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November 1986 $2

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GALLENT ON BATTERY PARK CITYDTV CENTER FOR EAST
HARLEMDCITY BUILDING BONANZADLIVING IN HOTELSD
,2 CITY LIMITS November 1986
eltv
Volume XI Number 9
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FROM THE EDITOR
True Colors
Two of this state's highest elected officials have recently revealed
themselves to have the kind of racial and ethnic prejudices that are not
befitting the town dog catcher-much less the governor and a u.s.
senator. On October 14 we found out just what Governor Mario Cuomo
really thinks about his Hispanic constituents when he let slide in an
interview with Miguel Perez of the Daily News that he believes many
Hispanics would rather be on welfare than have regular employment.
Then there is Sen. Alfonse D'Amato, who is already known as a
barreler," a conservative hack whose allegiance to principles is secon-
dary to accruing power and votes. At a City Hall press conference, black
and Hispanic community leaders condemned D'Amato for his unbeliev-
ably ugly, racist comments documented in a March 10 issue of New
Republic magazine .
Cuomo's remarks evoked outrage in the city's Hispanic community,
as calls flooded WJIT radio station from people insulted by the governor's
statement that reflects, not only an ethnic bias, but a childishly simplis-
tic perception of Hispanics and why they are among the most disadvan-
taged, unempowered groups in the state. The gubernatorial shoo-in for
reelection and most likely candidate for president in 1988, Cuomo must
feel invincible; how ironic that he should expose his weaknesses so
facilely. And to add insult to injury, he tried to climb out of the nasty
hole he'd dug with some cliches abouthis own parents being Italian
immigrants. At a time when a new federal immigration bill has civil
rights and immigrant's rights organizations anticipating a wave of dis-
crimination against people of Hispanic heritage, Cuomo's statement
only fuels the unrighteous fires of xenophobia.
As for D'Amato, he was interviewed by reporter Murray Waas for a
story titled, "Senator Shakedown: Al D'Amato Brings Machine Politics
to Washington." In it, Waas quotes an anonymous city official who
attended a meeting with D'Amato in his early senatorial days. He and
other New York City officials were seeking support for a public housing
project in a low income Brooklyn neighborhood. "We didn't do so well
with the animal vote, did we?" he said. "Isn't it the animals who live
in these projects? They are not our people," responded New York's junior
senator to the city officials' plea for his assistance.
Waas won't identify the unnamed source of the D'Amato quote and
many city reporters are scurrying around trying to figure out who it
may be and which Brooklyn housing project inspired D'Amato's venom-
ous slur. But further information will just serve to quell the clamors of
the curious. We already know enough: that D'Amato is not interested
in the preservation of public housing; that he represents only those who
actively support him, not all New Yorkers; and worst yet, that he consid-
ers low income blacks and Hispanics to be 'animals.'
Racism still runs deep in the U.S. but in New York, it seems to be
running right at the surface.D
...,X'523
COVER PHOTO BY Bill GOIDELl
_. --. ---
INSIDE
FEATURES
Raising Hell
Chris Sprowal and the Union of the Homeless 16
Drawing on labor history and organizing techniques,
this formerly homeless activist and his cohorts are
shattering the image of helplessness to build a milit-
ant movement of the country's dispossessed.
The Real Life Drama of the Manhattan
Thlevison Center 23
MTC will be the largest TV production center this
side of Hollywood and it's coming to East Harlem.
Will this cause more displacement? Can El Barrio
survive the impact? Who is this developer
Buntzman? TIme in to find out.
DEPARTMENTS
From the Editor
True Colors ........................... 2
Short Term Notes
City Nabs Racist Realtors ................ 4
Terminal Battle Continues ............... 4
Consultant Contracts Slashed ............ 5
Hounding Harry Helmsley ............... 5
Steaming Homeless .. ... ............ ... 6
More on Developer Shnay ............... 7
Neigborhood Notes
Bronx ................................ 8
Brooklyn ........... . .............. ... 8
Manhattan ............................ 9
Queens ............................ . .. 9
Program Focus
Dealing City-Owned Buildings
Into Private Hands .................... 10
Legislation
! Rethinking Residential Hotel Living ...... 13
City View
Segregated City . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Neighborhood Newsstand ................. 29
Building Blocks .......................... 30
\\1)rkshop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
November 1986 CITY LIMITS 3
Raising Hell/ Page 16
MTC/ Page 23
4 CITY LIMITS November 1986
SHORT TERM NOTES
CITY NABS RACIST
REALTORS .
Three cases involving racial
steering by real estate firms
were settled in September by
the city's Commission on Human
Rights 'and Corporation .
Counsel. Two cases were
brought by the city based on
charges of discrimination
against blacks and other
minorities in Carnarsie,
Brooklyn and, in a third case,
charges of retaliation against a
city human rights worker who
was investigating a complaint in
Flushing, Queens.
The related Ccnarsie cases
were brought against David
Price Realty, a Century 21
franchise at 9506 Avenue Land
Farragut-Redwood Civic
Association after the
Commission received
complaints from minority
customers that they were denied
information about housing in
the area. The civic association
operates a free "home referral"
service. Evidence gathered by
the Commission indicated that
both Price Realty and the
Association practiced racial
steering.
In the Flushing case, the
Commission's Deputy Director
for Fair Housing Harvey Fisher,
sued P. J. Falci and Daughters
Realty at 164-11 Northern Blvd
after one of the company's
agents filed assault charges
against Fisher. The Commission
was a co-plaintiff in the suit,
represented by Corporation
Counsel; Fisher was represented
by the Housing Discrimination
Clinic of New York Law School.
According to Fisher, the suit
was initiated in spring 1984
after he visted the office of Folci
and Daughters to check the
discrimination complaint of a
young black man. A white
female tester sent by Fisher was
granted a lease on an
apartment that had been
denied to the black complainant.
On the day the tester was to sign
the lease, Fisher showed up at
Falci's office instead. "I
confronted Mr. Folci, I then took
the deposit the tester left, plus
the application, the lease and
the-rental registration," recalls
Fisher. HI told them it was part of
an investigation."
"Two days later, Folcis
daughter filed two criminal
charges against me, stating that
I assaulted her in the context of
stealing the depasit," says Fisher.
Charges were dropped by the
police department when no
probable cause was found. The
city and Fisher responded with
charges of their own against
Folci and Daughters for having
filed frivolous charges to
hamper an investigation.
All three cases were settled in
federal court with consent
judgements that allowed the
realty companies and the civic
ass,pciation to pay damages
without admitting any
wrongdoing. Price Realty was
also required to take steps to
insure nonracial housing
services and Farragut-Redwood
agreed to halt its home referral
service. Price paid a fine of
$7,500 to the city; the .
association was fined $500. In
the Fisher case, Falci agreed to
pay the city and Fisher $3,750
each; the complainant settled
for a $2,000 award for
damages from being denied the
apartment.
Pleased that the matter had
been settled after two years,
Fisher noted that another racial
steering case is now "in the
process of discovery." This case
is against Fillmore Realty of
Canarsie, the largest real estate
firm in Brooklyn.OA.F.
TERMINAL BAnLE
CONTINUES
Despite the Board of
Estimate's unanimous approval
of the $530 million Atlantic
Terminal Project for downtown
Brooklyn in early October,
oppanents of the project are
continuing their fight. "People
are very determined to continue
this fight," says Ted Glick, chair
of the ATURA Coalition, which
has been seeking changes in the
project for over a year. "We are
very disappointed that [the
Board of EstiMate] made no
changes in the plan."
At presstime, one legal action
had already been filed against
the project .an.d at least two
more were planned. South
Brooklyn Legal Services, on
beh61l of a' number of Io'cal
residents, filed a complaint in
federal court to block the
project's $10.8 million Urban
Development Action Grant until
a study is made of the effects the
project will have on the local
housing market and measures
are taken to mitigate those
effects. South Brooklyn Legal
Services was also planning an
action in state court charging
that the city did not pay
attention to the concerns ofthe
community in approving the
plan, says Roger Maldonado,
director of SBLSs housing unit
and Glick adds the ATURA
Coalition was looking into an
action that "may be our
strongest yet," centering on the
air pollution' the development
will generate.
The Atlantic Terminal Project,
to be developed by Rose
Associates, will plant three
million square feet of office
space, 400,000 square feet of
retail space, two parking
garages, a 10-movie theater
and 643 "townhouse
condominiums" on a 20-year-
old urban renewal site near the
intersection of Flatbush and
Atlantic Avenues.
Opponents fear the ripple
effects from the project will
cause an extraordinary amount
of secondary housing
displacement in the already
gentrifying neighborhoods of
Fort Greene, Clinton Hill,
Prospect Heights and downtown
Brooklyn, due to demands for
housing by office workers with
whom Rose hopes to fill the
office towers. The 643 units of
housing, to be built by the New
York City Housing Partnership
for families with incomes
between $25,000 and
$48,000, wiUbe affordable to
fewer than 13 percent of the
residents of the surrounding
areas, according to Brian
Sullivan, senior planner at the
Pratt Institute. The ATURA
Coalition had asked that 20
percent of these units be made
affordable to families with
incomes less than $25,000. It
had also asked that profits from
the project be set aside to
renovate 515 vacant, city-
owned apartments in the area,
as well as to provide permanent
housing to the 260 homeless
families living in the Brooklyn
Arms Hotel, which is scheduled
to be demolished as part of
Phase II of the project. Although
the Board of Estimate declined
to require that any of these
provisions be written into the
plan, two statements read at the
meeting at least addressed
these demands. A representative
from Brooklyn Borough
President Howard Goldens
office said Golden was asking
the Department of Housing
Preservation and Development
to develop an affordable
housing plan for Brooklyn, and
a representative of Manhattan
Borough President David
Dinkins said there would be no
immediate resolution to
condemn the Brooklyn Arms
Hotel.
The only significant victory for
the ATURA Coalition at the
Board of Estimate meeting
came on a demand that jobs for
local people and affirmative
action for minority- and
woman-owned businesses be
included during the construction.
An amendment was passed at
the meeting specifying that tax
escrow monies Rose will be
paying in lieu of sales taxes on
construction materials be
dedicated to these purposes. Yet
even that amendment has left
local activists unsatisfied. 'We
are happy to see some
movement, but the amendment
on tax escrows was too
general," explains Esmeralda
Simmons, director of the Center
for Law and Social Justice. "We
will continue to agitate to get
specific language" regarding
affirmative action into Rose's
contracts with the city and his
sub-contracts, she
says.DJennifer Stern
HOUNDING
HARRY HELMSLEY
Park West Village Tenants'
Association is continuing its fight
against owner/developer Harry
Helmsleys offer to convert Park
West Village apartments into
condominiums. Helmsleys
preliminary prospectus for two
buildings out of the seven that
comprise Park West Village was
first received in May, 1983.
Since then, PWVTA has fought
Helmsley on the basis that Park
West Village's Title I status would
be violated if it were used for
any purpose other than
middle-income rental units. Title
I legislation, passed by Congress
in 1949, authorized federal aid
for use by local public agencies
to develop new housing.
Manhattantown, Inc. received
property worth approximately
$13 million for $1 million under
Title I, and the agency then built
Park West Village to house
middle-income tenants. The
agency and the city agreed that
basic changes in the complex
wouldn't take place without
approval from the Board of
Estimate and the Planning
Commission in the first forty
years from the date the last
certificate of occupancy was
issued, or, not before 2002.
In September, 1984, the New
York Court of Appeals
reaffirmed Judge Martin Evans
decision that Helmsley needn't
have Board of Estimate
approval for the conversions. By
then, tenants were facing a
problem even closer to home-
harassment. Tenant harassment
took different forms, including
late night phony phone calls to
residents or their families, and
phony phone calls to residents
at work. Sophie Elam, a
member of P'NVTft\s executive
board, said that many times
when a lease ran out, "Helmsley
held off on leases illegally."
Also, Elam and PWVTft\s
President, Carl Harm, both
painted out that in all seven
buildings, apartments are
being warehoused -locked up
and left empty rather than
rented out again.
November 1986 CITY LIMITS 5
Fighting Helmsley's harassment:
Tenant auaciation members (Ie" to right) Saphie Elan, Pat Ethelyn Graham,
Carl Harm, Tani Ensley & Winifred Armstrong.
'. .
Helmsley's preliminary
prospectus became an actual
offer to sell in October, 1985. A
year later, a non-eviction plan
became effective for 372 and
382 Central Park West, the two
buildings pegged for
conversion. The plan requires
that 15 percent of the lease-
holders in 372 and 382 be
subscribers to purchase.
Long-term residents suspect that
some of the lease-holders
making up that 15 percent live
in another location, but have
promised to buy when it comes
time to convert. P'NVTA
attorney Eugene Eisner said,
"the matter is .investigation
and they have reason to believe
there are people leasing but not
living in those two buildings."
Eisner also pointed out that "the
plan is effective for fifteen
months, and time is running out"
for conversion proponents, who
will be protected by the
non-eviction plan until January,
1987.
PWVTA still has a long battle
ahead in their legal fight to have
Helmsley's plan revoked. The
group is dissatisfied with the
most recent development, a
decision handed down on
August 29, 1986 by Judge
Kenneth Shorter of the New
York Supreme Court. Judge
Shorter found evidence of
tenant harassment, but did not
rule to have Helmsley's co-op
plan denied. While PWV
residents did undergo what
Harm describes as
"considerable mental anguish,"
he also said that "Since we went
into court, the number of
harassment complaints
decreased." Harm attributes this
progress to a self-conscious
effort by Park West Village to
up their act." And while
the tenants are certain that
empty apartments are being
warehoused, Sophie Elam
considers this to be from a
"normal turnover" in the .
apartments, and stresses that
"Helmsley's not gotten away
with any evictions," or caused
P'NVTA to suffer a loss in
membership in any other
way.DBaftlna Cohan ..
CONSULTANT
CONTRACTS
SLASHED
Twenty-two community
nonprofits were axed from the
Community Consultant
Contracts program this fall, as
the budget was slashed from
$3.2 million to $2.4 million arid
as a new administration at the
city's Housing Preservation and
Development sought to fund
new organizations and
eliminate less deserving ones.
Many ofthose groups dropped
had solid records of housing
and organizing work, however,
and claim HPDs criteria
excluded those areas where
wars against displacement are
being waged.
"There needed to be a
distinction made," says Charles
Perkins, HPD spokesperson.
Perkins says the program was
opened to new groups at the
suggestion of the state
comptroller's office and the
elimination of some groups
reflects the fact "that the need
of a neighborhood may grow
or shrink."
Michael McKee of the
city-wide Community Training
and Resource Center disagrees:
"It seems to me that they chose
notto fund or refund groups that
do tenant organizing in areas
that have gentrification."
The Community Consultant
Contract program, begun in
1978, offers contracts through
HPD to community nonprofits to
provide housing services to low
and moderate income families.
Such services include tenant
6 CITY LIMITS November 1986
organizing, education and
counseling; technical assistance
to HPD in city-owned buildings;
arson prevention; and
mediation in tenantllandlord
relations.
