MAY 1996 $ 1.

0
T W ( H T I ( T H A H H I V ( R S A R Y Y ( A R
Parent Power
g
uess what? Community School Board 9 is a den of
patronage and corruption. Then there s Board 7. And
10. And 17. What else is new?
For legitimate reasons, the press and the Board of
Education's senior investigator, Ed Stancik, are obsessed
with community school boards, their scandals and their man-
ifest failures. Report after report leading up to the May 7
school board elections has critics arguing that we should
trash the whole dirty system. And they are probably right.
But corruption is not the only problem with the city s
schools. In fact, it s one small element of a much larger cri-
sis in pubic education.
Problem is, no matter how on-target all these investiga-
tions are, the focus on corruption has side effects. When it
comes to public schools, public opinion these days is of one,
cynical mind: there isn't much we can do.
EDITORIAL
Parents are the only force that could change
this. Yet in New York, they have never been effec-
tively organized as a movement. They are not
speaking out about the Pataki administration s
failure to ensure an equitable distribution of
state education funds. They are only just begin-
ning to speak out, here and there, about the
School Construction Authoritys poor oversight
of dozens of delayed construction and rehabilitation projects.
Albany legislators have put forward new models for
school governance that don't include parents in any mean-
ingful way. Both Democrats and Republicans have plans
that call for centralized school management and advisory-
read toothless-school-based councils.
Our feature stories this month find that a parent organiz-
ing renaissance is underway, but it still has a long way to go
to become a major political force. As Senior Editor Glenn
Thrush and writer Jordan Moss illustrate, some of the
resources are already there-and parents have a natural tal-
ent for forcing bureaucracies to be accountable.
Acceptance of reform legislation that doesn't include par-
ents in real decision-making roles would spell the death of
the parents' resurgence. Corruption can be stopped by cre-
ating meaningful, consistent oversight-and giving more
power to the people who really care: parents, not politicians.
If the same degree of investigative scrutiny expended on the
school boards were targeted at council members, assembly
reps and senators, and the patronage mills they control in
the schools and nonprofits, the public would certainly not
trust them to have total control of the institutions that help
raise our children.
Cover illustration by Todd L. Katz
Andrew White
Editor
City Limits
Volume XXI Number 5
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CITVLlMITS
MAY 1996
FEATURES
Where are the Parents?
They have been shut out of the effort to save the city's sinking school
system-and they're starting to get mad. When it comes to education reform,
where there are angry parents, there's hope. By Glenn Thrush
Cracked Foundation
The School Construction Authority was supposed to revolutionize the way
the Board of Ed built new schools and renovated old ones. Instead, there
are endless delays, parents in the dark and kids in the hallways. By Jordan Moss
Downloading Democracy ~
Social justice fInds an audience on the Internet. Converting Web-style
passion to action in the real world is another thing altogether. By Kim Nauer
PROFILE
An Artful Vision
The Point teaches artists in a South Bronx neighborhood how to cash
in on their cultural genius. By Kemba Johnson
PIPELINE
Strike Out
It's "one-strike-and-your-out" when it comes to crime in public housing.
Tenants are split on whether they should have the same due process rights
as tenants in private housing. By Kierna Mayo Dawsey
He Came Back ~
Comeback Kid Carlos Pagan rises from the mat-again-and turns
Williamsburg's El Regreso into a substance-abuse powerhouse. By linda Ocasio
OUT OF TOWN
The Cold Coast
The poor aren't exactly living it up in Martha Stewartville, Connecticut.
REMEMBRANCE
Don Terner 1939-1996
An urban visionary.
Cityview
Turning the Tables
Review
Frieze Frame
Spare Change
Green Achers
Briefs
7-Ain't the Same
Piano Ire
Babies, Please Don't Go
COMMENTARY
DEPARTMENTS
4. 5 Editorial
Professional
Directory
Job Ads
By HoUy Rosenkrantz
EmIlI
By Andy Reicher
127
By Jim Young
By Helen Stummer
134
By Thomas Kamber
2
32
33. 31

BRIEFS i
,
Scores of protest-
ers massed on
lower Manhattan's
Federal Plaza last
month to demon-
strate against
congressional
plans to limit
immigration. The
organizers, who
included the
Immigrant Workers
Association and
the Latino Workers
Center, also spoke
out against recent
federal raids on
midtown garment
factories.
Short Shots
7-AIN'T THE SAME
In the five years since
louise Fincher has been the
court-appointed administra-
tor of 938 St. Nicholas
Avenue, the building has
become a much warmer, safer
place to live. Fincher, who has
lived there for 31 years, has
gained the respect of her fel-
low tenants, area community
groups and the Department
of Housing Preservation and
Development (HPDI, which
administers the 7a Prop-
PIANO IRE
A $30 million plan to reno-
vate the old Steinway piano
factory-which would include
construction of 50 mod-
erate-income apartments-has
struck a sour chord with some
Astoria residents.
Earlier this year, Manhattan
developer Nikos Kefalidis
unveiled plans to convert the
vacant factory he owns into a
250-unit housing complex,
complete with playrooms, a
gym and 75 parking spaces. But
the plan ran into neighborhood
opposition when Kefalidis
announced he would rent 20
percent of his apartments to
families earning between
$19,600 and $24,500 in order to
ALl.'S "FERR" IN NEXT
YAR'S DEMOCRATIC
mayoral race. A recent
Quinnipiac (ollege poll
shows that Geraldine Ferraro
has the best name recogni-
tion in the non-Rudy field-
but that's only if the voters
can spell. Freddy Ferrer-two
small vowels and a mustache
removed from Ferraro-will
also be on the ballot. If she
runs, expect the former veep
candidate to run the most
visible "Geraldine" campaign
si nce FI i P Wi lson went off
the air.
SAl. ALBANESE, THE BAY
RlOOE SCRAPPER WHOSE
first name means "savior" in
Italian, may need a spark of
divine intervention to ener-
gize his progressive mayoral
bid. According to the same
late-April poll that chris-
tened Ferraro the front-run-
ner, Albanese would finish
erty Management Services
Program.
But if HPD proceeds with
a new plan to mandate that
all 7a administrators be
associated with larger orga-
nizations, Fincher and other
tenant-administrators may
be out of a job.
Under the 7a program,
take advantage of a low-inter-
est mortgage program through
the city's Housing Development
Corporation.
At a recent community
meeting, Astoria residents
repeatedly expressed fears
the factory would become "a
welfare hotel:
"Not everyone can afford
to live in a private house,"
Kefalidis' architect, Richard
Dattner, responded. "All we're
trying to do is build a slightly
dead last if the primary
were held today, snagging a
mere five percent of the
vote. Among black voters,
Sal managed a pale 9 per-
cent approval rating. How
bad is that? New police boss
Howard Safir scored only
two points worse.
when a building has been so
neglected by the owner that it
threatens the life, safety and
health of its tenants, a hous-
ing court judge may appoint a
certified "administrator
W
to
collect the rent and make
necessary repairs.
But the number of structur-
al and other problems in 7a
different type of housing in this
community."
"I'm not going to build hous-
ing for the homeless," Kefalidis
added.
Still, before he can get the
necessary variances from the
City Planning Commission,
Kefalidis must win the approval
of the local community board,
which will vote on the plan in
June.
Two years ago, the board
rejected a previous owner's
plan to turn the Steinway
site into a 60,000 square-
foot Pathmark superstore.
Kefalidis says he may consid-
er refloating a mega-mart pro-
posal ifthe community doesn't
give the green light to the
housing complex. "I can put a
superstore here," he says.
"Would that be better for the
community?"
Mohamad Bazzi
CITY LIMITS
-.
buildings are often more than
an individual administrator
can handle, and HPD is forced
to become directly involved in
building management Under
the new plan, officials hope
that will change. "We will not
have to get so involved," says
Betty Terrell-Cruz, assistant
commissioner for the 7a
Program. The city plans to
select new administrators
from among 45 nonprofit and
for-profit management firms
now being evaluated.
Tenant advocates say the
move could be problematic.
"If things are going well with
a current administrator, don't
replace that person with
someone who doesn't have a
relationship with the ten-
ants, says Anne Pasmanick.
director of the Community
Training and Resource
Center.
Fincher says she can do a
better job than outside firms.
"I'll step out of my 7a role in a
minute when I see someone
has a problem," she explains.
"Irs that little personal touch
when you see it's needed:
Worse still, there's so lit-
tle money to be made in the
program that administrators
hungry for a profit would
have an incentive to short-
change tenants. Wayne
Saitta, an attorney with
Williamsburg Legal Services,
envisions "the worst of both
worlds in which administra-
tors become as negligent as
the buildings' previous own-
ers. "To make any kind of real
profit from 7a you have to
milk the building: Saitta
says. "If you're in it for profit,
you take the fee and do as lit-
tle work as possible."
Tenants, who lose their right
to engage in rent strikes
when a building is in 7a, will
have little recourse.
Kemba Johnson
BABIES, PLEASE DON160
Emulating the Biblical custom
of painting lamb's blood on the
door to ward off the Angel of
Death, four protesters smeared
red paint on St Luke's Hospital in
hopes it would be spared the
corporate hatchet This act, part
of a demonstration last month
outside the Morningside Heights
hospital, heralded a new battle in
a 10-year war between St.
Luke's/Roosevelt Hospital Center
and the St. Luke's Com-
munity/Labor Coalition about
removing services.
The hospital wants to transfer
what remains of its maternity
unit- 22 obstetric beds and 14
newborn intensive care beds-
to its Roosevelt division, almost
60 blocks south of Morningside
Heights. The hospitals merged 17
years ago.
Six years ago, the state
required the hospital to retain
some maternity beds at the
uptown site. But St. Luke's/
Roosevelt executives argue that
those facilities are now under-
used. They also want to consol-
idate the maternity care unit
with the maternity and pedi-
atrics center at Roosevelt, now
that extensive renovation work
there has been completed,
according to Michael Scahill,
hospital spokesman.
But organizers say Harlem
mothers suffer, on average,
twice as many pregnancy com-
pl ications as the West Side pop-
ulations serviced by Roosevelt
Hospital. "We think irs discrimi-
natory and I personally think it's
a racist practice," says the
Reverend Earl Kooperkamp of
CO 96 59 MEMORANDUM
Date: March 28, 1996
To:
!-rom:
Subject: PRIORITIZATION OF CASe ACTIONS
ThiS is a reminder to EligibHity Speaalists, Group Supe!'V Ears ana Administrative Office
Managers in all units on ine priority in which case acti<ns are to be processed. The
priority IS as follows:
# 1 Case ClosingS
#2 Case Rejectiorl$
#3 Removals of lnetigible Individuals
#4 Case Reductions
#5 Case Acceptances (closely adhering to malMjated timeframes)
III 11_ times of financial oonstraints. it is .. tivtl tlU! the above listed pOorlty be
strictly followed.
If there are any questions. the Center Director or may can the Office of
Procedures at (212) 274-218012181 .
CC: IS Cabinet
FSAO Cabinet
A MitcheU
W. Dworkin
L Jeffery
Codg y:(
Irs official. The Giuliani administration's welfare policy is: Kick ' em out. ask ques
tions later. Advocates obtained a March 28 internal memo circulated by Burton
Blaustein, the senior Human Resource Administration official in charge of income
support , instructing his staff to purge the agency's rolls. In the memo, Blaustein
lists five priorities HRA welfare workers must follow. The first: " Case Closings:'
followed by " Case Rejections." The last : enrolling new welfare recipients.
the Church of the Intercession, a
coalition member. "They are
moving beds out of a predomi-
nately black and Latino commu-
nity to a white community."
To counter the hospital's
move, coalition leaders say they
may take legal action with the
help of the NAACP Legal
Defense Fund and the Puerto
Rican Legal Defense Fund, argu-
ing that the hospital did not fol-
low proper health department
regulations. Still, previous law-
suits and civil rights complaints
have yielded little success. The
group plans to ratchet up politi-
cal pressure on the hospital and
hold more demonstrations.
Meanwhile, a new struggle
looms as the hospital and
Columbia Presbyterian Medical
Center move forward with merg-
er talks. Kooperkamp and others
worry that if the new merger
goes through, St. Luke's will seek
to shift other vital services out of
the neighborhood.
But coalition members say
they intend to continue the fight
as long as services at St. Luke's
are threatened, "We've raised
some anger on this whole issue,
but we're not the bad guys,"
says the Reverend Bob Castle,
of St. Mary's Episcopal Church.
"We want the hospital to stay."
Kemba Johnson
Resour<es
A NEW REPORT DOES
AWAY WITH ANY
doubt that tenant-run
cooperatives are the
best low income hous-
ing stock in the city.
The study by the Task
Force on City Owned
Property presents rat-
ings from Brooklyn
tenants, and shows
that resident-owned
buildings were by far
the most popular form
of housing, while dty-
buildings
were generally reviled
by their tenants. Public
projects and nonprofit-
run buildings were
given middling marks.
And the performance
of for-profit landlords
varied so wildly the
ratings were difficult
to assess, the authors
say. For a copy of "No
More 'Housing of Last
Resort,'" contact the
Parodneck Foundation
at: (212) 431-9700.
NEVER ASSUME THAT
CHANGING YOUR
congressional represen-
tative's mind is a lost
cause. That's sound
advice to live by, con-
sidering where the
power lies in this con-
servative era. The
Center for Community
Change reminds grass-
roots activists that
most politicians are
willing to make a deal,
if that's what it takes
to get some peace and
quiet. For a manual full
of advice on cracking
the right wing, call
(202) 342-0567 and
ask for the Winter
1996 "Action Guide for
Community
Organizations."
MAY 1996


PROFILE i
,
Poet and play-
wright Steve Sapp
set out to keep
artists and their
patrons in the
Bronx. He and his
partners are
linking hip-hop
culture to the local
economy .

An Artful Vision
The Point hones the business of culture in the South Bronx.
By Kemba Johnson
I
na sunlit comer inside a covered South
Bronx marketplace sits Marvin Mena's
first attempt at being a businessman.
It's a wooden cart that once held Swift
Records, a mobile music store. The cart has
been abandoned, but 15 feet away he lifts
the metal shutters and enters his second
attempt-a storefront record shop just two
weeks shy of its grand opening.
