Tag Archives: Neighborhood Profile

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.

Neighborhood Profile Draft

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An average day for Kyle Blidy consists of rising early at 5:00 A.M. and thrusting himself into the hustle and bustle that is New York. Kyle’s first task of the day is his commute from his neighborhood in Astoria to the the LoMA academy in lower manhattan.

Kyle’s primary occupation is as a teacher at the LoMA academy from 8AM-12PM daily, and additionally works as a teacher’s assistant and after-school tutor at the St. John’s Preparatory High School (which is only a few blocks from his apartment) every other afternoon.

“Teaching is something that I always had a passion for, ever since I had my first chemistry class in High School, and saw my first laboratory explosion. This explosion metaphorically sparked a revolution in my intellectual interests. I have taken on the career of education so that I can share my passion for chemistry with others Kyle is certified to teach chemistry and mathematics at any school in the state of New York, since his graduation from NYU Steinhardt’s prestigious teaching program (ranked third in the nation for pedagogy, according to the Princeton Review). “As much as I’ve made it my goal to try to help every student get an equal education, I must admit that it is easier to teach students at the elite St. John’s Preparatory High School versus the students at the under-served, predominantly-minority student, LoMA academy. It really just has to do with available resources, funding, and student motivation for success. Unfortunately, the school system in New York is greatly disparate in regards to the above, and the struggle I endure at LoMA is enough to drive me out of there. I plan on working to secure a tenured position at St. John’s Preparatory High School in the near future.”

In addition to Kyle’s all around superior experience at St. John’s Preparatory High School, it moreover takes the cake in terms of convenience. Kyle’s commute to St. John’s Preparatory High School is far less than that for LoMA. St. John’s is only a few blocks away from his apartment building, in the comfort of Astoria. In order to get to the LoMA, he must commute by subway, which as Kyle appropriately argues, isn’t exactly free.

“It’s something that’s convenient for me since taking the subway beats driving any day! ” He says when asked about his commute. “ Not only is it cheaper than driving, but I don’t need to engage in that crazy hassle of finding a parking, which by the way is virtually impossible. It really isn’t so bad managing without a car, since the subway is just a block from my house and the trains come like every five minutes. Commuting by trains, believe it or not, may even benefit me at times, since it gives me extra time to look over my notes for my lessons before I begin my day teaching.”

As positive as Kyle’s commuting story seems to be, he does admit that there are some drawbacks to living in Astoria. One of the challenging experiences he has faced is having to deal with large crowds during the prime-time of day. He explains that sometimes rush hour makes it hard for him to even score a tiny corner of space in the train for his travel to the city. Kyle also comments that due to Astoria being quite densely populated, you often smell unwanted scents from people around you, and this includes not only ethnic cuisines, but even lingering marijuana. Kyle complains that the marijuana problem in his building is so bad, that the smell seeps through the walls and ceilings. Fortunately, this is a problem Kyle explains will end soon, as those few tenants who break the illegal-substance laws are currently undergoing an eviction from premises.

Kyle Blidy has lived in Astoria for his entire life with his father, Peter Blidy. More recently, they expanded their nuclear family, and got a cat, Catherine “Cat” Blidy. Peter Blidy has owned his apartment building for roughly 25 years, and has been working to modernize and improve the estate since the day he inherited it. Peter and Kyle’s home is located conveniently off of Astoria’s very busy 30th Avenue, where the many bus lines, parks, bodegas, hair salons, and of course, the N and Q subway lines are located.

“I walk outside my door, and there’s all these different types of people, it’s almost as diverse as Manhattan. And food? I can eat a different type of food every day of the week. Mexican, Italian, Greek, Egyptian. . . you name it!” He adds that he’s grateful for the 24-hr Queenie’s Fried Chicken that’s on the same block as his apartment building. “This place is convenient for those late night ‘snack attacks’,” as he phrases it.

 

When asked if he would ever consider moving elsewhere, Kyle shakes his head and answers with a simple, “Never.”