The unexplored taxi situation

So, one of my main interests in Edgewater were the African taxi drivers. I was noticing that they weren't allowed to park on residential streets and were therefore forced to use metered parking on Sundays.

Is it fair for commercial drivers to pay for parking when they are "not working" - or for any resident to pay for metered parking to be at home?

From blog to portfolio

A community blog is an invaluable resource to a new journalist.

Having a reason to just "hang out" doesn't always present to journalism students, especially for we who run the quarter-system wheel all academic year.

My time in Edgewater helped me socially penetrate an area to which I am an outsider. Though a camera would seem to stretch that distance between me and every subject I encountered, I recognized that everyone is passionate to tell the story of their neighborhood, to speak for something that is - to them - a wonderful home.

It's really inspired me to look at this blog as part of my professional portfolio.

When anyone asks why Up2TheEdge might be on my resume, I'll say "I heard there was a place where diversity exists in this city like no where else. I had to experience that. I made videos about coffeehouses and waterfronts. I talked to people in the community about their best known panhandler and the story nobody there knew about her. I'll go somewhere else and do it again."

I can't wait to improve these skills, either.

The Waterfront Cafe

Filming this video was the highlight of my time profiling the Edgewater community.

Thank you to Jeffrey and Frank of the Waterfront Cafe... Berger Park (Granville & Lake Michigan).

The response thus far to this piece has been a unanimous "Where is that? I'm going!"

And why is Edgewater so super?

All are welcome.

Communication Graduation Day in University of Illinois.

I was at a graduation yesterday in U of I, Champagne, Urbana where Communication students received their diplomas after four years of college. The ceremony was moving and the speaches given by the students and some alumni was very revealing. At this event I learned the fears and anxieties some of these students feel as they prepare to go out into the real world, the present economic state of the country adding to their anxieties.

At this commencement ceremony was an alumni who played basketball for 13 years and is n0w a sports correspondent for ESPN. He encouraged the students to believe in themselves, and let passion drive anything or career choice they make. He concluded his speech with an African adage about the lion and the antelope, who both had to run faster than the other to stay alive. The lesson from the adage is that, it doesn't matter who is the strongest or the fastest out there, the point is each has to run faster in order to stay alive.

What he meant was that every student should work harder, stronger, and smarter in order to stay alive in the most competitive career which he or she chooses. After listening to him speak, I realized that I was meant to hear that speech to remind me of the things I need to do to "stay alive" in the Journalism world.

Please stay tuned for the video of this event and I hope it will be useful to all communication students who see it.

Up2TheEdge Bike Trail Tour

I joined a group of people today for an unprecedented tour of the bike trails in the Uptown and Edgewater neighborhoods. It turned out to be a fun and insightful activity. This expedition of the numerous and sometimes hidden bike trails was organized by two Keystone community members, Kerry and Joane. 

The tour took us from the Lawrence and Lake Shore bike trail to Kenmore avenue bike trail, we turned on Granville and rode up to Clark street. The trail continued from clark street to Berwyn street where we headed west to Damen street. The ride continued to Wilson avenue and led us back to our point of origin.

Some of the intersections along the way were a bit dicey, like the Ashland and Berwyn intersection where there was no 4-way stop, and some of the drivers did not want to yield to the bike riders. Other than that, the trails appeared to be easy and safe for bikers. 

There were signs along the route to enable bikers stay on the trails and markings on the ground show bikers and drivers where bikers rightfully belong on the roads. This expedition opened up more biking venues for me and I would recommend it to anybody seeking more riding paths than the Lake Shore bike trail which can be crowded during biking season.

The Cage

I had a bit of a run-in at the cage last week, and I just wanted to throw it out there so that it's clear to everyone because I somehow didn't know--ALL EQUIPMENT IS DUE BACK AT NOON! I thought the cage employee said mine was due back at five, but to my dismay when I called at 1:15 the day it was due to ask for an extension I was informed that I was already overdue and that I am fined fifty dollars! The ironic part is that I had tried calling earlier in the morning but no one answered the phone, and I was unaware that equipment can be extended via voicemail.

Learn from my lessons! Always get your extensions on time, leave a voicemail if you have to, and equipment is due back at noon.

Goodbye, $50 :(

Update!

It looks like I'm not the only one who kind of completely forgot that we're supposed to keep updating this blog! I'll make up for lost time with an enormous post detailing my progress on my second multimedia project about Metropolis Coffee and their bean roasting!

I had a really great time working with Tony Dreyfuss and his employees at the roasterie in Andersonville (a cute, Swedish neighborhood nestled in between Uptown and Edgewater). Tony was super friendly, talkative, and excited about my project, so that made it even more fun to work with him. We played voicemail tag for about a week, and then last Tuesday I went over to interview him and shoot a little footage of the coffee bean roasting. He gave me a tour of the roasterie and explained everything in detail. Unfortunately, I didn't have the camera turned on for the preliminary walk through, and by the time I finished interviewing Tony, the roasters were done for the day.

Lucky for me, I got the chance to see them doing a taste test of a sample roast! In addition to my interview with Tony, then, I got a lot of great footage of the guys at the roasterie slurping and spitting different coffee samples to determine which bean they might want to roast next. After they made their decision, Tony insisted that I try the slurping and spitting too, which was fun but also a little humiliating because I ended up salivating all over my chin, hands, paper cup, etc. The things we do for stories!

I went back to the roasterie on Thursday to shoot some footage of the actual roasting process. I was glad to have had the personalized tour on Tuesday because I knew which shots to look for. I got a lot of footage of the roaster, the testing, the bagging for distribution, etc. UNFORTUNATELY, right as the beans were dropping from the oven into the cooling area, my camera ran to the end of the tape! I'm not sure if I got any of that action, although I sincerely hope that I did. I panicked a little bit and rewinded the tape to the middle somewhere and taped over some of the slurping and spitting from Tuesday (luckily, I had a whole lot of this footage--much more than I will need). I am nervous to see how the footage comes out when I put it onto the computer--I hope I have enough usable stuff! If not, I can always make another quick trip back there.

In other crazy news, the roaster was actually a little bit on fire when I taped the process. I guess it wasn't a big deal and they fixed it, but it was kind of a little bit of a disappointment because the roasters were too busy fixing the machine to really have time to give me an interview. It's okay, though, because my interview with Tony should be more than enough information to make a quality two-minute video.

I think that's the bulk of the excitement...sorry to have it all in one gigantic post instead of several little ones like I should have been doing all along!