Emily Anne Epstein

Irene Kaplan, 67, has enjoyed decorating her new apartment with statuettes, books and pictures from calendars.

The transition into supportive housing was easy for her, but she noted, “One size doesn’t fit all.”

Mentally Ill Look for Home in NYC
by Amy Zimmer / Metro

For 16 years Irene Kaplan lived in a 200-bed home for mentally ill adults in Coney Island.

“You just twiddled your thumbs and smoked yourself to death,” she said. Last year, in an experiment, the state moved her and 59 others into their own apartments where they get visits from case workers. She quit smoking during her first week in a Brownsville apartment.

A Brooklyn federal judge, who found large scale homes violated the Americans with Disabilities Act, this month ordered the state to create 4,500 units of supportive housing like Kaplan’s.

Last week the state lost its bid to stay the court order.

While Kaplan says she found a new lease in life, others are concerned at having supportive housing next door. In Far Rockaway, where over half of Queens’ adult home residents reside — and where there are many vacant apartments that could become supportive housing — residents are bracing themselves.

“A number of these poor souls, quite frankly, should not be on their own,” said Jonathan Graska, district manager of the local community board. “Nurses have called us and said they won’t take their meds.”

Coco Cox’s neighbors in Norwood don’t know she spent three years in an adult home in Riverdale, but she doesn’t hide her visits from caseworkers — the point is to integrate.

“There are millions of people with mental illness,” Cox said. “They’re on the subway with you, working with you. You just don’t know it because they take care of themselves and take medications.”

I won second place in the January General News category of the National Press Photographer’s Association’s Monthly Clip Contest in Region 2! How cool!  How complicated!

Sandhogs toil away underneath Grand Central Terminal carefully constructing the East Side Access Project. The project will connect the Long Island Rail Road’s (LIRR) Main and Port Washington lines in Queens to a new LIRR terminal in Manhattan. The new connection will increase the LIRR’s capacity into Manhattan, and dramatically shorten travel time for Long Island and eastern Queens commuters traveling to the east side of Manhattan in 2016, when it will be completed. Thursday, January 28, 2010. (Emily Anne Epstein/Metro)

Three-year-old Manhattanite Allie Jesner enjoys the last day of the Roosevelt Island Tramway before it closes until August for repairs, Sunday, February 28, 2010.

Please join me for the opening of my show at the Greenwich Village Bistro.

There will be drinks, live music, delicious food, and Emily Anne Epstein photographs on the walls.

I hope to see you all there!

Check out my first article for the New York Times Lens Blog, where I will analyze the political and cultural impact of the world’s best photojournalists: Drained by Rising Waters

Via the AP:

Hundreds of New Yorkers have been riding the city’s subway trains in their underwear.

They stripped down to their undies on Sunday for the ninth annual No Pants Subway Ride.

The idea is to act like nothing unusual is going on.

Participants met up at six locations throughout the city. They formed groups and dispersed to subway stations to catch trains. Once inside the subway cars, they began calmly removing their pants and folding them up.

Most people read magazines or chatted with their companions like any other straphanger.

The event started in 2002 with just seven people. It has spread to other cities.

The stunt is organized by Improv Everywhere, a group that says its mission is to cause “scenes of chaos and joy in public places.”

Improv Everywhere

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