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Tag Archives: Earl Mays
Profile of Tiger Writing by Gish Jen
Gish Jen’s Tiger Writing is an interesting biography of her family. It chronicles her family seeming from the dawn of time, coving a couple thousand years. The story is not the fiction Jen is known for, but contains all of her literary talents in the story delivery.
Jen tells the story in first person. This is the way she captured the reader’s attention bringing then into her family; their culture and taking the reader back to her mother country of China. . She also gives the reader the perspective of what it is like to be an immigrant in the United States and what it means to be a second, third, fourth, etc., generation immigrant in America. Jen uses this as a strategy to bring in a deeper discussion of her family stories over the course of time.
Jen narrates the story, but tells detailed stories of her ancestors, parents, and the origin of her family name. This technique keeps the writing fresh and entertaining for the reader as they progress through the story.
The story is accompanied by visuals of the images such as the set up if the traditional Chinese home and of her family members. These images give a more concrete image of what Jen describes in her writing. If the story was presented without the images, the story itself could stand alone given Jen’s gift of providing a detailed description.
The story further shows a great deal of information has been gathered over time. The historical information adds a sense of awe allowing the reader to ponder what it would be like to trace their family as far back as Jen has been able to do This is reminiscent of stories like Roots by Alex Haley. At one point in the story, Jen compares her ancestors’ stories to that of stories told by African Americans. The elements she mentions that are the same are there themes of overcoming struggle and of the chosen one.
This analogy gives more credit to Jen as a writer showing her depth of knowledge about literature, history, and humanity in general. Her choice to include this information makes the story more relatable to a reader of a different ethnic background.
If I had a chance to ask Jen a few questions, I would ask what inspired her to choose the literary elements included in the story to tell her family story. I am also curious to know how long it took her to realize she wanted to turn the stories into a novel. Since the story takes the reader back to China, I am would want to know if at any point did she travel to China to gain more inspiration, sources and visuals to include. The writing process is another area of interest to me. What was it like? How long did it take? Did you find yourself on edge about what to include or did it come easily? Will the story have a sequel or is everything that was needed to be said, said in this piece.
Battling for Parking Spaces in Parkchester
It is 7:30 a.m. on Monday morning. The stressful challenge to avoid a ticket and circling city blocks for a parking spot begins again for car owners in Parkchester in the Bronx. Monday through Saturday residents play the parking games. They rise early because they aspire to keep their current space which stands on the side of the street where alternate side is suspended the next day.
“The frequent street cleaning is hard on residents having to run down stairs to move their cars and find a park,” said Vanessa Lee.
If plan A fails, the next best thing is to find a spot on a street not governed by the meter. In the most desperate attempts, meter parking is heaven sent. After the morning parking wars die down at 9:00 a.m., the shopper have begun to arrive. They must now try to find a space among the uninhabited cars that rest in the streets of Metropolitan and McGraw Avenues. The solution to end this chaos has yet to be determined.
“Parking is a big issue and I’m not comfortable with it at all,” said Vanessa Lee a 15 year resident. “I feel that as a person who is an owner of a unit in Parkchester, there should be something designated at least for the owners.” Residents and business owners are divided over the parking issue. Business owners are looking for a solution to the problem that benefits the shopper. Residents are hoping for a solution that grants them a guaranteed parking space.
Parkchester is a residential community situated on 129 acres of land and is home to 12,000 apartment units. According to the Social Explorer, the estimated population is around 30,000 people. There are approximately 2,926 people who are unit owners and 10,024 people who rent in the area. Out of this total number about 3,082 people use cars as a means of transportation to work and school. “It’s congested over hear it’s crowded and the meters make it a lot worse,” said Lee. “There’s a lot of fighting and controversy with people trying to battle to park.”
According to Lee, the frequency of the street cleaning and different hourly limits on the meters in different parts of the area is creating a major hassle for the residents. “The parking culture in the neighborhood causes people to be careless when it comes to others property,” said Lee.
