Hmm. So yesterday I was out at a fire that killed a guy at Brooklyn Manor, a residential facility in East New York for the mentally ill. Only it turned out the victim was killed through his own negligence — by smoking in bed. So we just ran this small story.
The Times put the story on the front page of the metro section, though, I guess in part because the same home was featured in a highly-praised series by Cliff Levy on horrible conditions in nursing homes.
In this case, though, I’m not sure they were being fair:
- The story says some residents were “missed in their rooms” during the evacuation, quoting two third-floor residents of the adult home who were passed over. But I spoke with Deputy Fire Chief Wayne Cartwright at the scene — he told me that only the fourth floor needed to be evacuated, and residents were simply moved to the third floor. The fire was confined to the victim’s bed, bedding and remains. (The Times reporter got there a little later, and didn’t have a chance to speak to Cartwright).
- The story says patients were “left unattended in the street for hours.” … Now, the Times stringer was at the facility a lot longer than I was. Maybe she noticed something about the residents that I didn’t. But whereas the Times saw people being “left unattended,” I just saw people hanging out on a bench on a fairly nice day. There was nothing about them that made me think they required constant care.
(I’m not usually one to pick apart another reporter’s work, but these two issues were at the heart of the NYT story… but maybe this is just sour grapes, that they saw a better story than I did? I certainly would have hung out there longer if I knew of the facility’s history of violations…).
On a different note – my pod-mate had this cool story in yesterday’s paper, about women looking for day labor work on street corners. The reporter, Lisa Munoz, actually went to a Williamsurg “shakeup” and worked for seven hours cleaning one woman’s home on her hands and knees…
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