Park Slope Life

That is the question!

I happen to think that off-leash hour at Prospect Park, especially on weekends, is one of the greatest things about Park Slope.  Many a weekend morning, when we can manage to get out of the house on time, my partner and I take our six-year-old up to the park and wander around, meeting the big dogs and the little dogs, the friendly dogs and the aloof dogs, the clean dogs and the muddy dogs.  It’s like a Dr. Seuss book.

It’s so much fun it’s even worth enduring the stares of the dog owners, who look at us suspiciously since we don’t have a leash in our hands.  It’s as though we’re sexual predators prowling a playground.  Which is only another reason to want a dog of our own.

But urban dog ownership is, to say the least, a huge commitment.  First, there’s the poop.  When I see my distinguished looking neighbors, in their nice work clothes or Sunday best, stooping with little baggies, I always think of the Jerry Seinfeld joke about how if aliens suddenly landed on Earth, they would think dogs are in charge.  “If you see two life forms, one of them’s making a poop, the other one’s carrying it for him, who would you assume is in charge?”

And that’s really just the beginning of it.  My friends who live in the country, their dogs are more subservient.  They have yards they get confined to, or even giant fields in which their poop is merely useful fertilizer, and some of the dogs even work herding sheep or something farmish.  But my city friends are subservient to their dogs.  They get up in time to walk the dog and home in time to walk the dog and in the middle of the day they pay someone else to walk the dog.   Some of them actually take their dogs to daycare.  Those exist.  I’m told that some of them have live feed video streams so you can watch your dog while you’re at work.  Like nanny-cams for dogs.  I haven’t checked but I’m pretty sure that one month at a doggy daycare in New York costs more than a four-bedroom, three-bath in Kansas.  Just saying.

But consistently, for the last three Christmases, plus Hannukah, her birthday, Memorial Day, any holiday she can think of, my daughter Willa has been asking for a dog.  Increasingly begging.  And I know that in theory a dog would be great for our family.  An ever-present furry friend for my only-child daughter, one who can cuddle up to her at night and help teach her some bigger-kid responsibilities.  Plus, who doesn’t want someone waiting for you every evening when you open the door, excited to see you no matter what, even if that excitement is only because of a transactional kibble-based relationship?  Still it’s something.

Then I think about picking up poop.  And paying for a dog walker.  And feeling guilty about leaving the dog home when we go out to do something on some Saturday.  Or worse, taking the dog with us and leaving it tied up outside a restaurant or wherever, sitting there with its sad face shooting guilt rays through the window, probably whimpering, eliciting pity from all who pass.  I’m quite comfortable with my current role judging other people for leaving their super-sad looking pups tied up outside the Food Coop or a restaurant.  I don’t want to be the one being judged.  And I have plenty of guilt already, thankyouverymuch.

People who have dogs in the city tell me that once you have one, your life is immeasurably changed and enriched for the better.  People once told me the same thing about having a kid.  Which was, thankfully, quite true, but in both cases it’s not like you get a try out period.  You have to make the decision before you actually know how you’re going to feel about it.  I mean, yeah, you could always give the dog back or find it another home.  I suppose you could, technically, do the same with a kid.  But like I said, I already have enough guilt.  Plus, eventually, kids learn to deal with their own poop.

Getting a dog in New York is a commitment.  If we’re going to get a dog, I want to be committed first.  So dear Park Slope dog owners, if you see me wandering around, leashlessly prowling the park scoping out the various models of dogs or judgmentally pitying your dog tied to a signpost outside Union Market, know that I’m just trying to figure out if I have what it takes to be you.  To dog or not to dog?  I remain firmly undecided.

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Want more Sally?  Check out her website to see her latest published articles, essays, appearances, and TED talks!

Flu season is upon us once again. At the high school where I teach, my principal has been spraying the doorknobs with Lysol and reminding all of us to cough and sneeze into our elbows and frequently wash our hands. But my students and colleagues are still missing days, and all across the city New Yorkers are falling ill.

