Shooting Gallery Notes. Working Paper #22. Preliminary.

This paper contains ethnographic participant-observation field notes taken on a one-night visit to a "shooting gallery" in East Harlem (New York City) along with background information and commentary. East Harlem, also referred to as "El Barrio" or Spanish Harlem, is a 200-square block neighborhood on the upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City where the population is 40 to 45 percent African American, and the rest Puerto Rican. A traditional New York "shooting gallery" is a place that tends to be frequented by elderly, broken-down heroin "junkies"; these places are distinct from the "crack houses", which cater to a younger clientele who do not identify themselves primarily as addicts despite daily consumption of drugs. The bulk of the paper consists of a narrative of the conversations, actions, and relationships encountered that night. A short conclusion offers a larger commentary on the social conditions that breed the "shooting gallery" culture as well as a discussion of the usefulness and limitations of the ethnographic approach to the problem. (JB)