Interview with Kat Slevin, Associate Director of The Tri-State Transportation Campaign (TSTC)
1) How is the Long Island Bus funded?
Slevin: Every year, the president of Long Island Bus doesn’t know how much money he’s going to get because they go through the county budget process and the state budget process, and there’s no sort of shared funding agreement. We’ve called it the stepchild of the MTA system because no wants to pay for it. Ridership is way up and it has been for a number of years. The funding for the system hasn’t increased that much. The county’s contribution is actually lower than it was in 1999. It still needs more revenue to profit. There’s so much demand out there for better bus service.
2) What about threats of service cuts? How does that affect Nassau County?
Slevin: That all goes back to the allocation problem. If the Long Island Bus doesn’t get enough money from the county or the state or MTA, they can’t operate the system without revenue. Then, they have to go into cutting service.
3) Have there been any cuts this year?
Slevin: No, I don’t think so. You should call Long Island Bus on that. There was talk of it because they were missing about $3 million and there was a budget gap, but I think they worked that out.
4) What if the proposed fare increase happens on local buses?
Slevin: You never want to raise transit fares, and in this case, the MTA is in a significant financial bind. But, you’d like to think you’d get something out of your higher fare. If the Long Island Bus doesn’t have a stable funding source, it’s much harder to give that back to the riders, like better service, faster routes.
5) Do you think a government subsidy would help the system?
Slevin: Every transit system is subsidized. They provide an economic benefit to society by giving transit to people. But as far if it’s from a strictly financial sense, they would always operate in the red because it costs a lot to run a transit system and fares never make up 100 percent. That’s why the buses are subsidized by the county, state and MTA—to make up for what the fares don’t cover.
6) How can service be improved in the future?
Slevin: They need a more regional bus system. They need an operating agreement between the MTA, the county and the state, not only an operating agreement, but a financial agreement, to figure out who’s going to pay what each year. From there, they need to figure out how to expand bus service.
(Interview and photo by Jacqueline Hlavenka, Nassau News)
Wednesday, January 2, 2008
Jacqueline Hlavenka's Production Notes
By Jacqueline Hlavenka
I finished shooting the video and photos two weeks ago during the “reporting” period. I gathered audio from Kat Slevin at the Tri-State Transportation Campaign over the phone, since her office is in Manhattan. I interviewed John Michno over the web via YouTube messaging. He also responded to me on a message board on the NYC Straphanger’s Campaign.
Shooting the stills and video footage was somewhat difficult. I was warned by the MTA Police to stop taking pictures at the Hempstead Transit Center. Fearing that I would loose my camera, I was very discrete with my handy FlipCam.
On the bus, I tried to remain discrete with my camera. There’s a fine line between being a journalist and respecting people’s personal space, especially considering how crowded it was. Eventually, I found a happy medium.
After I finished the reporting, putting everything together was the hard part. I uploaded my videos to Blip.TV, my photos to Flickr and imported the media into iMovie. The audio from the voice recorder caused a problem. My USB cord wouldn’t recognize the files. I then decided to import the sound into Apple Garage Band to cut-up the audio.
After importing all the video, I used a microphone to record my voiceover (vo) audio track. As I began to speak, I needed to re-record certain things because I realized my writing was too long! Broadcast needs to be quick, clean and to the point.
For John Michno’s text, I wanted to create a graphic. Using Photoshop, I placed the text inside an image that resembles an ordinary piece of paper. My boyfriend, Dave Beede, helped me animate the graphic in iMovie, since I didn’t know how.
Two coffees and six hours later, I uploaded the video to blip.tv, clocking in at one minute and fifty seconds. I am very pleased with the piece, and now have a better understanding of making a video project -- not just writing a news story.
I finished shooting the video and photos two weeks ago during the “reporting” period. I gathered audio from Kat Slevin at the Tri-State Transportation Campaign over the phone, since her office is in Manhattan. I interviewed John Michno over the web via YouTube messaging. He also responded to me on a message board on the NYC Straphanger’s Campaign.
