August/September 1989 $2.

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2 CITY LIMITS
CitJI I . i m i ~ s
Volume XIV Number 7
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EDITORIAL
Running Afoul of Clean Air
For more than two decades, political leaders have promised us something
that doesn't seem like it should be mired in controversy: clean air. Yet the
air we breathe remains deadly.
The amount of chemicals spewed into New York's air is staggering-an
estimated 4.8 pounds per person per year or about 1,800 pounds per square
mile. And these figures are undoubtedly low because only companies that
currently use more than 75,000 pounds of a chemical annually are required
to report under a weak federal law that many manufacturers simply ignore.
Nationwide, regulators only monitor 326 ofthe some 70,000 chemicals that
foul the air. A recent Environmental Protection Agency study of just 20
chemicals found they cause more than 2,000 cancer-related deaths annu-
ally. According to the American Lung Association, air pollution costs us up
to $40 billion a year in medical bills. '
Facts such as these should propel national, state and local leaders into
action. Yet when push comes to shove, real change is often caught in the
political gridlock of competing concerns.
. New York's environmental history is a prime example of this. Repeated
attempts to reduce traffic in the city-one of the prime reasons for our
polluted air-have drawn the well-orchestrated ire of real estate and auto
industries and politicians have backed down from their promises. Now the
city's prime anti-pollution tactic is eliminating "hot spots" where auto
emissions collect by rerouting traffic and building new roads, which experts
agree in the long run only increases the number of cars and trucks.
There are some positive signs: a president who talks about preserving the
environment rather than blaming trees for pollution. In New York, the City
Council's ban on apartment house incinerators is an important step. But it
is time to blow the political smoke downwind and really clear the air.
* * *
The gruesome murder of controversial tenant organizer Bruce Bailey
faded quickly from the city's daily newspapers. But his death is a vivid
reminder to tenants of the dangers they face when trying to free their
buildings from the grip of drug dealers.
* * *
As last summer approached, City Limits faced a serious crisis. Nearly
broke, the future was uncertain. One year later we are proud to report that
we are back on much firmer footing-and adding a record number of new
readers to our subscription list. This could not have been accomplished
without the help of our subscribers, advertisers and foundation and corpo-
rate supporters. We thank all of you. D
Cover photogra,h by alth ROII.tul
..... X.523
INSIDE
FEATURES
The Clean Air Movement:
Two Steps Forward, One Step Backward 9
Despite promises and pronouncements. progress on
air pollution has been limited.
A Thousand Points of Pollution 13
Toxic emissions from dry cleaners. graphic arts
studios and small factories are wafting through vast
holes in federal regulations.
On the Road with Air Pollution 16
The American obsession with automobiles is re-
sponsible for clogged streets and dirty skies.
Up in Smoke:
Incineration Burns New York's Air 20
Smokestacks from hospital. apartment and munici-
pal incinerators let off clouds of dangerous chemi-
cals.
DEPARTMENTS
Editorial
Running Afoul of Clean Air ................................ 3
Short Term Notes
Auction Sell Out .. .. .............................................. 4
Imminent Danger ................................. ........... ..... 4
Housing Bailout ................................................... 4
Artha Bubble Bursts .. ............................ .. ............ 5
Neighborhood Notes ................................................ 6
Pipeline
City Housing Plan
Has Too Little Room for the Poor .................... .. . 7
Legislation
Scandal Stalls Housing Initiatives ................... 26
Review
The Self-Help Report ......................................... 28
Letters ...... .. .... ..... ... .... ............. ..... .......... ..... ............. 30
August/September 1989 3
Clean Air/Page 9
4 CITY UMITS
SHORT TERM NOTES
AUCTION
SELL OUT
Searching For properties to
renovate For low income
families, David Beseda of the
Lower East Side Catholic Area
Conference come across three
derelict buildings on Manhat-
tan's St. Marks place. But
when he looked up the owner-
ship records of these build-
ings, on unsettling pattern
began to emerge: The
properties hod once been city-
owned then sold at auction to
real estate Firms who then
resold them at a proFit without
repairs ever having been
made.
Beseda's Findings
prompted a study recently
released by the Coalition For
the Homeless, entitled "Selling
Out: Auctioned City Prorerties
and t h ~ Warehousing 0
Vacant Apartments." The
report charges that an
estimated 1,600 of 2,664
buildings auctioned since
1981 remain vacant. Buyers
are supposed to renovate the
buildings within two years.
"City auctions have
become on avenue For real
estate speculators to get rich
at the public's expense," the
report reads. "These specula-
tors are able to purchase
properties for bargain prices,
to sit on these properties For
years without making the
required repairs, and then sell
them at substantial proFits."
City officials dispute the
report's contention and say
that buildings are empty
because most of the landlords
are not speculators, just strug-
gling urban pioneers who are
behind schedule on repairs.
"Doing a gut rehab on your
own is a difficult thing," says
Catie Marshall, a spokesper-
son for the city's Deportment
of Housing Preservation and
Development. "It tokes a long
time ... especially iF you're just
a little buyer." Marshall odds
that monitors visit 2,700 sites
every six months and arrange
financing and repair sched-
ules if the owner is having
difficulty making repairs.
The city also recently
created an Auction Properties
Loan program, which will give
new owners loans of up to
$60,000 per unit for up to 30
years at an annual interest
rate of one percent. The loans
are available to owners who
are rehabilitating from three
to 1 2 apartments.
Keith Summa of the
Coalition for the Homeless
says that the loan program
amounts to too little, too late.
Beseda odds that while "little
buyers" may have purchased
auction buildings when the
program started, buyers in
recent years have rarely been
poor. "I didn't come across
any mom and pop Folks when
I looked at {who owns} these
buildings," he says.
City officials charge that
the report uses outdated
figures . But by the housing
department' s own accounting
only 447 out of 2,758
auctioned buildings are now
occupied.
Marshall argues that only
2,1 99 were solCl more than
two years ago and should
have certiFicates of occupancy.
OF those, 952 are about to
receive certiFicates or nearing
completion. Marshall adds
that 210 buildings have been
demolished, 79 have been
redeemed by Former owners
and 511 are in deFault of their
repair agreement.
Among the 511 buildings
in deFault, Marshall admits
that 200 are controlled by
landlords who have Fallen
through the cracks of the city's
monitoring system-but she
says the city now has 65
landlords in court on charges
of violating repair agree-
ments, including all the land-
lords cited in the report.
Beseda responds that these
efforts are not sufficient. He
says the city could Fight back
with a host of harsh legal
options ranging From increas-
ing mortgage rates to jailing
the multitude of offenders.
That this has not been done,
he says, is indicative of the
city' s apathy towards a
valuable resource. "They've
sold the property. Now it's
out of their hands. They don't
care." 0 Gretchen Lang
IMMINENT
DANGER
In the w ~ k e of a recent
state court of appeals deci-
sion, many of the single-room-
occupancy hotels that provide
homes for the city' s poor and
elderly are in imminent
danger of being torn down to
make way for luxury housing
and office space.
In a 5-2 vote, the state's
highest court struck down a
1985 New York City law that
tried to curtail the spread of
homelessness by obstructing
demolition of the SRO hotels.
The city is appealing the
state court's decision to the
u .S. Supreme Court and is
trying to have the decision put
on hold until the appeal is
heard, but as City Limits goes
to press, no decision has been
made. In the meantime,
landlords who meet legal
requirements are Free to move
ahead with plans to upgrade
or raze their property.
Here is a list of hotels
identiFied by advocates as
being at risk:
e The Palmer Hotel on
West 33rd Street and the
Penn View Hotel on West
43rd Street. The hotels are
owned by SeaWall Associ -
ates, one of the real estate
companies that launched the
attack on the city' s SRO
moratorium law. One of the
principals in SeaWall is Harry
Macklowe, who' s inFamous
"midnight demolition" leveled
three midtown SROs several
years ago. The hotels have
1 30 rooms but only eight
tenants.
e The MayFair Hotel at 242
West 49th Street recently had
extensive renovations. There
are currently only eight ten-
ants in the building.
eThe St. James Hotel at
109 West 45th Street has
more than 100 units but less
than 20 residents. The
building is owned by S & G
Hotel Corporation, which is
named For principals Stanley
Weg and George Hersh.
eThe Times Square Motor
Hotel at 255 West 43rd Street
has more than 700 rooms, but
less than 200 permanent
tenants.
eThe Ben Franklin Hotel at
22 West 77th Street is owned
by the estate of the late
Solomon Goldman, who mode
his Fortune through strong-arm
development tactics. The hotel
has 400 rooms but Few
tenants, most of them senior
citizens. 0 Lisa Glazer
HOUSING
BAILOUT
Neighborhood advocates
are Following with keen
interest the fate of three
narrowly-won community
reinvestment amendments
attached to the version of the
savings and loan bailout bill
passed by the House of
Representatives on June 16.
As City Limits goes to
press, House and Senate
conFerees are working on a
Final version of the bill but no
Final decisions on the amend-
ments have been made.
The bailout bill is designed
to rescue Foiling S&Ls that
suffered from mismanagement
and criminal activity aFter
Reagan administration
deregulation. Since S&Ls were
originally created to provide
affordable home mortgages,
backers of the amendments
argue the bailout should make
the savings and loans industry
more responsive to those in
need of low and moderate
income housing.
Bud Kanitz, executive
director of the National
Neighborhood Coalition,
says, "It is ... 0 civil rights issue,
not a credit allocation issue."
The amendments seek to
lower mortgage interest rates;
give community groups the
first bid on the property assets
of failed S&ls; and increase
disclosure of mortgage
applications so that discrimi -
nation by banks is easier to
detect.
The interest rates amend-
ment would initially provide
abaut $75 million a year to
reduce mortgage interest rates
far low and mcX:lerate income
homebuyers and nonprofit
developers. The funds would
come from the profits of the
12 Federal Home loan Banks
that lend to S&ls, not from
taxpayers, and would
increase to $150 million in
1993.
Steve Kest of the Associa-
tion of Community Organiza-
tions for Reform Now
(ACORN) says $150 million
would lower the interest rates
on $7 billion worth of
mortgages by two percent.
The provision also gives
access to low-interest Federal
Home loan Bank funds only to
those lending institutions that
use them for low income
housing and that have goad
lending records under the
Community Reinvestment Act.
A Roor effort to strike this
amendment was narrowly
defeated, 208-206.
The second amendment
would give public agencies
and nonprofit developers the
right to bid first on housing
units that are being auctioned
off as part of the assets of
failed S&l's through the
Resolution Trust Corporation.
About 10,000 units are
estimated to be initially
involved, mosrly in Texas and
the Southwest.
The third amendment
would expand Home Mort-
gage Disclosure Act provisions
to have banks and S&ls in-
clude and disclose race,
gender and income informa-
tion on all mortgage applica-
tions, not just on loans that
have been made. This
stricture would make it easier
for community residents to
August/September 1989 5
Prize winne,..:
Tlte renant 'nterim Lea.e Program win. the Rudy lruner Award
for Exce'lence in the Urban Environment. Pictured, from 'elt to
rig"t, Lawrence McGaug"ey, Su.an Rede., Counci' Mem&er Ruth
Me inger, Andy Reicher, Thoma. L Granger and Sim_n lruner.
monitor banks and determine
whether they are engaging in
redlining - consistently
refusing to make loans to low
income or minority communi-
ties. The amendment also
pressures industry regulators
to enforce the Community
Reinvestment Act more
rigorously by publicizing the
periodic ratings they assign
lending institutions.
Although ACORN's Kest
says he is hopeful that the
amendments will remain in the
final bill, he adds that a
positive outcome is "by no
means a sure thing." 0 Tom
Matrullo
ARTHA
BUBBLE BURSTS
The bubble insulating
Artha Management is starting
to burst. Often hailed as a
savior of low income housing,
Artha is now under investiga-
tion by the Department of
Housing Preservation and
Development (HPD), and was
recently the focus of a lawsuit
charging that $1 million
earmarked for construction
payments was diverted.
Russian emigre Abram
Gin, Artha's president, built
an empire of 6,000 apart-
ments by using a variety of
subsidized programs and tax
abatements to buy buildings
and hike rents. In February
1988, the New York Times
published a story lauding the
entrepreneurial emigre. But
tenants have long charged
that Artha's operation was a
house of cards balanced by
foiling to make needed
repairs, falsifying claims for
rent increases and continually
securing new government
subsidies.
lost year, the tenants of
three Bronx buildings won
their cases against Artha's
application for rent hikes
under the Major Capitol
Improvement program.
Tenants and organizers from
the Northwest Bronx Commu-
nity and Clergy Coalition
charged Artha with doing
unnecessary and shoddy
work, then inflating the cost of
that work in papers submitted
to the state Division of
Housing and Community
Renewal (DHCR) . DHCR
denied rent increases for
2840 Sedgewick Avenue, 165
West 197th Street and 3525
Decatur Street.
