- [Olivia] Funding for this program has been provided by- (bright upbeat music) Hi, I'm Olivia and welcome to "Young Creators Studio."

Today we're at the Grounds of Sculpture in Hamilton, New Jersey.

This week's episode will feature documentaries made by some great young filmmakers.

I enjoy watching documentaries because you can learn about so many things like historical events and the way that people live.

Plus who doesn't love a good nature film about cute cuddly animals?

I know that I do.

Well up next we'll see what these documentarians are interested in.

(upbeat music) When we think of the ATV Dirt Bike Community, we often see the ugly side of that subculture.

This does not reflect the attitude of every Philadelphian.

- [Man 1] The first day we open our doors, it wasn't really busy, but through word of mouth our business was really taking off.

- [Man 2] It's been great Working with restaurants and supermarkets, take their leftover food, spraying it, and giving it to the rest of the community.

- Thank you.

- [Man 3] Halal carts are back.

After being closed by the city due to the pandemic, most carts have returned to the streets.

(high energy rock music) - Welcome to "Young Creators Studio."

Up next you'll see what business is like for local halal cart owners After they were forced to shut down last year due to the pandemic.

Then you'll hear from an organizer from Family Fridge on how they're combating food insecurity in local neighborhoods.

But first we'll see what ATV and Dirt Bike culture is like in Philly.

Let's take a look.

(funky music) - [Reporter 1] Tonight Philadelphia police issued a warning after Dirt Bike and ATV gangs swarm city streets.

- [Reporter 2] And two nights later, the family is still very shaken up by what happened.

- [Reporter 3] Philadelphia, often in large packs weaving in and out of traffic.

- It's very loud, the gas, it was just boom, boom.

It was quick, I didn't even get to see them.

- And every time I come here it's just hordes of it.

(tires screech) - [Olivia] When we think of the ATV Dirt Bike community, we often see the ugly side of that subculture.

While some community members view ATV and Dirt Bikers as a local menace, this does not reflect the attitude of every Philadelphian.

Rasheed Ajamu, who goes by the nickname Freedom Drawn, is an activist that advocates for black and brown, and LGBTQIA communities in Philadelphia.

Like many others, he sees the ATV Dirt Bike community in a more positive light.

- As far as long as I can remember, it's something about the summertime and then something about hearing the Dirt Bikes and that Dirt Bike sound being connected with happiness, being connected with like kids being able to like run around in the street, on the sidewalk, or in the park, the playgrounds, right?

You know, cookouts are about to be happening.

It's a symbol.

It's like a symbol of the summertime.

And it's a symbol of freedom for us especially as a child in Philadelphia, because it's like it's nothing more you wanna do in the summertime.

I mean, during the school year in Philadelphia is get to the summertime.

And so Dirt Bikes for me growing up was always like, "Oh it's time.

"Like they riding, it's time to go."

(funky music) - [Olivia] Olom, also believes that the culture leans more on a positive brotherhood.

Olom was asked about the negative assumptions that are painted towards the culture.

This is what he says.

- That it's dangerous.

That is harmful to the city, that it caused trouble.

But I don't know, if you ask me to keep people out of trouble, it's like a lifestyle.

Like it keep people out the way.

You could be out here selling drugs and killing, but on a bike just trying to have fun.

Trying to get an escape, all of that.

(engine revving) (bell dings) (menacing music) - Evening, I'm Joe Holden.

Mere days after city council drove a crackdown on Dirt Bikes, ATVs, and Dune Buggies.

Police confiscated several of the vehicles this afternoon.

- [Olivia] Council member, Isaiah Thomas, still believes that the culture in itself is beneficial to many communities.

- I mean, yeah, I knew that for a fact.

I know people who ride, and I talked about it earlier is, its similar to other networks and other cultures that exist, people...

I'm a basketball guy.

So people in the basketball community, like, it's a brotherhood, it's a bond.

It's the Philly basketball scene.

I could say that for other aspects of life in those who ride with fall in that category as well too.

I wish we could have done more along with the vote.

As far as occupying people who are entrenched in that culture, who are entrenched in that lifestyle who really likes to ride, to be able to provide them safe spaces and opportunities to get entrenched in what it is they like to do.

- They took that same time and same energy that they going to use to build, then I'm like them, shoes, houses and all that.

Like you can't make apart, feel like, keep the youth out of trouble.

Like, people love riding bikes.

- So shifting that and taking that somewhere, doesn't erase it, but it creates pockets for people to be able to healthfully exercise, that activity.

Making street times and things like that.

Like times where they will be able to ride throughout the streets.

