Tuesday I took a trip to the City Planning Commission on Reade St., slowly bycling through the strangely calm, stony facades of the Wall St. buildings. Arriving at the CPC I noticed that there were no signs, no picket lines, and everything was business as usual. This is one hazard of word of mouth, the cook who told me about the protest didn’t give me a phone number to go with his name, Marco.
On Thursday I went back out to Willets Point to get back in touch with Marco and capture some action shots of people working. You can’t be choosy if you have a busy schedule, and although the day was windy and grey I hopped on the 7 train to Shea. The wind was ripping through the wide streets, kicking up dust and rippling the standing puddles. I had to wait so long to get a shot of the Citi Field sign reflecting in the 20′ by 10′ lagoon in the road that I almost abandoned the idea. Finally the wind subsided enough to make out the reflection and I think I got a nice shot. The wind was bad, and it made me laugh later when I watched the trailor for Chop Shop and saw the difference in audio and video quality.
To deal with the gusts I went into the autobodies to film inside where the wind would be less of an issue. I got what I needed: plenty of shots sanding plaster, installing carburators, painting, etc. I also got what I didn’t need, a nauseating head rush from the lack of ventilation. Must have dulled my senses a bit, I forgot about my camera while shooting a guy sanding down the hood of a mini-van, and when I looked down the camera was covered in white dust. I cannot imagine being in that environment for at least 8 hours everyday, many people don’t wear masks and it looks incredibly dangerous.
The wind also brought the fumes out into the street, and the only clean air I could find was in Marco’s restaurant. Actually it is the restaurant owned by the only resident of Willets Point. I was hoping to set up an interview with him, so I sat down for a couple of arepas con queso to wait him out. Forty five minutes after he was supposed to show up I had to go, I logged as much info as I could from Marco and promised to be back this weekend…
