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Brian Lehrer: Brian Lehrer on WNYC. WNYC's Community Partnerships Desk has been teaming up with the nonprofit Street Lab to bring stories from all over the five boroughs to our airwaves. If you've been listening to the station, you've definitely heard the stories from Fordham, to Jackson Heights about everything from communities banding together, to people that pray to the parking guards to find a spot. The series, which began in October, is running through until this September, with a few dates coming right up.

Joining us now to highlight their work so far and explain how you can get involved are George Bodarky, community partnerships and training editor here at WNYC, and Leslie Davol, co-founder and executive director of Street Lab. Leslie, welcome back to WNYC. Hey, George, welcome to the show.

George Bodarky: Hey, Brian.

Leslie Davol: Thank you.

Brian Lehrer: Leslie, I see you've already been to Jackson Heights, East Harlem, Fordham, Prospect Lefferts Gardens, and Jamaica to collect stories. When people bump into you, what can they expect to happen?

Leslie Davol: Yes, thanks. Street Lab is a nonprofit that creates and shares programs for public space across New York City. Whatever we offer, the programs we offer, they're all physical, so they can be seen from a distance. We physically show up, all have custom furniture that enables us to create pop up places for people to gather and do things like reading, drawing, playing together in public. Everywhere we go is by request. We pop up about 350 times a year across the city, always working in partnership with communities.

What people will see is a cool looking table that we've designed, set up with chairs, and a sign that tells people that WNYC is here in their neighborhood to talk to people and hear their stories. George is there with his microphone and Street Lab staff are there to welcome people, chat and share coffee and treats for free from a local business.

Brian Lehrer: George, what prompt do you give to people? Are you working loosely with a theme or do you let people share whatever comes to mind about their neighborhoods?

George Bodarky: I really want people to share whatever comes to mind, Brian. Some people come to our table with a specific story they want to tell. Like one guy in Jackson Heights, Queens, who was originally from London and wanted to sound off about all of the honking cars in his neighborhood. He thinks they just sound angry and he wanted to stand out on the street with a sign to tell people, "Just chill."

Some people want a prompt. I might ask, "What do you love about your neighborhood?" Or, "What inspires you about living here?" Or, "What makes you smile," or, "What makes you frown?" The conversation builds from there. Sometimes that conversation can take twists and turns, and that's the beauty of it.

Brian Lehrer: Let's listen to a sample of the project. We're going to hear from four people in this sampling. Jacqueline Stevens, a pastry chef from Lizzy's Treats in the city. Tommy Israel, Noelle Simone Whippler, a new mom and a musician and Jose Otero. This one is titled Banana Pudding and Second Chances: Small Talk With New Yorkers on the Streets of Harlem.

Jacqueline Stevens: I'm here today giving out free samples of banana pudding that I started actually cooking in my mother's apartment, which is two blocks from here. I'm pretty sure she's happy that I'm out of her kitchen now, because I used to make a mess all the time.

Tommy Israel: We wanted to be the guys who we saw and touched and that we can see and we can smell, and those wasn't the right people to follow. By the time you realized that, you were shipped somewhere, like a place called Attica. A lot of people didn't get a chance to get a second chance. I'm so blessed that I'm fortunate to get a second chance.

Noelle Simone: I don't know why, but I'm feeling so sad. I want to try something I've never had.

Jose Otero: My mom met my dad here on 103rd in park. There used to be a wine store there, and she wanted to get wine, and hence I was born. Then the biggest thing for me that's life changing for me was I met my beautiful fiancé, soon to be my wife, in Spanish Harlem. Hey, I'm the happiest man alive. Go figure, right?

Brian Lehrer: We found the happiest man alive, and he's right here in New York City, in Harlem. Full disclosure, we had to condense these clips to try and squeeze in as many stories as we could into that montage. We have a few minutes for phone calls, listeners. Even though this is the project where WNYC goes out to all the neighborhoods, we can open up the phones and have some incoming for a few minutes to anyone, for anyone who wants to share a story that you feel could only happen in your neighborhood.

