THE NEWS MAGAZINE OF NEW YORK CITY HOUSING AND NEIGHBORHOODS • DECEMBER 1984 • $2.00 BEBIND CLOSED

DOORS FEA.,UBEI A Women's Residence/Pdge 14

Behind Closed Doors...... 9 How the Clinton community had to fight to open the planning process for the neighborhood's biggest project ever. A Women s Residence Battles to Stay That Way ...... 14 One of a declining number of women's residences in the city, the tenants of the Longacre Hotel are feeling a new type of displacement.

Short Term Note. Deadly Eviction ...... 4 STATEMENT OF OWNERSmp, MANAGEMENT AND Racial Arson in Bronx ...... 5 CIRCULATION Chase Loans Stalled ...... 5 Required by 39 U.S.C 3685 A Planned Confusion Over City Contracts . . . .. 6 TIde of Publication: Cil}' Umits. Publication No.: 498890. Dale of Filing: 1119/84. Frequency oflssue: Monthly, except bimonthly in June/July and August/September. No. of issues pub­ Housing Grants Come to Town ...... 7 lished annually : 10. Annual subscription price: $15 individual, 535 instihltion. CompIeIe mail· j No Tenant Funding for Boro Park ...... 8 ing address of known office of publication: 424 West 33rd Street, New York, NY 10001. Clinton Wins its Garden ...... 8 Complete mailing address of the headquarters of general business offices of the publisher: same as above. Publisher: Cil}' Limits CommuniI}' Information Service, Inc. Editor: Torn Senior Repairs-For Free...... 8 Robbins, 424 West 33rd Street, New York, NY 10001. Managing Editor: N/A. Owner: Cil}' Limits CommuniI}' Information Service, 424 \\bt 33rd Street, New York, NY 10001. Known Legislation bondholders, mortgagees, and other securil}' holders owning I percent or more of total amount of bonds, mortgages or other securities: none. The purpose, function and nonprofit stahlS Axing Taxes in Cuomo's Albany ...... 18 of this organization and the exempt status for federal income tax purposes (I) has not changed during preceding 12 months. Organizel Average no. of copies Actual no. of copies of each issue during single issue publ ished Turning the Tables on SRO Harassers ...... 20 Extent and nature of circulation: preceding 12 months nearest to filing dale Total no. copies (net press run) 2500 2500 People Paid circulation Out of the Shadows...... 22 I. Sales through dealers and car· riers, street vendors and counter Tactics sales: 200 200 When the City Forecloses ...... 24 2. Mail subscription: 1700 1700 Total Paid Circulation: 1900 1900 Cityview Free Distribution by mail , carrier Election Lessons ...... 27 or other means, samples, com· pi imentary, and other free copies 400 400 Review Total Distribution 2300 2300 Copies not distributed Cuomo's Diaries ...... 28 I. Office use, left oyer, unac· counled, spoiled after printing 100 100 Letters ...... 29 2. Return from news agents 100 100 Resources/Event•...... 30 Total 2500 2500 I certify that the statements made by me above are correct and complele. Workshop ...... 31 Paul Smith, Business Manager.

CITY LIMITS/December 1984 2 Volume IX Number 9

City Limits is published ten times per year, monthly except double issues in June/July and August/ September, by the City Limits Community Informa­ tion Service, Inc., a nonprofit organization devoted to disseminating information concerning neighbor­ hood revitalization. The publication is sponsored by three organizations. The sponsors are:

Associationfor Neighborhood and Housing Develop­ melli, IfIC .• an association of 36 community-based, nonprofit housing development groups, developing and advocating programs for low and moderate in­ come housing and neighborhood stabilization. Prott Institute Celller for Comnwnity and Environ­ melllal Developmelll, a technical assistance and ad­ vocacy office offering professional planning and architectural services to low and moderate income community groups. The Center also analyzes and m0- nitors government policy and performance. Urban Homesteading Assisl4nCe Board, a technical assistance organization providing assistance to low in­ come tenant cooperatives in management and sweat equity rehabilitation.

Subscription rates arc: for individuals and commu­ nity IlrouPS, $IS/One Year, $2SITwo Years; for Busl­ nesaea, Foundations, Banks, GoYernment Agencies and Libraries, S3S/One Yeat, $SOfl\w Years. UMt in­ come, unemployed, $9/One Year.

City Limits welcomes comments and article contri­ butions. Please include a stamped, self-addressed envelope for return of manuscripts. Material in City A few blocks from : where the Times Square Redevelopment Plan will Limits does not necessarily rclJcct the opinion of the sponsoring organizations. Send correspondence to: be launched, dozens of Clinton residents wait on line lor government cheese. CITY LIMITS, 424 \\\:at 33rd St=t, New York, N.Y. To lind out how city and state government responded to community concerns 10001. Postmaster send change of address to: City see "Behind Closed Doors" on page 9. ' Limits, 424 W. 33rd St. , New York, N.Y. 10001. Second·dass postage paid New York, N.Y. 10001 City Limits (ISSN OI99~330) (212) 239-8440

EdItor 10m Robbins

AssIstant EdItor Annette Fuentes

CI~uIatioo Manager Paul Smith Copyright 1984. All Rights Reserved . No portion or portions of this journal may be NEW YEAR'S CHANGES reprinted without the express permission of the publishers. City Limits 'January 1985 issue will have a different look in a number of departments. City Limits is indexed in the Alternative Press Index. These design changes are being adapted to make the magazine more attractive, reada­ ble, and, most of all, more useful to our sub~cribers . Be looking for them next month and let us know what you think. Typesetting and Layout by Advance Graphics Along the same lines, we'd like to remind you once again that reader response, sug­ Design by Connie Pierce gestions, article submissions are especially important to this magazine .. We know from our mailing list just how varied our readership is. Why not let our mail bag reflect that variety more often? City Limits is the magazine of all those who seek improved condi­ tions in our neighborhoods. Please take advantage of what is surely one of the most open-and pro-community-forums in New York.D

