Author Archives: andres.zapatagutierrez
Protected: Father Joseph F. Lorenzo of Soho, New York: Leadership in Times of Change
Highlife-Lowlife: My reaction to Joseph Mitchell’s “Joe Gould’s Secret”
What do you think of New Yorker editor Harold Ross’s calling Joseph Mitchell’s profiles: “highlife-lowlife” pieces?
I can break down the “highlife-lowlife” statement by looking at the highlife part as a representation of the quality of Mitchell’s work, specifically the detailed story-telling that describes the subject’s background, lifestyle, and overall life events.
The lowlife part of the description, represents the fact that Mitchell, presumably, spent time with this individual who drank and lived almost in the streets. Mitchell was a highly skilled writer, and with this particular profile he went against conventional beliefs of what it means to get an education and develop a career in one’s area of study.
To conclude my reflection on the story, and on Harold Ross’s statement, I note that Joe Gould’s profile strikes me as a vivid, entertaining piece of writing that almost resembles a novel, and I think this high level of quality in Mitchell’s writing contrasts with the “lowlife” characteristics of Joe Gould’s life, which, whether real or fictional, is the source of the story.
Protected: Profile Draft Lead
Neighborhood Backgrounder: Soho
Demographics: According to 2010 census data, Soho’s total population is 14,432 with male and female population almost even in percentage. The female population makes up 50.9% and the male population makes up the remaining 49.1.
12,198 of Soho residents are white, making them 84.5 % of the population. Asians make up 9.2% of the population and the rest is made up of African Americans (2%) and other races. Fun fact: as of 2010, there were 6 native Hawaiians living in Soho.
-Infoshare Database.
History:Soho was initially a neighborhood full of production factories, the, artists were attracted to the area’s big spacious empty lots. Clandestine living was big until the city addressed the problem back in the 1960’s. Today, most art galleries have moved to, mainly, Chelsea. Soho, of course, is famous with tourists because of the large commercial area with the chain sores and smaller businesses.
Contemporary Land Development: The city council is currently funding the re-construction of the Soho Square park. NYC Parks is currently providing basic information on the progress and the estimated funding is, according to NYCgovparks.gov, is between 3 million and 10 million dollars. This information was last updated on the website on September 28, 2015.
Neighborhood Faces Query: Father Joseph F. Lorenzo
Father Joe is a pastor at the Shrine Church of Saint Anthony of Pauda, located just south of Houston Street in Soho. I am interested in Soho’s role to help out the poor and homeless. Father Joe’s initiatives such as the JoyJ initiative to hand out coats and pillows to the homeless is the type of activity I am interested in because it shows how one person, through the leadership he has by being a pastor of the church, drives members of a community towards a common goal.
I am choosing Father Joe for this profile article because even though today many people do not view “the church” as a significant force for positive outcomes in the world, it is interesting to see the positive actions a church takes to improve or help relieve, issues and conflicts in its community on a local level.
Neighborhood Pitch: SOHO
The neighborhood of Soho reminds me of a commercial sector in the city in which I was born. I visited the neighborhood’s stores and commercial sectors and the aesthetics and overall atmosphere of its surroundings and the structure of its streets, along with the large and small shops, brought to me memories of the commercial sector in the city in which I was born and spent my childhood in: Medellin, Colombia. This is the main reason why I liked Soho and chose to write my stories on the neighborhood. A second reason is my desire to learn more about the neighborhood’s history and the roll it plays in fighting to fix issues of major importance to Manhattan and its residents.
I want to focus on issues that are relevant to New York City as a whole, and then I plan to compare Soho to other neighborhoods in Manhattan in terms of degree of involvement in such issues. One example of an issue that I am interested in is the homeless problem and the recent rise in homelessness in New York City. What I am most interested in seeing is what is being done in the neighborhood of Soho about this problem, which affects all neighborhoods in the borough of Manhattan. It is interesting to compare the Soho filled with tourists spending thousands of dollars on expensive clothes by day, with the Soho doing its part to fix the homeless problem in Manhattan by night.
“2 Jobs at the Sugar Factory, and a Lump in the Throat”:
Does the writer give us more than Robert Shelton’s personal history?
Yes, The author tells the story of the factory and the changes it has faced in the past and during the time the article was written. Robert’s personal story works as a lens through which the reader learns about the history of the factory and its significance to the sugar trade, New York, and williamsburg Brooklyn.
Describe the narrative of this profile, the arc of the story.
The narrative is a tribute to Robert Shelton’s life, which he dedicated to working incredible long hours in extreme temperatures. Through this narrative, we learn about the site and its historical importance. The arc of the story is Robert’s life as a worker at the historical site and his trajectory from worker to retiree, and from retiree to volunteer.
What do you think of the lead?
The author relies heavily on Robert’s emotions about the factory and describes a site that is no longer there in detail, indicating this is a flash back to the past. I think he does a good job of being descriptive and setting a nostalgic tone for the story.
Where is the nut graf? What about the author’s point-of-view?
The nut graf is in the third paragraph where the author goes into detail about the borough and the historical importance of the Domino complex. The author’s point of view is that this symbolic place in the neighborhood which holds the significance of freedom and paid labor in a job that started with the slaves should not be forgotten.
Do look at online images of Kara Walker’s sculptural installation, “A Subtlety” before you answer these questions. Category: Robert Shelton for your blog post.
250 Words on Soho
Soho is a historic neighborhood in lower Manhattan which has transitioned from a neighborhood of artists and art galleries to a commercial are with many chain stores geared to tourists. many of the art galleries have been moved to different neighborhoods in the city and gentrification and shopping have shaped the Soho that we know today.
The neighborhood became a go-to spot for entertainment in the mid 19 century, and this also brought in brothels and the atmosphere began to change. The middle class moved out and and was replaced by merchants. in the 1960’s the artists moved in and the neighborhood began to change again. Artists would be attracted to the empty industrial buildings because of the large windows, vast indoor space, and natural light. There was a period of time where the City ignored clandestine housing in buildings which did not meet any requirements for living conditions. this was due to the city’s poor economy at the time. (1960’s) . After a while, the city addressed the growing artist population and made it legal for artists to live in the places they worked, this was partly because manufacturing had left New York City at the time.
Soho is in between Canal Street on the south, Crosby Street on the east, and Sixth Avenue to the west. The northern part of the neighborhood consists of clustered chain outlets and the streets are often filled with tourists visiting New York City. The southern part of the neighborhood along Grand Street still resembles the neighborhood’s earlier days.
Soho residents, according to the 2010 United States Census, are mostly white, Asians and Latinos are in lower numbers and Blacks constitute a 1% of the population in that area. (Soho is part of the Manhattan community board 2).
Response to: Tourist Have Landed in Queens. They’re Staying.
The author Kirk Semple uses statistics about tourism and talks about the growing amount of hotels being developed in Queens to emphasize that the borough is, or has the potential to, become a new tourist attraction for travelers visiting New York City.
Semple’s main interviewee is Rob McKay, who is the director of Public relations and marketing for the Queens economic development corporation. The most interesting quote used by Semple is that by Mr. McKay, where he quotes a french journalist talking about Long Island City and how everyone in Paris loves it. This is interesting because Semple decides to quote the french journalist within the McKay quote, making it a quote within a quote.
Overall, I found Semple’s reporting style very effective in terms of painting a picture of the type of tourist attraction Queens is becoming. Semple uses descriptive language and also includes some negative aspects of Queens, such as the ugly architecture, as a premise to his main proposition describing Queens as an authentic, multicultural place to visit.