Shooting the stills and video footage was somewhat difficult. I was warned by the MTA Police to stop taking pictures at the Hempstead Transit Center. Fearing that I would loose my camera, I was very discrete with my handy FlipCam.
On the bus, I tried to remain discrete with my camera. There’s a fine line between being a journalist and respecting people’s personal space, especially considering how crowded it was. Eventually, I found a happy medium.
After I finished the reporting, putting everything together was the hard part. I uploaded my videos to Blip.TV, my photos to Flickr and imported the media into iMovie. The audio from the voice recorder caused a problem. My USB cord wouldn’t recognize the files. I then decided to import the sound into Apple Garage Band to cut-up the audio.
After importing all the video, I used a microphone to record my voiceover (vo) audio track. As I began to speak, I needed to re-record certain things because I realized my writing was too long! Broadcast needs to be quick, clean and to the point.
For John Michno’s text, I wanted to create a graphic. Using Photoshop, I placed the text inside an image that resembles an ordinary piece of paper. My boyfriend, Dave Beede, helped me animate the graphic in iMovie, since I didn’t know how.
Two coffees and six hours later, I uploaded the video to blip.tv, clocking in at one minute and fifty seconds. I am very pleased with the piece, and now have a better understanding of making a video project -- not just writing a news story.
Katie Heelon's Production Memo
By Katie Heelon
Throughout the reporting for this projects there were both highs and lows. There were many setbacks that came about, which made it important to think fast, and decide what you would do in order to fill a spot instead.
I interviewed two people within the Hempstead community, one who was living there presently and one who had moved away. The one, Lesley, was fine with being videotaped, however Matt was a little more apprehensive about being interviewed on camera, so he instead decided on allowing me to interview him, and then agreed to send a picture via email for me to use. (Since I only had a flip camera on me, and not my digital camera, which could have led to problems if he wasn’t so helpful.)
I also interviewed Mayor Hall, and although he didn’t have a good time to meet in his office, we talked for about fifteen minutes over the phone, and he directed me to the website , for a picture of him. Mayor Hall was extremely helpful, and the phone call also cut back some of the anxiety I have for calling people for interviews over the phone, it was a really great experience. For other parts of footage I both photographed and videotaped within the Village of Hempstead. I visited www.villageofhempstead.org, to obtain information about the village itself, along with Factfinder.com to obtain population statistics.
Most of my article however, was based on my three interviews. One of the forums I used was this one, on Topix.com. I also asked random people on the street, who I allowed to remain anonymous for the section about giving me one word to describe the Village of Hempstead, I thought that was a good way to show the overall feeling towards the village.
Throughout the reporting for this projects there were both highs and lows. There were many setbacks that came about, which made it important to think fast, and decide what you would do in order to fill a spot instead.
I interviewed two people within the Hempstead community, one who was living there presently and one who had moved away. The one, Lesley, was fine with being videotaped, however Matt was a little more apprehensive about being interviewed on camera, so he instead decided on allowing me to interview him, and then agreed to send a picture via email for me to use. (Since I only had a flip camera on me, and not my digital camera, which could have led to problems if he wasn’t so helpful.)
I also interviewed Mayor Hall, and although he didn’t have a good time to meet in his office, we talked for about fifteen minutes over the phone, and he directed me to the website , for a picture of him. Mayor Hall was extremely helpful, and the phone call also cut back some of the anxiety I have for calling people for interviews over the phone, it was a really great experience. For other parts of footage I both photographed and videotaped within the Village of Hempstead. I visited www.villageofhempstead.org, to obtain information about the village itself, along with Factfinder.com to obtain population statistics.
Most of my article however, was based on my three interviews. One of the forums I used was this one, on Topix.com. I also asked random people on the street, who I allowed to remain anonymous for the section about giving me one word to describe the Village of Hempstead, I thought that was a good way to show the overall feeling towards the village.
