City Limits Magazine, March 1989 Issue

March 1989
O C T O G E N A R I A N A C T I V I S T DC A L C U L A T I O N S A N D C O N T R O V E R S Y
E A S Y M O N E Y D R E T O O L I N G B U S I N E S S T H I N K I N G
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2 CITY UMITS March 1989
Citv Li",its
Volume XIV Number 3
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Harriet Cohen, Community Service
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Robert Hayes, Coalition for the Homeless
Rebecca Reich, UHAB
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Esmerelda Simmons, Center for Law and
Social Justice
Jay Small, ANHD
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City Urn its (ISSN 0199-0330)
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Editor: Doug Turetsky
Auoc:iate Editor: Lisa Glazer
Baal .... Director: Harry Gadarigian
Contributing Editors: Beverly Cheuvront,
Peter Marcuse, Jennifer Stern
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Phot.,...apher: Andre Lambertson
Copyright e 1989. All Rights Reserved.
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EDITORIAL
Community Control Still Essential
In the last few months, the pages of the city's dailies have been filled with
detailed coverage of corruption in community school districts. Behind the
lurid descriptions of patronage, petty thievery, and personal spending
sprees lurk complex and troubling questions about the fate of community
control.
In the 1960s, people attempted to implement community control in
housing, health and education. After years of shortchanging neighborhood
residents, large, centralized institutions like the Board of Education and the
Public Health Service were forced to let local residents in on the decision-
making processes that affected their daily lives.
The result was the creation of vital new resources. Yet the school board
scandals show that some efforts have-to put it kindly-fallen into the
hands of people with more on their minds than local empowerment.
Like the school boards, too many of the community health centers
profiled in this issue have been exploited by their boards of directors. This
is a serious offense, particularly when a community has entrusted the
education or health of its children to these boards.
In the midst of the Reagan-Bush years, it's all too easy to understand how
it happens. Federal and state support for community leadership training
was one of the first budget lines to be chopped. The political and economic
environment promotes individual gain over common good, and there's
widespread apathy and cynicism about community participation. All these
factors create a climate ripe for takeover by individual empire builders.
But there's absolutely no reason to condemn community control. It
doesn't take too long a memory to recall that centralized control never did
any better. And, more importantly, communit; control is just as essential
as it ever was. We can't forget the successes 0 local power-the effective
school boards we rarely read about, the community health centers that are
fulfilling their ideals.
But we also need to examine the way we hold leaders accountable. We
have to ensure that people who want to run local programs have expertise
in the areas they seek to control. We can't slack off once community
elections are over-too many leaders start off with good intentions but veer
off-course once they gain power. And we have to attend public meetings and
monitor audits to make sure representatives are truly responding to the
needs of the neighborhood.
Community control is very threatening to people in entrenched positions
of power. Many of these people are rubbing their hands with glee, using the
evidence of corruption in school boards to prove their theory that local
people can't lead themselves. To thwart their efforts, we need to redouble
education and organizing to reaffirm the original. honorable goals of com-
munity control. 0
X-523
INSIDE
FEATURES
Community Health Centers Get a Check-up 12
Many of the city's local health centers have become
fiefdoms, delivering political power and cash plums
at the expense of good medicine.
DEPARTMENTS
Editorial
Community Control Still EssentiaL .................. 2
Short Term Notes
No Break? ............................................................. 4
Litigation Chase .................................................. 4
Unfair Labor? ....................................................... 5
Agency Renewal .................................................. 5
Neighborhood Notes ........................................... 6
Profile
Octogenarian Activist: Meyer Parodneck ......... 7
City Views
Employing Success:
Businesses Need to Retool their Thinking ........ 9
Calculations and Controversy:
What's the City's Median Income? .................. 17
Pipeline
Easy Money Bleeding Bronx Buildings? ......... 20
Letters ................................................................ 22
Workshop .......................................................... 23
March 1989 CITY UMITS 3
Morfesis/Page 4
Activist/Page 7
Health/Page 12
...---
SHORT TERM NOTES
NO BREAK?
After several months of
protests by tenants in low
income co-ops, Mayor
Edward Koch and Department
of Housing Preservation and
Development Commissioner
Abraham Biderman an-
nounced a plan to buffer the
co-ops from escalating
property tax bills. But some
believe the tax relief does not
go far enough.
The plan introduced by the
mayor will have the city's
Department of Finance
continue to assess co-ops
formed under the state's
Housing- Development Fund
Corporation law as they have
in the past, but to ease the
strain on the co-ops' limited
budget, there will be a
$3,500 per unit assessment
cap on the amount of tax the
co-ops would have to pay.
The proposal also provides
that once the cap is reached,
assessments cannot rise more
than six percent a year or 20
percent over five years. The
cap would stay in effect as
long as the building retains its
HDFC status.
"The exemption will ensure
that tax liabilities of city-
sponsored, low income
housing companies remain
affordable to low and
moderate income families,"
says Koch. "This is no different
than what we do for Mitchell-
Lama buildings," he adds.
Using the example of a 20-
unit building assessed at
$133,540 or $6,677 per unit,
Biderman says the current tax
would be $619 for each
apartment. Under the new
proposal, no tax would be
paid beyond $3,500, so the
tax would be reduced nearly
in half, to $324.
But few of the 370 formerly
city-owned buildings that are
now tenant-owned HDFCs are
assessed at $3,500 per unit.
For those buildings under the
cap, taxes can still rise dra-
matically. Tenant protests
began because some build-
ings were receiving assess-
ment increases of os much as
500 percent in one year.
Gerald Rosenberg, an
attorney with Rosenman &
Colin, is representing three
HDFCs in their suit against the
city's tax assessment policies on
the co-ops. He says that each
unit is sold to the tenants for
$250 and the fair market value
of the apartments remain at that
level as long as the co-ops
remain an HDFC. "My under-
standing is that the assessor is
to assess based on current
value," Rosenberg argues. ''The
HPD cap is 14 times the sales
price." Most buildings, he
notes, are assessed at well
below the sales price.
Council Member Carolyn
Maloney, who introduced a Ci
Council resolution to provide
tax relief to HDFCs, says the
mayor' s p r o ~ s a l does not go
far enough. "If we are going to
protect luxury housing that is
Class 1 (one-, two- and three-
family houses), why in the
world won't we give these same
protections to low income
housing?" she asks. "These
assessments can jump dramati-
cally until they reach the cap."
Her resolution calls for an
annual cap-the same six
percent a year or 20 percent
over five years provided to
one- to three-family home
owners-no matter what the
current assessment amount.
Under her bill, buildings with
an assessment of $1 ,000 per
unit, for example, could not see
their assessment rate go up
more than six percent in one
year. She also says this tax
protection should be included in
the state HDFC law "so its not
just election-year rhetoric but
sound policy of the state."
The city's tax proposal is
scheduled to go before the
Board of Estimate as City Limits
goes to press. If passed, it will
go into effect July 1 . 0 Doug
Turetsky
LITIGATION CHASE
In September 1987, Mayor
Edward Koch announced that
the city had filed a lawsuit to
seize from landlord Andonis
Morfesis an East Harlem
building rife with 80 housing
code violations, including rat
infestation and no heat and
electricity. "This type of
flagrant violation and
inhumane conditions under
which he forces his tenants to
live are not going to be
tolerated," Koch proclaimed.
The four-unit building
located at 243 E. 118th Street
was one of 15 Morfesis-
owned properties that city
lawyers asked the state
Supreme Court to turn over to
a receiver so that crucial
repairs could be made.
Together, the properties
racked up 2,000 violations.
Morfesis, his managing agents
and financial backers would
have to pay for the work.
One and a half years later,
under a compromise settle-
ment, repairs have yet to
begin on most of the buildings
and tenants are still without
heat. All but two of the East
118th Street tenants have fled,
leaving behind a building
sealed with graffiti-covered
cinder blocks. When the law-
suit was filed, 14 of the 15
buildings were occupied. At
least three now stand empty,
according to Assistant Corp-
oration Counsel Alan H.
Kleinman. As tenants move
out, the abandoned buildings
simply get pushed to the
bottom of the city's priority list
for repairs.
Alexander and Ralph
Bastone, the only remaining
tenants at 243 East 11 8th
Street, stopped waiting for
Morfesis to provide services.
They pool their pensions to
cover all repairs and monthly
oil bills of $400 and $500.
"I've kept this house going.
Why suffer?" says Alexander,
who has lived in the building
for 25 years.
In September 1988, exactly
one year after the lawsuit was
filed, Morfesis and the city
finally reached a settlement.
"The essence of the agreement
is that he commits upwards of
$1 million to make repairs
and if he doesn't, the 15
building go into receivership,"
Kleinman says. But the costs
of repairs, estimated at $2.4
million, are double that
amount. "We are negotiating
with Morfesis to cover the
remaining costs," Kleinman
adds.
Given the agreement's time
table, work will not have to be
completed until April of 1991,
four years after former HPD
Commissioner Paul Crotty
promised residents of the 15
buildings immediate relief. In
September 1987 he asserted,
''We will insure that the
tenants will have heat and hot
water this winter, and that
they can wake up in the
middle of the night without
rats scuttling across the
floors."
Gloria Quinones, an
attorney at the Community
Law Offices, says Morfesis
could continue stalling until
tenants give up waiting for
repairs and vacate the
remaining buildings as well.
"It's an aWful settlement," she
says.
Kleinman disagrees, "1
argue strongly in tavor of it.
Without the agreement, we
would have spent years in
litigation to get the repairs.
It's not a question of what's
fair, but of what we could
get," he says. Kleinman adds
that Morfesis has completed
ma'lor work on one of the
bui dings, at 700 Amsterdam
Avenue.
Xenia Martinez, who has
lived in the Amsterdam
Avenue building for two
months, says she has not had
a problem with services.
"They're renewing the
building," she says.
Modesis has owned over
120 buildings that contained
10,000 violations in Harlem
and Washington Heights. The
15 buildings were considered
the worst of the lot.
