The amount of information coming at me these days is confusing. Do I believe the article I just read in the NY Times? Or how do I decipher the letter, attempting to read between the lines to find a nugget of what is happening? Maybe I should turn it all off because politics has become like weather; if you wait, it might change.

Then I talk to people who have a hand in the industries that have caved to Trump. The few people that I know at Columbia University are distraught, as they should be. I mean, WTF? Doesn’t Columbia have $400m in its coffers from years of alumni fundraising? The entire board should be ousted, they obviously do not know how to manage free thinking, aka one of our rights as Americans, at least we thought so. How about calling all the other universities and colleges across the country and join together. Where is our unity against the supposed king? We are a democracy. Our education is the best in the world, or maybe it isn’t.

Then there is the slaughter of the countless departments and more to come. Years ago, Sears brought in a new leader, and he slashed and burned the company to prepare for the next generation. He failed to tell the board that the company’s stock would probably go down 70% before it returned with a new generation Sears. Needless to say, it did not go well for him, or Sears.

The dismantling of the Government is head-spinning. Change is needed, but it would be nice if this White House crew knew a bit about how the Government runs. Not sure they know how to run private or public companies either. As someone who has been getting a first-hand education on how NYCHA is run, I firmly believe the Government should not be running programs and more. There should be boundaries and laws so non-profit organizations and private companies could oversee education, health (that should be non-profit and free), public housing, etc. The question the Democrats should be talking about is, how do we rebuild when the whole thing goes down in flames, including our friends who now hate us.

I believe in the law of the land because there is room for debate. The law should save us all. We need to unite and say no; we will not sit back and let Trump run for a third term or corrupt the system for himself. Put nothing past this guy.   

Stopping this is impossible because they do not care what we say. They firmly believe that everything should be privatized, and of course, I should toss in that small part of being run by an authoritarian. I am saddened by Columbia, the law firms, and the companies who have caved on DEI, and I will not do business with them but I am not going to believe much of what I read, because in the end, we will have to rebuild America, and what is that going to look like?

What is an employer’s responsibility? The primary responsibility is to provide a safe working environment where employees are paid a fair wage, supply access to healthcare insurance, create a safe workspace without discrimination, nurture their careers, take ample time off to relax, have a life and refresh, and give them opportunities to grow. It is also the responsibility of the employee to adhere to company policies and fulfill their job duties. Why do many not do this?

This is something I am passionate about. I have witnessed too many companies that treat their employees like shit. I have never understood that because the employees are the key to every company’s success. Diversity is a main pillar that creates environments with different thinking styles. The data is there.

Our job is to run a profitable business while ensuring everyone is paid a wage that gives people a life when they do not have to worry about healthcare, rent, or food because they are paid appropriately. It’s our responsibility to keep our employees happy.

Some never want to grow in their careers, while others have higher hopes. I would be thrilled if someone eventually left Gotham to open their own store or move up the career ladder if we do not have that available. Nothing would make me happier.

I am reading Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich, who went undercover as a journalist to investigate the impact of the 1996 welfare act on the working poor. The minimum wage forces many of these workers to have 2 to 3 jobs to make rent, put food on the table and put gas in the car. It is impossible to have any upward mobility in these jobs. What is fascinating is many of the workers are resigned to this if the employers treat them meh because they have been knocked down so many times they have become numb to reality. The book is brilliant and insanely well-written, I highly recommend reading it and although written awhile ago, not much has changed.

Back to an employer’s responsibility. At Gotham, doing the right thing by our employees is the pillar of our company. We even run a monthly education program so our employees can learn about all aspects of the business. We all know how much money publicly traded companies make, such as Amazon, Walmart, and other household brands whose employees are not truly being taken care of.

This is from the book. When someone works for less pay than she can live on … she has made a great sacrifice for you … The “working poor” … are in fact the major philanthropists of our society. They neglect their own children so that the children of others will be cared for; they live in substandard housing so that other homes will be shiny and perfect; they endure privation so that inflation will be low and stock prices high. To be a member of the working poor is to be an anonymous donor, a nameless benefactor, to everyone.

Will this ever change? I think about doing the right thing by Gotham employees daily, and I wish more employers did the right thing.

For several years, we have been involved with STRIVE, an organization that helps people coming out of the justice system to find careers. They are our partner in our Bowery location, and our foundation, Gotham Gives, supports their Fresh Start program. 

Strive has been changing lives for the past 40 years. But not enough people know about them and the good work they do. That is starting to change. 

The other week, STRIVE was invited to host a panel discussion at SXSW EDU in Austin called “Alternative Trade School for People Facing Systemic Barriers.”

The panelists included funders and corporate partners, as well as Roy Castro, a Board Member and STRIVE graduate whom I’ve written about before. 