A year ago, Mena was a manager at a
Dunkin' Donuts in Hunts Point At 19, he
hadn't finished high school and was soon to
be a father. Even with the money he made
on the side deejaying at parties as DJ Marv
Swift, he wasn't earning enough to raise a
family or make a future. ''It was hard mak-
ing $4.25 an hour," he says. ''I said to
myself, 'I have to start making moves.'"
So Mena set out to use his knowledge
of music to change his life. He soon dis-
covered, however, that starting a business
is not easy. The $2,000 monthly rent on the
first storefront he considered leasing
would have drained his budget. And the
irresponsibility of his first business partner
was already straining his patience.
Enter The Point Community Develop-
ment Corporation, Inc. Since it opened its
doors late last year, The Point has made a
mission out of developing small business-
es and promoting cultural activities in the
South Bronx.
From th. Edg.
Inside the 12,000 square-foot, red brick
building, art and business mesh. On one
side, a 180-seat theater, called Live From
the Edge, hosts plays, amateur nights and
art workshops. On the other, the business
incubator nurtures neighborhood entrepre-
neurs by providing cheap space in the cov-
ered market and storefronts, as well as
computers and advice. The Point takes
these resources and goes one step further:
all of the businesses are based in the arts,
and many of its cultural programs have a
commercial angle.
Here, Mena and six other neighbor-
hood entrepreneurs have learned how to
develop a business plan, track inventory,
open a business banking account and take
out loans. In monthly meetings, they share
their experiences and talk about what
kinds of services they need.
When he first opened his pushcart busi-
ness inside the marketplace last November,
Mena's first customers were two of The
Point's founders, Mildred Ruiz and Steve
Sapp. 'They gave me more than advice,"
Mena says. "They gave me time, space and
support. It would have taken me another
two years to get to the level I'm at now."
Well, that's The Point. By sharing
resources and knowledge, small business-
es can take off more easily and communi-
ty people can envision themselves as
working artists, says Sapp, himself a poet
and playwright. "Just the idea of an art
environment and commercial facility is
amazing," says Robert Zagaroli, an archi-
tect from the Brooklyn-based Pratt
Planning and Architectural Collaborative
and the designer of the building's interior.
"There's little precedence for it. It's
ground breaking. "
"In this area, especially in the Bronx,
there aren't many artistic things around,"
Sapp says. Too many people, artists and
their patrons alike, leave the Bronx for
Manhattan to fulfill their cultural needs.
Before The Point helped create one, there
wasn't even a bookstore in the South
Bronx. "I want people to feel proud about
the Bronx," Sapp continues. 'The Apollo
does something for Harlem. I want people
to say we have The Point."
But The Point's founders also want
neighbors to realize that the work of Bronx
young people-street culture, music,
design-should be valued as art, says co-
founder Paul Lipson. "We want people to
see the connection between hip-hop and
rap and poetry," Lipson says.
Lipson, Ruiz, Sapp and Maria Torres
first worked together at a Bronx youth pro-
gram based at Seneca Neighborhood
Center, where they met Mena. In 1994,
when Seneca's funding began to dry up,
they left and developed The Point.
Armed with some seed money from the
J.M. Kaplan Fund and a book on how to
start a nonprofit, they leased the old
American Banknote building, which was a
bagel factory in its last incarnation. For
more than a year, the quartet worked
weekends and nights on the renovation,
building walls, painting and installing win-
dows, and getting as much help as they
could from community volunteers, includ-
ing Mena. Today, they keep The Point
afloat with money from foundations and
corporate sponsors.
They have managed to instill the idea
of self-help at every level of the organiza-
tion, from the business owners to the
artists to the young people who take part in
the many classes and cultural events.
Outside of her marketplace T-shirt
shop, Bronx Gear, Carey Clark teaches a
drawing class with two students who are
working on new designs. When Clark
transferred BronxGear to The Point, she
decided her students would learn more if
she mixed art with entrepreneurship.
Therefore, much of her students' work is
silk-screened on the shop's T-shirts, for
which the student-designers get 30 percent
of the profits. A Paris modeling agency
recently told Clark it might be interested in
marketing the hip-hop designs. 'They
would make the T-shirt and they can get
paid," she says. "It's introduced the young
people to all the facets of the business."
Across the way in the theater, the Tats
Crn, a trio of graffiti muralists, teach anoth-
CITY LIMITS
1
\
\
\
er art class to about 12 young students.
When they were growing up together, no
one taught them how to get work or to have
respect for the graffiti art that blanketed the
neighborhood, says "Bio" Feliciano. Yet
they eventually started their own mural
company painting signs for local stores and
for the Coca-Cola Corporation-as well as
memorials for young people murdered in
the neighborhood. Now they want to help
students be as successful with less struggle.
"No one did anything for us," Feliciano
says. "You can do it yourselves. There's a
lot of opportunity there certainly, but you
have to meet it half-way. It doesn't just
come to you."
The Point also takes its self-help mes-
sage to the community, sponsoring a sum-
mer camp and an internship bank, which
help almost 30 kids each.
Even so, it has been difficult getting
large numbers of community residents to
visit. Neighbors know The Point exists,
they just aren' t familiar enough with it yet,
Carey says. But The Point can' t afford to
throw more money into marketing right
now. ''When you have limited funds, it's not
a priority," Sapp says. "It's word of mouth.
When you do a good show, people come
back. It's all part of building an institution."
U1timately, The Point's nurturing atmos-
phere will pull in people from the neighbor-
hood if they just give the place a chance,
Mena believes. "Many people say this place
is going to make it. It's in the middle of
nowhere, but it's going to make it."
First Failure
On the other side of his storefront,
however, sits a heap of leather jackets-a
testament to a closed-up leather goods
store. It's the first of the businesses in the
marketplace to fail. But Maria Torres does-
n't see it as a failure for The Point. The
owner, she says, never fully moved in and
never worked as hard to succeed as the
other owners have. "If a person is in here
every day and on the phone to get loans,
that's good. We can't apply for loans for
them or make the merchandise."
The Point's founders hope the organiza-
tion will own the building in two years, an
undertaking that will cost more than
$400,000. '1 want this place to be here long
after we're dead and buried," Sapp says.
Meanwhile, The Point continues to
expand. The next phase is to develop an
outdoor market area that will house a fruit
stand and other businesses. Also, the
MAY 1996
Marvin Mena
spins discs

Manhattan-based International Center of
Photography is considering teaching class-
es in a small detached building on the
property. The group hopes to add dance
and recording studios, a low-range radio
station and cultural ftlm festivals. They
even have a vision of building an endow-
ment fund for college scholarships for
local students. And in the next few months,
Sapp plans to produce The Point's first
play-one of his own.
Swift Records. It will cost about $6,000 for
Mena to buy the inventory and racks he
needs to complete the store, roughly half of
which he plans to make on the ftrst show.
He's a couple of weeks away from his
grand opening, yet his storefront is empty,
except for the phone, fax and a portrait of
his baby daughter on his desk. His opti-
mism is boundless, however. "I could rule
the world if I wanted to, as long as I set my
mind to it," Mena says, adding that he
plans to own at least two stores within the
next few years. 'There are no limits to
anybody. That's what they've shown me,
that there's no limit."
to raise the cash
it will take to
open his new
storefront
Upstairs in the theater sound and light-
ing booth, Mena is working the turntables.
He is preparing for the first of two
fundraising hip-hop shows he's holding for
record shop.
FINDING THE GRASSROOTS:
A directory of more than 250 New York City activist organizations.
"A superb and necessary resource."
-Barbara Ehrenreich
"A wonderful guide for coalition building ... A resource
permitting us to transcend race, gender, sexual
orientation, class and other boundaries."
-Manning Marable
Available for $10 plus $3 mailing costs. Checks to: North Star Fund
Mail to: North Star Fund, 666 Broadway, 5th Fl., New York, NY 10012.
Call 212-460-5511 for more information.

PIPELINE ~
,
:M
Strikeout
Public Housing tenants are split over whether fast-track
eviction for criminals justifies weakening every tenants'
due process rights. By Kierna Mayo Dawsey
loses, Graham could be out by the end of
the summer.
NYCHA spokesman AI Davila says
that if Graham agrees to never let her son
set foot in her apartment again, the evic-
tion order will probably be dropped. "But
under the circumstances her son can
never, ever appear at Pink Houses again."
he adds.
"IS there anyone here who doesn't
know someone on drugs or have a
close relative who is addicted to
crack?" Ronald Ward asks the 50
elderly tenants who have gathered in the
community room of the Reverend Brown
Houses in Brownsville.
Almost instantly, in unison, the many
silver-haired heads shake "No."
"Well, then you all know families that
could be put out on the street under this
'one strike and you're out' business,"
Ward, a longtime tenant leader, warns his
attentive audience.
In March, President Clinton an-
nounced the tough new public housing
eviction policy-"One Strike and You're
Out"-with the aim of cleaning drug deal-
ers out of federally fmanced housing
developments. Under One Strike, offend-
ers can be evicted much more quickly
than in the past because housing authori-
ties now "need not meet the criminal stan-
dard of 'proof beyond a reasonable doubt'
in eviction proceedings," according to the
federal policy manual.
But if the policy was billed as a radi-
cal innovation, Clinton's plan was old
news in the five boroughs. For a year, the
New York City Housing Authority
(NYCHA) has been bringing similar fast-
track eviction proceedings, expelling
1,500 convicted or accused criminals last
year alone. And in April, the housing
authority won a major court victory that
now allows them to shorten eviction
appeals, which used to take as long as two
years, to under 90 days.
Parents and Crandparents
Problem is, the policy also allows
entire households to be booted for one
person's crimes. Tenant lawyers like
Judith Goldiner of Legal Aid's Civil
Appeals and Reform Unit say that new
procedures are already leading to the
expUlsion of innocent parents and grand-
parents.
Officials deny that's the case. "The
only time a whole family is evicted is
when the apartment is being used for
criminal activity with the family's
knowledge," says NYCHA spokesman
Hilly Gross.
But an authority official in the tenant
organizing division, speaking anony-
mously, tells a different story. ''There are
times when Housing feels like they have a
case and they just go in and change the
locks," says the official.
Tenants themselves are deeply divided
over the policy. Many of them believe it
will improve their quality of life. ''We are
always so afraid for our kids. You get tired
of being afraid," says a One Strike sup-
porter in Fort Greene's Farragut projects
who was so afraid of retribution she
refused to have her name in print.
"The only people who will complain
about this policy will be the drug dealers
themselves and their supporters,"
AcceleratH Timetable
Under the city's old eviction policy,
tenants like Graham were tried before a
housing court tribunal and given the
option to have their cases heard in state
court, where they often could obtain sub-
stantial delays. Since a federal judge void-
ed this system last month, residents must
now plead before NYCHAjudges and can
resort to outside courts only for appeals.
Even those cases will be processed on an
accelerated timetable, says authority
spokesman Hilly Gross.
"What about [an evicted tenant] who's
rehabilitated himself?" asks Leslie
The policy allows entire households
to be booted for one person's crimes,
leading to the expulsion of innocent
parents and grandparents.
adds Ray Normandeau, a tenant council
leader in Long Island City'S massive
Queensbridge project.
Yet Fannie Graham, a 49-year-old ten-
ant in the Pink Houses in East New York
for 20 years, was recently served papers
by NYCHA to attend an eviction hearing
in June. Graham, a severe diabetic,
recounts her tale from a hospital bed at
Downstate Medical Center, where she
may lose a second leg to the disease.
"Now they're about to throw me in the
goddarnn street," she says.
According to Graham, the trouble
started last year when her 30-year-old
son, who is now in jail, moved in with his
girlfriend on the floor above her. "He
was accused of setting his baby's moth-
er's door on fire," she says, explaining
why the city wants to kick her out. If she
Holmes of Harlem Legal Aid. "What
about the woman who is a victim of bat-
tering and becomes subject to eviction
because of her husband? Where do these
people go?"
Gross admits that no one is really sure
how the newly speeded-up system will
impact tenants, "But," he says, "we intend
to maintain all the safeguards."
Still, those assurances aren't very
comforting for people living in the cross-
fire of the drug war. ''I'm scared. They say
you have to be responsible for the people
coming to visit you," says Ethel Velez, a
tenant leader in East Harlem's Johnson
Houses who often tries to help out drug-
addicted neighbors. "But if someone
leaves my apartment and tries to sell
something to a cop, if there's no [adequate
appeals] procedure, then I'm out."' _
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The Cold Coast
Suburban Connecticut may be a New Canaan for the rich, but it's the same old
Calcutta for those with no cash to spare. By Holly Rosenkrantz
Tenants of Carlton
Court (above)
and other poorly
maintained,
subsidized
developments
cant afford to
live elsewhere
in wealthy
Fairfield County.
I.M
S
outhwestem Connecticut is made
up of a cluster of small towns
where the cops have time to stand
around telling pedestrians when to
cross the street. Martha Stewart, Phil
Donahue and David Letterman live here,
just a 3D-minute train ride away from
Metro-North's Harlem station, Two of
these towns, Greenwich and New Canaan,
share with Beverly Hills the dubious title
of being the most expensive places in the
country to buy a house. When "A Current
Affair" did a sensational expose on racial
discrimination, they chose to bring their
hidden cameras to Greenwich.
Maria Gray lives in Norwalk, one of
the urban hubs in this network of southern
Connecticut wealth. For almost five years,
she has moved her family back and forth
between cheap apartments and motel
rooms. Once she finds an apartment she
can afford, it's usually so beat-up the city
winds up condemning the place because of
shoddy wiring or gas leaks. She and her
family spent Christmas in a motel, cooking
dinner on a hot plate.
Two years ago, Money magazine rated
this city the sixth best place to live in
America. But for the thousands of people
with very low incomes here and in the sur-
rounding region, the housing situation
couldn't be much worse. In cities and
towns across southern Connecticut's
Fairfield County, poor people are a mostly
hidden, ghettoized group on the fringe of
society, barely noticed by their neighbors
or their local governments. Virtually the
only battles taking place here today over
housing affordability have to do with new
apartments slated for working people with
moderate incomes-and even these pro-
posed projects have been subjected to the
wrath of conservative officials and resi-
dents.
