'People are gray'

When the Pulitzer Prize winners were announced recently, it was particularly exciting for my Reporting New York class (at NYU) and me. We learned that Barbara Laker and Wendy Ruderman won for investigative reporting for their work at the Philadelphia Daily News. My professor and program director, Yvonne Latty, worked at the Daily News for several years and considers Barbara Laker one of her mentors — and a dear friend.

So last week, we had a conference call with Barbara Laker to talk about the series that won her the Pulitzer. The series — "Tainted Justice" — "exposed a rogue police narcotics squad, resulting in an FBI probe and the review of hundreds of criminal cases tainted by the scandal," the announcement reads.

Talking to Barbara was a joy because it was so clear how invested she is in the series. Her dedication and excitement was infectious, and it was really great to hear about how she and Wendy "hit the streets of Philadelphia" day after day and month after month. I think it was, in a big way, paying homage to the traditional idea of journalism that has become a rarity in the modern newsroom.

But what I took away from our conversation with Barbara was an understanding of the importance in being so invested — so immersed — in the story. Barbara talked a lot about how she envisions herself in the shoes of the people she interviews. She tries to understand what it feels like from their perspective to better convey the little details.

One of my favorite things she said was in reference to a video that was part of the series. The Daily News obtained surveillance footage from one of the raids led by the narcotics unit in a bodega. She talked about how closely she watched that video to glean the particulars.

In the video, one of the police officers, who was at the center of this entire controversy, was seen talking to a young person and allowing him to leave as the other officers searched the place, questioned the owner and cut wires to disable the video camera — seemingly for no reason. Barbara said how easy it is to assume people are all good or all bad, but that she saw a different side of this officer based on his interaction with the young man.

"People are gray," she said.

I couldn't agree more. And the series, which was reported so fairly and with such detail, was an inspiring, thought-provoking read. I highly recommend taking a couple hours and looking through the articles.

After cuts, rat problems in E. Village could worsen

A sign in the Creative Little Garden on East Sixth Street warns
visitors to clean up trash to prevent rat infestations. Photo by Rachel Wise

Faruk Mohammed recalled dozens of mornings when he’d show up to work and find signs of intruders. Packages seemed to be torn open, and their contents covered the floor.

Mohammed, who works at Akter Grocery at 106 Avenue B, set traps, hoping to catch the offender. When he returned to work the next morning, he was shocked to find not just one but five intruders — five fat, gray rats stuck in traps.

“We’re losing business because of rats,” said Mohammed, 32. “We had to move all the shelves around because they bite everything.”

Mohammed is one of many East Village residents affected by rat infestations. And unfortunately for them, things could potentially get worse in the coming months.

On March 30, amNewYork reported the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene plans to reduce the number of pest control aides by almost 70 percent — cutting 57 of 84 full-time positions.

Pest control aides are workers who respond to complaints called into 311 and from community boards about rats; they conduct inspections and work to rid troubled areas of rodent infestations when owners fail to act.

According to officials from DC37, a union for public employees in New York City, four of six workers in Manhattan and one of two supervisors will be cut.

Amy Geung, who lives on E. 10th Street across from Tompkins Square Park, worries about how these cuts will affect the neighborhood.

“I’ve lived here seven years, and each year (the rat problems) have gotten better,” said Geung, 41. “If they cut those positions, what will happen? Probably, it will set us back.”

Geung says her apartment building doesn’t seem to have problems with rats but plenty of other places nearby do.

“You see the rats in some areas a lot — like near trash or dirty vacant lots. In those areas, (you see) one rat trap after another,” she said.

Mohammed said rat traps are necessary in his store because of the amount of trash that accumulates.

“The basement is all garbage. But where I live (on First Avenue), there are no signs of rats,” he said. “I think garbage is the key.”

Michael Rivera, co-owner of Beyond Pest Control at 80 First Avenue, agrees. Rivera said there are some parts of the East Village that are hit hard.

“St. Marks is one place that’s heavily, heavily hit. All the street shops there, and the transit system,” Rivera said. “People are generally not clean, and that attracts rats. There’s no real cure for it.”

