Marcella Veneziale

Courtesy Dr. J. A. George Irish

Dr. J. A. George Irish directs the Office of International Programs at Medgar Evers College in Brooklyn.  He was born in Montserrat, a small island in the Caribbean, and immigrated to the United States in 1986.  He is a noted scholar of the Caribbean, and formerly directed the Caribbean Research Center at Medgar Evers.  Besides being an expert on barrel shipping, a strong tradition in the Caribbean community where families send food and other goods to their relatives still in the islands, Irish ships barrels himself.

Why did barrel shipping from the U. S. to the Caribbean develop?

Because of growth in population here since 1965, there’s so many more people committed to sending that the shipping industry in the Caribbean community blossomed.  In those barrels you could have a variety of things.  What the people back home look forward to first of all is food stuff.

What are the most popular items to ship?

One of the things children looked forward to was cornflakes.  You’re used to your cereal being flour, corn, rice, arrowroot.  So when a barrel came and it had a couple boxes of cornflakes, it was a major delicacy.  They looked forward to canned meats like salmon, hams.  In that barrel you’d also get clothing, because you used the clothing for tighter packing.  Occasionally they would get toys.  Or school supplies.  Because here you can get a pack of pencils for 99 cents.  These things became highly prized commodities because over there you have to pay much more for them.

Which islands are known for barrel shipping?

There are a few that are really known, but it has now become widespread.  Jamaica, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Guyana, Trinidad and Barbados.

Why barrels instead of boxes?

In the cardboard box, it would be difficult to put too much heavy canned stuff.  So you were pretty much limited to clothes, rice, dried food materials.  Now the barrel has become more secure because boxes used to burst. 

Why ship barrels instead of sending cash?

In terms of the social significance of it, it was not just the remittances and the support for the family.  It was the emotional bonding, because that was the only contact people had then.  The aspect of family bonding was linked in large measure to any form of remittances, but particularly the barrel.

Are those emotions universal among immigrants from different places?

Usually when people migrate, they migrate from a community or a family that pins its expectations on their travel to the U. S.  I’m sure that applies to the Irish, the Greeks.  I guess it’s true of all people who travel.  It’s a deep-seated commitment.  I think it’s more human than ethnic.

Have the items shipped changed over the years?

I just sent one last month.  The person I was sending the barrel to, I asked, ‘What would you like me to put the in the barrel?’  And I was shocked when she told me what she wanted.  She said toilet paper, paper towels, hangers.  No mention of food. But imported toilet paper, toilet tissue and paper towels are so expensive that it’s prohibitive to try to buy them locally.  Those and electronics.  People would slip in little radios, CDs.

How important is shipping to the local economy in Brooklyn?

Simply from the point of view of the businessman here, we have seen a significant increase in small business activity in the shipping sector.  Brooklyn was really the heart of the shipping industry, and that is understandable because Brooklyn has the largest concentration of Caribbean immigrants not just in the U. S., but anywhere in the world.  Caribbean people generally regard Brooklyn as headquarters of the Caribbean diaspora.

Don’t all those imports hurt the Caribbean economy?

Every shipment means there is a dent in the local grocery store.  Somebody’s getting something from abroad that they don’t need to buy here anymore.  It has that kind of economic impact, but I don’t think it’s significant enough to be a threat.

Oatmeal has been a breakfast staple for years.  But now its cache is rising as national chains, such as Starbucks, bank on the grain to bulk up revenues.  Starbucks introduced its Perfect Oatmeal last September.  The simple to-go bowl of plain cooked oats with sides of brown sugar, dried fruits and nuts was the coffee chain’s most successful food launch ever, according to Reuters.  It’s now the single most popular food on the menu, beating out sales of cakes, muffins and croissants.  Other chain restaurants have since caught on to the trend.  Jamba Juice, Au Bon Pain, Pax, Hale and Hearty, and Pret a Manger have all introduced their own varieties.  Now Quaker Oats, the granddaddy of oatmeal producers, has rolled out a new advertising campaign to revitalize the image of oats.

New York City chefs are also experimenting with oats.  Mark Bittman, a New York Times food columnist, wrote about savory oats, mixed with soy sauce and scallions.  Gabrielle Hamilton, the chef and owner of Prune in the East Village, put an oatmeal sandwich on the menu a few months ago.  Two slices of char-grilled sourdough bread envelop steel cut oats topped with brown sugar and chopped walnuts.  And Carrie Levin, the chef and owner of Good Enough to Eat on the Upper West Side, wants to try roasting raw oats to release their nutty flavor.

Groups such as the Breakfast Research Institute, funded by Quaker and Tropicana, have touted oatmeal’s nutritional benefits.  Oatmeal consumption has been shown to reduce levels of LDL, so-called “bad” cholesterol, while promoting weight loss, according to a 2008 study in the American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine.  But it’s unclear if consumers are eating oatmeal for economic reasons.  While restaurant sales have increased, supermarket sales have remained “slow but reliable,” according to a February 2009 article in Supermarket News.  Ultimately, health claims may have more power over consumers than price.  According to the Journal of the American College of Nutrition, supermarket oatmeal sales increased by nearly a fifth in 1995 when the Food and Drug Administration first publicized the grain’s health benefits.

