Evaluation of New York Times Stories

For this blog post, I have decided to investigate two articles from two different sections of the New York Times.  I know what area I will be doing my research topic in, so I intentionally tried to choose stories from different areas in order to just learn about something different.  

Article Number 1

Frodesiak, Anna. 

The first article that I investigated was the top headline of the New York Times Health section. The article, "As Population Ages, Where Are the Geriatricians?", focuses primarily on Dr. Eckstrom along with a few other geriatricians.

 What is a geriatrician you ask?
Geriatricians focus solely on the needs of geriatric patients. In the article, Dr. Eckstrom and the other geriatricians communicate the importance of geriatricians to today's aging Baby Boomers.  They insist that geriatrics require a special attention that orthopedists and even general doctors do not always provide.  Often times there are more than just physical needs that the geriatric patient has; geriatricians are specialized to deal with mental degeneration, such as dementia.  With their focus solely on the care of older individuals, they can not only help geriatrics cope with age, but actually help them reverse some of the hindering side effects of aging.

Although the location is not always outright stated, we can tell that by what the writer is describing that he interviewed these medical professionals and their patients in both hospital rooms and a doctor's examination room.  I found that the author did not spend that much time going into the setting, instead, pictures were added that showed the patients in the examinations rooms.  These definitely made the patients appear weak, feeble, and isolated in the tiny, stark, white rooms.  They appear vulnerable, and as individuals who need special care and attention.  These image boost the appearance of the geriatrician, for they are the dwindling group of medical providers who are still willing to take a pay cut in salary in order to care for these individuals.

I feel as though the article presents less of a debate, and more a slow growing crisis.  Although the article mentions how some health care professionals question even the need of geriatricians, this small component compared to the in depth explanation of a geriatrician's job, and how they positively contribute to the lives of their patients.

Article Number 2

The second article, "Slush Puddles, the Scourge of New York Walkers," comes from the opinion section and concerns the recent bombardment of snow out east, specifically New York City.  The author and concerned father, Tom Vanderbilt, begins the article recounting his trip to a neighborhood Brooklyn park with his daughter.  Their trip is plagued with unshovled side walks, waist deep snow at intersections, and icy patches on designated walking areas. 

If only they could have walked in the middle of the road...

Vanderbilt, notes that the road are almost completely clear for the cars and buses.  They race by with relative ease.  Conversely, pedestrians face a snowy obstacle course.  After trudging through the snowy sidewalks,  they enter waist deep snow piles to cross the intersection, his small daughter's head barely poking above the icy labyrinth. Such an image makes it seem as though the city is just pitching the poor pedestrians against the towering snow piles.   Why, Vanderbilt wonders, in the "most walkable city in America" do they not plow the sidewalks?  In fact, most households in the city don't have cars simply due to the traffic, so the majority of New Yorkers walk.  

In the article, Vanderbilt points out that the city does acknowledge this fact and that there does need to be adequate clearing of the sidewalks, as to not endanger citizens with the possibility of black ice. However, here's the problem,  it's up to New Yorker to shovel their portions of the street.

This is good in theory.

What frustrates Vanderbilt and other pedestrians is the fact that people don't shovel their portion of the sidewalks.  However, he doesn't seem to be angry with the people of New York, but rather the city itself.  He implies that sidewalks should be public property, and consequently the city should be in charge of plowing the sidewalks and protecting its residents.  To support his opinion, he lists other city that do provide this for their residents.  He even suggests a way to remedy the problem: heated sidewalks.

Unfortunately,  it appears that the stakes for the city are relatively low; whereas for the pedestrians, it is very high.  The risk of injury from falling is higher, and the risk of being completely soaked in snow seems to we...well... inevitable.

Shankbone, David, "The Lower East Sid of New York After the January 25th Blizzard"1/26/2010 via Wikipedia. Attribution 3.0 Unported.