SCIENCE AT THE BALLPARK
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John Pazmio
NYSkies Astronomy Inc
www.nyskies.org
nyskies@nyskies.org
2020 Mach 31
Omtrpdictopm
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I looked forward to this year's NYC Science & Engineering Fair on
Sunday 8 March 2020 becuse of its its new venue. The normal site at
City College was under renovation and the Fair relocated to Citi
Field. This is the baseball Mets stadium in Flusing meeabows, Queens.
I never visited this ballpark, which replaces the demolished shea
Stadium of the 1960s. From general news about it i imaged it is a
smaller cozier atrna, perhaps like Ebbetts field in brooklyn. That one
I remember from childhood when I watched the Nrooklyn Dodgers play
there. it just happened that i never developedn affection for the Mets
team and never had a cause to go to its new stadium.
I was exvcited to on this occasion to do the civic duty for the
Fair as a judge and explore a ballpark I didn't yet fgo to.
late start
--------
usually announcement for the Fair comes in December to recruit
judges. This is about when the students enroll their projects into the
Fair. when the notice comes, I reply wuickly.
This time I got no notice in late 2019 and the Fair slided out of
mind in early 2020.
when the notice came in late January, i at first figured I somehow
missed an earlier one. No. The January notice was the initial one for
jusges.
I signed up as a judge and felt all was rady.
Early trouble
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i work with steve kay, whose high school enters several students
into the Fair. he and I discussed the Fair a few days earlier. He was
worried that some students weren't fully prepared bucause his school
was closed in the last week or so for midterm break They may not get
to their project materials stored at the school.
An other problem was that mardh 8th is the crossover date for
Daylight Savings Time. This comes on the second Sunday of the year,
with reversion to Datandard Time on the first Sunday of November. for
sure some students, judges, Fair staff, will forget to set the clocks
ahead and be late an hour late for duty. Steve heavily repeatedly
remnded his own students to mind the time shift, moving ahead the one
hour on Satueday night before goiing to bed.
We normally travel to the Fair by train. Citi field is adjacent to
the Willets Point station of the Flushing line.We casually figured to
meet at the standard place, Kings Highway station on the righton line,
and along the way change to the Flushing line.
We realized that the train service could be disrupted on march
8th. The Brighton line for several weekends suspended service for
track work and the Flushing line had on-off station closing for
similar reasons.
Steve and I could not get positive news about both services in the
days before the Fair. I suggested thatwe chip in for a hited van and
forget about the trains. Steve vigorished his chool to hire the van as
an educational cost. The can, with its driver, would bring us to and
from Citi Field.
Fair update
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O/about March 4 the Fair office sent out an update with
instructions for judges. It specified the hal inside Citi field to
muster in thru and travel dierections.
it also called attention to the Daylight Savings Time crossing. It
gave details for the Flushing line service. The last two stations --
including Citi Fields station -- are closed. Trains from manhattan
are turned at 111th St with shuttle buses covering the remainder of
the line to the terminal in Flshing.
It made no mention of coronavirus concerns.
I called Steve to give him this inforation. He already heard it
from phone convo with the Fair office on other issues.
Coronavirus
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The release of the ChiCom coronavirus from Luhan China, was a
massive news topic in February. president Trump declared a national
health emergency and suspended travel between the US and China. The
infection hotspot of cases in Washington state wasa all over the news.
The first case in New York City was recorded on March 1st. Weak
medical dara about the vitus plus gross disinformation from Chhina
presented coronavirus as rabidly contagious and commonly fatal. No
dedicated medical treatment or prevention was to hand.
The concern was about runaway contagion from an infected person. By
ate February several properties were either closed to block irus
spread or associated infected persons were sent home. Concerns for
specific events caused them to be cancelled or postponed, like sports,
parades, lectures. Propertties attracting large public visitors were
closed, such as musea, conventions, theaters.
for one exampls, Mr Kaye is chair of a robotics team preparing for
a competition at Yeshiva university on manhattan. On March 6 the
college shut down because a couple faculty came down with coronavirus
and could infect others they work with. The robotics match was
cancelled.
