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Cover Story: Brooklyn's Great Fulton Landing Debate: Does a Garment Deserve a Harbor View? By Michael Henry Powell.
Other stories include Tom Robbins on the new J-51 tax abatement and exemption law; Michael Henry Powell on mistreated low income tenants' visit to their landlords' Connecticut neighborhood to protest; Sandy Hornick on the gentrification of Lower Manhattan and the beaten down housing concerns of the working class in the area; Tom Robbins on Reagan's mission to kill federal funding for legal services for the poor; Rachel Sanchez on the Hell's Kitchen Organizers Local union, and more.
Cover Story: Brooklyn's Great Fulton Landing Debate: Does a Garment Deserve a Harbor View? By Michael Henry Powell.
Other stories include Tom Robbins on the new J-51 tax abatement and exemption law; Michael Henry Powell on mistreated low income tenants' visit to their landlords' Connecticut neighborhood to protest; Sandy Hornick on the gentrification of Lower Manhattan and the beaten down housing concerns of the working class in the area; Tom Robbins on Reagan's mission to kill federal funding for legal services for the poor; Rachel Sanchez on the Hell's Kitchen Organizers Local union, and more.
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Cover Story: Brooklyn's Great Fulton Landing Debate: Does a Garment Deserve a Harbor View? By Michael Henry Powell.
Other stories include Tom Robbins on the new J-51 tax abatement and exemption law; Michael Henry Powell on mistreated low income tenants' visit to their landlords' Connecticut neighborhood to protest; Sandy Hornick on the gentrification of Lower Manhattan and the beaten down housing concerns of the working class in the area; Tom Robbins on Reagan's mission to kill federal funding for legal services for the poor; Rachel Sanchez on the Hell's Kitchen Organizers Local union, and more.
Copyright:
Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
Formati disponibili
Scarica in formato PDF, TXT o leggi online su Scribd
for Brooklyn's Fulton Landing. First, 4,000 m anufacturing
workers have to leave. THE NEWS MAGAZINE OF NEW YORK CITY HOUSING AND N"ElGHBORHOODS Inside Short Term Notes J-51 Still Needs Watching ..................... 3 Sunday Visit to a Landlord .. . ........... . ... . . 5 Suits Contest Chinatown Development ... . ..... . . 6 Protest Brooklyn Plan ..... . ......... .. .. . .... 7 Monk Circle at Phipps Houses .. . ....... . . . ... . 7 Organize A Union for the Organizers . . ... . . . .... .. ... .. 16 Legal Briefs Insurance Information Won ....... .. .. . .. . .. . . 17 Letters . . ............... . .. . ............ . .. . 18 .. ......... . . . . .. .... .. ... . . 20 Follow-up Bank Branch Closings Continue . . ... . . . ..... . . 21 Workshop .... . .. .. .................... . ... . 22 . BROOKLYN'S FULlON LANDING DEBATE .. . 8 Developer David WalenlaS' grand sdiCme means sacrificing 4,000 manufacturing jobs. HOUSING'S UNEQUAL CONTEST . ... ..... . . n Have low income housing and neighborhood advocates made their task tougher by opposing luxury development? REAGAN'S WAR ON LEGAL SERVICES .. . ... 14 Budget cuts and regulation tightening have made legal services harder to provide to a growing population of people in need . JOIN US TO CELEBRATE THE COMPLETION OF WHERE CAN I LIVE - . a story of genbification 8:00 P.M. Saturday, Nov. 19 Taller Latinamericano 19 West 21 Street
(. $5 contribution suggested information: 788-0254 You Are Cordially Invited To The Opening Of A New 30 Minute Documentary On Gentrification. screening. disco. cash bar CITY LIMITS/November 1983 2 - ---------------------------------------- Look Out for the tOTYIlMIlS) New J-51 Law Vol. VIllNo. I) City limits is published ten times per year. monthly except double issues in June/July and August/ September. by the City Limits Community Infortna- tion Service. Inc .. a nonprofit organization devoted to disseminating infortnation concerning neighbor- hood revitalization. The publication is sponsored by three organizations. The sponsors are: Association of Neighborhood Housing Developers. Inc . an association of over thirty community-based. nonprofit housing development groups. developing and advocating programs for low and moderate in- come housing and neighborhood stabilization. Prall Institute Center for Community and Environ- mental De\..,.lopment. a technical assistance and ad- vocacy office offering professional planning and ar- chitectural services to low and moderate income community groups. The Center also analyzes and monitors government policy and perfortnance. , Urban Homuteading Assistance Board. a technical assistance organization providing assistance to low income tenant cooperatives in management and sweat equity rehabilitation. Subscription rates are: for individuals and communi- ty groups. $9/0ne Year. $15frwo Years: for Businesses. Foundations. Banks. Government Agen- cies and Libraries. $25/0ne Year. S40frwo Years. Reduced rates are avai lable for low income readers. City limits welcomes comments and article contribu- tions. Please include a stamped. self-addressed envelope for return of manuscripts. Material in City limits does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the sponsoring organizations. Send correspondence to: CITY LIMITS. 424 West 33rd Street. New York. N.Y. 10001. Postmaster send change of address to: City Limits. 424 W. 33rd SI. . New York. N.V. 10001. Second-class postage paid New York. NY 10001 City Limits (ISSN 0199'{)330) (212) 239-8440 Editor ..... ... Tom Robbins Assistant Editor ....... . .... . .. Susan Baldwin Marketing Director .............. Jim Mendell Design and Layout. . . ...... ..... Louis Fulgoni Copyright 1983. All Rights Reserved. No portion or portions of this journal may be reprinted without the express permi!\sion of the publishers. Cover: aerial photo courtesy of The Phoenix Newspaper; photo of David Walentas by Michael Henry Powell. ~ T E W YORK CITY TAXPAYERS will 1 ~ continue to provide a hefty public bounty to developers transforming low in- come apartments into top-dollar housing under the city's new J-51 tax abatement and exemption law. Even those who come by their tax prize unjustly - through tenant harassment and even arson - may still be able to pass through the new law undetected. And, in- stead of limiting the range where those ur- ban outlaws roam, the city's most threat- ened neighborhoods remain wide open territory. On October 26, the Council voted to okay the Koch administration bill to exclude roughly one-third of the city from stricter limits on developer tax breaks enacted by the state legislature. That vote came after the council rejected an amendment that would have kept four Manhattan neighborhoods undergoing gentrification and displacement under tighter restrictions . Those areas are the Lower East Side, East Harlem, Manhattan Valley and Clinton. Although the entire Manhattan council delegation fuvored that curb, it was defeated 21-10. 3 A second amendment would have removed a potential inducement to arson on the part of developers by changing the way tax benefits are calculated. That measure lost 23-8. The stage had been set for the council decision when the state legislature passed the overall enabling legislation last spring. Legislators there reduced the amount of real estate taxes owners could be forgiven when developing luxury housing and barred a tax cut for converting single-room- occupancy hotels into class A residences. The state lawmakers were responding to widespread abuses in the J-51 law which, although originally enacted to promote standard affordable housing, has provided incentives and profits to those driving out low income tenants. The state law, however, gave the city the right to waive its new restrictions three dif- ferent ways: on a case-by-case basis by the city housing commissioner (with com- munity input); where any type of govern- ment subsidy was involved; or, in entire designated Neighborhood Preservation Areas. CITY LIMITS/November 1983 Confusion at Hearings Part of the problem in grappling with the proposed amendments was what seemed at times during the debate to be a conscious attempt to misrepresent their impact. Repeated statements by housing depart- ment officials and the council leadership that the amendments would result in the end of private market renovations in needy neighborhoods, took their toll. The ad- ministration insisted that only by waiving the tighter curbs in all of the city's 36 Neighborhood Preservation Areas would construction continue. Already a complex issue, the J-51 tax in- centive program was made far more com- plicated when Council Housing Commit- tee Chairman Thomas Manton and majori- ty leader Tom Cuite sent NPA community boards a mid-summer memo stating that J-51 benefits would be eliminated in their districts unless the mayor's exemption of all the NPAs was passed. That was simply not true. It did, however, help to launch an at- mosphere in which misinformation prospered. The message that renovation aided by government subsidy, or individual private projects, could be approved without lifting the limits wholesale, never came through for many. At the hearings, a number of peo- ple who came to testify in favor of the mayor's bill left the microphones slightly bewildered when they discovered, under questioning by committee members, they had misinterpreted the intent of the amend- ments. That confusion may have been shared by council members as well. "Ask any council member who voted for it five questions about the new law," sug- gested one J-51 reformer. "Guaranteed, they'll get four of them wrong." Watchdogging Needed The legislative process went as far as it could and no further in the I8-month long dispute over J-51's extension. Although modest reforms were won, the potential for abuse remains. Now, until the law must be renewed again in 1986, the burden of watchdogging the tax break program is going to fall on tenant and community groups. There are a number of ways to do that monitoring and more information will follow in City Limits. "Manton said over and over, 'If harassment goes on in those neighborhoods, tell us about it. We'll change the law: We'll be sure he hears about it;' said Frank Domurad of New York Public Interest Research Group. Basically, in buildings where renovation is following hard on the heels of what was suspected to have been tenant harassment, organizers and groups should compile as much information as possible on the building's past and present ownership and rental history. The coalition that lobbied for reforms will be establishing a central file for logging abuse cases. Harassment Convictions There's also another tool in the law for groups trying to keep the lid on low income displacement. The law states that at least one month before a landlord begins a more than moderate rehab (over $7,500 per unit), he must file an affidavit of non-harassment with HPD. The affidavit must