We see them every day: serving us pizza, ices and pastries; selling us books; handing us pamphlets on the street; lending us games and Frisbees in the park. And they see us too. These are the very people with which we share an ever-changing community. But what do they think of us? What do they remember? We’ve read about ourselves in various newspapers, magazines and books, but perhaps we can learn more from what these people have to say.

Anthony Catanzaro, owner, Portobello’s

“My favorite Stuy story has to be [from] two years ago. The night before the Friday night SING!. The senior SING! had actually taken over the entire pizzeria and made it their green room. All the girls were doing their makeup. It was an Indian theme, and they were putting all their extensions and their wigs and they took over the pizzeria. A couple of the regular customers were lamenting to me, ‘You allow that in here?’ and I said, ‘Absolutely. Those kids are wonderful, and they’re very excited, and they have no where else to go. So of course I open my doors to them.’ So that was a great experience. It was wonderful.”

Dr. Ellen Kole, Tribeca Resident

“Actually, I like Stuyvesant. They’re good students, but it would be nice if there would be more of a mix of students. I know you take a test, and I know that like 90 percent—well, I don’t know what percentage is Asian—but I think it’s a wonderful school, it’s a free school and comes out with good students. It would be nice if there were some sort of scholarship thing for people who have a little more difficulty with stuff like that, to help them along, though I don’t think you do. But on the whole, I have never met any impolite Stuyvesant students, and I have no problem with them. Anybody who’s working hard, having a good time but working hard, not going too nutzoid, are fine by me.”

Angela Gkiougkis, Mr. Softee Ice Cream Truck

“This girl came, and my sister was working here, and I was sitting in the front, and she goes, ‘How much is your ice cream?’ and we tell her two dollars. And she goes, ‘How much? Down in Brooklyn it’s one-fifty!’ And my sister tells her, ‘Well, here it’s two dollars, this is Manhattan.’ And she says, ‘Forget that, we’re going to McDonald’s. And she goes and gets her ice cream at McDonald’s. And she comes back here and goes, ‘Can I have a napkin?’ with the ice cream from McDonald’s. And my sister was really upset, she’s like, ‘No, I‘m not giving you a napkin!’ and she’s like, ‘You’re not going to give me a napkin?’ and my sister’s like, ‘No, I’m not giving you a napkin’ and so the girl says, ‘Why not?’ And my sister says ‘Well, because I don’t want to and you’re not my customer and I don’t have to.’ So the girl leaves, and then she comes back, and she throws the ice cream inside the truck to my sister.”

Carly Toyer, employee, Ceci-Cela

“Every time they come here, they’re very polite and make my job easy. There’s a couple of regulars that I know go to Stuy, and we’ll have our plate of pastries and they’ll say, ‘Oh I don’t care, you pick for me. Pick which one and I’ll try it,’ and I always thought that was cute and sweet of them.”

Gladys Perlman, Rockefeller Park

“They come over there, to the park house, and they ask me for books, soccer balls and pool table and everything. I ask for ID and the first question I ask them is, ‘Good morning guys, good morning, are you sure you have school or you don’t have any school?’ Because sometimes they come in at ten, or nine, and I check, because I don’t want nobody to cut, so I always check, and if they cut class I send them back to school!”

Bill Seto, Tribeca Parent

“Stuyvesant students seem very nice. I think it’s incredible that right now, [in the park] a lot of parents with very young children are sharing this huge field, with hundreds of high school students and we all seem to be getting along pretty well, especially since we’ve had it to ourselves for the past two and a half months. Starting a couple days ago, it’s been a whole new situation for us. We’ve been coming out here with our kids, and having a big field with just little children, and now we’re sharing it with football-playing and ultimate-playing and soccer-playing teenagers. It’s surprisingly working out well. I think it’s the only high school—one of the very few—where this could work.”

Iesha Edwards, employee, Manhattan Books
“A student came into the store one day with a Stuyvesant card and he wanted to use it and I didn’t know how. So he knew how to use it and he was sitting here telling me to type this, type that, and I’m like, ‘Okay.’ He was teaching me, and I’m the cashier here. I thought that was funny.”

Latasha Hamlett, Tribeca employee

“As a matter of fact, it was last Friday, and I was sitting over here [by the Hudson River] and the three boys jumped into that nasty water, right here, with all the stuff, floating around and the police came—and well, I think they’re very bright, but I guess at times, they do stupid things.”

Danny Castro, Danny’s Icee

“Some people, they graduated from the school. The come and they remember Danny Icee, they come back here, and they give me hello, but they finished, they graduation! They come back and give me hello. It is a nice experience, it’s very nice.”