"Poor people here are really left on their
own to make their way," says Peter Wood,
a former New York City housing advocate
who is now the executive director of the
Mutual Housing Association of South-
western Connecticut. "You don't have the
concentrations of poverty like you do in
New York or Boston, where it just hits you
in the face every day," he explains. "It's a
small percentage of the population living in
_1IIII!lM ...... --'.''''.-
, OUT OF TOWN
densely populated areas that have the same
problems as a bigger city."
According to the Census Bureau, about
4.5 percent of the region's population lives
below the poverty level. In most of these
towns, barely two percent of the housing
stock is considered affordable, even to
working class families, according to the
state's Department of Economic
Developement. And while African-
American communities-and more
recently, Latino communities-have got-
ten organized and elected some local lead-
ers, the town and city councils they serve
on have strong majorities.
Local governments seem more interested
in the development of new corporate head-
quarters than in low income housing.
"It's a very wealthy area, a conserva-
tive area, and the people in power don't
believe housing problems exist," says
Roseann Janasov, a former fair housing
officer for the city of Norwalk. "They live
in beautiful homes in an entirely different
world. They don't know, or they just
refuse to acknowledge, that the rest of us
don't live like them."
Isolation of Pov.rty
Maria Gray is on a years-long waiting
list for subsidized housing. If she makes it
to the front of the line, she'll likely get an
apartment in a housing project where vio-
lence and drug-dealing are constant
reminders of the isolation of poverty in the
outer suburbs of New York City.
"This is my town. I was born and raised
here, my mother worked for the hospital
and my father worked for the power com-
pany," says Gray. "You know, nobody
seems to feel like I belong here. They'd
rather leave me and my father in a hotel
room than help find us decent housing."
Ironically, Norwalk is one of the few
places in the region that has applied city
money to the housing problem. During the
past 10 years, Norwalk has spent $4.5 mil-
lion to build 631 units of low income hous-
ing, and now it's one of the only munici-
palities in southern Connecticut that meets
minimum state standards. It is also one of
the only cities that pays a city staffer to
work full-time on housing discrimination,
This was a commitment Norwalk was
forced to make, however. Ten years ago, the
local branch of the NAACP sued the city
for building all its low income housing in
one section of the city-and in effect, the
group claimed, creating a ghetto. The law-
CITY LIMITS
suit was settled out of court, with the city
agreeing to the $4.5 million housing plan
and the creation of a fair housing office.
The new office quickly received thou-
sands of calls from people claiming they
were victims of racial prejudice. Some of
these claims were about blatant, I-don't
rent-to-blacks discrimination, Janasov
says. But her job also involved solving
landlord-tenant disputes, organizing resi-
dents and educating real estate agents
about income discrimination laws. The
office also organized a residents' council at
the city's worst subsidized housing com-
plex, Carlton Court, where residents said
they felt powerless about changing their
conditions.
Yet, overworked as they've been, the
city's fair housing officers have always
had to fight with Norwalk officials to
prove the office is important enough to
keep. Conservative city lawmakers have
often proposed combining the position
with other jobs. And in 1995, when the
city moved Janasov to a smaller office and
cut her budget, NAACP leaders feared the
city was trying to phase it out. Janasov
quit in a noisy huff. City officials respond-
ed with statements about their commit-
ment to housing issues. But for five
months the fair housing position remained
vacant, inspiring a wave of angry petitions
from black church congregations and res-
idents of poor neighborhoods, and
NAACP officials considered re-opening
their lawsuit against the city.
"It was like being slapped in the face,"
says AI Robinson, head of Norwalk's
NAACP chapter. "Hardly anything is ever
done to help poor people, and it seemed
like the city was taking away this one
thing, saying everything is all right."
At least Norwalk eventually hired a
replacement. A similar fair housing and
human rights office was eliminated in
1994 in nearby Stamford, southwestern
Connecticut's other city. Yet the lack of
affordable housing is a constant problem
in Stamford. Soon, the city will demolish
several poorly maintained high-rise build-
ings containing 250 apartments in a crime-
ridden housing project called Southfield
Village. The hundreds of families that will
lose their homes have been bumped to the
top of the waiting list for federal Section 8
rent subsidies, which they can use on the
private market. Others are being moved to
empty apartments in public housing.
The day the city invited these tenants to
MAY 1996
sign up for the Section 8 program, more
than 600 desperate Stamford residents
showed up, mistakenly thinking that they,
too, could get some assistance. In fact, the
city's waiting list for the program has been
closed since 1992, except for emergency
situations.
And while Stamford has promised to
help relocate the displaced tenants of
Southfield Village, that pledge is still open
to question. Some city officials say they
have no obligation to help house the poor.
"People are supposed to take care of them-
selves," says Edward Schwartz, the head
of the Stamford Housing Authority.
Even if Stamford could simply give
Section 8 certificates to every needy resi-
dent, the city could not find them all a place
to live. There simply are not enough afford-
able houses and apartments, advocates say.
And longtime federal regulations that
required construction of new apartments to
replace every demolished unit have been
waived, so Stamford will see a substantial
net loss of low income housing when the
demolitions take place.
Bitter Fight
While Stamford loses a large part of its
housing stock, and families like Maria
Gray's remain in Norwalk motels, the sur-
rounding wealthy towns are battling the
state's 1990 Affordable Housing Act. The
law allows developers to ignore many
local zoning rules if they build moderately
priced apartments affordable to young
people fresh out of college who want to
live in the towns they grew up in, or to
government workers-such as police offi-
cers and teachers-who want to live in the
towns where they work.
The law is explicitly not aimed at cre-
ating low income housing, yet townspeo-
ple have reacted to the new development
projects like Manbattanites protesting
against new drug treatment facilities and
AIDS housing.
In New Canaan, one of the wealthiest
towns in Connecticut, Avalon Prop-
erties-a large developer of rental apart-
ments-is planning to build some so-
called affordable housing under this new
law. The rent on these apartments will be
between $1,150 and $1,450 a month.
Still, the local government has spent hun-
dreds of thousands of dollars fighting the
project, which the selectmen and plan-
ners insist will ruin the town's charm.
Part of the opponents' argument is a
Even new housing
for working people
has been subjected to
the wrath of
conservative officials
and residents.
common one in southern Connecticut:
they charge that an influx of new resi-
dents would ultimately suck up too much
public money.
The fight against the moderate-rent
apartment complex is turning bitter. At pub-
lic hearings, residents have argued the
development is too big for their "quaint
New England village." Others insist they
need a new parking lot more than they need
affordable housing. Many New Canaan res-
idents have taken the ironic stand that the
proposed apartments aren't cheap enough
to help "poor" people: ''You know, the
teachers, the policemen, the people strug-
gling to make a living," argues Hamilton
Herman, a local resident who has led peti-
tion drives against the project. "Those
apartments will never help people who
can't find a cheap place to live in
Connecticut."
Ultimately, local misunderstandings of
exactly whom the Connecticut Affordable
Housing Law is designed to help probably
won't halt development. In recent rulings,
the state courts have recognized the man-
date for moderate income housing as well
as the role private developers can play in
filling that need.
The state legislature is not preparing to
pass any laws aimed at providing housing
for poor people. And advocates say recent
cuts in federal and state housing subsi-
dies-as well as a tight-spending mood at
the local level-means their jobs are
becoming tougher.
Wood points out that Legal Services,
which defends poor tenants, has been
reduced to a two-person operation. "Now,
Legal Services is barely able to handle
their workload," he says. "Everyone is just
trying to survive."
Holly Rosenkrantz is features editor at the
FairfieldlWestchester County Business
Journal.

It's high time for a schools revolution:
A fledgling movement strives to tap
the city's greatest natural
resource-parent rage.
by Glenn Thrush
THE REVEREND BOB CRABB HAD HAND-DELIVERED
HUNDREDS OF FLYERS, IMPALED
the obligatory rolled ham on toothpicks and was now waiting,
arms crossed, for the mothers and fathers of the South Bronx to
arrive at New Hope Lutheran Church. ~ They never showed up. ~
Crabb, a former Marine weapons expert, stared out of his storefront
chapel at the clots of April snow falling onto Morris Avenue and pondered
the fizzle of his first parent organizing session. It was an event that was sup-
posed to help kick off a parent uprising that would overturn Community Board 9,
arguably the most corrupt and educationally impoverished of New
York's 32 school districts.
Only two mothers, both of them event organizers, had turned
up by the time Crabb decided to say the opening benediction.
"It's awfully hard to get parents together in a community like
this," he said.
Olga Porter-Perez, one of the two parents at the meeting, broke
in: "After all the stuff that's gone on, after all the scandals, parents
still think the schools can do miracles. They think they don't need
to do anything."
Porter-Perez and a lot of other people know that now would be
the perfect time for parents in the city to come forward and take
back their schools. Hollywood would script it this way:
The ignored, abused, overworked parents of District 9 .
(Angela Bassett plays Perez-Porter) gather in the street
outside their kids' school, storm the double steel doors
like the Bastille gate, trailing school guards and adminis-
trators in their wake. Windows are thrown open. Corrupt
school board members are hung out and spun until all the
booty falls from their pockets. Science books from the
1950s flutter down to the street below. A gleaming future
beckons. Roll Credits. Back to reality.
'The only time things really change is when parents
get loud and get angry-and the parents haven't gotten
loud or angry in quite a while," says Diane Ravitch,
author of 'The Great School Wars," a landmark history
of the city school system. "Parents rioted when the
schools were too overcrowded at the turn of the century.
They took over the schools in the sixties to get commu-
nity empowerment. If people want this system to
improve, they' ve got to get angry again.
'That's when they scare the hell out of the politicians."
For the moment, however, parents aren't scaring any-
body. Community organizers scattered in districts across
the city have only started to recognize that organizing
parents may be as important now, at the turn of the new
century, as tenant and welfare rights organizing was in
the 1960s and 1970s.
In the absence of a populist uprising, politicians are talking
about radically reforming the school system on their terms.
Within the next year, the state legislature is likely to pass laws
stripping power from the community school boards. It's a move
that may cut corruption, but could also foreclose the possibility of
parents having real authority in their children's schools.
"Basically, it's a joke when it comes to parent power," says
Helen Schaub, a lead organizer with Mothers on the Move, a
grassroots parents organization in the southeast Bronx.
Nothing's been passed yet, however. And in recent months, par-
ents and community leaders around the city have been preparing for
the May 7 school board elections by mounting a number of small
insurgent campaigns they hope will spawn a wider movement. AIl
combined, they represent the most serious attempt in years to har-
ness the anger and the democratic promise of concerned parents.
From some of these efforts has sprung the nascent Parents
Organizing Consortium Unlike other failed efforts to build an
effective citywide parents' union, the new group hopes to start
from the bottom up, recruiting angry parents fed up with lousy,
"'AV1996
dangerous schools who have never had a constructive outlet for
action. The consortium, led by community activist groups includ-
ing ACORN and the Northwest Bronx Community and Clergy
Coalition, hopes to raise $1 million to fund an army of 40 parent
organizers within the next year or so. If it succeeds, it will be the
largest grassroots effort to mobilize parents in decades.
''The goal is to build a citywide parent organization that has a
real impact on individual schools and the overall restructuring of the
school system," says ACORN's Jon Kest, who heads the consor-
tium's braintrust. ''It won't happen overnight, but it will happen."
"There are two conditions that need to exist for things to
change in this city," adds Schaub, whose group is one of the con-
sortium's charter members. "First, people need to be hurting. We
got that. Second, there needs to be some hope that things can
change. That's what we need to work on."
NEARLY 30 YEARS AGO, COMMUNITY
LEADERS IN THE EAST
Brooklyn neighborhoods of Ocean Hill and Brownsville had the
same idea when they rose up to wrest power from the white-dom-
inated central school board. They gave birth to a national "com-
munity control" movement, staging a series of dramatic school
takeovers that worked because black and Hispanic parents mobi-
lized in unprecedented numbers.
Their actions led to the creation of community school boards,
giving local parents the power to elect their own nine-member
boards, who, in turn, were given broad authority to hire superin-
tendents, principals, administrators and school workers.
It seemed like a great idea at the time. But today, the great
majority of politicians and educators-and many parents-
The Reverend
Bob Crabb held a
parent organizi ng
sessi on i n his
South Bronx
church-but the
parents failed to
show up.
e-
agree that the boards have utterly failed in their promise to
empower minority neighborhoods and improve schools.
Instead, many boards in poor communities became hiring halls
where members brokered jobs for political payback and, in
some cases, cash payoffs.
A few blocks from the Reverend Crabb's spartan little church
Board 9's office, a lushly-appointed den where president
Saez, a self-confessed "full-time" board member with no
means of support, allegedly raised $30,000 in undocu-
campaign contributions. Saez, who is being investigated
schools watchdog Ed Stancik, has also been accused of sitting
by while one board member tried to bribe another. (At press
Stancik's office was preparing to release a report detailing
alleged misuse of campaign funds and district staff.)
even Saez is a sideshow compared to the quality of edu-
inside many classrooms. Test scores remain in the cellar in
poor neighborhoods, worst of all in the South Bronx. Less
third of the children in District 9 read at their grade level.
February, Schools Chancellor Rudy Crew took his first
toward dismantling the system Ocean HillIBrownsvilie cre-
ated. Not only did he suspend Saez and his fellow board members
along with neighboring Board 7, he also got Albany leaders to
gi ve him broad discretion in re-suspending the boards if ousted
members are reelected. Most significantly, Crew's actions appar-
ently galvanized a bipartisan drive to end the era of strong com-
munity school boards.
In Albany, legislators are forging a reform law from two com-
peting plans which give power to the mayor or to a reconfigured
central school board. A bill may not pass immediately, but
Democrats and Republicans both agree that it's time to take power
away from the elected community school boards. They have also
proposed creating toothless school-level councils, which would
include parents but have strictly advisory powers.
Whatever its ultimate shape, the reform legislation seems
destined to pass without much parent protest. "The talk behind
the scenes is all about power at the top," says a legislative
source close to the Albany bill drafters. "I've never heard a sin-
gle person mention getting parents involved. That's just not an
issue. There's absolutely no one in there lobbying for [commu-
nity control]."
