\nShe calls herself Street Hero, says she is a former prostitute, knows martial arts and takes to the city\u2019s underbelly to protect women who work the streets. Her uniform includes a black eye mask, a black bustier and black knee-high boots.
\nA Brooklyn man who calls himself Direction Man prefers helping lost tourists and locals. He wears a bright orange vest, a pair of thick black goggles and has numerous maps spilling from his pockets.
\nThen there is Red Justice, a substitute teacher from Woodside, Queens, who wears red boxer briefs over jeans, a red cape made from an old T-shirt and a sock with eyeholes to mask his identity. He trolls the subways encouraging young people to give their seats to those who need them more.
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![\"The](\"http:\/\/reallifesuperheroesarchive.files.wordpress.com\/2007\/10\/superheroes_anonymous_07-7.jpg\" "\\"heroes190\\"")
The Super, from left, Street Hero and the Cleanser picked up litter and handed out crime prevention literature Sunday.<\/p><\/div> By TRYMAINE LEE Correction Appended She calls herself Street Hero, says she is a former prostitute, knows martial arts and takes to the city\u2019s underbelly to protect women who work the streets. Her uniform includes a black eye mask, a black bustier and black knee-high boots. A Brooklyn man who calls himself Direction Man prefers […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":33169,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[288,490,590,745,1017,1488,1787,1840,1841,2181,2193,2513,2556,2655,2699,2730],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rlsh.net\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/908"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rlsh.net\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rlsh.net\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rlsh.net\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rlsh.net\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=908"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rlsh.net\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/908\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rlsh.net\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33169"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rlsh.net\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rlsh.net\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=908"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rlsh.net\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nThey call themselves real-life superheroes, and they were just a few of the do-gooders who gathered near Times Square yesterday for what was billed as the first meeting of a group called Superheroes Anonymous<\/a>. They all declined to give their real names because they said they wanted to protect their identities.
\nThe meeting was part news conference, part documentary film shoot and part patrol duty. There were locals and out-of-towners, most were in uniform (don\u2019t dare call them costumes) and all said they were serious about helping make their respective communities cleaner, safer and kinder places.
\nThe 13 or so who gathered yesterday are part of a growing community of activists across the country and beyond who use the Internet to communicate.
\nChaim Lazaros, 23, a student at Columbia University<\/a> and an independent filmmaker, co-founded Superheroes Anonymous along with Ben Goldman to bring to New York as many superheroes as he could for interviews and to record them for a documentary he is making about the movement.
\n\u201cI found these people on MySpace<\/a>,\u201d Mr. Lazaros said, referring to the social networking Web site, \u201cand I knew I had to tell the story.\u201d
\nShortly after noon yesterday, Mr. Lazaros stood at a lectern in a park on West 48th Street where the attendees gathered before going on patrol in Times Square to pick up litter and hand out crime prevention literature.
\n\u201cThis is a serious job,\u201d Mr. Lazaros said. \u201cWe are out in the streets fighting crime in a legal way. But most of all we are fighting the worst crime of all, apathy.\u201d
\n\u201cWe\u2019re not these crazy people,\u201d said one man, Geist, who traveled to New York from Minnesota. \u201cWe just have an unorthodox approach to doing good.\u201d
\nAs the group walked down Broadway in Times Square, a Manhattan woman known as the Cleanser picked up soggy debris and errant paper bags. She wore a white cape and yellow rubber gloves.
\nThe woman who calls herself Street Hero was with the group. She says she decided to stop being a prostitute after she was arrested. Now she offers to help prostitutes in whatever way she can. \u201cI do it on my own,\u201d she said. \u201cMostly after dark. Around the city.\u201d
\nThe Super is a superintendent of a building in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, who fixes faucets and does electrical work for people in need. Yesterday, he wore a red cape, a yellow shirt, green suspenders and green tights under black soccer shorts.
\nThe Super, who also declined to give his real name, said he took on the alter ego after a friend was hurt by debris that had fallen from scaffolding. \u201cI said to myself, if we have to wait around for the city or the mayor to fix everything wrong or dangerous in this city, it\u2019ll never get done,\u201d the Super said.
\nHe acknowledged that his self-proclaimed role \u2014 as well as what he wears \u2014 has drawn derision.
\nHe said he had been laughed at, stared at, egged and stoned. Once, he said, someone in a high-rise apartment building threw a frozen piece of meat at him.
\n\u201cI don\u2019t have many friends,\u201d he said. \u201cA lot of real-life superheroes stumble along the way. And part of it can definitely make you feel isolated, like nobody understands you.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nAn article on Monday about Superheroes Anonymous, a group of volunteers who gathered near Times Square to publicize their efforts to make their communities cleaner and safer, included an imprecise reference from one participant, Chaim Lazaros, who spoke at the event. He is a co-founder of the group, along with Ben Goldman; Mr. Lazaros is not the sole founder.
\nhttp:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2007\/10\/29\/nyregion\/29super.html?_r=2<\/a>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"