3 CITY LIMITS/December 1984 DEADLY EVICTION HE EVICTION-KILLING OF T Eleanor Bumpurs on October 29 has evoked heated discussion on the role of the . police, racism and the breakdown of city bureaucracy which might haw pmented the whole incident. Almost ignored has been the central issue of the policy and practice of eviction. Though rarely fatal, eviction is itself a harsh sentence for thousands who face economic hardship. If Bumpurs were alive today, she would be condemned to homelessness. "It's outrageous," comments lawyer An­ drew Scherer at Community Action for Le­ gal Services. "It symbolizes the outrageous nature of evictions. Nobody should be evict­ ed for non-payment, especially in public housing." There were 6,m evictions conducted by city marshalls last year. In public housing, there were 440 evictions for non-payment of rent; S8 evictions were carried out for other reasons. The process of evicting a i tenant from public housina is initiated by the project manager often is early as one month after a missed payment. "Everyone who is I one month late ,ets a dispossess notice, DemonItratorl at NMmber .,... Bronx protelt rnareb .. which can ultimately lead to an eviction," ac­ vices doesn't take seriously its responsibil­ moratorium on foreclosures and did some cordina to Val Coleman at the Housing ity to pay rent for those on public assistance." research on how tenants could be included. Authority. The vast majority of those who Scherer and other Housing attorneys are But the bill died in the House." receive dispossess notices, says Coleman, proposing that the Department of Social Ultimately, say housing and tenant avoid further action by coming up with the Services provide legal representation to advocates, eviction must be seen in the con­ rent. tenants who are threatened with an eviction text of a housing crisis that every day con­ One assistant project manager in the action by the Housing Authority. sumes more and more victims. "It's Bronx said that the Bumpurs incident had A moratorium on evictions for econom­ important to look at the whole picture," traumatized both tenants and Housing ic reasons is also being pushed on the state Radosh insists. "Evictions, co-op conver­ Authority staff throughout the borough. But level by tenant advocates. At the city's sions and rent increases based on Major he noted that management can and does seek Metropolitan Council on Housing, a com­ Capital Improvements all contribute to out the kind of help that blocks evictions not mittee working on evictions and squatting homelessness. We don't just need new low­ only out of job dedication but as the result formulated a petition last spring for a income housing and shelters; we need to of systematic review. Yet that same system moratorium on eviction that asked for city, stop the evictions and conversions which badly failed Eleanor Bumpurs. state or federal funds to pay rents for those can result in homelessness." Woodrow at Increasingly, tenant advocates insist that with hardships. "A number of people on the NTU points out that "For six million peo­ those who cannot scrape together the money housing committee, such as (Assemblymen) ple in the city who pay half their incomes to stave off an eviction should have an alter­ Barbaro, Montalto, and Murtaugh said it in rent, there are going to be more and more native to living on the streets, in city shelters was great. We spent time over the summer economic emergencies over the year." He or crowding into apartments with family or shaping it as a bill. The problem will be in forsees an increase in squatting and eviction friends. "We're calling on the city for a the Senate;' says Susan Radosh at the blockades by community organizations. For moratorium on evictions," say~ Scherer. Council. Scherer, "the bottom line is if somebody is "Something must be worked out with the On the national level, a bill in Congress not willing to move from their home because Housing Authority, Human Resources Ad­ early this year to protect homeowners una­ they can't pay the rent, they should not be ministration and Housing Preservation and ble to pay mortgages seemed ripe for a pro­ evicted." In the aftermath of the Bumpurs Development. The thrust has been to get vision on tenant evictions. Woody Wi draw killing the realization that neither the means better police procedures at evictions. That at the National Tenants Union says. "Con­ nor the ends were justified should become misses the basic point. that there are ways gressman Charles Schumer, a Democrat apparent to city officials in their efforts to to get rent. The Department of Social Ser- from Brooklyn, introduced a bill for a prevent future tragedies.OA.F. CITY LiMITS/December 1984 4 Dispute Stalls clause. "Chase has a legitimate complaint," bum ifniggers return." A fair housing aide noted Harold Schultz, whose Office of at the city's Human Rights Commission said Chase Loans Evaluation and Compliance has been pre­ that the slogans were "much more sophisti­ pared to administer the loan funds. "Other cated than usual racial pranIcsters." HE STARr-UP OF A $10 MILLION banks have had similar problems." The city's Human Rights Commission T loan fund earmarked fur use in troubled Meanwhile community groups and reli­ and the state Attorney General's office tar­ multifamily buildings has been blocked by gious organizations which spurred the bank geted anti-black housing bias in Morris Park an eight-month old impasse over contract into action have been seeking to prod the two last year. In separate suits against two pri­ language between the City of New York and sides into agreement. Keith Rolland of the vate realtors and a local neighborhood as­ Chase Manhattan Bank. Interfaith Center said that a letter from the sociation, the city and state sought to The legal dispute began sometime after stockholders had been written to Chase's eliminate racial steering in the community. Chase and the city announced last March Labrecque asking for an explanation of the Attorney General Robert Abrams charged that a new pool of loan funds would be made delay. the Morris Park Community Association available for weatherization and rehab in One recent inquiry from an East Flatbush with deliberately misleading non-white buildings with low income tenants. community group to the city housing homeseekers while holding home and apart­ Although Chase and city officials both in­ department about the Chase loan money was ment vacancies fur whites only. Underccwer sist they are eager to resolve thei.r differ­ told that the program had died "because no investigators from both the human rights ences, neither offered a timetable as to when one was interested." commission and the nonprofit Open Hous­ the loan funds would become available. "That's not correct," said Schultz. "The ing Center fuund that at weekly meetings the program is virtually all set up, in place and Association directed whites to a back room Community and Stockholder Initiative ready to go." where they were shown listings of available That is, as soon as a contract is signed. homes. Blacks were turned llWIJ'j at the door. The Chase-city accord was originally Should it become functional, the program In a settlement which was announced with hatched after the city's second largest bank will provide loans of up to $SOOO per apart­ little publicity last May, the community as­ was double-teamed by a combination of ment at about 11-12 percent interest, or sociation agreed to end its clearinghouse Bronx neighborhood groups and stockhold­ whatever the rate of current indexes, fur role. Two private realtors who had similar­ ing religious organizations. The Chase owners of buildings with more than eight ly steered blacks away from Morris Park stockholders, working along with the Inter­ apartments. It will be administered by the homes .,reed to maintain open liltinp of faith Center on Corporate Responsibility, in­ same department which currently process­ wea and to conduct affirmative advertiaina. troduced resolutions at Chase annual es requests for Article SA loan. which are The luitl were triuered by _letter to the meetinas calling on the bank to invest in the made with federal Community Develop­ New lbrk nfM.r from _ white woman who rehab needs of'older buildinp in poorer ment funds at three percent. OT.R. told how her attempts to rent _ home in Mor­ neighborhoods. Although those proposals ril Park were derailed when the owners dis­ were voted down, the bank did eventually covered that her husband was black. OT.R. agree to map out a strategy with the city to Racial Arson make a pool of rehab loan funds available. The agreement called on Chase to pump in Bronx up to $10 million into loans fur repair-needy apartment buildings in low and moderate in­ Community come neighborhoods. The bank's normal AST MONTH, ARSON STRUCK loan rate was to be offset by interest earned Lthe new home of a black family in a by a city deposit of $3.3 million of federal Bronx neighborhood which was the subject Community Development Block Grant of city and state discrimination suits earli­ funds with Chase. This would bring the in­ er this year. The one-family house belong­ terest charged on the rehab loans to below ing to Alan and Cora Simmons at 1519 market rate according to city officials. Lurting Avenue in the Morris Park section The investment plan was ebulliently an­ of the Bronx was badly damaged by. what nounced last March by Mayor Ed Koch and police immediately labelled a racially moti­ Chase president Thomas G. Labrecque as vated attack. an important example of public and private The fire came after three earlier incidents partnership. But the deal quickly came un­ following the family's purchase of the home stuck when Chase balked at signing a con­ last September. Twice, anti-black slogans tract with the city which contained an were scrawled on the Simmons home and "investigations clause" it found unaccepta­ on another occasion windows and a door ble. The clause, said Chase attorneys, would were smashed. The family had just complet­ force the bank to open up all its financial ed renCMltions, but had yet to IllOYe in, when records to the city, including those of depo­ the arsonists struck on November 19. sitors. The slogans written on the Simmons City officials acknowledge that Chase home in September and October referred to isn't the only bank to shy away from the the Ku Klux Klan. One read, "KKK will 5 CITY LIMITS/December 1984 A Planned Confusion Over City Contracts F WORKERS AT THE SEVENTY citywide groups to take on housing I community groups which hold city con­ problems. They in turn provide services tracts to provide neighborhood services have ranging from tenant organizing and landlord been acting somewhat jittery of late, just counselling to project planning and private bear with them. Contracting' organizations investment recruitment. They also play a are often at odds with the «ity housing agen­ key role in spreading the word a~ut city cy over payment procedures and contract housing programs. The contracts are fund­ terms. But when a mid-October letter from ed from federal Community Develqpment a top city housing official told them to shut Block Grant money. ! " down operations by November I-just three , I months after their one-year contracts were , renewed by the city-consternation was ad­ Proposed New ded to the normal level of frustration. Cont~s Even in the wake of a follow-up letter a Bronx: Belmont-Arthur Ave. Local Development Corp., $38.000; Northwest Bronx Community and week later from housing commissioner Clergy Coalition, $30,000; Fordham·Bedford, Tony Gliedman telling them it was a false $19,000; Citizens Advice Bureau-Community Coun· alarm after all, groups still seem under­ cil of Greater New York, $20,000. Brooklyn: Fulton Commons, $20,000; Midvolood standably skittish. Development Corp., $22,000; Canarsie Neighbor· hood Development Corp., $15,000; Progress of Pe0- Budget Logjam ples Development Corp., $25,000; Opportunity Development Association, $15,000. The short-lived tempest appears to have Menhattlln: Project Basement, $20,000; Clinton been caused when housing officials sought Houllng Development Corp., $30,000; Lower East to break a logjam with the city budget office Side Coalition for Housing Development, $21 ,000; Marble Hili Neighborhood Improvement, $20,000. which was holding up more than one-half Queena: Elmcor, $2s.ooo; Vobodslde on the Molle, million dollars the housing department $33.000; Progress for People, $24,000. Stllten 11- lend: West Brighton Community Local Development sought for a set of new and politically im­ Corp., $34,000. Citywide: Neighborhood Initiatives, portant "innovative" contracts. In an appar­ $18,000; Settlement Housing Fund, $30,000; Center The housing department ran into ent effort to cut loose that funding, Deputy for the Independence of the Disabled in NY, Inc., problems, however, when the Office of $32,000; Charles Drew Local Development Corp. , Management and Budget insisted that Commissioner for Development Charles $30,000; New York HispaniC Coalition, $18,000. Reiss wrote groups holding Community Source: Dept. of HPD. 0 money had not been allocated for the new Consultant Contracts that their funding too contracts. HPD would have had enough was imperiled and they faced imminent cut­ funds for both the consultant contracts and off. The letter so stunned organizational Shell Game the new round had it requested the alloca­ staff directors and board members that they This year, however, the housing depart­ tion of funds which had gone unspent last showered the housing department and po­ ment seems to hav~ played a kind of shell year. It didn't, and when it sought to send litical representatives with alarmed phone game between funding the consultant con­ its new contracts to the Board of Estimate calls. tracts and getting money for 22 new "innova­ for approval, the budget office balked. Equally upset was Budget Director AlIair tive" one-year contracts with community John Murray, Deputy Assistant Director Townsend, whose office took a good deal groups. The grants, which average $25,000, for Housing and Economic Development at of the community heat. After a meeting are earmarked for groups around the city, OMB, said that in the city's budget adopted called by Deputy Mayor Stanley Brezenoff many of whom have been politically suppor­ July 1, $2.98 million was approved for the between Townsend and Gliedman, a letter tive of the Koch administration. consultant contracts and, under previous from the housing commissioner was mailed So far details of six of these contracts agreement with HPD, another $400,000 in to the 70 groups. The Reiss letter, wrote which deal with services for elderly unspent Community Development funds Gliedman, "appears to have been written homeowners have been announced, but no was "rolled over." The housing department's ·prematurely . . . I regret any unneccesary an­ descriptions have been offered of the rest. later request to secure an additional guish it may have caused . . . there is no The largest contract is for the Belmont­ $600,000 in rolled-over funds for the innova­ cause for alarm." The Office of Management Arthur Ave. Local Development Corpora­ tiv~ contracts said Murray, "was contrary to and Budget, added the commissioner, was tion in the Belmont section of the Bronx, a our agreement. We put together the budget working together with him to resolve the two-year old group which is closely in­ . in the spring when they were presumably problem. fluenced by Bronx Democratic party pow­ working on [the new contracts]. But they Actually, there never had been a funding er, Paul Victor. A $22,000 contract is didn't ask us ." The letter, he noted, "was an crisis for the consultant contract groups. proposed for the Midwood Development unfortunate incident." The six-year-old $3.29 million program, Corporation in Brooklyn, a group which Murray said that his office was now which is administered by Reiss's Office of covers a middle income area and already proceeding to allocate the funds HPD needs Development, awards contracts to local and holds a $63,309 consultant contract. for the new contracts.OT.R. CITY LIMITS/December 1984 6 launched by one of the city's biggest developers, Reuben Glick Development Housing Grants Come to Town Affiliates. EW YORK CITY WAS THE BIG­ households and, second, to substantially cut Most of the HODAG projects, says Gar­ N gest winner in HUD's new national low the long-term costs of subsidy with a one­ tenstein, were already on the drawing board income housing sweepstakes, although the time grant. With a HODAG, at least 20 per­ as developments with markedly different $35 million the city captured is just a faint cent of a project's apartments must go to low financing contours before the competition shadow of the federal housing aid it has lost income tenants. Apartments renting at was announced. Many were at least tem­ and a fainter one still of the city's increas­ higher - market-rate -levels are supposed porarily stalled as other subsidies had dried ing need. to not only carry their own costs, but subsi­ up. A nonprofit East Harlem group, Hope HUD's new contest - dubbed HODAG for dize part of the low income units as well. Community, had slated the four buildings Housing Development Action Grants - is a Like their economic development­ at 155-161 East 103rd Street for Section 8 re­ product of the sole housing bill of the Rea­ oriented older and bigger brother UDAG habilitation to match a similar project across gan Administration, the 1983 Housing and (Urban Development Action Grants), the street. Without any new federal funding Urban-Rural Recovery Act. That legislation HODAGs are supposed to be a way to bring for Section 8, however, the project was stuck passed the same year that Congress buried in private investment. But localities are al­ until it entered the HODAG contest "at the forever the far larger and more comprehen­ lowed to use their own funds, even if they eleventh hour" according to Gartenstein. sive Section 8 new housing program while are federal grants received for general pur­ Now, says Hope director George Calvert, bypassing public housing as well. Fifteen of poses. Thus, almost half of New York City's the $1,185,000 HODAG for the project will the 22 projects New York City submitted to projects are getting federally-funded Partic­ help his group create seven low income the competition came out winners as the city ipation Loans as well. Also, the 80-20 low apartments and 23 middle income units at took a 12 percent share ofthe national pot. income-middle income split of the projects a total cost of $2.5 million. And since HUD Secretary Samuel Pierce meet the criteria for tax exempt bond financ­ The city also shifted three projects on the only spent $288 million of the $315 million ing, a tactic the city will also employ for all Grand Concourse in the Bronx into the com­ Congress gave him for HODAG's initial two­ but one of its projects. petition after the HODAG starting gun was year span, city housing commissioner Tony fired. One of those buildings, 1220 Grand Gliedman is still hoping to pull out what's Broad Range of Projects Concourse, is designated as artist housing. left over. The city's 15 projects represent a broad Some projects are using a variety of fund­ spectrum, politically, geographically and ing sources to achieve low overall rents. A Sbort Notice financially. They run the gamut from the gut vacant city-owned building on the Lower Although its catchy acronym is frequently rehab of 20 apartments in the last remain­ East Side which has been the object of a long heard, the HODAG program is still largely ing tenement on a South Bronx block which tug-of-war between community groups and an unknown element. Most housing de­ will be carried out by Frank Potts of the city officials over its fate as either market­ velopers were still scratching their heads Banana Kelly Community Improvement rate housing or low income homesteading, over the recently approved regulations when Association, to the 297-unit new construc­ will become low income, limited equity co­ on June 25 HUD announced an August 14 tion project on an urban renewal site in Man­ ops. The building, at 16-18 Second Avenue, deadline for proposals. "We had to go out hattan's Clinton neighborhood which will be known as the Cube Building, will be devel­ and advertise, evaluate the proposals and get oped under the sponsorship of Cooper them in," recounted Sheldon Gartenstein of Square Committee, aided by the Pratt Insti­ the city Department of Housing Preserva­ NYC's HODAGs tute Center for Community and Environ­ tion and Development who is monitoring the Project (Units) HODAG Contribution, Developer: mental Development. In addition to a approved projects. "It was a madhouse, and Bronx: 923 Kelly St. (20) $429,525, Frank Potts; 1290 $675,452 HODAG, the building will utilize kind of ridiculous." & 1326 Grand Concourse (104) $2,680,000, Leo a state grant it received earlier this year to Zisman·Elzee Constr.; 1197 & 1250 Grand Cone. (107) But while local housing agencies did $2,946.314, Sidney SilYerstein-SpernMI Constr.; 1220 help create housing for homeless families somersaults to meet HUD's deadline, the Grand Cone. (23) $787,597, Sidney Silverstein· in the neighborhood. Reagan Administration's larger goal of mak­ Sparrow Constr.; Brooklyn: 44 But/er PI. (66) In the Borough Park community of $1 ,188,000, Fred W. Hilles, Jr,Kings Restoration ing the announcement of the winning Corp.; KenSington Aptmts.l403-421 Ave. C (56) Brooklyn, the Pratt Center is also working projects before the November 6 presidential $1 ,538,159, Ocean Pkwy. Dvlpmt. Corp.lAlien as part of a complicated four-way rehab election was accomplished. Thus, just days Pilevsky; 79-95 Woodruff Ave. (84) $1 ,417,500, Stan· project which aims to keep the embattled ley J. Reiler; 1974 E. 51st St./Midwood Gatdens (47) before the election, the Administration $1 ,069,177, Leonard Kleinman & Assoc.; Willough. low income tenants in Midwood Gardens, which had slashed housing funding by more bylWyckoff (68) $1,735,344, Ralph Goffner·RB a 6OO-unit complex from which all but a Dvlpmt. Assoc.; 285 Schenectedy Ave.n646 Union than two-thirds since it took office was able St. (58) $1 ,727,343, Jacob Frankel; ...... h8ttlln: 135th handful of tenants fled amid harassment and to proclaim the biggest housing grants in St. 'Y' (28) $800,000, Carol lamberg, Harlem 'Y' As· arson . The project seeks to utilize a four years. soc.; Clinton Urban Renewal Area·Site 9C (297) $1,069,477 HODAG to help develop new af­ sa,019,OOO, Glick Development Affiliates; 16-18 Se­ Essentially, HODAGs represent an at­ cond Aw. (22) $675,452, Cooper Squara Comm.; Re­ fordable homes for remaining tenants in one tempt to modestly meet two prime objec­ vive 1031155-161 E. 103rri St. (30) $1 ,185,000, Hope of the complex's eleven buildings. The own­ Community; Staten ••land:StuyvesantlHamiiton er, Lawrence Rezak, has already developed tions to low income housing: first, it aims Aptmts. (257) $8.000,000, Martin Weise. Source: to dilute the impact of low income tenants Dept. of HPD.O and marketed a portion of the complex as by spreading them among higher income new lUXUry condominiums.OT.R. 7 CITY LIMITS/December 1984 ing displacement and was rejected. The and state funds to be bestowed on Clinton No Tenant Funding three-year-old group, which is directed by to vouchsafe that community from the ef­ community leader Marvin Schick, has fects of the redevelopment plan. So far the for Boro Park sought no further funding and expects to garden is the most tangible item in the so­ HE CITY'S DEPARTMENT OF close its doors at the end of the year. called mitigation package approved by the T Housing Preservation and Develop­ That move will leave tenants such as those Board of Estimate. It is unclear what form ment will spend $153,465 this year on con­ of 1958-5Oth Street, a multifamily building other funds to be allocated for low and tracts with community groups in Brooklyn's with Hispanic, black and older Jewish resi­ moderate income housing under the agree­ Borough Park, but not a dime of it will go dents, even more stranded as they enter a ment will take. for tenant organizing in that troubled neigh­ third winter with spotty heat, no repairs and "This was guilt money;' summed up Lisa borhood. a politically-connected landlord bent on Cashdan whose Trust for Public Land, In spite of demands from within the hous­ ousting them.OT.R. along with Housing Conservation Coordi­ ing agency itself to help check tenant harass­ nators and the Green Guerillas, had ment there, HPD bypassed at least one spearheaded a two-year campaign to save the proposal to watchdog low income and elder­ garden. ly tenants in favor of funding three local But in spite of any misgivings on how the groups all of whom will undertake solely de­ garden was won, some 7,000 new bulbs velopment activities. planted in the garden last month will, Last month HPD's inspector general con­ weather conditions permitting, be blOQm­ firmed that an investigation into the perfor­ ing next Spring on a lot which recently mance of Borough Park's largest group, seemed destined to become one more un­ Southern Brooklyn Community Organiza­ affordable speculator's high-rise.OT.R. tion, had yielded "nothing to preclude do­ ing business" with the group. Inspector General Steve Shapiro declined to give de­ Senior Repairs­ tails of his findings, although he ac­ knowledged that his office had looked into For Free cases recounted in a City Limits article Clinton's Garden is Saved FREE HOME MAINTENANCE where SBCO's development activities had MAJOR BREAKTHROUGH FOR Aand repair program for homeowners assisted tenant displacement ("Borough A New York City's open space movement who are senior citizens on fixed incomes, Park's Untold Story." January, 1984). was achieved last month when the city, as which was successfully tested by the city The Southern Brooklyn Group's $96,065 part of its approval of the Times Square over a two-year period in Queens, is now community consultant contract - the redevelopment proposal, agreed not to auc­ available city wide. seventh largest in the city-was renewed in tion off the award-winning and controver­ The program will be run by the New York July by the Board of Estimate. A $32,400 sial Clinton Community Garden. Foundation for Senior Citizens, Inc., a pri­ contract with the Ocean Parkway Commu­ The West 48th Street parcel will be trans­ vate, nonprofit agency which has provided nity Development Corporation was also ferred from the Department of Real more than 1000 Queens homeowners with renewed. Rabbi Shmuel Lefkowitz serves as Property to the Parks Department which free repairs under the program so far. The executive director of both organizations. A will allow local community gardeners to re­ program, called Minor Home Repair, is third group, the Coalition of Neighborhood tain control over it. The city's decision came funded by a $185,000 grant from the city Organizations, is slated to receive a $25,000 after a full year of intense community fund­ Department of Housing Preservation and contract in HPD's upcoming round of "in­ raising to save the garden from the auction Development and corporate contributions novative" contracts. The contract will be ad­ block after the city, reflecting Clinton's from Morgan Guarantee Trust, Chemical ministered through Catholic Charities' spiralling land values, put a one-million dol­ Bank and the Metropolitan Life Foundation. Progress of Peoples Development Corpor­ lar pricetag on it. By November, however, According to the city, any single person ation which will help the group, among just a month away from the city's auction with an income of up to $15,000, or a family other tasks, create shared housing for the deadline, that drive had collected $80,000, of two with a maximum income of $17,400 elderly in the area between Borough Park far short of the goal it sought to meet through would be eligible. They could receive such and neighboring Sunset Park. "sale" of square inches of the garden. services as weatherstripping and caulking, But while tenant harassment continues in Ironically, the rescue of a garden consi­ gutter repair and cleaning, minor electrical Borough Park's hot real estate market, no dered the touchstone for at least 30 other work such as installation of fixtures, and funded local organization will be there to similarly endangered citizen-created green­ repair of doorbells, small plumbing jobs, lend a hand. "There's no organizing out ing sites left even its most active supporters masonry repair or carpentry. there;' agreed Herb Siegel, HPD's Brook­ ambivalent over the success. For information and applications in the lyn Planning Director. "We didn't expand or No sooner had Deputy Mayor Robert Es­ Bronx, Manhattan, Queens, Staten Island modify our contract because we didn't have nard arranged the garden transfer as'a "sep­ and Brooklyn (north of Linden Boulevard) the vehicle." arate" negotiation from the on-going debates call the New York Foundation for Senior But one organization, the Boro Park over the Times Square plan (see article, page Citizens at (212)962-7653. In Brooklyn Housing - Senior Citizen Project, applied 9), than it was listed as a $1 million contri­ (south of Linden Boulevard) contact Geri­ for a city contract to aid elderly tenants fac- bution out of a total of $25 million in city Pare at 769-3282.0 CITY LIMITS/December 1984 8 EB CLOSED RS