Just lost April, the sale of
three city-owned buildings to
Artha was blocked by
Manhattan Borough President
David Dinkins. The buildings,
3601, 3603 and 3605
Broadway in Harlem, were
slated to be sold to Artha for
$3 and receive federal
rehabilitation funds. A group
of tenants in Artha-owned
buildings lobbied against the
sale. .
HPD's inspector general is
investigating Artha tor
fraudulent J-51 tax abatement
applications, which figured
prominenrly in the rejection of
the sale of the three buildings
to Artha. Gin has applied fOr
tax abatements for improve-
ments on dozens of properties
and HPD is also investigating
whether some of those
applications are for work
done before Gin ever ac-
quired the buildings.
"The issue is not whether
the work was done but when,"
says HPD Inspector General
Alfred Siegel. "Our intention
is to look at all of the (Artha)
properties." Since the investi-
gation began, HPD has
stopped millions of dollars in
subsidized loans to Artha.
The latest prick in the Artha
bubble was a lawsuit filed by
sometime Gin partner Aaron
Ziegelman. Ziegelman
charges that Gin withdrew
more than $100,000 in tenant
security deposits to poy
operating and
diverted 1 million in loans
meant for paying contractors.
Although on Artha spokes-
woman denies the charges,
the suit was semed out of
court.
There are of
extensive layoffs at Artha, and
of Gin attempting to unload
property, according to laura
Hart, a for
Dinkins' office.
Kim a spokes-
woman for Artha Manage-
ment, denies the reports, but
admits the compony "is in the
process of restructuring." 0
Tamar Wyschogrocl
6 CITY LIMITS
Brooklyn
Greenpoint and Williamsburg
residents are protesting the estab-
lishment of 38 garbage transfer sta-
tions in their neighborhoods. After
dumping costs were increased at
Fresh Kills landfill, garbage carters
set up the transfer stations as a sort of
halfway house where garbage could
sit or be sorted before being trucked
to less expensive dumping spots in
other states. Community Board 1
member Inez Pasher says that the
transfer stations are handling up to
33;000 tons of garbage a day. "We're
in a crisis situation," she says.
"Everybody is screaming because of
the odors, the noise and the traffic."
Local leaders met in July with repre-
sentatives from a number of agen-
cies, but so far, says Panash, no ac.-
tion has has been taken.
Bronx
The hazardous conditions in two
buildings within the Private Owner-
ship Management Program bear out
housing advocates' concerns about
putting city buildings back in pri-
vate hands. While apartments at
770 Faile Street and 735 Bryant
Avenue were managed by WaveCrest
Management Team, tenants' com-
plaints about poor heating, leaks,
faulty appliances, rotting doors and
a fallen ceiling were not addressed,
according to Kim Haveson, a coordi-
nator from Homes for the Homeless
who visits clients in the buildings.
As City Limits goes to press, the
building has changed hands and is
being run by SII Management Corpo-
ration. Tenants hope repairs will be
made post-haste.
Manhattan
A coalition of advocacy groups
are calling for the GLM Corporation
to set aside 15 apartments in their
building at 99 East 4th Street for
elderly, disabled or low income ten-
ants. Lincoln Swados, a severely-
disabled street musician, died in the
building in February after GLM
constructed a shed in front of the
building, which greatly reduced his
mobility. "We feel that GLM is at
least morall y responsible for Lincoln
Swados' death. The least they can do
is set aside some apartments," says
Val Orselli, director of the Cooper
Square Committee.
Queens
Investigators from the state Divi-
sion of Housing and Community Re-
newal are looking into allegations
that Queens landlord Mohammed
Malik harasses tenants who complain
about conditions in his buildings.
After residents held a protest about
poor conditions in their building,
the Angelique Apartments in Flush-
ing, long-time members of the tenant
association were served eviction
notices, according to Newsday.
Staten Island
The Saxon Garden Apartments, a
predominantly white housing com-
plex, is offering co-ops to blacks at
"insider prices" as part of the settle-
ment of a housing discrimination
suit brought by the Open Housing
Center and four black plaintiffs. The
Open Housing Center charged that
blacks who sought apartments at the
Saxon Garden complex were steered
to the Sierra Apartments, a rental
complex in the Port Richmond sec-
tion of Staten Island. Blacks inter-
ested in the apartments can call the
Center at (212) 941-6101. 0
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August/September 1989 1
PIPELINE
City Housing Plan Has
Too Little Room for the Poor
BY DOUG TURETSKY
THE SOUTH BRONX NEIGHBOR-
hoods ofMott Haven and Hunts Point
may not yet be in the lexicon of "up
and coming" communities, but rents
there are on the rise. As part of its 10-
year housing plan, city officials are
in the process of constructing more
than 450 rental apartments and 1,200
homeowner units in this area. But to
move into many of these city-spon-
sored apartments families will have
to have an income far above that of
current residents-a blueprint for
gentrification and displacement
according to supporters of the Hous-
ing Justice Campaign (HJC).
While current residents in Mott
Haven and Hunts Point-two of the
most impoverished areas in the city-
pay an average rent of $255, tenants
in the city's new rental apartments
will have to be able to afford an
average rent of $52 7. The homeowner
units will command an average
monthly cost of more than $1,300.
According to HJC, which compiled
these and similar statistics citywide,
this is a pattern that will be repeated
in poor neighborhoods throughout
New York as part of the Koch ad-
ministration's much trumpeted 10-
year housing plan.
First announced in April 1986,
the 10-year housing plan is a com-
mitment to spend $5.1 billion to build
84,000 new apartments and improve
and preserve another 168,000. Offi-
cials contend the primary benefici-
aries of this public expenditure will
be the city's lower income residents.
Mayor Edward Koch has hitched the
plan to his re-election bid, kicking-
off his tv campaign with an ad tout-
ing the production of new apartments
now under way.
Market Maker
But many housing activists dis-
miss the city's characterization of
the 10-year plan as a smokescreen.
Says Bonnie Brower, a founding
member of the Housing Justice
Campaign, "It (the 10-year plan) will
use public resources to create hot
new real estate markets for the exclu-
sive benefit of developers and upper
income people and at the direct
expense of poor, working minority
people in this city."
City officials contend that 65 per-
cent of the new apartments currently
in the 10-year plan's pipeline will be
for low income New Yorkers, de-
fined as those with incomes below
$19,000. But HJC charges that city
officials accomplished this statisti-
cal bravado by excluding from their
equation thousands of middle in-
come units-for which sites have
already been selected and subsidies
committed.
The way HJC sees it, just 10 per-
cent of the apartments to be built
under the plan will be aff<?rdable to
families that earn less than $19,000
annually. HJC arrives at this figure
by analyzing 10 programs that the
city identifies as part of the 10-year
plan. (Several programs are not in-
cluded because the city failed to
provide specific information or the
programs do not yet exist; HJC also
does not include apartments exclu-
sively for the homeless because they
will only be available'to low income
families who have spent at least a
year in the city's shelters or welfare
hotels.)
Of all the programs they analyzed,
HJC found that less than one per-
cent-a mere 87 units-are going to
the neediest of the needy, families
with incomes below $10,000. Ac-
cording to a report just released by
the Community Training and Re-
source Center and the Community
Service Society, the median income
of the 660,000 New Yorkers in im-
mediate need of housing assistance
, is just $8,000.
Facts such as these are at the heart
of a legal challenge to the 10-year
housing plan now being reviewed in
state Supreme Court by Judge Le-
onard Cohen. Filed by HJC, the suit
seeks to halt projects under the 10-
year plan that do not provide low
income housing in proportion to the
number ofpoorfamilies in the city. If
successful-Cohen's decision is
expected this month - the suit would
derail middle income projects such
as those planned by the Real Estate
Board of New York and the New
York City Partnership as well as the
Seward Park and Arverne develop-
ments.
Fair Share
Since black and Hispanic families
comprise such a large share of the
city's poor households, lawyers for
the Housing Justice Campaign charge
that disproportionate allocation of
city resources in favor of higher in-
come families is a violation of the
federal Civil Rights Act. Among a
number of other contentions, they
also charge that the entire plan should
have been put through a public re-
view process. Housing Justice Cam-
paign backers contend that it's the
job of government to use public re-
sources-in this case money, build-
ings and land-to help those who are
most in need.
For their part, city officials argue
that the 10-year plan is just a budget
device. This way the city doesn't
need to submit the overall plan for
public review-and can at any point
revise it. They also contend that only
individual projects are subject to the
city's land use approval process, a
process in which the poor have little
leverage. City officials would not
comment on the lawsuit.
But even while city officials de-
scribe it as no more than a "budget
device," their boss is lauding the
plan as the key to remaking the city's
poorest neighborhoods. Yet the ques-
tion remains: remade for whom? By
the city's own accounting, 10,000
middle income units are slated to
begin production during the next two
fiscal years-as opposed to 3,600 low
income units. Could this be another
situation like the urban renewal
schemes of the 1950s where sweep-
ing change is promoted as a way to
help the poor-but the ultimate ef-
fect is just the opposite?
8 CITY LIMITS
Arthur Baer, a lawyer with the
Puerto Rican Legal Defense and
Education Fund and part of the team
representing HJe in court, says the
whole plan was promulgated with-
out any attempt to truly assess who
is in most immediate need of hous-
ing assistance. Instead the city pegged
their plan to a formula derived from
a federal projection of the metro-
politan area's 1988 median income
as $32,000. The city's own (and more
reliable) Housing and Vacancy Sur-
vey put 1986 median household
income in the five boroughs at just
$16,000 for renters (see City Limits,
March 1989). By using the higher
figure, the city effectively dilutes its
allocation of money away from those
most in need of housing assistance.
The Koch administration, which
has undertaken the largest housing
program of any city in the country,
intends ~ o spend $850 million this
fiscal year under the 10-year plan.
Nearly 5,500 of the apartments that
will begin production with this
money are for middle income fami-
lies-more than twice the number of
units the city plans to start for low
income New Yorkers. But such sta-
tistics mask a more basic fact. Baer
comments pointedly, "These aren't
just numbers, these are people's
lives."O
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August/September 1989 9
The Clean Air Movement:
Two Steps Forward,
One Step Backward
After more than 20 years of legislation, the air remains t h i ~ k with promises
BY JENNIFER STERN
I
n the 1960s, many Americans
had high hopes. If we onl had
the political will , if we onry set
aside enough money, if we only
had "love," we could solve our na-
tion's most pressing problems. The
War on Poverty's assault on social ills
was accompanied by a lesser known
battle against pollution. "Let our chil-
dren say when they look back on this
day that it was here a nation ... turned
away from damnation, and found sal-
vation in reclaiming God's blessings
of fresh air and clean sky," said Presi-
dent Lyndon B. Johnson upon signing
the Air Quality Actof1967. Yetagen-
eration later, we can barely detect the
air-cleaning efforts of our predeces-
sors through the haze that hangs over
our cities.
The statistics on air pollution to-
day are ominous. An estimated 150
million Americans live in areas where
the levels of ozone-the most preva-
lent pollutant-exceed the federal
standard. A Harvard School for Pub-
lic Health report blames air pollution
for three to eight percent of all deaths
in urban areas-mainly the prema-
ture deaths of people with existing
heart and lung conditions. Air pollu-
tion costs Americans $16 billion to
$40 billion a year in medical bills, ac-
cording to the American Lung Asso-
ciation.
American want clean air. Yet
simple desire is not enough. Sweep-
ing change requires tough choices and
oversight from federal, state and local
government-and many politicians
have shied away from this in recent
years. Yet as Congress moves to revise
the Clean Air Act, the nation is once
again in the midst of a historic oppor-
tunity to mandate fresh air for future
generations.
The Legislative Route
A
merica's efforts to clean up the
air go back at least as far as 1963, .
when the first Clean Air Act was
passed. That law began the effort to
limit pollution, but it wasn't until
1970-three Clean Air Act revisions
later-that our current system of at-
tempting to regulate clean air was
established. In that year Congress
empowered the Environmental Pro-
tection Agency (EPA) to establish na-
tional air quality standards. Ulti-
mately, standards were set for six pol-
lutants-sulfur dioxide, carbon mon-
oxide, ozone, nitrogen dioxide, par-
ticulates and lead. (There are also
emissions standards for seven toxic
chemicals such as mercury, arsenic,
benzene and radio nucleides.) The
pollutants are measured in the almost
unfathomable units of parts per mil-
10 CITY UMITS
lion (ppm) and micrograms per cubic
meter, measured in time periods from
one hour to one year, depending on
the pollutant.
