In this edition of MetroFocus, Sandy’s long-lasting impact on Lower Manhattan, and what still needs to be done. Rick Karr reports from the southern tip of the island, where Sandy’s flood-waters met vulnerable infrastructure last October. Rafael Pi Roman follows up on what happened and what needs to be done in the greater New York area with Wall Street Journal reporter Laura Kusisto. Kusisto discusses lessons the city and its landlords should have learned from Sandy.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey hasn’t opened a new bridge since 1931, but $2.8 billion is about to change that. Mike Schneider talks to Martin Robins, director of the Alan Voorhees Transportation Center and Former Executive Director of NJ Transit about the upcoming changes and why it took so long.

On this week’s Listening In segment, we take you to The New York Times where the “Energy for Tomorrow” Conference looked at building sustainable cities.

You may have heard versions of the story of the O.K. Corral, but have you heard the story of the woman behind the story? Ann Kirschner, University Dean of the Macaulay College Honors College, joins Pi Roman to discuss her new book, “Lady at the O.K. Corral.”

And a visit to the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens to see what makes their cherry blossom festival so special.

For many young students in New York, math is not their strongest suit. But Glen Whitney, executive director of the National Museum of Mathematics, is hoping to change that.

“We sort of have this strange attitude toward mathematics,” Whitney, a former hedge fund quantitative analyst, said. “And, I’ve seen it, you know, at a party, it’s okay to say: ‘Hey, You know, I was terrible at math. Weren’t you?’ … It’s socially acceptable. You would never say, ‘ You know, I could never really read very well.’”

Located right across from Madison Square Park, “MoMath” focuses on the visual and physical elements involved in math. Interactive exhibits are designed to illuminate  geometry, algebra, or calculus in a way that is meant to be both informative and fun.

A young girl takes a ride on the Square Wheeled Trike, one of the museum's most popular exhibits. MetroFocus/Esha Ray.

One example is the highly popular Square Wheeled Trike exhibit. At first, it seems impossible that a square-wheeled tricycle will ride smoothly over a bumpy track,  but that’s exactly what it does.  Since the length of each side of the square is equal to the length of the arc in each bump, the square wheels roll smoothly.

“[W]e want to show here that with math that you can make things that seem to be impossible, you can make them possible,” Whitney said. “It’s that element of surprise. It’s that element of like,  ‘I’ve never seen anything like that before.’”

Other exhibits at MoMath include the Human Tree, an exhibit that transforms your body into a tree, sprouting scaled down versions of yourself from your arms as you stand in front of a digital screen.  It’s a way to explain how fractal trees work.

Since opening in December, MoMath has seen over 55,000 people come through its doors, from young children to elderly couples. Whitney hopes that museum-goers walk away with a sense of wonder and curiosity when it comes to math.

Walk onto the Math Square, and watch the display of lights change and detect your feet as you move around in a maze, pattern, or game. MetroFocus/Esha Ray.

“We want to have experiences that can be entered in a sort of visceral level,” he said. “If we spark curiosity then that illumination, you know, it takes work, like anything … So that illumination is going to come through the kind of attention that maybe can’t happen in a museum. But we can light the spark here.”

MoMath is located at 11 East 26th Street in Manhattan, and is open everyday from 10am to 5pm.

The iconic giant who once towered over tourists at the Jersey Shore now waits for Barnacle Bill’s arcade and mini golf to reopen in Ortley Beach. It’s one of many projects New Elevations Construction has underway.

“There’s 40,000 properties in 100 miles of the storm that really need our service. Most of our customers, they’ve been calling. My phone’s been ringing off the hook, please come help us,” said New Elevations owner Michael Sikorski.

Around the corner, homeowner Peg Gallagher is forced to rebuild. Three homes landed in her backyard.

“It’s depressing to be here. It was such a beautiful place and it’s totally depressing,” Gallagher said.

There are about 2,000 homes in Ortley Beach. Mayor Tom Kelaher says Sandy damaged every house here and at this point more than 100 homes need to be demolished.

Read more on the NJ Today website.

Public Housing took quite a hit from Superstorm Sandy and housing officials are already thinking about ways to improve resiliency.

Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism students Jon Gerberg and Kristen Reed visited a public housing complex called Alfred E. Smith Houses on the Lower East Side to assess the damage days after the storm. Gerberg and Reed found many residents chose to stay in their apartments. The family they spoke to were collecting water to flush toilets and navigated through dark hallways with flashlights.  According to Cecil House, General Manager of the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA), the Smith Houses residents weren’t the only ones.

“In NYCHA alone we lost power, heat, hot water to 423 buildings affecting 80,000 residents across the city,” House said. As of December 21, 2012, NYCHA reported in a press release that all Sandy impacted building had been restored. However, remediation and renovation continued for months, according to House.

House stated that even as of late April, 24 of NYCHA’s developments were operating off of mobile boilers for heat and hot water.

One major lesson learned from the storm, according to House,  is the importance of evacuation of residents in flood-prone areas. When residents choose to stay in their apartments, House said that it can be “very difficult for the Housing authority and other agencies to address the need that gets built up after the storm.”

As far as preparing for the upcoming storm season, House said that emergency temporary boilers were in place at some locations.  Coordinating with community organizations would also be a key part of the New York City Housing Authority’s next storm response.

“For NYCHA ourselves, we’re primarily a landlord and we’re not in a position, given the challenges that we have with federal funding, to address and staff up to maintain, to address all of the issues that our residents might have in the light of a storm as significant as Hurricane Sandy,” House said. “[S]o partnering with others is going to be critical for us.”

Long term, NYCHA plans to upgrade facilities to make them less prone to flooding “Today, our boilers, our electrical switch gears are all in our basements—exposed,” House said. “[…]We’re working to elevate those systems.”

With the Boston marathon bombing still fresh in the memories of families around the country, the Child Mind Institute is preparing to launch a month-long online campaign to highlight issues around children’s mental health.

“Well, we think that at least  for one month out of the year, there should be a month where we’re talking about children’s mental health, that psychiatric and learning disorders are real, they’re common, and they’re treatable,” said Dr. Harold Koplewicz, founding president of the Child Mind Institute.

Throughout the month of May, the Speak Up For Kids campaign will harness online resources to draw national attention to mental health care for kids.  The initiative is made up of 75 partner organizations and mental health professionals, covering topics ranging from improving school safety to suicidal youth.

The campaign will also highlight existing barriers to diagnosing and caring for children’s mental health.  According to Dr. Koplewicz, a child and adolescent psychiatrist, barriers to seeking help include stigma around psychiatric disorders, affordable access to mental health coverage and lack of investment in science.  ”Even today, people will talk about diabetes and cancer and AIDS, but they don’t talk about their child’s depression, or something as common as ADHD or dyslexia,” said Koplewicz.

With more than one million members, the Nature Conservancy is one of the largest environmental groups in the world. It operates in all 50 states and in 35 countries around the world.

New York Executive Director Bill Ulfelder sat down with MetroFocus host Rafael Pi Roman to discuss the ways in which the Conservancy is adapting to a changing world.

“We’re going to 9 billion people, in terms of global population, and 7 billion of the 9 billion people are going to be in cities,” said Ulfelder.

He noted that the Nature Conservancy’s focus has historically been on rural and wilderness areas, but “there’s a major shift going in terms of appreciating that the success of environmental protection is really going to hinge on cities in the future, so we’re starting to think about how can the Nature Conservancy deeply engage city populations in conservation success.”

One of the ways the Conservancy aims to do this is through the Leaders in Environmental Action for the Future, or LEAF, program. The program accepts students from urban high schools with an environmental focus, and immerses them in month-long paid internships in natural areas around the country. The goal of the program is for the students to learn about environmental conservation as well as gain leadership skills.

“[I]f we’re going to be relevant in the 21st century, we have to think about reaching new populations…” said Ulfelder. “[I]f we’re going to  succeed, everybody has to be involved in the environmental movement and there’s no doubt that to date people of color, age diversity, are insufficiently represented … so yes, the Conservancy is saying ‘How can we be relevant and what are the ways we can engage these folks on their terms in the places where they live?’”

Source: Key Findings from National Voter Survey on Conservation Among Voters of Color by Fairbank, Maslin, Maullin & Associates and Public Opinion Strategies

The LEAF program currently operates in about 25 mostly public schools nationwide, 13 of which are in the New York tri-state area. The majority of the participants are children of color, many of whom have spent their entire lives in cities and haven’t had access to the greater outdoors.