Communicable diseases have received a lot of attention this year because of the Ebola outbreak. With it, we experienced what our not-too-distant relatives and community members did when diseases like Haemophilus influenza, measles, polio, rubella, and pertussis (whooping cough) killed thousands of infants, children, and adults every year. But that was before vaccines against them were developed and widely administered. And unlike Ebola, the aforementioned diseases spread easily in the U.S., many through indirect contact.

Relatively few of us witnessed infants and children suffering the effects of, or dying from, polio, measles, and other now rarely spoken of diseases. And even fewer, if any, witnessed the devastation of the 1918-1919 Spanish Influenza pandemic that killed as many as fifty million people globally (hence “pandemic”). We now think of many of these as diseases of the past, as if we have destroyed the diseases themselves. In fact, they are alive and well, some are reemerging, and new ones are appearing. What has kept most of these diseases at bay is the success of our country’s vaccination campaigns. But that is, and has been, changing.  Influenza— though thought of as an uncomfortable inconvenience by many—is the third leading cause of death in New York City because of our low vaccination rates against it, according to a January 2014 New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (NYCDOHMH) Epi Data Brief.

As a healthy thrity-five-year-old woman, I am at little risk of dying from the flu, but on Election Day last month I performed another civic duty in addition to voting: I got a flu shot. I did it to protect my friends’ infants and my students who may not have gotten the shot and cannot afford to miss school (and, honestly, because I’d rather not miss too many days of work).

A vaccine protects each individual who receives it, reducing or eliminating that person’s risk of contracting a disease; it can also protect those around them who have not received vaccines. An unvaccinated individual receives herd protection when a large enough percentage of individuals around her have been vaccinated because she is less likely to come into contact with an infected person.  Vaccinating ourselves and our children not only protects us, it protect the newborns, elderly, immunocompromised people, and others who are at greatest risk for suffering or death from infections and have not been able to get vaccines themselves. As Dr. Jay Varma, Deputy Commissioner, Disease Control, at the NYCDOHMH recently explained at an EcoHealth Alliance panel discussion, “the decisions you make about infectious diseases actually impact those around you.”

So why are so many people choosing not to vaccinate themselves and their children? According to Jeffrey P. Baker, MD, PhD in a report in the American Journal of Public Health, “fading memory of vaccine-preventable diseases, adverse media coverage, misinformation on the Internet, and litigation” have all contributed to parents’ fears that childhood vaccines may harm their children. This all leaves us with an abundance of confusing, and often inaccurate, information about vaccines and has led to the outbreak of many diseases we haven’t had to treat in the U.S. in many years.

Vaccines and the Autism Myth

One of the most popular pieces of misinformation being disseminated in the media and on the Internet is that of the connection between autism and childhood vaccinations. One of our most dangerous fallacies is believing that they do.

Autism was first labled as such by a psychoanalyst, Leo Kanner, in 1948. Early on, people believed that poor parenting caused autism. By the 1960s, a psychologist and father of a child with autism, Bernard Rimland, proposed that instead, it was biological. By the 1970s, investigators expanded the criteria for the diagnosis of autism and began to view it as a spectrum of disorders. In 1991 there was a significant increase in the diagnoses and early treatment of autism disorders because it was added to the “list of covered disabilities in the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act,” so researchers expected a rise, but not because there was a dramatic increase in cases. (This is one of the reasons people falsely believed that there was an autism epidemic in the 1990s.)

Then, in 1998, a British gastroenterologist, Andrew Wakefield, hypothesized that gastrointestinal issues were associated with autism and these were all caused by the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine. Despite the fact that his hypothesis was based on a small number of patients, and despite the fact that no large-scale scientific study ever confirmed it, his “study” created the perfect storm for a wind of hysteria that would later have serious public health implications. By 2010 Britain’s General Medical Council determined that Wakefield had acted unethically in his study: He had carefully selected the twelve children, had performed invasive tests on them, and some of his research had been funded by lawyers who were acting on behalf of parents of children with autism who were suing vaccine manufacturers at that time. Despite this finding and a plethora of valid, reliable scientific studies that find no correlation between the MMR vaccine and autism, personal injury lawyers, concerned and well-intentioned parents, celebrities, et al. found “answers” they desperately wanted and helped popularize this dangerous myth.

Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) Vaccine

A different kind of fear has prevented many parents from vaccinating their tweens and teens when it comes to the Human Papilloma Virus, or HPV. There are more than forty types of HPV that are sexually transmitted, and two are high-risk types that are associated with 70 percent of cervical cancers. As of 2010, researchers concluded that up to 45 percent of women in their early twenties had already been infected with HPV. It’s so common, in fact, that by early adulthood many women and men have already been infected.

Due to its high prevalence and the risk HPV poses, particularly for females, the CDC has recommended that girls ages nine to twenty-six, particularly eleven to twelve-year-olds, receive an HPV vaccine. And in some states, it is one of the vaccines required for entry into public school. Many studies show that parents are in general very interested in vaccinating their daughters against HPV; however, vaccination rates have been relatively low in the U.S. So why the hesitation?

A concern expressed by some parents is a familiar one that arises regarding abstinence-only versus comprehensive sexual education in schools: the effects on their children’s behavior. Will our kids seek out sex because they are being confronted with issues regarding their sexuality, or will they behave recklessly because they falsely believe they are altogether protected?  This is absolutely something we can address both at home and in schools.

In New York City, we require our public middle and high schools to offer students specific sexual health education lessons during health courses. Having worked with teenagers for more than ten years, I understand the concern that  a vaccine protecting against an STI may give young adults a false sense of security. But I also know that as impulsive and reckless teens sometimes are, they are also concerned about themselves, their peers, their reputations, and their physical and emotional well-being.  Over the years I have had many students come to me in crisis after finding out they had contracted HPV. It’s understandably devastating for a teenager to find out she has an STI, but as STIs go, this one is so rampant it feels almost as common as a cold. The problem, of course, is that HPV can cause cervical cancer in addition to cancers of the vulva, vagina, penis, anus, and in the back of the throat.

According to the American Journal of Law and Medicine, we could “significantly reduce the enormous financial and human costs associated with cervical and other cancers” if the HPV vaccine were more “broadly accepted.” And once again, allaying our fears and turning to the facts could help achieve this.

Flu Vaccine Misconceptions

Over the past few years my highly educated, well-read, media savvy (and weary) friends in numerous professions (including education and health care) have given me various reasons that they didn’t get the flu shot: “I’m scared of the flu shot;” “I don’t want to get the flu, and I heard the vaccine can cause it;” “I’m afraid I’ll have a really bad reaction;” “Why would I get the flu shot? I can still get the flu even after getting the shot!” “I’m healthy, so I don’t need it.”

There are anecdotes and rumors…and then there is science.

The flu shot does not, in fact it cannot, cause the flu. Flu vaccines administered via needle are made with either an inactivated virus—meaning virus particles that have been killed and are non-infectious—or without flu viruses at all (in the case of the recombinant flu vaccines that were approved for the U.S. market in 2013). The nasal spray flu vaccine cannot cause the flu either. The nasal spray contains weakened flu viruses that are not able to infect warm areas of the body (like the lungs).

Why do some people still get the flu even after they’ve received the vaccine? People often self-diagnose with the flu, so they get it wrong. Rhinoviruses and other respiratory viruses are often going around during the flu season, and people believe they have the flu when they actually have something else. Alternatively,if you are exposed to influenza viruses right before you get vaccinated or within a couple weeks after, you are still vulnerable (it takes two weeks for your body to develop immune protection after receiving the vaccine). There are also many different flu viruses and you may be exposed to one that the vaccine does not protect against. In some situations, the flu vaccine does not always provide adequate protection; however, this is more  the case for people who are sixty-five and older or have weakened immune systems. If you are unfortunate enough to get the flu after receiving the flu vaccine, you are likely to have a milder illness than if you hadn’t been vaccinated.

Side effects from the flu shot and nasal spray vaccine are mild compared to the flu itself, and if you experience side effects they are likely to go away within a day or two.

