Homelessness on the rise in the wake of COVID

By: Aliyah Rodriguez

Members of New York City’s homeless population continue to face uncertainties as the pandemic wages on.

A major concern for New York City at the center of the COVID outbreak over the past few months has been the city’s homeless population. Early in the pandemic, when health professionals were relaying information about the best practices for containing the virus, many looked towards homeless shelters and how it may be harder for the homeless to social distance in such close proximity to each other. While temporary solutions were provided by the city during the outbreak, the city is now looking toward the future for more permanent solutions to this issue. 

The Bowery Mission – an organization that has been aiding the homeless in NYC since the 1870s – state on their website that nearly one in every 106 New Yorkers is homeless, adding up to nearly 80,000 men, women, and children. These numbers could potentially rise due to so many of the city’s residents being laid off due to the pandemic and not being able to pay their rent. 

During the early months of the pandemic, the city’s Department of Homeless Services moved nearly 10,000 people out of shelters into 63 hotels across the city due to concerns over the quality of life and unsanitary conditions in the overcrowded shelters. 

As a temporary solution in August, 282 homeless men were moved to the Lucerne – a luxury hotel that would charge $200 a night prior to the pandemic – in the Upper West Side. This was not the first homeless relocation conducted by the city, in May shelter residents were moved into the Park West, the Belleclaire, and the Belnord hotels in the Upper West Side, the neighborhood houses about 730 homeless people by the end of the summer. Many in the community complained about the presence of the homeless, however, and a battle was sparked over where to relocate these individuals. 

The Lucerene became a home for the homeless in the midst of the pandemic| Carlos Allegri for Reuters

According to the Department of Homeless Services, the homeless rates in March were down seven percent for families with children, three percent for adult families, and rose four percent for homeless individuals in comparison to the figures from March 2019. State mandated shutdowns began mid-march, however, and the effects were felt by the homeless in the months afterwards. The DHS has not yet updated their website to include statistics from April to now.

The Coalition for the Homeless presents more up-to-date and exact numbers of the homeless rates in the city, since the information from the DHS’s website stops in March, just as the state began its shutdowns. According to their website, in August 2020, there were 57,660 homeless people, including 12,866 homeless families with 19,006 homeless children, sleeping each night in the New York City shelters. These numbers don’t account for the city’s homeless that sleep elsewhere like on the streets, in the subways, and in parks.

On June 23rd, about 100 people set up camp outside of the City Hall to influence the city council to cut the New York Police Department’s funding in the wake of George Flloyd’s murder. Within a week, the small patch of grass that held the protestors became a makeshift community where over 100 people – consisting mostly of the homeless – slept in tents. The community offered food services, help-yourself clothing bins, hand-sanitizing stations, and other forms of community support such as a makeshift mental health check-in tent where licensed professionals advised those suffering from trauma, addictions, and mental illness. Organizers of the camp criticized the city by saying that their efforts to help the homeless was doing what the city had not: addressing the needs of its most vulnerable residents. 

Members of the community complained that the camp looked like a “shantytown”| New York Times

On July 22nd, police officers in riot gear cleared out the encampment, displacing the homeless once more, after many complaints from community members about it becoming a “shantytown”.

New York’s City council website provides a roadmap to the city’s solution of the homeless crisis, but in the age of COVID-19, many are wondering how effective these plans will be as the homeless population grows.

With COVID cases on the rise again, we’ll have to wait and see what the future holds for the city’s homeless population.

Do Musicians Really Need Labels to be Successful?

Independent or “Indie” artist have been taking over the music industry these last few years. Independent music revenue has increased 25% from 2018 to $821 million. Independent means they have no record label backing them. No free marketing, no connections that can get your song on the radio, but it also means there is no contract that the artist is abided too. Independent artist gets more control of their art, than signed artist, but at this time they make significantly less.  

Independent Artist are forced to sell their own merchandise, set up their own tours, and create, master, and publish their own piece of music. They are able to take 100% of those earnings.  

Artist like the Chance the Rapper who has been the most successful Independent artist of our time has never sold any of his music to consumers. Chance the Rapper’s merchandise made him a million dollars just from hats with a logo of the number “3” being sold.  

Artist can make a good amount of money from their merchandise, but what about their actual songs? Artist are now able to stream their music on streaming service platforms. There are many streaming platforms that artist can release their content on. You have Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, Tidal, Google Play, and many others. Each platform pays differently per stream.  

