January 29, 2021 • 18 mins
When construction comes to your street for a water main replacement, the technical side is only half the challenge. On this episode of Speaking of Design, we’ll meet the people responsible for communicating with residents during construction in New York City. Their work took on added significance during COVID-19, as they initiated a multilanguage public outreach plan for a predominantly Chinese-speaking community.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Everybody was home. Grandma,
babies,
mom, dad, everybody was home. But somehow, they
worked with us. I'm John Torrick, and I'm
Danny Sullivan. And you're listening to Speaking of
Design,
Bringing you the stories of the engineers and
architects
who are transforming the world one project at
a time. When construction comes to your street
(00:20):
for a water main replacement,
the technical side is only half the challenge.
Today, we'll meet the people responsible for communicating
with residents during construction in New York City.
Their work took on added significance during COVID
nineteen as they initiated a multi language public
outreach plan for a predominantly Chinese speaking community.
(00:42):
My equation is, timely and clear communication
equals no surprises. And throughout my entire career,
you inform the community in advance. You keep
them constantly
abreast of what's going on, and you're just
being totally honest with them. Nine times out
of 10, the community will be very receptive
on what you're doing. That's Steve Scaglione,
(01:05):
a construction services manager in HDR's Manhattan office.
Steve's direct tell it like it is approach
feels like it's one part the New Yorker
in him, one part the engineer in him,
and a hint of his twenty eight years
of military service. Well, to be honest with
you, my father did not finish engineering school,
and he wanted me to become a civil
(01:26):
engineer
locations within the the borough of Brooklyn. So
what does replacing a water main entail?
Each street's kinda little different as far as
the extent. Usually, you you try to go
street by street. You don't wanna tear up
four or five streets at one time. They
do it in segments.
It's a block in length, which is probably
maybe 200 feet that they'll try to do
(01:47):
at a time where they'll rip out the
old water main, put the new one in.
When you're gonna dig and close lanes of
traffic,
the project becomes a larger coordination effort. Utility
companies
are sometimes heavily involved on some of these
projects,
especially if the water main has to be
realigned
and there's some underground utilities in a way.
So we're always coordinating with the utility companies.
(02:10):
Traffic,
you have to make sure that if you're
closing that particular street or especially going through
an intersection intersections
are very, very complicated
in a sense that while you're in an
intersection, you're actually affecting
several streets. They also need to think about
what type of vehicles need to travel down
each street.
Let's say, for example, if a bus goes
(02:30):
down that street, we have to contact the
MTA buses so they could reroute the bus
if the bus cannot get down that street.
At the same time, we are always very
cognizant that we have to have access
down the street for any fire trucks or
EMS or police emergency vehicles.
On top of the open trench for construction,
(02:51):
the contractor also needs space to stage equipment
and materials. Normally, nine times out of 10,
the parking lanes will be taken up, and
that's for so the construction contractor to use
those parking lanes for for both material storage,
temporary storage of their pipe, the new pipe
that they're gonna lay into that particular street,
and also for their construction equipment. Then there's
(03:13):
also the community aspect. Beyond a closed lane
in the street and the inconvenience of construction,
the replacement involves an even more direct impact
on people's lives,
turning off their water. Depending where the water
main is and what it services,
there could be residential homes. There could be
essential
facilities like hospitals,
(03:33):
dialysis centers. There could be areas of commercial
use of,
laundry mats, car washes,
large list of users of the water that
are important that we have to coordinate with
is when we have to do, shutdowns
of when we're tying in the new water
main sections into the existing water main. With
the number of businesses and residents impacted by
(03:55):
that type of project, the New York City
Department of Design and Construction,
which oversees construction for the Department of Environmental
Protection,
realized they needed to regularly have an additional
team member. So it evolved now that on
our staff, we have a person that's trained
in that, and they're part of our staff.
They call it a CCL or construction
(04:17):
community liaison, and they're on all of our
inspection
staffs. And what they do is they're out
there every day
within the communities and whatever streets they get
affected. Let's say they're replacing a water main
in a certain street. They've gotta do a
shutdown.
