22-year-old Issam "Sammy" Hassan is in his fifth year at New York University studying pre-law. To cover the nearly $38,000 annual tuition, Hassan said he needs to work. Since school began Hassan has worked nights full-time at the "Newsroom" bodega in Park Slope, Brooklyn.

Photo by Sean Flynn

A cab driver takes a break outside the Fourth Avenue Basin on 3rd Street in Gowanus. The face of this desolate industrial neighborhood will change when Whole Foods begins construction on the empty lot.

Photo by Kate Trafecante

Various Seedlings at Domestic Construction, a design company based in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.

Photo by Jackie Snow

Protestors demonstrate outside the Panel for Educational Policy's meeting on Mar. 1, 2012 at Brooklyn Technical High School. The protest was organized by the Southside Community Schools Coalition, which opposes the opening of a Success Academy charter school in Williamsburg. The puppets held by Aristides, a 9th grader at Lyons Community School, point to the fact that the mayor-controlled PEP has never voted against a city proposal.

Photo By Jacob Hodes

Congregants of St. Lydia's dinner church sit down for a meal February 26, 2012 at their new home, the Brooklyn Zen Center. The church relocated after the Diocese of Long Island closed their previous space at Church of the Redeemer in Brooklyn due to structural concerns.

Photo by Sean Flynn