City Limits Magazine, June/July 1980 Issue

CITY LIMITS
JUNEJULY 1980 $1.50 VOL.5 NO.6

Rehab Tug-of-War
This is a tale of five city tenements - two destroyed, two saved and one still the
subject of struggle between tenants and the city bureaucracy-a bureaucracy that is grappling
with choosing between federally subsidized development schemes or honoring prior commit-
ments to tenants for self-sufficiency through ownership.
Two small upper Manhattan buildings of less than a dozen units each at West 145th Street
and Amsterdam Avenue battled the city and developer successfully and are now assured that
they can continue on their route to tenant ownership without fear of displacement.
Two larger buildings on Decatur Avenue in the Kingsbridge section of the Bronx stand
stripped and vacant while fifty families are scattered throughout the city living in emergency
(Continued on Page 4)
The corner of Amsterdam Avenue and 145th Street.
A Decade That Begins With Miami
by Betty Terrell
On May 17, 1980 an explosion of fury and rage
erupted in Miami, Florida,which officials say resulted in
damages of $200 million. This dollar estimate was made
quickly-within a few days-but there has yet to be an
estimate of what it will take to rebuild the lives of the
thousands of individuals who suffered before and after
the riots from the most serious type of damage imagin-
able: human destruction. The court verdict on the mur-
der of a black man was clearly the trigger, but not the
root of the problem.
Miami reminds us of the nineteen sixties-a time
when economic and racial segregation had to its credit
the destruction of more lives than World War II. If we
assess the situation in 1980, we see an absence of the bla-
tant signs which separated people by race in the sixties,
but all of the other ingredients appear the same. Institu-
tionalized racism, coupled with the economic patterns
of our soci ty, has again brought us to the brink of chaos
-an explosion which has the potential force of Miami
tenfold or a hundred and tenfold.
The problem is not one of isolated Miamis, but a
problem of national scope and must be addressed as
such.
The social pattern in America Society has been one of
give .. aways in times of social unrest and take-backs
when the rage subsides. These policies have always been
justified in economic terms. The 1960's was no excep-
tion. ,
The economic problems of the sixties were serious;
resulting in alarming unemployment figures. Coupled
CITY LIMITS/June-July 1980
with the lack of minority representation in decision
making roles and a complete lack of government re-
sponse, there was no place a person could turn to gain
assistance even to feed his family. These factors coupled
with daily reminders of deep-seated racism triggered a
reaction by the Black community which shook the very
foundation of our nation and caused the decision-
makers to take a close look and begin to reshape
priorities.
The result was the Great Society programs which of-
fered temporary relief to a fairly large number of poor
and minority people. But the giveaway of the sixties was
a deal in which the minorities really lost: only a small
number of people received long-lasting benefits such as
education, access to well-paying jobs, and positions of
power in government. It was for the mC<1st part a
mechanism to "keep the natives quiet" and it did ... for
a long while.
The decade of the seventies brought with it a change
in priorities at the federal level and a less sympathetic
mood toward minorities. The "take-back" era had be-
gun and has carried over into the new decade. A glaring
example is the Open Admissions programs-adopted by
major colleges and now all but extinct. There is less
representation of minorities at all levels of government.
This is not to say that there are not minority legislators
who do advocate social programs. Rather, that the
results of these efforts are less fruitful because of the
lack of response and cooperation of those who control
the committees and wield the power. For example, the
Borough Presidency of Manhattan which has tradition-
ally been a position held by Blacks has been wrested
from minority control. Furthermore, the prospects of
gains in the upcoming election for this position remains
marginal.
The recent action in Congress to reduce CET A VI
Public Service Employment, cutback on essential do-
mestic programs such as Neighborhood Self - Help,
LEAA, Youth Employment, and the elimination of un-
employment benefits for CETA workers gives us a per-
spective of the totality of the bias against the poor, near-
poor and minorities. At the New York City level, the
feeling of bias is equally rampant: the deprivation of
essential services in poor neighborhoods such as hospit-
al and school closings, the allocation of CD funds to
areas which barely meet CDBG requirements and the
priorities set in the City's 1981 budget. These
"justified" cutbacks coupled with a continuing increase
in programs which benefit the "haves" such as West-
way, J-51, the Convention Center, Battery Park City,
etc. clearly spell danger for minorities.
2 continued on page 19
VESTING INTERESTS
Editorials present an opportunity for comment,
advice and opinion concerning important public
issues, often government policy and administration.
With this opportunity comes the responsibility to of-
fer opinion and advice that is sound, moral and be-
neficial to the public. In a recent editorial (June 7,
1980), the New York Times, while taking the oppor-
tunity, abandoned its responsibility.
The editorial gives an overview on and recognizes
the success of HPD's alternative management pro-
gram and improvement in the central management
of city-owned buildings. But as not to overburden
the successful programs, the editorial goes on to
advise the city to take a very irresponsible course of
action: not to vest title to thousands of currently In
Rem buildings. Such advice falls down on two impor-
tant matters.
By insisting the city not take title to buildings
over four quarters in tax arrears, the Times is con-
demning those tenants in occupancy to unsafe and
inadequate housing. With neither landlord nor city
responsible for cervices, these tenants will suffer
the ravages of abandonment: no heat, no hot water
and neglect of repair and lack of safety. Not only
does such advice display a total lack of compassion
for these low income residents, but it asks the city
to abrogate its own guarantee to each citizen of a
decent and safe home, and, if necessary, to act as
"the landlord of last resort: ' It also ignores federal
civil rights and housing law which guarantee similar
rights.
The Times justifies its recommendation by claim-
ing that bringing more buildings into city ownership
would overburden the city's management program
and compromise their success. Yet,legally the city
has no such option. The law is very clear that the
remedy for real estate tax delinquency is for the city
to take title and through management, auction or
some other form of disposition to recover lost
revenue and get the property back on the tax rolls.
For the Times to recommend, and for the city to take
such advice is to encourage nonpayment of taxes,
as well as an affront to all tax paying owners. The
scheme could well backfire. In line with the Times's
reasoning, the City Limits editorial board should
recommend to the five Tenant Interim Lease build-
ings that were recently purchased by their tenants
3
that they need not pay taxes, for the city will not
foreclose.
The Times further suggests, after praising the vir-
tues of tenant ownership and management, that the
very slumlords who abandoned their properties
should be rewarded with a program and incentive to
encourage them back into their buildings. When will
it be understood that the private market cannot op-
erate effectively with an expected rate of return in
many of the city's low income neighborhoods and
that the viable alternative to city ownership is public
ownership by non-profit co-ops and community or-
ganizations?
One last disturbing point about the editorial is not
in the content of the editorial but the fact that the
city follows these recommendations. We thought
the city was supposed to have rejected Roger Starr's
irresponsible housing policies years ago. 0
_CITY LIMITS.
City Limits is published monthly except June/ July and August/
September by the Association of Neighborhood Housing Developers,
Pratt Institute Center for Community and Environmental Develop-
ment and the Urban Homesteading Assistance Board. Subscription
rates: $20 per year; $6 a year for community-based organizations and
individuals. All correspondence should be addressed to CITY
LIMITS, 115 East 23rd St., New York, N.Y. 10010. (212) 477-9074,5.
Second-class postage paid New York, N.Y. 10001
City Limits (ISSN 0199-0330)
Editor ......... . .... . ....... . .......... . ..... . . . Tom Robbins
Assistant Editor ... . .. ... ..... . . ... .. . ..... . .... Susan Baldwin
Business Manager ...... . .. . . . .... .. .... . .. .... . . Carolyn Wells
Design and Layout ....... . . . . . ......... . ........ . Louis Fulgoni
Copyright 1980. All rights reserved. No portion or portions oj this
journal may be reprinted without the express written permission oj the
publishers.
This issue was funded by a grant from New York Community Trust
Cover photo by Marc Jahr
Dear Friends and Readers of City Limits:
Since we began publishing in February, 1976, we
have always welcomed and encouraged you to sub-
mit guest articles on housing and related issues.
We attempt to cover as many issues as we can
ourselves but realize that we don 't know or hear
about everything that is happening in your neigh-
borhood or field of interest.
It is with this in mind that we again invite you to
send editorial materials to us. We are always in-
terested to hear firsthand from you what is happen-
ing.
Please keep us in mind and pick up that pen or
get out that typewriter.
Cordially,
The Editors
CITY L1MITS/June-July 1980
A Conflict Over Rehab Plans
MableSmith, 241 WestIJIth St . tenant
Continued from p. 1
by Susan Baldwin
housing and welfare hotels. And the third in Harlem,
241 West l11th Street-is still fighting for its life.
"They may think they can kick us around and take
our homes away because we're poor, but the govern-
ment isn' t going to find that so easy because we plan to
fight all the way for our homes, and I don't plan to re-
main poor long."
Such were the comments from Robert Lewis, a young
musician who resides at 241 West lllth Street in West
Harlem, where a major federally funded government re-
habilitation program is slated to begin within the next
few months . And Lewis is joined by other angry build-
ing residents in his determination to resist relocation
from his apartment.
"I had to give up all my savings to move here, and
I've been fixing up my apartment," he asserted, adding,
"This is the best place I've ever lived. This is home for
me, my wife and child and we won't leave-even if they
offer us money to get out." His assertion at a recent ten-
ant meeting was punctuated by others, including his
wife, Venetta, who chimed in, "Yes, the city better get it
straight. We are not happy gypsies, and we won't
move."
The building in question-241 West ll1th Street-is
tenant-run under a city housing program known at the
Tenant Interim Lease (TIL) program, under which resi-
dents collect rent and use this money to make basic
repairs and provide services. At the end of a trial man-
agement period, tenants are encouraged to buy the
4
building as low income cooperatives under the city's low
cost homeownership program.
Why are these tenants enraged and fighting the city's
plans to relocate them? It is very simple. The city's pro-
gram has run afoul of the federal government's substan-
tial "gut" rehabilitation program for Section 8 subsized
housing in what has been dubbed "Gateway to Har-
lem". This area has been designated a Neighborhood
Strategy Area (NSA), where a local developer and a
non-profit community organization have a $10 million
plan to rehabilitate 177 apartments in ten buildings.
Cauldwell-Wingate, a well-known Harlem developer,
and the West Harlem Community Organization have
plans for the rehabilitation and are known as co-
sponsors or developers and, through this partnership,
will share in the profits from the sale of the project's tax
shelter.
Two years ago, HUD awarded New York City 6,500
units of Section 8 housing under this innovative NSA
program which allowed for 20,000 such units nation-
wide.
As is often the case with implementing new govern-
ment programs, the project is just getting started in the
designated city neighborhoods, and one of the major
complaints from tenant leaders is that developers are
selecting occupied buildings-frequently ones involved
in other city programs-when they could just as easily
devise plans that would focus on vacant properties.