Apple Music pays their artist $0,0056 per stream  

Google Music pays $0,0055 per stream 

Spotify Music pays $0,0032 per stream 

Tidal Music has the best pay out with $0.0099 per stream 

Artist get a stream for someone clicking on their song and listening, but the stream is worth more to the artist depending on where the stream is coming from and what kind of subscription the user that is streaming you currently has.  

The average pay of independent artist from strictly their music is $12,860 a year while signed artist make $23,913 a year. Yes, independent artist makes less annually from just their music, but they are also able to get more money from their tours, merchandise sales, and get full artistic control and full control of their masters.  

Aubrey Graham who is more popularly known by his stage name Drake is one of the most popular artists in the world at the time. He has made over $400 million in career earnings, while also making almost $70 million a year. At the beginning of 2021 his contract with Warner Music Group will be coming to an end. There are rumblings that he will also be an artist going independent.  

Steve Stoute is one of the most well-known music executives in the industry, and he believes that Drake going independent can completely “kill the music industry”, Stoute said on the Breakfast Club Radio show. He believes that Drakes departure from a record label will encourage all other artist to follow him down that route. If the best is going down that road, why wouldn’t another artist do the same thing.  

Independent Artist are exponentially making more year after year. Signed artist are having issues within the label, while independent artist having full control of their vision and their earnings. This is just the beginning, but the music industry that we all know can be changing forever. 

How COVID-19 has affected the Crime Rate in the United States

By Jake Nole

NEW ROCHELLE, N.Y. — The Coronavirus (or COVID-19) has impacted many things in America from lockdowns to how people go to school, but one thing that had a significant impact from COVID-19 is the crime rate in the United States. The crime rate in many areas has seen a significant decrease for various types of crimes, but this is a contrast to the many violent crimes that have increased during the pandemic which could be due to the pandemic itself or other varying factors that are unrelated to the pandemic. 

The FBI had released crime data for the first six months of 2020 from January to June which included data from the peak of the pandemic which was around March to early May of 2020. This data has been compared to the first six months of 2019 to show which helps show the difference the pandemic had on the crime rate. Violent crimes such as rape offenses for instance have decreased by about 17.8% while robbery offenses have seen a decrease by about 7.1%. In contrast however, violent crimes such as murder and nonnegligent manslaughter have increased by 14.8% while aggravated assault offenses went up by 4.6%. 

Property crimes have seen a much more significant decrease during the pandemic as offenses overall decline by 7.8%. Larceny thefts have decreased by 9.9% while burglaries decreased by 7.8%, but motor vehicle thefts have increased by 6.2%. The specifics of which cities were impacted the most by the decreasing crime rate have also been specified as cities with less than 10,000 people have been reported to have the largest decrease of 14.2%, while law enforcement agencies in cities with as many people from 250,000 to 499,999 have reported the smallest decrease of 3.7%. This difference in decrease could be due to the sizes of the populations in these cities due to cities with larger populations more likely to have more crimes committed while cities with lower populations are less likely to have that many crimes committed. Property crimes themselves have decreased by 9.3% in nonmetropolitan counties while they decreased by 7.3% in metropolitan counties. This even extends to all four regions of the United States with the reports of property crime offenses decreasing by 10.3% in the Midwest, 9.3% in the South, 5.3% in the west, and a 5.7% decrease in the northwest. Speculations of these decreases could possibly stem from more people staying home due to lockdowns or the potential criminals not wanting to risk getting COVID-19, but these are speculations.

Out of all the crimes though, the only crime that has seen a significant increase compared to 2019 is Arson crime. Arson has increased by 19.2% in the first six months compared to 2019 as all four regions have noted an increase in Arson crime with the West having a 28.0% increase, the Northeast having a 16.4% increase with the Midwest having a 15.7% increase and a 10.2% increase in the South. The Arson could possibly be due to the violent protests that have happened in major cities as Arson crimes rose by 52.1% in cities with a population of 1,000,000 or more. This could correlate with data that has been released that has shown that during the last few months of 2020, it has been reported that shootings and killings have taken a significant increase. Most of these crimes have happened after lockdowns ended in certain states based on the graphs shown here, while it could also be due to the Justice System having a hard time adapting to the Pandemic to work properly, as well as the civil unrest that has occurred in May to this day ever since the protests over George Floyd’s death. The data regardless shows that crimes were happening the most in June 2020 which the crimes in later months either decreased drastically, kept increasing, or was still at the same rate of crime.

Graphs showing how the cities of Atlanta and Austin have been impacted by COVID-19

However, it is currently unknown how much of the crime rate can be attributed to the pandemic as many other factors could still be in play given 2020 has been one of the most divisive years in recent American history for a multitude of reasons. It will be awhile till the truth of the data is found but based on current data it shows that COVID-19 had a positive impact on property crime, but a very significant negative effect on crime.

