TBETRIALor

TWAIfADAVIS
CHILD ENDANGERMENT ARRESTS ARE SOARING,
WHATHAPPENS WHENTilE MOTIIER ISINNOCENT,

Substantially Political
-
T
hese days, who remembers Joe Addabbo? He was the J2-term Southeast
Queens congressman who, by the 1980s, had enough juice to direct hun-
dreds of millions of dollars in federal contracts and grants to his dis-
trict. The borough's poorest neighborhood, South Jamaica, even won some
EDITORIAL
meaty strips of bacon before Addabbo passed away in
1986. On Merrick Boulevard, defense industry parts
suppliers employed hundreds of local people in plants
that fed Long Island's aerospace assembly lines.
Yet during Addabbo's tenure, South Jamaica fell fur-
ther into poverty. And when he left office, the jobs he
generated moved to another congressman's district. By
the late 1980s, South Jamaica looked as though it were
mired in the Great Depression, its ramshackle wood frame houses lining rutted
and unpaved streets, scores of homes gutted by fire and others overcrowded.
Addabbo's type of political leadership couldn't create lasting change.
Today, much of South Jamaica is a far better place to live, thanks in great
part to a very different kind of politicalleader-Congressman Floyd Flake, pas-
tor of Allen A.M.E. Church. The church and its subsidiaries have developed an
eight-story housing complex for seniors, a multi-service center with parenting
programs, teen services and a health clinic, and 50 two-family homes. It has
rehabbed scores of units of housing for low- and moderate-income people,
while running job preparation programs and a soup kitchen and clothing pantry
for the hungry and homeless. Other groups in the area have done similar work,
often with the congressman's help.
Allen A.ME. has also used some of its $3.5 million in members' annual
donations to buy up dozens of storefronts, renting them cheaply to small busi-
nesses and to larger companies-dinics,food chains-that hire locally. The
once prominent drug trade has moved away from Merrick Boulevard.
Addabbo brought home pork. Flake has brought home muscle that will out-
last him. He's practiced a different kind of politics. Unlike some of New York
City's more prominent political leaders, Flake has rarely flouted his rhetoric or
made big headlines. Instead, right under the city's nose, he has quietly used his
influence and management ability to develop a model of community revitaliza-
tion. And most New Yorkers don't even know about it.
Last month, Flake opened the new $23 million Allen Cathedral and
announced he will leave Congress in October. Even now, his staffers say he
prefers not to spend more than a day or two in Washington each week.
He's recently stirred opposition by sponsoring legislation that would give
federal money to religious-based schools and community development organiza-
tions. Those of us who support better public education believe government
vouchers for private education are a lousy idea. This is, however, naturallegis-
lation to come from a church pastor.
And it's no reason for discounting Flake as a model for what political lead-
ership could be. New York City would be a far better place if most of our elect-
ed officials worked as hard as Flake to create lasting institutions. For once, in
politics, substance has won out over bombast.
Andrew White
Editor
(ity Limits
Volume XXII Number 7
City Limits is published ten times per year, monthly except
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Andrew Reicher, UHAB
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CITY LIMITS
AUCUST/ SEPTEMBER 1997
FEATURE
Zero Tolerance
ew York's cops and prosecutors have begun applying high-pressure law
enforcement tactics to child welfare cases. It makes for good press, but a
City Limits investigation finds that some guiltless mothers and their kids are
getting punished along with the gUilty. By Kim Nauer
SPECIAL SECTION: ELECTION '97
Ruth's Root Rot ~
Manhattan Borough President Ruth Messinger is famous for cultivating
grassroots support. So why is she plotting a Clintonesque media
campaign in her race to become New York's first woman mayor? By Glenn Thrush
Crowd Control ~
In some communities, public school overcrowding is the number one
issue in this year's race. By Jordan Moss
Watcha Gonna Do? ~
We asked the three Democratic mayoral candidates what they plan to do
about five issues of vital import to the city's neighborhoods. Messinger
wants a real welfare-to-work program. Albanese is going to give New Yorkers
a living wage. Sharpton? He doesn't seem to have any definite plans for the future.
PROFILE
The Family Fix E-..