“One night I parked my vehicle across the street on McGraw Ave there was an empty space in front of my car. When I went out to the car the next morning someone backed into the front of my car,” said Lee. Situations such as this are the reason she believes Parkchester should reconfigure the parking setup.
Parkchester Preservation was not available for comment. According to the Bronx Times, back in May Central Parking which oversees the garages wanted to eliminate the assigned parking in for residents. The monthly rate for a parking space in one of the three garages ranges from $180-$220 based on the Central Parking website. The proposal was later scrapped because frustrated residents signed a petition in order to keep their assigned spaces.
“It’s too congested they configured it for max amount of revenue for themselves which means nothing for the store owners,” said George Scopolitis the owner of Step Ins Restaurant. He believes that a reorganization plan needs to be implemented by Parkchester Preservation. “If no one can park they are not going to get out of their car and buy something,” said Scopolitis.
He alludes to the many times customers call into the restaurant asking for a to-go-order because they cannot find a parking space to go sit down and eat. “If you are going to sit down and order T-bone steak that’s not what you are going to order to go,” said Scopolitis. “I might have made $20, but I could have made $80.” This type of decision making also makes customers think twice before returning because they know the difficult parking situation that exist, according to Scopolitis.
Scopolitis and his family spent many years trying to find a solution to the parking problem and the effects that it has had on the business. Step Ins opened in 1974 and tried to rent spaces from several lot owners to no avail. “I think they should reconfigure the isles in the middle of the street or at least build another parking garage with self-rising elevators to maximize space,” said Scopolitis. He believes this will increase profits for the area stores and Parkchester.
“The area behind Macy’s, if that was designated for renters and owners then we wouldn’t be fighting each other in the street,” said Lee in reference to the parking lot located in the South Condominium’s Yankee Mall. Parkchester is divided into two sections north and south. The dividing line is Union Port Rd.
The South Condominium is in the heart of Parkchester commercial zone and has the least parking for its residents. The North Condominium houses more parking lots with residents allowed to apply for permits to park in them. This practice gives residents as sense of ownership to the community. The larger issue remains with the large number of residents with cars out numbering spaces.
“It’s gotten so crowded and I don’t think Parkchester is doing all they can,” said Lee. In 2007, Parkchester was forced to demolish its parking garage that stood vacant five years prior due to structural issues. Since the demolition, the building has yet to be replaced. Despite this, the complex is doing what it can to accommodate its residence, shoppers and business owners. Over the past year the complex invested in renovations of the plumbing and landscaping. The Metro North is also scheduled to build a Parkchester Station on East Tremont Avenue which may push the organization to address the parking situation further.
“Parking is an issue for some people, but for me my business gets a lot of foot traffic from people in the area,” said Chris Moriatis the owner of Ellie’s Diner located at 58 Metropolitan Oval. He agrees that parking is an issue, but he sees it as a way for people to visit the area walk around and take in the recreational landscaping the complex designed.
More parking in the area would only cause the air to become more polluted. According to the NYC Environmental Protection web site, “every year motor vehicles contribute approximately 11% of the local PM2.5 and 28% of the nitrogen oxide emissions.” The city is trying to reduce the amount of air pollutants emitted into the air and water each year. A green effort such as this is sure to keep Parkchester Preservation from adding more parking to the community. “I don’t know how much more they could do. It’s up to the city,” said Moriatis.
Protected: Parkchester: Conflict Story Draft
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Protected: Parkchester Community Conflict Proposal
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Parkchester Food Pantry Fights to Continue Service
Black shopping bags lay on the table in the middle of Saint Paul’s Lutheran Church’s auditorium. Evelyn McCatty and her staff of three volunteers prep the last of the bags to place on the table before they open the doors. Outside the church, people started to form a line around seven am. They wait until the doors open at eight with the hope of leaving with one of the bags filled with food. This is one stop of many in the quest to feed their families.