Amanda DeCamp's Production Memo
By Amanda DeCamp
For this project, I started with my story pitch. It was very weak at first because I did not have an angle. I knew that I wanted to write about food, but I was not sure what else. Finally, with some research, I was able to refine my story to writing about eating healthy on a budget and avoiding fast food. By researching online, I found that people with lower incomes eat more fast food and that there are more fast food restaurants in black neighborhoods with lower incomes.
It was helpful to come up with a list of 10 links. By reading similar articles, I was able to come up with my own unique angle.
The interviews that I got were the hardest part to come by. Originally I wanted to stay strictly in Hempstead, but when I tried to get people to talk to me with the flipcam in Hempstead, I was very unsuccessful. People would either say they didn't have time or that they just didn't want to. I had more luck in Westbury and Willison Park, which are both within five to 10 minutes from Hempstead Turnpike. Also, I originally was trying to set up an interview with a dietitian from Hempstead, but she stopped returning my phone calls. Finally, I thought to look at Hofstra's sources on health and found Andy Herman who was very helpful. In the end I learned that one source is better than no source, even if they weren't who you planned on getting.
The video editing is not perfect but I did learn a lot about broadcast journalism and online journalism by editing my own video. Hopefully with this experience, I will be able to improve my broadcast and editing skills.
For this project, I started with my story pitch. It was very weak at first because I did not have an angle. I knew that I wanted to write about food, but I was not sure what else. Finally, with some research, I was able to refine my story to writing about eating healthy on a budget and avoiding fast food. By researching online, I found that people with lower incomes eat more fast food and that there are more fast food restaurants in black neighborhoods with lower incomes.
It was helpful to come up with a list of 10 links. By reading similar articles, I was able to come up with my own unique angle.
The interviews that I got were the hardest part to come by. Originally I wanted to stay strictly in Hempstead, but when I tried to get people to talk to me with the flipcam in Hempstead, I was very unsuccessful. People would either say they didn't have time or that they just didn't want to. I had more luck in Westbury and Willison Park, which are both within five to 10 minutes from Hempstead Turnpike. Also, I originally was trying to set up an interview with a dietitian from Hempstead, but she stopped returning my phone calls. Finally, I thought to look at Hofstra's sources on health and found Andy Herman who was very helpful. In the end I learned that one source is better than no source, even if they weren't who you planned on getting.
The video editing is not perfect but I did learn a lot about broadcast journalism and online journalism by editing my own video. Hopefully with this experience, I will be able to improve my broadcast and editing skills.
Jessica Crankshaw's Production Memo
By Jessica Crankshaw
I came across a huge problem after I recorded all my video clips on my own camera: it wasn't compatible with the video programs. Therefore, I had to go and re shoot the whole thing. This did help solve my voice over problem thought. This time, I spoke while I was shooting so I did not have to do a voice over. It worked out really well. The other problem I had was that when I did a transition from one slide to the next it cut out some of my audio. It took me awhile, but I finally figured out a proper transition so I only lost a little bit of the audio. Everything else went smoothly and I am happy with the result I was able to get. Before this class I never would have been able to accomplish such a hard task, especially because I am not technology savvy, but after hard work I can say that I did a good job.
I came across a huge problem after I recorded all my video clips on my own camera: it wasn't compatible with the video programs. Therefore, I had to go and re shoot the whole thing. This did help solve my voice over problem thought. This time, I spoke while I was shooting so I did not have to do a voice over. It worked out really well. The other problem I had was that when I did a transition from one slide to the next it cut out some of my audio. It took me awhile, but I finally figured out a proper transition so I only lost a little bit of the audio. Everything else went smoothly and I am happy with the result I was able to get. Before this class I never would have been able to accomplish such a hard task, especially because I am not technology savvy, but after hard work I can say that I did a good job.
Dana Carroll's Production Memo
By Dana Carroll
The process of building and creating my final online story about the future of housing and quality of life in the Village of Hempstead was an experience from which I learned a lot about the issue at hand, technologies involved in online journalism, and myself as a student journalist.
