00:00:00 Hi, my name’s Jackie Nese. I’m from Deer Park, NY, and I’m a theater major, sophomore year.
00:00:08 Interviewer: What did you do last summer for a summer job?
00:00:11 I worked for citizen’s campaign for the environment, which is a grassroots organization that focuses on environmental issues on a local and national level. Specifically Long Island, though.
00:00:22 In what capacity did you work for them?
00:00:25 I worked for them for the whole summer from May to August and what we did was we went, we were canvassers grassroots, and we went door to door educating people, educating local citizens on campaigns that we’re working on. We did the global warming campaign and we also did a very important campaign to Long Island called Broadwater. It’s a nuclear gas plant that they want to put in the middle—it’s like a barge—in the middle of the LI Sound. So we were fighting against that.
00:00:56 And what kind of response did you generally get from people? Overwhelmingly positive or negative?
00:01:02 It depended. There’s no way to say it was overwhelmingly positive or negative because it could have been split depending on where you went. If you were living on the sound you’re most likely going to get positive reactions–to get that out of their backyard. But if you’re on the south shore people don’t really respond to it, they don’t really care about it. So, again, it was mixed and depending on what time of day you go it really can be mixed.
00:01:29 What was your, sort of, pitch? What was the big thing you led off with? Just in general, not so much focusing on Broadwater, but the biggest message you would want to convey to people when you spoke with them?
00:01:44 About the specific campaign? Because when we were talking to people it was generally very specific. We just kind of got to the point. We made sure to hit it home with them. They’re called raps, is what we call them, how we talk to them. So, we had different raps for different locations. If you were in Western Nassau you kind of have to have it speedy. Because Western Nassau is a lot different than if you’re out in Montoq. The pace is completely different. Also location-wise, if you’re in Western Nassau on the sound, as opposed to WN on the ocean, the south shore, its going to be completely different raps. For North shore you kind of just want to remind them of why they love to live on the sound you know? You live on the sound because you have this beautiful water. Do you want this huge thing a. filling up and taking control of your ports and your waterways, water activities. You’re paying your taxes so that you can have this beautiful sound. You’re living on the water for it and you pay more for that. If you’re on the south shore, you’re saying if they can do it there, then they can do it in your waters. I’m pretty sure you guys don’t want it to be right in your backyard, so think about how they’re feeling up north.
00:03:00 We didn’t go to Hempstead for security reasons, but we went to surrounding areas like East Meadow, we went to Levittown. They go to every—I was only there for the summer and the summer they usually tend to go out east more just cause you can walk around easier there—and they stay close to the main office during the winter. So I didn’t get to really canvas Western Nassau too often. But East Meadow, Levittown, those kinds of areas we definitely did.
00:03:32 What was the message that you were sending in those areas specifically?
00:03:36 Specifically, to oppose Broadwater, sign petitions. We asked for donations because we came around once a year. We don’t get money from the government, we’re only run on what our supporters will give us. So, we like to break it down like, hey, if you could give us a $52 donation that’s a dollar a week. Break it down for them so that they know we only come around once a year. So that’s how we would get donations. And then most importantly though, we would have them write letters to Senator Clinton, and a couple of other people that we were targeting. Spitzer, Velasquez, well not Spitzer anymore, and one other person. And we would have everybody in the family, even if their kids were three years old we’d have them write these letters, and they tape it to their door and then at the end of our night we would stop canvassing and we’d have a sheet of all the houses that promised us letters. We’d go back and check, we’d take the letters they just taped to their door, take all the letters, and we’d mail them out for them.
00:04:41 That’s our job when we come back to the office. To sit there and write down—I would be getting, I was the letter Queen. I got like, some nights I would have 60 letters from families that I would have to send out. So I would be sitting there writing out 60 envelopes to Hillary Clinton. We would give them a sheet of what to say, but most importantly is we would have them write the letters.
00:05:10 Why did you choose to work for them over the summer?