While the national agency set the
standards, the states were made re-
sponsible for implementing them-
and some progress has been achieved.
Nationally, between 1978 and 1987,
particulate concentrations were re-
duced 21 percent, sulfur dioxide 35
percent, carbon monoxide 32 percent,
lead 88 percent, nitrogen oxides 12
percent and ozone nine percent. Yet
despite these reductions, many cities
across the country are still surrounded
by smog, unable to meet national stan-
dards, particularly for carbon monox-
ide and ozone.
What happened to the hopeful
promises for clean air? Despite initial
gains, the political will to clean up the
environment often wavered at the state
and local level in the face of strong
lobbying from industry concerns. And
at the national level, the deadline for
meeting the federal standards has been
extended time and again. What's more,
the EPA has rarely used its punitive
powers against over-polluting states.
In New York in the early 1970s,
eager environmentalists in the Lind-
say administration created the nation's
first comprehensive (and politically
volatile) transportation control plan-
which was promptly shot down,
bounced between courts and shelved.
Since then, New York has dutifully
submitted a less controversial anti-
pollution strategy within the State
Implementation Plan (SIP), but with-
out tough oversight or enforcement
from Washington, progress has been
limited.
In recent years, get-tough action on
clean air has mostly been relegated to
court rooms. As a result of lawsuits
from the Natural Resources Defense
Council (NRDC) , the most recent
amendment to the New York SIP al-
lows the state to require reduced vola-
tility-which contributes to ozone-
in gas sold during the summer, and
revisions for the next SIP must in-
clude tightening and acceleration of
current plans.
Clean air proponents hope that the
current revision of the Clean Air Act
will force cities to thin the urban smog
to acceptable levels. They are heart-
ened that after eight years of a presi-
If_d our .ifln.:
Ac';vi.,. .".11 out their demand. to reduce pollution.
dent who blamed trees for air pollu-
tion, President George Bush is at least
addressing the problems of smog, as
well as acid rain and toxic air pollut-
ants, the other two major areas of
concern.
But, says Eric Goldstein, senior
attorney with NRDC, although Bush's
June pronouncements represent prog-
ress, "the final print (in Bush's plans)
hasn't been written yet."
Future Shocks?
F
or all the attempts at progress on
air pollution, the overall story
seems to be "two steps forward, one
step back." Thanks to the use of un-
leaded gasoline and the catalytic
converter, auto emissions are a frac-
tion of what they used to be. Yet these
gains are being wiped out by a steady
two to three p ~ r c e n t annual increase
in miles traveled each year by U. S.
vehicles.
Scientists believe any further large-
scale reductions in ozone levels can
only be achieved by drastic action:
widespread use of alternative fuels,
reducing car use and eliminating small
sources of ozone precursors such as
household solvents, gas lawn mow-
ers, hairs prays and even gases released
by yeast in large bakeries.
Already, southern California' s air
quality management agency, in re-
sponse to a federal lawsuit, has out-
lined a three-phase plan to control
pollution that would require major
lifestyle changes. Short-term meas-
ures being advocated include ban-
ning lighter fluid for barbecues as
well as gasoline-powered lawn mow-
ers and free parking. Long-term goals
include banning all gasoline-powered
vehicles and inducing companies to
move nearer to their workers early in
the next century.
In dollar terms, the costs of these
measures are steep. The California air
quality agency estimates their plan
will cost $220 per resident per year
(totalling $2.8 billion). A local indus-
try group's estimates are higher: $2,200
per year per household, and a loss of
52,500 jobs. And President Bush's
national clean air plan would cost an
estimated $14 to $18 billion a year.
If Washington legislators are going
to implement and enforce costly
measures such as these, they have to
be committed to a regional and global
outlook that favors the long-term bene-
fits of clean air and an improved qual-
ity of life over short-term economic
costs. All eyes are currently turned
to Washington-where politicians
August/September 1989 11
are being courted by clean air advo-
cates as well as coal, car and oil lobby-
ists-to see what will result. 0
Why Breathing Can Make You Sick
B
reathing is such an unconscious
part of daily life that most
people don't give it a second
thought. But in today's environ-
ment-especially in cities-breath-
ing can actually be a health hazard.
While the six airborne
pollutants regulated by
federal legislation are not
usually considered deadly,
they do pose serious dan-
gers. The most worrisome,
says Ron White, senior
program manager for air
conservation and occupa-
tional health at the Ameri-
can Lung Association, is sul-
fur dioxide, mainly because
of its effects on asthmatics
and others with heart and
lung conditions.
Sulfur dioxide-the ma-
jor cause of acid rain-gets
in our air from the burning
of sulfurous fuels such as
coal, and from petroleum
refining and other proc-
esses. From smokestacks,
the pollutants can travel
hundreds of miles, posing a
threat to those far beyond
the immediate vicinity of
the polluter. It does the
most damage when ab-
sorbed by particulates in the
air, which allows it to pene-
trate deep in the lungs
through breathing. "Asth-
matics respond in five min-
utes to the presence of sulfur diox-
ide," White explains, often with
severe asthma attacks.
Carbon monoxide, a colorless,
tasteless and odorless gas, is one of
the main contributions of the auto-
mobile to our sickening air. Though
at high concentrations this gas can
kill, in the levels found in our cities
(where, unlike other gases, it tends
to just sit) it causes dizziness, head-
aches and lassitude. These symp-
toms result because carbon monox-
ide, when breathed, will bind more
easily to red blood cells than oxy-
gen does , leading to oxygen depri-
vation. For this reason, exposure to
the gas is also considered danger-
ous to pregnant women.
Due to the continually decreas-
ing use of leaded gasoline, lead is
the airborne pollutant Americans
have had the most success at reduc-
ing-but the problem has not yet
been completely eliminated. Lead
in the air can be as dangerous to
children as lead eaten in paint chips.
Over the long run, it can cause brain
damage as well as problems with
the digestive and nervous system.
Particulates-liquid and solid
matter suspended in the air-con-
stitute a wide range of chemicals
from lead to oil to arsenic, and thus
range in health effects from
the deadly to near-harmless.
Their sources include fuel
burning, industrial proc-
esses, fires and auto exhaust,
particularly diesel engines.
Nitrogen dioxide, a red-
dish-brown gas released in
auto emissions, as well as by
the burning of coal, oil and
natural gas, can at high lev-
els cause eye and nose irrita-
tion and possibly lung dam-
age. The main concern with
nitrogen dioxide, however,
is that along with hydrocar-
bons-released through the
incomplete burning of fuels
and the evaporation of fuels
and solvents-they are the
precursors to ozone, the most
prevalent pollutant of all.
Formed when hydrocar-
bons and nitrogen oxides
interact with sunlight, ozone
irritates the eyes, nose and
throat and causes coughing
and soreness in the chest.
The long-term effects of
ozone are debated, and some
suggest that it's not even
worth trying to achieve the
current standard of 0.12 parts
per million average over one hour.
Yet White says that even this
standard does not do enough to
protect the public health. "There's
enough evidence that people ex-
posed (to ozone) for more than a
couple of hours are suffering loss of
lung function at levels below the
current standard." 0 Jennifer
Stern
12 CITY UMITS
HOlDe Hazards
W
hen the smog gets bad out-
side, we are often advised to
stay indoors. But depending on
where and how you live and work,
the air indoors can be as dangerous
to your health as what's outside.
Except for the radon scare a few
years ago-a threat which has not
abated despite dropping out of the
news-Americans have been slow
to pick up on the presence of sick-
ening, even cancerous, time bombs
in homes and offices. The U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA) estimates that radon causes
20,000 cancer deaths a year, and
other indoor pollutants cause an-
other 6,000.
Because of the high death rate,
radon-radioactive decay of ura-
nium-laced soil that seeps into
houses and other buildings through
ware stores, although tests con-
ducted during the summer are un-
likely to reflect a building's highest
radon levels.
There arE! currently no laws that
require a homeowner, landlord or
tenant to reduce radon levels, al-
though state legislators have been
holding hearings on the topic.
Besides cigarette smoke, which
is easy to notice and easy (depend-
ing on your assertiveness) to elimi-
nate, other indoor pollutants are
often subtle and insidious. They
include a host of chemicals and
fuel by-products that are used regu-
larly in homes in the creation of
furniture, wall coverings, carpet-
ing and other prefabricated objects
inlivingroomsandbedrooms. "Un-
fortunately," explains George Estel,
program research specialist at the
drainpipes
and founda-
tion cracks-
is among the

enmg mdoor
pollutants.
Radon is not
a universal
threat: either
you have it or
you don't.
And if you
do, you can
get rid of it,
-
New York
State Depart-
ment of
Health,
"many of the
symptoms
are similar to
the common
flu," causing
people to
ignore un-
healthful
pollutants in
their own
"The air
indoors can
be dangerous
to your health. II
homes.
either by seal-
ing founda-
tion cracks,
-
Combus-
tion gases,
by-products
from burning of oil, natural gas,
kerosene and wood in furnaces and
cooking stoves, often wind up in
homes. In cities like New York,
where too many people use gas
stoves-many of them unvented-
to heat their apartments, the prob-
lems are worse. These fuels release
into the air respirable particles,
carbon oxides, nitrogen oxides and
trace organic chemicals, which can
cause respiratory irritation. Car-
bon monoxide, which by binding
with red blood cells prevents the
or, more likely, installing a special
ventilation system costing about
$2,000 for a private home. Even
apartment dwellers can be at risk.
The EPA recommends radon test-
ing for all homes and apartments
up to the second floor. Craig
Kneeland, radon project .coordina-
tor at the New York State Energy
Office, says dangerous levels of
radon can also climb high above
the second story in buildings with
forced hot air heating. Radon test-
ing kits are available in many hard-
body from absorbing the oxygen it
needs, is dangerous, particularly to
pregnant women, and at extremely
high levels can cause deaths. Fur-
naces, heaters and stoves should
always be vented to the outside.
Most people think their last
exposure to formaldehyde was in
high school biology. But today,
this chemical is ubiquitous, used in
particle board, plywood, wood
paneling, furniture, carpeting,
wallpaper, clothing, toothpaste and
money. Linked to nasal cancer in
laboratory animals, as well as res-
piratory problems, dizziness,
rashes, lethargy and nausea, for-
maldehyde is released gradually
into the air by these products, with
new materials emitting the highest
concentration. One solution is
houseplants, especially philoden-
drons and spider plants, which fil-
ter formaldehyde out of the air.
Ordinary household chemicals,
including solvents and pesticides,
are other potential health hazards.
They should be used sparingly and
stored and disposed of properly.
Earlier in this century, asbestos
was considered a wonder material:
used for insulating walls and heat-
ing pipes, soundproofing, fireproof-
ing, strengthening vinyl floors and
joint compounds and giving tex-
ture to paint. Now we know that if
released into the air, asbestos fibers
can cause cancer ofthe lung, stom-
ach and chest lining, as well as
asbestosis, an often-fatal lung dis-
ease. It is estimated that one-fourth
of all houses and aprtment build-
ings built or remodeled between
1920 and 1970 contain asbestos.
Because the danger only comes
when the fiber is released, it is not
necessary to remove all asbestos.
only when the fiber is weakened.
The state Department of Health's
toll-free number for information
about radon and other indoor pol-
lutants is (800) 458-1158. D
Jennifer Stern
August/September 1989 13
A Thousand Points
of Pollution
Toxic emissions from the shop next door are a
pervasive - and unregulated - problem
BY MARGUERITE HOLLOWAY
S
unday is the only day John
Cooper (a pseudonym) feels
safe using his back yard. On
that day, the dry cleaner next
door is closed, and although the self-
service dryers still run and the fresh-
soap smell of cling-
free permeates the
air, Cooper does not
worry about car-
cinogens.
Pre .. ing concerns:
graphic arts studios, among many
others-increasingly are being tar-
geted by environmentalists, politi-
cians and community groups as ma-
jor sources of toxic emissions and
urban smog.
"Small industrial sources have
fallen through the regulatory cracks, "
tragic accident in Bhopal, India,
Superfund Amendments and the
Reauthorization Act (SARA, Title
III, Section 313) required that large
companies report their yearly release
of ' toxic chemicals. In 1987-the
first year of the Toxic Release Inven-
tory (TRI) -industry sent more than
2.3 billion pounds
of toxic chemicals
skyward. (In New
York State, that
amounted to 4.8
pounds of chemi-
cals per person and
1, 798.5 released per
square mile, accord-
ing to the National
Wildlife Federa-
tion' s report "Dan-
ger Downwind.")
Staggering as these
figures are, they
give only a rough
sketch of the com-
plete picture.
