Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Rick Destito: my version

I wasn't sure whether to laugh or cry when I saw that "Rebirth of A City" was published in The New York Times today.

A part of me is extremely happy that this story was written in such an esteemed publication. But the driven journalist part of me is somewhat sad. Mainly because, as many other journalists know, it's kind of important to be the first to break a story. And get credit for it. Now, I'm not a super-competitive person. Really. But still, I felt it was my story :X Is that childish?

I'm not even kidding, the next story I was going to post that was part of my Connective Corridor beat series was a profile I wrote in NEW 305 about Rick Destito. It was my favorite piece of all the ones I produced for the class for many reasons. One, I felt I discovered him. Well, one of my [Connective Corridor] contacts told me about him. But what he was doing (and currently still is, apparently) was unheard of to many people in Syracuse with the exception of his close friends and the arts community. As I was unraveling and absorbing all the information about his projects, I really felt like I stumbled upon something really unique and worth sharing. Two, I worked extremely hard on it, having interviewed at least 10 sources, some several times. Three, it was the first time that I felt like a real journalist. Considering it was a story for a class, I traveled a lot. I wasn't confined to the borders of my campus or phone interviews from my room, but I stepped out, past Armory Square, into the Near Westside, into the walls of The Gear Factory (which still, when I think about it, "blows my mind,") and into, what is now, his home (I love The New York Times' interactive before&after feature--I never saw the final product).

Here is my version of the story:
Rick Destito by Noelia de La Cruz

Sunday, August 1, 2010

The Black Olive

Last week, I interned for the last time at New York Family, one of my two magazine internships this summer. Though it wasn't what I originally intended or wanted to do, the 12 weeks gave me great additional experience and many clips, one or two of which I'll post once they're published.

In the meantime, I wanted to post some of my work from the past that regrettably will probably never be published. Understandably so, seeing as how I did the work for the purpose of my Newhouse courses. Still, I put a lot into them, and think if there's anywhere I should publish them it should be here.

Even before I came to Syracuse University, I was interested in the Connective Corridor concept--the idea that through a series of creative projects and measures, a fallen city could eventually be revitalized. I then had a brief stint as the downtown Syracuse beat reporter of The Daily Orange. When it came time to take NEW 305 (News Reporting) in the Spring of '09 and each student was required to choose a beat, I was still passionate and curious enough about downtown Syracuse to keep it as my own. I then produced at least six stories about the ways in which people in Syracuse were trying to make it a better and more exciting place to live. Despite popular belief, Syracuse is not so bad. The sad part is, that it could be better and there are very limited attempts or interest in making it so.

In any case, the above is one of the last projects we worked on. We were required to use Soundslides and Audacity to produce a multimedia project that tells a story related to our beat. A few weeks before it was due I discovered that a new restaurant was opening and decided it was the perfect opportunity. The people I met at this Mediterranean restaurant, The Black Olive, were super friendly and I was able to sit and talk to the owner as well as many of the employees. I also got to go behind the scenes (into the kitchen) and taste some of the delicious food! They recently celebrated the restaurant's 1-year anniversary, which is nice.

It was my first multimedia project ever--and it looks it. But it was so fun to make and led me to decide that in addition to writing, I'd love to experience with multimedia, producing and editing--also very effective ways to tell stories.

More soon.