Young journalists put spotlight on city housing agency in student newspaper

Students noticed that LED floodlights at the Melrose, Patterson and Jackson houses were on during the daytime, and it inspired the big story.

News 12 Staff

Dec 16, 2022, 3:35 AM

Updated 727 days ago

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A group of young journalists are exposing the New York City Housing Authority in their newly launched student newspaper. 
Students noticed that LED floodlights at the Melrose, Patterson and Jackson houses were on during the daytime, and it inspired the big story. 
The high school students documented their findings during the two-month investigation. They published the results in the Bronx Documentary Center’s new student-run paper BDC Focus.  
Their piece alleges NYCHA violated its own policies by leaving on over 200 high-wattage lights during the day, hurting the environment.  
The students estimated from their own calculations that NYCHA is wasting $82,804 tax dollars per year at current Con Edison rates.  
The students reported that NYCHA is working to resolve an issue causing some of these lights to excessively burn, but for the students, they say their passion for journalism burns just as bright.  
“There's a lot of people living there and those people are being affected by NYCHA's decisions -- so it's important for NYCHA to make good decisions,” sad Carastar Tyner, a 15-year-old Truman High School student who contributed to the piece.