Full Cycle

n case you missed it, November 16 was the Second Annual America Recycles Day. In
1
California, more than three dozen cities celebrated a statewide seven-year increase in
how much trash avoided the landfill.
New Yorks elected officials must have been deeply moved, because the next day the
long standoff over recycling between the City Council and Mayor Rudolph Giuliani ended.
The mayor agreed to begin weekly curbside pickup citywide in the spring of 2000. Its
months later than the council wanted, but they're happy that its going to happen at all.
Its good that there will be better service for the two-thirds of the city that currently
........ ---... -" ... ".-
makes do with a collection every other week. But the feud has
pushed aside all other recycling talk. The council has become so
obsessed with recycling tonnage that they aren't paying enough
attention to what actually happens to it. Giuliani has overhauled
EDITORIAL
everything from the welfare system to the police force, but when it
comes to recycling he just throws up his hands and says nothing can
be done.
The mayor justifies his cold shoulder by citing a weak demand
for recycled products. But his administration hasn't done anything
to spark demand. A city policy to purchase more products made from reclaimed materi-
als-such as recycled plastic wood park benches- would be a good start. So would a
plan for supporting businesses that use recycled materials, which, of course, would also
create jobs.
Giuliani also complains about the expense of curbside recycling. Thats partly because
the trucks are now coming in at the end of the day with room to spare. Better public edu-
cation, strict enforcement of the rules and regular collection would translate to more
paper, glass and cans at the curb, which would bring the cost per truckful way down. And
fewer garbage trucks would need to be dispatched-thats more savings.
Another good idea: Bring buy-back centers into neighborhoods, so people could get
some extra cash for their efforts and materials could be collected separately. Clean glass,
plastic and aluminum has more potential and so its worth more, which means more money
for the city when it sells the stuff.
Notice a theme? A lot of these ideas work best together. Taking the plunge and making
it all happen at once-with a lot of good materials coming in and lots of places they can
be used-is the best way to do this.
For starters, the council needs to take a hard look at the citys solid waste management
plan, which they have been waiting to ratify since April. Not surprisingly, few of the ideas
listed above are included. There's no more money for education or enforcement and a con-
spicuous hole where the 1996 version had a section on economic development.
The plan s goal is to raise residential recycling rates to 25 percent by 2000. I know we
need to get beyond percentages, but 1 can't help noting that California is currently recy-
cling 32 percent of its trash. Just so you know it can be done.
Cover photo by Mayita Mendez
Carl Vogel
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 Universal ist 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 Community Trust, The New York Foundation, The Taconic Foundation, M&T Bank, Citibank, and Chase Manhattan Bank.
-
(ity Limits
Volume XXIV Number 1
City Limits is publi shed ten times per year. monthly except
bi -monthly issues in Junel July and August/September. by
the City Limits Community Information Service. Inc . a non-
profit organization devoted to disseminating information
concerning neighborhood revitalization.
Publisher: Kim Nauer
Editors: Glenn Thrush. Carl Vogel
Associate Editors: Kemba Johnson, Kathl een McGowan
Contributing Editors: James Bradley, Michael Hirsch.
Andrew White
Interns: Juan Castillo. Aaron Clark
Desi gn Direction: James Conrad. Paul V. Leone. Dana
Elefant
Advertising Representative: John Ullmann
Proofreaders: Anne Arkush,Sandy Socolar, Jill Zuccardy
Photographers: Aaron Lee Fineman. Mayita Mendez
Center for an Urban Future:
Director: Neil Kleiman
Research Associate: Drew Kiri zaides
Board of Directors*:
Beverly Cheuvront. Girl Scout Counci l of Greater NY
Francine Justa. Neighborhood Housing Services
Rebecca Rei ch. LlSC
Andrew Reicher, UHAB
Tom Robbins. Journalist
Celia Irvine. ANHD
Pete Williams, National Urban League
"Affiliations for identification only.
Sponsors:
Pratt Institute Center for Community
and Environmental Development
Urban Homesteading Assistance Board
Subscription rates are: for individuals and community
groups, $25/0ne Year. $391Two Years; for businesses.
foundations. banks. government agencies and libraries.
$35/0ne Year. $50lTwo Years. Low income. unemployed.
$1 OIOne Year.

City Limits welcomes comments and article contributions.
Please include a stamped, self-addressed envelope for return
manuscripts. Material in City Limits does not necessarily
reflect the opinion of the sponsoring organizations. Send
correspondence to: City Limits. 120 Wall Street. 20th A .
New Yor1c. NY 10005. Postmaster. Send address changes to
City Limits. 120 Wall Street. 20th Fl.. New Yor1c. NY 10005.
Subscriber complaints call : 1-800-783-4903
Periodical postage paid
New York. NY 10001
City Limits (lSSN 0199-03301
(2121479-3344
FAX (2121344-6457
e-mail: CL@Citylimits.org
On the Web: www.cityl imits.org
Copyright 1999. All Rights Reserved. No
portion or portions of this journal may be reprinted with-
out the express permission of the publishers.
City Limits is indexed in the Altemative Press
Index and the Avery Index to Architectural
Periodicals and is available on microfilm from UniverSity
Microfilms International, Ann Arbor. MI 48106.
CITY LIMITS
JANUARY 1999
SUNSET PARK
The View
A neighborhood that changes by the minute. By Glenn
The Doctors
On Fifth Avenue, medical care is an impulse purchase. By Sandy Fernandez
The Ladies
The Scandanavian women who have run their co-op for seven decades know they
like their pastries sweet and their tea spiked with vodka. They're just not sure
that letting the Danes into the building was such a good idea. By Leslie Jay
The Night: A Photo Essay
Salsa, skipping rope, smoky bars and baseball bats. A neighborhood comes out after
sunset. By Aaron Lee Fineman
The Kid
For Ka Ming Lau, leaving Hong Kong was easy-negotiating English
and a demanding father have proven more difficult. By Lucio. Hwang
The Waterfront
When Bob Moses built the Gowanus Expressway in 1941, he split up
South Brooklyn, condemned a major commercial strip-and created a
safe haven for industry in Sunset Park. By Kathleen McGowan
The Teacher
He's a karate instructor, founder of a local newspaper and a neighborhood
organizer. If Joe Lopez can't solve your problem, he' ll adopt a profession that can.
By Kemba Johnson
COMMENTARY
Review 134
Nuts to Soup By Theresa Funiciello
Cityview 136
Standards Delivery By Noreen ConneU
Spare Change 142
Ain't Patrick By Carl Vogel
DEPARTMENTS
Editorial 2 Ammo 35
Letters 4
Job Ads :n
Briefs 5
Professional
Directory 38


Cly. a Llltl.
LETTERS i (Tax) CrHlt
-..w ...... -l' I am writing in reply to 'The Buck
substantial portion of its low-income hous-
ing tax credits directly to New York City,
and (2) New York City receives its own
HOME funds directly from the federal
government (so state HOME funds are
supposed to go elsewhere).
Stops There: Pataki Pumps NYS's
Housing Cash Update" (August!
September, 1998), in which I am quoted
out of context in a manner that is unfairly
critical of the New York State Housing
Trust Fund and low-income housing tax
credit allocations.
The Fifth Avenue Committee definitely
feels that New York City-with half the
state's population and a much higher share
of housing poverty, by any defInition-
deserves a share of state and federal hous-
ing resources proportional to its high level
of need. However, the article is quite
unfair to the New York State Division of
Housing and Community Renewal
(DHCR) and the NYS Housing Trust
Fund, at a time when they are one of the
few places working creatively to address
the ongoing housing crisis.
To begin with, the article omits the crit-
ical facts that (1) DHCR sub-allocates a
More importantly, the article misses the
story that, as part of this round of alloca-
tions, DHCR created two brand new hous-
ing initiatives: the Senior Housing
Initiative and the Tax Exempt Bond Credit
Initiative. At a time when there is little cre-
ativity or new funding for affordable hous-
ing, DHCR found another way to package
state grant funds, tax credits and bonding
capacity to create brand new programs that
brought over $12 million of new resources
into New York City.
Finally, the NYS Housing Trust Fund
and HOME grants remain the only signifI-
cant source of subsidy for NYC communi-
ty-based housing organizations seeking to
design their own community-designed
models of affordable housing (New York's
Department of Housing Preservation and
Specializing in
Community Development Groups,
HDFCs and
Low .. Cost Insurance and Quality Service.
NANCY HARDY
Insurance Broker
Over 20 Years of Experience.
270 North Avenue, New Rochelle, NY 10801
914 .. 654 .. 8667
Development and the federal Department
of Housing and Urban Development use
their subsidy dollars in programs which
they define). The NYS-HOME grant,
which we receive, is enabling us to devel-
op three-bedroom cooperatives, affordable
to families below 80 percent of area medi-
an income for New York City, where low-
income families can build up significant
equity without speculating on increasing
property values. This is just what we need
in our community.
While City Limits should certainly
investigate whether politics drives the allo-
cation of public resources, the investiga-
tions should be balanced-this article does
not quote anyone at all from DHCR or the
NYS-HTF to explain the allocations.
Furthermore, you should be willing to give
credit where it is due-even to public
agencies!
Brad Lander; Executive Director
Fifth Avenue Committee
Brooklyn, NY
CI.nn Thrush r.pll.s: Brad
Lander's claim that we didn't credit the
state for creating a new senior housing
initiative is wrong. We did say it's new.
Our criticism is based on the fact that New
York City received only 10 percent of the
$9 million slated for the program. In fact,
the piece does not reference-much less
criticize-the state Division of Housing
and Community Renewal (DHCR), as
Lander says. The article detailed GOP
state Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno's
legislative decision to channel a dispro-
portionate amount of housing money to
upstate counties. That's why we quoted
Bruno's flack and not the state's PR
types-who, by the way, hardly ever return
our calls when we do contact them.
Hom.Work.n
Car.
I am writing on behalf of House
Parents, a group of home workers virtu-
ally silent in your story "No One To
Watch Over Me" (November, 1998).
While Wendy Davis is correct in describ-
ing the current problems in these homes,
if she had spoken to the workers, she
would have learned that we have been
(continued on page 37)
CITY LIMITS
City Hospitals
Ward Healer
W
oodhull hospital is doing some
housecleaning, and City Limits
got the bill.
Last June, City Limits pub-
lished the observations of an
undercover reporter sent in to document poor con-
ditions at Woodhull Medical and Mental Health
Center's psychiatric unit. Since then, the Bushwick
hospital has started making some major improve-
ments.
But we didn't get a thank-you card. Instead, we
got a bill for $8,400-sent straight to our publisher.
Last January, City Limits reporter Kevin
Heldman spent seven-and-a-half days posing as a
mental patient at Woodhull. During his time inside
the 133-bed facility, Heldman lived like any other
patient, co'ping with lousy conditions and half-
hearted care, and getting charged $1,400 a day. The
JANUARY 1999
bed frames were filthy. The walls and floor were
stained with scum. The bathroom was flooded so
often that patients had to lay bed sheets on the floor
to soak up the water.
But perhaps the most annoying-and symbol-
ic-part of life in the hospital was the nursing station.
Caged in Plexiglas, nurses and doctors would spend
most of their time inside the station, physically and
emotionally barricaded away from the patients.
Now, the six stations are coming down. As part of
a major renovation effort, the hospital is removing
the Plexiglas cages. To fix the leaky toilets and show-
ers, the bathrooms are being gutted and replaced.
Hallways are being repainted and detailed with sten-
ciling. Patients' rooms are getting new paint and
more shelving. Even the garden area is to be spruced
up, with new benches and plants. Renovations for
each unit will take about one month; the repairs are
slated to be finished by March.
Attorney Perry Habib, who represents Woodhull
patients for the state-run Mental Hygiene Legal
Services, says the changes have already improved
the quality of life on the ward. "From my eye, it
seems more pleasant. There's a feeling of openness,
less of a fortress mentality," says Habib.
Hospital officials wouldn't confirm whether the
sudden spate of renovations is in response to the arti-
cle, which gamered accolades from the American
Psychiatric Association and won a letter of praise
from noted neurologist Oliver Sacks. But back in
May, Woodhull executive director Cynthia
Carrington-Murray promised City Limits that the
problems we uncovered would be investigated and
addressed "We' re looking into the allegations in the
article," Carrington-Murray said. "We' re looking at
what we have done and what we plan to do. Some of
it is worth looking at. We' re meeting with staff to
identify the things we need to work on."
But even though the press office couldn't tell us
who was responsible for the renovations, their billing
department knew what the article was worth: $8,400
for Heldman's seven-and-a-half days.
-Kemba lohnson
Briem .. --.... ----------.. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ~
Bronx History
Build, Baby,
Build
O
n a recent November night, the old
Bronx came back to life in a
Manhattan College auditorium in the
new Bronx. Projected on a lO-foot
screen was a video of a huge fire
engulfing an entire apartment building. Twelve
storytellers sat on stage, and as the flames con-
sumed the building, they repeated five words:
"Smoke. Ashes. Broken glass. Confusion."
The trial-by-fire that nearly destroyed the
Bronx tWo decades ago is probably the country's
best-known urban horror story. But the narrators
on stage, all members of the Northwest Bronx
Community and Clergy Coalition, have grown to
think of the fires as an almost biblical event, a cat-
aclysm that made it possible to create a new
. ~
~ world. This perforrnance-<:elebrating the 25th
~ anniversary of the community group-recognized

the people who, refusing to abandon the borough,
built it into the new Bronx.
The audience, mostly students born well after
the coalition started up in 1974, looked non-
plussed. But that didn't dampen the spirits of the
story-tellers. One of the coalition members
recalled a flyer that a local Citibank branch slipped
in to customers' monthly bank statements back in
the late 1970s. It was an ad for a "Get Moving Kit,"
encouraging people to apply for mortgage loans in
other counties-where they were easier to get The
branch soon closed up shop and, by 1980, some
300,000 residents followed it out of the borough.
But the coalition stayed, bringing in $100 mil-
lion in loans to rehabilitate buildings like the one
Dalma De La Rosa used to live in. At the perfor-
mance, she recalled the freezing cold nights when
she and her neighbors were forced to leave their
ovens on for heat, and use garden hoses and near-
by hydrants to pipe in water.
She also recalled city officials who didn't
believe her when she described her situation and
remembered how quickly she set them straight
"The one thing I'm telling you," she said,
straight-faced on this stage in the new Bronx,
"never tell a short Puerto Rican she's a liar."
-Aaron Clark
Dalma de La osa
freezing mght; and lack
ning waler that made her
apartment unlivable 20 yean ago.
About Town
Wasted
Night
4.
t a recent black-tie, $375-a-plate din-
ner, a major Bronx economic devel-
opment agency honored the head of a
garbage firm that has been accused of
bribery and fined millions for envi-
ronmental violations.
At the October benefit in a swanky midtown
hotel, the South Bronx Overall Economic
Development Corporation (SOBRO) presented
John Drury, CEO of Waste Management Inc., with
its Corporate Business Award. Drury got the honor
because WMI has pledged to contract truckers
from SOBRO's job-training program, the Harlem
River Transport Company, which helps local resi-
dents get commercial drivers' licenses.
WMI recently won two city garbage contracts
worth $219 million and is a prime candidate for
the lucrative long-term garbage export deals now
being awarded by the city sanitation department
But WMI has a dirty past Between 1980 and
1990, the company was slapped with more than
600 citations for pollution violations, for which it
paid $45 million.