The beginning stages of brainstorming for my story were difficult at first because I was limited to the Hempstead area and, knowing very little about the area, I was more interested in issues outside of Hempstead Village. However, when I discovered what was going on with the Mayor's plans for re-development, I was immediately interested. As a student living in the Hempstead area, I was curious about any effort that was being made to improve the poor conditions.
In my research, I found many articles in The New York Times and Newsday about the Mayor's plan and his subsequent obstacles he was facing from opponents within the community. I also discovered blogs and business commentary about the situation and various points of view from residents and community members.
For the video portion of my story, I collected footage of Hempstead Village in the Main Street area. I also took photos to use in a slide show to show the poor conditions all over Hempstead and not just on Main Street. I paired that footage with videos of interviews with Hempstead residents as well as with Mayor Wayne Hall. I found it interesting to see the difference between how residents felt about their own community and the way it was described by the mayor. Most residents I spoke with would not allow me to film or quote them; however all of them said that more affordable housing needed to be built in Hempstead. Yet, Mayor Hall felt that Hempstead already had enough low-income housing and that by building more, it would add to the poor conditions and worsen the problem. Both sides did agree on the fact that conditions of living in Hempstead Village needed improvement and that it was necessary to take action in some way.
The next step was to put the pieces together to create a cohesive multimedia representation of my story. I decided to post all pieces of my story onto a Tumblr page because it was a central location where the story could come together. I found it easy to use Flickr.com to post my pictures and create a slideshow, however it was more difficult to create and edit video because I had no prior experience with video editing. After exploring Kaltura for some time, I decided to try JumpCut instead, and found it easier to use and navigate. I thought the process of editing video clips was overwhelming and tedious at first, however once I got started I was able to cut a large amount of video into only the crucial parts needed to tell the story. Adding voiceover created another obstacle because Jump Cut does not allow the user to use sound for separate parts of a video, but only as one constant audio track. This created problems with timing the audio to the video exactly. I resolved this by adding still shots to fill time during the audio story. Other problems I had with the Jump Cut program that I was unable to resolve were my final movie freezing at a certain part every time it played, and sometimes parts that I had edited would not save after I published it, so that when it played it would play a previously unedited clip instead. I was not sure how to fix these problems without risking loosing my video or starting all over from scratch. When I went to the help section of the site, it stated that these were common complaints of Jump Cut users and the site was working to fix these problems. Although I embedded the video onto my Tumblr.com page, it does not play the whole way through and can be viewed better by clicking the "remix" button in the lower corner of the video screen.
After creating video and photos, I wrote text to accompany the visuals and embedded links to pertinent information using html code. I also created a poll using Snappoll.com for readers to vote on what they think is the best direction for the Village of Hempstead, and linked to a message board for Long Island residents where readers can add comments about the plan.
After each piece of my story was in placed on my Tumblr, it was rewarding to see how my work had come together to tell a full story from many angles. I also overcame many personal obstacles as well while creating this story. I was able to learn more about an issue and the people which it affects, and I also learned to navigate unfamiliar people and surroundings. Also unfamiliar was the media technologies being used to create this story, and I was able to teach myself how to navigate video and blog programs as well as how to create an interactive poll online. Throughout the entire process, I was able to see the differences between print and online journalism. While print journalism will always be relevant and credible, sometimes a story needs to be shown through different visual and interactive perspectives in order to make the strongest impact.
Links Used
1) http://www.villageofhempstead.org/
2) http://acorn.org/index.php?id=7926
3) http://www.villageofhempstead.org/government/mayor.htm
4) http://www.urbanamerica.com/
5) http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&time=&date=&ttype=&q=LIRR+Hempstead+Station,+Hempstead,+NY&sll=17.476432,-66.796875&sspn=72.007237,163.476563&ie=UTF8&ll=40.712703,-73.624449&spn=0.007449,0.019956&t=h&z=16&om=1
6) http://www.policylink.org/EDTK/AH101/policy.html
7) http://thecommunityalliance.blogspot.com/2007/02/can-urbanamerica-save-suburban-long.html
8) http://www.topix.net/forum/city/garden-city-ny/TIQEJK2L83A0D49A5
9) http://libizblog.wordpress.com/2007/10/03/say-goodbye-to-urbanamerica-so-whos-next/
10) http://www.flickr.com/photos/14697042@N03/sets/72157603235077671/show/
11) http://snappoll.com/poll/239250.php
12) http://www.jumpcut.com/create/edit?movie_id=861470CAA34E11DC8F2F000423CF381C (VIDEO LINK)
13) http://dcarroll.tumblr.com/post/21211257 (STORY IN TEXT)
14) http://dcarroll.tumblr.com/ (Entire story with links)
The process of building and creating my final online story about the future of housing and quality of life in the Village of Hempstead was an experience from which I learned a lot about the issue at hand, technologies involved in online journalism, and myself as a student journalist.