list all par- ticipants with ten percent or more interest in the project, and an affirmation that none of them, within the previous five years, have been found guilty of harassment or unlawful eviction either by an ad- ministrative apparatus (rent control or stabilization offices), or judicially. Failure to file this affidavit, any factual misrepresentations in it or, if any owners have been convicted of harassment, results in denial of tax benefits for the project. While it has traditionally been difficult to get harassment convictions either ad- ministratively or through the courts, there are a number of active owners and developers who have been convicted and should be barred from J-51 benefits. But the next step is for HPD to write regula- tions to go with the new law. More next month on how to fight back on J-51.0 T.R. Housing and Real Estate Courses Housing Finance In Today's Market (NY308) 6 Tues., 7:45-9:30 pm, beg. Nov. 22. $85. Albert A. Walsh, Attorney; former NYC Housing and Development Administration. Moderate Housing Rehabilitation Workshop (NY309) Fri., Nov. 18,9:30 am-4:30 pm. $60. Clara Fox, Director Emeritus, Settlement Housing Fund. Making the Case for a Zoning Variance (NY306) Sat., Nov. 19, 9:30 am-4:30 pm. $75. William Valetta, Legal Counsel, NYC Board of Standards and Appeals. THE NEW SCHOOL 66 West 12th Street New York, NY 10011 Principles of Real Estate Investment (NY 310) 6 Mon., 5:50-7:35 pm, beg. Nov. 21. $85. Abram Barkan, PreSident, James Felt Realty Services. Co-op Conversion Workshop for Owners and Developers (NY311) Sat. , Dec. 3., 9:30 am-4:30 pm. $75. Stephen M. Raphael, attorney; partner, Raphael, Marks & Stone, P.C. Landlords, Tenants and the Law (NY312) 5 Tues. , 5:50-7:35 pm, beg. Nov. 15. $70. John A. Milano, Judge, Housing Part, Civil Court. Fo.r mo.re info.rmatio.n, o.r to. register by pho.ne, call (212) 741-5690. NEW SCHOOL Fo.R So.CIAL RESEARCH: A university which includes the Adult Division, Graduate Faculty of Political and SOCial SCience, Undergraduate College, Graduate School of Management and Urban Professions, Parsons School of DeSign, and o.tis Art Institute of Parsons in Los Angeles. CITY LIMITS/November 1983 4 1 Tenants Pay a Sunday Visit to a Brooklyn Landlord S IXTY TENANTS and community ac- tivists brought a touch of Boro Park, Brooklyn to a swank Stamford, Connecticut neighborhood on Sunday, October 16, when they paid a surprise visit to the palatial home of their landlord, millionaire real estate developer Lawrence Rezak. The pur- pose of their visit was to draw attention to deplorable conditions and tenant displace- ment in Rezak's Brooklyn properties. Shouts of "We shall not be moved," and "Rezak, leave us alone,"rang through the crisp autumn air as tenants walked down Rezak's 2S0-yard driveway, past a corral with four horses and a private tennis court . At the door to Rezak's multi-level, stained- wood home, tenant leader Sophia Benitez of Rezak's Midwood Garden's complex, laid two charred wood beams, remnants of a burned out apartment in her building, on the owner's front porch and listened to the reading of a declaration. "Mr. Rezak," read Ted Glick, a tenant organizer with the Anti-Displacement Committee in Brooklyn's Boerum Hill, "In memory of the families forced to leave Midwood Gardens; in the presence of your neighbors, your home and your communi- ty, we demand a reckoning to the injustice served the tenants of Midwood Gardens." Rezak and his partner and Stamford neighbor Howard Weiss purchased Mid- wood Gardens, a 7OO-apartment complex in the Boro Park section of Brooklyn, in 1979. Since then, Rezak and Weiss have pursued a self-avowed dislocation policy. Over 6S0 tenants, many of them black, Hispanic and elderly white, have left the apartment complex, spurred on, tenant leaders and community activists said, by 43 suspicious fires in two years, no heat or hot water, over SOO housing violations and continued harassment of the remain- ing tenants. Tenant demonstrations, press coverage and research by the Mayor's Arson Strike Force into the fires have brought some results. The New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development has temporarily frozen over $11 million of Rezak's pending or approved public rehabilitation projects. 5 Rezak continues, however, to deny ser- vices to the handful of families remaining in the complex and HPD has steadfastly refused to ask the court to appoint a 7A ad- ministrator who could help restore needed services to the buildings. But although the stand-off continues and another winter ap- proaches, tenants' spirits were clearly lifted by the loud visit to their landlord's home. And the presence of tenants from three other Rezak buildings suggested Rezak's problems may be multiplying. "Hey, if I die today, 1 will be a happy man;' said Leonardo Pringle, a black ten- ant leader at 3S0 Empire Boulevard as he walked back towards the road and the tenants' bus, leaving behind a steel-gray Mercedes Benz festooned with leaflets ask- ing the question, "Do You Really Know Your Neighbor?" "I think this is great meeting other tenants of Rezak's. 1 won't ever leave my apartment now. This really inspires me."O Michael Henry Powell CITY LIMITS/November 1983 Lawsuits Contest Chinatown's Luxury Development O VER TWO YEARS AGO THE CITY launched a special zoning district for Manhattan's burgeoning Chinatown com- munity, where land is scarce and housing dear. The district, however, has run smack into an escalating series of lawsuits, the latest of which seeks to turn the zoning district on its head and mandate more low income housing for the neighborhood in- stead of facilitating luxury high-rises. The initial attempts by developers to build in the special zoning district got a black eye almost right away when the city said developers of a planned high rise condo development had harassed former site tenants away and revoked the building per- mit. The disappointed developers, organiz- ed as the Overseas Chinese Development Corporation headed by Thomas Lee, had sought to replace tenements they owned at Madison and Henry Streets with two towers of 12 and 16 floors containing 150 apart- ments under the relaxed zoning rules per- mitted under the 1981 Special Manhattan Bridge Zoning District. Unfortunately for the developers, former tenants of the building at frl Madison Street protested the manner in which they had been rousted from their homes. Their claims were eventually sustained by a report by the city's Department of Investigation. A High Stakes District What happened at frl Madison aroused much of the Chinatown and Lower East Side community. It also dramatically underscored the high stakes for which developers were playing in the special zon- ing district. In May, 1982, the first of three lawsuits against the special district and its develope- ment was filed. That class action suit, known as lin v. Board of Estimate (other plaintiffs include local groups, It's Time, Joint Planning Council, Two Bridges Neighborhood Council) charged the city with having proceeded improperly in enac- ting the district. It contended that there had been insufficient public notice and was ill- considered in its excessive offers of bonuses to developers who agreed to provide com- munity amenities in exchange for denser and higher bUildings. Later that summer, in August, 1982, the CITY LIMITS/November 1983 The Special Manhattan Bridge Zoning District. state Supreme Court ruled in the community groups' favor and overturned the special district. On appeal , however, the city won its reinstatement and the groups are current- ly awaiting a final hearing before the highest court, the Court of Appeals. That first legal challenge has spawned two others, the most recent of which challenges the constitutionality of the city's zoning policies. The suit was filed in September, 1983, by Brooklyn Assemblyman Frank Barbaro on behalf of the Asian Americans For Equality. It calls on the city to use its zoning powers to create low income hous- ing. It cites last year's groundbreaking New Jersey Supreme Court decision, known as Mount Laurel, which ordered municipal- ities to zone in affordable, low income hous- ing units. The third suit, filed just a month earlier in August, 1983, challenges the second high rise to be proposed for the special district. This one, an 84-unit condominium high-rise called Henry Street Towers,is the product of three partners of Helmsley-Spear, Inc. and a Chinatown insurance broker, Ray- mond Woo. The challengers are the 200 member-strong Chinese Staff and Workers Association, a group that has aided union drives in the community,along with tenants 6 currently living in the special zoning district who say they will be pressured out of the neighborhood if Henry Street Towers is built. The plaintiffs are being represented by the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund. The Henry Street challenge is based on the contention that the project was substan- tially changed after it was approved by the community board last year. Some time after the project had passed through the com- munity review period ofULURP (Uniform Land Use Review Procedure), the developers dropped six low income units they planned to rehab in a separate building and substituted a one-time $500,000 dona- tion to the city to be used in the communi- ty. Neither the specific purpose for which those funds would be spent, nor where is yet clear. But in any event, the city is holding up issuance of a building permit until the money is paid, and the lawsuit is seeking a judicial review of the entire transaction. At least four other large development pm- jects are waiting in the wings of the Special Manhattan Bridge Zoning District. But as hard as the city tries to prop open the door to luxury development in Chinatown, the community has placed some effective legal weight on the other side. OT.R. I Phipps UflQllts Monk Circle Unveiled at Phipps Houses Thelonious Sphere Monk Circle was officially unveiled last month in front of Phipps Houses, the building com- plex at West 64th Street where .Monk resided for 45 years. A bill introduced by Councilmember Ruth Messinger to name the street after the jazz musician passed the city council last summer. Many of those in attendance at the unveiling, including Monk's brother, sister, and son, Thelonious, Jr., Judge Bruce Wright, and Democratic district leader Shirley Zaiman, are proponents of a movement to landmark Phipps Houses. Built at the turn of the century, the apartment buildings became horne to many black jazz artists, but now are threatened with demolition in favor of lUXUry housing development ['7he Talk of the Town,n June-July 1983]. "Young Sounds," a new program in the nearby Lincoln Square neighborhood center for low income musicians 14 to 21 years old, was announced at the gathering by John Glaisel , head of Local Musicians Union 802. It is a pilot project of the American Federation of Musicians.D Jim MendeU Downtown Brooklyn