Neighborly Neighbors: Scott Trausch

Neighborly Neighbors is a series of posts in which we stop random people, ask them a few random questions, take their picture and post the results here.

Scott Trausch
25 years old
We met him leaning against a Citi Bike share station on the corner of Lafayette and Classon Avenues, where he stopped to smoke a cigarette before taking the train to New York University for an evening graduate class in the school’s interdisciplinary John W. Draper Program. Although Trausch does not use the Citi Bikes, he often rides his own bike around the nabe. He told us that he enjoys his new home in Clinton Hill, where he moved slightly more than a month ago.

How long ago did you move to this area?

I moved on Aug. 27.

Where did you move from?

St. Louis, Mo.

What brought you here?

A graduate program at NYU.

What are you studying?

It’s an interdisciplinary program, so you make your own program is what it is. So I’m studying German aesthetic theory and music.

What interested you about those areas of study?

Well, I’ve played music my whole life, since I was about six grade – trumpet, bass guitar. I also collect country music. I brought up like four or five hundred records, got a bunch more back home. I speak German as well. I’ve always been drawn to the humanities as well; it’s always been interesting, challenging work. Translation is fun, and it’s a small program too, so you’re really close to your professors and things like that. It’s just kind of fun to think about why people think things are beautiful or pretty, and just the history of that stuff is really interesting to me.

Are you still playing music?

Yeah, I didn’t bring any instruments up, but I play trumpet, bass guitar and a little bit of drums, but mostly I collect records now. I used to deejay back home, but now I don’t really have time to get that going up here yet.

How long have you been playing for?

Oh, the trumpet since like sixth grade, bass guitar in seventh or eighth grade and then record collecting started maybe sophomore year of college. It’s become a big addiction for me.

What are your favorite records, or your favorite genre?

I listen to basically like disco, like European, like really synthesizer stuff. I like a record called “Sharevari” by a group named A Number of Names.

What do you think of your program so far?

It’s pretty good. It’s small, like I said. It’s a little weird, because you can take classes in any graduate school’s department. You don’t really have any kids that go through together, you know. You kind of split up among different classes. There’s no real, like repoire, I guess, but despite that, I’ve met a few pretty good friends in the department. And there’s one, like, super good professor, Thomas de Zengotita. He’s kind of like the celebrity professor in the program. He kind of makes you thirst for learning. I’m on my way to his class right now. He makes you want to dig in so deep to this stuff.

What made you decide to live in Clinton Hill?

Craigslist. I have a larger space – it’s cheaper than a lot of other areas, and I’m not taking an hour and a half on the subway. People are just going about their own lives here.

Do you have any favorite restaurants, bars or cafes here yet?

I like Colador, the coffee place on Bedford Avenue. I also like Tony’s Pizza Spot. New Peking Chinese right here is also good.

Is there anything you would improve in the neighborhood?

Not really – it’s been easy sailing so far. Maybe just less glass in the streets.

What do you think about biking around here? Would you say it’s a good place to bike?

I have my own bike. Lots of my friends live in Bushwick, so I ride to visit them. The bike lanes are nice.

Do you think you’ll stay in New York once you finish your program or move back home?

I think I will move back home – not that I don’t like it here. I’m really excited to move back home.