It isn’t enough to talk about buildings, or streetscapes, or general urban planning directions to achieve success. One has to understand that it is imperative to provide opportunity and positive attitudes in Newburgh in order to attract ‘new money’ and investment in the community, ideally translating into new residents who can help sustain the economic minimums for individual households and thus result in new sales and property tax income for the city. Without a change of attitude especially with regards to violent crime including burglary (which undermines a sense of security) people will not feel safe and thus will not risk their own lives to live in Newburgh. This isn’t to say Newburgh isn’t filled with so many wonderful people, festivals, events and even a symphony. It’s to say that the urbanism of the CBD is clearly suffering and needs the kind of focus to make the kind of change happen that will help those who feel stuck in what is sometimes referred to the Newburgh slums. References to ‘slums’ must stop, and those who use the term should be informed to understand how it is doing more harm to families living in those communities than doing good for the sense of ‘coolness’.

Continue reading “Newburgh, NY, a Case Study in Urban Revitalization.”

Is your child going to bed with their iPhone and/or iPad and texting/chatting with friends when they should be sleeping? Are they just on the device too much during the day, and just won’t put down the device to do something else? Did you know you can use your Mac (and perhaps your PC) to control the times Wifi is allowed to connect to the device, day and night.

The problem hit home for me when my child kept up another child who’s grades suddenly dropped. She mentioned to me that he was having a hard time at school and was always tired. Well of course. So despite my efforts to make her understand that texting in the middle of the night might hurt her and others, I was put in a position of having to take direct action and control of the situation which had quickly got out of hand.

With the following simple step-by-step instructions, one can set time limits on a daily basis as to when all your devices can connect to the internet, thus making time for other activities, like running, jumping, laughing and family time. You’ll be able to control school night times and weekend times, giving you back the control any parent should always have. Gone are the arguments, the pleading and the rest, resulting in a new reality of a child having to think of something else to do to occupy their time. Watch how quickly that bedroom gets cleaned up, their willingness to ‘hang out’, etc…

Continue reading “Parental Control for iPhone/iPad, so your child can sleep at night.”