Officials at the company also have been inves-
tigated by the FBI in Texas and have been accused
of bribing public officials in at least three other
states. According to one investigation by the San
Diego District Attomey's office, WMI "engages in
practices designed to gain influence over our gov-
ernment officials .. .for its own business ends."
At this event, Bronx Congressman Jose
Serrano and Bronx Borough President Fernando
Ferrer were listed as honorary co-chairs. That
worried local community groups, even though
neither politician showed up.
''For me to know that Serrano is rubbing
elbows together with Drury really disgusts me,"
says Bruce Burgos of Mothers on the Move,
which protested the event. Ferrer's press office
denied that the BP was in bed with WMI, calling
the accusation "nonsensical." Serrano's office did
not return calls.
SOBRO president Phillip Morrow defends the
garbage giant's presence in the Bronx. "I think
that garbage itself is not a pollutant," he says.
"We're not burning garbage-it's all compacted
and shipped out. I don't see much difference
between that and garbage trucks going up and
down a neighborhood street." Morrow also prais-
es WMI for helping to oust the mob from the
garbage industry. "They're a $13-billion compa-
ny," he points out 'They have to be responsible
corporate citizens." -Aaron Clark
CITVLlMITS
...... ----------.... --------------.. Briem
IN THE F\lTURE EVERYONE WIll. BE GRANTED A CITY PERMIT TO HAVE

a
A TICKER TAPE PARADE FOR 15 MINUTES
Public Health
Cracked
Assumptions
W
hatever happened to all the crack
babies we used to hear about?
Apparently not a whole lot,
according to a new report from
researchers who have surveyed
more than 100 studies on cocaine-exposed children.
Newspapers in the 1980s were full of horrify-
ing stories of crack-abusing mothers and new-
borns who were underweight, shaky, and cried
incessantly. Estimates of national birth rates of
cocaine-exposed babies range from 45,000 to
more than 375,000 a year.
Fifteen years have passed since the height of
the crack epidemic, but today the results hardly
look cataclysmic: According to the study, cocaine-
exposed youth have slightly poorer language abil-
ities and score, on average, 3.26 points lower on
IQ tests. In other words, the dire predictions that
crack babies would suffer from major develop-
mental problems have not come to pass.
''When you look at a lot of kids, you do find
some kids who are damaged, but they are a small
JANUARY 1999
percentage," says study co-author Barry Lester,
the director of the infant development center at
Brown University's School of Medicine. "And it's
not severe brain damage, but the kind of problems
that with early intervention can be corrected."
Still, the researchers point out, these subtle dif-
ferences may have big public health conse-
quences. A small average decrease in IQ is enough
to increase by half the number of youth needing
In Memoriam
rg
=
special education. Depending on the size of the
population exposed to cocaine as babies, that
could cost up to $352 million a year nationwide.
And for kids growing up in poverty, explains
Lester, small IQ deficits can be harder to over-
come. "It has to be interpreted in context," he
says. "If you add cocaine to poverty, it can be dou-
ble or triple jeopardy."
-Kathleen McGowan
REV. JAMES DANIEL JR. (1943-1998)
The Rev. James Daniel Jr., who died of cancer on October 13 at the age of 55,
long preached the gospel of economic empowerment from his Ecclesiastic
Church of God and Christ in Fort Greene, Brooklyn. With organizations like the
21st Century Partnership and neighborhood workshops dealing with everything
from home loans to the Community Reinvestment Act, Daniel opened up the eso-
teric world of credit and banking. HHis work was about empowerment, spread-
ing the wealth, and the education of our people around finances, which is des-
perately needed," says the Rev. Joseph Washington, chairman of the
Organization for New Equality. HHe will be missed not only in the religious com-
munity but in the nonprofit empowerment community as well."
I
,
000, 000
Construction loan
Development Of Supermarket
Harlem Community
An
investment
195,000
FinancinC} For Renovation
156 HousinO Units
Hunts Point
Bronx Community
!AB.
!AB.
with invaluable
\ returns.
\
At EAB Community Development Corporation, we're constandy
working with private and public entities to turn limited resources into
powerful tools for improving communities in New York City. And so far it's
working. Through partnerships with organizations such as the New York City
Housing Partnership, Neighborhood Housing Services of New York City and
Abyssinnian Development Corporation, EAB Community Development
Corporation has provided moderate income New Yorkers with affordable
housing opportunities, as well as economic development for communities as a
whole. To find out what else is possible with EAB's Community Development
Corporation, call Diane Borradaile at 212-370-8547.
Member ABN AMRO Group

-

"-
flnanci no for Renovation
1&5 Hous1T'IQ Units
Bed ford-Stuy .... esant
Brooklyn Community
!AB.
..

...
Construction loan
IlZ Senior Cihzen HouslIlQ Units
Day Care facl1ity
Hempstead Community
!AB.
There's a reason people bank
1998 EAB Member FDIC. Equal Opportunity Lender.
one
where you can stand on green
f
see America.
From Sunset Park you can look at the New Jersey horizon
opening onto the flat blue sky, with the little jets taking off
from Newark Airport muddying the air behind them, and
get the impression that America's out there somewhere.
Sunset Park-the park, not the neighborhood-is a set
on a hillock, and rises sharply, maybe 150 feet up from a
Key Food on 5th Avenue. It terminates, 23 acres later, at
7th Avenue. In between are worn benches, Hondurans
winging rubber basketballs, a huge WPA public swim-
ming pool and mothers pushing strollers through the
winding pathways.
It is a beautiful place, full of undistracted conversation
and dogs breaking free of their leashes to run up the
park's long hill.
With the exception of Green-Wood Cemetery (which
is of limited use to its year-round residents), Sunset Park
sits on the highest point in all of Brooklyn. Which is a
good thing too, considering that most of the city has no
idea that this, its most interesting neighborhood, even
exists. If ever a place needed the elevation, it's this one.
--
Sunset Park has never staked out a single, coherent identity
If entire nationalities ebb and flow like commuters
t
he neighborhood seems like it was created to be overlooked. It is jammed between four ostentatious neighbors.
To the west is the sprawling waterfront, with its broad vistas of the lower harbor. Tenth Avenue is the eastern bor-
der leading into the noisy and politically powerful Jewish enclave of Borough Park. To the south is Bay Ridge, the
stubborn heart of white Catholic Irish and Italian Brooklyn, with more bars per square mile, its denizens claim, than
any place west of Limerick. Even Green-Wood Cemetery to the west is the final neighborhood of notables ranging
from Mae West to Boss Tweed.
Sunset Park has never staked out a single, coherent identity because it has never had the lUXUry. It has
always been a place where poor workers chased subsistence. When there were jobs, they moved in. When
better work could be had elsewhere, they moved on. In terms of ethnicity, Sunset Park is rented by the
generation.
For most of the last 150 years, immigrants came for jobs on the waterfront. By the middle
of the 19th century, the sea trades outgrew the cramped quays of Red Hook, and docks
began expanding southward along the long stretch of shoreline between the Atlantic
Terminal and Bay Ridge.
With the docks came stevedores-Norwegians, Irish, Finns, Italians and
Poles. The waterfront, as it was in Red Hook and the Navy Yard, was a
no-rnans-Iand of boilermakers, by-the-night flops, union halls and
whorehouses.
But it was also a great economic engine, especially
after the construction of the massive Bush Terminal
in 1895 and the Brooklyn Army Terminal 18
years later. These facilities housed hundreds
of companies and warehouses with
tens of thousands of employees-
at its height, the Bush
Terminal served 25
steamship lines and had
its own power plants, rail
system and police force.
Wars have always been good
to Sunset Park. During the Great
War, trade boomed and 3rd Avenue
blossomed into Little Scandinavia's
Broadway, lined with luncheonettes,
candy stores and movie theaters. Up the hill,
past 5th Avenue, grew Finn Town with its sig-
nature co-ops built by hand, materials paid for
with cash-in-hand.
The docks and the neighborhood had a symbiotic
relationship. A planner from Yale ended that by deciding
CITVLlMITS
,
because it has never had the luxury.
in Grand Central, imagine how anyone person feels.
that Sunset Park was too haphazardly laid out and inconvenient to the motor-
car. In 1941, Robert Moses put a six-lane highway called the Gowanus
Expressway on the pylons of the old 3rd Avenue elevated, creating a mon-
strosity that choked off almost all light and air from 3rd Avenue and hastened
the flight of Scandinavians from the neighborhood.
But the neighborhood would have declined after its World War II boom
even if Bob Moses had died in the crib. By mid-century, the greatest years of
the city's manufacturing and shipping days were over. Starting in 1950, the
Army Terminal rapidly laid off all but 1,100 of its 40,000 workers. Factories
closed, Bush Terminal's trade dropped precipitously into the 196Os, and,
eventually even the bars and whorehouses skulked away. In the end, Little
Scandinavia died too.
t
here had been a small Puerto Rican community in Sunset Park since the
1920s, mostly made up offactory workers. Their numbers held steady at
about 2 percent of the neighborhood's 100,000 residents as late as 1950.
Then, in the mid-1950s, Puerto Rico's rural economy failed, and a massive
wave of immigration began. By 1970, about 40 percent of Sunset Park was
Puerto Rican.
But the new residents inherited the same problems that had pushed out
most of the Swedes, Finns and Norwegians: the loss of low or unskilled jobs
in local factories and on the waterfront. By the 1970s, some 22 percent of the
neighborhood's residents were on welfare, and problems with drugs, alco-
holism and gang violence came to the fore. Seventh Avenue, another thriving
commercial strip, saw many businesses go under. It was rezoned residential
and its stores bricked over.
But if the Scandinavian story is one of prosperity followed by a long, slow
decline, the Hispanic history seems to be moving in the opposite direction.
Starting in the mid-1960s, largely fueled by the community development and
Puerto Rican pride movements, the city and local groups began to reclaim and
renovate housing and the neighborhood's institutions. The flagship effort was
the 1969 construction of the new Lutheran Medical Center in an old water-
front factory building.
Then, starting in the mid-1980s, there came the avalanche of immigrants
that has come to completely overwhelm any easy characterization of the
neighborhood. Dominicans, Mexicans, Ecuadorians and Hondurans now
occupy many of the cheaper apartments between 3rd and 5th avenues and
have become the low-wage foot soldiers of city's service industry-green-
grocery workers, car service drivers, deliverymen.
At the same time, the Chinese enclaves that have always existed up on 8th
JAHUARY 1999
Avenue and down by the Gowanus Expressway have exploded. Eighth, which
was the heart of the old Polish section, now features 10 blocks of half-hidden
garment factories, massive Chinatown-style dim sum palaces and live fish
markets that blur the line between pet shop and food mart. The Chinese, like the
Puerto Ricans, have also drawn other immigrants from their part of the world:
Malaysians, Vietnamese, Koreans, Indonesians, Filipinos.
l
iving in Sunset Park for two years was the most invigorating experience
I've had in New York, and I'm from Brooklyn. There were nights I
remember coming up the hill from the N Train on 4th Avenue, sometimes a
little drunk, passing by one crowded sidestreet church, which always had a
chair propping the door open. From time to time, somebody would ask me in,
but I don't speak Spanish, so I never did. On 8th Avenue in the daytime, I'd
hear a chorus of Brooklyn accents and looking up, notice that the three peo-
ple talking were Irish, Chinese and Dominican.
It was an emotional rush, but I was basically an outsider, so the rush would
wear off. New York is famous for merciless change, but most neighborhoods
have an order, a logic of place programmed into their pavement. But change
seems to hit Sunset Park too quickly for even semi-permanent order to be
established. Too many different kinds of people are jammed into too small of
a space; the shifts are constant and subtle. If entire nationalities ebb and flow
like commuters in Grand Central, imagine how anyone person feels.
Fifth Avenue has been handed over to the Puerto Ricans, the Dominicans
and now the Mexicans, but there are vestigial Irish remnants: bars, lawyers
offices, funeral parlors. They function in oblivion, more or less-no one has-
sles them, it's their neighborhood, too. But they are clearly past their time,
arrested and uncool, like a 22-year-old still stuck in high school. In a few
decades, the Puerto Rican shops will probably feel the same.
A few years back, I was quietly eating at a Polish diner on 8th Avenue
when a mat of firecrackers detonated just outside. I hadn't known it was
Chinese New Year. As a goof, three men in a dragon suit started whipping the
tail against the plate glass. I looked around and everyone else in the place had
laid aside their forkfuls of red cabbage in amazement. You could literally hear
the clock on the wall ticking.
Not long after, I woke up the morning after a candlelit dinner and walked
out in front of my building off 7th Avenue to [md a police cordon and a bou-
quet of flowers laying in a rusty stain. One of the neighbors said, "A 14-year-
old boy got shot here. Didn't you hear it?"
I didn't. I was living in a different neighborhood.
-Glenn Thrush
-
Win ow sopping r medical care.
S
hopping along 5th Avenue is a loud experience. The noise is
loud, and the colors are loud.
Stores compete to display their wares as boldly as they can, often
on tables that spill out onto the street In front of wide-open store-
fronts or huge shop windows, hawkers beckon those hustling by.
Many stores sport the red, green and white flag of Mexico,
better to entice a population that seems to be growing by the
day. In La Placita on the 61st block of 5th, shoppers pick up
hard-to-find items that remind them of home: dried avocado
leaves, "Maizteca" brand corn tortillas straight from Mexico,
jars of pickled nopales verdes-a cactus-like leaf found in
warmer climes.
But one business needs no hawkers, no flamboyant visual or
verbal allure. Apart from a few catchy optometrist's displays,
most of the storefront medical offices along 5th Avenue are
fronted by stark black-on-white signs: ''Dentist, Medicaid and
All InsurancelDentista, Medicaid y Todo Seguro," or just
"Medical Dental."
From 45th Street to 59th Street, almost no block wants for
a storefront clinic. There are 20 in all, and some blocks have
as many as three clustered together. "Compared to 4th Avenue
or 8th Avenue, more people come over here, more people
walk around over here on 5th Avenue," explains pediatrician
Tajammal Gilani, who has been practicing at 57th Street for
11 years. As he speaks, a young mother comes in with a
worried look and her infant daughter in shiny black Mary
Janes and a frilly pink: dress. "Fifth," he says, "is a main
shopping area."
In Sunset Park, medical care is all about shopping-
window shopping.
That's because many of the patients who use the
clinics often have no referrals, no appointments, no
enticement to enter a doctor's office other than its
location, an empty waiting room and the fact that it
takes Medicaid.
"We have a lot of working poor in this area," says Frank Monk, who runs
an Ob-Gyn clinic in the neighborhood. 'They need to be able to walk in off
the street and be treated for the flu, as opposed to waiting around a hospital
for hours and hours. These are people who don't have the kind of jobs where
they can take a day off to drag the kids to the doctor. It's got to be convenient
or they won' t come."
a
t a pediatrician's office on 54th Street, a 28-year-old Mexican woman
explains in agitated Spanish that she comes here because she was given
rushed, wrong advice for her 5-year-old daughter at a city hospital. "I refused
to accept their medication and their asthma pump," says the woman, who
asked that her name not be used.
The hospital's treatment only worsened her daugher's condition, she
says. 'They make serious decisions like that after very short examina-
tions," she adds, as her daughter bounds around the waiting room. "Since
I started bringing her here, [this doctor] takes more time with her and she
got better."
