It's also ironically considered as one of the safest jobs for young latinas cos there's almost no one else around at the 4-5 AM hour when they do the deliveries. And you don't need to be fluent in English to do the job. Most of them aren't. It's like a self selection almost.
Cos each woman (very occasionally a man) is dropped off with a stack of papers that they have to deliver in tall Manhattan buildings using elevators and be back in time before the car circles around. Observing these mechanisms that run NYC is so fascinating!
I've chatted with a few of them when they seem to be free and open to chats, not busy. They make $15/hour. And they deliver about 100 newspapers in an hour. Apparently the recruiters prefer women who have been athletes in school. Cos the delivery is a bit of a workout for sure.
And they will throw the newspapers left or right at each floor before the door closes, in the direction of the apartment. Presumably cos stepping out will be add to the time and they want to be out of this building to meet the minivan as it circles back, to go to the next bldg.
So the delivery system is a team of latina women, sometimes a man driving, in minivans driving around for the deliveries, making efficient circles. The women delivering the papers will run or speed walk to a building, get in an elevator, punch buttons of the floors they deliver
Obviously, it is 2023 and home delivered newspapers are a rare choice. Relatively more common in Manhattan, but still rare. On our floor, just 1 apartment out of 8 gets daily newspaper delivery. Of course they are very old people. Most newspaper subscribers in US are.
My pre-dawn walk habit started during the lockdown gave me a close look at how the newspaper delivery scene works in our Manhattan neighborhood. It isn't Dennis the menace or Archie Andrews type boys on bikes. It's a bunch of latinas in minivans, running around buildings.
This is my daily early morning good deed. The overworked paper delivery women, in a hurry, often drop the newspapers outside the elevator. And I understand why. To save time. I know the only apartment on our floor that gets papers is a couple in 80s. I move em to their door. 😇
Misal with sourdough pao. In Kolhapur, the birthplace of misal, the oldest and most established misal places serve sliced bread as pao. Remember pao is just Portuguese for bread, not specifically the ladi pao roll it's synonymous with.