''There's a union for teachers, there's a union for principals,
there's a union for custodians," says John Fager, leader of the
Parents Coalition, a 12-year-old reform group. ''The only people
who don't have a union are the parents."
FAGER SHOULD KNOW. HIS COALITION,
FOUNDED IN 1984 BY BLACK,
Latino and Asian parents who felt school administrators had co-
opted local parent associations, failed because it could not muster
either money or significant membership. Today, it barely survives,
chronically low on cash and largely fueled by Fager's own ener-
gy and access to the media. Its lingering presence serves as a
warning to today's parent organizers, like the half-submerged
hulk of a ship in hazardous straits.
Despite its success in drawing attention to issues like kinder-
garten overcrowding and the custodial union's wasteful contract,
the coalition was never able to shift its focus on citywide policy
issues to local organizing. As a result, it never developed a reliable
base of support among parents.
"Our basic problem is that we saw ourselves as a citywide
group," concedes education consultant Jon Moscow, one of the
organization's founders. ''We started with no budget at all and we
just never saw our organization in the role of coordinating local
support .... Now I've come to realize that grassroots organizing is
absolutely critical."
There are also lessons to be learned from the official, school-
backed parents associations, those immemorial fixtures in every
city schoolhouse. The PA's are supposed to represent parents'
interests. But often--especially in poor communities-they are
rubber-stamp committees for the administration.
"Parents associations are never used as a tool to change the
schools," says organizer Schaub. "Most of the time the principal
tries to divert their attention by giving them all sorts of paper-
work .... In poor schools, parents are guilted into thinking they
should shut up and just volunteer in the cafeteria or raise some
money."
The PA's haven't been a player in school reform because
they' ve never been organized, Moscow adds. "Even if a parents
association is effective, the administration knows that good par-
ents will get tired, other parents will get bought off in exchange
for special treatment and the rest just move on out of the school as
their kids grow up," he says. "That's why parents need back-up.
They need full-time people ensuring that constant pressure is
applied to the system."
But organizing in such an environment is tough. In District 9,
with its grinding poverty and high concentration of Spanish-
speaking parents, it's a chore just to fill meetings or rallies. "It's
CITY LIMITS
hard enough to get parents to do homework with the kids,"
Porter-Perez says. "Forget about politics."
EARLY THIS YEAR, A COALITION OF SOUTH
BRONX CLERGY MEMBERS,
tired of reading about school board scandals in their own neigh-
borhoods, began canvassing local parents and activists to see who
would be interested in trying to run against Carmelo Saez's crew.
Although the coalition waged an eye-opening campaign to regis-
ter 4,000 voters, not a single parent was willing to brave the rig-
ors of a school board race. "People were either too scared of Saez
or too busy to run," says Crabb. "It was really frustrating."
Unknown to the church leaders, Omar Oliver Ortiz, a harried
23-year-old college student with a baby face and braces, decided
he would take on Saez all by himself.
Ortiz, who lives with his mother, does not have any children
of his own, but he has an inexhaustible, optimistic drive. Since
1986, when his father was shot dead in a drug deal gone wrong,
he has been the man of his house, helping to raise three broth-
ers and sisters. The loss of his father spurred Ortiz to play a
paternal role in the lives of neighborhood kids. Eventually, he
founded his own youth group and he still spends spare time
mentoring teenagers who he says have been "victimized" by
District 9's schools.
"It's a system that makes young people feel worthless," says
Ortiz, whose mother is a special education teacher. 'Their book-
bags would be stuffed with crinkled homework that teachers
never bothered to check. They'd tell me that the teachers couldn't
give a damn if they were dirty or clean. None of these kids ever
has a teacher that makes a difference for them."
Starting in late winter, Ortiz undertook the tedious door-to-
door work of soliciting petition signatures along with his girl-
friend and his mother, plodding through the endless hallways of
the projects. Together they wrenched 293 signatures from reluc-
tant residents, 93 more than he officially needed to get on the bal-
lot. The reactions he got from parents first shocked him, then
steeled his resolve to win.
"Parents were so utterly hopeless about the schools," says Ortiz,
who hopes to be a social worker after graduating from Marymount
Manhattan College next year. "I knocked on one woman's door and
she asked me, 'How do I know you're not going to get corrupted?'
And she refused to sign the petition. She told me she didn't think
anybody could make a difference. I told her I would."
In truth, Ortiz may be a little too optimistic. In early April, his
democratic dream slammed into the vengeful realpolitik of
Carmelo Saez. The board president, wearing a chocolate-hued
pinstripe suit and his signature Jheri curls, strolled into a Board of
Elections hearing and knocked Ortiz off the ballot instantly on
what seemed to be the most insignificant technicality. A tiny tally
box on each petition page had not been ftlled in, Saez's lawyer
Dominick Fusco pointed out. "Unfortunately, it's fatal, sir," an
apologetic elections commissioner told Ortiz, as Saez nodded
approvingly.
By the end of the petition-challenging procedure, only five
candidates-Saez's entire slate of incumbents-were left on the
ballot to fill nine board seats.
MAVI996
(Fusco, a Bronx Democrat, is also representing Board 9-at
city expense-in its appeal of Chancellor Crew's suspension
order. In also serving as Saez's private lawyer to knock chal-
lengers off the ballot, Fusco may have violated Board of
Education conflict-of-interest regulations. Both Saez and Fusco
are being investigated in the matter, says Bob Brenner, a top aide
to Ed Stancik, the board's special commissioner for
tions. Board 9 authorized more than $20,000 in n ~ ~ ' m p n t ~
Fusco for legal work over the last several years, according
central school board official.)
Ortiz may still have the last laugh. Running along with a
longtime family friend, he is waging a write-in campaign to win
a seat. Ironically, the absence of other candidates in the district
should work in his favor: Because there are less than nine
names on the ballot, Ortiz only has to out-poll his fellow
ins to win ..
Ortiz, who has never run for elective office before,
nonetheless won the endorsement of District Council 37,
powerful municipal employees' union. The union has
agreed to print campaign literature and palm cards for free.
addition, he is getting technical assistance from New York
University's Institute for Education and Social Policy, a pro-
gressive think-tank that has held numerous how-to workshops
for school board candidates.
"Our whole goal was to create a means to give communities
and parents a greater voice in this process," says institute co-
director Norman Fruchter, a school reform expert who also
se.rves as a school board member in Park Slope, Brooklyn. "We
are trying to give people the tools to function in a system that
wasn' t designed to encourage their participation .... If you don't
have someone helping you negotiate this system, you're dead."
Me
THOUGH HIS SERVICES WERE AVAILABLE
TO ALL COMERS, MOST OF
the groups that sought Fruchter's help turned out to be inexperi-
enced, insurgent candidates running long-odds challenges against
entrenched incumbents: candidates in District 17 in Crown
Heights, would-be board members in northeastern Bronx's
10 (some of whose members faced criminal indictments
time) and District 8's insurgents, Mothers on the Move.
district, which encompasses the Hunts Point and
Neck sections of the Bronx, is dominated by white, con-
allies of State Senator Guy Velella, the Bronx GOP
"The northern part of the district is white and Republican
has good schools," explains Helen Schaub. "The southern
mostly black and Hispanic and we' re in a shambles. That's
so important we get elected. To have our voices heard."
racial divide is equally pronounced in Coney Island,
Fruchter has helped seven parents and grandparents who
a slate to land the fIrst-ever African-American board
shorefront Brooklyn's District 21.
As in the Bronx, the candidates believe the dearth of minority
board members has created racial disparities within the district A
superfIcial glance at District 21 's elementary school math and
English scores show that students are well above the citywide medi-
an. But in the western part of the district, where more than a third
of the students live-most of them black or Hispanic--educational
failure reigns. 10 the four majority-black and Hispanic schools in
Coney Island, reading scores are as bad as in the South Bronx.
"And there are subtle forms of discrimination that take place,"
says candidate Anthony Morton, whose son just graduated from
junior high school. He also has a granddaughter starting elemen-
tary school next year. "We had a situation out here where the
teachers had turned a school playground into a parking lot for
their cars. That meant the children had to have their recess and
gym classes indoors.
"When we asked them why they did it, the response was
'Because we're afraid of getting mugged on the way to our cars. '"
MORTON SUCCEEDED IN GETTING THE
TEACHERS TO PARK SOME-
where else. But changing educational priorities at a school where
teachers and administrators value easy parking over kids' access
to fresh air has been a much larger battle. Therein lies the main
challenge of the Parents Organizing
Consonium.
"The problem about education
organizing is that most advocates, even
experts, can't tell you exactly how to
tum a bad school into a good school,"
Jon Kest explains. "It's an abstract and
difficult thing. But I don't think it's
impossible. "
So far, the POC has raised $250,000
to embark on its fIrst campaign, a text-
book and school facilities improvement
drive due to kick off this month. The
other, more general push is to get par-
ents of students in poorly performing
schools to make their presence known.
At P.S. 329, a Coney Island elemen-
tary school where grade-level reading
profIciency hovers 20 percentage points
lower than District 21 's average,
Morton did just that. He called a con-
ference with the principal to ask for spe-
cifIc solutions to the school's educa-
tional malaise.
When the administrator began
explaining that the school's scores had
recently risen a few percentage points, Morton-whose group
belongs to the POC--<:ut him off. "I said this to him: 'If I were
drowning in ten feet of water and I was able to climb up three inch-
es, wouldn't I still be drowning?'''
Morton had seized on the central tenet of the parents move-
ment: that schools should be held directly accountable for the
quality of their students' education. It's the notion that politicians,
teachers and administrators can't be allowed to rationalize failure
in poor communities by saying: "With parents like those, how can
you expect the kids to do any better?"
"The children are bearing the cross for the failure of the sys-
tem," says Bob Crabb. "For years, everyone has always been
blaming the parents. And it's just not fair. It's the schools that have
failed. Sure, parents need to be more involved. Sure, they need to
help their kids do their homework."
He pauses and scans the empty chairs in the church. "But it's
about time that the schools start taking some of the burden off
the parents."
CITY LIMITS
Its mission is to build new schools and renovate
old ones-but on many projects, the School
Construction Authority deserves a failing grade.
CRACKED FOUNDATION
By Jordan Moss
IN EARLY SPRING, THOMAS THACHER,
INSPECTOR GENERAL OF
the School Construction Authority (SCA), appeared on a New
York 1 cable-TV talk show to explain, in great detail, his "suc-
cesses" in managing construction contractors and weeding out bad
ones through his agency's stringent prequalification procedures.
Parents and school administrators must have been scratching
their heads in living rooms across the city, wondering just which
contractors-and which SCA-Thacher was talking about.
Although the construction agency has completed 28 new schools
and 34 building modernizations since its creation in 1988, many of
its projects have fallen years behind schedule and a few have been
so poorly managed that they've required major structural overhauls.
In fact, according to a City Limits analysis of the agency's own
records, at least one-quarter of the new-school construction pro-
jects the SCA has planned and contracted for since 1990 have been
delayed by a year or more and remain incomplete. Remarkably,
seven of these are two or more years behind schedule.
The list of blunders and stalled openings is long. A score of
projects, including building additions, gut rehabilitations and
more moderate renovation work; have overrun their original com-
pletion dates and are delayed by more than a year. Six vital high
school modernization projects are also more than a year behind
schedule, five of them delayed at least two years. The most noto-
rious of the lot, Erasmus Hall High School in Brooklyn's Flatbush
neighborhood, will have taken four extra years and $20 million
more than planned if it is completed on the contractor's latest
schedule, in December 1998.
As the SeA stumbles, the city school system's need for more
quality facilities is becoming desperate. With the public schools'
student population growing by nearly 21,000 children every year,
almost 100,000 students lacked regular classroom seats last year,
according to city Comptroller Alan Hevesi. And that number,
Hevesi adds, will more than double by the year 2002. Despite
more than $4.4 billion comitted to school infrastructure since
1989, only $1.7 billion worth of projects has been completed and
hundreds of school buildings remain in need of serious repair.
City Council Speaker Peter Vallone's recent proposal to raise
another billion tax-dollars for school ('onstruction and renovation
has gained the support of many parents-but it will also put more
responsibility on an agency that's having trouble handling the
work it's already been given.
MAY 1996
"You shouldn't just throw good money after bad," says
Harr, a parent and member of the Northwest Bronx ,""VULUllUUJJL],
and Clergy Coalition's education committee. Harr and her
leagues support the Vallone plan-as long as the SCA and its
tractors are made accountable to the public. "Let's build
into the process," she says, "The SCA should be monitored."
TELEVISED REPORTS OF THE SCA'S SUP-
POSED EFFICIENCY GO OVER
badly in the Bronx's District 10, one of the most overcrowded in
the city. PS 20, a new elementary school for 1,200 students in
Norwood, was originally scheduled for completion in September
1993. Two-and-a-half years later, officials say the school will
finally be ready for opening next fall.
Mishaps and contractor troubles plagued the ill-fated con-
struction project from the start. First, inspectors discovered the
landfill used to support the foundation was too soft, but only after
-
--
the contractor put up the steel and concrete skeleton of the main
classroom building. The discovery delayed construction by two
years. Months later, after the SCA forced the general contractor,
Koren DiResta, off the project, another company drove piles to
support one of PS 20's three buildings in the wrong place.
Because of these and subsequent contractor errors, the school's
completion has been rescheduled no less than six times.
The delays hurt kids. Six severely overcrowded schools are
. relief from PS 20. This year, students at nearby PS 8
to attend school in two shifts, the first beginning at 7:00
Only when the new school is completed will the children
to a normal schedule.
"We need this school desperately," says Toni Rodriguez,
7-year-old son Christopher must share textbooks and
space in a school where overcrowding means an abbrevi-
period and no play time. "If it were [SCA officials']
they would see what we mean," she says.
Another new District 10 school in University Heights, PS 15,
under the incompetence of the same general contractor,
DiResta. PS 15 opened last September before construction
complete, and students are still navigating hazards. A child
snared in an improperly constructed playground fence last
school officials report, and another had a fmger crushed
an incorrectly hung door.
