Tag Archives: CVaccarelli

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.

Joe Gould’s Secret

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What do you think of New Yorker editor Harold Ross’s calling Joseph Mitchell’s profiles: “highlife-lowlife” pieces?

I agree very much so with New York editor Harold Ross’s calling Joseph Mitchell’s profiles “highlife-lowlife” pieces. Joseph Mitchell would make his way around the city dapperly dressed in designer attire. He looked higher up in social class yet he never wanted to interview anyone that looked this way. Harold Ross writes, “The only people he didn’t care to listen to; were society woman, industrial leaders, distinguished authors, ministers, explorers, moving picture actors, and any actress under the age of thirty-five.” Mitchell was only interested in interviewing lower class, “low-life” types that had fascinating stories, whether he was elaborating them or not.

Joe Gould is a perfect example of a “low-life” profile done by a “high-life” Joseph Mitchell. Gould is an oddball and while seemingly he may seem to be of a higher stature it is merely a facade. Truly Joe Gould relied heavily on the support and charity of others. Possibly this is why he spent so long and filled over one hundred spiral notebooks with an “oral-history” and events in his life that were never even true. Gould having writers block was constantly writing and rewriting this. Mitchell spending much of his time writing about Gould was outraged when he found out that it was a lie and revealed Joe Gould’s “secret”, that this history was false. After writing this Mitchell had writers blocks and never really published anything for the rest of his life. The irony in this is that both Joe and Joe fabricated fascinating stories and could not collect their thoughts in their last pieces of work. Perhaps Mitchell’s reason for having writers block at the end of his life was because he was disturbed by how much of himself he saw in Gould.

Alphabet City Backgrounder

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Alphabet City is a small neighborhood in New York City. Its boundaries are East Houston St to the north and E 14th St to the south and contains Avenue A, B, C and D. It gains its name from these avenues. Some more popular locations in the area include Tompkins Square Park and the Nuyorican Poets Cafe.

It is a very artsy area that is heavily populated with German, Polish, Hispanic and Jewish. During the 1980s there were African Americans and Puerto Ricans living in the area as well as hundreds of struggling artists. The area also had a very high crime rate and high levels of illegal drug activity. Today it is 58th safest for all crime. There are many schools in the neighborhood such as The Neighborhood School, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Tompkins Square Middle School, New York City Community School District 1 Region 9,  Escuela Hispana and the George Jackson Academy.

In my research I found the following statistics as of 2013. The median household income was $68,148. The median rent was $1,374.There was more females than males but not by much. There was 31,769 males and 34,355 females documented. The median age for both sexes in the neighborhood was 35 years old. There was 25.9% of married couple families with children and 20.4% single-mother households. 13.1% of people do not speak english in the neighborhood and 24.4% were foreign born residents. 34.8 % of people were born in another U.S state and 35.7% were born in New York.

Asking prices for buildings has significantly increased over the past 3 years. Vacant buildings are being bought, remodeled and sold for prices reaching over 1 million dollars an apartment.The average housing price for housing units in 3-to-4 unit structures was $1,282,293. The streets are lined with early 19th and early 20th century buildings. Some buildings of note in the area include the St. Nicolas of Myra Church, the Eleventh Street Public Bath, the Congregation Beth Hamedrash Hagadol Ansche Ungarn, and the Congregation Mezritch Synagogue. Public School 64 is a French Renaissance Revival structure that was designed by master school architect C.B.J Snyder and was built in 1904-1906. This was a time period of tremendous expansion and construction of new schools due to the consolidation of New York City and its recently centralized school administration, school reforms, and a burgeoning immigrant population (wikipedia). Some notable residents of  the area Louis Abolafia, Rosario Dawson, Bobby Driscoll, Allen Ginsberg, Madonna, Charlie Parker and Heraldo Rivera.

This neighborhood is growing in money. What once was home to starving artists and immigrants has become expensive area to live in. Crime rate has dropped and the area is filled with young hip adults crawling the bars in the neighborhood. Just like many neighborhoods it is filled with family own businesses and bars that have been around for centuries. A understated but special neighborhood to say the least.

It is changing into a hip trendy area and drawing in a younger crowd attracted to the nightlife. Its filled with more unique businesses and restaurants then ever before.

http://www.city-data.com/neighborhood/East-Village-New-York-NY.html

http://www.dnainfo.com/new-york/crime-safety-report/manhattan/east-village

Robert Shelton

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Does the writer give us more than Robert Shelton’s personal history?