00:05:15 It was very spontaneous and very, not last minute, but unexpected. My friend of a friend said there was this great job that pays well, pays, they said something like 200 to 300 up to 500 a week that you’d be making. So I was like, oh okay, that’s really cool, that’ll attract me to it. And then once I got there they interviewed me and told me more about it. And it was definitely something that I was interested in because the winter break right before the summer I had just watched Al Gore’s environmental movie. I don’t remember the name of it.
00:05:55 An Inconvenient Truth.
00:05:57 Inconvenient Truth. There you go. I just watched that and it really showed me that this isn’t a joke. That global warming is here and its not something you can mess around with. And after watching that it was basically like the golden opportunity to help out. So I went to interview and after that it kind of just fell into place. I set up a time when I could start training, start working, and it just went from there.
00:06:29 Ok, and do you feel like your experience helped you make a difference?
00:06:33 Yeah. Absolutely because we were constantly getting correspondence from Hillary Clinton herself and from her offices saying like hey guys, so, uh, we have a thousand letters from you guys. We get the point. And getting their support, just opening their eyes. As much as I really want to believe that I helped, and I think that without the canvassers—someone said to me this summer that canvassers are the unspoken heroes of democracy. And it kind of like, made the job easier because like it’s where it starts. You’re getting the closest to the voters. You’re getting closest to the people that are going to make the difference and inspiring them to do so. Just like watching a movie does, but this is even more personal and more interacting. I want to say that as many people as I spoke to ad as many people who were like wow its really great that you’re doing this, even if it’s one or two people, it’s one or two people more than we had before. And as many doors as were slammed in my face, there’s another one down the road that’s going to be congratulating me and really bringing my hopes up for the cause. So, I think that it helps, and even if it didn’t help them I learned more. About it, about people about how they act and about how they view different issues.
Monday, April 14, 2008
Transcript of Councilman Fred Pollack Interview
00:00 Are you ready? Okay. I’m councilman Fred Pollack, I represent the 6th District of the Town of North Hempstead. As such I’m a member of the Town’s legislative body, one of six members of the town board, plus the supervisor.
00:14 And is it correct that you make environmental sustainability on Long Island a Big issue in your work?
00:17 Yes, environmental issues are very important. We have particularly Port Washington we are a peninsula surrounded on one side by Hempstead Harbor and on the other by Manhasset Bay. We have 32 miles of waterfront in the Town of North Hempstead, 3 harbors and bays, so, we also have the largest open space left in Nassau County, which is privately held, but we are very careful to protect it and make sure that it doesn’t get developed.
00:40 And what have you personally done in terms of protecting the environment?
00:44 I’ve created what’s called the environmental trust fund, which is a public-private partnership that is designed to use non-tax dollars for open space and other environmental programs, beautification, acquisition. Et cetera. Educational programs, things that would not otherwise we’d be able to do. There’s a limit to what you can do with tax dollars. We’ve also created the waterfront advisory commission, which advises the town on policies on how to manage the waterfront. And I was instrumental in creating the both the Hempstead Harbor protection committee and the Manhasset Bay protection committee, both of which are intermunicipal bodies that deal with the issues affecting the water quality and management of both of those harbors and bays.
01:25 Okay, and um, I don’t know if your work really deals with this, but what if anything would you suggest local residents can do themselves to help your initiatives?
01:39 Well, local residents—look, everything comes down to what people do in the environment and what people do locally and on their own, whether it’s making sure they recycle everything that recyclable and do it properly. Sometimes that gets complicated, start looking at the numbers on the bottom of plastic items and whether it’s the appropriate item to recycle can sometimes make people a little bit nutty. But they have to, you know, separating it. Making use of organic chemicals rather than pesticides and making sure that the rules and regulations are followed when its appropriate. Cleaning up after their pets. We’re an—we have—on Long Island we get our water from the aquifer. And all these pesticides and all the pet waste and everything else that goes into the ground eventually works its way into both the harbors and bays and into the aquifers. So we really have to be very careful about what we put on the ground.
02:26 Okay, do you feel that in New York government or Long Island local government apart from your office obviously do you feel that people put as much of a stress on sustainability as you or do you feel that it lacks in other areas?
