I found this free newspaper on the seat of the subway. With  nosogeography (the connection btwn disease and geography) in mind, I couldn’t stop wondering why one borough of this city is punished so much more harshly than another by our environmental condition. In this hard-hitting piece, journalist Gabriele Steinhauser tells us about the disposal of waste in the South Bronx and its horrific effects on the daily lives of adults and children.

For more info on the Urban Divers: www.urbandivers.org

Nosogeography is not a happy word. I’ve been trying to avoid shooting video for this word for weeks, not knowing when I would be able to face the daunting reality of filming a neighborhood where disease or the rumor of disease floats invisibly and silently through the air and the water. I have decided to focus on the largest environmental disaster in the history of New York City, the accidental spilling of 22 million gallons to oil in the Newton Creeek, a small waterway which serves as the dividing line between Brooklyn and Queens. By chance, I meet another experimental filmmaker, Scott Nyerges, who lives in Greenpoint, the closest residential neighborhood to the site of the spill. We agree to take a field trip to photograph . As we stand along the smelly, filth banks of the Newtown Creek, Scott recounts the daunting environmental disaster that occurred here in 1950 and is just beginning to be cleaned up.

Today I took a guided tour of Southpoint Park on Roosevelt Island as part of Open House New York (OHNY). This 14 acre parcel of land is the site of the ruins of the James Renwick, Jr. Smallpox Hospital (1856) and the Strecker Laboratory (1892).

More information on the Renwick Ruins from the RIHS >>

More information on Open House New York >>