times Magazine did a great piece on this structure back in '75? called Rara Avis.  His firm also designed the now obsolete World of Darkness.  The zoo is a design laboratory of zoological display over the past 100+ years.  As a vegan I most understand why the zoo is there and I am in agreement.  I interned at the zoo in 1981 at the World of Birds walking cranes.  They would be bowlegged if they weren't exercised and thus unable to return to the wild.  We introduced them back into the wild.

I digress.  Check out the sculptures of Anna Hyatt Huntington.  Check out Jungle World.  Check out the first exhibit of predator and prey ever on the African Plains.  The Lions and the Antelope can eye each other.  Bear in mind that it is only for our enjoyment and not so much for those well fed creatures there.  That being said, anything that has people thinking about a greater engagement with the planet is good.

Most of the pictures that I see on this website are of elements designed by Heins and LaFarge.  This firm also did the subway stations along the original Broadway line.  The exterior buildings you can experience are at Bowling Green, Astor Place and a few along the Upper West Side.  Pretty Cool.

Let's not forget our own WCS administered Queens Zoo.  It is world class in its own right.

If anyone has any questions about zoo design or the architecture of zoos around the world please let me know.