The winner of this year’s Quality of Life competition is a Lower Manhattan product: Jonathan Linder from the High School of Economics and Finance. The sophomore, who lives in Coney Island, won a $17,500 scholarship for his project on “Routing Inefficiency in Access-A-Ride.”
Linder was chosen out of 400 proposals in the Quality of Life competition, which gives students from public high schools the chance to act as entrepreneurs, identifying and researching an issue in their community. As part of a class, whether it is an elective, honors, or freshman level course, students works on projects in which they do in depth research on a topic of their choice, guided by a teacher, and come up with a solution.
“You’re really asking these students to present themselves as citizens,” said Rene Houtrides, the director of the Quality of Life program. “Ordinarily when you’re in high school, you get told what to study. …The students step away from the curriculum for a moment and choose a topic that they are passionate about.”
In his proposal, Linder suggested that the Access-A-Ride service, offered to mentally and physically disabled people who aren’t able to use public transportation, use global positioning system devices to increase efficiency. He said in Coney Island, he often sees these buses sitting empty and idling.
“It’s our tax money that is going to waste,” Linder said of the buses.
For his project, Linder researched the history of the bus system, talked to access a ride users, and tried to get in contact with city and state officials to tell them about his plan.
Through his research, he found that an average of ten riders a day use each Access-A-Ride buses, when they can hold seven at a time, and that 54 percent of the vehicles violated idling laws, staying in the same spot for more than five minutes.
Linder said that the most difficult part of his project has been the implementation process. He has had a hard time getting the mayor’s office and his local councilmember to hear his ideas.
Along with Jonathan, two other locals were noticed for their exemplary work, borough leaders Ellina Nektalova and Darshawn Walker from the High School of Economics and Finance. Their project was entitled “Stop Underage Drinking.”
— Laura Latzko