For the rest of the
week, the potent
odor of dry clean-
ing fluid keeps Coo-
per and his family
inside, with the
storm windows on
one side of their
Staten Island home
permanently
sealed. The dry
cleaner's vents
open six feet from
Cooper's bedroom
window and spew
smoke into his back
yard. And he knows
that perchloroeth-
ylene-one of the
solvents used by
Dry clfHJners are a prime source of noxious chemica's in neighborhoods.
"SARA Title III
is alerting people to
the fact that toxic
materials are all
around us and being
used in our day-
to-day lives with
dry cleaners-may cause cancer.
"I've been sneaking around trying
to find empty boxes of chemicals,"
says Cooper, who works as a sales-
man. "I look in the phone book and
there are all these numbers. I've
called everybody I could get and
nobody will help at all."
In New York City, where small
businesses and residences are stacked
on top of each other, unregulated air
pollutants waft through the streets
and into homes. Although their pre-
cise impact remains undocumented,
neighborhood businesses-dry
cleaners, service stations, furniture
refinishing shops, body shops and
says Eric Goldstein, lawyer for the
Natural Resources Defense Council
(NRDC). "Although any individual
source would look very small in terms
of toxic air pollutants, it could pres-
ent important localized problems. "
Under the Clean Air Act of 1970,
toxic air emissions have received vir-
tually no attention. Only seven haz-
ardous air pollutants are regulated
by the Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA)-arsenic, asbestos ,
benzene, beryllium, mercury, radon-
222, vinyl chloride-and the most
recent legislation regarding toxins
excludes smaller industries.
Three years ago, in response to the
considerable irresponsibility, "says
Stephen Tomasik, environmental
health specialist with the American
Lung Association. All TRI infor-
mation is ava.ilable to the public.
Although SARA Title III is a first
step, there are almost as many possi-
bilities for exemption as there are
toxic chemicals. Only companies
using more than 75,000 pounds of
each chemical were required to re-
port (this threshold amount drops to
25,000 this year). Only companies
with more than 10 full-time employ-
ees must report and Department of
Defense, Energy and other federal
agencies are excluded.
14 CITY LIMITS
There is also no system in place to
verify TRI information. And release
rates-which describe whether the
chemical was belched out in an in-
tense health-threatening gust, or
seeped out gradually with fewer haz-
ardous implications-are not in-
cluded.
In addition to these loopholes,
"about 15,000 of 30,000 (companies)
that were supposed to report did
not," says Kathy Jones, chairperson
of the Sierra Club's Clean Air Com-
mittee in New York City. "So in fact
(national) emissions could be twice
as high as estimated."
Thousands of smaller compa-
nies-whose cumulati ve impact may
be greater than that of the larger in-
dustries-submit no data. Regula-
tions should include "these smaller
types of emitter because they are
generally more dispersed and more
in the community," says Tomasik.
"And they are emitting the same
chemicals as the large factories."
Minimal Information
T
he health hazards of these
chemicals are as difficult to pin
down as the emissions themselves.
"Our lack of knowledge ofthe health
effects of toxic pollutants is drastic,"
says Robert Dizard, administrative
assistant to Congressman Guy Moli-
nari. "We have minimal information
on most of the chemicals used in
commerce. Recognizing the impact
of small sources, Rep. Molinari re-
cently submitted a bill (HR 2585)
calling for tighter controls on air tox-
ins.
As smog, these pollutants can
cause lung damage, rashes, liver
damage, eye damage and death, ac-
cording to the Sierra Club. A recent
EPA study of only 20 chemicals found
they cause more than 2,000 cancer
deaths a year: cause for alarm be-
cause SARA Title III includes 326
chemicals, and there are more than
70,000 known chemicals used in
manufacturing in the United States.
Some of those chemicals combine
when airborne to form new com-
pounds.
Adverse health effects can be
subtle and confused with simple fa-
tigue or stress. "I've been sick with
chronic fatigue syndrome," says Bar-
bara Chinitz, a member of Staten
Community victory:
After J 0 years the Ulano Corporation was forced to change its polluting ways.
Island Citizens for Clean Air. After
leaving her job and remaining house-
bound for three years, "The associa-
tion with chemicals in the air be-
came obvious," says Chinitz. "You
don't realize how many things you
are exposed to every day."
Citizen Action
S
taten Island Citizens for Clean
Air fights for air monitoring, for
toxic emission standards and have
battled incinerators and ocean dump-
ing-through letter writing cam-
paigns, rallies and pressure on legis-
lators. Their grassroots approach rep-
resents a growing and effective force
in pollution control: community ac-
tivism.
"It's a case where the squeaky
wheel gets the grease," says NRDC's
Goldstein. "Unless citizens make
known their particular air quality
problems-to the city, the state and
federal officials-and hammer home
their concerns, the pollution prob-
lems in New York City will likely
continue. Citizen involvement is
key."
It may be key, but it is also diffi-
cult. Hampered by low budgets, burn-
out, and blinding amounts of scien-
tific information, community action
can fizzle. "Bringing suits is very
expensive," says Chinitz. "So we
have just forced awareness of the
issues." But, she adds, "If industry
starts getting technical on you, they .
snow you."
A model of successful community
action exists in Brooklyn, where the
Boerum Hill-South Brooklyn Clean
Air Committee won a 10-year fight to
control dangerous emissions from
the Ulano Corporation.
Tucked among brownstones, and
directly opposite a housing project
and a pediatric clinic, Ulano is the
city's largest emitter of the chemical
Toluene, according to the 1987 TRI.
Toluene, a suspected carcinogen,
affects the central nervous system
and the respiratory system. It is
often used in graphic arts work.
"I got involved because it was so
creepy to go down the block and
smell nail polish," remembers Jane
Califf, a member ofthe committee.
After a demonstration and re-
peated letters to the city and state,
the Department of Environmental
Conservation (DEC) investigated
Ulano. In 1981, they found the com-
pany in violation of state law and
ordered a gradual reduction of air
emissions by 1985. After this time,
the community continued to smell
nail polish, and the Brooklyn Lung
Association joined the community
in their fight. They also enlisted tech-
nical consultants from the firm of
Konheim & Ketcham, who helped
them interpret state data and checked
Ulano's emission levels.
After a decade of community
struggle, victory is now in sight:
Ulano must be in total compliance
with new solvent regulations this
month. To achieve this, the com-
pan y will move their Tol uene-related
processes to a factory in Massachu-
setts-which has emission control
technology already in place-and
change their remaining New York
processes to water-based solvents,
which will not evaporate and float
downwind.
Despite these advances, there is
an ironic twist to the Ulano efforts.
The company still is not controlled
for toxic air emissions, but rather for
ozone-producing chemicals. Only
because these include solvents was
Toluene regulated.
Ozone Fears
A
lthough they may be no more
harmful than toxic air emis-
sions, ozone-producing chemicals
have received more attention and
are more tightly regulated under the
Clean Air Act. Ozone can cause per-
manent scarring of the lungs, and is
estimated to put at least 2.3 million
people at risk in New York City alone.
Over 100 cities nationwide exceed
federal limits for ozone, with 1988
the worst year on record.
Ozone is created when a soup of
nitrogen oxides and vapors is cooked
in sunlight. Most of its precursors
come from cars-directly from car
exhausts and indirectly from gaso-
line vapors-but about a quarter of
the problem comes from fumes let
offby industrial solvents and paints
and emissions from dry cleaners and
bakeries, according to the Sierra Club.
As the result of a lawsuit brought
by NRDC, New York's plan to try and
meet the federal clean air require-
ments is being amended and as of
this fall, solvents used in New York
City must emit less of the harmful
vapors, while industries have six
months after their existing permits
expire to capture 90 percent of the
ozone-creating emissions, accord-
ing to Alison Smith, a lawyer at DEC.
"In the next five years, everyone us-
ing solvents should be under com-
pliance," she says.
While no toxic standards exist,
this ozone control serves a dual pur-
pose by also reducing toxins, accord-
ing to Ted Davis, DEC's principal
engineer and technician. However,
he adds, "As a toxics program it may
not be sufficient."
These emission reductions man-
dated by DEC aren't achieved eas-
ily - to meet the new standards,
small businesses will have to spend
large amounts of money for new
equipment. Jerry Levine, associate
director ofthe Neighborhood Clean-
ers Association, says that the $7,000
a dry cleaner has to shell out for the
equipment needed to capture per-
chloroethylene (also called tetrachlo-
roethylene) can be a huge burden.
And under President George Bush's
clean air proposals, industries would
have to purchase state-of-the art tech-
nology to reduce harmful emissions.
"If best-available technology is re-
quired, it will cost $30,000 to $75,000
a year," says Levine.
August/September 1989 15
Advocates respond that even
though the equipment is expensive,
it can save money in the long run
because it reduces evaporation.
Chinitzgives the example ofanExxon
solvent tank forced to incorporate a
floating roof to prevent evaporation.
"In the first year, they saved $200,000
above the cost of installation," she
says.
But for neighborhood residents
like Cooper-surrounded by a cloud
of hazardous and smelly smoke with
little recourse-cost considerations
to business are a secondary concern.
"There's a bakery in my back yard.
To the side of my house is the dry
cleaner. And there's a fried fish
place across the street. Three differ-
ent places and five different smells
and none of them are desirable, be-
lieve me," he says. "I stay up late
clipping papers and reading. It
sounds like I'm a nut, but I'm trying
to save my life." 0
Marguerite Holloway is a science
writer who specializes in environ-
mental issues.
How to Register
Air COlDpiaints
I
f you live in a neighborhood
where the local dry cleaner,
small manufacturer or factory is
emitting noxious fumes, here are
some suggestions on how to regis-
ter a complaint or get some more
information.
To register a complaint, send a
letter to the New York City Depart-
ment of Environmental Protection,
Bureau of Air Resources, 2358 Mu-
nicipal Building, NY, NY 10001.
The letter should request an in-
spector and list times you will be
available to meet him or her. It
should include a description ofthe
general nature of the problem, the
precise location and the time of
day or night the odor is smelled.
You should send a copy of the
letter to the mayor's office at City
Hall and to any of a number of en-
vironmental groups active on clean
air (see directory, page 24).
For futher information and re-
quests for SARA Title III, Section
313, call the EPA Hotline (800)
535-0202, or Nora Lopez, local co-
ordinator for Section 313 at (201)
906-6890.
For state government assistance,
address inquiries to William Miner,
Environmental Emergency Coordi-
nator, Department of Environ-
mental Conservation, Division of
Air Quality, 50 Wolf Road, Al-
bany, New York, 12233-3510.
Also, there is a 24-hour city hot-
line available to register air com-
plaints. "If you can smell it and
you can see it, it is in violation,"
according to DEP spokesperson
Tina Casey. Call 966-7500. 0
Marguerite Holloway
16 CITY UMITS
On the Road
with Air Pollution
Cars, trucks and buses are choking our lungs as well as our streets
BY LISA GLAZER
W
hen Stephen Wilder
graduated from college
his parents rewarded
him with the classic
symbol of American suc-
cess:anewcar. The1949
Studebaker was followed
by an MG, a Morgan, a
Volkswagen, even a
Porsche. Wilder moved
to England and raced
sleek sports vehJicles,
then returned to New
York City to work at Car
and Driver magazine. He
even designed his own
auto, the Omega GT. "I
saw cars as the magic car-
pet, the seven league
boots for everyma:p.," he
recalls. "They
our lives in so many
ways."
But despite the new
opportunities brought by
these four-wheeled chari-
ots, Wilder's technical
know-how made him in-
creasingly aware of the
harm cars could cause.
Belching emissions from
tailpipes were closing in
on the lungs of cHy resi-
dents, while quiet streets
became roaring I thor-
oughfares with
cars, trucks and "I
used to be a car enthusi-
ast," explains Wilder.
"Now I'm interested in
freeing up the streets.
Our cities are suffering
from arterial sclerosis."
Mild mannered, 61-
year-old Wilder is a foot
soldier in the battle to clean up New
York City's air: these days he belongs
to the Sierra Club, the citizens' advi-
sory committee on mass transit and
is a vocal opponent of mega develop-
ment in his midtown Manhattan
neighborhood. Like many other
urban environmentalists, Wilder
fears that if driving-as-usual contin-
ues in New York, traffic could end
up choking the city and its citizens.
Federal statistics cite New York as
a leading violator of the Clean Air
Act, which sets health levels for six
pollutants, and as new development
attracts even more cars, transport
officials say traffic is inching towards
gridlock.
Methods to avoid this urban night-
mare are far from mysterious-re-
duction of car use, ag-
gressive promotion of
mass transit and a host of
other measures have been
advocated for decades.
Yet New York City has
mostly side-stepped
these options, installing
new traffic signals, re-
routing vehicles ' and
widening highways-
measures that actually
increase traffic in the long
run.