Despite the litigation chase,
Morfesis can always resort to
selling his properties to
circumvent complying with the
agreement. If he tries, warns
Kleinman, "we would certainly
seek remedies in court." 0
Eve Hey"
I
i
Wi,.., Lam, Young Shi .... and fellow worlcer Chuclc Ming Hei:
l'artlcipati,.., In a training program-or a two-tier labor system?
UNFAIR LABOR?
A recent immigrant from
Hong Kong, Keiman li joined
a housing rehabilitation
program run by the Chinese-
American Planning Council to
acquire skills to support
himself and his mother. But
after he started work last year
on abandoned city buildings,
he says he realized conditions
were dangerous, training
minimal-and his take-home
poy could hardly cover rent
and food. "I thought I would
have more opportunity in
America/ says the disap-
pointed newcomer.
The grievances expressed
by li and other workers in the
Intercity Remodeling and
Apartment Repair Program
have sporked a brooder con-
troversy over city-run rehab-
ilitation programs sponsored
by CPC, the Vera Institute of
Justice and Wildcat Service
Corporation. Critics contend
that programs use the trainees
as low-paid alternatives to
unionized construction wor-
kers and offer limited training
and placement service.
Wing lam, director of the
Chinese Staff and Workers
Association, which is support-
ing the CPC workers, says,
trainees are being used
as cheap labar. It's no
surprise that they are usually
minorities."
Jim Haughton, executive
director of Harlem Fight Back,
a labor advocacy group
comprised of block and latino
construction workers, adds,
"It's a blatant abuse by the
city. They're paying substan-
dard wages and the workers
are being fleeced." Houghton
adds that none of the training
programs are recognized by
the construction industry.
Kenneth lowenstein,
deputy commissioner for legal
and intergovernmental affairs
at the city's Department of
Housing and Preservation,
disagrees. "These programs
teach life skills and help
integrate people into society.
The Wildcat and Vera
Programs have a long history
of good services. The
Chinatown program was
intended to duplicate those
programs and if there are
grievances, that's between the
workers and cpc. We don't
set the wage rates."
The Vera Institute program,
which focuses on ex-offenders,
pays $4.15 an hour. Wildcat,
which employs trainees,
mostly from prison work-
release programs, pays $3.35
an hour. The CPC pays
between $4 and $8 an hour.
The dispute between the
workers and CPC has been
brewing since 1986, when
Young Shi lee, an immigrant
from Taiwan, petitioned for
improved safety equipment
March 1989 CITY UMITS I
and site lighting, and was
later fired. After complaints to
the National labor Relations
Boord, Administrative law
Judge Steven David ruled that
lee was unjustly fired and
ordered CPC to reinstate him
in May 1988.
last June, the workers
formed a union and de-
manded higher salaries,
health insurance and other
benefits. They contend that
union workers doing the same
work are poid twice as much.
In December, CPC terminated
the program. The workers say
they were fired for creating
the union and have filed a
grievance with the NlRB.
John Wang, deputy
director of the Chinese-
American Planning Council, a
25-year-old service organiza-
tion, says, ''They are making
false We're a
non profit agency. We're
trying to help peaple."
last month, the Board of
Estimate approved $9.2
million in federal community
development funds to CPC,
Vera and Wildcat. But
Manhattan Borough President
David Dinkins and Comp-
troller Harrison Goldin are
investigating the programs to
see if they provide sufficient
training. Federal officials are
also trying to determine
whether the workers in the
programs should be paid
"prevailing wages" as
required under the Davis-
Bacon Act for construction
projects involving federal
funds. 0 Lisa Glazer
AGENCY
RENEWAL
The chaos-plC!9ued rent
administration office of the
state Department of Housing
and Community Renewal is
going through internal
renewal, but tenant leaders
say they have yet to see
tangible results.
The state's rent agency,
which oversees rent admini-
stration and rent regulation
procedures, is renowned for its
gargantuan case backlog,
mismanagement and ever-
jammed phone lines. A six-
month wait for a letter reply
from the agency is not unusual,
and the average turnaround
time for a rent case is three
years.
Until now, that is-if a newly
computerized processing
system is as effective as rent
commissioner Elliot Sander
it will be. At a press
conference recently, the
commissioner displayed the
computer system and promi'led
that within a year the ageno/s
load of 85,000 cases would
start to be reduced. ''This is the
benchmark. I want you to hold
me to this," he says.
In 1984, the state assumed
responsibility for regulating the
1.1 million rent-stabilized and
rent-controlled apartments in
New York City, taking over
from a variety of local agen-
cies. Sander says there are still
more than 2,000 unresolved
cases from 1984, and these
cases have top priority for
resolution.
Supporting Sander's
changes, Governor Cuomo
recently proposed the hiring of
100 more rent examiners fOr
the office. He also says he
plans to increase the agency's
overall budget from $23.4
million to $31 .1 million.
Michael McKee, executive
director of the New York State
Tenant and Neighbarhood
Coalition, says, ''They talk a
good fight, but we haven't seen
any tangible improvements."
He adds that Sander also needs
to do more than dear up the .
administrative boggle within the
agency. "We're concerned
about policy," he says, p<?inting
out that landlords who willfully
overcharge tenants are rarely
being fined at the increased
damages level imposed by law.
"We want to know when
they're going to enforce the
law," he adds.
The overhaul of the DHCR rent
office, engineered by manage-
ment consultants Ernst & Wfiin-
ney, cost $500,000. 0 Usa
Glazer
Brolll[
The mayor's Melrose Commons
plan to bring 4,000 units of housing
to the South Bronx quickly came
under fire from local activists.
"Melrose Commons is the Mondo
Condo of the South Bronx," says
Blanca Ramirez, executive director
of South Bronx People for Change.
The median family income in the
South Bronx is less than $10,000
but the apartments in the plan, which
is getting strong support from
Borough President Fernando Ferrer,
are affordable to families earning
between $25,000 and $50,000 a
year. In December, South Bronx
Churches proposed Nehemiah-style
housing (for families earning between
$17,500 and $23,000) on one of the
sites included in the mayor's plan.
As City Limits goes to press, South
Bronx Churches is attempting to
reach a compromise with the city to
revive their proposal.
Brooklyn
Alexander Muss and Sons with-
drew their building application for
the Brighton-By-the-Sea project
shortly after the mayor echoed its
opponents contention that the $350
million project is too big. Lawyers
for the Muss company said they were
refiling plans because of "technical
considerations ...
Manhattan
After years of delay, the Lower
East Side's cross-subsidy plan is
finally underway. Requests for Pro-
posals for the first phase of the sub-
sidy plan-which links the sale of
city land to market-rate developers
with the creation of low and moder-
ate income housing-went out in
January. In a press release, Mayor
Koch is quoted saying that balanced
development in the Lower East Side
and the provision of permanent low
income housing "represents the con-
cerns of the community, its elected
officials, and the city." Activists
wonder what happened to the city's
concern for low income housing
when they were planning the Se-
ward Park development, which pro-
poses mostly luxury and middle-
income housing on the large Lower
East Side site ...
Andonis Morfesis' attempt to move
into midtown legitimacy came to an
abrupt end last month. In a surprise
move, Morfesis resigned from his
executive position at two midtown
real-estate firms, Huberth and Peters
Inc. and Pearce, Mayer & Greer Re-
alty. Morfesis has been dubbed "the
devil landlord" because of the hun-
dreds of life-threatening building
code violations in his Harlem build-
ings (See article, page 4).
QueeD8
The Daily News recently reported
the intention of Lazard Realty to build
a $200 million, 44-story building near
the Industrial Design Center. The
city's planning commission rezoned
a nearby site to enable the construc-
tion of the mammoth Citicorp build-
ing, but had no overall plan for the
area. Now the market is taking off,
threatening the Hunters Point resi-
dential community, as well as one of
the most stable manufacturing areas
in the city. But officials say they are
still trying to preserve the city's
dwindling manufacturing base. 0
providing complete architectural and engineering services to non-profit developers
NEW CONSTRUCTION, REHABILITATION AND CONVERSIONS
o Building Evaluation and Inspection
o Feasibility Studies 0 Construction Supervision
o Preliminary Design/Scope of Work Studies
o Complete Construction Drawings & Specifications
HUD SECTION 202 SENIOR CITIZENS HOUSING, HOMESTEADING
PROJECTS, GROUP HOMES, HPD RFPS, DSS/HHAP RFPS
Call John Harris RA. for an evaluation of your project's needs
J.C. HARRIS ASSOCIATES ARCHITECTS
458 BERGEN STREET, BROOKLYN, NEW YORK 11217 (718) 398-1440
.
c
PROFILE
Octogenarian Activist:
Meyer Parodneclc
BY BEVERLY CHEUVRONT
AT 84, MEYER PARODNECK IS A
patriarch of New York City's coop-
erative movement. In his lifelong
quest to cure social ills-be it home-
lessness, malnutrition, poor medi-
cal care, substandard education, or
barriers to employment-Meyer
Parodneck has found a solution:
collective action and ownership.
Parodneck now spends much of
the year in West Palm Beach, Flor-
ida, with his wife Pauline Hill, a
retired teacher and community
activist. But he has barelr slowed
his involvement in socia reform.
The founder of the Consumer-
Farmer milk cooperative-now the
Consumer-Farmer Foundation,
which provides financing for low
income, tenant-owned housing-
Parodneck still heads the founda-
tion's board of directors. And
Parodneck still enjoys lively
stories about the conditions and
politics of his heyday as well as
heated discussions about the prob-
lems of today.
Irregardless of the problem, Par-
odneck always comes back to his
fundamental philosophy. "There
isn't a thing you can' t do as a coop-
erative"-and do it better and more
efficiently than a for-profit enter-
prise, he proclaims.
Using that philosophy, Parod-
neck developed the Consumer-
Farmer milk cooperative in 1937.
