.. ",' .

-LIMITS
THE NEWS MAGAZINE OF NEW YORK CITY HOUSING AND NEIGHBORHOODS
AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 1981 . $1.50
CLOUDS OVER NEW YORK'S
OPEN SPACES
...
Short Term Notes
Esther Rand,
Tenant Rights
Advocate
Tenant advocate Esther. Rand, Vice Chairperson of
the Metropolitan Council on Housing, died on June
19th, at the age of 74 while visiting the country of her
birth, .the Soviet Union. For over twenty five years Rand
waged an uncompromising defense of the rights of
tenants, along the way making major contributions to
the nightmares of hundreds of landlords as well as of-
fering frequent proddings to those she found backsliding
in the city's housing battles.
Born in Klimovitch, Russia, Rand carne to Massa-
chusetts as an infant with her parents and two sisters. In
1940, she moved to the Lower East Side.
In the 1930s, Rand studied to be a lawyer, passing the
bar examination, but never actually practicing law
because, she said, there was no way to apply her train-
ing on behalf of millions of poor people during the
Depression. Her activities during that period included
work in the women's, peace and trade union move-
ments, as well as struggles against housing discrimina-
tion and for increased social services.
As an employee of the United Jewish Appeal, Rand
was among the frrst civilians allowed to visit both post-
war Israel and Italy. Back in New York, she worked
with the East Side Tenants Council which in 1958 joined
other tenant organizations to form the Metropolitan
Council on Housing.
CITY LlMITs/AugustSeptember
2
As a tribute to 'the effectiveness of her tenant ad-
vocacy, Rand, who was a fixture in Housing Court and
at the Rent Office, was known to hundreds of landlords
as "That Woman." She appeared frequently on radio
and television, and conducted a weekly radio show on
WBAI called "Housing Notebook." In 1972 she ran un-
successfully as an independent candidate for the New
York State Assembly.
Interpreting Census
.
Figures for the Community
The Census Bureau is sponsoring workshops on the use
of 1980 Census data by community groups. The workshops
are held at the request of the groups at locations within the
community. The content of the workshop is designed to res-
pond to the needs of the sponsoring organization. For
groups desiring particular information about their com-
munities the Bureau will make suggestions as to the type of
data that ought to be examined as well as instruction in its
use and analysis.
Workshops provide a basic familiarization with the cen-
sus through half-day or all-day sessions. They arc free and
the only requirements are a minimum attendance of 12 pe0-
ple and scheduling one month in advance. Those interested
in setting up a seminar for their group and community
should contact Gene Flynn, Regional Coordinator for
Community Services, at (212) 264-4713.
In addition, Pratt Institute Center for Community and
Environmental Development is monitoring the d e v ~
ment, availability and dissemination of 1980 Census data.
Groups needing assistance should contact Margaret Sdx at
the Center at (212) 636-3486. 0
New HUD Regional Director Chosen
A new regional administrator for the federal
Department of Housing and Urban Development
has been named by H.U.D. Secretary Samuel R.
Pierce, Jr. Joseph D. Monticciolo, a 43-year-old
career civil servant will take over from his former
boss, Allan Weiner. Weiner, an appointee of former
President Carter,left the Region II H.U.D. office to
take a position with Innovative Technologies, a
development frrm for commercial and luxury hous-
ing construction. 0
Campaign Against
Lead Paint Dangers
A new drive against lead paint poisoning has been
launched by a coalition of housing and health groups in
Washington Heights. The coalition seeks to alert people
that the problem of childhood lead poisoning is not one of
the past, but a present and widespread danger. A hazard in
older apartment buildings, ingestion of lead paint chips or
dust can lead to brain damage and even death.
According to the city's health department, Washington
Heights has the second highest rate of lead poisoning
among children in Manhattan-two and one half times the
citywide average. The area experienced a 40 percent
increase in the number of cases in 1980, the largest jump in
the borough.
Sponsored by the Washington Heights Health
Project, the campaign has heeD joined by Councilmember
Stanley E. Michels who has introduced legislation in the
Council which would make the presence of lead paint in an
apartment a Class 'C' -immediately hazardous-violation
of the city's housing maintenance code.
The use of lead in paint was banned in 1970 after a
widespread alert was created about the critical health
problem it posed. Lead from old coats of paint, however,
can continue to flake off both in chips, which are sweet to
the taste for young children, as well as ground into a fme
dust which easily gets onto the hands of children.
"It is time to recognize that lead poisoning is as much a
housing maintenance problem as it is a public health
concern," said Michels.
Michels's legislation would allow housing inspectors to
test for the presence of lead paint. Under current law the
health department can begin tests in an apartment only
after a child has been analyzed as having lead poisoning.
For additional information, contact: Washington
Heights Health Action Project, 601 West 181st St., New
York, N.Y. 10033, (212) 927-8888. 0
3
CONTENTS
SHORT TERM NOTES ........ .. ........... 2
CLOUDS OVER NEW YORK'S OPEN
SPACES .................... , .............. 4
ASSISTANCE FOR OPEN SPACE
PROJECTS ................................ 6
FUROR OVER HARLEM'S LOTTERY ....... . 9
QUIET PLANS FOR GREENPOINT'S
........................... 12
ENERGY CO-OP GROWS IN BROOKLYN ... 14
CHANGES LOOM FOR CITY
MANAGEMENT .......................... 18
LENDING LEGAL ASSISTANCE
TO CO-OPERS ........................... 20
STALLED AGREEMENT ON CITY -OWNED
VILLAGE ........ ; ...................... 22
ABRAMS CHALLENGES LANDLORD
MONITORING ......................... .. 24 .
CITY APPROVES BALTIC ST. PLAN ....... 2S
CCITYUMI1S)
CITY LIMITs/Augustseptember
A 'Cloud Over -
New York's '
In the past few years, New Yorkers all over the city have carved' .,'
playgrounds and bucolic sitting spots out of the city's vacant land, creating
a new parks system. And though the greening moven.tent is gettiilg
sophisticated, it faces a dilemma of losing gardens because of dsing land prices.
I
t's been a season of contrasts for New York Oty's
thousands of vacant lot gardeners. Those who strug-
gled this spring with' spadefuls of rain-poor soil and who :
obligingly lugged two-gallon pails of water through the
vegetable and flower, trenches , are headed towards a
harvest that may yield as many question marks as salad
greens. Gardens from the Bronx to Brooklyn are already
yielding an early abundance: tomatoes are large and fIrm,
and the silk hairs atop ears of stunted urban coin are
already brown. Fiery red snapdragons and pale Lillies of
the ValleY are holding forth for viewers. :;
But the mid-season satisfaction with which gardeners
are eyeing a promising harvest is marred by nervous
glances at some menacQtgly dark clouds moving quickly
overhead.
It's a time of transition for urban gardens and their
tenders. On the one hand, those who attacked rubble- .
strewn lots with so much gusto some years ago with little
more than sOme basic hand tools and a willingness to grow
as many callouses , as tomatoes have now developed a
apparatus 'complete with
assistance organizations backing up a growing number of
attractive and bountiful green spots all over the city. Oty
vacant lot gardeners will soon be abie to' call up on a
resource capacity able to provide everything from urban-
grown compost to shrubs and plants raised in Bronx
nurseries, and plant seeds developed for their ability to
thrive in metropolitan climes. It's a movement that has
rome of age.
On the other hand, the universal applause that greeted
those early efforts is over. The same municipal
bureaucracy that once delighted to see its blighted acres
covered with a coat of verdant green <at no cost to itself)
now has far bigger fIsh to fry.
Petunias and pansies, sweet peas and carrots may have
been dandy during fIscal retrenchment, but now those
same once-forsaken acres can yield the cold green of real
estate developers' cash rather than cabbage. And revenue-
raising, say city offIcials, is the First Commandment.
T
hus far, the city has targeted for auction those
gardens in neighborhoods where real estate values
are climbing higher than sweet peas in July-Manhattan's
Greenwich Village, the Upper East and West Sides and
Clinton. But ,the numerous advocateS of open space
development believe whatever agreements:"-'if be
reached in Manhattan will decide the fa:te of the hundredS
of gardens in other parts of the city where spiraling' 'land
prices will soOn be catchfug up. .
Some gardens have 8lready yielded their flower bedS to
bulldozers. Onelot on LaGuardia Place in the Village was
sold and soon after dismembered. Another, on an urban
renewal site on West 68th Street; where a' unique '
wildflower garden had prQspered, is also gone. ' ,
A number of others are scrambling to 'hold on. One Up-
per East Side 'garden oil the Ruppert Brewery Urban
Renewal has been battling the city
and itS development proPoSals for over a: year to maintain
its place in 'the sun. Siinilarly' imperiled are lots on the
other side of town. The Dome Project on West 84th Street
was offered its site for fIg1:Ue' itS sponsors could
not begin to is on notiCe 'to clear out. An allot-
ment garden-one with individual plots for gardeners-on
an 'Urban Renewal Site' on weSt 90th Street is Scheduled to
go as well. And 'on 48th Street, west of Ninth Avenue, a
garden with a crew of 100 planters. barely survived the ci-
ty's noose and haS received a boef reprieve. But, unless it
can meet the citY's aSking price, offIcials say; iis fate is
sealed. '
But those P,l'dens in jeopardy represent just a handful
of the sQme 1 one can say exactly how many-
gardens, playgrounds and sitting spaces that New Yorkers
have carved out ' of aban<i9ned land around the city. And
some who want to hold' on to these communitY oaseS have
molded their preservation strategy around a harsh
outlook: "We may have to lose a few," they say, "to hold
on to a great many more."
