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Hamilton’s New York City Program recently traveled to Midtown for a visit and presentation from the Municipal Art Society of New York. The Municipal Art Society (MAS) is a nonprofit organization that focuses on preserving legacy spaces, engaging in thoughtful city planning and design, and fostering inclusive neighborhoods across New York City. The presentation centered on MAS’s on-going project, the Accidental Skyline and their most recent report, A Tale of Two Rezonings: Taking a Harder Look at CEQR (City Environmental Quality Review), which debuted on Nov. 8.

The Museum of the City of New York offered several exhibits that tied in nicely with the Hamilton Program in New York City course material. The visit complemented the program’s studies of the politics of urbanization as well as the economics of metropolitan development.

The Hamilton New York City Program kicked off the semester by going on a private tour of the Whitney Museum’s exhibition An Incomplete History of Protest: Selections from the Whitney’s Collection, 1940-2017 on Aug. 24. This semester’s program, titled “The Economy of the Social Sector in the Global City” is directed by Professor of Economics Chris Georges and studies social enterprises, the nonprofit sector, corporate social responsibility, and impact investing.

Damhnait McHugh, the Raab Family Professor of Biology at Colgate University, spoke with students in the New York City Program about her research on invasive species and the role that New York City plays as a port-of-entry for them. She told students about recently introduced species like the Crazy Jumping Worm and the Asian Long-horned Beetle that can wreak havoc on forests across the Northeast.

The Hamilton in NYC program went on a tour of the High Line with Class of 1960 alumnus John Allen and his wife Beth, long-time residents of the Chelsea neighborhood where the Highline is located. The High Line is a 1.45-mile-long elevated linear park, greenway and rail trail created on a former New York Central Railroad spur on the west side of Manhattan.

Sociology major Vincent Tran ’18 is heading into the financial industry after graduation. He acknowledges his journey to the financial sector as a bit surprising.

The Hamilton in NYC program recently visited The New School to meet and learn about the work of Timon McPhearson, director of the Urban Systems Lab (urbansystemslab.com) and recent appointee to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (www.ipcc.ch).

Hamilton College students in the New York City Program engaged with two extreme elements of the Big Apple – baseball and rats – on April 4. In the afternoon, the class attended a New York Mets game at Citi Field, where they watched the home team defeat the Philadelphia Phillies 4-2.

The Hamilton in NYC Program visited the Department of City Planning and heard from Director of Waterfront and Open Space Planning Michael Marella on March 28. He spoke about the role of the department in building the coastal resiliency of the city to naturally caused crises, such as extreme weather events related to climate change like Hurricane Sandy in 2012.

The Hamilton in NYC program recently heard from Chris Nagy, director of research and education at Mianus River Gorge Preserve – an independent, not-for-profit organization which works to preserve the Mianus River watershed and undertakes scientific research and public education throughout the region.