Over the last five years, the
CCC progrom funded some 60
9roups at an average fee of
$28,000. While community
consultants regularly have filled
out refunding requests each
spring, this year each group was
required to fill out a lengthy
application. Grants to funded
groups were extended forihree
months while the proposals
were evaluated. Of 119
applicants, 62 received
contra.cts. The 22 to be cut were
notified September 19.
"The groups that were really
active got defunded," says
Nicole Levin of Strycker's Bay
Neighbomood Council. The
Upper West Side group serves
a 50-block area from 72nd St.
to l10th St., which encompasses
several Urban Renewal sites,
and has sued the city over the
development of those sites for
other than affordable housing.
For the last four years, Levin
says, the $27,000 received
through city contracts made up
one fourth of their entire budget.
Levin, whose group is the only
one concentrating in the area,
says the criteria in the
application establishing
"priority areas" doomed
Strycker's Bay from the start.
While they scored 42.5 points
out of 45 for quality of
performance and record with
HPD, they scored only three out
of 30 for "area of need."
Eleanor Schumann of Lenox
Hill Neighbomood Association
says her group was defunded
for similar reasons. According to
Schumann, the statistics used in
the "area of need" category are
deceiving. "There are at least
15,OOOpeople at or below the
level on the Upper East
/ Side with 2,000 who are
threatened with eviction," she
states. "The lack of
neighbomood need argument
does not make any sense."
Although Lenox Hill has other
funding sources, Schumann says
. the community consultant cut is
a serious blow and she is "not
sure what we're going to do."
Lenox Hill has worked effectively
with tenants of the City and
Suburban Homes, which
developer Peter Kalikow plans
to replace with luxury hi-rises.
Irma Rodriguez, associate
director of Forest Hills
Community House, views the
defunding of her program in a
similar light: "HPD defunded
groups right where the housing
war is being waged." Hers is
one of nine groups in Queens
that lost contracts. The
Community House has
programs to maintain
community services and fight
displacement of the elderly.
Rodriguez says the census
statistics used by HPD, "hide the
pockets of vulnerability" in the
area. 'We get requests from all
over Queens. We are the only
group doing this kind of work
here," she states.
According to Perkins at HPD,
cutting groups stemmed in part
from a 20 percent cut in federal
monies. While he says defunding
"is disruptive to groups," he
believes HPD judged it more
important to fund certain areas
"rather than funding a very
good group in a neighbomood
that doesn't have the same kind
of problems."
Despite their criticisms of the
cuts, some groups welcome
HPD's move to open the CCC to
new groups and what McKee
refers to as "removal of dead
wood." He notes that "for many
. years, the program was treated
as patronage," and credits HPD
for eliminating contracts such as
the Queens Presidents Council.
Funded under former HPD
commissioner Anthony
Gliedman, the Council was
known for its ties to the late
Donald Manes, then-borough
president. Midwood
Development Corporation,
another defunded group, was
also a Gliedman fovorite, says
one source who points out that
his wife sat on its board of
directors.
"The basic problem,"
according to McKee, "is thatthe
program is not adequately
funded." Referring to the
No ploc. to go: .
A n_ report targ.t. tit. cou of IIom.' ... n ....
$800,000 cut in the CCC
budget this year, he says, "It
would take less than half a
million dollars to fund the good
groups that were excluded."
Rodriguez stresses that the
groups don't want to compete
with each otherforfunding and
have been meeting for months
to plan other funding strategies.
A $30 million federal
appropriation that survived
President Reagan's attempt to
defer it may be targeted by the
groups for their programs.
But the future of the entire
Community Consultant
Contracts program itself
appears dubious.
that this years cuts presage an
end to the Contracts were
validated October 2 at a
Community Board 8 meeting.
Says chair Connie Adamak,
HPD Commissioner Paul Crotty
told her budget consultant
group that" next year, he could
lose the money altogether and
may have to eliminate the
program."OMary Jo
Neuberger
STEMMING
HOMELESSNESS
"Stemming the TIde of
Displacement," a joint report
issued in September by the
Coalition for the Homeless,
Community Action for Legal
Services and New York lawyers
for the Public Interest, challenges
city officials to take action to
prevent homelessness. Citing
the city's "crisis management"
approach to the problem of
homelessness as ineffective and
inappropriate, the authors of
the 1oo-page report analyze
the causes of homelessness and
offer recommendations on how
to prevent people from being
put on the streets.
"The whole purpose of the
report," says Leslie Salzman of
New York lawyers for the Public
Interest, "is to try to change the
debate on homelessness to
what causes homelessness." The
authors of "Stemming the TIde
of Displacement" felt that there
had been numerous studies of
what happens to people once
they become homeless, but little
if anything written on how to
prevent homelessnesss in the
first place.
Andrew Scherer, a lawyer
with Community Action for
legal Services, believes the city
should have been responsible
for undertaking this kind of
study. But city officals' "short-
sighted policy response" only
seeks to manage people once
they're homeless. "It doesn't
seem you can develop a
city-wide policy unless you
address how people become
homeless," explains Salzman.
The recommendations put
forth in the report focus on five
key areas: affordability,
abandonment, gentrification,
dispute resolution and
emergency social services. "If
you can address some of these
issues, you can prevent some
people from becoming
homeless rather than putting
them in shelters," comments
Salzman.
Those involved in producing
the report are among the citys
leading experts on the causes of
homelessnes. While they hope
the report will help prod the city
into taking a more
comprehensive approach to the
crisis of homelessness, over at
the Department of Housing,
Preservation and Development
it seems like business as usual.
According to lorelei Hardison,
an HPD spokesperson, several
weeks after "Stemming the Tide
of Displacement" was issued no
one had read it.OD. T.
MORE ON
DEVELOPER SHNAY
While the city agreed on
September 9 to bailout
developer Abraham Shnay
from the cost overruns that
plagued his South Bronx
subsidized rowhouses, an
examination of Shnay's record
as a developer of moderate and
middle income housing reveals
a series of questionable
practices and judgements by
one of the Department of
Housing Preservation and
Development's favored
developers.
Shnay, a Great Neck-based
builder/developer, began a
92-house project in the East
Tremont neighborhood in 1980
with federal subsidies and a
three-year completion
schedule. He halted work last
year after just 63 homes were
completed because costs had
climbed higher than h e ~
anticipated. The project and
Shnay received much media
coverage in August when 18
families moved into their
unfinished homes, vowing notto
leave until Shnay and the city
completed work. The families
had thousands of dollars in
downpayments into the homes
six years ago. The agreement
reached between Shnay and
the city will give the developer
November 1986 CITY LIMITS 7
Construction snags on Brooklyn'. Fulton St .... t:
Shnay's proj.cts k p running into problems.
$694,000 to finish the houses.
But just as that Shnay deal
was being sealed, the
developer was bowing out of
another project in downtown
Brooklyn because of
unanticipated cost overruns.
According to Steve Brown,
Director of Program
Development at the New York
City Partnership, Shnay last
spring broke ground far a
98-unit condominium project
on Fulton Street between
Carlton and \kmderbilt. Things
went awry shortly after. -Shnay
was designated by Gliedman
(then-housing commissioner)
and was doing fine. He ran into
delays with the subway before
he could even do the
foundations. He got past it, did
the foundations and then didn't
want to do the project because
there were going to be cost
increases. The question was
. who would pay. The lender
demanded he pay for overruns.
He said it was appropriate for
the lender to do it." When
Chemical Bank, the lender,
refused to commit more
financing, Shnay decided to
back out of the Fulton Street
development.
Underestimating costs is a
typical Shnay problem, says
Howard Weiss, chair of the Prott
Area Community Council
(PACC). PACC is the cosponsor
with the Partnership of the
Fulton Street housing and also
was the community spansor of
the Mohawk Hotel project (see
City Limits, June/July 1986)
which Shnay developed into
rental housing. "He should have
checked the foundation costs on
Fulton Street. He underestimates
and then he tries to get
subcontractors to meet them,
but they can't," remarks Weiss. "I
expect a professional to be a
professional."
Shnay's professionalism was
also in question when PACC and
their developer were trying to
sign off on the Mohawk deal
with the city, which owned the
building. "The city held out on
closing on the Mohawk because
of default payments they
claimed Shnay owed," says
Weiss, who sat in on
negotiations. At the City
Comptroller's office, John
lukomnik states that Shnay is on
the current default list for more
than a quarter of a million
dollars related to a Queens
project. -He did Sutter Gardens
and owed HPD $248,409 in
syndication funds-three years
warth. He built a ball field he
estimated at $227,800 in costs.
We said, 'a quarter of a million
for a ball field?'We say even if
its permissible, we think its too
much money." lukomnik says
that the matter of whether
Shnay can count an over-priced
ball field as syndication
payments is still under
negotiation. Asked why a
developer on the default list
would be named by HPD to
more projects, lukomnik stated
Shnay had been on and off the
list several times.
If Shnay's financial ineptitude
has been a concern to
community developers, Howard
Weiss recalls that Shnay failed
to deliver on a promise to assist
PACC in an innovative tenant
equity plan for Triblock, a
Section 8 project in Fort
Greene. "It was a new concept
to give resident equity, a piece
of the syndication. We felt if they
had a share of the building,
they'd have legal rights to be on
the board and help manage it,"
says Weiss. But Shnay never
followed up on his commitment
to obtain approval for the
innovative equity idea from the
federal Department of Housing
and Urban Development and
the deadline for such plans
passed. "It would have been the
first time ever for a Section 8,"
says Weiss disappaintedly,
"similar things have been done
but notthis way. His commitment
to the community should have
been the some priority as his
profit."
Weiss feels both the city and
Shnay bear respansiblity far
problems in cost overruns. -HPD
should review carefully projects
before approving them. They
have the talent ond resources to
evaluate and a respansibility to
see a developer brings in a
project lower costs." While
Shnay was on PACCs list of
patential developers for the
Fulton St. project, the group
would be hesitant to work with
him again. Says Weiss, "He has
to clean up his mess."OA.F.
8 CITY LIMITS November 1986
Bronx .
Celebration on Morris Ave.
During the 1970's the pressures of
crime and debilitated housing
pushed the people of the South Bronx
to find a new promised land. Deter-
mined to put the pressures behind
them, they settled on the banks of the
Grand Concourse in Mt. Hopel'frem-
ont and in the canopied row houses
of the Soundview neighborhood.
But the problems of the Bronx soon
caught up with them. Tremont lost
hundreds of apartments as dozens of
buildings were emptied by profiteer-
ing landlords and federal budget
butchers who carved away Section 8
housing programs. Instead of run-
ning, residents are now fighting
back-and winning. At a City Hall
press conference on Septemb!'lr 16,
Mayor Koch, the Mt. Hope Improve-
ment Association, St. Edmund's Epis-
copal Church and the Northwest
Bronx Community and Clergy Coali-
tion announced that st. Edmund's
Court-four buildings with 120 low
and moderate income
would be rehabilitated by the Mt.
Hope Housing Company and Wilton
Associates. Led by Phyllis
Longsworth and Ernest Brannon of
the Improvement Association, Rev.
Lloyd Springer of St. Edmund's
Church and Anne Devenney of
NWBCCC, the year-long st. Ed-
mund's Court campaign captured $7
million from the Municipal Assist-
ance Corporation's Housing Assist-
ance Program.
The celebration on Morris Avenue
and 177th Street, the site of the build-
ings, was a long time in the making.
Eight years in the works, it wasn't
until the organizing efforts of the Im-
provement Association that the real
bricks and bucks came through. With
a maximum rent of $110 per room,
the project meets local income levels
head on.
Come Together
During the 1970's the multi-racial
neighborhood along Soundview Av-
enue existed in relative isolation
from the crime and deterioration
sweeping much of the borough. The
peace was eventually shattered, but
residents quickly came together in a
multi-racial coalition to fight back.
The Soundview Taylor Block Associ-
ation, led by Carlos Irizarry, has been
in place for two years, organizing for
better police protection. The 100-
member organization has instituted
a fully-operating Civilian Patrol,
negotiated for better protection from
the 43rd Precinct and will soon merge
with the Beach Avenue Block Associ-
ation and the Underhill Avenue Block
Association to form the broadest-
based anti-crime organization in the
area. This new coalition holds much
promise for future organizing efforts
throughout the community. DAngel
Garcia
Brooklyn
Sink or Swim
For nearly two years the Waterfront
Committee of Community Planning
Board 1 in North Brooklyn has met
regularly to discuss the future of the
area's East River frontage. Much of
their energy had been directed at
cleaning up an abandoned five-block
stretch of property belonging to
Oliver Carey, which had attracted il-
legal dumping, prostitution, drug
dealing and arson. With large-scale
development planned in Long Island
City to the north and downtown
Brooklyn to the south, the Committee
knew that it was just a matter of time
before their waterfront attracted the
attention of major developers.
That time has arrived in a spectacu-
lar one-two punch that has the com-
munity board scrambling. On a large
tract of waterfront property owned by
So! Goldman, a plan was announced
for one of the largest waterfront de-
velopments in the city. In close pro-
ximity, the abandoned Carey prop-
erty has reportedly been sold to a de-
veloper involved in the Bush Termi-
nal project further to the south.
New York Harbor Group unveiled
their plan for the Goldman site: a
$100 million South Street Seaport-
style development. The proposal in-
cludes glassed-in piers, a marina, a
waterfront restaurant, upscale
boutiques and 700 units of housing,
some of which would purportedly be
set aside for senior citizens. The plan
was introduced by spokesman
Nicholas Sands and a flashy $30,000
video to members of the Community
Board and Polish Slavic Center in Au-
gust. If it sounds familiar to readers
of City Limits that is because it first
surfaced in a 1981 article here and
then disappeared.
No plan has yet been announced
for the other site. But residents of the
area can take a clue from the price
tag as to what is to come. At $21 per
square foot, development of manufac-
turing facilities would seem highly
unlikely. Carey's sale of the site came
after both the Arson Strike Force and
Corporation Counsel had begun to
apply pressure to force him to clean
it up.
These dramatic events, coming one
atop the other, have community resi-
dents concerned about the future of
the neighborhood. They question the
propriety of the planned residential
and commercial development of their
waterfront. One of the last viable
manufacturing areas in the city, the
waterfront currently provides jobs for
thousands of workers. These workers
provide business for the local mer-
chants, a relationship important to
the stability of the community. The
proposed plan would require rezon-
ing of the waterfront and could upset
the delicate balance which is key to
the character of the Northside and
Greenpoint.
Given that both parcels involve pri-
vately owned land and privately fi-
nanced development, the Commu-
nity Board and the community in gen-
eral seem to have very little leverage
to affect the plans. But the Waterfront
Committee, playing David to these
real estate Goliaths, take on the chal-
lenge.oDavid J. Dower
Manhattan
Cautious Celebration
Tenants in three East Harlem build-
ings have cause for cautious celebra-
tion after their recent victory in hous-
ing court. Following a rent strike
against owner Rahbar Massud, the
tenants of 1621 and 1629 Lexington
Avenue and 150 East 103rd Street won
a court order requiring much needed
repairs at the three buildings.