An innovative new drug treatment and family counseling center grows on the site
of one of Alphabet City'S most notorious cocaine-dealing bodegas. By Adam Fifield
PIPELINES
Good Works . .. Without Pay ~
City agencies can't find enough clerical jobs or brooms to keep workfare
workers busy. That's why Mayor Giuliani's planning to export thousands
of them to neighborhood nonprofits. By James Bradley
Daycarelessness ~
The city is putting welfare moms to work without helping them find decent child
care. The kids will suffer now-and in the future. By Brooke Richie and Robin Epsteill
Isle Fly Away ~
Planners who want to build a park on Governors Island, New York Harbor's
grassy knoll, are fighting to keep the bucolic bastion out of the commercial
mainstream. By Gian-Claudia Sciara
CULTURE
Loisaida's Next Stage KnJIIIIII
The Clemente Soto Velez Cultural Center is a cavernous schoolhouse crammed with
theater, painting, sculpture and poetry. Where else can you catch a genuine
Punch-and-Rudy show, or the first New York International Fringe Theater Festival?
Cityview
Fostering Abuse
Spare Change
Dirty Air Fund
Editorial
Letters
Briefs
COMMENTARY
DEPARTMENTS
2
4
6, 7
Professional
Directory
Job Ads
By Robill Epstein
134
By Danielle Joseph
r-:1 3-s--
By Robin Epstein
36
37,39

LETTERS ~
l
M
Wat.rfront Disarray
"Wrongshoreman" (May 1997) by
Michael Hirsch is the sort of "on the one
hand, on the other hand" joumalism that
makes it impossible for the reader to come
to any useful conclusions regarding devel-
opment of the Brooklyn waterfront.
On the one hand, we have
Congressman Nadler with a couple of
decades of advocating the development of
industrial infrastructure as an essential
component of urban development.
Congressman Nadler has built and main-
tained complicated alliances with conserv-
atives and businessmen to promote work-
ing-class industrial employment.
On the other hand, we have Mayor
Giuliani who, after failing to turn our
industrial neighborhoods into parking lots
for big box stores, was shocked that the
Port Authority has a built-in prejudice in
favor of New Jersey for industrial devel-
opment. A rail tunnel to the mainland is a
huge election year capital project that will
conveniently require more "study" after
November. And, as an issue, it allows him
to regurgitate the quite real numbers that
demonstrate the Port Authority's New
Jersey development bias.
The same sort of position-less thinking
permeates this piece. Who is the
"Wrongshoreman"? Congressman Nadler
seems to be the man in that pigeonhole. On
the other hand, funeral directors and real
estate promoters evolve into "community
leaders" and "people who have been rede-
veloping neighborhoods brick by brick."
Mr. Hirsch's piece makes redevelopment
of waterfront industry out to be the enemy
of small manufacturers who have staked
out a turf in Bush Terminal and Brooklyn
Army Terminal.
Any waterfront in the world has a nice
view, even in North Dakota's flood plains.
The view from the Brooklyn waterfront is
exceptional and could be marketed by
some clever real estate developer into
some sort of profitable development. But
there are problems with that sort of devel-
opment as well. Parts of Red Hook are
very isolated from the subway system and
the massive housing projects there don't
seem to invite the sort of gentrification that
Carrol Gardens and Cobble Hill have
experienced. There's a great view from
some of the project buildings though.
Maybe some developers can market them
"brick by brick." Maybe Jack Kemp can
privatize them. Maybe Starbucks and
Barnes & Noble have housing project
developments on their drawing boards.
The development of Sunset Park and
Red Hook are critical to Brooklyn's future.
These neighborhoods are already fated for
huge capital projects. The economic and
social disruption designed by NYSDOT to
accompany the rebuilding of the Gowanus
Expressway will overwhelm all other
development for the immediate future. The
corridor from the Verrazano Bridge to the
Battery Tunnel should be a laboratory for
intermodality; maritime, rail, mass transit
and automobile. Instead it is quickly deni-
grating into a turf war between gentrifying
developers, harbor promoters and the sub-
urban auto lobby.
Norman Brown
Local Chairman
International Association of
Machinists, Local 754
Partn.rshlp Disgrae.
I write to offer my congratulations on
your article on Partnership Plaza
("MallAdjusted," May 1997). The article
in a very real sense caught the essence of
how the potential of the project and com-
munity needs have been lost in the
labyrinth of community, corporate and
government politics and ignorance.
The fact that the first major piece of
commercial development in Bedford
Stuyvesant in over 25 years is taking place
with very little involvement by African
Americans in the actual building of the
project is a disgrace. The subtle and not-
so-subtle Machiavellian manipulation,
politics and arrogance of the New York
City Partnership shows the lack of respect
its executives have for community con-
cerns.
If the community, which has the largest
concentration of black church wealth in
this country, cannot use its economic/polit-
ical clout to bring a better life for its con-
gregations and the community at large,
then the African-American Church in
Brooklyn is not the good steward that it
should be. Bedford Stuyvesant will never
reach its maximum potential until the
community forms an effective partnership
with itself and determines what assets it
can contribute to its own economic
growth.
