lpahomov

The Price of Legacy in Putin’s Russia

January 30, 2014 by lpahomov Leave a Comment

At $51 billion the 2014 winter olympics held in Sochi, Russia clock in as the most expensive winter olympics in history.

Putin’s obsession of building an impressive olympics in Russia goes back to his political platform of building a strong Russia in 1999. This could be seen in his bid olympic bid of 12 billion–which surpassed those of South Korea and Austria, winning him the olympics.

Compared to the most recent winter olympics in Vancouver in 2010, Vancouver spent 8.7 billion total for it’s games. When you compare it to Beijing 2008, China hosted 204 more events for 11 billion dollars less.

Russia is spending around 520 million per event compared to China’s 132 billion. The high price tag is due to corruption and environmental factors that made the Sochi region hard to build on.

The site for the olympic park is not only on a UNESCO World Heritage Site, but also prone to flooding and has underground streams that make for a bad building ground.

In December 2009 a storm surged and hit Sochi’s new cargo port and had to be rebuilt, just like many of the projects all over the city further bringing up the total.

Corruption also plays a major factor in Sochi’s price tag. Allegations of many of the contracts going to Putin’s personal colleagues are widespread and construction firms have been caught inflating the prices of projects and pocketing whatever they don’t spend.

This lack oversight and strong governmental pressure to make this olympics a memorable one created a culture of wasteful spending that has Russia winning a shameful 50 billion dollar gold medal for most spent in the history of the games.

Yaffa, Joshua. “The Waste and Corruption of Vladimir Putin’s 2014 Winter Olympics.” Bloomberg Businessweek, 2 Jan. 2014. Web. 13 Jan. 2014.

SLA’s 2016 Building Lease, Where Will We Go?

January 30, 2014 by lpahomov 1 Comment

By Staff Writer Melissa Alvarez

Science Leadership Academy’s center city location on 22nd and Arch Street has a lease, and time’s a tickin’. In 2016 the lease for the building will be up and the question we’re all starting to ask is, where’s SLA going?

Principal Chris Lehmann let SLA Media in on the scoop about the possibilities.

“I thought we would just have class in the street” he chuckled, “Well we have 3 possibilities on the table right now. Us actually buying the building is one of them.”

When asked about SLA possibly being co-located with another school, he explained that this is not an option he likes, nor will it be considered.

We questioned him about if he had any preference to the options being considered at this time.

“I have no preference to the 3 options we have right now. I do want to stay accessible in center city, especially because of our Wednesdays at the Franklin.”

All SLA freshman walk to the Franklin Institute every wednesday and are given the opportunity to take mini-courses there for the entire year. This being part of the partnership the school has with them, which also includes a membership for each student as well.

We asked sophomore Marcus Cruz on his thoughts about the building’s lease being up the year he graduates.

“I don’t think it’s fair because by the time we get to graduate, the rest of them get to move. It’s not fair because we don’t get that experience.”

When questioned about if he liked the current building or not he said, “In this building we don’t have a full gym, like a court. I’ve never even seen the music room in here, and we just don’t have a lot of space.”

As the time gets closer, we will soon find out the fate of SLA’s center city location. Will we stay or will we be moving to a new location? If you have an opinion you’d like to share with us, comment below!

Philadelphia’s Low Murder Rate

January 28, 2014 by lpahomov Leave a Comment

As many Philadelphians know, there is a lot of crime in the city of Philadelphia. Some of these crimes are things like theft and drug distribution, but some are even more serious. Philadelphia has a very high murder rate. But in 2013 the number of annual murders greatly lowered. There were 247 murders in the city of Philadelphia in 2013, according to the Philadelphia police department, a twenty seven percent decrease from the 33l murders in 2012. The question that the police, and the people of Philadelphia have is, why has the murder rate gone down so much recently?

The number of murders Philadelphia has not been as low as it was in 2013 since 1967, when there were only 234 murders. This sudden decrease in the number of murders is surprising given the high number of murders there have been in Philadelphia in recent years. In the past decade there have been annual murder numbers in the high two hundreds to high three hundreds, with 406 murders in 2007. The number of crimes in the city has gone down as well.