Plan is Protested I F THE DOWNTOWN AREA OF Brooklyn gets the economic boost that a study by a metropolitan-area public plann- ing group says it deserves, how would cur- rent low income residents fare? According to a newly formed coalition of neighborhood and tenant groups, the effects of the recommendations of the Regional Plan Association's recent report , "Downtown Brooklyn," would be disastrous for many in the area, leading to spiraling rents, displacement and few entry-level jobs. To make that point , members of the Brooklyn Federation of Tenant Associa- tions, Accion Latina and the Anti- Displacement Committee a con- ference at Long Island University on October 20 convened by the RPA and local business groups. The conference was aim- ed at examining how the downtown area could benefit from the location of additional back-office space and a high technology center, called "Metro-Tech," to be con- structed around Polytechnic Institute. While the report cites the ample availability of a white-collar workforce to be drawn from Brooklyn and Nassau County residents currently commuting to Manhat- 7 tan which could serve the downtown expan- sion, it contains little discussion of how the large local unemployed workforce could be trained and integrated into the scheme. Nor, the neighborhood coalition pointed out, does the report discuss how the increased demand for middle income housing in the area would affect low income tenants. The groups called on the RPA to create a committee of community-based groups to ensure the participation of downtown's black, Hispanic, women and other low in- come groups, injobs, training and housing created through the plan. DT.R. CITY LIMITS/November 1983 I BROOKLYN'S GREAT F U L ~ N LANDING DEBATE Does a Garment Cutter Deserve a Harbor VIew? By Michael Henry PoweU W ALKING THROUGH FULlDN LANDING in down- town Brooklyn, one is constantly cloaked in shadows. Nine, massive turn-of-the-century buildings, as well as several sprawling warehouses, lend a cavernous feeling to the area just behind the elegant and popular River Cafe. And occasional glimpses of the sky are dominated by two spiraling bridges, the Brooklyn and the Manhattan. The two bridges, with a little spillover, neatly define the Fulton Landing. They were also the cause of the area's fall- from-grace as Brooklyn's central business and industrial district. Before 1883, when the Fulton ferry with its twin pilothouses was the only way to reach Manhattan and sleek, tall-masted clipper ships were king, the area bustled with activity 24 hours-a-day. Even today as the bridges carry traffic further inland, the buildings are home to over 120 firms and 4,000 primarily unskilled black and Hispanic employees, making Fulton Landing one of the largest and most stable manufacturing sites in Brooklyn. Many of these jobs might soon disappear, though, if the city and state approve an ambitious and controversial $100 million development project for the area. Those manufactur- ing jobs would be replaced by somewhere between 2,000 and 10,000 white-collar jobs. . This scheme is the product of David Walentas, a 45-year- old real estate developer whose building management prac- tices in Manhattan, Queens and the Bronx have made him both controversial and wealthy. As the designated developer for Fulton Landing, Walentas envisions a project similar to Manhattan's South Street Seaport just across the East River. It would include office space, apartments, restaurants, shops and boutiques, parking space and a large marina. The bulk of the private financing would be provided by Citibank, while at least $19.5 million would come from a federal Ur- ban Development Action Grant. Walentas's waterfont com- munity would span 30 acres, including 15 now jointly- owned by the state and city. But now, at least two months before the project can begin a lengthy official review process, it has already sparked debate about the type of economic development needed in Brooklyn and engendered the opposition of a coalition of manufacturers, loft tenants, politicians and unions. The fallout from these problems, some city officials have said privately, could result in a new developer and a scaled-down project. Does Manufacturing StiU Count? Saft Our Jobs raUy at FuJton LandJng, NlM!mber, 1982. Opponents of the project argue against it from a wide variety of perspectives. But all seem united behind the CITY LIMITS/November 1983 8 retention of manufacturing jobs in Fulton Landing. In a borough suffering from high unemployment, fully one- quarter of Brooklyn's workforce is employed in manufactur- ing. About 80 percent of those manufacturing workers, citywide and at Fulton Ferry, are black and Hispanic. "The city has this idea that somehow manufacturing does not count anymore," said Assemblyman Joe Ferris, Democrat of Brooklyn, as he stood outside the large, wrought iron door to the Gair manufacturing building at 60 Washington Street. He had just finished touring the Tru-Fit Manufacturing Company, a garment manufacturer that employs 500 people. "These are the last entry-level jobs in the city. It is absurd to put 4,000 people on the dole just to satisfy the financial fantasies of a developer." Walentas and officials at the city's Public Development Corporation, the agency most responsible for steering the project through bureaucratic waters, have countered that , contrary to objections, the project will complement other development efforts in Brooklyn. They said the project will revitalize an underutilized area, provide clerical and retail jobs for thousands of relatively unskilled office workers and bring firms to Brooklyn that would otherwise leave the city. And Walentas, in a view not endorsed by PDC, has also argued that manufacturing is in a terminal decline. "Manufacturing is a dying industry; Walentas said, as he stood before the largest of the Gair buildings on Main Street. Behind him, two burly workmen threw debris into a green dumpster as they cleared out the first floor of the building. "The unions made it too expensive for them. The real issue now is economic development. It's a war - either the city goes for the jobs and my project or they stick their heads in the sand like city planning." The city planning department has called for keeping those buildings still oc- cupied as sites for manufacturing. Walentas's combativeness, which lurks behind his decep- tively mild demeanor, has created problems for him. Some city officials have complained of his all-or-nothing attitude. They said he often seems intent on playing a stubborn game of chicken and has refused to consider important modifica- tions in his plans. A Heavy-handed Past Walentas's development background has also been a cause of concern to some city officials and many of his op- ponents. On more than one occasion, Walentas has been ac- cused of using heavy-handed tactics in pursuing his develop- ment and co-oping projects. In one case in 1971, as documented by reporter Jim Miskewicz in the weekly Brooklyn Paper, he was accused of forcing over 500 primarily black welfare families out of the Kew Gardens Hill project in Queens. And in Manhattan, again as related in the Brooklyn Paper, he was involved in at least two ques- tionable co-oping deals - at the 395-unit Park Terrace Gardens apartments in Inwood and at the landmark Alwyn Court apartment building. The state attorney general in- vestigated the last case. For his part, Walentas insisted, "I don't know what they [his critics] are talking about. Most of my projects have been enormous successes:' Finally, Walentas has drawn criticism for his use of political "fixers." These include his lawyers, former Deputy Mayor and Planning Commissioner John Zuccotti and An- drew Fisher, son of former MTA head and Brooklyn Democratic power Harold Fisher, Hank Sheinkopf, a public relations man with close ties to Kings County Democratic boss Meade Esposito, and even his Fulton Landing project director, Karen Murphy, who worked for media consultant David Garth and was one of Koch's representatives to the citywide Board of Estimate. Walentas said, "Zuccotti was my lawyer before he was even on the planning commission. And the rest, the system is set up so that you work within the structure. That's the way I work." Fulton Landing's Fortunes If he is successful, Walentas will not t,e the first businessman to make his fortune at Fulton Landing. In 1825, another ambitious entrepeneur, Robert Fulton, re- ceived a 25-year lease to run his steam-propelled ferry across to Manhattan. By 1872, the ferry was making 1,200 daily crossings. Another businessman, John Arbuckle, stored green coffee beans for his Yuban coffee in the long, red-brick Empire warehouses. Arbuckle eventually salted away $40 million. And between 1835 and 1890, Fulton Ferry daily resounded to the creaks of wagons and pulleys unloading crackers, raisins, flour, nails, sponges, brooms, soap and liver pills from the ships and into merchants' wagons. But none of the men who made their fortune at Fulton Landing, many of whom later went bankrupt, attempted a project as ambitious as that proposed by David Walentas. In 1980, with an eye towards later capturing the 15 publicly-owned acres fronting along the river, Walentas pur- chased 17 acres behind them, including the Gair and Sweeney buildings which contained over 40 manufacturers, from real estate tycoon Harry Helmsley. "You have to have a large project," said Walentas in defense of his grandious scheme, "something that is self- contained. The buildings, when they are converted into of- fice and residential space, will give me a controlled en- vironment. Nobody was going to put up money without a total plan." Manufacturers Forced Out After purchasing the buildings, Walentas refused to renew manufacturers' leases in several of the properties. As a result , 16 manufacturing firms and 650 jobs left the area - some to Brooklyn, others to New Jersey or Long Island. Walentas told the rest of his tenants that he wanted them out in fivc years. 