After the losses of countless mom-and-pop shops in Chelsea and Hell’s Kitchen, the community board established a small business task force to address the problem.  Small business flight, or gentrification, is particularly widespread in Chelsea.

“Maybe for a year you walk past the little shoe repair shop,” said Tony Juliano, who leads the task force.  “The next time you walk by, they’re gone.  They’re boarded up and there’s a sign for a lease in the window.”

New York’s 220,000 small businesses drive the city’s economy, bringing in $4.5 billion in tax revenue and accounting for 50% of private sector employment.  But many cannot compete with chain operations that boast rock-bottom prices and don’t depend on an individual branch to turn a profit.

“They can’t sustain their business,” Juliano said of independent owners.  “They’ve had their business for 40, 50, 60 years or more and now they just can’t make it work.”

Chuck Spence is the co-chair of the Community Board 4 Business Licenses and Permits Committee.  He said the board is working to ensure a future for small businesses.

Professional offices are also struggling to keep pace with rising rents.  Nancy Goshow has lived in Chelsea since 1978.  She founded Goshow Architects 23 years ago on West 25^th Street.  Though she will move by year’s end because of a rent hike in her lease re-negotiation, she says gentrification has made the neighborhood safer.

Residents like Goshow moved to Chelsea years ago because they thought the area was unique.  Now they tell Juliano that it looks like any other neighborhood. 

“This is not why I moved to New York,” locals tell him.

“When they first moved into these neighborhoods, they each had a unique character,” said Juliano.  “The Lower East Side was very different from Hell’s Kitchen or Chelsea, or from Chelsea to Greenwich Village.  Now it’s all beginning to look and feel the same.”

Despite the complaints, Juliano, the task force and even some locals do not oppose the presence of corporate chain stores. 

“There are some real benefits to these big stores,” Juliano said.  “I’m not suggesting for a moment that these chains should be banned from the city.”

Residents appreciate the variety and low prices of big stores.  But the task force must find a way for these different businesses to co-exist.

“Competition, selection and value go hand in hand,” Juliano said.  “We have to figure out the way to do this wisely.”

I spoke with four gentlemen near the Time Warner Center at Columbus Circle a few days before Election Day.  Two were still undecided, and two supported the Obama-Biden ticket.  All four wanted to see the country improve within the next presidential term, but economic problems and other woes discouraged George Schiess, 59, and Phil Ross, 74.  Schiess looked back to Ronald Reagan’s term, while Ross predicted the economic troubles would only worsen, regardless of the election’s outcome.

Click here to listen to all four talk about the election.

38,000 runners and two million spectators from around the globe packed the city’s streets on Nov. 2 for the New York City Marathon.  After traversing the Verrazzano Bridge, pounding the pavement in Queens and making their way through the Bronx, the hardiest runners zoomed past the 25th mile marker near East 59th Street in Manhattan.  Wheelchair racers kicked off the event, followed by the women, then the men runners.  Though the women had the second start, winner Paula Radcliffe of England overtook many of the wheelchair racers by the 25th mile, surprising spectators when she sprinted by.

I spoke with four spectators, each with a connection to the marathon.  They are, respectively, Andy Baxter, 44, a consultant radiologist from Worcester, U.K.; Lauren Sanders, 22, a recent graduate of Cedarcrest College from Reading, PA; Richard Wolf, 49, a finance worker from the Upper East Side who ran the 1996 New York City Marathon; and Pat Beneckson of Maryland, who watched her 40-year-old son from Columbia, SC run.

Click on the photo for an audio slideshow of the marathon.

I stumbled upon this urban oasis, quite unexpectedly, while shooting for a class assignment.

It’s not easy being a pedestrian in New York City.  

It can be even tougher in Chelsea and Hell’s Kitchen.  At the October meeting of Community Board 4, residents and board members noted reasons for the neighborhood’s overcrowded sidewalks.  Though they named only a few examples at the meeting, such as newsstands, many more obstacles exist.  Rows of newspaper boxes, construction that re-routes paths, and sidewalk cafes all challenge pedestrians from 8th to 10th Avenues in these neighborhoods.  The Department of Transportation has recognized and attempted to alleviate risks to pedestrians, but zoning changes have not fully addressed cluttered sidewalks.

“In the first 6 months of 2007 three pedestrians were killed on 9th Avenue and two were severely injured. Over 800 pedestrians have been injured on Ninth Avenue between 14th Street and 57th Street during the last five years. The Community Board has made several recommendations to improve the situation, only a few of which have been acted upon to date.”

(Manhattan Community Board Four Statement of District Needs, Fiscal Year 2009.)

Click here to see a slideshow of the causes of congestion.

The Western Rail Yards, the largest plot of undeveloped land in Manhattan, lies between 11^th and 12^th Avenues from 30^th to 33^rd Streets.  Arguments about what to do with the space, which now serves as a storage and maintenance location for the Long Island Rail Road, have continued for years.  The New York Jets even proposed constructing a new stadium here.  Now, revitalization of the land’s western portion is finally moving forward.  The development corporation Related has planned to construct graceful parkland, elegant apartment buildings and shops, and a public school.  The Department of City Planning and the MTA are currently reviewing the proposal.  Members of the Hell’s Kitchen and Chelsea groups Housing Conservation Coordinators and Friends of the High Line, as well as a local resident, spoke about the plan.