PROFILE OF A DOORMAN: GREGORY HOOD

Editor’s note: Tessa Abrahams profiles the Upper West Side’s doormen for the West Side Rag. This is the second in her series.

By Tessa Abrahams

Name: Gregory Hood

Age:  “hmm…54!”

Hometown: Bronx, NYC

Born and raised in the Bronx, Greg has been working as a doorman/security guard in a building in the 70’s between Columbus and Amsterdam for the past 14 years. He still resides in the Bronx today (although he lived in Brooklyn at some points in between as well).

To Greg, the most drastic change that he has seen in NYC over the course of his life is “watching the Bronx go from burning to exploding.” He recalls, “watching football on TV as a kid, and suddenly I hear people shouting ‘The Bronx is burning! The Bronx is Burning!,’ only to look outside and see the neighborhood up in flames. Today, the Bronx is exploding with culture and is going in a very positive direction.”

According to Greg, the thing that most people do not know about being a doorman is that “you really have to be a people person and remember that we are all going through our own personal struggles. Not everyone is always having a good day and you have to understand that.” In addition to his doorman duties, Greg’s position also includes security work. In the past, Greg served in the U.S. military as a “military combat construction specialist.” To put it in simple terms for people (such as myself), who may have no idea what such a title could ever mean, Greg explains “It is basically like working at Con Ed but with explosives.”

When I asked Greg if there was something that most people do not know about him, he immediately blurted out, “I’m a mixed martial arts fanatic. At home I have over ten books, and thousands of tapes of fights in all different styles. I love how martial arts teaches you to always be one step ahead of the game.” Greg is also involved in his own mixed martial arts practice, which consists of “mostly Thai boxing, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, and ‘Chin na’ also known as Chinese Joint Manipulation.”

Of all the various types of fighting, Chin na is Greg’s personal favorite “because it allows you to pacify a person and this type of martial arts is focused on twisting joints and locking in your opponent so they cannot hurt you.” In the photo above of Greg and his fearless opponent, Jason, you can see an example of a typical Chin na technique.

Photos by Tessa Abrahams. To read all of the profiles in this series, click here.