They'll coordinate
seventy two hours in advance, letting every single
(04:39):
person that's affected by the water shutdown that
are gonna be shut down,
and then they follow-up with the turn on.
It's very critical.
Enter Paul So and Carol Nurse. My name
is Paul So. I am the resident engineer
on the current EDC water main project. I'm
Carol Nurse. I'm the community construction liaison
on the accelerated distribution water main replacement and
(05:02):
sewer rehabilitation
project.
I presently work for
CES
Engineers, which is the subcontractor
to HDR.
Paul's role involves a lot of management and
coordination in the field,
where he enjoys seeing projects like this one
become a reality. The most basic scope of
work is really just to replace the century
(05:23):
old existing water main system in areas that
were deemed by the DEP as high priority.
So a lot of the pipe that we're
taking out of the ground, if you look
at the map, it shows nineteen hundreds. We
haven't even come across pipes in the late
eighteen hundreds. So you were basically replacing these
pipes that have been serving the communities for
well over a hundred years. And we basically
(05:44):
take out the old one, put in the
new one. Which, of course, includes more than
just swapping out one giant pipe. In doing
that, we also have to reconnect to everyone
else's services.
We have to put in new hydrants, any
sprinkler connections.
If it's a larger facility, we have to
reconnect those. I mean, that's kind of the
meat and potatoes of the project. As community
(06:04):
liaison,
Carol's role involves establishing relationships with the community
being impacted by the project.
You can hear in her voice how seriously
she takes that role, which she said begins
with getting to know the technical side of
the job. I tend to hang around the
work crew. I ask lots of questions
because when I've got to answer questions or
(06:26):
concerns to the community,
I have got to give them the right
answers. So if I don't know if someone
asked me people walk up to me in
the street, what are you doing? If I
don't know what I'm talking about, I don't
need to be on the job. To kick
off the Watermain project in Brooklyn,
Carol started identifying leaders in the community.
(06:46):
Before I start a project, I have got
to set up a spreadsheet,
make a database of every politician, every school,
every municipal
group in the area. So before the project
starts, we have a progress meeting. At the
progress meeting, I affiliate myself with everyone from
these different agencies
and businesses and so forth.
(07:08):
Making connections through different groups and organizations
helps to spread the word throughout the community
using existing relationships.
It can also create partners and sometimes advocates.
So what I usually do
is instead of trying to reach out to
everyone,
I try to get hold of one person.
I try to have a close relationship with
(07:29):
them. I keep them abreast of what's going
on. So if there's gonna be a problem,
they, in turn, will talk to people in
their area, and they will get back to
me. Every resident
in the area have got my phone number.
So if there's an issue, they will reach
out to me. In addition to reaching out
through civic organizations,
Carol applies that approach to businesses.
(07:50):
So I may tell a business, for instance,
let's say, the hospital, that your water main
shutdown, which we usually do every day, might
last eight hours. It may not. So they've
got to trust me and the contractor with
whatever information that we give to them. And
I tend to trust them because I need
for them to put out the right information.
If it's a school, the hospital, the politician,
(08:12):
or whatever. Keeping everyone on the same page,
letting everyone know what to expect, and kind
of keeping close look on when their water
is gonna be affected, when their parking is
gonna be affected, and issues like that. The
nature of the impact on businesses changed as
the project moved into 2020
as COVID nineteen altered the world in early
March. In the very beginning,
(08:33):
COVID, it made construction itself easier because there's
less traffic on the street. And when there's
less traffic, the contractor their productivity just increases
just because the streets are empty. However, that
also meant that more residents were home during
construction.
When the COVID started, we originally started out
in kind of like an industrial area. As
we progressed, we went into a predominantly
(08:56):
residential area.
So Paul, the city, the contractor,
and I got our heads together and they
decided to do a survey. The survey entailed
of me knocking on every single door even
if it's a building, because they are large
buildings in New York City, especially in Brooklyn.
So what I was responsible to do was
(09:17):
knock every single door and ask the homeowner
if you were okay with the shutdown.