Saint Paul’s Lutheran Church is located at 1891 McGraw Ave in Parkchester in the Bronx. The church’s food pantry began serving families in need in the mid-1970s. “Originally we were able to serve people based on their family size, but now because of our limited budget we only give out one bag of food which is really not enough for a family,” said McCatty. Funding for the pantry began to decline about three years ago. As a result, the number of families seeking service decreased as well.
McCatty began volunteering in the Food Pantry in 1986 when the funding was in its glory. At that time, the pantry underwent a restructuring that made it into the organization it is today. Since then, she has focused on taking the necessary steps to maintain service to the community. One of those steps included changing the way they assist those in need.
In order to insure continuous service, Saint Paul’s is a member of the Food Bank of America and is supervised by the United Way that assists them with managing their state money. Organizations like the Food Bank of America and United Way typically distribute the donations it receives to the food pantries. These alliances are necessary for the pantry’s survival because it is not an independent entity, but a part of the church.
“We can’t get to many private foundations directly because we are under the church’s 501C3. The pantry does not have an independent 501C3,” said McCatty. “Private corporations usually will not fund church pantries, but they do fund directly through the Food Bank or United Way.”
“If a person is here for the first time we service them. If the people have been here before we tell them to come every other month in order to give other families a chance to be serviced,” said McCatty. The volunteers log in the names and of address of each person given food in order to keep track. The staff began to do this because in the past they ran out of food within two to three weeks of a single month. This would cause them to close for one-two weeks out of the month because they only receive food deliveries once a month.
The volume of food received in a single delivery depends on their working budget. The church is a member of Thriving for Lutherans an organization that helps Lutheran churches secure funding. Through this association, McCatty obtains the budget from government grants such as, state grants received through the Department of Health and a city grant through the Department of Human Services; Food Group. Private donations make up a small portion of funding with Ridgewood Savings Bank being their major donator.
The food pantry uses the combination of public and private funding to stay in the best shape possible for the people they help. Saint Paul’s doses not exclude anyone and the pantry is open to all who come. “We don’t just provide for people in zip code 10462. We get a lot of people from zip code 10473 and, occasionally, we get people that do not reside in the borough,” said McCatty. According to the Social Explorer, zip code 10462, that includes the Parkchester neighborhood, has a median salary of $50,000. Zip code 10473, which is in community board 9 along with 10462, has a median salary of $40,000. A look at the housing set up supports this data because there are eight public housing projects for low income families in zip code 10473.
The number of total families coming to the pantry dropped because the resources available declined. Saint Paul’s now finds it is helping more singles than families. “You see there are more than one pantry around. So people go from pantry to pantry,” said McCatty. People are resorting to this tactic because much of the federal funding has gotten cut.
The cutback on the amount of federal funding caused a major dilemma for food pantries. “State grants three years ago totaled $18,000. Last year it got cut down to $8, 000,” said McCatty. She currently does not know what the future will bring for the pantry. The only hope she has in continuing to work and make the right decisions at the right time. She alluded to the fight her clients face and why they must go from pantry to pantry in order to eat. “We are currently operating on a budget of about $25,000. You can’t buy much food with $25, 000,” said McCatty.
Evelyn McCatty, Director of Saint Paul’s Lutheran Church’s Food Pantry
Posted in Community Services, Uncategorized
Tagged community service, Earl Mays, Parkchester
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The Deadly Choices at Memorial
Shari Fink tells the story of the choices made by the hospital in a balanced fashion. It is clear that Fink does not agree completely with the choices Anna Pou and Dr. Ewing Cook made in deciding who to save and who to let die. She knew that the reader would be disgusted with the circumstances of the situation and the decisions that were made. Fink strategically includes commentary from families who loved ones were declared least likely to survive. She shows the reader the stress the hospital staff is experiencing and the reasoning for their decision making. Fink’s descriptive ability further makes the anxiety and mass death seem like the walking dead without the zombies. Fink is able to win the reader’s heart and ethical mind into thinking how can we better handle disaster situations.
