NY Times Reporter Julie Creswell Set for Next METROFOCUS

A new edition of the award-winning MetroFocus premieres in the New York metro area Wednesday, November 13 at 7:30 p.m. on WLIW21 and Thursday, November 14 at 8:30 p.m. on THIRTEEN and at 10:30 p.m. on NJTV.

On the next edition, host Rafael Pi Roman interviews The New York Times reporter Julie Creswell about her @nytvideo report, "Building for Billionaires." Ride to the top of New York City's residential skyscrapers and learn why foreign investors are snapping up apartments in the sky that cost tens of millions of dollars each. Pi Roman asks Creswell if these new buildings are symbols of the "tale of two cities," the slogan Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio uses to describe the city's growing gap between rich and poor. "The more that these buildings go up," Creswell says, "some would argue, the less that you have for housing for middle class or even lower class people in New York City."

Brooklyn College professor Philip Napoli shares poignant stories of New York's Vietnam veterans during this Veterans Day week. Napoli began his Vietnam project in 2004 and his hundreds of hours of interviews became his latest book, "Bringing It All Back Home: An Oral History of New York City's Vietnam Veterans." Napoli worked as a researcher for Tom Brokaw on the World War II oral history project, "The Greatest Generation."

Thinking about cranberries for Thanksgiving dinner? NJTV News' Lauren Wanko will show you how family farmers in New Jersey help make the Garden State the nation's third leading producer of the bog-grown berries.

In the upstate New York town of Tupper Lake, students make green the color of the season. Mountain Lake PBS reporter Tomeka Weatherspoon shows us how student-run recycling projects are cutting waste and reducing costs.

And meet Mohammed Fairouz, a 28-year-old New Yorker who has already composed four symphonies and an opera and had his music performed in Carnegie Hall.

Website: thirteen.org/MetroFocus (full episode available to view after 11/13 broadcast)

Facebook: facebook.com/MetroFocus

Twitter: @MetroFocus

MetroFocus Series Overview

MetroFocus is an award-winning multi-platform news magazine focusing on the New York region. The MetroFocus television program features interviews, in-depth reporting, content from many partners and solutions-oriented reports from the community. Major areas of coverage include sustainability, education, science and technology, the environment, transportation, poverty and underserved communities. MetroFocus.orgamplifies that reporting with daily updates and original stories that also cover culture, government and politics, the economy, urban development and other news in the metropolitan region. More information at:thirteen.org/metrofocus/about-us-faq/

MetroFocus is a production of WLIW21 in association with WNET, parent company of THIRTEEN and WLIW21. For 50 years, THIRTEEN has been making the most of the rich resources and passionate people of New York and the world, reaching millions of people with on-air and online programming that celebrates arts and culture, offers insightful commentary on the news of the day, explores the worlds of science and nature, and invites students of all ages to have fun while learning.

MetroFocus is made possible by James and Merryl Tisch, the Ford Foundation, Cheryl and Philip Milstein Family, Charlotte and David Ackert, Jody and John Arnhold, Betty and John Levin and the Dr. Robert C. and Tina Sohn Foundation. Corporate funding is provided by Mutual of America.

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