But tenant leader Milagros
Apodaca takes a tough wait and see
attitude on the newest round in a
four-year struggle over maintenance
and repairs. According to Apodaca,
Massud has other plans for the build-
ing. He offered some tenants in the
103rd Street building $2,000 to move
and told an elderly tenant in a rent-
controlled apartment he wanted to di-
vide her apartment and re-rent each
half for $850.
Apodaca and fellow tenants will
monitor the buildings' repairs care-
fully, all too aware of the changes in
the underway neighborhood. "The
property is going up, there's a lot of
condos being built. They want poor
people out and they don't care where
they go, they just want them out."
Just around the corner on 102nd
Street, there's a new sales office for
two condo buildings. The two build-
ings sit on either side of a building
with a rent strike banner. With two-
bedroom apartments going for
$140,000, a confident broker stated
the units would be sold the minute
the prospectus was out.
Apodaca believes the fight with
Massud is typical of the situation in
other neighborhood buildings, where
owners want to convert the property
to more lucrative condos. "By not
doing repairs, by not giving essential
services [the landlord] figures the ten-
ants will eventually move out." But
Apodaca intends to remain. "I was
born and raised here. I'm not going
to move."
Chelsea's Nero
After several months of investiga-
tion, Chelsea landlord and noted vio-
linist Gregory Gelman and three as-
sociates were recently indicted for
their role in the two-alarm fire and
explosion that rocked 204 Eighth Av-
November 1986 CITY LIMITS 9
enue in Feburary. Gelman is charged
with first-degree arson, conspiracy,
reckless endangerment and insur-
ance fraud.
According to the indictment, Gel-
man sought to burn the building with
the purpose of clearing out "trouble-
some tenants. " But the seven families
living in the building at the time of
the fire have managed to remain. 0
Mary Breen
Queens
Living with Less
The Department of Housing Preser-
vation and Development recently
slashed over $516,000 in funding
from housing groups in the borough.
Organizers from several Queens-
based groups-HPD funded, de-
funded and never funded - recently
met at Forest Hills Community House
to discuss how to proceed with their
work despite the loss of money. The
organizers formed a coalition to share
information, make referrals and work
together to promote the interests of
Queens housing activists.
Members of this new coalition are
particularly concerned about future
funding for tenant advocacy ac-
tivities, especially the fate of the in-
formation table set up at Housing
Court by the Queens Task Force on
that judicial institution. Staff from
the defunded groups feel that HPD
officials expect the organizations will
continue to provide services.
IF THEY LOCK YOU
The only good news at the meeting
was that the Queens Borough Presid-
net's office has decided to provide
funds for some of the groups. For
more information about the new coal-
ition, contact Judy Zangwill at 718-
592-5757.
Senior Concerns
Queens - particularly central
Queens - has the highest concentra-
tion of senior citizens in the city.
Most of themlive on fixed incomes,
with many living below poverty level.
All are feeling the pressures of the
housing crisis.
Co-op conversion, increased Major
Capital Improvement activity and
soaring real estate values have in-
creased incidents of harassment, il-
legal lock outs and displacement in
the borough. Fears are running high
and the borough's senior population
is more in need of housing than ever.
At a recent legislative breakfast of
the Queens Interagency Council on
the Aging, representatives of groups
serving senior citizens made housing
the number one issue. QICA mem-
bers prepared an agenda that calls for
rent protections for seniors living in
small buildings not covered by rent
regulations, establishment of an anti-
harassment unit similar to one in the
Manhattan DA's office, a moratorium
on the eviction of seniors, legal rep-
resentation for seniors in housing
court, and extending Senior Citizen
Rent Increase Exemptions to cover
MCIs. QICA established a housing
sub-committee to push their
agenda.DIrma Rodriguez
OUT
If youy. Nved in en apartment,
hou .. or room for.t .....
I
30 .tralght daly .. you hove to be
given legal pape .. belo,. being
evicted. Simply locking you
out fl crime, even tf you owe
the .. _ ........ y.
If you 0" IIIegoIIy locked out.
go to the police prKlnct In your
neIgh_oocI right owoy.
Ask the poke to go bKk to your
home with you end erYeat the
.. ..-.., -",or ouperinte_t
If you 0" not let _In
Im_tely.
Be flrm. ltlegellock-outs ar. a
crim., but tt'. up to you to m.k.
lure the law Is enforced.
10 CITY LIMITS November 1986
PROGRAM FOCUS
Dealing City-Ovvned
Buildings Into Private Hands
BY BOB SANDERS
THE PHILOSOPHY BEHIND THE
City's Private Ownership Manage-
ment Program (POMP) is vintage
Reaganomics: let the private sector do
it.
Over the last six years, POMP took
150 in rem apartment buildings
(properties seized from owners who
were behind on their taxes and man-
aged by the city) and turned them
over to 19 private management firms
selected by the program's small staff
within the city's Department of Hous-
ing, Preservation and Development
(HPD). Last year POMP, originally a
brainchild of Mayor Koch, was one
of ten housing programs in the nation
to receive an award signed by Presi-
dent Reagan. Eiges and Eiges, a firm
owned by two brothers based in
Brooklyn, was also awarded for its
participation in the program.
But the Eigeses, and POMP, have
been the targets of increasing criti-
cism from tenants, most of them or-
ganized by the Association for Com-
munity Organizations for Reform
Now (ACORN). On July 14, tenants
representing 14 Eiges buildings
marched into HPD's enforcement di-
vision to file 45 complaints citing
rats, leaky roofs, and sporadic heat
and hot water.
There are three stages to the Private
Ownership Management Program.
During the first year, firms are paid a
fee to manage and rehabilitate POMP
buildings with a Community Block
Development Grant. In the next six
months, rents are raised up to market
value, with some tenants receiving
federal Section 8 funds. (While the
buildings are in rem, rent control
guidelines do not apply, though a
court challenge has limited the rent
hikes on occupied units.) Finally, the
buildings are sold with a 15 year
mortgage at 8.5 percent interest.
Returning ownership to the private
sector is at the heart of what makes
the POMP program so appealing to
the apostles of Reaganomics. But Tom
Gogan, coordinator of the Union of
City Tenants, dislikes "the whole con-
cept of turning these buildings back
over to the private sector who, aided
and abated by government neglect,
created the problem in the first
place." Bonnie Brower, executive di-
rector of the Association for Neigh-
borhood and Housing Development,
acknowledges that some private man-
agers do an excellent job, but adds,
"I think selling these buildings to pri-
vate managers on an inside track is
questionable. "
In theory, the buildings are inde-
pendently appraised and sold at mar-
ket value. However, several indepen-
dent appraisals were completed be-
fore the rents were raised and the
buildings rehabilitated, so the build-
ings were sold below their assessed
value. In August, 1984, POMP sold
the Eigeses six properties for
$165,000, even though they were
worth, according to the city's finance
department, at least $693,333. Such
bargains are widespread in the POMP
program.
"A Mess, An Embarrassment"
Milton Eiges admitted the build-
ings rehabilitated with $840,910 in
federal funds are now "a mess, an em-
barrassment," with 90 Downing
Street being the worst. Last April,
HPD slapped the five-story, 41-unit
building in Crown Heights with 187
violations, 26 life threatening, 144
serious. Mattie Stewart, a 36-year-old
mother on public assistance, was in
court last Christmas eve suing for lack
of heat and hot water in her $325-a
month, one-bedroom apartment. The
judge ordered Eiges and Eiges to cor-
rect these and other violations.
Most tenants expressed similar
complaints. Peg O'Neil described rats
"as big as my two fists. You can hear
them in the wall. Their tails sound
like whips." And water has been run-
ning down 76-year-old Nettie Har-
man's soot-blackened wall for the
past three years.
Eiges blamed some of the blighted
conditions on vandals and indirectly
blamed himself for not carefully
No repairs in sight:
Manallement doesn't always lead to maintenance
in the POMP program.
screening tenants. He displayed bills
totaling $2,224 for repairs in two
apartments, and produced a letter
from HPD, saying he corrected "viola-
tions in accordance with our agree-
ments." The letter did not specify
which or how many violations. As for
the heat, Eiges said, "It happens from
time to time during the winter. But
we've never been fined."
Despite promises to fix up the
apartments it wasn't until one week
after the building'S conditions were
cited in a July issue of the City Sun
that tenants said substantial work
had begun. But tenants from other
buildings, including 184-86 Prospect
Place (which had 41 pending viola-
tions, 32 serious or hazardous) com-
plained of a broken front door and
bad plumbing.
Landlord Review
POMP prides itself in screening out
bad landlords. Ads in the New York
Times ask for firms "with a de-
monstrated ability to upgrade older
properties." Each applicant must al-
ready manage at least 400 units and
disclose all assets in a detailed ques-
tionnaire. James Cook, POMP's a,ssis-
tant director, said the program makes
"grueling" checks into a firm's
November 1986 CITY LIMITS 11
portfolio, interviews tenants and
checks public documents. "Because
the review process is so thorough, we
haven't had a bad experience,"
claimed Cook.
The Private Ownership Manage-
ment Program submits a defense of
the contract before it can be approved
by the Board of Estimate. But a look
at the February, 1983, Eiges defense
indicates that either the process isn't
thorough, or POMP isn't telling all.
For instance, the defense mentions
Alan Shindel "a rehab associate for
Eigeses for 10 years" and a partner
with the Eigeses in Putman As-
sociates, the firm that eventually
bought the POMP buildings. The de-
fense doesn't mention that Shindel
action. In October, 1983, the con-
troversy culminated in a rent strike
over a broken elevator. (The elevator
still wasn't working properly last
April when the building had 73 pend-
ing violations.)
Yet POMP sold Eiges the first set of
buildings in August, 1984, and de-
spite problems with the first contract,
awarded two more contracts, along
with $735,786 in federal funds and
$54,349 in management fees. For the
last two years, the Eiges brothers have
managed one out of six units in the
entire program. The tenants of nine
buildings on Williams Street, which
were part of the Eigeses' second con-
tract, already have joined tenants in
other Eiges-owned buildings in pro-
Nettie Harman', _ter-damaged kitchen:
'resident Reagan gave the company that manage, her building, and many
othe .. in the program, an award.
filed for bankruptcy in 1968 as the
secretary and treasurer of American
Standard T.V. Thbe Corp., a corpora-
tion that left over $500,000 in debts.
"In general, the tenants were satis-
fied with Eiges," stated POMP in the
Eiges defense. "Eiges quickly re-
sponds to complaints."
Actually, HPD was well aware of
Eiges' stormy relations with tenants
of 486 Brooklyn Avenue, a building
which the Eigeses purchased from a
private owner in 1981. In June of 1982
the tenants, citing shoddy work in
other Eiges buildings, refused a HPD
Participation Loan - the first time a
group of tenants had ever taken such
testing conditions. In a June 2nd let-
ter to ACORN, POMP director Kevin
Alter wrote, "the Eiges appeared to
be focusing much of their attention
on these nine properties ... [and] hope
to have all these repairs completed
by the week ending June 6th."
But on July 1, large holes still re-
mained, flies swarmed up from the
basement and hovered over stagnant
pools in various bathtubs and sinks.
Some apartments had to be entered
with a screwdriver.
In April, Alter defended the Eiges
as "good contractors," but his assis-
tant, James Cook, expressed doubts,
and when contacted in July said he
did not know when or if POMP would
sell them the latest buildings. But
both Alter and Cook stressed the con-
dition the buildings were in before
they entered the POMP program. "I
compare it to the Titanic," reasoned
Cook. "We've got the boat floating
again and you're pointing out the salt
in the carpet."
Social Servants
To be fair to Eiges, some apartments
are not in bad shape. And to be fair
to POMP, the Eigeses' properties are
not the best in the program. They are
also not the worst. Two of the oldest
POMP properties in the Bronx, sold
to the 1700 Development Corporation
in 1981/82 for $143,400 (they are now,
according to the finance department
worth four times that amount), are in
such bad shape that owners Mark
Fein and Joseph Bodak have received
a $2.5 million Participation Loan, 60
percent from HPD at 1 percent in-
terest, to fix them up again. 15 Marcy
Place had 279 violations, some going
back as far as 1972. 1475 Wythe had
401 violations, including a broken
elevator and an unsecured front door,
allowing crack dealers easy access to
the tenants. Repairs are eventually
made, but Rosa Davila said she had
mushrooms growing out of her bath-
room ceiling before it was plastered
and repainted.
Bodak, who considers himself "a
social servant who saves buildings,"
said that the properties were nearly
abandoned and that POMP's $2,100
per unit wasn't enough to complete
the original rehabilitation. But with
the extra loan he expects to do "a real
bang up job. We're crazy to do what
we're doing. Most owners would walk
away" from the buildings. POMP has
sold 1700 Development Corp. nine
other buildings and the firm is in the
process of rehabilitating another 60-
unit POMP building.
Another contractor highly recom-
mended by POMP was the Rosen-
berg-Diamond Development Corp., a
firm which donated $2,000 to Bronx
Borough President Stanley Simon
one week after Simon voted to ap-
prove the firm's $1 million POMP
contract with a $50,000 management
fee. (Rosenberg, of course, denies any
.. connection.)
Robert Rosenberg and David Dia-
mond were part of Yasgar-Diamond,
12 CITY LIMITS November 1986
a landlord group blasted by the New
York Public Interest Research Group
in 1982 for providing substandard
housing for welfare recipients. Rosen-
berg said he was related to the Yasgars
by marriage. He added that David Dia-
mond's father is Harry Diamond, Yas-
gar's partner and a prominent land-
lord attorney who does pro bono
work for Rosenberg-Diamond. While
Rosenberg claimed that his firm
"broke" from the family six years ago,
POMP, in its 1985 report to the Board
of Estimate, cites the fact that Rosen-
berg-Diamond's "families have been
in real estate since the early 1900's"
as one reason to approve the contract.
The buildings Rosenberg-Diamond
have rehabilitated with $1,087,277 of
90 Downinll. Street in Brooklyn:
Part of an ,840,000 federally-funded rehab that
Milton Eiges admits is "an embarassment."
federal funds, gleam on the outside,
with cleaned brick and newly plan-
ted shrubs. But the inside, which was
inspected at least a year after POMP
awarded the firm the contract, had a
total of 584 pending violations. The
rat-infested building at 2114
Aqueduct Avenue, across the street
from Bronx Community College, had
234 pending violations when it was
inspected on April 22. A brief tour of
the building'S apartments conducted
1B4-86 Prosfect Place in Brooklyn:
There are 4 housing-code violations atthis build-
ing.
by Ermelinda Perez, a paralegal stu-
dent on public assistance, revealed
gaping four-foot holes, falling plaster
and moldy walls. Most repairs were
made on vacant apartments, which
can now fetch market rents.