Still, those that are headed for the auction block are not
going gardeners an individualistic
but feisty bunch willing to expend as'much energy defend-
ing as cultivating their: "", , ".' -" "
The 100 foot long by foOt 'deep Clinton Community
Garden on West 48th Street slMlping up'as one important
battleground. It's 'a busy place. Behind its
storm fence toppedwith barbed wire-the major distrac-
tion to an otherwise immensely pleasing view-are over
100 individual garden plots!",a colony of Italian honey
bees, a covered CQIllpOst pile and a grassy front yard
adorned with a couple of masonry benches and a small
geodesic dome that was constructed by the nearby HollS-
CITY LlMITSIAugu8t-8eptember
4
ing Conservation Coordinators. Also, there are two oval
gardens where the Green Guerillas-a missionary group of
gardening advocates from around the city-are testing
new strains of seeds developed by commercial frrms
especially for urban cultivation.
Putting a cash value on the garden would be hard. Like
many around the city, it was begun in self-defense in 1976
by a block association that was fed up with watching the
rubble grow. And any dollars and cents figure would in-
evitably be skewed since all the labor involved has been
voluntary. But on a recent sunny day the garden's value
seemed obvious to lunchtime strollers, tourists wandering
up from the passenger liners docked a couple of blocks
away, passing motorists and even neighbors who pass by
several times a day. Universally, heads turn, the gaits are
slowed and many stop to peer through the diamonds of the
chain link fence.
On a block that was largely abandoned by its private
owners in the early seventies, residents have made a
remarkable recovery, despite a continuing drug traffic pro-
blem at both ends of the block. Notwithstanding several
community and tenant-managed buildings on the block
and in the immediate vicinity, the neighborhood is going
through a sharp reversal from low and moderate income
5
to upper-middle. "We're probably facing the end of our
low income neighborhood, just as it was getting liveable,"
lamented Mallory Abramson who coordinates activities in
the garden.
The small 5 by 8 and 10 by 10 garden plots are tended by
a polyglot crew, as diverse as the Clinton neighborhood
itself. Some are neat, well-weeded lanes of herbs and
vegetables, others a riot of wildflowers. Several are
double-sized, reflecting the demands of a number of large
families who depend on them to provide their vegetable
needs.
"It's just too choice for the city to ignore," said A b r ~
son. The assessed valuation ofthe land is $167,000, though
it could bring more at auction. Either way, it's not chump
change.
D
igging marigold beds therefore becomes an unaf-
fordable anomaly according to the city's Depart-
ment of Real Property. "Our general policy," said Direc-
tor for Real Estate Development Richard Landman, "is
that if the property is very valuable, it's doubtful it will re-
main open space."
And the specific policy in the city's new leasing program
says that any lot worth more than $20,000 is headed for
continued on page 7
CITY LIMITs/AugustSeptember
1".
Open Space: Where To Find Assistance
New York City's open space movement has
spawned a number of technical assistance organiza-
tions, each of which contributes different forms of
help to community groups.
After being handed from one director to
another-it has had four in its three year
history-Operation Green Thumb is now in the
hands of a couple of greening activists bent on mak-
ing the program not merely functionable again, but a
provider of genuine for open space proj-
ects. Operating under the Department of General
Services, Green Thumb will give a one year, one
dollar, lease to groups that can demonstrate commit-
ment to improving vacant land in their area. After
the lease is signed, there is a wide-ranging assistance
program. The program will coordinate clean-up of
the lot with the Department of Sanitation. It will also
provide materials for a cement-flXed, 4' by 4' post
chain-link fence as well as loan gardening tools,
shovels, picks and axes. Director Ken Davies and his
assistant, Tony Antonellis, have both worked with
community open space projects, and they have
focused a key component on proper design. To that
end they have retained architect Rad Dike as a con-
sultant supervising the design work of students from
Pratt and Parsons who will draw a sun and shade
analysis of the patch and make suggestions about
other lot amenities. Green Thumb has soil, lumber,
shrubs and plants available for gardeners, and will
pair up projects with an outside assistance group. 49
Chambers St., NYC 10007,233-2926.
Working along side Green Thumb is the Council
on tbe Environment's Plant-a-Lot program which
also can provide material assistance. The program
provides on-site technical assistance to gardeners, a
mobile "Grow" truck with tools and other equip-
ment, an extensive reference library (as well as the
frnest slide collection on open space development
anywhere), workshops, exhibits and 'how-to' sheets
with information on everything from making rubble
mounds to innovative ideas on fencing and com-
posting, as well as month-to-month growing
schedules geared to New York City. The Plant-a-Lot
program gets its funding from an anonymous donor
with the guidelines attached that the money be spent
to assist community groups in developing new parks
by supplying the materials and on-going mainte-
nance assistance for three to five years. Like Green
Thumb, it operates on the principal that the com-
munity must do the work. Director Liz Christy en-
capsulates the program's goal as creating a "mutual-
CITY LlMITs/AugustSeptember 6
ly beneficial partnership between people and
plants." 51 Chambers St., NYC 10007. 566-0990.
Long before going to work at the Council on the
Environment, Christy helped found the Green
Guerillas, a group that has evolved from a small
crew of planters on the Lower East Side to a citywide
active membership of ninety. "We provide assist-
ance ranging from one visit, one phone call, to on-
site help every week for a year," says director Tessa
Huxley. To cope with the steadily increasing calls for
advice, the group tries to get individual members to
"adopt" a garden. "Not all need adopting," says
Huxley, "We're interested in fostering in-
dependence. "The Guerillas are the recipients of
numerous anonymous donations of plantings,
shrubs and trees from corporations and institutions
that change their greenery frequently.,
"It's so odd to me that people think parks are
fluff," she says. "They say housing dollars is the
most important, but we spend a good deal of our
time out of doors. Parks are like our living rooms."
417 Lafayette St. NYC 10003. 674-8124.
The Trust for PubHc Land's New York Oty Land
Project plays a unique and increasingly necessary
role for open space projects. The Trust is a national
conservation organization committed to preserving
open land for public use, particularly in or near
urban areas. Since arriving in New York in 1978, the
Trust's Land Project has helped some 40 groups all
over the city purchase over 100 parcels of land for
open space or other community purposes. To do
that, it helps groups frrst incorporate as a nonprofit
land trust and also helps them learn the rudimentary
basics of real estate, community land management
and other needed skills. Director Lisa Cashdan has
worked vigorously on behalf of several open space
sites threatened by both private and public planners
and has helped prod the city into developing a new
long term leasing policy. 254 West 31st St., NYC
10001. 563-5959.
Two other key groups for open space assistance
are the CorneD University Cooperative Extension,
III Broadway, NYC 10006, 587-9730, which is
paired off with numerous gardens around the city
has helped community groups figure out the best
way to use open space and how to accomplish their
goals, and the Horticultural Society of New York,
128 W. 58th St., NYC 10019, 757-0915, which has
shifted from begonia contests to helping develop
hardy plants for urban gardens.OT.R.
OPEN SPACE Continued from p. 5
bigger things than grass and gardens.
The new leasing policy is a good example of the quan-
dary facing the open space movement. It's been hailed as
an important breakthrough because for the fIrst time the
city has recognized that in order to get any investment in
the vacant lots it traditionally has rented at one year terms,
it has to extend the time period. At the same time, it's seen
as fatally flawed because it is only intended to "encourage
the lease of the least economically desirable lots, in pref-
erence to those where a private market exists." According
to Landman, that lets out "Almost all of Manhattan."
"New York is open space poor," insiSts Liz Christy of
the Council on the Environment which has provided basic
assistance to gardeners and others. Standard texts recom-
mend a ratio of two acres of recreation space for every 800
of the population, a fIgure New York City cannot even
begin to approach. But while New York does have an ex-
tensive amount of developed park space, no one is denying
that it has been low on the list of fIscal priorities and has
suffered commensurately.
And many parks are considered inaccessible. Just down
the street from the Clinton garden the city opened a new
all-cement play space last year which quickly became a
hangout for junkies most of the day. Nor did local folk get
a say in what the park should be. "They put in a bocce
court," said Mallory Abramson, shaking her head. "No
one around here even knows what a bocce ball is."
"Right now, we have an alternative parks system,"
declared Tom Fox who has put together an alliance of pro-
greening groups and individuals called the Neighborhood
Open Space Coalition. "The city disinvested in its parks,
and it's no wonder people started coming up with their
own."
A
tone point over one hundred years ago, the city
opted for the long term pleasure of Central Park
over whatever short term real estate gain the land might
earn. The accounting is old, but one estimate has it that the
Park paid for itself within the next fIve years just through
the increased assessments on property nearby. Variations
of that approach are employed by advocates of the new ur-
ban open spaces. Grammercy Park, with its wrought iron
enclosed two-block wide private park, a Manhattan East
Side enclave of old and new money, is the most common
example invoked. "There is a 'value-added effect' that the
existence of open space imparts to surrounding land and
" buildings, argues Lisa Cashdan, the Director of the Trust
for Public Land's NYC Land Project, which has played a
unique role by assisting community groups in removing
their playgrounds and gardens from the fIckle hands of the
city or other owners altogether by purchasing them.