Rat traps, like this one on East Fifth Street, can be seen throughout
the East Village, usually near trashcans outside apartment buildings.
Photo by Rachel Wise

The health department couldn’t say how often pest control aides are sent out, and Community Board 3 didn’t respond when asked how often complaints are reported in the East Village. But Rivera said he gets calls daily about rat problems in Manhattan. As for the East Village specifically, Rivera said, “it’s hard to say.”

But Steve Rose, who works as a superintendent on East Sixth Street, around the corner from Akter Grocery, and manages the Creative Little Garden also on East Sixth Street, tells an entirely different story.

“I live on the ground floor. … I’ve been there thirty-five years, and I’ve seen all of five rats. People tell me they see them in the garden, but I’ve never seen them,” said Rose, 59. “It doesn’t seem to be a problem.”

Rose admits he keeps his properties very clean, which might make all the difference. In his apartment building, he keeps trashcans sealed and indoors. In the garden, rat traps are set and trash is kept to a minimum.

In a statement, the health department maintains “proposed cuts focus on the services that would have the least adverse impact.” Officials said the pest-control program will “continue to answer complaints about rats, conduct inspections, exterminate, issue violations for rats and garbage … (and) proceed with the indexing initiative which was recently expanded to Manhattan.”

The indexing program is detailed in the Rat Information Portal, an extension of the NYC.gov Web site, which provides specific data “to proactively identify the presence of rats in neighborhoods, and to compare the severity of infestations among blocks and neighborhoods.” Using the RIP complaint tracker, users can zoom into specific places in the city to determine whether an area shows signs of rats, problem conditions or has passed inspection.

Additionally, the RIP provides a 10-page guide on how to prevent and control rat problems. The health department reminds residents to store garbage in rat-resistant, sealed containers; to trim shrubs and keep landscaped areas free of tall weeds; and to check for and repair cracks or holes in buildings and sidewalks.

The pest-control aide cuts represent just 35 percent of staff cuts the health department plans to make, which could save the city as estimated $1.5 million. Almost every city agency has been asked to reduce spending by at least 15 percent to help New York City close its $2-billion deficit.

While it’s uncertain when these proposed cuts would go into effect, it would likely be at the start of the new fiscal year, which begins July 1.

Visit the Rat Information Portal and see your neighborhood statistics at https://gis.nyc.gov/doh/rip/.

Grammar geeks unite!

On April 16, during a session at the annual American Copy Editors Society, the folks in charge of AP Style announced a significant change. Immediately after that announcement, @APStylebook Tweeted: "Responding to reader input, we are changing Web site to website."

As soon as I saw that, I retweeted it. After all, I've not always been called the "Walking AP Stylebook" for nothing. I'm grammar-obsessed. I love all things to do with copy editing, grammar and style. And, of course, I expected my fellow grammar geeks to Tweet about the change, which they did.

But what I didn't expect to see were so many people buzzing about it — many of whom don't usually take an interest in these kinds of things. But for some reason, this change was a particularly hot topic.

Stemming from the Twitter buzz, I came across two really awesome links. The first was a sort of reaction piece from The Poynter Institute — Some Cheer, Jeer AP Change from 'Web site' to 'website.'

The second link I came across has less to do with the AP Style change and more to do with grammar in general. It's a list of the 50 best blogs for grammar geeks, many I've seen before, but plenty I haven't. These blogs are great resources for answering grammar-related questions or just having a place to go to discuss nerdy things with like-minded geeks.

And, in case you're not like me and don't share my bizarre love for grammar and style, here's something you can enjoy. Yes, it is about grammar, but it's light-hearted and very funny.

Even more in the surveillance-camera debate

Last night, I decided to try my hand in Stumbling — or browsing the Web using StumbleUpon. For the most part, I wasn't impressed. I came across some mildly funny quotations and pictures, some cool nature photos and some less-than-impressive tech blogs.

I was about to call it quits when I StumbledUpon this page: a wiki entry entitled "How to Watch Security Camera Streams on the Internet."

The entry insists if you enter one of the dozens of codes they provide into a search engine, you will find yourself watching a random surveillance camera monitoring a random place somewhere in the world. Skeptical at first, I plugged in a few of the codes and, indeed, found myself watching over parking lots, street corners, city views, highways and even inside some businesses.

Inside of some pet-grooming shop.

A highway ... somewhere in the world?

I'm uncertain whether these are live streaming or pre-recorded. I think both. On one video, it was several hours ahead, across the globe, and another claimed it was footage from October 2005.

