Election Day Report: West Coast

Miguel Viveiros reports from Oakland, CA:

Watching the election via internet at Mama Buzz Cafe on Telegraph (near 23rd Street,) Miguel told me via phone at the time Obama's victory was announced: There are fireworks going off on the street. Police are lining Telegraph Avenuce, a main street through downtown Oakland. People are partying hard in downtown, Oakland until 4AM. Go Oakland! We won!

Jessica Martinez reports from San Francisco, CA:

I was in sf during the elections. i'm still registered there and had a dr's appointment the day before. everyone was screaming in the streets and honking their horns. i was at a house in the tenderloin so i started banging pots outside the window. i didn't think i'd be that excited because Obama was kind of annoying me with his talking in circles all the time. But when it was actually announced, i felt so proud and emotional. I got greedy and hoped proposition 8 (defining marriage between a man and woman) would fail but it passed, just barely. Nevertheless, the fact that in his acceptance speech, Obama thanked people of different races, "gays and straits", disabled and non-disabled, made me really excited. So even if he does end up just talking, at least he's talking about gays and disabled people, I've never heard a president thank those groups. Another thing I became aware of as I watched his speech was how young he is, especially in comparison to the other candidate. He really seems to have the energy and determination to work for what he believes in. And when he talked about a 106 year old black woman who, in her lifetime, couldn't vote because she was black and a woman, and now is seeing a black person become prez, i thought that these reforms just take time. a loooonng time.

Sara Bernard comments from S.F. Bay Area:

I was in SF at a friends house, but certainly things were crazy in SF and in berkeley and generally there were loads of tears and cheers and jumping up and down -- happy to be an american, for the first time in a looooooonnnng time -- what an awesome awesome win!!!!!!

Election Day Report: Midwest

Anthony Nikolchev reports from Chicago...Indiana (?) :

A man in Indiana said to me, "John McCain can't win. He's an asshole. Sure, he fought for the country, but my brother and I fought in Vietnam and we don't think we deserve to be president." He also said all this through his electrolarynx.

More soon...

Election Day Precinct Report: East Coast (Thank you President Obama! )

At Public School 72 in East Harlem, New York it was a remarkable scene. Today families walked, hand-in-hand, through the front doors. Mothers and daughters. Fathers and sons. Smiling. Laughing. All taking part in the most historic election in recent history.

Sonia Carballo walked out from the polling place with her daughter, Cristina. Carballo said, since they were little she always toolk her three daughters to her polling place. “I always told my girls that voting gives them the right to say something,” she said. Cristina, in her mid-twenties, nodded. She said, “by voting you can change the world.”

Today they voted for Obama. “He has a better understanding of us because he came from the same place we did,” Cristina said, referring to Obama’s age, race and upbringing. Carballo also brought her 11 year-old daughter and was returning later that evening with her 18 year-old daughter. “She is so excited to vote for the first time and I want to be here,” Carballo said.

Librado Acosta voted for the first time today as well. Acosta and his father, Librado Acosta, went to the polls together. They voted Obama with the hope he would help improve the economy. Librado said, “We need a fresh face in the White House to get the change we want.”

Alexander Ramos, a door clerk at the polling place, said one of the voting machines, #25, broke down a few times today. “People still voted, they just used paper ballots,” said Ramos. When asked if the votes would be counted, he said, “I hope so.” Within two hours at least two people angrily ran out of the polling place due to broken machines. One of these people, a man who said he would not talk because he was in a hurry to get to another polling place, called his situation, “very frustrating.”

“There were a lot more people than past elections,” said Yvette Nunez, a Republican Inspector at the polling place. Nunez, 54, has been working at the polls as a paid inspector since she was 18 years old. A registered Republican who voted for Bush in 2000 and 2004, Nunez voted for Obama today because she thinks he will bring needed change to the economy.

To view this article with picture on NYU's Pavement Piece's website go to the following link:
http://journalism.nyu.edu/pubzone/pavement/in/election-day-precinct-report-east-harlem-precinct/

To view my short video on a group in East Harlem who chose not to vote on November 4th:
http://journalism.nyu.edu/pubzone/pavement/in/harlem/no-vote-harlem/

Beating odds, graduating high school and beyond

In East Harlem, a neighborhood where half its residents never graduate high school, The Young Women’s Leadership School (TYWLS) has a graduation rate of 95-100%.

Founded in 1996 as the first school supported by The Women's Leadership Foundation (TLF), TYWLS public school currently serves 425 girls in grades 6-12.

Ann Rubenstein Tisch, a broadcast journalist and founder of TWL Foundation, believes that single-sex education is an important way to address a major crisis of confidence that strikes young adolescent girls.

"It seems to be where the unraveling begins, right out of elementary school," said Tisch.

According to Assistant Principle Drew Higginbotham, 88% of students in the class of 2009 will be first in their families to attend college. According to the school's website, small classes, emphasis on writing, discussion and debate and a dedicated faculty make TWYLS successful.

TWYLS's impressive graduation rate is also a result of the school's focus on college readiness. A full time college counselor meets weekly with students starting in their junior years and the TWL foundation supports student trips to tour colleges and universities.

The 65 young women getting diplomas in June are working to secure post graduation plans. Many of the 12th graders completed CUNY applications earlier this month. Teachers and administration focus the remainder of fall semester on helping students apply to SUNY campuses, liberal arts colleges and Ivy League schools.

While Higginbotham said some stay in East Harlem, three seniors, working side-by-side in the administration office after school, spoke of their excitement about experiencing life beyond their neighborhood.

Senior Shavon Olin applied to schools as far as California. She said she wants to go to college “because I don’t want minimum wage jobs. I want a career and money. Also, it’s the easiest way out of the community I live.”