"I would like to know how they can stitch this build-
r:
r
ing into a land package before they would allow people
who have been trying to buy for ten to 15 years," said
Mable Smith, a tenant leader in the building for 40
years. "We are just shocked that our homes are being
offered out of the blue to developers at a first shot."
According to Smith, 241 West 111th Street has been
involved in dealings with the city since 1964, and,
although the tenants have attempted to buy their build-
ing for years, their efforts have failed because of the
failure of the city's programs to work.
The city takes a different view of the tenants' situa-
tion.
"I know the tenants want to buy that building but so
far as I know, it is still going to be in the Section 8 pro-
posal," said William White, director of the NSA pro-
gram at the city's Department of Housing Preservation
and Development. "That building has had 11 years to
get its act together and hasn't succeeded ... It is on a
block with a lot of rehab planned, and we don't want it
to be an eyesore in the midst of the other rehabilitated
housing."
He also said he doubted that the tenants could get a
mortgage for the building, stressing that the Section 8
subsidized housing would be better for all concerned. In
addition, he suggested that only a few of the tenants
were fighting the Section 8 proposal-an allegation hot-
ly denied by the 16 resident families.
On the other hand, tenants in another Neighborhood
Strategy Area in Upper Manhattan's Hamilton Heights,
have been successful in their efforts to have their build-
ings removed from an NSA rehabilitation package. The
buildings-500 and 506 West 145th Street-also small,
tenant-run and occupied, are enrolled in the interim
lease program and, until a few weeks ago, were schedul-
ed to be absorbed in a developer's package. The devel-
oper, a community-based builder, is G. Wilfred
Gooden.
"We were told at first that if we did everything the
city said to do we could buy our buildings, and then we
heard this was all out the window when the big develop-
er came along," said George Lande, owner of the drug-
store at 550 West 145th Street which is also known as
1714 Amsterdam Avenue. "I've been here 15 years and
before that I was 15 years over at Seventh Avenue and
West 140th Street. I bought this 50-year-old drugstore
because I had faith in the neighborhood and wanted it
to survive."
Late in May, the tenants of 500 and 506 took a secret
vote at two separate community meetings. The vote was
overwhelmingly in favor of tenant ownership.
Plans for inclusion of the buildings in the developer's
proposal continued until pressure from the tenants, a
neighborhood technical assistance group known as the
Urban Homesteading Assistance Board, and sympathet-
ic housing officials at HPD led to a change of plans.
In a letter addressed to Gooden's consultant, Thorn-
ton Sanders of the Sydebon Corp., HPD Deputy Com-
5
mISSIOner Charles Reiss wrote: "As you know, both
buildings are currently being managed by their tenants
under HPD's Tenant Interim Lease program. While we
believe that both buildings require some renovation, a
complete rehabilitation would require the relocation of
all tenants and, importantly, deny the tenants the
privilege of home ownership; home ownership is one of
the major objectives of the TIL program,and the city is
committed to fulfilling that goal."
Gooden and his consultant charged that they cannot
carry out an economically feasible rehabilitation of the
rest of the adjacent buildings in their proposal as 500
and 506 are pivotal buildings for joining all the build-
ings with elevator service and providing communal
rooms. They also assert that the city promised the build-
ings to them and said it would not renew the tenant lease
when it expired in July.
In addition, they maintain that Section 8 housing
would better serve the needs of the community as it
would help the low income residents achieve better
housing.
Under the Section 8 program, tenants who qualify
need pay only one-quarter of their income for rent. For
example, Section 8 subsidy would be available to a fami-
ly of four with an income of up to $17,050, although
Congress is presently considering a reduction of income
eligibility levels.
Asked why HPD removed the Hamilton Heights
buildings from the developer's proposal but not 241
West lllth Street, Martha Gershun, of HPD's public af-
fairs department, said, "Tony [Gliedman] is firm on
this. All leases signed before the Section 8 packaging
was firm will not be upset ... 500 and 506 were signed
before, but this was not true in the case of 241 ... where
the tenants signed the lease in October, and the Section 8
package was approved earlier in the summer." Glied-
man is commissioner of HPD.
According to the records of the tenants association at
241 West 11lth Street, they joined the city's Direct Sales
program, which was eventually replaced by TIL, in
May, 1978, and signed an interim lease with the city in
September, 1979. In earlier years, they also applied to
the city's coop conversion plan under the Municipal
Loan program but were turned down in January, 1976,
because of the city's lack of funds.
Prior to becoming city-owned in December, 1974, 241
was on repeated rent strikes against landlords for lack
of services and entered the city's receivership program in
April, 1971. The tenants also maintain that the city lost
their original TIL lease and they were forced to sign a
new one in October, 1979.
Asked why the city had expressed no knowledge of
241 's history with the city, William Smith, director of
the TIL program, said, "I know now that they have a
long history with the city .. . I think it's unfortunate that
a lot of their contacts are no longer here ... But I still see
this as a development question, and I am in property
Unoccupied buildings
in West 145th Street
rehabilitation plan.
management. I did not know of this history before."
He also said that HPD should do more checking in
the future and make sure buildings are not in old pipe-
lines that are defunct. "As far as I know, this is where
this building is now," Smith added.
According to Ed Moses of U-HAB, who works with
the tenants at 241, repeated efforts by his organization
and sympathetic HPD officials have proven futile
because Gliedman has remained adamant in his decision
not to remove them from the Section 8 package.
In addition to complaints about the city's indifference
to their plight, the tenants claim that both Cauldwell-
Wingate and the West Harlem Community Organiza-
tion said in the early stages of developing their proposal
that they could carry out their plans without 241 West
ll1th Street.
Margaret McNeill, chairman of the West Harlem
organization, confirmed that she had said "in the begin-
ning that it made no difference to me whether this build-
ing was in or out" of the package and that she was com-
plying with the city which had selected a development
strip that was in the middle of the block on West 111th
and 112th Streets. Cauldwell-Wingate could not be
reached for comment.
The question of why the city and developers continue
to select occupied buildings for rehabilitation continues
to rage, while parties involved in the downfall and
evacuation of 50 families from two buildings at 2653
and 2657 Decatur Avenue in the Kingsbridge, Bronx
NSA attempt to explain what went wrong in this pro-
posed $3.4 million rehabilitation venture.
The developer, William Hubbard of the Center for
Housing Partnerships, maintains that rivalry between
two local non-profit housing organizations for control
of the buildings created an atmosphere of confusion
causing the tenants to "overreact" and go on rent strike
without paying rent to a tenants' association or the land-
lord, leading to the landlord's refusal to provide ser-
vices, and finally, an emergency evacuation of the re-
maining families by the city on April 1, 1980.
Charles Rappaport, the former director of one of the
community groups-West Bronx Housing and Neigh-
borhood Resources Center-said the incident caused
CITY LIMITS/June-July 1980 6
him to lose his job because the city refused to fund his
organization as long as he was the director. He has
charged HPD with failure to inform the tenants of the
proposed rehabilitation plan until "it was too late."
An independent proposal writer and HPD officials
who worked on the project said the incident raised the
question of both the government's and the developer's
responsibility to brief tenants about development plans
before they are alai! accompli.
"Sometimes you can promise something too soon,
and it never materializes," said Jane Gallagher, the
packager. "Then you have something like the rage in
Miami, but it is not confined to Miami ... It can happen
in any neighborhood."
In the meantime, the two buildings which were once
occupied now stand stripped and vacant with more than
115 violations-110 more than had been registered with
the city this same time last year. And the landlord who
sold his option on the buildings for $150,000 to the de-
veloper now owes the city $140,000 in fines, liens and
costs.
"Stories like this just show you they should leave the
occupied buildings alone," Mabel Smith concluded as
she mused about her building'S future. "They don't
have the whole story on 241. We have maintained our
building, we believed in the city's programs, and our
building is the best one on the block. What makes them
so sure that it is going to become the worst, an eyesore?
... This is like a family here. Everybody looks out for
everyone else, and nobody gets hurt. Nobody gets kick-
ed out like those poor people in the Bronx. Why don't
they go after the vacant, tinned-up buildings. They're
plenty of them around."
Smith has called for an HUD investigation of her
building'S dilemma, but Alan Wiener, New York area
manager, could not be reached for information regard-
ing an inspection of 241's complaint.
Another resident concluded on a more philosophical
note.
"I've been moving too long. I came here in 1961 after
moving all the time, and I want to stay," said Mattie
Hall, a wiry elderly woman. "We want roots and that's
what we're trying to establish here. We'll fight hard to
get them." 0
As the budget negotiations went down to the last minute, community
groups protested outside City Hall to demand more funds for neigh-
borhoods and tenant-run buildings.
CITY CD BUDGET
APPROVED OVER PROTEST
On June 11, as the city's Community Development
budget went down to the wire in last minute negotia-
tions, 200 people from community groups and neigh-
borhoods across the city demonstrated at City Hall to
express their support for a "Counter Budget" issued by
the New York City Community and Development Coali-
tion. The demonstration capped dozens of hours of
meeting between community groups and city officials to
plead for more funding for tenant management and
building rehabilitation programs.
Negotiations, however, appear to have been largely
fruitless, as the finalized city application was substan-
tially unchanged from its original form. $600,000 was
added to the $200,000 allocated for the Sweat Equity
Program, far short of the $7.7 million the "Counter
Budget" called for to complete work on the buildings
presently in the pipeline.
"Aside from the Sweat Equity, the rest of the changes
were all pure pork barrel stuff," said Brian Sullivan of
the Pratt Institute. "The standard citizen participation
process in creating the CD budget just isn't working-
it's largely wasted. People spent thousands of hours try-
ing to hammer out priorities and plans, but the decisions
are largely made behind closed doors."
Not included in the budget, but made in pledges from
Deputy Mayor Robert Wagner and Housing Commis-
sioner Anthony Gliedman, was a commitment to use $2
million in CD money for the rehabilitation component
7
of the community management if the city's present
plans to use Section 8 moderate rehabilitation prove
unfeasible.
The Community Development Coalition is planning
to file an administrative complaint with HUD in July,
after the city's formal submission. The complaint,
which is the first step in a legal challenge which may in-
clude a law suit against the city, will cite violations by
the city in allocation of its Community Development
funds . 0
CITY DENIES BANK
REDEMPTION REQUEST
Three years after their building was abandoned by its
former owner, tenants of a large Washington Heights
apartment house have successfully turned back an at-
tempt to return the building to private ownership.
The Board of Estimate voted on June 12 to reject an
application from United Mutual Savings Bank, mortga-
gor of the property, to redeem the building from city
ownership. The building at 800 Riverside Drive is cur-
rently in its second year under the Tenant Interim Lease
program.