Designed to thwart the 1936 Milk
Control Act , which fixed artifi-
cially high prices for milk, the co-
operative worked directly with
dairy farmers to eliminate the mid-
dleman and bring cheap milk to the
inner city poor. As the cooperative
dairy business grew, Parodneck
helped lead legislative battles
against monopolistic practices that
allowed food giants like A&P to
prosper at the expense of the poor.
His decades of effort were rewarded
in January 1987, when a federal
judge forced the state to stop re-
stricting licenses for distributing
milk in the city.
Meyer Parodneck and his wile, Pauline Hill:
A tireless apas"e for c_perative control, Parodneck still h_ds ConsumerFanner's
"_rd.
As arson and abandonment of
housing became rampant in New
York neighborhoods during the
1970s, Parodneck's activism found
a new focus. Since economic condi
tions had changed and milk prices
no longer remained a pressing con-
cern, Parodneck and others at Con-
sumer-Farmer decided to sell the
dairy and use the income for hous
ing. That marked the birth of the
Consumer-Farmer Foundation, a
small but aggressive foundation on
the cutting edge of low income co-
operative housing programs.
Housing the Poor
Consumer-Farmer Foundation
began applying cooperative prin-
ciples to house the urban poor, first
with homesteading and ownership
transfer, later with city-owned
buildings in the Tenant Interim
Lease program, and most recently
with the Mutual Housing Associa-
tion of New York. Despite their ef-
forts, along with the work of many
other housing activists, Parodneck
saw New York City's housing prob-
lem continue to worsen. "The crime
of the century," he says, reflecting
on today's army of homeless
people, "was discontinuing hous-
ing production for eight years."
This octogenarian activist , who
has lived through most of the cen-
tury' s "crimes"-including two
world wars, the Great Depression
and McCarthyism-has a broad
overview of world events. Born in
Poland, his family left when Parod-
neck was still very young. His fa-
ther moved to America, where he
planned to raise money to bring the
rest of the family. His mother and
siblings were to wait in London.
"My father was in New York two
weeks before he was killed in an
industrial accident," Parodneck
remembers. The family remained in
London until 1913. Parodneckgrew
up in those early years amid Eng-
land's flourishing cooperative
movement, and that experience
with consumer cooperatives re-
mained strong. Those early ex-
amples were reinforced when he
and his family finally arrived in the
U.S., settling in the Lower East
Side-a place where slumlords
CITY UMITS March 1989
ruled and immigrants faced daily
struggles against poverty and'depri-
vation.
Becoming a great social reformer
was not Parodneck's early aspira-
tion-he wanted to be an engineer,
says Harry DeRienzo, the Con-
sumer-Farmer Foundation's vice
president. But anti-Semitic bias in
higher education closed that op-
tion, and Parodneck went instead
to law school, graduating from New
York University at the age of 20.
Eviction Fighter
One of his early brushes with ac-
tivism came during the Depression.
At that time, Parodneck was living
in Sunnyside Gardens, a planned
community in Queens. As the na-
tion's economy plummeted, he
watched his neighbors default on
their mortgages and face eviction
from their homes. Parodneck of-
fered his legal talents to fight Sun-
nyside's evictions and to lobby for a
federal moratorium on foreclo-
sures. Parodneck and his colleagues
enlisted a powerful ally to join them
in this fight as a lobbyist in Wash-
ington-Fiorello LaGuardia.
Parodneck remembers another
incident during this period that left
a profound mark on him. One out-
of-work neighbor had a son of about
10 or 12. Parodneck realized one
day that he had not seen the child
for some time and inquired after
him. The boy' s father explained
that the family was running out of
money to buy food, so they sent the
child to live with a relative. "I
thought it was horrible-to save
this boy' s life, they have to give him
away," Parodneck says.
This incident led Parodneck to a
commitment to see that all children
have adequate diets, and a 1936
tour of European cooperatives pro-
vided him with the methodology to
carry out this commitment. On his
return, a meeting with a community
leader named Dr. Caroline Whitney
gave him a platform for action. She
was organizing the Milk Consumers
Protective Committee to fight milk
price hikes and urged Parodneck to
participate.
"One thing is clear, " Parodneck
says, echoing the philosophy he
developed at that time. "No indi-
vidual can do anything for him-
self-we have to act collectively. "
With that principle in mind, he
proposed joining with farmers to
develop a cooperative dairy, and
Consumer-Farmer was born. Pres-
sure from activists forced a reluc-
tant state to grant a license to the
new co-op.
"The only thing we should be
required to do to start a co-op is to
produce the names and addresses
of the organization's officials.
That ' s all. There should be no lim-
its or restrictions," says Parodneck,
outraged at the regulations that still
limit the formation of collective
groups.
He adds that monopolies, espe-
cially in the food industry, are
stronger than ever, making it espe-
cially difficult for food-related co-
ops to starttoday. "I got away with
it because the idea was so novel that
they (the food industry) didn' t have
time to regroup," he says with a
smile.
When Parodneck turned his at-
tention to the city's housing crisis,
he looked for solutions in the coop-
erative housing programs of
Scandinavian countries. Denmark
has been especially successful in
providing models for the kind of
low income, cooperative housing
that Consumer-Farmer is now ad-
vocating, he says.
Only through aggressive commu-
nity involvement and the creation
of cooperative institutions can
problems be solved equitably, he
says. Parodneck's work has pro-
vided a foundation for turning that
vision into reality. 0
"COMMITMENT"
SInce 1980 HEAT has provided low cost home heating oil , burner and boiler repair services,
and energy management and conservation services to largely minority low and middle income
neighborhoods in the Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan and Queens.
As a proponent of economic empowerment for revitalization of the city's communities, HEAT is
committed to assisting newly emerging managers and owners of buildings with the reduction of
energy costs (long recognized as the single most expensive area of building management) .
HEAT has presented tangible opportunities for tenant associations, housing coops. churches,
community organizations. homeowners and small businesses to gain substantial savings and
lower the costs of building operations.
Working collaboratively with other community service organizations with similar goals. and
working to establish its viability as a business entity. HEAT has committed its revenue gener-
ating capacity and potential to providing services that work for. and lead to. stable. productive
communities.
Throush the pri .... ry service of providinllow cost home heatinloil, various heatinI
plant services and etIef'BY .... nagement services, HEAT members have collectively
saved over $5.1 million.
HOUSING ENERGY ALLIANCE FOR TENANTS COOP CORP.
.,3 BROADWAY, SUITE 414, NEW YORK. N.Y. 10003 12121505-0286
If you are int ..... ted in "'ming more about HEAT,
or if you are int ..... ted in becominl a HEAT member,
call or write the HEAT office.
CITY VIEWS
Employing
Success:
Businesses
Need to
Retool Their
Hiring
BY MICHAEL MANDEL
OVER THE LAST COUPLE OF
years, there have been several well-
publicized cases of New York com-
panies struggling to find qualified
workers. New York Telephone re-
ported that only 10 percent of its
recent applicants had basic language
and math skills. Chemical Bank
claimed it had to interview 40 people
to hire one who was qualified to be
trained as a teller. And in 1987, a
group of banks who had committed
themselves to ' offer jobs to East
Brooklyn high school graduates
found they could only fill half their
available positions.
These hiring problems are taken
as a sign that New York City faces a
growing shortage of skilled workers.
According to Samuel Ehrenhalt,
regional commissioner ofthe federal
Bureau of Labor Statistics, most new
job openings in the city require
workers who can read, write and
add. With the drop-out rate in city
high schools remaining high, the
result is a "skills mismatch"-tech-
nical and clerical jobs are available,
but there are not enough qualified
people to fill them.
The problem of skills mismatch is
compounded by the reduced num-
bers of young people in the post-
"baby boom" generation. In order to
fill jobs, businesses are recruiting
minorities and immigrants, groups
which have been historically less
educated and more prone to drop
out.
The usual reaction is to blame the
high school drop-out rate on the fail-
ure of the school system. Although
improving the schools is critical, it is
also important to provide an incen-
March 1989 CITY LIMITS 9
School's out:
Do schools prepare students for the job market?
tive for students to graduate. If the
only job available to a graduating
student is a low-paying one with no
hope for advancement, there's little
reason to finish school.
If companies want to help solve
the skills mismatch problem, they
have to change the way they do
business. Upgrading and opening up
good jobs to minorities and immi-
grants will provide a better reason
for them to stay in school and in-
crease the supply of educated work-
ers.
Leaving Town
When businesses are faced with a
shortage of qualified applicants, there
is a temptation to run away from the
problem. Ehrenhalt and others fear
that businesses having difficulty find-
ing qualified workers in New York
will flee to other parts ofthe country
or, having heard of the problem, will
not locate here in the first place.
But rejecting New York as a place
to do business may not solve a com-
pany's hiring problems. In the sub-
urbs, the shortage of young workers
is so acute that many companies (like
fast food and retail chains) have
started hiring workers from the city
and bussing them to their jobs in the
suburbs.
Skills mismatch is becoming a
nationwide dilemma. Across the
10 CITY LIMITS March 1989
country the job skill requirements
are increasing-though not as fast as
in New York. And as the "baby bust"
generation (which is smaller) enters
the workforce, companies every-
where will experience hiring diffi-
cui ties. Even an area like Boston,
with its large number of literate and
college-educated workers, is experi-
encing labor shortages.
One way that businesses can deal
with a shortage of qualified workers
is by restructuring and downgrading
jobs so that fewer skills are needed. If
a bank is having trouble hiring tell-
ers, it can install automated teller
machines and replace
practices can yield increases in the
number of qualified graduates.
In 1987, East Brooklyn Churches,
distressed by the high drop-out rate
in nearby high schools, wanted to
provide students with an induce-
ment to graduate. Together with the
New York State Bankers Associa-
tion, the churches helped sponsor a
program in which several New York
banks agreed to hire 250 graduates of
these high schools annually. The
students would be guaranteed per-
manent jobs as bank tellers, word
processors and file clerks, provided
they met certain minimum skill re-
but the future of the city's economy."
