In the Holiday Spirit ...

A
nother year gone-that makes 21 for City Limits. Our biggest coup this year?
1f you haven't noticed, the magazine and the City Limits Weekly fax and e-mail
bulletin have become top-shelf tip sheets for the city's papers and broadcasters.
Reporters from just about every major news organization in the city are using our
articles to find stories and sources ... not to mention headlines and lead paragraphs.
EDITORIAL
In the holiday spirit, we'll try to forgive them for not cred-
iting us when they borrow our stories. The important thing is
that the people and issues we cover-whether it's public hous-
ing or the city's water supply, child welfare or public sector
corruption-find places on the news pages of papers serving
millions rather than thousands of readers, and in television
and radio newsrooms. That's one way to make politicians feel
serious pressure. We're getting better at it.
Moreover, the Weekly has turned out to be the best tool
we' ve ever had for placing the concerns of low-income New Yorkers directly into the
hands of elected officials-{lnd for building bridges between neighborhood groups
and activists working for social and economic justice. (Yeah, we've had afew brutally
painful struggles with the technology, but it hasn't stopped us from getting the weekly
out every Monday morning.)
The Center for an Urban Future, our think tank spinoff, finished its first full year
with a packed morning conference on reforming the child welfare system, jointly pro-
duced with The New York Forum and the Child Welfare Fund. Commissioner
Nicholas Scoppetta of the city's Administration for Children's Services faced off with
parents,foster youth and our in-house experts, who called for a more inclusive com-
munity-focused system that protects children by working with troubled families-
rather than against them. The Center is also developing a comprehensive job creation
strategy, and we plan to be publishing reports and hosting a forum or two on the
topic during the winter and spring.
/'m extremely proud of all this great news about City Limits. The staff here--
including some who never show up on the masthead--<zre a tireless crew who deserve
tremendous credit for working harder and longer than anyone rightfUlly should.
City Limits continues to rely on subscribers, advertisers and foundation grants for
our financial health. But this is never enough. We are working hard to build a larger
base of individual donors who can help us grow and boost our power, our usefulness
and our visibility.
You can help: Send us a tax-deductible donation for the holidays. I guarantee
we'll put it to good use. Or buy a friend a gift subscription. Or at the very least, tell
everyone at your office who we are and why they should read us.
Thanks. And have a wondeiful New Yeat:
***
You'll notice Carl Vogel filling in as Managing Editor over the next few issues. He's
temporarily taken over Robin Epstein's slot. She's become a new mom--her daughter
Anzia Anderson is doing just great.
Andrew White
Editor
City Limits relies on the generous support of its readers and advertisers, as well as the following funders: The Robert Sterling Clark
Foundation, The Unitarian Universalist Veatch Program at Shelter Rock, The Edna McConnell Clark Foundation, The Joyce Mertz
Gilmore Foundation, The Scherman Foundation, The North Star Fund, J.P. Morgan & Co. Incorporated, The Booth Ferris Foundation,
The Annie E. Casey Foundation, The New York Foundation, The Taconic Foundation, M& T Bank, Citibank, and Chase Manhattan Bank.
Cover photo by Gregory P. Mango

(ity Limits
Volume XXII Number 10
City Limits is published ten times per year, monthly except
bimonthly issues in June/July and August/September, by
the City Limits Community Information Service. Inc .. a non
profit organization devoted to disseminating information
concerning neighborhood revitalization.
Editor: Andrew White
Senior Editors: Kim Nauer, Glenn Thrush
Managing Editor: Carl Vogel
Associate Editor: Kemba Johnson
Contributing Editor: James Bradley
Interns: Joe Gould, Jason Stipp
Design Direction: James Conrad, Paul V. Leone
Advertising Reps: John Ullmann, Faith Wiggins
Proofreader: Sandy Socolar
Photographers: Melissa Cooperman, Gregory P. Mango,
Mayita Mendez
Associate Director,
Center for an Urban Future: Neil Kleiman
Board of Directors*:
Eddie Bautista, New York Lawyers for
the Public Interest
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Shawn Dove, Rheedlen Centers
Francine Justa, Neighborhood Housing Services
Errol Louis
Rebecca Reich, LlSC
Andrew Reicher, UHAB
Tom Robbins. Journalist
Celia Irvine, ANHD
Pete Williams, National Urban League
"Affiliations for identification only.
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CITY LIMITS
i
'\
DECEMBER 1997
SPECIAL FEATURE: THE NYPD'S alc COP OUT
The Brutal Truth
The NYPD knows how to stop police violence: Screen out bad cadets, train
officers to respect their beats and identify bad cops before they kill. So why are
New York's finest failing to use the tools they have? By Chris Mitchell
Cops: A User's Guide ~
As the police department struggles with reform from the inside, community
groups have found innovative ways to deal with the police-and force the police
to deal with them. By Jason Stipp
Waiting for the Dough ~
One year after the NYPD promised to share the wealth from drug prosecutions,
New York locals haven't seen one blue cent. By Karen Winner
FEATURE
The Fire Next Time
A young, idealistic credit union founder from Central Brooklyn tried to
become Fort Greene's City Councilmember. He failed. But what he learned will be
valuable for the next crop of insurgents-the Class of 200 1. By Errol T. Louis
PROFILE
Harry's Heroes ~
Sixty years after the Parodneck Foundation made milk affordable for New York's
poor children, it now has the juice to help develop low-income tenant-run housing.
By Steve Wishnia
PIPELINES
A Plague on Their Housing ~
People with AIDS are living longer, often with complex mental health and
drug issues. While AIDS housing nonprofits are preparing for the influx, the city's
new AIDS housing push has stalled before it started. By Kemba Johnson
The Sister v. Big Brother ~
In creating a new computer system, the state proposes to upload sensitive
family case histories. A nun in Sunset Park leads one of the groups that says New York
shouldn't scare people away in their moment of need. By Carl Vogel
Reversal of Fortune
Last month we broke the story of a sweetheart deal for the financiers-and
tenants-of a notorious South Bronx housing project. Now HUD says all bets
are off. By Kim Nauer
Review
Newark's Lesson
Cityview
Twilight in the Garden
Spare Change
Rudy's Murky Future
Editorial
Letters
Briefs
COMMENTARY
DEPARTMENTS
2 Ammo
130
By linda Ocasio
132
By Jeff McMahon
'-1 3-s---
By Carl Vogel
33
4,34
5-7
Professional Directory 36
Job Ads 35, 37, 39
M

Harl.m T.mpest
LETTERS
A short while back we asked City
Limits to do a story on Harlem Restoration
Project's problems with HPD and its
removal of 15 buildings from our jurisdic-
tion. What it came up with ("A Hard Fall
in Harlem," October 1997] is a hostile pro-
fIle on me, which is so full of misstate-
ments of fact as to be ludicrous, not to
mention damaging to HRP. Here are some
of the more glaring errors, in the order
noted in the story.
ings we own, setting up a computer train-
ing program, and among other things, fol-
lowing up on plans initiated by Columbia
University graduate students to renovate
two buildings. Our board is working with
a group of outside advisors on resolving
some of our problems, looking towards a
bright future.
,M
City Limits says: Marie Runyon called
(slumlord Adonis] Morphesis a son of a
bitch in open court. Fact: Marie called him
a son of a bitch in New York magazine and
to his face when he challenged her in the
hallway of Housing Court.
City Limits says: [We had] a "budget in
the millions." Fact: Our highest budget
ever was $941,844.
City Limits says: (We planned] a
"90,000-square-foot (business] incubator."
Fact: Plans are for a 40,000-square-foot
incubator initially, 150,000 square feet
eventually.
City Limits: ''The board split...threat-
ened HRP's very existence." Fact: HRP is
very much alive, dealing with the dozens
of individuals who come to us with their
housing problems, managing four build-
City Limits: "(HRP] eventually (won]
7a appointments." Fact: Marie Runyon was
first appointed a 7a administrator in 1976.
City Limits: "(HRP's] annual budget
increased tenfold between 1991 and
1994." Fact: Our budget has never even
doubled, let alone increased tenfold.
City Limits: "(She] insisted we make
carbon copies ... the cost of Xeroxing was
too high." Fact: Yes. When every penny
mattered, 10 cents a copy was too much
when carbons could be done for virtually
nothing. HRP has always tried to stretch
every dollar. This is one reason it has
become a force for housing in Harlem.
City Limits: "A computer would have
helped." Fact: The person making this
statement was in an office with a comput-
er, fax and typewriters.
City Limits: "(A] consultant recom-
mended (and the] board fired Runyon in
'94." Fact: Runyon resigned in March '94.
This will never be known because the min-
When the bough breaks ...
Child care is a vital service needed by many thousands of
New York families.
To help make sure that child care services are available to
families who need them, Lawyers Alliance provides free
and low cost legal services to public and privately funded
child care service organizations. We also publish important
guides that explain the laws and regulations that affect
child care providers.
To find out more about Lawyers Alliance's services and
publications specifically designed to help child care
providers, call us at 212-219-1800.
99 Hudson Street
New York, NY 10013
212219-1800
Lawyers Alliance
for New York
Building a Better New York
utes of that meeting are not to be found in
the HRP fIles.
City Limits: "Two fiscal officers went
in a year .. .independent auditor hired by the
board ... sloppy management." Fact: There
was one Chief Fiscal Officer in all of 1995,
another for most of 1996. It is correct to
say that neither did a very good job with
the complex HPD and other agency report-
ing requirements. We don't know who the
"independent auditor" was. The board
never hired such a person.
City Limits: "(The board] asked
Runyon to step down ... (and] barred her
from the premises. Fact: Runyon was
never notified that she had been fired by a
non-quorum Board meeting and was never
barred from the office. But (her replace-
ment Elvin Montgomery] was fired at a
meeting with the quorum present.
City Limits: "a scorching 15-page
memo by Montgomery." Fact: It was
indeed a scorching attack on Runyon, with
dozens of charges impugning her honesty
with never a specific shred of evidence. It
was widely circulated to agencies and
funding sources and obviously was of
interest especially to those agencies which
Runyon has challenged over the years
when she thought their actions were anti-
poor, discriminatory or anti-decent hous-
ing.
City Limits: "She fIled a lawsuit." Fact:
HRP is suing HPD for breach of contract.
We would of course like an immediate
retraction of this story with all on the sub-
scription list notified, as well as the long
list of funders of City Limits.
Marie Runyon
Executive Director
Harlem Restoration Project
The editors reply: We stand by the
story with no reservations. Based on our
reporting, it is clear that management
problems and dissension within the ranks
of HRP jeopardized the future of the orga-
nization. This was the point of the article.
City Limits took no side in the battle but
clearly explained how Runyon s opponents
violated the organization s by-laws.
Runyon circulated the above letter
widely but never sent a copy to City
Limits. We obtained it from colleagues at
other organizations. Even so, we continue
to have immense respect for Marie
Runyon and the work she has done for
Harlem tenants despite her attack on us.
The City Limits article in no way
impugned her character nor did it present
a "hostile profile" of her. In addition, we
have never suggested that HRP cannot
(continued on page 34)
CITY LIMITS
I
r:
\
L
Civing
Diner's Club
G
inger and Jeff Worden were hav-
ing trouble finding someone they
could help on a Friday night nine
years ago. They had driven to
lower Manhattan to distribute
homemade dinners to some of the homeless
people they passed each day commuting from
their home in Summit, N. J., to jobs in the
Wall Street area.
But the street people that seemed to be
everywhere in the daytime were nowhere to be
found. After driving around for two hours they
spotted someone at the base of the Brooklyn
Bridge. "Would you like a sandwich?" Jeff
called to one end of the mound of newspapers.
"How about some soup?"
Two hands pulled back the papers, revealing a
sleepy and very startled face. "That'd be nice,"
DECEMBER 1997
said the face. "Which? Sandwich or soup or cof-
fee?" Ginger asked, a little startled herself.
"Everything," he said with a grin, "if that's okay."
These days, the Wordens have little trouble
finding homeless New Yorkers. Every Friday
since that first night, Bridges-the organization
they founded-has guided hundreds of volun-
teers to Manhattan's streets with donations of
food and clothes. "Bridges literally saved my
life," says Michael, who lived on the streets for
three years and now is on the board of directors
of the nonprofit, which is based at Christ
Church in Summit. "From the beginning the
homeless themselves have been involved with
Bridges," Jeff Worden says. "This is a coopera-
ti ve effor!."
On a damp and chilly autumn Friday night, a
caravan of cars, a van full of helpers and a truck
packed with supplies drives up to a dimly lit and
seemingly abandoned street corner. The few
people waiting are suddenly joined by 50 or
more others. Workers start passing out food and
take orders for clothes, blankets and boxes of
toiletries.
The crew includes high school students, who
mingle among the homeless exchanging names
and listening to stories. One man talks about liv-
ing under the Brooklyn Bridge for a while. "Just
like having a home of our own. But then they
started cleaning up the place cemented up the
openings, planted trees and bushes, and put park
benches around for the office workers to sit on,"
he says softly. "It looks nice. They did a good
job. Only on weekends are we allowed to sleep
under that building. Duril!.& the week we gotta
go somewhere else."
Francis rolls down the back of the empty
truck, banging the lock into place for the drive
back to New Jersey. The group knows they
haven' t solved the homeless problem. But they
did do something, made a connection and gave
a hand that made somene's day a little better.
- Helen M. Stummer
w
/
Briem .......... ------.......... --------------
s
Evictions
" . .&
A City Marshal
an eviction notice to .
Sherry Smith's cleaned- 0 .
out apartment.
New Marshal Plan Flops
T
he new City Marshals' Handbook has 14 additional sections stressing courtesy, pro-
fessionalism and respect. But the changes haven't done much to clarify a confusing
and terrifying process. Ask Sherry Smith.
When Marshal Danny Weinheim came to issue Smith a dispossession order last
month, she charges he yanked her phone from the wall and the movers crushed her
antique ceramic dolls. "There was broken glass shattered everywhere. I don't know how they
took down the paintings, but they were torn to shreds," says Smith, standing in her newly bar-
ren Gramercy park studio. Her belongings were moved to a storage facility in the Bronx.
The City Marshal's Handbook-the guide on how the 53 city-appointed private contractors carry
out dispossessions and evictions-has been updated to make the eviction teams more accommodat-
ing to tenants. But the guide didn't help Smith identify the procession of men who tramped into her
apartment, handed her papers, changed her locks and took her things away. In Smith's case, she
should have been made aware that she had two additional days to move her things out. Instead she
was unprepared when movers-who were apparently hired by her landlord-jumped the gun and
began trashing her place.
The Marshals are quasi-governmental law enforcement agents appointed by the Mayor-
though Ed Koch was the last to name a new one. It isn't clear if the Giuliani administration
intends to hire new marshals to accommodate the expected surge in evictions that may result from
new landlord-friendly Housing Court laws. Either way, it's no money out of the city's pocket:
Rates are typically paid by the creditor. An eviction like Sherry Smith's nets them about $100.
A spokesman at the city Department of Investigations says Weinheim-who was scheduled to
return November 25 to evict Smith-fulfIlled his obligations by delivering the order and leaving.
"The Marshals job is to execute the warrant, and deliver possession of the apartment to the land-
lord," says the DOl's Kevin Ryan. And DOl has no plans to sanction the landlord, even though he
had no apparent right to touch Smith's belongings. Whatever happened in the apartment, Ryan
adds, was "gray area." As for Sherry Smith, the Community Service Society says it will pay for
her fIve-day stay at a local YWCA. After that, she's on her own. -Joe Gould
Housing Court
Stay of
Evictions
L
andlords love the new
anti-tenant Housing
Court law, but at least
one Staten Island judge
has ordered its eviction
from his courtroom.
On November 10, Judge Philip
Straniere ruled the law's attempt to
fast track evictions was unconstitu-
tional. The decision has no legal
implications beyond Staten Island,
but the ruling could give judges
precedent to avoid enforcing a pro-
vision that limits tenant appeals to
eviction orders.
Judge Straniere took issue with a
controversial provision requiring
judges to order the eviction of ten-
ants five days after they fail to
deposit current rent payments in a
court-monitored escrow account.
Landlord lobbying groups pushed
hard for the adoption of both the fIve-day and
rent-deposit provisions. Tenant lawyers estimate
that judges will be forced to order 25,000 new
evictions in 1998 alone if the law is strictly
enforced.
"[T]he tenant is entitled to the stay of evic-
tion .... Not to do so would violate the due process
clause," Straniere argued in his decision to grant a
stay in the eviction of a woman who owed
$388.30 to her landlord. "The new statute," he
added, "is not enforceable."
It is unlikely the landlord's lawyers will
appeal the decision because the woman paid her
overdue amount shortly after Straniere's deci-
sion, Legal Aid lawyers told City Limits.
"The fact that this comes from the most
Republican-dominated and conservative court is
very good," says Scott Sommer, a tenant lawyer
who has briefed judges on the implications of the
new law. "I don't think the landlords would be
expecting this decision .. .I'm hoping it's going to
inspire other judges to do the same."
At press time, Legal Aid lawyers and tenants
groups were drafting a constitutional challenge
to the law, which was part of the June compro-
mise that saved rent regulations in Albany.
Ironically, the lawsuit was being held up because
no judge had yet issued an order for a rent
deposit as of late November.
Calls to the Rent Stabilization Association,
the largest landlord trade organization, were not
returned. -Glenn Thrush
CITY LIMITS
\
...... ----------.. ----------------.. Briem
"".AND YOU m.A GREEDY KID, ASKING FOR AlL THAT RIGHT AFTER AN ELECTION YEAR"
Juvenile Justice
Spofford
Shutdown a
Hard Cell
T
he Giuliani administration vowed to
shut down the notoriously antiquat-
ed Spofford juvenile jail this spring
when two new state-of-the-art
detention facilities open for busi-
ness. But City Limits has learned that the ram-
shackle Bronx lock-up will retain 60 beds to
accommodate overflow of juvenile offenders
from city courts.
