IN THIS ISSUE FIRST FOCUS 04 | Work in Progress Residents Get More NYCHA Jobs By Diana Scholl 10 | A Fork In The Paper Trail Dark Marks and Light Secrets By Neil deMause and Jarrett Murphy 04 | Health Care Diagnosing a Defeat By Neil deMause 04 | Government Obama and the Cities Vol. 35, No. 1 By Jarett Murphy March 2011 City Limits is published bi-monthly Magazine Distribution: For retail and THE FEATURE by the Community Service Society newsstand distribution opportunities, of New York (CSS). 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City Limits populous county, has an or contact 212-614-5398 for development is indexed in the Alternative Press Index Explore Brooklyn international mystique and opportunities. and the Avery Index to Architectural has been the epicenter of Periodicals and is available on microfilm 62 | ExtraExtra demographic and economic For Bulk Magazine Orders: visit from ProQuest, Ann Arbor, MI 48106. Events, Jobs, Announcements change in the five boroughs. www.citylimits.org/subscribe or contact and Offers How does that evolving City Limits’ subscription customer service reality match up to the long- at 1-877-231-7065 or write to P.O. Box standing reputation? Photo 3000, Denville, NJ 07834-9253 LookBack 64 | by Marc Fader Tip of an Iceberg www.citylimits.org 1 CITY LIMITS STAFF Director Mark Anthony Thomas Editor-in-Chief Jarrett Murphy Deputy Editor Kelly Virella What’S new AND what’S Contributing Editors Commuters on the No. 7 train platform at Grand Central. Photo by NEXT at CITYLimits.ORG Marc Fader Neil deMause, Marc Fader, Jake Mooney, Diana Scholl, Back to Brooklyn Helen Zelon “It has been more than 70 years since New York City Advertising Director Thirty-five years ago this month, in blocky typeface on stapled causes and their impact is not simple. has opened a new subway line. Meanwhile, our Allison Tellis-Hinds yellow sheets, City Limits published its first issue. The lead Photographer Marc Fader, meanwhile, explores the world global competitors from London to Paris to Moscow Marketing Assistant article began with the word Brooklyn. of Brooklyn at night. In a borough that is big enough to be to Hong Kong to Tokyo have been steadily expanding How fitting that we launch this anniversary year with America’s fifth largest city, the true identity of neighborhoods Nekoro Gomes an issue dedicated to understanding—at least a little more can sometimes be detected only when most of its people have their transit networks.” - GENE RUssianoff, Straphanger’S Campaign Responding to Creative Direction clearly—what has been going on in that borough. gone to bed. “ ALL I WANT For Christmas IS A SUbway TO Staten Island,” BY SAMUEL “Gridlock SAM” SchwartZ, DEC. 16, 2010 Thanks to the pen of Neil Simon, the camera of Spike Lee Vast and varied, Brooklyn defies comprehensive depiction Smyrski Creative and the beats of everyone from the Beastie Boys to Jay-Z, in words or images. But Mooney and Fader give us a sense ECONOMICS HOUSING Proofreader Brooklyn has a world- of the more challenging, FLYING BLIND WORKING FROM HOME Danial Adkison wide cultural profile, more interesting reality representing something that lies beneath the bor- Interns authentically urban even ough’s reputation. It’s the Catherine Dunn, Becca Fink, Laura to people who couldn’t kind of story City Limits Gottesdiener, Isabella Moschen, find it on a map. was founded 35 years ago Joshua Peguero, Tiffany Walden The real Brooklyn has to publish. never really matched And we’ve recently the image. And now learned that two founda- that reality is changing, tions are taking a bold When the City Council asked the BOARD its evolution measured stake in our ability to city’s Human Resources Agency For years, federal law required in the number of blogs continue that kind of for information on how levels of public housing authorities to Mark Edmiston, chair launched, the number journalism. The Ford welfare usage compared with employ residents in maintenance Adam Blumenthal Andy Breslau of high-rises built, the Foundation this month those of past years as well as and construction jobs. And for present needs, it got a surprising years the New York City Housing Michael Connor number of Chinese announced a grant of up answer: HRA didn’t know how Authority didn’t comply. But a new David R. Jones families moving to to $225,000 to expand our many people applied before 2009, NYCHA program is reversing that Andy Reicher Bensonhurst and the editorial capacity, and the doesn’t really explain why people record of failure. Is it changing Michele Webb transformation—for Brooklyn Community are falling out of the application lives as well? good and ill—of Williamsburg and Bushwick. Foundation last month agreed to partner with us in creating process now and doesn’t track how In the pages that follow, Jake Mooney explores three sides a Brooklyn bureau to provide the kind of in-depth coverage many errors it makes of the modern Brooklyn. In Fort Greene, we see the influx of the borough deserves. youthful energy and investment that is reshaping the borough. Thus, as it enters this landmark year, City Limits returns to Up Next At a site in Bed-Stuy, there’s evidence of a different—nega- where it started, looking at a part of New York that fascinates CHILD WELFARE BEHIND BARS ‘EMPTY’ RHETORIC tive—change from Brooklyn’s past decade: deindustrialization. the world. The stories have changed since 1976. But the thirst to Guards and inmates, And on the streets of East New York, Bushwick, Bensonhurst, understand them is still what animates our writers and readers. there are narratives of change that fit neither the script of real Mayor Bloomberg’s bid to take over the city’s youth sex and rape, in New estate resurrection nor the elegy for forgotten factories. Sincerely yours, justice system from the state has raised broad York’s prisons At each site, Mooney finds that sizing up the changes, their Jarrett Murphy support—and new questions. Coming IN FEBRUARY 2 The Note City Limits / Vol. 35 / No. 1 www.citylimits.org 3 FIRST In part because of push- back from advocates call- FOCUS ing for residents to be employed on stimulus-re- lated housing work and in- NANCY HARDY AD creased follow-up from HUD, even NYCHA critics agree WORK IN PROGRESS: RESIDENTS the agency has made a real GET MORE NYCHA JOBS effort to step up job training and hiring of tenants. Since 1968, public housing authorities nationwide have largely been ignoring a law requiring that they employ residents. Evidence suggests that at NYCHA, at fill in the gaps by offering these trainings. While the trainings least, that’s changing. fill up fast, at least NYCHA is now offering them. NYCHA isn’t providing these opportunities to residents solely on its own volition. Technically, they’re required by federal erome Mosley, a resident of the law. Section 3 of the 1968 Housing and Urban Development Thomas Jefferson Houses in Harlem, (HUD) Act created the goal of employing public housing was unemployed and wanted to residents on public housing development projects.