But the problems with the pro-
gram were solved with just a few
simple adjustments. The banks of-
fered more clerical and operations
positions and the schools provided
more preparatory work. Most impor-
tantly, in the next year the banks
began the recruitment process ear-
lier in the school year-in the first
year the banks waited until June to
offer jobs, so that the best students
had already found work.
As a result, the banks filled nearly
all the positions in the second year.
According to Bob Cole of the State
Bankers Association,
the tellers with people
whose only job is to
refill the A TMs with
more money.
Labor Force Participation
the banks have found
it easier to fill their
positions through the
schools than their
normal recruiting
process-with no loss
in job performance.
The program is now
being expanded to
several Queens high
schools. In retrospect,
the first year problems
look more like normal
start-up difficulties
than a massive fail-
ure of the school sys-
tem.
Although this may
preserve jobs in the
short-run, in the long-
run it exacerbates the
shortage of qualified
workers. Thenewjobs
are lower paying than
the old ones, with
fewer possibilities for
advancement. As a
result, they are less
attractive to young
people and provide
them with fewer in-
centives to stay in
school.
Rates, J988
Based on first 11 months of 1988
Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics
70%
60
50
40
30
20
10
o
In fact, this may be
one cause of the cur-
rent problems. In New
York City, blacks and
Hispanics have his-
torically held propor-
tionally fewer mana-
D us NYC
gerial, professional
and technical jobs. Moreover, mi-
norities are substantially under-rep-
resented in the well-paid financial
sector (see City Limits, November
1988). Because young people per-
ceive that they are unlikely to have
access to well-paying jobs, they are
more likely to drop out.
Small Changes
Businesses worry that even if they
offer better jobs, the city' s school
system is so bad that even high school
graduates are unqualified. But there
is at least one example showing that
relatively small changes in hiring
quiremeqts.
The first year of the program was
a disaster. The banks could fill only
105 of the 250 positions. Many ap-
plicants reportedly could not pass
an eighth grade math test. The pro-
gram was held up as an example of
how hard it was to find qualified
workers in the city. According to
The New York Times, " ... the failure
of the bank program dashes hope
that the school system as now man-
aged could ever improve the recruit-
ing outlook .... the poor education of
public school students now threat-
ens not just their individual futures,
Solutions
Businesses need not
restrict themselves to
working with the
school system. They
can open up good jobs
to those traditionally
excluded from the
workforce by starting
their own training
programs, which will ensure a sup-
ply of qualified workers.
These training programs will only
be successful if they lead to decently
paid jobs with a future. Attempts to
attract people into dwindling occu-
pations are sure to fail. For example,
last year the founders of the Furni-
ture Training Institute in Queens
complained that they could only find
60 people willing to enroll in free
classes in upholstering, cabinet-
making and other furniture industry
skills.
But this lack of interest is not
surprising given the long-term de-
cline in the furniture industry. Be-
tween 1979 and 1986, furniture in-
dustry employment in New York City
fell 21 percent, paralleling the city's
overall decrease in manufacturing.
No one is predicting a resurgence in
furniture-making any time soon, so
it is not surprising that so few people
were attracted to the program.
By comparison, the Port Author-
ity of New York and New Jersey had
250 applicants for 14 slots in an
electrical apprentice training pro-
gram it started. The jobs were attrac-
tive because the Port Authority of-
fers a decent wage for steady em-
ployment in a growing field.
The Port Authority obtained such
a positive response partly by tapping
into the city's pool of minority and
women workers, who are usually
excluded from these types of posi-
tions. Historically, union-runappren-
tice training programs have predomi-
nantly accepted white males, which
has actually restricted the number of
potential applicants. The Port Au-
thority program currently includes
seven nonwhite men and one white
woman. By opening the apprentice-
ship program, the chances of a labor
shortage are substantially reduced.
The skills mismatch problem is
actually a powerful incentive for
businesses to break down barriers
that keep many people out of good
jobs. In the face of threats of short-
ages, it's in the best interests of the
private sector to broaden the pool of
potential applicants for skilled jobs,
to train them and to pay enough
money to attract them.
This is not a short-term project.
For years, businesses have encour-
aged schools, especially in poorer
areas, to teach discipline and rate
learning rather than problem-solv-
ing, and then tracked the graduates
into low-paying manufacturing and
service jobs. Breaking this cycle will
require the leadership of businesses
with a long-term commitment to New
York City-banks, financial compa-
nies, utilities and real-estate devel-
opers. For these firms, an enlight-
ened hiring and training policy is the
surest way to avoid the predicted
skills shortages. 0
Michael Mandel teaches economics
at the Stern School of Business at
New York University.
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FEATURE
Power and Profits?
Community Health Centers
Get a Check-up
BY LISA GLAZER
C
reated during the heady days
of the 1960s, neighborhood
health centers promised to
revolutionize health care for the poor.
For as little as $2 per visit, these
clinics were created to provide pre-
ventative medicine-nutrition ad-
vice, dental service and family plan-
ning-as well as personal service
from committed physicians. Control
was placed in the hands of the com-
munity.
"This was part of a long-term
struggle for better health that was
just one element of a vision of social
justice and equality," recalls Joanne
Lukomnic, who became active in the
health center movement 20 years ago
and now runs a clinic affiliated with
the Albert Einstein Medical School.
"We wanted to create a whole new
form of medicine."
While many of the nation's 600
community health centers still strive
to fulfill this ambitious mandate from
the War on Poverty era, almost one-
third of New York City's 13 feder-
ally-funded community health cen-
ters have drifted from their early
ideals. Instead of providing first class
health services for uninsured New
Yorkers, these clinics have become
local power bases-centers where
neighborhood leaders build politi-
cal influence, engage in real estate
management or, in some cases, pur-
sue personal profit.
. Joyce Gallimore, director of the
state's Bureau of Alternative Deliv-
ery Systems, surmises, "Somewhere
along the line, these community
health centers seem to have lost sight
of their primary vision to provide
quality health care and redefined
their purpose as the promotion of an
individual's goals."
The community health center
within the Hunts Point Multi-Serv-
ice Center in the South Bronx is
$275,000 in debt, yet federal docu-
ments show that a 1987 funding
request lists a $40,163 payment for
renowned "poverty czar" Ramon
Velez-even though Velez had no
hands-on connection to the health
clinic. On January 1, the federal
government moved to cut the cen-
ter's funding.
The board of directors of the
Martin Luther King Health Center in
the South Bronx was run for many
years by Kenneth Drummond, for-
mer chairman of School Board 12.
Drummond and other board mem-
bers spent $115,700 on mostly per-
sonal expenses, including baby-sit-
ting fees and car repair costs. The
board also signed questionable con-
tracts for billing systems, according
to a suit brought by Attorney General
Robert Abrams last year. The center
is now being run by a court-appointed
trustee.
At the NENA Health Center on
the Lower East Side, the executive
director and board of directors di-
verted hundreds of thousands of
public dollars to side corporations
they established to acquire and main-
tain property-even while debts at
the health center mounted to nearly
$1 million and dental and ambu-
lance services were axed. Last year,
a state court appointed another health
clinic to run NENA.
The Soundview Health Center
in the Southeast Bronx, which re-
ceived federal funding of $660,000
for 1989, could be heading in the
same direction. Run by defeated
Congressional candidate Pedro Es-
pada, the clinic rents space from a
for-profit company, 731 White Plains
Road Realty Corporation. In an inter-
view, Espada admitted that he also
controls the realty corporation. A
federal health official says, "This ap-
pears to be a conflict of interest. "
Dr. Neil CaIman trained at the
Martin Luther King Health Center
and served as medical director at
Soundview until he left in 1985-
the same year Soundview's public
relations director, Sandra Love, ran
for City Council. "I was disen-
chanted," he explains. "These cen-
ters were meant to improve commu-
nity health, but they turned into
political footballs and the health care
was shortchanged."
Mary Plaska, director of special
projects for the National Association
of Community Health Centers, ad-
mits, "In New York, a number of the
programs have relinquished their
responsibilities to the communities
they serve. " But she adds, "Across
the country, this is the exception
rather than the norm."
Hunts Point
The community health center on
Caldwell Avenue in the South Bronx
is part of the poverty empire that
comprises the Hunts Point Multi-
Service Center. Critics say Ramon
Velez controls the Multi-Service
Center-and much of the business
and politics in the South Bronx-as
his private fiefdom (see City Limits,
November 1984). The Hunts Point
Multi-Service Center sponsors eight
anti-poverty programs funded with
millions of public dollars and Velez
makes his living by "skimming"
administrative fees from each of the
programs. In 1984, his total income
was listed as $234,000.
On January 1, the Public Health
Service, which funds community
health centers through federal
Section 330 grants, announced that
they would end the annual flow
of $1.3 million to the Hunts Point
Community Health Center because
of unresolved problems including
"unacceptably high administrative
costs. "
Clo.e examination:
Some local "_,''' center. "ave "ecome local power "a.e.,
ot lite expen.e 01 qualify medical .ervice.
A 1987 funding request includes a
payment of $40,163 for the execu-
tive support provided by Velez, as
well as $22,680 for Multi-Service
Center executive Victor Rubianes and
$50,000 for Project Director Luis
Fuentes. "The ... costs you have
claimed in the form of salaries for
Mr. Ramon Velez and Mr. Victor Ru-
bianes are not allowable," wrote
Marty Bree, acting chief of primary
care for PHS in a letter last year.
Another federal letter explains that
the Multi-Service Center executives
have "very little, if anything, to do
with the day to day operations of the
community health center."
The center's board of directors also
wanted a cut of the federal pie. In its
most recent federal grant applica-
tion, the health center's board of
directors requested $4,500 for "costs
incurred for attending
meetings ... transport, meals, baby-
sitting fees and lost wages." An ear-
lier request, in 1987, noted $9,000
for board member stipends, as well
as $2,160 for the board's catering
bills.
