Wishing you a happy Black History Month!
The accomplishments of Black Americans in transportation extend throughout the history of the transportation industry in America, such as inventor Granville T. Woods, bridge engineer Horace King, the first Black female pilot, Bessie Coleman, the first Black Metropolitan Transit Authority Board member, Lawrence R. Bailey Sr., the first Black USDOT Secretary, William Thaddeus Coleman Jr., and the first Black woman to lead a transit agency, at WMATA, Carmen E. Turner. We also honor those within our YPT-NYC community who work to keep the region moving.
YPT-NYC EVENTS THIS MONTH
Podcast Club
Every Wednesday in February at 12:00 p.m.
Join us at the YPT-NYC Podcast Club! We are hosting a four-part weekly discussion where we’ll chat about four topics in NYC transportation infrastructure: streets, tunnels, bridges, and airports. Our weekly curriculum (here) consists of 1 “required” podcast episode and 1-2 “optional” podcast episodes. There is no pressure to join all four sessions or to listen to all the podcast episodes. Meet us at the [podcast] “club”, it’s going down!
Click here to RSVP.
Salary Negotiation Workshop
Tuesday, February 9 at 12:00pm
We will be holding a Salary Negotiation Workshop jointly with WTS Greater New York and APA New York Metro Chapter, free for members of YPT-NYC, APA NY or WTS-GNY. The workshop will be held through the AAUW (American Association of University Women) Work Smart program.
Click here to register.
(Check your YPT membership status here, or join here.)
YPT-NYC UPCOMING EVENTS
Author Talk (Date Announced in March)
Join us as we read Engineering the New York City Subway: The Thinking Behind the World’s Fastest and Most Convenient Rapid Transit System, a short paper by Kyle M. Kirschling, who will join us for an author talk in March (to be announced). Kyle is also featured in this month’s member profile below.
The paper delves into the New York City subway system, which embodies design elements unparalleled among the world’s major rapid transit systems. The pillars of the system’s design are the high-speed right-of-way, trains being underground but close to the surface, having extensive four-track mainlines with all tracks on the same level, and providing bi-directional local and express service. The subway’s design principles were shaped by a booming population, geographical barriers, and a pre-existing state-of-the-art elevated railway network.
Kyle M. Kirschling, Senior Director, Quality Assurance, MTA New York City Transit
Kyle is an urbanist who specializes in improving cities’ infrastructure. He is a licensed CPA and has a Master’s degree in Urban Planning from Columbia University. He is the author of “An Economic Analysis of Rapid Transit in New York, 1870-2010,” an evaluation of the impact of private, public, and hybrid institutions for transit ownership and operation. He presently runs an internal management consulting group at the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority focused on solving infrastructure maintenance and safety issues for the subway division.
Q: What sparked your passion to write this paper?
A: I wrote this paper to inspire greater ambition and better design in urban infrastructure. Planners often express despair and disappointment over projects that fall short of our hopes and dreams, like the Second Avenue Subway and AirTrain LaGuardia. However, to achieve our hopes and dreams, it’s super important to understand and celebrate our successes, and the subway is a magnificent example. The engineers who designed it were facing extraordinary challenges and working in totally uncharted territory, they came up with a radical design that would depend on unproven technology, they faced heavy opposition from the public (including real estate interests), and yet they won the day. How? Through the excellence of their design and the soundness of their thinking. If they could do that then (with fewer resources and 19th Century technology), think what we could do now.
To read our full Q&A with Kyle, click here.
OTHER UPCOMING EVENTS
Live from NYPL Event – NYPL Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture Presents: Four Hundred Souls by Ibram X. Kendi and Keisha N. Blain
Tuesday, February 9 at 7:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. ET
Four Hundred Souls is a history of African Americans collected from 90 writers, edited by Ibram X. Kendi and Keisha N. Blain. Kendi and Blain assembled the writers to consider the 400-year journey of African Americans from 1619 to the present. Each contributing writer takes on a five-year period, examining it from their unique point of view and set of experiences. Join the editors, alongside contributors Robert Jones, Jr., Bernice L. McFadden, and Dr. Blair L.M. Kelley for this free virtual talk, which includes readings from the collection and a discussion on what it takes to develop a community history, by a community.
Click here to register.
On-going Online Exhibit – NYPL Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture Presents: Traveling While Black: A Century of Pleasure & Pain & Pilgrimages
Since the start of their experience in the Americas, Black people have been defined by travel, displacement, and resistance. Whether in the horrors of the Middle Passage or the rebellion of Maroon communities made up of escaped slaves, travel has meant much—and something much more—for Africans in the Americas. This exhibition explores over a century of travel. Moving from the Great Migration of African Americans north and west at the start of the 20th century to the restrictions and resistances of travel in the Jim Crow South and the Jane Crow North, Traveling While Black examines a history of travel, from those who found themselves exiles within their own country down to the pilgrims and pleasure seekers of our time.
Click here to view the exhibit.
YPT-NYC LINKEDIN
Use the YPT LinkedIn Group if you are #OpenToWork!
We want to point members on the job hunt or with job opportunities to post and share in our LinkedIn group. The group is a great way to share information about yourself as a job seeker or post opportunities. Check out previous posts by members for ideas on what to include in your own post!
WE CAN’T DO IT WITHOUT YOU!
Young Professionals in Transportation – New York City (YPT-NYC) is an official 501(c)(6) non-profit organization that provides benefits to its members through professional development, fellowship, and networking. YPT-NYC’s members keep the Greater New York City region moving while providing a space for growing skills, sharing knowledge, and expanding professional networks. Check your membership status here, or join here. Being an active member is $20 for the year and allows us to provide our membership with impactful programming.
Young Professionals in Transportation – New York City (YPT-NYC) is the local chapter of Young Professionals in Transportation International, a nonprofit coalition of organizations, which helps professional development, fellowship, and networking for young professionals in the transportation field. YPT-NYC’s members keep the Greater New York City region moving while providing a space for growing skills, sharing knowledge, and expanding professional networks.
YPT-NYC 