Clinton residents riding the hus to Board of Estimate hearing. by Robert Neuwirth t is a shameful axiom of New York politics that if you oppose a development project favored by the State I and City Administrations and powerful developers, sooner or later you will be forced to take your oppo­ sition to Court. Prior to that, you will, of course, follow the prescribed Finally, when you get to the Board of Estimate, the city's route. You will testify at hearings but find that no one listens. top fiscal body, you will find that the deals have already been You will organize press conferences that few media attend. cut, in private, behind doors that are still, after all these years You will gather information and marshal the facts only to find since Tammany's downfall, closed to the community. that the newspapers will present only official press releases, This was, essentially, the process that was followed on the not any hard research. Urban Development Corporation's 42nd Street Redevelop- 9 CITY LIMITS/December 1984 / When you finally get to the city's top fiscal body, you will find that the deals have already been cut, in private, behind doors that are still, all these expensive one for a low income neighborhoOd: they can years alter Tammany's downfall, closed mount a legal challenge to the 42nd -Street Project. to the community. Wmners and Losers The 42nd Street Project is the largest, most costly ment Project. The formal public hearings were held, but by redevelopment project ever approved in the state. The project design, from the very start, the public was kept out of the calls for the state and city governments to adopt strange roles. process. Community people from surrounding neighborhoods The state, through the Urban Development Corporation, will were never invited to participate in the planning of the act as a real estate broker. The city will not only act as finan­ project, and they had to fight to affect the political decisions cier, granting tax abatements of over $1 billion for the project that were made. (an amount higher than the total abatements done under the The irony is that people from Clinton have a great interest 42la program in the past 13 years) but in a rare burst of coor­ in the revitalization of 42nd Street. Neighborhood people dination, all land review procedures will be bypassed, and the want 42nd Street cleaned up, but they are naturally concerned Public Development Corporation and City Planning Commis­ about the effects that any project will inevitably have on their sion will work directly with the developers to get things neighborhood. started. Now the entire public process has been acted out. Although If present court challenges from property owners are the neighborhood, up to the very last, remained opposed to cleared up, the UOC will move early next year to condemn the UOC's plans, the Board of Estimate approved the project 13 acres of privately owned land from 40th to 43rd Streets, unanimously, at 1:30 A.M. on November 9th. "We were put Broadway to 8th Avenue, and hand it over to a handful of de­ in a position of only reacting,~ Father Thomas Farrelly of velopers. Sacred Heart Church on West 51st Street explained. "They The present owners will lose the land. The winners include were confident they had the votes to pass it." If Clinton resi­ such prominent developers as George Klein, Tishman/Speyer dents want to pursue their interests, if people want their con­ Reaity, Equitable Life Assurance, and Trammell Crow of cerns taken into account, there is. only one option left-an Texas who will get to construct over 8 million square feet of CITY liMITS/December 1984 10 Governor Cuomo of &timate at TImes Square Plan bear ing. Mayor Koch, at left, making a rare Board appearance.

The more we read, the more it became clear this was not the right project lor lUxury office towers, hotels, theatres, and a merchandise mart 42nd Street. It would destroy 42nd larger than the Empire State Building. The project is the equivalent to building the entire World Trade Center complex Street and destroy Clinton. on 42nd Street. The development and speculation on the West Side spurred by this project will be overwhelming. For the families and buildings on 42nd Street. small businesses of Clinton, the Garment Center and Theater Suddenly, in the spring of 1983, the full fledged 42nd St. District, this project will raise rents and will force drug users project leaped to public life when the UDC published the En­ and sex theaters into neighborhood streets. In Clinton, an af­ vironmental Impact Statement. The Impact Statement fordable, low density, multi-ethnic family neighborhood, the revealed that the project would violate the 1981 zoning effects of the project have already been felt. Larry Silverstein, proposal: in order to build larger buildings, the UOC pro­ a developer with an interest in the 42nd St. Project, recently posed that all thirteen acres in the project be considered one purchased the block bounded by 41st and 42nd Streets, 11th zoning lot. In this way they could build taller buildings but and 12th Avenues (in between the 42nd St. project and the the floor-area ratio (a measure of the size of the buildings Convention Center) for $20 million. And buildings in Clinton with respect to the size of the lot) would remain small. are already being advertised as "in the Times Square The Impact Statement revealed a completed project. The redevelopment areas." In Clinton 50,000 families face massive public hearings were for reaction only. Both Community displacement if this project is allowed to go ahead. Neighbor­ Boards 4 and 5 did react with many specific objections, but hood people first heard of this project in bits and pieces. This they were not invited. into the planning process. The UDC is was part of deliberate strategy to limit public involvement. exempt from the Uniform Land Use Review Procedures that normally govern development decisions and this gave them Hard of Hearings the ability to ignore the Community Boards. Back in 1981, the UDC issued a zoning plan for 42nd St. Clinton residents attended both public hearings held at and held a public hearing. This hearing was not widely publi­ Town Hall this Spring on March 26th and April 9th. But the cized. But the zoning guidelines did seem to limit the size of political heavy hitters spoke first and it was the Mayor who

\ \ 11 CITY LIMITS/December 1984 Astor Hotel. At first UDC shut down the elevators to prevent 77le political neavyhitters spoke first people from coming upstairs. People had to interrupt the at tb.,e hearing and the Mayor set the meeting to make a statement about their concern. stage lor future discussion 01 the Clinton residents continued to attend the monthly UDC Board meetings and attended both Board of Estimate public issues: anyone against the project was bearings. an ''idiot'' and in lavor 01 pornography. The OtTer set the stase for all future discussions of the' issues. Anyone On October 2Sth, at the first public hearing, Governor against the project, Koch said, was "an idiot" and in favor of Cuomo testified in support of the project and was booed by pornography. 7S Clinton residents. In response, he pledged to come up with UDC held another hearing at the Lamb's Theater in Sep­ a plan to protect Clinton from the effects of the project within tember. Once again, the only publicity for the hearing was an two weeks. That was the last people in Clinton heard until advertisement in the New ]bit nmes. Even the local political November 7th, one day before the final public hearing. leaders from Clinton did not know that the hearing was On that day, Bill Stem, Chaimum of t6e Urban Develop­ schc:duled. . ment Corporation and Herb Sturz, Chairman of the City It was up to community reSidents to force their way inti> the Planning Commission, issued an 8-page report to the Gover­ discussions of the project. That was what we attempted to do. nor. It was intended to placate Clinton. "It was unreal," muses After the early public hearings in March and April, com­ Mary Brendle, Chair of Community Board 4, which covers munity residents began to meet weeldy to study the Environ­ Chelsea and Clinton. "It was telling us they were giving us mental Impact Statement and the effects of the project on stuff and there was no way of monitoring whether it was Clinton. The more we read, the more it became clear that coming." this was not the right project for 42nd Street. It would destroy It was also, however, a crafty negotiating tool. First, it 42nd Street and it would also destroy Clinton. mentioned a dollar figure-SIS million-too little to mean These weeldy meetings were the start of the Clinton Coali­ much, but grand sounding, especially when played in the tion of Concern. On June 27th, the Clinton Coalition held a press. Second, it mentioned spreading the money through a public speak out. Two hundred neighborhood people packed lot of existing programs, providing something for everyone. Campbell Hall at Sacred Heart Church to voice their opposi­ The city targeted many of the programs it knew were vital tion to the UDC. to the people of Clinton - many of which it had long resisted Following that large neighborhood meeting, forty residents providing at the needed level. ~ong these were alternative forced their way into the 'public' meeting of UDC's Board of management for city-owned buildings, the housing depart­ Directors. The UDC has offices high over Broadway, on the ment's Neighborhood Preservation unit, the office of Mid­ S2nd floor of ISIS Broadway, the building that repiaced the town Enforcement, even the Clinton Community Garden, that Low Cost Insurance!! LET US DO A FREE EVAWATION OF YOUR INSURANCE NEEDS v.e have been plWlding Iow-cost insurance programs and quality service for HDFC's, TENANTS, COMMUNITY MANAGEMENT and other NONPROFIT organizations for the past 8 yeBIS. Our Coverages Include: • FIRE • UAlliUTY • BONDS • DlRI!CIORS'. OFFICERI' UABIUTY • • IPECIAL BUILDING PACKAGES • ·Uberal Payment Terms" 306 FIFTH AVE. NEW YORK, N.Y. 10001 (212) 279-8300 Ask for: Jean Carbonsri

CITY LlMITSlDecember 1984 12 piece of reclaimed turf on West 48th Street where neighbors have made vegetables and flowers bloom and on which the city had placed an almost one-million dollar pricetag. The day alter the $25 million deal was The draft also set up a mechanism for doling out the set, Bill Eimiclce, the governors money. Stem and Sturz suggested creating an advisory board made up of two community people and four city and state representative, made a strange admis­ officials. This did not make for community control. sion: the state knew exactly what it The draft was clearly not acceptable. Assemblyman was prepared to give, but had to make Richard Gottfried called it, "funny money." But it did set the tone for negotiations. If the draft was bad, anything better Clinton feel it was seriously negotiated would be a victory. "It took most of the day," West Side City at the 11th hour. Council Member Ruth Messinger relates, "to move away from the Mayor and Governor's document, both in terms of dollar amount and the diffuseness and vagueness." On November 8th, while the surrogates upstairs in the cember 31, 1999. And with us in spirit will be George M. Board of Estimate Chambers were listening to testimony, the Cohan and Walter Winchell and Dorothy Kilgallen ... and all real debate was going on downstairs, behind closed doors, as of those people who made 42nd Street the Great White Way." the Mayor and Governor scrambled to come up with a deal With this vote, Mayor Koch will join the party. One neigh­ that would look good to the pqblic. That deal was finally ap­ borhood observer says of Koch's role on Nov. 8th, "Mayor proved at 1:30 a.m., after the Mayor basically said, "Take it Koch has a vision, a vision fur Clinton and fur all of Manhat­ or leave it." tan. It's a vision of a city that is clean and nice-and white The headlines the next day read $25 million allocated for and affluent." Clinton. The stories implied that Clinton had seriously At that party the guests will look over a vastly different negotiated with the Governor and the Mayor. But the sad fact Manhattan. The Great White Way will be changed to the is that the 'deal' is so vague that it may never amount to any­ 42nd Street of the future, a 42nd Street without personality, a thing. And, the Governor's representative in the negotiations, 42nd Street with no character. Bill Eimicke, made a strange admission the next day. The And it will be a different Clinton. The day after the vote state knew exactly what it was prepared to give Clinton, he three area landlords called the Clinton Coalition of Concern, said, but had to make Clinton feel like it was seriously asking if they should sell their buildings now or wait fur their negotiated at the 11th hour. investment to grow. 0 "I can envision a party," Bill Stem, Chairman of UDC, said last month, speaking of the then-pending approval of the 42nd Robert Neuwirth is a member of Clinton Coalition of Street project, "maybe at the top of the Portman Hotel, De- Concern.

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13 CITY LIMITS/December 1984 A WODlen's Besidence Fights / 10 Slay thai Way By Annette Fuentes

HE LONGACRE LADIFS' GRAPE­ T vine was buzzing with news of the latest infamy Friday night, October 12. Riding up the elevator, P. and M. stopped at the fourth floor where the doors opened and a gray­ haired woman peered in to tell them, "It was 10 o'clock." The women inside nodded and told her they'd be back down shortly. Cau­ cusing with other residents on the sixth floor, P. and M. described how a male guest had been taken away in handcuffs at 10 p.m. the night before. A stolen credit card and six policemen cut short his sojourn at the Long­ acre Hotel. Things certainly have changed at the Longacre, a single-room-occupancy hotel on 45th Street that is home to some 100 women. It was built in 1920 by financier Vincent Astor as a residence for nurses when, as the story goes, his wife's nurse couldn't find a place to live. In the 1940's it became a residence for all kinds of women: students, career girls and weekend visitors who wanted secure and convenient lodgings with all the amenities. The rich, dark wood paneling and beveled mirrors in a spacious first-floor lounge are elegant reminders of its glory days. Today, the plaster is falling in several bathrooms; shower stalls are rust­ ed and dangerously corroded and some rooms, walls dingy and peeling, haven't seen new paint in seven years. But these problems pale by comparison to a change which has ruptured the women's peace and calm. Af­ ter 64 years as a women's residence, the Longacre now admits men. It started with a rumor in September 1983. The hotel's owner was gding to sell and the women residents might have to leave. Sever­ al residents sought help from Project Find which put them in touch with attorney De­ borah Rand and organizers Nancy Colon and Joanne Micelli of the West Side SRO Law Project. "We held a meeting to discuss tenants' rights and discuss conditions at the Longacre," says Rand. "About 40 women showed up." The rumor became reality when Fleck-Croasmun Partners bought the Long­ acre one month later for $1,669,000. At the time, there were 20 vacancies in the 167-room hotel for a rate of about 12 percent. Charles Fleck and Thomas Croasmun, This brochure for the Longacre bas been discon­ the new owners, are no strangers to the hotel tinued by the new owners. business. They own the Hotel Flex in Atlan- CITY LIMITS/December 1984 14 ta, Georgia; for a while after purchasing the telling the women theY did not have to move. rent to men, she insists, they should have to Longacre they called it the Flex, too. They The same month management ended go to DHCR for approval. "We also asked also have major interests in a building on another tradition: rooms would be rented the city's Housing Preservation and De­ 15th Street which housed a male bathhouse out on a nightly basis only at a rate of $30 velopment to rescind the certificate of non­ called Man's Country until the latter closed for a single. harassment which had been issued in April last winter. A further tie to the gay male The women on the second floor were so they could do renovations. At first they community was evidenced by an ad for both moved to other rooms but on the ninth, thought it was silly to insist on an all­ the Atlanta and New York hotels in a book­ management met resistance. 1. is a retired women's residence in 1984. But we asked let passed out at the Gay Rodeo held during nurse and a 17-year resident of the Longacre. them to come to a tenants' meeting in Sep­ October in Manhattan. It describes the She and four others have remained on the tember and they changed their minds," says Longacre as having a co-ed gym, which it ninth floor. Since Fleck-Croasmun took Rand. hasn't. When attorney Rand had a male over, many women have left the hotel and "Visiting the building and spending time friend call the Longacre on the basis of the there are now over 40 vacancies. "There with the women there has certainly changed ad, he was told it was premature, that in six used to be lots of theatrical people, students things," admits Carol Felstein, deputy com­ months he could rent a room. who wanted a safe place. Twenty-five or missioner at HPD. She has taken a personal ••••••••••••••••••••••••• more have left," says P. interest in the Longacre case and believes Services residents had been receiving for maintaining the hotel as a women's residence 'We used to sleep with our years were cut back. "Maid service de­ is definitely a service. "In order for them to doors unlocked. You didn't creased, a 24-hour porter was let go; a change service they must go to the state. have to worry about . .. 24-hour uniformed guard was also let go However, the owner hasn:t gone through the . which really worries the women. Now process," she says. She also warns that if any walking in the hallway at there's no one to watch who is going in and women are thrown out, "we won't let them night. Now, they want to out of the hotel or up to the floors," says do a drop of work." change our whole lifestyle Rand. "We filed a complaint with the state On September 10, Judge Louis Grossman Division of Housing and Community Re­ made a decision on Rand's first petition ask­ around.' newal about cut in required services." ing that management stop sending notices ••••••••••••••••••••••••• At the same time, Rand and her col­ to residents telling them to move and cease 1be first man moved onto the second floor leagues prepared a suit against the owners accepting male guests. He converted it into on February 1, 1984 and the sign on the claiming something no one else ever has: a motion for summary judgement and put bathroom was changed to "Men." Women that maintaining the Longacre as a women's the burden of convincing the court on the residents were less than pleased. "We used residence was a required service and cen­ plaintiffs. Additional legal documents were to sleep with our doors unlocked. You didn't tral to why women moved there. Before submitted by both sides for Grossman to have to worry about going to another floor management can eliminate that service and make a decision on whether maintaining the or Wlllking in the hallway at night," says P. "Now they want to change our whole lifestyle around." That lifestyle is in large part determined by the Longacre's physical layout which is more like a women's dormi­ tory than a hotel. There is no plumbing in the rooms. Each floor has a communal bath and shower room and a separate room with toilets in stalls, neither of which has locks. There is also a warming pantry - a sort of large closet with a sink and a four-burner gas stove - where many residents do all their cooking. An elevator and two stair­ ways at either end of the floors make for free and easy passage from floor to floor. Look­ ing around, one senses that community, not security or privacy, was foremost in the mind of the architect who designed the Longacre. In May, several more men moved onto the second floor for limited stays and in June women there received notices from hotel manager Steve Cockman advising them they had to move to another floor or face evic­ tion. The owners had obtained a permit to "alter existing warming pantry and bathrooms into new toilet" and plans to paint rooms and sand floors and insisted that the women could not stay in their rooms. In July, women on the ninth floor got the same no­ Outside the Longacre Hotel. The original plaque describing the wornen's residence has been removed. tice and the Law Project staff sent leaflets 15 CITY LIMITS/December 1984 /

