Report the facts – and feelings

Reporting involves asking questions. Sometimes the questions are easy, sometimes they’re uncomfortable and sometimes they’re unusual.

Most of the reporting I’ve done for the Vision has been fairly straight forward– news, the occasional profile, but from time to time I get to do a piece that leans less on straight presentation of facts.

For example, I’m working on a feature piece about the 12 South area – that funky stretch of shops and businesses between Linden Avenue and Kirkwood Avenue. In talking to several business owners, I’ve been closing with the question, “what does 12 South feel like?”

The question is completely necessary in communicating what 12 South is as a place and what that means to the people who live and work there, but I was a bit nervous about asking the question.

It’s easy to get used to the world as a cynical place. People get locked into tight definitions of appropriate behavior- – what’s “cool” isn’t so much “cool” as it is “safe” anymore. “Cool” guards against smirks and raised eyebrows that can sting more than outright criticism sometimes.

Think of a pair of mirrored Aviators. They’re really slick shades because no one can see your eyes. Aviators are a sign of a modern day stoicism that is a flat out lack of emotion.

(Full disclosure: Writer has been wearing the same pair of Aviators since ’07.)

“Cool” means that hardly anything actually is.

I use this word because few others have been so enduring in terms of representing staying within certain socially accepted lines and ultimately, managing the way people perceive you. It can be an attitude, it can be a framework for judgment and rejection.

Can a street “feel” like something? Of course, but what if no one were willing to admit that? What if no one wanted to show some sentiment? What was I going to say when I got an incredulous, “what do you mean ‘feel,’” as if I were trying to pull some hippie dippie nonsense?

Get in touch with your feminine side, describe the shape of that cloud, and tell me what a bunch of buildings “feel” like.

If I start anticipating cynical reactions from everyone, maybe I’ve been around people who react that way for too long.

I did ask my question, though. I needed to know and I was prepared to push. If they were going to think I was loopy I didn’t care as long as they answered me seriously.

Each and every person I interviewed raised their eyebrows – because they hadn’t thought of it before. They told me it was a good question, and slowly and carefully tried to put together an answer – I think because the neighborhood is important to these folks and they wanted to say what they really felt about it.

I’d say that’s pretty cool.