9 "It's a war - either the city goes for the jobs and my project or they stick their heads in the sand like city planning. David Walentas, Fulton Landing developer. ('We're not Luddites opposed to progress. It just doesn't make sense to throw 4,000 black and Hispanic people out of work because a real estate developer decides he wants to create a lasting monument. - Crane Davis, Fulton Ferry L.D.c. CITY LIMITS/November 1983 Today, the city's Public Development Corporation favors the development of the now vacant back space. "A lot of that space is excellent for what 1 call paper factories, the back offices that move in and provide lots of white-collar clerical jobs," said Hardy Adasko, senior development direc- tor for PDC. "Just because the area is conducive to manufacturing does not mean that it is the best use of the site." On the conversion of the occupied manufacturing buildings owned by Walentas, however, PDC follows the company line as laid down by the Department of City Plan- ning. City Planning issued a report last January 31 that called for the retention of manufacturing in the occupied buildings for at least 15 years. The report stated that bet- ween 1972 and 1981, Fulton Ferry's employment base de- clined only eight percent . "This relative stability," the report said, "is impressive." Who Pays for Relocation? In what has been widely interpreted as a slap at Walentas, the planning department's report called for reconfirmation and strengthening of the industrial zoning in the occupied buildings. It stated that the remaining jobs "need protection from displacement by commercial conversion." The report also called for Walentas to provide a set amount of reloca- tion assistance to any displaced firms - the first time the agency has called for such assistance outside of Manhattan. "I don't want to talk about relocation now," Walentas said, as he drove through Fulton Landing in his small sports car. "Yes, yes, there is a need for public sector involvement in helping these firms relocate. 1 think the city has a role to play there." Adasko responded to that suggestion with a smile. "I am so glad Walentas has no objection to the city paying for relocation costs. This will be discussed further;' he said. At this point, though, it is a bit uncertain if the city, state and Walentas will ever get as far as sitting down to discuss relocation. The issue of the occupied back buildings may forestall talks. While the city cannot prevent Walentas from denying leases and emptying the buildings, it can refuse to grant him the necessary zoning changes he needs to convert the space to residential use. And if push comes to shove, the city could withdraw his designation as developer of the city-owned land parcel . "If Walentas wants all or nothing, fine, he'll get nothing," said Victor L'Epplattnier, the planning department's project director for Fulton Landing. "His problem is that he does not like manufacturing. He wants to push things through with powerful friends and a mind set that it has to be a ma- jor project regardless of the faces behind the manufacturing machines." Deputy Mayor Kenneth Lipper may not share L'Epplat- tenier's strong feelings. However, sources within the city ad- ministration have said that Lipper is strongly opposed to simply caving-in to Walentas. He reportedly believes, given the success of South Street Seaport, that developer interest will not be hard to find. If this is the case, the city's chang- ing position would hearten many parties. "I think it would be a real mistake to simply let the manufacturers be pushed out," said David Lebenstein, depu- ty executive director of Interface, a IO-year-old, nonprofit, research organization. "We have done many studies of the New York City waterfront and of manufacturing. The CITY LIMITS/November 1983 downward trend in manufacturing seems to be abating. And for a crucial sector of the population, namely blacks and Hispanics, it is a major employer." "The big problem, our studies show, is that when manufacturers are forced to leave, they usually do not stay in New York," Lebenstein added. "They look towards New Jersey and Long Island. This usually means that many semi- or unskilled workers lose their jobs." Despite his problems, Walentas's project clearly is not dead. Mayor Edward Koch strongly favors development in the area. And despite the scrambling by dozens of city aides to evaluate Walentas's project, the final decision will be up to him and the Board of Estimate. If the project makes it that far, the votes on the board may be there. Brooklyn borough president Howard Golden has been a cautious backer of the plan, and the other borough presidents joined Koch in voting for the UDAG ap- plication last spring. Yet opponents are hopeful. "We are slowly convincing people that the project as it is desn't make economic sense, but it's hard work," said Crane Davis, president of the Fulton Ferry Local Development Coporation, a group op- posing the project. A local loft tenant, Davis spoke of the project between sips of black coffee at a local diner. "We're not Luddites opposed to progress. It just doesn't make sense to throw 4,500 black and Hispanic people out of work because a real estate developer decides he wants to build a lasting monument." But community opponents of Walentas's proposed project acknowledge that time is not entirely on their side. Without help, the remaining manufacturers might flee the area. As Jim Adelson, owner of Aphrodesia, a spice wholesale operation employing over 35 people said, "Fifteen years ago, I was forced out of Soho, then eight years ago out of Tribeca. This city scares me now. My next move is to New Jersey."D MichaeL Henry Powell is a freelance writer and former staff reporter for The Phoenix in downtown BrookLyn. 10 BOUSING'S UNEQUAL CONTEST: Why the Rich Won't Be Denied By Sandy Hornick "LET'S FINISH HOUSING THE RICH so that we can get on with the task of housing the poor." When I first heard this statement at a community meeting in Green- wich Village, I was a bit shocked. Good liberals spend much of their time advocating government intervention on behalf of the poor. After all, if the affluent are unable to fend for themselves, who can? In retrospect, however, there appears to be considerable wisdom concealed in this statement. It is ironic that this "wisdom" should have been expressed in Greenwich Village, the traditional home of the political left in New York. It was once an out-of-the-way neighborhood where low rents and a high degree of tolerance permitted ethnic and bohemian communities to thrive. Ultimately, its very uniqueness began to draw an ever increasing throng of upper income people. Develop- ment schemes proliferated to accommodate them. For more than three decades, a remarkable collection of community activists have fought a series of mostly suc- cessful battles to preserve the Greenwich Village immor- talized by former Village activist and urban critic, Jane Jacobs, in The Death and life of Great American Cities . Their victories read like an obituary for development, in- c1uding: no West Village Urban Renewal designation (which would have cleared much of what is now the West Village for high-rise development) , no Lower Manhattan Ex- pressway (through Little Italy, SoHo and the South Village), no highway through Washington Square Park, the lowest density zoning in Manhattan (less than one-third than per- mitted on the Upper East Side which makes most new con- struction unattractive to developers), the inclusion of much of the community within an historic district (which further limits the possibility of new development) , and, currently, the fight against Westway (now delayed for years in the courts). This anti-development strategy has been remarkably successful in preserving the physical form of Ms. Jacobs's Village. Regrettably, the ethnic and working class residents Ms. Jacobs identified with stabilizing the Village are being replaced with a more homogeneous and more affluent population. Ms. Jacobs thought of these high-rent tenants as transient. She warned that a community could absorb only so many of "these birds of passage"before the neighborhood becomes them and begins to deteriorate. Bureaucrats and academics now call this change from us to them "gentrification." Preventing development has not slowed gentrification. Rather, the opposite has been true. 11 CITY LIMITS/November 1983 Ms. Jacobs idolized her West Village as a place where in- dustrial workers and residents happily coexisted, each benefiting from the other's presence. The workers supported commerce and provided daytime street surveillance. She predicted, "If the neighborhood were to lose the industries, it would be a disaster for us residents." Today, with ~ e ex- ception of a somewhat diminished meat market to the north and the graphic arts center to the south, the industry has been lost. The extent of the decline in the West Village has been far greater than that experienced in other Manhattan industrial areas. This change from industry to housing can only be explained by the relentless pressure of affluent peo- ple wanting an apartment in the Village, a pressure which would not be released by constructing new housing largely because of the community's victories against such new development. Outbid by the Rich None of this is to say that the inexorable drive of the gentry into the surrounding communities would have been stopped if new development had been permitted in Green- wich Village. It would have been impossible for the Village to retain its unique character while absorbing the number of lUXUry units sought in the Village. When the Village's resistance to new development is matched in other potential- ly desirable neighborhoods, however, the marketplace is not allowed to construct the new lUXUry housing wanted by the rich. Only it is not the rich who suffer. They merely use their superior financial resources to outbid everyone else for the existing housing. To help shelter the less fortunate, numerous restrictive laws have been enacted, including Rent Control, Rent Stabilization and laws to limit (however poorly) the conver- sion of rental housing to cooperatives and condominiums. Nevertheless, the pleas for additional protection from gen- trification/displacement are appearing in the media with greater frequency. While restrictive regulation has considered the needs of the poorer among us, regulation, like the anti-development attitude, has not worked as expected because it failed to adequately care for the relatively wealthy. One wonders how we could have believed in the naive notion that the law would deny people with money what they want (housing in desirable neighborhoods) so that the hoi polloi could be comfortable. The plain truth is that those among us who stand to make a buck housing the rich will find a way to do it. Emanuel Tobier, a professor at New York University, recently analyzed housing demand in Manhattan for the Department of City Planning. Reviewing his findings highlight the consequences of overreliance on regulation to protect the less affluent and provide a strong indictment of the liberal agenda for providing housing in a free economy. Between 1960 and 1970, approximately 58,000 units of non- subsidized (luxury) housing were built in Manhattan. Dur- ing this decade, the upper class renovation of lower class housing was not yet so widespread as to be seen as a significant problem. The literature of the time even praised the nascent brownstone movement as a cheap form of hous- ing for those who could not afford to live in the new luxury bUildings. During the seventies, new lUXUry construction fell dramatically, accounting for only about 20,000 apartments. CITY LIMITS/November 1983 12 The demand for luxury units continued to be strong, however, and, in spite of the reduced new construction, the overall number of lUXUry units created in Manhattan re- mained fairly constant at 