While the health clinic's leaders
were consuming these catered
meals, the clinic's debt rose to
$275,000. The minimum fee for
services was raised to $20 and people
in the neighborhood-an area with
the fewest doctors per capita in New
York City, and where 61 percent of
the population lives below the pov-
erty line-left the center in droves.
Documents show an estimated loss
of 3,000 patients between 1983 and
1986.
South Bronx Churches, which
draws its membership from a variety
of church and civic organizations, is
trying to break the Velez grasp on
another health institution, Lincoln
Hospital. Although Velez serves
only as "permanent honorary chair-
man" of the hospital's community
advisory board, organizers for South
Bronx Churches say he uses his in-
fluence to dispense patronage jobs.
Lincoln Hospital is under the micro-
scope at the moment because of the
unusually high death rate among its
patients, and last month the city's
dailies reported that Lincoln may
no longer qualify for Medicaid reim-
bursements.
Jim Drake, an activist working for
South Bronx Churches, says that two
of the Hunts Point Community Health
Center board members are also asso-
ciated with the Lincoln Hospital
advisory board-George Rodriguez
and Monserrate Flores.
Velez temporarily lost his hold on
the Hunts Point organization in the
late 1970s because auditors found
evidence of "possible fiscal fraud."
Velez associates were successfully
prosecuted but the chief emerged
unscathed-and eventually re-
claimed control of the Multi-Service
Center.
Federal officials say the Hunts
Point Community Health Center's
board of directors is appealing the
federal decision to cut funding. Paul
Bleifer, a New Jersey lawyer who
~ represents the Hunts Point board as
!!! well as the former directors of the
S Martin Luther King Health Center,
~ declined to comment. Numerous
iii phone calls to Rubianes and Velez
were not returned.
Martin Luther King
Health Center
Last year, state Attorney General
Robert Abrams filed a civil suit
against the Martin Luther King Health
Center's board of directors. "Since
at least 1978 to date, (board chair-
man) Kenneth Drummond ... has
dominated and controlled the board
by packing it with his friends, inti-
mates and political cronies," the suit
alleges.
"They looted and wasted the cor-
porate assets and perpetuated the
corporation solely for their personal
benefit," charges Assistant Attorney
General Anne-Miriam V. Hart.
Located at 1674 Third Avenue in
Morrisania-a neighborhood where
20 percent of the residents lack health
insurance-the MLK clinic serves as
a lifeline. Yet a state Department of
Health review of operations found
that the center itself was a health
hazard. According to Abrams' suit,
the report noted "outdated and im-
properly labeled medication, unsani-
tary storage of garbage, and serious
cockroach infestation."
This was just the visible evidence
ofthe clinic's deterioration. By Janu-
ary 1988, the center's debts
mounted to more than $4
million, a fiscal situation
that threatened its exis-
tence. Drummond, former
chairman of scandal-ridden
School Board 12, estab-
lished a bank account that
grew to $116,000 for the
use of board members when
he took charge in 1978. By
1985, they spent all but
$300-payments including
car leases, car repairs, gas,
parking tickets, baby-sit-
ting fees, consultant costs
and travel expenses, ac-
cording to the suit brought
by Abrams.
The suit also cites ir-
regularities in the clinic's
contracting with a new
billing vendor. For many
years, the center had a
Healthy fees:
In J984, Ramon Velez earned more than $200,000
from his anti-poverty programs.
contract with Hospital Billings Sys-
tems, which charged double the
amount of a billing vendor used by a
similar-sized health center in
Brooklyn, according to Assistant At-
torney General Susan Scheid. After
PHS ordered the center to get rid of
the over-priced vendor, the board
hired a new company to do the cen-
ter's billing. Board member Felipe
Ventegeat resigned from the board,
accepted a three-month contract for
$1,000 a week from the board as a
consultant, and steered the clinic to
Motorola Softpoint. A week later,
Ventegeat resumed his role on the
board.
Notes from a federal memo show
that when a board member com-
plained about similar procedures-
like the hiring of a consultant for
$56,000 to "doctor" reports to the
Public Health Service-fellow board
members threatened to kill him. A
former federal official, who asked
not to be named, remembers being at
the Martin Luther King Health Cen-
'ter during a stormy board meeting in
1985 when gunshots were fired.
Lawyer Joel Lewitas was appointed
trustee for the clinic by bankruptcy
court last summer and he deposed
the former board members.
The civil suit brought by Abrams
has not yet come to trial. Paul Bleifer,
the attorney for the MLK board,
declined to comment on the case.
NENA
One evening during the transit
strike of 1966, a child on East Sixth
Street in the Lower East Side devel-
oped an acute asthmatic attack and
nearly died while waiting for a ride
to Bellevue Hospital. The incident
spurred a block association called
the Sixth Street Mothers to lobby for
a community health clinic.
Working with an organizer from
the Northeast Neighborhood Asso-
ciation, the mothers gained War on
Poverty funding and in 1969 the
NENA Health Center opened its doors
in a former boys club. Within less
than a decade a new building was
constructed, the modern, six-story
building at 279 East Third Street that
still serves as the center's home.
From its first days, the NENA
Health Center was hailed as a tribute
to local activism. But as early as
1972, an article in HealthPAC, a
health policy journal, noted that the
center's health committee members
ran the clinic in a secretive manner.
This secrecy continued until last year,
when investigations and community
outrage brought the activities of
NENA's leaders into the limelight.
Over the years, the NENA board
and its executive director, Walter
Brown, acquired property as part of
an elaborate plan for neighborhood
revitalization. Some of the property
was donated, while other parcels
were bought. Ownership
of the property was trans-
ferred to related corpora-
tions created by Brown.
Federal documents show
that more than $200,000
was siphoned to these cor-
porations. By 1985, the
health center was $800,000
in debt, staff was cut from
250 to less than 70, the
dentist was fired and the
ambulance service was
dropped. Yet the board of
directors spent $47,270 on
travel expenses in 1985 and
Brown asked for $85,000
. for repairs on one of the
~ other buildings. In a neigh-
:I borhood where AIDS is the
... third highest cause of death
and one-third of the popu-
lation has no health insur-
ance, many local people
stopped going to NENA. Documents
show patient visits dropped from
70,000 in 1985 to an estimated 12,000
in 1987.
Two years ago, Walter Brown was
forced to resign, and the Public Health
Service later asked the board to step
down. When some of the members
refused, a feisty neighborhood coali-
tion, Friends of NENA, held prayer
vigils and community meetings. At
a public hearing last winter, an eld-
erly woman, Evelyn Harrison, told a
crowd of more than 300 people, "I
have two grandchildren and NENA
has been my right arm helping me
take care of those kids. The place is
in walking distance and I don't have
a car to go somewhere else. We have
to fight to make sure that place stays
open. "
The battle headed to court, with
Attorney General Abrams filing a suit
against the board of directors for
"mismanagement and misappropria-
tion of funds." Last December, the
board was removed, and the court
appointed the William F. Ryan Health
Center to run the beleaguered clinic.
The former NENA board is still
appealing the action.
Soundview
During the late 1970s, a newly-
built, two-story structure lay idle in
the Soundview section of the South
Bronx. Constructed along with the
Stevenson Commons housing devel-
opment, it was part of a far-sighted
city plan to create satellite medical
clinics for the Health and Hospitals
Corporation. The city' s fiscal crisis
derailed the plan, but in 1979 an
enterprising local leader, Pedro
Espada, set up a committee to claim
the empty building. "People had
nowhere to go for health care and the
building was just sitting there,"
recalls the 35-year-old Espada, who
spearheaded efforts to create a com-
munity-based health center while
serving as chairman of the Steven-
son Commons Tenants Association.
A decade later, the Soundview
Community Health Center, run by
Espada, receives more than $500,00
in federal funding annually. In a
neighborhood where the median
income of renter families is $10,358,
the center offers special services for
pregnant women, nutrition counsel-
ing and family doctors on a sliding
scale that starts at $15. A state health
official describes the quality of care
as "reasonable."
Espada is president of the Com-
prehensive Community Develop-
ment Corporation, the nonprofit
organization that oversees the health
center, as well as the New Dimen-
sions Day Care Center and the Ste-
venson Senior Action Program.
But public service isn't Espada's
only goal. In the same building as
the community health center, he
owns two for-profit corporations.
Run by his brother, Ray, Soundview
, tr R
centerts success is its cOnununit!
W board. iiShe says the directors hola
Despite the evidenQaof scan- public meetings four times a year.
cOJnmlunltYO,fW.;J:I. tl . Health Clinic
of the . cleated in 1910 after a
fair in <Chinatown inspired loCal:
activitta to add affordable medicttl
86fVicd to their ag$nda. Located
a narrow building at 89 Baxtat
. . . the center's sliding scale
.. =
. '5' . .,who live outside Manhattan.
. '. come because of the C08t-
a:aui . use we understand their
, ctdturaJ, background and speak
the larJ8u.age:' explains Executive
Directof Harold Lui.
The William F. Ryan He81th Cen-
recently moved into new qUal"-
ters on West 97th Street. The cen-
". its leadershi}l-:-8!'e so
reprdid that state and federal om
ci81s Ryan to act as
the reCeiver for NENA last year. %
Established as a demonstration
project by the federal Office ofEco-
nomic Opportunity in 1967, tbi
Ryan health center now provides
blmily )Dedical service, full
Care uia a Itlental health
projects. A
% Community Health
"Iitt Center .. ,at 2253 Third Avenue
Di ......f .... e .. ctorver&n .'.' .... '. a ..... BaS ...... ... t. Harlem is smVin .. g to ...l ... .. o. in th .... e ..... .
Grepland expla.ip, the key tote of weU.regard:d he&!,th ,'.
Specialty Services sets up leasing
arrangements for medical specialists
in the building, and Soundview
Management Services offers billing
and personnel assistanqe to those
specialists.