And if the answer was yes, how long
do you think you'll be able to work
with this shutdown? Do you have any elderly
people in the home? Do you have any
babies? Are there anyone that requires
water during the course of the day? The
(09:39):
team also took actions to help address residents'
legitimate concerns about their water being shut off.
One of the bigger challenges that Carol and
I had to deal with was when we
go into a neighborhood and we say, hey,
by the way, we're coming to the neighborhood.
This is what's gonna happen. This is what
to expect. One of the responses was, well,
how come you're gonna shut off our water
during the pandemic? And
(10:01):
we need water to wash our hands, and
now we're home, and things like that. Carol
said clear, honest
communication about the purpose of the project was
critical. I will explain to them, it's better
to have a scheduled shutdown than to have
a water main break. And we've had a
few the past few months in New York
City in Brooklyn, and it could be catastrophic.
(10:23):
We tell the residences that this has worked
for the city. It's to improve the infrastructure
in your neighborhood. Your pipes are so old
so that what could really happen is if
we don't fix it now, you could get
a water main break because these pipes are
cast iron, which just means that they're very
brittle after all this time. So if you
get a water main break, DEP is coming
down to shut off your water anyway. You
(10:44):
won't be notified, and it it will take
longer than the few days that we're gonna
take. The team also took actions to help
address residents' legitimate concerns about their water being
shut off. So one of the ways we
dealt with that was in the neighborhood with
a lot of residents, we would set up,
water stations outside. We would set up hand
sanitizing stations. Scheduling also helped lessen the inconvenience.
(11:07):
We try to schedule the work. We try
to start earlier and end earlier rather than
start later and end later because we know
that getting a earlier start on the day
just helps with the productivity, and most people
don't necessarily get up as early. So they
would rather see the water on early afternoon
rather than, say, mid afternoon. Each time the
(11:28):
water was turned back on, Carol would continue
her personal communication
with each resident. The water is turned back
on. There's a resumption notice that we would
put on the doors. If I knock on
the doors, that's also part of the process.
When the water is turned back on at
the end of the day, I knock on
every single person's door
to let them know that the water is
(11:48):
back on. If they do not answer the
door, I would stick a note on the
door letting them know the water was restored
at this time. Please check to make sure
that the water is flowing properly.
If it's not, reach out to me. Carol
was ready to take those calls no matter
what time of day. As soon as I
get the call, what I usually do, if
(12:09):
I have got the answer, I will deal
with it immediately. If I don't have the
answer,
I will call Paul, then I'll reach out
to the contractor, and we'll put our minds
together. And I will make sure I will
reassure that person that you're not alone. We're
with you. Hold tight. We will like, the
father's problem. Carol's empathy was apparent as she
(12:30):
talked about vulnerable members of the community. I
make sure, especially the elderly people, are aware
of exactly what's going on, and I make
sure that I let them know that we
will not leave you without water.
If your water is brown and dirty, call
me. I don't care what time of the
night it is. I will tell you exactly
what you can do or how we can
(12:51):
fix it somehow. But there was one more
wrinkle.
In addition to having hundreds of people to
reach and the elevated importance of communication
(13:11):
particular
community,
they spoke Chinese. So what we did was
three quarters of our notices, like the notices
for the shutdown. We translated it in English
and Chinese. If someone is not at home
and let's say there's a building and you
cannot get into the building where there is,
like, 50 different tenants, how would you be
(13:31):
able to let them know what's going on?
If you do have paperwork
or something in writing that you can paste
on the wall or somewhere,
you'll be able to have that information
passed on. So sometimes, not only speaking the
language helps, having it written helps. Paul and
his wife, Agnes, helped with translation.
(13:53):
The most common dialects in Brooklyn are Cantonese
and Mandarin. I speak Mandarin. My wife speaks
Cantonese. Which helped with fielding phone calls from
the community too. If they will call and
I don't understand what they're saying, I would
basically tell them, I will call back. I
will call back, and I will call Paul.