I want to set the record straight regard-
ing several statements made by those quot-
ed. Rex Curry was in error in his comment
on my not gaining the support of the Mt.
Sinai congregation or other church leaders,
community residents or businesses. The
real issue was the community board poli-
tics of local elected officials and the some-
time divisiveness of those who helped us
create the East Fulton Street plan.
The Dinkins administration was inter-
ested in seeing a working community
partnership (which we supported)
between the various community groups,
so that the Saratoga Square project might
proceed with minimal community
upheaval. Our actions and written minutes
of several meetings held with the Dinkins
administration bear out how totally false
the statement by Angela Brown was in
reference to our corporation demanding
exclusive rights to neighborhood funding
and total control of the commercial com-
ponent of Saratoga Square. As we under-
stood the politics of the Dinkins adminis-
tration, it made political and community
sense that we should become proponents
of community partnerships. The project
was large enough for all community cor-
porations to have a seat at the develop-
ment table.
I never aligned myself with ACORN,
though I did encourage our board to take
a position against displacement after it
became clear, based upon research by the
Pratt Center and insight from Rex Curry,
that without a certain percentage of low-
to moderate-income housing, the
Saratoga Square project might cause dis-
placement of current residents. I believe
I was asked by ACORN to attend a com-
munity meeting to express my concerns
on the potential displacement. I did just
that. At no time did I ever take a stance
against the housing plan, but simply
articulated the need for a more balanced
housing approach. My honest actions
were perceived as an alignment with
ACORN, but that was someone else' s
perception and not my reality or intent.
(Letters continued on page 33)
CITY LIMITS
CONGRATULATIONS
,

M&T Bank\ New York City Division is pleased to announce that the following community
development organizations in our service area (Brooklyn, Manhattan, Nassau and Queens)
have been chosen to receive Community Action Assistance Plan (CAAP) Grants from the
bank for their neighborhood preservation and improvement endeavors:
Abyssinian Development Corporation
Accion ew York
Allen AM.E eighborhood Preservation
Asian Americans for Equality
Association for eighborhood & Housing
Development
Astella Development Corporation
BEC ew Communities HFDC,
Incorporated
Bedford-Stuyvesant Restoration
Corporation
BHRAGS, Incorporated
Bridge Street Development Corporation
Brooklyn Legal Services
Brooklyn Neighborhood Improvement
Association
Central Brooklyn Partnership
Central Harlem Local Development
Corporation
Church Avenue Merchants Block
Association
City Limits Community Information
Service
City-Wide Task Force on Housing Court
Coalition ofInstitutionalized Aged and
Disabled
Community Access, Incorporated
Community Assisted Tenant Controlled
Housing
Community Association of Progressive
Dominicans
Community Training and Resource Center
Cooper Square Committee
Corporation for Supportive Housing
Cypress Hills Child Care Corporation
Cypress Hills Local Development
Corporation
Discipleship Outreach Ministries
DOE Fund, Incorporated
East Harlem Council for Community
Improvement
East New York Urban Youth Corps
Ecumenical Community Development
Organization
Erasmus eighborhood Federation
Fifth Avenue Committee
Flushing Council on Culture
and the Arts
Good Old Lower East Side
Greater Jamaica Development Corporation
Greenpoint Manufacturing and Design
Center
Habitat for Humanity
Haitian Task Force on Housing
Harlem Congregations for Community
Improvement
Harlem Restoration Project, Incorporated
Harlem Textile Works, Limited
Hempstead Hispanic Civic Association
Hope Community, Incorporated
Housing Conservation Coordinators
Jewish Community Council of Greater
Coney Island
La Fuerza Unida de Glen Cove,
Incorporated
Lawyers Alliance for New York
LEAP, Incorporated
Long Island Development Corporation
Long Island Housing Parmership
Los Sures, Incorporated
Manhattan Borough Development
Corporation
Manhattan Neighborhood Renaissance
Local Development
Metropolitan New York Coordinating
Council on Jewish Poverty
Midwood Development Corporation
National Federation of Community
Development Credit Unions
Neighborhood Coalition for Shelter,
Incorporated
Neighborhood Housing Services of
Jamaica
New York Acorn Housing
New York Landmarks Conservancy,
Incorporated
Northern Manhattan Improvement
Corporation
Oceanhill-Brownsville Tenants Association
Pace University Small Business
Development Center
Parks Council
Pastoral and Educational Services,
Incorporated
Peoples' Economic Opportunity Project of
the Lower East Side
Pratt Area Community Council
Progress of Peoples Development
Corporation
Queens Citizens Organization
Queens Overall Economic Development
Corporation
Ridgewood Local Development
Corporation
Roosevelt Assistance Corporation
Roosevelt Neighborhood Advisory Council
Saint Nicholas Neighborhood Preservation
Corporation
Saint Paul Community Baptist Church
Southside Brooklyn Local Development
Corporation
SRO Providers Group
Transportation Alternatives
Trickle-Up Program, Incorporated
TRI-Pact, Incorporated
United Jewish Organization of
Williamsburg
Union Settlement Federal Credit Union
Urban Homesteading Assistance Board
We salute the achievements of these exemplary organizations and appreciate and support their continu-
ing commitment to making our communities better places in which to live and conduct business.