Tenants at the building-known as the Grinnell-
took court action in 1977 following a winter of frequent
heat interruptions and elevator failures. According to
tenants repeated attempts to solicit the bank's assistance
were made but no help was forthcoming. A 7A adminis-
trator WC:'i appointed, and, following seizure of the
building f ~ r back taxes by the city, it was accepted into
the Interim Lease program.
Under the law, the bank had a 20 month grace period
during which it could file to redeem the building at the
discretion of the city, a right the bank exercised, filing
its application just before the May, 1980,deadline.
Richard James, chairman of the Grinnell Tenants
Association, asserted that the bank's interest in 800
Riverside had been rekindled after tenants made sub-
stantial capital improvements in the building.
Apartments in the 83 unit structure at 158th Street are
generally large, averaging between 6 to 7 rooms.
Although tenants say they have received assurances
from HPD that the building will be sold to them at the
price of $250 per unit, they have yet to receive a firm
commitment. According to James, the building is
"about 50-50" low and middle income tenants. Cur-
rently an engineering study is underway and James
estimates it will cost tenants between $500,000 to
$750,000 to make needed repairs.
"If HPD comes up with a high purchase price for our
apartments, this may turn into a pyrrhic victory," noted
James. 0
p. S. 133 on six and one-half acre Baltic Street development sile.
A Brooklyn Neighborhood Debates
Which Path to Development?
by Tom Robbins
Public School 133 stands like a forgotten monument
from an earlier era on the edge of a long barren stretch
of ground just off Fourth Avenue in the lower Park
Slope area of Brooklyn. Police from the 78th Precinct
enjoy referring to the baroque 1898 building as "The
Little School on the Prairie." Stray dogs, who wander
across the six and one half vacant acres harassing small
children and disturbing nearby residents, add to the
sense of desolation. The school, ironically, is the sole
survivor of a 1970 Board of Education inspired plan to
raze the apartment buildings, factories and warehouses
on the square block between Fifth and Fourth Avenues,
and between Douglass and Butler Street clear across a
block and a half to Baltic Street, in order to build new
grade and intermediate schools.
It is Baltic Street whose name has come to be affixed
to the huge lot which presently serves the multiple func-
tions of open air garage, vegetable garden and junk
yard. By 1975 the city's plans for the new schools lay
shattered on the rocks of fiscal retrenchment and a com-
munity already suffering from abandonment and ne-
glect was left with a gaping hole and no funds with
which to fill it.
Large areas of vacant urban land can pose as many
problems as possibilities. A community's development
plan may hinge on a number of factors anyone of which
can bar the way to construction. Contending forces in
the neighborhood, representing differing points of view,
and frequently different racial and economic groups,
may vie for control. Political officials, controlling a
good number of the switches and levers, can move a
project swiftly along or midway leave it stalled.
To a large extent the eventual success of any proposal
will depend on the sponsor's ability to weave a careful
path through the numerous hazards and pitfalls along
the way, ever mindful the project is not merely creating
structures out of rubble, but helping to shape the eco-
nomic and social direction of a neighborhood.
8
Since the time the Board of Education plan for the lot
fizzled, the Baltic Street ground has figured prominently
in the thinking of neighborhood groups. An early goal
of the Fifth Avenue Committee, which began operating
in 1977, was some form of development on the site. FAC
had from the first a two-sided battle to wage. On the
one hand,it set out to deal with problems akin to most
low income, minority neighborhoods in the city: hous-
ing abandonment and deterioration of the Fifth Avenue
shopping strip. On the other, the pressures from the
burgeoning, increasingly white and middle class rejuve-
nation of the upper Park Slope neighborhood were be-
ing felt. While there were benefits from the brownstone
movement, there was also an increasing dilemma of how
to hold on to a moderate to low income area while real
estate values spiralled about it.
To a large extent the Fifth Avenue Committee at-
tempted to represent all the elements in an ethnically
and economically diverse neighborhood. But, on the
issue of the Baltic Street lot development, that broad
based coalition foundered,and from the fallout, another
organization, with a distinctly different opinion on the
lot, developed.
An initial public confrontation, although surprisingly
restrained, between two development proposals took
place at a recent meeting of the Land Use Committee of
Community Board Six. Nineteen committee members,
and an audience of 70, listened and questioned as the
two proposals were unveiled in the first step towards
city approval. One plan, strongly backed by the Park
Slope Improvement Committee, which had splintered
from FAC, proposed the construction of a "one stop
shopping environment" to include a 30,000 square feet
supermarket and an additional 17,000 square feet of an-
cillary stores, including a bank and a pharmacy. To ac-
commodate what the developer, the Rentar Development
Corporation, and the prospective tenant, Waldbaums
Supermarkets, feel will be a large number of car driving
customers from surrounding neighborhoods, the plan
calls for 357 parking spaces.
Committee members and others raised questions
about the effect on the school, the number of jobs that
would be generated and the impact on local merchants
of a large shopping center. But in sum, the proposal was
fairly straightforward and easy to understand: Rentar
was ready to build, Waldbaums was ready to tenant,
and private financing would be used throughout.
The proposal of the Fifth Avenue Committee was a
good deal more ambitious and required a certain leap of
faith. FAC's plan, two years in the making, con-
templated a mixed use scheme for the lot. Like the Ren-
tar IWaldbaum plan it would include a supermarket of
equal proportions, but with far fewer parking spaces. In
addition, 210 units in 70 low- rise townhouse- style
buildings would be built, with two low income Section 8
subsidized tenants and one home owner per building.
Capping the plan, the group said it had found a way to
construct a new 600 to 700 seat grade school without us-
ing funds from the city's capital budget. Instead, the
New York Educational Construction Fund, a quasi-
public agency similar to UDC, would float bonds to
raise funds for the school's construction and the interest
and amortization on the bonds would be paid off by us-
ing the real estate taxes from the commercial complex
and the housing.
For some on the committee and in the audience, it
was a complicated scheme to digest at one sitting, but
for others the openness of the plan was encouraging.
"The mixed use idea was always expected for the area,"
said Bill Woods of the City'S Brooklyn Planning Office
who was in attendance. "What's exciting is you are be-
ing presented with a wonderful opportunity to jump in
and help plan."
9
Selma Abramowitz, only recently made chair of the
Land Use Committee, said no decision should be made
yet, but suggested a "series of working meetings" for
the committee. "I see problems with both proposals,"
she said later. "I just hope there will be a lot of ques-
tions, and that we'll get the answers."
In the week following the Land Use meeting, the Park
Slope Improvement Committee held a fundraising din-
ner at a popular health food restaurant on what PSIC's
Chairman Lew Smith refers to as Park Slope's "gold
coast." The group was looking to meet the costs it had
incurred in producing and mailing a 9,000 piece poll of
registered voters in the vicinity of the Baltic Street lot.
Voters were asked to check "yes" on a postcard if they
wanted to see a supermarket on the lot, "no" if they did
not. The group s ~ i d out of nearly 2,000 replies only 117
voted "no." No mention was made that a different,
multi-use proposal, including a supermarket, had also
been made for the lot.
"When I moved here six years ago," said Smith
recently, "there wasn't a single abandoned building
along the Fifth Avenue corridor. Now there are 170
which are vacant or partially empty. The area has
become bombed out." Active in the Fifth Avenue Com-
mittee until the Baltic Street plans diverged, Smith feels
that actions FAC took to withhold abandoned buildings
from the city auction block have helped increase aban-
donment. "I've watched my neighborhood be burned
down and robbed," he said. "FAC has completely lost
its perspective."
Along with other dissatisfied members, Smith estab-
lished the PSIC which has worked hard to drum up sup-
port for the shopping center. To David Brennan, PSIC
President and like Smith a homeowner in lower Park
Slope, the issues of the Baltic Street lot are clear. "They
want housing and we want commercial," he said after a
second land use committee meeting which agreed it still
needed more answers to its many questions. "I'm op-
posed to subsidized housing of any form," he added.
While both proposals contain the common element of
a supermarket, according to Aaron Malinsky, Real
Estate Director for Waldbaums, the two plans are
" diametrically opposed." Pointing out that two super-
market chains, Food Fair and Bohacks, had recently
gone out of business in Brooklyn, Malinsky said his
company had outlined large stores with big parking lots
as the only way to survive. "There's not enough room
on the lot for a new school," said Malinsky.
The prospect of a large, suburban-type'shopping mall
has caused some consternation in the neighborhood.
The effect of the shopping center on local bodegas and
other "mom and pop" stores is one the community has
grappled with before and no clear answers were found.
Two years ago the issue was intensely thrashed out when
Pathmark sought a community nod to construct a
similar center less than a mile away at the site of a Goya
Foods plant. Path mark eventually did get the go-ahead
concinued on page 17
Revolving Funds, Red Tape Cuts
To Speed Loans to 7A Buildings
by Peg Byron
Caught in a limbo between landlord neglect and city
ownership of a building, tenants have one course of ac-
tion to eliminate landlord profit and abuse through Ar-
ticle 7-A. According to the law, tenants may choose an
administrator to manage their rents and restore services,
before the building must suffer further deterioration
and go In Rem. The 7-A Seed Money Program is intend-
ed to get major repairs made before they become more
costly, with interest free loans which are not repaid until
the building is financially capable.
Unfortunately, the slow paying, relatively small pro-
jects funded by 7-A loans have had little appeal to most
contractors. As a result, few 7-A managed buildings
have applied for and gotten money for those repairs
which their rent rolls can't cover. This pattern, at least
for 7-A, may be changed by the end of JulY,however,
with the partnership of the Division of Evaluation and
Compliance and two private foundations and plans to
eliminate or side-step red tape at the city Controller's of-
fice.
"Application for 7-A loans had died down due to pro-
cedural difficulties," Assistant Commissioner Joseph
Shuldiner said. "7-A administrators couldn't get
enough estimates," he said, "so we got a legal opinion
that three written estimates were not necessary." One
written estimate from a contractor per repair iteIP will
now be required with a 7-A loan application and that
estimate will then be the contract used.
A more notorious problem with the original loan pro-
cedures was the six to eight weeks or more delay before
the contractor got his or her check from the city. To
speed things up, the Fund for the City of New York and
the New York Community Trust will back federal com-
munity development money with a revolving loan, in-
terest free, to be used to make prompt payments to con-
tractors and to be replenished by the more slowly pro-
cessed CD money about six weeks later. $10,000 and
$40,000 from each foundation respectively will be
available, and checks will be disbursed by the Fund
upon notification from HPD that contracted work has
been completed and inspected. "We hope to issue a
check within a week," Nancy Castleman, Grants Ad-
ministrator for the Fund,said.
"This is one of the few programs to really stem milk-
ing of buildings by landlords before it gets too late. But
some people feel that dealing with the city is like waiting
for Godot," Castleman said. "We hope to make it entic-
ing for others to be 7-A administrators," she said.