And I will let Paul know I've got
(14:13):
a resident,
does not speak English well, had issues, concerns,
or something, and I need your assistance to
help me to translate
what they're saying. So Paul will call them
right away, and that's how we dealt with
it. So if there was something that
I couldn't help with, I would just have
to let them know that I would either
(14:34):
call them back and ask my wife to
help. Or if I was at home, if
it was like an after hours call, I
would just kinda hand the phone to my
wife. Both over the phone and in person,
Paul said he noticed the difference it made
to communicate with the community in their native
language. You can kinda tell their body language
and their tone of voice from their responses
that it definitely helped to bring the communication
in their native tongue. So a lot of
(14:54):
times, I would check with them if, oh,
do you speak English or do you speak
Chinese? And sometimes they'll say, you know, I
speak a little English, but mostly Chinese. And
then if that's the case, I would do
my best to communicate. Sometimes I go half
and half, partial English, partial Chinese. It's just
kind of a case by case basis. Carroll
said the effort did more than simply improve
communication.
They felt like they weren't pushed to the
(15:17):
side. They felt like, listen, we are part
of this also,
especially
older ones that didn't speak the language when
they did see me, they would give me
the bow, like, thank you. Thank you, miss
Carol. Thank you. I knew in my heart
that they didn't feel like we had just
barged into the neighborhood, dug up the streets,
shut off the water,
(15:38):
and had no no remorse for everyone in
the area. They felt like this is our
neighborhood. We pay our taxes here, and they
included us in what was going on. And
talking to
Carol, it's clear how much the work means
to her. It warms my heart when the
neighbors and the businesses come out and say
(15:58):
thank you guys. You guys have done an
excellent job. We know that we were shut
down for a little while, but it was
for a worthy cause. And they write letters,
which is a beautiful thing. And we have
got so much great feedback
that it makes me feel like it's worth
doing this job. Because if someone comes into
my neighborhood,
(16:18):
I would want someone to be able to
explain to me
why they're doing what they're doing,
respect that this home belongs to me, and
to do it in a decent fashion.
So when I get a well done or
a smile or would you guys like a
drink of water? I know we're doing something
(16:39):
great.
For more information on this podcast, visit hdrinc.com/speakingofdesign.
You'll find links to pictures, articles, and more
information about this project. If you like what
you heard, be sure to rate us or
leave feedback on iTunes, Stitcher, or wherever you
get your podcasts.
Everybody was home. Grandma,
babies,
mom, dad, everybody was home. But somehow, they
worked with us. I'm John Torrick, and I'm
Danny Sullivan. And you're listening to Speaking of
Design,
Bringing you the stories of the engineers and
architects
who are transforming the world one project at
a time. When construction comes to your street
(00:20):
for a water main replacement,
the technical side is only half the challenge.
Today, we'll meet the people responsible for communicating
with residents during construction in New York City.
Their work took on added significance during COVID
nineteen as they initiated a multi language public
outreach plan for a predominantly Chinese speaking community.
(00:42):
My equation is, timely and clear communication
equals no surprises. And throughout my entire career,
you inform the community in advance. You keep
them constantly
abreast of what's going on, and you're just
being totally honest with them. Nine times out
of 10, the community will be very receptive
on what you're doing. That's Steve Scaglione,
(01:05):
a construction services manager in HDR's Manhattan office.
Steve's direct tell it like it is approach
feels like it's one part the New Yorker
in him, one part the engineer in him,
and a hint of his twenty eight years
of military service. Well, to be honest with
you, my father did not finish engineering school,
and he wanted me to become a civil
(01:26):
engineer
locations within the the borough of Brooklyn. So
what does replacing a water main entail?
Each street's kinda little different as far as
the extent. Usually, you you try to go
street by street. You don't wanna tear up
four or five streets at one time. They
do it in segments.
It's a block in length, which is probably
maybe 200 feet that they'll try to do
(01:47):
at a time where they'll rip out the
old water main, put the new one in.
When you're gonna dig and close lanes of
traffic,
the project becomes a larger coordination effort. Utility
companies
are sometimes heavily involved on some of these
projects,
especially if the water main has to be
realigned
and there's some underground utilities in a way.
So we're always coordinating with the utility companies.