"Our goal has always been to close Spofford
completely, but the two new jails don't have
capacity for the number of kids we get during
the peak periods," says Sarina Roffe, a spokes-
woman for the city's Department of Juvenile
Justice. "We'll use it in a limited capacity, on an
as-needed basis .... We've got to put the kids
someplace."
Spofford currently has space for 289 juvenile
offenders, although it routinely houses more
than 300 at any given time. Spofford has bad
DECEMBER 1997
heating, no central air conditioning and a blind-
corridor design that critics believe contributes to
its sometimes violent atmosphere. The two new
centers, which will open early next year in the
South Bronx and Brownsville, Brooklyn, each
have only 124 beds-leaving the system short
by more than 50 beds during its busiest periods.
To reduce the number of overflow prisoners,
DJJ will try to increase capacity at its non-deten-
tion facilities from about 75 to 136.
Still, advocates point to a broken pledge.
"They definitely indicated that those two
buildings were supposed to replace Spofford.
To me, that was a promise," says Kim
McGillicuddy of Youth Force, a South Bronx-
based organization.
While the condition of the 40-year-old
facility is alarming, advocates are also con-
cerned that the use of Spofford means judges
Health
will feel more free to send young offenders to
the lock-up. And that could mean fewer kids
will win placements in the alternative-to-con-
finement programs the city has committed to
phase in. "The concern is that if they have the
beds, they'll figure out a way to use them,"
says Darlene Jorif of the Correctional
Association of New York, a criminal justice
reform group.
Roffe denies that Spofford's reprieve is part
of a long-term incarceration strategy. "We are
looking at other options [to Spofford]," she
says. "Right now we don't have a clear plan.
We're just looking into all of our options."
Those options, Roffe says, include the potential
use of modular additions to the new facilities
and increasing the number of juveniles referred
to alternative incarnation programs from 100 to
250 over the next year. -Glenn Thrush
KIDS NEED CARE
T
he era of Medicaid managed care promises
huge new pitfalls for children suffering from mental illness and emotional disturbances, accord-
ing to a report issued last month by a broad new coalition of 45 mental health care providers
and advocates. The state will soon move almost all of its Medicaid-enrolled children into managed care
plans. The Children's Mental Health Alliance for New York City cautions the state against adopting a stan-
dard model of managed care, which could prove destructive to troubled children. For a copy of the report,
call: 212-673-1800, ext. 18.

Harry's Heroes
J The 1990s Parodneck Foundation carries on the legacy of the
PIPELINE i Depression-era Consumer-Farmer Co-op, making low-income
_._ww...l' New Yorkers masters of their fate. By Steven Wishnia
The Parodneck
Foundation is
celebrating its 60th
anniversary this
year. Program
Director Carlton
Collier (left) and
President Harry
DeRienzo stand
outside 234
Bradhurst Avenue,
a Harlem building
the foundation
helped rehab.
I
t' s probably a safe bet few of the
tenants at 234 Bradhurst Avenue in
Harlem know that the heritage of
their new, improved apartment
building includes a Depression-era
scheme to make milk more affordable.
The building, abandoned by its landlord
in the late 1980s, has been rewired and re-
piped, secured and converted into a com-
fortable home for 25 tenants who now have
control over the building's management
and a voice in choosing who else gets to
move in. The change is due in large part to
the support provided by Community
Assisted Tenant-Controlled Housing
(CATCH), a program of the Parodneck
Foundation for Self-Help Housing and
Community Development. Today, the
foundation-which raises money to chan-
nel into programs based in its Sixth Avenue
offices-is celebrating six decades orga-
nizing low-income New Yorkers.
At 234 Bradhurst, CATCH helped ten-
ants set up an escrow account for repairs
and taught them how to deal with man-
agers and contractors. "We pick who's
going to manage our building, who our
supers are. We decide who lives next door
to us," says Marie Saunders, a part-time
home-care worker and mother of five who
helped create the co-op. "The tenants par-
ticipate in what happens in this building.
CATCH gave us a chance to do that."
The Parodneck Foundation was founded
in 1937 by Meyer Parodneck, a real estate
attorney and settlement house activist who
was angry about price-gouging by the
region's milk monopoly. Thanks to the
greed of a few businessmen, poor urban
families in the depths of the Depression
could barely afford the milk they needed for
their children. Working with a doctor study-
ing nutrition and the head of the dairy farm-
ers' union, Parodneck founded the
Consumer-Farmer Milk Co-op to circum-
vent the monopoly. It bought its own milk
wholesale and sold it for as little as four
cents a quart in city neighborhoods.
Parodneck's cooperative eventually grew
into a $6 million a year business.
By the late 1960s, the milk co-op had
finished its work, says Harry DeRienzo,
who has been with the foundation since
1982 and its president since 1994. The
monopoly was long gone, and it had
become increasingly difficult to run the
dairy business successfully in the chang-
ing postwar market.
During the same period, a wave ofland-
lord abandonment and arson began to
sweep over the city's poorest neighbor-
hoods. Meyer Parodneck was intrigued by
the scores of tenants who pulled together to
keep their apartment buildings habitable-
and clear of the city wrecking ball--even
after the owners had walked away. In their
strength and commitment he saw the same
values of self-help, mutual aid and cooper-
ation that had inspired the milk co-op.
In 1970, Parodneck and his colleagues
sold the milk business and renamed the
organization the Consumer-Farmer
Foundation. (It was renamed the Parodneck
Foundation in 1993, a year before Meyer
Parodneck's death.) Over the last 27 years,
the foundation has helped organize and
arrange financing for more than 45,000 units
of housing, supporting everything from the
sweat-equity and urban-homesteading deals
of the 1970s to the complex Low Income
Housing Tax Credit schemes of today.
Original Vision
CATCH is only one of several housing
preservation programs administered at the
foundation. There is the Senior Citizen
Homeowner Assistance Program, which
provides loans for repairs and to prevent
foreclosures. There's a support group for
low-income, limited equity tenant cooper-
atives. And the Task Force on City-Owned
Property has produced important research
reports on the state of the city-owned, tax-
foreclosed housing stock. The foundation
also co-sponsors a citywide mutual hous-
ing association and is heavily involved in
city planning efforts in the South Bronx.
But the work of CATCH remains clos-
est to Meyer Parodneck's original vision.
Since its inception in 1993, CATCH has
helped tenants begin reclaiming about 550
apartment units in Central Harlem, Crown
Heights and Washington Heights in build-
ings that were abandoned or in danger of
being abandoned. One of its success sto-
ries is Balfour Court, three Crown Heights
buildings abandoned in the early I 990s.
By the time CATCH acquired the build-
ings through bankruptcy court, the tenants
had gone through months without heat or
hot water, and the halls were frequented by
crack dealers, prostitutes and people sell-
ing stolen goods.
The three buildings are now complete-
ly renovated, financed by CATCH and a
for-profit landlord. The drug dealers aren't
all gone-the men in hooded sweatshirts
out front on a recent Monday morning
"aren't waiting for the bus," says CATCH
program director Carlton Collier. But
Wanda Ayala, a tenant leader who was
once wounded by stray bullets while try-
ing to close her window during a sidewalk
shoot-out, says she feels "one hundred per-
cent secure inside."
A similar process is just beginning at
377 Edgecombe Avenue, which overlooks
Colonial Park in northern Harlem.
CATCH obtained a $350,000 grant for
repairs on the 15-unit building, but there's
a lot of work to be done. Organizers say
that only two of the tenants pay rent, and
maybe six are free of the drug trade.
Bernard Waters, a slight 62-year-old who
lives on the top floor with his orange cat,
describes many of the tenants as hangers-
on and delinquents. But he has been will-
ing to remain. "I knew darn well that I
CITY LIMITS
/
needed a place to stay," he says.
"It's no different from any building
we've ever taken control of. In fact, it's
better than some," says Collier, a former
union organizer who was introduced to
housing when he joined Banana Kelly, a
community development corporation in
the South Bronx.
But the climate for this kind of self-
help housing has gotten much harsher over
the last two decades, DeRienzo says. Like
Collier, he also cut his teeth organizing for
Banana Kelly. It was one of DeRienzo's
fIrst jobs, back in the 1970s. He recalls that
people on the block brought him food as
he and his colleagues worked. He doesn't
think that would happen now. The social
networks that encourage organizing have
eroded, he says, and people are poorer,
more desperate, and less united by a com-
mon enemy.
S.lf-H.lp Housing
In addition, self-help housing fell out
of vogue in the 1980s as community hous-
ing groups became less grassroots and
more professional. Although DeRienzo
concedes this was often a necessary step to
get to funding, he says many housing
groups are now more accountable to out-
side funding sources than they are to local
residents, having evolved from "agents of
social transformation to managers of the
ongoing crisis."
The Parodneck Foundation's programs
have not been immune to these pressures.
"All the income supports for low-income
housing are being removed," DeRienzo
says. With cuts in federal Section 8 rent
subsidies and welfare spending, CATCH
has had to rent out vacant one-bedroom
apartments in places like Balfour Court for
as much as $500 a month in order to keep
the projects solvent. Such rents are well out
of reach of many residents in neighbor-
hoods such as Harlem and Crown Heights
and essentially exclude welfare recipients
or low-wage workers. "It's so sickening,"
Collier says angrily.
Parodneck's staff expects that the city's
low-income housing crisis will only con-
tinue to worsen. In the meantime,
DeRienzo and his colleagues are looking
for small victories to tum back the forces
isolating and depoliticizing low-income
people. "I believe in small, incremental
changes and disrupting destructive dynam-
ics," DeRienzo says. "I'm not that much of
a visionary. But I do know that's what we
have to be working for."
Steven Wishnia is a frequent contributor
to City Limits.
DECEMBER 1997
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CITlBAN(O
, -:: ,<,
TH E C I TI NEVE R SLEE P S
e
-
B
Gerald Dupree has
found AIDS sup-
portive housing in a
time when longer
lives and drug and
mental health
issues strain the
system.
hM
A Plague on
Their Housing
Nowadays, people with AIDS are living longer-but where?
The city doesn't have a prescription. By Kemba Johnson
U
nsure how many years lie
ahead of him, Gerald Dupree
reflects on the past 36, from
his 15 years as a fabric buyer
on Fashion Avenue to his last
eight weeks in an AIDS residence on
Broadway-and insists that these last
weeks have been his happiest.
Outside the Narragansett Hotel, an
SRO that houses 60 people with AIDS,
neighbors jog by in the early morning. It's
a pleasant change from the streets near the
transitional home Dupree just left. On
those blocks, dealers sell the drugs that
have haunted him since he was 11 years
old. Inside the Upper West Side building,
staff provide him with nutrition, recreation
and counseling to keep his year-long sobri-
ety on track and his manic-depression in
check.
Here he can concentrate on becoming
his mother's son once again. "My mother
didn't raise me to be a heroin addict, to
smoke crack and sniff cocaine," he says.
"This is as happy as I've been in 36 years
because I'm sober. If I have a problem, I
have lots of people to help me."
Dupree represents the current face of
AIDS: increasingly poor and of color with
mental illness or a history of substance
abuse-and now, in light of medical break-
throughs, living longer despite HIV infec-
tion. To prolong his life, Dupree swallows
12 pills a day, mostly the protease
inhibitors that within the last 18 months
have given the AIDS community real hope
for better health and long-term survival.
For most nonprofit groups housing
homeless people with AIDS, these longer
life expectancies have ushered in a new
supportive housing era, redefining their
apartment blocks and rooming houses as
places where life begins anew-not where
it ends. But this redefinition is taking place
within an overburdened AIDS housing
infrastructure. Currently, the city has about
910 units of supportive "congregate"
housing-mostly nonprofit group homes
with social services such as case manage-
ment, counseling, nutrition, recreation
and, in some cases, health care. There are
another 1,930 "scattered site" apartments
rented from private landlords with city
funds, where tenants also receive services.
For the more than 1,650 people with AIDS
who cannot be accommodated in this sys-
tem, the city budgeted $19.8 million this
year-half of it from the state-on rooms
in commercial SROs.
"The emphasis was, 'People are
dying,'" explains Maureen Friar, execu-
tive director of the Supportive Housing
Network of New York. "That has been
changing in part due to medicines, in part
due to nutrition. There's a need for contin-
uous housing and supportive services that
are appropriate."
Yet while housing providers foresee
serving more people with AIDS for longer
periods of time, the city's efforts to jump-
start AIDS housing development have fall-
en woefully behind due to poor agency
coordination and insufficient funding for
supportive housing operations. As a result,
the terrain is becoming increasingly com-
plex, even for longtime housing profes-
sionals.
Dttspttratttly Dttpttndttnt
For congregate housing, where tenants
generally need more attention than at scat-
tered-site programs, funding for operations
is a Holy Grail-an elusive prize without
which a development is doomed. "As a
developer you have to get your develop-
ment funding and hope the general operat-
ing funds will be available," explains
Debbie Widerkehr, former director of real
estate development at Housing and Services
Inc., which manages the Narragansett. "It's
like cooking a meal and hoping all the food
will be warm at the same time."
Therefore, most congregate AIDS hous-
ing providers are desperately dependent on
government money-the few funding
CITYW .. ITS
streams able to handle the typical $20,000
to $30,000 annual tag per resident.
Although federal money for housing devel-
opment is plentiful, the city's failure during
the last three years to provide long-term
operational funding has left millions of
such dollars unspent.
Until this year, the city Human
Resources Administration just didn't have
the money to issue a Request for Proposals
for congregate permanent housing operat-
ing contracts, city officials say. "Our
Office of Management and Budget allows
us to offer RFPs only when there's money
to fund the project. That basically has pre-
vented us from offering a permanent con-
gregate housing contract for almost two
years," said John Dereszewski, director of
contracts for HRA's Division of AIDS
Services and Income Support (OASIS), at
a conference in late November.
Quite simply, explains Scott Turner, the
city's Housing Opportunities for Persons
With AIDS (HOPWA) administrator, ''The
projects haven't gone forward because
HRA hadn't issued RFPs."
Meanwhile, the federal Department of
Housing and Urban Development, which
gives the city millions of dollars annually
through the HOPWA program, had man-
dated, until recently, that nonprofits could-
n 't access development cash until they gar-
nered 10 years of operating money.
Thus, until three months ago, $32.6
million in HOPWA development money
from 1994 and 1995 had been sitting in
Department of Housing Preservation and
Development coffers. In September, the
city finally whittled its remaining $14.1
million 1994 HOPWA funds down to zero.
However, another $18.5 million from the
1995 budget has yet to be spent.
One problem had been that when HPD
funds a development project, HRA does
not automatically offer operating funds.
At Turner and the advocates' urging, the
two city agencies recently agreed to better
coordinate their funding. And by reducing
payments to commercial SRO owners by
$1.5 million, HRA freed up money to issue
a new RFP for operating funds in perma-
nent congregate housing this summer.
Maintaining the Regimen
Despite this streamlining, the city still
faces a tremendous backlog. Officials have
repeatedly underestimated the number of
people with AIDS needing help from
OASIS each year. Last spring, the city pro-
jected a caseload of 18,914 for June 1998-
but the current caseload already tops 20,300.
And as the caseload increases, so does the
need for housing. About 25 percent of new
DECEMBER 1997
Providers say their clients need stable housing,
counseling and other ongoing support.
OASIS clients are either homeles or inade-
quately housed, according to city officials.
And AIDS experts agree that a longer
life expectancy means more people need
more housing for longer periods of time.
Even though protease inhibitors may pro-
long life, the drugs require that users adhere
to an exact dosage timetable. Studies have
found that people with mental disabilities or
drug problems are less likely to take their
medication properly. Therefore, providers
say, their clients need stable housing and, in
many cases, counseling and other ongoing
support.
"If you have a chaotic lifestyle and
have no home, it's hard to maintain the
regimen," explains Donald P.
Chamberlain, associate director of AIDS
Housing of Washington, which builds sup-
portive housing in Seattle and organizes a
national AIDS housing conference. "And
fewer people of color, low-income, home-
less are going to be successful without
more help in getting supportive services
with housing."
But with past funding missteps, the
AIDS supportive housing plan the city cre-
ated three years ago has limped out of the
starting gate.
In its 1995 Consolidated Plan, a five-
year analysis of how the city should spend
federal grants, the city planned to add
more than 2,000 units of supportive hous-
ing by 1996, for a total of 3,650 units. And
although officials predicted they would
need at least another 3,300 units of AIDS
housing by June 1997, today there are only
2,800 congregate and scattered site units.
Similarly, HPD planned to develop 170
units of housing using 1996 HOPWA
money, but fell 83 units short. HRA's plan
to support 170 units of transitional housing
with operating funds fell 64 units short.
"In a city with such a desperate need for
housing, particularly AIDS housing, the
underspending in AIDS-dedicated funding
streams is a tragedy," says Gina
Quattrochi, executive director of Bailey
House-which created the city' s first
AIDS congregate residence in 1983. ''The
government should spend these funds in a
timely and appropriate manner."
The city's executive budget for fiscal
year 1998 projects only 180 more units of
new congregate housing by next June.
Even so, officials say the city intends to be
prepared for the future. "[Longer life
expectancies] create a challenge to meet
the need of services and AIDS housing,"
says Ron Johnson, the city's AIDS policy
coordinator. "We are reviewing the avail-
ability of AIDS housing and speeding up
the development of units."
More Creative
In the meantime, nonprofit organiza-
tions are becoming more creative in sus-
taining their clients' incomes while diver-
sifying their own funding. Increasingly,
they are looking to job training. At Bailey
House, a two-year-old program provides
residents with technical skills and job
experience in addition to GED and college
classes. It recently won $700,000 from
HUD to go national with sites in Albany,
Chicago, Los Angeles and elsewhere.