Shuldiner told City Limits that he expects the pro-
gram will spend at least $350,000 a year, on about 40
buildings, in contrast to the 28 loan total of about
$160,000 spent over the past two years. This year's 7-A
allocation is well below Shuldiner's goal, but,he said,
"The Commissioner (Anthony Gliedman) has definitely
indicated that we can get what we can spend. I don't see
the budget as a problem."
Albion Liburd, director of the 7-A Seed Money Pro-
gram, first discussed the possibility of working out a
"quick cash flow" program with Castleman, whose
organization has made similar loans to non-profit
groups also waiting for government grants to be pro-
cessed.
As part of their agreement with the Division of
Evaluation and Compliance, the Fund is also bringing a
consultant "to look at ways to improve the processing
of payments in the program," Castleman said.
"If we have the money at a faster pace, we can use the
neighborhood people (contractors) who need the money
and are more responsible," said Rudolpho Foster, a 7-A
administrator in upper Manhattan. "We could get a lot
more for our money with these contractors, but they
can't wait sixty days to get paid," said Foster. Small
contractors "are living from hand to mouth," he said.
For programs,like 7-A especially, payment delays can
be an obstacle. The maximum 7-A loan is only $10,000
and that is usually divided among different trades and
contractors. Smaller contracting firms, many minority
owned, tend to handle jobs of this size and cannot af-
ford to advance the money necessary for materials and
labor, much less wait a couple of months to be paid. 7-A
administrators would find themselves at a competitive
disadvantage, assuming they could even get a contractor
to consider the job. "You have to be able to prepare
bids for contractors; they don't like to write things
down. They don't like to wait for city money, and with
no money up front, that leaves very few contractors to
bid," said Ron Webster, a property manager for Peo-
ple's Fire House in North Brooklyn.
Webster recommended more technical assistance to
7-A buildings and emphasized the need for making ad-
vances to small contractors in order to open bidding to
them. "Up front money is the critical piece," he said.
The possiblity of making advances to contractors, as
is common practice in private industry and imperative
for 7-A size operations, is being explored by the Fund.
"In the coming year, we will be trying to figure out ways
10
j
"
to make advances to the contractors," Castleman said.
Seed money has been available to 7-A managed build-
ings since 1978, for repairs before the building
deteriorates further and goes into city ownership. To use
7-A, at least one third of the tenants in a privately-
owned building that is not receiving services or has been
abandoned must petition the court to approve an
administrator, usually chosen by the tenants. The ad-
ministrator, with training from HPD and often with
help from a community organizer, is obliged to make
certain specified repairs with money from the rent roll
and possibly from the Emergency Repair Program. The
administrator has the power to evict non-paying tenants
and may take up to 5 per cent of the rent roll as salary.
While in the program, the building does not make tax,
mortgage, or past debts payments.
Tenants are expected to contribute energy as well as
rent to their building, and this helps make quality
repairs and maintenance affordable at this time. Some
remain skeptical. As one observer noted, tenants may
find themselves "jumping through hoops for crumbs."
Joint effort, however, may save tenants from possible
displacement and the city from acquiring another
dilapidated building.
"What I want to do is match the commitment of the
tenants," Shuldiner said. "$1,000 spent now is a lot
more than $50,000 two years from now .... If the pro-
gram works, the city is doing well for itself." 0
Peg Byron writes for the feminist monthly Wom-
anews and other community interest publications.
APARTMENT DATA SERVICE
FOR HANDICAPPED
A special federally funded project will attempt to
match handicapped New Yorkers with apartments of
special design via a computer bank. The project, whi.ch
has been allocated $100,000 in federal Commumty
Development funds, will be operated by the Settlement
Housing fund under contract to HPD.
The Housing Data Bank Referral Service is designed
to facilitate access by the handicapped to housing
opportunities appropriate to their special needs. Accor-
ding to the Mayor's Office for the Handicapped,
are an estimated one million handicapped people hvmg
in New York City. Of these, almost 500,000 are non-
elderly adults with work-related disabilities, four fifths
of whom have incomes under $7,000.
Although many handicapped New Yorkers are hold-
ers of Section 8 rental subsidy certificates,many of these
are expiring because of the shortage of available ho.us-
ing. The referral service hopes to tap both
assisted housing as well as the private sector for housmg
opportunities. Applications for the Data Bank avail-
able through the Mayor's Office for the HandIcapped,
by calling Rita Warren at 566-0972. 0
11
NEW INSURANCE RATES
SET FOR THE BRONX
After more than a year of negotiations with local
community groups over widely disparate insurance rates
set for New York City neighborhoods, the insurance in-
dustry announced new advisory rates for apartment
building liability insurance on May 30. The Insurance
Services Office, an association of some 1300 property
and casualty firms, which sets rates that are used by
many firms, reduced the number of rating territories in
the Bronx from 14 to 3. ISO also lowered the price dif-
ferences from one neighborhood to another.
The Northwest Bronx Community and Clergy Coali-
tion's Insurance Committee, which has worked to re-
duce the wildly varying rates, said that under the new
price structure insurance costs for two comparab.le
buildings in different neighborhoods would be closer m
range. An apartment building on Prospect Avenue in
the Morrisania area, currently paying an $1873 premium
would now pay $1300. A similar apartment building on
Valentine Avenue in the Fordham section would see its
premium rise from $427 to $700.
Insurance Committee Chairwoman Breda Campbell
described the new rates as unsatisfactory. "All they did
was eliminate the drastic price differences," she said.
"T.hey have not even tried to answer our charges of un-
fair pricing." The Coalition has renewed its demand for
pricing on a case-by-case inspection of the property.
Committee member Ted Panos stated, "As long as they
use territories there will be price discrimination. The
companies and the state Insurance Department seem to
be tossing up their hands and saying there is nothing
they can do. We are not about to be satisfied with the
bone they are tossing us."
The Coalition Committee has arranged a meeting to
be held in the Bronx to register its objections to the new
rates with New York State Insurance Department Depu-
ty Superintendent Donald Gabay. It will also offer alter-
natives to the ISO "territory" rating system.
At a June meeting with Travelers Insurance the Coali-
tion pushed the company to take the lead in reforming
the rating system. The group proposed tying liability
rates to the number of housing code violations on a par-
ticular property.
"ISO exists because of the insurance companies,"
said Campbell. "It provides a convenient shield when
these pricing issues come up." Noting that Travelers
agreed to consider the proposal, Campbell said the
group will make the same proposition to three other ma-
jor insurers it is working with, Allstate, Aetna and Hart-
ford. 0 Jjrn Buckley
Nicholas Polonski, in front of 112 Bedford , one of the first low in-
come tenant co-ops.
by Bernard Cohen
Five city-owned buildings totaling 82 apartments were
purchased by the tenants in June, culminating nearly
two years of work by housing officials to design a sales
program capable of extending the benefits of cooper-
ative ownership to lower income people.
Only a handful of buildings in poorer neighborhoods
have ever achieved true cooperative status because of
the exorbitant cost to convert plus other legal and policy
obstacles. "Never has the city sold buildings directly to
individual tenant cooperatives," said Robert Robbin,
general counsel of the Department of Housing Preserva-
tion and Development. "The key piece is the ability to
sell to tenants in occupancy."
Buildings will be eligible for cooperative conversion
following a year or more of successful management by
the tenants, by community organizations or by court-
approved administrators. One-fourth of all occupied In
Rem units are in buildings under one of these so-called
"alternative" programs. The rent collection rate under
alternative management is about 90 per cent , twice the
rate of buildings centrally managed by the city.
Under the new policy, city-owned buildings will be
sold to non-profit corporations formed by eligible ten-
ant and community groups. The pricetag will be $250
per unit, except in neighborhoods such as Clinton in
Manhattan where the private market could command a
much higher price. Rents will be targeted at $45 to $55
per room per month. A commitment of 60 per cent of
the tenants to buy will be necessary before the building
can be converted. To preserve the low-income nature of
the co-op, tenant purchasers cannot earn more than
seven times the annual rent and the buildings cannot be
sold for at least ten years without permission of the city.
Furthermore, profits from the re-sale of individual
apartments must be shared with the co-op.
Probably the biggest hurdle in the development of the
sales program was how to make the co-ops conform to
Over Hurdles and Snags,
First TIL Buildings
are Sold to Tenants
state law that requires the disclosure of important finan-
cial and structural information to potential buyers of
housing cooperatives. The starting cost for a prospectus
is about $10,000 including legal and engineering fees, a
sum far out of reach for people of very modest means.
Eight months of negotiations between city officials and
the State Attorney General's office led to an agreement
in early June on an offering plan containing a mixture
of boilerplate and individually tailored documents to be
compiled by the city as the sponsor of the proposed con-
version, at no additional cost to the tenants. The city
collects much of the data anyway while the buildings are
in management.
The sales policy has developed in many stages. An
early draft was circulated in late 1978. A number of con-
troversies were generated along the way. Although the
$250 price is based on the average amount the city was
paid at auctions of similar In Rem buildings, some of-
ficials pressed for a higher figure. On March 22, 1979,
the Board of Estimate approved a policy that set $250 as
the general figure but gave the city the option of raising
the price. Tenant groups in the program argued for a
uniform $250 price. And on February 21, 1980, the
Board of Estimate passed a resale policy designed to
dampen speculation. While the policy does not prohibit
profits, it sets down conditions under which tenants will
have to share from 50 per cent up to 100 per cent of their
earnings with the co-op. Some tenants had argued for
stricter limits on profits while others opposed any con-
trols .
One of the buildings sold in June during an
assembly line of closings at HPD was 112 Bedford Ave-
nue in the Greenpoint-Williamsburg section of Brook-
lyn. It is a modest six-unit building set in an Old World
looking Polish neighborhood that prides itself on being
one of the safest, most law-abiding neighborhoods in
the city. American flags flying from two apartments at
112 Bedford describe the patriotism of the tenants, all of
whom are middle age or elderly. An unlikely hotbed of
radicalism, the building has been under tenant control
since 1974, when it was still privately owned. Following
12
frequent lapses in heat and hot water during the winter of
1973 and the discovery the next November of empty oil
tanks and $800 owed by the owner to the fuel company,
the tenants decided to step in.
"I informed the other tenants that I was not going to
go through another winter like that," said Nicholas Po-
lonski, a retired investigator from the Sanitation Depart-
ment and also chairman of the Northside Community
Development Council. "I suggested that we pool our
rents and order the fuel ourselves, and we did that."
Polonski, the "junior" tenant with only 21 years in
the building, said the city seized 112 Bedford for non-
payment of real estate taxes in 1976, "and now our
problems really started." First was the broken shower
pipe that gushed water for five days before it was fixed,
followed by the minor boiler adjustment that turned in-
to an $80 repair job after the city did the work, Polonski
recalled. "I went to see the commissioner himself and
told him, 'The last landlord was a slumlord, You're
worse. I'm not giving any more rent to you people!'"