Getting quality health care-or any health care at all-is a big issue for
Latinos. A Census Bureau study released this year revealed that 34 percent of
Hispanics had no health insurance, compared with 16 percent of the overall
population. Latino men have lower rates of insurance coverage than any other
demographic group.
Still, only a small fraction of the patients who visit the 5th Avenue offices
have no coverage at all. Most of the neighborhood's undocumented aliens,
doctors say, keep away from medical care until they are really sick, and then
they head for the local emergency room.
The 5th Avenue doctors and dentists make most of their money off of
Medicaid-eligible patients. But even the insured patients usually don't show
up unless someone in their families gets very ill-access to preventative
check-ups and screenings is another catagory where Latinos lag far behind the
national average.
This makes medical life on 5th Avenue a sort of controlled chaos. More
often than not, the offices are jammed with mothers and their coughing chil-
dren. People stumble in whenever there's a crisis.
"No two days are ever the same here," says Dr. Bernard Weitz, sitting in
CITVLlMITS
- I
the optometrist's office he shares on the 48th block of 5th Avenue. He recalls
a recent Friday, when his office was called because a man working at a near-
by factory had been poked in the eye with a box comer.
"I see all sorts of diseases and unusual eye conditions," Weitz says.
'That's what makes my job extremely interesting."
a
practice on 5th also can be lucrative.
Even with recent competition from hospitals opening networks of
storefront offices, the demand for the offices seems to have held steady.
Renee Giordano, head of the Sunset Park Business Improvement District,
reports that despite increasing rents, the number of clinics has remained pret-
ty much constant. '.'A couple closed down during the last year," she says,
"and a couple opened up."
The strip has earned a reputation in Latino New York, attracting patients from
other parts of Brooklyn and Queens. 'There's a doctors' row in Bay Ridge,
there's a doctors' row here," says Dr. Peter Lama, who opened his dental prac-
tice on the 61st block of 5th Avenue just a few months ago. "It's tradition."
JA ... UARY 1999
The popularity of the clinics can, in part, be chalked up to the patients' cul-
tural frame of reference. In Latin American countries, HMOs are rare, and it's
not uncommon for primary care to consist of a trip to a local pharmacist for
a handful of pills. 'This neighborhood is almost like a small town," says Dr.
Louis Jablin, who has been a 5th Avenue podiatrist for nearly 19 years. "And
I'm like a small-town doctor."
More to the point, Sunset Park is one of the few neighborhoods left in
New York where a doctor is still a small businessman.
Dr. Weitz, in addition to examining patients, also sells them glasses and
contact lenses. When a young Mexican man in his late teens, newly arrived
from Texas, comes in for an exam to update his eyeglass prescription, Weitz
careens between two roles. With a baggy-jeaned friend translating, the kid
asks if he can replace only one lens-so he can use the money he'll save to
afford a pair of Polo frames.
"Think about what you want," Weitz advises. "Do you want to see or
be seen?"
-Sandy Fernandez
...
W
here does a freelance writer go when her South Slope rent
is rising faster than her income? Sunset Park. A decade
ago, I invested my life savings in a co-op apartment on the comer
of 47th Street and 7th Avenue. I didn't realize it at the time, but
for $68,000, I inherited a small share of New York City's
Scandinavian history.
In 1989, when I moved in, my 16-unit building harbored eight
opinionated widows-four Swedish, four Norwegian. When the
regular mailman took a day off, his replacements couldn't cope:
Two mailboxes were designated, Swedish-style, "Anderson,"
another two were labeled with the Norwegian and Danish version,
"Andersen." The ladies, as they were known collectively, had been
here for decades; five had raised families within the building and
acted as courtesy aunts to each other's children.
After my first few months there, I accepted my first co-op
responsibility: collecting maintenance fees. The younger owners
would slip a check under my door. But the ladies all had "rent
books," a carryover from an era when shareholders made payments
in cash. Whoever collected maintenance would sign each owner's
rent book for verification. This ritual required a personal visit and,
almost invariably, a libation.
I started on the first floor with Ranne. Our routine was to wash
down a plate of home-baked cookies with Jack Daniels or aquavit,
a potent Nordic mash flavored with caraway seed. A billy club,
suspended by its leather thong, dangled from the door of the liquor
cabinet; I guess her husband had been a cop.
Jenny, on the second floor, had straight soda for me. She never
got used to the fact that I was left-handed. ''Tsk, tsk, they didn't
switch you," she would mutter, shaking her head. Melancholy
Clara, next door, would meet me with supper on a tray. Her pas-
tel-colored apartment was filled with photographs of her only
son, who had died in Vietnam.
"Bah! He flew his plane into a mountain twenty years ago,"
said Elisabeth whenever I expressed concern about Clara.
Elisabeth, owner of the third floor flat right below mine,
would settle me on the green velvet couch in her perfectly
arranged living room, pour a glass of liqueur and pass me
three rent books. The first was her own, the second belonged
to her younger sister Signe, who lived below her, and the
third was for Asta, the second-floor recluse.
Fourth floor. I would find Selma and Hulda in the lat-
ter's apartment, watching television. "Have something
hot," Hulda would urge, bringing me a cup of tea liber-
ally seasoned with vodka. Her furniture was a jumble of
discards that were propped up, pieced together or sim-
t
les
ply covered with an afghan. Her husband had been a sailor, so her proudest
possessions were his bosun's whistle, the flag that had draped his casket,
and his gallstones, rattling in an old pill bottle.
t
o Manhattanites, Sunset Park is the low-rent district between Park
Slope and Bay Ridge. If the exact borders are debatable, its diversity
isn't. But 80 years ago, much of the neighborhood spoke with Nordic
accents.
The Scandinavian influence lingers in the names of local institutions:
the Marien Heim retirement home, Finlandia Street, Lutheran hospital. This
CITY LIMITS
legacy also includes some of New York's oldest worker-built cooperative
apartment houses such as mine, the Bay View Home Association. These are
among the very few places left in the neighborhood where you can still
encounter living Scandinavians.
I should exercise caution when mixing "Scandinavians." They would.
Finns, Swedes, Norwegians and Danes may appear culturally interchange-
able, but they keep their distinct identities; a few centuries back, their coun-
tries were invading each other.
Those conflicts were quite apparent in Sunset Park in the teens and twen-
ties, when Finnish immigrants erected a series of sturdy four-story apartment
buildings, a couple dozen in all.
Before groundbreaking, each family
agreed to kick in several hundred
dollars and monthly payments, as
well as lots of sweat equity. In
return, they enjoyed home owner-
ship, a rare privilege for stevedores
and tradesmen and the cooks and
seamstresses they married.
Peace reigned
"Do you want some water? A cup of tea?" I asked.
"Ne tak." Clearly, this was ''No thanks," but I wanted her to keep speak-
ing in English, in case her symptoms worsened before the paramedics arrived.
"I don't understand Swedish," I reminded her.
"NORWEGIAN!" she barked.
Another time, 85-year-old Selma was celebrating her admission to the
local Swedish Club. Why hadn't she joined earlier? "Well, her husband was
Danish," said Hanne, a fellow Swede.
h
y the time I moved into the neighborhood, these old arguments were
more warmed over than heated. The 8th Avenue Chinatown was
engulfing the dwindling Scandinavian community. One of the last Nordic
businesses, the Atlantic Diner, became a Chinese restaurant in the early
1990s. Still, so many people-many of them Jewish, Italian, Irish or Puerto
Rican-still requested meatballs, pot roast and prune compote that the pro-
prietor added them to the menu, transforming the Wee Kee into a Norwegian-
Chinese eatery.
Even though half of the Atlantic's Nordic patrons may have come from
my building, I didn't need to make the trip. My stove wasn't connected when
until shareholders
tried to sell apart-
ments to non-
I should be careful
JANUARY 1999
Finns. For exam- when mixing "Scandinavians."
ple, Bay View
Home was origi-
nally part of
They would be.
Victory Home Association, a two-
building co-op. Shortly after its con-
struction around 1916, Victory split
in half. One building-no one
remembers which-decided to
admit Swedish-speaking people
from Finland, a clear broach of the
tacit Nordic apartheid. Over the
years, the buildings gradually diver-
sified to include full-blown Swedes,
Norwegians, Danes, even non-
northerners like me. But the old fault
lines occasionally reappear.
During my first year, Clara, who
had a hip problem, had fallen and I
was summoned to help her get up.
She was too uncomfortable to move,
so I called an ambulance instead.
I moved in, so everyone fed me, especially Selma, whose cheerfully cluttered
apartment stood cater-cornered from mine. I inhaled tiny meat balls in gravy,
delicately fried fish, open-faced sandwiches that were almost too pretty to eat.
Waffles still warm from the iron, or cold, topped with jelly. Freshly baked
goods that seemed to be made with more butter than flour.
More hazardous fare was dished out by my next-door neighbor, Hulda,
who liquefied anything that could stimulate digestion. "You sit around all day,
I figured you might need help," she told me, after I'd gulped down a cabbage-
prune frappe. I learned to sip her offerings with a great display of enthusiasm
and then, once her back was turned, pour them down the sink.
It gives me no pleasure to report that I haven't had to cope with Hulda's
cocktails for several years. She grew too frail and, like Clara and Asta before
her, moved into a nursing home. A decade, I have come to realize, is a long
time. Jenny and Hanne died in their nineties. Someone else collects the main-
tenance these days. But it's the rare week when I don' t get a treat from
Elisabeth, Signe or Selma. Indeed, I don't know how I'd live without them.
I plan to pass them off as my grandmothers at my wedding next spring.
-Leslie Jay
M,
Midnight Saturday night on
50th Street near 3rd Avenue.
The girls say when it's late their
parents want them to play in
the courtyard. "[Sunset Park] is
boring if you're not a bad kid
'cause there's nothing to do,"
says 17 -year -old Anna.
Dress attire is mandatory
at the sprawling Diamond
Supper Club on 4th
Avenue this Saturday
night. By 1 a.m., the club is
in full swing as Henry, 20,
and Louisa, 28, dance to
one of seven salsa bands.
-
Each night a small crowd gathers
in front of the deli at 51 st Street
and 8th Avenue for an informal
Me contest. Erik, 18, watches as
the others take turns rhyming into
a friend's portable mike.
CITVLlMITS
Latin music and intimate con-
versation fills the Amanece
Lounge on 39th Street at 3rd
Avenue. Despite the makeshift
dance floor, it's mostly a
~ neighborhood bar.
! .
JANUARY 1999
Macho, Victor and Taz-all
younger than 15-hang out
on the streets flirting with cur-
. few every Friday and
Saturday night. "I'm smart. I
wait 'til my momma's out, and
then I'm out;' Macho explains,
"and when I see her Jeep,
I'm up those stairs and in
bed."
-
,
tting a job is only his biggest worry.
l
r a Ming Lau wakes up early Saturday morning, surrounded by
~ model cars he's assembled and watched by a poster of the
Hong Kong pop star Ekin. He pulls on a grey T-shirt and a pair of
prodigious khakis and hurries out to start his trek to Rappaport
Playground at 53rd Street and Fort Hamilton Parkway.
more accurate word-because he's not bringing any money into the fam-
ily. He says that his father has a more amicable relationship with his sis-
ter, who works as a dental assistant.
Saturdays are usually handball days for Ka Ming, a sophomore at
Franklin Delano Roosevelt High School, which is located just up the
street from the courts. Weekdays mean school and homework.
Sundays are often his parents' one day off from work, and Ka Ming
feels obligated to spend it at home.
Ka Ming isn't sure how much money his parents earn, but he knows
it isn't much. Chinese immigrants in Sunset Park work an average of
about 10 hours a day, six days a week, according to Patrick So, a social
worker for Brooklyn schools. They typically earn from $10,000 to
Ka Ming loves playing handball because it's a cheap way to hang
out with his friends. "I know how to play it and I'm good at it," he
says. It's also a welcome break from having to worry about whether
he'll understand his homework or speak English correctly or earn
money for his family. Handball is one of the few parts of his life that
doesn't pull him in two directions at once. All he has to do is hit the
ball after the first bounce. Simple.
A boyishly chubby, good-natured 15-year-old, Ka Ming was
brought to Sunset Park from Hong Kong five years ago with his older
sister, Sandy. Since then, he's become a Chinese American, watching
Titanic and Hong Kong action flicks, drinking Gatorade and eating
dim sum on Sundays.
The transition wasn't easy. At first, his parents stayed in Sunset
Park just long enough to get the kids settled in with their aunt, then
they would come back from Hong Kong for a quick visit a couple
times a year. Tired of the family being separated, his mother pestered
Ka Ming's father to sell his construction business. She moved to
Brooklyn for good about two years ago, and his father followed a
year later.
Now his father works when he gets paged, rehabbing apartments
around Brooklyn for several different Chinese construction outfits.
His mother sews clothes in a Brooklyn garment factory. Ka Ming
says he can't think of a single person he knows who doesn't have
at least one parent working in a New York sweatshop.
S
ometimes Ka Ming wonders if their move was a good deci-
sion. "My father just keeps saying he is the boss in Hong
Kong, and now he has to work for other people," Ka Ming says.
"He don't talk to me. He just keeps saying that."
When his dad does address him, it's usually at high volume.
"We always have arguments," says Ka Ming. "He keeps
telling me things like when he was 15 like me, he was already c
working for the family." ,I
His mother and aunt tell him that his father lectures -
.s
because he cares, but Ka Ming isn't convinced. He thinks
his father is unhappy with him-frustrated might be a j
CITVLlMITS
t.
$14,000 a year, or about $3.20 to $4.50 an hour.
"[The kids] think their parents have a miserable life in the United States,"
So says. "They don't want to live their parents' life."
Even though he resents his father's criticism, Ka Ming still tries to please
and impress him. 'That's why 1 want to go to school," he says. "So when I'm
older, 1 can buy him a house or something like that."
So, as best as he can, Ka Ming makes an effort to do well in school. He
usually goes straight home to do his homework. He studies for tests. He
enjoys drawing and thinks he'd like to work as a commercial designer,
although he's not quite sure what the job would be like.
About two-and-a-half years ago, one of Ka Ming's classmates asked him
to help teach English-and American culture-to a weekly class of about two
dozen new immigrant youth, a project sponsored by a community organiza-
tion called the Chinese-American Planning Council. In March, Ka Ming
joined the Council's youth group advisory board.
"New immigrants from China, they don't have a chance to learn English.
When they come here, they cannot communicate, and they don't even know
what the teacher's talking about," Ka Ming says. "I can help them to speak
and learn more things."
Ka Ming considers himself lucky to have learned a few English words in
Hong Kong. He says he picked up the language fairly quickly, although he's
hit the "vocabulary wall," where his conversational English isn't enough help
in writing school essays. He's also a little self-conscious when he has to men-
JA.NUA.RY 1999
tally translate Cantonese into English, embarrassed that it slows down his
speech and might make people think he's dumb.
III
any of Ka Ming's Chinese immigrant classmates are beyond caring
about what their parents want or expect. They laugh at his volunteer
work. They regularly ditch class and sometimes commit petty crimes. Ka
Ming is friendly and can adapt to different crowds, so he's one of the few
teenagers who assOCiates with both the "good" and "bad" kids, as he describes
them. ''1 hang out with them, but I don't do what they tell me to do," he says.
"If they tell me to cut class, 1 just say 1 have a test today in the last period."