M&T Bank\New York City Division Community Action Assistance Plan Grants Program
350 Park Avenue, 5th Floor
New York, New York 10022
AUCUST/SEPTEMBER 1997

(llY
HALL
IS
.-BR ... 1EFIIIIoIIW
S
-I. LEADEN
Forget banjos. The latest round of
dueling bills to fight lead poisoning
heated up last month on the steps of
City Hall. The New York City Coalition
to End Lead Poisoning (NYCELP) joined
with 22 physicians, several nonprofit
housing developers and Public
Advocate Mark Green to demand City
Council action on a bill the coalition
helped craft with Councilman Stanley
Michels-and has been stalled in the
housing and buildings committee for
several months.
Thirty-three councilmembers
supported the bill when it was intro-
duced April 30, but since then Deputy
Majority Leader Archie Spigner has
proposed alternative legislation with
broad landlord support. Neither bill
has yet come up for a hearing, and
the mayor's position remains unclear.
The Michels/NYCELP bill would
require landlords to repair peeling
paint and other hazardous lead con-
ditions within stricttime limits, and to
remove or cover up all lead paint on
window and door frames when an
apartment is vacated. It would also
require strict adherence to
Department of Health abatement
guidelines, and would apply to
schools, daycare centers and play-
grounds in addition to housing.
Spigner's proposal is reportedly less
stringent, but copies of his bill are
not yet available and the council -
man's office refused to comment.
The stakes for passing a new law
remain high. Each year, 2,000 new
cases of lead poisoning crop up in the
city and more go unreported because
many children are never screened for
lead. "It's a completely preventable
problem," says Mark Colon, an envi-
ronmental advocate and organizer
with the New York Public Interest
Research group. - Kemba Johnson
Resources
ABBIE, MEET ELVIS
Human salvation, Martin Luther
King once said, lies in the hands
of the creatively maladjusted.
Certainly, clever activists are suc-

The Pohce Athletic league kici<ed off its summer programs With a blast of cool spray (right) and an array of games (left)
for the children that came out in droves to West 123rd Street last month. PAL, which serves over 60,000 lods m 200 city
neighborhoods, sponsors sports ChlllCS, supervised play areas, crafts, musIc and d a n c e ~ m addition to 11 day camps, 42
sports locations and nme day care centers The orgallIzatlon also sponsors "mobile readmg teachers" who patrol mner-
city communities with books and helpful adVice For more information about PAt:s programs call 212-477-9450
NO-GO GOWANUS
Spending as much as $2.5 billion
to replace Brooklyn's dilapidated
Gowanus Expressway with a four-
mile truck-and-car tunnel may
seem like a wild idea. But consider
the alternative the state
Department of Transportation has
long been bent on bulling through:
$1 billion to reconstruct the elevat-
ed highway, bringing South
Brooklyn traffic to a halt for most of
a decade.
"Then. you would still have the
overcrowded Gowanus, giving us
nothing more than we have now,"
says Buddy Scotto. a member of the
Gowanus Expressway Community
Coalition. the group that has man-
aged to muster political support for
their cause-blocking the state
project until at least a more com-
cessful at getting TV air time-
and one good joke at the
expense of the rich and powerful
can do more to engage the pub-
lic in a cause than any number of
somber op-eds.
That's the message of the
prehensive environmental review is
completed.
Instead of overhauling the 56-
year-old structure, re-routing the
175.000 trucks and cars that use it
every day, the white shoe Regional
Plan Association joined the commu-
nity activists and local politicians
last month to issue a detailed feasi-
bility study of the tunnel option. The
report was commissioned by City
Councilman Kenneth Fisher.
