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1. �A few years ago, an Ivy League student going public about her rape, telling the world her real name�let alone trying to attract attention by lugging around a mattress�would have been a rare bird,� wrote Vanessa Grigoriadis in her cover story about sexual assault on campus and the surprisingly viral campaign of one Columbia student, Emma Sulkowicz, who is carrying said mattress until the university expels her alleged rapist (�How to Start a Revolution,� �September 22�October 5). The story engendered the full range of responses, from the appreciative to the vitriolic��It’s time for feminism to die��to the arrestingly candid, like the exchange between two former Columbia students, one of whom had been sexually assaulted and the other accused of sexual �assault. �The dean involved urged me to admit what I did, after the accuser made false accusations out of my presence, and without my being able to confront my accuser in any way,� said commenter FalselyAccusedColumbiaGrad. �I was pressured to agree to counseling by this dean so the dean could convince the accuser not to move forward in the school’s disciplinary process.� In response, commenter Quimby told of being sexually assaulted by a man in her dorm. �He pulled me into his room and held me down,� she wrote. �The dean asked me to write an account of it. Weeks passed with no communication from the dean. During this time I was bullied and harassed by the man � Eventually I learned through the grapevine that the man I had accused was asked to move out of my dorm: two days before the end of the semester. I was not informed of this outcome by the university; no explanation was provided. I have no idea if it stands on the man’s disciplinary record. He completed the semester and returned the following year to campus and graduated with our class. I was not offered any services � I felt isolated, crazy, ashamed. Your experience does not invalidate mine or Emma’s,� she told FalselyAccused. �I understand �Emma’s white hot anger. I feel it still today. I thank her for her fierce expression of resistance to the way things are right now.�
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2. �The Dumbest Person in Your Building Is Passing Out a Set of Keys to Your Front Door� (September 22��October 5), Jessica Pressler’s article on the war over Airbnb, stoked the anger of New Yorkers; many commenters seemed to feel that the service was little more than a public nuisance. �I just didn’t like my neighborhood becoming transient,� wrote HKguy. �I didn’t like having groups of people hanging out in front of my window smoking cigarettes and talking into the night. And I just don’t like Airbnb. There’s no place for it in a city as dense as NYC where so many buildings are walk-up tenements, apartments are small. I don’t care if it thrives elsewhere, but NIMBY.� Other commenters felt the rotating cast of unvetted neighbors posed a safety problem. Wrote Neetagov: �NYers share space�elevators, lobbies, hallways. As a mother, I don’t want random strangers coming in and out. There is a huge security risk that we all have to bear, so that some greedy neighbor can make a few extra bucks or �afford NYC.’ � Commenter Pokesya took an unpopular opinion by describing a more symbiotic relationship with the service. �I couldn’t �afford to live in my home of 20 years if I wasn’t hosting guests,� Pokesya wrote. �I live in an apartment in a neighborhood where hotels are hundreds to thousands of dollars a night � The �people I have hosted are people New York wants in town spending their money touring, eating, and shopping. They wouldn’t be here otherwise.� One popular comment summed up the general feeling well: �Airbnb is a scourge,� wrote Eidolonny. �And the ad campaign? Insulting propaganda. �New Yorkers agree: Airbnb is great for New York City.’ Well, New Yorkers most emphatically DISagree, and we’re not going to allow you to corporatize our apartment buildings!�
3. �Christopher Anderson is fast becoming a master photographer of the modern age,� wrote commenter Mxm about the images accompanying Chris Smith’s �Derek Jeter Opens the Door� (September 22�October 5). �Not many can glide seamlessly through genres like he does. Let alone create a series about a baseball player that is so beautiful someone sitting on a computer in Australia who has no idea who Derek Jeter is can’t help but love him.� JessCNY agreed: ��Superb glimpse of the life of a man who has been respected and cherished for so long, and deservedly so.� Though a few noted an error in Jeter’s statement to Smith, apropos of his wanting to own a baseball team one day, that �no former player has owned a team in baseball.� YoungBlueEyes set the record straight: �Actually, there HAS been a former Major League player who went on to become an owner. Hall of Famer Connie Mack, who played most of his career with Pittsburgh before his long career as a manager AND owner.� The real treat of the story for most was the close-up glimpse of Jeter himself: �I see him out and about all over Tampa,� Seweig wrote. �Just like a person.