The Family Who Lives Above the Store

The glass door to Astoria Carpet stands wide open in welcome. Eleanor Kazas is watching the people pass by, but she won’t be doing this for long. Today, and every day, she has a lot of orders to tend to. Eleanor joined the family business 27 years ago. Her husband, Sotiris Constantinou, is the one who runs this store, but he’s a little late. Once he arrives, she’ll go to her post at Carpet Time, their other Astoria store. “We’re a real mom-and-pop business,”…

Continue Reading →

The Chief of Staff

It’s hard for Samantha Darche to keep a straight face. Every time she sees the camera, she cracks up. No matter what she does, she can’t subpoena her solemn face. Samantha’s the chief of staff for Assemb. Simotas. As the chief of staff and legislative counsel for Assemb. Aravella Simotas, Samantha’s used to being on the other side of the lens. And while she has prepped her boss for countless interviews, she has no clue what to do or say when the story is all about her. Take…

Continue Reading →

The School Fireman

In the bowels of the boiler room of P.S. 122, Tommy Gawiak sits solo. The sun hasn’t rubbed the sleep out of its eyes yet, and the 1,368 elementary school kids won’t start skipping in for an hour or so. Tommy has been at P.S. 122 since 1979. Tommy, the big guy in the little room; he doesn’t mind the solitude, which is broken only by the creaks of his aging body. He’s the school’s fireman, a title that was conferred on maintenance workers back in the days when coal…

Continue Reading →

The Original Wild One

Everybody else in the house is still asleep. That’s why Tommy Capezza is waiting at the front door. It’s not only about being quiet. Tommy, a bulldog with an accordion-fold face and a prizefighter’s rosy cauliflower nose, has a lot to say, private stuff to get off his chest, and he might not want his wife or his grandson to hear some of it. At least not from his own lips. For Tommy, every year has been an adventure. Tommy — they used to call him Tommy Red when his hair was…

Continue Reading →

The Straight-A Student of Life

In the bedroom that also serves as Stefanie Weisman‘s office, a cheap, crisply creased paper map of the world is taped to the wall over the bed. Its continents and countries stare at a floor-to-ceiling unit that features a built-in desk and a mini-library of wildly eclectic titles. There’s an upright piano in the corner, sheet music open. On top of its ebony stool a violin, complete with case, has taken up residence. Stefanie has made a career of being a top student. “My two favorite…

Continue Reading →