The Warriors Dynasty is on Hold, but it is Far From Over

Dan Abbate

The Warriors Dynasty is on Hold, But it is Far From Over

The National Basketball Association is in the final stages of the season as the Los Angeles Lakers and the Miami Heat compete for the championship trophy in the NBA finals. For the first time in six years, the Golden State Warriors are not the championship favorites. Major injuries to the superstar backcourt of Klay Thompson and Steph Curry and the loss of one of the league’s best players in Kevin Durant led to the Warriors having the worst record in the NBA and securing a top-three draft pick due to their awful record. Many believe that this is the end of Golden State’s historic run of dominance. However, the numbers show that the Warriors have the capability to bounce back and become even stronger than before.

This NBA season had a distinct difference from the past several years; the Warriors were missing their two time MVP point guard and perennial all star Steph Curry. Golden State’s offense was clearly struggling without Curry’s floor spacing from his long-range shot making ability. Throughout his career, Curry has never shot for less than 40% from the three point line. Furthermore, he shoots more than 38% on shots farther than 30 feet, several steps behind the three point line. The magnitude of Curry’s offensive game forces the opposing team’s defense to guard him closely as soon as he crosses half court, giving other players an opportunity to find open lanes and create easy scoring opportunities. There has never been an NBA player with this type of impact on the game. 

-Kirk Goldsberry

The Warriors had another setback this season in the form of Klay Thompson’s ACL tear in last year’s finals. This injury has kept Thompson out of this NBA season. Many former NBA players and basketball analysts state that Thompson is the second best three point shooter in the history of the league, second only to his teammate Curry. Similar to Curry, Thompson has never shot below 40% from three during his career. There have been several games in which Thompson scored at least 40 points while dribbling the ball less that 10 times. This is an absurd accomplishment, and showcases just how valuable Thompson is on the floor. Having Curry handle the ball while Thompson gets himself open without the ball has been a staple of Golden State’s offense since they both began playing together. When they step onto the court together again next season, the league will be reminded of the Warriors supreme scoring ability and just how hard it is to keep up with them.

-Kirk Goldsberry

Due to their bad record, the Warriors have secured a top 3 pick in the upcoming NBA draft. Throughout their title runs, the one thing that Golden State has lacked is a strong big man. Center James Wiesman could be the one to change that. In college, Wiesman averaged 10 rebounds and three blocks per game. He does not yet have a consistent jump shot from the three point line, but his rebounding and defense would be a big compliment to Curry and Thompson. His 76% field goal percentage will help them on the offensive end as well, seeing as Wiesman averaged a solid 19 points per game during his time playing college basketball.

From the information gathered, it is clear that the Golden State Warriors still have the potential to continue their league-wide dominance. The return of star backcourt duo Thompson and Curry will immediately help them start winning games again, and the addition of a solid big man in this year’s draft will expedite the process of becoming championship contenders once again.

Work Cited – BasketballReference.Com

SEXUAL ASSAULT ON COLLEGE CAMPUSES LACK INTERVENTION FROM AUTHORITIES

Oct. 2, 2020, 9:45 PM EST

By: Tiffany Persaud 

New York, NY – College-aged adults remain high risk for sexual assault, according to a RAINN report. Most victims remain afraid of contacting law enforcement considering the various reasons given for them not to. 

According to a survey taken by the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network (RAINN), over 23.1% of undergraduate female and 5.4% of undergraduate male students in the United States experience sexual assault or violence by force and incapacitation. 

Campus law enforcement are given majority of the responsibility in handling the first course of action after a sexual assault or rape case is reported. 

  • 86% of sworn campus officials have authority to make an arrest outside of campus grounds
  • 70% of campus agencies have memorandums of understanding (MOUs) with local police
  • 72% of campus agencies have a staff member responsible for survivor assistance

Yet, many young women and men find that reporting an incident will only lead to a domino of negative consequences. 

REASONS WHY SEXUAL VIOLENCE IS NOT REPORTED BY STUDENTSNATIONAL CRIME VICTIMIZATION SURVEY
BELIEVED IT WAS A PERSONAL MATTER26%
FEAR OF REPRISAL20%
NOT IMPORTANT ENOUGH TO REPORT12%
DID NOT WANT PERPETRATOR IN TROUBLE10%
BELIEVED AUTHORITIES COULD NOT DO ANYTHING 9%
OTHER31%

Scott Berkowitz, RAINN’s president, said levels of reporting by college students to law enforcement are lower than that of the wider community.