There too, however, the city is playing real estate hard-
ball. After the Trust helped a group called the Young Peo-
ple of East Harlem purchase the two privately owned lots
that make up their site for $2,000 apiece, it found the city
7
was asking $6,500 for each of its three lots. "The lots
aren'.t contiguous," said "There's no way
the CIty s property can be anything but a community open
space . project. "
In Greenwich Village, where land prices have long been
high, a group of local residents recently settled a fIve-year-
old dispute with the city over their right to grow on a
triangular patch of land at the corner of Hudson and Jane
Streets. They are now paying $400 per month-with a fIve
percent yearly increase-for their right to maintain a piece
of land that Jack Gillen, a gardener and a local realtor
who knows something about land values says can never be
used economically for anything else.
Even though, as he says, "the resale value of Greenwich
Village brownstones is going into telephone book
numbers" this piece of land is "already getting its highest
and best use. The point is," he insists, "we are providing
the city with an amenity. Anyone who wants a key can get
one, and there are already 250-300 keys out. We've got 25
foot crab apple trees and weeping willows. That's what
we've created. The parks department is bankrupt-and
here's one for nothing."
But arguments about the inherent need or value of open
space leave the city unmoved. "Our policy," explained
Richard Landman, "is that it's the role of the Parks
CITY LIMITS/AugustSeptember
Department and ULURP [the Uniform Land Use Review
Procedure] to determine if something is going to be a park.
Others look at city-owned land and say "Well, it's free,'
but if the city could sell that land for $100,<XX>-and it
doesn't-then it's losing the $100,000. There's a percep-
tual difference."
W
hether it's a difference in perception or in values,
that's where the matter rests at the moment. Var-
ious groups are working overtime to come up with solu-
tions for the threatened parks: a deal with the developer
for Ruppert Green, putting the Dome Project under the
joint auspices of the Departments of Parks and Education,
getting the new downtown city college to use the
Washington Market garden in its curriculum and a trade
of space for air rights to potential builders on the Clinton
Community Garden.
But any deals that can be cooked up still forestall a
larger day of reckoning. And the agency that is charged
with taking an overall look at how the city's land is being
used has been fairly sleepy in regards to the open space
movement that has burgeoned under its nose. After a
highly critical report on the city's greening programs
issued last year, the planning commission is only now on
the verge of publically acknowledging that this sort of
open space is a legitimate land use.
One of the most constant voices agitating for approval
of open space, however, does work at City Planning. Mar-
tin Gallent, Vice-Chairman of the Commission, says his
advocacy stems from tilling a Victory Garden in the
Brooklyn Botanical Gardens during the Second World
War. "People walk and recreate in very small spaces," he
says, "as a result you just can't get eQough of these small
parks. " Gallent has argued strongly to keep the Ruppert
Green garden going, insisting tliat that over-populated sec-
tion of the city desperately needs its garden. But he views
the progress of the city open space movement
philosophically. "The city is not always flowing in the
same direction," he says. "The contradiction comes in
when the real estate price start climbing. There will be
trade-offs. People tend to forget that the sites were always
temporary. But we are developing open space as a perma-
nent factor of the city."
"Open Space is not a fluff issue anymore," declares
Tom Fox. "There are enough sites involved, and enough
people to justify it as a vital issue. What we're developing
is a system." 0
Clinton Community Garden on Wes-t 48th Street, which city officials insist will be sold next yeor.
CITY LIMITSIAugu'st.September
8
Furor Over Harlem's Lottery
Despite an overwhelming outpouring of community
protest against its plan, the city will hold a lottery weighted
three to one in favor of neighborhood residents for 13
historic Harlem brownstones. No date has been set for the
auction.
In a vote of six to fIve, the Board of Estimate on July 23
approved this special lottery although more than 100 com-
munity residents showed up at city hall to oppose this
method of disposing of properties. Most residents con-
tended that the properties should be sold back to
Harlemites under a negotiated sales agreement.
Dissenting votes on the lottery were registered by
Manhattan Borough President Andrew Stein, City Coun-
cil President Carol Bellamy, and Comptroller Harrison J.
Goldin, all of whom supported an amendment introduced
by Stein that would have extended the deadline for
reaching an agreement for handling this tax-foreclosed
property.
As this controversial matter was being called on the
board's fIrst calendar, many Harlem residents outside
were refused entrance to the hall on the grounds that the
hearing room was filled beyond capacity. The hall, in fact,
was half-filled at the time.
The lottery issue, which has simmered in Harlem since
early this year [see City Limits, June/July, 1981], burst
into citywide news when Mayor Koch told the daily press
the proposal for conveying property was discriminatory.
His remarks were a surprise especially to his own offIcials
who had negotiated the plan. The Mayor since then re-
versed his position and now supports this "preferential"
treatment for Harlemites but is still, according to one city
offIcial, taking a guarded "wait and see" approach for
determining the city's method for unloading some 7,000
other properties in Harlem, including more than 300 other
brownstones.
Asked to explain the Mayor's sudden change to favor-
ing the lottery, one city offIcial, who asked to remain un-
named, said, "I don't think he understood the depth of
it ... I think he spoke the way he did at fIrst because that's
how he really feels." According to other city hall insiders,
the mayor had been fully apprised of all aspects of the lot-
tery proposal but apparently chose not to listen when he
was briefed about it.
During the hearing, one long-time Harlem resident-
Willie Clowers-told the board, "You're speaking about
9
13 brownstones, I'm talking about 13,000. Don't put
Harlem up for the lottery. You can't gamble with us.
We're no crap game."
Lois Penny, head of the Anti-Lottery Committee, early
in the hearing asked the board to consider negotiated sales
with preference to Harlem residents as an alternative that
would not exclude outside bidders but also would not
"replace or displace" local residents. Her argument drew
support from numerous speakers, including an aide to
Congressman Theodore Weiss, Democrat of Manhattan,
and City Councilmember-at-Large Edward Wallace, also a
Democrat, who said, "People who have seen Harlem
through all the bad days should have the fIrst chance" at
this property.
Others blamed the city for the fact that it owns more
than 65 percent of Harlem. "Our community got into
trouble because the city of N e ~ York withdrew all code
enforcement." said Alma Griffm, fIrst vice chairperson of
Manhattan's Community Board #9 where two of the 13
brownstones -are lOcated. "Do not take our homes from
us," she added. "The speculators are out there now like
buzzards on the fence, but we're going to fIght back and
are fIghting constructively right now."
One aspect of the lottery that has not been spelled out is
the minimum income requirement. According to Deputy
Housing Commissioner Ronald Marino, no "hard" fIgure
has been set but, he pointed out, a household income
should be at least $21,000 to $22,000 in order to carry the
rehabilitation loans funded with federal community
development monies that the city will make available to the
successful lottery participants. Based on a sliding scale, in-
terest rates for these loans will range from three to nine
percent.
In a statement explaining his reversed pro-lottery posi-
tion, Mayor Koch vowed to "erect an absolute barrier to
speculators" and to "sell only to individuals who are will-
ing to make Harlem their home."
The Anti-Lottery Committee is contemplating legal ac-
tion barring the city from holding the lottery. In addition,
Harlem residents who live in buildings that are currently in
one of the city's alternative management programs are
entertaining a c ! ~ s action suit against the city on the
ground!: :.rult they have been impeded from buying their
apartments as 10W<ost cooperatives. OS.B.
CITY LIMITs/AugustSeptember
,Off
the Anti-Rent
" .', .
Control Blitz"
By Tho Ledwith
For the second year in a row, attacks on local rent control
systems are being justified by some members of Congress on
the grounds that such systems deplete cities' rental housing
stock. But a .newly released Columbia University study
compiled by Professor Peter Marcuse indicates that, if
anything, controls may actually ,hinder housing
abandonment. "
The Congressional blitz on local controls began last
summer, when the House of Representatives passed by a
wide margin an amendment introduced by Rep. Chalmers
Wylie (R-Ohio) to prohibit funding of a housing subsidy
program in any city with rent controls on newly constructed
housing. After lobbying by surprised tenant organizations
and others, the entire subsidy program was dropped in
conference committee but a precedent, a bad one for tenants,
had been set.
,R 'NT
JS
R D
'NAZI LA
The Senate wasted no time in acting on that precedent this
spring, passing a strict measure that would have withheld
.. Federal rent subsidies' from lOcalities that do not decontrol
rents in apartments as they become vacant. In support ofthe
,amendment to the Senate housing bill, Senator Alfonse
D' Amato, a prime sponsor of the measure, said: "My
, purpose is to move uS away from programs that are
counterproductive. We lost hundreds of thousands of units
in New York City alone in the last two decades. That's not all
because of various rent laws, but a substantial proportion of
these properties were lost precisely for that reason." In
response, members of the fledgling National Tenants Union,
the National Low Income Housing Coalition and other
housing organizations in the Capital mounted an intensive
lobbying and letter-writing campaign to defeat the
amendment. A number of members of Congress, notably
Rep. Charles Sc!tumer and Sen. Daniel MoyirlhaD,
both of New York, also opposed the measure and it was
defeated in the House of Representatives. Now in
conference committee, it appears to be dead-until next
year.