The beginning stages of brainstorming for my story were difficult at first because I was limited to the Hempstead area and, knowing very little about the area, I was more interested in issues outside of Hempstead Village. However, when I discovered what was going on with the Mayor's plans for re-development, I was immediately interested. As a student living in the Hempstead area, I was curious about any effort that was being made to improve the poor conditions.
In my research, I found many articles in The New York Times and Newsday about the Mayor's plan and his subsequent obstacles he was facing from opponents within the community. I also discovered blogs and business commentary about the situation and various points of view from residents and community members.
For the video portion of my story, I collected footage of Hempstead Village in the Main Street area. I also took photos to use in a slide show to show the poor conditions all over Hempstead and not just on Main Street. I paired that footage with videos of interviews with Hempstead residents as well as with Mayor Wayne Hall. I found it interesting to see the difference between how residents felt about their own community and the way it was described by the mayor. Most residents I spoke with would not allow me to film or quote them; however all of them said that more affordable housing needed to be built in Hempstead. Yet, Mayor Hall felt that Hempstead already had enough low-income housing and that by building more, it would add to the poor conditions and worsen the problem. Both sides did agree on the fact that conditions of living in Hempstead Village needed improvement and that it was necessary to take action in some way.
The next step was to put the pieces together to create a cohesive multimedia representation of my story. I decided to post all pieces of my story onto a Tumblr page because it was a central location where the story could come together. I found it easy to use Flickr.com to post my pictures and create a slideshow, however it was more difficult to create and edit video because I had no prior experience with video editing. After exploring Kaltura for some time, I decided to try JumpCut instead, and found it easier to use and navigate. I thought the process of editing video clips was overwhelming and tedious at first, however once I got started I was able to cut a large amount of video into only the crucial parts needed to tell the story. Adding voiceover created another obstacle because Jump Cut does not allow the user to use sound for separate parts of a video, but only as one constant audio track. This created problems with timing the audio to the video exactly. I resolved this by adding still shots to fill time during the audio story. Other problems I had with the Jump Cut program that I was unable to resolve were my final movie freezing at a certain part every time it played, and sometimes parts that I had edited would not save after I published it, so that when it played it would play a previously unedited clip instead. I was not sure how to fix these problems without risking loosing my video or starting all over from scratch. When I went to the help section of the site, it stated that these were common complaints of Jump Cut users and the site was working to fix these problems. Although I embedded the video onto my Tumblr.com page, it does not play the whole way through and can be viewed better by clicking the "remix" button in the lower corner of the video screen.
After creating video and photos, I wrote text to accompany the visuals and embedded links to pertinent information using html code. I also created a poll using Snappoll.com for readers to vote on what they think is the best direction for the Village of Hempstead, and linked to a message board for Long Island residents where readers can add comments about the plan.
After each piece of my story was in placed on my Tumblr, it was rewarding to see how my work had come together to tell a full story from many angles. I also overcame many personal obstacles as well while creating this story. I was able to learn more about an issue and the people which it affects, and I also learned to navigate unfamiliar people and surroundings. Also unfamiliar was the media technologies being used to create this story, and I was able to teach myself how to navigate video and blog programs as well as how to create an interactive poll online. Throughout the entire process, I was able to see the differences between print and online journalism. While print journalism will always be relevant and credible, sometimes a story needs to be shown through different visual and interactive perspectives in order to make the strongest impact.