They talked about how STRIVE’s wraparound services offer an alternative to trade schools. Their combination of professional training and holistic support offers adults, including the justice-impacted, a transformative pathway to economic prosperity. STRIVE also makes a lifetime commitment to graduates throughout their career journey.

They have forged strong partnerships with companies, like Mt. Sinai Medical Services, that hire graduates but also work with STRIVE to create curricula that make sense for the jobs they will be doing at the hospital. The graduates get jobs, and the companies fill needed roles. It’s win-win.

I love so much about what STRIVE does and, most importantly, its impact. These jobs are essential; they need physical humans to work in them, not robots.

If you want to donate, you can join us and Neil Degrasse Tyson, who donated his earnings from playing Celebrity Jeopardy.

Shopping on line isn’t what it used to be.  I dont find it fun anymore.  Everything looks the same. Instagram feels like riding the subway when everyone is wearing the latest but at different price points.  

I just spent the last two weeks in LA, where I find shopping weak. The curation of their assortments rarely speaks to me. 

There is a store in Santa Monica right near the newly transplanted H&H bagels (sorry, not that good). I had not been in years but I needed a fix, the new season is upon us and I have a few events coming up. 

I found a few things, one of which is a serious win. It was a short, sweet, and lovely experience. Of course, it is so much better when you make a purchase. That’s why online works. You usually make a purchase, although you might return it. That act of the purchase is subtly embedded in our psyche.

The tech era has changed everything, and each revolution has evolved us as humans.  We are about to enter the long tale of the technology era, which will shift the job market. Uber drivers will be done when Waymo hits all urban cities and spreads into the burbs.  Robots will replace Amazon packers. 

Where do these people all go? To businesses that need people, like restaurants, stores, and community hubs. The businesses at the street level will grow because we all want human contact. 

Five years from now, a lot is going to change, but I hope to always hit the streets and do a little shopping at my fave shops. The experience is still very worthy.

When I began to go through menopause, I kept getting UTIs and other infections that failed to heal quickly. It sent me down a doctor hole that nobody enjoys going through.  

I saw many doctors, and my question was always, “Why does this keep happening?” I got in front of NYU’s Head of Infectious Disease, who said these things happen in such a cavalier way that he made me feel dismissed.  

Fast-forward: I ended up in the hospital for four days, and I was not getting better. An incredible doctor kept coming back each day, trying to put the puzzle together. His exact words were “Occam’s razor,” meaning that when faced with multiple problems, the most straightforward answer is correct, aka everything is connected. And low and behold, he figured it out. My IgG levels and antibodies in the serum were extremely low. 

Supposedly, I have had this all my life, but as you get older, your response to infections changes. Since then, I have been getting monthly immunoglobulin replacement therapy, which takes about 2-3 hours. A nurse comes each month and gives me the drip. I have been fine since.  

The company that distributes the drip is Optum, a subsidiary of United Healthcare. Managing this through Optum is a horrible experience. I have to call them monthly to ensure the products are delivered. They send me the same email each month with the same questions, so I just cut and paste the answers from the previous month. It is irritating because this should all be systemized through technology, which United Healthcare lacks.  

The worst part is the billing. At first, they would call me each month, and I tried to get them to email the statement so I could pay online. That took quite some time, but eventually, they did that. Their online payment is so bad that it is probably software built-in 1995. I get an email that has an attachment to the bill. There is nowhere to click, so I must cut and paste the URL into the bill to get to the site. A few clicks later (and about ten minutes), I logged in again with information that should be accessible when I log in, and I paid. There is no way most people could figure this out and my gut is most people who are receiving care from Optum are older not younger.

Last week, I spent an hour on the phone with them because they believed I owed them money, although my credit card statement clearly stated that I had paid them for every service. 

I have taken the time to take their “survey” and give feedback, which is a joke. Heather Cianfrocco is the CEO, and from my sleuthing online, she is praised for her CEO status as one of the most powerful women. Really? People applaud her in her own company’s echo chamber, and she deserves recognition. Spare me, her company sucks, and they are supposed to support the consumer, not make their lives more painful. Dealing with insurance is one of the hells on earth. 

Has she looked at the data? How many of their bills are unpaid because they have zero technology? That they spend money dialing for dollars?  I spend time every month talking to someone when this all could be done with intelligent systems in place. I bet there is a severe deficit in payments to Optum.   

This is a microcosm of the frustration in our country. Shitty systems gauge people who are at their wit’s end just trying to do the right thing and get the help they need. I do not applaud that the former CEO of United Healthcare was murdered in broad daylight, but if people are wondering why many consider Luigi Mangione a hero, it is because of the experience, the treatment, the disregard, the antiquated systems, the entire system just sucks. 

Maybe Trump should get Elon on this.  