Ka Ming understands quite well why school isn't appealing. When he
started school at IS 220, he and the other Chinese kids who couldn't speak
English well used to get kicked walking up the stairs, tripped in the hallways,
and teased in the cafeteria by their Spanish-speaking classmates.
Occasionally there were fights.
The situation is better in high school, but Ka Ming worries about passing
the Regents exams, his math and biology tests, the SATs. His classes are too
crowded to ask many questions-there are almost 40 students in his math
class-so he tries to seek help after class. But sometimes six or seven students
compete for the teacher's attention after the bell rings. When Ka Ming can't
afford to be hite for the next class, he gives up.
His parents care about his grades, but don't get involved with his school-
work. 'They just want to see my report card, but they don't care about my
tests and stuff," he says.
Ka Ming's best friend since sixth grade, Billy Wong, says his parents are
the same way. 'They sort of ask me about whether I did my homework, but
they don't check it or anything," says Billy. 'They don't read English anyway,
so why bother?" And when he's struggling with an assignment? "I don't do
it," he says flatly.
b
y the time Ka Ming reaches Rappaport Playground, the courts are
already growing noisy with the thwock of balls off backboards. The
park attracts dozens of Chinese-American and Vietnamese-American teens
from around Brooklyn each weekend, playing handball, shooting hoops,
smoking, spitting, horsing around.
Some residents grumble that the kids have overrun the park, says Pat
Scotignello, a lanky 54-year-old who has lived in the neighborhood for
almost 25 years: 'They say, 'Jeesh, you can't even get a game in with all
those Chinese players.'" Scotignello doesn't mind, though; in fact, he's one
of the few who plays handball with them.
''Hey!'' yells Ka Ming to his friends as he lopes over. He is tanned from
playing ball; his thick, normally flat hair stands at a slight angle from sleep.
"Hi, hi," answers a chorus in Cantonese. ''Wbere's Billy?" asks one.
"I don't know. I guess he's late," shrugs Ka Ming, also lapsing into
Cantonese. Except for the occasional "shit" or "asshole" in English, the teens
speak mostly Cantonese when they're together, regardless of whether they
were born in the United States, Hong Kong or China.
Ka Ming quickly joins a doubles team and soon loses himself in the
rhythm of the game.
Sometimes Ka Ming imagines what life would be like if his family had
never left Hong Kong. He wonders if his father would be happier, if his par-
ents wouldn't have to work 12-hour days. "It changed my family," he says.
As for life in Sunset Park, Ka Ming feels no hesitation about roaming
around his neighborhood, even though his mother won't walk the family dog
alone after dark. "My mom thinks it's dangerous here," Ka Ming says. "She's
afraid of those Spanish people on our block having parties until 2 a.m. She
thinks they do drugs. But 1 know those guys. They don't do nothing to me.
We're friends. I always say hi to them."
Does he identify more with the U.S. or Hong Kong? "It's like half-half.
Sometimes 1 feel more American, sometimes Chinese," he says. "Anyway, I
think my home is here."
-Lucia Hwang
err 0 n

I
f a New Yorker knows anything at all about Sunset Park, it's this:
Scandinavians built the neighborhood in the 19th century, and in
1941 Robert Moses destroyed it.
As any older resident will tell you, the Gowanus Expressway, four
bleak miles of elevated highway, drove a lance through Sunset Park.
Moses' road disconnected the waterfront from the houses upland and
replaced a thriving avenue of newspaper stands and bakeries with a
dark corridor of speeding tractor-trailers and rusting green steel.
"For more than 30 years, blight in South Brooklyn was confmed to
the waterfront area," wrote Robert Caro in his biography of the infa-
mous urban planner. ''Now, thanks to Robert Moses and his parkway, it
was on the loose, spreading across Sunset Park."
But you might also want to thank Robert Moses for saving 14,000
industrial jobs.
By walling off the waterfront, the towering expressway preserved
a bit of Brooklyn's industrial past. Residential incursions-luxury
apartment towers in Long Island City and artists' lofts in
Williamsburg-have pushed up rents everywhere else on the harbor
coast, but western Sunset Park still menaces pedestrians with looming
brick factory buildings, scant access to the water and more trucks than
trees. In short, it's a real working waterfront, just about the last self-
contained industrial ecosystem in New York City.
When Bob Moses ran the Gowanus through Sunset Park, he
broke new ground in hostile, high-handed urban planning. Now, it
seems like every planner with a grandiose public-works dream
wants to make his mark on the neighborhood. The Regional Plan
Association (RPA) would run the Gowanus underground. The city
is considering building the East Coast's biggest port on the piers.
And Congressman Jerrold Nadler wants to lay a 2.5-mile-long
freight tunnel under the harbor from Brooklyn to New Jersey.
There are countless obstacles in the way of these plans. They
are the most ambitious, expensive and technically difficult rede-
velopment programs in New York City. They've been called
"reinventing the wheel," "a dream," and simply "cocka-
mamie." Worse still, anyone of them could destroy the only
good that ever came to the neighborhood from the Gowanus:
a thriving industrial district where small manufacturers,
supplied with low rents and cheap labor, have flourished.
Thank you, Bob Moses.
d
own by the piers, the harbor is unexpectedly beautiful, the stan-
dard postcard view in reverse. Here, the Statue of Liberty is just a
glint among the lights of the bay's ships and cranes. Manhattan's tow-
ers rise far to the north; to the south, the Verrazano Narrows Bridge
dwarfs everything else.
But to get to the piers, you have to cross beneath the expressway. It's
like walking underneath a DC-1 0 ready for takeoff: loud, dark, dirty and
not such a good idea.
To build the Gowanus, Moses ripped down every building lining
one side of 3rd Avenue between 39th and 63rd Streets, evicting 1,300
families and more than 100 stores. With no easy way to get to the water-
front, people stopped going down to watch the ships in the harbor at
night. The Norwegian merchants were replaced by prostitutes working
the lanes of traffic beneath the highway, and families abandoned their
little frame houses on the blocks between 3rd and 4th avenues.
Sunset Park became better known for traffic jams than Scandinavian
pastries. Each day, 150,000 cars and 10,000 trucks thunder down the
Gowanus, covering nearby blocks with silty exhaust. The highway ices
up well before the ground below, so accidents are constant, and its steep
northern grade slows trucks, snarling traffic. There are no shoulders and
the ramps are badly designed-{!uring the daily rush hours, cars pour
off the highway at 38th Street and rush down side streets. The
Automobile Association of America has deemed the Gowanus one of
the 10 worst highways in the country.
But bad highways make good barriers. Despite being overcrowded
and dangerous, the Gowanus gives local manufacturers a direct link to
the rest of America. And its sheer ugliness has helped keep industrial
space cheap, from the 200-acre complex of Bush Terminal at the north
end to 57th Street's massive Brooklyn Army Terminal. While the rest of
the Brooklyn waterfront has been colonized by higher-priced studios
and lofts, rents in Sunset Park have stayed low enough for some 700
industrial businesses to prosper.
In the summer, the waterfront stinks with success. At 39th Street, the
1O-year-old cocoa port handles nearly all the cocoa consumed on the
Eastern seaboard; a coffee roaster is a few blocks away. To the south is
a four-block-long meat market, a storage pier for garbage barges, and
furniture and framing shops.
The biggest employer is the Lutheran Medical Center at 55th Street,
CITY LIMITS
JANUARY 1999
-
but most of the other firms tend to be small and new. Garment cutters, dis-
tributors and food processors dominate, but there are also printers, platers,
leather workers and light manufacturers making everything from antennas to
musical instruments. They've filled most of the old buildings, even though
few use the harbor at their feet
Sitting in his white-tablecloth Harborside Cafe, Dominick Massa explains
that, for years, even Sunset Park couldn't overcome New York's post-war
industrial decline. Until recently, when garment manufacturers started fleeing
Manhattan's $12- and $14-per-square-foot rents for Brooklyn, much of this
industrial wonderland lay vacant and neglected.
Massa manages Harborside, a l6-building, one-mi1lion-square-foot com-
plex of lofts, piers and train yards. When he first leased the land from the city
10 years ago, industrial vacancy rates in the neighborhood were close to 20
percent, and the buildings were wrecked. "The roofs were out, there were
2,700 dumpsters of garbage to take out, 100 abandoned cars," he remembers.
"We went $100 million in the hole. But I had a belief that Brooklyn could
revive itself. I was standing on the piers with [Borough President Howard]
Golden, and Golden put his arm around my shoulder and said-'go for it.'"
Massa, whose grandfather and uncle both worked the waterfront, saw his
gamble payoff. Today his buildings are completely full, and he oversees busi-
nesses that employ 1,400 workers. "Now, up and down the streets of Sunset
Park, every empty lot is getting built on, every building occupied as soon as it is
finished," he says. "Buildings I've had empty for four years are now occupied."
Space is tight because rents are still pretty good. The waterfront is zoned
for industrial use, which permits back offices and superstores like the
Costco at 38th Street, but keeps high-rent houses, lofts and kitsch shops out.
City subsidies and renovations also help. The renovated and landmarked
Brooklyn Army Terminal, looking something like a cross between an air-
plane hangar and a cathedral, rents some space for $4.75 per square foot; a
planned garment incubator at the other end of the waterfront will charge only
$2.50 a square foot.
"We still have reasonable rents here. That's why the garment industry is
moving into the area, with reasonable rents in Bush Terminal, the Army ter-
minal and the waterfront buildings," explains Frank Spinner, a longtime
owner of a small factory on 43rd Street that makes parts for car washes. But
prices are on the rise. He bought his two-story building in 1953, and says the
building would now cost nearly $1 million. "A normal rent here would be
hard," Spinner admits.
Vacancy rates for industrial space across the neighborhood's waterfront
are in the single digits. "Ground floors and one-story buildings are in demand
and move very fast," says Israel Dolgin, head of Kalmon Dolgin, a commer-
cial realty. Dolgin says good buildings now rent for $5 to $7 dollars a square
foot, up by half from a few years ago. 'The demand for space has increased
considerably over the last two to three years," he says. "Sunset Park is hot."
b
Ut the bulwark of Sunset Park, the Gowanus, is falling apart. The State
Department of Transportation estimates that it will cost $600 million to
$800 million just to shore it up. People in the neighborhood fear the job
would be the second coming of Moses: The repairs would last at least six
years, route about 6,000 cars a day through the neighborhood's streets, and
make truck deliveries to the waterfront a nightmare.
Because the project is expensive and difficult, Sunset Park's old-timers
may finally get to see their most heartfelt desires realized. The RPA, New
}:I
York's elite nonprofit planning group, is plotting to rip down the Gowanus
and replace it with a tunnel. Huge boring machines would burrow two four-
mile-long tubes beneath Sunset Park. The project would cost somewhere
between $1.5 ~ i l l i o n and $8 billion. According to the RPA, the tunnel would
soon pay for itself in lower maintenance costs.
The project would undo Moses, restoring Sunset Park by removing a high-
way that the community neither wants nor uses. It would mean no extra traf-
fic jams from construction. No more pollution. And the end of the wall that
has barred Sunset Park from its waterfront.
It would give the community what it yearns for-access to that beautiful
harbor. "Nowhere else in Brooklyn is like that-where they say we are going
to drive 50 million cars a year through your neighborhood," says Sunset Park
City Councilman Angel Rodriguez. "We recognize we have a responsibility
to the region, and we comply, we understand. But in Sunset Park, we're not
poor anymore-we're a working-class community, and we matter." What that
working-class community would do with a newly accessible waterfront
sounds surprisingly suburban. Hardscrabble Sunset Park doesn't want the
CITY LIMITS
land to be used to build factories or new housing. More than anything, the res-
idents want a park-just like Chelsea.
The irony is that Congressman Jerry Nadler might stand between the
neighborhood and its park. Nadler's gerrymandered district includes western
Manhattan, Bay Ridge and a sliver of Sunset Park, the part from I st Avenue
to the waterfront, which has almost no voters. It's a safe bet that Nadler-the
pro-jobs, pro-industry liberal-would never think of putting a port on the
Upper West Side.
But for decades, he's wanted to rebuild New York's shipping and rail
freight system, and now that he has Mayor Giuliani on his side, he may get a
chance to see his port built in Sunset Park. This fall, the city's Economic
Development Corporation, the Army Corps of Engineers and the Port
Authority are all conducting studies to figure out how to rebuild and re-
dredge the Port of New York and New Jersey. They need to accommodate the
mammoth ships, faster tum-around times and cheaper cargo charges that the
international shipping industry now demands, or see the 7,000 ships that
come to our docks each year diverted to Nova Scotia or Vrrginia.
JANUARY 1999
Early EDC reports target Sunset Park as ground zero (the final report was
to be ready at the end of November). At the South Brooklyn waterfront, the
EDC would build a 1,129-acre super-port, making it the shipping nexus for
the entire Eastern Seaboard. The plan would fill in the derelict piers, creat-
ing new berths and space to unload four I,OOO-foot freighters at once. The
harbor would be dredged to 50 feet below sea level, deep enough for the new
breed of container ships. And to move all that tonnage onto the mainland, the
EDC is considering running a rail tunnel beneath the harbor. The whole pro-
ject is projected to cost $3 billion.
The EDC, worried about public opposition, has agreed to include some
30 to 50 acres of public park along the waterfront, and says the port would
create 20,000 jobs. But a new port would also swallow up all the land west
of 1st Avenue-including Massa's turf, Bush Terminal, the Brooklyn Army
Terminal and everything in between.
Fixing the piers and berths could make Sunset Park a port again-and
also engulf much of the industrial waterfront. Tunneling the Gowanus could
make it a beautiful place to live again-and jack up the rents. The problem
with improvement projects is that they improve things. Both projects could
do a lot of damage to Sunset Park's small businesses.
a
s you can tell by the long lines for the bus on 1st Avenue at the end of
the day, Sunset Park still works the waterfront: Community board pres-
ident Eugene Moore estimates that 65 percent of the waterfront laborers live
locally. "Unskilled workers tend to come from the neighborhood, but the
skilled workers come from all over," says Southwest Brooklyn Industrial
Development Corporation's Teresa Williams, who runs a job readiness pro-
gram to help train locals. "These are good jobs, at eight or nine dollars an
hour." But the hub port would demolish dozens of buildings, shutting down
many of the small businesses that employ Sunset Park.
"It seems to be a cockamamie thing to do," says Sigurd Grava, profes-
sor of urban planning at Columbia University. Grava explains that Sunset
Park will never have enough space to do the job, no matter how many bil-
lions are spent for public works. To unload, each container ship requires 120
to 200 acres, he says. The whole waterfront is only about 440 acres. "The
hub port would obviously have to have a hinterland, and if you look at a
map of the U.S., you'll find that all the hinterland is west of the Hudson
River," he says. "It's a simple thing to do: Look at a map."
And while the port would employ a lot of longshoremen and truckers, it
wouldn't necessarily provide jobs to Sunset Park. ''We have to think about
people that can't work in a mega-port," Massa says. "Ninety-nine percent of
the people in this area wouldn't be eligible to work there. And what do you do
with the businesses already in the area? Moving is costly. And even if the city
pays for it, there's just not enough space."
Since Robert Moses was forced from power 30 years ago, New York City
been unable-or afraid-to start any major new public works projects. A hub
port or expressway tunnel would be almost the first since his time, and that,
in the end, will probably determine the fate of Sunset Park: Without a Moses
to bully through a project, all the plans could stay on the shelf.
