I want to digress from my usual posts, and take some time out to recognize an alternative weekly publication that never ceases to amaze me.
Philadelphia’s City Paper. While having some down time yesterday evening, I decided to peruse media outlets in and around the Utica area as well as check up on ones back home. It didn’t take me long to find stories that grabbed my attention with CP. I currently have my favorite cover story hanging up in my cubicle at work: “Coatesville is Burning” by Mike Newall and Doron Taussig. It was written in September 2009.
But yesterday evening’s jaunt through their archives allowed me to stumble upon two enlightening articles. They also inspired me to look into the topics covered in the articles to see if there was any correlation in Utica. The first was “Why is Harry Bennett Dead?” by Isaiah Thompson. As a city which is undoubtedly known for the strained relations between its citizens and its cops, this story took a different twist. How do cops handle the mentally ill?
So I took out my “idea notepad” and jotted down: check into stories about cops dealing with mentally ill. The Observer-Dispatch doesn’t cover suicides, as I’ve mentioned before, but I found it an interesting topic to explore especially after the suicide-by-cop incident. Furthermore, I’ve heard it said that the cops in the area are sometimes racist and prejudice, suspects arguing the reason they were arrested was because they were black and the cops have something against them. Stephen Patterson, the cabaret nightclub owner and former Utica public works commissioner, comes to mind.
The second article I came across which caught my eye was “How Was I Even Able To Do What I Did?” by Andrew Thompson (who I subsequently know, went to school with and wrote at The Temple News with—none of this is why I enjoyed the article, however). Gun trafficking. Where there are guns sold, there is inevitably illegal gun trafficking going on, this is the conclusion I came to after reading the article last night. With that being said, I again jotted in my “idea notepad” research guns in Utica area.
You might be thinking…why are you mimicking another publication? The simple fact is all ideas come from somewhere: what you see, what you hear, what you read, what you experience. From these quick blips in life an idea is formed. By simply seeing what is out there I can taylor my research to find my own unique story.
Furthermore, CP offers the type of stories I one day hope to be producing regularly. The hard-hitting “things that make you go hmm” topics. Ruffling feathers, and quite possibly pulling them out.
So consider this free publicity City Paper. You have unlimited access to my public of about five. Regardless, there is a Philly native trapped in snow-plagued areas of upstate New York still pouring over your captivating cover pieces.
Now you have me very interested and I will have to chk for City Paper and as always continue looking forward to reading you articles. Love Ya