"Dollar for dollar it's a better
investment than rebuilding the
Gowanus: says AI Appleton, the
former city commissioner of envi-
ronmental protection, who helped
author the report. Up-front costs
would be recouped in "lower life-
cycle costs," the RPA says,
because it would require less
"The Activist Cookbook:
Creative Actions for a Fair
Economy," an entertaining
how-to book published by the
Boston-based group, United
for a Fair Economy. The 95-
page manual, offering
maintenance than the weather-
beaten highway. The tunnel would
also open up unrestricted access
to a broad swath of the Brooklyn
waterfront.
The activists say it's been a
brawl just to get the state DOT to
even consider changing its con-
struction priorities. For now,
though, the state agency seems to
have withdrawn from its full throttle
support of demolition and recon-
struction, shelving a 1995 environ-
mental assessment that dealt solely
with the contingencies of rebuilding
the highway.
State officials say the RPA's cost
estimate for the tunnel is too low,
however. DOT spokesperson Alex
Dudley says the agency estimates
the real price tag at $5 to $6 billion,
and will release its own analysis of
the alternatives this fall.
-Michael Hirsch
"recipes" for theatrical social
action, is loaded with inspired
examples. One union, faced
with a lackluster campaign to
organize college clerical work-
ers, enlisted the help of an
Elvis impersonator who hand-
CITY LIMITS
..............................................
FIVE-DAY EVIGION
HIDDEN IN RENT lAW
The rent regulation war is over, but
a little-noticed clause in the Albany
legislation promises to increase evic-
tions of poor tenants all over New York
City. Under the new law, which takes
effect in October, Housing Court
judges will no longer be able to post-
pone evictions after submitting their
final judgments on nonpayment cases.
Once a judge rules that a tenant
must pay back rent or move out of the
apartment, the tenant will not be able to
contest that ruling iffive days pass and
the money isn't paid to the landlord or
deposited with the court. If they cannot
pay up in time, the landlord now has the
legal right to immediately evict them.
In the past, tenants have asked
judges to delay eviction while they
ed out literature and was fea-
tured in ad campaigns.
Workers were soon chasing
Elvis down the halls-and the
union won by a landslide.
Earth First!, protesting
Forest Service logging policies,
AUCUST/SEPTEMBER 1997
sought to raise the rent they owed.
Tenants on welfare, who are eligible for
large lump sum rent payments of back
rent under a court-ordered program
called Jiggetts relief, typically need at
least three months to gettheir checks.
"Say I have a judgment against me
for $5,000," said Scott Sommer, a
housing court attorney with Legal
Services. "I don't have the $5,000 yet
because I'm waiting for welfare to
process my payment The warrant is
about to execute, but I can't get the
stay of the warrant unless I post the
$5,000. So how do you post the $5,000
when you're waiting for it?"
Judges will still have the option of
explicitly granting tenants additional
time in their final eviction order,
sent its own Smokey the Bear
to a huge children's party
about forest fire prevention
and began passing out kid-
friendly anti-logging flyers.
The rangers had to forcibly
remove the interloper, and the
Sommer notes. Still, Legal Aid and
other advocates for poor tenants say
they are preparing an omnibus lawsuit
against the rent regulation laws,
including another provision requiring
tenants to deposit disputed rent in an
escrow account in order to have their
cases heard in housing court. Since
only about 10 percent oftenants have
representation when they go to court,
advocates fear that most tenants will
have no idea that new, accelerated
eviction timetables have taken effect
But landlord groups, who lobbied
hard for the provision, say the new
law fixes a long broken system. "It will
reduce the amount of time wasted in
court by delaying tactics," explained
Dan Margulies, executive director of
the Community Housing Improvement
Program, adding the rule will force
social service agencies to process
their clients' checks more quickly
-Alexandria Felton
stunt dominated the news the
next day. Abbie Hoffman, no
doubt, winked in nirvana.
In Jim Hightower's words,
such tactics have been the differ-
ence between "earnest, wrinkle-
browed reform efforts that just
DRAWING
A NEW BRONX
Walking north along Third
Avenue from 149th Street in the
South Bronx. most people see a jum-
ble of discount stores, boarded-up
buildings and empty lots. But ask
Danny Rodriguez what he sees
there, and he'll talk about pedestrian
parks, wrought-iron streetlamps and
a new Bronx Historical Center.
Rodriguez, who will be a senior at
Morris High School in September, is
one of 25 students from the South
Bronx who worked in the Urban
Design Studio over the last school
year. Created by the South Bronx
Overall Economic Development
Corporation (SOBRO). the Urban
DeSign Studio teaches planning and
places students in paid internships
with local finns and nonprofits,
Last fall, students in the pro-
gram worked with a team of design
professionals and activists from the
community group Nos Ouedamos,
to study the Third Avenue Corridor.