As a country, we are relatively young. Europe and Britain, which are much older and supposedly our allies, citizens understand something that Americans are just waking up to: the system is broken, bloated, corrupt, and old and is not helping the people it should help. In Europe, they do a much better job of making sure people have homes, food on the table, and education.

All of this has given us Trump. People are so angry that they have nowhere to turn except for something insane. The Republicans have no interest in negotiating with the other side, and they are loving their power. They also all fear Trump. The Democrats don’t seem to realize that they lost the election and completely fucked up. They are operating in a world where they need a new set of leaders who actually have a spine.

There is not a politician who has been around for a while be it a Senator or Governor who doesn’t know where the bloat of corruption comes from but nobody has the political will to do something. They fear for their jobs while trying to make the minority voices happy such as the liberals and progressives which are now bad words.

The government should not be in the business of running programs but funding the non-profit sector to do it. Where is our forward looking leader who understands the future of technology and is willing to get rid of waste and corruption thoughtfully. NYCHA is a perfect example of an organization that should only be concentrating on the buildings they operate, period. There is no doubt that cut in half with leadership and technology, that NYCHA would be more efficient. It is the same with the Department of Education, and the Department of Health, and every Government operation. Where is the next leader who not only understands government, has managed thousands of people, and is willing to say the buck stops here, and do the right thing.  

We need new blood, a reboot, and to rethink everything.

What is happening now is insanity because the only thought process is let’s fuck this place up. Trump has bankrupted everything he has ever touched….just wait.

I get the sales email all the time. I do feel a need to respond politely, “No thanks. ” The hope, of course, is that someone actually reads that and takes me off the list. But no. Oddly enough, if I respond that we are interested, they get back to you, but when you reply no thanks, they continue to come back. So, I hit spam and block it.  

In the old days, sales were called dialing for dollars. You had to get good at creating a personal yet business relationship through a phone. There was no Zoom or FT, no text, and no email.

To me, sales is simple: Listen to the person on the other end and engage. That means you should not bcc a huge group with the same pitch in an email. It means doing your diligence. It means being hospitable. It means knowing the company you are engaging with. It means knowing your name.

Companies shooting off these mundane emails through a software program with zero personality and probably expect returns from their salespeople, thinking technology can help us spend less money and sell more. Or perhaps they understand the conversion rate is good enough. Who knows but I find it hard to believe. I would like to see the numbers of every company that sends me a random sales emails. How can build a significant company with bots and poorly written emails.

I hate to block all these companies hoping to do business with Gotham, but it is my most used button these days.  

We are camped out in LA for two weeks. There are many things I love about LA. The work day ends around 3, the weather is great, the pace of life slows down, and the farmers markets are incredible. We dug in and hit many highlights. Fred was on a golf jaunt, and I showed up last Saturday. First stop, Echigo, for dinner, Bigg Chill for dessert. A move we had perfected over two decades.

On our first afternoon, we drove down to Dover Street for a little shopping and lunch. Cafe 2001, which opened this past February, might have been one of our best meals. It is a brutalist cafe with an atrium in the middle and seating on the second floor, peering downstairs decorated with a mixture of mid-century chairs and tables. The salad of pears, celery, and sunchokes mixed with a country vinegarette was out of this world.

There were other hits; the pork tenderloin katsu sandwich with pickled veggies on the side tasted like Japan.

The star, although the salad comes close, is the lemon tart. It was perfect, with the small dollop of creme fraiche on the side, but the key is the sugar crust, like a creme brulee, took the tart to another level.

We stayed east because the traffic would be unbearable getting back. We went over to Jeffrey Deich and saw Nina Chanel Abney’s work, which reminded me of Derrick Adams’s work.

The next afternoon, we went to the Hammer Museum. The show was of Alice Coltrane’s music, work, and story.

We had dinner in Beverly Hills at Jars, where you can always get a solid meal. We strolled around before on Rodeo Drive. Rodeo Drive was peaking when I interned in LA during the first semester of my senior year of college. The luxury stores are empty of customers, and the assortments are terrible. Sad actually. I saw this sign in one of the alleyways that defines the area.

The purple house is classic. When we lived in Michigan, my father told me he was going to paint the house purple, which I thought was amazing, but of course, that never happened.

The other highlights were having a martini at the Bel Air Hotel, which has such beautiful grounds, and going to Izakaya Hero for dinner. The deboned wings are stuffed with pork.

The fried oysters.

And the warm tofu with fish roe was outstanding.

The next day, we went classic for lunch. Pro tip: the tuna melt is off the menu at the Apple Pan, and it is perfection.

The evening activity was Emily’s birthday party. We picked up the NY-style pizzas from Appolonias. There was a serious line, but ours fourteen pizza pick-up had been pre-ordered.