Still, you’re thinking, you’re a healthy adult in a low-risk group, so why vaccinate? Remember, the decisions you make affect the people around you. Besides keeping yourself off the couch and burning through sick days, get the flu shot to protect pregnant women, infants, elderly, and people with chronic diseases and weakened immune systems from serious illness, hospitalizations, and death. And vaccinate your children who are six months old and older to keep them in school and out of the hospital. As many as 3,000 New Yorkers will die from the flu this year. And as few as 47 percent of adults in NYC will have received the flu vaccine. The flu is not something we need to resign ourselves to suffering from each year, and we certainly don’t want anyone literally dying from it.

For now, the greatest risks we face may be from the pandemics of panic and misinformation. Instead of being afraid that a vaccine will cause a disease or determine our children’s behavior, we should be embracing the fact that we have the vaccines available to protect us from what is actually threatening our health and well-being. We all play a part in preventing the reemergence and spread of communicable diseases. We can propagate fear and increase our risks for disease or we can side with science, which clearly shows us that vaccinating is the way to go. ◆

It may well be the definitive brownstone Brooklyn neighborhood: so often synonymous with lazy brunches, tree-lined streets and the affectionately nicknamed ‘stroller wars.’ However, there’s another side to the Slope and its surrounds, with the past few years witnessing the emergence of not just bistros, small bars, and green markets—but also that of tattoo studios.

Owned by husband-and-wife team Valerie and Kenny Restrepo, Leathernecks’ Fifth Avenue location smells reassuringly of antiseptic and pulls in a mix of first-time locals and heavily inked return clients. Valerie Restrepo has noticed an uptick in the acceptance of tattoos amongst the general populace, with teachers and city workers making up a greater slice of their clientele than in previous years. “It’s nice to see that there’s more acceptance in the workplace,” she said. “It’s becoming respected as a form of fine art—it’s a really beautiful thing.”

Opening in 2009, Leathernecks is one of a handful of studios capitalizing on the growing commercial potential of the areas bordering Park Slope. Formerly unsung industrial sites like Gowanus and South Slope are leading the charge, with chic stomping grounds Carroll Gardens and Cobble Hill following suit. “We just love the area,” said Restrepo, who moved from Bensonhurst to be closer to the studio. The team at Triple Diamond Tattoos—opened in 2012 on Third Avenue—is similarly effusive about the neighborhood. “We really loved the energy of Gowanus, and the neighborhood was still a mostly blank canvas, like a new frontier for Brooklyn—dicey, old-world, and authentic,” said co-owner Shannon Moran. “It kind of felt like the wild west of Brooklyn in the beginning. We saw a lot of other small business owners trying to pave their dreams here, and it seemed like a natural fit for us.” Smith Street staple Brooklyn Tattoo has called the area home since 2008, following stints in Boerum Hill and Brooklyn Heights. “There hadn’t really been a tattoo shop in any of these neighborhoods before us,” said co-owner Adam Suerte. “We were the first one to settle on Smith Street.”

Each of the studios places a heavy emphasis on custom work, allowing the artists and clients to play with ideas for a one-of-a-kind end result. At Leathernecks, the artist roster stands at nine strong (helmed by Kenny Restrepo), quickly growing from four when the dual-level studio first opened. Triple Diamond, a more boutique operation, has four resident artists—including co-owner Jon Jon Lane—and typically hosts up to four guest artists at a time. Suerte and co-owner Willie Paredes man the needles at Brooklyn Tattoo, along with three other permanent artists and a changing crop of guest artists. An essential part of the tattooing industry, the prevalence of guest artists allows for constant creative cross-pollination.

This evolving artistry goes hand in hand with changing trends. “In the ‘90s Chinese and Kanji characters were very popular, and still are to some degree,” said Suerte. These days you see a lot more finger tattoos, infinity symbols, tattoos behind the ears, feathers turning into birds.” At Triple Diamond, they’re witnessing a rise in watercolors and delicate lines. “Watercolor tattoos are very big at the moment,” said Moran. “Jon Jon is amazing at them and has been doing them ahead of the craze for quite some time. Very fine-line geometric tattoos are also quite popular lately.” The team at Leathernecks has noticed more portrait-style tattoos, as well as tweaks on classic Sailor Jerry styles. “We definitely have more people coming in for portraits lately,” said Restrepo. “But we do a broad range of styles, and always work with the customer so they don’t end up with someone else’s tattoo.”