“The expectation is that the leadership of the environmental movement in the 21st century is going to be different. It’s going to look different, it’s going to care about different things like urban areas,” said Ulfelder.

“These are the kids that are going to grow to be the leaders … So these kids whether they’re in finance, whether they’re in urban planning or whether they’re in the conservation organization directly, they’re going to set the conservation agenda, I believe, for the 21st century.”

In this edition of MetroFocus we report from New Jersey and New York on what’s ahead for the region six months after Sandy.

NJ Today’s Lauren Wanko reports from Ortley Beach in Ocean County, NJ where business owners and residents are still struggling to repair and reopen as summer approaches.  In New York City, the focus is on public housing. We take a look back with an excerpt from a story reported by Jon Gerber and Kristen Reed last November. Two Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism students take us inside the Smith Houses on the Lower East Side when the lights were still out. Host Rafael Pi Roman follows up with an interview with New York City Housing Authority General Manager Cecil House about what’s ahead for the agency and its tenants, and lessons learned from Superstorm Sandy.

Dr. Harold Koplewicz of the Child Mind Institute talks to Pi Roman about a new project to make mental health care for children a higher priority and about how to respond to children’s questions about the Boston marathon bombings.

The New York Executive Director of the Nature Conservancy Bill Ulfelder joins Pi Roman to talk about “LEAF”, a growing program that takes urban students to the wilderness and helps them become environmental leaders.

And Pi Roman takes a trip to Manhattan’s new Museum of Mathematics to see what’s making math fun.

Watch the individual MetroFocus segments below and stay up to date on MetroFocus news from the New York region on Twitter.

Public Housing Recovering Slowly From Sandy’s Wrath

Host Rafael Pi Roman follows up with an interview with New York City Housing Authority General Manager Cecil House about what’s ahead for the agency and its tenants, as well as lessons learned from Superstorm Sandy.

National Campaign Highlights Barriers to Children's Mental Health Care

MetroFocus talks to the Child Mind Institute's Dr. Harold Koplewicz about the organization's upcoming children's mental health campaign.

Environmental Leaders of the Future

The Nature Conservancy's New York Executive Director Bill Ulfelder discusses the ways in which the Conservancy is adapting to a changing world.

A Museum All About Math

The new National Museum of Mathematics at Madison Square Park hopes to teach students, parents, and teachers about the wonders of math.

Forced indoors by rain, Gov. Chris Christie and HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan took over a seafood restaurant in Highlands for a press conference.

Donovan announced the federal government is releasing today the first $1.8 billion in HUD assistance to New Jersey homeowners, renters and businesses.

“I am committed — this president is committed — to come back as often as we need to come back, rain or shine, until this town, this shore, this state and this entire region are rebuilt better, stronger than they were before the storm,” Donovan said.

The HUD money comes on top of $600 million already spent by FEMA in New Jersey, and $700 million by the Small Business Administration (SBA).

Gov. Christie said phase one of returning to normalcy is over. Today begins phase two.

Continue reading on the NJ Today website.

In order to gain a microcosmic perspective on the actual opinions of New Yorkers about the upcoming election, City & State and City Limits, in partnership with MetroFocus, present a new series: “The Five Borough Ballot.”

Mott Haven— On a sunny Saturday in April, Gloria Cruz walked passed St. Mary’s Park in Mott Haven, on her way to Camaguey Restaurant. Kids were playing outside. Mothers went by pushing strollers.

Cruz was talking about gun legislation and the recent debate in Washington.

“It’s a national issue now,” she said. “But it’s been a problem here for a long time.”

A stray bullet killed her niece in 2005, only blocks away. The next year Cruz began helping organize the Bronx chapter of the Million Mom March, an event that honors those lost to gun violence and raises awareness about the issue.

Inside Camaguey Restaurant on 138th Street, sitting in a booth along the mirrored wall, Cruz talked about recent setbacks to national gun control, and the frustration it made her feel. “I spent the whole afternoon talking to crying mothers.”

Closer to home, Cruz feels Mayor Bloomberg is doing a better job. “He’s addressing the needs he needs to address,” she said. “He wants to make the city he loves better, safer and viable.”

She doesn’t know which candidate she’ll support in the upcoming mayoral election. She doesn’t know them well enough yet.

Continue reading this week’s Five Borough Ballot coverage on the City Limits website.