The recent decision by the Supreme Court to revisit the issue clearly puts it in peril. Even if the court ends up retaining the legality of affirmative action for now, using race as a factor in school admissions was never seen as a permanent solution; there are fairer ways to add diversity.

Current affirmative action plans typically benefit the most advantaged in a group, including those who are also members of a minority most of us would like to be in—the 1 percent.

Large racial disparities, of course, persist everywhere. In New York City, even though over 75 percent of the students at the top-ranked public high schools are minorities, there are still deeply troubling numbers. Less than four percent of the students are black or Hispanic at Stuyvesant High School, where the black population is a hair over 1 percent. At my alma mater, Bronx Science, 10 percent of the students are black or Hispanic. Compare this to the 72 percent of the city’s public school students who are Hispanic or black, roughly the same percentage of Asians at the two specialized schools.

The city Department of Education has made only half-hearted attempts to diversify Stuyvesant and Bronx Science and the numbers have moved in the wrong direction. The Specialized School Institute does recruit “disadvantaged” middle school students of all races to help them pass the admission test, but the city has also expanded the number of specialized schools.

Adding five schools was undoubtedly done with the best of intentions and has had mostly positive effects—but it also allows officials to downplay the problem at specialized schools, since the new schools have broader diversity. Higher scores are needed to enroll at the top two schools, but the DOE tries to maintain the fiction it has not set up a two-tier system by not publicizing the scores. This was made clear in the emails the agency sent this paper last year when our reporter Megan Bungeroth [then Finnegan] looked into
the problem.

One fair way to add more diversity at Stuyvesant and Bronx Science would be to give the best students at every middle school an added chance to attend, similar to a state college admission plan in Texas.

Coincidentally, the Supreme Court is now reviewing a different part of the Texas system. The undisputed part of the law grants college admission to the top 10 percent of high school graduates in Texas, thus opening doors to the best students in schools with large numbers of minorities. Affirmative action supporters acknowledge that the non-racial component of the plan is working, but they argue it is not as effective as using race. The same argument is also made when income is used. But if diversity were the only goal, strict quotas would work even better than affirmative action.

Fairness can’t be ignored, which is why you’d be hard-pressed to find someone who favors legalizing racial quotas. Although affirmative action is going to end sooner or later, academia, for the most part, is not ready to give up. The energy used on these battles would be better spent on figuring out what causes racial disparity so it can be ended.

Michael Roth, president of Wesleyan University, wrote on the Huffington Post,
“It would be an enormous step backward to force our admissions offices to retreat to a homogeneity that stifles creative, broad-based education.” He won’t have to. There are other paths to diversity.

Josh Rogers, contributing editor at Manhattan Media, is a lifelong New Yorker.
Follow him @JoshRogersNYC.

By Penny Grey

Battery Park becomes an increasingly vibrant neighborhood every day. Billy Parrott, library manager of the Battery Park City Library, discusses the importance of the library to the community and the joys of being a librarian.

How long has the Battery Park branch been open?

We opened on March 15, 2010, so just about a year and a half ago now.

This is a green LEED-certified building; is it the first such branch in the New York City Public Library system?

It’s the first green library in Manhattan. In 2007, the Bronx library center was built, and that’s a LEED silver building. But this is a great facility. We’ve got 26 desktop computers and 10 laptop computers for patron use. When we first opened, I thought we might have more supply than demand, but these days, everything is occupied. We have really become a destination branch. Some people will come from across town just to work and enjoy the space. One patron wrote an entire book upstairs.

Being a green library, is there an effort to move to more electronic publications rather than paper?

Regardless of being green, the world is moving that way in general. With e-books and the ease of access to electronic material, a lot of what we do here at the library has nothing to do with paper. But going green doesn’t hurt.

Does being green affect the mood and atmosphere of the space?

