Tag Archives: community’s well being

Visions of Well-being for NYC

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As you may have seen in both videos of the Victory speeches by Democratic nominee Bill De Blasio and Republican nominee Joe Lhota ; they both want to make a change for New Yorkers and they have different ways in doing so.

Beginning with Bill De Blasio, he made his victory speech as one of the nominees in Brooklyn where he is from while the others did theirs in Manhattan where it is usually taken place. Bill De Blasio started of his speech by remembering and event that united all New Yorkers at one point which was for 9/11(10:15-11:00). He wants people from New York to help each other out in rough times and to stick together like how they once did. Another thing that Bill De Blasio stated in his speech was “The Tale of Two Cities” and how its divided between the wealthy people and the poor people(11:35-12:00). He explains that hospitals are being replaced for condos and how policing has turned into racial profiling and how mothers and fathers are being afraid that their children aren’t getting the education they need. He continuously repeats that New Yorkers cannot afford to take anymore risk.

Joe Lhota started off his victory speech telling the people of New York about his family and how his parents worked hard to get what they wanted. He supports the NYPD because of the history his family has in it. (3:00-3:20) He believes that issues,vision,principles and experience brought him to victory and that New York City is the city of opportunity. Joe Lhota wants everyone to have the same opportunity he had given the fact that his family struggled just as anyone else. He brought up what Bill De Blasio said in his speech about the tale of two cities and he believes thats just something that is being used to tear the city down and create bancrupcy and that he won’t let the city be divided rather unite the city (5:30-6:00). Joe Lhota jus wants the city to be untied and not be divided, and he thanks NYPD for helping bring down crime rates and supports Stop and Frisk which totally contradicts what Bill De Blasio believes about that.

Obviously these two men have two different opinions and have their own way to which they  believe can make a change to New York City. They both believe that families have a big take in this and helps them move forward but Bill De Blasio really keeps family in the change but Joe Lhota just focuses on change and moving forward not being held back and reinforcing education.

Summary/ Analysis of the article “How Happy Are You? A Census Wants to Know” by John Tierney

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The article “How Happy Are You? A Census Wants to Know” by John Tierney, reveals how a small town called Somerville is providing a slight different content in the new census. The census sent to the citizens in Somerville was altered with a new question ” On a scale of 1 to 10 how happy do you feel right now?” The census was altered due to the advocacy by psychologists and economists, however “… without debate over how to do it and whether happiness is even the right thing for politicians to be promoting.”(Pg1) I think happiness can be promoted and it is promoted in many ways. Social media is used as a tool of promotion about happiness because it makes you believe that you need certain things in order to be happy such as; having the latest and most expensive car, money, good looks, and so on. The government already influences the happiness of the citizens by making decisions that will affect the community by lowering or raising taxes, therefore it is already promoting happiness to society.

The census has turned out to have various reactions from the citizens of Somerville. The author mentions that “… one man gave himself only a 6…” explaining that he is not satisfied with his height and that he wishes he could know Quechua fluently. Meanwhile, other residents “… felt flattered by the city’s attention.” I think everyone has a different meaning of happiness; therefore it would be very complicated for the government to be able to measure it. It depends a lot on the people if it could be measured, just like Connor Brennan said “ Of course, any survey like this is going to depend on the mood of the person at that moment.” (Pg2) However, if it is necessary to have a measurement of happiness in order to improve the community then by all means they should come up with an efficient method to do so. There are methods that could be similarly used such as the one Jetpac startup uses which is analyzing pictures of instagram to determine how happy the community is (click here for the article). Hence, if the government would measure the happiness of communities then it will have to think about all of the resources that it needs in order to do well. It’s just a matter of observing what the community is interested in, just like in Somerville where they are trying to improve the parks and bike paths. Resources such as efficient healthcare, education, and protection systems are important as well for the well-being of the community.

However, it can never be accurate to make every single person happy because as I mentioned earlier, everyone has different meanings of happiness and it would cause more conflict to satisfy all of them. For my well being I would say that as long as I can help my family and other people either economic or emotional wise, it fulfills my meaning of happiness. I also think that even though we all have a different meaning of happiness, we all share at least some general ideas of it such as being economically and socially stable. Therefore happiness could be measured if it’s for the purpose of improving the community, and it can be promoted but it doesn’t mean everyone will agree with it.

How Happy Are You ? A Census Wants to know . Summary/Response. : Katiria Altruz

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The article “How happy Are You ? A Census Want to know by John Tierney is about a city named smoverville. It’s a city where they had to fill out a census form so the government can know how happy they are .So this census was based on the question “How happy do you feel right now ?” which the people from somerville had to answered from a scale to 1 to 10.The government want Somerville to be the first city in the U.s to keep records of people’s happiness.Beside promoting things that only can they sell , they want to promote happiness for everyone .But some don’t think that happiness should not be promoted by the politicians like the psychologist and economists because happiness can be right but its not the same as writing it or saying it on a questionnaire.Since more than 7,500 people have mailed back the survey , some of them did not clearly answered the questions on municipal concerns.Most people aren’t satisfied even if the questionnaire  was supposed to help but it didn’t they still trying to find a way to make people happy.

Everyone has something that make them happy so no one knows what truly make someone happy because it can change any moment or anytime.Happiness cannot be measured because they cant go by what the people fell that they want , instead they should see in what they need .Not everyone the same so of course there are going to be people who won’t give their opinion  because everyone thinks differently or do things for themselves .The survey shouldn’t be based on a person mood at the moment because the information that they had might get lower and might not help the people be happy at all .The kind of things that would be important in a well-being is happiness , life satisfaction ,fulfillment , families , and the role of parenting.Its unmeasurable because those things people do for a living and its things that matter most to them.some people don’t want to be part of the community  because they want to do things on their own and work hard for the things that they need and want.Being in a community is a big thing you have to help others and be a part of them.

Happiness cant be promoted because everyone has a different ways of being happy. Happiness cannot be measured because only the person can decided what make them happy and no one else.The government shouldn’t be promoting or measuring happiness because they wouldn’t know what people would want or feel because it takes a lot of effort and time .Happiness cannot be brought or maintain because its like the weather it comes and go . It very unexpected .For others happiness is just having the company of others like family or friends or playing your favorite video game .The kind of things important for your well being is having good company , love from the one who are close to you , good mental state , having a balance diet and living stress free.