The students documented condi-
tions along the avenue and devel-
oped plans for street improve-
ments, like adding benches and
trees. Then they came up with more
ambitious plans, like renovating of
the long-abandoned fonner court-
house on 161st Street and creating
a historical center.
They were also given lessons in
urban realism. "They understand
that without jobs, all these delight-
ful environmentel changes are not
going to be as meaningful as they
should be, W says landscape archi-
tect lee Weintraub, a program
advisor.
Already, one of the ideas from the
Urban Design Studio is being imple-
mented. Student-designad banners
win run down Third Avenue, visually
uniting the neighborhood. The worIt
is fun, says Julie Mejia, a student in
the program. Mif things change, you
can look back and say, 'I was part of
that'W -AJ/yah Baruchin
sat there stewing in their own
juices ... and movements that
actually reformed something."
Copies are $16. To order, call
(617) 423-2148.

PROFILE ~
,
After 15 years on
drugs and in and
out of prison. John
Quiles was still
shooting up. La
Bodega helped him
get straight and
repair his damaged
family connections.
:M
The Family Fix
An Alphabet City bodega has the holistic solution
to drug addiction. By Adam Fifield
A
lyssa is a 30-year-old heroin
addict, inducted into a des-
perate world of quick fixes
by her husband who threat-
ened to beat her when she
said she wanted out. She later lost her son
to foster care when a cousin tipped off
authorities to her drug habit. Her mother,
Vanessa, who has never used drugs her-
self, also suffered the consequences of her
daughter's addiction.
In a subdued, battle-weary voice,
Vanessa describes the day police raided the
apartment where she lived with her daugh-
ter and grandson. The silver-haired 54-
year-old recalls the events as if they
belonged to the plot of a television police
drama. One day last year, she recalls
"Alyssa's two-and-a-half-year-old son was
taken away. The policeman told me I was
a whore and a crack head .... They threw
my glasses down and stomped on them ....
That had to be the worst day of my entire
life." Soon after, their landlord had the
family evicted.
Families of self-destructive addicts
must deal with the anxiety and pain of
watching the people they love damage
themselves and hurt others as they lie and
cheat their way through life. But that's
only part of the ordeal: the families also
have to cope with hostile law enforcement
and child welfare systems, immovable
government bureaucracies and impersonal
health care and mental
health programs. For peo-
ple like Vanessa and
Alyssa, with few financial
resources, the obstacles can
be insurmountable.
But Alyssa's probation
officer believed she could
rebuild her life and recom-
mended she go to La
Bodega de la Familia, a
round-the-clock crisis cen-
ter on East 3rd Street in
Manhattan that opened last
October. By using a unique
family-centered approach
toward case management
and advocacy, La Bodega is
trying to prove that, with
the proper support services,
families can help improve
the effectiveness of drug
treatment-and prevent
their loved ones from land-
ing in prison.
Alyssa's mother soon
found herself visiting the
center as well. ''The impor-
tant thing is that they make
you feel like a human
being," she says. "They
help you help yourself.
They know what to do, and
they do it." In addition to
providing counseling, La
Bodega staff members
found Vanessa transitional
housing, put her in contact
with an attorney at MFY
Legal Services and accompanied her to
Family Court where she is fighting to gain
custody of her grandson.
La Bodega is based in an East Village
storefront that used to be a real bodega-
one that housed a drug-dealing operation.
Trying to break up a robbery by competing
drug dealers there in 1995, police officer
Keith Prunty was shot and paralyzed.
"Our mission is to help families so that
they can in tum help the drug user and help
themselves," says La Bodega's founder
and director Carol Shapiro, who served as
an assistant commissioner of corrections in
the Dinkins administration. "Because there
are many victims here, not just the user."
M.lghborhood MMworks
La Bodega reflects a small but increas-
ingly significant trend toward holistic,
community-based referral, counseling,
advocacy and case management programs
that serve as a front-end buffer for govern-
ment agencies dealing with issues like
child abuse. It is a demonstration project,
the first of its kind for addicts, created at a
time when policymakers are proposing
new neighborhood-specific networks of
family support services. Shapiro and her
colleagues at La Bodega's parent organiza-
tion, the Vera Institute of Justice, hope
their project will be a model for future
community support services in low-
income neighborhoods. It is not unlike the
sort of neighborhood center outlined in
Children's Services Commissioner
Nicholas Scoppetta's strategic plan for
reforming child welfare services.