hotel as a ·women's · residence is a required Neither partner in the Longacre could be We're simply trying to make a living. I don't service. reached for comment; in fact, several at­ understand why there's concern of some­ Meanwhile, men continue to stay at the tempts to reach Croasmun were ignored. thing happening." He says male guests are Longacre, especially on weekends. The sec­ Manager Cockman, the appointed spokes­ advised it is a women's residence and that ond floor is completely renovated with spar­ man, defended his employers' policies and panels are being made for the elevators in­ kling white paint in halls and new platform denied that any harassment of the women or dicating which floors are for men. No safe­ beds in the rooms. Women were not permit­ plan to evict them was taking place. "It is ty measures are planned, nor will the ted back on the second floor. It is for men economically unfeasible to rent just to wom­ 24-hour guard be reinstated. only. At the end of November, manager en. We were limiting our market and run­ Many people doubt that management's Steve Cockman made another attempt to ning an unsuitable vacancy rate," he claims decision to rent to men was reached based move women off the ninth floor and ap­ although he could not state what it was or on making the hotel financially sound. In the proached several women on the eighth floor how the rate has changed now that they ac- first place, Fleck-Croasmun have been about moving so similar renovations could soliciting a male clientele steadily since pur­ be done. "We don't know if they have a per­ chasing the Longacre. In August, 1984, ads mit to work ori those floors but if they do, were placed in The Advocate, a newspaper it doesn't justify moving people out oftheir read primarily by gay men. Cockman ad­ rooms to paint. And if they work on the mitted that they have made little progress in bathrooms, the women can just walk to attracting female transient guests. "We're another floor," claims Rand. pursuing women but they just don't have the Rand's class action on behalf of 19 hotel networks. It's easier to attract men; they have stabilized residents, contends that the all­ their old boys' network set up." women status of the hotel was a feature Some, including Commissioner Felstein promoted by management in brochures, by believe, "There's no question that they could a plaque on the front of the building (which fill the hotel up with women. From the size was removed) and orally at the time of regis­ of the building, I think appropriate manage­ tration. She refers to other cases in which ment could tum a profit. With the number a definition of "required services" as set !a of SRO's dwindling, there are so few places down in the Metropolitan Hotel Industry ~ people can go. There are definitely people Association (METHISA) code have includ­ ~ who would stay at the Longacre." ~ ed not only physical things but those ele­ ~ ...... ments "central to the ambience and quality ~ 'There are a lot of elderly oflife at the hotel." She compares the Long­ The ballway of the second Door bas sparkling, fresh women here. They'll have no acre situation to that at Tudor City, where paint and polished Doors for male transient guests management was forced to maintain a park that contrast sharply with the shabby condition of place to go if they push us when the courts ruled that "recreational ac­ the women's Doors. cess and light and air access" to the nearby out.' parks were required services. Certainly the cept men. ••••••••••••••••••••••••• security of an all-woman building is as crit­ "Many of the women here pay $50 a week The loss of affordable SRO housing is a ical to tenants, many of whom are elderly, under rent stabilization. You can't function serious concern and one which weighs on as incidental services the courts have or­ in the city on that," Cockman says. Asked the minds of Longacre residents. From 1978 dered to be maintained in other cases, she why they didn't file for a hardship increase to 1982, 32,000 SRO units were lost to argues. from the Rent Guidelines Board, he re­ renters in the city. "There are a lot of elder­ sponded, "That can take two years. Our ly women here," says P. "Theyll have no ••••••••••••••••••••••••• strategy is to bring in transient guests and place to go if they push us out." The suit against the ownezs still offer affordable rates for mid- to low in­ A few women's residences still exist in come residents. It allows us to subsidize the Manhattan, including four run by the Sal­ claims something no one residents." vation Army. The YWCA no longer rents While Cockman asserts that manage- rooms and several non-profit residences like ever has: that maintaining . / the Longacre as a women S ments wants women reSIdents, to stay and has the Baptist Residence on Third Ave. and no plans to kick anyone out, it's plain that 53rd St. have fallen prey to co-op conver­ residence is a required their needs have taken a backseat in the ef­ sion fever. Anne Teicher of the East Side service. fort to renovate for a transient clientele. SRO Project is now working with women Rooms on all floors but the second are bad­ at St. Mary's Residence on 72nd St. who ••••••••••••••••••••••••• ly in need of work; leaks in bathroom have received notices limiting residency to Arthur Shaw, attorney with HPD submit­ plumbing, rusty showers, decrease in linen, four years. "A lot of women have been there ted an amicus brief which reiterates Rand's maid and garbage removal service and the 10-12 years and have made it their home. case. "The theme of the brief is that main­ removal of knobs on all radiators have They're being told they have to leave at the tenance of the hotel for women only is a re­ changed quality oflife at the Longacre. But end of December. Where are they going to quired service," Shaw states. "I also look at the greatest loss is the sense of comfort and go?" Her strategy is to gain protection for the Tudor City case to establish that the na­ safety women enjoyed. women under rent stabilization codes; be­ ture and ambience of the hotel is based on Cockman dismisses the women's fear of cause St. Mary's is a non-profit organiza­ it being a women's hotel. Further, that am­ having men in the building as corning from tion, rent codes may not apply. bience functions as security and was intend­ 12 out of 100 residents. "This smacks of a At the Allerton Hotel for Women, ed to do so." Snidely Whiplash thing. None of this exists. manager Peter Cullen says demand for their CITY LIMITS/December 1984 16 rooms is great. "We're running an 80-90 off point. Prices there are $110 a week. dents fear will sweep the area like a tidal percent occupancy rate. Right now there are Located in the heart of the Clinton com­ wave. But before Fleck-Croasmun have their • no rooms. We have women of all ages, lots munity, the Longacre Hotel will likely be­ way, they're going to have to contend with of seniors who have been living here for come a boom operation when the Times the Longacre ladies - something they prob­ years." Times have chanced since the 1930's Square redevelopment and Convention ably didn't count on. "Why did they come when the Allerton was a residence for Center projects are completed, not a mlnor and upset a house of women?" P. asks rhe­ weekend shoppers and club members. consideration for the owners. The displace­ torically. "If the man doesn't want us here, Young women now share apartments with ment of residents in favor of higher paying he's gonna pay a heavy price for it." Laugh­ other women or with men, he points out, but transient guests can be viewed as the first ing, she emphasizes, "He's gonna pay a hell they still come to the Allerton as a jumping ripple of a process that many Clinton resi- of a price to get us out of here."O

A Bright Star in Jamaica HE WOMENS' RESIDENCE AS reached desperation when, soon after, her where our aging, gentle women will live T a place for young career women, stu­ son was badly beaten up. Another, without fear of eviction or harassment. dents and weekend shoppers may be a dying Abraham, came to the Star of the Sea after Where the working poor will be able to live breed, but the need for SRO housing for getting a one-day eviction notice from her safely in decent, affordable housing." women, especially those in transition, has apartment. Although she paid her rent like Ifthe cCHlirectors have their way, a second never been more crucial. Star of the Sea was clockwork, the landlord decided he needed shelter-residence will be established very born out of that need. A unique non-profit the space and ousted the 80 year old tenant. soon. "We're looking for a two-family house residence, Star of the Sea offers both per­ On the other side of the Sea is a general­ in this area because we just don't have manent housing for women and temporary ly younger group of women whose reasons enough rooms," says Desert. "My dream is shelter for women in crisis in its rambling for needing temporary housing are as varied a house for younger, low income people." two-house complex. "We want to get to as their walks of life. A Long Island woman "We have two different dreams but they women before they reach homelessness. who was battered by her husband came to go together," says McCarthy. "My idea is That should not be a choice," asserts Win­ them for three months. From an affluent along the same principle, for seniors. Peo­ nie McCarthy, co-director with Sheila background, the woman seemed never to ple say seniors have Section 8 and subsi­ Desert of the Star of the Sea. have worked a day in her life, according to dized housing but the truth of the matter is Four years ago, a Catholic nun, Sister Desert, and certainly hadn't spent time with that there's a three year waiting list. Besides, Angeline, began taking homeless women people so different from herself. "I love to you can't just take human beings who have into her Astoria home. When the building see them come here and mix with others. It's gone through a crisis, fire or eviction and was declared unsafe, she moved to a form­ an awakening. People realize they have to put them in Section 8 housing. They need er convent on South Road in Jamaica, drop stereotypes about who is homeless," to do community type things and at the same donated by members of the Pius V. Church. she explains. time have a room to be alone and heal." McCarthy and Desert, lay missionaries, There have been rocky times at Star of the Both women see a dramatic increase in joined the project in 1981 and assumed Sea as well as joyous ones, especially in the homelessness among women of all ages. directorship after the founder left. In 1982, first couple of years. Through trial and "Landlords are much quicker to evict wom­ the city's Department of Housing Preserva­ error, Desert and McCarthy have adopted en and it's going to get worse," Desert insists. tion and Development put pressure on them a "tough love" approach to dealing with the She attributes a greater number of homeless to comply with housing codes. "We applied women. Drugs, alcohol and disruptive be­ women to the feminization of poverty - that for and got a state Demonstration Grant for havior are forbidden. Independence is is the overwhelmingly female component of $52,500, put in sprinklers and modernized encouraged by requiring all guests and resi­ those living below the poverty line. Older the kitchen," says Desert. "The city was sur­ dents to be out of the house from 9 a.m. to women are especially vulnerable, they be­ prised we were operating for so long without 4 p.m. looking for work or, for seniors, do­ lieve, because they lack knowledge of their funding. It was all on donations. We had to ing volunteer work. Weekly chores are post­ legal rights and often have a stuborn pride do a lot ofleg work, but ultimately, the city ed on Saturday. No time limit is imposed; which keeps them from seeking help. was willing to bend the rules with us. We the average stay is six months to one year. How do they plan to realize their dream were no longer a convent, and we're not "We feel love demands commitment on both when funding is so scarce? "We're not asking strictly an SRO, so they called us a multiple sides. You have to demand change from the city to support us. Give us buildings and dwelling." people," says McCarthy we'll put people in them," says McCarthy. Residents of the west wing pay from The religious context of the Star of the Sea "We'd be the ones to get grants for repairs $1-$150 a month, depending on income for is obvious, from the statue of Mary by the and maintenance. Government agencies one of six small but homey rooms. A kit­ front door to the large crosses hanging should smarten up and give structures and chen and dining area for their use is well around Desert's and McCarthy's necks. But financing to rehabilitate them."OA.F. supplied and spotless. "They can use this if their religious commitment is deeply felt, kitchen to cook meals but they prefer to eat it is not translated into the need to convert together in the big kitchen with the other those they meet. Just a profound humanism. women. We're like a family; McCarthy says. "Religion has nothing to do with it," claims There are five permanents at present, as McCarthy. "Other human beings have to ac­ For information or to volunteer services McCarthy calls their residents. Some have cept their responsibility to everyone of us." at Star of the Sea contact Sheila Desert or come and gone. All are elderly. One became In their monthly newsletter she writes, Winnie McCarthy at (718) 297-6288. homeless when her house burned down and ~ .. there will be other Star of the Sea homes