Housing providers also predict a greater
"need for so-called mixed residences, like
the Narragansett where 60 of the 100 ten-
ants have AIDS and the remaining 40 are
low-income, rent-stabilized residents. Here
tenants with AIDS feel less isolated from
the rest of society-and additional rents
help sustain the supportive housing pro-
gram.
Providers and advocates have even
begun to tap more Medicaid funding by
linking their housing developments with
medical centers and clinics. And they may
start sharing duplicative tasks, such as
accounting. Along the way, the groups can
latch onto relatively sparse private fund-
ing, like this year's NYC AIDS Fund, a
pool of 15 funders awarding $300,000
total this month to about four AIDS hous-
ing programs.
Even though the city increases the
OASIS budget each year, many providers
wonder if funding will increase at a rate to
cover everyone. "If there was affordable
housing and subsidized housing, it would
take some of the pressure off," says David
Terrio, owner of Burchman Terrio Urban
Consultants, a housing planning firm for
community groups.
As for Dupree, he knows that AIDS has
stolen years from him-but he is grateful he
at least lives where staffers have gone out of
their way to make these days his happiest.
"The epidemic is not getting better,"
Dupree says. ''There's a lot of hope with
these drugs. All it does is prolong your life.
There's no cure. There's not even a vacci-
nation. They need more places like this."

_I

PIPEliNE
f
a
The Sister v. Big Brother
1 Nonprofits that help troubled families steer clear of the child welfare system say the state S
i new family services computer network poses privacy problems. By Carl Vogel
i
S
ister Mary Paul Janchill is wor-
ried-you can hear it in the tone
of her voice. She doesn't want to
defy the government agencies
that help fund the Center for
Family Life, the nonprofit family services
agency she runs in Brooklyn's Sunset Park.
But she is even less willing
to do what they're asking:
load sensitive personal
information about
some of her clients
into a new statewide
computer system.
And so Sister
Mary Paul-and
other administrators
of local social service
agencies across the
city-wait and hope
they can reach an
acceptable agree-
ment with the city
before the computers
are up and running. If
they can't, they have
to decide whether
they' ll ignore the
government ' s
demands-and pos-
sibly pay the conse-
quences. They cer-
tainly would end up
back in court, where
this issue has been
decided before.
The issue is priva-
cy for parents who vol-
untari1y seek help from
neighborhood social ser-
vice agencies. "These are peo-
ple who have never even been sus-
pected of child maltreatment," says
Michael Arsham, director of social service
policy at the Council of Family and Child
Care Agencies, a coalition of child welfare
nonprofits. 'They're coming forward and
saying, 'I haven't hit my children, but I'm
very close .... Can you help me?'"
In fiscal year 1997, more than 15,000
farni1ies voluntari1y sought and received
such services-counseling, drug rehab,
child care-from some 78 nonprofits that
have contracts with the city's
Administration for Children's Services.
Usually, these programs succeed in keeping
families together and preventing abuse or
neglect. According to a United Way study
released last year, only a tiny fraction-less
than 1 percent-of families that participate
in preventive programs lose their children
to foster care.
But advocates predict far fewer people
will stick around for help once they learn
that information about their family troubles
will be uploaded onto the computer system,
dubbed CONNECTIONS, which reported-
ly will be running by February. "Surely
when a family comes in voluntari1y and
signs up for counseling to avoid difficulties
at home, we believe they should have pro-
tection," Sister Mary Paul says. "My
biggest concern is, if one doesn't provide
that kind of protection, the children will be
at risk."
Rights are Protected
Child welfare advocates thought the
issue had been decided long ago. In 1982,
Sister Mary Paul's organization
was one of 13 agencies that
took the State of New York
to court over paperwork-
filing requirements for
preventive services.
They won that case, and
since then nothing but
basic demographic
information about vol-
untary clients has
been allowed to leave
each agency's offices.
Other than agency
staff, the only people
with access to
detailed case notes
are ACS supervisors,
who periodically
examine the ftles to
make sure contractu-
al requirements are
met and children are
fully protected.
It's a setup family
advocates say works:
Clients feel their
rights are protected
while ACS and the
New York State
Department of Social
Services can still mon-
~ itor the programs and
V release the informa-
tion systemwide if a
report of abuse or neglect is
found against a parent.
However, the city has put a high priori-
ty on making sense of its dysfunctional
computer systems. For years, ACS has
relied on 26 separate computer systems,
each unable to communicate with the oth-
ers. Many case ftles have been kept only on
paper. As a result, important information
known to a city or nonprofit worker some-
times remained hidden-when it could
have been used to protect a child.
CITY LIMITS

So when the federal government
demanded that every state establish an auto-
mated child welfare computer system- and
provided New York State with most of the
$160 million needed to see that it happens
here--{)fficials set out to streamline their
antiquated technology and build a thor-
oughly integrated system.
Now, the city wants the same data
logged online about voluntary preventive
service clients as for parents who are
required to get help by ACS and Family
Court.
"We're talking about very sensitive
information like HIV status, incest, chemi-
cal dependency," Arsham explains. He says
the agencies are willing to provide clients'
names, addresses, race and a basic summa-
ry of the services they received-but they
don't want to tum over actual case assess-
ments and progress notes. "Once the infor-
mation has been transmitted, they can't say
with any authority 'Who will see it," he says.
"In the future there could be interstate sys-
tems; they could cross-check the informa-
tion with income maintenance-it's too
open-ended."
"We feel anytime someone is asked to
give very, very private information about
themselves and their life and their family,
knowing that it will be stored on a statewide
computer system for thirty years, it will
have a chilling effect," says Norma Martin,
the assistant executive director at the
Brooklyn Bureau of Community Service,
which runs two ACS-funded preventive
service programs.
Avoiding Litigation
The state has left the city and the non-
profits to negotiate an agreement. ACS and
agency representatives met to talk about the
issue, but participants say the sides were
talking past each other. ''They would say to
us the line computer companies use, which
is that computer records are safer than paper
records, which is baloney," says Susan
Schwaiger, an attorney at Shearman &
Sterling, the law firm representing the non-
profit agencies.
For months the agencies heard nothing
and tried to remain optimistic. In mid-
October, more than 200 nonprofit represen-
tatives filled the basement of the Salvation
Army on 14th Street to hear more about
CONNECTIONS, but there was no discus-
sion of legal matters, no debate about sys-
tem design issues.
The latest word from the city is an
October 28 letter from ACS General
Counsel Gerald Harris to Schwaiger and the
plaintiffs from the 1982 lawsuit. "We were
hopeful that the discussions would result in
DECEMBER 1997
a modification of the settlement agreement
reached 15 years ago," he wrote. "Presently,
supervision by high-level ACS manage-
ment is frustrated because important case
information is only available at the sites .... I
urge a further serious attempt to bridge our
differences and avoid a new round of litiga-
tion."
Schwaiger says she and the advocates
are unable to determine how much ACS is
willing to bend. "We're going to talk
amongst ourselves, and then we need to get
clarification," she says. ACS spokesperson
Maggie Lear says she cannot comment on
the matter to City Limits as long as officials
are engaged in discussions with the advo-
cates.
Sister Mary Paul and other nonprofit
exec uti ves say they hope to avoid litigation
also-and she admits to being nervous
about how this might affect her funding.
Arsham says a majority of the agencies pro-
viding voluntary preventive services have
signed a pledge that says they will respect
the advocates' 1982 settlement.
For Schwaiger, it's more than just a
question of whether families will get the
help they need. It's also about civil liberties
and what information government can
demand from its citizens.
"We're in a world of computers and
highly sensitive data, and this may be just
family services, but it has implications for
every citizen," she says. "If you think, 'Oh,
something like this could never affect me,'
think again."
Technically Speaking
The people who will use CONNECTIONS like the idea of a new computer network to replace an
antiquated, paper-dominated system. But they're not sure how well this one's going to do the job.
"We totally support CONNECTIONS in concept. It's about time we track children in a way
that is reliable and has data to base policy on," says COFCCA's Michael Arsham. "But the
workflows they're proposing are incredibly cumbersome. It's not a user-friendly system. It's
counterintuitive. "
Since summer, city and state child welfare workers have been using CONNECTIONS Release 3,
which produces reports, case infonnation and documentation for Child Protective Services, the
division that investigates charges of abuse and neglect and removes children for placement in
foster care. Release 4-which will include foster care and preventive services cases and will
also be used by the local agencies-has been delayed several times, though many agencies are
already wired for its use.
Agencies are assigned CONNECTIONS computer terminals "on a case-by-case basis," says
Terrance McGrath, a spokesperson for the state's Office of Children and Family Services. "ACS
has been consulted for what makes sense for each agency."
But one look at the 62-page draft manual of procedures caseworkers must follow to file
their data properly on CONNECTIONS reveals they will be spending a great deal of time online.
Terry Ferguson laughs when asked if there are enough computers to go around at the Jewish
Child Care Association, where she is a help desk analyst. "Let's put it this way-that would
be ideal," she says carefully. At another Manhattan agency, a staff person who asked not to
be identified says the state has delivered 19 computers, or about one machine for every three
workers who will need it.
Agencies can add to their neet of CONNECTIONS computers, but it'll cost them. Exclusivity
agreements with IBM and software licensing from Andersen Consulting, which designed the sys-
tem, keep agencies from just calling Gateway 2000 for a quote. They will have to work with ACS
to buy additional workstations-and the state couldn't give City Limits a price.
The most nerve-wracking aspect of CONNECTIONS for the agencies, however, is how sensitive
it is if you're not very careful. "What's scary is that it's a very unforgiving system. For foster
care, if one data element is wrong-a name is misspelled or if you drop a digit in a child's 10
number-that person doesn't exist. They become invisible to the system," Arsham says.
"It makes perfect sense to be concerned about that," McGrath says. "But we won't bring out
Release 4 until we're satisfied that those types of things don't happen. You'll see glitches; that's
why we test it. ... We may extend some of the parallel work on paper even as we start to roll it out
until we're sure it's working absolutely perfectly." -cv

Reversal of Fortune
The Beekmans revisited: HUD Secretary Andrew Cuomo quashes a deal to tum a beleaguered
PIPELINE
South Bronx housing development over to a tenant-led ownership team. By Kim Nauer
~
,
The residents of
Beekman Houses
had hoped HUD
would back a rede-
velopment effort to
tum around the pro-
j ects in this desolate
patch of Molt Haven.
OM
T
he future of one of New York
City's most embattled housing
developments now lies in
doubt after federal housing
officials abruptly abandoned a
plan to tum the project over to a team of
tenant leaders and hand-picked local land-
lords.
Until a few weeks ago, officials of the
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban
Development (HUD) had led tenants at the
Jose de Diego Beekman Houses in the
South Bronx to believe the government
would soon approve their plan to tum con-
trol of the 38-building, 1 ,238-unit complex
over to a tenant-controlled nonprofit and a'
new for-profit management corporation. It
was not a nai"ve assumption, given that
members of New York's RUD staff helped
lead negotiations on the deal. HUD's
Washington staff had
also overseen and
approved funding for
the various consul-
tants who developed
the plan.
Nonethele ss,
HUD Secretary
Andrew Cuomo iced
the agreement just
one month before a
December I approval
deadline. His actions
followed the October
10 release of a HUD
Inspector General's
report sharply criti-
cizing a draft version
of the proposal, which
had been hammered
together over the
course of 18 months
by a group of tenants,
consultants, manage-
ment executives,
HUD officials and
investors. The IG's
office concluded the
deal was too expen-
sive and "rewards a
landlord who may
bear responsibility for
the deplorable condi-
tions of the projects."
That landlord is
Gerald Schuster,
owner of Continental
Wingate, a billion
dollar real estate com-
pany that has owned
the development for
nearly three decades.
As City Limits noted
in an analysis of the
Beekman deal
("Anatomy of a Sweetheart Deal,"
November 1997), Schuster and his wife,
Elaine, are key fundraisers for the
Democratic National Committee and are
among those who have bent the ear of
President Clinton at White House coffees
and fundraising dinners. Other investors in
the Beekman Houses include billionaire
media-moguls Laurence and Preston
Robert Tisch.
The way the agreement was originally
drafted, Continental Wingate and its
investors would have taken a back seat-
and the negotiators believed they had
included tax disincentives that would have
phased the Schusters, Tisches and others
out of ownership over several years. But
the IG's report highlighted possible flaws
in the plan, indicating that Continental
Wingate could in fact earn a profit down
the road.
Given the powerful connections of
these principals, Cuomo--a man known to
have higher political aspirations--could
be forgiven for worrying about how an
overly favorable deal might look in the
national press. A senior RUD official,
however, insists Cuomo's primary concern
is his public campaign to find and punish
RUD's slum profiteers.
"The people right around [Secretary
Cuomo] are coming to understand this
issue, and they are appalled. And the sec-
retary is deeply concerned," the official
says. ''They feel they have sent a very clear
message as to where the agency needs to
go. And they are not sure this deal reflects
that."
The landlords who planned to take
control of the Beekmans-a consortium
known as Diversified Management-say
they are dumbfounded by RUD's turn-
about. "They' ve had the plan since early
this year," notes Michael Rooney,
Diversified Management's treasurer.
"They should have looked at the merits of
it, made comments, and if they wanted
Schuster out, they should have insisted on
it instead of just playing around with
everybody."
Now, there's no telling what will
become of the Beekmans, says Wilma N
Johnson, president of Tenants United for ~
Better Living, the project's resident coun- ~
cii. 'They could sell this property piece by
CITVLlMITS
piece. And we will have no protection,"
she says.
"We' ve spent a year and a half at this,
and I want to see some action," Johnson
adds emphatically. ''1 want to settle down
and get on with my life and let the proper-
ty run proper, like it's supposed to."
MocI.1 Solution
Not long ago, the staff in New York's
HUD office thought they had developed a
model solution to the deterioration and
deep poverty that long ago overtook the
Jose de Diego Beekman Houses.
During 28 years under Continental
Wingate's control, many of the apartment
buildings-scattered around a dozen blocks
in an especially impoverished section of
Mott Haven-had fallen into severe disre-
pair. Some of them were ruled by vicious
drug gangs. The buildings needed major
rehabilitation to bring them back into com-
pliance with federal housing standards.
Because of the troubled status of the
project, HUD could have foreclosed on the
property, sent Continental Wingate and its
investors-including the Tisch family-
packing, and demanded they repay the IRS
for any personal income tax deductions
investors had taken based on the deprecia-
tion of the Beekman property since 1969.
But officials at HUD and the tenant leader-
ship believed it would be faster to avoid lit-
igation and devise a plan where
Continental Wingate merely gave up con-
trol of the property.
The deal, worked out over dozens of
morning meetings, would take the pro-
ject's $27 million mortgage off of HUD's
books and transfer it, free of charge, to the
city's Housing Development Corporation.
HUD also arranged to spend at least $15
million from a federal housing insurance
fund to rehabilitate the project. When the
work was complete, tbis debt too would
have been transferred to the city.
The city had agreed to take on all of it,
essentially forgiving more than $40 mil-
lion in HUD debt. Moreover, the city
reportedly agreed to throw in $750,000 in
rehab loans and $7.5 million in tax abate-
ments.
The new ownership team would then
inherit a rehabilitated, debt-free property.
Extra cash from the project's $12 million
annual rent roll would be used for capital
improvements, parks, tenant leadership
programs and social services. They hoped
the improved apartments would attract
working class tenants who could pay mar-
ket rents. And the team aimed to have
enough money left over each year to build
up a $40 million reserve fund over 15
DECEMBER 1997
years to support the poorest residents
should Congress eventually cut off rent
subsidy payments.
The HUD Inspector General's office
saw the numbers very differently, conclud-
ing this was "a poor deal for HUD and the
taxpayers" and an extremely expensive
way to bring the Beekmans back to health.
Particularly disturbing, noted IG audi-
tor David Niemiec, was the fact that
Continental Wingate and its partners
would be allowed to remain as investors
in the development. "At the end of l5
years," Niemiec wrote, "these owners will
have mortgage-free, rehabilitated proper-
ties; millions of dollars of tax benefits;
and a windfall of surplus cash amounting
to $43 million should the contingency
fund [for the Beekmans' poorest resi-
dents 1 not be needed."
The Beekman negotiating team
responded on November 18 with a nine-
page memo to Assistant Secretary
Nicholas Retsinas taking issue with the
IG's interpretation of the plan, arguing that
the deal is still the best chance that resi-
dents-and taxpayers-have to perma-
nently preserve this low-income housing.
Connie Hackett, director of special pro-
jects at the New York City Housing
Partnership and a key architect of the plan,
adds that no one at the Beekmans was
looking to protect Continental Wingate. If
HUD could somehow force Wingate out
without facing protracted litigation, she
says, "that would probably be ideal."
HUD Inspector General Susan Gaffney
admits she did not know where the plan
had originated. "We didn't really focus on
the residents and the consultants. I just
wasn't aware," she says. Nor, she adds,
does she have a plan of her own. "I do not
have a recommendation. But I would hope
that HUD would be working feverishly on
another course of action."
No PrHlctlons
What that action will be is anyone's
guess. As City Limits went to press in mid-
November, HUD officials would make no
predictions. One former HUD official says
Andrew Cuomo might simply do nothing,
allowing Continental Wingate and HUD's
current interim manager, ARCO
Management, to continue to run-and
profit off-the Beekmans.
Such inertia would clearly benefit
ARCO Management, a national firm with
exclusive rights in 19 states as well as
Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia
to manage the properties in HUD's portfo-
lio. ARCO is owned by Jeffrey Goldstein,
the son of Sheldon Goldstein, who was a
former business partner of Cuomo. Cuomo
and the elder Goldstein's questionable
activities in real estate and finance were
documented extensively by the Village
Voice in the late 1980s.
ARCO already has the contract, esti-
mated to be worth at least $15 million, to
bring the Beekmans up to code. The com-
pany would collect an additional $800,000
a year in management fees if allowed to
stay on indefmitely.