The community health center,
Espada's two businesses, and a
number of other operations all pay
rent to 731 White Plains Road Realty
Corporation. In an interview, Es-
pada admitted that he pays rent to
himself. "I have 100 percent control
of 731 White Plains Road Realty
Corporation," he says.
Devorah Fong, a spokesperson for
Grenadier Realty, which manages the
entire Stevenson Commons/roject,
says 731 White Plains Roa Realty
Corporation leases the entire build-
ing for about $3,200 a
month-approxi-
mately $40,000 a year.
In the community
health center's most
recent funding request,
Espada listed current
annual rent of
$155,000. When asked
what happens to the
surplus money-from
the federal rent funds,
as well as the rent from
the six other business
and medical services
in the building-Es-
pada said it goes to-
wards "building opera-
tions."
Not just a "and-aid:
Community h_I", centers provide
comprehensive services for a sliding scale lee_
"This is all free of
conflict of interests," he proclaims,
explaining that he created 731 White
Plains Road Realty Corporation
because the federal government
would not allow the nonprofit Com-
prehensive Community Develop-
ment Corporation to acquire the lease
for the building.
Raymond Porfilio, deputy regional
administrator for the Public Health
Service, disagrees. He says, "This
appears to be a conflict of interest.
We'll be looking into this." Porfilio
also says the Public Health Service
was never aware that Espada paid
rent to himself, and adds that the
Public Health Service has no record
of prohibiting CCDC from holding
the lease.
Explaining his mixing of non profi t
and for-profit ventures, Espada says
he sees himself as part of a new wave
of South Bronx leadership. "Velez is
a very negative role model," he com-
ments, adding, "I want to be a new
role model, teaching others how to
do nonprofit work with integrity and
honesty, but also providing leader-
ship in development in the private
sector."
. Despite his antipathy for Velez,
Espada has some similar interests-
like expanding his influence over
other health clinics and local poli-
tics. Federal and state officials say
Espada was active in a turf war over
control of Massive East Bronx Com-
munity Health Center, and he pre-
sented himself as a possible trustee
for the Martin Luther King Health
Center.
As for politics, Espada failed in
his attempt last year to unseat in-
dicted Congressman Robert Garcia,
as well as an earlier bid for an As-
sembly seat. The community health
center's public relations director,
Sandra Love, ran unsuccessfully for
City Council in 1985 and is now
Democratic district leader in the
neighborhood.
But Espada does have political
clout. He serves as chairman of the
neighborhood's Area Policy Board,
a noted springboard for patronage-
dispensing politicians (see City
Limits, November 1984). Among the
organizations that Area Policy Board
9 in the Bronx funds is the Com-
munity Leadership Network. Led
by Pedro Espada, the network spon-
sors "alternative"political candi-
dates. The two candidates promoted
thus far: Pedro Espada and Sandra
Love.
John Donohue, public affairs di-
rector for the city's Community
Development Agency says Espada's
Area Policy Board 9 currently gives
$154,624 in city dollars for the Infor-
mation Networking and Community
Assistance Program. The director of
the program is Sandra Love. Another
$70,000 in city dollars was doled out
to the Stevenson Senior Action Pro-
gram, which is part ofCCDC and run
by Irma Fuentes, a member of the
board governing Soundview Com-
munity Health Center. In fact, these
and other allocations to organiza-
tions led by individuals connected
to Espada's community health cen-
ter account for more
than three-quarters of
the $500,000 handed
out by the Area Policy
Board.
Preventative Medicine
To qualify for federal
Section 330 grants, lo-
cal health centers must
provide affordable care
in areas deemed "medi-
cally underserved" and
the majority of the board
members must be from
the local community.
Although the federal
money is their primary
funding source, most
community health cen-
ters also receive state and city health
funds-and are audited by as many
as three agencies.
Yet these funders are slow to take
action against the clinic's leadership.
"If a project ends, who suffers?" asks
Bernard Passer, who served as direc-
tor of the Public Health Service's
community health center program
before retiring last year. "You have
to weigh need versus other factors.
You can't expect these places to run
like a finely-tuned Mercedes Benz."
He adds that after funding was cut,
some community health centers have
turned into for-profit medical facili-
ties commonly known as "Medicaid
mills."
To prevent this from happening,
health activists say newly-commit-
ted local people must become in-
volved when the legal battles over
Martin Luther King and NENA come
to an end. If the allegations by
Abrams are upheld, elections for new
board members will be held.
At these and other health centers,
it's up to community members to
demand accountability from the
board of directors, whose audits are
public information. Harriet Cohen, a
founding member of Friends of
NENA, says, "Local people have to
make sure the board is honest,
ferret out corruption ... but maintain
community control. You can't throw
the baby out with the bath water."
After all, she continues, "This is a
process. We have to learn from
mistakes and make sure they don't
happen again." 0
CITY VIEWS
Calculations and Controversy:
What's the City's Median Income?
BY PHILLIP WEITZMAN
MOST OF THE CITY' S HOUSING
policies and programs, including
the mayor's 10-year plan, use New
York's median income as a bench-
mark for allocating public funds and
resources. Three different estimates
of median income are readily avail-
able to city officials, each of which
offers a different figure. But the fig-
ure the city chooses to use is calcu-
lated without including 35 percent
of all households, some of them
among the poorest in the city, yet
does include three suburban coun-
ties. This has the effect of diluting
funds away from those most in need
of housing assistance.
City officials currently define
median income at more than $32,000.
Using that mar ker, offi-
ily incomes suffer significant time
lags. For example, 1987 family in-
come has only recently become avail-
able.
As a result, HUD is forced to use
relatively crude methodologies to
fulfill its statutory obligations. To
come up with 1988 figures, HUD
combined data reflecting changes in
local wage rates in 1984, national
family incomes in 1985 and 1986
and projections of national family
incomes for 1987 and nine months of
1988.
Even if the formula shows a de-
crease in area median income, the
number would not be lowered. And
year-to-year increases are generally
capped at 10 percent, preventing the
1988 estimated New York area me-
dian from actually rising above
than 35 percent of households in
New York City-including hundreds
of thousands of senior citizens and
individuals living in single-room-
occupancy units.
But this 35 percent of households
figures frominently among those in
need 0 housing assistance. That's
why most housing specialists adopt
the concept of household-all per-
sons occupying a dwelling unit-as
the basis for analysis. Indeed, the
city's triennial Housing and Vacancy
Survey only uses the household
concept for its income data. By in-
cluding households with single in-
dividuals, the HVS median is con-
siderably lower than the HUD-de-
fined median income. Conversely,
by using the family concept instead
of the household, the city's median
cials peg households
with incomes at or be-
low $19,000 as low in-
come; moderate income
is $19,000-$32,000; and
middle i ncome ,
$32,000-$53 ,000. Yet
the city' s own Housing
and Vacancy Survey
shows a 1986 median
income of only $20,000.
The HVS median in-
come for renters-the
group who is presuma-
bly to be served by city
housing programs- is
HUD Area Median Income
Compared to NYC Based Data
(All Data for 1986)
income is inflated by
almost 22 percent,
according to recent
census bureau Current
Population Survey
data. But even using
the the household con-
cept excludes an impor-
tant group from the
median income calcu-
lation-the homeless
and others not living in
permanent housing.
Metropolitan Area Median Family Income (HUD) $27,200
NYC Median Household Income (HVSP
NYC Median Household Income (CPSF
NYC Median Family Income (HVSP
NYC Median Family Income (CPSF
20,000
20,800
22,000
25,300
' Bureau of the Census. 1987 New York City Housing and Vacancy Survey.
' Bureau of the Census. 1987 Current Population Survey.
' Bureau of the Census. 1987 New York City Housing and Vacancy Survey.
Family of Four?
"Family" is defined as a household with two or more people and no non-relatives.
Contrary to conven-
just $16,000.
What accounts for this large dif-
ference in the definition of median
income? The city has chosen to use
projections of 1988 median metro-
poli tan area famil y incomes made by
the federal Department of Housing
and Urban Development. In order to
administer their federal programs,
HUD is required by law to annually
estimate median famil y income for
every area in the country. (HUD's
1989 projections are due shortly.) It
is a monumental task considering
that reliable income data for most
local areas are available only from
the decennial census. Even on a
national level , statistics about fam-
$32,400. What's more, the HUD-de-
fined median leaves out a large
number of city households.
Family Income
The HUD median refers specifi-
cally to families. Families are de-
fined as two or more individuals
living together who are related by
blood, marriage or adoption. Thus,
"family" excludes all households
composed of just a single person,
unrelated individuals such as two
unmarried adults living together or
unrelated families doubled up in a
single apartment. By eliminating
these groups from median income
calculations, HUD excludes more
tional wisdom, the HUD
median does not refer to a family of
four-it is an estimate of median
income for all families regardless of
size. The notion that the HUD me-
dian is for a family of four has been
offered erroneously by many, includ-
ing this author, as an explanation of
why the city's median seems so high.
It is not hard to see how the confu-
sion developed.
After HUD calculates its median
income for all families, it uses a for-
mula to determine local income eli-
gibility limits for Section 8 and other
federal housing programs. The in-
come limits for "very low" and
"low"-the classifications used by
HUD-four-person families are cal-
culated by taking 50 percent and 80
percent, respectively, of the area
median income. While these num-
bers are commonly used as reference
points, they do not imply that the
area median family income is based
on a four-person family.
HUD's numbers for the area me-
dian income include counties be,
yond the five boroughs. The New
York City Primary Metropolitan
Statistical Area, as the region en-
compassing the city is known, also
includes Westchester, Putnam and
Rockland counties. The inclusion of
these counties in determining me-
dian income pushes the number
upwards. According to the census
bureau's CPS, the city's 1986 me-
dian family income was $25,300. The
HUD-defined median for that same
year was $27,200-7.5 percent
higher. (Interestingly, the CPS re-
ported a 1986 PMSA median family
income of $27,530.)
