Joseph Mitchell

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Jospeh Mitchell incorporates an exquisite style when he goes about writing. Reading Street Life, I enjoyed the easily-readable style he fuses with the thought that he pursues when writing. The constant use of repetition allows the information to be processed easier. Employing first-person often has bad repercussions, but the way he tangled it with his subconscious thoughts that felt as if I were reading my own mind and it was extremely effective. It was a great way to ease the reader into NYC street life: by connecting himself with the words (which I feel is extremely hard to accomplish for most writers) he is able to show and not tell the writer what he will be writing.

In contrast, I felt that the NY Times CITY LORE feature in movies was not as effective. Understanding that this was a movie feature for what was to come of Mitchell and Gould and the attached reading from Mitchell was the workings of a chapter from a memoir he never finished, I could not really measure them against one another, but I feel like the style of the writer is not quite there. I was completely against the quote to start the article after reading the nutgraf because I thought that it was too broad for the angle the writer may have been pursuing. The article felt scattered (I may have to re-read again).

I agree that Mitchell’s profiles are “highlife-lowlife” pieces. The use of Joe Gould as an interesting complex person in his feature really does break the rules of non fiction.

Neighborhood Pitch – Business

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I want to do my neighborhood business on an establishment called “Bistango,” located on the corner of 29th Street and 3rd Avenue. The reason why I chose this particular establishment is because this is one of the very few semi-expensive (Italian) restaurants that have been around even before gentrification.

The establishment was brought up around the late 1970s, so I’m very curious as to how the neighborhood and how the customers have changed over time. Also, I’m sure they have a lot of interesting stories about the interaction between the neighborhood and the establishment. Surrounding the restaurant now, there is a sports bar named Tonic, which has loud events every evening, and especially during the weekends (Thursdays including, because Thursday is bar night).

I’ve been friends with the manager for quite some time now, so I believe it would be a good interaction between me and him, in terms of the interview. Also, in terms of surrounding environments, there’s a lot of Indian and Asian restaurants, so I’m very curious as to how this Italian restaurant held it’s weight.

This is not to say that this is the only Italian restaurant around. A restaurant named Banc Cafe, located on 30th Street and 3rd Avenue, is also an Italian restaurant. However, it is in a much grander scale, in terms of real estate. I wonder if these two businesses ever have friendly or non-friendly competition, or maybe they have market power over the Kips Bay Italian restaurant industry.

A Penny on the Sidewalk

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Walking down the decorative streets of Alphabet City many types of people can be seen. There are the struggling artists in their dirty overalls, the cop with a scolding coffee in their hand, the rich woman with her designer purse and tiny dog and the young college crowd bopping about with no real direction. Not every one is so well off. When you take a second from all the surroundings in front of you to look down a person can be seen laying on the ground at almost every corner. A whole other world many of us are fortunate enough to have the pleasure of not understanding.

The homeless have been scattered all over Alphabet City for over a decade now. Colin Cosnell from local bar Percys BBQ and Darts said, “It has always been an issue here. The issue being how do we help these people and get them off the streets. The problem is that most of them get stuck in a ditch and can’t pull themselves out of it”. People all over this neighborhood make an effort to hold soup kitchens and clothing drives, anything to make a difference.

When it comes to defying the odds Penny Lieberman takes the cake. She has long shiny black hair all the way down her back and she stood at Father’s Heart Soup Kitchen on East 11th passing out food with a smile on her face. The place was so packed with hungry people that you could feel the humidity and smell sweat in the air. What makes Penny so happy to be there was because it was not too long ago that she was in that predicament herself. “I feel like coming back here to help where I once ate is a small way for me to give back after being so blessed”, Penny said humbly. She is merely twenty-two years old, but spent two years on the streets.

She grew up on West 165th street with her parents that regularly abused substances. She had a hard life growing up in a shabby walkup apartment where rats were so regular she started to name them. She was neglected by her parents and her home situation became so intolerable she made the decision after completing high school to be on her own. It started off with her hopping from couch-to-couch of her friends and certain acquaintances. Penny looking down said, “Things went downhill from there. Most people didn’t want to genuinely help me. They all expected favors and favors that I couldn’t do for them”. It became so much pressure for her to live with other people that she decided to leave. She felt as though she could not go back to her parents so she made one of the biggest decisions she ever had to make and she went to live on the street.