17 CITY LIMITS/December 1984 'Have no fear Captain, we won't take your treasures. Were only after the pay from your sailors: Axing the Taxes in Cuomo's Albaay by Glenn von Nostitz Tax Cuts Will Be a Boon to Rich, Hard on the Rest 01 Us FFLUENT TAXPAYERS NOW abashedly for the benefit of the rich: a cut issue by the Republicans in the recent elec­ A enjoying the bulk of the savings from in maximum personal income tax rates tions has been moving Assembly Speaker the Reagan administration's tax~ut program (which helps those at the top as opposed to Stanley Fink and especially Governor are about to get some more spending money. across the board relief for all taxpayers), a Cuomo closer to the Senate Republican This time, however, the largesse will be cut in commercial bank taxes, and a new view that taxes should be cut soon and cut coming from the New York State treasury corporate income tax "incentive" ostensibly a lot. Fink says he will simultaneously press in the form oflarge tax reductions expected geared for job creation. The Assembly did for closing of a number of unfair loopholes to be passed early next Spring. Revenue not pass this regressive Senate package, but that benefit the well-to-do, but it is fairly reduction could come to as much as $1.4 bil­ pressures have been mounting that will clear at this point that the final negotiated lion annually and will be at least $800 mil­ probably succeed in getting most of it signed package will be overwhelmingly regressive. lion a year when cuts are fully implemented. into law. The sudden disappearance of such sums The pressure for all these cuts is emanat­ Favoring the Corporations from the state's coffers is not good news, to ing from the Business Council of New York That the savings from the expected pack­ say the least, for the homeless, the mental­ State, from David Rockefeller's New York age will go disproportionately into the pock­ ly retarded, public university students, mass City Partnership, and from the Senate ets ofupper income individuals was recently transit riders and anyone else relying on the Republicans. At least some of the revenue shown in an analysis prepared by Jerry Bill­ generosity of our state lawmakers. reducing is seen as feasible because state tax ings of the State Communities Aid Associ­ The tax reduction package now being de­ collections are higher than anticipated. For ation. It is expected that the Legislature will veloped in Albany, however, is also likely the current fiscal year ending March 30th, agree to cut the top rate on earned income to be bad news for middle class taxpayers the state's surplus could amount to anywhere from 10 percent to 9 percent. Billings found not directly dependent on state spending from $125 million to $600 million, and it that 60 percent of the $300 million annual programs. Earlier this year the Senate should be at least $600 million a year revenue loss from this would go to the 12 Republicans, who control that house, al­ thereafter. percent of the taxpayers who earn more than ready passed a $4.1 billion five-year tax cut The existence of the surplus, the intense $30,000 a year. Not a single dollar would go package whose chief features are un- business lobbying and the use of the tax cut to persons making under $15,000. Even CITY LIMITS/December 1984 18 / mire regressive is the Senate's proposal to Richard Gottfried says. the question is business and labor leaders. Given that the cut the top rate on unearned income, "whether the tax cut will shape the budget, recomm endations were put together under the produced by stocks, bonds and other invest­ or the budget shape the tax cuts." direction of Perry Quick, a tax expert on ments more familiar to the residents of There are also those who believe that, in loan from ShearsonlAmerican Express, it Scarsdale than Sunset Park. addition to providing crucial additional is not surprising that if passed , an individual These income tax cuts would come on top funds to human services programs, the State making over $100,000 a year would save of enormous cuts in maximum rates phased should use some of its expected surpluses $1,184 while someone earning less than in from 1978 to the early 1980's which are to reduce the massive annual "spring bor­ $10,000 will save $17. now saving the wealthiest taxpayers over rowing." As explained by Frank Domurad, On the other hand, expected to add a more $650 million a year, in addition to the state's former Tax Reform Director of the New progressive note to the upcoming tax negoti­ recent increase in the capital gains income York Public Interest Research Group, every ations will be the reports now gradually be­ exclusion from 40 percent to 60 percent to year the State "rolls over" a large portion of ing released by the Legislative Commission match the new federal level. the deficit into the succeeding year in order on the Modernization and Simplification of The Senate's tax cut package did include to balance the current year's budget. That Tax Administration and the Tax Law (more some items billed as "progressive," includ­ means, however, that the State has to bor­ simply, the "Legislative Thx Study Commis­ ing an increase in the personal exemption row several billion dollars every year, with sion"). The Thx Study Commission is per­ from $800 to $1000 and stretching brackets annual interest expenses of over $250 mil­ forming the most exhaustive review of the to reduce "bracket creep." However, even if lion. Domurad says that over several years State's tax system in fifty years. The Com­ these provisions were added to the more the State could phase-in a program to reduce mission's reports are expected to favor overtly regressive cuts in maximum tax the "roll-over," cut the accumulated deficit, broadening the tax base, eliminating many rates, the fmal result would be that only 52 and ultimately save hundreds of millions of unproductive loopholes, and reducing rates percent of the $3.4 billion five-year savings dollars in interest expenses. "That's the fis­ in a progressive manner. Assembly Speak­ would go to the 88 percent of the taxpayers cally responsible thing to do," Domurad er Fink will probably rely on their reports who earn less than $15,000 a year. They'd get says. when he sits down with Senate Majority only $543 million of the $3.4 billion total. Finally, there are widely divergent esti­ Leader Warren Anderson and Cuomo to talk Among the other tax cuts Albany observ­ mates of just how big the deficits will actu­ taxes. ers think will ultimately be enacted are a ally be. The senate Republicans, who push Thus, while the specifics of the 1985 tax large reduction in commercial bank's in­ tax cuts the most, come up with the biggest cut package are still being determined, some come taxes. The major New York City figures. The Senate Finance Committee is general outlines are nonetheless emerging: banks have long complained about a com­ projecting a $644 million surplus in the cur­ • It is certain to contain a cut in maximum bined City-State bank income tax rate of 7J rent fiscal year, a statistic they say is-based personal income tax rates. percent, and have said that this high tax rate on economic evaluations of the State econ­ • The personal exemption will be raised. discourages them from expanding here. A omy provided by Wharton Econometrics. • Bank taxes will be reduced. substantial cut in both the City and State On the other hand, Governor Cuomo's office • There might be a new business tax "incen­ rates is therefore considered likely, even says that, while still too early to tell, the sur­ tive" to ostensibly encourage job creation. though a report last year by State Senator plus might be around $125 million. Franz Leichter found that the effective com­ If the 1985 tax cut package is based on the At the cost 'Of literally hundreds of mil­ bined rate is really about 2.5 percent. In Senate Republicans' surplus figures, and if lions of dollars a year, larger class sizes at fact, through the use of novel accounting the economy doesn't perform up to their op­ CUNY and SUNY, fewer nursing home in­ techniques, commercial banks paid $62 mil­ timistic projections, the State will again be spectors, and higher fees in the State's parks, lion less in State taxes in 1983 than they did faced with a big deficit and might have to New York State will be continuing its own in IfJ77 (a 35 percent decline). raise taxes to avoid slashing programs. experiment in "supply side" economics. The It is also possible that the Legislature will Many analysts see the "roller coastering" of Business Council states that New York's pass a replacement for the discredited Job tax cuts and tax increases as more harmful "high taxes" are keeping businesses from in­ Incentive Program, which was abolished in to the State's business climate than a high tax vesting here, although surveys and expert 1983. During its last five years, the np burden itself. Business executives like tax analyses have shown no connection at all. granted over $1.6 billion worth of corporate stability. It makes planning a lot easier, Yet the 1985 tax cut program is already be­ tax credits, most of which went to Manhat­ ing presented to the public as a solution for tan based financial services firms. Both Policy Studies Due the State's economic woes and as a benefit Speaker Fink and the Senate Republicans While Governor Cuomo is not expected to all those who pay taxes here. 0 are championing a new program under to reveal his 1985 tax plans until he gives his which a company gets a tax credit of $1,000 State of the State speech in January, he did for each job it "creates," no questions asked. call "superb" the report released November 18th by his Council on Fiscal and Econom­ Who's Shaping Whom? ic Priorities which closely echoes the Senate A concern being voiced by numerous As­ Republicans' tax cut plans. The panel calls Glenn J-Vn Nostitz is an aide to State Sena­ sembly Democrats is that the enacted tax for cutting the top rate on personal income tor Franz Leichter. cuts could end up being much larger than from 10 percent to 9 percent, increasing the the budget surplUses. Not only would there personal exemption from $800 to $1000 and be no growth in State spending, but there raising the standard deduction to the feder­ would be substantial cutbacks on top of al level. The recomendations were put those imposed two years ago when the together by a committee headed by James State's budget deficit amounted to a stunning Robinson, Chairman of American Express, $1.6 billion. As Manhattan Assemblyman and included Felix Rohatyn and other major 19 CITY LIMITS/December 1984 / ing in the "Sunset" were tenants during the 'l'andDg the Tables 08 the Postiglione ownership; the others are primarily homeless people from the neigh­ borhood. SBOBaraDen "We are attempting to organize and pro­ By Richard Miller vide a refuge for homeless people," Jacobs GROUP OF TENANTS AT AN not by Sackman. He bought the building in said. "It's dramatized by the fact that the site A upper West Side hotel, many of them February, 1984, from Tony Postiglione who was an SRO where people were harassed former homeless people, have organized to was then in jail, serving six months of a one­ and criminally evicted." There is no law, he resist eviction proceedings in a battle that year term for two counts ofcoercion and one noted, providing a right to refuge or shelter highlights the city's housing crisis. The count of conspiracy for his activities when for homeless people, even in a building building, a former 54-room single-room­ the building was emptied illegally. He had where tenants were illegally evicted. ,occupancy hotel at 175 W. 85 St., dubbed harassed and assaulted tenants, forcing According to Jacobs, if the case goes to the Sunset Hotel by its inhabitants, was the many of them to live in the street. trial, Sackman will attempt to prove he didn't site of tenant harassment- and illegal evic­ In June, Sackman served legal papers to know people were living in the building tions in 1981. evict the tenants then living in the building. when he bought it in February of this year. "There are about 25 to 30 people in the The case was withdrawn after the tenants' "But people - some of them former tenants building neM'; said David Jacobs, one of attorney, Deborah Rand, of the West Side and other homeless members of the commu­ three co-directors of the tenant association. SRO Law Project, ftled a motion to dismiss nity - had been there since December of "Some people have been living here since the petitions on the grounds that they were 1983," Jacobs said. "They claim they the end of 1983. We want to make this into served improperly and constituted insuffi­ checked the building at the time, and sealed a living environment, eventually filling all cient facts to prove the landlord's case. The it up. . . But we can prove that to be false the rooms with low income tenants. We have tenants expect that the legal maneuverings with testimony by the people who were liv­ received support from local community will continue in court in an attempt to fore­ ing there at the time. He knew people were groups and politicians who understand the stall threatened evictions. there." need for this kind of housing on the West The tenants have not said who moved into Because of the previous criminal mis­ Side." the building at what point because of the management of the building under The tenants have started to winterize the sensitive legal issues involved in their or­ Postiglione, tenants believe the owners did building, and are optimistic about their up­ ganizing activities to provide permanent not have a clear idea of who was living there. coming court battle with the landlord, Alan shelter for the homeless. Some of those liv- "This led to the situation where people were Sackman. Sackman is no stranger to legal proceed­ ings at this time. New York State Attorney General Robert Abrams filed suit against him and several others for their 1981 "reign of terror" at the Hamilton Hotel at 315 West 99th Street against the remaining 50 tenants. Using a series of illegal actions, including physical viol~, less than three weeks af­ ter buying the hotel, Sackman had cleared it. Some of the former tenants joined the ranks of the homeless [See "State Seeks Damages Against SRO Owner," January, --1984.] The building was quickly converted to luxury condominiums; all the units were sold, with Sackman reaping a profit of more than $1 million, according to Abrams. The case will now proceed to trial, be­ cause Sackman's technical objections have been nullified by state Supreme Court Justice Allen Murray Myers who labeled them "1iufetched." Abrams seeks to prohibit Sackman from ever again selling real estate securities in New York State and to make the defendants pay damages to the illegally evicted tenants.

Earlier Terror at West 85th Street Tenants were evicted illegally from 175 West 85th Street at about the same time, but

CITY LIMITS/December 1984 20 there, but the landlord did not have adequate The provisions of the law only cover in a city which has forgotten about the need knowledge of them," Jacobs said. "It is im­ harassment which takes place within three for low income housing units." portant because if people can establish their years of filing an application. December, In addition to fighting Sackman on the le­ tenancy for more than 30 days, under the law 1984, will be the three-year anniversary of gal front in court, the tenants have sought for hotel residents, they would have a right the harassment campaign at 175 West 85th the assistance of a nonprofit organization to be here." Street. which could purchase the building and turn Sackman was involved in the building as it into a permanent site for low income units. early as 1982, when he submitted an appli­ Homeless on Trial "We are still hopeful on this issue," Jacobs cation to the Buildings Department to con­ The case highlights the crisis of homeless said, "but to date, nothing has materialized." vert the SRO to lUXUry units. people in New York and the lack of low in­ Another fruitful result of the tenants' ef­ The city initially denied his alterations ap­ come housing in the city. "Our tenants as­ fort is a verdant garden they have planted plication because he did not have a certifi­ sociation meets every Monday night," said and maintained on a former rubble-strewn cate of non-harassment, required by Local Frank Miraglia, one of the co-directors, adjacent lot which is open to the communi­ Law 19 for SRO's when sold or renovated to who lived at the 66th Street Armory on the ty. This property also is owned by Sackman. ensure that tenants were not forced out by East Side before coming to West 85th Street. The Sunset tenants have organized and real estate speculators. "We try to organize the people to do the prepared for their day in court with Sack­ Sackman then took HPD to court, con­ repairs needed, the outreach necessary to man. Despite their optimism, the outcome tending that because of when the permit was contact .local politicians and community is unclear. If a negative verdict is received filed originally, Local Law 19 should not ap­ groups to build support, and to determine in court, the tenants will have to vacate the ply. The court ruled that the law was not ap­ what our priorities should be to allocate premises at some point, although the judge plicable, and that if the other conditions of scarce resources." can provide them more time than the stan­ his application were in order, Sackman's The association requires all members to dard five-day limit. Jacobs said they will permit should be authorized. do some work on the building to make it continue to seek community support to stay There is some uncertainty about the fu­ more habitable. "You can see what we have in the building. ture. If Sackman needs to apply for other been able to do," said co-director Jim Cobb, "This has become a good place to live," building permits, it is possible that Local who has been homeless the past two years, said Miraglia. "Here there are 25 people I Law 19 would apply which would require most recently living at the band-shell in know; in the shelter there are 160 I don't him to get a certificate of non-harassment. Central Park. "We have made some progress know. We don't want to go back to the AI Fredericks, an attorney in the city's Cor­ in cleaning up the disastrous, war-zone con­ shelters or the streets. We'll do everything poration Counsel, said he was unsure at this ditions left by Postiglione. We are deter­ we can to stay in our building."O time. mined to make it a place for people to live Richard Miller is a jreekmce writer.