Try to be unique to your neighborhood. Let's see what we get. 212-433-WNYC. 212-433-9692. Maybe there's a special person on your street that's a total character and knows everybody who passes by. Maybe you live in the midst of a culture that you think is particularly, fill in the blank of your neighborhood, or near a culture that's different from your own, that you've learned from so much because now you live in that neighborhood altogether. What makes your neighborhood of New York City special? 212-433-WNYC, if anyone wants to take a shot at that. 212-433-9692.

As we continue to talk about the WNYC partnership with Street Lab, bringing our microphones to neighborhoods all over the five boroughs with George Bodarky, Community Partnerships and Training editor at WNYC, and Leslie Davol, co-founder and executive director of Street Lab. Anybody want in? 212-433-9692. Leslie, let me ask you, as you go around, how similar or how different are New Yorker stories in different neighborhoods?

Leslie Davol: What I love about this collaboration is it gives a little taste of what Street Lab has been privileged to experience and what people who join us on the street experience for 10 years now. We get to hear so many stories when we're out there, and what stands out, frankly, is some of the similarities. I mean, we all go through challenges, we all have hopes and dreams. There's a lot going on in people's minds on a day to day basis that's outside the news cycle, and we hear a lot about that everywhere we go.

Brian Lehrer: George, got one that sticks in your mind, just one story? We played that clip, that collection of clips. Anything else that you're thinking of as you sit here right now promoting the whole idea and thinking, "Yes, God, there was this time, this guy, this woman, this person," anything?

George Bodarky: I never expect anyone to sing when I sit across from them and they're talking to me. We heard someone sing there, but really--

Brian Lehrer: We did get that in the montage.

George Bodarky: It's the honesty, and it's the authenticity, and it's really the willingness of people to share sometimes deeply personal stories with a complete stranger. I mean, that's what's happening out there. For me, it's really this wonderful feeling to sit across from someone and connect in this way, and really feeling blessed to have the opportunity. It enriches me, it warms my heart. There's this deep feeling of connection, I think, on both sides of the table.

As Leslie was saying, sometimes we hear similar themes coming to New York from another country to pursue the American Dream, or finding that second chance in life after getting caught up in the criminal justice system. That's one story that really does stick out to me. I was in East Harlem and there was some one who was giving out samples. We were at La Marqueta and he was outside giving samples and he was eyeing me for a while, and I saw him eyeing me.

Then he came over to the table and he said, "How long are you going to be here?" I said, "I'm going to be here for a couple of hours." He said, "Because I'm working, but I really want to share my story." I'm like, "I'll be here." He came over maybe about an hour or so later and he shared this story about getting caught up in the criminal justice system, and having a second chance in life and not realizing that he would ever have that second chance in life, and wanting to communicate that to people, that there is another chance in life.

Also a similar story in Prospect Lefferts Gardens, where someone who came from the West Indies seeking the American Dream here in New York was going through a divorce and became addicted to drugs and lost everything. He said, "At 63 years old, I'm going back to school, I'm making something, and I'm reinventing myself at 63 years old." It's those stories, I think, of perseverance and reinvention that is what New York City is all about.

We hear that so frequently, but at the same time, they're so individual and so personal. Again, it's that authenticity and that honesty.

Brian Lehrer: Let me get a couple of caller stories in here real quick. Allison in Ditmas Park, you're on WNYC. Hi, Allison?

Allison: Hi, Brian. Can you hear me?

Brian Lehrer: Yes.

Allison: I just wanted to say that what makes this park so special is the old beautiful trees that we have here. It's like living in the country with the subway right here, the houses, the porches. Not that I own one of those, but I pass by them in dream. We're very fortunate here to have beauty all the time. Spring, winter, summer, fall. Since I know you guys love trees, I just thought I'd give a shout out to the trees here at Ditmas.

Brian Lehrer: Like living in the country with a subway nearby. You don't hear people juxtapose those two very much. Desmond in Crown Heights, you're on WNYC. Hi, Des?

Desmond: Hi. Thank you, Brian, once again for taking my calls. I'm really intrigued by the fact that people are reaching out into communities. I live in Crown Heights North, and I can bring up several things. Piggyback on that lady's last statement, there has been a tremendous amount of gentrification in Crown Heights North, it's a community that was neglected for decades, basically all my life, 70 plus years. It's West Indians and people who are part of the great migration came up in this community and through sheer force of will held on to properties, and are now watching them be sold and manipulated by the fire industry to finance insurance and real estate.