As Congress moves
to rework federal clean
air legislation, tighter
laws may force the city
to reconsider controver-
sial plans such as a ban
on one-occupant cars, as
well as further encourag-
ing the use of subways
and railways, alternative
fuels and bicycles.
Environmentalists
aren't holding their
breath for these changes:
Progress on pollution is
often incremental, with
improvements in air
, quality measured in
miniscule amounts. And
as attempts to tighten and
enforce clean air legisla-
tion collide with the in-
terests of powerful car,
trucking and real estate
industries, legislators
often find it easier to talk
about changes than to im-
plement them.
As Marcy Benstock, director of
the Clean Air Campaign, puts it, "The
real problem is politicians." At a
rally last year she said,"The only
way we'll ever get healthy air in New
York City is if citizens become active
and show public officials how much
they care."
First-Hand Knowledge
A
hot dog vendor in lower Man-
. hattan, Mike Kremidis knows
more than he wants to about air
pollution in New York. Pointing to
t.he bench top on his shiny metal
cart, he says, "I clean two times a
week, but it's still dirty." Trucks
and buses careen down lower Broad-
way as he talks, coughing hazy
plumes of smoke. "I go home at
night, I wash my face, I got little
particles in my eyes," Kremidis
continues, a furrow of concern
stretching across his leathery fore-
head. "I work here over 20 years ... now
I get headaches. I think it's from the
cars, the smoke."
Passed in 1970, the federal Clean
Air Act was established to ensure
that citizens like Kremidis didn't
expire simply because of unhealthy
air. National health standards were
set for a number of pollutants, many
ofthem emitted from cars, and every
state in the nation was required to
submit a plan for meeting these lev-
els.
Major technological changes in car
manufacturing, as well as the removal
of lead from gasoline led to initial
improvements in air quality. But
over the years, as vehicle usage has
continued to increase, enforcement
of clean air laws has been lax be-
cause Congress has repeatedly shifted
the deadline for meeting the national
standards.
New York leads the nation in
violation of federal carbon monox-
ide levels, and is also a leading of-
fender on ozone and particulate
matter-pollutants which all emerge
from the tailpipes of cars, trucks and
diesel buses. As well as these feder-
ally regulated pollutants, other com-
bustion by-pro ducts-like carbon
dioxide, which adds to the Green-
house Effect-are also considered
dangerous.
Despite New York's unhealthy air,
the city has made the appearance of
improvement through promises of
pollution reduction through "traffic
control" measures. Like Tactical
August/September 1989 17
Stephen Wilder outside a pollution monitor:
"Our cities are suHering lrom arterial sclerosis."
Narcotics Team experts who pinpoint
drug-infested neighborhoods and
then saturate the area with arrests,
the city' s Department of Transporta-
tion (DOT) identified about 85 "hot
spots" where traffic congestion and
air pollution were particularly high.
To "cool down" these spots they
attempted to move traffic through
more quickly, widening roads, set-
ting up new traffic signals and re-
routing vehicles.
The "hot spots" program started
in the mid-1980s and within a few
short years, most of these problem
spots have "cooled down" and today
only 11 "hard core" hot spots re-
main, as well as some new hot spots
that have emerged, according to DOT
officials. As a result of this re-rout-
ing, they say traffic speeds in mid-
town have increased-a definite boon
to air quality because combustion
chambers have to work harder and
emit more pollutants in stop-start
traffic. But just like a police sweep of
a crack-drenched neighborhood,
cooling down hot spots doesn't solve
the problem, it merely redistributes
it.
In fact, traffic engineers concede
that this method actually encour-
ages greater car use. The quirky
patterns of traffic use show that every
extra bridge and highway built has
initially alleviated traffic jams-but
over time the swifter travel encour-
ages even more people to drive. "We
may have exacerbated the problem
by being good at what we do," admits
SamSchwartzatDOT. "The day will
corne when we say we need fewer
vehicles. Until then, we'll be run-
ning from hot spot to hot spot, like
Sisyphus running uphill."
Environmentalists raise their
hands in the air: For the last two
decades they say it's been clear that
strict traffic restrictions have been
necessary-but they've never been
enforced. They wonder why the
Department of Transportation, now
led by Ross Sandler, a former staff
member of the Natural Resources
Defense Council, hasn't reached
beyond short-term traffic control and
embraced a visionary approach to
air quality.
Schwartz, who serves as Sandler's
deputy, offers a barrage of measures
to counter the criticism: the creation '
of green spaces that negate pollution
effects, the expansion of ferry use as
an alternative to cars, streets in
Brooklyn and Queens that have been
turned into walkways, the establish-
ment of the 49th and 50th Street bus
corridor. He brings out a 1986 report
,
18 CITY UMITS
that pushed for far-reaching changes
through a "menu of alternatives,"
which included options like ban-
ning one-occupant cars into Manhat-
tan and restricting entrance into
Manhattan according to license plate
numbers. But Schwartz says the
report brought a firestorm of criti-
cism from a powerful con-
sortium of5,OOO city busi-
nesses, the Coalition for
Improved Transportation
and Air Quality, and was
quietly shelv-ed.
Reflecting on the re-
treat, Schwartz says DOT
and the mayor support
traffic reduction, but lack
public support for these
difficult measures. "One
criticism I have is of the
environmental commu-
nity," he says. "When we
stood up with these pro-
posals they haven't been
there. You're up against
big business, vested in-
terests-it's very tough
when the constituency is
quiet."
icy. There's no argument that proj-
ects like the 42nd Street Redevelop-
ment plan (in already-jammed mid-
town) or Metrotech (in downtown
Brooklyn, home to a cluster of hot
spots) will worsen the quality of air
that's unhealthy to begin with. But
as Sharon Landers, the mayor's clean
Not surprisingly, envi-
ronmentalists react vehe-
mently. They say this
argument omits the fact
that the mayor aggres-
sively promotes traffic-
attracting development ,
Pedal power:
Bicyclists from Transportation Alternatives pramote an
Auto-Free New Yorlc.
new highways and other measures
contributing to pollution. Gene
Russianoff, staff attorney at the New
York Public Interest Research Group,
exclaims, "Where's the environ-
mental movement today? We're fight-
ing the giant development projects ,
Westway II, the incinerators. We're
in hand-to-hand combat with the
Koch administration!"
Marcy Benstock, the veteran en vi-
ronmental activist who spearheaded
the fight against the original West-
way plan, says, "I've worked like a
dog for clean air. If I ever sensed that
they (DOT) were serious about tak-
ing genuine action (to reduce traf-
fic), I'd change all my priorities and
help them."
Litmus Test
T
he clearest litmus test of the city's
commitment to clean air is seen
in the mayor's pro-development pol-
air advisor, explains, "You have to
balance economic development
against the problems that result. In
certain instances you don't want to
stop development."
According to the state's plan to
meet federal clean air levels, the
blueprint for a new downtown
Brooklyn includes an extra overpass,
new roads, changed timing on traffic
signals and stricter enforcement of
no-parking zones-measures that aim
to reduce the number of hot spots in
the area to zero. But what about the
overall affect of more people and
cars, regardless of how smoothly they
flow through the area? "We're confi-
dent that the problems are mitigated
appropriately," Landers answers.
She adds that the more difficult,
long-term options (put forward in
the earlier "menu of alternatives")
are going to be considered more fully
as part of a $1.4 million study, op-
timistically known as ROTCAP,
Relief of Traffic Congestion and Air
Pollution. "We're trying to reach an
answer," Landers promises. "We
need more data."
Not content to sit by and hope for
progress, the Natural Resources De-
fense Council last year won a court
case forcing the city to
tighten its plans to reduce
ozone and carbon monox-
ide levels by 1991.
Creating
a Metropolis
T
oday it seems diffi-
cult to imagine New
York City without cars, but
a look back in time shows
that New York grew to
prominence as a shipping
center, then expanded
along rail paths and even-
tually subway lines. It
wasn't until the end of
World War II that the city
came under the sway ofthe
automobile.
It was Robert Moses, the
city's master builder, who
created an impressive net-
work of highways and
bridges, connecting the
boroughs, boosting subur-
ban development and
melding the metropolis
into one by the end of the
1960s. But as bulldozers tore down
entire neighborhoods in the name of
progress, citizens started to question
the side effects of these steel and
concrete arteries. While billions of
dollars were allocated to highways,
the subways were allowed to dete-
riorate, and the needs oflow income
city dwellers-with little money for
cars-were ignored in favor of the
middle income commuter.
As Robert Caro wrote in his
book,"The Power Broker," "By build-
ing his highways , Moses flooded the
city with cars. By systemically starv-
ing the subways and the suburban
commuter railroads, he swelled the
flood to city-destroying dimension.
By making sure that the vast
suburbs ... were filled on a sprawling,
low-density development pattern
relying primarily on roads instead of
mass transportation, he insured that
flood would continue for gen-
erations ... an irritating, life consum-
ing concern."
Transportation will remain a pri-
mary concern for many New Yorkers
unless drastic measures are imple-
mented, and environmentalists say
short-term and long-term changes are
necessary to reduce air pollution-
and improve quality of life.
An immediate focus is centraliza-
tion and tightening of the state's car
emissions and inspection program,
which is currently implemented by
garage owners and has a long history
of fraud and abuse.
Environmentalists say stricter
enforcement of the regulations will
help car owners (if an engine is in
top shape it uses less gas and the car
is therefore cheaper to run) as well as
the environment (an engine that runs
more smoothly also emits less pol-
lutants). Officials seem to agree, but
the changes are far from in place.
Landers notes, "We're at a point
where the city and state are starting
to move in the same direction. A
centralized inspection and mainte-
nance is the way to go."
Beyond this, broader changes are
necessary. Top ofthe list is a return
to widespread use of mass transit.
The city recently embarked on a $6.4
billion capital improvement plan for
the subways, but this is only a begin-
ning, according to transit advocates.
Gene Russianoff, who also works
with the Straphangers Campaign,
says that in 1946, 2 billion rides
were taken on the subway system,
while in 1982, this number declined
to a mere 1.3 billion. Ridership is
again on the rise, but not enough is
being done to promote this resource.
"We're underutilizing our infrastruc-
ture. The key question is how to get
people out of cars and into mass
transit," he emphasizes.
Russianoff says the pending in-
crease in the subway fare will do
little to boost ridership, nor will a
recently announced plan to intro-
duce rider cards that do not give any
bonuses to frequent transit users.
Why not introduce a month-long,
unlimited-use subway pass, he asks.
Karen Gardener, a Transit Author-
ity spokesperson, says that Strap-
hangers Campaign suggestions are
being considered-but the Transit
Authority will not have a new fare
August/September 1989 19
structure proposal until 1996, when
the automatic fare collection turn-
stiles are all in place.
Another option is using cleaner-
burning fuels like methanol and
natural gas for cars and buses. Al-
ready, six Queens express buses to
Manhattan are experimenting with
methanol; in another experiment, two
buses in Brooklyn are running on
natural gas. However, scientists are
still studying some of the dangerous
side effects of these fuels.
"Soft Ban" on Bikes
T
ransportation Alternatives, a
bike advocacy group, says pol-
lution would be reduced iffoot-pow-
ered vehicles got a fair shake in the
city. The action-oriented organiza-
tion fought Mayor Koch's bike ban
is still bothered by what they
describe as a "soft ban" on bike rid-
ing-the heavy traffic, poor air and
dangerous riding conditions that
hamper many inexperienced bikers.
Add to that the lack of bike parking
and bike lanes and they say it's a
wonder that there are 70,000 people
who use bikes for transportation on
an average day.
But, then again, as Charles Koman-
off, who heads Transportation Alter-
natives, puts it, bikes have a special
appeal. "We see bicyclists as con-
tributing to a sense of conviviality- .
if the car represents alienation, the
represents democracy. It's trans-
portation on a human scale."
Living up to its name, Transpor-
tation Alternatives also attempts to
curtail car use. Within the organiza-
tion is the Committee for an Auto-
Free New York, which is trying to get
the
l
Central Park drives closed for
longer periods of time as the first
step towards their broader goal.
Haikalis, who heads the
committee, is a civil engineer and an
urban transportation planner. "How
much street space do we need for
motor vehicular traffic?" he asks.
"Cars lined up on both sides of the
street could be filled with buckets of
flowers, benches and people. A good
deal more auto-free space should be
made available."