Moore is enthused about the prospect of a tunneling the decrepit
expresway. He's also skeptical. ''There's a section that has been around the
block and believes that there won't be enough money to do it," he says. "I
think things will be held up in court until the damn thing falls down."
-Kathleen McGowan
--
O
utside, little hands press
against the glass door, shad-
owed by a half dozen faces watch-
ing the frantic waves and chops of
the children inside. Then the hands
are gone, tugged away by parents
in a hUrry.
Jesse Dixon, here to watch his
two daughters practice their side
kicks, blocks and punches at the Joe
Lowe Karate Federation school on
4th Avenue, glances at the hopefuls
outside. "The same kids pass here
all the time. Their parents pull them
away," he says as his 9-year-old,
Natasha, corrects another student's
fighting stance. "These parents
don't know. My kids, they've
changed. My daughter used not to
like to talk to anyone. Now she
teaches the classes."
The man who runs this space, Joe
Lopez, is dressed like his students in
a black robe and black pants. He
walks among the sparring pairs,
advising, motivating, correcting.
In most ways, Lopez's martial
arts studio looks like any other.
Trophies won at student tourna-
ments crowd a window, and the
walls are lined with mirrors,
framed Japanese characters and
posters outlining the body's
strike zones. Look closer,
though, and there are dozens
of pictures of his students
pasted on the wall: at home
practicing, at tournaments
holding awards, in class
smiling. The studio has
gone beyond teaching ~
::1
karate, ju jitsu and judo. l!l
It has become a local I
youth center.
CITY LIMITS
JANUARY 1999
He's busy,
but if you need some help
he'll find a way.
Lopez has lived in Sunset Park for more than 20 years, gradually
building a reputation here-first as a teacher, then a merchants' asso-
ciation organizer and recently as the publisher of an underfmanced
community newspaper called the Sunset Park Times. Lopez went so far
as to give up his apartment for this latest venture. He moved into the
karate studio's finished basement, using the money that had gone to
rent to pay the monthly printing bill. He says he doesn't mind, though.
"In the martial arts, the idea of the Japanese samurai is they were
originally servants of the people," Lopez explains. This is his persona.
He is "Jo Lo," the martial arts master that his own karate teacher
taught him to be. "People need encouragement and help. That's what
my calling is."
g
rowing up, Lopez and his family moved from Red Hook to East
New York to Puerto Rico and back again. At age 8, he discovered
karate, as many boys do, from Bruce Lee movies. But it wasn't until
he was nearing the end of adolescence that Lopez became a serious
martial arts student. In 1991, he started working in the community as
an instructor at the Center for Family Life. That same year he opened
his school under the name Joe Lowe, an Anglicized version of the nick-
name his karate teacher gave him. Today, at 35, he is a seventh-degree
black belt.
Lopez's studio sits near the 50th Street comer of 4th Avenue along
an unusually commercial stretch of this otherwise residential street.
The school is close to 5th Avenue, where local kids spend their after-
noons wandering in and out of the arcades and discount stores. Some
kill time there. Others fall in with gangs, like the Nietas and Latin
Kings, or drug dealers.
Lopez's students are part of the mix. About half come from fami-
lies of merchants and bureaucrats, with parents who are police officers,
IRS agents, bodega owners. The other half are working class or poor,
some getting scholarships from local businesses to help with the $40 a
month in tuition. Most of the students are Latino, primarily Puerto
Ricans and Dominicans, though a handful are African American.
The martial arts are about developing discipline, and Lopez
believes that discipline must be intellectual as well as physical-be
says he won't advance a child who isn't also improving in school.
Rosie Chevres says that her daughter Samantha has been bringing
home better grades-13 As and five Bs last year-since she started
class. Last summer when Chevres had to go to Florida on business, she
says she was astounded to find that she actually had to persuade her
daughter to skip class to go to Disney World.
Chevres says she thought this was weird until recently, when she
found herself passing up a trip to Atlanta so Lopez could train her and
-
some other parents to be local tournament judges. She felt that this
was a cause worth missing her trip for. Samantha and her class-
mates were being cheated at tournaments by combatants using ille-
gal moves-and the other judges were allowing it. Lopez needed
her in his comer, she says. "Joe is very fair, and most people take
advantage of it."
S
tanding outside of his studio on a wintry November afternoon,
Lopez points to a deep dent in the fencing of the playground
across 4th Avenue, the result of a collision between a car and an
ambulance. There have been so many accidents along this four-lane
boulevard that Lopez actively avoids the intersections. He finds it
gates, Lopez has had to abandon the signature green for cheaper black
paint.
Undaunted, Lopez had a second idea following the shoot-out: the
Sunset Park Times. He says he found it amazing that the local papers
ignored this violent event. Last February, he began publishing the eight-
page monthly, printed and bound magazine-style. He and a handful of his
students attend most of Sunset Park's public meetings, writing them up in
straightforward, albeit rough, prose. The front page says the paper costs a
quarter, but Lopez usually hands it out at local organizations and shops
for free.
To finance the $400 monthly printing bill, Lopez gave up an apartment
on 50th Street. He now lives below his storefront in a Spartan yet cozy
safer to give himself more reaction time by cross-
ing a few feet inward.
Cars racing down the street are not his biggest
worry, though. Lopez shares this block, and some-
times the loyalty of his students, with local drug
dealers.
It was just a year ago October that his students
walked out of the studio at the end of class and
To raise the $400 a month he needs
to finance his community newspaper,
Joe Lopez gave up his apartment.
into the gunfire of a drug battle, sending kids and their parents
screaming and crying into the night. The battle drove out the old
group of drug dealers in front of the supermarket next door, but
established a new guard on the end of the block. "After that shoot-
out, if I didn't do anything about it, I'm a hypocrite," he says.
"I'm saying [to my studentsl. 'Go out and change the world,' and
I can't even change the community."
So Lopez set about organizing the businesses and homeown-
ers along the avenue. The first project for the group, 4th Avenue
Businesses, was to paint the strip's gates and doors green-an
attempt to ward off the pervasive graffiti in the neighborhood.
The group was also able to engage the local police. "As
soon as a fight breaks out, an urunarked car pulls up," says
Kathy DeRiso, who with her husband owns the DeRiso
Funeral Home down the street from Lopez's studio. "It's like
they' re already there, waiting."
But an idea to pressure the city to plant trees along the
partition that divides 4th Avenue hasn' t moved beyond talk.
Plans to formalize the group have stalled, with the three
dozen other members leaving it up to Lopez to raise a
$500 incorporation fee. And silver graffiti tags have
reappeared on the green doors on either side of Lopez's
storefront. To cover up similar scrawls on his own
plywood-paneled room. "That's okay," he says. "I look at it as an invest-
ment in the community. If I don't get the money back, I don' t care."
f
rom the time he wakes up around 10 a.m. until he coaxes the students,
parents and onlookers out of his studio 12 hours later, Lopez dedi-
cates his waking hours to his self-imposed community obligations. He
admits he can' t say no--especially if it looks like no one else will help.
"I just say, it has to get done," he explains, "and I get my eight hours of sleep."
Word has gotten around about the guy on 4th Avenue who will help
you with your problems. During the day his phone rings with calls from
people seeking help for some new endeavor or another. The community
group UPROSE down the street wants a new logo. A parent needs to
spruce up a newsletter for the Hispanic Society, a police association. His
former karate teacher calls to arrange the taping of a public-access show
on martial arts they are producing.
The phone rings again. The Southwest Brooklyn Industrial
Development Corporation needs classroom space for a youth boat-build-
ing project. On the phone, Lopez is non-committal. Once he hangs up,
though, the acquiescence begins.
Lopez does have another room that might work.
He shakes his head, smiles, then starts figuring out how he might move
out his weights and exercise equipment.
-Kemba Johnson
CITY LIMITS
JANUARY 1999
REVIEW
-
Nuts to Soup
enough actual food from this inefficient system to stay
alive. Poppendieck, however, avoids logical conclusions.
She knows, for instance, that TSARists share
blame for the decimation of pro-
grams like Aid to Families With
Dependent Children, which their
politician President Bill Clinton
wiped out. AFDC distributed
By Theresa Funiciello
"Sweet Charity?: Emergency Food
and the End of Entitlements" by Janet
Poppendieck, Viking Press, 1998, 354
pages, $26.95
A
dd this to the list of pitches in the New York
charity scene: Time-Warner cable TV sub-
scribers got a solicitation with their monthly
bill headlined: 'The answer to hunger in
New York isn' t food." Think maybe the
answer is income? Wrong, says the ad, "It's trucks."
It's a ridiculous answer, and that's why the ad catches your
eye. But Janet Poppendieck's new book, "Sweet Charity?:
Emergency Food and the End of Entitlements" uses the same
logic. She critiques the "hunger industry," the network of soup
kitchens, food banks and pantries. But ultimately, like the ad,
she buries the truth-poor people need money to survive, not
food pantries, caseworkers or trucks.
She claims the industry helps people, when even her own
spin can't hide its failures. Soup kitchens mostly serve single
men, and not reliably; food pantries do serve women and chil-
dren, but they mostly distribute commercial cast-offs, and may
serve one family only three or four times a year. She says the
food distribution industry, understanding its limitations, has
begun to couple service delivery with advocacy for more jobs
and more benign welfare administration. Ho, hum.
As the cable TV solicitation demonstrates, those who have
institutionalized the begging sites still serve their own interests
first. I call them the Table Scraps Are a Right crowd (or
TSARists }-the alliance of food bankers, politicians, advocates
and donors that would replace the right to a livelihood with the
right to eat leftovers. With the TSARists running things, money
that could be spent on food goes to trucks, refrigerators and
salaries for hunger industry workers, halting the political
momentum that would get poor families what they actually
want and need-like the dignity of guaranteed income to
choose their own relief via grocery stores.
Poppendieck thrusts the sword but fails to gore the respon-
sible ox. Instead, she blames Republicans alone for problems
that the left helped cause.
Her findings are similar to those in my 1993 book, "Tyranny
of Kindness," which critiques the poverty industry. She repeats
the story of how, in the late 1970s and early 1980s, the
TSARists got agribusiness to donate unsellables. Food bankers
would pick up, disperse and certify as tax-deductible every last
pound. Only about one-fifth of this is "nutritionally desirable."
Another fifth is inedible or unusable. The remaining three-fifths
is junk food and other junk-MSG, diet soda, hair conditioner.
One could easily conclude that few poor people-if any-get
income, not garbage, and as
recently as 1975 it actually lifted
some families above poverty.
In Poppendieck's revisionist
view, Ronald Reagan, Newt
Gingrich, Pat Robertson et al. are
the culprits for AFDC's decline.
Not so fast.
Ever since President
lohnson's Great Society, social
programs have failed to end
poverty-precisely because
they provide services instead of adequate
income. After all, poor people can't eat caseworkers. Nixon's
plan for guaranteed income was voted down by a coalition of
both left- and right-wing politicians in 1972. Since then, the lib-
eralleft has stuck to redefIning services, hoping to secure big-
ger government contracts for themselves and ignoring the
ceaseless tumble in the purchasing power of welfare benefIts.
By the time Ronald Reagan took office, poor people had
become irrelevant to both political parties. Providers were a con-
stituency the Dems could count on, and Republicans were pleased
to get away with compassion on the cheap. The emboldened right
promoted privatization and volunteerism while scrapping entitle-
ments. Players in the hunger industry eagerly responded--espe-
cially when government dollars sweetened their pot. It was 1994
before Gingrich controlled the House, and Robertson played
TSAR with a food distribution network of his own.
This book's fractured facts culminate in Poppendieck's
"most optimistic scenario" for the next millennium:
"I envision turning our kitchens and pantries into free spaces,
where people can meet and interact across [class and race] not
as givers and receivers .. . but as neighbors .. .. Anyone in need
could earn dinner tickets by helping with food preparation or
with clean-up. Imagine the discussions that might take place .. . "
Yeah, dress ' em in cast-offs, clean 'em up and turn 'em into
servants who will be expected to cook, clean up and entertain in
exchange for food.
Poppendieck offers no forward thinking for a just alternative to
the problem of inequality in this country. It seems to me that she
and other TSARists could assess the political and human aftermath
of their triumph, eliminate the rationalizations, gut their business-
es, and harness some of the enormous good will and plain old
resources they draw on to seek and fight for more just solutions.
In the meantime, instead of Whipping out that year-end
check for the helping hands, find a way to do good with your
money. Get some cash directly to the people who really need
it-the poor. Forget about the tax deduction: This year, give to
give. Because the real answer to poverty is income .
Theresa Funiciello is a New York political theorist and activist
concerned with income distribution.
CITY LIMITS
Baby
Blue Laws
W
hen Congress passed welfare reform in 1996, work
requirements and time limits got most of the atten-
tion. But some of the most intrusive sections of the
Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity and
Reconciliation Act are about regulating the sexual activity of
women on welfare. "Marriage is the foundation of a successful
society," the law intones.
A survey by the National Organization for Women's Legal
Defense and Education Fund sheds light on how most states,
including New York, are putting this part of the law into prac-
tice. States are now racing to win the so-called "illegitimacy
Bonus," a federal grant of $20 million to $25 million each year
between 1999 and 2002 for each of the five states with the
greatest reduction in out-of-wedlock births.
New York's likely bid for the bonus features Governor
George Pataki's Task Force on Reducing Out-of-Wedlock
Pregnancies and Poverty Births, charged with producing a 10-
year plan to reduce unintended births. The state has also creat-
ed teen pregnancy prevention and family planning programs.
And Albany is slated to receive $3.3 million from the feds for
programs that teach only abstinence, money that will fund more
than 25 community group projects.
Fifteen other states are also in active pursuit of the cash, and
unlike New York, some aren't focusing their crackdown on teen
pregnancies. Delaware's UnwedlUnintended Pregnancies
Working Group targets all women, although for now it is aimed
at women between 20 and 35.
States have been even more eager to embrace the welfare
law's family cap provision, which allows states to reduce or deny
benefits for mothers who have additional children while on wel-
fare. At least 21 states have adopted the measure in some form.
Despite the law's restrictive provisions, its flexibility has
allowed some states to create innovative programs that
strengthen family planning services, target men as well as
women and address the needs of diverse groups of teens.
"What Congress Didn't Tell You: A State-by-State Guide to
the Welfare Law's Hidden Reproductive Agenda," $10, NOW
Legal Defense and Education Fund, 212-925-6635.
JANUARY 1999
Comp"'" Clltch
j
ob growth has climbed by more than 15 percent
nationwide since 1990, but New York City has been
left bebind, having yet to recover the jobs it had at
the beginning of the decade. Seeking out bright spots in
the local economy, pundits have taken comfort in the growth of
the city's new media sector.
Silicon Alley, it turns out, is not so special. The economic
influence of the new media-all that web page design and edgy
Internet content-are "not sufficiently strong to justify the
characterization of New York City as a hub," according to a
Federal Reserve Bank of New York report released in October.
New media's share of the local economy is rougbly the same
as the national average, even taking into account the entire out-
put of companies like the Hearst Corporation, traditional pulr
lishers with a small new-media division. Content may be king,
but it's not the King of New York.
"New York City's New-Media Boom: Real or Virtual?"
Free, Federal Reserve Bank of New York, 212-720-6143.
eft Out of Jail, FI'H
T
he city's court system can confuse even veteran crimi-
nals, but for kids the process can be especially bewilder-
ing. What constitutes a felony in Criminal Court is a
"delinquent act" in Family Court. In Criminal Court the prose-
cutors are District Attorneys, in Family Court they are lawyers
from the city's Corporation Counsel. And the difference
between being a juvenile delinquent, juvenile offender or
youthful offender can be several years in prison.