The writer goes deep into Robert Shelton’s history as far as to mention that he mainly remembers his stepfather for beating his mother. A rather personal statement that does not directly correlate to the main point of this article, but serves as a purpose to understand Mr. Shelton on another level. The writer also gives us a history of Domino Sugar and the factories previous workers.

Describe the narrative of this profile, the arc of the story.

The narrative of this profile is very personally connected to Mr. Shelton. We learn about his life and his personal struggles. We come to understand the connection he has to the sugar factory and the sculpture. It starts off with us learning about the conditions of the factory that Mr. Shelton worked in and we find out that it will become residential offices. Then we get more personal into Shelton’s life and learn the history of the Domino sugar factory. Finally winding down to Shelton’s present day life and wishes for the remains of the factory.

What do you think of the lead?

The author is primarily focused on Mr. Shelton’s emotional connection and history to bring the story to life. I think the author does a good job in making the reader feel connected. The descriptions used by Shelton and the author brings the story to life in a story that is otherwise dead without them.

Where is the nut graf?

The second paragraph on the second page where we learn about the sphinx being hauled away and the sugar house becoming residential offices.

What about the author’s point-of-view?

The authors point-of-view is that this is a special place and the lives of the workers and the significance of this place to them is of great importance and should not be forgotten.

 

250 Words on Alphabet City

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I recently moved into New York City from upstate New York. I lived in Harriman, NY for my whole life. Only one hour from New York City, but it might as well have been worlds apart. It wasn’t until I received this assignment that I realized I barely knew a single thing about the different neighborhoods in the city. My father who spent a good amount of time in his life living in manhattan suggested Alphabet City to me. Not only is it close to my new apartment, but has some pretty interesting factors that make it very “New York” while also distinguishing it from other neighborhoods.

This village used to be home to starving artists as can be seen of the beautiful murals surrounding the neighborhood. It is rooted by generations of families that have owned restaurants and businesses there their whole lives. I think this would be interesting to find a family that has lived their forever and first hand experienced the major changes that the neighborhood has undergone.

 

Another part of this neighborhood which holds a lot of history is Tompkins square park, also known for the Tompkins square park riots. There has been a huge growth in the homeless epidemic here. Some families completely avoid the beautiful park all together because it has become somewhat of a campground for them. Restaurant owners have been coming together to form organizations to feed them. I think interviewing the homeless, the cops in the area and a few business owners can lead to me to a very unique angle and uncover something interesting and unspoken about this neighborhood. I will try understand why there is an epidemic, who is helping it, who is making it worse and any other interesting facts I can uncover when I am there in the streets.

Queens Tourist

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Kirk Semple has a very interesting style of writing in this piece. He goes back and forth between the shock of Queens being such a popular travel destination and the reasons why it is getting so much attention. Many people would not believe that Queens was named the No. 1 travel destination in the US for 2015. Semple understands this and talks about what a shock it is while at the same time explaining to the reader why Queens is such a popular destination.

His interviewing techniques are crucial to his storytelling. Each quotation either precedes and supports a statement he is about to make or comes directly after the point he just touched on. Sometimes he uses the interview to show the negative connotation of Queens and then comes back at the quote showing how regardless of the statement tourism is still thriving. For example, “Large swaths of Queens have really bad aluminum siding…’I Invented aluminum siding’?” is followed by Semple stating, “But boosters say those negative characteristics should not be impediments–and may actually be advantages.” (Kemple)

Here is New York Blog Post

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1. What is your impression of the opening line of White’s book: “New York bestows gifts of loneliness and the gifts of privacy.” Do you agree or disagree with White? If so, why? If not, why not? How effective is the opening? What does it accomplish, if anything?

In the opening line of White’s book, “New York bestows gifts of loneliness and the gifts of privacy”, I get the impression that he is informing readers what a privilege it is to get these aspects of life in a city most would not expect. The word “gift” lets me know that he is looking at this as a positive. I agree with White about the gift of privacy. As humans this is something we need and something we crave. On the other hand, I personally do not seek or enjoy loneliness. I am very much a social individual whom enjoys the company of others. The opening is very effective in the sense that right off the bat readers can see that he has a new perspective on New York and it might not be what the average would expect. It encourages myself as a reader to keep going and I become thoroughly intrigued. It accomplishes giving the readers an immediate feel about what it means to be in New York without even scanning to the second sentence.

 

 

2. How and why does the writer use lists in this book?

White uses lists in this book rather melodically. Mimicking similar styles of Walt Whitman, White manages to take a sentence that many would read as grammatically incorrect and give it flare and meaning. Each list was hand crafted to prove a point such as how the city has drastic differences yet something to offer to everyone. For example, “..art and commerce and sport and religion and entertainment and finance..” (White 19).