(02:10):
Traffic,
you have to make sure that if you're
closing that particular street or especially going through
an intersection intersections
are very, very complicated
in a sense that while you're in an
intersection, you're actually affecting
several streets. They also need to think about
what type of vehicles need to travel down
each street.
Let's say, for example, if a bus goes
(02:30):
down that street, we have to contact the
MTA buses so they could reroute the bus
if the bus cannot get down that street.
At the same time, we are always very
cognizant that we have to have access
down the street for any fire trucks or
EMS or police emergency vehicles.
On top of the open trench for construction,
(02:51):
the contractor also needs space to stage equipment
and materials. Normally, nine times out of 10,
the parking lanes will be taken up, and
that's for so the construction contractor to use
those parking lanes for for both material storage,
temporary storage of their pipe, the new pipe
that they're gonna lay into that particular street,
and also for their construction equipment. Then there's
(03:13):
also the community aspect. Beyond a closed lane
in the street and the inconvenience of construction,
the replacement involves an even more direct impact
on people's lives,
turning off their water. Depending where the water
main is and what it services,
there could be residential homes. There could be
essential
facilities like hospitals,
(03:33):
dialysis centers. There could be areas of commercial
use of,
laundry mats, car washes,
large list of users of the water that
are important that we have to coordinate with
is when we have to do, shutdowns
of when we're tying in the new water
main sections into the existing water main. With
the number of businesses and residents impacted by
(03:55):
that type of project, the New York City
Department of Design and Construction,
which oversees construction for the Department of Environmental
Protection,
realized they needed to regularly have an additional
team member. So it evolved now that on
our staff, we have a person that's trained
in that, and they're part of our staff.
They call it a CCL or construction
(04:17):
community liaison, and they're on all of our
inspection
staffs. And what they do is they're out
there every day
within the communities and whatever streets they get
affected. Let's say they're replacing a water main
in a certain street. They've gotta do a
shutdown.
They'll coordinate
seventy two hours in advance, letting every single
(04:39):
person that's affected by the water shutdown that
are gonna be shut down,
and then they follow-up with the turn on.
It's very critical.
Enter Paul So and Carol Nurse. My name
is Paul So. I am the resident engineer
on the current EDC water main project. I'm
Carol Nurse. I'm the community construction liaison
on the accelerated distribution water main replacement and
(05:02):
sewer rehabilitation
project.
I presently work for
CES
Engineers, which is the subcontractor
to HDR.
Paul's role involves a lot of management and
coordination in the field,
where he enjoys seeing projects like this one
become a reality. The most basic scope of
work is really just to replace the century
(05:23):
old existing water main system in areas that
were deemed by the DEP as high priority.
So a lot of the pipe that we're
taking out of the ground, if you look
at the map, it shows nineteen hundreds. We
haven't even come across pipes in the late
eighteen hundreds. So you were basically replacing these
pipes that have been serving the communities for
well over a hundred years. And we basically
(05:44):
take out the old one, put in the
new one. Which, of course, includes more than
just swapping out one giant pipe. In doing
that, we also have to reconnect to everyone
else's services.
We have to put in new hydrants, any
sprinkler connections.
If it's a larger facility, we have to
reconnect those. I mean, that's kind of the
meat and potatoes of the project. As community
(06:04):
liaison,
Carol's role involves establishing relationships with the community
being impacted by the project.
You can hear in her voice how seriously
she takes that role, which she said begins
with getting to know the technical side of
the job. I tend to hang around the
work crew. I ask lots of questions
because when I've got to answer questions or
(06:26):
concerns to the community,
I have got to give them the right
answers. So if I don't know if someone
asked me people walk up to me in
the street, what are you doing? If I
don't know what I'm talking about, I don't
need to be on the job. To kick
off the Watermain project in Brooklyn,
Carol started identifying leaders in the community.
(06:46):
Before I start a project, I have got
to set up a spreadsheet,
make a database of every politician, every school,
every municipal
group in the area. So before the project
starts, we have a progress meeting. At the
progress meeting, I affiliate myself with everyone from
these different agencies
and businesses and so forth.