But observers say Cuomo can't let the
situation linger. Rick Wagner, a Legal
Services lawyer who has made a career of
hounding bad landlords out of HUD-
financed properties (see "Sweet Victory,"
October 1997), argues it might make more
sense to foreclose on the Beekmans. The
buildings could be rehabilitated and sold
off individually to local owners or non-
profits. In buildings where there is strong
tenant leadership, the residents could work
with HUD to set up some form of tenant
ownership.
While the tenant leaders have been
vehemently opposed to splitting up the
buildings, Wagner argues this could well
improve the level of tenant participation.
"The sheer size and scattered nature of
these buildings is destructive of any coher-
ent action," he maintains.
But organizing 38 buildings would
require a massive effort. Moreover, the
tenant leaders and Diversified
Management aren't ready to give up on the
original plan. Rooney believes Continental
Wingate might be willing to walk away
altogether, abandoning its ownership stake
in order to preserve its reputation for
future HUD deals. The owners and limited
partners could also be forced to put mil-
lions of dollars into the rehab effort. "Tell
us what you want," Rooney asks of HUD.
"We' ll give you the plan that fits."
At HUD, the senior staff is refusing to
speculate on what the future might bring
for the Beekmans. But it's quite possible
the tenants and Diversified Management
will be dealt into some future plan.
"There are some good elements here,"
says one official. "Can we accommodate
those good elements, at the same time
being as stringent as humanly possible on
waste, fraud and abuse? I think that's an
open question."
"Because the new people are not the
problem," he adds, "we may be able to
work out some creative solution."
Wilma Johnson says she's not exactly
trusting HUD to keep its word these days.
But at this point, she' ll take what she can
get. "This thing is driving everyone
crazy."

MP
I
I
TDEVICTII1
IS T_ "ELL-DUSSED
WIlT. iioOD SOl'S &IS SMi.;':
lilTS lIS IIIJa lID IYTS on lIS IBII.
OlE nE lIS DIIIPPUUD IIIIID lIB, snu.a n.aa.
He is sitting alone on the subway steps, sobbing. "I gave them my
money," he says. "They did it anyway."
A black transit cop who had heard the screams echoing under-
ground catches four fleeing teenagers less than three blocks away,
but two of them dash off again before the cop starts bellowing out
his inclination to blow somebody's head off. On the ride back to
the station house, he gives the two other young black men an
introductory lesson in backseat justice.
"What might have gotten me angry?" he asks himself later,
recalling a handful of other times he's used more violence than the
job required. "Guns pulled and you're the target. That can tend to
upset you. Group robberies like this one, where after the property
has been taken, the victim'll get beaten just because the bad guys
want to see what it looks like, just because they can. I would say
those are things that get me upset....We're paid to defend the
weak."
Another victim is younger, Puerto Rican. He stands with three
friends at a bodega in Mott Haven in the Bronx, waiting for the
Town Car that will take them to Lower Manhattan and an East
River cruise. The streets are rain-soaked and the four are standing
under an awning to keep from messing up their best Friday night
clothes when a patrol car pulls up, and a pair of cops bound out.
"They tell us to get up against the wall. To me that was no big
deal," says the 19-year-old, who, ironically, is studying law
enforcement at a city college. "We get frisked, and they chill out.
Everyone's cool, everyone's smiling. Then one of them goes,
'Where are you going tonight?'"
For some reason, one of the cops tenses up when he's told
about the cruise. Suddenly he shouts for them to lie face down on
the wet, fIlthy pavement.
A second search, this time at the point of a nightstick, reveals
nothing, but the kids' clothes are trashed for the night. The four
teenagers split up and slink back to their apartments, the $100 they
spent on the tickets a total loss.
'The son of a bitch seemed happy. He told me to have a good
night," the victim says. "Sometimes you're so mad, there's noth-
ing you can do but laugh about it. You might as well laugh, 'cos
ain't no use in crying about it."
he two instances of brutality, one explicable, the other
despicable, point to the basic reality of policing the
police in New York City.
Merely setting up a standard of behavior, and pun-
ishing transgressors after the fact, as the NYPD has
done, will never be enough to stop explosive, emotional behavior
on the part of angry cops.
Their job and the city they work in are just too complicated.
For the innocent black or Latino kid who simply wants to get from
the front door to the curb without automatically being branded a
suspect, facing the wrong end of another man's power trip has
become part of life. But from the cops' perspective, the use of
excessive force often arises from being asked to do a violent, con-
frontational job-and then being told to stop short of an invisible
line when your life, reputation or values are threatened.
-
Bronx organizer
Robert Ashbourne
attended three CPR
sessions. He was out-
numbered and felt
intimidated by cops.
--
Reconciling the demands of the job with the needs of the com-
munity is the task the NYPD should be undertaking, especially in
the wake of the alleged brutalization and sodomy of Abner
Louima in Brooklyn's 70th Precinct. But apart from the deeply
flawed $15 million "Courtesy, Professionalism and Respect" cam-
paign, the department has done little to attack the problem.
While the country's most lauded department has become a
national model for innovative approaches to attacking street
crime, it has failed to adopt important innovations other cities are
using to eradicate the problem of in-house violence.
Cops and cop critics recognize that real change will have to
focus on prediction and prevention, including a more intense
effort to screen out unfit cadets and a much more serious police-
training regimen.
Even before Louima, some high-ranking NYPD officials real-
ized that something needed to be done about the precinct-house
cynicism that engenders violence. Commissioner Howard Safrr
has dismissed 94 cops for misconduct, many for false testimony.
Since Louima, Safrr has also ordered that more experienced
supervisors run the desk at each station house. And he has float-
ed a plan to break up potentially dangerous, hard-to-supervise
cliques that form on the midnight tour.
But police brutality is hard to get a handle on because it is root-
ed in human emotion-and in the paramilitary culture that many
cops consider essential for effective policing. According to many
familiar with these efforts, the department still lacks the will, the
knowledge or the tools needed to address the problem.
"Most cops really want to do the right thing," says Jan Holland,
a former staffer of the Gay and Lesbian Anti-Violence Project who
has conducted domestic violence trainings at the police academy
and local precincts. "The problem is that [the department] cuts
themselves off from the information they need. That's where the
Blue Wall comes up. As soon as they enter the academy, their
access to information from the outside world basically stops."
O
ne fall morning, not long after the arrest of Officer
Justin Volpe in connection with the Louima attack,
Michael Julian, a key member of former Commissioner
Bill Bratton's brain trust, sat in his office suite replaying
the 1991 Rodney King video in his head. "You can see
the officers: Some are standing back
watching-which is its own problem-
but those who were doing the hitting are a
different personality. Anyone could have
stepped up and kicked him; some don't.
"How do you identify that person who
has the ability to kick somebody when
they're down?"
Julian, who served as the department's
personnel chief until two years ago, is
convinced that the best-known brutality
cases-including Officer Francis Livoti's
1994 involvement in the stranglehold
death of Anthony Baez in the South
Bronx-prove that explosive personalities
need to be identified before they are
allowed to spin out of control.
When Julian was on the inside, he didn't
think the system's screening was a major
problem, but he now acknowledges it's far
from perfect.
The NYPD's cadet screening is decid-
edly not state-of-the-art. Every recruit who
passes the department's written test and
medical exam must sit down with one of
almost 300 background investigators to answer questions on sub-
jects such as educational experience, past jobs and drug use.
"There are lots of people who come in and say the stupidest things.
I mean, we had people come in and admit they were drug addicts
for three or four years," says Peter Dowling, a police captain who
headed the background investigations unit from 1993 to 1995.
Investigators contact past employers, many of whom are asked
merely to confrrm employment dates and to mail in any impres-
sions they wish to volunteer about the candidate. The cops on the
screening detail, who handle anywhere from 30 to more than 100
cases at any given time, are also supposed to buttonhole five
neighbors-but they don't get around to it until the recruit already
has been hired.
Those winning a preliminary green light submit to a battery of
standard written psychological tests and an interview with an
NYPD psychologist. According to the department, these tests
weed out 19 percent of the candidates who make it through the
earlier screening by identifying those who reveal they have certain
extreme personality traits. A candidate cannot be overly aggres-
sive or overly passive; he or she can't be labeled a slave to rules
or overly independent.
Still, however diligently applied, such screening has consis-
tently failed to identify some of the city's worst cops. When
Officer Michael Dowd was busted as the ringleader of a pack of
brutal and criminal coke-snorting East New York patrolmen, a
review of the flies showed he'd breezed through background
checks. "Dowd," Captain Dowling recalls, "even Dowd came out
smelling like a rose."
D
espite a proliferation of new screening tools in depart-
ments around the country, the NYPD continues to rely
on subjective psychological analysis and the use of
standardized exams, including the Minnesota Multi-
Phasic Personal Inventory. Although the Minnesota
test is good at detecting pathologies, it isn't nuanced enough to
detect more subtle problems.
Some departments use lie detectors during background and
psychological interviews. The NYPD doesn't. And a greater num-
ber of departments use decade-old computer programs that assess
detailed biographical data on candidates and generate numerical
CITY LIMITS
scores predictive of their fitness for police work. But again, the
NYPD has avoided implementing such a system. Matthew Guller,
an executive at the New Jersey-based Institute for Forensic
Psychology, one of several companies around the country that
screens personnel for law enforcement agencies, says his 224-
page questionnaire can detect hidden psychological flaws in a
recruit that even the best interviewer may not pick up.
In the early 1980s, Guller's father Irving, a former psychology
professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, combed hun-
dreds of dissertations and research papers around the country
looking for indicators of future police performance. What he
found was a direct correlation between certain personal indicators
and police brutality. Some were no-brainers: "A problematic his-
tory in the military is probably the best indicator," says the
younger Guller, whose company has continued to update the indi-
cators and now performs screening for departments in Newark,
Jersey City, suburban Philadelphia and Minneapolis-St. Paul.
Some indicators were less obvious. For some reason, cops with
two or more tattoos showed propensities toward violence. Strong
clues emerged from driving records. Three accidents in three
years indicated an instability that was correlated to bad behavior.
As if for fairness, "Were you ever a member of the Boy Scouts?"
is also included on the survey.
Matthew Guller emphasizes the importance of constantly
plumbing the records of bad cops for indicators the screening didn't
pick up. On the latter point, the NYPD seems to be coming up to
speed. The National Institute of Justice has begun comparing the
files of 2,600 randomly selected city cops with records of the
2,600 who've been forced off the job over the last three decades,
looking for violence and corruption predictors.
B
Ut taking better stock of a recruit's past behavior isn't
enough, critics charge. The NYPD needs to pay far clos-
er attention to the way a young cop performs.
In 1976, the San Jose, California, police department
pioneered a program in which probationary officers
spend the frrst six months of their careers sweating through daily
evaluations with specially selected training officers. More often
than not, the relationships between vets
and young cops is supportive-but one
out of every 10 recruits ends up ldcked off
the force based on poor performance.
"If you ask the NYPD, they' ll tell you
they have all these things. In fact, they're
not for real," says ex-NYPD Officer
Joseph McNamara, San Jose's former
police chief. "What you see happening is
people who should have been terminated
in the probationary period are not."
Matthew Guller takes the probation
concept one step further. He says any cop
who commits a violent offense-no mat-
ter how minor, on or off the job-should
be placed on a roolde-type probationary
period with a San Jose-style mentoring
and penalty program. Currently, the
department has not implemented such a
system.
"The trouble with the NYPD and a lot
of other large departments is that they
think that they are the world, and ego
keeps them from looking at things other
departments are doing," adds McNamara,
now a fellow at the conservative Hoover
Institution at Stanford University.
DECEMBER 1997
I
n spite of a long record of alleged brutality, none of the
NYPD's screening systems worked on Francis Livoti. On
paper he looked promising enough. He was ambitious,
smart, articulate. He was even one of the few white cops
in the Bronx who lived in the borough. But Livoti hated a
lot of things about his job. He hated senseless directives from
his superiors. He hated that his job offered no path to greater
pay. Most of all, he hated a system he thought favored criminals
and punished cops. And he wasn't inclined to keep these views
to himself.
Yet even if Livoti nursed his bitterness to an extreme, the inner
pressures he felt were typical-almost inescapable-features of
police work.
The hostile attitude can begin with fear, and the need to con-
quer that fear by fIDding ways to control every situation, crimi-
nologists say.
Last spring, while making plans for an interview over dinner,
Livoti picked his favorite Manhattan restaurant and then rattled
off complex but precise directions from the FDR Drive to a park-
ing garage that would have saved a grand total of $2 for the
evening.
"I have always been a believer in strict law enforcement," he
said later, an ominous echo of the Giuliani administration's "bro-
ken windows" policing theory. "I believe in taking care of the lit-
tle things, and the big things will take care of themselves."
To Livoti, these malevolent "little things" were often the peo-
ple on his beat he couldn't control-people who didn't acquiesce
to his will.
e
riminologists have observed this kind of behavior in
patrol officers for years. John Van Maanen, for one,
recognized that cops, as part of their controlling
impulse, tend to split the citizenry into three groups:
"know-nothings," "suspicious persons" and "assholes."
Know-nothings, he explains, are the large group of harmless
citizens who couldn't possibly comprehend the world a cop lives
in. Suspicious persons, on the other hand, are described as the
standard run of criminals or suspects.
Former NYPD
personnel chief
Michael Julian
says the force
isn't doing enough
to stop brutality.
-
Sgt. Joel Francis
believes that
"Verbal Judo" can
teach cops to
channel violent
impulses into
tough talk, and,
occasionally,
shmoozing.
From a brutality standpoint, it's the third group-the so-called
assholes-who are most likely to be the subject of a well-publi-
cized beating.
In a cop's mind, an asshole is anyone who insults or defies an
officer with a smart comment or someone who, for example,
takes him on a hazardous high-speed chase. Sometimes they fit
the same demographic as the bad guys--often they don't. They
may be criminal, but it is their perceived insolence and question-
ing of authority that sets cops off. Louima, Baez and Rodney King
were all, in Van Maanen's typology, model "assholes."
Ethics aside, dealing harshly with assholes has a practical
value in the world of the average patrolman. Even an easygoing
officer, says James Fyfe, a Temple University criminologist and
former NYPD lieutenant, can feel an obligation to "re-educate"
people on the street. "I was taught that when I was a young cop,"
he says. "If you go out on the street and someone gives you a hard
time, it's your job to make sure he doesn't do that to the next cop.
If you don't straighten him out on the spot, you're doing a disser-
vice to your colleagues .... You have to have a reputation as a guy
who's not to be fucked with."
But, he adds, there's a line no cop should cross: "You have to
build that reputation without brutalizing anybody."
r
or cops to maintain this difficult equilibrium day after
day, it helps to have guidance.
On an afternoon in September, two dozen officers
from Volpe's 70th Precinct gathered for a Courtesy,
Professionalism and Respect session in a Brooklyn
classroom. The workshop was intended to introduce the cops to
neighborhood residents who would air their concerns and com-
plaints.
The cops were getting time-and-a-half pay to. absorb the wis-
dom of community people, but the workshop organizers appar-
ently didn't do their job gathering guests. Of the handful of civil-
ians on hand, more than half were residents of the cerebral palsy
treatment facility across the street from the station house who
had come simply to scold the cops for hogging parking spaces
on the block.
"It's not working out. I think it's a
waste of time and money," said Joseph
Crocitto, an ex-cop who participated in
the session.
The CPR community workshops rep-
resent a rare addition to cops' routine
annual training, which has long consisted
of two days for firearms practice and one
for reviewing new directives regarding
tactics. Under James O'Keefe, the depart-
ment's director of training since 1994,
two more days have been added to the
curriculum, one for learning specialized
skills such as criminal investigations and
the other for situational role-playing,
which can highlight a wide range of tacti-
cal principles.
The day-long CPR sessions are sup-
posed to mark the most comprehensive
training effort ever aimed at "re-educat-
ing" cops on community relations. By
the end of the year, the city's entire uni-
formed patrol force of 21,000 will have
taken part in one of these two-hour com-
munity workshops.
But half-hearted outreach efforts have
often left outnumbered citizens listening meekly while outspoken
cops enumerate their grievances. "You don't want to speak hon-
estly because you're outnumbered, and all of them have weapons
on them," says Robert Ashboume, a community organizer with
the Mid-Bronx Desperadoes who has attended three workshops in
the Bronx.
The two hours I spent in another Brooklyn CPR session had
no higher level of neighborhood involvement. As the sole com-
munity resident in the room with 20 cops, I was asked to invent
complaints I didn't have. The facilitator fed me one-"Why do
cops never come when you call them?"-and it elicited groans.
Afterward, in an auditorium debriefing, cops seized the floor to
gripe, amid appreciative whoops and hollers, about work con-
ditions and Mayor Giuliani's failure to OK a lucrative new
police contract.
I
f there is any breath of the new in CPR, it's provided by
Police Academy trainer Sergeant Joel Francis. By the end
of the year, the city's entire patrol force will have heard him
or one of a few cops under him deliver a two-and-a-half-
hour lecture on the new attitudes and communication skills
each officer is expected to master. No one else gets center stage
for as long.
When Francis is lecturing, he feels he's serving the two com-
munities that feel like home to him, two worlds divided by bad
feelings. A "Jam-erican" born and stiIlliving in the Bronx, he fell
in love with being a cop.
Francis' "Verbal Judo" lecture, which the press has been
barred from viewing, teaches cops how to avoid physical con-
frontation through verbal fmesse. "We're trying to help some cops
understand that their biggest asset is their ability to shmooze," he
says. "We can get aggressive if we have to, but we don't have to
start there."
Verbal judo was fITst imported to the NYPD two years ago by
its New Mexico-based creator, a former cop and college professor
named George Thompson. But some experts don't see its utility.
"It's training the cop to be a smartass. The whole point was, 'I can
outsmart you, fucker,'" says Temple's Jim Fyfe.
