Chasing Waterfalls at Greenacre Park

New York City is full of hidden treasures. Nestled on 51st Street between 2nd and 3rd Avenues is a gem known as Greenacre Park. Designed by Japanese American architect, Hideo Sasaki, and brought to life by the Greenacre Foundation, which was established by Abby Rockefeller Mauzé, the private park officially opened to the public in 1971.  Mr. Sasaki’s vision for the space “to provide a place for the general public to gain special repose from the increasing city experience of noise, concrete, and humdrum,” comes to life in the park’s lush surroundings of shady honey locust trees, perennial flowers, and walls crawling with ivy. All of which create an enchanting oasis away from the bustling city streets. The highlight of this historical landmark is the twenty-five-foot-tall waterfall that cascades into the park from three stories up transforming the little park in Turtle Bay into a tropical sanctuary. The dramatic waterfall is loud enough to drown out of the sounds of the city, and also provides a welcoming tranquil brook just at foot of the waterfall. The park provides a fun, secret getaway in the heart of Mid-Town Manhattan where one can gather their thoughts and be transported to another place.

USCIS Has Reached the H-1B Cap for Fiscal Year (FY) 2023

US Citizenship & Immigration Services (“USCIS”) announced they have received a sufficient number of H-1B petitions needed to reach the H-1B cap limit for fiscal year 2023 (“FY 2023”), which runs from October 1, 2022 to September 30, 2023.  This applies to both the congressionally mandated 65,000 FY 2023 regular cap limit, as well as the 20,000 advanced degree (masters) cap exemptions. USCIS confirmed it has “completed sending non-selection notifications to registrants’ online accounts.”

USCIS will continue to accept and process H-1B petitions exempt from the cap including petitions filed for current H-1B workers who have been counted previously against the cap and who still retain their cap number, as well as H-1B petitions for extensions, change in terms of employment, change-of-employer, and concurrent employment. To receive future updates about the H-1B program, USCIS encourages applicants to subscribe to the H-1B Cap Season page.

El Toro de Oro by Enrique Cabrera

The bronze Charging Bull statue that has come to represent the US stock market has been on display in Manhattan’s Financial District since 1989. Nearby, in the Meatpacking District, a brand-new bronze bull sculpture is on view. Mexican sculptor Enrique Cabrera’s El Toro de Oro, which translates to ‘The Golden Bull,’ is an homage to the neighborhood’s past and future. The butcher block-inspired pedestal is a nod to the slaughterhouses and meat packing and processing plants that once defined the neighborhood. The shiny, multifaceted sculpture sparkles in the sunlight atop this platform, celebrating the neighborhood’s reincarnation as a vibrant nightlife and high-end food epicenter. The contrast is “a visual representation of the Meatpacking District’s immense transformation over the last two decades.”

"You Know Who I Am" by Paola Pivi

The Statue of Liberty stands in New York Harbor and has welcomed people to New York since 1886. For decades, immigrants processed through Ellis Island saw the enormous copper statue upon arriving at US shores. Though Ellis Island no longer processes arrivals to the US, the statue remains an iconic symbol of freedom and welcome. In a new work called “You Know Who I Am,” on view on the High Line in New York City, artist Paola Pivi has repurposed the image of the statue to reflect on those ideas of freedom and welcome in the US today. She created a smaller-scale replica of the Statue of Liberty and added a series of emoji-style masks, each representing “an individual whose experience of freedom is connected to the United States, offering the sentiment that anyone could be represented within the symbol of the statue.” Currently, the mask portrays Marco Saavedra, “an artist, poet, restauranteur, longtime immigrant rights activist, and community organizer based in the South Bronx.” After many years of activism and organizing, Saavedra set a legal precedent for undocumented activists when he was granted political asylum in 2021. The image of his face on the iconic statue puts the history of American immigration in conversation with the modern immigration landscape.

Listen to an interview with Mr. Saavedra here.