(07:08):
Making connections through different groups and organizations
helps to spread the word throughout the community
using existing relationships.
It can also create partners and sometimes advocates.
So what I usually do
is instead of trying to reach out to
everyone,
I try to get hold of one person.
I try to have a close relationship with
(07:29):
them. I keep them abreast of what's going
on. So if there's gonna be a problem,
they, in turn, will talk to people in
their area, and they will get back to
me. Every resident
in the area have got my phone number.
So if there's an issue, they will reach
out to me. In addition to reaching out
through civic organizations,
Carol applies that approach to businesses.
(07:50):
So I may tell a business, for instance,
let's say, the hospital, that your water main
shutdown, which we usually do every day, might
last eight hours. It may not. So they've
got to trust me and the contractor with
whatever information that we give to them. And
I tend to trust them because I need
for them to put out the right information.
If it's a school, the hospital, the politician,
(08:12):
or whatever. Keeping everyone on the same page,
letting everyone know what to expect, and kind
of keeping close look on when their water
is gonna be affected, when their parking is
gonna be affected, and issues like that. The
nature of the impact on businesses changed as
the project moved into 2020
as COVID nineteen altered the world in early
March. In the very beginning,
(08:33):
COVID, it made construction itself easier because there's
less traffic on the street. And when there's
less traffic, the contractor their productivity just increases
just because the streets are empty. However, that
also meant that more residents were home during
construction.
When the COVID started, we originally started out
in kind of like an industrial area. As
we progressed, we went into a predominantly
(08:56):
residential area.
So Paul, the city, the contractor,
and I got our heads together and they
decided to do a survey. The survey entailed
of me knocking on every single door even
if it's a building, because they are large
buildings in New York City, especially in Brooklyn.
So what I was responsible to do was
(09:17):
knock every single door and ask the homeowner
if you were okay with the shutdown.
And if the answer was yes, how long
do you think you'll be able to work
with this shutdown? Do you have any elderly
people in the home? Do you have any
babies? Are there anyone that requires
water during the course of the day? The
(09:39):
team also took actions to help address residents'
legitimate concerns about their water being shut off.
One of the bigger challenges that Carol and
I had to deal with was when we
go into a neighborhood and we say, hey,
by the way, we're coming to the neighborhood.
This is what's gonna happen. This is what
to expect. One of the responses was, well,
how come you're gonna shut off our water
during the pandemic? And
(10:01):
we need water to wash our hands, and
now we're home, and things like that. Carol
said clear, honest
communication about the purpose of the project was
critical. I will explain to them, it's better
to have a scheduled shutdown than to have
a water main break. And we've had a
few the past few months in New York
City in Brooklyn, and it could be catastrophic.
(10:23):
We tell the residences that this has worked
for the city. It's to improve the infrastructure
in your neighborhood. Your pipes are so old
so that what could really happen is if
we don't fix it now, you could get
a water main break because these pipes are
cast iron, which just means that they're very
brittle after all this time. So if you
get a water main break, DEP is coming
down to shut off your water anyway. You
(10:44):
won't be notified, and it it will take
longer than the few days that we're gonna
take. The team also took actions to help
address residents' legitimate concerns about their water being
shut off. So one of the ways we
dealt with that was in the neighborhood with
a lot of residents, we would set up,
water stations outside. We would set up hand
sanitizing stations. Scheduling also helped lessen the inconvenience.
(11:07):
We try to schedule the work. We try
to start earlier and end earlier rather than
start later and end later because we know
that getting a earlier start on the day
just helps with the productivity, and most people
don't necessarily get up as early. So they
would rather see the water on early afternoon
rather than, say, mid afternoon. Each time the
(11:28):
water was turned back on, Carol would continue
her personal communication
with each resident. The water is turned back
on. There's a resumption notice that we would
put on the doors. If I knock on
the doors, that's also part of the process.
When the water is turned back on at
the end of the day, I knock on
every single person's door
to let them know that the water is
(11:48):
back on. If they do not answer the
door, I would stick a note on the
door letting them know the water was restored
at this time. Please check to make sure
that the water is flowing properly.