CITY LIMITS
For some cops, verbal judo simply doesn't translate to the
most violent part of their work. Two veteran cops who drove me
to a CPR seminar at Brooklyn's Kingsborough College acknowl-
edged verbal judo has helped them avoid nasty confrontations on
routine traffic infractions. But, they said, it was of little use in
dealing with the "bad guys."
Francis readily admits the training can break down in the bat-
tlefield. "You put a young [officer] in the middle of Washington
Heights who doesn't understand the language, the culture, the
people-there is fear," he says. "[t 's totally natural. "
But Francis says he's just as afraid of the environment in the
precinct house as on the streets.
"How can that officer apply the skills he learned at the acade-
my in the streets without being tainted by the hardcore cop who
tells him, 'That stuff you leamed in the academy? Forget it. We' l!
show you what goes on.' How does he deal with that pressure?"
Francis asks.
I
n the mid-1970s, the NYPD stopped teaching cops how they
were expected to conduct themselves in routine interactions
with suspects and other civilians.
Even if the academy has neglected to address such street-
level realities, other police departments are undertaking a
much more ambitious effort to acclimate their cadets to the real
world. The best-known of those efforts was the early-'90s over-
haul of the New Haven Police Academy, which shed its military-
style regimen for a more collegiate atmosphere. Gone were the
barking instructors, replaced by professors and community lead-
ers who engaged cadets in dialogues. Most importantly, would-be
cops were taken out for extended neighborhood field trips,
sojourns that allowed them to get a sense of these places before
they bore the responsibility of patrolling them (see "Cop
Kindergarten").
Recently, the Justice Department gave New Haven a $1 mil-
lion grant to establish an institute to help export their system to
other departments around the state. Massachusetts is also
implementing a statewide training program emphasizing simi-
lar principles.
But back in New York, station house sages currently fill in the
blanks left by the academy. "[Former Police Commissioner] Ben
Ward used to say all of the knowledge in the world is in the back
room of the station house when you flISt get there. Just ask any-
thing, they'll give you the answer," Julian says. "But it takes about
a week to realize they don't know anything. Those guys are total-
ly ignorant."
Two years ago, at Julian's prodding, the department began
putting recruits on the street for a month before their final
weeks in the academy. The idea was that the recruits would
experience first-hand the negative aspects of the job and then
retreat to the academy to talk it over. Tbe ensuing debriefings
would serve to inoculate the baby cops against the bitterness
and resentment that the prevailing cop culture uses for cover.
"The department blew it," admits Julian. "They put them out
in the street, but they just taught them how to write summons,
respond to jobs and all that. And that's because it's easier.
Nobody wants to deal with the culture thing, because it's so
scary."
Julian says the NYPD needs to attack the issue of corrosive
cop culture more directly. He'd like to see every precinct identify
its five most disruptive cops and break their collective power by
transferring each of them to a different station bouse. Second, he
wants to ask cops to identify who among their peers is most prone
to excessive violence, then partner the at-risk personalities with
calmer officers.
DECEMBER 1997
COP
.,.
The idea is simple: The uniform may be blue, but the collar should be
white. Progressive police training programs like the CUNY Cadet Corps
don't believe in pushing a kid through the academy, giving him a gun and
calling him a cop. For tomorrow's officers, they are recruiting a new popu-
lation-college students. But for the moment, the innovative program is on
hold.
The Cadet Corps, which was originally given $1.2 million in 1991 under
Mayor Dinkins' Safe Streets initiative, is ajoint associate degree program
of CUNY and the NYPD. Students spend a year with university educators
and interning in hospitals and homeless shelters, and another year under
police supervision doing work such as patrolling street fairs and festivals.
James Curran, dean of special programs at CUNY's John Jay College of
Criminal Justice, emphasizes the importance of the program's civilian
atmosphere and college-level curriculum. "In police academies they teach
a fairly sophisticated sulUect matter with a fairly unsophisticated staff,"
he says. At John Jay, professors teach cadets classes with titles such as
"Human Dignity and the Police," "Effective Communication" and
"Sociology of Crime." Cadet Corps was also a better screen for future
officers, Curran explains, because CUNY recruits were older, more diverse
and better educated.
Two thirds of the corps' 300 graduates have moved into police jobs
since the program started, but funding problems have at least temporarily
shut it down. "Each year [Cadet Corps] needed a new appropriation," says
City Councilmember Sheldon Lemer, chair of the Public Safety Committee.
But, he adds, there were no long-term guarantees. And sure enough, the
police department received no funding for the corps in the last budget
Curran thinks the problem may also be ideological. "The police saw [cadet
corps] as an elite program for college graduates," he says. "We saw it as
a program that would produce many young practitioners." -Jason Stipp
,
et, whatever innovations are attempted, Justin Volpe's
infamous "It's Giuliani time" invocation has real reso-
nance for those who link the violence with the NYPD's
newest policing strategies.
Even Francis Livoti has argued that the succeed-at-
all-costs attitude puts too much pressure on street cops. "It's like
playing football and playing a two-minute offense for the whole
game," he told this reporter. "They're not sitting there coming up
with creative strategies. They're just saying, 'Go out and get it
done. I don't want to hear No.' They're taking a General Patton-
type approach .... It's just sheer intimidation."
Julian sees a direct link between brutality and the pressure of
policing in a "zero tolerance" city, where every minor offense can
lead to an arrest.
"There are questions about what happened here in the city that
will probably never be resolved," he says. "Did you have to be so
hard on your commanders to get them to toe the line and to change
the way they do business? I would say no, you didn't have to be.
Did you have to search and frisk so many kids in the street? .. .
Could you have had more of an education campaign along with an
enforcement campaign in those communities? Did so many pe0-
ple have to get arrested for misdemeanor offenses?
"I'm not sure that they did."
Jason Stipp and Glenn Thrush contributed to this story.
-
--
COPS: a
GUIDI
wBi IT COM'S TO IEI.lftOIS'" wlTa COps,
.In GIlO1II'S I'E lOW Til'll DIRECT 1CTI01.1Iy I ... Still
DIlTS II lOB fOCIUif
The top lines of the wallet card read simply: "Notice to NYPD:
[ want to have my parent/guardian notified immediately if I am
arrested. [ want to speak to my attorney now!"
The New York Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild, a 60-
year-old organization of civil rights advocates, passes
So, taking a page out of the civil rights movement, Jenik leads
monthly vigils to these locations, where they hand out flyers to
passers-by to publicly identify the areas as crime zones. Jenik and
the other protesters once stopped traffic on Bainbridge Avenue. "We
were praying and singing in the street," he says. "The police came
the cards out to kids during street law _---..",...--,
then." He also prints names of businesses in the
church bulletin that he believes are fronts for drug
dealing so his congregation can boycott them.
Our Lady of Refuge Church, 718-367-4690.
workshops and after-school pro-
grams to remind them that they too
have rights when stopped by cops.
The Police-Barrios Relations
Project in Philadelphia also found a
solution in the cards. However, theirs
read more like a warning sign by the
lions' den at the zoo: "Don't tell the
officer that you have rights-this may
\
I
WHAT TO
DO IF
POLICE
STOP YOU:
I
I
I
,
II1II COPS c .... -SIII
After hearing reports that police were
harassing homeless people in a gentrified
neighborhood in Berkeley, Calif., COP-
WATCH volunteers with police scanners and
upset him."
The Crown Heights Youth
Collective does role-playing exercises
to recreate routine confrontations
between police and kids to teach teens
how to answer the cops' questions. \
"We've had a reduction in the number of
incidents that could have escalated
Don't tell the officer
"I have rights"-this
may upset him.
\
video cameras responded. The seven-year-old
. organization patrols the streets in pairs,
videotaping police and citizen interactions.
Reminiscent of the classic Black Panther
tactic of tailing patrol cars, an unrelated
COPWATCH program in Minneapolis takes
unnecessarily," says the collective's
chief, Richard Green. National Lawyers
Guild, 212-255-4181; Police-Barrios
Relations Project, 215-423-4812; Crown
Heights Youth Collective, 718-756-7600.
Remain calm and
courteous. No matter
how rude an officer
ts
don't be rude back
ge ,
the extraordinary step of physically inter-
vening in suspected brutality cases. Not sur-
prisingly, twelve members of the group
have been arrested over the last three years.
"We have a lawyer who represents us for
free," Minnesotan Katrina Knutson
explains. COPWATCH Berkeley, 510-548-
0425; COPWATCH Minneapolis, 612-
649-4586.
TBI.L THE BUSS
WIIEIE IT'S IT
or touch him.
"No Justice, No Peace" looks good on bumper stickers, but if
you want to make cops listen, you have to talk their language.
Marvin Calloway of the South Bronx Churches helped tenants in
Morris Heights monitor drug activity and shoot-outs in their area,
compile statistics and write a proposal seeking more patrols,
which they presented to Bronx Borough Chief John Scanlon.
Tenants noticed that the 46th precinct had increased patrols by
the afternoon of the same day. "We didn't go [to the police] with
our hats in our hands," Calloway says.
After two bullets crashed through the bedroom window in
Elizabeth Serrano's children's room, she demanded that the cops
"clean out" drug dealers from her building on 175th Street in the
Bronx. To make sure they were complying, she asked officers to
ring her bell every time they arrived on a call. "[ know if they
haven' t been in my building this month. I can ask them: 'Why
haven' t [ seen you?'" she says. South Bronx Churches, 718-402-
3676.
8nlODDmUED
Father John Jenik of the Our Lady of Refuge Church in the
Fordham section of the Bronx is waging a war on open-air drug
dealing. He can rattle off the hot spots on neighborhood streets,
but explains that the police are doing nothing about them.
THE TIIEII TO CORT
Thanks to an initiative by the New York Chapter of the
National Lawyers Guild, victims of even minor police abuse will
have their day in court-small claims court, that is.
Mehira Gilden, vice president of the guild's Lawyers Against
Police Abuse Program, says small claims litigation is a fast, cheap
option for litigating cases of police misconduct such as sexual
harassment and wrongful arrest, giving victims a way to hold
police accountable.
"You don' t need [physical] injuries to have your rights violat-
ed," she says. The Los Angeles chapter of the guild ran a similar
program and pushed more than 500 cases through small c1aims-
only to have most victories overturned in state Supreme Court.
But Matthew Schneider, the New York program's co-director,
says officially documenting the abuse, not winning money
awards, is the main objective. He says their first small claims case
here, brought by a homeless man who says he was wrongfully
arrested, is pending.
In an October convention, the National Lawyers Guild also
adopted a plan to create a national clearinghouse to help lawyers
of police abuse victims expand and strengthen their caseloads. It
also keeps tabs on current legal standards concerning brutality and
lists of expert witnesses. National Lawyers Guild, New York
Chapter; 212-255-4181 .
CITY LIMITS
Dm Ti It.D IBII. ITS nolllSl! TO aIR coaaUliTt
aBours c ..... Stll1I rao. DBDa DIIl.I!IIsr IIy ..,.,. .,...
hey don't know if Rudy ever did get his pie.
On a rainy November Saturday two years ago,
five busloads of protesters from the Northwest Bronx
Community and Clergy Coalition drove around
Manhattan, stopping at city officials' homes demand-
ing that neighborhood groups receive some of the millions of dol-
lars seized from poLice drug busts. William Bratton, the Police
Commissioner at the time, had his doorman accept their letter.
Deputy Mayor Peter Powers' neighbor took his.
"For Mayor Giuliani, we delivered a pumpkin pie with a slice
missing and a note saying, 'We only want a piece of the pie,'"
recalls the group's vice president, Hilda Chavis. But Giuliani was
out at an event that day, and the nearly 200 activists left their edi-
ble symbol at Gracie Mansion without talking to the Mayor.
The bus tour was but one day of a long campaign to persuade
the New York Police Department to adhere to a federal recom-
mendation that local law enforcement share with community
groups as much as 15 percent of the assets it seizes in drug raids-
a take that could add millions of dollars for projects such as after-
school programs and teen outreach for kids at risk. "We went to
the federal government; we went to the Comptroller's office; we
went to the Public Advocate. We went everywhere we could to
fight for this," Chavis says.
Last December, it seemed as if the work had paid off. Facing
pressure from the City Council and grassroots activists, Giuliani
and the New York Police Department announced that community
groups would get a piece of the pie. "It's particularly fitting that
DECEMBER 1997
assets of drug dealers and criminals who have done so much to
destroy neighborhoods will be flowing to community groups who
are doing so much to rebuild them," Mayor Giuliani said in the
Police Department's written statement.
It's one year later, though, and community groups have yet to
see a promised dime. Several city deadlines have passed without
comment by the police, and now groups have been told it will be
at least three more months before they can even apply. The per-
sistent delays beg an increasingly obvious question: Has the
mayor gone back on his pledge?
rllDERS II!I!pDS

hen Congress passed the federal asset forfeiture laws in
1984, it was a "finders-keepers" policy allowing law
enforcement agencies to keep cash, property and assets
seized from criminals. Over the years, these funds have become a
mighty income stream: Federally seized cash and properties grew
from $33 million in 1979 to almost $2 billion in 1994, according
to the General Accounting Office.
Three years ago, U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno introduced
the Guide to Equitable Sharing, which made community groups eli-
gible for a share of seized proceeds in a "pass through" from police.
'The overall theory is that these monies could be used to help with
rehabilitation, drug education, domestic violence shelters-to indi-
rectly help law enforcement," says Alice Dery, assistant chief of the
Asset Forfeiture and Money Laundering Division at the U.S.
Department of Justice. "[But] police department budgets are shrink-
Hilda Chavis says
her organizazion is
hoping to spend
asset forfeiture
money to hire a
youth organizer.
-
NearLy $400,000 in
seized cash went 10
the production of
Spring 3100, an
in-house poLice
magazine.
ing right now. That's why we left it discretionary."
Figures compiled by the New York City Council
Finance Division show that the NYPD expanded its
pool of seized cash from $10 million in 1994 to $18
million in 1996, and some community groups quick-
ly recognized the possibilities of the Justice
Department's guidelines. The Northwest Bronx
Community and Clergy Coalition fust met with
then-Police Commissioner William Bratton and
subsequently with his deputies back in 1994 to ask
for a community pass-tluough, but they were told the funds were
being used for police business and no money was available.
The coalition-ten tenant and neighborhood groups that press
for everything from reasonable water rates to Community
Reinvestment Act compliance from local banks-didn't give up.
They turned to the National Training and Information Center in
Chicago, an organization that battled for the new asset forfeiture
guidelines in Washington and now advises groups around the
country on the issue (see "High Seize"). With NTIC's help,
Northwest Bronx devised a campaign strategy.
Coalition leaders spoke with Bronx Borough President Fernando
Ferrer, who brought them together with Bronx City Council mem-
bers for talks. They pleaded their case to the U.S. Department of
Justice and the U.S. Attorney's Office. They pushed the New York
City Comptroller's office to share results from a still-unfinished
independent audit of the asset forfeiture program's books.
Pressure on police dramatically increased in July 1996 with the
IISISIIIE
New York is only one of more than a dozen cities where activists are
pushing police to tum over seized assets. In Chicago, the National
Training and Information Center has been organizing community groups
to fight for a portion of the proceeds since 1994, finally seeing success in
late October as the Police Department distributed S40,000 to community
groups across the city. "The grants were from S500 to S5,000, mostly
for after-school and other youth programs," says Jaci Feldman, pl'Qiect
director at NTIC. "And the police have agreed that every time they make
a bust from now on, they'll set aside 15 percent for the community."
NTIC has also published a booklet, "Get a Piece of the Pie," outlining
how communities can fight for their 15 percent. The organization advises
groups from Akron, Ohio, to Oakland, Calif., on the sulUect.
In upstate New York, the Syracuse Model Neighborhood Corporation, a
community development organization on the city's South Side, took pos-
session of a former drug house from the U.S. Marshall's office in late
October. Although the process took several years, the nonprofit will soon
be adding three apartments to its stock of more than 170 affordable units
for low-income families. The group that brokered the deal, Syracuse
United Neighbors, is also working to get the city's police department to
release their 15 percent to community groups, but it has been a slow
process. "The local police have been very tightlipped about what they
have," says Phil Prehn, the organization's South Side organizer.
"Often it's a fight," Feldman admits. "The police say, 'It's our money.
We did the bust.' But people in the community say, 'When I got robbed so
someone could buy drugs, that's the money the police recovered. Some of
that money really belongs here in the community.'" -Carl Vogel
--
revelation that the NYPD had used nearly $400,000 in asset for-
feiture funds to produce a glossy color magazine, Spring 3100-
"The Magazine for the Department by the Department"--essen-
tially an internal department newsletter delivered to each officer's
home. According to the federal guidelines, "Priority should be
given to supporting community policing activities, training and
law enforcement operations calculated to result in further seizures
and forfeitures." Magazine production would not apply.
The coalition's work was beginning to payoff. On December 11,
1996, the Public Advocate introduced a resolution in the City
Council calling on the police to turn over the full 15 percent of seized
proceeds and suggesting the money be spent on crime prevention,
job training, housing and other community-based programs.
Two days later, Giuliani and Police Commissioner Howard
Safir issued a press release announcing the NYPD's new plan to
share some of the forfeiture funds with community groups.
Members of the coalition were so happy they barely noticed that
the one-page release mentioned neither a dollar amount nor a
timetable for releasing the money.
It wasn't until a City Council budget hearing in March of this
year that activists learned the city would offer up only $100,000.
"That's less than 1 percent," Chavis says incredulously, pointing
out that with a full 15 percent pass-tluough, the groups would be
eligible for roughly $7 million since the guidelines took effect.
S,."'.I!D roll I n:aa
D
espite its modest size, the program still has not gotten off
the ground. First the department selected the Police
Foundation, which raises money for special programs
within the department, to oversee distribution. But that violated
federal guidelines that require a city agency, not a private organi-
zation, to be the fund's conduit. The Justice Department sent the
department back to the drawing board.