Significantly, though, few of the legislators who
challenged the anti-rent control amendment this spring
defended the effectiveness of rent and eviction regulations.
For the most part, the measure was attacked as an
unwarranted federal attempt to influence local policy.
D' Amato's basic premise-that controls cause housing
abandonment-received no real critical attention.
The Marcuse study, which was presented at a National
Tenants Union conference held in Washington in mid-June,
seeks to fill that critical vacuum. Entitled "Rent Control and
Abandonment: What the Figures Show," the report draws
from U.S. General Accounting Office and Census Bureau
records, building-by-building comparisons in New York
City, and prior research by civic organizations. It concludes
that rampant housing deterioration and abandonment result
from a complex process that includes a number of factors,
such as tenants' declining real income, a steep rise in the
operating costs of housing, fmancial institutions' failure to
invest in urban areas, the "milking" of buildings by owners
for maximum short' term profit, and local government
policies. "Rent control is neither a necessary nor a sufficient
explanation of abandonment," Marcuse states in the report .
, Abandonment takes place, and as severely, in cities without
rent control as in cities with it." To substantiate this claim,
the study cites evidence of three major points:
Abandonment occurs in many cities that do not have,
and have never had, rent control.
According to a 1978 GAO housing survey cited by
Marcuse, 113 of the 149 large cities that replied to a
questionnaire on housing conditions said they had
abandonment problems. Six of these had rent control at the
time. Of the eight cities that said abandonment was a
"major" problem, one had rent control.
,Many cities that do have rent control have no reported
problem of abandonment. Within a city that has both rent
CITY LiMITS/August-September
10
control and abandonment, there is no correlation between
the extent of rent control and the extent of abandonment;
if anything, areas with low rent control have higher rates of
abandonment than areas with high levels of rent control.
The study cites a 1978 Housing and Vacancy Survey of
over 18,000 households conducted by the Census Bureau for
the City of New York, which measured the number of
apartments removed from the housing inventory since 1975
and reported on the units' rent control status. Results for the
borough of Manhattan showed that the three community
planning districts with the least abandonment all had high
proportions of rent controlled apartments, ranging from 9.2
percent to 18.2 percent. On the other hand, the three districts
with the most abandonment had low levels of rent controlled
units, averaging 6.3 percent.
Comparisons of sets of similar buildings and additional
survey results in the Marcuse report indicate that, during the
late 1970's, numerous New York City buildings with many
rent controlled units were better maintained and increased in
value more than buildings with many rent stabilized units;
this despite the fact that stabilized rents had been allowed to
reach market levels during a period of vacancy decontrol
earlier in the decade.
As rent control restrictions are eased, in a city with both
rent control and abandonment, levels of abandonment
have tended to increase.
Drawing from the 1978 and prior New York City Housing
and Vacancy Surveys, the study points out that, as the nwnber
of rent controlled apartments declined substantially, losses
from the City's housing stock sharply escalated. The figures
show that between 1970 and 1975, New York experienced a net
loss of 30,000 units and the nwnber of rent controlled apart-
ments dwindled by a full 623,000. From 1975 to 1978, the net
loss nearly doubled to 56,000 apartments while rent controlled
apartments declined in nwnber by 240,000. Here again Mar-
cuse stresses that if there is a relationship between rent control
and abandonment, the figures suggest it is an inverse relation-
ship, "The more rent controlled units, the less losses; the less
controlled, the more losses."
-A full text of the Marcuse study, RENT CONTROL
ANDABANOONMENT: WHAT THE FIGURES SHOW,
which includes further information on the actual causes of
housing abandonment, will be available from:
Conference on Alternative State and
Local Policies
2000 Florida Ave., NW
Washington, D.C. 2(XX)9
Other recent additions to the growing body of literature on
the actual merits of rent and eviction controls include:
RENT CONTROL: A SOURCE BOOK, compiled by
John Gilderbloom. The book is a collection of 35 articles
covering nwnerous aspects of the rental housing crisis in
America: Why rents rise, why rent control is needed in tight
rental markets, how to draft rent control legislation, how to
11
organize and win a rent control campaign, and innovative
housing strategies beyond rent control. The book, which sells
for $9.95, is available only through mail order from:
Foundation for National Progress, Housing
Information Center
P.O. Box 3396
Santa Barbara, California 93105
FACTS AND MYTHS ABOUT RENT CONTROL, a
National Tenants Union position paper by Peter Dreier.
The report was produced in response to the need for in-
formed debate on rent control at the national level. It con-
sists of information gleaned from nwnerous academic
studies of rental housing, as well as the experience of people
working in conununities with rent controls. In addition, a
critique of real estate-sponsored research on the question of
rent regulation is included. The report is available for $5.00
from: National Tenants Union clo Shelterforce, 380 Main
Street, East Orange, New Jersey 07018. 0
Rent Control Study Funded By City
A $50,000 study of the supply and condition of ren-
tal housing based upon the new figures provided in the
1980 Census has been commissioned by the city hous-
ing department. Michael Stegman, a professor at the
University of North Carolina and a former official of
the federal Housing and Urban Development's
Neighborhood Affairs Office, will examine vacancy
rates and abandonment of rented housing. His report
will also include an analysis of the need for continuing
the regulation and control of residential rents and
evictions. The study was commissioned under the re-
quirements of the local rent control law under which
the city is required to conduct a triennial review of
rent control. 0
CITY LIMITS/AugustSeptember
Laying Quiet Plans for Greenpoint's
Waterfront By Jim Miskiewicz
: : : ; = ~ s : t J
A lum!Jeryard on a Greenpoint pier, destined jor change under developers' plans.
A
lthough it commands an excellent view of
Manhattan's seemingly pristine skyline, the
Greenpoint waterfront is a noisy strip of industrial loft
buildings, garages and greasy sidewalks where over one
thousand men and women make their living.
But if developers now quietly working on plans for a
waterfront housing project have their way, Greenpoint
may be quite a different place by the end of the decade.
"The next Brooklyn Heights," as one industrial land-
owner put it.
Two years ago, the Brooklyn-based New York Har-
bour Development Corporation began work on plans for
a five-block complex named The Greenpoint Renovation
Project. Designed by chief architect, Warren Gran, the
project would extend from the bulkhead on the
East River to Franklin Avenue and from Greenpoint
Avenue south to Noble Street.
Existing factories would be converted into as many as
1,000 units of upper middle-income housing, connected
by inner corridors and glass-enclosed "skywalks,"
"making it possible to never have to leave the complex
CITY LIMITS/August-September
12
in foul weather," one source boasts.
Three terrazzo-tiled promenades would lead out to
recreational piers complete with a marina, waterfront
dining and ferry service to Manhattan.
Finally, The Greenpoint Renovation Project would at-
tempt to create, according to its developer, "a totally
relaxed, tum-of-the-century lifestyle." Its lucky oc-
cupants would be provided such amenities as recon-
structed building fronts, nineteenth-century street lamps,
off-site parking and an old San Francisco-style trolley
that would run the three blocks from the piers to the
IND subway station at Greenpoint Avenue.
All these high-blown plans are emanating from an
unlikely source. The project's developer is Nicholas M.
Sands, a former Democratic committeeman and school
board member in Queens' district 24, who was convicted
in 1975 under the name Nicholas Santiago of embezzling
funds while president of Local 3108 of the Brotherhood
of Carpenters and Joiners Union. Sands has also been
linked by federal officials to the Gambino-Bonnano
crime family in Brooklyn.
~
~
~
it:
On May 7, 1.981, Sands was shot nine times outside
his home in Middle Village. Sands has recovered from
his wounds, and maintains that the attempted asssassina-
tion was "racially motivated" because of his stand
against busing while a school board member.
S
ands is known as a "packager of real estate deals"
according to the Daily News. His current involve-
ment with the Greenpoint Renovation project seems to
indicate a seriousness to get the complex built.
Although day-to-day operations have been taken over
by architect Gran, Sands says he conceived the water-
front project that would, "simply extend the current
Greenpoint community out to the river. We don't want
to get into a heavy commercialism or luxury housing,
but a middle-income neighborhood where you can get to
know your neighbors again."
Reminded that the present Greenpoint community is
largely made up of blue-collar workers with an average
income of $15,000 a year, paying some of the lowest
rents in the city, Sands hesitated and then responded,
"Well, I don't know if construction costs would let us
go down (in rentals or co-op prices) that far."
Last year, Sands hired a group of fIlm students from
New York University to produce a $30,000 promotional
fIlm, which Sands says is "out and making the rounds"
to potential investors. According to Sands, a substantial
amount of fmancial backing has already been found,
but current interest rates make it uncertain as to when
the project may actually begin.
The ownership of the proposed site also indicates the
seriousness of the Greenpoint Renovation Project. All
five-blocks of the site currently belong to one Montague
Associates Corporation. Mortgage records show three
firms involved-the other two being Greenpoint Ter-
minal Warehouse Corporation and Caliche Realty Enter-
prises. All three firms list the same Irving Goldman as
their president.
T
hree of the blocks immediately on the waterfront
include a portion of Noble Street leading out to
a city-owned pier that has been abandoned for twenty
years. Early last year, the Noble Street Block Associa-
tion began asking local leaders to renovate the pier. Said
block association president Rita Layden, "We wanted to
get the city to make the pier into a kind of community
park."