“In general, reporting rates are much lower when the perpetrator is someone that the victim knows. And because most campus assaults fall into that category and often grow out of social situations, the reporting rate for campus assaults is quite low.”

Berkowitz

In terms of the criminal justice system, RAINN also conclude that only a quarter of all reported rapes lead to an arrest, only a fifth lead to prosecution, and only half of those prosecutions result in felony convictions. 

In a 2007 study by the U.S. Department of Justice that surveyed over seven thousand undergraduates at two universities, only 2% of sexual assault victims incapacitated by drugs or alcohol and 13% of “physically forced” victims reported the crimes. 

Not all state laws view sexual violence perpetrated by women a serious offense. 1 of 33 men in America experience sexual assault as a child or an adult; But the accounts of male victims are often downplayed given the way society already view men. 

The RAINN website lists numerous effects of sexual violence that survivors often experience. PTSD symptoms including- anger, anxiety, fear, self-blame, depression, and even suicidal thoughts. Physicalities may include sexually-transmitted diseases; Women may also have to deliberate a possible pregnancy.

According to Her Campus, a women’s college blog, there are four practical ways to promote a “culture of consent” on your campus. 

  1. Understand what consent is and how it can be affirmed 
  2. Normalize consent with your friends and partners 
  3. Look out for each other
  4. SHUT DOWN victim blaming

Navigating the world of sexuality in a collegiate setting may be a time of uncertainty and curiosity. So, everyone should learn how to be proactive in taking safety measures given that college is a socially hyper-active environment. But more importantly, aggressors should seek immediate counseling to prevent maltreatment of themselves and others. 

If you are seeking help, contact the National Sexual Assault Crisis Hotline: 800-656-HOPE (4673)

For statistical reference: 

https://www.rainn.org/statistics/campus-sexual-violence

https://www.rainn.org/statistics/criminal-justice-system

https://www.rainn.org/effects-sexual-violence

Crime in NYC on the Rise with No End in Sight

NYPD assessing the scene of a Brooklyn shooting. LLoyd Mitchell | The New York Times

By: Aliyah Rodriguez

In the wake of recent cuts and reallocations of the New York Police Department’s funding, shootings have been on the rise across New York City.

The NYPD’s monthly crime statistics report confirms that shootings have risen dramatically this year. The NYPD’s reports suggest that this rise in crime is caused by the NYPD making 40,000 fewer overall arrests in 2020, as opposed to 2019, and because of a new bail law that allows offenders no longer eligible for bail to be released back into the streets and become repeat offenders.

Shootings in July have risen 177%, in June 130%, and in August 177%, since the shootings from the previous year.

In summer 2020 alone a mother was fatally shot outside of a public school, a man was shot while playing handball in a park, and a 1-year-old boy was shot while in his stroller at a cookout, and that’s only a few instances.

The weekend of the 4th of July holiday saw 64 shootings around the city in a 3-day span, with 10 of those victims dying from their wounds.

Five people, including a 6-year-old boy and his mother, were shot at J’ouvert celebrations early September despite COVID restrictions preventing the annual Labor Day celebrations taking place.

The city surpassed 1,000 shootings before Labor Day this year, making it the most violent year since 2015.

Shootings aren’t the only kind of crime on the rise, statistics from the month of August show that murders in NYC this year have increased by 34% in comparison to the first eight months of 2019. An 18-year-old man was stabbed and lit on fire in the hallway of his apartment building on August 12th and a man was stabbed several times in a Greenwich parking garage on August 24th.

An attempted rape on a subway platform in August had to be stopped by bystanders despite the fact that police normally patrol subway stations.

This extreme rise in crime has become the center of the debate on the future of policing in NYC. Mayor Bill DeBlasio announced in June that the city would be sending more officers on the streets to combat the violence, but reports from July and August show that crime only grew as the summer went on. As most New Yorkers know, the summer is always a bad time for crime, so the recent uptake could be contributed to the fact that people are outside for longer in the heat and because the strain of the pandemic has caused a lot of unrest.

Even though shootings are on the rise, arrest numbers have been decreasing, causing some critics of the NYPD to say that the police are staging a work slowdown in response to the Black Lives Matter protests against police brutality and systemic racism.

Officers at the scene of a Manhattan shooting. John Taggart | The New York Times

Despite this, senior police officials – such as Police Commissioner Dermot Shea – have attributed the rise in violence to the criminal justice reforms that have been put in place over the last few years, like the ones put in place due to the protests that happened earlier this year. The police have also argued that DeBlasio’s efforts to reduce Rikers Island’s jail population have put more violent criminals back on the street.