Sunday is my favorite. We picked up my brother and went to Petit Grain Boulangerie for breakfast treats. This bakery is so good that I am not going out on a limb when I say they make the best croissants and scones ever.

My next stop was the farmers market. The fruits, lettuce, vegetables, and everything else made me smile. It was also such a community event—so many families seeing each other. It is so nice. We do the Mar Vista Farmers Market on Sundays, although the Santa Monica one on Wednesdays is the best of them all.

It is fantastic to be in LA and work remotely in NY. One more week, which is the perfect amount.

The state of NY has done countless things wrong in rolling out recreational cannabis licenses through the Office of Cannabis Management. It is unclear if any state has done it right, although our lawyers suggested that Missouri did the best job and New Jersey isn’t terrible but it has been an utter shitstorm in every state.

There are still ways to make right on some wrongs. Back in 2022, Hochul pitched the idea of creating a $200M fund to help cannabis license holders who had been previously convicted: great idea and the right thing to do, but it wasn’t properly executed.

Instead, the Office of Cannabis Management (OCM) partnered with DASNY (Dormitory Authority of the State of New York) for these loans. Bill Thompson, who was the President of DASNY (a government agency that should be shut down), partnered with a private equity firm called Chicago Atlantic. Considering private money was taking a high-risk to loan money to the lucky license holders, they covenants were high and they payback at 13% made the entire deal untenable but that was the deal they landed on.

Fast forward, the people who took that debt were promised by the state that the cannabis license was akin to changing generational wealth, that it was a golden ticket. Wrong. Debt is debt, and running a retail shop with regular margins is hard, and combining that with a 13% interest loan and 280E (cannabis federal taxes), these loaners were screwed the second the ink signed on the paper.

Now, the people who took the deals with Chicago Atlantic are drowning. They have thrown out a lifeline for NY State to help. The government never learns; they should not have been in the business of setting up these deals in the first place: shame, shame on Bill Thompson.

Kathy Hochul should allow NY State to pay off all these loans and refinance them with low interest rates with NY-based banks that the state will back if the company defaults. If they default, the state should take back the license. Do the right thing; the people who took the money didn’t know any better; help them right this mess.

Tamra Cosby, a poet from South Side Jamaica, Queens, and a current resident of Astoria Houses, uses her art to challenge stigmas surrounding residents of public housing. In this powerful audio story, Tamra speaks candidly about her upbringing, the impact of gun violence, and the effects of gentrification while highlighting poetry as a tool for healing and community empowerment. At the Public Housing Community Funds the From Roots to Arts artist-in-residence at Astoria Houses, she is actively creating spaces for dialogue, self-expression, and change.Through her words, she reshapes the narrative of public housing residents, proving that art has the power to transform lives and communities.

The director, Kemi “TRUTHIS” Karim is an interdisciplinary artist, community organizer, and founder of TRUTHIS Studios, a Brooklyn-based creative collective. Grounded in themes of shared spaces and belonging, Karim’s work delves into identity, womanhood, and the lived experiences that shape and define communities. Her practice centers on how individuals represent themselves, uplift one another, and celebrate cultural pride and resilience despite systemic barriers.

Using medium-format digital and film photography, filmmaking, and digital design, Karim captures both individual and collective narratives, fostering spaces for deep conversation, healing, and perspective shifts. Her work is dedicated to education, empowerment, and storytelling that challenges stereotypes while honoring the beauty and complexity of her subjects. She is best known for A GREAT DAY IN BROOKLYN, an acclaimed annual festival celebrating arts and culture in the borough.

Karim currently serves as the Senior Manager of Art and culture at the Public Housing Community Fund, where she spearheads initiatives to bring transformative arts programming to NYCHA communities. She holds a BA in Public Relations from Howard University.

From Roots to Arts: Celebrating NYCHA’s Cultural Heritage is an innovative artist-in-residency pilot program designed to enrich and expand culture, heritage, and art narratives within public housing by placing local artists and residents at the forefront of this endeavor. The program aims to redefine how stories are told and the type of art produced and featured in public housing.

Harnessing the framework of the NYC Department of Youth and Community Development (DYCD) Cornerstone Program across five NYCHA campuses spanning all five boroughs, this 20-month residency endeavor offers dedicated spaces within community centers, fostering an environment where artists can immerse themselves and interact with residents and the community.

After engaging the community, NYCHA residents determined what types of art mediums they wanted to explore and the Fund designed an Open Call looking for artists to work in each community. NYCHA residents, community partners, and the Fund selected five artist-in-residence to serve in each borough: Richmond Terrace Houses, Staten Island; Bushwick Houses, Brooklyn; Bronx River Houses, Bronx; King Towers, Manhattan; and Astoria Houses, Queens.

Working together in NYCHA communities and listening to the residents makes for stronger neighborhoods.