Fundamentals of Interactive Journalism

Despite all the talk that globalization has made the world smaller, keeping in contact with loved ones who live in another country can still be challenging.

That is especially true when your family lives in a developing country, such as Ecuador, where Internet use isn’t as prevalent as it is in the US.

According to Supertel, a telecom supervisory body, only 12.3 percent of Ecuadorians had Internet at home at the end of 2008. This means most people don’t have access to video chat programs such as Skype, where they could see their families face-to-face.

Alicia Craven, 26, of Oregon taught English in Cuenca, Ecuador in 2007-2008. She said she noticed that Internet ownership “was very low” in Ecuadorian homes. Internet cafes, instead, were the norm.

“Though most places had Skype, the video cameras weren’t as prevalent,” she said. Also, Internet cafes present privacy issues if you try to have a meaningful conversation.

“There’s a certain degree of awkwardness since you are surrounded by other strangers, and you’re not in a booth,” Craven pointed out.

Visits back to the homeland are often not a possibility for those immigrants who are in the US illegally or for those waiting to get their paperwork in order, as the US imposes travel restrictions on green card applicants. In addition, the cost of travel is another problem. Due to these reasons many families must go for a decade or longer without seeing each other.

This is where video conferencing comes into play, such as the service offered by Austro Financial Services in Jackson Heights in Queens. Manager Diego Pinto said some 200-250 families and individuals now use the six-year-old technology service per month. Out of South Americans, the service is so far available only for Ecuadorians.

Many people like video conferencing because of its obvious benefits: it is fast, easy and more personal than a phone call. The recipients don’t have to own a computer –they just need to go to one of Banco del Austro’s operating locations in Ecuador. Unlike with Skype, you can see the whole conference room at the same time, and can squeeze even 10-20 people in the room.

Pinto said that Mother’s Day is an especially popular day for conference calls, one that sometimes includes even mariachi bands playing in the rooms.

The calls aren’t cheap at $1.25 per minute on weekdays, and $1.50 on Sundays, but neither is the technology that makes them happen. According to Pinto, the camera costs about $5,000-6,000, and the plasma TV another $1,000-2,000.

The usage costs are also pricey for the company, as the system needs to function in two countries.  “You have to pay the system here and there,” Pinto said. The customers, though, only pay in the New York end.

Despite the price of the calls, the service keeps getting more popular among Ecuadorian families, many of whom return every month.

“It’s a very beautiful experience,” said Ecuadorian immigrant Jose Flores, whose family recently used the service for the first time to talk to their relatives back in Cañar, Ecuador.

“It’s especially beautiful for the family that’s in Ecuador,” he said.

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Alana Rigal contributed to the reporting of the article. Video by Alana Rigal and Mirva Lempiäinen.

Activist parents often make a lot of noise, but they don’t always achieve their goal. That’s not the case with Jackson Heights Green, a group of young, well-connected parents who have organized to expand the neighborhood’s only public park. They first created a “play street,” the closure of an adjacent road on every Sunday. Now, they are lobbying politicians to turn that street into a park and to take an adjacent parcel with eminent domain.

In their first victory, parents of Jackson Heights Green organized the 78th Street Play Street

The owners of the parcel, which is occupied by a Toyota dealership, are unwilling to sell to make way for a larger park. JH Green estimates that the land is worth about $4 million, said Ed Westley, a member who met with local politicians.   State Senator Hiram Monserrate has pledged $2 million, Westley said, and Councilwoman Helen Sears may commit funds if the group is successful.

Barbed wire separates Travers Park from a Toyota dealership. Parents have targeted the dealership for eminent domain.

In the meantime, the city is planning to convert a nearby schoolyard into a playground, part of May Bloomberg’s planNYC. This should also relieve some of the tension in this park-deprived community.

Jackson Heights, Queens, ranks second to last among New York City neighborhoods for the number of parks per resident.  It has recently seen an influx of young families, creating tension on the neighborhood’s one public park.

More and more young families priced out of Manhattan have wrangled with older, long-time residents in Jackson Heights, Queens. In this neighborhood’s historic garden apartments these two generations have struggled over the use of private gardens. At some co-ops, the established residents have compromised. But at others they’ve held their ground, prohibiting this wave of new children from playing on their lawns.