The commissioner also said that people who “think they know more about law enforcement than the police” are to blame for the rise in crime, and cited the recent chokehold bill that was passed. He said that the police need more resources and public support to do their job of fighting crime effectively.  

Violence in the city has only continued to grow throughout September, all New Yorkers can do is wait and hope that the cold winter months will bring a halt to these violent crimes.

COVID-19 Leads to Decline in Overall Crime Throughout Pandemic, but Upswing in Shootings, Killings, and Violent Crimes

Date: October 1, 2020     by Elvin Omeragic

The nation has seen a change in society like never before since the inception of the COVID-19 pandemic. One silver lining of the pandemic has been a decline in overall crime, which can be attributed to the quarantine, forcing Americans to stay indoors. Drug crimes have dropped by 60% since the start of the pandemic.

In the above graph, the comparisons of 2018, 2019, and 2020 show the changes in various crimes in San Francisco, which reveal a significant reduction in crimes such rape, robbery, and assault. However, there has been an increase in burglaries, which are a sign of the lack of income in American households. www.sanfranciscopolice.org

However, a closer look at this decline in crime reveals that shootings and homicides has seen a significant rise throughout the pandemic. This surge in homicides and shootings have increased throughout the nation, most notably in Chicago and New York. As well, burglaries have spiked by over 30% across cities. www.npr.org

The rise in burglaries can be attributed to the massive loss in jobs and financial security. But the rise in shooting and killings at a time when nearly all other crimes have dropped has yet to be explained.

In the span of just 1-month from this past May to June, 20 major cities in America had a 37% increase in homicides. In this same period, aggravated assaults rose by 35%. Chicago suffered 30 shootings and three homicides over the span of one weekend. In New York, 40 people were shot in just 48 hours. www.washingtonpost.com

This rise may be connected to the recent lack in confidence in law enforcement and the growing animosities that were sparked after the murder of George Floyd.

Data from a recent poll conducted by the Council on Criminal Justice (CCJ) indicates the biggest drop in confidence towards law enforcement in 27 years. In the polls, just 48% of respondents gave a positive view of police officers. www.cnn.com

A screenshot of a social media post Description automatically generated

Source: www.kvue.com

The trends in these crimes have been an easy task to identify. However, identifying and understanding the reasons why these shifts in crimes are happening and how to reduce them is a much harder task.

Co-founder and CEO of the Center for Policing Equity, Phillip Goff sheds light on the increase in domestic violence as a possible reason behind the increase in murders during the pandemic.

“The first explanation that I have is that this comes from people being locked inside during quarantines and a lack of social services. All those things are things that we would expect to lead to higher rates of violence. That’s speculation, though. I have no evidence that that’s the right thing other than the rise in calls for domestic violence.” www.cnn.com

Major cities in America continue to show daunting statistics in these violent crimes, with data showing clear increases during this time. It is still too early to examine this data and make any firm correlations to these crimes, but the fact remains that the pandemic has certainly had a significant impact on violence throughout the country.

Year-to-date change, from 2019 to 2020

City2020 Pre-CovidThrough Parts of June 2020
Chicago16%34%
Philadelphia11%23%
Oakland, Calif.-41%-8%
Los Angeles-3%5%
Atlanta-17%4%
Nashville92%43%
New York-13%23%
New Orleans14%36%
Indianapolis75%38%
Jacksonville, Fla.-3%13%

Source: Police departments and media reports By The New York Times

New York, which has a decline of crimes by 13% before the pandemic, has unfortunately seen a 38% increase in crimes since the pandemic started. In the month of June, which was the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, there were 39 murders, 109 rapes, nearly 1,000 robberies, and nearly 2,000 assaults.

The numbers of rapes, robberies, and assaults shows a decline in each crime during this month; however, the number of murders indicates a 30% bump from the previous year in the same month. www.newyorktimes.com

Statistics on Index Crimes

 June 2020June 2019+/-%
Murder3930+9+30%
Rape109138-29-21.0%
Robbery9481,153-205-17.8%
Assault1,9471,953-6-0.3%
Burglary1,783817+966+118.2%
Grand
Larceny		2,3173,744-1,427-38.1%
G.L.A.696462+234+50.6%
TOTAL7,8398,297-458-5.5%

Source: www1.nyc.gov

The increase in shootings and homicides have overshadowed the bright spot of a decline in overall crimes during the pandemic.

The absence of Americans being outdoors have generated this decline in crimes and has been an unexpected benefit of the quarantine. But this benefit is also puzzling as to why there are rises in shootings.