The Bronx is not alone with these troubles. In Sunset Park,
PS 24's opening, slated for September, has been pushed
one year due in part to troubles with its contractor. The con-
on another new Brooklyn school, PS 22, was recently ter-
and that project is more than three years behind schedule.
Albert Gallardo. "You have weather, labor, manufacturing. You
have subcontractors who have to pay their employees .... You
have bumps. It's a rocky ride."
Gallardo says that contractors are generally held to a fixed
timeline, and that any changes must be reviewed by the agency's
managers. He adds that school parents often assume a project has
ground to a halt when they see work stop for a few days. "It takes
time to get a permit, or to transport steel. You can't pour concrete
when the ground is frozen .... Community people see a building
with only two laborers working, they jump to the conclusion that
work is behind schedule."
Yet all too often, SCA's work is well behind schedule-and
the agency's explanations have critics' blood boiling.
A 1994 report by State Senator Roy Goodman (R-Manhattan),
a key sponsor of the legislation creating the agency and chainnan
of the senate's investigative committee, was harshly critical of the
SCA's performance. The report found problems with the majori-
ty of renovation and new construction projects it investigated, and
cited insufficient accountability, ineffective management and
contracting policies, and poor communication procedures.
SCA's Gallardo says his agency responded to the report's fmd-
ings to the satisfaction of Goodman's staff in a "conftdential"
meeting. Goodman's chief counsel, Rachel Gordon, says that's
not true. The fmdings were "never adequately addressed by the
SCA. If those were adequately addressed, they'd be a lot better
off," she says, adding that the agency's aversion to criticism is
part of the problem. ''To not take the complaints of a client seri-
ously is not professional," she says.
As City Limits went to press, Goodman was preparing to
release a follow-up report, again highly critical of the SCA.
COMPOUNDING THE PROBLEM IS THE
school construction from the corruption and bureaucratic
lCOlnpe:tence of the Board of Education. To speed completion of
state legislators exempted the new agency from time-con-
land-use review procedures and freed SCA from the Wicks
which requires municipal agencies to issue separate plumb-
electricity, heating and construction contracts instead of allow-
general contractors to hire whoever they believe can get the job
The state also created a three-member board of trustees, con-
of the schools chancellor and appointees of the governor and
to streamline accountability and oversight of the SCA.
high hopes surrounding the agency's founding mission
display in the lobby of its Long Island City headquarters,
glass box showcases display delicate models of several
schools. The designs have won several arclUtectural and
design awards, and it just takes a visit to one of the real tIllngs to
understand why. At PS 15, tall windows illuminate a spacious
library with modern benches. Solid oak cabinets adorn class-
rooms. A terraced amplUtheater nestles into the building's rear
facade. Such buildings were designed to improve upon the old,
antiseptic, factory-style schoolhouses so many clUldren attend.
Yet turning the designers' vision into real-world structures has
been an ordeal. Officials of the agency place most of the blame
for the delays and construction errors on the pitfalls of the con-
struction industry.
"Our contractors all have problems. Construction by its very
nature will never be a perfect process," says SCA Vice President
AGENCY' S FAILURE TO COM-
municate with the communities it serves. In its own documents,
the SCA claims to have "structured mechanisms for involving
communities in the construction process, so that schools may
truly serve as community centers that foster community
strength." But the agency seldom keeps parents up to date on the
progress of their schools. In fact, the only routine interaction with
parents takes place prior to construction.
This lack of information and accountability frustrates parents.
And even superintendents, local school board members and other
top officials say they have difficulty getting accurate information
from the SCA.
After several delays at PS 20, and during a time in wlUch seri-
ous safety issues were raised at PS 15, then-SCA clUef executive
Barry Light repeatedly refused invitations to brief parents at com-
munity school board meetings-until top Board of Education
officials intervened. At a November meeting in District 10, Light
announced that PS 20 would not open as planned on February 1,
and would not be completed until March 31. After Light left the
agency two months ago, SCA IUgher -ups announced that deadline
too would be missed. Light had also promised that all work at PS
15 would be completed by November 30, but several key tasks
remain unftnished today.
By repeatedly breaking promises, often with no public expla-
nation, the SCA fuels the distrust of parents and school officials. A
window replacement project at PS 81 in Riverdale was supposed
CITVLl MITS
to begin more than a year ago, according to Lori-Jo DiGiulio, the
school's parents' association president. When work fmally began
this February, it stopped after five days. While it is unclear which
company is at fault, the general contractor, HRH Construction of
the Bronx, says it could not keep its promise of completing one
classroom per day, and instead could commit to only one per week.
DiGiulio says SCA staff have not been able to hold HRH account-
able. "It's almost as if their hands are tied," she says.
DESPITE ITS DISAPPOINTING TRACK
RECORD, THE SCA MAY BE
given new, high-profile responsibilities. The new plan by Council
Speaker Peter Vallone, which proposes to extend for three more
years the income-tax surcharge that paid for police department
expansion and use it for schools, will place the agency under far
fiercer scrutiny.
State Senator Guy Velella (R-Bronx) offers a preview of the
coming debate. "Not a penny will go to the SCA until we reform
it and get it productive," he vows, blasting what he describes as the
SCA's bloated bureaucracy: 'They've loaded the agency with
employees. What are they all doing? Give them a hammer and a
paintbrush and let them go out and work."
Such knee-jerk, politicized critiques are likely to ring true to
jaded New Yorkers-and perhaps undermine future school con-
struction projects-despite the fact that the SCA has shrunk to
571 employees from 654 employees in 1994.
Yet the Democrats, who trumpet education as their top issue,
MAY 1996
are ceding the debate to the Vallone plan's critics by having little
to say on the matter. "I don't expect that we will have a report [on
the SCA]," says Steve Sanders, chairman of the Assembly
Education Committee. "But we are trying to ascertain if we have
to go to some other agency to administer a larger pot of money."
The assembly is considering a school construction financing plan
of its own which may rely on new lottery revenues.
"Just because the SCA has a problem doesn't mean we stop
building schools," adds Lois Harr of the Northwest Bronx
Community and Clergy Coalition, which has been calling for an
entirely new system for holding the construction agency account-
able. Her organization has also joined with other members of the
newly formed Parents Organizing Consortium (See "Where are
the Parents?" page 12), which also includes ACORN and the
Hunts Point-based Mothers on the Move, in a campaign demand-
ing new investment in school repairs and construction.
Parents at PS 64 in Queens, where the SCA built a new addi-
tion in 1992, couldn't agree more. Since the project was complet-
ed, the school's heating and cooling systems have not worked
properly. Students wear coats in the winter, and for a time, the fire
alarms were going off whenever the air-conditioning switched on.
The SCA never adequately addressed many of these problems,
charges Pat Ralston, president of the school's parents association.
"I want them to think about who it is they are doing this for,"
she says. 'These children are our future." .
Jordan Moss is editor of the Norwood News, a Bronx
community paper.

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from traditional organizing tomes like Saul Alinsky's "Rules for
Radicals" as he goes.
One of his fJrst pieces of advice is an old Alinsky standard:
"Always strive to go outside the experience of your target." In other
words, don't be predictable.
Though Internet organizing is relatively new, Deutsch says, some
of the techniques activists have grown to depend on are getting old
fast. Barraging the White House and Congress with electronic mail,
for example, is rapidly becoming within the experience of the target.
The Internet offers users a whole toolbox for organizing-instant
research, instant contacts, instant communication. But, he adds,
activists' work must be focused on producing results in the real world,
not just on the Net.
A case in point is the federal Telecommunications Act campaign
Deutsch designed last year for the nation's seven regional "Baby
Bells," including Nynex, Arneritech and Bell Atlantic. The act, which
ultimately passed into law in February, freed these companies to jump
into lucrative markets held by long-distance telephone and cable
companies.
During congressional debate over the bill, the Bells' public mes-
sage, repeated like a mantra in advertisements and press releases,
was that deregulation would spark competition, and competition
would be good for consumers. What better way to get this point
across than to provide a quality on-line service to help legislators,
consumers and the corporations' own competitors track the proposed
legislation as it passed through congressional committees and mark-
up sessions?
The act itself was highly technical-the final version was more
than 200 pages long-and various sections of it were, at any given
moment, on dozens of different staff and committee desks. Bell lob-
byists gathered the changes daily-almost hourly in the final weeks-
and posted them for all to use at bell. com on the World Wide Web.
Also posted, of course, was a liberal dose of the Bell spin-just in case
anybody needed to know. As the debate neared climax, Deutsch claims
that the site was accessed by users more than SO,OOO times a week.
There's no way to measure the impact of the campaign, which was
a form of targeted advertising. Still, Congress and the President signed
off on a bill that gave the Baby Bells much of what they sought, and
when the association shut down the Web site, Deutsch got e-mail from
staff and reporters who told him they were sad to see it go. "The influ-
ential people read it," he says. "It served the role of making sure the
word was heard."
TI
wo and a half years ago, Deutsch was a FJeld director for
Public Citizen's Congress Watch, where he did his best to
carve a niche in on-line activism. But he left the organization
frustrated that his bosses were leery of devoting the staff time
and money needed to use the Internet effectively.
Now he is director of "information marketing" at Issue Dynamics,
Inc. in Washington, D.C. He argues that activist nonprofJts should be
more focused on the opportunities offered by communications tech-
nology. Tools like electronic mail can sharply reduce phone and fax
costs. Newsgroups and listservs-essentially e-mail clubs open to
anyone who wants to subscribe-offer local organizations unprece-
dented power for sharing strategies and gathering intelligence. And
imaginative activists can get a lot of mileage publishing a Web page,
Deutsch says-if they focus on their market and remain clear in their
MAVI996
goals. "Someone's got to breathe some fire into the nonprofits to get
them to realize that this will be a cost -saver, first and foremost, and
will make them more effective," he says.
Grassroots activists, used to working door-to-door, have been suspi-
cious of this latest brand of organizing. The Internet, after all, remains a
tool of the elite. Only 16 percent of households have moderns and only
II percent subscribe to an on-line service. Far more people use the
Internet at work, but it is certainly not yet a full-fledged mass commu-
nication tool. Anyone who has attempted to explore the World Wide
Web knows that searching for information, or even simply moving
about, can be maddeningly slow even with a high-speed modem.
Yet those who populate the Internet and understand its quirky
dynamics have demonstrated that it is too important to ignore. Two
years ago, Net users derailed development of the Clipper Chip, a device
designed by govemment security agents to encode digital telephone
communication, making it safe to send things like credit card numbers
over the Internet. Net enthusiasts adamantly opposed the Clipper Chip
because the Clinton administration wanted the device to become the
national coding standard. Though people's e-mail would be "safe" from
prying eyes, government officials would know how to decode Clipper
transmissions and, hence, would have the capability to monitor any-
one's messages.
Leaders at Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility
(CPSR) rallied the Internet's civil libertarians and privacy activists,
getting more than 51,000 people to "sign" an on-line petition oppos-
ing the chip and delivering it to Vice President Al Gore. Thousands
also contacted their elected officials and the media. Eventually, the
campaign spilled onto television and into the newspapers, engendering
enough bad publicity to force the administration to back off.
Certainly the Internet is capable of generating a lot of noise quick-
ly, if the cause suits its tecbnophile audience. But those who prefer to
organize in the real world are also finding the modem wire impossible
to ignore. To wit:
D Anti-smoking activists track the tobacco industry and health regu-
lators using a members-only on-line service called the Smoking
Control Advocacy Resource Center Network, or SCARCNet. In addi-
tion to trading information and strategies on topics ranging from
indoor clean air laws to advertising regulations, they also use the
forum to track how the media play their messages, doctoring the spin
in future interviews as needed.
D Marian Wright Edelman's son, Jonah, in charge of pulling off his
mom's mammoth June 1 Stand for Children rally in Washington, D.C.,
is using a full-time, on-line organizer to coordinate the event.
Organizer Nalini Kotarnraju reports that their automatic e-mail server
alone is handling more than )00 requests for information a day. More
than a third of the I,SOO participating organizations have e-mail, cut-
ting down the cost of faxing and mailing updates. Also, e-mail lists and
Web links have notified thousands of people, particularly those in iso-
lated communities, who might otherwise have never been invited to
participate.
D Even an urban-based, avowedly low-tech organization like the
Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN)
has decided to get on the Web. The selling point was employee recruit-
ment-ACORN needs a fresh supply of college kids every year to
restock its low-paid organizer positions, and students, asserts
ACORN's 26-year-old Nathan Henderson-lames, spend a lot of time
goofmg off on the Web.
Over the longer term, ACORN will use the Web to link with unions
and progressive groups it has never worked with before. "This is about
raising ACORN's profile in general," says Henderson-James. "People
should think about ACORN when they're pissed off and want some-
thing done."
here's an old saying in the business world: Computers don't
improve management-they just help managers do the wrong
thing faster.
It's a lesson worth heeding, notes Audrie Krause, executive
director of CPSR. She heads up one of the Internet's oldest
activist organizations, but she herself is only a recent arrival to Net
culture, having served for 11 years as an organizer for various grass-
roots causes in California. There is a tendency toward myopia among
on-line organizers, she notes. Many of those enthralled with the Net
concentrate on elaborate education campaigns only to realize, after the
fact, that they aren't reaching the type--<>r the number--<>f people
they imagined. "I think some people who are on-line do not really
understand that most of the world is still off-line," she says.
Jonah Seiger, a policy analyst at the Center for Democracy and
Technology, admits it's a lesson he learned coordinating the campaign
against Senator James Exon's Communications Decency Act. Signed
into law earlier this year as part of the telecommunications bill and now
being challenged in court, the act would fme or imprison Internet pub-
lishers found gUilty of making "indecent" material available to minors.
There's no arguing that the opposition's natural constituency was
on the Internet. Not only did the bill effectively outlaw Net-porn sites,
popular with sweaty-palmed college types, it also threatened the
Web's anything-goes publishing culture. Using classic Net organizing
techniques, Seiger and others, most notably Shabbir Safdar at the
Voters Telecommunications Watch, spread the word, getting permis-
sion to present their case against the bill on various forums and list-
servs. They also posted detailed educational material with specific
instructions on how people could contact their representati ves.
