New York City's IMAGE, peeled like an onion

NYC24.com, in its fifth issue, shows how New York City is obsessed with image - both personal and public.

Our reporters uncovered the places where perception and reality conflict. We probed the boundary between where a person's image ends and where his or her identity begins.

We caught New Yorkers stealing glances at themselves in plate glass windows and half-empty subway cars. We watched them pluck the most healthful-looking products from grocery shelves and apply makeup before begging for a job. We listened to they way they cheered for presidential hopefuls and examined foreign lands and unfamiliar cultures.

In 11 stories, our reporters uncovered the places where perception and reality conflict. We probed the boundary between where a person's image ends and where his or her identity begins.

As the issue unfolded over the last month, we began to see the world as a series of images cascading, one behind the other, layers of an infinitely complex onion that as reporters, we had pledged to peel.

We canvassed Staten Island, lost tapes of DMC of Run DMC rapping against domestic violence and for NYC24, gawked at hot pants, flirted with getting a Mohawk, learned how to scrum and nearly fainted while filming eye surgery.

We hope you enjoy digging beneath the image of NYC.

Lisa Biagiotti, Executive Editor & Lizzie Stark, Managing Editor
nyc24image@gmail.com

Felipe Ramirez, Citizen of Mexico and Clinton Supporter

Felipe Ramirez is a Mexican citizen and lives in Corona, Queens. Although he cannot vote in the U.S., he is an enthusiastic Clinton supporter and has volunteered for the campaign by distributing fliers and speaking to parents of Hispanic children in area schools. He is one of a sizable number of people who are ineligible to vote but who this year have been motivated to support presidential candidates in the 2008 election. See the full story at NYC24.com.


Felipe Ramirez from Channtal Fleischfresser on Vimeo.

City Picklers revive local food, one pickle at a time

City Picklers: Reviving local food, one pickle at a time, has launched its multimedia website.

In the age of pre-packaged, processed food, who would bother to take the time to pickle? But in New York City, mason jars bubble over on home counter tops, hand-crafted pickles line the aisles of gourmet grocery stores and fermentation newbies are raising glasses to salute the pickle.

CityPicklers.com is a website devoted to New York pickles--in all varieties, including vinegar, lacto-fermented, Jewish, Indian, Chinese, and so on. Every culture has its pickle, and we found that pickling still thrives in the historic pickle district on the Lower East Side, in ethnic enclaves of the outer boroughs, in farmer's markets and in pickling classes.

Through multimedia and text, CityPicklers.com tells the story of:

• new pickling businesses and the local food culture surrounding home and artisinal pickling, including interviews with Rick Field of Rick's Picks, and Al Kaufman of the Pickle Guys
• the benefits of pickling and ancient traditions of lacto-fermentation, including interviews with fermentation expert, Sandor Ellix Katz
• how-to make the crunchers, with instruction by hipster pickler Bob McClure of McClure's Pickles and Inside Park chef Matt Weingarten

The site is best viewed in the Firefox browser.

We'd like to thank the more than 70 chefs, cookbook authors, historians, purveyors and picklers we interviewed over the last six months.

Happy pickling!

Lisa Biagiotti and Lizzie Stark
CityPicklers@gmail.com
CityPicklers.com

Gay Immigrants Find Safe Space in New York

Gay immigrants who come to the United States often do not know they have an option to apply for asylum based on persecution from sexual orientation.

One resource for many of these immigrants is the Aids Center of Queens County, or ACQC, which serves 5,000 people infected with HIV in eight locations throughout Queens.

ACQC's services and food and clothing pantries are not limited to those infected with HIV, but are open to all in need, including gay asylum seekers, according to executive director, Phil Glotzer.

Today, immigrants fleeing persecution are applying for asylum in fewer numbers as deportation rates are increasing. Heightened immigration controls have made it harder for immigrants to obtain visas, and many who are eligible do not apply for asylum because they fear being deported if their application is rejected.

Seven years ago, Dane Solomon fled his native country of Guyana, leaving his son and family, never to return. In the years since, he suffered a stroke, beat brain cancer, and coped with HIV, poverty and the uncertainty of being undocumented in New York.

"I lived in constant fear that I would not be able to put up this facade," Solomon said. "Knowing who you are inside and pretending to be somebody else takes everything from you."

We tell Solomon's story, Dane Solomon is No Longer Afraid, in the Space Issue of nyc24.com. The multimedia story presents videos and resources on U.S. asylum trends and the challenges facing immigrants within the LGBT community.