Negotiations began and local Community Board 1
studied a renovation proposal and estimated its cost. But
on March 3, 1980, Montague Associates and sister com-
panies submitted an application to the City Planning
Commission to have the street de-mapped.
Without waiting for approval from any city agency,
the companies erected a nine-foot fence and installed
watchmen and guard dogs, blocking off access to the
pier. A year later, the application is still pending. But
the fence remains and plans for a community-initiated
renovation of the Noble Street pier have been dropped.
The de-mapping application, which was signed by
Michael Sonnenfeldt of the Greenpoint Terminal Ware-
house, lists vandalism and danger to the public because
of the decayed state of the pier-one of the same piers
included in the Greenpoint Renovation Project-as
reasons for de-mapping.
Sonnenfeldt, who has compared Greenpoint to
Brooklyn Heights, admits being familiar with The
Greenpoint Renovation Project and Nicholas Sands, but
refuses to comment on the extent to which his company
is actively pursuing the project.
Some residents, however, feel that the abrupt closing
of Noble Street may well be a sign of how much the
owners of the area want to convert their property from
industrial to residential use. Notes Layden, "As soon as
we started poking around ... up comes this fence."
While another block association member recalls that
several years ago a teenager drove a car off the Noble
Street pier and drowned. "How come they didn't put up
a fence then?" asked the woman. 0
Jim Miskiewicz is a free lance journalist who has lived
most of his life in Greenpoint.
Greenpoint A venue, near the waterfront.
13
CITY LIMITS/August-September
An Energy Co-op Grows in Brooklyn
By Eric Goldstein
Staggered by their energy bills, a growing number of
Brooklyn churches are joining together to cut their fuel
costs and spearhead a movement that aims to contain
residential energy costs, sell energy efficiency as "a major
investment opportunity" and help revitalize the Brooklyn
economy. The outpost of this crusade is a small storefront
on Atlantic Avenue called the Brooklyn Energy Co-op.
Now in its eighth month, the Co-op sells energy-saving
products at low prices, screens local contractors, conducts
professional energy audits of buildings and apartments, and
advises on energy strategies.
Churches were a natural catalyst for this project. With
their frequently high ceilings, large windows, and aging
physical plants the city's religious institutions have in recent
years watched the contents of their collection plates go
directly into the boiler. Finding their traditional parish ser-
vices and sometimes their very survival threatened by the
cost of energy, 17 churches from various Brooklyn neigh-
borhoods got together last autumn to found the Brooklyn
Energy Project, a local development corporation which
sponsors the C o ~ p store.
According to a consultant with the Technical Develop-
ment Corporation, a Boston-based energy consulting frrm
which helped the Brooklyn Energy Project plan their Co-
op, this is the country's frrst church-sponsored energy
cooperative to offer such an ambitious range of services.
There are in New York City a number of cooperative ven-
tures for joint purchasing of fuel oil without the middleman
markup. But Brooklyn Co-op Director Dick Harmon is
quick to point out the difference. "We're not interested in
saving nickels and dimes. We're trying to get away from
dependence on fossil fuels and assert some control over the
whole energy picture."
Harmon, a veteran organizer who worked with Saul
Alinsky in the Industrial Areas Foundation, calls energy
"the cutting edge of the city's housing crisis." He warns
that "housing activists who ignore the energy component
are ftghting the last war" and leave their projects
dangerously vulnerable to the impact of increases in energy
prices.
To Harmon, the fmancial rewards of investing in energy
efficiency are compelling but still largely unappreciated. By
adding together the avoided fuel costs, tax credits, and
property appreciation, most energy investments pay for
themselves-and for the loans used in ftnancing them-
within a few years. The Co-op is determined to spread this
message by assisting property owners and housing groups in
preparing cost-beneftt analyses of the options available in
their buildings.
Attracting residential business promises to be one of the
Co-op's toughest chores, but its natural market is the 6,000
CITY LIMITSIAugust-5eptember
14
households that worship at the 25 churches which now
belong to the Project. All parishioners of the member chur-
ches qualify for the Co-op's discounts and services.
However, about 80 percent of these families live in rental
units for which the rent usually includes heat and hot water.
Since these costs are borne indirectly by the tenants there is
less incentive to spend time and money weatherstripping
doors and insulating water heaters.
But energy costs are a major factor in rent hikes, not to
mention fuel pass-alongs. The Co-op therefore urges its
mention fuel passalongs. The Co-op therefore urges its mem-
bers to impress upon their landlords the mutual advantages
of energy efficiency.
the Co-op qualify for all Co-op beneftts, the landlord
response so far has been slow. One reason is that many of
Brooklyn's smaller rental buildings are owned by small
landlords who have cash flow problems and are reluctant to
invest large sums in their buildings when fmancing is expen-
sive and difficult to obtain.
Harmon hopes to see the Co-op become more aggressive
in attracting the residential market. In its ftrst six months of
operation, however, the Co-op has been preoccupied with
church buildings. Each of the 17 founding parishes had its
buildings monitored with a probe-eye infrared scan to
measure heat loss. In a study of the "thermal envelopes",
heating systems, and space usage in these church structures,
the Co-op concluded that a two-tiered strategy of conserva-
tion measures could cut energy consumption by up to 50
percent, depending on the building. The frrst stage involves
inexpensive methods such as restricting use of spaces that
are most costly to heat and the installation of caulking and
clock thermostats. The second stage involves more expen-
sive work, such as replacing the boiler. The latter measures
have a longer payback period than the initial steps, but
often involve a larger percentage of the total energy bill.
This spring and summer many of the member churches
implemented some of the frrst-stage measures, often holding
"building parties" at which parishioners pitched in on the
work. On July 11 members of the 25 congregations came to
the St. Agnes Catholic School in Boerum Hill to assemble a
solar greenhouse that was purchased through the Co-op.
Our Lady of Peace, whose ftve buildings include a
77-year-old church, is currently taking contractor bids on
major energy improvements that will cost at least $20,000.
The Carroll Street church complex ran up an energy bill1ast
year of $53,000.
According to Rev. A. Finley Schaef of the Park Slope
Methodist Church, who is President of the Project's Board
of Directors, the Project is an opportunity for the church to
"play a leadership role in resource management" and to
"help people to take charge of their future."
It also hopes to stimulate the Brooklyn economy. All of
Brooklyn Energy Co-op members and friends assembling the solar greenhouse at St. Agnes' Catholic &hool on July 11.
the contractors screened and approved by the Co-Op are mon concedes that the promise of avoided energy costs a
Brooklyn-based and must agree to consider C<x>p members couple of years hence will fail to prompt most landlords to
for jobs created by Co-op-generated business. In addition, invest in energy measures. "The key incentive, like it or not,
the Project predicts that the money diverted from the oil is the tax game," he argues. Harmon claims that while tax
and utility companies will flow into the local economy. breaks such as the federal and state credits for many energy-
Member churches include Catholic and Protestant Con- saving investments and the city's J-51 tax abatement for
gregations from Brooklyn Heights to Bedford-Stuyvesant, housing improvements offer property owners substantial
from Williamsburg to Sheepshead Bay. Each pays annual subsidies for energy work, even larger tax lures are needed
dues ranging from $500 to $3,000, depending on the to entice most landlords.
number of parishioners. While synagogues are welcome to Despite this perceived handicap, Harmon is optimistic on
join, none" have signed up yet. Recently the Co-op opened energy conservation futures. Starting with a fIrst-year
its membership to Brooklyn's neighborhood and civic budget of $150,000, the Co-op aims to be self-suffIcient by
groups, which will pay an annual fee of $200-300. its third year. The Co-op fIgures that there are some 1,000
As members of the Project, churches and families receive major churches and synagogues in Brooklyn, with an
energy products at an average of 35 percent above the estimated membership of 250,000 famlies. When the
wholesale price, well below the usual 80-100 percent markup statistics are in next winter on energy savings at the Co-op's
at retail stores. Goods are available to non-members at an member churches, Harmon hopes that the bottom line will
additional cost. prove irresistible to other congregations. And in this grow-
A good deal of the Co-op's staff time is taken up answer- ing church constituency the Co-op sees the organizational
ing questions from people who walk into the store to fmd network it needs to reach the residential market. 0
out about different products: How do they work? Are they
easy to install? What is their payback period? The store of-
fers a wealth of energy literature, much of it free.
Harmon maintains that the average household in the Co-
op's current membership can reduce its energy consumption
by 40 percent. When the owner's budget is limited, the Co-
op recommends a two-stage strategy similar to the one it ad-
vocates for the churches: do the inexpensive work fIrst, and
then invest the resulting savings in the "deeper" measures.
Despite the relentlessly increasing cost of fuel oil, Har-
15
The Brooklyn Energy Co-op is located at 562 Atlantic
A venue, between Third and Fourth A venues. Its telepbone
number is 858-8803. It is open Tuesday, Wednesday, and
Friday noon4 pm, Thursday 2-8 pm, and Saturday 10 am-
2 pm.
Eric Goldstein is a free lance writer who frequently covers
New York City neighborhood issues.