And they didn't. Instead, he said, the tenants have sunk
between $10,000 and $12,000 from their rent into the
building, fixing the roof, fireproofing the stairwell,
strengthening the structural supports, closing up two
abandoned storefronts and making other repairs. Po-
lonski said the tenants have been trying to buy their
building since 1976.
The four other buildings sold this week were 2674 Val-
entine Avenue (10 units) and 684 East 189th St. (33
units) in the Bronx and 210 Forsythe St. (13 units) and
184 East 7th St. (20 units) in Manhattan.
The sale of five buildings is a major milestone con-
sidering the record of the past. There are 126 more
buildings totaling 2,923 units in the sales pipeline, and
Housing Commissioner Anthony Gliedman has predict-
ed that many units will be sold by the end of the year.
But many housing experts say the ultimate success of the
program depends on the outcome of a number of fac-
tors that have not been tested yet.
The crucial question is whether the low income tenant
co-ops will survive. The first five buildings were clearly
among the strongest buildings in terms of repair readi-
ness and tenant cohesion. Most of the city-owned build-
ings are very old and suffered substantially from the
withdrawal of services before being turned over to the
tenants. The amount of government funds invested in
the buildings varies from $20,000 per unit for rehabilita-
tion of a relatively small number of units and $2,500 per
unit for maintenance under community management to
often a few hundred dollars per unit under the much
larger tenant management program. By the time the
buildings are ready for conversion, rents will have been
raised several times, very possibly to the limit of what
the tenants can afford. What will be the impact of rising
operating costs or a major system breakdown on build-
ings already at the margin? Housing officials have
promised to target rent subsidies to tenants who cannot
--- -----
afford rent increases, and, after some reluctance, to set
aside a pool of low-interest loan funds for the tenant co-
ops. Officials have resisted the idea of creating a reserve
fund for the buildings using the kind of purchase money
mortgages now offered to those who buy city property
at auction.
A more technical question involves how well the new co-
ops will weather the administration of four complicated
housing regulatory systems: the co-op rules; rent con-
trol; rent stabilization and senior citizen rent exemp-
tions.
Tenant managers on the whole are not bashful about
claiming the credit for saving hundreds of buildings
from the fate of decay and abandonment, nor do they
shy away from policy issues. They have taken the posi-
tion that the city stands to gain more by encouraging
stable ownership by people who are committed to main-
taining their homes than by treating sales purely as a
revenue program. To them, this means a uniform $250
sales price, adequate repairs in the buildings before sales
and financial support in the form of rent subsidies and
low-interest loans for co-ops that need the help.
"Nobody in this building wanted to be a landlord,"
insists Polonski, "but we had no choice. It was the only
way to stay in the building, to maintain it and to live in
this community. Nobody wants to leave this commun-
ity." A neighbor, Dorothy Vaamonde, a 46-year resident
of the neighborhood, chimed in, "This is my home for
the rest of my life, I hope." 0
13
7 CITY GROUPS CHOSEN
FOR NEW HUD FUNDING
Seven New York City community groups were among
70 chosen nationally to receive grants under the new
Neighborhood Self-Help Development Program. The
program, which made grants totalling $8.6 million for
revitalization projects, is aimed at providing public
funds that will leverage additional private sector invest-
ment.
The seven New York City groups to receive grants in
the program's first cycle are: $125,000
to rehab and manage 12 buildings; St. Nicholas Neigh-
borhood Preservation & Housing Rehabilitation Corp.,
$120,000 to build a commercial center; West Harlem
Community Organization, $147,304 to purchase, rehab
and co-op 12 city-owned buildings; Manhattan Valley
Development Corp., $125,000 to rehab two vacant city-
owned buildings; Southern Brooklyn Community Or-
ganization, $175,000 to rehab and manage 177 units of
housing jointly with the Sunset Park Redevelopment
Committee; Southside United Housing Development
Fund, Inc. (Los Sures) $126,923 to acquire, rehab and
co-op 47 units; Harlem Interfaith Counselling Services,
$125,000 to rehab a block of historically designated
brownstones for a neighborhood based mental health
facility. 0
State Legislators Pass Group Funding,
Reject Co-op Protection Bill
by Michael McKee
Legislation to create a Rural Community Preserva-
tion Companies program and to amend the existing
Neighborhood Preservation Companies program passed
both houses of the State Legislature in the final hours of
the 1980 regular session. The measure was adopted by
the Assembly at 4:26 a.m. June 14, and cleared the
Senate twenty minutes later, seconds before that body
adjourned for the year. Governor Carey signed the act
into law on June 25.
An appropriation of $750,000 for the rural piece was
removed from the bill when the Senate and Assembly
failed to agree on a number of budget matters. Funding
for the new program of grants to community preserva-
tion organizations in municipalities of less than 20,000
population may be considered in the fall when the
Legislature returns to Albany to adopt a supplemental
budget for 1980.
The bill removes the current three-year limit on fund-
ing eligibility and replaces it with an aggregate $300,000
cap for urban and rural groups. The requirement that a
funded organization develop a plan for becoming "self-
sufficient" is retained, but the three-year deadline for
doing so is eliminated. Commercial revitalization pro-
jects relating to "local retail and service establish-
ments" are made eligible activities, as long as they are
carried out as part of a housing program.
The bill was sponsored by Senator H. Douglas Bar-
clay (Republican of Pulaski), Assembly Majority
Leader Daniel Walsh (Democrat of Franklinville) and
Assembly Housing Committee Chairman Edward Leh-
ner (Democrat of Manhattan). The latter has announc-
ed that he will not seek re-election this fall in order to
run for Civil Court judge.
Still up in the air is whether Carey's Division of the
Budget will impound any of the $7.6 million appropri-
ated earlier this year for the N.P.C. program, under
which 154 community organizations throughout the
state are now funded. Last year the budget office did
not allow the state Division of Housing and Community
Renewal to spend almost $1 million of the $6.925 mil-
lion approved by the Legislature; these impounded
funds were "rolled over," or reappropriated, this
spring, but this does not mean that they will be spent.
Co-op Conversion
The State Senate refused to pass a tenant protection
bill which had cleared the Assembly by a wide margin.
Sponsored by Lehner and Senator John Flynn (Republi-
14
can of Bronx-Westchester), the bill's major feature
would have raised from 35 percent to "a majority" the
number of tenants who must purchase their apartments
in a co-op conversion plan before the sponsor can evict
non-purchasing residents.
The bill was effectively killed in the Senate, where it
already faced tough going, by Mayor Edward Koch. A
few days before adjournment the City of New York
issued a legislative memorandum in opposition to the
Flynn-Lehner bill, asserting that conversions are "good"
for the city and that nothing should be done to impede
them. Some of Koch's advisors had urged him to stay
out of the issue; the memo was issued on his instruc-
tions, at the request of Sheldon Katz, head of the Rent
Stabilization Association, the landlord organization
which has seized effective control of New York City's
rent stabilization system.
Koch's stance made it possible for Republican Sena-
tors with large tenant constituencies to cave in to Major-
ity Leader Warren Anderson (Republican of Bingham-
ton) who had made a commitment to the real estate
industry not to allow the bill through his house. The
nervous Senators could feel comfortable hiding behind
a Democratic mayor willing to risk widespread tenant
wrath.
The loudest sigh of relief came from Roy Goodman
of Manhattan, who was under pressure from his East
Side constituents alarmed at the accelerating flood of
conversions. Beyond putting his name on the Flynn bill
as a co-sponsor, he was hoping to maintain his usual low
profile on tenant legislation.
However, Goodman was worried enough to extract
some last-minute concessions from Lester Shulklapper,
the real estate lobbyist who is close to the Senate leader-
ship and who has virtual veto power over most landlord-
tenant legislation. Shulklapper agreed to provisions to
exempt handicapped tenants from eviction (the defini-
tion is extremely restrictive-only persons totally
unable to work qualify) in conversions; raise the income
eligibility for senior citizens who are protected from
eviction to $50,000 from the current $30,000; and re-
quire owners to report to the Attorney General every
thirty days on their progress toward meeting the 35 per-
cent requirement.
This latter feature is a watered-down substitute for
the Flynn-Lehner provision which would have given ten-
ants the right to inspect all signed subscription agree-
ments on three days' notice. Currently owners are able
-
--
RENT BOARD GRANTS
HIKES FOR LANDLORDS
On June 26, the New York City Rent Guidelines
Board at the last of a series of meetings, set the highest
guidelines in its ten year history. The Board is mandated
by the Rent Stabilization Law to annually set the max-
imum rates for vacancy and renewal leases for the City's
900,000 rent-stabilized apartments.
William Rowen of the New York State Tenant and
Neighborhood Coalition characterized the Board
meeting as "the usual ritualistic rent-letting."
For renewal leases signed between July 1, 1980 and
September 30, 1981, landlords are permitted to raise the
rent pursuant to the new order #12 by 11 per cent for a
one-year lease, 14 per cent for a two-year lease and 17
per cent for a three- year lease.
The Board allowed an additional 5 per cent vacancy
allowance to be added to the guidelines for leases signed
by a new tenant after a vacancy, with the exception that
when the vacancy was the first to occur since July 1,
1975, the vacancy allowance may be 10 per cent.
The RGB also adjusted downward the $12 a month
fuel surcharge, currently being paid by tenants who are
under existing leases, signed between July 1, 1978 and
June 30, 1979, known as RGB Order No. lOc. This sur-
charge is now $8 a month, effective July 1, 1980. The
Board added a fuel surcharge of $8 a month to existing
leases signed between July 1, 1979 and June 30, 1980,
known as RGB Order #11. However, the Board
stipulated the effective date of this surcharge to be the
anniversary date of the lease, so that only mutiple-year
leases would incur the surcharge, and only after the
lease was a full year old.
The RGB also added a 1 Yz per cent guideline for
to engage in high-pressure tactics, claiming that they
have or are about to reach 35 percent and thereby
stampede tenants into buying out of fear of eviction.
After voting with the Democrats in the ritual losing
floor amendment to attach the Flynn-Lehner bill to the
weak Shulklapper package, Goodman claimed victory.
A separate bill to bar "eviction" plans entirely and to
allow only "non-eviction" conversions remained buried
in committee in both houses. Neither of the measure's
sponsors, Senator Frank Padavan (Republican of
Queens) and Assemblyman Saul Weprin (Democrat of
Tenants demonstrate against rent hikes outside Sheraton Centre Hotel
as upstairs Mayor Koch and Housing Commissioner Gliedman shared
$30 per person fundraiser breakfast with the Rent Stabilization Asso-
ciation. The Rent Guidelines Board announced new increases in
stabilized apartments that afternoon.
those tenants whose landlords pay for their electricity.
This amount would be added to the 11, 14 and 17 per
cent increases.
Members of the real estate industry in attendance of
the meeting attacked the guidelines as "disastrous."