She moved around a lot to different neighborhoods, but something about Alphabet City kept her there. You could see the fear in her eyes as she talked about how scary certain areas were. A young beautiful girl of her age on the streets has a high risk of danger. She tried different shelters, but she was less harassed being on the street with a hood over her head. Alphabet City was different to her. The people were nice, it wasn’t overly crowded with tourists and she felt like it was as far as she could get from her parents.

Maria Marzigliano, a mentor of Penny’s, said “I remember asking her what her dream was and her answer was priceless”. Penny could not afford the things girls her age had. She used to look at how beautiful they looked walking by and that began her obsession with make up. She became so obsessed that she openly admits that the first thing she ever stole was a lipstick from a drugstore. Not food, not water but yes LIPSTICK! Maria Marzigliano told Penny that if she loved make up so much she should go to school for it. Maria cleaned her up walked her to the Fashion Institute of Technology and helped Penny apply for scholarships, she even paid for her application.

Penny wrote essays at public libraries and would work on projects in Maria’s living room. “While all of this was going I was feeling skeptical that it might not work out. I sat on the steps of the church and saw a penny facing heads up on the sidewalk while I was thinking about it and I knew it was a sign for me”. Thanks to her good grades, but mostly the people she met that helped her along the way, Penny received a full scholarship to attend FIT.

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Penny sitting at her new vanity. She has the quote on the wall for motivation.

Today she is living in her own apartment with two girls that she met from school. She works at Sephora where she is able to not only pay for her apartment, but get a discount on makeup! She regularly goes down to the soup kitchen where she once ate to give back. But her favorite thing to do is go to women’s shelters and give free makeovers with her other classmates. “The looks on their faces when were done with them gives me a satisfaction I can’t get anywhere else. I love making women feel beautiful. You feel like you can conquer the world. If I can do that with a few brushes and some powder, why not?”, Penny said with a smile.

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Penny on her couch holding up her FIT sweatshirt with pride.

Penny has a name that is perfect for her. A penny does not have much financial value, but it is the one currency that has a reputation for being lucky when found heads up on the ground. While Penny had not a dollar to her name for a long period of time, she managed to turn things around and now she is following her dreams and on a path to success. “All I ask is that people reach out and give a helping hand. A few people that didn’t have much themselves did all they could for me and changed my life completely because they gave me a chance. If only we all could do the same.”

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Some of Penny’s makeup collection.

Vincent Lo

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The sun’s rays crack through the window blinds and the family dog barks in excitement for the day. The familiar cry of BEEP BEEP BEEP and within a second THUD hits the off button. The aroma of fresh coffee beans in the morning, threatening shouts of “Time to wake up” shakes the home, mayonnaise slamming into dry pieces of toast, kids running to the car, and the oh so familiar traffic jam of cross island starts off his morning.

Upon entering his Dodge Durango you see stacks of invoices from different buildings, letters addressed to Mr.Vincent Lo, bags of screws, box of tools and keys to buildings littered throughout his car. But just enough space to fit his morning cup of coffee to start his day. The job of a property manager/broker is to oversee the day-to-day building’s operation. While the job of a broker is to sell clients part of the building’s empty space. His place of work is generally rolling down the highway from one building to the other. But if you’re lucky enough to fit into his schedule you might be able to hear his pitch.

“Our company is the managing agent for the property, we have full knowledge of the building, we have full financial information of the building, we are more than well qualified to market and sell within the building, we have a good support staff, we are a part of the multiple listing service, and we keep a list of potential buyers of the past and future.” – Vincent Lo

Growing up in the lower east side of Manhattan, he learned to work hard at a young age. At the early age of thirteen/fourteen he started working at his parent’s restaurant business. He worked from the front of counter to the back of the kitchen. At a young age he already knew the hustle necessary to make a buck.

“Establishing ones reputation takes time and hard work. Back then because there barely was internet I would have to scrounge through the newspapers, and call to find listings of apartments for sale. Trying to co-broke a deal with a broker and make some money. Back when I started I would easily spend up to nine thousand dollars on advertisement space. While now-a-days you can just as easily save that money and post up advertisements on craigslist for free.”