Restrepo, Moran, and Suerte all credit the constant presence of tattoos in the media as a driving factor in their increasing popularity. Reality shows like Miami Ink and its ilk have contributed to greater exposure of the subculture, familiarizing viewers with the intricacies of the industry. “The proliferation of tattoo TV shows, as well as celebrities in high profile entertainment mediums getting tattoos has encouraged people of varying backgrounds to get tattooed more frequently,” said Suerte—a sentiment backed by others in the industry. “Majorly, tattooing has become way more acceptable,” said Moran, gauging the influence of reality TV. Restrepo agreed: “People are coming in with more elaborate ideas,” she said, referring to both the studio and various tattoo conventions, which Leathernecks presents at roughly once a month. Indeed, the local studios tend to have a firm working rapport, with Leathernecks regularly attending the Triple Diamond-run convention, the Visionary Tattoo Arts Festival (hosted annually in Asbury, New Jersey).

Armed with a passion for tattooing as a brand of fine art, Moran, Restrepo and Suerte all have backgrounds in other industries—Moran as an art director for Inked magazine, while Restrepo was a private investigator for the better part of a decade before turning her hand to running the studio. Suerte and his team are grounded in visual arts: “Everyone in the shop were artists long before they were tattooers,” he said. “It’s almost a prerequisite for working here.”

This holistic view shared by the studios infuses each with a distinct personality. Moran and Lane’s creative influences are immediately evident in the macabre allure of Triple Diamond’s space. “We have an extensive collection of antique human and animal specimens including skulls, bones, mummified, taxidermy, and wet specimens and other natural artifacts,” said Moran. “Jon Jon disarticulates human and animal skulls in his basement workshop here at the shop, and we also have a passion for wood carvings and Moroccan metal work.” Indeed, crossing the threshold into Triple Diamond is like stepping into a Wunderkammer—with the curios proving to be a near-perfect distraction from the persistent buzz of the tattoo machines.

A space to the back of Leathernecks is lined with an array of reference volumes for clients to seek inspiration and artists to hone their talents: everything from comic books to animal drawings, pin-ups to military history (the nominal nod to the armed forces comes courtesy of Kenny Restrepo’s time as a Marine), human anatomy, and traditional flash etches. The walls are playfully adorned with movie posters and figurines of Superman, Batman, and the Hulk—a contrast to the ornate mirror, exposed ceiling beams, and imposing stag bust. Over at Brooklyn Tattoo, their creative tastes and efforts spill into the gallery next door, the Urban Folk Art Studio (the exhibition space for Suerte’s art collective), showcasing contemporary paintings, photography, graffiti, and comic art.

Never content to be boxed and labeled, Park Slope and its surrounding South Brooklyn areas might not be the most obvious place for the body art industry. But the next time you’re picking up groceries or going for a jog, take a peek at the people around you: you might just glimpse great art in unexpected places.

What you don’t know about Eric Morales is what he knows about you.

He knows you throw out a lot of nice furniture.  He knows that you’re big wine drinkers and faithful recyclers. He knows that your household goes through New Yorkers and W Magazine about as fast as you go through wine and/or diapers. He knows that you’re trendsetters. But what bugs him is how you bicycle around the neighborhood.

“Yeh, like how they squeeze between the trucks and parked cars! Like it’s not dangerous? And then some of them with their kids on a seat on the back – anything could happen!” He reminds me of the story a Sanitation Worker told us both about being sent to the emergency room after a bag full of glass and other debris exploded from the back of the collection truck in his face as he was working.  “Anything could go wrong,” and it bugs him out.
But during the Blizzard of 2010 and 40 days of straight snow and trash removal, the residents of Park Slope had his back.