A lot of thought went into the design of the building. We wanted to create a bright, big, open space. The light here is beautiful, particularly in the upstairs reading area. Often people have an idea of green architecture and how that might translate visually, but [the library] doesn’t scream “recycled” by any means.

Who has made the most use of the library since its opening last March?

It’s definitely the community using the library, no doubt about it. This is a residential neighborhood, so we have families in here all day long. But we’re also a business neighborhood, so we get the World Financial Center crowd, and lots of people use the space from noon to two on their lunch breaks. Stuyvesant High School is just up the street, so we get lots of students and young people. And Hallmark Assisted Living is just around the corner, so we also attract the senior population.

What sort of programming have you generated to meet the needs of such a diverse group of patrons?

Our children’s programming is definitely the most popular. Baby Story Time for newborns to 18-month-olds is such a hit that we continue to add new days and times. We also have Toddler Story Time for 18-month-olds to 3-year-olds and Regular Story Time for 5- to 12-year-olds, as well as crafts, puppet shows and other outside programming. We’ve also got a Teen Advisory Program, which gives teens a chance to provide input and generate programming. And then we offer adult programming as well, most notably computer classes and author readings. Recently, we hosted a talk on journalism in the world post-9/11. So we stay pretty busy.

What’s the best thing about your job?

Probably the teaching moments, when you can really guide someone to something they’ll love and remember. It’s not that people aren’t expecting to get answers, but when you can really help them in that way, it’s incredibly rewarding.

And the worst thing about your job?

There’s nothing bad about libraries! I really can’t think of anything I don’t love about my job. After all, people love to read—and anyone who comes to the library is sort of self-selecting, aren’t they? They’re here because they love the idea of a place where reading and learning is possible.

What’s the difference between being a librarian now and being a librarian in, say, 1950?

The ease of access to information, most definitely. It used to be that there were three encyclopedias to search, but now a good librarian really needs to be aware of all the possible sources, and of those sources, the best possible resources.

That must be pretty overwhelming.

It’s not overwhelming at all, actually. The Internet has changed the way people think and the way people read, but librarians still help people to get to the bottom of it and find what they need.

The New York City Public Library system has been a cornerstone of New York City culture for such a long time. How do you see yourself shaping that cornerstone in the Downtown area with the Battery Park branch?

First, I don’t really do anything individually. It’s really a team effort. There are seven full-time and two part-time staff members here at the branch, and I encourage everyone to come up with ideas. When there’s one idea, we all work to implement it.

Just to give you an example, in the last four months we’ve been working on a paper crane project. Every Friday, we held workshops to teach kids how to make origami peace cranes in honor of September 11. The community participation was so positive; kids would bring the supplies home and teach their neighbors, the security guards, you name it. So this project that started out just for kids turned into something for our entire community. The paper cranes started out as a display for September 11, but I think we’ll keep them up. Having those paper cranes suspended from the ceilings is a great reminder of what we’re doing in the community.

Photos by Penny Grey

This is how I’d imagine a Frank McCourt memoir about our teaching days together at Stuyvesant High School might begin.

We used to meet in the hallway near the principal’s office—Frank shuttling off to his fifth-period creative-writing class and me to my junior journalism students.

We’d stop and chat, exchanging tales of woe—like two inmates in the prison cafeteria before afternoon kitchen duty—but I’d always linger longer than I would with the other teachers because with Frank you knew you’d get a fun story, a fresh insight or a provocative question that would relieve the numbing grind for the rest of the day.

Teacher, mentor, colleague, friend. Photo by Andrew Schwartz

Even then, Frank was recognized as a gifted storyteller by his students and colleagues who would listen raptly in the classroom or huddle around him at the bar as he regaled us with his now-famous epic tales of childhood misery.

To many of us, it wasn’t a question of if, but when, Frank’s talent would reveal itself to the world outside of East 15th Street and First Avenue.

Foreshadowing: at a Stuyvesant student awards ceremony, Jerzy (Being There) Kosinski offhandedly told McCourt that he, too, would make it one day.