65,000 units for the decade. In- stead of new construction, the upper classes were increas- ingly housed in buildings which once provided shelter or, in the case of loft buildings, jobs for the less affluent. This analysis suggests that the markets for luxury housing in new construction, renovation and conversion are somewhat interchangeable. As the level of new housing con- struction declined after the early sixties, alternate forms of lUXUry housing were sought and, in the seventies, were found in renovation and conversion. As a result, brownstones and loft buildings are increasingly divided into small cooperative apartments similar to that offered in new construction. Protecting the Poor It has become the accepted position of all mainstream political positions that everyone should and can live in de- cent housing. The left and right no longer differ on the goal, but their opinions are widely divergent on the method. Liberals call for government intervention; conser- vatives seek to let the market take its course. The liberal approach fails because it doesn't recognize that the affluent will not be denied the housing they desire. While conservatives implicitly understand the wealthy, their aproach fails too. To understand why, it is necessary to take a closer look at the market for housing. There are essentially three classes of housing users. The first class can be described as the "affluent ," composed of those who can afford the high costs associated with new housing construction and proper maintenance. For the most part, these people can live almost anywhere they choose. Should they so desire, or should new housing be unavailable, they could also live in existing housing. The second group, from a housing affordability view- point, I'll call the "middle class." This is the largest sector of the housing market. Most of its members cannot afford newly constructed market rate housing, but they do have sufficient financial resources to obtain, maintain, and often improve, a wide variety of existing housing. The third and least fortunate group lacks the money to properly maintain and operate existing housing. Free market advocates argue that as the affluent move on to newly built or renovated apartments, housing is freed for the middle class and, as the middle class moves up, the formerly middle class housing becomes available (trickles down) to the lower classes. Though liberals prefer to dismiss it, there is substantial evidence to support this theory. Between 1940 and 1980, amidst the most prolonged surge in housing construction in U.S. history, all measures of substandard housing showed dramatic declines. Nevertheless, the trickle down theory contains at least two flaws, one of which is fatal . From 1940 to 1970, real household income rose more or less steadily in the United States, increasing the amount of money available to be spent on housing. Since 1970, real in- comes have fallen slightly. If incomes continue to decline it is questionable whether the post-war gains in housing s t a ~ dards can be maintained. More importantly, Michael Stegman, in his study, The Dynamics of Rental Housing in New York City, theorizes that almost half of a million households may be "too poor to afford rent of any amount" (assuming they use their limited income to purchase necessities other than housing) . Thousands of others can afford some rent but not "enough to pay the full cost of adequate housing" (emphasis added) . For these people, it wouldn't matter if housing in the city's best areas trickled down. Without the income to maintain and operate it, even the city's best housing would succumb to the laws of economics. Thus, neither the liberal nor conservative approaches pro- mise to resolve our housing crises. Our inability to formulate a successful housing policy can be attributed, at least in part; to liberal and conservative ideologies with which we have been approaching the pro- blem. When these ideologies came to dominate American political thought , America was being transformed from an agricultural to an industrial nation. The process was a par- ticularly painful one. Though most Americans have coveted the wealth of the industrialists, they identified with the workers, dividing the world, as Jane Jacobs did, into "us" and "them." From a housing perspective, building housing for the rich is viewed as detrimental by liberals because it helps "them." If it helps "them", it must be bad for "us." Similarly, govern- mental assistance for the poor is viewed critically by con- servatives. The "them" and "us" positions are reversed, but the attitudes are identical . Resolving the housing problem requires a rejection of either ideological perspective and a recognition that there is significant truth in both positions. Needed: Market Rate Housing Regulation and opposition to development have not prevented affluent households from displacing many of their less fortunate counterparts during the 1970s. In addition, public policy must be directed to promoting the building of more market rate housing. By increasing the supply of housing available in new construction, the upper class de- mand for renovated or converted units can be reduced, thereby preserving more of the existing housing stock for its current residents and/or preserving more loft space for blue- collar jobs producing industries. There are those who feel that new construction would have an adverse impact on the character of some desirable neighborhoods. They may well be correct. Neglected in this evaluation, however, are the consequences of too little new construction - accelerated displacement of the neighborhoods' current moderate income residents. Also neglected is the option of selectively allowing higher densities at locations, and in layouts, which ensure com- patibility with the surrounding neighborhood. Returning to our example of Greenwich Village, we find there are many six-to-16-story buildings and even a 29-story building, all built before World War II, most of which have been suc- cessfully integrated into the fabric of this low-scale neighborhood . Instead of instinctively opposing new development, com- munities might consider how to repeat the pre-war Village experience. If community leaders are to succeed in stabiliz- ing their communities, they must recognize that it is often not new lUXUry construction, but the absence of such con- struction, which causes displacement. On the other hand, housing the affluent will not resolve the housing problems of the poor. Only improving the in- comes of the poor, either through employment or a 13 One wonders how we could have believed in the naive notion that the law would deny people with money what they want (housing in desirable neighborhoods) so that the hoi polloi would be comfortable. redistribution of the wealth of the society, can help here. Given the condition of the national economy, it is unlikely that we will see a substantial improvement in the ability of the poor to earn relatively higher incomes. This leaves redistributing the wealth, either through direct income sub- sidies, subsidies to housing construction, renovation, opera- tion and maintenance, artificially holding down rents through rent regulation, or, more likely, through a combina- tion of techniques. Developers must understand that they have obligations to the public which go beyond housing the rich. The profits and tax benefits derivetl from increased luxury development resulting from reduced governmental regulation, which would be considerable, carry with them a responsibility t{) help those who do not benefit from such development. 'y assisting the less affluent , developers will make New York more attractive to all classes of people, ultimately raising property values and providing developer.,; with some return for their having met their obligations to the public. The crucial point is that the affluent and non-affluent need not be locked in mortal combat for housing. Both must be served. 0 Sandy Hornick is a planner with the New York City Depart- ment of City Planning. However, the views expressed are solely his own. CITY LIMITS/November 1983 TBE BEAGAN WAR ON LEGAL SERVICES lv1,,, "I 11i( IllJ(Ji litvcllegoJ Ihu!) , ,I ! LJ( I, 'II L'III IhlJ( c]Je fewer to serve !II' III (i'l,i I, " ..flh l'. hlC'h 10 do 11 L EGAL SERVICES FOR NEW YORK City's poor were visibily diminished last month when one of four neighborhood outposts of the 20-year-old MFY Legal Ser- vices on the Lower East Side closed its doors. The shuttering of MFY's Delancey Street office, where thousands of low in- come residents' had sought assistance with the legal complications of housing, debt, social security and family since the early sixties, graphically marked the steady ero- sion of both the type and amount of legal help available to needy New Yorkers since President Reagan began what is now a three- year-old campaign to abolish the program. Although blocked by Congress in dismantling the services, the Reagan Administration has succeeded in severely hobbling the program's work. The budget for the national Legal Services Corporation was slashed by 25 percent in 1982 and again in 1983. Congress has yet to pass a budget for this year and legal services advocates are somewhat buoyed by a small increase con- tained in the continuing spending resolu- tion. But substantial concern is now focus- ed on proposed new regulations that would severely limit the number of people who could use legal services, as well as Reagan's latest nominees to the Legal Services Cor- poration board. This eleven-person crew is still being scrutinized by legal services ad- vocates, but most appear to be as little ac- quainted with the Corporation's tasks and goals as Reagan's earlier interim appoint- ments and to be equally undistinguished in their dedication to assisting the poor. New York City's Legal Service's Network New York City has ten independent legal services projects coordinated through a cen- tral umbrella agency, Community Action for Legal Services. CALS, as it is known, dis- tributes New York's federal allocation pro- portionately to those offices. That city allocation is based on the number of New Yorkers eligible for legal services; that figure, based on the 1970 census, was three million and, according to the 1980 census, CITY LIMITS/November 1983 By Tom Robbins has increased somewhat, but CALS has yet to receive more funds reflecting that increase. All of those calculations would be great- ly diminshed if pending regulations that call for a cap of $1 ,500 on liquid and non-liquid assets of those eligible for legal help, are im- plemented. Those rules would bar many of those on public assistance and social security. Those new rules would distort a picture that has shown more New Yorkers steadily in need of legal assistance, particularly as Reagan rules in other areas, such as welfare, social security and housing take effect. "We're getting more people to serve, with fewer people to serve