From Central Asia To A New Homeland

From her seventeenth floor apartment in LeFrak City, Gulchekhra Alimova runs Vatan Asia, a grassroots immigrant association that helps the growing number of Central Asian immigrants assimilate into American life.

Since she established the non-profit organization in 2003, it has grown to approximately 25 active members and over 100 volunteers. Alimova has become the inadvertent go-to person for Central Asian immigrant needs.

Alimova said Vatan Asia, which translates to "Homeland Asia" in Uzbek, has a network of about 5,000 in New York and 9,000 across the U.S. Alimova said she will now seek city grants or government sponsorship for her association.

This story was published in the Queens Tribune.

Koreans Support Other Ethnic Groups with Scholarships

Koreans in western Queens not only look out for each other, but they support neighboring ethnic groups, according to leaders of the Korean American community.

“We try to make more relationships with other cultures,” said Keun Ho Shin, 61, whose Korean American Association awards 20 scholarships to students of any ethnicity at Newtown High School in Elmhurst.

“The purpose of the association is to improve relationships with the community, no matter what ethnicity,” said Shin, owner of Cody Printing Corp. in Woodside.

The association is made up of Korean business owners, churches and individuals, and serves a community of over 100,000 in western Queens. Korean leaders break the language barrier and act as a bridge to service departments like police, fire and sanitation, according to Shin.

"[Our goal is] to get the proper service and give them the right direction,” said President Sean Shin, who translates police fliers and and community notices into Korean.

In a step beyond matters of service, John Park, 56, of Jackson Heights, encourages Koreans to take interest in their surrounding community and exercise their rights to vote. He is president of the Korean American Empowerment Council, a non-profit organization created 1998.

"We need strong friends, we have to grow up together," said Park. "I try to make [Koreans] ask, expand, [and] be open."

110th Precinct reaches out to Chinese and Korean communities

The 110th Precinct in Elmhurst began a new initiative to reach out to the Asian community in September, after persistent under-reported crime and low meeting turnout among the Asian community (particularly among Chinese and Korean residents), according to police.

“If you saw one Asian face it was a lot,” said Debbie Pagano Cohen, community council officer. “It was time to focus on that. For such a large population, we don't see them at meetings."

The precinct began to translate meeting notices in Chinese and Korean, mailing them to key Korean and Chinese churches and businesses in September. Monthly community council meetings, and fliers on crime prevention and personal safety are also translated into Chinese, Korean (and Spanish).

September's community council meeting was catered with Chinese food (sponsored by Commerce Bank on Queens Boulevard). In October, approximately 120 Asian residents attended the community council meeting at the Elmhurst library, strategically located in a predominantly Asian neighborhood.

"It’s working," said Cohen. "Asian people are finally coming to the meetings.”

The next community council meeting is scheduled for this Wednesday, November 14, back in its usual location at St. John's Hospital. There will be no Chinese food.

Coronas have a long history in Corona

Corona is a big name in the Dominican Republic.

"It's like the name Trump here," said Eddie Corona, 37 (pictured, left).

So it's no surprise that when Dominican immigrants, many of whom were named Corona, moved into Corona, Queens, starting in the 1930s, they thought the town was named after them.

It's hard to know exactly how many Coronas live in Corona, but there are so many of them Coronas themselves can't keep track. Nicholas Corona, 42, of the Corona Brothers Hardware store on National Street, didn't know about Felix Corona, 56, who lives a few blocks north. Nicholas Corona said there are at least 50 Coronas in the neighborhood.

As one of the oldest family names to immigrate to New York, the Coronas own several businesses around town and have made their mark on the neighborhood.

Meet Felix Corona, of Corona

Legend obscures the history of how Corona received its name. Some say it was to distance itself from Long Island as the little crown of Queens, while others like to think the neighborhood was named after the large number of Dominicans with the surname Corona.

Regardless of the name’s true provenance, Coronas were among the earliest Dominican immigrants move to Corona, Queens. No one better represents this legacy than Felix Corona, whose great uncle Amado Corona was among the first Dominican immigrants to arrive in New York in 1929 on the steamship Huron.

And yet Felix Corona overturns four generations of his family’s history in the United States. While Dominicans continue to immigrate to the U.S., after more than forty years, Corona, 56, has chosen to return to his homeland.

For full article, please contact channtal at gmail.