"It was a visual image that people could make sense of," says Seiger.
"It helped define the issue-although, admittedly, a little too late."
hat will the Internet actually do for people too disenfran-
chised or undercapitalized to lobby Congress and stage
media campaigns? It's the first question any activist
should ask before considering on-line organizing,
Deutsch says. "If your constituency is not on the Internet,
it may not be a good tool to use," he says. "Unless, of course, you can
figure out a way to get them on."
Twenty-seven-year-old Barbara Duffield has thought about this.
Last year, using an old PC brought from home, she built a Web site for
the National Coalition for the Homeless, primitive compared to com-
mercial sites but a veritable feast of activity by nonprofit standards. In
addition to uploading volumes of educational materials, Duffield has
photographed and interviewed dozens of homeless people in the
Washington area. Their pictures can be viewed on the coalition's Web
pages and their stories are told on downloadable audio files.
It's an experiment, she says, in getting people involved in serv-
ing homeless people and boosting public concern about the politics
of housing and poverty. People can look at the pictures, listen to the
stories and request information on how to get involved. She argues
that this instant connection is important-and new.
In the past, people who had progressive political sentiments and
vague feelings of compassion for the poor had to be lured into soup
kitchens and activist projects through all kinds of complex organizing
efforts-using churches, advertising, door-knocking and phone banks.
Of course, all these tools are still necessary. But the Internet provides a
cheap, simple mechanism for roping in sympathetic people and instant-
ly giving them the information they need to get involved locally.
"It's not like people can go to the Yellow Pages and look up 'shel-
ter,'" Duffield says. "People don't know where to start .... This is
action. It's taking education and doing something with it."
At first, Seiger says, the troops responded by sending legislators /l/l '{j ou've got to make the information compelling," says
moving e-mail messages like: "Censorship sucks!" But the campaign UU Anthony Wright, who monitors on-line activism at the
eventually took hold. As the months progressed, Internet users regis- Center for Media Education. Otherwise people will
tered their disapproval with e-mail, phone calls and letters outlining never come back. "That's why I firmly believe that the
complex opinions about free speech and broadcast rights. The reach of best sites on the Web right now are still the nonprofit
the legislation was scaled back. A provision holding service providers and academic ones. They may be bare-bones, they may not look pret-
liable for the actions of the publishers, for example, was stricken. Still, ty, but they have the most useful information."
most of the bill passed into law. And that, often, is what people desperately need-although it's
Seiger admits today that he did not truly understand the importance important to remember that the best information isn't necessarily
of capturing the collective imagination until just before President found on the Internet. Sometimes, you have to use old-fashioned
Clinton signed the Communications Decency Act into law. That's the techniques. Duffield answers a lot of e-mail, including a fair number
day he and others, attempting a grand act of civil disobedience, staged of letters from people threatened with homelessness themselves (You
a partial blackout of the World Wide Web. would be surprised at who is on-line these days, she says). In early
The goal, he says, was to illustrate the impact censorship could April, a man wrote, carefully relaying a story about his children, his
have on the Web's independent publishers. In the days before, orga- ailing health and an apartment he expected to lose in six days. Only
nizers broadcast the idea and protesters jumped on board: For 48 hours the last line belied his panic. In capital letters, he shouted: "I NEED
after the signing of the bill, more than 2,000 Web pages went dark, SOME HELP."
including important hubs like Netscape, where people can download Duffield could only print the letter out and pass it along to her col-
important Web software, and Yahoo, a popular search engine. The leagues. On the bottom, she scribbled a quick note, using old-fash-
stunt served to keep press coverage riveted on government censorship. ioned interactivity: "Any ideas?"
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EQUAL OPPORTUNITY LENDER
PIPELINE ~
,
Carlos Pagan
(above) opened
EI Regreso i n
two buildings
that, just a few
years ago, were
heroin shooting
galleries.
-
He Came Back
Overcoming addiction can be a life's work. A North
Brooklyn fighter makes the comeback trail his spiritual path.
By Linda Ocasio
clean bill of health from the state and recent-
ly graduated a third group from its treatment
program. In fact, Pagan says memories of
the state investigation don' t bother him any-
more. That was minor trouble compared to
what really haunts him-the loss of his posi-
tion as president of Project Return 10 years

family when they came to Brooklyn from
Puerto Rico in 1950. He first got caught
selling heroin in 1957 when he was 19. He
spent nine months in jail, and then
returned to Puerto Rico to live with his
grandmother. But when Pagan
returned to New York City in
1961, he was back on the streets,
wheeling and dealing. He hung
out with gangs like the Phantom
Lords. 'They were street fight-
ers," he says. "But I was a fol-
lower, not a fighter." He could
always count on his family to
take him in, no matter what,
because that was how his grand-
mother wanted it.
"My grandmother was my
guardian angel," he recalls. Yet
Pagan did not enter heroin detox
until soon after she died. "When
my grandmother passed away, I
knew my support system was
going to come to an end."
In the winter of 1966, he
entered a program at what is now
Beth Israel Hospital: It was there,
in May 1967, that he joined five
other ex-addicts-including Julio Martinez,
who would later become state commission-
er for drug addiction services--to start
Phoenix House, a place for recovering
addicts like themselves to learn to live drug-
free in a strict but nurturing environment.
"We were six guys in a furnished room, and
W
hen Carlos Pagan re-
flects on his life, he
compares himself to a
young boxer in the
ring, riding high with
fame and money before the inevitable col-
lapse. "You see kids who become profes-
sional fighters, they make it big and with-
in a short time they're broke. Their man-
agers have ripped them off," he says.
Pagan, 57, knows what it feel s like to hit
the mat hard. And then rise again. And fall.
And rise.
liThe only thing I can say is, try to stay
clean and follow the rules. "
Pagan went from streetwise drug addict
to co-founder of Phoenix House, the drug
treatment organization-and he' d accom-
plished all that by the time he was 28.
Since then, he has helped create another
renowned treatment program, Project
Return, waged a personal battle with alco-
holism, lost his job and started over yet
again. In 1986 he founded the organization
he leads today, EI Regreso (The Return), a
residential treatment center for men in
Williamsburg. The drama doesn' t end
there, however. A few years ago, he was
the subject of a state investigation over
allegations of mismanagement of more
than $1 million in state funding.
Yet today, El Regreso has received a
ago following his bout with alcoholism.
"I take a lot of the blame," he says. "I
was a little boy in Disneyland, I was fed
with a silver spoon in the playpen. That's
what they told me in alcohol rehab," he
recalls. "I hurt myself, but there were other
people hurt because of that. My life is dif-
ferent today. I don't drink. I will never
drink, that' s how much it hurt me." He's
learned his lessons, he says, and now he
keeps his work close to home.
Seiling Heroin
Just down the block from EI Regreso's
center on South Second Street is the apart-
ment building where Pagan lived with his
we pulled our welfare checks together to
create Phoenix House," says Pagan.
The organization drew the attention of
Mayor John Lindsay, who provided city
funding, and Pagan and the others became
paid staff members. "It was exciting," he
says. "I never had anything, and suddenly
I had a title. I was getting money and
recognition I'd never had."
When Pagan and Martinez decided to
strike out on their own in 1969, they joined
the city's new Addiction Services Agency,
which was opening storefront offices
throughout the boroughs to offer referrals
and counseling to addicts. Pagan was assis-
tant director at a storefront in Clinton on the
CITY LIMITS

West Side of Manhattan; Martinez headed
the Longwood Avenue office in the Bronx.
When they started Project Return
together in 1970, it was a natural out-
growth of their government experience. In
addition to providing referral services for
substance abusers, they set up a senior
center and a women's shelter. Pagan was
vice-president, but in 1982, when
Martinez became head of the Division of
Substance Abuse Services in Mario
Cuomo's ftrst administration, Pagan took
the helm of Project Return.
It should have been the best of times
for Pagan, but that was not to be. "I found
myself drug-free, with a bunch of people
on a positive, spiritual mission, and I'm
getting empowered," he says. ''That power
does something to people. It did something
to me. It made me lose focus. I thought I
could do anything I wanted."
At the same time, his drinking got out
of hand and his marriage collapsed. "I was
deeply into drinking and I was not able to
function," he recalls. "Most drug rehab
programs allowed people to drink, and I
was drinking my life away."
Pagan checked himself into a recovery
program in Pennsylvania, but he only
found out how much he had lost when he
came back to New York after a month in
rehab. The Project Return board-many of
whom he had appointed-<lemoted him to
community relations director. "I was shot
down," he says. He believes the board did-
n't give him a chance. "I left Project
Return in 1986, after 16 years. I resigned
but with ill feelings. It's still painful. We
started it up, and someone else is enjoying
the fruits of our work."
Nonetheless, Pagan takes responsibility
for his behavior. 'The only thing I can say
is, try to stay clean and follow the rules."
Dark Pride
Pagan decided to return to
Williamsburg and focus on the people and
the streets he knew best. He opened the EI
Regreso outpatient referral service in 1988
in a storefront on Roebling Street. El
regreso means "the return" in Spanish, but
Pagan likes to point out that if the last syl-
lable is accented, the meaning becomes,
"He came back."
The program began by serving home-
less ex-addicts, mainly Latino, who had
gone through detox and needed help get-
ting back on track. Pagan's plan was to
provide shelter and job training, and help
MAVI996
his clients find jobs and permanent hous-
ing. Still, his problems weren' t over yet.
By 1989, he had received more than
$1 million in state funding to open up the
residential center he dreamed of. But his
progress was suspiciously slow. And
before long, state investigators were
examining the way Julio Martinez, still
DSAS commissioner, was doling out
grants-especially those he'd given old
friends. The Commission on Government
Integrity, headed by Fordham Law
School Dean John Feerick, called Pagan
in for questioning. He is still incredulous
about the way he was treated. 'They
asked, 'Do you gamble?' And I said, no, I
don't gamble .. .. Julio didn' t give me any
money. He gave it to a not-for-profit
agency." Pagan was receiving a $40,000-
a-year salary at the time and had four full-
time staffers.
In the basement lounge of the 54-bed
residential treatment center, which Pagan
finally opened in 1991, he has hung framed
newspaper articles about the state probe. He
seems to take a dark pride in the evidence
of the rounds he spent on the ropes, before
he proved to the world that he was really
back for good. The Feerick Commission
ultimately found the delays were caused
mainly by difficulties Pagan encountered
obtaining and renovating the property. But
Feerick's report also found that Martinez
had bypassed state contracting procedures
in awarding contracts to EI Regreso.
Today, Pagan heads an organization
with 32 employees and oversees a budget
of $2 million. The state Office of
Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Services
(the successor agency to DSAS) continues
to fund the group, and state auditors give
Pagan high marks for management. He
was recently given a three-year license for
the treatment center, and a state quality
a s s ~ a n c e team has just completed a fteld
audit of the organization. "The supervisor
of the audits says they're doing very well,"
says OASAS spokesperson Dan McGill.
Pagan's friend, Martinez, however,
did not survive a wider probe of his
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agency's operations. He was forced out of his job and hit
hard times; for a while, he was even selling hot dogs on
the streets of Albany. Today he works as a consultant
there-and owns a fleet of hot dog carts.
Reconstructing Llv.s
EI Regreso's center on South Second Street occupies
two renovated buildings that, just a few years ago, were
heroin shooting galleries. The program is clear and simple.
During a one-year stay, residents are assigned a bed, a per-
manent counselor and a mentor, usually an older resident.
They eat comida criolla in the cafeteria, and can jam on the
congas in the basement or work in the backyard wood shop.
At fIrst, they have no income and no expenses.
''We take that responsibility from them so they can focus
on other issues, like self-destructive behavior," says Edwin
Ahmad Trujillo, the residential facility director. Residents
slowly earn back responsibilities and privileges. Graduates
have been placed in training programs, such as food and
management courses, and in jobs, often as support staff
with other social service agencies.
There are new fights for Pagan these days: Governor
Pataki's latest budget proposal includes a block grant plan
that would reduce funding for substance abuse treatment
programs by 10 percent or more. Currently, addiction pro-
grams in New York City hold direct contracts from the state.
This would no longer be the case. Instead, the city would
dole out the state money. "It would make a signifIcant
change for New York City," says John Russell, deputy
director of the city's Bureau of Alcohol and Substance
Abuse Services. "We'd like to see the same level of fund-
ing, but the state has already proposed a $42 million reduc-
tion" from the current $500 million.
"All our providers took a hit" this year, McGill adds. El
Regreso kept most of its $1 million state contract. But some
$2 million in state aid intended for a new EI Regreso
women's residential facility is now in limbo.
In March, the organization held its third graduation.
Among those present was 29-year-old Noel Estrada, who
now works two jobs, one as a cook for United Bronx
Parents and another as a security guard in Queens. "I was
sick and tired of being sick and tired," Estrada said. 'The
state took my kid away. That gave me the incentive to get
my life together. How could I lose my son?"
Another graduate, 43-year-old Jose Perez, will stay on
at EI Regreso as an HIV counselor. Perez, who was diag-
nosed with the virus in 1990, says the center has helped
him find a mission.
"I reconstruct lives," said Perez, who used to own a con-
struction company in the Bronx. ''I'm not making the
money I was, but the rewards are greater. It gives me a sense
of fulfIllment." Then it was time for Pagan to speak.
"Stand tall and be proud," he told the group. "You have
nothing to be ashamed of." He beheld his own reflection in
their eyes .
Linda Ocasio is a former member of New York Newsday's
editorial board.
CITVLlMITS
T
he national leadership of organized labor may have
recently vowed to adopt a more militant political
stand, but the best lessons about labor activism are
still learned locally. In Chinatown, a small indepen-
dent union has not only won a major contract victory and a
million dollar court battle, it has also carried out a complex
three-year campaign that can serve as a model for aggressive
organizing of low-wage workers everywhere.
During the last few months, the workers at the Silver
Palace-the only unionized restaurant among 300 in
Chinatown-have successfully turned the tables on manage-
ment, taking control of the restaurant and locking out law-
breaking owners by using the bosses' own bankruptcy pro-
ceeding against them.
