The Fort Greene Clinton Hill Local reported in September that the Red Apple Supermarket at Myrtle Avenue and Ashland Place began hiring area residents. Since then, Red Apple representatives said that it hired most of its 75-person staff from local public housing.
The store opened in late October and hired more than 70 employees, most of them residents from the Ingersoll and Whitman houses, according to District Leader Lincoln Restler.
Ingersoll resident Victoria Samuel, 44, attended the fair, along with 130 of her neighbors and community members. At the time, she said that she spent more than two years looking for work in the neighborhood to with no success.
“It’s sad because we live here and there aren’t jobs,” she said. “They’re not hiring us and we’re their customers.”
The Ingersoll and Whitman houses, which have more than 9,000 residents combined, were recently found to be in Brooklyn’s poorest census tract.
Hired the week after the job fair, Samuel said that it is nice to work with her neighbors and that she hopes to see more business pursue similar hiring practices.
“If they had a lot more of that happening around here, it would be a little better for a lot of people,” Samuel said. “They would see that the people here aren’t useless.”
This is good visually and from the point of telling the story. The guy staring at the camera is creepy, but it’s good that you start with it so the 4th wall is broken immediately. Had it been buried within the middle of the video, it would have been just weird.
A few other notes: The shots after the long pan are a little redundant. And the actualities, while good, go on a little long. Other than that, I think you did a good job with the subject.