Hunts Point Express reporter Matthew Perlman’s investigation of the terrible condition of five apartment buildings in Longwood has won the City University of New York’s Murray Kempton Award for best news story by a CUNY student.
The story, one of four Perlman wrote about crumbling apartments and the efforts of their tenants to battle landlords and set things right, described the 900 block of Kelly Street, where the buildings in an apartment complex have each been among those the city considers among the worst in the city. Perlman offered vivid descriptions of crumbling walls and ceilings, rotting garbage and rodent infestations; he interviewed tenants and the advocates assisting them; and he traced the complex financial dealings of the landlord and the bank that issued a $5 million mortgage.
The judges called the article “a vivid and well-researched account of sadly common conditions in rundown housing in New York City.”
They continued, “With heart and insight, the story takes us inside rat-infested Bronx apartments whose owner mortgaged them and vanished with the money, leaving tenants to live in decay. In clear and economical language that uses quotations with punch, the story provides context, quoting a Housing Court judge, citing city violation notices and sketching what the city and a private social service agency have done to help.”
The judges also praised four other members of The Express staff.
Of the six other news stories cited for excellence, four appeared in The Express. The judges singled out another of Perlman’s stories about housing conditions; Stephanie Litsas’s stories about the Hunts Point Alliance for Children’s toy library and about efforts to create a school based on urban agriculture; and Wen Hao Wang’s look at how federal budget cuts would affect the City Year programs at The Point Community Development Corp. and local public schools.
In the feature category, won by the Bronx Journal’s Basilisa Alonso of Lehman College for a story about homeless, undocumented immigrants who survive by gathering cans and bottles for the deposit, the judges also cited Express reporter John Oros for his behind-the-scenes look at the 25th anniversary New South Bronx Halloween Parade.
The awards recognize the contributions of outstanding undergraduate student journalists at the City University of New York. They are named for the Pulitzer Prize-winning newspaper columnist Murray Kempton, who died in 1997 after a career in New York journalism that spanned a half-century.