For a second, at Steve's school a couple students just returned
home from aneconvention, fell sick, and were diagnosed with
coronavirus. The school told the students to stay home until free of
the virus . The school didn't close because the students did not yet
interact with others at school.
Meeting the van
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From some burocratic reason the pickup was at an other school near
Steve's. It was the Kings Highway and Avenue U stations on the Culver
line. i didn't catch the name of this school but it ould be obvious
when i see it. We were set to gather there at 7:30AM EDST.
Altho we did determine that the Culver ine had normal service on
March 8, Steve did not want to risk getting blocked from the work on
the Flushing line.
I left home in twilight. Saylight Savings Time finagles sunrtise
to occur an hour later. As I walked, the sky brightened steadily to
the point when steet lights shut off.
I walked from home to the Kings Highway bus, which came in a
couple minutes even tho it was an early Sunday morning. Due to
Daylight Savings Time -- which I made sure to adjust to -- the Sun was
not up yet.
On the bus to the Culver line the Sun rose, flickering among
houses and trees. The air was mild and calm. So early on a Sunday the
bus was loosely filled with only a few empty seats left.
I arrived at thre Culver line quite at 7:30AM. fter a short walk
toward the meetup school I found Steve and some students milling
around.
No van uet.
The Culver line
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The Culver line is a dyed-in-the-wool New York el. It line is a
stell viaduct built over a street, like an aerial motorway. it is
sometimes called the McDonald Avenue el, for the street itself.
It was built in the 1910s to project rapid transit to southern
Brooklyn and Coney Island. it has only three tracks, the outer ones
for up and down town traffic The center track is reversible for peak
hour express service in the heavy direction. This track is not in
regular use nowayears but is commonly used by off-duty and work trains
without interfering with regular service. It's also used for bypassing
blockage or work that closes one of the outer tracks. Switches nre
instaled evry few stations to shift trains among all three tracks.
Kings Highway station is an express station with platforms between
the tracks. The entrance hall is suspended under the platforms,
teached by stairs from the street.Clearance for road traffic is about
5 meters.
An odd feature is the columns supporting the structure. They ae
placed within the roadway between the curb and traffic lanes.
Newcomers ask if this was some gross design mistake. The columns do
get in the way of road traffic. A bus can not serve to the curb for a
stop.It mmust stop in the traffic lane, blocking all cars behind it.
The structure was built there were fre cars and horses could weave
around the columns.
The extra width of the el at the station envelops the street in a
perpetual twilight. The designoif the el accounted for this problem by
building open-frame traks for light and air to reach the ground. This
was done also to let sow, leaves, rain pass thru the tracks, avoiding
the chore of clearign them after storms.
No Van!
-----
Steve figured to leave Brooklyn no later than 8AM, to account for
latecomer students. The ride to Citi Filed shouldn't be more than an
hour. Doors open at the Field for signin and setup at 9AM while the
judges take breakfast and instructions. Judging begins at 10AM. Then
after the Fair should prcede as usual.
While we horsd around in front of the school, trains blasted thru
overhead. The Culver line merges into other lines in Downtown Brooklyn
and enters the 6th Avenue line on Manhattan. Trains from its Coney
island depot are fired out every several minutes, even on Sunday, to
reach Dowmtown and Manhattan for the buildup of riders there. . The
The el's beams and columns amplify the train noise, wehich is then
bounced off of adjacent buildings along the steet. To a newcomer the
sound is like repeated truck crashes all day long. Oldtimers are used
to the noise and automaticly filter it out.
Steve was getting worried.
Mr Kaye by cellphone repeaatedly called the
van company, 'Manhattan Van' or something like that, but got no answer.
I forget if he got only an anserfone or ringing.
It looked like his students may become noshows.
Close to 9AM, when we were supposed to arrive at the Fair, no van
showed up. Steve offerd to release me being that there was rreally
nothing effective I can do. I stood around for a couple minutes and
asked if really I can leave. Yes, I may leave.
I went into the Kings Highway station and took an uptown train to
a stop where I changed to a bus that passes my home block.