Robert Rosenberg insisted that the
tenants were happy. He said he al-
ready spent all of the federal funds
(including $243,350 earmarked for
paint, plaster, general apartment and
public area repairs), put in $50,000
of his own, and took in six homeless
families to boot. He said he intended
to do more repair work, but "I don't
want to hear anything negative about
the building. Before I got there they
were being written off." Rosenberg
added he expects POMP to sell him
the buildings in the next few months
and he intends to apply for more.
Indeed, all POMP management
firms contacted said they would be
interested in additional contracts,
partly because they saw profits down
the line and partly because of the so-
cial service aspect of the program.
"Just give me a dump and some fed-
eral funds," commented Milton
Eiges. "It's a challenge. It's fun."D
Bob Sanders is a reporter now living
in Philadelphia who has written for
the Village Voice, Mother Jones and
the Guardian.
Mixed _;actio".
The Department of Preser"
vation and Development recently
decided to bring two Btonx proper-
ties into the PO.ty.tP 'Pfpgram. But
.the reactions oftenants.at the two
buildings are very different.
Tenants of 1184 Evergreen AY-
enue are glag that HPD has con-
tracted with Ralph Lawson As ..
sociates to tuh their Tl\e
original landlord abandoned tlie
property and the city's central
management,was unaJ.Jle to ..
with the drug dealers 'who overan
the building. Lawf>on Associates is
promising to uclean up" the build-
ing and make manYk"needed re-
pairs; n '
But the tenants 'hI
Manol' Avenue are notao
up abgut
<;
November 1986 CITY LIMITS 13
LEGISLATION
Rethinking Residential Hotel Housing:
A W o , " a n ~ Perspective
BY NANCY BIBERMAN
NEW YORK CITY PROPOSED LEGIS-
lation in September that would elimi-
nate residential hotel housing in
Manhattan and jeopardize its exis-
tence throughout the boroughs. Al-
though Intro 646 declares an
emergency in the survival of single-
room-occupancy housing, it actually
perpetuates a deep bias against the
preservation of low-income housing
in "developing" neighborhoods. And
it devalues residential hotel living
and those who choose it by treating
the housing stock and tenants as com-
modities that can be traded or "re-
placed" in unknown communities at
great human and financial costs.
This emphasis on replacing con-
verted SRO housing instead of pre-
serving what exists runs counter to
the growing housing demands of
"special needs" populations-el-
derly, disabled, battered women and
children, single mothers and chil-
dren, homeless.
In fact, many planners and ar-
chitects who design low income
housing argue that on-site social ser-
vices need to be packaged with the
housing-whether new or rehabili-
tated construction. And not only do
many of Manhattan's old residential
hotels provide community space for
tenants to socialize and congregate,
but the old fashioned parlors and
grandiose halls and dining rooms
offer potential for new services: on-
site child care, tenant-run dining
facilities, after-school club rooms for
teens, television and meeting rooms
for seniors. Most important of all, the
design of many residential hotels en-
courages a sense of community and
opportunity for social interaction.
In a time of acute housing scarcity
policy makers are ignoring the poten-
tial of residential hotels for low in-
come singles and even for families
and the reason is simple: most resi-
dential hotels house low income
people and are located in Manhattan
where real estate is "hot." Most resi-
dential hotel owners could make
more money converting to co-ops or
Looking for company?:
R.,id.ntial hot.1 housing can oHer alternatives for the elderly.
demolishing their hotels. The Koch
administration has decided to let
them do it, for a price-$35,000 per
SRO unit. This buyout clause is in-
tended to quell criticism that Intro
646 will allow scarce low income
housing stock to be lost. The units
will be "replaced" elsewhere.
But to view SRO units and their
occupants as interchangeable
widgets, replaceable in undefined
neighborhoods, is to dismiss the role
of community and social networks in
residential housing. Social scientists
have yet to measure the long-term
societal costs of involuntary displace-
ment of human beings from their
homes and communities.
The city's approach to residential
hotel housing also reflects ignorance
of urban history and insensitivity to
the housing needs of women: single
women, single mothers , working
mothers in dual career households,
elderly women. A look at the role of
residential hotels over the last 100
years reveals that more than any other
form of domestic architecture, SROs
have been an ideological battle-
ground where arguments about
home, family and "woman's place"
have been fought.
Hotel Living
The years 1880-1930 represented
the heyday of hotel living. For the
very wealthy, professional and busi-
ness people and clerical or industrial
workers it was a choice and a neces-
sity. One out of every twelve people
of the upper and middle classes of
this period chose hotel living. Perma-
nent residents filled half of the Plaza
Hotel when it opened in 1907. Calvin
Coolidge lived in a hotel for most of
his adult life, as did the historian
Mary Beard, who lived in a New York
City hotel with her husband and chil-
dren. Knowing that the hotel in
which she lived would serve three
meals a day to her family, Beard was
able to spend her time at her research.
Artist Georgia O'Keeffe lived in a
similar hotel with good lighting for
her painting. People took to hotelliv-
ing because the hotels met real needs:
they were conveniently located near
workplaces; they offered security
(many developed as women's resi-
dences, for example) ; most impor-
M CITY LIMITS November 1986
tantly, they offered services: social,
meals, housekeeping.
Writing in Cosmopolitan in 1904,
early feminist Charlotte Perkins Gil-
man offered her own vision of resi-
dential hotel living: "What if these
great structures ... turned their palm-
fringed roofs into happy child gar-
dens, and furnished great playrooms,
gymnasia and nurseries ... A busy
woman, happy and proud in her
work, could return to her exquisite
nest in one of these glorious
palaces ... to as contented a home life
as the world has ever known."
Gilman's vision never came to be.
While hotels multiplied in early 20th
century New York City, many plan-
ners and social commentators of the
period viewed hotels and women
who lived in them as a threat to home
and family life. A 1903 editorial in
the Architectural Record captures the
essence of the criticism: "While the
apartment hotel is the consummate
flower of cooperation, it is
also, unfortunately, the consummate
flower of domestic irresponsibility. It
means a sacrifice of everything im-
plied by the word 'home' ... a woman
who lives in an apartment hotel has
nothing to do. She resigns in favor of
the manager; she cannot create that
atmosphere of manners and things
around her own personality, which
is the chief source of her effectiveness
and power ... "
The attack on residential hotels be-
cause of their challenge to the tradi-
tional family and women's proper
place and function in it dovetailed
with another assessment by housing
"reformers": residential districts
should be just that, single use; hotels
celebrated mixed uses and the meld-
ing of commercial and residential
space. Hotels also violated the maxim
that residential housing should not
be of high density; the ideal was
single family homes on individual
lots. By World War I most states re-
quired that, to be considered a hous-
ing "unit," the residential dwelling
space needed its own kitchen and
bath. From the 1920's to 1970 hotels,
even residential hotels, ceased to
exist in official tallies as housing
units.
That hotels were effectively legis-
lated out of existence in the past 30
years is a fact not lost on the New
York Real Estate Board. Its media cam-
A dwindling stock of residential hotels:
rlt. city's 6uy out option treats t.nants life. a commodity.
paign to prevent passage of Intro 646
argues that no public policy is served
by preserving housing that has been
considered "substandard" for dec-
ades. However, this substandard
characterization and government's
acquiescence to it more than any-
thing perpetuates the bias against
anything but traditional family hous-
ing and makes even less sense today
than in Charlotte Perkins Gilman's
time.
Real Numbers, Real Needs
If such social and anti-woman cur-
rents have led to the depreciation of
residential hotel living, perhaps the
time has come for women's voices
and a pro-woman bias to shape their
future. There are more than one mil-
lion female-headed households in
New York City today, including
308,000 single mothers and 604,000
single women (one half of whom are
elderly). Between 1970 and 1980 in
New York City there was an almost
50 percent increase in female-headed
household with children under 18,
and this trend is likely to continue.
Of the 1.2 million households in the
city living in substandard housing,
female headed households make up
52 percent of the group. The elderly
are the fastest growing age segment.
New York City is home to 5 percent
of all the elderly in the country. In
1981, 50 percent of all of the city's
housing units were occupied by
single people, one-third of whom
were elderly; three-quarters of this
group were women. Behind these
numbers are young and old women
in increasing need of decent and ap-
propriately designed housing.
For single mothers and working
couples with children, convenient,
affordable child care for pre-school
children is a fundamental need. Half
of all babies under one year old have
mothers in the workplace, yet federal
funds for day care have been cut by
25 percent since 1980. And welfare
mothers, most of whom would like
to work, are not even eligible for the
meager existing day care until they
do get work. The large public spaces
of many residential hotels are un-
iquely well-suited for on-site child
care, eliminating the extra hours of
travel to and from work to stop at the
day care center.
Meals are yet another service often
associated with residential hotel liv-
ing. Certainly for working parents, as
well as elderly or disabled residents
for whom individual meal prepara-
tion can be problematic, a common
kitchen facility offering one cooked
meal per day would alleviate this bur-
den.
A study prepared by Phipps
Houses in January, 1986 evaluated
proposals by four universities in the
city to develop intergenerational
housing for elderly community resi-
dents and university students. In
each proposal the housing planned
was modeled closely on residential
hotels: the rooms were "singles" (dor-
mitory style); there were in some
cases dining facilities, club rooms
and hotel-type services.
The study found that with proper
tenant selection and services, in-
tergenerational housing was, for the
elderly, the most beneficial and heal-
thiest environment. The benefits in-
cluded prolonged active and inde-
pendent lives, development of mod-
ified extended families, mutual sup-
port, proximity to health care institu-
tions, cultural events, and transporta-
tion and a feeling of being in the
mainstream of activity, and not segre-
gated. Confinement to a building
could create either isolation or mean-
ing. With common spaces to meet and
congregate, meaning was created.
Residential hotel living enables the
elderly to maintain supportive net-
works, social interaction, and famil-
November 1986 CITY LIMITS 15
iar surroundings and services. What
it could allow for, if developed for an
intergenerational population, is the
opportunity for elderly residents to
participate actively in child care or
meal preparation. For many elderly
women, such activities might be an
extension of their own younger lives
and experiences. In the opinion of
the Gray Panthers, "Intergenerational
housing is a comfortable secure alter-
native to the institutionalization or
housing segregation of the elderly."
Intergenerational housing should
be located in residential hotels be-
cause hotels are historically about
services. That is why people chose,
and still choose, to live in hotels. To
recognize this is to take a giant step
away from the stigma often attached
to SRO housing. A working woman
is not maternally deficient because
she needs decent child care and
meals for her family, nor are the el-
derly socially deficient because of
their need for interaction with the
young. Hotels, by their design and
historical evolution, offer a unique
blend of public space and services.
Residential hotels are generally well
located, too. They were built to be
convenient to transportation and
workplaces and they still are. They
are likewise convenient to public
schools and shopping. With the ex-
ception of the 42nd Street area, most
Manhattan residential hotels are lo-
cated in neighborhoods where chil-
dren are reasonably safe to walk the
streets. Indeed, many of these neigh-
borhoods are inundated with the chil-
dren of the privileged. Any welfare
mother living in a hotel will tell you
that she would vastly prefer to stay
in her hotel, notwithstanding room
size and poor private-sector manage-
ment, if her only choice was a "reno-
vated" apartment in a burned-out in
rem building, on an abandoned
block, in a neighborhood "triaged" by
another city housing policy, in
another time.
Three-quarters of a century after
Gilman, residential hotel housing re-
mains an ideological and political
battleground. Only this time, the
stakes are much higher; over 80 per-
cent of this housing has, in the last
decade and a half, been lost. The rest
is threatened by the city's proposed
legislation. Preserving this housing
will require a critical rethinking of
residential hotels, drawing upon
their history and exploring their po-
tential. The key to this process is an
expanded political constituency, led
by women and women's groups,
which will redefine housing policies
and priorities with the needs of
women and children at the top of the
agenda.o
Nancy Biberman is an attorney and
consultant to Catholic Charities and
is on the adjunct faculty of CUNY
Law School. She was a Revson Fellow
and director of the East Side SRO
Legal Services.
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16 CITY LIMITS November 1986
FEATURE
Raising Hell
Chris Spro\IVal and the
Union of the HOllleless
BY ANNETTE FUENTES
A
penetrating, commanding
voice boomed out from the
platform set up at one corner
of Union Square on a gray and gloomy
October afternoon. It spread over the
assemblage of two hundred or so
people, moving out towards the street
where the Saturday farmers market
drew produce hungry shoppers ob-
livious to the message that reached
their ears. ~
The speaker was selling, too. Not
pumpkins and cider, but salvation,
dignity, hope and justice. The pulsing
urgency of his tone was like a
preacher's, but he wasn't talking reli-
gion. Tall, handsome, nattily dressed
in a dark suit, the man exuded the
confidence and panache of a prac-
ticed politician but he wasn't looking
Sprowal left the stage to work the
crowd. He moved through the clus-
ters of people, some homeless, some
not, shaking hands, answering ques-
tions, jotting down an address or
phone number.
The PhiladelphialDelaware Valley
Union for the Homeless has come to
the Big Apple and advance reviews
suggest that this organizing jugger-
naut will be a force to be reckoned
with. Since its founding in Philadel-
phia in April 1985 the Union for the
Homeless has been doing the impos-
sible, organizing the unorganizable
and "raising hell," according to pres-
ident Sprowal, in cities accross the
United States. While he says that "in
a lot of circles, we're still considered
a joke," no one is laughing in Boston,
H
omeless Not Helpless is the slogan of
this dynamic Philadelphia-based
organization that is mobilizing homeless
people to fight for dignity, decent shelters,
affordable housing and more in cities
across the United States.
for votes. Chris Sprowal was there to
talk union.
Standing below a banner that proc-
laimed, "Homeless Not Helpless,"
Sprowal railed against a federal gov-
ernment that "sends $100 million to
those cutthroats in Central America
while we go homeless." He implored
the audience to find strength in unity
and raise a collective call for housing
and jobs. A sprinkling of applause
punctuated his speech making as
where an 1,800 member Union has
Mayor Flynn in a tizzy. Or in Los
Angeles, where Sprowal and his
Philly colleages brought the Union's
message to Skid Rowand sparked a
demonstration by "those so-called
crazies and winos" that closed out
downtown L.A. with a 1,000-strong
march through the streets.
Union locals have burst on the
scene in Chicago, New Orleans and
Baltimore as well, and now the Union
Sprowall.ofl."inll a soup kitchen lin. at Holy Apostles Church
Hyping th. Unions rally Oct.n, he emphaSIzes "ther.'11 be
butt.r and j.lly, no monkey food."
is in New York, to sow the seeds of
an organization that would shatter
the image of complacency and power-
lessness that characterizes homeless
people and conditions charitable ef-
forts to assist them. In a city whose
60,000 homeless children, men and
women are more often than not
pawns ina legal and political chess
game between their advocates and
city officials, the idea of the homeless
taking control is downright radical.
And that's no accident. The ultimate
mission of the Union's activities is to
generate a nationwide movement of
poor, working and disenfranchised
peoples of every hue and persuasion
to put the government back in the
hands where it belongs.
