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10 Fascinating Jobs That Keep New York City Running | Business Insider Marathon

Business Insider・67 minutes read

Utopia Bagels in Queens makes 15,000 bagels daily with a 41-year-old dough recipe, while Jim and his team work tirelessly to clean the 9/11 Memorial reflecting pools every day. In New York City, CBP officials like Steve and Ginger are tasked with finding and destroying prohibited items, including food and counterfeit goods, with Amazon's Project Zero and Counterfeit Crimes Unit aiming to combat counterfeiting globally.

Insights

Utopia Bagels in Queens produces 15,000 bagels daily using a 41-year-old dough recipe with specific ingredients and temperatures, offering a variety of flavors and sandwiches to serve 3,500 customers weekly.
Jim and his team work diligently to clean the 9/11 Memorial reflecting pools, ensuring the site's pristine condition despite visitors mistreating the area with garbage, toys, and more, showcasing the dedication needed for such a solemn task.
The CBP, including officers like Steve and K9 Spike, play a crucial role in protecting the US from dangerous items, with a focus on seizing and destroying prohibited items such as food and counterfeit goods, employing specialized tactics like passive response training for narcotics detection and targeting online platforms for counterfeit products.

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How many bagels does Utopia Bagels in Queens make daily?
Utopia Bagels in Queens makes 15,000 bagels daily using a 41-year-old dough recipe with specific ingredients and water temperatures.

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Summary

00:00

"Utopia Bagels: Crafting 15,000 Daily in Queens"

Utopia Bagels in Queens makes 15,000 bagels daily using a 41-year-old dough recipe with barley mold, salt, patus bagel improver, and New York City top water at specific temperatures.
The bagel dough also includes 200 lb of all-purpose flour and yeast, with variations for flavored bagels like eggs, sugar, or freeze-dried blueberries.
The dough mixing process relies on experience and a keen eye to determine when it's ready, with expert rollers shaping the dough into 15,000 bagels daily.
Bagels are proofed for half an hour, then fermented in fridges for at least 24 hours before being boiled, seasoned, and baked on boards in a 1947 oven.
Utopia Bagels offers 30 bagel varieties and sandwiches, serving 3,500 customers weekly with a dedicated team working efficiently.
Jim and his team clean the 9/11 Memorial reflecting pools, a physically demanding job that involves vacuuming and brushing the pools, removing debris and larger items like toys or even a bat.
Cleaning the pools takes 6-7 hours depending on cleanliness, with some visitors treating the area poorly by throwing garbage or treating it like a wishing well.
Ryan works on the bronze name panels above ground, stripping metal layers, using a blowtorch to remove carvings, and restoring the panels with a patina solution and acrylic spray.
The restoration process involves sanding, neutralizing wax, blowtorching, cooling, applying wax, and buffing to restore the panels to their original state.
Jim and his team work tirelessly for 8 hours, ensuring the memorial is pristine for the millions who visit, with most visitors unaware of the effort put into maintaining the site.

17:54

"NYC Sanitation: From Collection to Energy"

The narrator's father worked in the World Trade Center during the 1993 bombing, staying to help others despite the danger.
New York City's Department of Sanitation starts garbage collection at 5:00 a.m. with a fleet of 2,000 trucks.
Frank, a veteran sanitation worker, describes his daily routine of collecting and disposing of trash.
The trucks pause at a way station to measure the trash before heading to the dump station.
Tractors move trash into containers at the dump station, handling roughly 450 to 600 tons daily.
Containers are sealed and sent to Covanta, a waste energy company, via barge to be turned into electricity.
Tug Captain Jason Harris navigates the trash barge through the East River to Staten Island.
At the waste energy facility, trash is burned at 2000°F, generating enough energy to power 46,000 homes.
The facility processes up to a million tons of waste annually, with leftover metal recycled and ash used to cover landfills.
New York City aims to reduce waste to landfills by 2030, as exporting trash costs the city about $400 million annually.