The nonprofit Youth Force and Ujima Productions, a youth-
run detention resident group started in 1992 to improve life at
the Spofford Juvenile Center, have teamed up to produce a new
booklet that guides teens through the juvenile justice system
from arrest to sentencing. The publication features straight-for-
ward language and striking, sometimes humorous, illustra-
tions. Its advice ranges from obvious (don't wear jeans or
beepers to trial) to honest (don't wear your hair out or in a
fancy style). Booklets are available to community groups for
distribution.
"Your Guide to the Court System," Free, Youth Force,
718-665-4268.
&,.n.lve Accounting
C
an you put a price on poverty? The Children's Defense
Fund thinks so.
Each year the nation's 14.5 million poor children
remain in poverty, the group estimates that the economy loses
a staggering $130 billion in output, largely due to a loss in
productivity from poor education. By age 5, children below
the poverty line already score, on average, nine points less on
IQ tests than their more affluent counterparts. Once they
become older, poor kids are twice as likely to drop out of
school than middle-class kids-and 11 times more likely than
rich children.
The study also found that children born when the family
was poorer tended to have less schooling than their siblings
who were born when the family was more prosperous.
"Poverty Matters: The Cost of Child Poverty in America, "
Free, Children's Defense Fund, www.childrensdefense.org.
AMMO
--
CITYVIEW
nothing to improve teaching, keeping standards high, and then
talking up how much better prepared are the few who do grad-
uate. The result would be a Darwinian system where only the
strongest students graduate-and never mind the rest. Some
success.
To reach the idealistic scenario, we must start getting
serious about the enormous job ahead. Unfortunately, the
immediate picture is not promising.
At the beginning of the last legislative session, the
Department of Education asked for
Standards Delivery
$200 million in "Operating Standards
Aid" for intensive staff development.
The military and large corporations
dedicate anywhere from 2 percent to 4
percent of their budgets for training to
By Noreen Connell
Noreen
Connell is the
executive
director of the
Educational
Priorities
Panel.
-
I
n the mid-1950s, the "golden age" for the New York
City public schools, the high school dropout rate was 50
percent. At the time, this was considered progress.
Now another "golden age" may be around the comer.
Far fetched? Hardly. In 1997, to much hoopla and giddy
celebration, the state Board of Regents decreed that students
would no longer graduate by passing minimal competency tests.
Instead, the freshman class entering high school in 2001 will be
required to pass five rigorous Regents examinations.
On the face of it, there was pride that New York would
have the toughest high school graduation testing standards in
the nation. But the plan appears reasonable only if the brutal
realities of the New York State education system are ignored.
According to the State Department of Education, only 21
percent of New York City high school graduates earned
Regents-level diplomas in 1997. Even if the city's public
school system doubles this number-a remarkable
achievement-six of every 10 students who now leave
with a diploma will not be able to graduate.
There are three scenarios for what may happen
when 2005 arrives. The idealistic one is that the
efforts made by the last four chancellors to
improve elementary school reading programs and
middle school math and science classes will
begin showing results. This year, Schools
Chancellor Rudy Crew signed a $5 million
contract with the National Standards Project
for staff development based on encouraging
results from five pilot school districts,
including Manhattan Community School
District 2, which now has among the high-
est average student test scores in the city.
The cynical scenario is that as 2005 approaches, the
Regents tests will be quietly dumbed down so more students
pass. While this would allow more students to get their
diplomas, it would betray the idea of improving students'
education.
The really cynical scenario is that New York will return to
the days when city schools pushed out immigrants, the poor
and students who were slow learners. Given the current polit-
ical climate, it's possible to imagine public officials doing
improve job performance. But in New
York, a proposal to spend 0.017 percent of the more than
$11 billion in state school aid for improving instruction and
upgrading curricula was viewed as extravagant. By the end
of the legislative budget negotiations in April, standards aid
was whittled down to $82 million.
Worse yet, the legislature removed provisions that recognized
the difficulties facing educators in low-income urban neighbor-
hoods. Currently, more than 40 percent of the high school gradu-
ates outside the state's five largest cities pass the Regents tests.
Given this, school districts in the suburbs, small cities and rural
areas will have to double their instructional effectiveness in eight
years. But schools in New York City and the other large cities
will have to more than quadruple their effectiveness.
In other programs, the state has recognized this disparity. For
example, New York City gets more than 60 percent of the $660
million a year in ''Extraordinary Needs Aid," which attempts to
even out the funds available to poor schools. In comparison,
more affluent districts get only 17 percent of this aid.
State education officials asked that New York City receive
60 percent of the operating standards aid as well. But when
the dust settled in Albany, the city received only 40 percent of
the $82 million, just a bit more than the city's share of the
state's school age population.
It's possible that the simplistic notion of a flat amount of
aid for all students held sway. School districts are not and
should not be funded this way-it's akin to a flat tax. Perhaps
the legislators were more willing to fund "manly" education
issues, like school facilities, rather than "sissy" stuff like staff
development-the testosterone theory. But most likely, city
legislators haven't done their homework yet. With standards
yet to be implemented, no one is yet complaining that their
child won't get a diploma.
Whatever the reason, our elected officials need to take this
issue on. A study recently released by the Community Service
Society estimates that New York City will need $916 million
in capital improvements and $626 million for staff develop-
ment, new teachers and lower class sizes to reach the new
high graduation standards. And these figures don't include
costs for improving instruction in the elementary and middle
schools.
Legislators have another opportunity in the 1999 legisla-
tive session to look seriously at what it will take for school
districts like New York City to meet the 2005 standards. They
need to act quickly. The educational future of six out of every
10 children is at stake .
CITY LIMITS
(continued from page 4)
struggling against both the city and the
union, Local 371 of DC 37, to solve these
problems. House Parents are required to
work 12 hours a day without adequate
breaks. It is not neglect but the exploita-
tion of the workers (with the acquies-
cence of their union leadership) that con-
tributes to the plight of these children.
House Parents, like all workers, have
many suggestions on how to change the
situation in group homes. We need nurs-
es and psychologists on staff in each
horne, and the children must be grouped
according to their needs. But we need to
have our voices heard in the city, in the
media and in our union.
House Parents
Local 37], DC 37 AFSCME
Mttntallllnttss,
Mot Just Mttntal
Grace Hecklenberg raises some good
points in her letter (November 1998) but
also says some erroneous things. She
writes, "People deemed of little value in
this culture are considered sick so that
their real problems and needs can, conve-
niently for others, remain unacknowl-
edged and unaddressed."
Mental illnesses are real illnesses. They
are biological, like medical illnesses of the
lungs and heart. There is less gray matter
in the frontal cortex, which is of great
importance in the schizophrenic brain,
according to Dr. Tyrone Cannon of the
University of Pennsylvania. Also, CT,
MRI and PET scans (non-invasive ways to
observe the brain's structure and function)
have shown differences between normal
brains and those of persons who suffer
from depression, manic depression, etc.
For instance, it has been found that in
patients with obsessive compulsive disor-
der, the caudate nucleus doesn't function
normally. This prevents these people from
having a feeling of satisfaction after doing
a certain act, so they keep repeating it.
This shows that illnesses once considered
purely emotional or psychological are
really biological in nature. Of course, envi-
ronment plays a role in these sicknesses,
just as it does in heart or lung disease.
No doubt some people with no mental
illness have been incorrectly diagnosed
and treated wrongly. But that doesn't mean
that mental illnesses are not real medical
illnesses.
Jerome L Frank
Member, National Alliance for the
Mentally 1ll (NAMI)
JANUARY 1999
JOBAD
Progressive New York City union and employee-side firm seeks talented LmGATION ASSOCIATI with 3-6 years'
labor and employment law experience for partnership track. Will also consider legal services/legal aid expe-
rience. Outstanding writing. litigation skills and references a must. Excellent benefits. competitive public-
interest salary. Friendly, informal office in Union Square area. Women and persons of color are particularly
encouraged to apply. Fax resume. writing sample and references to: Eisner & Hubbard. P.C . 212-473-8705.
DIRECTOR Of ADMINISTRATION. A 32-year-Qld nonprofit agency working for an equitable US-Africa policy seeks
an organized individual to supervise finances and administration of a 6-10 person staff and assist in devel-
oping program plans and strategic goals. Experience analyzing and summarizing financial reports essential.
Ability to prioritize. liase with accountants and Board, oversee budget preparation. prepare appropriate gov-
ernment and donor reports. maintain personnel records, coordinate development proposals. Writing and peo-
ple skills important. The Africa Fund is an equal opportunity employer. Salary high $30s. For full job descrip-
tion see www.prairienet.orgjacas/afund.htmlorwriteTheAfricaFund.50BroadStreet.Suite 711. New York,
NY 10004.
DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR. The Cooper Square Committee, a community development organization, seeks a
Development Director to do fundraising, housing/community organizing, help prepare semi-annual newslet-
ters, maintain web site and do special projects. Candidate must have college degree, at least 3 years' expe-
rience (or master's degree and 1 year' s experience) in fundraising and housing organizing/housing develop-
ment. Familiarity with HPD DAMP programs, HOME/HTF programs, low-income tax credits and community
planning principles required . Knowledge about mutual housing associations a plus. Bilingual
English/Spanish a plus. Salary: $25,000 to $30,000. Fax resume and cover letter to Executive Director,
212-473-2837. (continued on page 38)
Statement of Ownership Management and Circulation Required 39 U.S.C. 3685
TItle of Publication: City Limits. Publication No. 49BB90. Date of Filing 9/30/97. Frequency of issue: Monthly except bimonthly in
July/August. September/October. No. of issues published annually: 10. Annual subscription price: $25 individual. $35 institution.
Complete mailing address of known publication: 120 Wall Street. NY NY 10005. Publisher: City Limits Community Information
Service, Inc. 120 Wall Street. NY NY 10005. Editor: Carl Vogel. Known bondholders. mortgages or securities: none. The purpose.
function and nonprofit status of this organization and the exempt status for federal income tax purposes has not changed during
preceding 12 months.
Extent and nature of circulation: Total average no. of copies 3260 (3500 closest to filing date). Paid and/or Requested Circulation:
Sales through deals and carriers. street vendors and counter sales 156(163).
Mail subscription 2454(2236). Free distribution by Mail 220 (226). Free distribution outside the mail 310 (31B). Total distribution
3260 (3500). Copies not Distributed: Office use. left over, unaccounted. spoiled after printing 1 BB (629). Return from News Agents
BB (91). Total 3260 (3500). Percent paid and/or requested circulation B2.24% (BO.43%). I certify that the statements made by me
are correct and complete. Kim Nauer. Publisher.
of
NEW YORK
INCORPORATED
Your
Neighborhood
Housing
Insurance
Specialist
For 20Years
We've Been There
ForYou.
R&F OF NEW YORK, INC. has a special
department obtaining and servicing insurance for
tenants, low-income co-ops and not-for-profit
community groups. We have developed competitive
insurance programs based on a careful evaluation
of the special needs of our customers. We have
been a leader from the start and are dedicated to
the people of New York City.
For In/ormation call:
Ingrid Kaminski, Executive Vice President
R&F of New York
One Wall Street Court
New York, NY 10005-3302
212 269-8080 800 635-6002 212 269-8112 (fax)
-
(continued from page 37)
PROJECT DIRECTOR, Greater Williamsburg Collaborative. Economic develop-
ment, employment and community-building initiative seeks Director to lead
existing community-based, multi-agency collaborative. Responsible for plan-
ning, project management, supervision, fundraising, administration and
own portfolio of projects. Entrepreneurial team player with strong manage-
ment skills, ability to handle heavy and diverse workload, and experience
in one of the Collaborative' s focus areas needed. Submit resume/cover let-
ter to: N. Lasher, St. Nicholas NPC, 11 Catherine St. , Brooklyn, NY 11211.
Or fax 718-963-1905.
PROJECT COORDINATOR. The Pratt Area Community Council (PACC), a non-
profit organization in Fort Greene, Brooklyn seeks a motivated individual
to coordinate activities to improve public safety in Bed-Stuy. Combat
neighborhood drug and crime activity. Work w/police, community and
local organizations. Advanced community organizing skills required and
experience working w/police helpful. EOE. Competitive salary. Send cover
letter and resume: PACC, 201 DeKalb Ave., Brooklyn, 11205. Fax: 718-
522-2604.
RESEARCH PROJECT COORDINATOR. National research organization and
local service organization seek individual to assist with evaluation of
program on welfare reform and substance abuse. Local project coordi-
nator responsible for data collection (mainly interviews) and related
tasks and producing computer-generated reports at local site.
Bachelor'S or master's degree, research and computer use experience
required. Fax resume and salary request to: Beryl Jacobs at Women' s
Housing and Economic Development Corporation (WHEDCO), 718-839-
1172.
Advocacy organization for Asian-American children seeks DEPUTY DIRECTOR
DEBRA BECHTEL - Attorney
Concentrating in Real Estate & Non-profit Law
Title and loan closings 0 All city housing programs
Mutual housing associations 0 Cooperative conversions
Advice to low income co-op boards of directors
313 Hicks Street, Brooklyn, NY 11201,
(718) 780-7994 (718) 624--6850
F & D Consu.lt:ing
Specializing in Organizing Tenant Associations
-Does your apartment or building need repairs?
-Are you beiogovercharged rent?
- Are you paying unlawful fees?
For $4 per person, per meeting, we conduct informative monthly meetings,
produce newsletters, write correspondence, complete complaint forms and help
you improve the quality of your tenancy.
(Also, ask about our Eldercare Planning homevisits)
For Information: 212.591.1167
NesoH Associotes
management solutions for non-profits
Providing a full range of management support services for
non-profit organizations
management development & strategic planning
board and staff development & training
program design, implementation & evaluation
proposal and report writing
Box 130 7SA Lake Road Congers, NY 109200 tel/fax (914) 268-6315
to manage cultural diversity training, community organizing project, web-
site, interns and volunteers. Assist in public relations, administration,
fundraising. BA/BS, 2+ years' experience, excellent organizational/com-
munication skills. Commitment to children's issues and advocacy essen-
tial. Bilingual in Asian language and experience working with Asian com-
munity preferred. Cover letter and resume to: CACF, 120 Wall Street, 3rd
Floor, NY, NY 10005. Fax: 212-344-5636.
DIRECTOR OF HOUSING DEVD.OPMENT. The Pratt Area Community Council
(PACC), a nonprofit organization in Fort Greene, Brooklyn seeks self-starter
to oversee and supervise affordable housing development projects and
personnel. Excellent organizational, writing and computer skills. Rnancial
packaging and housing experience preferred. Some supervisory experience
required. Women and people of color are strongly encouraged to apply.
Competitive salary. Send resume to: PACC, 201 DeKalb Avenue, Brooklyn,
NY 11205. Fax: 718-522-2604.
PARTTlME DIRECTOR to manage and oversee the Tier II Coalition, Inc., a
nonprofit organization representing 40+ nonprofit agencies who provide
services to homeless families. Responsibilities include: fundraising,
grantsmanship, implementing and coordinating sponsored projects, over-
seeing development of public policy/advocacy agenda, engaging in advo-
cacy and networking activities, coordinating public affairs, and participat-
ing in work of five standing committees. Qualifications: experienced pro-
fessional w/minimum five years' combined leadership experience in grants-
manship, organizational development, research and public advocacy work.