Last spring, the NYPD's Commissioner of Community
Affairs, Yolanda Jiminez, gave assurances that the department
would issue grant applications tluough the mayor's office by June
15. "Unfortunately this has been delayed a lot longer than we
wanted it to," she said at the time. ''This is the first time for us.
We're not looking to delay this."
But more than five months have gone by since mid-June, and
grant applications were never sent out. Marjorie Cohen, executive
director of Manhattan's Westside Crime Prevention Program, says
she received an announcement about the program in the spring
and has been waiting ever since. Her group wants to use the
money to help support a number of projects, including a conflict
resolution program in a local middle school between police and
teens. "I haven't had any official notification about what's going
on, and I'm certainly anxious to know," Cohen says.
The police department, mayor's press office and Mayor's Office
of the Criminal Justice Coordinator (which has been tapped to dis-
perse the funds) each referred City limits to one of the other agen-
cies when questioned about the community pass-tluough program.
In mid-November, Criminal Justice Coordinator Katie Lapp met
with members of the coalition to discuss the program, announcing
that her office would have grant applications ready by March 1998.
"We're concerned we' re being put on a back burner for something
so important to community groups," says Jane Chaney, a board
member of one of the coalition's member groups who was at the
meeting. "It's been extraordinarily frustrating. For the minuscule
amount of money they're talking about, it's really appalling." .
Karen Winner is a New York City journalist and author of the
book "Divorced from Justice" (Harper Collins).
CITY LIMITS
t
Frank Lee of the Leegis Group
inspecting the Flushing Chase
branch his firm renovated.
CALL: CHASE MINORITY- &
WOMEN- OWNED BUSINESS
DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM
212-622-4138
Moving in the right direction
The bank thal Frank built.
When we awarded Frank'lee, of the Leegis Group, the contract to
renovate our Flushing Branch, we felt we made the right choice in
expanding our relationship with his company. He was already a
participant in Chase's Minority- and Women-Owned Business
Development Program (MWBD) and ran a topnotch construction firm.
Chase takes this relationship-building process very seriously. We
know our future success will depend on how well we do business
with a rapidly growing audience of incredible diversity. Our rela-
tionships with companies like the Leegis Group will assure we
won't miss this important opportunity.
The Chase Manhattan Bank is committed to this course. Carol
Parry, Executive Vice President of our Community Development
Group, promises: "The new Chase will aggressively continue to
solicit business from minority- and women-owned businesses and
will provide a wide array of specialized financial services to this
important and rapidly growing market." Which must be music to
Frank's ears.
:......................... Community Development Group
CHASE. The right relationship is everything. SM
@ 1997 The Chase Manhattan Bank. Member FDIC.
-
A loung City Council candidate was beaten
in a Brooklyn primary. But he emerged with a clear idea
about how progressives can take back the city in 200 l.
By Errol T. Louis
I
was busy all last summer knocking on doors in the Fort
Greene housing projects, trying to become a City
Councilman. During one of those long days, I met a mid-
dle-aged woman who invited me into her apartment for a
look around.
There were cracks in her walls that let in water, cold air and
insects right next to the bunk beds where her five foster children
slept. One of the children, a nine-year-old with a heart condition,
faced a life-threatening situation every time the elevator went out
of service (which was often) because she had to climb the nine
flights of stairs to the apartment.
The woman waved letters at me-unanswered pleas she had
sent to her elected officials and various government agencies ask-
ing that she be moved, at the very least, to an apartment on a
lower floor. I did what her current council representative had
failed to do-took down all the information, made a few phone
calls and got someone to give her a hand. We didn't get her into
a new apartment right away, but we did help her figure out how
to maneuver through the bureaucracy: Her daughter's doctor had
to write a detailed note to guarantee a medically justified change
of apartment.
The woman became an enthusiastic supporter of my cam-
paign. And through her I re-Iearned a simple lesson that some-
times gets lost in the blur of poll data, consultants and newspaper
editorials that can disorient even a humble City Council cam-
paign. The way to take back the city for the people is to deliver
the goods to the people-and then have them deliver their votes
to you. There's nothing cynical about this attitude. Helping poor
people is what progressive politics has always been about. And it
can be the foundation of our political renaissance.
This year, I was one of about a half dozen progressive young
people who ran first-time campaigns rooted in such principles.
We were all trying to remove entrenched incumbents or nudge
aside the favored insider candidates of the county Democratic
machines.
Like many of the insurgents, I came from a community ser-
vice background and sought to link my good deeds with good
politics. As the cofounder and manager of the Central Brooklyn
Federal Credit Union, I had spent five years building a neighbor-
hood banking institution to provide credit to people of average
and lower income.
My contest against 23-year incumbent Mary Pinkett took
place in the neighborhoods of Fort Greene, Clinton Hill, Prospect
Heights and Crown Heights. Although my district
has a unique racial and cultural mix, the race was
similar to those run by Charles Barron in East New
York, who hoped to unseat Giuliani-backer
Priscilla Wooten; education activist Stanley
Kinard, who ran for an open seat in Brownsville;
and Margarita Lopez, who battled on the Lower
East Side against a longtime aide to the powerful !
speaker of the New York State Assembly, . ~
Sheldon Silver. ~
With the notable exception of Lopez, all of ~
us lost. In many cases, the candidates were .3
CITY LIMITS
E" () IT.
done in by a lack of money and organization.
In my case, the anti-incumbent vote was
split by a third candidate who won both the
Conservative and Liberal lines.
lou is of
.;;
Scanning the wreckage, it's easy to
become depressed. For now, the City
Council will look pretty much like it has for
years, and it will no doubt continue
CIty Council
to take timid, stumbling steps on crit-
ical issues such as school reform, job
creation and the environment.
Yet, far from being a setback for
progressive politics, the wave of insur-
gent campaigns gave the city a dress
rehearsal for 200 1, when nearly every
city office will change hands, thanks to
term limits. That is the real, unwritten
story of the 1997 elections.
M
ost observers seem to think the
election of Rudy Giuliani was a
decisive mandate that signals the
death of liberalism in New York. They could-
n't be more wrong. First of all, the mayor had
Green
no coattails to speak of-his running mate for
public advocate, Jules Polonetsky, was never a
serious contender. The mayor has no successors
waiting in the wings; few people think there will
be another Republican elected mayor in 2001.
There hasn' t been a dramatic surge in GOP
enrollment; New York City remains a solidly lib-
eral town where Democrats retain a five-to-one
citywide advantage over RepUblicans.
Giuliani 's departure, coupled with the fragmen-
tation of the Democratic Party and the upcoming
City Council free-for-all, will create a power vacuum
the likes of which the city hasn't seen for decades.
How should progressives take advantage of that
opportunity? Consider the victory of Margarita Lopez,
a savvy community organizer who built her candidacy
around the needs of public housing residents. She took a long-
term view of political change. While organizing tenants over the
last four years, she also ran successfully for District Leader and
became the official local representative of the Democratic Party
(although that didn't stop the Manhattan machine from working
against her in the council race). When election season rolled
around, LOpez didn't have to change her job, her alliances or even
her daily schedule. She'd already been building a reputation for
herself in the neighborhood's largest housing developments-
even as she learned the ins and outs of the Democratic machine.
Thanks to her talent as an organizer, her visibility in the com-
munity and her ability to speak directly to constituents' honest
concerns, she won.
O
ne of the great trite truths of politics is that there is no
Democratic or Republican way to pick up trash, police
the streets, or put out fIres . For progressives, electoral
success will require that we become more efficient and innova-
tive-and that we take better advantage of skills that many of us
already have.
As progressives, we should be prepared to supply a high level
of constituent service far in advance of any political run. In many
instances, we are already doing this. Nonprofit managers and
neighborhood organizers are, for the most part, smart, progressive
DECEMBER 1997
people who have already spent many years
figuring out how to build affordable hous-
ing, run homeless shelters, manage day care
centers and otherwise provide for people.
Who better to develop and promote new
ways of improving the city? Who better to
accumulate political power from good
works?
Still, until now, what has been miss-
ing is an explicitly political side to this
work. When a community program
succeeds, progressive candidates
should study it, spread the idea and
take credit for it-just as Giuliani
does with anything he can describe
as a "quality-of-life" success.
Old-line machine politicians
understand that nonprofit commu-
nity organizations are a key element to
building their electoral base. We don't have to be cynical
to believe that such an approach has merit. The difference for us
is that we want to build organizations that work well and effec-
tively serve their communities without becoming simple bureau-
cratic patronage operations like the ones so many Democratic
Party hacks have built over the years.
You don' t have to be corrupt to strategize politically and work
toward power.
Progressive Democrats need to become a force of innovation.
We need to be at the forefront of building and supporting institutions
at the cutting edge of public policy. And we need to be vocal and elo-
quent advocates for ideas that work in practice. Not only will this
help our constituents, it can have an immediate political payoff.
Take housing policy, for instance. Over the last 20 years, thou-
sands of tenants and homesteaders have used their smarts, nerve
and hard work to tum abandoned buildings into a network of
cooperatives and mutual housing associations. Today, there are
thousands of owner-occupants of these buildings-a fairly sophis-
ticated constituency that progressives should be organizing. Yet
where are the voter registration drives? Where are the candidate
nights? Clearly, we' ve got a lot of organizing to do.
' 5
I
n African-American, Caribbean and Latino neighborhoods, ~
where many people feel like they' ve been let down and left ]
behind by the Giuliani administration, the task will be tough. ~
Most people express their alienation by simply avoiding the ]
-
--
whole process. But last summer I
found that some voters were waiting
to give a piece of their minds to the
only visible political figure they
could actually yell at: Me.
Typically, while knocking on
doors, I encountered people who
would blast me simply because I
was a politician. One retired
school teacher gave me a 30-
minute lecture about the failings
of the public housing authority,
the Board of Education and the
elected officials who never
show their faces in their dis-
tricts between elections. In the end-largely
because I was willing to hear him out-I got the man's nominat-
ing signature, and I'm sure I got his vote too. But this where-the-
hell-have-you-politicians-been response was a real hurdle for
me-and helps explain the miserable turnout in many neighbor-
hoods.
Nonetheless, this is where I believe progressive political can-
didates will find their biggest chance to get back into power. As
many an organizer has discovered, the orneriest people can often
be converted into the most dedicated volunteers.
Fortunately for progressives, the cheapest way to reach people
is also the most effective: door-to-door canvassing. In addition to
saving money, the grassroots approach brings a message directly
to the voters in a personal way-a distinct change from the stale
"Report to Constituents" that most elected officials send out at
taxpayer expense.
For me, this was the fun stuff. I once wandered into a church
picnic and found myself roped into a game of musical chairs with
the church deacons. Toward the end, it was basically me (in a suit)
and a bunch of old men (in T-shirts and shorts) scrambling franti-
cally for a seat to the beat of gospel music. (A tip: Don't go all out
and start knocking down seniors to get that last chair.)
For volunteers, campaigns are basically an excuse to walk
around the neighborhood, meet people and make new friends. At
least six different romances blossomed among my campaign
workers, along with some enduring friendships. But this is also
basic hands-on organizing, getting to know the constituents and
~ their concerns-and showing them you are smart enough and
.3 capable enough to work for them.
S
till , no matter how much street w o r ~ gets done,.there is a?
inescapably high dollar cost to runrung even a CIty Council
campaign.
A whole industry of lawyers, advisors, public relations gurus
and other "experts" are dying to get money from a first-time candi-
date. I call them the election-industrial complex. Their specialty is
to make you feel like you are naive, hopeless and doomed. Unless,
that is, you pay (and pay, and pay) for their services.
For a mere $12,000, I was told, a specialist would meet with
me once a week and give advice about what
kinds of pamphlets to pre-
pare. For another $10,000-
a steal !-I could have the ser-
vices of a professional writer
to actually draft a few well-
honed words on a campaign
flyer. Did I want to conduct a
small poll to see what 400 of my
neighbors thought about local
issues? No problem-just send a
check for $11 ,000. I tried to keep
from getting fleeced, but I still
think I spent too much.
Some of this is inevitable. My
council district has 116,000 resi-
dents and more than 64,000 regis-
tered voters, of which 52,000 are
Democrats. Just sending a simple
postcard to all of the Democrats in my
district would have cost more than
$10,000 for printing and postage.
If it's very easy for people to feel dis-
connected, it's also very hard for some-
one outside the system to reach them.
This is a basic fact that outside commenta-
tors always lose sight of-in New York
City, even a small council district has more
people in it than some American cities.
Luckily, running for the council happens to be blessedly low-
tech-TV and radio spots are rare luxuries and not a significant
factor in most council campaigns.
Yet, according to my campaign treasurer, we raised more than
$40,000 during the six-month campaign, from small contributions
and from a few larger donors-and we spent all of it. In all, I spent
about $14 per vote received in the primary. As one of my friends
in the private sector pointed out, it would have been much cheap-
er to skip the posters, flyers and mail and just offer a flat $10 pay-
ment to anyone who could prove they'd pulled my lever (an idea
that happens, among other drawbacks, to be illegal).
I prefer to reverse the equation: If you can attract a supportive
base of 2,000 people and get each of them to contribute just $20,
you can run a very competitive race.
So let the fundraising begin. And while we're at it, let's start
doing what grassroots organizers do best: meet with people, find out
what they want and start working on it. Reserve that church base-
ment or union hall, distribute some flyers and start holding meetings.
But keep this in mind: great promise comes with great peril. The
elections in 2001 hold great promise for progressives, but they will
also lure all kinds of charlatans, crooks and hustlers-not just those
selling their services, but those running for office themselves. Right
now, with 200 weeks to go before the next race, these people are
planning their next move. We need to be doing the same.
Errol T. Louis is a City Limits board member.
CITVLlMITS
(ityLimits
winn@f of th@ 1997
FrM@rick Douglass Award
"N,ws from th, front l i n ~
of adYocacy and activism"
On thf lSOth annivmary of thf first Mition of "1M North Star"
abolitionist nfWSl)apfl', Thf North Star fund honortd
thf followincJ with 1991 frtdflick DoUCJIass Awards:
(ITYLIMITS
JUAN GONZALlZ
DR. MANNING MARABLl
SUSUAN M((SlLAS
MONTHLY R(VI(W PR(SS
OUR MEMBERS THANK US ALL THE TIME!!
Now it's time to thank you ..... .for your Non-Member Deposits:
Atlantic Bank of New York Bankers Trust Company Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi
Trust Company Chase Manhattan Bank Episcopal Diocese of Long Island
Ford Foundation Fuji Bank & Trust Company The Industrial Bank of Japan
Trust Co. Israel Discount Bank of New York Merchants Bank of New York National
Federation of Community Development Credit Unions Republic National Bank Safra
National Bank Sisters of Charity New York State Bank of India US Trust Company
HONIESTEADERS
FEDERAL
CREDIT
UNION
OVER $4.3 MILLION DOLLARS LOANED SINCE WE OPENED IN 1987
Homesteaders Federal Credit Union, PO Box 1512, New York 10268, Office: 120 Wall Street, 20th Floor, New York NY
For more information about how to make a non-member deposit, please contact Fred Nehring at (212) 479-3340
Your savings federally insured to $100,000 by the National Credit Union Administration, a U.S. Government Agency.
DECEMBER 1997
.... ---...... -' ... ,..-
REVIEW
Newark's Lesson
By Linda Ocasio
"Ghetto Schooling: A Political
Economy of Urban Educational
Reform, " by Jean Anyon,
Teachers College Press, 1997,
217 pages, $18.95.
C
onventional wisdom says
urban decline begins with
certain factors: the disap-
pearance of manufactur-
ingjobs; an influx of poor
migrants from the South, Caribbean or else-
where; middle-class flight to the suburbs resulting in an eroded
tax base. The city, its institutions and especially its schools are
left bankrupt in purse and spirit Yet, somehow, no one is ever
to blame: It's all the work of the inexorable ebb and flow of
market forces.
But cities flourish or stall for other reasons as well, includ-
ing political leadership, backroom deals and decisions made at
critical crossroads. In "Ghetto Schooling," Jean Anyon, chair-
person of the Department of Education at Rutgers University's
Newark campus, throws a stark spotlight on the state and city
policies, graft, and corruption that conspired to devastate the
public schools of Newark, N. J. , and the city itself. She also
looks at similar problems in New York, Boston, Detroit,
Chicago and other cities to show that educational reform will
never be complete without a new commitment by government
and the general public to true urban economic revival.
Anyon, who has been involved in principal and teacher
training in the Newark Public Schools since 1989, reports that
the downward spiral of the city and its schools began during the
Depression, when a rural elite-controlled state legislature
restricted borrowing by cities struggling to stay afloat At the
time, Newark had a city government where commissioners
were independent and fought for jobs for their Jewish, Italian or
Irish neighborhoods, but the city had no strong central execu-
tive or municipal body to fight for better schools.
As patronage and mismanagement flourished, wealthier cit-
izens left Newark for the suburbs and the public school popula-
tion became increasingly working class (although still largely
white). Teacher standards were lowered in the 1940s-the eas-
ier to dispense jobs-and decisions and appointments made
during this time reverberated for decades to come. By the time
blacks from the South began to arrive in Newark in large num-
bers after World War II, the schools were already on a down-
ward trend. As the industrial base began to erode, the Newark
Public Schools emerged as one of the major employers in the
city, entrenching the patronage system even deeper.
A brief period of reform swept through Newark's city gov-
ernment in the 1950s, but left the school board untouched.
Hiring was still dictated by political connections and person-
al favors with little concern for merit or
ability, and educational standards con-
tinued to tumble. The administration of
Mayor Hugh Addonizio in the 1960s
drove a stake through the heart of reform
efforts in what Anyon calls "the brazen
consort of organized crime and elected offi-
cials." Her chapter on that period revisits
the greed and racism that marked city gov-
ernment at the time.