Burglaries have skyrocketed this June compared to last June, which can be attributed to the lack of income and loss of businesses. Murders in New York have increased 30% since last June, but even with these increases, the overall crime rates have decreased by 5.5%.

There is not yet a clear view of what the future holds and the perspective on crime rates in this country. It will also be interesting to see where these rates go once the pandemic has peaked and is ultimately over. www.nyc.gov

Why Luka Donic and The Mavericks are the Future of the NBA.

By Henry Pevey Jr

Luka Doncic and his insane second year in the NBA comes to an end. During the Post Season, Luka improved his numbers in every category except for his free throw percentage. He averaged 31 points per game with 9.8 rebounds and 8.7 assists per game. He improved his field goal percentage from 44.5% to 50% from the field. He also improved his three-point percentage from 32.1% from the three-point line to 36.4%. We can compare Luka’s regular-season averages of 28.8 points, 9.4 rebounds, and 8.8 assists to those of Russel Westbrook during his MVP season in 2017.

Keep in mind that we are comparing a 21-year-old young super star to Russel Westbrook’s campaign for MVP at 28 years old. Luka also became the youngest person in NBA history to record a 40-point triple double in Game 4 against the Clippers. He had 43 points, 17 rebounds, and 13 assists.

The 21-year-old star from Slovenia might not have been able to lead the Mavericks to a first-round upset against Kawhi Leonard and the Clippers, but he has definitely proved to the NBA and the fans that he is not to be taken lightly. The six-foot-seven-point guard took the second-best team in the NBA to a six-game series.

The Dallas Mavericks can be a scary team when healthy, considering that the six-game series they had with one of the best teams in the NBA was led by Luka Doncic alone. Luka’s all-star teammate, Kristaps Porzingis, was injured with a torn meniscus since the first game of the playoffs. The 7-foot-3 center from Latvia had previously missed an entire season due to a torn ACL. After coming back from injury, Porzingis 20.4 points per game with 9.5 rebounds per game.

Along with the 20.4 points and 9.5 rebounds per game, Porzingis also led the Mavericks team in blocks with 2 blocks per game. If the Mavericks want to become a serious championship contender, they need to reevaluate who their 3rd scoring option will be. The Mavericks won’t have much success if their 3rd scoring option after Porzingis and Doncic is Tim Hardaway Jr with 17.8 points per game and 3.5 rebounds. Hardaway Jr is the third-best option on the Mavericks according to PER, or Player Efficiency Rating, with a PER of 12.60, nearly 15 points less than the Maverick’s second most. Doncic leads the Mavericks with the highest PER of 27.06 and Porzingis trails him with a 26.18.

The Mavericks have a bright future ahead of them, especially when being led by a 21-year-old phenom in Luka Doncic, but they need to take the right steps to build around him. He is capable of leading a team to a championship, but not without help. That being said, this team is a sight for the future and a scary sight at that.

Works Cited

2019-20 Postseason Dallas Mavericks Stats. https://www.espn.com/nba/team/stats/_/name/dal/dallas-mavericks.

Watts, T. (2020, August 31). Luka Doncic lets fans know the Dallas Mavericks goal for next season. The Smoking Cuban. https://thesmokingcuban.com/2020/08/31/dallas-mavericks-luka-doncic-2021-goal/.

August 31st 2020 at 4:56pm CST by Luke Adams, Sillivan • 1 month ago, Gary • 1 month ago, coachtim • 1 month ago, El Don • 1 month ago, Curtisrowe • 1 month ago, … Perry W • 1 month ago. Mavs Notes: Doncic, Porzingis, Future, Barea. Hoops Rumors. https://www.hoopsrumors.com/2020/08/mavs-notes-doncic-porzingis-future-barea.html.

Do Empty Stadiums Affect Athletes Performances?

By Daniel Scochemaro

Sports franchises all around the world have started to slowly innovate and come back to the feel of playing the game they love. Even with the current state of the world, athletes have still found a way to continue the tradition and give fans something to look forward to, despite the effects of corona. However, the difference in this era of sports is that the stadiums are completely empty, aside from the athletes and staff; Live sports with no physical audience. 

Robinson Cano of the Mets warmed up on Wednesday in front of the only fans he will see in stadiums for a while: cardboard ones. 

In sports such as Baseball, the absence of fans didn’t exactly affect the way all athletes played. The affects varied between each player, some that pitched 95 miles per hour in the beginning of games with fans present felt that without fans it was like something was missing. The adrenaline of pitching in front of an opponents fans is lost, according to Former Los Angeles Dodgers Pitcher, Orel Hershiser.