Tenant representatives claim that the Board had, as
usual, reliable data for the cost increase portion of the
guidelines, but no data whatsoever to justify the vacan-
cy allowance. 0
Queens), made any attempt to move the legislation.
Other Measures
Also passed were bills requiring the New York City
Housing court to hold one night session per week;
allowing tenants whose buildings are without heat to
purchase fuel or repair boilers and deduct the cost from
their rent; and allowing fire-door exits to be locked if
they can be easily opened or unbolted from inside with-
out a key. A measure to extend the protections of rent
stabilization to loft tenants in New York City passed the
Assembly but was not acted on in the Senate. 0
15
Low Income Housing
Subsidies Come
Under Fire In Congress
On their way to refunding in this fiscal year, federal
low income rent subsidy programs faced a major
challenge in both houses of Congress. While specific
proposals which would have re-focused the thrust of
federal policies away from new and rehabilitated apart-
ments to a greater emphasis on existing units as well as
towards enabling middle income rental construction
were defeated, the attempt may well be a harbinger of
greater change to come.
In a budget conscious, cost-cutting Congress the gov-
ernment's major tool for creating new housing for the
poor, Section 8 housing subsidies, came under heavy
salvos of fire as its appropriation moved through com-
mittee and onto the floor of both houses. The most
dramatic indication of the Congressional mood came in
April when a motion to eliminate all government
assistance to low income housing was defeated only by a
tie vote in a Senate committee.
What eventually emerged in the Senate from the clash
of differing outlooks on how the federal housing sub-
sidy dollar should be spent was a total of 255,000
assisted units-including 118,200 for new and substan-
tial rehab and 78,800 existing subsidies. The House
decided not to consider the legislation until after its
recess.
Foremost on the list of complaints against Section 8
was the immense costs involved and the rising amount
of funds already pledged for support. Those members
of Congress questioning the subsidy program found am-
ple fuel for their arguments in a U.S. Government Ac-
counting Office report released in early June which
labelled Section 8 "extremely costly" and "of benefit to
only a fraction of the millions of households in need."
With 759,000 families receiving assistance at the end of
1979, and 250,000 more expected, the GAO estimated
the government will owe over $128 billion over the next
twenty to forty years.
Figures such as these "spell the death knell" for the
program said one Congressional housing aide. It was in
response to this kind of pressure that bills were in-
troduced in the Senate and the House to re-shape
government assistance programs. Both bills, introduced
in the Senate by Senators William Proxmire, Democrat
of Wisconsin, and Harrison Williams, Democrat of
New Jersey, and in the House by Representative
Thomas L. Ashley, Democrat of Ohio, called for a shift
in the "mix" of existing and new subsidies, towards
greater emphasis on existing units.
The rationale behind the effort, its supporters said,
emerged from an overall analysis of how best to achieve
the goals of creating more decent living units for the
poor, while at the same time keeping costs low. What
emerged was a program which aimed at removing a por-
tion of funds from Section 8 new and rehabilitated
housing and putting them to use by subsidizing the costs
involved in building middle income rental units. Accor-
ding to the Senate housing committee report,"it is more
efficient to rely on existing housing to subsidize lower
income people, and undertake a separate program in-
volving a shallower subsidy to spur multifamily rental
production."
The bonus to the poor, the bill's adherents said,
would be greater accessibility to housing because of the
units which would "filter-up" once their middle income
occupants moved to new housing.
"It's part of the 'more bang for a buck' school of
thinking," commented Cushing Dolbeare, president of
the National Low Income Housing Coalition whichop-
posed the legislation.
Both sponsors and opponents of the effort were in
agreement that a strong tide of resentment was building
in Congress against the costs of low income housing
subsidies and that something would have to be done to
stem it. "This was introduced with the best of good-
will" said Dolbeare. "There is a lot to be said for a mid-
dle income rental subsidy program, but to divert badly
needed funds from low income housing is just plain
wrong."
Supporters point out that there is a net gain in the
number of low income families that can be assisted
through a shift in the mix, as well as that both bills con-
tain provisions mandating between 20 to 30 per cent of
the units built under the new program be set aside for
Section 8 eligible families. "The social theory behind
the legislation," said Roger Faxon, an aide to Represen-
tative Ashley, "is that you have to affect supply and de-
mand. In many areas we have an extreme housing short-
age, and by opening up more units you push the price
down."
But while that theory may hold true for some areas, it
doesn't for others countered the critics. "It's based on
the vacancy rates for places like Houston, Texas," said
Charles Laven of the Urban Homesteading Assistance
Board. "It assumes that housing depreciates in value
rather than appreciating, and it also assumes that hous-
ing doesn't deteriorate. In New York City there is a vast
amount of land and housing stock available for new and
rehabilitated housing, but there's a mis-matched de-
mand for housing."
Since its inception in 1974, after the Nixon morator-
ium on federal housing construction, the Section 8 pro-
gram has been often criticized, but no a c c e ~ t a b l e alter-
natives have been proposed. "I don't know where else we
can go," said Al Eisenberg, a staff member of the
Senate Subcommittee on Housing, after the rejection of
the multifamily initiative. "Section 8 seems to work, but
as everyone can see it's expensive. But if you want the
private sector to be involved, then it's going to cost." 0
BROOKLYN DEVELOPMENT Continued from p. 9
although it has yet to start construction. But while the
debate raged, studies and reports were entered into
evidence, each one attempting to conclusively prove
shopping malls either led to a new bonanza for small
merchants, or to their rapid demise.
"No two scientists would come to the same conclu-
sion on that issue," said Malinsky. To others the issue is
decidedly secondary. "Why should we subsidize margin-
al businesses that can't look after themselves?" asked
Brennan of the PSIC. Joel Gurney, Vice President of
Rentar, is convinced his shopping center would have a
"ripple effect" on Fifth Avenue stores. "Waldbaums
would drop out if it's not built to their criteria," Gurney
warned the Land Use Committee.
The Rentar Corporation came well recommended to
the Community Board. As developer of the Albee Square
Mall, the key ingredient of the revitalization of Fulton
Street in downtown Brooklyn, the company is much in-
volved with community development. Rentar is also po-
litically involved and has been served well by its close
ties to the Brooklyn Democratic Party. The corporation
has received numerous public contracts in the past, in-
cluding a long term lease to develop and manage the
Flatlands Industrial Park.
A major part of the effort to win approval for any
large scale development is the successful wooing of po-
litical officials, and both groups have been actively seek-
ing support. A key figure is Borough President Howard
Golden, who, so far has not publicly, stated his prefer-
ence for either plan. "The Borough President believes
there is an opportunity to get something done," said
Golden aide Ray Levin. "We don't think the plans are
incompatible. We'd like to see a new school or modern-
ization of the existing school. So far FAC has spoken to
us in generalities. It's one thing to say ECF can build a
new one and another to actually bring it off." The final
decision, Levin said, does not rest with the Community
Board. "They serve in an advisory capacity to us, not
the other way around," he said.
As city budget negotiations went down to the last
hour Brooklyn political leaders were able to get a com-
mitment for design funds for the rehabilitation of P. S.
133 and a listing of $2 million to be spent in fiscal year
1982 for modernization. 1982, however is a long time,
and another round of budget balancing away. Board of
Education engineers have estimated that it would cost
$4 million to rehab the school, two thirds the cost of a
replacement school. Such figures in the past have effec-
tively blocked any attempt to do a modernization of
P.S. 133. At the Land Use meeting where the Baltic
Street proposals were unveiled a number of sharp ques-
tions were aimed at the Rentar/Waldbaums proposi-
tion's lack of planning for the school. "It's an amazing
coincidence that all of a sudden funds were found to
rehab the school at the last minute," noted Jack Ulrich,
a local schools activist, and member of the South
Brooklyn Action Movement which is backing FAC's
proposal.
The Fifth Avenue Committee has brought powerful
allies with it for the implementation of its mixed use
plan for the site. Even opponent Lew Smith has com-
mented admiringly on FAC's development group. "I'm
impressed with the team they have managed to put to-
gether," he told a Land Use Committee meeting. A ma-
jor part of that team is the Aetna Life and Casualty
Company which is working closely with the community
group and has already granted $25,000 for planning. In
addition, the company has pledged financial backing
for the housing and commercial components. Jerry
Altman, a consultant for Aetna who is working on
FAC's proposal, said the company sees important stakes
in the Baltic Street plan. "From a neighborhood revital-
ization point of view," he said recently from his base in
Chicago, "Aetna wants to test a national demonstration
model that shows how a lender, in conjunction with a
broad based community organization, can stimulate
rebuilding a neighborhood."
FAC has also hired attorney John Zuccotti to repre-
sent it in negotiations with the city and HUD for its pro-
posal. Zuccotti, former Deputy Mayor and Planning
Commissioner, is a highly sought after development
lawyer because of his excellent city and federal housing
connections. "We knew we needed some muscle on this
one," said a FAC member. FAC's present housing
scheme falls midway between two different federal pro-
grams, one aimed at middle income and the other at
low, and convincing HUD that the project is workable
may take some doing: "The combination of homeown-
ership with subsidized units is something we think HUD
will find attractive," said Altman.
At one point FAC suggested the site be totally low in-
come housing, a position it has since rejected. "This is
an area where there is a strong feeling for home owner-
ship," said Rebecca Reich, FAC development director,
"and at the same time there is a real need for low in-
come housing. The Baltic Street plan complements
other work FAC has undertaken and proposed, in-
cluding Section 312 homesteading."
On a recent Saturday afternoon five men working
laboriously on the engine of a vintage Ford Galaxie
parked on Butler Street in the middle of the lot had no
trouble deciding which of the plans they thought best
for their neighborhood. "I grew up right over there,"
said one, pointing to a mound of broken concrete and
twisted steel adorned with a torn mattress. "And we all
went to school in that building," indicating the stately
structure at the end of the block. "Sure we need some
shopping but we need housing even more. If this land
belongs to the city, why should it go to benefit some rich
guys?" Four heads nodded vigorously in agreement as
they eyed the terrain about them. 0
17
Quotas and Starrett City:
An Exchange
To the Editor:
The recent article by Tom Robbins on Open Housing
Center's contract dispute [April, 1980] was misleading
in what it failed to report, although I provided the infor-
mation to him. He reported that OHC claimed we were
seeking to keep Starrett City "mostly white". What he
failed to mention was the actual racial composition of
the nearly 6,000 families, i.e.: 64OJo majority and 36%
minority. Because of family composition, the actual
minority population is even larger than its family per-
centile. What has been accomplished at Starrett City,
more successfully and surely on a larger scale than any-
where else, is the creation of a stable, integrated com-
munity. What we are fighting for is the constitutional
right of our residents to continue to live in an integrated
community. Apparently this goal is of little interest to
OHC.