HUD does not publish informa-
tion concerning the statistical relia-
bility of its median income figures
because, strictly speaking, they are
not sample statistics and are based
almost entirely upon manipulations
of national data to adjust local 1980
census figures. Other major data
sources for the local area collected
by the Bureau of the Census-the
Housing and Vacancy Survey and
the somewhat less reliable Current
Population Survey-provide infor-
mation about standard errors for most
sample statistics.
Since New York City is blessed
with these two local and relatively
up-to-date sources of information on
family and household incomes, there
should be little reason for using HUD
data to set housing policy. City offi-
cials should be just as capable as
those at HOD to make annual adjust-
ments for income growth and, as
careful planning would dictate, es-
tablish its low, moderate and middle
income categories by household size.
By using the HOD median, which is
based on family rather than house-
hold income and is tied to the region
as a whole, the median income for
the city is inflated by more than 30
percent.
Baruch College Welcomes You To: "NETWORK/FORUM 1989"
Adopting the HUD median as the
standard for housing policy in the
ci ty, as was done in the Housing New
York Program and the 10-year hous-
ing plan, raises income thresholds
notably above levels that reflect the
best estimates of income distribu-
tion in the five boroughs. It also di-
I utes the targeting of funds and apart-
ments away from the lowest income--
predominantly minority-house-
holds.
Use of the HVS or the CPS, and
especially the household data they
contain, would allow the city to base
its plans directly on the h o u s ~ n g
needs and income distribution of all
New York City residents. In any event,
city housing programs should ex-
plicitly identity the intended benefi-
ciaries, their place on the city's in-
come scale and why those groups
were chosen. 0
Phillip Weitzman is the director of
the Housing Policy Research Project
at the Community Training and
Resource Center.
Third World Urban Development Patterns and
the Polarization of Life in N ew York City
March 17
April 7
"NEW YORK AT SIX
n
Lectures
THE QUALITY OF LIFE: Living Conditions in a Segregated City
Moderator: XIMENA DE LA BARRA, international planning consultant, adj. assoc.
prof., Columbia University
Slides: "Casitas as a Metaphor of Place" LUIS APONTE PARIS, adj. prof. of architecture,
City College and Pratt Institute
Speakers: WENDY CRA VKIN, MD, Rockefeller Fellow
JANICE MOLNAR, director, Homeless Children Project, Bank Street
College of Education
POLITICAL ACCESS: Strategies for Power in a Polarized Society
Moderator: To be announced
Speakers: DORIS KOO, exec. director, Asian Americans for Equality
JACK NEWFIELD, journalist and author
BILL SALES, community activist
NEW YORK AT SIX is presented
on Fridays at 6:00 pm
Nallin Recital Hall (Room 1220)
Baruch College
Roundtable Discussion: A HISTORY OF RADICAL
PLANNERS ORGANIZATIONS
(date and program to be announced)
(NETWORK/FORUM 1989 is organized by NY Area
Planners Network and cosponsored by the School of
Arts & Sciences at Baruch College)
17 Lexington Avenue at 23rd Street
Info. (212) 725-3126, Free Admission
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PIPELINE
Easy Money Bleeding
Bronx Buildings?
BY DOUG TURETSKY
MARIA GONZALES HAS A GREAT
view of her neighbor's apartment,
right through the missing plaster.
Suzie Dejesus, another neighbor,
complains, "The front doors are
always busted because there is no
intercom." Their building, 176 East
176th Street, is owned by Finkel-
stein-Morgan company, which ten-
ant activists describe as one of the
worst landlords in the Bronx. Two
years ago, Finkelstein-Morgan re-
ceived a $1.35 million mortgage for
the building through the Congres-
sionally-chartered Federal Home
Loan Mortgage Corporation, com-
monly known as Freddie Mac.
"Don't tell me [they] spent $1.35
million on this building," says De-
jesus with disbelief. The building
currently has 264 housing code vio-
lations. Fifty of these are 'C'-life-
threatening-violations. What De-
jesus does believe is that the rising
rent and declining services in the
building are directly linked to the
new mortgage. According to organ-
izers with the Northwest Bronx
Community and Clergy Coalition,
this situation is being repeated
throughout the area. For years the
Bronx coalition has been calling for
greater reinvestment in their neigh-
borhoods, but they say Freddie Mac
mortgages are fueling speculation
instead of stabilization.
Dennis Boyle, NWBCCC's vice
president, explains that Freddie Mac
is overvaluing buildings and then
loaning money based on these in-
flated values. Some landlords pocket
the money and bleed the buildings'
rent rolls to pay the monthly debt
service, charge tenants and activists.
The net result: declining repairs and
services and an increase in specula-
tion, rents and co-op conversion.
Created in 1970 by Congress to
help spur the availability of conven-
tional mortgages, Freddie Mac re-
ceived its initial capital from the 12
regional Federal Home Loan Banks-
the central banks for the nation's
savings and loan industry. Freddie
Mac doesn' t actually originate any
mortgages. Part of the multi-billion
dollar secondary mortgage market,
Freddie Mac purchases mortgages
from banks and brokers and then
repackages them for sale as mort-
gage-backed securities on Wall Street.
By selling their mortgages to the
secondary market, the mortgage
lender frees up its capital to make
new loans. The mortgage originator
receives a fee from Freddie Mac for
initiating the mortgage and is retained
as the servicer, collecting the monthly
loan repayments and monitoring the
mortgage.
'Extra' Money
Because Freddie Mac is in busi-
ness to purchase mortgages from
lenders and the lenders profit from
all the loans they write and resell,
Northwest Bronx residents say their
neighborhood is becoming overfi-
nanced. Lenders are making loans
beyond what a building needs and
some owners are using the "extra"
money to purchase additional build-
ings. To cover the added debt, own-
ers are applying for Major Capital
Improvement rent increases. At the
same time, these new loans and MCI-
hiked rents are contributing to the
inflated value of the buildings, charge
area residents.
Jeff Beatty, Freddie Mac' s director
of multi-family underwriting, dis-
agrees with the local activists. He
says that Freddie Mac uses prudent
standards to evaluate the mortgages
they purchase. Beatty also denies
that loans are being made on the
basis of proposed rent hikes and that
building repairs and services are
lagging because mortgage payments
eat deeply into the rent roll.
But Scott Robinson, a tenant in
365 East 209th Street, says of Fred-
die Mac, "They're either lying or
oblivious to the real-estate market in
the Bronx." Robinson's building was
bought for $300,000 by landlord
Steven Green, who six months later
refinanced it with a $515,000 Fred-
Ri.ing rent., mounting probl.m.:
AI."i. Sam ay. tit. landlord will not
m .. t witlt lenant. to di.cu .. d.lerioroting
condition. in tit. building.
die Mac mortgage. According to
Robinson, Green made about $45,000
in repairs and applied for an MCI
rent increase after receiving the new
mortgage. A fifth notice from Con
Edison was recently sent to the build-
ing, says Robinson, warning that
electricity to the common areas will
be cut because the landlord has not
paid back bills.
Green may have used some of the
mortgage money as a downpayment
for 130 West 183rd Street, a 50-unit
building he purchased last January
from Jerome Waxenberg for
$775,000. Waxenberg bought the
building from the city in 1981 for
$50,000 under the Private Owner-
ship and Management Program and
renovated the apartments with city
subsidies. Green now has a $1.25
million Freddie Mac mortgage on
this building and has filed a co-op
conversion plan with the attorney
general's office.
Dolores Flamer, a tenant in 130
West 183rd Street, says that Green
also applied for an MCI rent hike
based on such improvements as a
video intercom system and the re-
placement of windows installed only
five years earlier. More immediate
needs, like the repair of apartments
with leaks and water damage, re-
main unattended. Department of
Housing Preservation and Develop-
ment records indicate 130 West
183rd Street has 168 building code
violations, 95 of them serious 'B' and
'c' violations.
Beatty says that Freddie Mac is
not to blame for the violations or the
rising rents. "I think many of their
(tenants) fears and frustrations are
misplaced," he says. In fact , Freddie
Mac requires that landlords remove
all 'B' and 'c' violations within 90
days after it purchases a mortgage,
says Beatty. But he notes that Fred-
die Mac is not the city's housing
code enforcement agency.
Tenants scoff at the contention
that Freddie Mac is concerned with
building conditions. They say Fred-
die Mac inspections of buildings are
cursory at best. Dejesus says that
Finkelstein-Morgan renovated six
apartments in her building and then
steered the inspectors to those units.
When Gonzalez tried to get the in-
spector to look at her apartment, he
refused. Beatty acknowledges Fred-
die Mac cannot perform annual in-
spections of its properties to ensure
they are being maintained That role
is left to the original mortgage lender,
who has little interest in calling at-
tention to any potential problems
with a loan it sold to Freddie Mac.
Alexis Barnes, a tenant in 3155
Rochambeau Avenue, says that her
66-unit building had 52 housing code
violations in July 1987. Two months
later the owner, Rochambeau Inves-
tors, received a $1.275 million Fred-
die Mac mortgage. The building
underwent roof repairs and a steam
cleaning, and the owner has applied
for a MCI rent increase. But HPD
records show there are now 95 viola-
tions on the building.
Steve Trynosky of HPD's
Soundview Neighborhood Preserva-
tion Office warns that a pyramid effect
is underway, with Freddie Mac' s
overvalued loan on one building
pushing up the amount it will lend
on a nearby property. Finkelstein-
Morgan, for example, has Freddie
Mac mortgages on 21 ofits buildings
as well as a single $3.295 million
mortgage covering the same 21 build-
ings. NWBCCC estimates that ap-
proximately 60 percent of area build-
ings now have mortgages held by
Freddie Mac.
Trynosky contends that buildings
in blue-collar areas like the North-
west Bronx have traditionally been
valued on the basis of multiples of
the rent roll. "Buildings were bought,
sold and mortgaged in terms of
multiples of rent roll," says Trynosky,
adding that three times the annual
rent role was about the limit. "Why
would anyone sell a building for two
or three times the rent roll when you
can Freddie Mac it for five times
that?" he asks.