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21 CITY LIMITS/December 1984 ~------from the old neighborhood's former glory, there's a strong temptation to ignore the bas­ ic contribution made by Katkin and many OUT OF THE SHADOWS like him. But stories such as his provide the A Trail of Neighborhood Destruction Ends in Prison all-too invisible chapters in community decay. None of Henry Katkin's former tenants showed up to witness his sentencing. Most of them are long since dispersed from the once sturdy corner buildings from Rocka­ way Parkway to the Grand Concourse which he made his targets. Even if the network ex­ isted to contact them all, it would be a pains­ taking task. For Henry Katkin was already a budding landlord when he first teamed up with developer George Jaffee to undertake rehab projects under the city's profitable and loosely-watched Municipal Loan program. He and Jaffee played the Muni Loan pro­ gram's best scam to perfection: building up heavy underlying paper mortgages and then getting the city loan to cover the entire wild­ L ly inflated price. ~ None of the four buildings in which Kat­ kin alone pledged to create affordable low income housing still stand today. Nor has the city seen much of the $1.2 million it loaned him. In fact, even today the city's computers still fail to kick out two of the properties on Lenox Road: Where a Joe BaJd and George Jaffee sought to parlay which Katkin defaulted, so even the bills he three anon-struck buUdings Into government rehab project. has steadily ignored for almost ten years are for less than half what he really owes. OR NEARLY TWO DECADES years, a $500 fine and 400 hours of commu­ No one, other than Katkin himself, prob­ F landlord Henry Katkin haunted the nity service. Abraham Slochowsky, who ably knows exactly how those buildings buildings and residents of Brownsville, East also turned state's evidence, was sentenced died. "I was in the middle of a jungle," he New York, Bushwick and the South Bronx. to four years. The rest have yet to be sen­ said in an interview a few years ago. "The But Katkin, who started out as a plumber in tenced. Thj Mahal would have gone down in those Brownsville and went on to package and Slim, neatly tailored, with wavy silver neighborhoods." But virtually as soon as synd~cate his often-torched properties for hair, the 48-year-old Katkin sat throughout Katkin quit making payments on his loans, some of the city's leading developers, was his trial last spring with his brows arched his buildings were hit with numerous fires. found guilty last May of racketeering and over a pair of piercing gray eyes which . Number 506 Alabama Avenue, now a lonely mail fraud. And on November 6, while the projected a steady look of incredulity as he comer off Pitkin Avenue, had ten fires be­ rest of the country cast its ballots in a na­ and the jury listened to his former partners tween February and May, 1978, all but one tional election, Katkin lost the vote of fed­ testify against him. listed as suspicious or unknown. His three eral Judge John R. Bartels who sentenced But when in November he stood before buildings a couple of blocks away on the him to six years in prison for his part in an Judge Bartels to plead for "a chance to help 4OO-block of Georgia had similar streaks of arson-for-profit ring that set Yl occupied people," instead of going to jail, his voice bad luck. buildings on fire in pursuit of nearly $2 mil­ dratnatically broke and he couldn't continue. But luck was with Henry Katkin, partic­ lion in insurance payments. A few minutes later, when the Judge began ularly in his ability to find willing partners So far, Katkin's six-year sentence makes to pronounce sentence, the defendant burst to either buy other burned-out but rehab­ him the biggest loser of the seven men who into loud wrenching sobs, recovering only ripe properties, or, better yet, provide a have pled guilty or been tried in response after a ten-minute recess. respectable development front behind which to the indictments announced in July, 1983. he could operate. For after his Muni Loan Bruce Elliott, an attorney who formerly Pieces of History performance, the city housing department served as a Brooklyn community board There should be a special place for Hen­ didn't trust him too much. (He might have chair, was sentenced to two' months, to be ry Katkin and his arson-ring partners in the responded that he didn't trust them too much served on consecutive weekends after he history of this city's ravaged neighborhoods. either, since the two top aides for the pro­ agreed to testify for the prosecution and pled While whites who fled those communities gram were indicted in the scandals which guilty to racketeering. Philip Holzer, a real­ amid rapid racial transition cluck and sigh soon engulfed it.) tor from Monsey, New York, drew three at the now burned-out buildings they recall Stanley Riefer and Steven Bernstein CITY LIMITS/December 1984 22

\ . bought out three ofKatkin's other fire-gutted a time until the deal eventually fell through Although Katkin and Bald were striking buildings at East 91st Street and Winthrop for reasons which are unclear; Both Bald out in some spots, elsewhere they were suc­ Avenue and parlayed them into federally and Katkin blame the other's "bad reputa­ ceeding. Acting without Katkin, Bald lined subsidized projects. But while they wanted tion" for the rejection. up a strip of burned-out buildings on West the buildings, they didn't want Katkin. "The Neither of Katkin's other two favorite re­ 135th Street in Hamilton Heights for a Sec­ slimiest human being I ever met," is how hab prospects made it into construction tion 8 project for developer John Skelly who Riefer characterized Katkin recently. either, although both came close. While the had vnly just left his city housing agency job 1be plumber from Brownsville continued partnership squabbled about the insurance where he had worked on straightening out to plow his cash back into other rental proceeds split, fires slowly emptied build­ Muni Loans. properties in East Brooklyn. His investment ings at three of the four corners at Lenox Bronx Score went into purchase, though, not repair or Road and Rockaway Parkway in 1976 and 77, And up in the South Bronx, on the Grand upkeep, and he kept a score of tenant or­ creating the vacancies government housing­ Concourse, Katkin and Bald had hit a home ganizers and lawyers busy. "Katkin was officials prefer. run. Their $640,000 pricetag on the still someone you always saw coming out ofthe Although it never took root, the rehab had burning buildings at 1403-25 Grand Con­ shadows," recalled city housing litigation plenty of willing partners. In addition to the course was picked up by Hubbard's Center lawyer Bruce Kramer in 1980. KAlO crew and fellow arsonist-landlord for Housing Partnerships. They then sat "He was practicing a kind of plantation Harry Rosen, Katkin's old rehab partner down with Hubbard in the law offices of strategy," remarked tenant organizer Marc George Jaffee also bought an ownership in­ former Deputy Mayor and planning com­ Jabr, "wiping out exhausted soil and then terest in conjunction with his co-partners in missioner John Zuccotti to work out an moving on." Eastway Construction, Irving Kanarek, and agreement to share in the syndication of the Robert Jacobs. Although that entity owed $1.5 million tax shelter the project offered. Joining the Enterprise the city $12.5 million in defaulted Muni According to the federal indictments on But perhaps Henry Katkin's luckiest day Loans it was rolling along with federal and which they were convicted, this was just was when landlord lawyer Israel private development work. Also, Katkin three months after Katkin and Slochowsky Slochowsky sent him upstairs at 16 Court lined up the first of his minority "fronts" in caused three fires at 1425 Grand Concourse. Street to meet his brother Abe. Abraham that project, Horace Morancey, who head­ While still partially occupied, the build­ Slochowsky had recently expanded his real ed the Brooklyn Model Cities office and ings, under agreement with Hubbard and estate business with two partners named Joe worked for the New York State energy Zuccotti's office, were entrusted to the cares Bald and Ken Passafiume. The trio had a office. of Katkin and Bald. They quickly went happy sounding enterprise called KAJO Fronts vacant. Realty (for Ken, Abe and Joe) which was But Morancey was presumably no more Even while Henry Katkin's sentencing for keeping busy running down 17 properties in aware ofjust how the deal was being cooked his racketeering conviction grew near, he East Flatbush, Crown Heights and than was the much-respected Rev. Milton continued to angle for participation in Bed-Stuy. Galamison the educational advocate, civil government-subsidized projects. Last . Joe Bald, who is now serving an 8-25 year rights activist and pastor of Siloam Baptist spring, with the help of a professional he term, later claimed that it was Katkin's sug­ Church. Galamison's friendship with Philip hired to put together an alternative commu­ gestion that their buildings be "taken down" Rosenberg of Progressive Realty Corp. nity service program for him, he almost through fires, and insurance payments col­ brought him in touch with Katkin who had talked his way into the state's homeless hous­ lected. But the KAlO threesome were hard­ another tasty rehab project lined up at Park ing assistance program with the Pratt Insti­ ly uninitiated. Katkin did, however, have Place and Rochester Avenue in the Crown tute Center before that group became aware something KAlO lacked and badly wanted: Heights neighborhood where some 1200 of his past record. Last year Katkin sent an the rehab and development know-how to units of Section 8 were due to be allocated em issary to the city housing department's take the burned buildings one golden step under a new HUri\program. alternative management programs to bid on further, into government rehab programs. Mainly for the use of his name and good a contract for repairs in a community 1be insurance payments from the fires, Bald character, Galamison was to get $25,000, a management building through an entity recounted Katkin as saying, would provide small portion of the potential profit. Another called Progressive Construction. That at­ the start-up capital for their rehab ventures. developer, William Hubbard of the Center tempt was snagged by a sharp-eyed em­ "My partners and I saw the light," Bald told for Housing Partnerships, also planned a ployee who had read about the company's the jury at Katkin's trial. role in developing the project with Katkin president, Henry Katkin, in the newspaper. Indeed, the light was dazzling. Within quietly in the background. It was a busy In recent months he persuaded Juan three years the partnership had turned at period for Katkin who also lined up options Morales, the former chair of Community least four clusters of bumed buildings, from for Rosenberg on properties at 992-1004 Board #2 in the Bronx, into scouting out de­ Far Rockaway to Brooklyn to the South Eastern Parkway and the Prospect Heights velopment projects for him. Morales, who Bronx, into federally subsidized rehab Hospital. Katkin also hoped to build the lat­ explained he did it because he was "a good projects, worth millions of dollars to those ter job with his Karlan Construction Cor­ Christian," wrote effusively to Judge Bartels who owned the buildings while it nearly suc­ poration which he co-owned with Morris that he was eager to put Katkin's skills to ceeded in a number of others. Lesnick and Amnon Burnovski. work on behalf of his Bronx Regional Hous­ At the time, Katkin had four corner But in the spring of 1980, Bald, ing Corporation. properties at Linden and Grove Streets in Slochowsky and 13 others were indicted for Although his conviction is under appeal, Bushwick. Even though they were almost arson in Brooklyn, Manhattan and the it looks likely that those skills are going to fully occupied he wanted to rehab them. Bronx. When City Limits Magazine point­ have to take a break for a few years. And While he took a back seat because ofhis bad ed out Bald's name on the options for the while Henry Katkin serves his time, there city credit rating, Bald presented plans to burned Park Place and Rochester Avenue will be new chapters written in the history city officials who listened with interest for buildings, HUD dropped the project. of the communities he long haunted.OT.R. 23 CITY LIMITS/December 1984 A Brief Guide to In Rem Proceedings WheD the City Forecloses By Sue Reynolds HE PROCESS OF CITY FORE­ T closure for back taxes is long and tor­ tuous, with complicated rules governing an owner's ability to rescue a property from possible City seizure. And it's all made more confusing by the periodic changes in the rules which are legislated by City Council. This article will briefly outline the current options of owners and concerned tenants in seriously tax-delinquent property.

The Foreclosure Process The City begins a foreclosure action against the tax-delinquent properties in a borough by flling an in rem action in State Supreme Court. (In order to be eligible for such a flling, a one or two-family home with low taxes must be delinquent for three years; all other properties are eligible after only one year of non-payment.) The time be­ tween this filing and the actual foreclosure, which under current practice is usually several years, is called the redemption peri­ od. Owners (and others with legal interest in the property) can easily pevent the threa­ tened foreclosure during the redemption periOd by paying their back tax,es in full, or , by entering into an installment agreement. The only foreclo~ure action currently pend­ ing in the City, Manhattan Action #31, is currently in this stage; it was filed on June 9, 1982, with the actual foreclosure planned for early 1985. Once the City forecloses, the owner still has an opportunity to recover the property for up to two years after the date of fore­ closure. During this release period, owners can still make either full payment or install­ ment agreements, but recovery of the property is generally more difficult than act­ ing earlier and actually preventing the fore­ closure. There is more public review of owner applications, and installment agree­ • paying the overdue taxes and charges in harassment, failure to provide essential ser­ ment terms for non-owner-occupants are full; or vices, or other tenant abuses. Others with much harsher than before foreclosure. • signing an installment agreement to pay a legal interest in the property (holders of the overdue amount over time. mortgages or sales contracts, for instance) Owner Options During the Redemption also have the right to pay up and remove the Period Though an owner can take these steps at property from the threat of foreclosure. An owner with a property on the in rem any time during the redemption period, the list can try to avoid foreclosure in several vast majority of owners take action either Redemption Periods ways: soon after the in rem list is filed, or in the There are two periods within the redemp­ • filing an answer to the foreclosure action last few months before foreclosure. Any tion period - the Early Redemption Period, in Supreme Court, claiming that the threa­ owner who can meet the City's payment re­ which covers the initial 10 weeks after fll­ tened foreclosure is legally or factually in quirements has a legal right to redeem the ing of the list, and Late Redemption Peri­ error; property,.even if the owner has a record of od, which lasts from the ten week deadline CITY LIMITS/December 1984 24 until the foreclosure. Redemption is some­ what more expensive in the later period; the exact aniounts due are calculated by the Department of Finance City Collections Office, Central In Rem Section, 151 West Readers who are involved in redemption and release disputes sboukl probably COGMIJt Broadway, 7th Floor, Manhattan, 306-6005. two manuals published by the Association fOr Nciabborhood and Housing Devolopaloat; JJ-1umtheCityrorecloses:OwnnandCommunityOptionsisaJeDOl'll ...., ...... Paying In Full and Installment Agreements of foreclosure, and to the planning andc;npnizing sttalegies which are a\!Iilablo to ~ Paying in Full: If an owner pays the full munities before and after foreclosure. 4 Guide 10 R4demptJOns ••,..., whidt .. amount owed, the property will be with­ ~ available in mid-December, is a moreteclm.ical and detailed discus8ior1 of the iDeaN drawn from this particular in rem action per­ outs of owner recovery of tax-delinquent property. These guides can be obtained for U - manently. Even if the owner misses the very each or a special bulk rate from the Association at 424 W. 33rd Street, New York, New next quarterly tax payment, the property is York ~OOOI (212) 239-9410.0 safe from foreclosure until the next in rem action in the borough. Installment Agreement: An owner can or installment agreement payments, and in­ during the first four months after fore­ make a downpayment on the amount owed, sure foreclosure. This tactic is only effec­ closure, the City must return the property. and sign an installment agreement to pay the tive if the landlord doesn't have access to However, if an owner wants an installment rest over time. The law allows two types of other cash to make those payments, or if the agreement at any time (even the day after installment agreements: a generous 10% landlord is not committed to keeping the vesting), or wants to pay in full after four agreement for small (one-to-five units) property. Ifan owner pays the back taxes and months of City ownership, the Board of Es­ owner-occupied residential properties, and charges in full, tenants have no options; the timate has the discretion to grant or deny the a harsher 15 % agreement for other proper­ property is permanently removed from this return of the property to an owner. An owner ties. A 10% agreement requires a 10% in rem action. can request the right to pay in full or make downpayment, and has a maximum pay­ Tenants who are interested in owning the an installment agreement at any time dur­ ment period of 12 years. A 15 % agreement building themselves, and have been manag­ ing the Discretionary Period, which extends requires a 15 % downpayment, with a max­ ing the building already, may want to ex­ until two years after the vesting date. imum term of only 8 years. plore the option of purchasing the building Amount Paid: During City ownership, the As part of the agreement, the law requires directly from the landlord. With HPD's sup­ amount of back taxes and interest continues landlords to sign a notarized affidavit that port, a low-interest loan, some Section 8 to climb with each quarterly payment the landlord has notified all tenants of the subsidies, and foregiveness or generous missed. Ifit takes the Board of Estimate nine intent to make an installment agreement, terms for repayment of back taxes are all months to make a pecision, the owner owes and has sent all tenants a copy of a standard possibilities in this situation. (For more in­ nine months additional taxes. The owner installment agreement by certified mail. formation, call the Community Service So­ must also reimburse the City for any (However, the law also specifies that there ciety Ownership Transfer Project, (212) management expenses which were greater will be no penalties or consequences for 254-8900.) than the income from the property, and pay owners who ignore or don't comply with this a 5 % penalty (up to a maximum of $500). notice requirement. This provision was rad­ Release: When the Owner Wants the Installment Agreements: The terms for in­ ically weakened during legislative negoti­ Property Back After Foreclosure stallment agreements after vesting depend ations.) Even after foreclosure, owners have the on the type of building. For most buildings Owners who default on an installment right to try to recover their property, or (in with stores or with six or more apartments, agreement before the general foreclosure ac­ legal terms) to obtain a release of the City's release agreement terms are much harsher tion will still lose their property. If they ownership of the property. (Many people than for small, owner-occupied residential default after the foreclosure, their property still call this a redemption, but technically buildings. Specifically, agreements for the may be taken in a periodic supplemental a redemption occurs before foreclosure and larger buildings require a 50 % downpay­ foreclosure. a release occurs afterward.) ment and full payment of the remaining In order to obtain a release, the former amount within the year. Owner-occupants Tenant Options owner Jllust submit an application to the Di­ of one-to-five family homes must make a The first step for tenants is to learn vision of Real Property's Release Center (2 10% downpayment and full payment of the whether their building is on the in rem list, Lafayette Street, Manhattan, 566-7626). The remaining amount. and whether the landlord has already made owner can apply to pay in full, or may re­ Default: Owners who don't stay up-to­ full payment or signed an installment agree­ quest an installment agreement. An install­ date with both their current tax payments ment. The Central In Rem Section ment agreement must include an affidavit and their installment agreement payments (212-306-6005) can provide that informa­ (that the tenants were informed by certified become eligible for a supplemental fore­ tion, if given the property's tax block and mail of the owner's release application and closure action. The City implemented this lot numbers. (Again, only Manhattan has an were given copies of the application), and policy with the 1982-1983 Brooklyn fore­ in rem list pending at this writing.) photocopies of the certified mail receipts. closure action, and now brings several fore­ If tenants don ~ want the owner to sign an Tenants or community groups can call the closure actions a year against all properties.. installment agreement, because of past mis­ Release Center to see if a release applica­ whose owners default on an installment management, or if they're upset that the tion has been filed; the records are kept by agreement after the vesting in the borough. owner has already signed an installment block and lot number. With supplemental foreclosures, an owner agreement, they have one proven tool: dis­ who can't keep up with payments loses the rupting the owner's cash income through a Process and Terms of Release property after only six months, instead of rent strike, in order to cause a default on tax ' Release Period: If an owner p,ys in full waiting 3 to 4 years until the next full fore- 25 l CITY LIMITS/December 1984 closure action in the borough. recommend that an installment agreement Despite these easier 10% agreements, the application be denied, but that the owner be City has foreclosed on hundreds of owner­ Thnant and Community Options allowed to pay in full. occupants in recent years while simultane­ When owners exercise their right to make The agency recommendations are consi­ ously spending a great deal of effort (and a full payment during the mandatory release dered by the Acquisition and Disposition money) creating new opportunities for period, once again tenants and community Committee of the Board of Estimate, where owner-occupants in the same neighbor­ leaders have no say. However, as explained most of the real discussion occurs; the Com­ hoods. Meanwhile, tenant leaders and or­ above, most releases do involve review by mittee's recommendations are then consi­ ganizers are very concerped at the City'S city agencies and the Board of Estimate, and dered (and generally accepted) by the full easy extension of credit (through installment this process provides an opportunity for Board of Estimate at its biweekly meeting. agreements) to owners before foreclosure­ tenant and community input. The review even owners who have so mismanaged process takes at least three to six months. buildings that the City has pressed for a The Department of Housing Preservation The Future court-appointed 7A Administrator, or own­ and Development (Policy and Government It has now been two and a half years since ers who have been convicted of arson or Liaison, Charles DiMaggio, 212-566-6538) City Council passed the last major change tenant harassment. In order to prevent the reviews residential properties, and the Di­ in redemption and release procedures (Lo­ City's redemption and release policies from vision of Real Property (Release Center, cal Law 15, March, 1982). What are the is­ working at cross purposes to the neighbor­ James Montefinese, 212-566-7626) reviews sues still under debate? What changes are hood preservation efforts of residents and non-residential property. The agencies can necessary to make these procedures consis­ city agencies, City Council and the adminis­ consider a wide range of issues in making tent with the neighborhood preservation and tration will have to seriously consider the their recommendations, including owner­ survival efforts of community residents? housing and human impacts of these tech­ occupancy, owner management record, Different communities and different types nical tax collection policies, and make owner tax payments on other properties, and of residents obviously have different takes changes accordingly. 0 Housing Court records. They can recom­ on this subject. Communities with large mend that a release be denied; they can numbers of poor owner-occupants are still Sue Reynolds is Associate Director ofthe recommend that a release be granted if the evaluating the impact of the more favorable Associationfor Neighborhood and Housing owner signs a repair agreement; or they can terms instituted for these owners in 1982. Development.