“They were all good to us – telling us they knew we were working, and that it wasn’t our fault.  They took a lot of pictures too. A lot!  But for good reasons, you know?”  This was not the story for other SanMen and Women working in Staten Island, Sheepshead Bay, Canarsie, Jackson Heights, who daily fielded the insults of a cabin-fevered general public.

Eric Morales was raised on Strong Place in Cobble Hill and is now one of New York’s Strongest. He likes the recycling route. He has three daughters – 21, 15, 17 – and the face of a 28-year-old.  He walks to work in Park Slope every morning. His favorite music is freestyle.  He won’t let me tell you who his favorite singer is as he hasn’t been able to live it down with his fellow SanWorkers since the last time he let the cat out of that bag. Don’t matter – he’ll still rearrange his schedule for her. He’s tall and slim, sports the five o’clock shadow. He has a quiet way about him that hides behind a natural smirk of a smile.    When he wakes, he asks God to just get him through the day.

This is Eric.

Eric Morales.

He’s one of your Sanitation Workers, and he loves his job because of the people.

Eric is your people.

CHASING SANITATION: THE PROJECT & EXHIBITION

It’s because of Park Slope that we know Eric. It’s because of Park Slope’s respite demands that I walked home from the Tea Lounge to my apartment in Sunset Park one night at midnight and collided with the first Sanitation Worker, that set this whole thing into motion.  And it’s the stories of personal choice, daily decision and an irrepressible gentle humanity moving in the photos of them that keep this project going.

Chasing Sanitation: Falling in Love with New York’s Strongest is the collaboration of photographer Liz Ligon and myself – writer/producer – to capture the strength and personal stories of the Sanitation Workers of New York.   For 2 ½ years, Liz and I have Chased Sanitation Workers in all five boroughs, photographing them as they work and then interviewing them later, off duty, asking everyone the same 25 questions.  The result is a photo book website and winter public exhibition that was generously covered by Marie Claire and Glamour magazines, the New York Daily News, the New York Times, NY1 and NBC’s Nightly News with Chuck Scarborough.

And we met here in these pages of the Park Slope Reader in the summer of 2007 – when Liz was the managing editor and hired me as the New Wave columnist.  Her energy and talent were compatible with mine and I had been looking for a photographer for this SanProject I’d been researching. I took her out for fried chicken at Sidecar restaurant on 5th to pitch it to her.  “It’s a BIG project,” she said enthusiastically but couldn’t commit for a couple of months.  Then I get an excited email from her a couple of months later, we went on one shoot in Sunset Park and it was over – we knew we’d be shooting and writing for a while together.

In the summer of 2010, we went public – launching our website and Kickstarter campaign in order to produce a public exhibit in Noho for New Yorkers and all of Sanitation. Sponsored by the Local 831, DSNY Columbia Association, Duggal Visual Solutions, Himmel + Meringoff Properties, Todd Strier – Sanitation Lawyer, and 172 Kickstarter Backers nationwide, the Exhibition attracted 650 passersby, Sanitation families, local artists and families, current and former Sanitation Commissioners, one entire Union board and one Oscar-winning screenwriter – John Patrick Shanley – in its two week run.

We opened on Valentine’s weekend, in the middle of the snowiest season in recent memory to bring back some love into the press and back into Sanitation.  Survivors from the 9/11 recovery effort drove in from the boroughs and upstate New York and told us their little known stories. Wives and children saw their breadwinners in a whole new light.   Passersby found themselves in conversation with Sanitation Workers about myths around recycling and the dangers inherent to the work.  Big men and small women broke down in tears in front of the photos and stories.

It’s not only working with Liz and the Sanitation Family that made this project successful and salient. It’s the what-you-don’t-know-by-looking-at-them that lurks in every interview and photo. It’s the people – the choices they make and they live by, thereby validating our choices – Liz and Lisa, as Brooklyn artists – in shedding a little light on this essential part of New York City.

PARK SLOPE’S ROLE IN IT

It’s because of its current wealth that Liz and I found each other, a project and happiness here.  It fits our groove for our personal and professional lives.  We both wanted to know our neighbors.  We both wanted to tell personal stories with our skills. Here, we found a good fit for our need for access to the Gritty City as well as to Sesame Street.  We had the accessibility to each other to keep our rapport strong, our production costs low and our creative energy high as we juggled all of our part-time and freelance gigs.