Makes it safer and it makes us be able to understand, okay, during these times I need to be making sure I'm watching out for them or something like that.

- Meanwhile, I would like to see a space.

If it were up to me I would choose somewhere like, Delaware Avenue or South Philadelphia, somewhere where it's non-residential where you have a lot of ground.

And I would create opportunities and spaces for young people who wanna participate in Bike Culture to be able to ride there.

Think about Delaware Avenue.

How much space you have out there.

You could even look at like the North Philly nicetown area, where you have a lot of empty factories and look at turning a community somewhere like there into a place where people can ride.

I think that we've seen examples of it.

We've seen some of the program that exists in Baltimore.

We had a hearing in city council on this very issue.

And I had the privilege to listen to a lot of testimony.

And I think there are models in mechanisms that can work if the investment is there.

So in a dream world I would love to see some type of ATV space or facility.

- A lot of kids coming from the hood and coming from the ghetto and all that, they don't got the same opportunities that somebody got if you got race track in your area where you could go ride bikes and they don't mess with you, or like park to where you can go to take your bike and teach somebody how to ride.

So that's why like try we try cracking down 'cause you ride on the street, but coming from where we come from, we don't got anywhere else, but to ride, but for the street.

- [Olivia] Although coming from different views and places on the subject, it's clear that the laws that limit an outlaw, the activity are only temporary solutions.

Hopefully if all parties are given the opportunity to work together, then a long lasting solution is possible to settle this conflict.

(pen scribbling) (woman speaking in foreign language) - The first day we opened our doors, it wasn't really busy, but as soon as we started getting those first small orders, they were like $10 orders for some empanadas or some tacos, we noticed straight away that through word of mouth, our business was really taking off.

(woman speaking in foreign language) Even against those odds, my parents, thankfully they were able to hold the line, really.

My brothers too, we were able to come in clutch for them.

When business picks up here, they just give us a phone call and we'll be on the way.

The only reason Ellina is still here and the lights are on, is because of this community and the neighborhood around us, and I can't stress that enough.

(woman speaking in foreign language) (bright upbeat music) - We still have food insecurity especially in the City of Philadelphia.

So it's been great working with restaurants and supermarkets, to take their leftover food and spreading it and giving it to the rest of the community.

- Thank you.

- Yeah.

- January to March of 2021, we were working on the fridge.

In March of 2021, it was finally installed and we started reaching out to organizations, restaurants, bakeries, and cafes to source food from.

At the people's kitchen is where the fridge is.

Ben helped us out with providing the fridge as well as the electricity.

Most of our team is actually high school volunteers.

High school volunteers helped us paint the fridge right here on 9th Street, as well as the fridge on 70th and Woodland.

So painting, we have some high schoolers that help us with stocking the fridge, driving to various places to pick up their excess food and dropping it off at the fridge.

We also have people helping us clean the fridge and maintain it and reaching out to other organizations as well.

We have a supermarket nearby that we work with.

So basically we take two days of the week, we take their leftover food that they don't sell.

So, we're helping them with waste and they're also helping us with feeding their community.

And we opened up our second free food community fridge in West Philly, 70th and Woodland.

There's an organization there called Frontline Dads.

They do a lot of work in West Philly with the people there with jobs and job security.

So they reached out to us wanting a community fridge at their location.

So we went through the same process again.

So it's been really great to expand our reach and to reach more people with free food.

It's been really fulfilling to see the fridge being empty every single day that we check on it, meaning that people are taking stuff.

And everything that we put in is being used by the community.

We've been doing a lot of outreach on social media to recruit volunteer drivers and volunteer cleaners.

We are accepting donations.

You can follow us on Instagram @fridgesandfamily.

We have Cash App, PayPal, everything.

So feel free to donate.

(smooth music) - Opening MLK Drive to cars next month gives me a lot of anxiety and brings up some frustration in the decision making.

- It's one of the, I guess, few safe places for people who aren't inside cars in the city.

- But for some people who need this drive for a commute, it's been really challenging.

- [Narrator] This is what MLK Drive has looked like for the past 16 months.

After it was closed to auto traffic by the city in March of 2020, walkers, roller skaters, and cyclists from all over Philadelphia came to enjoy the four-mile stretch of car-free road.

Bike advocates and outdoor enthusiasts alike, have asked to keep MLK closed to cars, but the city decided to reopen it on August 4th, 2021.

Randy Lobasso is policy director at the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia.

He explains the drives popularity.

- I think MLK was really unique in that it was something, it was basically a wide trail that was open near Center City.