“I know that when the crowd gets going with runners on, my adrenaline gets going, and I tend to have better stuff.” Cincinnati Reds Pitcher, Trevor Bauer said.

The fans play a huge role in baseball with 54 percent of games being won at home due to the fans, comfort of being home, and the umpire advantage on the home team. Some believe that the absence of crowds might actually amplify this feeling of home advantage on both sides.

“Does the crowd really seem to matter very much, or is going home to your family every night?” Baseball Prospectus Analyst, Jonathan Judge said.

The same can not be said for sports like Soccer, or Fútbol for the international fans of the sport. Fans play a very important role in home-field advantage when it comes to winning games. The culture of the game comes from the fans, and without that, it makes a pretty noticeable affect on the athletes and their individual performances, post-quarantine.

Fans or no fans, Bayern Munich was still the best team in Germany.

One team in particular, Bundesliga, was the first to make their way back onto the field and continue playing after months of no action on the field. The win percentage for Bundesliga at home dropped by 10 percent, from 43 percent to 33 percent.

According to Managing Director of data and analytics at Impect, Lukas Keppler, the absence of fans is almost like a negative home advantage because they are such a vital part of a teams performance, while they seem to actually have a better performance on the road since the change in pace.

Overall goal scoring at home has dropped more than the usual numbers scored in a full house, from 1.74 to 1.43. Players have also taken fewer shots with a 10 percent decrease in shots taken. The chance of a goal being made has dropped to 11.1 percent, according to data by a firm known as, Gracenote.

Bundesliga referees, perhaps unburdened by crowd reactions, called home teams for more fouls than away teams, and awarded them more yellow cards.

Fouls are also a huge part of the game of Soccer with the fans playing a huge part in what gets called, and what does not. Since the absence of fans, players have been committing more fouls, and being called more often for it; whereas, full stadiums had less calls.

“The increase in yellow cards and fouls by the home team in matches behind closed appears to confirm the hypothesis,” Gracenote’s, Simon Gleave said.

The difference in performance in sports like Baseball and Soccer are very noticeable, but the bigger question is if players are clearly struggling, why continue to play without the fans present? Are the people in charge going to adapt to this new dynamic, or is this simply a way of keeping business afloat?

Works Cited

O’connell, R. (2020, July 31). Baseball in Empty Stadiums Is Weird. How Will It Affect Outcomes? Retrieved October 02, 2020, from https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/31/sports/baseball/baseball-empty-stadiums-effects.html

Smith, R. (2020, July 01). Do Empty Stadiums Affect Outcomes? The Data Says Yes. Retrieved October 02, 2020, from https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/01/sports/soccer/soccer-without-fans-germany-data.html

How Fashion is Quickly Adding to an Increase in Pollution

by Katherine McCrory

Oftentimes, it is difficult to associate the glamour of fashion with the health threats associated with air pollution. However, data indicated that the fashion industry is among the leading drivers of air pollution today, second only to the oil industry. The industry had been accused of dumping 1.7 billion tons of carbon dioxide gas into the atmosphere. The key contributors to this carbon footprint are the raw materials it uses. In 2016, for instance, the largest market share of fibers used in the industry comprised the polymer-based synthetic fibers (Fig. 1), which have their origins from fossil fuel both, as basic raw material and as a source of manufacturing power. (Source: Pandey)

In a sense, it has the same basic raw materials the oil industry produces. In 2014, 46 million tons of polyester was produced. In return, more than 650 million tons of carbon dioxide was discharged into the atmosphere. This amounts to 40 percent of all discharges attributed to the fashion industry.

Add to that the high carbon footprint of the logistics industry, which relies on fossil fuel to power transportation from the raw material sources to the retail stores. If that is not alarming enough, current habits of recycling old clothes had been observed only in less than two out of ten old fabrics (Common Objectives). Thus, eight of ten old clothes may have been disposed into waste or burned. François-Henri Pinault, chairman and CEO of Kering, said in a statement this fall “When it comes to climate change, we can no longer wait to take real action.” “While we focus on avoiding and reducing our [greenhouse gas] emissions to meet our Science-Based Target, we will offset all our remaining emissions and support the conservation of vital forests and biodiversity around the world.” (Washington Post)

Nevertheless, knowing this connection between fashion products and air pollution is the first step in responding to the challenge of reducing the carbon footprints of all products being used at home. It allows consumers to make a difficult choice between the glamour and the deterioration of the environment. It allows everyone to make the crucial choice of caring for others and the progeny of the human race in the future and the self-satisfaction of looking great in the mirror and before the eyes of society. In the end, it is about choosing to care about the self or the others, including their own children’s children.