CITY LIMITS/August-September
Tenants Get Management Training
Tenants of "twelve city-owned buildings in the
Williamsburg section of Brooklyn recently completed a
three part, bilingual training course on owning and manag-
ing a cooperative. The sessions, held in May, June, and Ju-
ly, were jointly sponsored by People's Fire House, Los
Sures and St. Nicholas Neighborhood Preservation, which
currently manage the buildings under contract with the City,
and by the Association of Neighborhood Housing Develop-
ers and Community Service Society, two city-wide technical
assistance organizations.
The subjects discussed in separate Spanish and English
sessions were: the advantages and disadvantages of housing
cooperatives, the steps in the conversion from city owner-
ship to tenant ownership and building management. The
written materials were also bilingual.
The sixty tenants who attended some or all of the sessions
live mostly in 8 to 10 unit buildings which are now in the
Community Management and Management in Partnership
programs. They are scheduled for sale in 3 to 9 months. The
largest building represented had 30 units. An evaluation
CITY LIMITS/AugustSeptember 16
questionnaire revealed that the tenants present intend to buy
their buildings because they "have had enough of
landlords," but they expressed some concern about how
they would get agreement on management policies from
people of different ethnic groups. Some tenants said they
hoped all tenants would agree to buy their apartments (or
more accurately, purchase shares in the cooperative cor-
poration), because those who remained as renters "would
probably cause trouble."
Speakers included Ann Henderson and Andy Reicher of
Urban Homesteading Assistance Board, Lidio Rivera of the
National Consumer Cooperative Bank, Jose Acuna of
Manhattan Valley Development Corporation, Olga Perez
Martinez of Adopt-a-Building, Abdu Farrakhan of ANHD,
Pat Murray of Williamsburg Legal Services, Bonnie Brower
of East Brooklyn Legal Services, and Rosa Esperon of the
Puerto Rican Legal Defense Fund.
The course will be repeated for tenants of Community
Management and Management in Partnership buildings in
other boroughs. For more information, call Toby Sanchez
at ANHD, 23991422. DToby Sanchez
Looking for a Rent Collector
Rent collection in city-owned residential buildings has
been a hot issue for the Koch administration ever since it
took over the swelling number of occupied buildings seized
by the city for tax default. Early in his term the Mayor
announced his intention to evict non-paying tenants in
city-owned buildings and about a year later repeated the
threat insisting that "other cities don't provide this kind of
[management] assistance."
But since the spring of 1980, the city has claimed that,
thanks to improved services in these buildings, rent
collections are on the rise. This June, the city unveiled
collection figures averaging better than 80 percent. This is
a sure sign, said housing commissioner Anthony
Gliedman, of the basic provision of services and of
management efficiency.
Shortly after the press conference heralding this
achievement, an HPD request for proposals was released,
seeking bids from rent collection agencies for the
approximately $18,500,000 owed by "active tenants." The
bids document states, "We now have approximately
18,000 billed tenants with an average arrears balance of
$1,576 for the 11,733 tenants [65 percent] that are two or
more months in arrears."
The figures, cautioned Deputy Housing Commissioner
William Eimicke, may give a false picture of the actual
amount of arrears. "We have many phantom accounts on
our computer tape," he said, "but the Controller won't
allow us to drop them from the rolls until we make a legal
effort to collect." What amount of the current arrears is
false, however, the agency had no way of estimating. 0
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17
CITY LlMITSIAugust-5eptember
Changes Loom for
City Management
Programs By Susan Baldwin
A building in the Tenant Interim Lease Program in Clinton.
Will these be the last oj the $250 apartments?
By proposing to adopt more stringent entry requirements
and eliminating the low-cost sales price for city-owned (tax-
foreclosed) buildings to nonprofit tenant and community
groups, the city seems headed on a relentless course to
terminate its most successful alternative management
strategy-the Tenant Interim Lease program-in the very
near future.
Begun in August, 1978, as an inexpensive method to
provide management training to tenants desirous of
purchasing their buildings as $250-a-unit cooperatives, TIL
has one of the lowest budgets in the Department of Housing
Preservation and Development's treatment program for its
vast, tax-foreclosed housing stock. Under the 1978
guidelines, tenants and community groups were to manage
CITY LlMITS/AugustSeptember 18
buildings under an II-month lease, and, ideally, if they could
prove that the building could operate on its rent roll, they
would buy their apartments at the end of this period.
But, many buildings in the program were found to need
substantial repairs and, as a result, some have remained in
TIL for almost three years.
In a draft outline of its recent study on HPD's current
policy, Murray Dropkin and Company, a Manhattan-based
accounting firm with a contract to improve the program, has
made recommendations that, among other requirements,
call for the following criteria for entry into TIL:
the physical conditiG>n of the building is either adequate
as is, or is repairable within the limits of the program's
resources.
The building is located on a block that is more than 50
percent occupied, in a neighborhood that is stable or shows
signs of improvement.
At least 75 percent of the habitable apartments are
presently occupied.
The building has the potential for achieving 85 percent
occupancy in six months.
The Dropkin study also asks that tenants be willing to
restructure rents to "adequate" levels ($35 to $40 per zoning
room), that tenants be willing to pay at least three-months in
rent arrears stemming from the period when the building was
in the city's Office of Property Management (central
management), that there should be at least 85 percent rent
collection in the building, and that only buildings which can
be sold after 22 months in the program can enter the pipeline.
In addition, the efficiency report stated, all applicants must
have "existing credit lines with local vendors."
Dropkin's contract agreement with HPD is scheduled to
be completed by November 30, 1981.
The criteria outlined for TIL would also apply to buildings
selected for the city's 7-A Leasing program-the mechanism
designed in November, 1978, which would allow court-
appointed administrators to continue managing buildings
after the city had taken title to them. At present, buildings
managed by 7-A administrators pass directly into central
management, and the city presumably takes over the
administrator's duties.
"If they had had these requirements when the program
first started," said Theresa Kilbaine, an instructor at the
Urban Homesteaders Assistance Board who teaches
management skills to TIL building residents, "most of our
buildings would not have succeeded. They wouldn't even
have been admitted."
Kilbaine pointed to at least a dozen buildings that do not
meet the proposed occupancy level and did not meet the
current 50 percent requirement when they entered the
program. One such building is 4554 Park Avenue in the
Bronx where the tenants in September, 1979, were accepted
into TIL with 26 of the 32 apartments vacant. In two-years'
time there are only four vacancies, and apartment repairs
have been done without any funding from HPD. In another
building-534 East II th Street on the Lower East Side-21
of the 30 apartments were vacant when the tenants went into
the program. Now only three are unoccupied but are slated
for rental soon. But, the possibility of building exclusion is
just one of the fears that community groups have expressed
about the proposed guidelines.
City housing officials continue to give conflictirig reports
as to whether new buildings can enter the program. Accord-
ing to TIL Director Smith, "there are ten to 15 buildings
floating around" and no more will be accepted into the
program until more buildings are sold. .
Currently, there are about 250 buildings in TIL and 80 in
7-A Leasing, totaling about 8,000 units in both programs.
Also, though the city has only sold 15 TIL buildings to date, it
.expects to dispose of at least 15 more by the end of the year.
All of the buildings now being sold are going at the rate of
$250 per unit, and, aside from others the city is urging tenants
to quiekly purchase, they will be the last sold at that price.
According to Deputy Commissioner William Eirnicke there
will be no more agreements made to sell at the $250 per unit
price.
Still, a number of community groups are wary about buy-
ing their buildings, even at the $250 price, if certain repairs
are not made. Some, such as Kilbaine at U-HAB, caution
against purchasing buildings that are in need of major
repairs-boilers, new plumbing, rewiring. "Owner-
ship is serious," she said. "People should know what they're
buying fIrst even if it's just $250 an apartment. "
The transition from management by a court appointed
7 -A administrator to management by the city is a rough jolt
for tenants, said David Weschler, director of the East
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Harlem-based Community Law Offices, a nonprofIt legal
fIrm that handles tenant cases, including shepherding
buildings into the alternative management programs.
"People win the right to run their own housing and then the
city takes the property and they are told to pay rent to'OPM
(Office of Property Management) where they get no services.
That's sudden death."
In this spring's Manhattan vesting, more than 50 buildings
that were being managed by court-appointed 7-A's became
city-owned and were immediately remanded to central man-
agement. "These in these buildings believed that they
were going to be accepted in TIL or 7-A Leasing," Weschler
asserted. "That's why they held pn so long. Now they're in
limbo and HPD has new criteria that no one can meet."
- The imminent arrival of the new regUlations, accom-
panied by what many see as a growing retrenchment for the
alternative management programs, has made many
community activists grimace over what the future may hold.
And city officials are confIrming that concern.
"I would say the best thing groups could do would be to
buy the buildings at $250 right away," said Eirnicke, noting
that there is a great deal of renewed real estate interest in New
York City. "Who 'knows what will happen after the
election?" he asked.
In June, the city held a residential auction in which one
badly deteriorated brownstone in Manhattan's Washington
Heights section sold for $167,000. Two others in the same
neighborhood brought prices of $97,000 and $91,000,
respectively. 0
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CITY LIMITS/August-September
Legal Assistance for Tenant
Co-opers
The Community Development Legal Assistance Center,
an innovative legal advocacy organization devoted to
rebuilding New York City's low and moderate income
neighborhoods, operates out of cramped space donated by
the New York Bar Association on West 44th Street. Its
director, by his own admission, is unabashedly dedicated
to saving people's homes.
