How WeChat determines the news in Sunset Park

By Sabrina JY He

In Sunset Park’s Chinatown, connections that once happened face to face now take place on WeChat.

WeChat, more a mobile lifestyle portal than a mere app, is where people talk, plan events, send cash in digital “red packets,” (traditionally known as gift envelopes that families hand each other on holidays) and even open stores. WeChat is also where they consume news — often the only place they do.

So it was on August 25, 2018, Sunset Park learned that a woman by the name of Hannah had killed…

The Mayor wants to replace the big test, SHSAT, with top grades from each school, and some communities are up in arms

By Yuan Yuan

Leo Ni, just as he and his family expected, has been enjoying himself, making new friends and taking his favorite science classes in his new school, I.S. 187, a highly selective middle school. He got into it this fall with an outstanding fourth grade report card and a 99 percent on the state test.

What’s unexpected? He has started to go to multiple protests against Mayor Bill de Blasio’s proposal to phase out the current…

Approval of a controversial 64-story development in Downtown Brooklyn came with high emotions and many tradeoffs.

By Jordan Julian

The intersection of Flatbush Avenue and State Street feels almost like a portal between two different eras of Brooklyn. As you round the corner, the chaos of four-lane Flatbush Avenue, with its growing number of sleek glass high-rises, flows into the calm of a brownstone-lined block. Many of State Street’s picturesque brownstones date back to the early 20th century, while the newer skyscrapers, featuring Whole Foods and Apple Stores on their ground floors, range from two to three years old.

This…

A supportive housing project in Coney Island offers hope

By Sara Ohlms

Rising above the famous Coney Island Boardwalk, a nine-story tower nears completion. In the shadow of the Parachute Jump, the New York City landmark, this is Surf Vets Place. In a neighborhood weary of development and wary of developers, the people of Coney Island have only positive things to say about it. This is because of the tenants who will eventually live here.

With 135 units, Surf Vets Place has 82 apartments that will soon become home for homeless veterans. These veterans will pay no more than 30…

Millions of tons of food gets wasted every year. Who is to blame?

By Blake Ralling

Try this experiment. Open your refrigerator. And ask yourself: What you are going to throw away? Take into consideration the expiration date, leftovers from last week, or the bananas that now have one too many brown spots. Made your decision? Ready to start discarding? You have just contributed to the 1.3 billion tons of food being wasted each year.

Roughly one-third of food produced for human consumption around the world gets lost or wasted each year, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization, which…

Ads for the Bensonhurst weight-loss clinic may be too good to be true

By Sachi McClendon

Dr. Fat Loss, a weight-loss clinic operating out of Bensonhurst, guarantees its patients will “Lose 20 to 45 pounds in 40 days.” As the ads put it, No hunger. No cravings. Fast and easy. The implicit promise: Pay us $2,000 and you’ll have a new body in no time. Sounds magical, right?

Here’s the problem: Dr. Fat Loss features ads on social media and on its website, like the one pictured above, that the Federal Trade Commission has deemed deceptive. In April of 2017…

Temporary Protected Status allowed thousands of Haitians to live in the U.S. for almost ten years. It will no longer exist after July 22, 2019, leaving Haitian New Yorkers with a tough decision: to stay or to go?

By Emma Vickers

She waited for fourteen hours to be rescued from under the rubble of her home in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, after the earthquake. She waited eight months after that for her school to reopen, before moving to New York to continue her education. …

New HIV diagnoses in Bedford-Stuyvesant and Crown Heights are the highest in Brooklyn. Why?

By Shrai Popat

The offices of the Gay Men of African Descent are purposefully difficult to find. Housed in a generic office block and sitting at the end of a basement corridor, the lack of natural light is the necessary compromise for ensuring that no one walking past can catch a glimpse of those visiting the center.

Vaughn Taylor-Akutagawa, GMAD’s executive director, says that the organization is close to a number of subways lines and “right by the Barclays Center so that if you come here…