Census.gov shows that the median family income in Queens runs about $64,371. While a majority of families are making $50,000 to $74,000 at 18.2%. What is quite shocking is that families that make $200,000 or more make up 5.1% of Queens. Which could be a reason for so many immigrants in Queens. People are probably moving to United States with money to grow a business or to purchase land and resell it later. Due to a heavy influx of money coming from overseas and China. United States Customs and Border Protection has limited the amount to ten thousand dollars. You are allowed to bring and take up to ten thousand dollars from and to United States at any given time with the need to fill out a “Report of International Transportation of Currency and Monetary Instruments Form.”

Queens has been getting a lot of publicity this past year and according to the Lonely Planet, one of the world’s most successful travel publishers. They have named Queens, New York as number one tourist destination of 2015. Although Queens known for its sports arenas like, the Arthur Ash stadium where the U.S. Open plays, Citi Field where the Mets play. Not only that but Queens is also known for it’s museums like, the Moving Picture Museum, MOMA P.S. 1, the Queens Museum, and food. Queens is built upon the shoulders of immigrants around the world. Some coming from Italy, some coming from Philippines, some coming from Mexico, some coming from Korea, some coming from China. Queens and New York has become a melting pot of the 21st century. In the light of all this positive feedback, there are negative impacts to the people who live in Queens. As stated by MNS, Queens rental Market Report, average rent throughout Queens has increased 2.12% from $2,104.13 in July 2015. A steady trend like that would lead most to view affordable housing as a way to escape the increase of rent in Queens.

Gentrification of New York City really depends on people’s perspective on things. You can either think “Rising real estate prices is doing good for New York City?” or “Are you hurting these people who do not qualify affordable housing.” Pushing them out and end up having the government pay for subsidies and so forth. It really depends on how you see it, whether the glass is half full or half empty.

Business Proposal

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For my business story, I want to profile Englewood’s custom-made carpet and rug store called Starr Carpets. The store is broken up into two sections, one that caters to oriental rugs and the other for wall-to-wall coverings. Located on Grand Avenue and established in 1979, owner Mike Nazar has customized the homes of many residents with his specialized selection of contemporary, traditional, and antique products. He works closely with his clients to produce a carpet or area rug that fits their ideal look and vision. Over the years, Nazar has earned the trust of his customers who keep calling him back to furnish every corner of their homes. However, with the many stores that go out of business in Englewood, I’m curious how Nazar has remained successful in the same spot for the last 36 years as he also competes with other rug stores in the area. I want to know the main issues the industry faces especially with the advancement of technology and online companies. Some of the rugs are hand made from different countries so I want to know where his main source of merchandise comes from and how much inventory he needs in order to provide diversity for his customers. It’s also important to know how Nazar tailors to his clientele, follows trends, and how he knows which items will sell in his area. All these questions are important in uncovering the success and challenges that he faces in his industry.

Neighborhood Business Proposal: Lenox Hill

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Since 1936, Windsor Florist on East 78th Street and Lexington Avenue has been providing Lenox Hill residents with beautiful flowers and unique plants. Sam Karalis, who inherited the business from his family, has it all, from simple red roses to rare, exotic cacti and even Venus Flytraps.

Since Windsor Florist has been around so long, I would love to see it’s evolution as a shop and how it had to change with the neighborhood, and the city in general. Also, it’s quite busy due to it’s close proximity to Lenox Hill Hospital, one of the neighborhood’s focal points and a place guaranteed to help a flower shop stay in business.

Looking at their website, one can see an array of different options, but many of their flower arrangements and plants cost over $100. I’m curious if it’s the wealthy residents in the neighborhood who can support these sales or if it’s just people visiting friends and loved ones in the hospital.

The shop itself has almost definitely had it’s rent grow exponentially since 1936, and I’m wondering how they’ve managed to stay in such a coveted location for so long.

Windsor Florist is always a visible treat to peer into from the outside, and getting an inside perspective from the owner himself, employees, and a customer would make for a great Lenox Hill story.

Small Business Proposal

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The small business in Astoria that I would like to cover is Supernova Tattoo. The shop opened in 2004 and is run by Andreana Verona, a tattooist from Italy. The shop is located in the Ditmars area of Astoria, off Steinway Street.