If it's not, reach out to me. Carol
was ready to take those calls no matter
what time of day. As soon as I
get the call, what I usually do, if
(12:09):
I have got the answer, I will deal
with it immediately. If I don't have the
answer,
I will call Paul, then I'll reach out
to the contractor, and we'll put our minds
together. And I will make sure I will
reassure that person that you're not alone. We're
with you. Hold tight. We will like, the
father's problem. Carol's empathy was apparent as she
(12:30):
talked about vulnerable members of the community. I
make sure, especially the elderly people, are aware
of exactly what's going on, and I make
sure that I let them know that we
will not leave you without water.
If your water is brown and dirty, call
me. I don't care what time of the
night it is. I will tell you exactly
what you can do or how we can
(12:51):
fix it somehow. But there was one more
wrinkle.
In addition to having hundreds of people to
reach and the elevated importance of communication
(13:11):
particular
community,
they spoke Chinese. So what we did was
three quarters of our notices, like the notices
for the shutdown. We translated it in English
and Chinese. If someone is not at home
and let's say there's a building and you
cannot get into the building where there is,
like, 50 different tenants, how would you be
(13:31):
able to let them know what's going on?
If you do have paperwork
or something in writing that you can paste
on the wall or somewhere,
you'll be able to have that information
passed on. So sometimes, not only speaking the
language helps, having it written helps. Paul and
his wife, Agnes, helped with translation.
(13:53):
The most common dialects in Brooklyn are Cantonese
and Mandarin. I speak Mandarin. My wife speaks
Cantonese. Which helped with fielding phone calls from
the community too. If they will call and
I don't understand what they're saying, I would
basically tell them, I will call back. I
will call back, and I will call Paul.
And I will let Paul know I've got
(14:13):
a resident,
does not speak English well, had issues, concerns,
or something, and I need your assistance to
help me to translate
what they're saying. So Paul will call them
right away, and that's how we dealt with
it. So if there was something that
I couldn't help with, I would just have
to let them know that I would either
(14:34):
call them back and ask my wife to
help. Or if I was at home, if
it was like an after hours call, I
would just kinda hand the phone to my
wife. Both over the phone and in person,
Paul said he noticed the difference it made
to communicate with the community in their native
language. You can kinda tell their body language
and their tone of voice from their responses
that it definitely helped to bring the communication
in their native tongue. So a lot of
(14:54):
times, I would check with them if, oh,
do you speak English or do you speak
Chinese? And sometimes they'll say, you know, I
speak a little English, but mostly Chinese. And
then if that's the case, I would do
my best to communicate. Sometimes I go half
and half, partial English, partial Chinese. It's just
kind of a case by case basis. Carroll
said the effort did more than simply improve
communication.
They felt like they weren't pushed to the
(15:17):
side. They felt like, listen, we are part
of this also,
especially
older ones that didn't speak the language when
they did see me, they would give me
the bow, like, thank you. Thank you, miss
Carol. Thank you. I knew in my heart
that they didn't feel like we had just
barged into the neighborhood, dug up the streets,
shut off the water,
(15:38):
and had no no remorse for everyone in
the area. They felt like this is our
neighborhood. We pay our taxes here, and they
included us in what was going on. And
talking to
Carol, it's clear how much the work means
to her. It warms my heart when the
neighbors and the businesses come out and say
(15:58):
thank you guys. You guys have done an
excellent job. We know that we were shut
down for a little while, but it was
for a worthy cause. And they write letters,
which is a beautiful thing. And we have
got so much great feedback
that it makes me feel like it's worth
doing this job. Because if someone comes into
my neighborhood,
(16:18):
I would want someone to be able to
explain to me
why they're doing what they're doing,
respect that this home belongs to me, and
to do it in a decent fashion.
So when I get a well done or
a smile or would you guys like a
drink of water? I know we're doing something
(16:39):
great.
For more information on this podcast, visit hdrinc.com/speakingofdesign.
You'll find links to pictures, articles, and more
information about this project. If you like what
you heard, be sure to rate us or
leave feedback on iTunes, Stitcher, or wherever you
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