Fink’s bias is fully spelled out in the eighth paragraph. The hyphenated part of the first sentence beginning with that and ending in deserve closer attention shows that Fink does not agree with the legislation Pou is trying to pass. It is made clearer in the second sentence of the paragraph when she says, “health officials are now weighing, with little public discussion and insufficient scientific evidence.” The key word is insufficient because it shows Fink’s disagreement with the ideology. If not why use the word it could have stopped at public discussion. Throughout the rest of the story Fink seems to raise ethical questions along every stop in the story making the reader think in a situation such as this, what is the right decision?
Fink’s story is in chronological order starting in the section “A Shelter from the Storm.” The introduction to the story begins with a descriptive scene of the make shift morgue in Memorial Medical Center. The nutgraf jumps ahead in time to July of 2006 to explain the legal repercussions of decisions made by nurses and doctors at the hospital during hurricane Katrina. At this point, the story follows Anna Pou’s journey on passing legislation in Louisiana. The organization of the story is brilliant for the topic and effective in keeping the reader’s attention.
Posted in Deadly Choices at Memorial (Fink)
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Keeping the Records Selling in Harmony
Harmony Records is located at 1625 Unionport Rd in the Bronx.
Bruno Mars’s soulful vocals greet customers as they enter into Harmony Records on Unionport Road in the Bronx. Inside, a musical oasis waits. Shelves are filled with vinyl records, A-tracs, cassette tapes, and CDs. Genres including, but not limited to, Rap, Reggae, Reggaeton, Rock, and R&B whet patrons appetites before they are officially welcomed by store owner, Glenn Velger. For music lovers, the store is much like a museum, showcasing the evolution of music technology and musical styles.
Harmony records first opened in 1956. It is a historic gem to the Parkchester community. Small record stores are a rare find because of the birth of the MP3 and music piracy. Velger hopes to maintain the business despite a dwindling market. “I am a music lover and have a passion for music; what you get here is great customer service and expertise,” said Velger.
His musical love affair began in the 1970s when he was about eight years old and used to frequent the store for the latest record. The original owner eventually offered him a job in 1985 after he graduated college. In 1997, Velger bought out the owner after a failed business venture with HMV records store. His love of music and his business savvy has kept Harmony Records afloat ever since. “I know my niche market and cater to those customers,” said Velger.
Glenn Velger has been the store owner since 1997.
“How do I stay afloat? Three words old school music.” His niche market consists mainly of adults roughly 30 and up. “The new generation believes they are entitled to music and don’t understand the concept of really appreciating the music and wanting to own it and collect it,” said Velger. His deep understanding of the tastes of music consumers keeps him highly selective about the music he carries. He gets his music from Alliance Entertainment. It has been his only distributor since he took over as owner. The upkeep of his record collection is the biggest expense for Velger, outside of rent.
He is the sole operator of the store and a member of the National Entertainment Retailers Association (NERA). Harmony Records is one of two New York stores left that is involved with the organization, which sets up promotional events for music artists. This alliance is part of his survival strategy. The way Velger prices his music catalog is another tactic he uses. He sells CDs at about $10-16. Vinyls sell between $20-80. The challenge lies in ordering records that will sell without having to return large quantities to his distributor for an additional fee.
To avoid returns, Velger carries classics at all times and places custom orders for clients looking for specific items. What impresses Juan Dejesus, a longtime customrer: “The originality of the store– everything is authentic and he still has vinyl that’s what intrigues me.” Dejus adds, “Digital music loses its authenticity. There is something about the original that is special –you feel connected.”
“When the CD came out, the industry was telling distributors to stop selling vinyl. I never did because I knew the true music lover would always make room for vinyl,” said Velger. According to Nielsen Sound Scan, vinyl sales were up 18 percent, selling roughly 316 million records and bringing the sales number back to a peak not seen since 1998.
