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I felt excited and
nervous about coming to a new place: Bloomberg News, our new home for
a month. I didn't think it was going to be as busy or fast or as focused
on security. Meeting new people and entering a new part of town made
afraid I was going to screw up. But I was surprised at the way things
turned out.
HarlemLive's
first day on the top of it all. We got the chance to experience how
today’s journalist works in a professional environment. Before,
a normal day at HarlemLive would consist of taking pictures, going out
to report stories, creating websites, meeting new people and recruiting
new staff.
Right now, I’m the longest serving member of HarlemLive and one
of few members who has a general understanding of everything we use
in HarlemLive. I go to school at CPESS (Central Park East Secondary
School) in East Harlem; my school is about a 5-minute walk to HarlemLive's
former location. While walking towards HarlemLive, I had an excellent
view of the Harlem Meer, a large pond in northern Central Park and just
outside the park the buildings are low so it gives you a pretty nice
view of the sky. But now, things have changed big time
February 25, 2002: Class ended early, so I had a head start for
my long journey towards 59th Street and Park Avenue, Bloomberg’s
home base in the center of New York City. My voyage to HarlemLive was
now a lot more complex than my usual five-minute stroll to the offices.
I left my school and walked to the local train station, and then I hopped
on the 6 trains heading downtown.
 Arriving
in midtown, I looked up and could hardly see the sky. Skyscrapers surrounded
me. Everything is busy, hundreds of cars crowd the streets, horns going
on and off, people are dressed up in nice suits and getting ready to
go home from work. I looked around and realized that, unlike Harlem,
which is a diverse community, I didn’t seem to find anyone with
my complexion. This part of New York, this place of business, this place
where something was always going on, I couldn't stop realizing that
the majority of people were white.
As I kept walking I finally reached Park Avenue. I turned my head and
looked up, I was now in front of Bloomberg a circular 37-floor building
with black tinted windows, and HarlemLive was now temporarily based
on the 19th of this empire of dark windows.
While walking towards one of Bloomberg's entrances, I met two HarlemLive
staff members, Jason Taylor and Juan Rodriguez-Lavezarri. I got lost.
I was heading to the wrong entrance of the building. Everything seemed
to be very confusing to me. The place was so huge. You had to have help
to know where you were going. It's like you're in a human maze. Jason
and Juan both led me to the correct entrance of the building. I was
now walking towards a huge glass-spinning door. When I went through
it, I came in to the lobby of the Bloomberg building. To the left of
me there were four leather chairs surrounding a glass coffee table with
these Bloomberg flat screen monitors hanging over it showing the business
news. From then on I knew HarlemLive was totally out of Playing
2 Win.
I came up to the desk as there was a guard sitting in front of multi-screen
monitors, at that time the first thing that came across my mind was,
THE MATRIX. The guard asked me for a picture ID that was unusual to
me because I never had to do that at HarlemLive before. I took out my
ID form my wallet and showed it to the guard. Then the guard went on
searching to see if HarlemLive had provide a Bloomberg ID card for me.
While the guard was searching for the ID card, I turned to my left and
saw two security guards standing beside two gray metal detectors. Of
all the building I’ve been to this building had the wildest security
ever. After a brief waiting period the guard called me and gave me some
bad news. Unfortunately, ID cards weren’t the strong point of HarlemLive.
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