SInce 1880. the HouIIng Erwgy AIIIMce for ..... CooperMM Corp. (H.E.A.T. COOP) ,.. provided loW co.t '-heMIng 01 Md -vY ... reduction ~ The H.E.A.T. Coop has targeted for seMces the IaIgeIy minority low and middle income neighborhoods 01 the Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan and ~ . H.E.A.T : s general ptJIp068 is to provide assistance and seMces that lead to neighbori1ood stability. As a proponent 01 economic empowerment for revitalization 01 the City's communities, H.E.A.T. remains CXlII'IITIibed to assisting ..-tv emerging managers and owners of buildings with the reduction of energy COlIs (long recognized as the single most expensive area 01 building management). H.E.A. T. has presented tangible opportunities for tenant associations, housing coops, chun:hes. community organizations, ~ and small businesses to gamer substantial savings and low« the COlIs 01 building operation. TIvough the prInwy .... of providing loW coM home hIMIng oil, v.tous '-ling pIent ..me. Md -vY _ ...... d..mc.. H.E.A.T...... twve coIIedIveIy __ _ 1.5 mIIon doIIra. Vtbrking ooIIaborativeIy with oCher communiIy S8IVice organizations with similar goals, and woOOng to establish its viability as a business entity, H.E.A. T. has committed its revenue generating capacity and poIentiaI to proIIiding 8IIIVic:es that WOI1t for and lead to stable, productive communities. If you are interested in learning more about H.E.A.T. or if you are interested in becoming a H.E.A.T ...... cal or write the H.E.A.T . office.

Housing Energy Alliance for Tenants Coop Corp. 853 Broadway. Suite 414. New \Or!<. NY. 10003. [212] 505-0286

CITY LIMITS/December 1984 26 iIIII~ ______

upstate Republican-dominated body has ELECTION long been the graveyard of tenant initiatives. While the group acknowledged it had little chance of altering the political power LESSONS TENANT balance in the senate, it felt that by produc­ and I ing a strong tenant vote in the races it could '~]HAT HOPEFUL MESSAGE-CAN send a message to senate leadership that Y Y community activists carry fNIay from tenant legislation deserves more serious the November general election? While the VOTE consideration. results of the biggest national contest don't Tenpac, as the group quickly became bode well for housing or low income pro­ known, made endorsements in two impor­ grams, there were some local activities tant senate races. The move produced a split which may create the basis for significant­ result in terms of victories. In the 23rd dis­ ly altering the proportions of political trict in Brooklyn where a pro-tenant Demo­ power. trict records in the city in 1982 in terms of cratic incumbent, Joseph Montalto, faced a Voter registration was the tactic of choice voter participation. Just one-third of the tough challenge from the former state sena­ this year and a national campaign was eligible voters were registered in 1982. tor, Chris Mega, Tenpac plunged more than kicked off with heavy foundation backing Made up of 48 percent Hispanic and 34 per­ 40 organizers into the race, canvassing mul­ more than a year and a half before the cent black residents, less than a third of its tifamily buildings and registering voters. But November election. Although many charac­ 26,000 families are above the poverty level. Montalto lost in his conservative Bay Ridge terized the results of the nationwide cam­ Utilizing a combination of direct mail, and Bensonhurst districts by heavy margins, paigns as far less than had been projected cultural events (such as a concert by musi­ not enough to offset the high tenant Mon­ or hoped for, in New York City the numbers cian Ray Barretto where the cost of admis­ talto vote elsewhere. "Montalto," said Anne of registered voters are clearly changed in sion was registering two new voters), radio Pasmanick of Tenpac, "was defeated more the aftermath of the campaigns. advertising and many volunteers, the project by Reagan than by Mega." Human SERVE, one of several nonprofit took credit for increasing voter turnout on At the last minute, reported Pasmanick, and non-partisan organizations created to primary day by 54 percent and at the general Republican Senator John Flynn of Yonkers, coordinate and fuel voter registration drives, election by 57 percent. Overall, the num­ sponsor of the Flynn-Dearie Tenant Protec­ reported that 870,000 new New York City ber of voters climbed from 13,000 to 21,000. tion Act, sent a letter to tenants in the dis­ voters registered in time for the 1984 general The Empowerment project was bolstered trict urging a vote for Mega as a pro-tenant election. According to Don Hazen, New by another registration drive carried out in candidate. Tenpac took Flynn's involvement York state organizer for the group, those new adjoining assembly districts by the East as a sign that their intensive work on Mon­ registrants now give women voters a half­ Brooklyn Churches organization. Accord­ talto's behalf was getting Senate leaders million edge in the city, among other ing to organizer Ken Thorbourne, EBC jittery. changes. registered over 10,000 new voters in four of But in another critical race, Tenpac ap­ As a one-issue campaign, however, Hazen the borough's poorest districts, including the pears to have made a strong contribution to expressed some doubts. "Voter registration 54th. Organizers for the group said each of the victory of a strongly pro-tenant candi­ has got to be from now on a part of any com­ the new voters was called on election day. date. Al DeNully, who coordinated Tenpac munity organizing effort," he told a group When the November 6 tallies were count­ organizing in the 36th Senate District which of community organizers at Hunter College ed, the vote in each district was up substan­ covers portions of southern Westchester School of Social Work. "The ebb and flow tially from the last election. In the 40th County, reported that Suzi Oppenheimer's of the work is enormously expensive:' A.D., 24,000 people voted, up from 16,800 defeat of Republican opponent John Perone Hazen added. And, pointing to the far more or 84 percent from 1982. In the 55th A.D., was largely forged in Mount Vernon's sophisticated electronic registration efforts voters were up 117 percent, and in the 53rd predominantly black and renter communi­ mounted by the Republican Party in contrast A.D. up 57 percent. Although lines were ty. Oppenheimer told.a benefit party for the to nonpartisan and Democratic Party efforts, redrawn somewhat two years ago, there ai-e New York State Tenant and Neighborhood he warned, "The Right will out-organize us now more people voting in some of these Coalition a week after the election that Ten­ on that front with both money and expertise." districts than were even registered in 1980. pac's work, along with that of Mount Ver­ One strategic attempt to impact on voting non United Tenants League, put her over the patterns in a single city Assembly district 1enants for Political Action top. was carried out by the nonprofit Commu­ A group of tenant organizers tried a differ­ Those involved in Tenpac will be assess­ nity Service Society. It selected the 54th ent approach in two State Senate elections ing their experience in coming weeks and A.D., covering parts of Brooklyn's Bush­ in the metropolitan area. Tenants for Polit­ considering what role it can play in other up­ wick, East New York and Cypress Hills ical Action was organized by city tenant ac­ coming local elections. Together with the neighborhoods, on which to focus its Com­ tivists in the early Spring in order to put dramatically different voter numbers now munity Empowerment Project. That dis­ housing needs more squarely on the politi­ showing up in largely tenant and low income trict, according to Richie Perez, who headed cal agenda. Early on, a decision was made communities, this could be an increasingly up the project, had one of the ten worst dis- to target races in the state senate since that potent combination.OT.R.

27 CITY LIMITS/December 1984 patriarchy; he really doesn't connect to those CUOMO'S DIARIES wayward refugees of the sixties who still confound pollsters - in two diary entries, he peevishly remarked on the assassination that "a John Lennon dies every night in the city but goes unnoticed." Granted, it's not the loss of say, Dean Martin, but still.) Halfway through Cuomo's first term, there have been few innovative steps in bringing the New York State family together. District 1199's hospital workers were banished from the dinner table during a prolonged strike marked by unprecedented bumbling and recalcitrance by the state. Cuomo's appointments have been Mario Cuomo. terms, eagerly building a T.V. script down unimaginative, returning Edward Larkin, a to the final shoot-out. Only Cuomo's one­ pro-utility Republican, to the Public Service liners receive any serious attention. At least Commission and John Dyson, who gave Diaries of Mario M. Cuomo the voting public can relate to a second-rate $50,000 to the Cuomo general election cam­ TIt, Campaign for Gov,rnor Tonight Show monologue. paign, to the Power Authority. The Urban After a long search for a campaign Development Corporation under William llJuuIom HO"SI, DU. metaphor that could project connectedness Stern, the Governor's finance chair, still and community without mentioning big prefers expensive commercial ventures like government, Cuomo found the family. He the Convention Center to local community By RIchard Schrader would pullout his pet image, the social fa­ development. After intensive lobbying on mily, at every gathering across the state and the part of housing and religious organiza­ ~TBAR THE END OF OCN. CUOMO'S it appears allover the diaries. After invok­ tions, the state recently designated two aban­ .1. ~ diaries, a familiar figure in political ing a litany of family, hard work and tradi­ doned Division for Youth holding facilities romance makes a tleetina appearance. In an tion, Cuomo makes frequent forays into a as housing for the homeless. It was the first entry dated Nov. 11, 1982, Cuomo notes, somewhat archaic theological discourse. tangible sign of movement on an issue "David Rockefeller came in. We're almost The main themes in his diaries are complete almost as visible as the Mayor's visage. back to 1975 and 1976 when it comes to fis­ with musings on the Jesuit 1eilhard de The Governor's current pivotal proposal, cal problems and well need the private sec­ Chardin, God's will, and Christian steward­ a $81S million state income tax cut, will cost tor again." ship. Chardin appears to tickle him mighti­ New York City nearly $100 million while After a startlingly successful year of chas .. ly; the Governor tirelessly quotes him placing a loaded gun in Senate Republican ing electoral fantasies, the Governor-elect without humor. "The whole universe, even Warren Anderson's hand to quiet any finally received a visitor from the real the pain and imperfection we see, is sacred Democratic opposition to the reduction of world. His splendid campaigns against and holy in every part." Still, such scintil­ state revenues. Down the laundry list, from right-wing Democrat Koch and monarchist lating ruminations seem spectacularly civi­ energy to taxes to construction, Cuomo's ad­ Republican Lehrman allowed Cuomo to slip lized when locked in spiritual combat with ministration differs more in policy and in­ into the baggy comfort of a not-entirely­ the Uth century mysticism of the former tent from the Carey years than from the fashionable New Deal wardrobe. When the Bishop of Scranton. typical Republican. reigning patriarch of this country's royal fa­ The diaries seem oddly civilized as well But that's politics in the '80's. In the age mily walked through the door, the im­ when viewed as a campaign document for of the spectacle, policies seem secondary. migrant's son met the embodiment of those 1988. There is the patented self-doubt along Bring in the private sector. Thke a lunch with ruling-class reflexes that seek to control and with the patented self-serving ambivalence David Rockefeller. When political cam­ incorporate all the election-time rhetoric (I should say more, 1 have said too much). paigns become saturated in a myth and il­ and imagery. The banker's banker only The Governor will find the road to the White lusion whose codes are arduously wanted to cage whatever dancing bears re­ House slippery and uncertain terrain once constructed to gain the sympathy of the mained at large. At this moment the elect­ he is transformed into a Presidential candi­ voters' perceptions, the affairs of govern­ ed official realizes there's no business like date and the object of obsessive national ment are relinquished to the same faceless show business. scrutiny. Hollis, Jamaica, Corona, even technocrats who are busily fine-tuning the Reading Cuomo's diaries, its clear he ear­ Rochester, will seem like havens in a heart­ machinery of the corporate state. Cuomo's nestly wanted things to be different. The less world. Hell have to soften his ethnic value is that at a time of violent reaction, he pages are filled with tormented moralizing registers in this here repUblic. His own coa­ signifies a tradition that can, on occasion, on the limits of his campaign. He notes with lition may drift if it really listens to his ideas vector toward the underclass, however hesi­ apprehension early on that the media paints (feminists are unlikely to exhibit great en­ tantly. A reminder of the poverty of our po­ each encounter with Koch in overheated thusiasm for his unabashed paen to old-time litical condition is that Cuomo has made two