Born in Advocacy
It's hard to look at the Union for
the Homeless without seeing Chris
Sprowal. As much as he insists that
the history of his Philadelphia Union
and what has followed has been a col-
lective effort, that "I damn sure didn't
march by myself," Sprowal's involve-
ment is pivotal. His own personal
odyssey into homeless ness and out
of it is inextricably tied to the birth
in November 1983 of the Committee
November 1986 CITY LIMITS 17
time I was employed working to build
this country." There was his time
with the Congress for Racial Equality
(CORE) in the early 60's, when he
went south to Mississippi and
Louisana and chaired Downtown
CORE in N.Y.C. Sprowalleft there to
organize for District 1199, the Hospi-
tal and Health Care Workers local in
the city for five years. He worked with
Henry Nicolas, who is now the na-
tional president of 1199 and a solid
supporter of the Union for the Home-
less.
There were other gigs, too, with the
late liberal Congressman Allard Low-
enstein, George McGovern's presiden-
tial campaign in Detroit, the Nassau
County Board of Elections and an un-
sucessful run for councilman in the
Long Island village of Freeport. He
graduated from the State University
at Old Westbury in 1977 and four
years later, moved to New Orleans
with his second wife and their child
in a bid to save their marriage. Things
___ I_ went well for a while; he started a
W.29thSt.:
ken, no peanut
for Dignity and Fairness for the Home-
less - parent to the Philly Union.
With Mitch Snyder of the Center
for Creative Nonviolence in D.C. and
Robert Hayes of the Coalition for the
Homeless, Chris Sprowal is consi-
dered by some as one of the country's
main leaders on the issue of home-
lessness. But his philosophy, style
and ultimate aims differ greatly from
the others, not just because he came
to advocacy as a homelesss man. Ex-
cept for his two years on the streets,
Sprowal was a working man and ac-
tivist in black, civil rights and labor
groups. Those experiences shape the
ideals and strategies of the Union for
the Homeless.
Born and raised in Philadelphia,
Sprowal came to New York in the late
50's and spent most of his years here.
He won't disclose his age ("That's the
only damn thing I have private") but
he spills everything else. He uses
himself as Exhibit A, walking, living
proof of how easy it can be to fall
through the cracks into homeless-
ness, even someone like him with his
skills and vast experience.
"All my adult life, I have been em-
ployed," he says, "in fact sometimes
I had two full time jobs. Most of the
retail/wholesale shrimp business,
trucking them up to New York. But
by the end of 1982, the business was
over, the marriage was over and
Sprowal left New Orleans for New
York to put his life back together. "I
had experience, I had a degree and a
little money. I started trying to use
my contacts, but nothing was shaking
loose.," he recalls.
"I started using my car as a cab at
night in Harlem. I was able to keep
my resumes going, keep my clothes
in the cleaners, to eat," says Sprowal.
Staying with his son, his daughter
and then friends until he wore out
his welcome, push came to shove
when the car's heater broke in the
middle of winter. He started staying
at the men's shelter on Third Street
on real cold nights. Parked outside,
his car fell prey to the vultures. "One
day the window on the drivers side
was smashed and the battery gone.
Then another day I saw something
else was gone and finally I realized
they also broke in the trunk and all
my clothes were gone, the water
pump was gone, the radiator was
gone, the back wheels were gone. I
realized I had nothing in the world
but the clothes on my back; I had no
money, no means of making money.
I was at rock bottom."
Sprowal ended up in Bellevue Hos-
pital after medical staff at the shelter
interceded in his crisis. "I had this
obsession about getting a job. 1 had
to get a job right then and there. I had
to get myself together." He was there
six weeks, and refused to take the
heavy medication others were on for
fear "that I would end up walking
around like a zombie." Back on the
streets, he managed to borrow enough
for a one-way ticket back home, to
Philadelphia where his brother and
sister live. And the very first night he
ended up back on the streets.
TIuned away by his siblings from
their big roomy houses, Sprowal
asked a cop where a traveler might
stay for the night-free. He landed
in "rat alley" with 200 other homeless
people who were yelling and scream-
ing and waiting to be let into the city-
run shelter. "I didn't know anything.
I just waited. The door opens and a
guy says, 'Okay, women first,' and
when the last woman walked in, man,
someone punched me and there were
fights all over. People were fighting
their way through and they were
going in. Then they said, 'Okay, we've
got 50. No more.' I was standing there
in shock. I couldn't believe this is
what I'd become."
Chris Sprowal, father, worker, ac-
tivist, college graduate, spent the
next two nights wandering the streets
until he'd reached the end of his rope.
Ankles swollen, hungry, broke, he de-
cided if anyone got in that shelter, it
might as well be him. He went back
to the shelter one night and when the
last woman put her foot on the steps,
he "started punching, fighting kick-
ing ass and got in. That used to bug
me, how we as homeless people are
put in competition with one another
and had to fight like animals for a
peanut butter and jelly sandwich and
to sit in a hard plastic chair all night."
Once in the shelter, his outrage over
conditions and treatment of his fel-
low travelers catapulted him forward,
to take action and regain control of
his life, his self-repect and not coinci-
dentally to link arms with other
homeless men and women. He'd been
dividing his nights between an aban-
doned building and the shelter when
one night, the shelter guards threw
an elderly, mentally ill woman out
on the streets because she wouldn't
sit still. "I was sitting there furious
but wouldn't say nothing. I was so
18 CITY LIMITS November 1986
mad at myself. I said in my other life,
I'd have kicked his ass. I see someone
take advantage of someone like that
and I sit there." He went back to the
shelter and confronted the guard:
"That's somebody's mother. She
wasn't born homeless. She helped
build this country and raised chil-
dren and now you throw her out!"
Sprowal repeats. From then on, he
was permanently barred from the
shelter as a trouble maker. "I said this
is never going to happen again. We're
going to organize and we're going to
kick your asses. You're never going to
treat homeless people this way
again."
In early fall 1983, Sprowal started
outreaching to other homeless men.
It was hard because he used to walk
around trying to pretend he wasn't
homeless, wasn't a bum and some
homeless folks thought he put on airs.
But he targeted two people. There
was Frank, who had "a little faction,
the rough and tumble guys" and Tex,
a guy who was popular with every-
body. "I knew I had to have those
two." He and Tex stayed in the aban-
doned building together and he'd buy
Tex some wine in exchange for some
talk on organizing which Tex thought
was crazy ("Oh, you're throwed-off.
Don't tell me that shit.")
Meanwhile, the people running a
private shelter for women, Mercy
Hospice, were holding regular meet-
ings. Sprowal went to all the meet-
ings; it was second nature to him. "I
started telling the guys on the comer,
if you come to the meeting, after its
over, we'll buy some beer and wine.
That went on for a month and a half.
I got very popular. People used to
come up to me on the street and say,
'When's the next meeting, brother."
Working by day picking peaches in
New Jersey, Sprowal spent his earn-
ings on drinks to hook some suppor-
ters. But the tonic was just a tempo-
rary tool. ' ~ f t e r a while, people
stopped asking for the wine," he says.
"On that first picket line, everyone
got high that day when we saw our
own strength for the first time."
Dignity Shelter .
The first collective activity of the
ad hoc group that was to become the
Committee for Dignity and Fairness
for the Homeless was a picket of the
shelter that had booted Sprowal. It
was November 1983 and the call was
for an end to sexual harassment,
favoritism and the verbal and physi-
cal abuse suffered by the homeless
who stayed there.
A child's first steps are awkward
and stumbling but unstoppable. On
the day of the picket, Tex sat across
the street watching Sprowal as other
homeless people stood around, look-
ing, waiting. "Frank and I started
with three other people then Gloria
Garth who's the director of a shelter,
marched up with all her troops. She
brought all the women from her shel-
ter. And Sister Mary and Sister Kath-
leen showed up. Alicia Christian
came and homeless people started to
see all these other people and they
less people. With the help of Jane
Malone, head of the Philadelphia
Committee for the Homel ess,
Sprowal and Tex and Frank got to-
gether a proposal and budget for
$23,700 that was approved in 72
hours. "And then we got scared," says
Sprowal. "I can' t figure out how any-
one in this country would take three
men li ving on the street and
say,'Here's $23,700. You have control.'
We figured there's a hook to it." But
Malone held no strings and they
faced the challenge of making the
shelter a reality.
They acquired a floor in a church
as the shelter and the services of it s
head, Rev. Cherry as the business
manager. He set up a voucher system
Linin, u., for free food at the Union's rally:
DignIty lor the homeless also ho. to do with what people eat, and how they
are treated.
came on the picket line. We started
chanting and got stronger. The staff
was inside taking pictures of us and
trying to intimidate people. But we
felt so strong and militant that day
because for the first time we saw the
staff and directors running. That re-
ally marked the beginning of a real
organization. "
Three months later, in February
1984, the Committee for Dignity and
Fairness for the Homeless opened
their own shelter, the only one in the
U.S. founded and operated by home-
that the Dignity Shelter still uses,
though its budget has climbed to
$500,000. Some problems arose
when Rev. Cherry disapproved of the
Committee's advocacy work and in-
sisted they focus on the shelter. But
Sprowal and the others reminded
him "we were born in advocacy. You
are here to keep account of the money
so we are always clean, but not to tell
us what to do."
The Dignity Shelter, smack in the
middle of a gentirfied area of
Philadelphia, is everything its home-
November 1986 CITY LIMITS 19
"On that first picket line, everyone got high that day when we
saw our own strength for the first time."
~ r o w a l and colleague Ronald Darnaby in Washington Square Park:
They prefer to be out on the sfreefs organizing fa sitting behind a de.Ir.
string of successes a secret. "We were
highly visible since the very incep-
tion," says Sprowal. "We take a lot of
speaking engagements and word gets
around." There were calls from 1\1s-
con and Phoenix, Arizona,
Springfield, Massachussetts, and
much traveling around the country
that started to wear down Committee
members. "We were running ourse-
lves crazy," Sprowal remembers,
"and we just said, we can't bring in
leadership to nobody. The only thing
to do is to try to create a structure for
local leadership to develop and grow
on its own. We came up with the no-
tion of a national organization ... using
the unemployment councils of the
30's as a sort of model for forming a
union." They paid a call to Henry
Nicolas at - District 1199 National
Union of Health and Hospital Em-
ployees. Sprowal's old partner in
labor organizing from the 70's helped
them formulate their plan for a union
and donated $5,000 of his own
money to start the ball rolling.
Nicolas worked to build contacts
with other labor unions, especially
the United Electrical Workers, and
spoke at the founding convention of
the PhiladelphialDelaware Valley
Union for the Homeless in A pril1985.
less creators had been denied in the
city-run ones. "We didn't want a shel-
ter like all the rest," asserts Sprowal.
"It wouldn't be a place where people
would come and be warehoused; it
would not be a place where people
would come and just get food and a
place to stay and that's all. But the
place would be a beeehive of activity.
It would be a vehicle one could use
to restabilize themselves. And also
we thought our organization had to
be militant."
And so it was. Not only does their
shelter beat the city shelters for eco-
nomy - sheltering a person for $ 7 per
night, compared to $25 - but it be-
came the headquarters for a vibrant
collective of homeless activists and
organizers. "We started to fight
around very basic issues ... the right
for people who live on the streets to
have showers and toilets," says
Sprowal. There were "bath-ins" led
by Leona Smith, now director of Dig-
nity Shelter, that had homeless
people splashing in the pristine foun-
tains of the city's tourist areas. After
the second such demonstration,
Philadelphia Mayor Wilson Goode ar-
ranged for 60 showers, available six
hours a day, seven days a week.
There was the fight for 24-hour in-
take at the city's drop-in center for
the homeless which closed its doors
from 3:30 p.m. until 8:30 the next
morning. They marched, de-
monstrated and went to jail for that
right, even joining the social workers
union that was picketing a common
target, Adult Services. Linking up
with labor struggles is a main strat-
egy. There was the Committee's first
law suit, demanding the right of
homeless people to register to vote,
which they won in 1985. And a sec-
ond law suit against the city and
Mayor Goode to enact a 1983 ordi-
nance that obligated Philadelphia to
shelter and provide support services
to the homeless. Though on the
books, Goode had ignored it. But they
brought him to his knees with sup-
port of City Councilman David
Cohen. "Wilson Goode called us up
and said, 'Can we settle out of court?'
and every damn thing we wanted, we
got," Sprowal recalls proudly. No
more 30-day residency requirement
for shelter in the city; no permanent
barring of individuals from shelters;
and no homeless person could be de-
nied shelter because of overcrowd-
ing.
Union Goes National
It's hard to keep a good thing under
wraps and the Committee for Dignity
and Fairness for the Homeless sure
wasn't trying to keep their dazzling
Chris Sprowal was elected presi-
dent of the union local and Leona
Smith took charge of Dignity Shelter,
with other people moving from advo-
cacy to the union. The idea was to
build a national organization with
union locals in every city comprised
of homeless people. "There would be
membership dues, there would be
constitutions, there'd be a formal
structured organization, founding
conventions and elected local lead-
ers - and all tied in together."
Leadership, the nurturing, build-
ing and nature of it, is almost an ob-
session with Sprowal and the Union,
who feel they are in a race against
time to create it. It must reflect the
vision of the kind of society the
Union is fighting for, with women,
blacks, Hispanics, old and young
prominently represented. And it
must be collective leadership, de-
stroying the notion of one leader that
has weakened other progressive
movements. "People don't know
there's a lot of leadership. Helluva lot
more militant than we are and a hel-
luva lot stronger and who are pre-
20 CITY LIMITS November 1986
The leadership of the Union reflects the vision of the kind of
society its fighting for with blacks, Hispanics, women, old and
young playing major roles.
pared to die for it," Sprowal insists.
He's not just talking about getting
some more shelters or showers or
even some housing, though afforda-
ble, low income housing is certainly
a main component of the Union's plat-
form. No, Sprowal dares to make con-
nections between local, national and
international politics and economics
that no other homeless advocate has.
He sees the forest and the trees. "We
live in the richest country in the
world and for us to be out in the
streets - just no way is that accept-
able. We have to start to build a broad
coalition in this country ... We have to
start educating homeless people and
do away with our own guilt. We have
to start to understand that it's no acci-
dent we're homeless. It's no accident
we find all these plants and factories
closing and going to South Africa and
overseas. It's just no accident that we
see luxury apartments and office
buildings being built and no national
housing; that we see the industrial
base of this country changing and we
don't see people being equipped to
be competitive in that world of
work." The unemployed, undere-
mployed, welfare recipient, veterans,
farm workers and labor rank and
file - these are the natural allies of
the Union, he says.