Behind these attempts to reduce
the amount of space set aside for
vehicles in the city is a radical vision
of a new kind of urban environment:
a place where the primacy of the car
has been replaced by walkways, bike
paths and cheap, safe, accessible mass
transit; a city where new housing
developments are linked to subway
lines and don't threaten the infra-
structure. This inner-city ecotopia
may appear impractical, even im-
possible, but environmentalists beg
to disagree. As Stephen Wilder asks,
"How else are we going to leave a
planet that is habitable for many
generations?" 0
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20 CITY LIMITS
Up in Smoke: Incineration
Burns New York's Air
Burning trash has long.been a New York way of life
BY DOUG TURETSKY
P
lans to build massive incin-
erators in all five boroughs
to burn the city's daily ava-
lanche of trash have many
people worried about the risks to
their health and air quality. But the
fact is New Ybrkers have been living
with incineration for years. Apart-
ment house, hospital and three little-
known munibipal incinerators belch
toxics into air every day.
These incinerators have few, if any,
of the pollution-control devices that
would be part of the much debated
resource recovery plants (as these
new incinerators are known) and,
according t6 many environmental-
ists and scientists, pose an immedi-
ate threat to our health.
About 15J years ago, I had a part-
Hme job stoking an apartment house
incinerator. My training consisted of
little more than being handed a poker,
a set of matches and being directed
to the hatch in the basement. No-
body said a word about the heavy
metals, particulates, acid gases, nitro-
gen oxides and other pollutants
emitted as part of the incineration
process. The ash created in the
combustion process is especially
toxic, creating what some environ-
mentalists call the Catch-22 ofincin-
eration. The cleaner the smoke that
comes out of the smokestack, the
more toxic the ash that is left. And
that ash has to be disposed of as well.
Last June the New York City Coun-
cil adopted a bill sponsored by Coun-
cil Member Sheldon Leffler to ban
apartment house incinerators. The
approximately 2,200 apartment
house incinerators currently in op-
eration will have to shut down by
1992. Although environmentalists
like Eric Goldstein of the Natural
Resources Defense Council (NRDC)
say these incinerators are "the big-
gest problem pound for pound" of
burned trash, they remain deeply
concerned by the 140 hospital and
three municipal incinerators that will
continue to spew pollutants into the
city's air.
Medical Malpractice?
II T he problem with any incin-
erator is they emit thousands
of toxic chemicals into the air, most
of which there's very little knowl-
edge of," says Arthur Kell, New York
hospital handrail, the roof and the
incinerator. Stone analyzed these
samples, finding high levels of heavy
metals as well as dioxins and furans,
which are suspected of causing can-
cer. A subsequent study undertaken
by the federal National Institute for
Occupational Safety and Health re-
cently revealed that the plume from
the incinerator, which burns "red
bag" (infectious) waste, was some-
times blown back into the hospital's
air ventilation system and into the
medical center's nursery and admini-
City Toxics
Project Coordi-
nator for the
New York Pub-
lic Interest Re-
search Group
(NYPIRG). Hos-
pitals, which
are in business
to protect the
public health,
appear to pay
-
Apartment house,
hospital and little-
known municipal
incinerators belch
little attention toxics into New
to controlling
strati on of-
fices. The
report notes,
"Infectious
waste (red
bagged) and
noninfec-
tious waste
(clear plastic)
were stacked
together on
the floor of
the soiled
utility/solid
waste collec-
tion room.
Liquids from
the pollutants
emitted by their
incinerators. A
five-year study
by NRDC found
60 hospitals in
violation of the
York's air every
day.
these bags
-
were pooled
on the floor
and contents
city's air code, many of them repeat
offenders. After numerous com-
plaints from employees at Lutheran
Medical Center that they were suf-
fering from dermatitis, lung prob-
lems, hair loss and nausea related to
the hospital's pathological incinera-
tor, the state Assembly'S Environ-
mental Conservation Committee
head Maurice Hinchey launched an
investigation. State Department En-
vironmental Conservation (DEC)
wildlife pathologist Ward Stone
secretly took samples of ash on a
from several bags ha(d) spilled."
Lutheran officials have defended
the operation of their incineration
equipment, and blame odors around
the hospital on a nearby meat smok-
ing plant. Robert Walsh, a Lutheran
spokesperson, says, "If there's any-
thing wrong, we want to fix it." Noting
that he and his family live five blocks
from the hospital and he would be
crazy to defend the incinerator if it
was dangerous, Walsh says the hos-
pital's incinerator repeatedly passes
state inspections.
That's a point that burns Gold-
stein. "When people say it meets all
federal and state standards it makes
you feel good. But then you look at
the standards and they are a joke.
They're a generation behind the tech-
nology."
Last January the state promulgated
new regulations for hospital incin-
erators. The state will demand that
by 1992 hospitals meet stiffer par-
ticulate emission standards than
previously in effect as well as limits
on emission of carbon monoxide;
hydrochloric acid, a precursor to acid
rain; and smoke opacity. These regu-
lations will require an upgrading of
hospital incinerators to include
improved scrubbers to reduce emis-
sions as well as stricter temperature
controls to ensure that waste burns
without spewing toxics. Addition-.
ally, the regulations require that
hospitals continue to upgrade their
incinerators as technology advances.
But several incineration experts
charge the new regulations are still
too weak. Dr. Donald Drum, a propo-
nent of incineration who is chair-
man of the technology division of
Butler County Community College
in Pennsylvania and a member of
New York State's advisory board on
incineration, says flatly, "the regula-
tions are not stringent enough. "
Goldstein says that the state health
de.partment, concerned about esca-
latmg hospital costs to meet new
emission standards, pressured DEC
to relax some of the limits it was con-
sidering, especially in terms of par-
ticulates.
The new regulations also offer no
limits on the release of dioxin into
the air, a major source of concern
among many environmentalists and
those who live near hospital incin-
erators. A test of hospital incinera-
tors in California several years ago
found very high emissions of diox-
ins. According to Marjorie Clarke of
INFORM, an environmental research
organization, hospital incinerators
burn large quantities of paper and
plastics, which are primary sources
of chlorine. Some scientists think
this gas, a contributor to the creation
of acid rain, also has a relationship to
the formation of dioxins and furans.
Mike Kormanik, DEC's regional
August/September 1989 21
Ilea"" and "o.pital.:
Plum. from Luth.ran'. incinerator i. _rnetim uclced tltrotlfl" the ventilation .y.,.m and
Into tit. nur .. ry. .
pollution control engineer, says de-
partment staff decided that required
improvements in operation and
maintenance of the incinerators
would reduce dioxin emissions. But
he also notes that testing for dioxin,
which is produced when incinera-
tors do not burn efficiently, is expen-
sive. Not wanting to pump additional
money into air quality studies, the
state apparently side-stepped di-
rectly dealing with dioxin.
Peter Cannavo, a spokesman for
the city Department of Environmental
Protection (DEP), which is respon-
sible for monitoring city hospital
incinerators, says the controversy at
Lutheran is unique. But Stone dis-
agrees, and he is troubled by the lack
of hard data on the operation of in-
cinerators and the environmental
affects of their emissions. "When it
comes to examining incinerators
there's a lot of visual things but not a
lot of scientific studies," charges
Stone. A noted environmental
whistle blower, Stone's budget was
recently slashed by DEC to block the
kind of study he did for Hinchey.
Potential health and pollution
risks from hospital incinerators are
compounded by several factors.
Clarke points out that hospitals tend
to be clustered in geographic areas
like Manhattan's East Side, multi-
plying potential health risks in the
community. Their smokestacks are
relatively close to the ground, and in
some cases on the same level as
nearby buildings, meaning that emis-
sions are not well dispersed before
residents breathe in the fumes. Clarke
adds that the hospital incinerators
also tend to be old and small, physi-
cally leaving little room for adding
new technology.
Equally troubling is some hospi-
tals' apparent lack of concern. Sam
Bishop of the New York City Coali-
tion for an Incinerator Alternative, a
neighborhood group formed by resi-
dents living near Beth Israel and Cab-
rini hospitals, says that medical cen-
ters have "no planning, no consid-
eration of the toxic aspects" ofincin-
eration. Environmental activists
point to the fact that in recent years
hospitals have significantly in-
creased their use of throw-away
plates, trays, gowns, IV bags and other
common hospital items, all of which
release toxics when burned. "They
(hospitals) want to take the cheap
and dirty way. They' ve been sO,ld a
22 CITY LIMITS
bill of goods by incinerator manufac-
turers," says Bishop.
Rather than cutting back on their
use of throwaway items, hospitals
have reacted to concerns about tox-
ics spewing from their individual in-
cinerators by planning the construc-
tion of a modern facility to be com-
monly used by a number of hospi-
tals. The Greater New York Hospital
Association is currently negotiating
with Brooklyn Union Gas to build
and operate a resource recovery in-
cinerator-like the ones planned by
the city. Public outrage over medical
waste washing up on beaches has
also intensified the desire to burn
hospital trash.
Many environmentalists believe
DEP's past record does not bode well
for improved vigilance and enforce-
ment of the new state regulations.
When Clarke received a copy of a
joint DEP/DEC data base on incin-
erators in the city, a cursory exami-
nation revealed several errors. Al-
though the apartment building she
lives in shut its incinerator five years
ago, it was still listed as active-
indicating no one had inspected for
quite some time. The data base
showed the diameter of the smoke-
stack as zero in a colleague's build-
ing, which would mean the smoke
couldn't escape from the incinera-
tor. And despite all the attention, the
data base listed the permit for the in-
cinerator at the address of Lutheran
Medical Center under a private indi-
vidual for residential use.
Those in Glass Houses
W
hile the city must enforce air
pollution standards on hos-
pital incinerators, it must also clean
up problems with its own existing
municipal incinerators (two of which
burn household waste, the other pri-
marily burns noninfectious hospital
garbage). Because the Greenpoint
Municipal Incinerator has been found
to be repeatedly belching thick smoke
into the air in violation of federal
emission limits, the Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) has taken
the city to court to bring the facility
up to code.
Michael Klimetz, a member of the
Baycrest Neighborhood Association,
complains about the city's South-
west incineration facility, which
Bad news downwind:
Residents near the Southwest incinerator are sometimes Forced to Iceep oH the streets.
burns noninfectious hospital waste
as well as garbage that has been quar-
antined at Kennedy Airport. "For
years we have been lodging com-
plaints with the Department of Sani-
tation and local officials about fumes
and fly ash that appear to be coming
from Southwest." Klimetz says the
ash is so bad that he must sometimes
keep his four-year-old son frOID play-
ing outside and that windshield
wiper blades and vinyl lawn furni-
ture deteriorate unnaturall y. DEC rec-
ords indicate the facility has failed
opacity tests-virtually the only
emissions regulations currently in
effect for municipal incinerators-
several times in recent years.
The city's municipal incinerators,
Greenpoint, Southwest and Betts
Avenue in Queens, are operated by
the Department of Sanitation (DOS).
Each facility has four furnaces that
can burn 250 tons of trash per day.
Although both Betts Avenue and
Southwest passed DEC tests last year,
the city recognizes the pollution
control mechanisms at its plants are
badly outdated. A June 1987 EPA in-
spection of Greenpoint found the
opacity monitors had been inopera-
tive for at least six months and noted
that DOS engineers cannibalized
parts from one control unit to an-
other for tests the previous year.
Paul Beckoweis, technical direc-
tor for the sanitation department's
incineration program, says the city
is undertaking a more than $200
million program to upgrade its in-
cinerators, beginning with Green-
point. "We're putting our money
where our mouth is," says Beckoweis,
noting that the city has jumped ahead
of a state effort to stiffen pollution
control requirements on the munici-
pal waste incinerators. "DEC is on
board with us, they know what's
~ ~ - - - - - - - - - ~ ----
going on. They're watching us
very closely and I'm glad of it."
Beckoweis emphasizes that
DOS wants the plants to be good
neighbors. But members of
Greenpoint Against Smell and
Pollution, which has been
complaining for several years
about the local facility, appar-
ently has no knowledge of the
upgrade plans. GASP member
Debby Laylor charges, "They
are not exactly forthcoming with
the community." Adds GASP
member Irene Klementowicz,
"They come to the community
board or the community after
the designs are done."
Promising all the latest pol-
lution control technology will
be installed in the plants,
Beckoweis says each incinera-
tor will also have equipment to
continually examine emissions
data. He says he'd be glad to
follow the example of an incin-
eration plant in Tokyo, which
P
osts emission reports on a neon Eric Goldstein of NRDC:
Federal and state standards are "a joke."
sign for all to read.
Some critics downplay prom-
ises of the best available pollution
control technology. "We believe state
of the art is a code word for the in-
dustry's latest experiment," says Kell
of NYPIRG. "To the extent it legiti-
mizes incineration in anyone's eyes
is unfortunate."
But other environmentalists who
are critical ofincineration don't take
such a hard line approach. Some
recognize that efforts to increase
recycling and reduce the waste stream
won't by themselves solve the city' s
trash disposal crisis any time soon.
What are the fuel alternatives?
How do they compare for:
August/September 1989 23
But the city' s apparent empha-
sis on incineration-in contrast
to the state's solid waste plan,
which emphasizes reduction
and recycling-vexes environ-
mentalists.