"These people in the neighborhood housing movement
are marvelous," said Barry Mallin, director of the
CDLAC, an outgrowth of the Council of New York Law
Associates. "They come here with ideas that they think are
visionary and what we try to do together is make them a
reality. And I think we really are making a difference.
People are holding on in their homes. tt
Mallin started raising funds for the center two years ago
along with Barbara Schatz, the Council's executive direc-
CITY LlMITs/AugustSeptember
20
Attorney Barry Mallin
tor, when he realized the importance of providing legal
assistance to neighborhood residents who would like to
purchase their apartments as low-cost cooperatives.
At present, some 50 attorneys from prestigious New
York City law firms are working pro bono-without
fee-on housing projects geared to strengthen
neighborhood stability.
"One of our major concerns is to help keep tenant
groups together and to ensure that they can buy their
apartments," said Mallin.
A major part of his organization's agenda is to fight
hard to preserve the city's $250-a-unit policy for low-cost
cooperative housing--a policy that is threatened with
extinction.
The Center is currently handling more than 50 projects,
including conducting a home ownership program in con-
junction with the Cornell University Cooperative Exten-
sion Housing program for Section 235 federally subsidized
housing planned for 200 to 400 single family homes in the
South Bronx.
In June, 1980, the Center came into being at a fortuitous
time. The city had become the owner of large numbers of
apartment units abandoned by landlords who chose not to
pay taxes. And tenants had banded together to save their
buildings.
In addition to having helped negotiate a streamlined,
cost-effective cooperative plan with the state Attorney
General's office, Mallin and Schatz have helped buildings
get low-interest loans from the National Consumer
Cooperative Bank and saved buildings from paying huge
real estate tax liens by making arrangements with the city
to qualify them for tax forgiveness under Section 606 of
the Private Housing Finance Law.
They are also developing a pre-abandonment strategy so
that tenants can approach their landlords with a
reasonable purchase offer before the properties are tax-
foreclosed.
Supported by private funding, the CDLAC first aided
tenants in a cooperative closing in February and is cur-
rently representing more than a dozen tenant associations
in Harlem, the Lower East Side, and Clinton in Manhat-
tan and in Williamsburg and Bedford Stuyvesant in
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"It's terrific to ~ a homeowner, ana our place would
not be in such good shaPe now if we hadn't saved
thousands of dollars in legal fees," said Charles Abney, of
404 West 48th Street in Clinton. "He always made himself
available to us," added Greg Reeves, chairman of the
building's tenants association. "And this is why we were
able to spend our moneyonother improvements to keep
our building."
The tenants purchased 404 West '48th Street late in May.
Two other buildings on the block, 405 and 413 West 48th
Street, also received legal help from the Center and have
been bought as $25(}.a-unit cooperatives. The Center is
also representing 16 other Clinton properties where the
residents 'are attempting to purchase their apartments at
this same low price.
Other projects supported by the center are industrial
redevelopment in East Harlem for the Renigades Housing
Movement, Inc., a neighborhood self-help group, and a
sweat equity. "shopsteading" program involving
community-based renovation of vacant storefronts by the
V alley Restoration Local Development Corporation in
Manhattan V alley on the Upper West Side.
"Our main ambition is to create a center of expertise in
the area of community development law, and I think we're
unique in this effort," concluded Mallin. "We hope to do
for an eight-unit tenement what a major developer and
Wall Street lawyer do for a 4O-story building." OS.B.
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CITY LIMITSIAugustSeptember
Stalled
on Sale of City-Owned
Village
That the 240 modest bungalow homes of Harding Park are
up for sale has never been in doubt. But, the multi-ethnic
tenants of the largest chunk of city-owned, tax-foreclosed
property in New York are now wondering, for sale to whom?
Negotiations between the city and the representatives of
the families who own their unorthodox homes, but rent the
ground on which they sit, have been ongoing since the
property was seized for tax nonpayment in 1978. And until
recently, both city housing officials and residents assumed
agreement was within reach.
Now, however, the landlord and the tenants are separated
by an increasing mistrust and about half a million dollars. In
early June relations were at a point where Deputy Commis-
sioner William Eimicke, in whose domain Harding Park
currently dwells, was threatening to discard the plans for
sale, the new sewer, and tenants as well and seek "alternative
methods of disposition."
To the community, the commissioner's threats seem
designed to intimidate rather than negotiate. But since then,
they have frred their lawyer, gone on rent strike and collected
almost $ 10,000 to deposit in an escrow account, and put local
politicians on notice that all past debts are immediately
redeemable. Many of those leaders have offered assistance,
but have approached the situation warily.
According to Lois Chaffee, President of the Harding Park
Association, the primary stumbling block has been the cost.
Thecity'saskingpricehasbeen$I,OOO,OOO, or, about $5,000
per family. The deeds would be relayed via a two-tiered sale:
from the city to the Association, and from the Association to
individual purchasers. The Association has countered with a
price of half a million dollars. An independent appraisal
secured by the group valued the property, as is, with its
current sewer system of crumbling clay pipes, at $675,000.
The haggling over the price was complicated by a breach
between the Association and their attorney, Olga Mahl.
Now, with new legal representation, negotiations are once
again underway.
Since a July 20th meeting between residents and the city,
officials have discussed the possibility of offering purchase
money mortgages to residents at a low interest rate, but only
to those rebuffed in attempts to get private fmancing.
Purchase money loans are available to buyers .of city
property at auction above $5,000.
According to Oeputy Commissioner Eimicke, the city
must recapture at least a portion of the $300,000 it has
already spent on sewer repairs and $100,000 in land surveys
and title searches, as well as $2.5 million in federal
community development funds it expects to pay for the
construction of a new sewer system. The city's increase in
CITY LIMITSIAugust-5eptember
22
ground rents, from $25 to $75 per month, instituted at the
beginning of June, was also motivated by the increasing costs
of the project.
Helen Occhuizzo, a life-time resident of the Park whose
father led tenant actions against past municipal
encroachments on the isolated community, including one by
Robert Moses in the 19608, said the increases were arbitrary
and without warning. "We had volunteered to raise our rents
to $50," she insisted, "but we don't understand why they
should be tripled."
The Association has also retained a lawyer to argue in
court that rents in the Park are protected by rent control laws
and cannot be summarily increased. A special legislative
action in the 19608 placed the Park under rent regulation,
however, the city has insisted that, like other in rem tenants,
those rent regulations no longer pertain.
The rent issue could become academic if there is new
movement towards a negotiated sale. In the interim,
however, it is cause for considerable anger and talk in the
community alongside the mouth of the Bronx River. "Right
now," said Occhuizzo, "we are paying in three different
ways for our homes and the sewer systems. Our average Con
Ed bills alone are over $200 a month." 0
New Director for
City-Owned Management
At the height of last January's cold spell, the Division of
Property Management for some 23,000 of the city's tax-
foreclosed apartments lost its director when Charles
Poidomani was tapped by incoming flre chieftain Charles
Hynes to become the new head of the flre marshall's unit.
But, rather than quickly filling Poidomani's vacated office
with a new Assistant Commissioner, it was filled instead with
stacks of army cots. And, for the ensuing six months,
responsibility for managing the bulk of what the city itself
describes as its most distressed housing was shifted onto
departmental lieutenants.
The job wasn't kept empty for lack of applicants. "It's
because the job is so important that we haven't hired anyone
yet," said the Deputy Commissioner for Property
Management, William Eimicke, last March. Now, following
a tense interdepartmental wrangle, Eimicke's assistant Terry
Krueger has been named to that position. Krueger has had a
variety of tasks at property management since coming over
from the Office of Management and Budget in 1980 shortly
after Eimicke and another OMB co-worker Denny Kelly
made the same transition. Eimicke and Kelly, an Executive
Assistant to the Deputy Commissioner, were married in
1980.
Usually an unfilled post is a sure indication that the spot's
importance is rated fairly low. In the period between January
and the end of June three other divisional assistant
commissionerships including rehabilitation, development
and alternative management were vacated and filled.
"Central" management, however, operates within a
narrower spectrum than those departments. The division
performs at best a holding action-directing the
maintenance of buildings that are frequently in poorer
condition than those that have made it into the alternative
management programs. Rent collection-an unenviable
task given the poor condition of most buildings-has topped
the list of the division's priorities. Tenants, other than those
in urban renewal areas, have developed little of the organized
clout that characterizes city-owned buildings in other
programs.
Eimicke's early choice of Krueger was apparently blocked
by Commissioner Tony Gliedman after questions were
raised both inside and outside the housing department about
Krueger's capability. Concern was raised that the
appointment might mean the resignation of several key
staffers in property management who have clashed with
Krueger in the past. The situation became a stand-off with
Eimicke insisting on his right to choose his assistants. In the
meantime, the office itself became hostage to the dispute and
some managers reported a disarray as no clear lines of
responsibility were discernible.
Part of the problem was apparently solved when another
in-house candidate for the post, Dom Catania, was made
head of a new Techical Services unit separate from other
divisions.
Krueger, however, inherits a division that has a declining
budget and little organizational resources. Mobilizing the
department to cope with the coming winter in buildings that
have still not received adequate preparation will have to be a
top priority. 0
Over Objections, City Sells Little Italy Buildings
Six city-owned, tax-foreclosed tenements in the
Little Italy section of Manhattan have been approved
for sale to a development company over the objections
of the local community planning board. The board
had sought low income subsidies for the site. The
present development proposal which will create 40
apartments of market-rate rentals.