Vinyl makes up about five percent of overall record sales for the music industry. Record labels have been releasing more vinyl over the past five years which accounts for some of the sales increase. According to Velger, the resurgence of vinyl will never return to
Velger used to do artist release signings. He found out most people would come to see the artist and not buy the album.
what it was. “The internet showed up and killed everything,” said Velger. “The young people for the most part are not buying vinyl. I’m selling more of the old stuff that’s been around 30, 40, 50 years than I am the new stuff.”
His attention to the market and his customers is part of Velger’s business genius. He is very aware of the economic climate and knows people have less money to spend than they did in the 1980s and 1990s. “The reason you see so many empty stores around is because one it’s harder to get business loans and rent is so high for businesses,” said Velger.
Parkchester currently has six empty commercial spaces each representing a failed small business. More mainstream stores are set to slowly replace the old businesses. Despite this trend, Velger plans to stand his ground. “It’s okay now, but the problem is trying to get the younger generation to buy music. Once the older generation stops buying, there is going to be no one to replace them,” said Velger.
“Vinyl has a warmer sound with more highs and lows. It is more ambient than a CD,” said Velger.
Posted in Small Business
Tagged Earl Mays, Harmony Records, Parkchester, small business
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Beginning with the Undertaker, AJ Liebling
A.J. Liebling seems to love setting the scene. Location is given a big focus at the beginning of his stories. An in depth description is naturally apart of the location setup. “Beginning with the Undertaker,” starts off with “In the middle of any New York block there is likely to be one store that remains open and discreetly lighted all night,” from this line the reader get an immediate sense of location. Liebling is able to further develop the story into describing the inhabitants of the space. The use of description helps to organize the story by bringing about the dialogue with the characters the reader meets.
The sentence structure is the perfect mix of long and short allowing the reader to read with ease. The quotes from the characters tend to be long at times, but it is done to give the reader a sense of the personality of the person speaking. The grammar used with in the dialogue further hints at the cultural background of the speaker. “Oh, Madonna mia, she says, and what will do? So I says, Why don’t you forget all about it and purtend this is a new year,” is a perfect example of Liebling’s characterization style. The reader finally gets confirmation of the character’s nationality when Mayor Rizzo asks the police officer if he was Italian. The way libeling captures the essence of each character adds more life to the writing.
The only critique is the writing captures the time period in which it was written. It lacks timelessness in the sense of being able to be read without thinking of New York during the 1930,40s, and 50s. However, the writing allows a comparison to be made with the New York today versus the New York of Yesterday. This helps the reader to see exactly what has changed, but more importantly what has remained the same.
Protected: Parkchester: Small Business
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Reconciling 2 Worlds
“A Muslim Leader in Brooklyn, Reconciling 2 Worlds” is a feature story that is developed with a descriptive lead. The lead gives a clear picture of the imam, the neighborhood he severs, and the office he operates out of. The writer uses the in depth description as a door way into the conflict Muslim Americans are facing. Andrea Elliott delivers the conflict by dividing the story up into topical sections. Her colorful writing gives the piece life while lending understanding to the reader of the conflicts faced.
The story is mainly from the imam’s point of view with instances of outside voices like the Egyptian law professor at the University of California or the police officer from the 68th precinct. These voices added credibility to what the imam has stated concerning the community and its attempt to uphold it religious beliefs while adapting to the American way of life.
Elliot uses the imam as a catalyst for revealing all of the issues people of Islamic descent face. Small issues such as should one eat a big mac to international issues regarding terrorism are all brought into the story by the imam. The instances where stories of the issues solved by the imam are brought up never give names of the actual people and is the imam telling the story of a situation that took place that he needed to solve. The point of this story is to take the reader inside the life of a Muslim American.
As a result, the sources in this story are all on one side. That side is the one in favor of the imam and the Islamic tradition. Elliot uses analogies from the imam to show the different ideologies of Muslims in America versus Muslims in Egypt. “In Egypt, if a person passes through a red light, that means he’s smart,” he said. “In America, he’s very disrespected.”” Analogies like this are the closes thing to the other side given throughout the story.