Settling in, Hitting the Streets

I arrived safely and made it the apartment complex without any real problems. The trip there had very few adventures, but I did have an interesting conversation with my cab driver, Rueben Lathem. I told him what I was doing in New York and asked him about the city. I was pleasantly surprised to find him quite receptive to my questions and tried to remember as much as I could about what he was telling me. I certainly wasn't prepared to be starting my journalism experience so quickly!

Rueben Lathem was born in Trinidad and grew up in Michigan, but he claims his real home is New York City where he has been for over 30 years. He talked to me about how much the city has changed in his time here. (By this time I had the sense to pull out a voice recorder and get some quotes.)

"It used to be that this was a bad city, alot of drugs and gangs, but these days it is very safe;" he said, "Times Square used to be a [bad] place. I could look at you and tell that you aren't from New York. Crooks can look at you also and see that, so they come and pick your pocket, you suddenly realize that you['re] lost and your wallet is gone. So the government put alot of cops on the street, just in plain clothes so that when someone cries out that they've been robbed, the cops are right there. So now, Times Square is a place you can go!"

The program was implemented in the late 80's by mayor Rudolph Guliani, a person for whom Rueben seemed to hold in high regard. Today he says that you still need to be careful, but that for the most part New York is a safe city for visitors. He encouraged me to talk to everyone, saying that everyone here has a different story and a different way of telling it. I think in this town, getting to those stories will be very interesting.