In most of Chinatown's ballroom-sized dim sum restau-
rants, including Jing Fong, Harmony Palace and Triple Eight
Palace, waiters, busboys and waitresses endure difficult condi-
tions and low pay, frequently well below the restaurant work-
ers' minimum wage of $2.90 an hour plus tips.
Not long ago, this was also the case at the Silver Palace.
Slave Labor" in a mock funeral procession.
The lines for dim sum outside the cav-
ernous, 800-seat restaurant slowly disap-
peared. Finally, in March 1994, after it was
CITYVIEW
clear the workers were not going to give in to the owner's
demands, an agreement was reached between the union,
Restaurant Workers Local 318, and Silver Palace management.
The new contract reinstated the workers, maintained health
benefits and stopped management's policy of sharing tips.
Yet members of Local 318 were in no mood to celebrate,
having lost significant income because of the lockout and tip-
sharing scam. They next pursued aggressive litigation. They
complained of unfair labor practices to the National Labor
Relations Board and the New York State Attorney General,
demanding back wages and tips as well as the enforcement of
overtime laws. When Richard Chan fIled for Chapter II as a
shield against workers' demands for back pay, the union hired
its own bankruptcy lawyer to fight back.
According to Wing Lam, executive director of the Chinese
Staff and Workers Association and a longtime advisor to the
Turning the Tables
union, the community'S anger with Chan
swelled when he announced a plan to trans-
form the Silver Palace into an upscale Off-
Track Betting center, where wagers would
be placed on U.S. horse races by day, and on
By Jim Young
Jim Young
is a staff
member of
the New York
Committee for
Occupational
Safety and
Health
(NYCOSH).
MAY 1996
During contract talks in August 1993,
the demand that antagonized workers
most was owner Richard Chan's ille-
gal and unconcealed attempt to grab
a cut of waiters' tips for himself and
the other bosses. But the union,
originally organized in 1980,
refused to knuckle under, voting
to reject a proposal that also
included wage cuts of up to 66
percent, loss of all health bene-
fits and employee layoffs.
So Chan locked out the
union for seven months.
During that time, Silver
Palace workers extended
their struggle into a
Chinatown community hun-
gry for labor victories.
News of the fight resonated
within this self-contained neighborhood
where sweatshop conditions are commonplace in garment fac-
tories, on construction sites, in retail stores and in many other
small businesses.
For more than half a year, Silver Palace strikers-support-
ed by other workers, local labor unions, community activists
and students-set up picket lines at lunch and dinner outside
the entrance to the restaurant at 50 Bowery. Picketers carried
signs that said "No more slavery. Justice for workers!" and
shouted "No more slaves!" to passersby. During one protest,
workers carried a coffin emblazoned with the slogan "Bury
Hong Kong races by night.
But in December, a bankruptcy judge ruled that Chan had
destroyed evidence requested by the court and turned control
of the restaurant over to a court -appointed trustee. Members
of Local 318 came to work on December 11 and, after a lock-
smith changed the locks, they triumphantly closed the door
on Chan and other managers. Then, in February, the NLRB
and the attorney general ruled that Chan and the Silver Palace
had to pay workers back tips and wages totaling more than $1
million.
Today, the Silver Palace has regained much of the business
lost during the worker lockout. Members of Local 318 are the
top creditors in the bankruptcy proceeding and are spearhead-
ing the reorganization effort called for under Chapter 11. The
workers aim to expand the restaurant's successful wedding
(continued on page 31)
The community-wide
IICampaign Against Slave
Labor" that started at
the Silver Palace now
includes a boycott and
picket of ling Fong.
Wi
-.... - - - ~ - ' - - . " ' . -
REMEMBRANCE
H
e could get excited about the simplest things: dis-
covering the sugar left in the bottom of his empty
cup of coffee (he called it pudding), getting a free
sample at the grocery store, spending time with his
family or finding that spark in each of us that makes us pas-
sionate about our lives and what we do.
Don Temer, who died last month alongside Ron Brown in a
plane crash outside Dubrovnik, Croatia, could speak to anyone
and everyone: the Secretary of Commerce, the secretary in an
office or the secretary of a tenant association. He had a remark-
able ability to engage people with his ideas and projects, a
remarkable facility for communicating.
Homesteading Assistance Board was born. As UHAB's fust
executive director, Don articulated the view that residents in
low income communities-or any community--can help solve
their own housing problems as long as they have the necessary
resources (loans, grants and abandoned buildings) and appro-
priate training and technical assistance. He believed tenants
and residents were not only capable of this task, but that they
were often more effective at it than anyone else. One thousand
buildings and more than 20,000 apartments later, this self-help
approach has proven to be a New York City success story.
Second, is the notion (Don often spoke of ideas as notions)
that self-help programs and nonprofit developers should adopt
the techniques of the for-profit housing industry and become
integrated into the regular housing production system. This is
the notion underlying Bridge Housing Corp., a San Francisco-
based nonprofit development company Don helped create in
1983. As its president, he was responsible for more than $600
Don Terner, 1939-1996
million worth of housing devel-
opment and the creation of more
than 6,000 affordable apart-
ments and houses. Bridge
worked primarily in the Bay
By Andy Reicher
j:i
IfustmetDonin 1974,
when I was a graduate stu-
dent studying architecture
at U.c. Berkeley. He gave
a talk that brought to life
the homesteaders of the
Lower East Side, the
Renegades of East Harlem
and the leaders of the
People's Development
Corporation. So much to
life, in fact, that by the end
of the year I had left
school to become a
VISTA volunteer in the
South Bronx.
10 the days since his
death, many of his former
planning and architecture
students from Harvard,
MIT and Berkeley have
been telling each other
how their choice of a
career in housing was due
at least in part to Don's
teaching. He was a special
kind of visionary; he
helped his students combine his ideas with their own to create
a personal vision. In my case, that vision has been my life's
work for more than 20 years.
At the 1973 publication party for Don's book, "Freedom to
Build," at the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine, the Urban
Area, but in recent years the
organization began working in other parts of California and
around the world.
Throughout, Don remained committed to his nonprofit prac-
tice and convinced of government's responsibility for eradicat-
ing the "unspeakable"-his word-housing conditions forced
upon men, women and especially children living in poverty in
a country that can afford to do better.
When Don lifted his long frame from the chair in your
office, shook your hand, and gave you a slap on the back, you
knew you had experienced the ''Terner shrnooze," a rush of
charm that made the piles of paper on your desk seem small-
er, your office a little sunnier. Don energized you and made
you feel good about your work. In 1978, when I was his spe-
cial assistant and he was California's newly appointed
Director of Housing and Community Development, I watched
in nervous amazement as he had the same effect on a grumpy
and embattled Governor Jerry Brown.
Don was in Bosnia as part of a peace and redevelopment
effort. Some 25 years ago he had done similar work in Vietnam,
caring for the housing needs of tens of thousands of war
refugees.
Listening to the descriptions of Commerce Secretary Ron
Brown over the past few weeks--charming, persuasive, charis-
matic, a tireless worker, a brilliant leader, and yes, a large ego-
I kept thinking how these attributes applied equally well to
Don. We lost our Olympic team for redevelopment last month
and I like to believe that, before the plane went down, Ian
Donald Terner was elected captain .
Andy Reicher is executive director of the Urban Homesteading
Assistance Board. A memorial celebration will be held at the
Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine, June 19 at 1 pm.
CITY LIMITS
"The New American Ghetto, " by Camilo
Jose Vergara, Rutgers University Press,
1995,235 pages, $50.
G
rowing up in a family in which, as a child, he expe-
rienced the fall from riches to poverty, Camilo Jose
Vergara understands how the passing of time can
devastate people and places. "Things that remain the
same are unsettling to me. I am attracted to what is shunned,
falling apart, and changing," he writes in his elegantly produced
book, ''The New American Ghetto."
For the past 20 years, Vergara, a sociologist and photogra-
pher, has meticulously documented the struggle, the death, and
people's hope for change in the South Bronx, Central Brooklyn,
the south and west sides of Chicago, South Central Los
Angeles, Detroit, Newark and other urban neighborhoods. By
walking readers through the bleak public housing stairways,
elevators, apartments and rooftops as he photographs, observes
Frieze Frame
By Helen Stummer
"
MAYIH6
and interviews, Vergara draws us into a world others have cho-
sen to leave behind.
Most Americans do not share his passion for the urban
landscape. Today, he writes, there is an eagerness to raze the
abandoned buildings that symbolize the loss of an urban
dream. "We either ignore [the ruins] or react to them with
anger, resentment, guilt, and despair." But these buildings are
our "American Acropolis," he argues, and should not be
destroyed.
Through Vergara's 400 photographs-in color and black
and white-we are taken on a visual and descriptive journey
through what were once-bustling cities and a way of life that
seemed like it would last forever.
There is Little action in his photographs except in the
dimension of time, as he presents repeated images of the
same building or landscape evolving over the decades. By
returning to a piece of property over and over again, he illus-
trates the process of decay, unflinchingly watching vibrant
street comers tum into vacant, rubble-filled lots. He docu-
ments the flimsy buildings, the fast-food franchi ses, the
storefront churches. There are bleak scenes where street
dogs roam through the weeds and empty spaces, and where
one resident says: "Without jobs, people are not only poor,
but their lives are rendered meaningless." Ghetto residents
are living through "an economic earthquake," Vergara
reminds us, existing behind barricaded doors and windows,
surrounded by razor-wire. They live without the sympathy,
heroic labels, and the government aid given to survivors of
other disasters.
Vergara's description of the abandonment of downtown Detroit
is startling. Here, he witnesses a place where trees and grass grow
on rooftops and through the sidewalks, where Peregrine falcons
............... -., . ..".-
nest on the tallest of the city's great old towers
of commerce, and "madmen," "wanderers" REV l EW
and deer roam the empty, narrow canyons
among pre-Depression architectural wonders
built to last forever. It is an urban place reverting back to prairie,
but without the bliss and sense of well-being.
Vergara examines the popular myth of a nation that felt
progress would never end, an industrial power that now has more
urban ruins than any other. Residents and visitors to ghetto areas,
Vergara points out, can view our ruins "as symbols of whites
walking away from their property and of Washington's neglect."
Vergara's photographs are wonderful and important socio-
logical records, rich in historic information and detail. Yet I
have to take issue with Vergara's statement that "photographs
depicting only an instant. .. and constructed through dramatic
light and strong compositions that hide important details shape
more than record reality." As a documentary photographer
myself, I feel the combination of art and record can be
achieved, resulting in a more profound emotional understand-
ing than Vergara was able to achieve with his strictly anthropo-
logical, time-lapse approach.
''The New American Ghetto" is an important work. The
fact that we as a nation want to destroy rather than renovate our
landmarks and urban housing stock says much about us. Will
we learn our lessons or will we continue to tolerate the endless
waste of our cities, thereby diminishing all of us? "All I can
do," Vergara concludes, "is record the fading splendor of the
buildings and the disjointed and anguished cries of those who
try to make a home among them." .
Helen M. Stummer is a visual sociologist arui the author of "No
Easy Walk, Newark, 1980-1993, " published by Temple
University Press.
MONDAY, APRIL 15, 1996
City Limits Weekly
A fax update from lIew Yor k'. Urban Affairs lIews Maga&iDe
City Limits Weekly is a news and resource guide for nonprofit and community leaders
of New York. The fax and e-mail weekly is a free service of City Limits magazine,
Foundation and The Robert Sterling Clark Foundation. H you have information to
you want to be added to our distribution list or if you would like to subscribe to
call Kiema Mayo Dawsey at (212) 925-9820. Fax: (212) 966-3407.
RACISM ALLEGED in PUBLIC SCHOOLS
Black and Latino parents are treated like second-class citizens when they visit their children's public schools, while
whrte parents get the red carpet treatment , according to the authors of a soon-to-be-released survey by the Association
.. .. ...
Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN).
A summary of the 40-page report , obtained by City Limits Weekly, analyzes the resutts of
. made to schools in half of the crty's 32 community school districts between
the same resuHs - white parents were welcomed and
wrth disdain and sent on their way," reads an
Weekly to obtain comment
--I' _ . ;"1
THE CITY LIMITS FAX WEEKLY SCOOPS THE D A ~ L Y PRESS
ON NEWS I/tfPORTANTTO YOU
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(continued from page 27)
and banquet business. Although Chan has
appealed the bankruptcy ruling barring him from
the premises, observers say it seems unlikely a
decision will go his way: Court documents reveal
a history of contradictory statements and ques-
tionable business practices, including the
destruction of the restaurant's "Banquet Book," a
valuable annual reservations log.
Meanwhile, more than a year ago, picket lines
reemerged-this time on Elizabeth Street in front
of ling Fong, Chinatown's largest restaurant,
which employs 100 non-union workers. The state
attorney general's office charged that ling Fong
management had taken employees' tips, kept
fraudulent payroll records, paid workers sub-
minimum wages and fIred at least one worker
who complained.
The community-wide "Campaign Against
Slave Labor" that started at the Silver Palace now
includes a boycott and picket of ling Fong.
Students conducted a seven-day hunger strike. Five
thousand residents signed petitions calling for
enforcement of labor laws, and the state attorney
general fined ling Fong $1.1 million for violating
minimum-wage, overtime and tip-sharing laws.
Both inside and outside the two square miles
of Chinatown, the obstacles facing the labor
movement are tremendous. Stiff international
competition, a hostile political climate, new
technology and sophisticated anti-union busi-
ness leaders have helped drive union member-
ship down to barely 15 percent of the U.S. work-
force. Yet the success of Local 318 offers some
JOB AD
HOUSING AND COMMUNITY DEVnOPMENT
SPECIALIST. The Affordable Housing
Network of New Jersey seeks a highly
qualified Housing and Community
Development Specialist. Respon-
sibilities include assessing non-profit
development organizations' technical
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project development and property man-
agement. Requirements: Substantial
experience working in community based
organizations on real estate develop-
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travel/Flexible work hours. Competitive
Salary/Excellent benefits. Minority can-
didates are encouraged to apply. Send
resume to: Martha Lamar, Affordable
Housing Network, P.O. Box 1746,
Trenton, New Jersey 08607 ..