Whether federal, state and
city agencies will demand the
best available pollution controls
and continually seek further im-
provements is a separate ques-
tion. In preparing this article,
City Limits attempted to inter-
view Jack Lauber, a DEC scien-
tist who has been critical of
current pollution control ef-
forts. The state agency refused
the interview request. The slash-
ing of Ward Stone's research
budget also leaves questions of
how seriously the state moni-
toring body intends to pursue
knowledge of the environ-
mental effects of incineration.
Dr. Drum, the incineration pro-
ponent, argues, "The technol-
ogy is here. It's just a matter of
using it."
Upgrading the city' s existing
hospital and municipal incin-
erators with the best available pollu-
tion control technology is a matter of
both a willingness to spend the nec-
essary dollars and political will to
enforce clean air standards. Neither
appears as abundant as the trash
burned every day. 0
80 million
Americans
live in
urban
areas
violating
federal
clean air
standards.
safety availability
President
Bush has
called for
1 million
non-
gasoline
powered
cars by
1997.
cost national security
Today's most promising clean fuel alternatives are detailed in:
Drive for Clean Air
Natural Gas and Methanol Vehicles
Report available September 1 from:
JNFRM
ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH & EDUCATION
381 Park Avenue South. New York, NY 10016 (212) 689-4040
24 CITY LIMITS
Pollution-Busters
Here is a partial listing of organiza-
tions that are active on clean air
issues in New York City.
American Lung Association
1740 Broadway
New York 10019
212-315-8700
Baycrest Neighborhood Assoc.
c/o 212 Bay 49th Street
Brooklyn 11214
718-373-8921
Boerum Hill-South Brooklyn Clean
Air Committee
c/o 467 Pacific Street
Brooklyn 11217
718-643-9603
Clean Air Campaign
150 Nassau Street
New York 10038
212-349-7255
Community Environmental Health
Center at Hunter College
New York City Coalition for an
Incinerator Alternative
425 East 25th Street, Box 596
New York 10011
212-481-4355
c/o 300 First Avenue
New York 10009
212-254-6897
Environment '89
1047 Amsterdam Avenue
New York 10025
212-316-7564
New York Public Interest Research
Group and Straphangers Campaign
9 Murray Street
New York 10007
349-6460
Environmental Defense Fund
257 Park Avenue South Sierra Club
New York 10010
212-505-2100
625 Broadway
New York 10012
212-473-7841
Greenpoint Against Smell
and Pollution Staten Island Citizens for Clean Air
199 Thornycroft Avenue 105 Kent Street
Brooklyn 11222
718-383-6741
Staten Island 10312
718-984-6446
Natural Resources Defense Council
40 West 20th Street
Transportation Alternatives
P.O. Box 2087
New York 10011
212-727-2700
New York 10009
212-941-4600
Have you heard?
fN THESE TfHES
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IT IS TIME TO:
END HOMELESSNESS
FUND THE CREATION
OF AFFORDABLE HOUSING
RESTORE FUNDS
FOR FEDERAL HOUSING
PROGRAMS
NATIONAL MARCH FOR
HOUSING NOW!
OCTOBER 7, 1989 U.S. CAPITOL
.. _--.................................................................... ,
Mail To: Housing NOW! , .
1047 Amsterdam Ave., New York, NY 10025
Tel. 2123160188
Name _______________ _
Address _______________ _
City State Zip __ _
Phone Affiliation _____ _
_ Enclosed please fif]d $ __ to help support Housing NOW!
(Make checks payable to Housing NOW!)
_ Please send info on buses to Washington March
FOR INFORMATION:
HOUSING NOW! - N.Y.
CATHEDRAL OF' ST. JOHN THE DIVINE
1047 AMSTERDAM AVENUE
NEW YORK, N.Y. 10025
(212) 316-0188
26 CITY LIMITS
LEGISLATION
Scandal Stalls Housing Initiatives
BY DOUG TURETSKY
THIS WAS THE YEAR PEOPLE
believed the issue of affordable hous-
ing would make it back onto the
Capitol Hill agenda. No one thought
it would be quite like this.
Nearly every day a new revelation
unfolds in the ongoing scandal at the
Department of Housing and Urban
Development (HUD). From Senator
Alfonse D' Amato's rigging of pro-
grams for his Island Park, Long Is-
land cronies to the high-level Repub-
licans who siphoned consultant fees
to the former officials who made it a
source ofinside deals, HUD is ahouse
in disgrace. With attention riveted to
the scandal, the Congressional de-
bate over reviving the nation's com-
mitment to low income housing has
taken a back seat.
Robert Hayes of the Coalition for
the Homeless , who just a few months
ago took HUD Secretary Jack Kemp
on a tour of homeless shelters, says,
"There's scant evidence a single
(affordable housing) initiative is
moving forward." While it is likely
that existing programs such as the
low income housing tax credit will
be renewed, any new programs re-
quiring direct funding are unlikely,
especially considering there are at
least $2 billion in HUD losses coupled
with the more than $150 billion
savings and loan industry bailout.
The scandal offers an opportunity
to refashion HUD into an agency that
primarily serves the needs of the
poor. But it can also become an ex-
cuse for inertia and further debilita-
tion of the government role in hous-
ing. Even the bipartisan National
Affordable Housing Act sponsored
by senators Alan Cranston and
D'Amato, which calls for more con-
trol over programs at the state and
local level and a $4.1 billion increase
in the HUD budget, now faces a re-
luctant Congress.
Hank Roden, a spokesperson for
Congressman Bill Green, comments,
"Given the situation at HUD right
now and Gramm-Rudman (the defi-
cit reduction act), I can't see the
budget getting jumped." Although
Roden notes that the House has
HUD's Favorite
<;f@it'
Half the money raised over a 30-
month period by a little-known
charity came from individuals or
companies doing business with the
of Hou$ing and u.J.'ban
Devel:gPlDent (HUP}. i'l"he
FOOD,Jor Africa, was
by Thomas Demery, the embattled
former HUD assistant secretary
responsible for the scandal-ridden
moderate rehabilitation and fed-
eral housing insU!llnce program$.
Following Dertiery's appoint
mentwto HUD in October 1986.
FOOD's coffers quickly grew. From.
January 1986 through June 1988.
the ch,uity raised $580,448-more"
than $290,000 coming from pat-
ticipants in HUD programs, accord-
ing to HUD investigators. Most of
this money was raised through 10
benefits sponsored hy developers.
consultants or others lp.volved,!;n
the ll).oderate rehabpJ,'ogram.
Demery appeared as a speaker at
several of these events.
Among the most active contribu-
tors to FOOD was Philip Winn of
the Winn Group, which was in-
volved.in severaLrooderate reha-
bilitation projects under investi-
gation. Now U.S. ambassador to
Switzerland, Winn contributed
$6,000 to FOOD. J. Michael
Queenan, a partner iI;l several Winn
Group proJects, sponsored and
contributed $36,000 to a FOOD
fundraiser in Denver. Lance
Wilson, another Winn Group in-
vestor, contributed$3,250 to FOOD
and a at the RitZ"
Carlton Hotel in ,New York. All
three are former HUD officials.
The BentonMortgage Company,
the co-insurer of a number of the
Winn' Group's projects, as well as
SeagraEe Village in Miami,
ida (see City Limits, June/JUly
1989), contributed a total of$19.000
at five fundraisers between Octo ..
ber 1!;)87 and May ,1988. HUD
placediBenton on Pfobatio . n due to
ItS for several mod-
appropriated approximately $9 bil-
lion for HUD this year-some $2
billion more than the White House
requested-the department's budget
remains well below the $32 billion
funded for housing and urban devel-
opment in 1980.
Although Kemp has publicly
stated he will not use the scandal to
gut the department, low income
housing policy experts express fears
that the secretary will push increased
privatization and rent vouchers as a
way to both keep the department
sleaze proof and out of the business
of building housing.
Ironically, it is privatization ef-
forts that have repeatedly gotten HUD
in trouble. Victor Bach, director of
housing policy and research at the
Community Service Society, says he
has a feeling of "deja vu." In the
1970s, recalls Bach, HUD was also
swept by scandals after President
Richard Nixon turned over some of
the administrative operations to pri-
vate real estate and insurance busi-
nesses-a precursor to today's rip-
offs by co-insurance companies and
escrow agents.
Richard West of the National Low
Income Housing Coalition is con-
cerned that despite the fact that the
poor were most hurt by the plunder-
ing ofHUD, a blame-the-victim back-
lash could occur in which the scan-
dal is used to promote the sacking of
federal housing production pro-
grams. "My greatest fear is that we're
going to hear a lot of sound and fury
but we're not going to have advanced
affordable housing," says West.o
August/September 1989 27
DEADLINE
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Call for application or
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28 CITY UMITS
REVIEW
The Self-Help Report
BY LISA GLAZER
"Self Help; In Our Own Words,"
prepared by the Urban Homestead-
ing Assistance Board. Available from
UHAB, 40 Prince Street, New York,
NY 10012. $25.
ANNUAL REPORTS OF NON-
profit organizations aren't usually
the most exhilarating read. There's
the obligatory historical summary, a
ponderous listing ofrurpose, a few
lively photographs i you're lucky.
Forget all this when you approach
the Urban Homesteading Assistance
Board's 15-yearreport. Entitled "Self
Help: In Our Own Words," the book-
let is a set of stories told by tenants
who have worked with UHAB taking
control of their buildings. I read it
from beginning to end in one sitting,
compelled by the tenants' eloquence,
humor and honesty.
The author of the book, Alexandra
Christy, seemingly sat down with
the tenants, turned on her tape re-
corder, listened while the tenants
explained how and why they took
over buildings, then transcribed the
information verbatim, stitching to-
gether the best quotes for the report.
This is the crazy-quilt oral history
approach to report writing, and it's
hard not to be drawn in. Listen, for
example, to Kevin Dickey, vicepresi-
dent of a three-year-old co-op at 351
West 114th Street in Harlem: "I'm
very proud to see that it can happen,
meaning people take over their own
building, run it, and make it work, in
this city ... where you come in, put
down your floors, put in your kitchen,
really do a whole hands-on situation,
and step back and really say it's yours,
and that you did it with other people
that have this same goal. "
By letting the residents speak for
themselves, the report can also be
startlingly frank about . the fights,
struggles and squabbles within ten-
ant-run buildings. The understand-
ing that tension is an unavoidable
part of the collective process adds
layers of depth to the report-and
sometimes even a sense of humor.
Here's a gem of a piece from the
residents of 525 East 6th Street:
Yuri: "We don't fight a lot ... " Irene:
"No, we don't fight." Pauline: "Well,
once in a while probably ... " Elise:
"Well, we do have fights actually,
but we don't have fights in factions ,
let' s put it that way. We do have
disagreements and some of them have
to do with unpleasant things like
arrears ... " Pauline: "What is the com-
mon thread here that we all stuck it
out? Because we're New Yorkers!"
Susan: "or insane!"
The photographs that accompany
this highly readable text are numer-
ous, in many sizes and shapes. Just
like the quotes, they're far from for-
mal-many a tenant is captured in
mid-sentence with arms flailing,
mouth open, eyebrows raised to
accentuate a point.
The only drawback of this many-
pieced technique is that the overall
visual effect is rather confusing. On
each page there are photos, blocks of
quotes, perhaps a summary state-
ment by Christy, and individual
HHI\
--
HoraceHarris+Associates
Architects
..as Jav Street. Brooklyn. N.Y. 11201
quotes that have been highlighted. I
wasn' t always sure who said what
and who the people in the photos
were without some re-reading. The
report is bilingual, and the meshing
of Spanish and English on some pages
adds to the sense of disorientation.
I was also initially put off by the
lack of editing: none of the quotes
here are "polished"-so incorrect
grammar abounds, as well as sen-
tences that don't always make com-
plete sense. There are instances
where the author could have omitted
statements that ended up being con-
fusing, but overall I think the verba-
tim approach works.
Because the report focuses on the
tenants, the vital role played by
UHAB staff, who provide technical
assistance, mediation and general
support, is a constant-but quiet-
theme. The way the report is written
seems to mirror the way UHAB
employees work: they promote the
tenants, not themselves. 0
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Providing consultant services specializing in
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Concentrating in Real Estate & Non-Profit Law
Title and loan closings 0 All city housing programs
Mutual housing associations 0 Coopertive conversions
Advice to low income co-op boards of directors
100 Remsen Street, Brooklyn, NY 11201, (718) 624-6850
DELLAPA & LEWIS
Real Estate Attorneys & Development Consultants
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Condominium and Cooperative Offerings
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150 Nassau Street, Suite 1630, New York, NY 10038
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176 West Houston Street
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newsletters
annual reports
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TURF COMPANIES
Building Management/Consultants
Specializing in management & development
services to low income housing cooperatives,
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Mr. John Touhey
718/857-0468
SMOLLENS and GURALNICK, INC.
