Hunts Point Is Not Full of Prostitutes & Addicts

NPR jumps on the bandwagon to continue propagating the past history of Hunts Point – and indeed the Bronx in this somewhat follow up to the Chris Arnade disaster of a few years back.  You know, the guy who worked on Wall Street and decided to trek to Hunts Point to photograph the sex workers?  To any reader outside of the Bronx, they will read these stories and pretty much believe that that is all there is to this neighborhood.

The Bronx still has a long way to go in shedding its tarnished past although we have definitely gotten a better perception now than anytime before the Great Decline, however, it seems that poor Hunts Point will never get a break.  “Journalists” seem to just latch on to that image of it for what seems to be purely sensationalistic reasons. There is SO MUCH MORE coming out of Hunts Point than this garbage.

Read if you will, below, and follow the link at the end for the rest of the “story”.

In this episode of Micropolis, WNYC’s Arun Venugopal ventures into the home of Michael, a transsexual prostitute and heroin addict — and, as you can hear in the segment above — given to baking cookies for her guests.

Michael, who also goes by the name Shelly, or Michelle, is one of the subjects of “Portraits of Addiction,” an ongoing project by Wall Street trader-turned-photographer Chris Arnade and writer Cassie Rodenberg.

The series, now in its third year, brings viewers into close contact with addicts and prostitutes in Hunts Point, in the Bronx. View the series Tumblr here, or the Flickr page.

In addition to images, the project gives us insights into the lives of its subjects. Thirty-five year old Vanessa, seen below, “was standing on the cold street corner looking for business, wearing only flip flops and smoking with her two friends.” When asked how she wanted to be described, one friend jumped in and said “She’s the sweetest woman I know. She will give you the shirt off her back, if she has one on.”

Read and listen to the rest: http://www.wnyc.org/articles/wnyc-news/2013/apr/17/micropolis-images-addiction-bronx/