The buildings, at the southeast comer of Prince and
Elizabeth Streets, are within the Little Italy historic
district and were seized by the city in 1978. Despite
several attempts by both the fife and buildings
departments to have the buildings demolished, the '
housing department has sought to maintain the
structures. In 1980 the department spent $35,000 in
federal community development funds to shore up the
buildings.
Development of the six adjoining buildings was
sought in a request for proposals last year. The Board
of Estimate's approval on July 23rd will' Pave the way
for conveyance to one of the two frrms which
responded to the request, Lemberger Brody Associ-
ates. The negotiated sales price is $200,000 and the
housing department will provide a purchase money
mortgage at 9V2 percent interest for half of the price.
As part of the review procedure for the sale of the
buildings, plans for the project were submitted to
Community Planning Board number two. After an
initial favorable vote by the board's housing
committee, the full board overwhelmingly rejected the
plan by a vote of 24 to 4. The board instead adopted a
resolution afflfming a need in the community for
"housing more compatible with the rent structure
which exists there today." The Lemberger Brody
proposal, the resolution stated, "is completeiy
opposite the make-up of the community."
"People in that neighborhood could in no way
afford the rents they'll have there," insisted Rita Lee,
District Manager of Community Board #2. "Forget
about low income, you couldn't afford it if you were
middle income."
The board's outspoken rejection of the plan, noted
Lee, came after a number of other city-owned
buildings in the area were earmarked for luxury
housing. The board had also sought a mixed income
development with federal Section 8 rent subsidies for
the former federal Archives building at 641 Greenwich
Street on the west side. The lowest projected rents
there, said Lee, will be $900 per month.
No members of the community attended the Board
of Estimate meeting to speak against the proposal, nor
had any vocal objections there been expected.
According to Lee, the housing department officials
had cited a scarcity of funds for housing subsidies in the
area as well as a determination not to place subsidies in
areas such as Little Italy. 0
23 CITY LIMITS/August-September
Abrams Challenges City's Landlord Monitoring
Somewhere on the desk of Housing Commissioner
Anthony Gliedman is a formal complaint from state
Attorney General Robert Abrams about the manner in
which Gliedman's agency has monitored the administration
of the largest segment of rent regulated apartments in the
city-those under rent stabilization. Abrams's lengthy list of
accusations is as physically hefty as it may be politically
cumbersome to resolve.
The report is the latest of a number of examinations of the
practices of the quasi-official Rent Stabilization
Association, among them the New York State Tenant and
CITY LIMITS/AugustSeptember 24
Neighborhood Coalition and Congressmember Ted Weiss,
Democrat of Manhattan. The RSA was established in 1969 to
administer the regulations of the then new stabilization
system designed as a less stringent form of control on rents
and evictions. Since that time the RSA has been the target of
criticism about the manner in which it spent members' dues
which were supposed to be used primarily to support the
system's administration. But in spite of the volume of
criticism generated, the Association has remained unscathed
by local officials.
Legally, the Attorney General's complaint stops short of
suing the Housing Commissioner for the abuses it cites.
o Rather, it presents a strong request that some rapid steps be
taken to remedy the situation.
According to the petition, which was released in mid-
June-just two weeks before the state legislature was to
decide on renewing the stabilization law-between May,
1977 and November, 1980theRSA misappropriated
$925,000. The complaiili-cites:
@$I90,OOO spent on lobbying and publicity by three
Association-employed lobbyists in the city Council and state
legislature.
@$342,OOO for legal actions-most of this to press legal
suits against such pro-tenant laws as the "warrant of
habitability. "
@According to the report, RSA Chairman Sheldon Katz
spent $114,725 in a proxy battle to gain control of the
organization. Since May, 1979, Katz has received a $4,000
per month non-accountable expense fund.
@Another $170,000, the investigation holds, has been
spent to produce reports and studies for public consumption
aimed at promoting real estate industry views.
This generous funding of its political and economic needs,
says the Abrams report, took place while the RSA
systematically Underfunded the Conciliation and Appeals
Board, the arbiter of complaints for the 900,000 stabilized
tenants.
The petition calls on Gliedman to move affirmatively
towards reigning in the RSA by suspending its legal
registration, a stop-gap measure that would lead to new
operating mechanisms for tpe system. D.
-~ '. '

CIty Approves Sf. Plan
One more step along the road to construction on a large
vacant lot in the Park Slope section of Brooklyn was taken
when the city housing department announced its choice from
among the responses to its request for site development
proposals.
The city's decision attempts to merge two different
developers' plans by having one developer construct a 27 ,500
square foot supermarket and another approximately 50
owner-occupied three fainily homes. This may take some
doing. The supermarket plan of Baltic Associates, a group
comprised of Louis Rosenberg, Samuel Feinerman and Pick
Quick Foods, which proposed condominiums on the rest of
the site, is substantially larger than the structure advocated
by the designated builder of the residential homes, Urban
Housing Associates.
The prospects for both development companies see-sawed
back and forth as local Community Planning Board #6
weighed which plan to recommend. The high hopes of Baltic
Associates after being chosen as the recommendation of the
board's Housing and Land Use Committees were dashed
after the full board, following an unusual and impromptu
hearing, reversed the choices and proposed the plan of Urban
Both groups were hoping that selection of their
recommended plan would significantly affect the future
growth of the surrounding neighborhood. Yet the plans
which each ultimately endorsed bore only a , partjal
resemblance to their original proposals. The Improvement
Committee's insistence that the entire lot be commercial
disappeared following the announcement of the city
guidelines last winter which called for a residential and
commercial mix. Similarly, when the city attached no
provision for low income Section 8 rent subsidies ,tOe its
outline of what it wanted built on the site a of
the Fifth Avenue Committee's plans and hopes was
eliminated.
Despite the city's enforced the
larger issues dividing the groups and molding' community
sentiment to f'md shape; in quickly'
development plans. Arid regardless of those changes, 'both
sides seemed cOnvinced that the ultimate decision would be
an important part of their respectlvepolitical fate. Following
tl!e fuqU community board vote Fifth Avenue Committee
supporters were jubilant, while Improvement Committee
backers stood stunned and silent. 0
Homes instead. Sha h Id
Not far beneath the surface of the debate on which re 0 ers
proposal to endorse was the bitter emotion that has Elect Co-op Bank Directors
characterized the ongoing argument over the direction the , ' _
lower Park Slope community should take. And the primary In terms of federal funding for next year, the National
backing for the proposals also reflected the division in the Consumer Cooperative Bank is still wandering out in the
community. Pushing Baltic Associate's bigger market and cold, awaiting a Congressional invitation to come back to
condominium plan was the Park Slope Improvement the hearth. But while the pank hangs on to see what its
Committee which has centered its efforts to let private real propriation for flSCal year 1982 will be, it continues to take
estate market forces decide local development issues on the affirmative steps to sUfYive on its own.
question of the lot. And the chief advocate group for low and At its flI'$t stoCkhOlders' the private shareholders
moderate income residents who face displacement from .of the bank, representing those <OJ'S' whicQ have taken
rising private interest has been the Fifth Avenue Conupittee, ' bank loans and-purchased shares through equitY investments,
co-sponsor of the Urban Homes propOSal. ' elected three of their ,own-memberS;of the bOard of direc-:-
One avid proponent of the larger and the ' , tois. , , " '
condominium proposal was Robert Ohlaking who spoke The bank's member co-ops gained the right to elect three
at the fmal public hearing as a representative of the St. directors when stockholdings reached $3 million. Another
Johns Place Block Association. Ohlaking vociferously de- three directors will ' be .elected when holdings hit the $10
nounced the alternate plan, characterizing the supermarket million level which Could occur as early as this fall. Even-
component as "creating another pigsty in Park Slope'." tually, elected directors will replace all Presidential ap-
Ohlaking is an employee of the City's Office of Neigh- pointees with the exception of one representing small
borhood Economic Development and administrates a business.
$250,<XX> grant to the Fifth AVeQue :Local Development Two of those elected were incumbents, having been
Corporation, the most active local force for economic pointed by former President Carter. They are Reverend
development. The President of the LOC, Vincent Saggese A.J. McKnight of Louisiana who represents low income co-
who is a member of the community board, left the room ops and Joseph L. Hansknecht of Detroit representing con-
shortly before the vote was taken. sumer goods and services. The new director is George
Asked if there was a possible conflict of interest between Schecter of the Grand Street Co-ops in Manhattan.
his municipal position and his public views, Ohlaking in- The bank's trrst annual report is also out now and con-
sisted there was not. He was backed up by the Director of tains detailed information on the bank's f11'st eighteen
the Nei&bborhood Development Office, Barbara Wolf, months of operations, including its entire current loan port-
who said an informal opinion from the Board of Ethics folio. It is available from N.C.C.B., 2001 'S' St., N.W.,
had been obtained supporting that view. Suite 600, Washington, D.C. 20009. 0
25 CITY LIMITSIAugust-8eptember
The
ClielDistry of
Caring

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Quiet Plans for Greenpoint's Waterfront
The Cloud Over New York's Open Spaces . Fending off the Anti-Rent Control Bhu