Attorneys
Specializing in representing tenants only in
landlord/tenant proceedings, cooperative
conversions, loft proceedings. We represent
sellers/buyers in house, condo and co-op closings.
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212/406-3320
LAWRENCE H. McGAUGHEY
Attorney at law
Real Estate, Subsidized Housing, Wills,
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30 CITY UMITS
LETTERS
Taking Sides
To the Editor:
Congratulations to City Limits for
trying to cover initiatives of home-
less and low income people through-
out New York City.
One comment, however, on one of
your "Neighborhood Notes" in the
June/July 1989 issue: under your
Bronx headine, you mention the
"Bronx squatters from the Commu-
nity on the Move group" who are
defending their homes they have built
up with their own labor over the past
two years, as HPD tries to evict them
and re-rehabilitate the building at
1724 Crotona Park East under their
SIP program.
You say, "The squatters, who re-
fer to themsel ves as homesteaders" .. .
The two terms, squatters and
homesteaders, are charged with po-
litical meaning: probably there are
no two "objective" definitions on
which the two sides could both agree.
What you have here are two defi-
nitions: one given by HPD and one
by the people involved.
The implication here is that you
accept HPD's definition, while put-
ting the people's own definition of
themselves within parentheses.
By accepting HPD's definition, you
are implicitly taking sides. Do you
realize that? What is the policy
behind this? We appreciate the
coverage, but would also appreciate
and enjoy an explanation of all this.
Keep up the good work,
Matthew Lee
South Bronx Communityon the Move
and Homesteaders
City Limits replies: We usually use
the term squatter to define people
who independently take over aban-
doned city buildings, and home-
steader to refer to people taking
control ofbuildings through the city-
run Urban Homesteading Program.
The city may use the term squatter
to conjure up negative images of
lawless barbarians-and home-
steader to portray earnest inner-city
pioneers-but we don't buy into these
definitions. The way we see it, both
groups are trying to reach similar
goals through different methods. 0
The Brook'yn Economic Dftle'opment
Corporation has position openings in:
Community Development
Growing Brooklyn Firm seeks individual to work as a liaison with
the Brooklyn business community. Applicant should be familiar with
the New York City Commercial Revitalization program and Business
Improvement District development. Position includes budgets and
programmatic analysis and organization of special events and semi-
nars. Successful candidate will have strong interpersonal, organiza-
tional and writing skills with related experience. Salary high 20's.
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Brooklyn based economic development group seeks highly moti-
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real estate helpful, but not required. ReqUirements include: Bachelor's
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ful. Salary mid-20s.
Send resumes to: Kim Volpe, Brooklyn Economic Development
Corporation, 16 Court Street, Brooklyn, New York 11201.
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WORKSHOP
ARCHITECTURAL DIRECTOR. Pratt Institute Center for Com-
munity and Environmental Development sks NYS registered
architect to serve as Director of its Architectural Collaborative.
Applicants should have understanding of urban poverty issues
and desire to work with non-profit , neighbrhd-based low and
mod income client groups. Candid will have design responsib,
deal with cl ients and public, train interns & students, prepare
budgets, superv staff. BA in architecture and at least 7 yrs
related work exp in development and construction process; or
equiv education and expo Familiarity with rehab of multi -dwell -
ings, SROs and buildings designed for residents with special
needs desirable. Salary: $37,000-$44,000, dep on qualif. Exc
benefits. Resumes: Pratt Institute, Personnel Dept. CLAD, 200
Willoughby Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11205
COMMUNITY MANAGEMENT DIRECTOR. St. Nicholas Neigh-
borhood Preservation Corporation sks indiv for overall admini-
stration of city-funded community management program. Super-
vise housing mgmt and maintenance staff to develop tenant-
owned co-ops and coord maintenance and rehab. Resp for
financial mgmt. Req: knowledge of tenant development. Exp in
housing mgmt and rehab. Spanish a +. Salary: Low 30s, exc
benefits. SOCIAL WORKER. Resp: Work in innovative family
development prog. Small caseload. Family counsel ing, group
work, case mgmt and information and referral work. Oppty to
make a difference. Req: MSW, Spanish a +. Salary: mid to high
20s, based on expo ORGANIZER. Resp for org tenants and
commty around tenants rights and anti-arson progs. Resolve
housing probles, org commty activities and assocs. Requires:
assertive person with exc communication skills in English and
Spanish. College degree pref'd, but appropriate exp may be
substituted. Knowledge of housing policy desirable, but will
train. Salary: $18,000+, based on expo Resumes: St. Nicholas
NPC, 11-29 Catherine Street, Brooklyn, NY 11211. For organ-
izer position, attn: Alison Cordero. For director and social
worker, attn: Virginia VerEecke, ACSW.
FUNDRAISER. Providence House, a nonprofit agency offering
hospitality to homeless women and children, sks self-motivated
individ to establish comprehensive fundraising program, includ
annual appeals, direct mail and special events. Prefer 2-3 years
fundraising expo BA reqd. Resume: Sr. Mary Ross, Providence
House, 89 Sickles Ave, New Rochelle, NY 10801 .
RESEARCH ASSOCIATE. Office of State Senator Franz Leich-
ter. Salary: $27,500 + state benefits. Conduct research and
investigations, write reports and press releases on array of
progressive topics. Downtown Manhattan office. Resume: Glenn
von Nostitz, c/o Sen. Franz Leichter, 270 Broadway, NYC
10007.
PARALEGAL/HOUSING SPECIALIST. Community Law Of-
fices seeks paralegal for its Housing Development Unit. Will
provide training & assistance to tenant assocs and Article 7A
administrators & assist staff &volunteer attorneys preparing for
litig. Spanish a + but not nec. Night meetings reqd. Salary
$21,840; exc benefits. EOE. Position avail starting Aug. 28.
Resume: Andrew Lehrer, Housing Development Unit, CLO, The
Legal Aid Society, 230 East 106th Street, 10029. No phone
calls.
August/September 1989 31
COMMUNITY ORGANIZER. Northwest Bronx Community and
Clergy Coalition. Work with org which brings together tenants,
homeowners, church people, youth and merchants to organize
for change in the Bronx; fight to improve neighborhoods and
keep housing affordable. Salary: $12,000-$15,000, with or
without expo Resume: Beth O' Leary, NWBCCC, 2771 Webster
Ave, Bronx NY 10458. 212-584-0515. EOE.
COMMUNITY DIRECTORITECHNICAL ASSISTANCE DIREC-
TOR. The RAIN Community Land Trust, a community-based,
nonprofit, housing dev organization on the Lower East Side is
looking for people interested in becoming members of its Board
of Directors. Two positions are open for each of the the
following: Community Director and Technical Assistance Direc-
tor. Appl icants must be working in community struggles; should
have working knowledge of issues of low & mod income housing;
commitment to political action, land trust concept. Minorities and
women encouraged to apply. Resumes and cover letter to:
RAIN-CL T, PO Box 2140, Stuyvesant Station, NY 10009. Dead-
line: Aug.1. If late, leave message at 212-353-3751 for Amanda
McMurray.
GENERAL MANAGER. For coalition of 7 nonprofits to transform
new facility into active, vital community center. Responsibilities:
Building mgmt, fundraising, admin, special events. Resume:
Park Slope Neighborhood Family Center, 199 14th St, Bklyn, NY
11215.
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR for Chester Community Improvement
Project, a non-profit housing rehab in Chester, PA. Fundraising
& business/real estate development exp reqd. Small organiza-
tion with exc record wants to grow. Salary: $25-30,000. Res-
ume: CCIO, PO Box 541, Chester, PA 19016. (215) 876-8663.
HOUSING SPECIALIST. Citywide nonprofit housing organiza-
tion seeks housing specialist to assist low income tenant asso-
ciations. Exp with housing preferred. Salary: low 20s, exc
benefits. Resumes: Fernando Alacron, UHAB, 40 Prince Street,
NYC 10012.
Housing Relocation Supervisor
Help assure a successful
future for the homeless
Supervisory opportunity avail at Help 1, a Red
Cross facility for homeless families. Will oversee
Housing Relocation Specialists & After Care
Workers to assure quality services & interface
with public/private agencies. BA + 3 yrs supervi-
sory exp req'd. Advanced degree a +. Excel bene-
fits & rewarding career potential. Send resume
(must incI salary req's) to: Mr. Bernard Gold,
American Red Cross at Help 1, 515 Blake Avenue,
Bklyn, NY 11207. An e/o/e.
American Red Cross
Allen A.M.E. Neighborhood Preservation
&Development Corporation
All Peoples Garden
Alliance of Queens Artists
Asian Americans for Equality
Astella Development Corporation
Astoria Restoration Association
Atlantic Avenue Association Local
Development Corporation
BECNew Communities HDFC, Inc.
Bensonhurst Redevelopment Corporation
Brighton Neighborhood Association
Brooklyn Arts and Cultural Association
Canarsie Neighborhood Development
Corporation
City Limits Magazine
Clinton Housing Development Company
Concerned Citizens of Queens
Conselyea Street Association Swinging
Sixties Senior Center
Cooper Square Committee
Council of Neighborhood Organizations,
Inc.
Crown Heights Neighborhood
Improvement Association
Cypress Hills Local Development
Corporation
East New YorkDevelopment Corporation
East New YorkUrban Youth Corps Housing
Development Fund Company, Inc.
East Williamsburg Valley Industrial
Development Corporation
Elmcor Youth and Adult Activities Inc.
Fifth Avenue Committee
Flatbush Development Corporation
Flatbush Tenants Council
Flushing Council on Culture and the Arts
Gateway Community Restoration, Inc.
Grace United Methodist Church
Greater Sheepshead Bay Development
Corporation
~ONGRATULATIONS!
The East NewYork Savings Bank is pleased to announce that the following
community organizations in our service area (Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan and
Nassau) have been chosen to receive Community Action Assistance Grants from the
Bank for their neighborhood preservation and improvement endeavors:
Hispanic Brotherhood of Rockville
Centre, Inc.
Hope Community, Inc.
Housing Conservation Coordinators
Hunters Point Community Development
Corporation
it's Time, Inc.
Interfaith Adopt-A-Building, Inc.
Jackson Heights Community Development
Corporation
Jewish Community Council of Greater
Coney Island
Jewish Community Council of the
Rockaway Peninsula
Local Development Corporation Del
Barrio, Inc. (Sponsored by Union
Settlement Association)
Local Development Corporation of East
New York
Los Sures
Lower East Side Coalition Housing
Development, Inc.
Manhattan Borough Development
Corporation
Manhattan Valley Development
Corporation
Margert Community Corporation
Meltdown for the Performing Arts
Mid-Brooklyn Community Economic
Development Corporation
Midwood Development Corporation
Neighborhood Housing Services of
Jamaica
New York Hispanic Housing Coalition
North Brooklyn Development Corporation
Northeast Brooklyn Housing Development
Corporation
Nottingham Association, Inc.
Obusty, Inc.
Park Slope Fifth Avenue Local
Development Corporation
Parkway-Stuyvesant Community Housing
Council, Inc.
Peoples Firehouse, Inc.
Project Reach Youth
Prospect Lefferts Gardens Neighborhood
Association
Pueblo Nuevo Housing and Development
Association
Queens Community Civic Corporation
Queens Citizens Organization
Rockaway Development and Revitalization
Corporation
Roosevelt Assistance Corporation
St. Albans Local Development Corporation
St. Nicholas Neighborhood Preservation
Corporation
Services Now for Adult Persons, Inc.
South Brooklyn Local Development
Corporation
Southeastern Greenpoint Crime Prevention
Program
Southwest Brooklyn Industrial
Development Corporation
Strycker's Bay Neighborhood Council, Inc.
Tenant Takeover Team
The Children's Art Carnival
The Ecumenical Community
Developmnent Organization
Tripact, Inc.
Urban Renewal Committee of South
Jamai~a, Inc.
Washington Heights Business
Improvement District Management
Association, Inc.
West Harlem Community Organization,
Inc.
West Harlem Group Assistance, Inc.
Westside Crime Prevention Program
Woodside on the Move
Youth Environmental Services
Youth D.A.R.E.S.
We salute the achievements of these exemplary grassroots organizations and
appreciate and support their continuing commitment to making our communities a
better place in which to live and conduct business.
?~/5. ~~ ~ Q.d.l~;:
Paul B. Murray Atwood Collins, III
President and CEO Chief Operating Officer
f:A..sT~EWYORK
THE EAST NEW YORK SAVINGS BANK MEMBER FDIC