02:42 I think certainly on a county level, and certainly my colleagues here in the town, we’re all very aware of the environmental issues and concerns and that’s what I’m mostly familiar with. I don’t know. I’m sure that the other officials in other bodies and other governments are interested. I think it’s a major issue.
03:00 For example the county legislature just passed a law banning, I think it was banning the use of plastic shopping bags. At supermarkets, they’re going to require them to, at least they—I haven’t read the law, I think says they have to provide paper bags and they have to provide recyclable bags I’m pretty sure it bans ultimately the use of plastic shopping bags.
03:24 All right. What do you consider your biggest accomplishment in terms of the thing we’ve been talking about?
03:31 620 tons of garbage and stuff that has been removed from one of our local waterways, Sheets Creek, over the last couple of years. We’ve taken out old barges and tugboats and all kinds of crap that’s been dumped there and it now looks a lot, old buildings that have sort of deteriorated. It looks a lot better than it did, there’s more to go, but hopefully we’re going to be able to finish clearing that up and get the necessary permits to bulkhead and build a public walkway so people will be able to walk around that side of the bay. We’re about to do a 5 and a half million dollar project regenerating I guess that’s the right term, rejuvenating Mill Pond, which is a major pond that deals with the estuaries in Manhasset Bay. So, those are a couple of things that I think are really important.
04:22 And what would you consider the biggest issue still yet to be tackled?
04:30 Trying to get, um, develop policies that govern the use of new buildings and indeed existing buildings in terms of lower energy use and making sure that they take advantage of all of the modern techniques to reduce the use the demand on energy, solar, et cetera.
04:49 Okay, um, and just, I guess, one last question, do you feel that with the recent upsurge of going green as a sort of celebrity cause, its gotten a lot of media recently, lets put it that way. Do you feel that that’s affected the policies or enthusiasm in any way on a local level?
05:09 I suspect with some people it has. I’m sure there are some people who are more inclined to pay attention to issues that have media attention. I would think however that the biggest, the biggest motivation, even for elected officials who might not be 100 percent committed to the environment, and I haven’t met any, but the biggest motivation is you know when you go to the supermarket and people talk to you or you go to the park and people talk to you, you know wherever it is, and people say wait a minute, what about noise, what about cleaning up the harbors and bays, what about energy reduction and et cetera. If that’s what’s on people’s minds that’s what you pay attention to.
00:14 And is it correct that you make environmental sustainability on Long Island a Big issue in your work?
00:17 Yes, environmental issues are very important. We have particularly Port Washington we are a peninsula surrounded on one side by Hempstead Harbor and on the other by Manhasset Bay. We have 32 miles of waterfront in the Town of North Hempstead, 3 harbors and bays, so, we also have the largest open space left in Nassau County, which is privately held, but we are very careful to protect it and make sure that it doesn’t get developed.
00:40 And what have you personally done in terms of protecting the environment?
00:44 I’ve created what’s called the environmental trust fund, which is a public-private partnership that is designed to use non-tax dollars for open space and other environmental programs, beautification, acquisition. Et cetera. Educational programs, things that would not otherwise we’d be able to do. There’s a limit to what you can do with tax dollars. We’ve also created the waterfront advisory commission, which advises the town on policies on how to manage the waterfront. And I was instrumental in creating the both the Hempstead Harbor protection committee and the Manhasset Bay protection committee, both of which are intermunicipal bodies that deal with the issues affecting the water quality and management of both of those harbors and bays.
01:25 Okay, and um, I don’t know if your work really deals with this, but what if anything would you suggest local residents can do themselves to help your initiatives?
01:39 Well, local residents—look, everything comes down to what people do in the environment and what people do locally and on their own, whether it’s making sure they recycle everything that recyclable and do it properly. Sometimes that gets complicated, start looking at the numbers on the bottom of plastic items and whether it’s the appropriate item to recycle can sometimes make people a little bit nutty. But they have to, you know, separating it. Making use of organic chemicals rather than pesticides and making sure that the rules and regulations are followed when its appropriate. Cleaning up after their pets. We’re an—we have—on Long Island we get our water from the aquifer. And all these pesticides and all the pet waste and everything else that goes into the ground eventually works its way into both the harbors and bays and into the aquifers. So we really have to be very careful about what we put on the ground.
