The Times they aren't a changing

Crowded Schoolhouses

Despite what those who relish the "good old days" say, the public schools have always had problems -- and it turns out they have often had too many students.

In his "On Education" column in today's Times, Samuel Freedman described the 22 red classroom trailers that have been installed in the schoolyard at Richmond Hill High School, which is operating at twice its capacity.

A Queens High School With 3,600 Students, and Room for Just 1,800

By SAMUEL G. FREEDMAN

From its brass entry doors to its rooftop observatory to the intricate oak paneling of the principal’s office, Richmond Hill High School in Queens was built to inspire something like awe for public education. The only discordant response during the structure’s dedication in 1923 was whether, with a capacity for 1,800 students, it was too large.

But it turns out there was similar outrage at what seems to be the very same school -- just two years after it opened. At the time, the administration was struggling to handle its 3,479 students.

March 17, 1925
BACKS SCHOOL PLEA OF RICHMOND HILL

Board of Estimate Asks That building be enlarged or a new one erected.

Parents Call Conditions Disgraceful – Mayor stops yells of students

When a delegation of parents, school children and representatives of civic association of Richmond Hill, L.I. appeared before the Committee of the Whole of the Board of Estimate yesterday and depicted what they termed the “disgraceful and unjust” condition of the overcrowded high school of that community Mayor Hylan and his associates recommended that the Board of Education take immediate steps to relieve the situation, either by enlarging the existing school building or by erecting a new one.

The article goes on to say:

John Munro, President of the Parents’ Associations of Richmond Hill, led the delegation. Some of the parents declared their children were obliged to get up as early as 6:30 A.M. for the first of the divided sessions of the high school, which has only 1,700 seats for 3,479 students. They also declared that some of the children who attend the last session daily do not get home until 7:30 P.M.

Free Parking

Since the earliest days of the automobile -- and maybe even before -- having a place to park was a commodity hot enough to inspire abuse and corruption.

Mayor Bloomberg recently fired the latest salvo in the war on parking abuses. In today's Times, under the headline "Paring Down Parking Permits, and Raising a Fuss," Anthony Ramirez reports:

All around the city, where fevered drivers try in vain to find parking on the street and angry pedestrians try to squeeze past illegally parked cars, New Yorkers on Friday were talking or blogging or posting to message boards about Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s plan to reduce by 20 percent the number of parking permits issued to police officers, firefighters, teachers and employees of an array of city agencies.

Mayor Ed Koch promised much the same 22 years ago:

July 25, 1986
CITY PLANS TO CURTAIL AND CONTROL PERMITS FOR OFFICIAL PARKING

In a move to cut traffic congestion in the City Hall area, all parking permits for city employees -- estimated to number 15,000 -- will be eliminated next Feb. 1, Mayor Koch announced yesterday.

New permits for the free, on-street spots will be issued solely by the Police Department and a new central review committee, the Mayor said.

And Mayor Abe Beame 11 years before that.

July 24, 1975
MAYOR ENDS POLITICAL PARKING PERMITS

By RALPH BLUMENTHAL

The Taxi and Limousine Commission, under orders from Mayor Beame, yesterday rescinded the permits it had issued to political leaders and other non commission personnel giving them parking privileges at hundreds of taxi stands around the city.

Beware of dogs babysitting

Thankfully some news doesn't repeat itself too often. But over the years, every so often a dog kills a baby. From today's Times:

Brooklyn Infant Is Killed by Family’s Dog

By THOMAS J. LUECK

An 8-month-old Brooklyn boy was mauled to death by his family’s Doberman pinscher on Thursday as the boy played on the floor of his apartment, the police said.

A similar tragedy occurred 130 years before.

February 12, 1877
AN INFANT KILLED BY A DOG

A short time after midnight yesterday Mrs. Kate Hartman, wife pf Augustus Hartman, of No. 131 Pitt Street, was delivered of a female child, which, at 6 A.M. was intrusted (sic) to an aunt of the mother to nurse. The aunt fell asleep while holding the newly-born infant in her arms, and on awaking discovered that it was in a dying condition. On the neck of the child was a large scratch, which bore the appearance of having been inflicted by a pet Spitz dog belonging to the family. The aunt hurriedly summoned a midwife to attend Mrs. Hartman, but when she arrived at the house the babe was dead. Deputy Coroner Cushman made an autopsy of the body, and ascertained that death was due to shock.

It's unclear if Spitz was put down.

But this is undoubtedly the most disturbing of the three stories. Joanne Bashold comes to New York from Ohio at the age of 23. She gets raped, and in the process gets pregnant. She decides to keep the baby, and then this happens:

September 7, 1976
DOG KILLS AN INFANT LEFT IN APARTMENT; MOTHER IS ARRESTED

By CHARLES KAISER

A 4-day-old baby girl, left alone on the floor of an East Harlem apartment, was killed yesterday morning by the family's German Shepherd, which had not been fed for days.

The baby's mother, 24-year-old Joanne Bashold, was arrested and charged with negligent homicide.

I tried to track Ms. Bashold down, but she seems to have either changed her name of disappeared without a trace. I'm sure it came as only small consolation to her at the time, but all the charges were dropped.

The elusive shortuct to losing weight

Fortunes have long been made in the weeks between the making and breaking of New Year's resolutions. But with all the get-thin-quick schemes on the market, experts have always found it almost impossible to get the real, tough-love message across.

In today's Science Times, under the headline, "No Gimmicks: Eat Less and Exercise More," Jane Brody explains:

And really, it doesn’t matter whether you choose a diet based on your genotype or the phases of the moon, or whether you cut down on sugars and starches or fats. If you consume fewer calories than you need to maintain your current weight, you will lose.

In 1931, the city's Health Commissioner offered identical advice: "The only safe and sure way to reduce is to eat less and to exercise more."

July 21, 1931
WARNS OF QUACKERY IN WEIGHT REDUCING

Dr. Wynne says all pills and other preparations that decrease fat are poisonous

Hold diet only method -- Must be combined with exercise and not overdone, he declares on radio

"Fakers, quacks and charlatans" of offer for sale "weight reducing pills, soaps, medicines, gadgets and the like" were denounced as menaces to health yesterday by Health Commissioner Wynne in the weekly Health Department television broadcast over station WGBS on "Reducing Weight Safely."

Every week, he said, letters were received at the Health Department from person who had fallen into the hands of some quack asking how they could regain the good health they lost, together with their fat, by innocent-looking soaps or pills.

"Every once in a while," Dr. Wynne continued, "we read in the newspapers of the death--frequently by suicide--of actresses or other prominent persons who ruined their health trying to keep think by so-called 'easy' methods. How many others there may be in this city who have destroyed their happiness by the same method I have no means of knowing. But I do know this, that there are many of them, perhaps thousands.

"Be warned before taking any pills for weight reduction that are called harmless by the salesman or the advertising. Pills that really reduce your weight cannot be harmless, for they are poisonous. They produce their effect by breaking down the body. They reduce your weight by the same route as a destructive disease might reduce you, and leave you at the end in such a condition that you may never recover. If the pills you hear about are not poisonous, then they cannot produce reduction and are only frauds."