Excellent writing, speaking and analytic abilities. Familiar w/ public social
services. Fluency w/NYC homeless issues. Advanced degree preferred.
Salary $20,000. 14 hours/week, w/potential to expand to full-time. Send
resume: Kim Gillaland, HELP USA, 30 East 33rd Street, 9th Floor, NYC
10016. Or fax: 212-779-3353.
Time Is Money .. LeI U. Help You Save Time
project Management, Monthly Reports. w. Specialize In,
Infomwdion Gathering, Customized Softwore 0 Microsoft 0fIice
Solutions, Computer Training, Newslett .... Web 0 MicrosoftPTojecl
Design, Proposals
0 Miaosoft Access
Axis Information Systems, Inc.
Tel: (212) 12 ......
f1II: (212) 121-2272
well: 1ItIp:/ /ce_ ... /adllafa
..... : ......... PICItIes.com
IMl 12lmrl1i'(L(j>d11f/W!P
_____
Urban Planning
KIhyn ......
o-IaprnRCandInt
_ PlalpldPllce ... 14
BrooIIIyn. NY 112311
7'&71U744 vokle& fix
.... _...-..
Housing a Community Development
Economic Analysis Public Relations
Special Events
Marketing Plans
Media Relations
CoNSULTANT SgtylCES
PropoealJ/Gront Writing
HUD Gronu/Govt. RFP.
MI(UA(L 6. BU((I
CONSULTANT
Housing/Program Development
Real Eatate Sales/Rentals
Technical Assistance
Employment Programs
Capadty Buildmg
Community Relations
HOUSING, DEVELOPMENT & FUNDRAISING

2:1.2-397-6238
mabucclOaol.com
451 WEST 48th STREET, SUITE 2E
NEW YORK, NEW YORK 10036-1298
CITY LIMITS
SPECIALIZING IN REAL ESTATE
J-51 Tax Abatement/Exemption. 421A and 421B
Applications. 501 (c) (3) Federal Tax Exemptions. All forms
of government-assisted hOUSing, including LISC/Enterprise,
Section 202, State Turnkey and NYC Partnership Homes
KOURAKOS & KOURAKOS
Attorneys at Law
Bronx, N.Y.
(718) 585-3187
New York, N.Y.
(212) 551-7809
Does your nonprofit need corporate, real estate,
tax or other business legal services?
Lawyers Alliance for New York has a staff of skilled lawyers
and a roster of 400 volunteer attorneys from leading NY firms.
We specialize in providing free or low-cost legal services to
nonprofit corporations. We also offer helpful publications and
workshops on many nonprofit legal issues.
To find out if we can help your nonprofit, call 212219-1800
Lawyers Alliance
99 Hudson Street, New York, NY 10013 for New York
Committed to the development of affordable housing
GEORGE C. DELLAPA, ATTORNEY AT LAW
15 Maiden Lane, Suite 1800
New York, NY 10038
212-732-2700 FAX: 212-732-2773
Low-income housing tax credit syndication. Public and private
financing. HDFCs and not-for-profit corporations. Condos and co-ops.
J-51 Tax abatement/exemptions. Lending for Historic Properties.
LAWRENCE H. McGAUGHEY
Attorney at Law
Meeting the challenges of affordable housing for 20 years.
Providing legal services in the areas of General Real Estate,
Business, Trust & Estates, and Elder Law.
217 Broadway, Suite 610
New York, NY 10007
(212) 5130981
COMPUTER
Hardware Sales:
mM Compatible Computers
Okidata Printers
Lantastic Networks
SERVICES
Software Sales:
NetworkslDatabase
Accounting
Suites! Applications
Services: NetworkIHardware/Software Installation,
Training, Custom Software, Hand Holding
Morris Kornbluth 718-857-9157
JANUARY 1999
EXECUTlVE DIRECTOR. Jumpstart, a national AmeriCorps program that
engages college students in service to Head Start preschoolers and their
families seeks an ED for rapidly expanding NY operations. ED is responsi-
ble for ensuring high-quality services, securing adequate financial
resources, promoting Jumpstart to external audiences, strategic planning
and managing personnel. Interest in building community a must. Fax cover
letter and resume to Human Resources, Jumpstart NY, 212-929-1993.
The Center for Urban Community Services, Inc. (CUCS) has the following
positions available for its innovative and highly successful outreach and
transitional services program for homeless, mentally ill adults in West
Harlem and Morningside Heights: TRANSlTIONAl. LIVING COMMUNITY (nC)
SUPERVISOR. Responsibilities: coordinating program activities and supervis-
ing staff at the TLC, providing housing placement case management, group
treatment and crisis intervention services, and assisting with program
development efforts. Requirements: CSW, 2 years of applicable post-mas-
ter's degree, direct experience with related populations, good verbal and
written communication skills, and computer literacy. 2 or more years of
applicable pre-master's degree experience may be substituted for 1 year of
post-master's experience. Bilingual Spanish/English preferred. Hours: M-F,
10:30 am - 6:30 pm. Salary: $38,000 plus complete benefits. ASSISTANT
DROPIN CENTIR SUPERVISOR. Responsibilities: assisting in the supervision
of the drop-in center, supervising an outreach team, providing case man-
agement, group treatment and crisis intervention services, and assisting
with program development efforts. Requirements: MSW (12/99 graduates
eligible) & direct service experience in one of the following: mental health,
outreach, services to homeless people. Hours: M-F, 9am-5pm. Salary:
$32,888 plus complete benefits. Resumes and cover letters to Joe
DeGenova, CUCS, 521 W. 126th Street, NY, NY 10027. EEO. CUCS is com-
mitted to workforce diversity.
SENIOR OfFICE ASSISTANT. Milano Graduate School of Management and
Urban Policy at the New School seeks energetic self-starter. Support
Dean' s office and coordinate events for Kaplan Center for NYC Affairs. BA
preferred, minimum three years' office experience. Requirements: strong
computer knowledge-Word, spreadsheet and database; excellent commu-
nication skills. Benefits: free New School tUition, health insurance. Cover
letter, resume to: New School University, Human Resources, Search
#98149, 66 West 12th Street, NYC 10011. EOE.
IIOOKKEEPR. Great opportunity in Rnancial Department. Bronx-based CDC
and RE Management Co. seeks individual to perform bank account, general
ledger, reconciliation, journal entries and various financial reports. Position to
potentially lead to Staff Supervisor, must have a minimum of 3 years'
accounting experience. Knowledge of EXCEL and related accounting func-
tions. College degree preferred. Full benefits package. Salary commensurate
with experience. Send resume with cover letter to: Chief Rnancial Officer,
Rscal Department, Mount Hope Housing Company, Inc., 2003-05 Walton
Avenue, Bronx, New York 10453. Fax: 718-583-6557. No calls please.
Social service agency seeks CASEWORKER to oversee treatment and train-
ing activities for innovative program working with substance abusing moth-
ers on welfare. Case management, group workshops, welfare advocacy
also required. Bachelor's degree or related degree, plus minimum 3-4
years' experience. CASAC strongly preferred. MSW preferred. Bilingual
Spanish preferred. Fax resume and cover letter to Beryl K. Jacobs, WHED-
CO, 718-839-1173.
PIT REFUGEE EMPlOYMENT DIRECTOR. 5-month, P (T pOSition for person with
supervising experience and placement and/or refugee experience. Fax
resume to M.G. 212-571-1686.
CASE MANAGER, Part-Time(Temporary (9-12 months). For the W. Harlem
Transitional Services Program, an innovative and highly successful hous-
ing-focused outreach and transitional living program for mentally ill, home-
less people in the W. Harlem/Morningside Heights area of Manhattan.
Responsibilities: housing placement case management, group treatment
and crisis intervention. Requirements: H.S. diploma and 1 year direct ser-
vice in mental health, outreach or homeless services. BA may substitute
for this requirement. Hours: Monday and Tuesday, 9am-5pm. Salary:
$13.19/hr. Strong performers will be considered for available full- and part-
time positions. Resumes to: Joe DeGenova, Center for Urban Community
Services, 521 W. 126th Street, NY, NY 10027. EEO. CUCS is committed to
workforce diversity.
ORGANIZER. The Pratt Area Community Council (PACC), a growing nonprofit
organization committed to improving the Brooklyn communities of Fort
Greene, Clinton Hill and Bedford-Stuyvesant, is seeking a self-starter to
work with tenants and community associations to address building and
community-wide issues. Knowledge of housing laws and regulations, ten-
ants rights and HPD programs helpful. Bilingual Spanish/English a plus.
Commitment to community development preferred. Women and people of
color are strongly encouraged to apply. Competitive salary. Send cover let-
ter and resume: PACC, 201 DeKalb Ave., Brooklyn, 11205. Fax: 718-522-
2604. (continued on page 40)
-
lOAnDA
s
(continued from page 39)
The New York City Office of Public Advocate seeks candidates for chal-
lenging positions in municipal government: ECONOMIC DEVROPMENT.
Liaison to business community and represent Public Advocate as voting
member of multi-billion dollar public pension fund, direct and author
reports on New York City economic development issues and programs.
EDUCATION. Monitor and author reports on education issues, concentrating
on the Board of Education and School Construction Authority. ASSOCIATI
POLICY ANALYST. Conduct research and investigations on municipal govern-
ment programs and agencies, ability to use Internet/Lexis-Nexis and other
electronic research. All positions require experience in policy analysis,
research and writing. ASSISTANT TO TIlE CHIEF Of STAFF. Provide general
research assistance, prepare reports and papers on wide array of public
policy issues, some administrative tasks. MIS DIRECTOR. Run day-to-day
operations of LAN for 40-person government office, develop and maintain
office Internet site. Candidates should send a cover letter and resume to:
Office of the Public Advocate, 1 Centre Street, 15th Floor, New York, New
York 10007, Attention DRE. The Office of the Public Advocate is an equal
opportunity employer. NYC residency is required.
TIle Edna McConnell Clark Foundation is seeking
candidates for 4 positions.
PROGRAM ASSOCIATE, Program for New York Neighborhoods. Working with the
Program Director, the Associate will participate in the design of program
directions and strategies, analyze grant requests, develop memoranda to the
Board recommending grants for funding, monitor the implementation of
grants and technical assistant efforts, make site visits to grantees and par-
ticipate in community-based program activities supported by the Foundation.
Candidates should have experience in community or organizational develop-
ment and program design, and the ability to work with diverse racial and eth-
nic communities. Knowledge of New York City, nonprofit organizations and
neighborhood-based organizations is critical. Superior written and oral com-
munication skills and a track record of effectively communicating with diverse
audiences required. Bachelor's degree required; master' s degree preferred.
Please include a two-page writing sample with your application.
ASSISTANT TO TIlE PRESIDENT. Responsible for providing administrative sup-
port to the president, organize meetings sponsored by the President,
arrange travel, handle grants management, and track grantmaking and
administrative budgets for the President's office. Candidates must have
excellent organizational skills and the ability to manage multiple tasks in a
fast-paced environment. Excellent verbal and written communications skills
required. Extensive knowledge of Microsoft Word.
ASSISTANT TO TIlE DIRECTOR, Institution- and Reid-Building. The Assistant's
role entails a mix of support and administrative duties. S/he will assist the
Director in the development of the Foundation's new approach to institu-
tion- and field-building, manage consultant contracts, prepare for and
attend meetings and forums hosted by the Director, and handle grant
administration procedures for new grants. The Assistant should be an indi-
vidual with sound judgment, and professional, analytic, interpersonal,
organizational and administrative skills, who likes new challenges and is
amenable to change. Extensive knowledge of Microsoft Word.
ACCOUNTANT. The Accountant will assist the Director of Finance in the day-to-
day accounting tasks of the Foundation. Duties include: accounts payable,
journal entries, grants accounting, and financial reporting and analysis. The
Accountant should be a self-starter with excellent organizational skills.
Candidates must have strong computer skills, including experience with auto-
mated accounting packages and extensive knowledge of Microsoft Excel.
College degree and two years of accounting experience required.
Salary commensurate with background and experience. Excellent benefits
package. Mail or fax resume with cover letter to: The Edna McConnell
Clark Foundation, 250 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10177-0026. Fax:
212-986-4558.
PROPERTY MANAGER. The Pratt Area Community Council (PACC), a growing
nonprofit organization in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, seeks bright, organized
individual with problem-solving skills to work with low-income apartment
rentals and collections. Knowledge of rental subsidies and building sys-
tems helpful. Must be computer literate. Competitive salary and benefits.
EOE. Cover letter and resume to: PACC, 201 DeKalb Avenue, Brooklyn, NY
11205. Fax: 718-522-2604.
ECONOMISTIPOLICY RESEARCHER. The Rscal Policy Institute seeks a highly
motivated individual for its newly established NYC office. Candidates
should have: graduate degree in public policy, economics or related field;
experience in policy research and analysis, including familiarity with state
and federal data sources; excellent quantitative and computer skills; and
excellent written and verbal communication skills. The position offers the
successful candidate a challenging opportunity to conduct research that
makes a difference in a dynamic public policy environment. Salary based
on experience, excellent benefits. An equal opportunity employer. Send
resume and cover letter to James Parrott, Rscal Policy Institute, 396 2nd
Street, Brooklyn, NY 11215.
BankersTrust Company
-
Community Development Group
A resource for the non-profit
development community

Gary Hattem, Managing Director
Amy BrusHoff, Vice President
130 Liberty Street
10th Floor
New York, New York 10006
Tel: 212-250-7118 Fax: 212-250-8552
CITY LIMITS
RFP
HOMELESS HOUSING AND ASSISTANCE PROGRAM. The NYS Homeless
Housing and Assistance Corporation (HHAC) and the NYS Office of
Temporary and Disabil ity Assistance will make available funds under a
1998-99 Request for Proposal (RFP) for the Homeless Housing and
Assistance Program (HHAP). Under HHAP, grants and loans are provid-
ed to acquire, construct and rehabilitate housing for persons who are
or would otherwise be homeless. Eligible projects may provide perma-
nent, transit ional or emergency supportive housing to homeless single
individuals or families, including such special needs populations as
mentally disabled persons and persons with AIDS. Not-for-profits cor-
porations and their subsidiaries and charitable organizations, as well
as municipalities, public corporations and public housing authorities,
are eligible to apply for HHAP funding. All applications must be submit-
ted by 5:00 p.m. on Monday, March 15, 1999 to: Bureau of Supported
Housing Development, 488 Broadway, Room 201, Albany, NY 12243,
Attention: Felicia Sales. To receive a copy of the RFP and Application
you must send a written request no later than December 14th to the
address above. Or a fax may be sent to 518-432-0107. For further
information, please contact Jaquetta Treece at 518-432-0103.
Attendance at the pre-proposal conferences is mandatory.
The Corporation for Supportive Housing (CSH) is conducting a search for a
NATIONAL PROGRAM OfFICER to work with the Program Director for
Employment Initiatives to integrate and sustain employment opportunities
in supportive housing in all CSH sites and across the country. This will
involve providing technical assistance to CSH staff and housing providers,
and pursuing local and national systems changes. Mail resume and cover
letter to: J. Weiler, Corporation for Supportive Housing, 342 Madison
Avenue, NY, NY 10173. Or fax to 212-986--6740. EOE M/F/HIV.