In a recent report to the New York State Division of
Housing & Community Renewal, Dr. Kenneth Clark
concluded:
"It becomes clear that to achieve an integrated resi-
dential community at Starrett City requires a thoughtful
and deliberate plan to eliminate or prevent segregation.
Integration is not a possible outcome of the natural
operation of market forces-"
"To achieve an integrated residential community at
Starrett City requires conscious attention to race in the
selection process. It requires deliberate planning of the
ratio of white to minority residents-"
"If segregation is the operational form of discrimina-
tion, and if residential integration is a high priority, then
the selection process cannot be color blind, for to be col-
or blind in a color conscious society is to perpetuate
rather than eradicate discrimination and segregation."
Although we have not been involved in OHC's con-
tractual dispute, we would like to suggest that their at-
tacking an integrated development when so many
segregated developments exist could call into question
the motivations and responsibility of that organization.
A court decision against Starrett City could conceivably
nullify the effectiveness of affirmative action programs
and affirmative marketing programs across the nation.
Robert C. Rosenberg
General Manager
Starrett City
We do not agree that characterizing 64 per cent as
"mostly" is misleading. But Mr. Rosenberg's letter
raises important issues regarding the suit against Star-
rett City's renting practices which, for lack of space, we
were unable to report on in our April article. To give
their perspective on the suit we have asked the Open
H o u ~ i n g Center to respond. Editors. 0
To the Editor:
18
The Open Housing Center, as a fair housing agency,
has a responsibility to assist minority persons who feel
that they are meeting racial discrimination in their quest
for housing. In keeping with that responsibility, the
Center has provided assistance to the numerous minor-
ity persons who have contacted us regarding Starrett
City's exclusionary practices.
Mr. Rosenberg contends that he is fighting for the
constitutional rights of Starrett residents to live in an in-
tegrated community. Our clients are just as vigorously
fighting for their express constitutional and statutory
rights to lease apartments without consideration of their
race and color.
Despite Mr. Rosenberg's predictions of doom for af-
firmative marketing should the Plaintiffs prevail, mar-
keting is not the issue. The affirmative marketing
regulations promulgated by H.U.D. prohibit discrimin-
ation. Mr. Rosenberg has not discussed the ugly ra-
tionale for the imposition of the racially exclusionary
quota. The quota has been developed to keep the num-
ber of minorities living at Starrett City to a level at
which the white residents will feel comfortable. Far
from engendering racial harmony, this practice can
only serve to further stigmatize Blacks.
Integration is a laudable goal, but must minorities,
who have suffered and still suffer the burdens of racism
and the resulting segregation in society, now bear the
brunt of this society's meager attempt to integrate? A
Black who is denied an apartment in an attempt to
maintain a racially segregated community and a Black
who is denied an apartment in order to maintain an in-
tegrated community are in the same position. They have
been denied an apartment because they are Black.
The concept of "tipping" and the utilization of quo-
tas to artifically restrict the numbers of Blacks and/or
Hispanics living in a particular area or complex is an ac-
ceptance and validation of the racism endemic to this
society.
To the Editor:
Betty Hoeber
Director
Open Housing Center, Inc.
On the cover of City Limits in July, 1978, the entry of
590 Parkside Avenue, a 40-unit Brooklyn apartment
building into HPD's Community Management Program
was heralded as a great victory. After much work by the
tenants and community organizers, the building re-
ceived a precedent-setting $6,OOO-per-unit for the
renovation. There indeed seemed to be much cause for
optimism.
But the state of 590 Parkside today points up the
drastic difference between the promise of HPD's alter-
native management programs and the reality.
In May, 1980, an inspection of 590 showed lighting
fixtures dangling from ceilings, holes in walls from re-
wiring done the previous November, an unlocked front
door, no mailboxes, no intercom and no finished apart-
ments. There were only 17 tenants, the same as in 1978.
590 Parkside is now in the Management in Partner-
ship Program. It has been for about a year. It spent one
useless year in the Community Management Program.
Crown Heights Management and Maintenance Corpor-
ation, the community group hired to manage the build-
ing, neglected it and, after one year, its contract with
HPD was not renewed. 590 became an interim resource
and seemed assured of further decline.
In June, 1979, Coalition Management Training Cor-
poration (CMTC) agreed to take 590 into its newly
formed Management in Partnership (MIP) Program,
with Crown Heights Management as the junior partner.
HPD agreed after Crown Heights changed its entire
staff.
Since then, the roof and the boiler have been satisfac-
torily repaired. The piles of garbage in the basement
have been cleaned out.
But the work which was termed "completed" seemed
cheap and shabby. Months after the apartment doors
were installed the workmen returned to line them up
with the locks and doorjambs. Some new windows were
installed, but not completely secured while the manage-
ment waited for weatherization program information.
In some apartments new paint jobs had to be destroyed
because of renovation work which followed the paint-
ing.
In June, three newly completed apartments needed to
be replastered. Rusty appliances were being installed in
kitchens. Workers needed to wait hours or days for
necessary materials to arrive.
Two years ago 590 Parkside Ave. was one of the for-
tunate city-owned buildings being given a chance to
come back from neglect and deterioration. But for 590,
entry into an alternative management program was just
the beginning. The promise is yet to be fulfilled.
Carol Smolenski
Prospect Lefferts
Gardens Neighborhood Assn.
DECADE Continued from p. 2
19
In the 1980's we see hunger; we see our friends and
neighbors stripped of pride and self - respect as a result of
cutbacks in social programs. We see a city administra-
tion which does not recognize minority and low income
neighborhoods; a U.S. Congress which says it is not
concerned with providing jobs for the unemployed; a
threatened cutoff of food stamps; elected officials who
vote against our interest, We see the closing of hospitals
and of basic health services. We see our homes become
deterioriated and abandoned; a welfare system which
ties the cord of dependence while decreasing its aid for
recipients. We see all this with a justification for more
military spending and increasing giveaways for big busi-
ness, large corporations, and the upper class. Basic
human needs must not continue to be issues for public
compromise.
The ingredients for massive unrest are here. The level
of hunger and rage will be the deciding factor on
whether the rage will explode. We hope it does not; past
explosions have deeply injured the victims without pro-
ducing meaningful change.
It is time, however, for close examination and assess-
ment of the situation and action to correct the injustices
which created it. There must be a reshaping of priorities
so that government can serve all of its citizens, not just a
chosen few. There must be a recognition that a govern-
ment is only as stable as its foundation-its citizens.
There must be an acceptance that all of the foreign aid
and military allocations cannot make a difference if the
social needs of citizens remain unmet. 0
If You Are In Housing ...
Think about advertising your prod-
uct/services in CITY LIMITS.
CITY liMITS/June-July 1980
URBABABBLE -
A Practitioner's Tale
Urbababble, a dialect native to most urban affairs of-
fices, has recently been isolated and analyzed by a prac-
titioner, Robert Fichter of the Parkman Center for Ur-
ban Affairs in Boston. Like many urban lingos, Urba-
babble loses a good deal in translation, and Fichter has
chosen to display the tongue in its full flavor via a short
story followed by a lexicon of usage in his booklet "Ur-
babble."
Fichter's tale revolves around Henry, a local govern-
ment official "working his way up the CD ladder" who,
while still in planning school the phrase "'a decent
home and suitable living environment' had been, as it
were, xeroxed on his sou/''' An abridged version of the
tale appears below.
"Henry," the CD director said to him recently, "We
have to gear up for some concentrated decision-making.
Our mandate is to choose one more impacted area as an
NSA, and we could be in a bind on this one. We've got
to show a good faith low/mod effort, but the mayor's
hot to have us step up our capture rate on these young
professional "back to the city" types. I'm willing to pull
out all the stops for you, but I want to see you hit the
ground running. You've got two days, kiddo."
Henry's boldest initiative to date-his reputation was
based on it-had been to abort the bail-out of a troubl-
ed 221(d)(3) project. He had taken a good look at it,
come to grips with the problem, and had decided that,
given the social balance sheet, throwing money at it just
wouldn't do the job. The bottom line on that particular
black hole (black hole as in outer space rather than Cal-
cutta) was that it was going down the tubes without even
a mid-range hope of viability.
Henry had gone way out on a limb on that one. The
issue was hotly debated. There were a lot of people who
wanted to dump the City's whole Sec 8 allocation into
Freedom Acres, even if they also knew that it had gone
critical.
"Sorry," Henry had said. "I know the political
realities, but there's no way we can retrofit any kind of
rationale for this one, I don't care what kind of cost!
benefit bundles you bring in. What the Feds have put in
place here is a real disaster. If we don't want to get lock-
ed in with them, we've got to cut our losses and pull the
plug."
"The jury isn't in yet," they argued.
"Look," Henry replied, "I've laid it all out for you.
If you want to deal with this in any kind of serious way
you won't signoff on their game plan. Let them take the
high road, but I promise you they don't have a
mechanism in place that will get at the question of the
basic match/mismatch parameters here."
So here is Henry, being asked to head a task force (the
task force idea was a late stage buy-off to keep the crazies
from pulling a sit-in) on the third NSA and facing a severe
time crunch.
What Henry figures he's got to do is get input from
people who have special expertise in manipulating small
area data and cranking out what the Feds will be willing
to buy in terms of an upgrading strategy with a low/
mod hold harmless factor built in. What you'd need for
that would be real time indices of neighborhood
dynamics showing slack demand with fine grained selec-
tive marketing potential. Laying it out-let alone opera-
tionalizing it-could be a tough task. Henry feels a real
straight jacket lurking in this one.
What Henry needs is a fast track approach. The long
term is fine for researchers, but Henry has to operate in
the real world where "results-oriented" is the name of
the game and timing is all important. So Henry sends
off yet another action memo to his director, telling him
the project will never be up to speed unless the agency
staffs it up to at least a threshold level.
The boss sends Fred.
Fred is a good kid, bright, just out of planning
school, still wet behind the ears but eager to learn. Once
the tough decisions are made at a command level, Fred
should be able to take the situation and matrix it out in
physical/social cost-benefit terms.
"The boss asked me to honcho this one," Henry said
to Fred, "and it could be sensitive as hell. What we've
got to come to grips with, off the record, is how to han-
dle the interactive effects of new lifestyle demands and
recyclable housing. There's no way we can finesse it and
there's no simple programmatic response that's going to
provide affordable low/mod spin-offs. Personally, I'd
like to opt for a mediated solution, but no way that's go-
ing to happen in the present environment. It would just
be counterproductive. The thing is, we can blah-blah-
blah a lot of commonalities of interest, but if we can't
prove commitment to neighborhood stabilization and
protecting low/mod with every tool in our tool kit, the
Acorn people are going to be after our ass."
"What I think you're telling me, Henry," said Fred,
"is that we don't have much policy space on this one."