CITY LIMITS/December 1984 28 good speeches in two years and is now one approach toward Jesse Jackson, balancing circulating in the political marketplace, of the few live bodies in the party. But these justice, opportunity and the possibility of Cuomo is not the shabbiest available com­ speeches did enrich the political dialogue; movement while reassuring the heartland modity. What remains to be seen is the price what other white, mainstream politician that liberalism had reached a terminal state progressives will have to pay for admission outside of Ted Kennedy, could attempt an of exhaustion? With all the damaged goods into his family. 0

From the Other Side of tual events which took place this summer as unruly crowd, it was her phrase that "there support for her claim. would have been danger to them" which sht the Anti-Poverty Board She fails to cite my refutation that I did tried to get me to repeat to no avail and opt­ not at any time try to bar supporters of Siner­ ed to insert as a quote from me anyway. gia from a 1uly 2Sth board meeting. In fact, The article also contains other errors in Dear City Limits: I had to intercede with the building superin­ fact which would be too numerous tr tendent where we hold our meetings to allow deicribe in this letter. There are many are. In the article on the Community Develop­ the board members to use the community I rni&ht aaree with criticism of C.D.A. Its ment Agency (C.D.A.), Annette Fuentes' room on account of the crowd. The person politicization, the efforts to influence reporting turns the journalistic profession­ whose affidavit was included as part of the boards' lundin, recommenc:lationa and the and your publication into a horror show. Ms. supporting documentation for the Sineraia abuse of committed neiahborhood activi.ts Fuentes not only misquoted me but distort­ legal action was outside of the building while to justify C.D.A.'. manner of operation will ed documented facts as well. Despite my I was in the lobby with the superintendent continue to pla,ue the reputation of the com­ repeated corrections of her wording of and the tenants' committee chair and could munity action program (its correct title). somewhat loaded questions, Ms. Fuentes not have possibly known the substance of the Unfortunately, the blatantly sloppy con­ chose to write her version. conversation. Persons who are not board struction of Ms. Fuentes' piece (I refuse to First of all, area policy boards do not members are never allowed to speak at regu­ call it journalism) makes approval on any "disburse federal anti-poverty money to lar board meetings. In accordance with our level impossible. community groups." The boards make by-laws, members of the public may be Vicki Morris recommendations of community based or­ present as observers only provided they do Chairwoman ganizations and the level of funds to be al­ not interfere with or disrupt the working of Area Policy Board #7 located to them for performance of specific the board. As a result of several outbursts activities. These recommendations must be at the July 25th meeting, it was the decision A.F. responds: I stand by everything writ­ made in accordance with certain procedures of the full executive committee, after con­ ten in the article, "What's Poverty Got to Do and guidelines including a public participa­ sultation with C.D.A. officials, to go into ex­ with It." My information about the Commu­ tion component to determine priorities. ecutive session should the situation warrant nity Action Program, as well as quotes from C.D.A. and/or the mayor may reject those it-hardly the decision"at will"of a "one Ms. Morris, is accurate and was painstak­ recommendations. As I pointed out to Ms. woman show." ingly researched. In fact I am surprised at Fuentes-a point she failed to mention, it is On August 1st more than ninety outsiders, her personal attacks on my professionalism. in fact a mockery of community based pow­ documented on signed attendance sheets, But the bottom line in all this is that a vote er to give the boards the right to recommend filled a room with a capacity of sixty-five on allocating money took place August 1 without final decision making privileges or before board members had arrived. There during an executive session and the public the right to periodic review of agency per­ were not even enough seats for us and the was shut out. The vote could have been post­ formance. building management was determined to poned until a larger meeting place was Ms. Fuentes, in discussing the "Sunshine" halt the proceedings if we did not clear the . found. There are always alternatives. Ms. or Open Meetings Law, sarcastically stated space. Morris never denies locking out communi­ that I have my own "interpretation of the Although I did tell Ms. Fuentes that some ty members but has sought to justify it on Sunshine Law," then goes on to misstate ac- board members felt intimidated by the large dubious grounds. 0 29 CITY LIMITS/December 1984 C7 BICYCLE HAVEN: 4. neighborhood C7 KEYS TO INFO CITY: For those who C7 BIG APPLE AUCTION: Bid on a bicycle shelter is the subject of a design come believe knowledge is power, a reference piece of prime New York real estate at the petition sponsored by Stry~er's Bay Neigh­ book of names and telephone numbers of all East Harlem People's Public Auction Satur­ borhood Council. The Council is seeking personnel who compile the federal govern­ day, December 8 at 2 p.m. In an event . designs for a sturdy, attractive overnight ment's data should be a formidable tool. designed to raise consciousness about the ci­ shelter for bicycles from architects, students, Called Federal Statistics Directory, the book .ty's tax and housing policies, the Commit­ designers and generally imaginative people. is the effort of Richard D~eo and William tee to Save East Harlem will hold an Submissions will be judged by a panel of Evinger who saw a need to centralize infor­ ~uction" of such prize properties as Trump professionals in crime prevention, industrial mation needed to track down a wealth of Tower, Olympic Tower, Gracie Mansion, design, architecture and bicycle planning. statistics and resources from over 100 fed­ Manhattan Place and Park Belvedere at Entry kits will be mailed January 14, 1985. eral agencies. The 241-page book contains which local and citywide community Registration deadline is March 22 and com­ the names, titles and phone numbers of groups will participate. The auction will be pleted designs are due April 22. To register, more than 3,000 statistical personnel. It is at P.S. 72 (comer of 104 St. and Lexington), send a $15 non-refundable check to SBNC available for $14.95 plus $2 handling from from 2-5 p.m. A $1 donation is requested. Bike Project, 561 Columbus Ave., New ICUC Press, p.D. Box 1447, Springfield, Va. For information: 417-1500. York 10024. For information: Gail Boor­ 22151 or by calling 703-323-8065. stein, 'irl4-7m. C7 TECHNICAL BULLETINS: Six new C7 CELEBRATE ANHD'S 10fH ANNI­ bulletins have been released by the Commu­ The perfect ChrIstmas gift ••• VERSARY: On Friday, Jan. 25, the Associ­ nity Information Exchange. "Historic ation for Neighborhood and Housing Preservation" explains how to finance and Development's celebrating its' 10th anni­ save low income neighborhoods; "Com­ versary. ANHD was the first effort by New puter for Neighborhoods" gives communi­ York's fledgling community development ty leaders ideas on computerizing their groups to form a permanent coalition to work; "Neighborhood UDAGs" is an in- address the citywide needs of neighbor­ , siders view of packaging a UDAG deal; hood organizing and revitalization. ANHD "Small Business Incubators" is how-to infor­ also is the founder of the City Limits, and mation for community groups; "Corporate invites its' readers to join in a classy but Support for Community Economic De­ down-home evening. The celebration will velopment" looks at trends in corporate feature a dynamite mystery speaker, delec­ funding, research methods and assistance table buffet supper, live music and dancing. organizations; "BUD's Rental Rehabilitation For reservations and tickets, call ANHD at Program" and "HUD's Housing Develop­ (212) 239-9410. ment Grant Program" look at the newest fed­ C7 NURSING HOMES: A new publica­ eral housing programs. Bulletins are $2.50 C7 PLANNING IN MADRID: Net­ tion titled, "The Rights of Nursing Home each plus $2 for handling. Order from: work/Forum, a program of the New York Residents in New York State: A Manual for Community Information Exchange, Nation­ Area Planners' Network, the Forum on Ar­ Residents, Their Families and Facility Staff' al Urban Coalition, 1120 G St., N .W., Suite chitecture, Planning and Society and the is available for $5 from: Coalition of Institu­ 900, Washington, D.C. 20005. Center for Human Environments will tiona1ized Aged and Disabled, Lehman Col­ present an evening on December 14 on so­ C7 COMMUNITY INVESTMENTS: A lege, Bldg. T3 Rm. 1l3A, Bronx, NY 10468. cialist planning in Spain's capital city. "Land clearinghouse on alternative investments It is free to nursing home residents. Without Bread (Las Hurdas)," a fllm by Luis for community development organizations Bunuel will be shown and Ximena de 1a Bar­ has been formed by the Interfaith Center ra MacDonald, an architect with the Madrid on Corporate Responsibility. The clear­ r:::r HAPPY B-DAY, ED: While Mayor City Council, will speak. The program be­ inghouse reflects growing interest of reli­ Koch is being celebrated by the city's elite gins at 6 p.m. at the C.U.N.Y. Graduate gious groups in projects that have social on December 12, community organizers Center, 33 W. 42 St., room 2m. Admission benefits for low income communities. will hold their own birthday party for him is free, wine and snacks will be served and Proposals are accepted from community outside the Sheraton Center at 53 St. and 7th donations will be encouraged. groups and routed to member churches in­ Avenue. Inside the Center, guests will pay r::::r PHOTO EXHIBIT: "People of the terested in funding alternative development up to $2,500 to wish Koch a happy 60th South Bronx" is a show of works by projects. Twenty-six Catholic orders in the birthday. Outside, members of the Lower documentary photographer Walter Rosen­ city have started the Leviticus Fund for such East Side Joint Planning Council, Commit­ blum. It can be seen in the graphics gallery investments. The clearinghouse also net­ tee to Save East Harlem and other commu­ of Lehman College Art Gallery through works with insurance companies and foun­ nity groups dressed in gowns, tuxedos and January 6. Lehman College is located on dations which make socially-oriented party hats, will pass out birthday leaflets and Bedford Park Blvd. in the Bronx. For infor­ investmerits. For information: Keith Rol­ present Koch with a giant cake. The func­ mation: 960-'irl31. land, (212~ 870-2316. tion begins at 6:30. Formal dress optional. CITY LIMITS/December 1984 30 ~~------

Neighborhood Initiatives Development Corporation TYtU RECEPTIONIST/CLERK TYPIST $11,000-13,000, articu­ positions are available in the Pelham Parkway area of the late, personable, . w/gd communication skills to answer Bronx to energetic and independent persons. Salaries phones, deal w/public, type, file and perform other tasks as negotiable. Housing Finance Specialist-Requirements: required. Accurate and attentive to details. Qualifications: Working knowledge of real estate financing, a familiarity H.S. diploma or equiv; 1 yr full time paid ofc exp; min typ­ with the Deficit Reduction Act of 1984, especially in the area ing 40 wpm will consider other combinations of education of installment sales, 0.1.0. rules and capital gains. skills & expo Bi-lingual helpful. Preference given to Clinton Knowledge of real estate appraisal and mortgage lending. residence. Good bnfts. Resumes to CHDC 66410th Ave, Excellent report writing, research and presentation skills. N.Y.C. 10036 Attention Charles E. Abney. Community Organizer-Requirements: Knowledge of rent regulations and HPD programs. Demonstrated ability to write newsletters and promotional materials. Creativity COMMUNITYITENANT ORGANIZERS (3): l...aNer Man­ to develop special community projects/events. Experience hattan. Strong-willed, innovative, energetic, non­ in tenant and community organizing. Send resume and conformist. No experience necessary: Spanish helpful. cover letter to: N.I.D.C., 2511 Barker Avenue, Bronx, N.Y. $12,000. (212) 228-0680. 10467.

URBAN HOUSING SPECIALIST Salary: $Mid-teens De­ ADVANCE GRAPHIC veloping innovative loan programs to combine existing housing programs & economic development programs to Great type produced by experienced upgrade & renovate buildings owned by long-term commu­ typographers on our digitized state­ nity merchants for affordable low- & moderate-income hous­ of-the-ort typesetter. ing. Qualifications: B.A. degree from accredited college + 1 yr's exp in housing, community organizing, urban devel., urban planning or related field prefd. Will also consider al­ ADVANCE ONUNE ternative of 5 yrs' exp as described above, or comb of educ Telecommunications Services: & expo Resumes to: Clinton Housing Dev Co., Inc., 664 Tenth Send us your data over phone lines Ave, NYC 10036, Attn: Charles Abney, Exec'Dir. E. using your word processor or computer. We also accept IBM PC WOMEN AND HOUSING COORDINATOR: Newly created compatible disks. position to organize single-parent female-headed house­ tBM and tBM PC are regtstered trademarks 01 holds around housing and other issues. Coordinator will be tnlernOllonat Business Machtnes Corp. YtUrking with YtUmen to identify key issues and developing BROOKLYN 852-7142 strategies for change. Previous organizing experience MANHATTAN 594-2636 preferred. Send resumes to: Fran Sugarman, Kingsbridge TELECOM CENTER 643-3819 Heights Neighborhood Improvement Association-a mem­ ber of Northwest Bronx Community and Clergy Coalition. ADVANCE 58 THIRD AVENUE 2805 University Ave. Bronx, New'rbrk 1046a (212) 548-0472. IROOKLYN NY 11217

Community Organizer. Renovation Supervisor. Weatherization Coordinator. Urban Housing Specialist. Community Management Director. Policy Analyst. . Housing Paralegal. Business Manager. Housing Director. Loan Arranger. Project Director. Construction Specialist. Activist. Accountant. Housing Attorney. Execu­ tive Secretary. Energy Specialist. Assistant Editor. Executive Director. Activist. These are just some of the positions recently advertised in CITY UMITS. The advertising choice of housing professionals in government, non-profit organizt;Ztions and industry. Call 239-8440 to place your ad. CITY LIMITS JOB ADVERTISING GETS RESULTS.

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';, ~ " , (JUST $12 FOR THE FIRST GIFT, $10 FOR EACH ADDITIONAL GIFT.) What better, easier, way to deal with your shopping list this year than City Limits gift subscriptions? Community organizers, homesteaders, urban planners, homeowners, tenants, even landlords and politicians will appreciate receiving New York's best coverage of housing news and neighborhood revitalization. Ten times a year they'll thank you for news they can't get anywhere else.

A terrific gift at any price, especially ours: $12 for the first gift subscription, $10 for each additional gift. And that includes a special holiday card announcing the subscription.