Verona traveled around the world, picking up tattooing skills from various artists and honing her skills. She has been tattooing since 1992 and has worked in some of the most prestigious shops in Italy, Madrid and Puerto Rico.

Verona hires other experienced tattooists to work in her shop, most of them have their own clientele. Some of her current and past artists are Andre Juliani, Mauro Landim and LeoBulldog. Guest tattooists also travel in from other shops to work out of Supernova.

Supernova was voted one of the top tattoo shops in Queens by the locals. It was also mentioned by CBS as one of the best shops in New York City. Most of their cliental have found them through recommendations of other clients. Many of them are repeat clients.

 

 

From a Teacher’s Desk to an Editor’s Office

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Robert Pozarycki’s corner office is not very big, but it is full of personality. Maps of Manhattan and of Bayside, Queens hang from the walls. An MLB poster of American League baseball teams speaks to his love of the sport, while a pen cup emblazoned with the Mets logo declares his devotion to the team. Two photos of his wife and son smile up from his desk.

Of all the personal touches Mr. Pozarycki has added to his office, there is one that could easily get overlooked. At first glance, it appears to be just a blue, glass paperweight set with the seal of Archbishop Molloy High School, which Mr. Pozarycki graduated from in 1998. However, a closer look at the back of it reveals the words, “Excellence in Journalism,” an award granted to students who showed outstanding achievement in Molloy’s journalism class.

Photo Oct 02, 3 44 51 PMIt seems natural, now, that the editor-in-chief of the Queens Courier, the Courier-Sun, and the Ridgewood Times—three of Queens’ top community newspapers—would’ve been recognized for journalistic talent at an early age. At the time, however, Mr. Pozarycki was flummoxed.

“I was like, ‘How did I get this?’” he recounted. Though he had been interested in journalism from a very young age, the outbreak of the first Persian Gulf War dissuaded him from pursuing it as a career for fear that he would be sent to cover a war zone. As he grew older, he began considering a career in education, with the goal of becoming a high school history teacher and even someday a professor.

“I had a lot of great teachers that I learned from at Molloy,” he said. “I thought that going into teaching would be a really fulfilling thing.”

After graduating in 2002 with a bachelor’s degree in history from St. Joseph’s College in Brooklyn, Mr. Pozarycki began a full-time job as a seventh grade teacher at a private school in Queens. This, however, was a far cry from what he had originally wanted to do, and he had a terrible experience.

“I just don’t think I was prepared for it,” he said. “Kids were rather unruly and I had a hard time managing the class. I had a hard time also educating [them] in areas which I was weak in.”

Although dismayed that his contract with the school wasn’t renewed, Mr. Pozarycki continued searching for work in education. In September of 2004, he came across a job advertisement in the Ridgewood Times, which was looking for a part-time reporter. Still interested in writing and reporting, Mr. Pozarycki decided to apply for the position. The same day that he dropped off his resume at the Times’ office, he met with managing editor Bill Mitchell, who gave him a test run reporting on a community meeting.

“The experience itself was great. I had my notebook out, I was there talking to people, getting a feel of what was going on in the community, and I liked it,” Mr. Pozarycki recalled. Mitchell, impressed with the report he turned in, brought him on as a part-time reporter shortly after.

Mr. Pozarycki continued reporting part-time for the next several months, taking on another job in the meantime as a permanent substitute teacher at a Catholic school in Queens. The experience was the same as it had been the first time around, and when Mitchell called him with an assignment on an evening that he stayed at the school for parent-teacher conferences, Mr. Pozarycki says he came to a moment of truth.

“The Yogi Berra-ism, ‘When you come to the fork in the road, take it’? I thought, ‘Okay. I’m doing teaching, it’s not working, I don’t like what I’m doing. But here’s this other job that I really like doing, and it’s part time, but I’m sure I can get something out of this.’”

Mr. Pozarycki finished the school year, and then never looked back. Recalling the award he received in high school for journalism, he says, “I guess it was a sign. I should’ve seen that before.”

In October 2005, John Walthers, the publisher of the Ridgewood Times, offered him a full-time job. In the beginning, Mr. Pozarycki covered just about everything, and learned on the job.