Dudley Stewart and a group of his young neighbors took action. They organized and won enough seats on their co-op board to change the rules.

It was fall when Dudley and Laura Stewart moved to Jackson Heights. Spike, their three-year-old son, could bounce around the jungle gym at the local public park. They lived in one of these historic co-ops with a beautiful central garden. Rent was much less than what the young couple had paid in Manhattan. The Stewarts had found a great spot.

After winter rolled around the neighborhood kids emerged with the spring thaw. Travers Park became so crowded that Dudley couldn’t keep track of Spike. He figured out why his community ranks second to last (pdf) in New York City for the number of parks per resident. “It was almost to the point of danger,” Stewart said.

Danger at the public park and pressure to use the private gardens was not always a problem. When Edward MacDougall originally developed Jackson Heights, beginning in the early 1920s, there was plenty of open space. The ends of blocks were covered with grass. Fields and farmlands abounded.

“Then after World War II the original developer died and his children basically sold off the land,” said Daniel Karatzas, author of “Jackson Heights – A Garden in the City.” “By 1954 or thereabouts the whole neighborhood had been covered over with the exception of one block for Travers Park.”

Today, children play in the park as the private gardens sit serenely.

Some older residents fear that their tranquil gardens, which they have tended over many years, will be ruined. Many have lived in Jackson Heights since the 1960s, or even before. They watched the neighborhood decline in the 1970s and 1980s, when the cocaine trade flooded nearby Roosevelt Avenue. Their lawns leached into mud patches. Everything was in disrepair. Then, a few residents decided to clean up the gardens and formed committees. With their dedication and the assistance of professionals, they nursed their private parks back to life. Today, they see the results of their dedication threatened by little feet and plastic shovels.

My assignment was to go to strip clubs and ask the dancers what they thought about the presidential election. Seriously.

Turns out that most of the clubs on Roosevelt Avenue in Jackson Heights, Queens (my beat) are actually bailarina bars–Latino clubs where women dance with you for cash. Only a couple are strip joints, so I shifted my focus.

Many of the men at these bars are immigrants who moved to New York without their wives or girlfriends. They’re lonely, looking for attention.

Once a good song comes on, a guy will ask a woman to dance. The girl keeps track of how many they dance together and when he decides to stop she’ll charge him $2 per song. Its a modern version of taxi dancing.

New York Magazine must have heard about my story and they decided to write a long piece on bailarina bars in this week’s issue. So, I won’t write too much more.

You might enjoy reading my notes from the night (even though their quality indicates why I didn’t land the New York gig). I was typing them on my Blackberry–it blended in more than some guy writing on a note pad. Here’s what I saw (unedited):

La escuelita-bar on Roosevelt
Five girls in one corner of the dance floor.
Like a high school dance.  Or cotillion with thumping music.
Ladies selling long stem roses, bucket of Coronas.
Fast twirling on dance floor La cumbia, regeton
One girl leg up on table.
Shifts to guys grinding, can’t dance.
One guy has bought a full bouquet of roses.
Bent over.
Drunk stumbles into table.
Classical guitars.
Everyone breaks out on the floor.
Transaction atmosphere, girls using cell phones like they’re bored, waiting for someone to ask them to dance.
$2 per song, she keeps track.
Autoparts shirt and work boots.
Woman in fishnet shirt, butt hanging out.
La machata – what I danced
[I later figured out this is la bachata, although I definitely couldn't do it like these guys]

Photo: Mike Reicher

Vasantrai Gandhi has sold jewelry for over 30 years from his second-story business on Jackson Height’s 74th Street. From this perch he’s watched climbing commercial rents force long-time merchants to adapt, move or close shop.

Asli Sona Appliances, a store across the street, had been selling watches and toasters for 29 years when its rent became unbearable, said Gandhi. First, the owner, Inder-Mohan Kathuria, subleased counter space to a jeweler. Then, Gandhi said he couldn’t cover the next rent increase, so as of October 1 Kathuria is moving to a smaller, subterranean space down the street.

Gandhi has seen employees, inventory and debt left in the wake of shuttered neighboring stores. He blames a shortage of commercial space and landlords’ raising rent for changing his strip of Jackson Heights.