The bottom line of the Union's strat-
egy is self-empowerment of the home-
less and near-homeless, which may
clash with current perspectives on as-
sisting that group. Many homeless ad-
vocates think the Union's goal is a
pipedream, that the homeless are too
debilitated by the experience to come
together. Sprowal dips into the well
of history to rebut such doubts, find-
ing strength in the collective strug-
gles of labor unions, blacks and anti-
war activists. Beyond that, Union
naysayers probably don't understand
the real nature of homelessness. "We
have to first examine who are the
homeless? What we see on the
streets ... is the person who has been
completely broken and dehumanized
by the homeless experience. What we
don't see is the child who is aged out
of the child welfare system, the
former workers who've lost jobs, gone
..-through all the benefits; what we
don't see are those abused women or
women and families who've been
'burned out. Most of them are former
workers," says Sprowal.
The founding convention of the
New York Union of the Homeless will
be November 29. Sprowal and col-
league Ronald Darnaby have been in
town for weeks laying the ground
work, leafletting soup lines, shelters
and hotels to develop organizing
committees and leadership. New
York is the city that sent Sprowal over
the edge into homelessness and or-
ganizing here has its own challenges,
for sure. "New York City for homeless
people is like a big plantation. Wel-
fare slaves. It's no accident you have
the Holland Hotel where all the dope
you can find is there, that people are
put into hotels where they become
very dependent. The segment of soci-
ety that has the potential to be real
revolutionaries in this country-the
poor and dispossessed-it's no acci-
dent they're put in hotels like that,
exposed to things that completely
break them down." But he has faith
in many of the dynamic men and
women he has encountered, espe-
cially the women who he calls the
real fighters. There's Ruth Young at
the Brooklyn Arms, Renee Brailsford
at the Holland and Mohammad at the
Martinique.
And for the Union of the Homeless,
it has become a glaring truth that the
victims of this country's economic
and housing crisis must be a part of
the solution. "I think it's time for
homeless people to take center stage
now," posits Sprowal. "No one is
going to fight for low income housing
the way we're going to have to fight
for it. Other people have something
to lose. Other people cannot afford to
go for broke. They have mortgage pay-
ments, car notes, kids going to school
and they gotta worry about tuition.
We've got nothing to 10se."D
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CITY VIEWS
The Segregated City
BY MARTIN GALLENT
BATTERY PARK CITY HAS BEEN
lauded in New York Magazine as a
triumph and "The Next Great Place, "
and indeed it is. I have even advised
friends to seriously consider living
there, even while it is still being de-
veloped. But one issue with city-wide
implications deserves special atten-
tion: the lack of economic and social
integration within this new commu-
nity.
As one who participated to some
degree in the shaping of the policies
and programs of Battery Park City
since 1978, I am part and parcel of
the problems, disappointments and,
"The next great place:"
Battery Pork City is becoming a ghetto for the rich.
at times, successes of the project.
When originally conceived, the de-
velopment was to be one-third lux-
ury, one-third middle income and
one-third low income housing. It sub-
sequently was changed to 50 percent
luxury, 40 percent moderate income
and 10 percent low income. During
the financial crisis it was again
changed to the current concept of
building the entire development of
14,000 units at market rate (luxury)
with no middle, moderate or low in-
come units, except for two buildings
planned to have 20 percent of their
units for moderate income tenants.
Effectively, however, that means no
poor, few elderly and fewer children.
Some urban observers say that
there is no law that says poor or mod-
.erate income people must live on the
waterfront or in choice areas of the
city. That being true, why did the gov-
ernment of the 1970's agree that the
original one third, one-third, one-
third was a good idea? The concept
came about primarily because the
government created, paid for and
built the land, and all the peoples'
taxes were involved. In looking about
the city we also felt that the best
neighborhoods (including the West
Protecting the enclave:
You can't aHord Battery Park City on a security
guard's salary.
Side upon which Battery Park City is
physically modeled) had a mix of so-
cial and economic classes. Urban
planners in this city and in many
other cities in this country and else-
where, frown on ghettos of the very
poor and the very rich, especially
when government action or taxes are
used to enhance or promote the pro-
ject. What generally works best for us
as a city-because we are so di-
verse - is the economic and social in-
tegration which will help knit the fab-
ric of the city together. Of course,
there is no guarantee that merely be-
cause we wish for social and
economic integration to work, that it
will. But, if we look at the Upper West
Side, the Village, Soho, Noho,
Tribeca, Sunnyside Gardens, Brook-
lyn Heights, and to some degree
Roosevelt Island as it is currently
built, and other areas, I am convinced
that it works and does so in a very
important way for the city.
Side.Stepping the Issue
Meyer Frucher, the current execu-
tive officer of Battery Park City has
recognized the desirability of social
and economic integration in the pro-
ject to enhance its value to the city.
He has attempted to meet the issue
22 CITY LIMITS November 1986
in various ways with a variety of prog-
rams. All of the suggestions thus far
failed to confront the issue head one.
The Holocaust Museum, as prop-
osed, is an interesting and important
element to be situated at the southern
tip of Battery Park City. It may bring
a variety of visitors but will not affect
the exclusiveness of the area and will
not promote economic and social 'in-
tegration. Stuyvesant High School is
an excellent idea for the extreme
northern part of the project, but that
places an exclusive high school for
top students in an exclusive area for
the wealthy. Frucher comes closer to
the original concept but does not re-
solve the original dilemma and poses
others with the concept of providing
funds, approximately $400 million
over a ten year period for low qJld
moderate income people from antici-
pated revenues of Battery Park City.
In 1984, Battery Park City Author-
ity looked at its projections and
realized that it would earn more than
$1 billion in unanticipated revenues.
If the Authority is permitted to go for-
ward with a fifth commercial tower
(of the other four commercial towers,
two are completed and fully oc-
cupied and the other two are almost
completed and are reported to be al-
most fully rented) then substantially
more than one billion will be
realized. The Governor of the State of
New York and the Mayor of the City
of New York have proposed to commit
$400 million in future Battery Park
City resources to produce low and
moderate income housing elsewhere
in the city - but not in Battery Park
City.
What of the concept of social and
. economic integration in Battery Park
City? Why not use some of the $400
million for placing elderly, students
and low-income families within the
complex itself to promote to some de-
gree the original concept.
Would some of the 26 developers
who put in 50 bids for nine sites agree
to build low, elderly and student
housing for cost in order to get some
of the choice sites? Other induce-
ments could be packaged to assist
this project to become a truly
economic and socially integrated
area.
A Critical Juncture
The policy question is critical at
this juncture because the city is prop-
osing to build projects such as Hun-
ters Point, Television City, the new
addition to Roosevelt Island, and
other mega developments that have
major government involvement.
These projects pose many of the same
questions as Battery Park City.
Are we really committed to a policy
of economic and social integration?
Is such integration really desirable
and is it worth the cost to govern-
ment? Does it work? If government
does not assist the integration, will
lack of such integration be a signifi-
cant element of polarization? Will the
poor under the proposed Battery Park
City plan be confined to poor ghettos
and the rich to glittering ghettos?
In New York City the mayor and
other policy officials have stated over
and over again their commitment to
open the city's waterfront to the pub-
lic. With few notable exceptions (Le.,
City Island in the Bronx, Whitestone
in Queens) the city has permitted the
public to use the waterfront prom-
enade where government action was
required or public money used.
While Battery Park City may not
allow poor or middle-income people
to live there, the development pro-
vided an excellent waterfront prom-
enade for all the people, and it is now
the standard for waterfront com-
munities throughout the city. New
waterfront communities such as Hun-
ters Point and elsewhere will be mea-
sured against the access and quality
of Battery Park City. But is access and
use of the promenade a substitute for
neighborhood social and economic
integration? If our aim in this multi-
ethnic and economically stratified
city is to prevent polarization, then
the minimum we should be doing is
to require the integration in at least
the places where tax dollars have
been used to create the community.
It is neither fair nor wise to reserve
discreet places for one class to the
exclusion of the other in publicly
created or involved areas. Those
places should be a model of how not
to polarize our city, showing instead
how we can harmonize our diverse
populations and classes. The concept
is neither new or radical and the real
question should be why we are not
following prior precedents to achieve
our goal when we know it is db-able
economically, socially and politi-
cally. The only question posed is can
we provide more units for poor else-
where rather than integrate the new
development, and is it worth it to do
so?
In my judgment, if we permit our
government to socially and economi-
cally segregate the city in the fashion
proposed for Battery Park City, we are
setting the stage for a disastrous
polarization which in the extreme
will divide the city into several com-
munities exacerbating the gulf be-
tween the rich and poor.
In her article on the middle class
in the New York Times
Magazine,(Sept. 7, 1986) Barbara
Ehrenreich concluded, "If we want
to avert of American So-
ciety, there is no choice, it seems to
me, but to use public policy to redis-
tribute wealth and opportunity,
downward again not from the middle
class to the poor, as Lyndon B.
johnson's great society programs
tended to do, but from the very rich
to everyone else."
Ominous signs of the growing sep-
aration of the rich and poor have been
documented by Thomas Byrne Edsall
in The New Politics oflnequality(Nor-
ton, 1985) and by other economic and
political scientists in journals, books
and articles. The average New Yorker,
without being too sophisticated, can
look about the city and confirm this
growing gulf and physical separation.
Most often there is little the average
New Yorker can do in the face of forces
beyond his or her control, but when
one's own tax dollars promote and
re-inforce this polarization and sep-
aration, then it is time to re-examine
the premise on which such public de-
cisions are being made.
The elderly, student and poor
should be accommodated in Battery
Park City. The resources are available
and an important public policy de-
mands it be accomplished. We must
not permit publicly created com-
munities to promote and foster
polarized areas of our city.O
Martin Gallent, appointed to the New
York City Planning Commission in
September 1969, was vice chairman
of the CPC until last year.
November 1986 CITY LIMITS 23
FEATURE
The Real Life Drama of the
Manhattan Television
Center
BY MARY BREEN
T
wenty-one-year-old Nancy
Gonzalez has lived in East Har-
lem all her life. From the
kitchen window of her apartment in
a city-owned building on the comer
of 115th Street and Pleasant Avenue,
she surveys the changing landscape
of the neighborhood. Across the
street sits a vacant, five-story, par-
tially sealed building. Toward the
A
center for Proctor and Gamble spon-
sored soap operas, the Manhattan
Television Center is generating its own
dramas for the developer and its East
Harlem neighbors who are bracing for the
effects of the giant project.
TIl. tid of g.ntrificotion may d.'ug. tit. n.iglt"orltood'. 'ow incom. ,..i-
d.nts.
Manhattan Television Center is nes-
tled in the quiet East Harlem enclave
known as Pleasant Village. MTC has
been promoted as one of the largest
multi-production facilities this side
of Hollywood. In February of 1985,
stars from such soap operas as
"Another World" co-mingled with
city officials, politicians and televis-
ion heavyweights to announce the
project's official start up. Riverview
Productions, which produces "soaps"
owned and sponsored by Proctor &
Gamble, signed on as the first tenant
with a ten-year lease worth some $40
million and planned to have three
major soaps rolling in the studios by
the summer of 1986. Mayor Koch sang
the benefits of MTC for the neighbor-
hood and the city. Alvin Cooperman,
an executive of the MTC . company,
went so far as to predict a "renais-
sance for television in New York," and
Arol Buntzman, the owner and de-
veloper of MTC, proclaimed that 15
percent of the anticipated 1,800 jobs
created by the project would go to
community residents. East River, less than 300 feet away, is
the construction site for the proposed
. Manhattan Television Center. From
her vantage point, Gonzalez ponders
the $100 million dollar plan to pro-
duce soap operas and other television
programming in East Harlem. "In a
way, it's good, but its also going to
bring some problems, because even-
tually they are going to want to ex-
pand ... taking over whatever they
can." Such expansion, she says,
might price people right out of the
neighborhood. ''A lot of the people
already here will not have anywhere
to go. Most in this building are el-
derly and on a fixed income," worries
Gonzalez.
Located between 116th and 119th
streets, directly off the FDR Drive,
While some officials like Ci ty
Council Member Carolyn Maloney
offered words of caution, the televis-
ion industry'S estimated $2.1 billion
impact on the city, with its promise
of jobs and money, dominated the fes-
tive beginning.
The summer of 1986 has come and
gone. The fanfare and excitement that
24 CITY LIMITS November 1986
marked the ground-breaking cere-
monies has been replaced by lawsuits
and countersuits. Proctor & Gamble
and Riverview, the prime tenants,
have sued Buntzman's Manhattan
Television Center and the Big Apple
Industrial companies, charging them
with racketeering and fraud.
Buntzman has countersued, alleging
Proctor & Gamble's repeated design
changes resulted in delays and cost
overruns.
But for East Harlem and the com-
munity of Pleasant Village, the issue
of a television center may be tangen-
tial to the events it has already set in
motion. In the midst of such a grand-
scale commercial venture is a neigh-
borhood with one of the highest con-
centrations of vacant, city-owned
buildings in Manahattan, and almost
900 parcels of vacant land. Having
survived the peak in arson and aban-
donment in the past decade, many
residents who have struggled with
poor and sometimes life-threatening
conditions may not be the be-
neficiaries of the neighborhood rede-
velopment process now underway.
The Manhattan Television Center is
the centerpiece of a high-stakes real
estate game being played out in East
Harlem. Says neighborhood resident
Wired for redevelopment:
Ther.'ans for Manahattan Television Center have sparked speculation in East
Harem.
Gloria Quinones, "We see it as the as many as 800 people, boasted a $28
great Trojan Horse of East Harlem." million profit and was one of the
Ripe for Development
The site of MTC is the former
Washburn Wire factory. At the height
of its activity, the factory employed
... ,. ..... , Bronx Deal
"", . 'b of 16 commercial from
... . Center themarket. .. andlUlsdriven 700 un ..
and JUg Applt Build- skilled job$ out of the South
.in.gs, Jn.c Bronx." f
industrial real estate-or cOn- At the time oltha nmegottated
lJ:9ver$Y. A ad.... is lease, Buntzm&n', attorney. Patrick

.io ..Afol , andPUid. Buntzman He was under lDvestigation for his
through the city's .Economic De- ability to negotiate profitablti
yelop:tlleo c leases for his clien!S at considera;
,.' M Amen tS"to &1 99- bie cost to the city'bu.t.
E
lease providedBuntzman Arol Development Corporation
. with added land andfinanciel ev:entually sued the claiming.
nefits. By 1976, the deal was faIlure to make repans and other
with in.- contract to $6
'vestiSitionS and a grin<l i!Iry ib- million dollars. The lawsuit was:
qUiry.. b;) The Abuse of Power. Jack filed ,ust a cQurt-oniered
'Newfield .. ' and Paul ilDuBrul deadlIne requmng Arol Davalo))';'1
scribe how' Buntzmall'8 firm. the ment to pay rent from the
city. The .. sy the
4'ian.)b:e . .hu" rais8d city and Burltzman was eventually
ientsN by an 80 PeI'- negotiated through out of court setr
tlemanls.OM.B . 5;(; ;,f
.. < >IS- "-
largest manufacturing firms in the
city. Br the mid-1970's, however, fi-
nancia problems, foreign competi-
tion and rising costs contributed to
the Washburn's decline. By the end
of 1976, the plant was scheduled to
close .