“When I started full-time, I was doing articles in the office, phone interviews, covering meetings at night. If they had a photo event, I was there. If they had a press conference, I ran out. I’ve done block party photos, parades, gone to Memorial Day events and covered those,” he listed. “Then eventually I wound up doing layout—feature sections, sports sections, and eventually the main section. So I was doing practically everything except selling ads. It was a heck of a time.”

Meeting a tight deadline was one of the many challenges Mr. Pozarycki faced in his new job. Building sources was another. It was particularly challenging to build relationships with officers in the New York City Police Department, as they needed to know he could be trusted with sensitive information. He also learned the hard way that city agencies found it easy to brush him off since, in their view, he was just a reporter from a small weekly newspaper.

However, with guidance from Bill Mitchell, John Walthers, and Walthers’ mother Maureen Walthers—who was publisher emeritus—Mr. Pozarycki refined his craft and really established himself as a journalist. As the years passed, he rose through the ranks to senior reporter, then associate editor, and finally, editor-in-chief.

In the decade that Mr. Pozarycki worked there, the Ridgewood Times fell into rough economic circumstances, having been hit hard by the 2008 recession. By 2014, downsizing had reduced the staff to just Mr. Pozarycki and two other reporters; together, they were responsible for writing, editing, and processing every article, caption, and press release. After John Walthers’ sudden death in June 2014, the management of the paper returned to his mother Maureen, who was in her 80s then and unable to keep up with all the changes the paper needed to stay afloat.

In late 2014, Victoria Schneps, President and CEO of Schneps Communications, which owns the Queens Courier, made connections with Ms. Walthers. In January 2015, the announcement was made that the Ridgewood Times would be sold.

“The Schneps have been very good to us. They kept everybody on board,” Mr. Pozarycki said.

After the sale, he remained editor-in-chief of the Ridgewood Times. In February, after the previous editor-in-chief of the Queens Courier left the paper, co-publisher Joshua Schneps approached Mr. Pozarycki with an offer to add the Courier to his editor’s duties.

“I’m not going to mince words; it was overwhelming at first,” Mr. Pozarycki said of his new responsibilities juggling three papers. “It’s a lot of responsibility, but you learn quickly. What made it easier was the fact that we’re a daily online and everything’s done every day. It doesn’t make everything seem so daunting.”

Bob Brennan, associate publisher at the Queens Courier, says that one of Mr. Pozarycki’s challenges has been adapting to having a larger staff among which to delegate responsibilities.

“Rob is used to writing the stories himself, doing a lot of the work himself. [At the Ridgewood Times] he was almost an editor and a reporter at the same time,” said Mr. Brennan. “Now what he has to work on is being a true editor, and pulling back a little bit, and doing less of the work himself, and learning how to delegate and getting his staff to do the work, which he has to oversee.”

“I think he’s working towards that,” Mr. Brennan added. “To be able to run the show and really understand his role as being the person that has to coordinate everything, as opposed to doing the work himself.”

Mr. Pozarycki says he is happy reporting on Queens at the community level, following the neighborhoods, getting to know the borough, and getting a chance to do really good journalism.

“People always tease me, ‘Oh, when are you gonna go to the Daily News? When are you gonna go to the Times?’” he says. “I look at the Daily News or the Post and I open the pages and I see fluff. And then in the margins on the side are all the really important stories. And I feel that in a community paper you’re not marginalized, literally and figuratively. Every story is important and every story gets its own space, everybody gets a chance to speak, and reporters get a chance to report. I like that mentality.”

When asked what quality he looks for in the potential hires he interviews, Mr. Pozarycki immediately answered, “Enthusiasm. That to me is one big trait I look for with people coming in. Obviously, talent comes with it—you can be talented but not have enthusiasm, and it shows. It shows in the work.”

Enthusiasm is something Mr. Pozarycki himself certainly has in abundance. In giving his first impression of his colleague, Mr. Brennan said, “He seemed to be a person who really wanted to grab this opportunity and make the most of it. So I like his enthusiasm for the business. Once you have that good attitude and enthusiasm, the rest is going to come. That’s the most important part. We’re very happy with him and the work he does.”

“I think reporters should not be discouraged by what they hear about print journalism,” Mr. Pozarycki added. “They should be willing to tackle every challenge that comes their way. It’ll make them better for it.”