MAY 1996

hope. Using a combination of traditional strate-
gies (legal action, a militant strike) and non-tra-
ditional tactics drawn from other social justice
movements (hunger strikes, street theater), the
Silver Palace workers won a victory for working
men and women throughout Chinatown. Some
hope this is only the fIrst step in a movement to
unite labor and community organizing efforts
addressing social injustice.
''This is laying the groundwork for other
actions," says Wing Lam. "Workers in Chinatown
are sending a clear message, and management
must deal with them .. .. If they don't, workers will
be standing outside their front door forever."
RENEWING HOPE, RESTORING VISION
Progressive Planning in Our Communities
Planners Network 1996 Conference
June 14 - 16, 1996
Pratt Institute, Brooklvn, New York
Community-Based Planning National Urban Policy Globalization
w n r K . ~ n n l r l . ~ and Plenaries Community Tours Exhibits and Videos
For more in/ormation, contact Winton at
Planners Network, 379 DeKalb Ave., 2nd Floor, Brooklyn, NY 11205
7181636-3461 wintonp@ix.netcom.com
Specializing in
Community Development Groups,
HDFCs and Non Profits
Low .. Cost Insurance and Quality Service.
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Telephone: (212) 229-1222
LAWRENCE H. McGAUGHEY
Attorney at Law
Meeting the challenges of affordable housing for 20 years.
Providing legal services in the areas of General Real Estate,
Business, Trust & Estates, and Elder Law.
217 Broadway, Suite 610
New York, NY 10007
(212) 513-0981
DEBRA BECHTEL - Attorney
Concentrating in Real Estate & Non-Profit Law
Title and loan closings 0 All city housing programs
Mutual housing associations 0 Cooperative conversions
Advice to low income co-op boards of directors
100 Remsen Street, Brooklyn, NY 11201, (718) 624-6850
Twenty-seven years experience ready for you
CALVERT ASSOCIATES, INC
Consultants to the Inner City Housing Movement
George E. Calvert, President
165 East l04th Street, Suite 2-C, NYC 10029
Call 212 427 0362 or Fax 212 427 0218
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IRWIN NESOFF ASSOCIATES
management consulting for non-profits
Providing a full-range of management support services for
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o Strategic and management development plans
o Boord and stoff development and training
o Program design and implementation 0 Proposal and report writing
o Fund development plans 0 Program evaluation
20 St. Johns Place, Brooklyn, New York 11217 (718) 636-6087
CITY LIMITS
LEAD ORGANIZER. Be a part of the vanguard of a growing, national tenant
movement. Nation's leading, oldest HUD tenant coalition seeks experi-
enced organizer to direct organizing team for HUD tenants in Boston and
Eastern MA. Help form resident organizations, negotiate repairs, promote
resident ownership, strengthen tenant coalitions. Position funded by a
three-year grant. Salary high $20s to low-30s, negotiable, plus benefits.
ASSISTANT DlRECTORIPROJECT COORDINATOR. Ten-year-old Boston HUD tenant
coalition seeks assistant director with excellent management, fund raising
and development skills. Housing specialist with participatory planning skills
for tenant controlled redevelopment of HUD-owned or Title VI multifamily
housing preferred. Entails organizing, advocacy, development planning and
organizations development/training. Salary $30,000 plus benefits.
Negotiable. VISTA VOI.UNIIER ORGANIZING POSITIONS. VISTA slots are also
available to staff national tenant organization and are anticipated to orga-
nize tenant groups in Boston and Eastern MA. Resumes to: Hiring
Committee Boston HUD Tenant Alliance, 353 Columbus Ave., Boston, MA
02116. BHTA is an equal opportunity employer.
PROGRAM OFFICER. The Jesse Smith Noyes Foundation seeks a part-time pro-
gram officer in reproductive rights. Requires significant work experience;
strong commitment to women's rights, the environment and social justice.
Previous foundation experience not necessary. Community organizing, work
with low income communities and communities of color desirable. Women
and people of color encouraged to apply. Send letter, resume, references and
writing sample (no telephone calls) to Stephen Viederman, President, Jesse
Smith Noyes Foundation, 6 East 39th St., New York, NY 10016.
RNANCIALIMEMBERSHIP COORDINATOR. The National Lawyers Guild seeks a
coordinator for national office in New York City to start immediately.
Responsibilities: bookkeeping; updating database; general membership
and financial oversight. Requires familiarity with basic accounting, com-
puter accounting programs, organizational budgets; ability to work inde-
pendently. Rexible schedule. Salary: $24-28,000, DOE plus benefits.
Reply to Jordan Yaeger, 100 N. 17th St., 7th Floor, Philadelphia, PA 19103.
Affirmative Action Employer.
DEPUTY DlRCTOR. The National Federation of Community Development Credit
Unions seeks a multi-talented deputy director. S/he will assist the Executive
Director in managing, developing and fundraising for a variety of programs,
including African American church project, youth project and
AmericorpsjVlSTA. Excellent supervisory, administrative and writing skills are
essential. Ten years experience in community economic ' development or a
related field (association management, foundation, banking/finance, civil
rights, church, etc.), including five years in supervisory or management posi-
tion, is preferred. Commitment to low-income and minority empowerment is a
must. Some national travel. Send resume and cover letter by May 20 to
Clifford Rosenthal , Executive Director, NFCDCU, 120 Wall St., 10th Roor, New
York, NY 10005. Equal Opportunity Employer.
PROGRAM OFFICER. Seedco, a national community development intermediary,
seeks program officers. Responsibilities include: providing technical assis-
tance to community development corporations on housing or economic d e v e ~
opment; financial packaging; organizational development; and community c o ~
laboration. Qualifications: experience in affordable housing or economic
development; strong financial feasibility and organizational development
skills; excellent interpersonal, writing and presentation skills; ability to marr
age numerous projects; computer literacy. Knowledge of historically black c o ~
leges and universities a plus. Substantial travel. Salary negotiable, excellent
benefits. Resume and cover letter to Bab Freiberg, Vice President for Program
Operation, Seedco, 915 Broadway, Suite 1703, New York, NY 10010. No
phone calls. Affirmative Action Employer.
YDIJT1I11WNER. Nonprofit student service center within an innovative public
high school seeks an energetic self-starter to counsel older high school stu-
dents (18-21) to become self-sufficient by obtaining jobs and housing. Teach
students how to develop job leads, prepare for interviews and keep the jobs
they get; initiate a student-run employment service; develop contacts among
housing providers and private landlords. Start a roommate matching service.
The successful candidate will have experience in youth development/training,
excellent oral and written communication skills, program development experi-
MAY 1996
ence and a BA or six years experience. The position will require regular
evening hours but can offer a flexible schedule. Graduates of NYC high
schools preferred. Candidates with experience injob counseling or rehousing
and fluency in a second language (28 languages spoken at the school) will
receive priOrity. Salary: high $20s with good benefits. Send resume and writ-
ing samples (no calls please) to Gregory Cohen, Comprehensive
Development, Inc., c/o Manhattan Comprehensive Night & Day School, 240
Second Ave., New York, NY 10003.
TENANT ORGANIZER. Growing Brooklyn nonprofit community development
agency seeks energetiC self-starter to organize tenants in city-owned build-
ings. Must be able to work with diverse groups of people. Strong community
organizing, program development and project management skills required.
Bilingual/Spanish a plus. Salary: $18-25k. Mail/fax resumes to Director of
Youth Services, East New York Urban Youth Corps, 539 Alabama Ave.,
Brooklyn, NY 11207. Fax: (718) 922-1171. No phone calls please.
PROJECT DIRECTOR for Success Measures in CED". The Development
Leadership Network seeks experienced community development professional
with facilitation, research, communication, managerial, written skills to facili-
tate regional forums; construct/implement national survey; manage subcorr
tracted researchers; grant writing. Extensive travel. Send resume/salary his-
tory to Martin Johnson, Woodrow Wilson School, Room 411, Princeton
University, Princeton, NJ 08544. Telephone: (609) 258-4842. Fax: (609) 258-
2809. mjohnson@WWs.princeton.edu.
HOUSING MANAGER.. The Rockefeller UniverSity, with a residential portfolio of
600 faculty apartments, 100 dormitory and 50 hotel units on the Upper East
Side, seeks a Planning & Operations Manager to assist with building marr
agement and act as liaison with tenants and university services. Analyze oper-
ational problems, coordinate multi-faceted response involving mainte-
nance/office staff and vendors, develop bid packages, plan and oversee cap-
ital projects, develop financial analyses and monitor costs. Requires
Bachelor's or Master's Degree and 10 years' experience in housing, planning,
real estate, finance or administration. Must have excellent oral and written
communication skills and be computer proficient. Experience with financial
planning and understanding of building/housing operations necessary. RU is
a premier biomedical research institute. We offer an excellent benefits pack-
age and a competitive salary. Resume and salary history to: The Rockefeller
University, 1230 York Ave., Box 125, New York, NY 10021. An AA/EOE.
COMMUNnY ootRPRISE MANAGER.. Community Automotive Repair Services,
Inc. (CARS), a quick oikhange franchise opening in lower Park Slope, seeks
a qualified manager. CARS is a joint venture of the Rfth Avenue Committee
and LEAP, Inc., committed to employing and training area residents. CARS
seeks an entrepreneurial manager, experienced in customer service, training
and managing people, to help launch and manage the oil-<:hange.
Responsibilities include: service delivery, inventory, financial management,
personnel and marketing. Competitive salary, performance bonus and e x c e ~
lent benefits. Send resume to CARS Manager Search, c/o FAC, 141 5th
Avenue., Brooklyn, NY EOE. All are encouraged to apply.
ECOMM MANAGER.. Community Wetcleaners, Inc. (CWI) seeks manager for an
environmentally responsible coirroperated Laundromat and garment cleaning
facility. CWI is a for-profit entity, owned by the Fifth Avenue Committee, com-
mitted to employing and training local residents. CWI seeks a responsible
manager, experienced in customer service and managing people. Professional
garment-<:Ieaning experience is a plus. Responsibilities include service deliv-
ery, financial management, personnel, inventory and marketing. Competitive
salary and excellent benefits. Resume to Ecomat Manager Search, c/o FAC,
141 5th Ave., Brooklyn, NY 11217. EOE/AII are encouraged to apply.
EXECU11VE DIRECTOR to lead New Destiny Housing Corporation, a nonprofit
organization, in developing supportive emergency, transitional and perma-
nent housing. Master's degree (or equivalent), ten years experience in hous-
ing, finance/development or banking, excellent communication skills. Salary
to upper $50s. Resume/cover letter: Michael Kaiser, Victim Services, 2
Lafayette Street, NYC 10007, EEO/AA.
MORE JOB ADS PAGE 31
we
ere Achers
By Thomas Kamber
f New York City were a person, it would probably need extensive therapy. What with so many people calling it
filthy, disorganized and antisocial, the shrink: bills would sink the budget. "I know people treat me like a doormat,"
it might say. "But I'll take any attention I can get." Clearly, the city has an inferiority complex.
That may explain why the city government shows disturb-
ing evidence of a borderline personality disorder. Its psychi-
atric charts catalogue years of internalized abuse. Funny thing
is, in New York, government officials call this kind of behav-
ior sound public policy.
For example, the city Department of Transportation
recently displayed classic symptoms when it decided to drop
a plan that would have limited automobile access to the loop
road in Brooklyn's Prospect Park. Never mind that thousands
of joggers, cyclists, roller skaters and strollers use the same
park road for recreation every day.
Gotta keep those cars rolling.
Neighborhood activists gripe
about the ill effects of auto-
mobile and truck traffic in
their neighborhoods-the
fumes, the honking, the
speeding, the soot. A nor-
mal, psychologically
healthy city would deal
with these complaints in a
2. illegal street vendors aggravating local merchants? The
parks are a natural market just crying out for the "ten reasons a
beer is better than a woman" T-shirt crowd. A big business in
fanny packs is a sure bet.
3. Remember how they wanted to dredge the sludge out of
the boat channel in the Hudson, but it was too toxic to be
dumped in the ocean? This is a no-brainer! Better than the
garbage barge!
4. Medicaid cutbacks have forced belt-tightening at city hos-
pitals. Those wide lawns are an untapped resource. Let's give
new meaning to the words "oxygen tent." Besides, hospital
*
bedS in the park are so conve-
nient for those pedestrians
who unwisely stray onto
the asphalt.
5. I hear a few people
over in Lincoln Towers
on Manhattan's West
Side are a bit peeved
direct fashion, taking strong measures to control traffic.
New York City opts instead
to put the brakes on the
plebes who use the park
that a certain developer
wants to build high-rise tow-
ers blocking their spectacular
__ river views. He did such a
great job on the skating rink-
why not sell him a few acres to
help alleviate overcrowding?
You've got to like the sound of for exercise. Cars grid-
locked on your streets? Let
them make up lost time on
those wide-open park roads!
On second thought, perhaps we shouldn't be so neg-
ative. After all, John Stuart Mill wrote extensively on the
virtues of eccentricity. Sometimes, one can exploit a patholog-
ical personality through clever marketing. Just look at Rush
Limbaugh or Ross Perot.
Why not just pull out all the stops? What if New Yorkers
decided to just admit that our city is a filthy, disgusting place to
live, that the parks are a cruel joke, and that we should just get
used to it? Forget those half-baked pastoral fantasies! Let's put
that green space to really good use! Here are a few possibilities:
I. Pushy squeegee guys? Let's move them into the park, too!
There are stop lights there, and the squeegee men can go after
an entirely untapped market. It's better than having them
harassing tourists at the Holland Tunnel.
it: "Trump Parc."
Let's face it: New York is a
stinking pit. Ignore those whin-
ing special interest groups.
We've got to make this city safe for com-
merce again. Those cars coming in from Long Island carry a
precious cargo: commuters, and not the type who work at
entry level service jobs, either. Our highest priority should
be to keep those folks moving to their jobs in the manner in
which they are accustomed. If this means a few less roller
bladers out on the loop at sunset, then so be it.
So this is what being well-adjusted feels like. Unleash your
repressed attraction to the smell of burning oil. Express your
inner "wild man" through a good hom blast. You have nothing
to lose but your daisy chains .
Thomns Kamber wrote this column while waiting for the F Train.
CITY LIMITS
MAY 1996
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