JOB READINESS COORDINATOR. Implement Job Readiness Program for the
formerly homeless. Arrange job readiness workshops, goal setting with par-
ticipants and outside referrals. BA, BS or BSW. Knowledge of Spanish.
Prior experience working with people in need. Excellent communication &
networking skills. Teaching ability helpful. Able to accept flexible hours.
Excellent benefits, 19 holidays. Send resume, salary requirements and
include job title in your response to: 1011 First Ave., rm. 1113, NY, NY
10022. Or fax to: 212-826--8795.
COMMUNnY DEVELOPMENT COORDINATOR. Primary responsibility for relations
with community groups including fundraising, financial, legal, programmatic
and organizational management resources. Will also assist the Department
Director with the administrative duties such as monitoring grant perfor-
mance, budget preparation and supervision of staff. Master's degree in
related field. Excellent verbal and written communication skills. Ability to
work independently as well as with teams. Excellent benefits, 19 holidays.
Send resume, salary requirements and include job title in your response to:
1011 Rrst Ave., rm. 1113, NY, NY 10022. Or fax to: 212-826--8795.
0UT1tACH WORKER.Bronx Location. (Hourly) Provides services to parents in
the community through outreach, telephone, follow-up and referrals. Provides
information about the program to agencies, parishes and schools. Clerical
assistance when needed. BA/ BS. Good organizational and communication
skills. Computer literacy. Ability to conduct formal presentations of agency
services. Knowledge of Spanish. Send resume and salary requirements to:
1011 Rrst Ave., rm. 1113, NY, NY 10022. Or fax to: 212-826--8795.
CLINICAl. SOCIAL WORKER. Bronx Location. Coordination of Parenting Skills
Program. Individual and group parent counseling, pre-screening interview and
intake evaluations. PartiCipate in follow-up programs, surveys, research and
reports as required by program. Also provide clinical counseling services to
assigned individuals or groups. PartiCipate with Administration Supervisor,
team Psychiatrist and all staff in supervision and case presentations.
Administrative tasks as required. MSW, experience with community organi-
zations. Knowledge of Spanish preferred. Strong organizational skills.
Knowledge of Microsoft Word and database programs. Excellent benefits.
Send resume, salary requirements and include job title in your response to:
1011 Rrst Ave., rm. 1113, NY, NY 10022. Or fax to: 212-826--8795.
JOB DEVELOPER. Maintaining the mentoring and/ or internship program and
assisting in developing job bank/job search. Matching participants to
appropriate jobs. Follow-up on partiCipant's interview, appointments, hiring
and retention. BA or BS minimum. MSW preferred and 2 years' related
experience. Prior experience working with people in need. Good communi-
cation, interpersonal and networking skills. Able to work flexible hours.
Computer literate. Knowledge of Spanish. Excellent benefits. Send resume,
salary requirements and include job title in your response to: 1011 Rrst
Ave., rm. 1113, NY, NY 10022. Or fax to: 212-826--8795.
CLINICAl. SOCIAl. WORKER to provide individual, group and family counseling.
Full-time position requiring skills in addressing issues of children and parents
in a diverse caseload. MSW degree required. Brooklyn agency: Center for a
Family Life. Please phone Sr. Mary Paul at 718-788-3500. Or fax resume to:
718-788-2275. (continued on page 43)
Beca use ignorance of the law is no excuse .

Throughout the year,
Lawyers Alliance holds
workshops on a variety of legal
issues of interest to nonprofit
managers, including
incorporation, tax exemption,
fundraising, and even special
topics such as housing
development and childcare.
Instruction is provided by leaders
in nonprofit law.
Workshops are held at:
99 Hudson Street, 7
th
Floor
New York, NY 10013
from 10:00 am to 1:00 pm
except as noted.
Registration is $40*.
To register, or for more
information, call (212) 2191800.
Lawyers Alliance
for New York
JANUARY 1999
Winter/Spring 1999 Schedule
January 21
February 9
Employment Law
Incorporation and Tax Exemption
(6:00 pm to 8:00 pm - 99 Hudson Street, 14
th
Floor)
Negotiating with the IRS February 23
March 9 Developing Low-Income Housing Using the Federal
Tax Credit: The Legal Framework
March 18
March 24
April 8
April 20
May 13
May 25
June 7
June 15
Fundraising Law and Regulation
Mergers and Consolidation
Incorporation and Tax Exemption
Corporate Governance
Copyright & Trademark for Nonprofits
Business Ventures for Nonprofit Organizations:
Joint Ventures, Partnerships, and For-Profit
Subsidiaries (9:00 am to 1:00 pm)
Incorporation and Tax Exemption
(6:00 pm to 8:00 pm - 99 Hudson Street, 14
th
Floor)
Commercial Leases
* Lawyers Alliance for New York provides a limited number of scholarships.
New York Foundation grantees may attend certain workshops at no cost.
-
~ E .
enator Daniel Patrick Moynihan's announcement that he will not run for re-election in 2000 marks the
first time since the '50s that New Yorkers won't have an incumbent in the senate race. The opportuni-
ty-and an electoral mood that put a pro wrestler in the Minnesota governor's mansion-has the press
abuzz about just who might run and what their chances are. City Limits helps you separate the pre-
tenders from the contenders.
Rudolph Clullanl
An obvious choice, if only for the combination of his
upstate/downstate appeal and the giddy prospect of watching
Rudy on C-Span, trying to sit still through lengthy negotiations in
committee sessions. Judging by his recent travel itinerary, howev-
er, Giuliani may actually be running for senator in Iowa.
AndnwCuomo
Cuomo the Younger has been making connections in
Washington via his post at the Department of Housing and Urban
Development. Back home, however, he is best known as Dad's
son. Rumor has it that he's goading someone to call him a putz-
head to boost his profile.
Alfonse D ~ a t o
Golfers along the length of Long Island heaved a sigh of relief at
the Moynihan announcement, saved from the prospect of sharing
tee time with a bitter D' Amato desperately trying to learn how to
retire. There's little doubt that AI will toss his hat into the race-he
loves being senator like Tom Hanks loves Meg Ryan.
Hillary Rodham Clinton
Not a politician. Not a New Yorker. Not
exactly sitting around with lots of free time.
Hillary's name is being tossed around only
because the local press gets all lathered up
at the prospect of taking shots at Hillary
for an entire election cycle. The guy who
writes headlines at the Post can't stop
grinning, and Steve Dunleavy has actu-
ally passed out a few times thinking
about it.
CMrge Steinbrenner
Rich, willing to brawl, interested in getting
something out of the electorate, the Boss is a
perfect candidate for office. After he's funded
his field of dreams, Senator Ballpark could
bring the city all sorts of goodies (the Bronx
excluded, of course). And with his tearful
thanks at winning the World Series and those
funny bits on Seinfeld, his stock has never
been higher.
Jerry SelnMld
If Steinbrenner can use the Show About Nothing to boost his
public persona, why not go to the source? Seinfeld's astronomical
popularity would easily make him a frontrunner in the primary-
the question is, which one? His obsessive neatness and quite white
world would seem to make him a Republican. His distasteful
friends and unwillingness to commit to any principles point to a
Clinton-style Democrat.
Soan-YI Preyln
No idea whatsoever where she stands on the issues, but she
would gamer a huge percentage of the elderly Jewish male vote.
Plus, there's the fun of watching the Knicks and hearing Marv
Albert-oh c' mon, you know he's coming back eventually-say-
ing, "And there's Woody and Senator Previn."
PuHDaddy
Sean "Puffy" Combs is a self-made New York success story:
dapper, wealthy and media savvy. He could dedicate his cam-
paign-like everything else he does-to the memory of Notorious
B.I.G. And now that Illinois' Carol Moseley-Braun has been oust-
ed, he would be the only African-American senator. And the phat-
test. Well, except for Ted Kennedy.
The Chost of Franklin
Delano RoaHyelt
But maybe we' re losing
sight of what we desper-
ately need in a Moynihan
replacement: statesman-
ship. A noblesse oblige
concern for the poor. An
urban and urbane mien.
Who better than FDR? Sure,
his decades in the grave can
be seen as a liability, but
Strom Thurmond is just this
side of that gauzy curtain, and
he's still on the Hill. Electing
Roosevelt would give New
Yorkers the only standing senator
(so to speak) whose face is on
a coin. How cool is that?
CITY LIMITS
(continued from page 41)
CASE WORKER. Providing case management through advocacy, information,
referral and crisis intervention. Assist clients with entitlements and con-
crete services. BSW minimum, MSW preferred and 2 years' related expe-
rience. Bilingual (English-Spanish). Prior experience working with people in
need. Good communication, interpersonal and networking skills. Able to
work flexible hours. Computer literate. Excellent benefits. Send resume,
salary requirements and include job title in your response to: 1011 Rrst
Ave., rm. 1113, NY, NY 10022. Or fax to: 212-826-8795.
Inwood House, a not-for-profit youth-serving agency that works to prevent ado-
lescent pregnancy, seeks a person with vision to lead its program supervision
and program development efforts. Must be a committed, energetic individual
who can work as part of a team and is paSSionate about young people. The
person must be creative and possess a capacity for innovation, be self-moti-
vated, enthusiastic and flexible. Ideal candidate for the position of DIRECTOR
FOR PROGRAMS will have a master's degree in social work or public adminis-
tration, and 5 years or more of high level experience in youth development pro-
gramming or child welfare services. Salary range: $60,000+. Send resume
with cover letter to Katricia Rodriquez, Administrative Assistant, 320 East
82nd St., NY 10028.
Dynamic youth service organization seeks YOUTH DEVB.OPMENT DIRECTOR.
Community-based not-for-profit in East Harlem seeks energetiC, detail-<>rient-
ed, dedicated and dynamic individual to maintain, develop and build educa-
tional and enrichment programs for children aged 7-18. Programs include:
mentoring, after school tutorials, youth newsletter, SAT and college prep, and
job internships. Position offers the opportunity to develop, design and imple-
ment programming while doing hands on work with young people. Candidates
will be selected with an eye on their potential for advancement. Experience in
educational and/or nonprofit setting helpful. Salary to low thirties depending
on experience. Full benefits. Send cover letter and resume to: Executive
Director, Harlem RBI, P.O. Box 871, Hell Gate Station, NY, NY 10029. Fax to
212-722-1862. Women and minorities strongly encouraged to apply.
The Legal Aid Society is seeking a PARALEGAL for its disability unit who will rep-
resent indigent clients at federal administrative hearings and on administra-
tive appeal to the Appeals Council . This paralegal will also be involved in com-
munity outreach and with assisting attorneys with impact litigation.
Experience and/or demonstrated commitment to community service and/or
serving the poor required. Ruency in Spanish is extremely desirable.
Requests for consideration, including a writing sample, should be submitted
to: Warren B. Scharf, The Legal Aid Society, Brooklyn Neighborhood Office,
166 Montague Street, Brooklyn, New York 11201. Salary: $27,000, plus
excellent benefits.
COMMUNnv ECONOMIC DEVB.OPMENT, DEPUTY DIRECTOR. An established coun-
ty-wide NYC non-profit seeks an experienced manager for business service
programs focusing on increasing the access of county residents to econom-
ic, business and job creation opportunities. Able to adapt to Team manage-
ment with small, professional staff. Program service areas include: business
start-ups, commercial lending, small, woman- & minority-<>wned business TA,
neighborhood commercial development, manufacturing retention and work-
force development. Responsible for assuring program implementation &
operations. Able to work on multiple tasks simultaneously, meet deadlines
and work with minimum supervision. Develops grants and coordinates pro-
gram development in cooperation with Executive Director. MA and/or 5
years' experience in small business, nonprofit management and program
planning. Detail orientation and excellent community skills required.
Knowledge of MS Office, MS Access a+. Bilingual a +. Salary commensurate
with experience. Full time, excellent benefits. EOE. Fax resume to Executive
Director, 718-263-0594.
WOMEN'S DESK DIRECTOR.
FAIR' s women' s desk analyzes sexism, racism and homophobia in the media
and works with activists and media profeSSionals to get a broad range of fem-
inist perspectives included in the public debate. The director monitors main-
stream print and broadcast media and corresponds with journalists, editors
and producers nationwide. Responsibilities include:
corresponding with journalists, editors and producers to confront
inaccuracies, biased characterizations and underreported stories
researching media coverage of issues related to gender equality and
writing articles and op-d columns, including regular contributions to
FAIR's magazine, EXTRA!
making recommendations to media outlets on expanding and improving
their coverage-in particular, broadening the spectrum of experts
typically turned to for an articulation of the women's rights point of
view
working with women' s rights organizations and related public interest
groups to promote their viewpoints and spokespeople in the mainstream
media; providing activist groups with expertise and resources for
challenging media bias
representing FAIR on talkshows, in media interviews and at conferences
and lectures, addressing issues of media sexism, racism and homophobia;
contributing to FAIR's decision-making process and evolving media
critique.
Qualified applicants will have some background in progressive activism
as well as writing and public speaking.
The position is 40 with a starting salary of $27,000, plus
full health/ dental benefits. Application deadline is December 21st. No
phone calls, please. Women of color and lesbians are urged to apply.
Send resume and cover letter to: FAIR, Attn.: Job Search, 130 W. 25th St., 8th
Roor, New York, NY 10001.
COORDINATOR, Religious Network on Africa. The Africa Fund seeks coordinator
to organize and expand an existing circle of concerned religious leaders, now
most strongly based in the historically black church, to advocate for a U.S. pol-
icy on Africa, based on economic justice and human rights. Organizing experi-
ence, willingness to travel and understanding of constituencies required.
Contact: The Africa Fund, 50 Broad Street, New York, NY 10004; 212-785-
1024; job description at www.prairienet.orgfacas/afund.html.
LET US DO A FREE EVALUATION
OF YOUR INSURANCE NEEDS
JANUARY 1999
We have been providing low--cost insurance programs and
quality service for HDFCs, TENANTS, COMMUNITY MANAGEMENT
and other NONPROFIT organizations for over 15 years.
We Offer:
SPECIAL BUILDING PACKAGES
FIRE LIABILITY BONDS
DIRECTOR'S & OFFICERS' LlABILTY
GROUP LIFE & HEALTH
"Tailored Payment Plans"
ASHKAR CORPORATION
146 West 29th Street, 12th Floor, New York, NY 10001
(212) 279-8300 FAX 714-2161 Ask for: Bola Ramanathan
4'

t
Francisca Salce, a.k.a. Joe,
taking care of making her
business rise at her store on
1121 St. Nicholas Avenue at
166th St. in Washington Heights.
CALL: CHASE COMMUNITY
DEVELOPMENT COMMERCIAL
LENDING 212-622-4248
Moving in the right direction

Joe's'Piiza'sgbt the dough.
Joe's Pizza was a first. Not only did Francisca Salce
a neighborhoods name for her store with great
tasting pizza, she was the first recipient of a loan under
The Chase Community Development Group's Small
Retailers Lending Program.
The Small Retailers Lending Program is a unique
Chase initiative whose purpose is to expand access to
bank loans for hard to finance small businesses, par-
ticularly those located in low- and moderate-income
communities.
This program made it possible for Ms. Salce to obtain
a loan to relocate her restaurant, renovate the new
space and still remain in the neighborhood in which
she has built a successful business.
Which is just fine by Joe's Pizza's customers, who
swear by the dough.
L ............. ............ Community Development Group
CHASE. The right relationship is everything.
sM
1997 The Chase Manhattan Bank. Member FDIC.