them and with fewer services on hand to do it," summed up Eleanor Bader, the community education director at the South Brooklyn Legal Ser- vices office on downtown Court Street. The Legal Services Staff Association, which is affiliated with District 65 of the United Auto Workers and represents lawyers, paralegals and support staff in the city's offices, said New York City has lost 30 percent of its staff since 1981. Of 140 lawyers there are now only 90, said Associa- tion president Liz Koob. The reduction in paralegals, who are asked to take the brunt when attorneys leave, has been almost the same. Those staff cuts have been made through attrition, however, not with layoffs, and Koob credits pressure from the association, which struck CALS for two weeks in the winter of 1979-80, with restraining management. Nationally, staff and office cuts have paralleled the amount of reduced federal funding. By 1982, after the first decrease, 354 legal service field offices closed across the country, and 1,546 attorneys left the pro- gram, according to Bob Rhudy of the Coali- tion for Legal Services in Washington, D.C. Even before the cuts, federally-funded legal services never provided adequate numbers of representatives for all of those deemed in need. It is estimated that there 14 were two legal service attorneys for every 10,000 eligible people. Meanwhile, the ratio of those in private practice was put at one attorney per 300 people able to afford private legal fees. Public, nonprofit attorneys, it was estimated, could handle no more than 20 percent of the cases. Those numbers have worsened since the Adminstration's cuts. Seeking Private Funding The Delancey Street office of MFY serv- ed a population of low income Lower East Side residents for whom housing conditions are a major concern. Overall, forty percent of MFY's clients seek help with landlord- tenant law in cases involving eviction, harassment and bad building conditions. Citywide, the breakdown is similar. Yet crucial as housing representation may be, it's one of the toughest for legal services of- fices to fund and provide. "Closing that office is the clearest exam- ple of what the cuts mean on a day-to-day basis," said MFY director Norman Siegel. While MFY has had some limited success in getting state and city funds to provide specific types of legal help, general service legal assistance-such as housing court representation - has suffered, said Siegel. In the past two years, MFY has opened a city-funded midtown office to advocate for tenants of single-room-occupancy hotels, a unit for those who have had their social security disability payments terminated, and a state-funded unit for discharged former mental patients. "These projects are important and have kept our numbers - our staff and budget- up, but what does it do for someone living near Delancey Street who needs a housing lawyer because they're being harassed and can't afford one?" asked Siegel. Like other legal services projects around the city and country, MFY has reached out to the private sector and the bar association for help. Last year, MFY raised $30,000 in contributions and in-kind services, such as the typing of manuscripts, from private sources. But it discovered in its funding drive, said Siegel , that "Every other group is coinpeting for the same funds." Legal services projects elsewhere around the country, said Bob Rhudy, had found private fundraising not to be successful. Like MFY, some have managed to fill budget holes with state and local funding for specific legal work, such as representation of the handicapped or juvenile justice. Yet in many cases, noted Rhudy, "Offices are taking on a kind of work they had not previously offered. General case work re- mains the hardest to fund." Groups in favor of federal legal service provision have responded to Reagan's attacks with their own legal assault, but the going has been slow. A year and a half after a suit was filed, an appeals court in Washington is about to consider whether the President violated the law by filling the Legal Services Corporation board with interim appoint- ments made while Congress was in recess and thus never considered nor confirmed. The escapades of some of the miscreants named to the board, such as running up huge expense account tabs while legal services of- fices were being forced to use the flip side of discarded photocopy paper, have attracted some notoriety. But the ir>terim appointees have persisted in a mission aimed at curb- ing the program. Implementation of the new income eligibility rules was avoided when an injunc- tion against a board meeting was won by the Coalition for Legal Services and other groups. But the remaining four appointees are expected to try again before they are replaced. The President has sent only six of the eleven new candidates' names to the Hill for consideration, but Senate committee con- firmation hearings are due in early November. Few of the nominees, said Rhudy, seem to have past experience with 15 Legal Services. One, Robert Valois, is a former aide to North Carolina Republican Senator Jesse Helms. Valois, according to the Washington Post, helped the J.p. Stevens textile company create an industry front organization to counter a union boycott cam- paign. Another, Michael Wallace of Mississippi, once a clerk to Supreme Court Justice Rehnquist, worked on behalf of Bob Jones University in its effort to maintain nonprofit tax status despite its racial admis- sion bars. New York City'S contribution to the new board would be Bernard Bloom, a Brooklyn surrogate judge with no record of assistance to that borough's three legal ser- vices projects. "Unless Reagan gets his appointments through now," said Rhudy, "he won't be able to in '84 as an election year. Approval of the board could spell drastic new changes. It's a major new threat." As New York's legal services projects scramble to make up what the Administra- tion has taken away, they are also confron- ting an internal examination prompted by ongoing contract negotiations between CALS and the staff association. According to association head Liz Koob, a major focus of union demands is a restructuring that would decrease what she said is a needless heavy layer of management, and place those jobs and funds into legal service provision. The contract expired September 30. "We're mindful of the budget problems," said Koob, "but no one has really looked yet at the service needs of the clients."O ., . AHP TO rl.lLL 17O\#N/ CITY LIMITS/November 1983 A ---. at _ at tile _ memben at tile ReII's torney Wayne Saitta, District 6S representative Dwight Loines, and HCC orpnlzers Bob W ORKERS AT HOUSING CON- this summer apparently prompted the staff servation Coordinators, (HCC), a te- to join a union. nant advocacy and nonprofit rehabilitation agency in Clinton, recently unionized in an effort to improve their working conditions. "We won by a clean sweep;' noted shop steward Wayne Saitta, referring to the workers' unanimous union vote on October 13th at the National Labor Relations Board. Through that vote, the 19 organizing and clerical staff members at HCC joined the Hells Kitchen Organizers Local of the Na- tional Organization of Legal Service Workers, part of District 65 of the United Auto Workers union. Employees at MFY Legal Services in Clinton are also members of the Hells Kitchen Local. Organized workers at the community group do not include its management staff; those holding positions as Executive Direc- tor, Accountant, Director of Weatherization and Program Evaluator are not members of the bargaining unit. As City Limits goes to press, the union members at HCC are preparing contract negotiations with management to improve office conditions. "We've got four organizers sharing two phones and one typewriter," said Saitta. Through a union contract, the employees will seek more staff involvement in making office policy, additional office equipment, raises, and the same benefits for part-time workers as full-time employees; health benefits, sick days, vacation days and com- pensatory time. Although some workers made similar demands last year, events which took place CITY LIMITS/November 1983 Consultant Study Stirred Protest According to Saitta, who is staff attorney, and tenant organizer Bob Kalin, HCC's Board of Directors this year paid an outside management conSUlting firm $10,000 to determine how to improve the group's management. HCC employees; who said they were never advised of the action, first saw the report in August. They felt they should have had input in the policy decision that led to the study. . "If the Board was honest with us, they wouldn't have needed some outside con- sultants to tell them to fix the roof that's leak- ing on our only typewriter," said Saitta. Kalin added: "Not only was this 47-page report wildly inadequate, but the fact is that the Board wasted $10,000 which could have been used for raises and improving the office." In September, all the workers flied with the NLRB and served notice to Executive Director John Glynn to attend NLRB hear- ings on recognizing the HCC staff as members of the Hells Kitchen Organizers local. No Board Opposition HCC employees noted that management was receptive in that the Board did not act to oppose them. ''The board could have hired union- busting attorneys to attend the hearings and debate each person's eligibility," said Kalin. Asked about the union drive, Executive 16 Director Glynn said, "We can't be against organizing since we organize people. Peo- ple organize to get what they want." But, he noted, "whether a union is the best way to serve the workers is a different question." Employees believe that a union will be able to serve them. "The staff at HCC was ripe for a union," said Saitta. "Since there are a lot of cutbacks being made, a union will give us direct in- put on the practical and policy level as to how the organization will be run." Maintenance Workers Organized on West Side Although maintenance workers at other community housing groups have sought union affliiation recently; HCC is believed to be the sole nonprofit housing group where office workers and organizers have voted to have union representation. Last spring, eighteen superintendents and maintenance workers of an Upper West Side group, the Manhattan Valley Development Corporation, joined Local 32-B-J of the Ser- vice Employees International Union. The group manages city-owned housing through a community management contract with the city housing department as well as federally subsidized low-income rehabiliation pro- jects it has sponsored. Although no contract has been signed yet, a management representative said a tentative settlement had been reached. Local 32-B-J has also sought to represent workers at other community groups in Harlem and the Bronx. 