The Addonizio crew left a plundered and
riot-scarred city to Newark's first black mayor,
Kenneth Gibson. The schools, now serving most-
ly African Americans and Hispanics, were in free-
fall : Children were crowded into decrepit build-
ings that had been neglected for years, and many
were under the guidance of ill-prepared teachers
who had low expectations of their students.
At this point Anyon includes her first-hand observations of
Newark teachers and students between 1989 and 1994. These
short vignettes of classroom malaise and teacher incompetence
are a powerful and disturbing addition to the historical analy-
sis of the schools' decline. A simple set of workshops is
derailed by fire alarms, student discipline problems, teacher
fatigue and an overwhelming feeling that the situation is too
out of control to ever address.
In 1995 the State of New Jersey took over the administration
of Newark's public schools, which Anyon credits for mobilizing
teachers and administrators who had been lethargic about
reform. "[T]op-down authoritative change backed by state sanc-
tions can make an important contribution to reform," she writes.
In a brief section at the end of the book, Anyon recommends
greater federal and state investments in job creation, worker
retraining and infrastructure, and a tax on U.S. corporations to
fund these urban revitalizations. Her call to arms is inspiring,
but she doesn' t provide a political road map to accomplish this
task. The book's greatest strength for reformers is the historical
illustration of how relationships and the dynamics of power
affect public institutions and efforts at reform.
Anyon's book comes at an appropriate time: Earlier this
year the New Jersey Supreme Court addressed the wide gap
between schools' resources, ordering the release of some $246
million to 28 urban districts to bring them up to parity with
funding in wealthy suburbs. Newark, which Anyon documents
as severely underfinanced, will receive $23.6 million.
"Ghetto Schooling" is a major contribution to our under-
standing of urban education system mismanagement and how
reform does-or doesn' t-work. It is also a warning that we
must remain vigilant against the corruptions, large and small, that
drain our cities and schools and deprive poor children and their
families of the prosperity that others have enjoyed for so long .
Linda Ocasio, a former staff writer at The Daily News and
New York Newsday, is an executive assistant to the state dis-
trict superintendent of the Newark Public Schools. The views
expressed here are her own.
CITY LIMITS
NeVI York
Lavvyers
for the
Public
Interest
provides free LegaL referrals for
community-based and non-profit groups
seeking pro bono representation.
Projects include corporate, tax
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For further information,
call NYLPI at
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Tel: 212,250, 7118 Fax: 212, 250, 8552
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CITYVIEW
community. They established a mentoring program for the chil-
dren from the now-repopulated #507- many of whom had lived
in homeless shelters. Over the years the garden has grown into
an open-air community center with poetry readings, small con-
certs and potlucks, an oasis of order and beauty that increases
both "quality oflife" and the value of the surrounding real estate.
This summer, the city's Department of Housing
Preservation and Development, along with the business-backed
New York City Housing Partnership, sold the lot to a private
developer who will construct the condos.
Twilight in the Carden
The state Supreme Court
has ruled that the gardeners
have "no legally recognized
interest" in the garden; they
don't own it. The city and the
Jeff McMahon,
a writer and
performance
artist, is current-
ly working on a
book chronicling
17 years in an
HDFC building.
--
By Jeff McMahon
A
tiny green slice of order and serenity on East 11 th
Street is slated for destruction. The city is turning
it over to developers who plan to build middle-
income condos here, on this block between
avenues A and B.
My neighbors and I live directly across from the garden in a
small low-income co-op that we have owned and managed suc-
cessfully, if sometimes fractiously, for the last 15 years. In that
time, we have gone from near collapse to being fully occupied,
up to code and self-sufficient.
As we struggled to run our building, someone much
stronger was controlling the block. Rock Solid, a mam-
developer do. Apparently the city's only interest in citizen-ini-
tiated attempts to improve this community is to undermine
them by selling the land off to private developers.
But neighborhood residents view the garden as an enonnous
asset to the community and wonder why the city government is
selling off something its own citizens worked so hard to save.
The fence around the garden is now covered with ribbons, each
bearing the name of a local resident who does not want to lose
this refuge.
Last month, a state judge lifted a temporary restraining order
that had prevented development work on the Mendez garden
and others in the neighborhood. The gardeners have also lost a
bid to get a preliminary injunction in federal court against
moth illegal drug business run by Alejandro Lopez,
turned 507 East 11th St. , diagonally across from our
building, into a fortress of locks and steel doors, terror-
izing and murdering any tenant who refused to cooper-
ate. After a time, most of the drug trade was transacted
in the back of the building, which was accessible
through a hole in the fence that led to an aban-
doned lot.
Residents wonder why the city is
selling off something its own
citizens worked so hard to save.
For most of the time I have lived here, the
lot at 511-515 East 11th has been a ftlthy breeding
ground for rats and a vestibule for desperate addicts
awaiting a connection. Even after Lopez was sen-
tenced to 33 years in prison back in 1988, the site,
like the building it flanked, seemed doomed.
It took a garden to reclaim the lot-and the
block.
Sometime around 1992 local people came
together to heal the block's wounds. Without any
help from government, they brought a battered
beauty to East 11 th Street: flowers, trees, and the
hint of a good life in the fonn of the Mendez
Mural Garden, named for Chico Mendez, the
murdered Brazilian rain forest activist whose
mural-sized portrait graces one wall of the garden along with
several other large murals. The greenery is punctuated by
benches, stone walkways, sculpture and a barbeque pit. Local
artists and gardeners designed the entire project as a work of
environmental art.
The soil was full of rocks and broken glass, yet now it brims
with 10 varieties of vegetables, 14 varieties of trees and at least
150 species of perennials, shrubs and herbs.
Residents planted, pruned and opened the garden to the
demolition on the grounds that some of the public art in the gar-
den is protected by the Visual Artists' Rights Act of 1990. But
the federal lawsuit itself is still pending.
Earlier this year, the City Council approved the sale to private
owners of half the 800 such gardens around the city, apparently
with several Council members not even knowing that the lots
were gardens (they were labeled "blighted vacant lots"). There
are more than 10,000 truly vacant lots and 1,350 abandoned
buildings in the city's inventory, so why destroy the gardens?
Back in 1988, Lt. Martin Kennedy of the Ninth Precinct
said: "There's a sick joke around the precinct that if you want
to get rid of somebody, tell them to move to East 11 th Street."
By then, more than 20 people had been killed on my block.
Frustrated cops had considered razing the Rock Solid building
to get the dealers out. Neighbors understood their frustration,
but took it upon themselves to heal the wounds and literally
improve their lot. Without any assistance from the government,
the Mendez Mural Garden has lifted the shadow of Alejandro
Lopez from East 11 th Street, replacing it with flowers, trees and
public art. And increased property values-for free.
Now the city wants to bulldoze the garden. In losing this
small patch of green, this block and this city will lose a glimpse
of paradise .
CITY LIMITS
How to Find a Job
School-to-Work:
Apple Polishing
O
n the whole, community colleges haven't been very suc-
cessful in moving the urban poor into better jobs. But a
recent study out of the University of lllinois-Chicago,
"Making Connections: Community College Best Practice in
Connecting the Urban Poor to Education and Employment,"
tries to change that.
The study by Joan Fitzgerald and Davis Jenkins of the Great
Cities Institute looks at innovative programs in six schools
nationwide, including CUNY's LaGuardia Community
College. The authors give high grades for the schools' partner-
ships-with community groups and city agencies to provide
social services such as child care for students, and with employ-
ers to gamer jobs and training.
The schools were also praised for linking two disparate
community college tracks-noncredit and credited courses.
Many schools don't allow students who come in for noncredit
classes, such as literacy programs, to make the transition to
technical training and associate degree programs, which can
lead to better paying jobs. Yet most urban poor enter communi-
ty college for noncredit work. So these programs helped bridge
that gap.
The study could benefit from more quantitative data on the
success of the programs versus national averages, but it remains
a good tool for understanding practical solutions.
"Making Connections," Free, Great Cities Institute, 312-
996-8700.
Workfare:
Mythinformation
N
onprofit agencies are targeted for 10,000 of the
roughly 65,000 workfare slots proposed for the com-
ing year in New York City, and many nonprofits are
facing the difficult decision of whether or not to buy into the
program. With "Workfare and the Non-Profits? Myths and
Realities," author Mimi Abramovitz, a professor at the
Hunter School of Social Work, hopes to clarify the issue for
those inclined to oppose the program. The report details 15
prevailing myths about the Work Experience Program, the
true story for each and the dilemmas these truths present to
nonprofits.
For instance, the New York State Labor Department predicts
that about 91,000 new jobs will be created each year in the city
until 2002, but that's just one job per eight job seekers. If every
one of those jobs went to someone on welfare-a highly unlike-
ly outcome-it would take 21 years for all current welfare
recipients to be employed. Abramovitz also notes that the city's
Independent Budget Office predicts a cost of $6,100 a year to
place someone in WEP if you factor in child care and other
expenses. Federally funded job creation programs typically cost
less and yield better jobs.
"Workfare and the Non-Profits? Myths and Realities, " Free,
Welfare Reform Taskforce, 212-577-5000.
DECEMBER 1997
Jobs & Children:
Two-Pronged Approach
A
grOU
P
of parents attend a class where they practice word
processing skills and then discuss with a case manager
how their children might be affected if they found jobs.
A parent on her way out of a Head Start center after dropping
off her preschooler is greeted by a vocational counselor, who
encourages her to make an appointment to discuss how she can
enroll in a GED class.
These are snapshots from ''Theory Meets Practice: A Report
on Six Small-Scale Two-Generation Service Projects," pub-
lished by the Foundation for Child Development. Funding pro-
jects such as these is a hallmark of the foundation's grantmak-
ing. As defined by the report, two-generation interventions try
to "help low-income families gain access to two mutually rein-
forcing sets of services: employment-related services for par-
ents and key developmental services like quality child care and
health care for children."
At first blush, it seems like a perfect match-getting a job
and off welfare while raising a family is doubly tough. But
while the report contains many inspiring moments like those
above, it also details problems ranging from keeping parents
engaged in the voluntary programs to keeping organization staff
focused on both parents and kids.
Unfortunately, the report contains very little to judge the
overall success or failure of the six projects. Nonetheless,
some of the solutions-from arranging school schedules to fit
parenting education workshops to creating a packet of pre-
planned information to expedite the child care applications of
welfare recipients-are good ideas for successful job creation
and parenting regardless of whether they're part of a two-gen-
eration program.
"Theory Meets Practice," Free, Foundation for Child
DeveLopment, 212-697-3150.
CSS List, Youth Alert
The Community Service Society of New York's second
edition of its popular directory of services and resources con-
tains more than 750 listings-including an address, a phone
number and a brief description of each group's work-in 93
categories, from AdoptionJFoster Care to Youth Services.
Hotlines at the front and an alphabetical index at the back
round out this very useful package. "New York City: A Basic
Guide to Services and Community Resources," $15, CSS,
212-614-5314.
Having trouble keeping up with your reading? "Youth
Alert" is a new, one-page newsletter that picks up relevant
facts, opinions and resources on crime and youth from a
variety of sources, from the ALbany Times Union to The New
York Times to Washington D.C. white papers. "Youth ALert,"
Free, JuveniLe Rights Division of the LegaL Aid Society, 212-
577-3647.
AMMO
Me
s
LETTERS
(continued from page 4)
or will not bounce back from its recent tra-
vails.
To address Runyon's most specific
points:
Runyon, in a tape-recorded interview,
told reporter Kathleen McGowan she con-
: fronted Morphesis "in court."
.... - ... ~ Contrary to Runyon's assertion that
HRP's budget never got above $941,844,
HRP's own IRS tax filings available for
review at the state Attorney General 's
office show that her organization had a
1994 expense budget of $1,709,865.
Various sizes of the business incubator
have been proposed. The 96,000 square
foot number cited in the article was pro-
vided by an architect who worked on the
project.
As for the article's statement that
HRP's budget increased "almost tenfold"
in the 1990s, we could have been more
exact: the increase was, in fact, just short
of eightfold, as it grew from $221,407 in
1991 to $1.7 million in 1994. In her letter;
Runyon claims her budget never even dou-
bled. Again, her organization's own tax
documents tell a different story.
The statementfromformer HRP staffer
folie Ness about her difficulties gaining
access to a computer is a direct and accu-
rate quote.
The consultant referred to in the story
is fuanita Burnett. She was hired in by the
faction of the board that opposed Runyon's
continued leadership.
As for the matter of Runyon's departure
in 1994, McGowan did not obtain any doc-
uments referring specifically to a termina-
tion. But in her tape-recorded interview
Runyon herself said, "The board absolute-
ly removed any power from me to run the
organization. "
In addition, the article very clearly
stated that the five board members who
hired Elvin Montgomery as executive
director "essentially staged a coup" by
moving ahead without a quorum.
Brooklyn Doldrums
Glenn Thrush's sidebar "No Kings in
this County" (November 1997) comment-
ed on the inability of County Leader
Clarence Norman to prevent defections of
elected Democratic politicians to
Republicans.
There are certainly many loyal
Democratic voters who were distressed to
see hoards of officials (elected by virtue of
Democratic Party support) and, indeed,
some district leaders, supporting a
Republican for mayor over the person the
voters selected in a primary election as
their party's candidate. The party leader-
ship's lack of any coherent position
regarding renegades surely aggravated this
situation.
For example, only three months ago,
Kings County Democratic Party Leader
Clarence Norman reportedly gave strong
support to indicted Assemblymember
Dov Hikind-even though Mr. Hikind
had supported Republicans Alfonse
D' Amato for Senator, George Pataki for
Governor and Rudolph Giuliani for
Mayor-and vowed that if anyone
opposed him "they would not have our
support." ("Despite Indictment, Hikind is
Supported by a Party Chief," The New
York Times, August 9, 1997).
Yet in a magnificent turnaround less
than two months later, Norman claimed he
would back an opponent to
Congressmember Edolphus Towns as ret-
ribution for Towns' endorsement of
Guiliani, saying: "It's an outright betrayal
of the Democratic Party and a sellout of
his constituents. Ed Towns lacks integri-
ty." ("Political Notes," The New York
Times, October 5, 1997).
One reaps what one sows. Does this
now mean we will see Norman fielding
candidates in opposition to other promi-
nent Brooklyn "Democrats for Giuliani,"
such as Assemblyman (and Democratic
district leader) Vito Lopez, or City Council
Democratic Majority Whip Victor Robles?
Don't count on it.
TMmEHorts
Matthew Chachere
Park Slope
Thank you for a good piece of journal-
ism in the City Limits tI;adition ("Sweet
Victory," October 1997).
However, the article did not adequately
convey that the organizing effort was a
collaboration of three organizations:
Community Service Society, Long Life
Information and Referral Network, and
North-East Brooklyn Housing
Development Corporation. Each of these
organizations has dedicated substantial
staff time and energy to this project.
To organize truly participatory tenant
associations in large buildings, a team of
organizers must maintain frequent person-
al contact with the tenants over a period of
several months (or years). We have seen,
all too often, that when organizing
resources are shortchanged, the goals of
tenant and community empowerment are
compromised accordingly.
Our collaboration continues and now
includes the tenant associations them-
selves. We hope our intense organizing, in
tandem with the fine litigation work by
Brooklyn Legal Services, will help the ten-
ants develop an organized tenant body that
can "move mountains," and transform the
quality of life on Gates Avenue in the
process .
Richard Perez
Community Service Society
Angela Hope- Weusi
Long Life Information
and Referral Network
Frederick Ward, Sr.
North-East Brooklyn Housing
Development Corp.
RMrranglng th. Syst.m
Thank you for working with Lauren
Grover to produce "Poor Richard's
Almanac" (October 1997). Since the arti-
cle was published, Richard Vessells was
cut off public assistance again, and with-
out Lauren available to make calls, I wrote
to the commissioner of the Human
Resources Administration. The correspon-
dence got results and Richard is now able
to receive his Medicaid and food stamps,
which is all he needed. He expects to
obtain a Section 8 certificate soon, and his
fellow church members are looking for an
apartment for him.
Once again, City Limits is of assistance
to New Yorkers most in need.
Gale Brewer
Deputy Advocate for
Intergovernmental Affairs
Public Advocate's Office
Reach 20,000 readers in
the nonprofit sector,
government and
property management.
ADVERTISE IN
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DECEMBER 1997
COMMUNnv ORGANIZERS. The Training Institute for Careers in Organizing seeks people eager to fight
for social justice as community organizers. TICO is a 12-week, full-time apprenticeship providing
field and classroom expo Stipend $920jmonth. Runs Jan. through March. Permanent positions
avail. at end of program. Call TICO at 718-584-0515.
EDUCATlON DIRECTOR pOSition available for the Center for Immigrant Rights, a nonprofit organization
that protects and defends the rights of immigrants regardless of legal status. Responsibilities
include supervision of AIDSjHIV Peer Education Project, conducting CIR Training in immigration law,
and writing educational materials. Knowledge of Spanish is necessary. Must have strong public
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ing sample to CIR, 48 Saint Marks Place, NYC 10003 or Fax: 212-995-5876.
ORGANIZER. Looking for WEP worker organizer. Ideal person, 2-3 years community, union legislative, elec-
toral organizing experience. Experience in conducting trainings, leadership development and member-
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encouraged to apply. Salary $24-28K dependent on experience +benefits. Resume and cover letter:
CVH 115 E. 23rd St., 10th R. , NYC 10010, 212-533-6667. Fax: 212-674-1946.
DIRECTOR OF GOVERNMENTAL RDATIONS. Under the supervision of the Executive Director, the Director
of Governmental Relations will work closely with program staff on developing projects and writing
the proposals to secure funding from government agencies, including responding to RFPs and work-
ing with government agencies and legislative staff. Position includes post-award contract develop-
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grants and high degree of computer literacy (including Internet and database programs) is expect-
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ASSISTANT TO 11IE DEVROPMENT DIRECTOR. The Assistant to the Development Director will perform
office management duties, generate "Thank You" letters to donors, assist in direct mail campaigns,
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PC skills required. Expressed interest in development issues preferred. Salary: $25-$28,000.
