Tag Archives: Commentary and Critiques

Battle in Black and White

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Amy Fox’s piece “Battle in Black and White” was similar to the Bagli piece in many ways.  We are seeing another case where housing becomes difficult for groups in a minority race. In her article, Fox talks about the challenges veterans and people of color faced when trying to live in Stuyvesant town as well as relocate when they were driven out of their current apartments. Bagli’s piece focused on the high rent prices that were driving out the current residents and making it challenging for relocation. Through these two articles, it is clear to see that they emphasized how challenging it was to relocate for minority groups. Fox backs up her point of view by analyzing and reporting on the stories of her past, while Bagli uses the current situation at hand in order to get her point across. I really enjoyed Fox’s piece, because she gave the reader an inside look on her family tree. The bravery of her grandparents to try and integrate Stuyvesant Town years back was truly remarkable.

Tourists Have Landed in Queens. They’re Staying

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How would you describe the reporting/interviewing in this article?

After reading the article, I felt that Kirk Semple was able to prove his point of view about an increase in tourists in Queens. After Lonely Planet named Queens the number one travel destination in the US for 2015, Semple’s straightforward reporting and his use of statistics from different sources, interviews of important officials and tourists in Queens all helped aid this point. This article definitely let me know as the reader that there are people traveling to Queens and discovering what the borough has to offer. As a Native New Yorker and resident of the Bronx, I was quite surprised to see the increase in popularity in Queens as it isn’t that close to Manhattan. Once I read that there are new hotels being constructed in Queens it did make more sense that people are visiting/staying there since both of the main NYC airports are located in Queens, and hotel rates are cheaper than in Manhattan. Although I enjoyed this article and thought that it was very informative, I did see a hole in the reporting since there were no interviews from Native Queens residents. I feel like Semple could have included more interviews from the locals in order to make this point stronger. For example, the interview with Ms. Sidibe where she asks “where is Queens?” could have been an opportunity to close with a local reacting to the increase in tourists. Even so, this article was certainly a refreshing take and angle on neighborhood reporting, and I walked away with something I didn’t know before I read it!