And because of that, it became the most used bike trail in the entire Commonwealth of Pennsylvania over the last year.

- [Narrator] Mike Carroll is deputy director at the Office of Transportation Infrastructure and Sustainability known as OTIS.

He says, "Funding is a key factor "that went into the city's decision "to reopen the drive to cars."

- Sort of will be seeking reimbursement from federal funds for the paving.

And the reason we get that reimbursement is because Martin Luther King's on the federal aid network, which means that there's a certain threshold that's established for it to bear traffic and operate as a route for traffic traveling in an out the city.

- [Narrator] While recreational users have enjoyed the roadway, local residents and neighborhoods like Wynnefield and Overbrook felt left out of discussions.

Crystal Morris, president of the Wynnefield Residents Association shares their neighborhood sentiment.

- Imagine looking out your window of a home that you've lived in for maybe 20 years, and you look out and they've decided to make it something else, you're street.

And nobody asked you, and somebody in a room thought it was a good idea.

And what they're telling you is, "You just need to live with it."

And that happens way too often in the city.

- [Narrator] MLK is also a vital route for Wynnefield residents who drive into the city, they say.

- We assume people drive because they're lazy and they don't wanna take the bus and that... What about the fact that I'm working two jobs, and the only way that I can get from one to the other is if I'm driving because if I'm waiting for the bus that doesn't come, I'm gonna lose my job.

- [Narrator] The Bicycle Coalition made an effort to compromise.

- We actually are not advocating for it being permanently closed to cars.

We decided that the best option was actually gonna be a split road which was two travel lanes for vehicles, two travel lanes for bicycles, and then you have the side path for everyone else.

- However, OTIS did not use the Bike Coalition's proposed plan.

- We've incorporated line striping along the pavement but that adds shoulders with buffers on the shoulders on each side of a single lane which traveled in each direction.

It was always intended for people who kind of wanna enjoy the water's edge there.

And so not so much for commuters necessarily, and not so much as a raceway.

- [Narrator] MLK Drive is part of Philadelphia's high injury network, which shows the 12% of city streets were 80% of traffic injuries and deaths occur.

The new redesign of the street is supposed to prevent cars from passing each other, slowing down the drive, and hopefully, making it safer for cyclists.

Mike Carroll explained that the new shoulders can be used by cyclists who feel comfortable riding alongside traffic.

Which led to backlash from cyclists who question the safety of the new layout.

(bright upbeat music) - I don't think it's safe to bike on a road this curvy next to cars.

- [Narrator] Creating spaces in the city for cyclists and pedestrians also has environmental benefits.

According to Nick Zuwiala-Rogers of the Clean Air Council.

- To really avoid the congestion when we return to work, we have to make spaces for people to bike and walk.

Otherwise we're just gonna have tons of people driving and the air quality problems are gonna be so bad.

Why didn't we have a dialogue around bus lanes?

What would it look like to divert buses onto West River Drive?

So I think that there's a lot of opportunities for air quality benefits that we're losing out on.

- [Narrator] Though this may seem like a clash between cyclists and local neighbors, Crystal Morris says, "That's not the case."

- [Crystal] And what I've challenged our residents to do is, don't throw Bicycle Coalition under the bus.

They're not the enemy here.

The point is Randy asked for the same thing that we asked for, why is this not a conversation?

- There is a very strong emphasis in Philadelphia on community outreach, talking to the community before you do anything.

And we really tried to make that happen.

- [Narrator] Both groups are frustrated that the city didn't reach out to communities before putting their reopening plan into action.

- We need to be involved in conversations.

We need to be approached ahead of time instead of decisions being made in a vacuum.

(bright upbeat music) - Hello, my name is Kaveen, and this summer I was an intern at Billy Penn through WHYY.

I think this internship was valuable for me because I was able to work in a professional setting even though it was online, it was still a professional setting where I could just absorb a lot of knowledge about journalism from the people around me.

And I'd especially like to thank my editor at Billy Penn, Donya, she really taught me a lot about journalism, about college and life in general.

And that was a very valuable experience.

As far as the project that I did, it was a story about MLK Drive here in Philadelphia and how it reopened.

But yeah, the project taught me how to approach people on the street and be confident in talking to people, especially because I had to get a bunch of interviews with random cyclists and pedestrians on MLK.

I also wrote an article which I wasn't expecting to do, but that was another way.

I also had to step outside of my comfort zone.

It was a new experience, but something I enjoyed, and I'll definitely keep pursuing writing in the future now.

So once again, thank you, WHYY, and thank you, Billy Penn, for this great opportunity.

