Around two weeks ago I went over to the Tacolcy center to do a story on the youth bicycle club that had been started there. Originally I thought this story would be simple: cover the 5 W's and gather a few quotes. Simple enough, that the day before my meeting with Roger Horne, club founder, The Miami Herald had covered the exact event in the exact way that I would have approached the story. In hindsight, I think it was that story that made me understand our goal and appreciate even further what we are doing here.

I didn't want to reiterate the same points brought forward by the Herald article. And in that first minute when I arrived, I already knew the story would be different for one simple reason; I was there the day after. It's what Professor Reisner had brought up in the first day of class. The media covers Liberty City the day something happens (corruption, shooting, in my case, a community bike ride). But the media isn't there the day after. The day, as I noticed, when all the smiling white people leave and only the real residents trying to get by remain. Those are the people I met with and interviewed.

One of the things I recall from that meeting was Roger Horne saying, "We're glad to have you." It wasn't him simply extending common courtesy, he was saying that it was important to have people coming in and telling this undertold story of an undercovered community. I met with Richard Page who serves as the club mechanic, a man who's there in spite of the fact that the mechanic portion of the club wasn't scheduled that day. It resonated that this was a man who truly cared and wasn't there to get his picture in the paper. We talked for a half hour and i got to learn his story, the one that lead to all of this.

There is a lot going on in Liberty City. The problem is that oftentimes it doesn't have the influence or man-power to bring about the results people want. There were other people there, many leaving their imprint on the community on a smaller scale. I even got a great idea from a man working in the Tacolcy center about a project elsewhere.

It was important that I was there the day follwing the hype. I got a story that seemed a bit more genuine, and an idea for another story I know other media outlets won't be reporting.

That's the thing about hype. It veils reality and the type of stories we're trying to do.