Gentrification always will leave any of us natives or transplants confounded by its ultimate misgivings and unifications.  But this one story of a couple of Tennessean ex-pat transplants and a couple of thousand Sanitation Workers is one story made good.

WHY SANITATION WORKERS?

Because they’re everywhere! They’re gorgeous! They’re a racial microcosm of the City! And Gotham’s Green Nation stands tall as a role model for public works nationwide.

This past April, the Daily Beast published a photo gallery listing Sanitation Worker as seventh most dangerous job in America.  Wedged between Roofer with a salary of $41K and Public Transportation Operator at $35K, Sanitation Workers are at it every day for up to eight hours on 6,000 miles of New York streets. That’s 16 tons of garbage per truck of thrown out glass, needles, paint, bricks, blood, guts, road kill and spoiling food, not to mention all the radioactive tech that becomes obsolete the minute you get it home from Best Buy.

So I asked former Sanitation Commissioner and Deputy Mayor Norman Steisel, a long time Park Slope resident, out to Fornino to get the real deal on how these contract talks might go down in this charged climate.

Collective bargaining is being irrefutably threatened.  Steisel tells me it’s going to be a lousy year for labor unions.  “The City will undergo its own round of difficult talks.  The Local 831 has been historically generous in granting the City tremendous amounts of productivity advancements,” he offers.  Many state governments are looking at the bottom line and making individual decisions on keeping an open dialogue with them or not.  Having served as Deputy Mayor under Dinkins from 1990-94 and Sanitation Commissioner from 1979-86, and currently helming up a management consulting firm for government-regulated industries, he’s been there when Sanitation wasn’t as proud or as regimented as it is now.

He’s confident, even now, in his City’s ability to overcome the current financial hiccups.  “They’re a pretty inventive lot,” he says of the Local 831 Uniformed Sanitationmen’s Association, “I’m sure they’ll work it out.”

Meanwhile, unions across the country are organizing voice-of-the-people rallies in Connecticut, Wisconsin, Memphis, New York – trying to keep workers rights loud and alive.  It’s the middle class that’s getting pitted against each other – private sector vs. union member. Meanwhile, the slow and steady destabilization of a municipality begins – a glance of which we saw this past winter when a snowstorm was mismanaged from the top down.  No one calls the Post when you don’t get your mail for a couple of days, but the snow and garbage start piling up – out come the politico and bottom-feeders.

Our project turned out to be a timely antidote for the political snowstorm that raged last winter and the current national debate.  And now that Irene has passed through New York, and New York’s many leaders pulled up its bootstraps and looked her right in the eye, maybe our municipal employees won’t have to fight so hard to prove their value.  It’s right there – on the streets.

WHAT’S NEXT?

There are a few more chases and a few more shoots and interviews that need to get done.  And a book proposal. And a book deal.  You know the drill.
In the meantime, I interview SanMen and Women when I can, update the photo site, and write the story of the Chase.  I just can’t sit still on the Love of Labor that makes me cry, laugh, think and love. More. Than I did the day before.  So much work – theirs, Liz’s, mine – an amazing journey filled with the most raucous jokes and the most sentimental of histories. It’s one of the best things I’ve ever been a part of.

When I ask Eric what’s your worst day on the job, he’s reluctant.  “I love my job, you know?  You wake up trying to have a perfect day and then things happen and then you get to the end of your day and look back and think, ‘That wasn’t so bad.’   Ninety percent of your day is your partner.”

True for Chasing Sanitation, too. I found my partner in grime in a dress sporting a camera in Park Slope.    You never know when your best day is going to hit you until you’ve had it. I’ve had a few in Park Slope.

You’d never know by looking at me.

Want to Chase Sanitation yourself?

www.ChasingSanitation.com
www.ChasingSanitation.Photoshelter.com
www.DSNYOralHistoryArchive.org
www.EveryDayTrash.com