Northwest Bronx residents fear
that a rise in oil rates or some similar
factor could quickly burst the Fred-
die Mac bubble. Boyle sees the strong
potential for a replay of the bust that
ravaged the Bronx in the 1960s after
banks made easy money available to
landlords. "We've lived through the
cycle where landlords couldn't pay
back the mortgage. We' ve lived with
the decline in services and seen
buildings burnt for the insurance
money," he says.
Several weeks ago, some 200
NWBCCC supporters held a tumul-
tuous meeting with Freddie Mac
representatives, who promised to
examine the coalition's charges.
Congressman Robert Garcia said he
would request that Congress have
the General Accounting Office per-
form an audit of Freddie Mac. Beatty
believes many of the issues raised by
tenant leaders can be resolved. "We
have a common interest in providing
decent , safe and investment quality
housing in the Northwest Bronx," he
says. 0
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LEITERS
Misleading
To the Editor:
Doug Turetsky's article "Battle for
the Beach" (December 1988) high-
lights a number of complicated ques-
tions involved in setting land use
policy for a large site such as Arverne.
While the article presents both the
predominate view of the city, local
elected officials, major civic organi-
zations and the community board,
and the dissenting view offered by
the Queens Citizens Organization, it
does contain misleading information.
Turetsky's claim that the city "has
sought to cut the Qeo out of the
running" for developing the site
suggests that our decision had other
than the best interests of the city at
heart, or worse yet, that we were
acting out of some ill will aimed at
Qeo or the Nehemiah Program. The
city recognizes the valuable work
being accomplished by Nehemiah
and has publicly acknowledged their
contributions. The Qeo proposal was
given full consideration by the city
and rejected for many compelling
reasons , many of which are cited in
the article.
Turetsky's implication that the
choice to develop the site to its high-
est and best use arises from the
mayor' s desire to confer a "plum" to
a personal acquaintance is not only
grossly inaccurate but offensive as
well. There are a host of very good
reasons to develop the site as market
rate housing and the city has been
quite explicit in documenting them.
The RFP process for Arverne is
completely competitive and objec-
tive. The winning developer, after
meeting the minimum threshold
criteria, will either make a bid for the
site at least 25 percent higher than all
others or, ifno developer make such
a bid, all of the developers with bids
within 75 percent of the highest bid
will enter a design competition
evaluated by an independent panel.
Among our most important rea-
sons for rejecting the Qeo plan was
cost. While other interested devel-
opers indicated their willingness to
IF YOU ARE CONCERNED ABOUT
POVERTY
EMPLOYMENT
IMMIGRATION
HOUSING
DRUGS
the Center for Popular Economics can give you the tools to be
more effective in the struggle for social change.
We are now offering workshops on the
URBAN ECONOMIC CRISIS
NEW YORK CITY JUNE 1989
The Center is a not-for-profit educational organization. Our economic
analysis is based on an examination of the political economy of race,
gender and class in the U.S. We show how the system of capitalism
works (and doesn't work) in the U.S. and discuss some alternatives.
NO PREVIOUS ECONOMICS TRAINING NECESSARY
Please contact CPE. Box 785. Amherst. MA 01004 (413) 545-0743.
cover more than $300 million in
infrastructure improvements, the
Qeo plan all but ignored them.
What's more, under the Qeo plan,
the city would have to forego the
value of the land, which has a start-
ing price of $25 million. The Qeo
plan would require subsidies of at
least $80,000 per unit.
Besides being unreasonably ex-
pensive, the Qeo proposal would
produce considerably fewer homes
than the 7,000 to 10,000 determined
optimal.
I particularly resent the sugges-
tion that my administration felt
Arverne was simply "too good a site
for working class housing." We are
not abandoning working class fami-
lies by supporting the market rate
proposal. The proceeds from our plan
will subsidize up to 3,000 additional
units affordable to moderate income
families-as many as in the Qeo
plan and without city subsidies. Our
approach addresses the needs of
middle as well as moderate income
families.
I'm confident that any New Yorker
armed with the facts would agree
that the plan we're backing is best
for the residents of Rockaway and
the city as a whole.
Abraham Biderman, Commissioner
Dept. of Housing Preservation
and Development
Turetsky replies: Given the 11-year
record of the Koch administration, it
seems naive that the commissioner
finds the suggestion "offensive" that
connections have anything to do with
winning bids from the city. Surpris-
ingly, he does not argue with my
claim that in a private meeting with
QCO officials, the mayor agreed that
some $70 million in infrastructure
costs were included in the QCO plan.
Only one of the nine original propos-
als estimated infrastructure costs of
$300 million or more. Five proposals
estimated costs between $80 and
$190 million. The $25 million price
tag for the land was added after the
submission of the initial proposals.
Additionally, the commissioner lets
slide QCO's charge that only 475
units of moderate income housing
can be built on a nearby site, despite
the city's promise to build 800 to
1,000 units.
WORKSHOP
TENANT ORGANIZER. Lenox Hill Neighborhood Associa-
tion, Division of Community Services, provides organizing &
advocacy assistance to tenant assocs to maintain/obtain
repairs & services; to challenge demolition of sound afford-
able housing; to prevent illegal evictions, arson, harass-
ment, etc; and to maintain/improve tenant protection legis-
lation & regulations. Also assist in developing informational
manuals & community education forums. MSW, preferably
in organizing; some knowledge of housing issues & policies/
community exp desirable. Salary: based on expo Resume &
cover letter: Margaret Hughes, CSW, Lenox Hill Neighbor-
hood Association, 331 E. 70th Street, NYC 10021.
COMMUNITY ORGANIZER. Project representing tenants
in SRO hotels & rooming houses seeks organizer to do
extensive field work, advise tenants of rights, develop
tenants' assoc., community outreach on SRO issues.
Requires assertive exp person, able to deal with all types of
people, writes well and has knowledge of housing laws and
regulations. Salary pursuant to collective bargaining agree-
ment. Resume: Anne R. Teicher, MFY Legal Services, Inc.,
223 Grand Street, NYC 10013.
FAMILY OUTREACH WORKER. Implement comprehen-
sive program for homeless families recently relocated into
permanent housing. Case mgmtlorganizing. BSW/BA &
related exp pref'd. Bilingual applicants encouraged to apply.
Resume: Ken Walters, Hudson Guild, 441 W. 26th Street,
NYC 10001. EOE.
HOUSING PACKAGER. Assist nonprofit organizations in E.
Harlem develop financial packages for acquisition & rehab
of low and moderate income housing, mostly city-owned.
Working knowledge of govt programs & publiC/pvt financing
techniques, track record of leveraging public/pvt loans,
good w/numbers, flexible. Low 30s + benefits. Bilingual
applicants encouraged. EOE. Resume: Fair Banking Coa-
lition/Housing Packager, c/o East Harlem Interfaith, 2050
Second Avenue, NYC 10029.
DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR. Nonprofit housing organiza-
tion seeks development director for fundraising and pro-
gram development, to start April-May, possible part time.
Salary negotiable. Resume: Rebecca Reich, Urban Home-
steading Assistance Board, 40 Prince Street, 2nd Floor,
NYC 10012.
1989 March 31, April I & 2
The 7th Annual SOCIALIST SCHOLARS CONFERENCE
The Two Centuries of Revolution: 1789-1989
Boro of Manhattan Community College, CUNY, 199 Chambers St. (nr. Trade Center), NYC
Jo-Ann Mort
Jean Cohen
Joseph F. Murphy
Cornel West
Andrew Arato
.Jim Chapin
Daniel Singer
William Greider
Michael Harrington
1989 Registration Form
Joanne Landy
Frances Fox Piven
Ruth Spitz
Make checks payable to "Socialist Scholars Conference" and mail to: R.L. Norman, Jr. CUNY Demo-
cratic Socialists Club, Rm. 80033 West 42nd St., New York, N.Y. 10036. Please Note that the
conference schedule will be available at the door.
Pre-Registration Regular Registration
__ $22.50 __ $12.50 (studentllowincome) __ $30.00 __ $15.00 (studentllow income)
Where did you hear about the conference? _________________ _
If in a publication, which one? _____________________ _
Professional childcare for toilet trained toddlers of 3 years and older on Saturday & Sunday daytime. Unfortunately.
school insurance limitations do not permit younger children in child care facilities.
o I need childcare for children. Ages __ , __ , __ .
Name
Address
City / State / Zip __________________________ _
Academic or Organizational Affiliation
IF YOU LIVED HERE...
a series of 3 exhibitions and 4 panels
on housing, homelessness, and city planning, ~
bringing together activists, artists, community groups,
tenant organizations, poets, academics, critics, journali
and everyone else!
Exhibitions 77 Wooster Street (between Spring and Broome)
Tuesday - Saturday, 12-6 pm
1 HOME FRONT February 11 - March 18
2 HOMELESS: The Street and Other Venues April 1 - 29
3 CITY: Visions and Revisions May 13 - June 17
There is a full video schedule during each exhibition
Film screenings: February 21, April 18, May 23 at 6:30 pm
Poetry reading: April 17
Open Discussions 155 Wooster Street (between Houston and Prince]
All discussions at 6:30 pm
Invited speakers will make brief presentations, and then the floor will be open to all
1 HOUSING: Gentrification, Dislocation, & Fighting Back Tues., Feb. 28
2 ARTISTS' LIFE/WORK: Housing & Community for Artists Tues., Mar. 1A
3 HOMELESSNESS: Conditions, Causes, Cures Wed., April 26
4 PLANNING: Power, Politics, People Tues., May 16
please come prepared to speak on the issues
Admission is free for all events
For Information: 212/431-9232
organized by Martha Rosier sponsored by the Dia Art Foundation

City Limits Magazine, March 1989 Issue

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City Limits Magazine, March 1989 Issue

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March 1989

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