Links Used
1) http://www.villageofhempstead.org/
2) http://acorn.org/index.php?id=7926
3) http://www.villageofhempstead.org/government/mayor.htm
4) http://www.urbanamerica.com/
5) http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&time=&date=&ttype=&q=LIRR+Hempstead+Station,+Hempstead,+NY&sll=17.476432,-66.796875&sspn=72.007237,163.476563&ie=UTF8&ll=40.712703,-73.624449&spn=0.007449,0.019956&t=h&z=16&om=1
6) http://www.policylink.org/EDTK/AH101/policy.html
7) http://thecommunityalliance.blogspot.com/2007/02/can-urbanamerica-save-suburban-long.html
8) http://www.topix.net/forum/city/garden-city-ny/TIQEJK2L83A0D49A5
9) http://libizblog.wordpress.com/2007/10/03/say-goodbye-to-urbanamerica-so-whos-next/
10) http://www.flickr.com/photos/14697042@N03/sets/72157603235077671/show/
11) http://snappoll.com/poll/239250.php
12) http://www.jumpcut.com/create/edit?movie_id=861470CAA34E11DC8F2F000423CF381C (VIDEO LINK)
13) http://dcarroll.tumblr.com/post/21211257 (STORY IN TEXT)
14) http://dcarroll.tumblr.com/ (Entire story with links)
Michelle Carlson Production Notes
By Michelle Carlson
Behind the Scenes: The Story Behind the Story
This project has gone through more changes than any story I've worked on. I initially began with the idea that I wanted to do a story that in some way involved the youth of Hempstead. One problem was that I soon discovered there were many different ways a story like this could go, and I would need to find a better focus. I then narrowed down my idea to education in Hempstead, but with a number of elementary schools and even two middle schools, that topic was also too broad to tackle. I then decided to focus on education at the high school level.
Behind the Scenes: The Story Behind the Story
This project has gone through more changes than any story I've worked on. I initially began with the idea that I wanted to do a story that in some way involved the youth of Hempstead. One problem was that I soon discovered there were many different ways a story like this could go, and I would need to find a better focus. I then narrowed down my idea to education in Hempstead, but with a number of elementary schools and even two middle schools, that topic was also too broad to tackle. I then decided to focus on education at the high school level.
Once this was decided, I still needed to find my angle. I discovered there are two high schools in Hempstead, and both are extremely different each other. There's Hempstead High School, a public school with approximately 1,600 students, and Sacred
Heart Academy, a private all-girls' Catholic school. The immediate differences between the two schools were interesting from the start, and with an ongoing debate over whether students should attend public or private schools, I believed a story that intertwined both of Hempstead's high schools would be a great approach to take.
Unfortunately, it wasn't a great idea to everyone, and school officials at Sacred Heart Academy refused to talk to me. After many phone calls, messages and even some debate, I realized that I was not going to get anyone from that school to agree to
an interview. It was the most difficult time I had ever had trying to get people to talk to me and it was without a doubt a great learning experience in dealing with certain people. I didn't want to give up, but it was a difficult situation and with time running short, I realized sometimes things just don't go the way you planned and you have to be prepared to change your plans when that happens.
I then turned to Hempstead High School and tried to figure out how I could write a story that included Sacred Heart without actually talking to anyone. I was surprised to realize I knew very little about Hempstead High School and that there was plenty
to discuss without including another school.
After researching Hempstead High School and interviewing officials at the school, I was immediately intrigued by their story. For years, and even now, it has been a struggling school. And yet, they are still working hard to make necessary changes in
order to bring them up to a level that compares to most other schools. I saw how some of the changes helped and how some still hadn't quite made an impact yet, but they were still trying. Most of all, it seemed as though there was a real change in student attitude. Regardless of whether they were taken of the list of worst achieving schools, only to be put back on months later, the school, its students and the administration were still putting in an effort and I wanted to share their efforts with everyone else.
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