Parallelling the city's own fiscal
crisis at the time, the factory got a
temporary bail out with a takeover
and an infusion of loans. One week
before the actual shutdown, the non-
profit Harlem Commonwealth Coun-
cil announced its plan to acquire the
firm, initiating a two-year moderniza-
tion of the factory estimated to cost
some $6.5 million. "The saving of the
Washburn Wire Company," Council
president James Dowdy noted, "is sig-
nificant because of the ripple benefits
it will have throughout Harlem." De-
spite the scope of the project, only
$2 million from the city's Economic
Development Administration and an
additional $750,000 from Chemical
Bank were ever lent to finance it. By
1981, a promising venture to keep the
plant open and retain jobs failed,
leading the company into ban-
kruptcy. But interest in the potential
redevelopment of the sprawling river-
front facility had not waned.
Public records of the transfer of the
property pursuant to bankruptcy pro-
1916 CITY LIMITS 25
The Manhattan Television Center is part of a high-stakes real
estate game in East Harlem. Resident Gloria Quinones calls it
a 'frojan horse for her community.
ceedings in February of 1982 reveal
that the two highest bidders for its
purchase were interested in using the
site as a production-related facility.
The Unity Broadcasting Network
Company submitted the highest bid
for the property but did not actually
proceed with its purchase. Inquires
to Unity Broadcasting regarding their
role were referred to the office of its
head, former Manhattan Borough
President Percy Sutton, who did not
return the call.
The second highest bidder, Big
Apple Industrial Buildings, Inc., ob-
tained title to the site with a bid of
$150,000. Big Apple, interchangeable
with the Manhattan Television Center
company, bought invaluable water-
front property for a song.
The Studio Scene
The idea of developing the
Washburn site for television studios,
according to M.B. Zerwick, spoke-
man for MTC and another Buntzman
company, Arol Development, grew
"out of a serious deficit of adequate
production facilities in New York
City." Because of this, says Zerwick,
the old wire factory became the "ideal
location ... brilliantly convertible to
the industry needs."
Phil Dixson, president of River-
view Productions, recalls their in-
terest in the MTC faciltity began in
late 1983, after considering space in
Queens and New Jersey. Buntzman
approached Proctor & Gamble, and
negotiations to lease the site started.
As an extra inducement, Paul Crotty,
then commissioner of the city's fi-
nance department, met with Proctor
& Gamble representatives to assure
them that the project would be eligi-
ble for tax benefits under the Indus-
trial Commercial Incentive Program.
This assurance came before the City
Council had approved changes in the
program's regulations, eliminating
the review board, public hearing and
the requirement to demonstrate need.
Ben Gruberg of the Mayor's Office of
Film, Broadcasting and Theatre, re-
calls the company representatives
were "afraid if they had to make a
presentation, that they might be
turned down."
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Big Plans
Buntzman's interest in East Harlem
property encompased more than just
the old wire factory. One week after
the ground-breaking ceremonies for
MTC, Buntzman and his representa-
tives met with the Pleasant Village
Block Association to discuss plans
for the neighborhood. Buntzman told
the group that he would not purchase
any property in the area without a
unified plan with community sup-
port. More specifically, he asserted
that MTC had spoken to many city
agencies to see if they would support
a plan, if jointly sponsored with the
community, to "remove the blight" in
one massive effort. Buntzman pro-
ceeded to outline several elements in-
volved in that effort. He
buying all unoccupied city-owned
property in Pleasant Village, rehab-
bing the sound buildings with gov-
ernment financing and setting aside
20 percent of the apartments for low
and moderate income residents. He
claimed that subsidies would be av-
ailable to tenants with incomes under
$22,000 and that welfare recipients
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26 CITY LIMITS November 1986
could afford to live there automati-
cally.
The Buntzman agenda also in-
cluded leveling structurally unsound
I city-owned building for parking and
new businesses, as well as two struc-
turally sound privately held build-
ings. At risk in this plan was the
award winning community garden,
flourishing in a citr-owned lot.
Buntzman's intia presentations to
the block assocation and the local
community board also included a dis-
cussion of job opportunities at the
facility. Pegged at 15 percent for com-
munity residents, construction jobs
at the site had already become a sig-
nificant issue when MTC representa-
tives reported at a meeting that just
three local people had been hired for
work on the construction site. Assur-
ances were given that every contrac-
tor would have an affirmative action
hiring plan. Job training and summer
internship programs for local high
school students were also being
negotiated.
But relations between Buntzman
and community leaders were already
beginnihg to break down. A commit-
tee set Ul=- by the community board
was charged with the coordination of
hiring local residents for the project.
Zerwick claims MTC persuaded sub-
contractors to hire 16 community re-
sidents and contracted with a minor-
ity-owned firm to employ 30 security
guards for the site. But John Kozler,
who heads the job committee set up
by the community board, disputes
these figures. In a January, 1986 letter
to Mayor Koch, Kozler opposed any
tax abatements for MTC unless
Buntzman came through with the
promised jobs. Kozler characterizes
Buntzman as a promoter, wheeler-
dealer, "the kind of guy who used
mirror and smoke techniques" to get
the project underway.
While they are currently preoc-
cupied with the legal machinations
that have halted the MTC construc-
tion, Zerwick says the company still
sees itself as "anxious participants in
the rebuilding of the neighborhood."
In fact, he refers to 118th Street, the
entrance to MTC, as "our neighbor-
hood."
Speculators' Beacon
The mere announcement of the
center's projected opening has
ushered a rash of speculative real es-
tate activity in the immediate area.
Time, Inc.'s metropolitan real estate
journal describes "the MTC can ver-
sion ... as the beacon for other inves-
tors." It proceeds to advise, "despite
the freeze on vacant city-owned
buildings, there are a lot of
brownstones, apartment buildings
and plenty of vacant lots for sale."
Among those who have seen their
investment light shining in East Har-
lem are some of the most notorious
landlords in the city. Morris Leisner,
indicted for his role in coercion and
conspiracy to force tenants out of 17
buildings in Manhattan, reaped more
than $75,000 from the sale of a former
city-owned lot on 119th Street. The
parcel had been initially sold to the
Samsco Corporation in August of
1985 for $450.
Adonis Morfesis, now the subject
of an arrest warrant for his persistent
failure to provide essential services
in more than 100 of his Manhattan
buildings, has also gotten in on the
"ground floor" of East Harlem real
estate. Slightly to the west of Pleasant
Village, several four-story walk-ups
on 118th St. were bought by Morfesis
at bargain prices. He has also ac-
quired larger apartment buildings
with stores and adjacent vacant lots
providing complete alChltectural and engineering services to
non-profit developers
/
I
NEW CONSTRUCTION, REHABILITATION AND CONVERSIONS
D Building Evaluation and Inspection
D feasibility Studies
D Preliminary Design/Scope of Work Studies
D Complete Construction Drawings & Specifications
DConstructlon SuperviSion
HUD SECTION 202 SENIOR CITIZENS HOUSING, HOMESTEADING
PROJECTS, GROUP HOMES, HPD RFPS, DSS/HHAP RFPS
call John Harris RA. for an evaluation of your project's needs
J.C, HARRIS ASSOCIATES ARCHITECTS
5IOA GATES AVENUE BROOKLYN, NEW YORK 11221 (718)453-2406
Rebecca Feurestein, president of the Pleasant Vil-
lage Block Association:
She wants revitalization without displacement.
on both 114th and 120th streets along
First Avenue.
Tenant-managed buildings in the
area have also been feeling the
speculative heat. Evelyn Toennis of
420 East 119th Street is one of several
tenants who question a city policy
that allowed her building to be re-
deemed from the city. The landlord
had effectively abandoned the build-
ing several years ago, but the city
failed to take title for non-payment of
taxes. The building was purchased by
new investors for the price of the un-
paid taxes. Toennis, who has lived in
the building for 18 years and been its
court-appointed administrator for the
past three years, maintains that the
tenants upgraded the building, re-
paired and rented previously vacant
apartments and restored services.
Manhattan Television Center has
also spurred interest in the main com-
mercial strip and townhouses in the
Pleasant Village area. Realtor Harry
Skydell recently acquired a six-floor
walk-up with stores on 116th Street
for over $500,000. Michael DeFilip-
pis, owner of a Bronx construction
co,mpany bearing the same name,
spent $200,000 to get a five-story
building on 118th Street. Buildings
with fewer than five units seem to
have passed through the early phases
of investor speculation, with unim-
November 1986 CITY LIMITS 27
The Pleasant Village Block Association has a plan to redevelop
city-owned buildings and preserve the social and economic mix
of the neighborhood.
proved properties now going for as
much as $150,000 to $300,000. Few
tenants living in these buildings have
leases or protections against possible
evictions.
Battle Lines
The Pleasant Village Block Associ-
ation wants to put a lid on many of
these types of speculative deals. But
they don't want to halt the tide of
revitalization either.
Rebecca Feurestein, president of
the block association, says friends
who used to wonder why she moved
into the area seven years ago have al-
ready started to change their at-
titudes. "Now people are staying,
their kids are moving back into the
neighborhood and making improve-
ments." But she quickly points out
the other side that change has
brought: "Welfare recipients and low
income families are forced to look for
housing elsewhere." Feuerstein also
notes that there has been an increase
in drug activity since Pleasant Vil-
lage's "discovery" in the last two
years. This "was one of the safer
neighborhoods, " she recalls.
Members of the Pleasant Village
Block Association believe that de-
spite the ongoing legal battles be-
tween the principal actors in the MTC
drama, the $40 million invested by
Citibank and reports that a good part
of the renovations are already com-
plete ensures that some form of the
project will happen. For the past two
years the block association has been
developing a comprehensive plan to
promote redevelopment while stem-
vtcu.' While First Pleasant
.topped pressing its case __ t {:.11
: t n : ~ ~ ~ d ~ ~ ...
still wants out. "1 am COllviJMl8dh>
they maUy want me out
. figW.iJlg if the tenant leader JUIIJ,,, "'i l
everyone else is going to
~ : . says Santiago.
First Pleasant has also tried to
induce the tenants to . leave with
~ . settlement of $50(1 each. 8al'h
tiago was told by the iandlonl'a
that he could get her into a
.. builqing," inquirlp.g of het:
willing to live in the
28 CITY LIMITS November 1986
ming displacement of low and moder-
ate income residents. They have hired
a planner to do a feasibility study on
redeveloping 30 city-owned proper-
ties and have canvassed each of the
nine blocks in the immediate area to
speak with residents who face poten-
tial displacement. Feuerstein would
also like to hire an organizer to work
with neighborhood residents. "Ten-
ants are not fully aware of the gentrifi-
cation or impact ... that MTC will
. have," she comments.
In its plan for redevelopment of the
area, the block association seeks ways
of preserving the social and
economic mix of the neighborhood.
Among the key recommendations for
doing this is the "cross subsidiza-
tion" of low income units from the
sale of market rate units developed
from new construction and renova-
tion of vacant, city-owned property.
The block association also asks for
additional subsidies from the $400
million earmarked for housing from
surplus revenue that will be gener-
ated by Battery Park City. Two other
items in the preliminary plan call for
limiting any land clearance to sites
on 117 &: 118 Street, on Pleasant Av-
enue, and saving the community gar-
dens
The block association intends to
submit the proposal to its member-
ship for final revisions and then pro-
ceed to the community board for pre-
sentation. Association members have
Future parking lot?:
Pleasant Village resident working in the community garden.
already met with representatives of
Manhattan Borough President David
Dinkins. A formal round of discus-
sions with the Department of Hous-
ing, Preservation and Development,
the Department of City Planning and
other agencies is also planned.
While Pleasant Village residents
iron out their plans for the communi-
ty, Arol Buntzman and Proctor &
Gamble continue their high-level
legal wrangling over Manhattan Tele-
vision Center, Both Buntzman
spokesperson Zerwick and Riverview
Productions president Dixson say
negotiations are underway with an
undisclosed third party. Zerwick is
ebullient in his belief that the project
will move ahead. Dixson yields only
a non-committal "anything can hap-
pen." But for the residents of Pleasant
Village - and all of East Harlem-
the real-life drama of Manhattan Tele-
vision Center is already being played
out.O

'y
Since 1980, the Housing Energy Allillnce few Ten.nts CoopenItlve Corp. (H.E.A.T. COOP) has provided low
" " ( . i cost home heating oil and energy use reduction services.
r I " f, . The H.E.A.T. Coop has targeted for services the largely minority low and middle ilJCOlTl8 neighbortloods of the
'; I ' ..-: Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan and Queens. H.E.A. T: s general purpose is to provide assistance and services that lead
. to neighborhood stability.
As a proponent of economic empowerment for revitalization of the City's communities, H.E.A. T. remains committed
to assisting newly emerging managers and owners of buildings with the reduction of energy costs (long recognized as
the single most expensive area of building management). H.E.A. T. has presented tangible opportunities for tenant
associations, housing coops, churches, community organizations. and small businesses to garner
substantial savings and lower the costs of building operation.
Through the primary service of providing low cost home '-ling oil, V8rious '-ling plant services and
energy management services, H.E.A.T. members have coIlec:tIveIy uved _1.5 mH110n dollars.
Wlrking coIlaboratively with other community service organizations with similar goals. and working to establish its
viability as a business entity, H.E.A.T. has committed its revenue generating capacity and potential to providing
services that work for and lead to stable, productiVe COITl/TlUIlities.
If you are interested in leaming more about H.E.A.T. or if you are interested in becoming a H.E.A.T. member. call
or write the H.E.A.T. office.
Housing Energy Alliance for Tenants Coop Corp,
853 Broadway, Suite 414, New 'lbrk. NY. 10003, [212] 505-0286
November 1986 CITY LIMITS 29
NEIGHBORHOOD NEWSSTAND
Watching the Press Watch the Homeless
BY PAUL SMITH
STREET PEOPLE: FIRST THEY
were hobos and drunks. Hobos came
to New York on freight trains from out
west . to see the tall buildings. The
drunks preferred spending money on
Night Train to paying a month's rent.
Then came the people released from
mental hospitals because the State
couldn't be bothered anymore. They
took up residence in SRO hotels back
when there still were SROs. Then
they lived in waiting rooms at Port
Authority, Penn Station, Grand Cen-
tral; on side streets lined with expen-
sive brownstones, in the meat pack-
ing district, and any subway line
you'd care to mention. They carried
shopping bags full of compacted re-
fuse and sometimes shrieked at pass-
ersby who walked looking straight
ahead. Then, several years ago, came
the homeless.
They were not greeted with open
arms. Who were the homeless? Some
were drifters, some were thought to
be disturbed but the main thing is
there were lots more of them than ever
before. Investigative reporting by
some of the city's leading newspapers
revealed that many of these people
got homeless through evictions. Or
arson. Or they lost their jobs.
So how come now they're sleeping
in gymnasiums and are so numerous
they could have their own Congres-
sional District? Well, you don't have
to be a genius to realize that most of
the un domiciled are living with
strangers on basketball courts or on
the F train - not because the lifestyle
appeals to them-but because they
can't find housing they can afford.