Philadelphia has the fourth highest number of annual murders of any city in the United States. It also has the highest number of murders to population ratio of all of the country’s ten largest cities, about 21.6 murders per every 100,000 people living in the city. Chicago had the highest number of murders in the U.S in 2013, it had just over 400, but this is a decrease from 600 murders ten years ago. Other cities in the U.S. are also experiencing this decrease in murders. This drop in homicide is not just a local decrease.

The Philadelphia police are not exactly sure what caused this drop in homicide. Has Philadelphia become a nicer place to live, or have hospitals gotten better at saving the lives of victims of violent crimes, or has the police have gotten better at stopping these murders? Technology allows the police to analyze crime data better. This makes it easier to keep track of crime statistics. It is easier for them establish which neighborhoods remost likely to have lots have crime, and they can pay more attention to those neighborhoods. They are also keeping close eye on suspects, and ex criminals. The police may be getting more efficient at preventing murders.

The Philadelphia police department predicts that 2013 will not be the only year with a low murder rate. They expect that this will be a continuing pattern, and that Philadelphia’s murder rate will get even lower. This could make Philadelphia a safer city to live, and cause more people to want to live here. Experience in dealing with high murder rates may have lead to the Philadelphia police being able to lower them.

Commute to School, but Don’t Talk

January 27, 2014 by lpahomov Leave a Comment

By SLA Media Staff

When you see somebody on SEPTA outside of school, what do you do?

If you’re similar to most of the students in SLA’s Journalism class, the answer is: don’t say hello and avoid eye contact.

Senior DeShawn McLeod and Sophomore Soledad Alfaro-Allah experienced this exact situation on the Saturday during EduCon.

On their commute home to Mount Airy, they noticed each other on the train.

“I had already seen that she was on the train,” DeShawn said, “but I was too tired to initiate contact.”

Soledad noticed DeShawn later, when she was getting off at her stop. “I was like: should I say hi? …I’m not going to say hi. I’m going to just let her roll.”

They admitted this lack of action to each other during class on the following Monday and had a good laugh about it.

The story led to a deeper question: why don’t we talk to each other going to and from school? And why do we feel bad about it when we don’t?

One thing influencing this situation is that SLA students and teachers are already quite social at school. They’re not necessarily avoiding each other because they don’t like each other.

For example, Soledad is in Poetry Club, and English Teacher Matthew Kay is the club mentor. Mr. Kay even worked for Soledad’s mother when he was in college. But that doesn’t lead to them talking while commuting.

On the regional rail, they see each other often, but rarely speak.

“I’ll see him, and we’re close, but I won’t say anything to him,” Soledad said. “It’s like an unspoken agreement: you’re chillin, I’m chillin, I’m just going to let you go.”

On the Broad Street Line and the Trolley, the situation is different — but it doesn’t lead to more talking.

“Everyone kind of just stands there,” Sophomore Isabella Mezzaroba said. “People even get on together, but they don’t talk.”

Even when conversations do happen on public transit, they’re over as soon as ride ends.

“Ms. Dunda gets on the trolley, and then makes conversation,” sophomore Melissa Alvarez said. “But as soon as she gets off, she’s in her own world.”

Students felt that this behavior wasn’t rude — in fact, it was a common courtesy to each other.

“You’re bringing people back into the environment that they just left, or are about to enter,” said Sophomore Jesse Shuter. “It’s inconsiderate because they’re trying to either recuperate or prepare for school.”

“I think we sometimes have trouble believing that people have lives outside of school,” said Sophomore Claudia Bonitatibus. She said she’s “surprised” when she does run into somebody.

“My school life and my social life are totally separate,” said Senior Isabela Supovitz-Aznar. “When I do run into somebody from school, it catches me off guard.”

Many teachers have similar feelings.

“When I see kids on the trolley, I feel like I don’t want disturb their existence,” said English Teacher Ms. Pahomov.

The pressure to say hello seems to be most prevalent with the freshmen — they say hi outside of school, and also in the halls.

DeShawn admitted that she was once one of these eager underclassmen. All the way back during Summer Institute, she approached Mr. Kay and tried to talk to him on the train, when she later realized that he was in what she characterized as his “chill zone.”

Eventually, she got the hang of the silent treatment outside of school.

“I stopped feeling bad,” DeShawn said. “But that took four years of high school.”