Resume and salary history to: The Osborne Association, 135 East 15th Street, NYC 10003 or Fax:
212-979-7652. EOEjAAjMjFjVjD More Job Ads on page 37
fj HIT THE CITY LIMITS WEBPAGE "
AND HIT THE STREETS
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30&AUY

Continued from page 35
WHEDCO is seeking a JOB TlWNERICOACH for its new South Bronx location
(Urban Horizons). Urban Horizons is an economic development center that
offers affordable housing, job training, social services, child care and health
care in the Morrisania section of the South Bronx. This welfare-to-work job
readiness program is seeking a motivated self-starter who can work collabo-
ratively with welfare recipients/unemployed adults in the following areas: job
preparation, interviewing skills, job matching and retention, and world-of-work
issues. Skills: Must have excellent presentation, communication and writing
skills, ability to coach and motivate. Ability to teach job preparation skills
using a curriculum in an interactive classroom setting and work with a multi-
disciplinary team of professionals. Experience: 2-3 years experience in
employment readiness, job development/coaching, adult education/ busi-
ness development or related field and minimum of a BA in a related field.
Knowledge of welfare reform and entitlement programs. Fax/mail resume to:
WHEDCO at Urban Horizons, 50 E. 168th St. , Bronx, NY 10452, Attn: Family
Support/Career Assessment Office, 718-839-1172.
Queens Legal Services seeks a COMMUNnY OUlREACH COORDINATOR to
supervise The People' s Law School, a program designed to provide work-
shops and trainings to CBOs and individuals throughout Queens. The
Coordinator will work closely with staff to develop and implement a commu-
nity education plan, organize neighborhood-based workshops and peer advo-
cate training programs, publish a quarterly newsletter, and work with the
press and public access TV. Applicants must have experience in community
outreach and program development, excellent writing skills and knowledge of
the issues facing low-income communities. Prior organizing background is
desirable. Bi- or multi-lingualism is preferred. The position is supported by a
one-year grant, with the commitment that the position will be extended once
additional funding is secured. Salary: DOE, with excellent benefits. Send your
resume to Arnold S. Cohen, Executive Director, Queens Legal Services, 89-
00 Sutphin Blvd., Jamaica, NY 11435. MEOE.
PROJECT DIRECTOR, housing nonprofit. City-wide nonprofit seeks person with
supervisory experience in housing organizing or management, participatory
training, technical assistance and curriculum development to direct training
and resource center for low-income co-ops in Brooklyn. Excellent written and
oral communication skills. Fax resume, cover letter and salary requirements
to UHAB: 212-344-6457, or e-mail to info@uhab.org.
ASSOCIATE DlRECTORIBUSINESS MANAGER, housing nonprofit. New York City
nonprofit seeks experienced community development professional to under-
take outreach, marketing, project implementation and fundraising for local ,
national and international training, technical assistance and capacity build-
ing consulting. Reports directly to the Executive Director. Excellent writing
and communication skills required. Fax resume, cover letter and salary
requirements to UHAB: 212-344-6457, or e-mail to info@uhab.org.
OFFICE ASSISTANT, housing nonprofit. New York City nonprofit seeks a moti-
vated, committed and self-directed person to take on a wide range of office
management and executive assistant duties. Responsibilities include corre-
spondence, reception, telephone, newsletter, purchasing, computer and
office equipment maintenance, scheduling. Excellent writing, communica-
tion, computer and office skills. Fax resume, cover letter and salary require-
ments to UHAB: 212-344-6457, or e-mail to info@uhab.org.
DIRECTOR OF ADMINISTRATlON, Hunter College Center on AIDS, Drugs and
Community Health. The Director of Administration will be primarily responsible
for the fiscal and administrative oversight of Center projects and activities,
including generating project-specific and consolidated Center budget projec-
tions and updates, grants management, including vouchering, budget m o d i f ~
cations and interim reports, computer maintenance and repair, facil ities m a i ~
tenance and office security. The Director of Administration will act as the pri-
mary liaison with the Research Foundation of CUNY in all grants/ contracts, per-
sonnel, payroll , accounts payable, legal and purchasing matters. The Director
of Administration will also be part of the management team of unit directors at
the Center, overseeing and making team decisions with respect to program
activities and direction, fundraising, and other Center matters. The Director of
Administration will report to the executive director. Requirements: Three years'
similar experience with increasing financial and administrative responsibil ities,
preferably in a nonprofit or university environment. Strong writing, spreadsheet,
and multitasking skills required. Master' s degree preferred, BS/ BA degree
required. Commitment to improving well-being of low-income urban communi-
ties preferred. Salary: $42,000 to $48,000, depending on work and educa-
tional experience, with comprehensive benefits. Send resume in confidence
with cover letter (no phone calls, please) to: Nicholas Freudenberg, DrPH,
Executive Director, Hunter College Center on AIDS, Drugs and Community
Health, 425 E. 25th St. , NYC 10010. We are an M / EOE/ADA employer.
DECEMBER 1997
FUU CHARGE BOOKKEEPER. Knowledge of Lotus. Salary: Commensurate with
experience. Fax resume to: Amanda Ortiz, Parodneck Foundation: 212-431-
9700.
Brooklyn CDC seeks ASSISTANT DIRECTOR for property management to lead
property management department (225 units in 25 buildings and growing).
Responsibilities: Supervise all aspects of property management (unit inspec-
tions and repairs, budgeting, construction-to-management transition, tenant
relations, leases, rent collections, legal cases, managing contractors, etc.)
Qualifications: 5 years experience, 2 years college or technical institute,
computer proficiency, knowledge of building systems. Compensation: mid to
upper $30s, benefits. Resumes: Fifth Avenue Committee, Inc., 141 Fifth
Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11217.
Social Change organization seeks OFFICE SPACE, 500-800 sq. ft., shared con-
ference room a plus. Call Rachel Rosenbloom, 212-964-9210.
RECRUIlMENT COORDINATOR. Community-based organization seeks person to
assist in recruiting community organizers from neighborhoods and campus-
es. Position is a one-month consulting job available immediately. Hours nego-
tiable. Consulting fee commensurate with experience. Call 718-584-{)515.
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR. Low Income Housing Fund, a nonprofit community
development lender with $34 million loan fund, 34 staff, and offices in SF,
NYC and LA, seeks dynamic Executive Director with exceptional finanCial ,
leadership, managerial and fundraising skills. Required: 10+ years senior
experience in community development lending; demonstrated expertise in
real estate finance, investment strategy, strategic planning, and new program
development; and strong commitment to low-income communities. Need
visionary leader with strong managerial capaCity, including staff supervision;
thorough knowledge of underwriting, financial analysis, technical assistance,
other aspects of community development; excellent communications skills;
and ability to work with diverse communities. BA required; MA preferred.
Excellent salary/benefits package DOE. Send information to ED Search,
UHF, 74 New Montgomery St., Suite 250, San Francisco, CA 94105. EOE.
DIRECTOR OF DVELOPMENT. The position is responsible for developing a
greater understanding of support and needs for Common Ground' s pro-
grams; goal-setting, planning and organizing strategies for fund-raising. Will
require creativity; reporting directly to the Executive Director. A successful
candidate should have experience in development or related activity in ana-
lyzing needs, and the financial sophistication to work with corporate, foun-
dation and individual funds on major projects as well as create an annual
support system. A spirit of entrepreneurship is most desirable. Strong verbal
and written communication skills are necessary. Individual responsible for
building and managing development staff. Personal integrity and good judg-
ment should be combined with an energetiC sensitivity. Skills in development
desirable. A commitment to the mission of Common Ground is a sine qua
non. This is an opportunity to make an enormous contribution to one of the
most pressing problems in society today. Compensation is commensurate
with experience, range: $50-60,000. Fax resume, attn Anna: 212-685-0316.
CASEWORKERlEMPlOYMENT COUNSROR. Social service agency has an open-
ing for a person to perform individual/group counseling for a caseload, lead-
ing to job readiness/ placement. Ideal candidate will be able to
develop/ implement employment plans for client movement towards self-suf-
ficiency, network with educational/vocational and community services to pro-
vide linkages. MA/BA required with experience in job training, social work
related human services. Clean/ valid NYS drivers license required. Bilingual
a plus. Send letter/ resume/ salary history to: Director of Human Resources,
Westhab, 85 Executive Blvd., Elmsford, NY 10523.
CASEWORKERS. Social service agency has opening for Caseworkers in Yonkers
and Mt. Vernon, N.Y., to monitor/assist a case load of families in various pro-
grams. Must be able to assess clients and develop service plans to address
their needs. BSW or equivalent with two years of social service experience
with low income population is required. Good interpersonal/written/ oral skills
a must. Own transportation with a clean/ valid NYS drivers license required.
Bilingual a plus. Send resume and letter of interest to: Director of Human
Resources, Westhab, 85 Executive Blvd. , Elmsford, NY 10523.
Union-oriented economic consulting firm seeks pit (20-30hrs/ wk) detai l-ori-
ented ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT for long-term position. Responsibilities
include: typing, data acquisition, phones, filing, maintaining mailing lists, etc.
Word processing, spreadsheets required. Resume to: Michael Locker, Locker
Associates, 225 Broadway, #2625, NYC 10007; Fax: 212-608-3077.
more jobs ads on page 39
Wi
R urky Future
By Carl Vogel
he soothsayer shuffled in, looking like she came directly from central casting-a middle-aged woman
with a few missing teeth and long, black hair, wearing a white shift. "Can you help me?" I asked. "I want
to get a reading for a third party, a man who has many decisions in front of him."
Determined to keep his identity from her, I was in luck: She
could read anyone's tarot cards, she said, as long as I knew his
sign. Having taken the precaution of looking up his birthday-
May 28, 1944--1 sat down, and she began to look into the future
of an unnamed Gemini.
She quickly flipped cards over. "He's working hard," she
said. "It seems like he's on trial, trying to build confidence.
Something from the past is dying inside, and there will be a new
beginning." So far, so good. That sounded like him, especially
the part about dying inside. It would explain all the grimacing.
"He's not married, is he?" she asked. "Urn, yeah, he is," I
said. ''Then he's not happy in his marriage," she declared. I
won't pass along the rest of what she said on this topic-suffice
to say, long hours at work are creating personal issues.
"What does this man do?" she asked. "He's the head of a
large organization," I answered, figuring it was close enough.
"A man underneath him is causing trouble," she replied, turning
over three more cards.
Before I could get clarification she asked, "Who is this man
to you?" I realized that to get a true reading, I would have t9 be
forthright. "He's the mayor," I said meekly.
It turns out this West Village psychic is a big Giuliani fan.
"He's made a new city; it's safe to walk the streets. He's the best
mayor we ever had," she told me, and then asked me to keep her
name out of the paper. Rats. Foiled again: Other psychics would-
n't even talk to me after I mentioned Giuliani's name-appar-
ently the mayor's information-contairunent machine works as
well in the next world as it does in this one.
I had to tap stronger powers. I traveled
uptown to the Parapsychology Foundation's
library on the genteel Upper East Side. In
an elegant blue suit and neatly coifed
hair, Director Joanne D.S. McMahon,
Ph.D., struck me as a kind of news-
caster from the beyond, albeit one
with a sense of humor. She pulled
several documents for me, and I
went to work.
At first I was disappointed.
"The American Prophesy
Project," a New York-based
newsletter, folded in 1990. A
quick glance through the three
chapters on Hellriders in ''The Millennium Book of Prophecy"
told me I was on the wrong track. No matter how much some
folks might dislike Rudy, it's doubtful he's actually the Anti-
Christ. (I did learn, however, that if you're planning a vacation to
the Euphrates, you might want to cancel. Apparently the region's
going to experience a tremendous flood of fire in the near future.)
Then I found it. Nostradamus! Of course the granddaddy of
all seers must have something to say. My suspicions were quick-
ly confmned. In "Centuries," he wrote, "Earthshaking fire from
the centre of the earth will cause tremors around the New City/
Two great rocks will war for a long time .. . " Substitute skyscrap-
ers for rocks, and it's obvious Nostradamus predicted the World
Trade Center bombing!
But what about the future? "A king shall be troubled by the
answer of a lady/ Ambassadors shall despise their lives! The great
one being vindicated shall counterfeit his brothers! They shall die
by two, anger, hatred and envy." This quatrain must be about
Giuliani-the romantic troubles, his rough treatment of U.N.
diplomats during the parking ticket flap. I take the "counterfeit his
brothers" to signify Rudy's non-Republican stances on immigra-
tion and abortion. "Die by two" might represent New York's two
U.S. Senators ... he is going to run for Moynihan's seat!
Then, further on, "Eyes shut, shall be opened by an antique
fancy/ The clothes of the solitary shall be brought to nothing!
The great monarch shall punish their frenzy/ For having rav-
ished the treasure of the temple before." I guess the city's
antique dealers and fashion industry-flush with cash from
Wall Street's bull market-are going to be taxed
anew. Let's hope the money goes for social
programs.
Exhausted, I thanked McMahon
and took my leave. But that night, in
restless sleep, my dreams were trou-
bled. A thin figure on horseback
rode toward me past toppling
towers, while truncheon-wield-
ing police rounded up hordes of
criminals. As he approached, he
pulled back his cowl to reveal a
face ravaged by pain, turned to
me and spoke: "You' re not going
to print all that crap about my
love life, are you?"
CITY LIMITS
Continued from page 37
OFFICE MANAGER/ASSISTANT needed for small rapidly growing national non-
profit that focuses on labor issues. (www.Workingtoday.org) Duties range from
daily of fice operations to overseeing intems/ volunteers. Undergrad degree,
offi ce admin experi ence, computer knowledge a must. Labor background pre-
ferred/ not essential. Salary commensurate w/ exp-full benefits. Fax resume:
212-366-6971.
PROGRAM DIRECTOR! SOCIAL WORKER, Permanent Housing for Formerly
Homeless Famil ies. Progressi ve social service agency seeks enthusiastic
self-starter to deliver services for women +children living in 15-unit build-
ing in East Harl em. MSW/ CSW with 2 years experience preferred or in lieu
of degree; additional experience including work with families, group work
and developing community in a housing setti ng. Ability to engage diverse
and pot entiall y resistant clients to identify and achieve goals, experience
with homelessness, housing, domestic violence, substance abuse, enti-
t lements, and other issues affecting poor, female-headed households.
Salary:$30,000. Send cover letter and resume immediately to Bill Groth,
Coali tion for t he Homeless, 89 Chambers St. NYC 10007, or fax: 212-964-
1206. No phone.
YOtITH ORGANIZER TRAINEE.. Looking for a youth (18-22) interested in being
trained in organizing ski ll s. Person shoul d be interested in social and eco-
nomic j ustice, community organizi ng and working with peers around job cre-
ation and higher education issues. Spanish speaking desired, but not
required. Young women, people of color, lesbian and gay youth are encour-
aged to apply. Salary $300 a week for at least 3 months, possibility of exten-
sion. Send resume and cover letter or a letter of interest tell ing us why you
want to be an organizer. CVH 115 E. 23rd St., 10th R., NYC 10010, 212-
533-6667. Fax: 212-674-1946.
Mature and experienced ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT for small non-profit orga-
nization. Excellent writing skills and computer knowledge are a must.
Organized and able to manage ongoing projects important. High energy and
a positive attitude needed. Excellent benefits, Salary $25,000+. An equal
opportunity employer. Please fax resume to: Ms. L.O.C., 212-87()'2464.
Neighbors Together, a CBO, operates second largest soup kitchen in
Brownsville Brooklyn seeking EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR immediately to manage
multi-service agency. Skills: Strong administrative, grant writing, public rela-
tions, fiscal and personnel management. Ability to work with Board, volunteers,
community members and governmental entities. Must posses minimum
BA/ BS with at least 3 years experience in supervisory position. Master degree
in business or social work a plus. Social justice orientation a big plus.
Extremely challenging and very rewarding. Salary: $30s range, 4 weeks vaca-
tion, full benefits. Send resume to: NT, P.O. Box 33()'562, Brooklyn, NY 11233.
Child Care, Inc., a major NYC child care resource and referral agency, seeks
a PROGRAM MANAGER for new Family Day Care Business Resource Center,
who will specialize in providing business, financial and technological assis-
tance to fami ly day care providers and networks. The manager must have
excellent communication skills, advanced computer skills and experience in
marketi ng or non-prof it busi ness development. Knowledge of child care in
NYC a plus. Position available immediately. Fax resume with list of refer-
ences and salary requirements to Nancy Kolben, 212-929-5785.
HOUSING DEVROPMENT COORDINATOR, FjT, with innovative, well-established
non-profit community development organization. High level of responsibility.
3 years residential development experience preferred. Send resume to
Housing Director, Isles, Inc., 10 Wood St., Trenton, NJ 08618.
Emmaus House, Inc., a not-for-profit community of formerly homeless persons
providing a variety of social services in East and Central Harlem, seeks a PR0-
GRAM DIRECTOR, Transitional Facility for Homeless (DHS). Provide overall man-
agement and supervision of 62-bed transitional housing facility and commu-
nity of homeless persons. Oversee nutritional, maintenance, security and clin-
ical services, as well as work closely with the Board of Directors to ensure
that the "Emmaus Way" (service with solidarity, personalism and communal
spirit) is followed in the delivery of all services. Qualifications: Advanced
degree (MSW preferred) with at least three years of supervisory experience in
a similar setting. Direct experience working with the homeless as well as
advocacy groups. Salary: $40,000 plus benefit s. Interested parties please
mai l resumes to: Executive Search Committee, Emmaus House, Inc., P.O. Box
1177, NYC 10035 or fax: 212-41Q.4377. No phone calls accepted.
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