34:07

"Pneumatic tubes revolutionize waste management systems"

In the early 1800s, pneumatic tubes were used as giant vacuums to transport objects using compressed air.
Cities worldwide started using tubes to deliver mail, medical supplies, bank notes, and even food like McDonald's.
Alfred Eli Beach developed the first Subway in New York City in 1870, using pneumatic power.
Roosevelt Island, previously home to a mental health institution, smallpox hospital, and prison, implemented a unique waste management system in 1975 during a sanitation workers' strike.
The avac facility on Roosevelt Island uses an automated vacuum-assisted collection process to handle about 8 tons of trash daily.
Trash and recyclables collected by the avac system are compressed into containers and picked up by special trucks three times a day.
Despite occasional breakdowns, many residents prefer the avac system over traditional trash collection for its cleanliness and efficiency.
The avac system on Roosevelt Island requires creative solutions for jams and leaks, with workers using tools like a spinning device and a skateboard for repairs.
In Norway, Sweden, and Spain, avac systems are more modern and fully automated, but the US faces challenges due to cost and infrastructure limitations.
Pat LaFrieda Meat Purveyors, a family-run business for over a century, supplies high-end meat to restaurants and burger chains, producing 250,000 lbs of meat nightly.

51:13

Protecting America: CBP's Role Post-9/11

After 9/11, US Customs and Border Protection was established to protect the country from dangerous foods, drugs, and people.
CBP officials at airports include officers like Steve and agriculture Specialists like Ginger, tasked with finding, seizing, and destroying items not allowed in the US.
K9 Spike, an 8-year-old Belgium Malinois, assists in narcotics detection with a passive response training, sitting when drugs are detected.
Narcotics seized at airports are sent for incineration at a secret location for national security reasons.
Food is the most commonly seized item at JFK, with travelers required to declare any food items they bring to protect American agriculture from pests and diseases.
Agricultural Specialists like Ginger inspect and destroy confiscated food items to prevent pest risks and protect the country's agricultural interests.
Beagle Brigade dogs like Biscuit, trained to sniff out food, have a 90% accuracy rate in detecting prohibited items in luggage.
Seized food items are either incinerated or ground up in a grinder after inspection by officers like Ginger to ensure they do not pose any risks.
Counterfeit goods, including fake luxury items and dangerous products like makeup with harmful substances, are seized by CBP officers like Steve to protect consumers and prevent criminal funding.
Seized counterfeit goods are stored and eventually destroyed, with the value of seized packages for intellectual property rights violations in 2020 totaling over a billion dollars.

01:06:42

"Combatting Counterfeiting: Global Impact and Solutions"

Counterfeiting is a significant issue, with bad actors operating globally, making it challenging for American authorities to apprehend them, especially those located in China.
In 2020, Homeland Security investigations arrested 203 individuals for counterfeiting, but only 93 were convicted, indicating the difficulty in prosecuting these criminals.
A successful tactic against counterfeiting is targeting online platforms like Amazon, Alibaba, and eBay, where many counterfeit products are sold.
Amazon's Project Zero scans 5 billion products daily for signs of counterfeiting, using data provided by registered companies to identify and suspend counterfeit listings.
Amazon's Counterfeit Crimes Unit, established in 2020, comprises former FBI agents and prosecutors who gather information on counterfeiters and collaborate with global law enforcement agencies.
Despite low sentences for counterfeiting offenders, the industry is growing, making up 3.3% of global trade and expected to cost the global economy $4.2 trillion by 2022.
Counterfeiters employ various tactics to make their products seem legitimate, such as creating fake Amazon listings and submitting phony trademark applications.
Grimaldi's Pizza in Brooklyn uses a 33-year-old dough recipe, mixing olive oil, New York City tap water, yeast, and high-gluten flour for their pizzas.
The dough is meticulously weighed, shaped, and rolled to ensure a consistent texture and crust quality, with each batch enough to make 65 to 75 pizzas.
Grimaldi's unique mozzarella cheese, specially made for them, is cut into thin strips and used on their pizzas, with the pizzeria using a coal-fired oven to cook their pies at high temperatures for a charred, smoky flavor.

01:21:37

Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree: Owl Discovery & Repurposing

The Rockefeller Center Christmas tree, a symbol of the holiday season in New York, was carefully erected in Rockefeller Plaza this year. Workers discovered a tiny owl hidden inside the tree, named Rockefeller or Rocky, which became a viral sensation. The initially sparse tree was enhanced with branch extensions and 50,000 LED lights, topped with a 900 lb Swarovski Crystal star. After a virtual lighting ceremony on December 2nd, the tree will be repurposed into lumber for Habitat for Humanity to build homes.

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