Since its doors opened last falI, La
Bodega has put most of its energy into
working with more than 30 families. Every
one of the 10 employees is bilingual in
Spanish and English, and include a social
worker, a former police officer, a domestic
violence advocate, a drug counselor, and a
family therapist. They serve a densely
populated 24-square block area east of
Avenue A between Houston and 6th
streets, providing a range of supports,
including 24-hour crisis intervention, case
management, walk-in counseling, relapse
prevention, referrals to drug treatment and
health clinics, and advocacy in court.
La Bodega was founded on the belief
that a straightforward, punitive approach to
drug addiction fails to stem the use of drugs.
If the ultimate goal of law enforcement is to
make communities safer, then bouncing
people back and forth from the streets to
prison is only a temporary solution. Vera
Institute staffers decided strengthening
troubled families was the best route to take,
improving access to all the social services
CITY LIMITS

available in the community. They hashed
out the concept for the center, chose a
neighborhood where it would be most use-
ful , and put together a national board of
advisers-including prominent academics,
physicians and criminal justice officials
from Baltimore, Chicago and Phoenix-to
make sure their findings would have an
impact beyond New York. Then they enlist-
ed support from the Clinton administration,
which came through with funding.
La Bodega has also brought the Giuliani
administration on board. The center is joint-
1y funded by the Mayor's Office of the
Criminal Justice Coordinator, the U.S.
Department of Justice, the Drug Policy
Foundation and by private contributions.
At first glance, the mayor's support for
a program promoting prevention and
counseling rather than punishment seems
at variance with his hard-line approach to
crime. Under Giuliani, the police depart-
ment has ratcheted up the rate of drug
arrests. From 1991 to 1995, the annual
number of arrests on misdemeanor drug
charges-which include possession,
small-quantity sales and simple assaults-
nearly doubled to a total of 52,879.
Meanwhile, drug convictions have
increased by about 10 percent.
Yet these days, conviction does not
always lead to prison. Some judges, prose-
cutors and a handful of political leaders are
taking a more creative approach, advocat-
ing alternative sentences for first-time and
nonviolent offenders. This can include
community service, drug treatment-and a
return to the family. And while attendance
at La Bodega is never mandated by the
courts, it can serve as the glue that holds
together all the other elements for a family
with a member on parole or probation.
"Sending someone to prison for a year
or two without changing their behavior
doesn't change the problem," explains city
Probation Commissioner Raoul Russi. "La
Bodega is a model that I think will have
some success. We've tried everything else."
Police Commissioner Howard Saflr
has also supported the crisis center,
appearing at a June fundraiser. He says
community-based family services could
become an important force. "Law enforce-
ment is not the solution, but the law
enforcement holds the line," he explains.
"Community courts and alternative sen-
tencing aren't statistically successful yet,
but we' re heading in that direction."
Working
Even with this chorus of support, how-
ever, center employees regularly find
themselves dealing with conflicts between
AUCUST/SEPTEMBER 1997
their clients and city agencies. It's the
nature of the business.
"These are families who don't trust
these systems," says Shapiro. ''We are neu-
tral. We manage a fine line working the
systems that have generally treated poor
people with little respect and interest."
Working cooperatively with government is
often necessary simply because law
enforcement and child welfare are part of
everyday life for many residents in low-
income neighborhoods, she explains.
"We're always going to have police, pro-
bation, and child welfare. The challenge is
to make them more effective in addressing
the complex issues surrounding substance
abuse."
One of the most rigid policies La
Bodega has come up against is the 'One
Strike and You' re Out' eviction rule for
residents of public housing caught using
drugs. Often, the primary tenant is not the
drug user; rather, a child, grandchild or
other relative is discovered using or selling
drugs and family members all face the pos-
sibility of losing their home.
In four such cases, La Bodega staff
have stepped in, hooked up the families
with city social workers and gone to
Housing Court to try to convince the judge
to at least delay evictions while the drug
problem is confronted. At least two of the
families will be allowed to stay in public
housing as a result of La Bodega's work,
and the others are trying to work out an
agreement to keep their apartments.
Punishment is not the only problem.
Shapiro and others contend that the most
common methods of drug treatment are
often ineffective for low-income New
Yorkers. Of the 1,900 people placed in
nonresidential treatment programs by the
city's department of probation in 1995, for
example, more than half dropped out with-
in 37 days. Yet residential programs often
don't work much better.
"Conventional drug treatment says put
someone far away from where they live,"
says Shapiro, who used to run boot camps
for men and teenage boys at Rikers Island.
The problem, she says, is that when they
return to their home, nothing has changed
there. It's like dropping back to earth from
another planet.
The answer, she says, is to place resi-
dential treatment programs in the neigh-
borhoods where people have their homes.