“Yeah, but when?” said Frank.

*

During one of our impromptu chats in the hallway, Frank became animated when I told him I was the child of Holocaust survivors. “So, you think you’d ever marry a non-Jew?” he asked.

“No,” I remember answering quite definitively. “It would betray all the suffering my family has experienced.”

Frank told me he was intrigued by the whole question of intermarriage; two of his brothers, Malachy and Alphie, good ol’ lapsed Irish Catholics, were, at one time or another, married to Jewish women.

“It reminds me of what my mother, the late Angela McCourt, once complained about,” he said in the endearing brogue of his. “There’s notin’ in this family but Protestants and Jews, Jews and Protestants. God above, every time I cross the floor I’m trippin’ over little Protestants and Jews.”

I strolled on to my classroom grinning.

*

At my wedding, about four years later, I was reminded of the comment I made to Frank about never marrying a non-Jew. Technically, I had kept my vow; my Presbyterian-born bride had converted to Judaism, but the twinkle in Frank’s eye when I told him about my fiancée spoke volumes.

When the time came for toasts, a few close friends from college followed my brother up to the podium, and then a British fellow who worked with my wife. Right after he made his brief remarks, Frank sauntered to the microphone.

“I wasn’t planning on making a toast, but when I saw an Englishman get up here—and since they’ve oppressed the Irish for hundreds of years—I knew I couldn’t leave it at that…”

He got the crowd going with that. The rest of his discursive comments are a bit foggy in my memory—except a George Bernard Shaw quote that he cited as an admonition: “Marriage is popular because it combines the maximum of temptation with the maximum of opportunity.”

When Frank’s comments went on a bit longer than the Englishman who preceded him, the Brit heckled, “Shaw also said, ‘All the world’s a stage…unfortunately.’”

Frank’s toast is the one highlight missing from the wedding video. I never bothered to check if the guy we hired went to the john and missed it or if in his seemingly indiscriminate editing, he decided for some reason to slice it.

I guess it’s hard to blame him because, after all, it was 1993, three years before Angela’s Ashes appeared, four years before the Pulitzer Prize and six years before the movie premiere and long awaited sequel, ’Tis, that would continue to burnish the Frank McCourt legend.

One old high school friend kidded me that if I had that toast on videotape I could probably sell it to a TV newsmagazine or auction it on eBay, at the very least.

*

I miss those chance meetings in the hallway with Frank between classes. He had moved to the Upper West Side, not far from where I live, but I’d only run into him once or twice in the past few years.

We spoke every few months, when I could catch him at home between book tours, lectures, writing conferences, interviews, book parties, charity events and other demands on his time. It was a vicarious thrill to see his name pop up everywhere and to see that sometimes in life talent does win out in the end.

“I’m a beacon of hope to all geriatrics,” Frank once told me. “Don’t give up, you can keep doing it into your 70s, practically your 80s.” And sometimes listening to him talk about teaching, you realize that in spite of society’s view, it is a noble calling. At least in Frank’s case, it worked out for the best.

“Whatever I know about writing I learned from teaching,” he said. “They kept asking me questions and provoked me to tell stories, and in return I would provoke them to tell stories. The interaction was very fruitful.”

So wasn’t it a great profession altogether?

’Twas.
–
Tom Allon is president and CEO of Manhattan Media. He taught at Stuyvesant High School with Frank McCourt from 1986 to 1987.

Lightning didn’t strike twice for Nolan Becker, the senior lefty from Stuyvesant High School. During this game, played earlier this spring in Central Park, he was facing a top squad in Norman Thomas, one that sported few weak hitters and went on to win the city championships a couple of weeks ago. But if anyone doubted the kid’s talent after he allowed an unearned run in the first inning, they stood corrected a little later. Becker got nine strikeouts combined in the second, third and fourth innings. He wasn’t flawless, giving up a few walks, but he rose to the occasion whenever the situation was toughest.