0 Rachel Sanchez works with the monthly, Clinton Community Press. ANTI-ARSON WINS Insurance. Judge Schwartz in his decision stated that the Department may withhold information when it falls within the provision of the law, "that disclosure would result in economic or personal hardship to the subject party and such information sought is not relevant to the work of the agency requesting or main- taining it." The Judge found that the Depart- ment failed to establish either of these points, thus making their denial unreasonable. INSURANCE INFORMATION nCRT T HE FLATBUSH DEVELOPMENT Corporation's Arson Prevention Project has won ajudgement against the New York State Department of Insurance to release in- formation on so-called "excess line insurers" who frequently provide last resort insurance to troubled properties. Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Seymour Schwartz declared the Department's denial of the requested infor- mation to be unreasonable based on the Public Officer's Law. Flatbush Development rued the suit pursuant to the Freedom ofln- formation Act. The Arson Prevention Project of Flatbush Development Corporation has developed a comprehensive program to deter arson in the North Flatbush section of Brooklyn bas- ed on a computerized arson early warning system. One of the primary deterrent strategies is to notify insurers in Flatbush when their insured properties are "at-risk" to arson. An important source for the iden- PAYING TOO MUCH tity of the insurer of a property is the New York State Department of Insurance. The Department receives affidavits from brokers placing excess line insurance in accordance with Regulation 41. Excess line insurers are out of state and foreign companies not licensed in the State of New York who in- sure where conventional insurance is unavailable. A request by Flatbush Development Cor- poration and Ron Hine, the director of the Arson Prevention Project, dated September 22, 1982 for the insurance information was denied by Elaine Berger, the Records Access Officer of the State Department of In- surance. The Department stated it "would be an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy within the contemplation of the Public Officer'S Law." An appeal of this deci- sion was also denied by Joseph A. Oster, the Assistant Deputy Superintendent and Counsel to the State Department of Ron Hine, director of the Arson Preven- tion Project, stated, "Our access to this in- formation will benefit a number of parties-now we can notify excess line in- surers when their properties are in trouble. We can also identify for the State Depart- ment oflnsurance where insurance brokers are not complying with Regulation 41. The denial of our request by the Department was an irrational decision which runs counter to their own interest." "Information on excess line insurers is especially important because a dispropor- tionate share of fire insurance fraud occurs in this part of the market ," Hine added. 0 LOW COST ACCOUNTING Financial Management Center is pleased to announce its new Low Cost Accounting Program. Each client will meet at ou r office with an accountant with extensive non-profit background. The cost is $720 for the year, billed at $60 per month. FOR ACCOUNTING? Each client will receive the following services from our specialized accou ntants: Overall accounting/bookkeeping evaluation. For more information about Low Cost Accounting contact FranCie, Program Manager, or Buddy Meth, Executive Director at F j ~ &FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT CENTER 36 WEST 44th STREET NEW YORK. NY 10036 Set up books. Prepare quarterly income and expense statements. Prepare quarterly tax filings. Review ledger quarterly. End of calendar year preparation of W-2 and W-3 forms. End of fiscal year preparation of 990 and other year end forms. Prepare year end compilation. EftS (212) 575-1816 ... because your accountant should save you a fortune-not cost you onel 17 CITY LIMITS/November 1983 More 'House Sense' To the Editor: It does not seem right to permit Ms. Sylvia Orans letter con- cerning "Housing Sense" [Letters, August-September 1983] to go unchallenged. Every group in the drama bears some of the responsibility for the CrISIS that presently exists and hence every group needs to be part of the solution. "House Sense" is an attempt to attract children into assuming their role as part of the solution to the hous- ing problems in New York City. Children and adolescents needs to into the picture positively in at least two ways: 1. live They can add or subtract to the quality of life III the bUllding where they live. As one walks through the buildings of our city one would not presume too much to speculate that at least part of the graffiti that is less than decorative is the work of some who are less than thirteen years old. Old does not have to a Senior Citizen to realize that at least some of the noise complaints that are made are against those who are between the ages of five and thirteen. We do not expect children to solve all of the problems of the world in any area as children but we do help them through our educational programs and systems to begin process responsible members of society and pro- vldmg them With some of the skills that will be developed in their future lives of adults. 2. Stills, Nash, & Young reminded us of the reciprocal relatIOnship between parents and children in the educational pro- cess. Put quite simply: PARENTS DO LEARN FROM THEIR CHILDREN. Many of us who have dealt in family education pro- grams have learned that often times the best way to reach parents is through their children. I would also suggest that the particular problems of urban housing are particularly open to this approach for the following reason. New York City has a high immigrant population many of whom would be living in areas in which the housing problems are most acute. The housing maze in New York City is extremely complex to even native New Yorkers and those whose first language is English. To become comfortable with the whole housing situation as an immigrant is even more difficult. The use of the children of a family to help their parents to feel at home with this very important part of their life seems to me to be a rather good pedogogical and socialization activity. Why is it that whenever one talks about the tenant component in the housing equation in New York City one becomes suspect of exonerating landlords. The housing crisis in New York City is of such proportion that there is sufficient blame (in very dif- ferent degrees) and responsibility for everybody: the President, the Mayor, landlords, tenants, community organizations, banks, insurance companies, etc., etc. "House Sense" will Nor solve the housing crisis in New York City by itself. In fact nothing will. However, it is and can become another valuable tool in a neces- sarily varied arsenal of weapons needed to preserve our housing stock. Reverend Kevin Sullivan Free Insurance Appraisal Richards and Fenniman, in insuring tenant and community groups for over 10 years, IS offering to the readers of City Limits a free insurance appraisal of their building. knC?w your needs, your requirements, and how to help you get insurance finanCing. And most important, we can get you the best prices. a free insurance appraisal of your building and an evaluation of your current Insurance program call me: Ingrid Kaminski, Account Executive, (212) 267-8080. Richards and Fenniman, Inc. 156 William Street, New York, New York 10038 CITY LIMITS/November 1983 18 :: .:.:": .. : 0. , . , . IS YOUR INSURANCE TOO EXPENSIVE? Let us evaluate your insurance program to see if you are getting the most for your dollars. "Specializing in lVon'Pr0fit and Community Organizations" Contact: Paul Sourifman (212) 684-4770 Think how much cheaper it would be if all the people, like yourself, got together and bought oil by the millions of Well, it's already happening. BUY FUEL CHEAPLY, QUICKLY AND RELIABLY We have been serving over 1000 buildings for five years. NO MEMBERSHIP REQUIREMENTS OR FEES Call 239-9410 for latest prices on #2, #4, and #6 oil A N H 0 THE ASSOCIATION OF NEIGHBORHOOD HOUSING DEVELOPERS 424 West 33rd Street New York, N.Y. 10001 19 CITY LIMITS/November 1983 ~ ~ - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - BENEFIT FOR SOUTH -- BROOKLYN LEGAL SER- VICES: Folksingers Charlie King and Deborah Silverstein will perform on Satur- day, December 3rd, 1983 at 8 P.M. in a benefit concert for South Brooldyn Legal Services. The concert will be held at NYU Law School, 40 Washington Square South. Tickets are $7.00 at the door, $6.00 in ad- vance. Both performers specialize in topical, political material. For tickets, call (212) 855-8003. D HISTORIC FLATBUSH 1984 --CALENDAR: Published by Junc- tion/College Development Corporation and the Town of Flatbush Cultural Association, Inc., the Historic Flatbush 1984 calendar describes the rapid changes experienced by the area known today as Flatbush, Mid- wood and East Flatbush using both text and pictures. The cost is $5.00 plus $1.75 postage. Order from: J/CDC, 1569 Flat- bush Avenue, Brooldyn, New York 11210. D . ..... .. -0.. ~ . ~ . ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ <) ... -0 . ~ o . ' . ~ . . c;" ~ ~ _ ~ _ n ~ ~ TRAINING FOR TENANT AC- --TIVISTS: The national Housing In- stitute, a nonprofit group associated with Shelterforce newspaper, is offering a un- ique three-day training course for those seeking to develop skills and strategies for improving housing qUality. Programs in- clude: Organizing skills and Leadership Development, Winning Better Laws, Art of Negotiating, Using the Media, Housing Alternatives. Instructors are from the Na- tional Tenants Union, the New Jersey Tenants Organization and Rutgers Univer- sity. NHI training will be held from November 30 through December 2 at the Shelterforce office, 380 Main St., East Orange, New Jersey. The cost is $150 per person. Partial scholarships will be available. Separate arrangements for room and board must be made. Contact Woody Widrow at NHI for more information: (201) 678-6778. D This Year, Give New York's Neighborhoods for the Holidays. Give a subscription to City I,jmits at the special low holiday rate of 33% off the regular price. Save 44% on each additional gift subscription. To take advantage of this special offer, return the gift envelope inside the magazine before it's too late. Your friends will receive the very next issue. CITY LIMITS/November 1983 20 BANK BRANCH CLOSINGS CONTINUE B ANK BRANCH CLOSINGS-the new neighborhood disinvestment of the eighties-quickly accelerated last month as another major bank announced plans to close 13 metropolitan-area branches by the end of this year. The bank, Manufacturers Hanover Trust Company, . said that a total of 25 area branches would be shut by the end of 1984. The closings more than double those already announced or carried out by other New York City commercial banks this year. But unlike those branch closings by Citibank and Chase Manhattan Bank, Manufacturers gave advance notice of the planned shutdowns to anti-redlining ac- tivists in an effort to hea,d off the kind of protest that followed other closings this year. The bank announced a willingness to meet with representatives to discuss the decision. The Coalition Against Redlining met twice with representatives of Citibank and the Federal Reserve Board to discuss ways to include the community once a decision is made to close a local branch office. Citibank's decision to shutter half a dozen Brooklyn branches last spring led to derilonstrations, legislative hearings and four challenges under the Community Reinvestment Act to bank regulators to block Citibank expansion plans elsewhere . . In a letter to Pauline Wilson, chairper- son of the Coalition, Manufacturers Hanover Senior Vice President William Buckingham cited changes in deregulation, non-bank competition and new technology as reasons the bank needed to streamline its operations. Buckingham added in the letter that the bank projected steadily in- .creasing losses at each of the branches. The dilemma of the rapidly growing phenomenon of branch closings by com- mercial banks that frequently carry much Subscribe to the of a neighborhood's business transactions was posed to Federal Reserve chainnan Paul Vo1cker by neighborhood activists in a meeting in September. According to Marion Swan of the Coalition who joined a National Peoples Action delegation in Washington, Vo1cker expressed concern about the closings and said that while lenders could not be told not to close a branch that was losing money, ways should be found to prevent them from disrupting the economic life of the community. 