And I'll keep pursuing media in whatever ways I can find in the future.

(pen scribbling) - Halal carts back.

(drums beating) After being closed by the city for several months last spring due to the pandemic, most carts have returned to the streets.

- Chicken and rice.

Yeah, okay, so salad everything.

Okay.

(drums beating) - [Narrator] The workers are happy to be serving customers again, but the daily life they've returned to isn't easy.

Many workers don't own the carts they work in each day, instead, they're paid hourly by those who do.

As one man who has been working at a halal cart in front of city hall for eight years explains, "When items are stolen, "it comes directly out of the workers' paycheck."

- Everything is being counted from you.

You come in the morning, so you have to check out, I have this much, this much, this much.

So who is responsible?

Then you're responsible or then what do you have to tell your owner?

Like where these things go.

And usually, the people who are above you, they don't care.

- [Narrator] Being paid hourly also means that tips are a difference maker.

COVID has left lasting impacts on the industry as well.

Halal cart owners in center city worry about the long-term effects of the pandemic on their customer base.

- Since now most of the people they are not coming to the offices here anymore, so this affect the businesses.

- [Narrator] For carts in University City, things are closer to normal.

Although some workers like Sam on Drexel's Campus have been left working 13 hour shifts.

- So when the student back right here, we back with them.

- Now we hope this the business is good 'cause students come back again and we are happy as a bad day is gone, now it's a good day.

- [Narrator] By disrupting global supply chains, the pandemic has also affected prices.

This past spring the cost of a typical lamb or chicken over rice platter rose from $6 to seven or eight.

As one worker told us, halal carts are just passing the higher cost of food along to customers.

- And it's just because the chicken box that we used to buy was 32 and maximum it will reach to 40, $45 a box.

But now it is like $90 a box, $92.

Even the small things, the platters, the platter boxes, the gyros, the lame, the chicken, the fish, the falafels, everything, it went up price wise.

- [Narrator] Yet, the price point is still appealing, at least, according to Amai Tropothy, a Pen student and a typical University City halal cart customer.

- I think the value is actually really great in the halal carts.

I think the rice, the rice deals you can also get a soda with that.

That's a really good package.

And it's just a lot of food, and I think it's good enough to last you a few meals.

- [Narrator] Halal car owners like Amir Khan appreciate the support.

Despite wholesale prices doubling, the cost of platter is only risen by 25%.

Khan, who works in a halal cart on Drexel's Campus, says this is intentional.

- We think about the students.

This is not of like businessmen, this is a student.

They're don't have a lot of money and we want to give you a good and cheap, cheap prices food, good food, but for cheap price.

(pen scribbling) - Hi, Olivia, again.

Do you wanna learn the same video production techniques that made these films so amazing?

Here's Steve, WHYY's manager of media instruction to show you how with this creator tip.

(pen scribbling) - Thanks, Olivia.

Hi, I'm Steve Dixon, here to give you some production tips to increase your skills.

While this next tip seems simple, it's important and very handy.

Whenever you're a shooting video, no matter if it's an interview, V-roll, or narrative film, you should use a tripod.

(high intensity techno music) A tripod is a three-legged stand used to support a camera to reduce camera shake.

Even if you believe you have the steadiest hands or try your hardest as not to move, trust me, you will still see this shakiness in your footage.

Shaky handheld footage looks bad and can distract people from focusing on your story.

Unless you are going for a handheld look or style for your project, trust me, just use a tripod.

(funky techno music) Although most video cameras and lenses come equipped with image stabilization technology, it only works well with small movements.

It can only do so much to eliminate shaky footage.

Using a tripod and making sure its level is a great way to avoid this problem.

Begin by taking out your tripod and spreading its legs as evenly as possible while making sure they spread out all the way and place it on a flat surface.

Next, take off the plate and attach it to your camera and lock it in place.

(funky techno music) Then balance the tripod using the level bubble by adjusting the legs or the tripod head.

Once your camera is properly balanced now, adjust the tripod locks to smoothly move your camera, but not so loose that the camera tips over in between takes.

Now that you have your tripod set up, you can begin shooting.

While some tripods are expensive, there are plenty affordable options that work great.

For all types of recording devices, from phones to mirror less cameras, so pick one up and start filming your movie.

(fast-paced rock music) - Thanks again for watching "Young Creators Studio."

It's great seeing so many people in our community pushing through difficult times and helping people in need.

If you missed any of our past episodes or wanna submit a student film of your own, head to our website.

I'm Olivia and I'll see you next time.

(bright upbeat music)