This conceptual leap has been slow
to materialize at the city's four daily
newspapers. In "Stemming the Tide
of Displacement," a recent study by
three housing and homeless advo-
cacy grours, the coverage of
this socia disease from October to
December 1985 was scored. The vast
majority of the articles clearly proved
that conditions weren't too good in
the shelters. The Daily News said this
75 times, the others not quite so
much. The News mentioned perma-
nent housing options for the home-
less in only 12 percent of their arti-
cles, and only 8 percent discussed
where the homeless used to live. The
other dailies had even fewer articles
than the News on these questions.
But the key finding was how many
articles were written on what could
be done to prevent homelessness by
keeping people in their homes. The
answer, for all papers for three
months? Zero! Good work, feIlas.
Of course, that was last year. It's
cold again now, and that means it's a
whole new season. Personally, I'm
betting on the New York Times to
break this town wide open with some
tough new coverage of the causes and
prevention of homelessness. They
have an expanded Metro section, in-
creased competition from Newsday,
new blood at the Look for a ten
part series on evictions; how the city
can force developers to contribute to
low-income housing. Maybe a Roger
Starr editorial on how the political
system has been poisoned by real es-
tate interests. You laugh. But re-
member, this is a newspaper that ran
a series a few years back that proved
that hunger is caused by poverty.
Once that Big Gray Machine struggles
to life, there's no telling what they're
capable of.D
30 CITY LIMITS November 1986
BUILDING BLOCKS
Heating System Efficiency
AS WITH MOST TYPES OF FUEL
burning equipment, regular mainte-
nance and tune-ups of a home's heat-
ing system can help it to run
smoothly and maximize fuel perfor-
mance. Whether it is oil- or gas-fired,
a furnace or boiler and its attached
components should be inspected,
cleaned, and adjusted every year. In
fact, annual savings of between $200-
400 per household commonly result
from these actions.
Early in the heating season is a
good time to schedule servicing. The
system will have to be operating dur-
ing its inspection, so performing it at
this time prevents building 'overheat-
ing and wasted fuel that would likely
result from a summertime tune-up.
. Most likely, the efficiency of your
present furnace or boiler can be im-
proved. As part of an annual tune-up,
have an efficiency inspection con-
ducted for your system by a know-
ledgeable and reputable contractor.
In addition to the routine tune-up
procedures of oiling, cleaning, and
nozzle replacement, system sizing,
combusion efficiency, and seasonal
efficiency should be examined.
Many buildings are heated by sys-
tems with much larger heating
capabilities than are required to
maintain a comfortable temperature.
These systems are said to be over-
sized. The "size" of a furnace or boiler
refers to how much heat it can gener-
ate in an hour. What's wrong with
oversizing? It increases operating
cycle losses that result from venting
combustion products from a system.
It also causes high off-cycle losses.
When the thermostat sends the
proper signal to the burner, the com-
bustion process stops-essentially
turning the system off. Hence the
term, "off-cycle. " But even though the
system is off, 'the heated combustion
chamber continues to send hot gases
up the. chimney. As this chamber
loses air to the chimney, it replaces
it with air from around the furnace
or boiler. This in turn causes enough
negative pressure in the house to re-
.sult in cold outside air being drawn
in through cracks and holes around
windows, doors , and other openings.
The problems of an oversized heat-
ing system can be partially corrected
by derating. This refers to adjust-
ments that reduce the rate at which
fuel is burned. In an oil system, a
smaller nozzle is installed in the
burner. A gas system is derated by
reducing the burner orifice size or by
decreasing the pressure in the man-
ifold, the pipe that distributes gas to
the burners. Derating a gas system
also involves installing a fixed flue
damper to modify the flue opening.
The amount of heat extracted from
fuel depends on the efficiency of the
combustion process. A combustion
efficiency test should be part of a
heating system's annual tune-up.
This diagnosis is performed by a heat-
ing system technician with special
tools that anlyze the composition of
flue gas and measure its temperature,
draft level, and smoke concentration.
The efficiency of the combustion pro-
cess is then calculated from these
measurements. Standard tune-up
procedures can usually result in a
combustion efficiency rating of be-
tween 75 and 85 percent for oil and
gas systems. If this is not possible,
options such as upgrading or replace-
ment should be considered.
A combustion efficiency test pro-
vides a measure of how completely
the burner converts fuel to useful
heat. Another indicator, known as
seasonal efficiency, is a gauge of how
well the entire heating system ex-
tracts heat from fuel and warms the
living space with it. Unfortunately,
seasonal efficiency is extremely com-
plicated to determine for an existing
system, but it can be estimated. De-
pending on estimated off-cycle losses
and the integrity of the distribution
system, subtract between 10 and 15
percent fromthe combustion effi-
ciency rating. Manufacturers of new
systems are required to present infor-
mation on the efficiency of their fur-
naces and boilers, and to comare this
efficiency with other units of the
same size and type. The basis for com-
parison among units is a laboratory-
tested seasonal efficiency known as
the Annualized Fuel Use Efficiency
(AFUE) rating, and is provided on the
required energy guide fact sheet for
each unit.
Improvements to space heating effi-
ciency can often be achieved by up-
grading an existing system. A yearly
tune-up will insure that the
maximum level of combustion effi-
ciency is attained. Seasonal effi-
ciency can be increased through a
number of measures. A 5 to 15 percent
increase, for example, can result from
derating. Boiler pipes or furnace
ducts that are leaky or uninsulated
can waste over 10 percent of the heat
produced by a system, especially if
the pipes or ducts pass through un-
heated areas. Adjusting furnace fan
switches, installing automatic vent
dampers, flue heat reclaimers, and
set-back thermostats also result in in-
creased seasonal efficiency.
Simple maintenance procedures
also keep a heating system from
operating at its peak efficiency. Air
flow through a furnace, for example,
is an important factor in determining
how efficiently a furnace runs. Any
restricitons to this air flow result in
efficiency losses. For this reason, it
is important to clean or change filters
every 30 to 60 days during the heating
season. Blades on the circulating fan
should also be free of dust, but before
cleaning them, make sure the furnace
is off.
In hot water heating systems, air
may collect in the distribution system
and prevent heat from reaching every
room. To prevent or correct this situ-
ation, allow air to escape from the
system once or twice a year by open-
ing the valve at the top of each
radiator and keeping it open until
water comes out. Have a bucket ready
and be careful of the hot water that
will flow from the valve.
Sediment should be removed from
a steam system every two weeks by
draining and flushing the low water
cut-off. The boiler itself should also
be drained and flushed annually and
refilled with fresh water.
For more information on reducing
fuel costs, send a self- addressed,
stamped envelope to: HANDIVAN,
Cornell Cooperative Extension, 280
Broadway, Room 701, New York, NY
10007. Fact sheets are available on oil
and gas central heating systems, insu-
lation, weatherstripping, and caulk-
ing materials. Mention City Limits
November 1986.
e
COOPERATIVE
EXTENSION
CORNELL UNIVERSITY
WORKSHOP
HOUSING SPECIALIST. New York City, Salary $25,000. The
NYS Dept. of Social Services has an immediate opening for an
individual interested in the development, implementation and
monitoring of programs to provide sheiter for the homeless. Qual-
ifications: A BA and three years of experience or high school
diploma and seven years of experience in housing, urban de-
velopment, provision or mgmt of human services, grants mgmt
or research. A MA degree may be substituted for one year of
experience. If you meet these qualifications, and are interested
in this challenging appointment, send your resume to: Ms. Cheryl
Price, NYS Dept. of Social Services, Personnel Office 12-B, Sec.
547, 40 North Pearl St., Albany, NY 12243. An Affirmative Action!
Equal Opportunity Employer, Women, minorities, Viet Nam-era
veterans and the disbled are encouraged to apply.
OFFICE DIRECTOR. Citizens Advice Bureau is seeking an MSW
with supervisory experience to direct its main office on Burnside
Ave. in the Bronx. ResponslbllHles: Supervising approximately
10 paid staff and students, conducting staff meetings, overseeing
contractual obligations, participating in community liason func-
tions and supervising CAB special events. There will also be
opportunity for program development and fundraising. Qualifica-
tions: MSW with at least 3 yrs. post-graduate experience, includ-
ing 2 yrs. of supervisory experience. Knowledge of entitlements
and housing regulations. Knowledge of Bronx helpful. Send re-
sumes to: C. McLaughlin, Citizens Advice Bureau, 2050 Grand
Concourse, Bronx, NY 10457.
HOUSING SPECIALIST. The Catholic Charities Office of Neigh-
borhood Preservation is seeking an experienced organizer to
work with Church organization on the Lower East Side involved
in developing limited-equity cooperative housing and land trust
using self-help/homesteading of city-owned, in rem property. Em-
phasis on group development and technical assistance. Work
Tuesday through Saturday, evening meetings. Qualifications:
Knowledge of housing development essential. Strong verbal and
writing skills; self-starter; commitment to community empower-
ment. Church organization experience preferred. Bilingual in En-
glish and Spanish. Salary: $16,000 plus benefits. Send resume
to : Howard Brandstein, c/o Catholic Charities, 1011 First Ave.,
Room 1104, New York, NY 10022.
Community Development Specialist: to coordinate rehabilita-
ti on projects, weatherization assistance program, LOC, etc. in-
cludes grant writing and follow- up. Community Organizer: to
coordinate agency organizing activities, i.e. civic associations,
block and tenant groups, etc. Experience necessary. Bi-lingual
preferred. Salary: Commensurate with experience (Range
$20,000-25,000). Fire/Arson Research Specialist: to compile
and evaluate fire/arson statistics in Bushwick. Computer knowl-
edge preferred. Salary: $15,000-17,000. Landlordf'Atnant Infor-
mation Specialist: Previous experience and bi-lingual preferred.
Salary: $11,000 +. Send resume to: Ridgewood Bushwick Senior
Citizens CounCil , Inc., Housing Department, 207 Wycoff Avenue,
Brooklyn, NY 11237; (718) 366-3800.
November 1986 CITY LIMITS 31
HOUSING SPECIALIST. Community Law Offices (Volunteer Di-
vision) of the Legal Aid Society seeks committed, energetic per-
son to assist tenant associations represented by Housing De-
velopment Unit. HDU does work in upper Manhattan north of
96th St. Its staff consists of 4 attorneys" 4 housing specialists
and 1 organizer. Reaponalbllltln: Building management train-
ing and assistance to tenant managed buildings; accounting
assistance to tenant associations during rent strikes; litigation
preparation and assistance; and .housing advice to walk-in
clients. Night meetings a must, Spanish helpful but not required.
Salary: Up to $19,880 including overtime and benefits, as per
1199 union contract. Send resume to: Housing Development
Unit, Community Law Offices, 230 E. 106th St., New York, NY
10029. No calls.
STAFF ATTORNEY. The Community Law Offices (VOlunteer Di-
vision) of the Legal Aid Society is seeking to hire a committed
and energetic staff attorney for its Housing Development Unit.
The HDU represents tenant groups in upper Manhattan north of
96th Street from river to river. Its staff currently consists of four
attorneys, five housing specialists and one tenant organizer. Re-
sponsibilities include civil court litigation (primarily 7A proceed-
ings, HP actions and defense of non-payment proceedings),
Rent Strike negotiations, and assistance to tenant managed and
7 A managed buildings. Duties also include supervision of staff
paralegals and pro bono attorneys engaged in all of the above
activities. Night meetings required. Spanish helpful. 2 + years
legal experience preferred. Starting salary is negotiable, based
on experience, benefits are per Association of Legal Aid Attor-
neys union contract. Send resume to: Housing Development
Unit, Community Law Offices, 230 East l06th Street, New York,
NY 10029.
Community Organizer: South Bronx People for Change is a
church-based organizing and leadership training organization
working in nine neighborhoods with hundreds of residents,
primarily black and Hispanic. Duties: Recruit individuals and
groups for training and action; train members in social action
and group meeting skills through workshops and leadership ses-
sions; work with local groups and area-wide committees to re-
search, recruit, plan and take action around neighborhood and
South Bronx issues (mostly jobs, h o u s i n ~ and crime) and public-
ity (newsletter) activities; plan and participate in our Scripture
reflection activities. Requirements: 2 years experience working
full-time with a neighborhood organizing program, including in-
volvement with housing issues campaigns, preferably in New
York City; strong interest in working within a church-based organi-
zation; good communication skills, includin9 speaking, writing
and listening in English and Spanish; initiative and a sense of
teamwork. Must work 5 days and 4 nights a week; occasional
Saturdays and Sundays. Salary: S15,OOO/year. Basic health be-
nefits; 2 weeks paid vacation to start. Contact South Bronx
People for Change, 603 Morris Ave., Bronx, NY 10451. (212)
993-2053.
sponsored by
City Limits
and
Education Center
for Community Organizers (ECCO)
National Lawyers Guild, NYC Chapter
NYC Commission on Human Rights
New York Women Against Rape
Women's Housing Coalition
Working Women's Institute
8:45 Registration and Coffee
9:00 Welcoming Remarks
Keynote Address: Hon. Velmanette Montgomery, State Senator
Panel Discussion
Setting the Context: Where Women's Rights, Civil Rights and Housing Rights Join Forces
9:30
10:30 - 12:00 SESSION I
A. Workplace to Home Base: Parallels Between Sexual Harassment of Women Workers and Tenants
B. When Home Is No Haven: Psychological Effects of Sexual Assault and Rape
C. Women in Transition: Issues Affecting Battered Women and Homeless Women
D. Tenant Harassment in a Housing Crisis
12:00 - 1:30 SESSION II
A. Turning the Tables: Legal Strategies for Challenging Sexual Harassment of Women Tenants
B. Support Group To Build Networks: For Women Who Have Experienced Sexual Harassment as Tenants
C. Harassment of Women Tenants Throughout the Life Cycle: Young Women, Single Parents and
Older Women
D. When Harassment Is Discrimination: Sexual Harassment as a Fair Housing Issue
E. Sexual Harassment Issues for Undocumented Women Tenants
1:30 - 2:30 Lunch Break/Video Presentations
2:30 - 4:00 SESSION III
A. Legal Landmarks: Sexual Harassment of Women Tenants Suits in Focus (Shellhammer v. Lewellan and Staf-
fier v. Kastens)
B. Self-Defense and Crime Prevention Strategies for Women Tenants
C. Double Jeopardy: Women of Color and Sexual Harassment at Home
D. Empowerment Through Organizing: Strategy and Network Building for Organizers
E. Disabled Women Tenants Facing Harassment
4:00 - 5:00 Speakout
Women are invited to speak about their experiences of sexual harassment as tenants
5:00 - 5:45 Plenary
5:45 - 6:30 Reception/Refreshments
For further information contact:
Madelyn Miller, Conference Coordinator
(212) 535-4799
Saturday, November 8, 1986, 9:00 am to 6:00 pm, Hunter School of Social Work

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