At 3 p.m. on a Friday afternoon, Lance Bryant wrestles on his work uniform in a cramped, dimly lit bedroom in his East New York apartment. He lumbers into the kitchen and gives himself his daily shot of insulin, carefully placing the needle into an empty Ajax bottle on top of the refrigerator. On his way out the door, he lays out a fresh training pad for one of his whimpering puppies in the hallway.
"Hush, Peanut," he gently scolds.
Bryant starts his 30-minute commute every Friday afternoon to Columbia Presbyterian Hospital in Park Slope, Brooklyn, where he works as an emergency medical technician (EMT.) It's only the start of the first of two 16-hour shifts that he'll work this weekend.
"Fridays are my longest shift," said Bryant, 39. "It's the beginning of the weekend, so it's party time. That's when people usually get drunk and fall down the stairs when they should be sleeping."
For Bryant, who was born and raised in Brooklyn's low-income East New York neighborhood, the recent tough economic times are as much an exacerbation of his family's ongoing economic struggles as they are an affirmation of his success in "just getting by" for nearly 40 years. While wealthier New Yorkers are panicking in the face of diminishing 401Ks and plummeting property values, families like Bryant's keep forging ahead month-to-month to make ends meet -- just like they always have.
"Nothing has changed since the [economic] meltdown," said Bryant, his family's sole breadwinner. “I was already feeling it before it got like this."
“Everyday I’m hustling.” Those are the words from a song by rapper Rick Ross, and what you’ll hear repeatedly in place of a ring tone when you call Lance Bryant. Bryant says his life is all about the hustle. Hustling is an expression overheard frequently on the streets and in popular music and it simply means doing what you can to get by, or being resourceful with very little. For Bryant and many in his neighborhood, hustling is not something new. It is a lifestyle born, not from the current financial meltdown, but from survival instincts developed from living in a low-income neighborhood like East New York, Brooklyn.
Like many middle-class families in New York City, the Bryants must pay for groceries, health insurance, a car payment and rent each month. They also hope to one day afford to pay for their children's college tuition. For Bryant, making these ends meet means a work schedule that spans at least six days, includes two jobs and typically nears 70 hours each week.
Providing for his family is a priority and what drives Bryant to work two jobs. It's a sacrifice he is willing to make for his children. "Lance is an excellent dad," said his mother, who raised him in the same East New York neighborhood.
"I can't afford [to have] one job, I have teenagers that require $100 sneakers," says Bryant, who also works additional shifts each week driving an ambulance for St. John's Hospital in Queens. "It's difficult. But the reason why I work so much is because in the beginning, when I only had one job and the kids needed something, I usually had to wait until the next payday to get it. So I told myself that I was tired of waiting until the next payday."