To putting up ugly big box houses, and destroying the legacy of the community. That goes into another point, which is the Landmarks Preservation, which basically tends to bend in the direction of all these billionaires and multimillionaires who are part of these funding organizations, who are coming in and saying that they're providing housing. They're not providing affordable housing because the city is still undergoing the guidelines from Westchester, which is an entirely different district.

Brian Lehrer: Of course, we could hear stories like that, unfortunately, in neighborhood after neighborhood, Desmond I'm going to leave it there for today for time, keep calling us. Let's get one more in here. Melissa, on the Upper East Side, you're on WNYC. Hi, Melissa.

Melissa: Hi, thanks so much for having me. Love New York, love living here, and I think some of the great things about living in New York is just the stories and the people that you meet. I was getting my iPhone updated, getting a new phone a few months ago, and I was in the basement of the Apple store on the Upper East Side, and I was sitting between an older woman who was in her late 70s and a guy who is in his 40s. He looks over at this older woman and he goes, "Look at you, it's so great that you are staying so in touch with technology and up to speed on the latest iPhone."

She just looks over at him, and she goes, "I was a coder and a software developer for 30 years. I built the technology that this stuff is built on." It was just one of those funny New York moments where you see people in all stages of their life.

Brian Lehrer: There's a metropolitan diary moment, right? Yet another, man stereotyping a woman, Leslie. Any thoughts, Leslie, on those three stories together?

Leslie Davol: I think it goes to the point that I think if you just provide people with a way to share something about themselves that they don't usually get to share just when you're walking down the street, you give them chance to pause, do something like draw, pick up a book, share a story, some little interaction. You reveal the sides of people and that is what connects us. Those are those New York moments that she's talking about.

Brian Lehrer: George, thinking about Desmond's call. Is there a common, I don't want to say complaint, because it trivializes it, but is there a common unease about the direction of New York that you hear as you go, besides the positive stories, and the many positive stories we played that montage before, but unease, whether it's about gentrification or anything else in particular as you've been going place to place, crime, whatever.

George Bodarky: For sure, I can tell you that specifically in Jamaica, Queens, there was a tremendous concern about gentrification. Heard from a business owner who has been there for 15 years who said that a developer is buying a property in the neighborhood, he doesn't know what's going to happen next. He knows he needs to leave. They also moved the transit center there, and people are expressing concerns about that. Certainly a common theme about gentrification.

When I was in the Fordham neighborhood of the Bronx, I heard concerns about people who didn't feel safe walking back to their home, there was an individual that I spoke with who was living in an LGBTQ+ shelter there who talked about feeling unsafe going to and from the shelter. Yes, those concerns are real. Those concerns are out there, Brian, there's no question about that.

Brian Lehrer: Just tell everybody, George, real quick, as this project is going to continue through September, about the two yet to come this month. This Saturday, I see you'll be in Tompkinsville on Staten Island, and next Tuesday, the 25th, Belmont in the Bronx, how can people find you?

George Bodarky: The best place to go is to the Street Lab website, because you can check out their calendar. We're listed right there, so StreetLab.org.

Brian Lehrer: We leave it there for today with George Bodarky, community partnerships and training editor at WNYC, and Leslie Davol, co-founder and executive editor of Street Lab. Again, StreetLab.org especially if you live in Tompkinsville for the Saturday, or Belmont for next Tuesday, that neighborhood of the Bronx. Thanks, both of you, for coming on and sharing your amazing work.

George Bodarky: Thanks, Brian.

Leslie Davol: Thanks, Brian.

Brian Lehrer: That's The Brian Lehrer Show for today, produced by Mary Croke, Lisa Allison, Amina Srna, Carl Boisrond, and Esperanza Rosenbaum, Zach Gottehrer-Cohen produces our daily politics podcast. Our interns this term are Trinity Lopez and Briana Brady. Stay tuned for Alison. I'm Brian Lehrer.

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