To appreciate this difference, it is helpful, to begin with, the clothes most people wear every day. Based on the recycling data mentioned above, there is a strong likelihood that these clothes are barely worn or not worn at all, and had ended up in landfills. If this unfortunate trend is not corrected, estimates indicate that, by 2050, the fashion industry will have used up more than a quarter of the carbon allocation on the planet, particularly that connected with the so-called “2C pathway” (Pandey). The higher demand for affordable and inferior quality fashion products had been connected with low-cost manufacturers, which are associated with the highest carbon footprints in the industry. Also, the growing shift in the utilization of more manmade materials is expected to increase the carbon impact of the fashion industry to problems associated with climate change. The “business as usual” behavior that the fashion industry embraces is expected to exacerbate the global pollution problem attributed to this industry (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development n. p.).

The most difficult part in this situation is the inability of non-academic citizens, including the consumers of fashion products, to determine the impact of their consumption decisions on the climate, both locally and globally. Talks of “impact assessment” create echoes of the academic walls, which most consumers do not care about to burden their minds. Yet, it must be done and communicated to all consumers in a form that is highly accessible and digestible.

Thus, such highly technical methodologies, such as the so-called “IMPACT 2002+VQ2.2” (Quantis), must be left for the academics to tackle in the soft-lighted workspaces in their universities and research laboratories. Even if these matrixes utilize understandable concepts, such as “greenhouse gas (GHG) discharge levels, human health, and debilitation of freshwater resources”, consumers are more interested in information that they can use in making decisions to support or not the drive to reduce personal carbon footprints through products consumed, not just from fashion products.

In every country around the world, each consumer has the power to contribute to cutting down pollution materials even among countries where the world’s biggest apparel manufacturers operate, such as China, Bangladesh, and India (Quantis). If the world is to attain a zero GHG discharge output, the consumers must make the crucial choice of cutting down their carbon footprint. That could include a well-considered choice to cut down on their consumption of fashion products. This power, which consumers have but seldom exercise, can influence global environmental policies. If the consumers reduce the market for fashion products, the industry backing it up has no choice but to scale down their respective production capacities or suffer great losses from low market demand. Amanda Belluccio, a packaging specialist for Intercos America, says, “educating the consumer can be part of the solution.” She goes on to explain that, “Intercos has been trying to source recycled plastics for packaging along with urging our clients to educate their customers on where to send their empty components for recycling.” 

Non-government organizations, such as the Fashion Industry Charter for Climate Actionunder the office of the United Nations, may not be necessary should the consumers decide. Gabriela Hearst CFDA Award winning clothing designer and eco conscious business woman said, “People say, ‘Oh you know we need to save the planet.’ No, no, no. Obviously you do not expose yourself to nature. You think you’re going to save the planet? Nature is a natural force. We are going to get exterminated.” (Washington Post) The most difficult endeavor is to persuade consumers to consider the effects of their consumption far beyond their likes and into the future needs of their children’s children and that of other people in their respective communities and around the world. Consumers must persuade themselves. That is the only hope for this world against environmental degradation.

Work Cited

Common Objective. “Can fashion Stop climate change?” Common Objective, 22 Nov. 2019. Web. https://www.commonobjective.co/article/can-fashion-stop-climate-change.

Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. “Addressing Climate Change in the Fashion Sector: A Collaborative Approach.” OECD. Web. 22 Nov. 2019. https:// mneguidelines.oecd.org/OECD-Garment-Forum-2019-session-note-Addressing-climate-change-in-the-fashion-sector.pdf.

Pandey, K. (2018) “Fashion Industry May Use of Quarter of World’s Carbon Budget by 2050.” Down To Earth, 2018. Web. https://www.downtoearth.org.in/news/environment/fashion- industry-may-use-quarter-of-world-s-carbon-budget-by-2050-61183.

Quantis. “Measuring Fashion: Environmental Impact of the Global Apparel and Footwear Industries Study.” Quantis, Mar. 2018. Web.  22 Nov. 2019. https://quantis-intl.com/wp-content/ uploads/2018/03/measuringfashion_globalimpactstudy_full-report_quantis_cwf_2018a.pdf.

Givhan, Robin. “The Troubling Ethics of Fashion in the Age of Climate Change.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 18 Nov. 2019, https://www.washingtonpost.com/magazine/2019/11/18/troubling-ethics-fashion-age-climate-change/?arc404=true.