Q: Would you please introduce yourself?

JF: Ladies and gentleman, my name is Mr. John Farese. I live at the 74th Street Home for the elderly.

Q: How long have you lived here?

JF: I came here in 1991.

Q: How do you like it here?

JF: I think this is a very nice place for the elderly. The services here are very good. We have aides at night, on twenty-four hour’s duty. We have cooks in the kitchen, we have waiters that wait on you and you have cleaning women who make your bed and everything. They come around every morning to give you linen. And they have a medication staff here, that help you with medication. They have a nurse come in here, the Visiting Nurses, and they help you out, too, if you need anything. The administration is very good here.

Q: How’s the food?

JF: The food they give you here is Kosher and it is very good. It’s prepared very well.

Q: How is your social life?

JF: It’s all right. They have all kinds of entertainment. In the mornings they usually have an exercise group or a singing group, you can also listen to music. In the afternoon they have jigsaw puzzles and special guests. The ladies that are volunteers bring their pets in here and you can play with the pets. On Saturday and Sunday they have Bingo or bowling. A lot of people like bowling.

Q: So, do you find that you keep pretty busy here?

JF: I play bowling all the time, when they have it.

Q: What are some of the other activities that you like to do?

JF: They let you listen to operas and stuff like that. Many people can’t go to the opera house so they enjoy the that activity very much .

Q: Do you find that you enjoy your time here?

JF: Yes, in the summertime, you can sit outside and watch the people go by and enjoy the sun shine. In the wintertime you can’t go out there, there’s snow or it’s raining. But they have a lot of companionship here that will help them out. There is nobody here that gets refused help.

Q: Do you do a lot of things in the neighborhood?

JF: No, but here I do a bit of volunteering work. I help with setting the tables. I’ve been doing that since I came here. It’s no big deal. I am also the official messenger for the residence. I drop off and pick up mail between the home and the main office. The most important part is that if they don’t have places like this, the elderly have no place to go.

Q: Right, well it seems that there have been a lot of developers changing the single room occupancy hotels, and the rents have gone up incredibly in the last ten years. So, a lot of people don’t have places to stay. They’re priced out.

JF: Single room occupancy hotels are not for the elderly. Because it’s a different type of people in there. You have got to cook for yourself. Here, you get three meals: breakfast, lunch and dinner. And then you have two nice snacks, you have snacks at eight o’clock [pm] and at three o’clock in the afternoon. Some of the people living in the SRO’s might not have anything to eat for two or three days. If they had more places like this, it would be a different story. It’s pretty hard [in SRO’s]. They don’t have get any services in their. Here, if you are sick there is always someone to help you.

Q: As it should be.

JF: If you want to go out shopping, and you think that you can’t do it on your own, they have an escort to take you to Macy’s, any place you want to go. Since I’m here, this is the best place I’ve ever known. They’ve got four social workers here. The social workers help you out with medical appointments and they make sure all your needs are taken care of.

Q: I hear that you are the president...

JF: I’m the president of the [resident’s] council. We have meetings once a month, they all come down, those who want to. If there is anything out of line, like no services for linen, or stuff like that, they tell us, the secretary writes everything down in the minutes, and then the minutes will go to Maddy, the administrator, and she’ll see if she can correct them. Any complaints go through the resident’s council. For me, I think that it is a good idea, because if you haven’t got a resident’s council, nobody will know if you want anything or not.

Q: So they really try to meet each person’s needs here.

JF: They sure do. They do meet them. I know they do, I’m here.

Q: They treat everyone here as an individual and take care of you.

JF: That’s the only thing they can do here. It’s a nice place.

Q: Maddy ( the administrator) tells me that you give tours of the place.

JF: Sure, when somebody comes around, I show them around. Sometimes Maddy shows them the rooms, to see if they want it. Sometimes, they come back and they take it. See, my room is right up here, facing Broadway. It’s all right for me. Some places don’t give you what we get here. See, the single room is yours, you’ve got the key, and you can come and go as you please. And they never say anyhing. If you want to stay out, or you want to go someplace for a couple of days, you tell them ahead of time and they know that you are going to come back on a certain day, at a certain time. If you are going to a doctor and you feel sick or something, they will send an escort with you. They will not refuse you. Nobody gets refused. It’s just like home, I think. To me, it is.

Q: Have you made a lot of friends during the time you’ve been living here?

JF: They’re always calling me. They know me like a book here.

Q: Is your position as president of the resident’s council an elected position?

JF: Yeah, and I didn’t even know I got elected. I was out and I came in one afternoon, and they said, “you’re the new president, you have been elected.” I said, “what?” It’s all right. They’re all right.

Q: Are you going to be running for another term as president?

JF: They don’t need another election. I’m here for good, I think! I’m gonna be here for good.

Q: (Laughs) Well, thank you very much. It sounds like you are a great advocate for the place.