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Story ideas are everywhere. As the Your Money columnist for The New York Times, I’ve been seeking them out for a long time now. But I never imagined one would show up fully formed on my Brooklyn block this spring.
If you’ve never shopped a New York City stoop sale, picture your average garage or yard sale. Now imagine there not being a garage or a yard and encountering New Yorkers’ unwanted belongings right there on the sidewalk, hanging from metal latticework on an apartment building’s fence or sitting on the shared steps to a building’s doorway.
The sale on my block that day in April was unlike any I’d ever seen. The crowd was bigger. There were actual racks to keep the clothing off the ground. And on those racks were prom dresses in a kaleidoscope of colors that punched hard against the backdrop of buildings in various shades of brown.
I didn’t stop to shop. But I didn’t forget the image, either.
A week later, I ran into my neighbor Joyce Szuflita on the block. And yes, fellow Brooklyn parents of a certain age — it’s that Joyce. She is a very particular type of New York City famous for helping so many people navigate the public school system.
“Joyce, what was the deal with that wild stoop sale in front of your building the other day?” I asked.
And out tumbled the most delicious word salad. “Daughter.” “Georgia.” “Data science.” “Flipping houses.” “Classic ladies’ department store.” “Bought everything.”
My work brain lit up in a way I wish it did more often. Within seconds, I knew that I wanted to tell the story of how Joyce’s daughter, Vicky, had happened upon an abandoned store and purchased its entire inventory. Then, I wanted to tag along with her while she figured out what to do with 4,500 items of clothing.
I wasn’t sure my editor, Mike Dang, would go for it. While I’m the son of a retailer and have a decent eye for clothing, this was barely a story that would fit within my beat as the money columnist. Did that matter? Not to Coach Mike, who is always trying to highlight the people in the personal finance articles we write when he isn’t tutoring many of us in the newsroom on the finer points of marathon training.
With a story this visual, I knew the words would be almost secondary. So while Joyce was still telling me the story that day on the street, I was already imagining working in Georgia with the photographer Audra Melton.
I first met Audra thanks to Brent Murray, one of the Business section’s ace photo editors. He paired me with her on a story about questionable businesses that prey on members of the military near large bases.
Brent was game, so I began planning a trip around Audra’s availability, and Vicky wasn’t self-conscious about letting a reporter and photographer into her life. She did her thing as I shadowed her — peppering her with questions all the while — and Audra took approximately three and a half million photos.
Almost immediately, there was a mystery: Who owned the store before Vicky acquired its contents? She had been curious herself but hadn’t tracked down a woman she knew only as “Miss Paula,” who had reportedly been the proprietor. And so began a search, which ended just off a road called “Cemetery,” but not in the way that you might think.
So many readers remark upon the torrent of rancor they see in the news these days. On many days, they tell me they’re tempted to skip the headlines altogether.
The Times could probably use a few more palate cleanser articles each week. I wanted to provide one, and readers took to it. “I enjoyed this story so much that I read it a second time,” one commenter wrote. And another: “More uplifting stories, please!”
Chronicling Vicky’s clothing caper provided that uplift for me. It served as an inspiration and a kind of charge — to seek out adventure, to act on instinct, to embrace whimsy and to spend a little money doing so if necessary.
It’s an important goal both in life, and at work. I can’t wait to chase another story like this, and I’ll be keeping my eyes peeled for more ideas on my block.
Ron Lieber has been the Your Money columnist since 2008 and has written five books, most recently “The Price You Pay for College.”
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