0 T.R. Association of Neighborhood Housing Developers' a digest of late breaking information on: Legislative Developments, Housing, Budget News, Neighborhood issues, Economic Development and Fundraising. Each weekly issue also carries a calendar listing critical hearings, demonstrations, conferences and workshops. o Individuals and community groups: $20/ \ year. o Citywide nonprofits, banks, foundations, government agencies: $35/1 year. Please send me a subscription to The Weekly Reader. Name AddresslZip Make check' payable to: Association of Neighborhood Housing Developers. Send to: Weekly Reader, ANHD, 424 W. 33 St . New York, NY 10001. Sorry, combination subscriptions 10 Weekly . Reader vlld Cil, Limits art' 110 longer {lvailable. 21 CITY LIMITS/November 1983 PROJECT ORGANIZER Youth Action Program, East Harlem, grassroots community organization developing youth movement through concrete projects run by young people. Responsible for renovation of five buildings: two tenant co-ops, three homes for homeless, with teenagers doing construction. Have completed one building; morale is high, credibility excellent. Exciting, more- than-full-time job for someone who can organize, administer, counsel, fundraise, and enjoy life. Bilingual Spanish/Eng. preferred. $14,000-$17,500. Apply: Dorothy Stoneman, 1280 5th Ave. NYC 10029. EASTSIDE SRO LEGAL SERVICES PROJECT Position Available- Tenant and Community Organizer An assertive self-reliant organizer needed to work with lawyers, social worker and another organizer to assisttenants in SRO hotels and roominghouseson Manhat- tan's East Side. Working knowledge of rent regulations, codes, and city agencies helpful. Position available immediately. Salary $17,000 plus excellent benefits. Send Resume to: Anne Teicher Eastside SRO Legal Services Project 223 Grand Street New York, NY 10013 --- --EOE/Affirmative Action---- PROJECT MANAGER - LOCAL DEVELOPMENT CORP. Growing LDC seeka a person to help Implement and ex- pand a commercial revitalization project Involving Storefront Renovations, Business Assistance, Commer- cial Security, coordinating promotions, and some site development. PosHlon Involves a wide variety of taska and allows for a good deal of creativity. \ B.A. and at least two years of full-time experience In some combination of the following: Planning, Commercial Revitalization, Contrsct Management, Fundrslslng, Com- munity Organizing, Real Estate Development. Position re- quires a highly motivated, aggressive person with strong Interpersonal skills. Salary: $18,000 and possibility of In- centive compensation plan. Send resume to: Far Rockaway Revitalization Corp. 1931 Mott Ave., Rm. 316 Far Rockaway, NY 11691 Equal Employment Opportunity Employer 22 POSITION AVAILABLE Tenant Relations Specialist Description: To act as liaison between tenants in Community Management buildings and CHDC. Responsible for development of tenant associations to participate in decision making for management and repair planning, assist in the resolution of maintenance and repair complaints and eventually form self sufficient tenant cooperatives. Provide information on coop ownership and maintenance/management, and coordinate tenant training activities. Preparation of various written reports on actiyities and maintaining building meso Qualifications: 2 years community organizing or social service experience required. College degree or equivalent experience. Clinton resident preferred, bil- ingual Spanish and English desirable. Salary: S14,OOO per year. Send resumes to: CLINTON HOUSING DEVEWPMENT CO., INC. 6646 10th Avenue New York, NY 10036 Attention: Charles Abney POLICY ANALYST/ORGANIZER FULLTIME OPENING AT ANHD, A CITYWIDE ASSOCIATION OF 34 COMMUNITY ORGANIZATIONS WORKING FOR IMPROVED, AFFORDABLE HOUS- ING AND COMMUNITY EMPOWERMENT IN LOW AND MODERATE INCOME NEIGHBORHOODS. RESPONSIBILITIES: PUT "TOGETHER WORKSHOPS "TO EDUCATE COMMUNITY GROUPS ON HOUSING ISSUES, ANALYZE HOUSING PROBLEMS AND PRO- GRAMS, PROPOSE SOLUTIONS AND DEVELOP POLITICAL STRATEGIES. QUALIFICATIONS: STRONG WRITING AND POLICY ANALYSIS SKILLS, KNOWLEDGE OF NYC HOUSING PROGRAMS, EX- PERIENCE IN COMMUNITY OR COALITION ORGANIZING. SALARY: $20,000. EQUAL OPPOR- TUNITY/AFFIRMATIVE ACTION EMPLOYER. Send resume to: Executive Director Assoc. of Neighborhood Housing Deve/opers 424 W. 33 ST. New York, N.Y. 10001 A NYC Agency Is seeking qualified Indivi- duals to perform technical work In order- Ing and Inspecting repairs and alterations to City-owned residential buildings. SUPERVISORS OF BUILDINO MAINTENANCE (CONSTRUCTION): Order repairs, inspect work and ensure repairs are done according to specifications. salary: $24,155 Qualifications: (1) Six (6) years FTPE in construction repair, alteration and/or rehabilitation of mUl- tiple-dwelling, commerCial, Industrial or public buildings in capacity of general contractor, superintendent of construction, procurement specialist or evaluator responsible for cost estimation, field supervisor or as an inspector. A satisfactory equivalent combination of educa- tion and experience Is acceptable. However, all candidates must possess at least three (3) years of the required experience. REHABILITATION SPECIALISTS: Initiate and review rehabilitation of residential buildings. salary: $20,671 Qualifications: (1) Five (5) years FTPE experience as: journeyman (mason, carpenter, plaster, Iron worker or plumber), heating plant evaluator, building contractor, engineer, housing inspector, construction inspector, or construction esti- mator; or (2) Three (3) years experience above plus two (2) years education In college or Trade school In construction program or education towards BA or BS degree In Civil Engineering Architecture or related field; or (3) completion of five (5) years apprenticeship in building in- spection; or (4) satisfactory equivalent. QUALITY ASSURANCE SPECIALISTS (BUILDINO REPAIRS): Determine acceptability of minor building alterations and repairs as well as various supplies and materials to ensure compliance with purchase or contract specifications. salary: $18,688 Qualifications: (1) Four (4) years FTPE in inspection of building repairs or alterations; or supervision of maintenance men or skilled tradesmen (plumbers, electricians, etc) engaged in building repairs or alterations; or review of invoices to en- sure compliance or repair work with original specifications; or (2) BA degree plus one (1) year experience above; or (3) satisfactory equivalent. Candidates must be able to handle detailed paper work. City Residency Required Excellent Benefits Package Send Resume to: P.O. BOX 'We are an Equal opportunity Employer; MIP' 23 1984 Poster Calendar Alfl'lSTS in S4Iidarit\' with the It ..... of CEXTlt\L
The calendar that features 13 original works of art-winners of a national competition for posters in solidarity with the people of Central America. Unique combination of politics and art 13 StIrring images Full color reproduction 8% x 18Yz" calendar size. Only $6.91 plus handing. off on orden of 10 or more) Order one for yourself ... and several more for your friends. Just send In the coupon below. ------------- 1-9 e aI.ndCIIr .. I7.9I eac:h ($6.95 cover prtce plus 51 postage and handling). Iave.o% on 10 Of more, SUO ($4.20 each plus $.30 postage per cOendar.) Enclosed Is S for __ 1984 "ArtIsts In SolIdar- Ity wtth the People of Centra AmerIca" calendars postpaid. Name _________ _ Ma_ __ _______ __ ely State ______ _ ZIp-- Sen::! yo.s order TO: ArtIIIII a 1111,." Cal ..... 19 WIlt 211t ..... 2nd P100r .... York, No 10010 CITY LIMITS/November 1983 N E W Y O R K C I T Y ' S H O U S I N G C R I S I S : P R I V A T E D E V E L O P M E N T A N D P U B L I C N E E D A WORKING CONFERENCE ON THE ESTABLISHMENT OF INCLUSIONARY ZONING AND A HOUSING TRUST FOR AFFORDABLE HOUSING IN NEW YORK CITY - - - - _ . ' S ponsored by: Center for Metropolitan Action, and the Pratt Institute Center for Com- munity and Environmental Development. M on. D ec. 12, 1983 9: 00 a. m, -' 4: 30 p. m. 33 W est 42nd S treet C U N Y G raduate C enter N ew Y ork, N ew Y ork The idea of requiring some types of real estate proj ects to underwrite the costs of offsetting their environmental impacts or to contribute to a more balanced pattern of de- velopment within the City is not new. New York has led the nation in the use of innova- tive techniques (mainly zon- ing) to harness the potential of new development to provide directly or indirec~ly for a wide range of public amenities designed to serve the general welfare of the City 'and its inhabitants. Recently, however, public attention and debate has been focused on the Rousing Crisis and the use of this approach for the purpose of creating and preserving affordable housing through a citywide Housing Trust Fund. While the concept is relatively simple, the promulgation of any speci- fic mechanism inevitably arouses opposition from a variety of sources, many of which traditionally support lower income housing. The intent of this conference is to provide a forum in which all the actors in the develop- merit process, Neighborhood Housing Groups, Community Boards, Elected Officials, De- velopers, Lawyers, Planners, etc., can constructively dis- cuss and, perhaps, even agree on a positive approach to fos- tering more equitable develop- ment for all New Yorkers. FOR MORE INFO CALL 212/636-3527
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