02:26 Okay, do you feel that in New York government or Long Island local government apart from your office obviously do you feel that people put as much of a stress on sustainability as you or do you feel that it lacks in other areas?
02:42 I think certainly on a county level, and certainly my colleagues here in the town, we’re all very aware of the environmental issues and concerns and that’s what I’m mostly familiar with. I don’t know. I’m sure that the other officials in other bodies and other governments are interested. I think it’s a major issue.
03:00 For example the county legislature just passed a law banning, I think it was banning the use of plastic shopping bags. At supermarkets, they’re going to require them to, at least they—I haven’t read the law, I think says they have to provide paper bags and they have to provide recyclable bags I’m pretty sure it bans ultimately the use of plastic shopping bags.
03:24 All right. What do you consider your biggest accomplishment in terms of the thing we’ve been talking about?
03:31 620 tons of garbage and stuff that has been removed from one of our local waterways, Sheets Creek, over the last couple of years. We’ve taken out old barges and tugboats and all kinds of crap that’s been dumped there and it now looks a lot, old buildings that have sort of deteriorated. It looks a lot better than it did, there’s more to go, but hopefully we’re going to be able to finish clearing that up and get the necessary permits to bulkhead and build a public walkway so people will be able to walk around that side of the bay. We’re about to do a 5 and a half million dollar project regenerating I guess that’s the right term, rejuvenating Mill Pond, which is a major pond that deals with the estuaries in Manhasset Bay. So, those are a couple of things that I think are really important.
04:22 And what would you consider the biggest issue still yet to be tackled?
04:30 Trying to get, um, develop policies that govern the use of new buildings and indeed existing buildings in terms of lower energy use and making sure that they take advantage of all of the modern techniques to reduce the use the demand on energy, solar, et cetera.
04:49 Okay, um, and just, I guess, one last question, do you feel that with the recent upsurge of going green as a sort of celebrity cause, its gotten a lot of media recently, lets put it that way. Do you feel that that’s affected the policies or enthusiasm in any way on a local level?
05:09 I suspect with some people it has. I’m sure there are some people who are more inclined to pay attention to issues that have media attention. I would think however that the biggest, the biggest motivation, even for elected officials who might not be 100 percent committed to the environment, and I haven’t met any, but the biggest motivation is you know when you go to the supermarket and people talk to you or you go to the park and people talk to you, you know wherever it is, and people say wait a minute, what about noise, what about cleaning up the harbors and bays, what about energy reduction and et cetera. If that’s what’s on people’s minds that’s what you pay attention to.
Project Memo
Jrnl 80 B Final Project
I initially had a hard time giving my project a focus. I started out with a very general idea of what I wanted to cover and compiled a lot of information from my links. I knew I wanted to cover green initiatives on
I also had a bit of a hard time getting contacts together as well. I got 16 out of the 20 suggested and ended up with 2 solid interviews. In the end, I really let the interviews guide the direction of the article. I had a friend who worked and was passionate about the Citizen’s campaign for the environment. I thought she would be perfect because she grew up on
The interview that I may be missing is an opponent of protecting the local environment. That kind of person would admittedly have been hard to find, particularly with the time constraints. However, I ended up focusing on the Town of
Getting the actual interviews was not exceedingly difficult, just stressful with the deadline looming. Further, editing the film was not as difficult as I’d imagined either. It isn’t perfect. I had a little trouble editing down what my politician said because he cut himself off a lot. However, getting the piece to exactly 2 minutes was not as hard as I expected it to be. Beyond that, compiling the transcripts and getting all my content together and ready to present, was basically just tedious.
I do consider this valuable experience. I have never produced a video piece for the web before, and I found that it is a lot different than producing a text-only article. With text you can pull out what you want and display it neatly in one small package. With video and all that we’ve done, you can’t fudge it. If the interviewee stutters or says something in a certain tone, it’s right there for the viewer to see. It is a completely new skill that I look forward to experimenting with and honing.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)