“I try to attack hitters and not worry about the runners,” the 17-year-old said after the game. “I try to block it out and just have confidence. That makes it easier to focus on the batter. If you strike them out, they can’t score. I like the pressure.”

Nolan Becker hurls a pitch. He ended his Stuyvesant career with a 2-2 record and a 1.09 ERA in 32 innings. Photo by Andrew Schwartz

By the fifth inning, the opposing coach was screaming at his batters. The strikeout streak didn’t last forever, though, and Norman Thomas eventually broke through to earn a 3-0 victory. But Becker once again exhibited plenty of glimpses of his tantalizing talent.

“Nolan got into a real groove. He was fantastic,” Stuyvesant head coach John Carlesi said. “Freshman or sophomore year, he might have let up a couple of runs. But now he just bears down and worries about the next pitch. He’s matured a lot over the last four years. He’s a big guy who means a lot to the team. It’s going to be a big loss when he graduates, but he’s moving on to better things.”

Better things, in this case, means Yale University, where Becker will pitch next year and perhaps have a professional career after that. It’s been quite a journey for a kid who started hitting off a tee when he was 5 and then honed his game in the Greenwich Village Little League.

One goal he hopes to pursue in college is replicating that perfect performance, over nine innings this time. Becker’s first perfect game took place on April 8 and ended early after six innings with a mercy rule 10-0 win over Manhattan Bridges. But even among the rarest of all pitching feats, this effort was exceptional. Becker recorded all 18 outs with strikeouts.

“It was the best game I’ve ever pitched,” he said. “It was pretty cool, a nice accomplishment.”

As good as he is on the mound, Becker may have been even more dominant this winter on the basketball court. Standing 6-foot-6, he averaged 25 points and 17.1 rebounds while leading Stuyvesant to a 13-4 record. This spring, he finished with a 2-2 record and a 1.09 ERA in 32 innings. Like that other great pitcher Nolan, he was a strikeout artist, recording 68 punch-outs. Athletic success wasn’t always so easy, though. As a freshman and sophomore, he struggled for the most part while pitching. But a turnaround began as Becker grew older and stronger.

“He shot up sizewise and strengthwise,” Carlesi said. “He matured and worked a lot on strengthening his weaknesses. He’s worked very hard, and I see a good future for him in this game.”

An Urban Country Club—Bill Mack’s business card features a picture of him on the front, shirtless with dreadlocks covering most of his face and a paddle in hand. The reverse side provides the explanation, describing him as a “ping pong evangelist.”

It’s an apt moniker, at least figuratively. Mack believes so fervently in his sport that he is helping bring a table tennis social club to Manhattan. He and three business partners opened SPiN New York on May 23 at 304 Park Avenue South, near East 23rd Street.

“It’s like an urban country club,” Mack said. “It was created in reaction to the lack of good facilities to play table tennis in Manhattan. We’ve combined the best elements of a private membership club with the best facilities for table tennis and come up with something pretty original. By day, it operates just like a table tennis club. But from happy hour on, it’s just like a nightclub.”

The facility, which offers lessons and plenty of tournaments and events, covers 13,000 square feet and holds between 12 and 16 tables. There’s also a bar and lounge, bleachers, locker rooms and a menu featuring comfort food. More than 250 enthusiasts have already signed up for membership, which offers discounted rates and various other benefits. The first few months will feature a slow opening to iron out any problems before a grand opening in September.

Mack and two friends first came up with the idea several years ago, when they were working together doing film production in a studio in Tribeca. The first piece of furniture they bought was a ping-pong table, and games were held every day, sometimes for hours.

“It’s exactly what New York is missing,” Mack said. “There are three bowling alleys in Manhattan, several billiards clubs. Ping-pong is a lot more fun than both of those. It’s more interactive, more social. It’s great for friends and dates.”