Henry spread out the map. Three areas were outlined
in red. The first was Frog Hill, the second River Road,
the third Colombine.
"Now let's just take a first cut at it," said Henry. "We
have some impressionistic data for starters. You could
begin to spec it out like this," he continued as he went to
the chalk board and began to write.
River Road: The Pits-Mostly minority. Very poor.
Abandonment 35070. In need of large scale clearance and
massive social services.
Colombine: Archie Bunkers-Blue collar. In need of
moderate fix-up. Confidence building also needed. 45070
of stock tract development.
Frog Hill: Hanging Plants-Brick row houses.
Declining rooming house tenancy with conversions.
Early signs of young professional interest, though no
hard data. 32070 elderly.
Henry erased the chalk board. "That's what we've
got to work with," he said. "Interface with anybody
you have to. Don't let anything fall between the cracks.
Go to it, kid."
While Fred scoots off to the field, Henry picks the
brains of an old friend Marvin, who is a HUD OS-14
and who tips Henry that HUD is "in an expansionist
mode" and may soon be issuing "an RFP on spot gen-
trificiation approaches" to "benefit low/mod in a rising
market." Henry also seeks out Harry, "a battle harden-
ed veteran of the CDA/Model Cities wars" and now
"lead urban guy" at a top consulting firm who suggests
"public sector assisted build-up to achieve a critical
mass of existing opinion leaders."
When Fred returns ideas have germinated in Henry ~
brain.
"Well, your impressions of Colombine and River
Road were pretty accurate, and on Frog Hill, I drove
around and figure approximately 23% of the popula-
tion owns Volvos," declared Fred.
"Windshield survey, eh? Good going." Henry nodded
his head. "Looks like things are moving even faster
than we thought. Okay. Let's just stick with the 1970
census data on that."
Fred blinked. "But they're way out of whack by now
in Frog Hill."
Henry made a noise as if to suggest that Truth may be
entered by many doors. "In the sense that they don't
precisely convey present reality," Henry said. "On the
other hand, what we're really dealing with here is the
build-up of a critical mass. Now you want to piggyback
on that if you can. Or to put it another way, if you want
to achieve a turn-around, score a breakthrough-and
believe me, HUD is as hungry for that as we are-the
project's got to be do-able. We can be a real catalyst in
Frog Hill via the NSA route. That's the kind of
neighborhood where intervention makes sense in bot-
tom line terms."
"But won't there be a backlash from the people in
River Road?"
"There could be, to the extent that the media picks up
on it. That's why I think we want to work along the lines
of a public sector/private sector partnership, a kind of
co-venturing in Frog Hill. Come at it from this side:
River Road is just what the 'Pockets of Poverty' UDAG
is all about. You've got a wholly different set of
parameters working in that situation.
"It's just dysfunctional," Henry continued, "that's
the lesson we've learned, to pour good money after bad.
The payback just doesn't make any kind of human or
economic sense. I don't mean to say we're going to
Quincy Market Frog Hill. We still have some Sec 8 ex-
isting to put in there for low/mod renters. But with an
outreach marketing component for net payer
21
households we can impact the future of Frog Hill in a
very real way. We just can't do that for River Road."
"I follow you, Henry," said Fred. "This is the nitty-
gritty they never taught us in planning school."
"It's the real world," Henry repeated. "Sometimes
you can do it from the bottom up, sometimes you have
to do it from the top down, but it comes to the same
thing: it's got to be fundable and it's got to be do-able or
you're just pissing in the wind."
"What next, Henry?"
"Well, we've got to write up the application. We're
going to need some first class blah, blah, blah. If you
haven't got all the numbers you need, use your best
guesstimate. I'll make sure they're in the ballpark. What
I want to pull off is presenting the whole NSA as a
paradigm of cushioned assisted spontaneous reinvest-
ment with the public sector getting maximum bang for
the buck by operating on the margins. That's where the
action is today."
"It really just boils down to marshalling your
resources and then allocating them in a way that makes
good strategic sense."
"Exactly," replied Henry.
"And that means sometimes you have to retrofit. . ."
"Logic," Henry concluded.
Fred picked up his notebooks and maps. "Thanks,
Henry," he said. "Thanks a lot." 0
DESIGN RESOURCES
ARCHITECTURAL CONSULTATION
FOR COMMERCIAL AND RESI-
DENTIAL BUILDING PROJECTS. A
DESIGN AND INFORMATION
SERVICE UTILIZING APPROPRIATE
ENERGY TECHNIQUES. EVALUATION
BY EXPERIENCED PLANNERS TO
FIND SUITABLE SOLUTIONS FOR
EACH PROJ ECT'S NEEDS AN D
GOALS.
Nicolas R.M. Pacella
Design Resources
(212) 4898827
In Washington, Community Groups Seek
CETA Set-Aside and More Input
by Susan Gould
Between May 28th and 30th, over 800 people from
community-based organizations in 30 states gathered in
Washington, D.C., for the purpose of assuring CBOs a
continuing role.in planning and operating employment
and training programs.
Foremost on the conference participants' agenda was
to deliver to Washington policymakers a sense of the
needs and goals of groups using CETA-funded labor.
While groups received less-than-satisfactory responses
from CETA officials and lawmakers, at the end of the
conference a national network had been established to
combat CETA budget cuts and advocate for the role of
community groups in the program.
Sponsored by the Center for Community Change-a
Washington-based technical assistance and government
monitoring organization - the conference presented
recommendations developed by several CETA task
forces to the Department of Labor and the White House.
Among task force recommendations were:
Require a set-aside of CETA funds for community-
based organization-operated projects.
More aggressive monitoring and enforcement by
the DOL of regulations related to CBO participation;
DOL oversight of prime sponsors' "independent"
monitoring units.
Direct contracts between DOL and CBOs to
develop and conduct long-term programs for training
the "hard core unemployed" in marketable skills.
Inclusion of statistics gathered by CBOs serving
Hispanic constituencies in the data used by the federal
government to determine CETA allocations to munici-
palities.
Funding of supportive services, such as day care, in
rural areas to complement CETA programs.
Few DOL officials responded directly to the task
force recommendations. They claimed to oppose cuts
called for in the budget resolution then under considera-
tion in the House, but their perspective was quite dif-
ferent from that of CBOs. In defending the work of the
Dept. of Labor, officials cited increases, from 60% to
950/0, in the numbers of low-income people employed
under CETA and, from $2.2 to $10 billion, in amounts
spent on CETA. They asserted that DOL now includes
small, neighborhood-based organizations as well as na-
tional groups like the Urban League in the CBO cate-
gory, and that Hispanics, Native Americans, and others
are served more effectively than ever before. DOL of-
ficials and White House representative Stuart Eizenstat
also sought the support of conference participants in
getting the new Youth Employment Act passed. How-
ever, in response to criticisms that the Department had
failed to aggressively monitor prime sponsors- in most
cases municipalities-and force them into compliance
with CETA legislation, one DOL official passed the
buck back to the CBOs. He said, "Prime sponsors have
to do whatever's in their own best interest. This is
political-you have to get the primes to be accountable
to you."
Many participants were frustrated and angered by
what some described as "a barrage of bureaucratic self-
praise," but others were heartened by the conference,
saying that the DOL officials were impressed by the
large turnout, and predicted a better response in the
future to demands from CBOs.
Equally frustrating for some conference participants
was their trip to Capitol Hill. Over 40 CETA workers
from neighborhood-based groups in the City had left
New York at the crack of dawn to let Congress know
how devasting CETA cuts would be in their com-
munities. Without their organizations' CETA workers,
they told the congressmen, housing rehabilitation and
maintenance, senior citizen services, and many youth
projects-services most middle class people take for
granted will be provided by the private sector or by
government-would simply not have happened in their
neighborhoods.
22
But the congresspeople didn't want to listen to the
people, because, as one put it, "We already support
CET A - we are with you but we are bucking a very
strong negative tide in both houses." Senator Javits and
Congressman Rangel and Weiss urged the group to con-
centrate on turning around representatives and senators
who had favored the cuts and to pressure elected of-
ficials at the local level. At the same time, Congressman
Richmond promised to send a letter in the name of the
New York City Congressional Delegation urging Mayor
Koch to use the City's unexpended CETA VI monies to
prevent the demise of projects whose funding was
threatened. (This letter was sent on June 12th. To date
no response has been received.)
Most of the CBOs at the conference run projects
funded under one of two public service employment
(PSE) titles, VI or lID. Since most cities stopped depen-
ding so heavily on Title VI for municipal workers
because of the imposition of strict limits on how much
they could supplement a CETA-funded salary, they can-
not be expected to lobby for its continuation. All the
government people, including Secretary of Labor Ray
Tenants, community organizers, city officials and
bankers-City Limits readers all-danced, drank, kib-
bitzed and generally partied at the magazine's June 1st
benefit at City Limits, the bar, in Greenwich Village.
Stormin' Norman and Suzy as well as Bernardo Palum-
bo and Wendy Blackstone provided musical entertain-
ment. Many thanks to the New York Urban Coalition,
the Consumer Farmer Foundation and everyone else
whose contributions made it a success.
Storm in , Norman at the keyboards and SuZy at the mike at City Limits benefit. Above right, Bernard Cohen,
whose departure as editor was announced at the party, receives a parting poem from Association of Neigh-
borhood Housing Developers director Betty Terrell.
Marshall, said that PSE is on the way out and will ul-
timately be replaced by Title VII (private sector in-
itiative program). Recognizing that 86-90070 of new jobs
will be created by small and medium-sized businesses to
which prime sponsors rarely have direct access, DOL
favors CBO participation on Private Industry Councils
and selection of CBOs as Title VII program operators.
The head of DOL's Office of Comprehensive Employ-
ment Development, Robert Anderson, even went so far
as to suggest that CBOs should submit proposals to
serve as "umbrella" organizations because they have a
The first New York/New Jersey Regional meeting of the
national network of CBO's will be held on July 17 at Ci-
ty Center, 130 West 56th Street beginning at noon. The
meeting is open to any CBO representative or CETA
participant. For more information call Michael King at
477-9078 or Susan Gould at 636-3486. 0
capacity-lacking among small businesses-to do all
the paperwork required.
Clearly CBOs still must push for their own piece of
the action. Their perception of this need led them to join
forces across geographic, ethnic, project-focus, and size
lines. On the last night of the conference and the next
morning in the final plenary session, they launched a na-
tional coalition to prevent any further cuts in CETA.
Ninety-four people volunteered to serve on an ad hoc
steering committee to plan a "mobilization"-focus-
sing on Washington and on localities where CET A pro-
grams operate-in support of CBOs and CETA. 0
------------------------------------------
Susan Gould is a proposal writer for the Pratt Center
and has been involved as a supporter of the ANHD
CETA VI program since its beginning.
---... ~ - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
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JUNEJULY 1980 $1.50 VOL.5 NO.6

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