The van came thru!
----------------
The rest of this summary omes from discussions with Steve later in
the day, afte the normal closing time of the Fair.
Probably while i was changing to my bus the van arrived for Steve
and students. It must have been on the cusp of 9AM when the group
pulled away from the curb and headed to Citi Field.
Altho the driver didn't actually say, Mr Kaye felt he was mixed up
by the shift to Daylijght Savings Time. The van company may have
really thought it was 8AM, not the correct 9AM. The group got to Citi
Field at 10AM and found, well, everything in chaos.
Chaos Field
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It seemed that lots of pwople were bitten by the clock shift. As
the van maneuvered into the Field's carpark, Steve saw lots other cars
and vans just arriving. Parents and students poured out of the
vehicles and lugged their projct materials into the Field.
Steve desctibed the layout of Citi Field, which was lost on me for
never having seen the place. The Fair was staged in under-bleacher or
peripheral halls used for other large non-sport events.
Only about half of the Field's crew showed up, the rest stayed
were absent from coronavirus fears. Getting the rooms organized for
the Fair took longer with residual tasks in progress when Steve's
group mustered in.
The big collapse was for judges and students. Half of the judges
stayed away from virus corries. Most were flat-out nochows, likely
making their descision earlier in the day. Other judges on site
complained that they tried to call the Fair earlier that day for last
minute news but the Fair's phones weren't answering.
Students were missing for two reasons. First was a last minute
turnoff due to the virus. the other was that many of their schools
were already closed with virus concenrs. The students were workint on
thieir pr projectss at school and now they could not retrieve theri
materials for he Fair. ith nothing to present, these kids stayed home.
Judging
-----
The decimations of students and udges did not balance. With fewer
projects fewer judges are needed. Apparently the shortfall of judges
was mores severe.
Delays in setup for the Fair pushed the start of judging to noon,
ot the nromal 10AM. As the judging progressed, students were left
hanging for not getting the required three visits by judges.
When judges turned in their scoring sheets for their assigned
projects, the fair urged them to do a Few more projects. Judges were
given scoring packs from the no-show judges and were sent back to the
project display hall. The additional projects were handed out ignoring
the specialty of the judges.
Mr Kaye learned that in the morning the Fair cancelled the normal
public viewing. He didn't know if this was in sight of setup delays or
possible virus infections from the public. The lack of viewing gave
extra time for judging, even if not planned.
All in all the Fair closed shop at about 3:30PM, a half-hour
earlier than normal, with the last of the projects folding up to go
home.
Projects
------
Steve was awed by the noshow gaps on the display tables. In a
normal Fair we saw a few gaps, where no project was presented, but
this time Steve found roughly half of the display places were vacant.
The bulk of projects were either environmental or social science.
Only a few hard science projects were exhibited and no astronomy ones
at all. the enviro projects were the standard measuring of pollution
amounts or effects.
The social science projects were, as is the norm, 'survey'
projects. Target persons were asked assorted questions for graphs and
statistics.
Services
------
Steve previously went to Citi Filed for ball games but didn't know
about the galls beyond the grandstands. He was impressed by their
overall build and features. The breakfast, what was left when his
group arrived, and the lunch were tasty and filling. There was not
enough for seconds because the thinned out crew couldn't cook up the
extra helpings
Conclusion
--------
I never got to the Fair. This was a double downer for me. I missed
my annual duty for the Fair and I missed my first chance to visit Citi
Field.
At home I called Steve on and off with no answer. His cell may
have bee turned off during the Fair to avoid interruptions. I got thru
to him at home at about 6PM, when he gave me the account here. In
subsequent dialog he elaborated on some points.
The Fair closed at 3:30PM. Mr Kaye called the van company, who
assured him that the van was dispatched for pickup. It arrived in the
carpark early by the normal fair schedule, yes, now on the correct
clock. It was a 10-15 minute wait with the early dismissal. The group
got back to Brooklyn at around 4:30 and all students dispersed for
home. steve got into his house,, by the Kings highway bus, at about
5PM. I got him by phone thee while he was resting from the day's work.