Nevertheless, this certainly complicates my argument on surveillance cameras. In my first entry, I argued these cameras were seriously breaching our day-to-day privacy. In my second, I said there was a great deal of good cameras potentially could do. Now, I'm somewhere in the middle.

Certainly, they can be advantageous — no doubt. But with systems designed to be open-ended like some of these, or easily hacked (The entry does say, "If you have to break through an existing login system, it's most likely illegal." Good to know. ...), is that really in anyone's best interest? Some of these monitor public places, but others have the capacity to tilt and zoom the camera, making it easy to become less of a surveillance tool and more of a stalking mechanism. Creepy.

But, then again, technology is heading quickly toward a state of omnipresence, so shouldn't we almost expect we're always being watched? Is this actually all that surprising?

What's the big ****ing deal?!

Since I can remember, I've been fascinated with language — history of language; origins of language; how certain words came to be. And I've dedicated some time to answering a lot of these curiosities. But one thing I've never really been able to answer is the mystery of cuss words.

I've always wondered why the word "fuck" is wildly inappropriate compared to the word "puck" or "duck." Who came up with it? Why do humans use it? And, really, why is it so offensive?

Why do we snicker at Ben Stiller's name — Gaylord Focker — in the movie "Meet the Parents"? Do we think it's clever? Do we feel as if we're getting away with something naughty?

And why — whyyyyy — did everyone make such a big deal when VP Joe Biden uttered, "This is a big fucking deal," to Obama during the signing of the health-care bill?



What is the fascination with — the big deal about — these words?

I recently read an article that provided some interesting opinions on the subject. In light of Biden's recent "slip," some New York Times editors wrote about why educated people use bad words.

Journalists, for the most part, are intelligent people, but if you've spent any time in a newsroom, you know how often cuss words fly. It's traditionally viewed as part of newsroom culture, but I tend to think it's what naturally happens when you have a large group of people working together under the weight of stress and strict deadlines.

At any rate, the article provides several opinions from different language "experts," and I found it to be a fascinating read.

The future of gaming and technology

This video is an excerpt from a presentation by Jesse Schell at the DICE 2010 Summit. Schell discusses his views on how gaming and technology will eventually be present in every facet of our lives. He hypothesizes that in the near future, there will be sensors and cameras that will monitor our every action, turning our day-to-day lives into games to be played with a massive point system to determine rewards.

Overall, it’s pretty terrifying thought, but it's also quite far-reaching. I’m doubtful most of this will actually materialize, but it’s certainly food for thought.

(In case the embedding doesn't work properly, it's on YouTube here.)

Ashley Gilbertson: a truly inspiring photojurnalist

I'm often asked to name a photographer or photojournalist who I find particularly inspiring, talented or otherwise noteworthy. I guess some people think that because I'm a photojournalist, I look to certain other photojournalists to help guide my work. But the truth is, until recently, that hasn't been the case. That's not to say I'm not inspired by other people's work — I find myself browsing through galleries and becoming inspired by the photos themselves, and less often the photographers. 

But this week in my photojournalism class, Ashley Gilbertson, a war photographer, came in to speak with us. Not only did his work speak to me, but his words and philosophies reached out and grabbed onto me.

Gilbertson photographed the Iraq War from 2002-2008, so much of his work is focused on wartime or post-war issues and PTSD. But his most current project — something I had seen and really admired before knowing anything about him — is really simple yet incredibly powerful. It's a project featuring the bedrooms of young veterans who were killed in the Iraq War.

His reason for doing this project, he said, was because he had seen too many obituaries that were so generic, and he wanted to personalize these deaths. Gilbertson felt it was hugely important to find a way people could relate to these soldiers and this war.

"A lot of Iraq pics are largely a failure because people can’t look at them and connect with the people and situations. I thought, 'How can I reach out to readers and help them understand?' " he said.

He is in the process of taking more photos and eventually plans to compile them into a book.

Gilbertson attributes his success to his being "horribly ambitious and incredibly driven." He began his career by photographing skateboarders in Australia, and eventually he found himself as one of the only war photographers in Iraq in the early 2000s.

What is really special about him, I found, were his philosophies and views on photojournalism. One thing he said that really stuck out to me was to be passionate about the things you photograph. Without that drive and conceptualization, the path to success will be much harder to navigate.