That way, drug users change their habits
while they remain in the community, in
contact with their family and other support
systems and in proximity to their old
haunts. The return home, then, is not a
momentous crisis fraught with tempta-
tions. It fits with the underlying idea of La
Bodega: locate a crisis center where a drug
deal went bad, place the solutions where
the problems lie.
"If you're poor and you end up in the
criminal justice system, drug treatment is
punishment," Shapiro says. "Families
don't figure into that. Yet families are a
drug user's best chance to keep off drugs.
Families can be a resource in a system that
has been focused on the individuals that
are arrested."
Crlp of Addiction
37-year-old John Quiles had been in
and out of prison for 15 years and his drug
addiction had only grown worse. "I've
been doing drugs since I was twelve," says
the soft-spoken, bespectacled man.
"Heroin, cocaine. I didn't understand that
what I had was a disease. I did stick-ups
and robberies and sold things out of my
house. I got arrested and put in jail. They
say jail is rehabilitation. It isn't. You learn
to commit better crimes."
His eyes settle on his mother, who sits
quietly across the room. For years, the two
of them hardly communicated.
Three days after a two-year stint in
jail, Quiles, who has four children, was
back to shooting up. After the police
began to pursue him again, he fled to
Puerto Rico, where he lived for four years
until he was arrested and extradited back
to New York. In February of 1997, he won
parole. But the grip of his addiction was
too strong. "It was really easy for me to
buy a beer, and in a few days, I was shoot-
ing cocaine and heroin."
His family had nearly given up on him.
Yet after he suffered a debilitating seizure
and nervous breakdown, his mother
checked him into the hospital. It was then
he realized he had to change his life. "I
thought I was gonna die," he says. "I'm
sick, but my whole family gets affected. I
didn't have the effort to put into my rela-
tionships."
So he joined a 12-step program where
he met another addict who told him to
check out La Bodega. He signed himself
up and asked his mother to join him. As a
result of the sessions, Quiles and his moth-
er have repaired a deeply damaged rela-
tionship, and he is clean, for now. La
Bodega also referred Quiles, who is HIV-
positive, to a health care clinic.
"Thank God I took that suggestion," he
says. "I'm 37 years old, and I'm learning
how to be a man."
Adam Fifield is a frequent contributor to
City Limits.
e

PIPELINE ~
,
Staffat the
Washington
Heights/Inwood
Coalition place
WEP workers at
more than 150
other Ilonprojits.
Their city-funded
referral program
could double in
size by next year.
I.M
F
CoodWorks

Without Pay
The nonprofit sector is the citys next target/or the expansion o/workfare. By James Bradley
T
housands of New Yorkers on
public assistance are about to
get acquainted with the non-
profit world-not as volunteers
or employees, but through the
city's Work Experience Program (WEP) ,
better known as workfare.
The prospect poses an ethical dilemma
for many non profits by putting them in the
position of having to report absences-
which could lead directly to recipients
being kicked off the welfare rolls and los-
ing their means of support. Since 1995, the
city has cut its welfare roles by more than
a quarter million people, in large part by
implementing strict workfare require-
ments.
But it also poses a bucket-load of prac-
tical problems for community groups. The
city is preparing to have 100,000 or more
public assistance recipients performing
work-related activities-though not neces-
sarily wage-earning work-by the middle
of next year, about 10,000 of them at non-
profits. The reason: city agencies are
reaching their capacity to absorb the thou-
sands of public assistance recipients
already working as clerks, trash collectors,
demolition crews and street sweepers. And
the nonprofit community, with more than
$3 billion annually in city contracts, has so
far absorbed a little less than 3,000 WEP
participants.
But if city agencies have had a hard
time assimilating workfare workers, the
challenges of integrating them into the
nonprofit world are much tougher. "Unless
you're really prepared, all of a sudden
being given many [people in WEP] can be
very disruptive," says Peter Swords of the
Non-Profit Coordinating Committee, a
trade group of the city's smaller nonprof-
its. "It takes time to work out what to do
with them."
"They have talked about the possibility
of our groups becoming WEP sites" so that
workers could more easily attend educa-
lion and training sessions after work, says
Jessica Peaslee of the New York City
Family Literacy Collaborative. "But how
many WEP workers can a small organiza-
tion accommodate? It doesn't address the
need." In addition, nonprofits have a host
of unanswered questions about the applic-
ability of labor law, worker safety guide-
lines and employee benefits.
For the welfare bureaucracy, however,
expansion of WEP is a top priority. New
placements are a much-valued asset-and
although officials deny it, some observers
fear the city may soon force nonprofit
contractors to take WEP workers under
their wings.
"Some groups feel they are being told
that future funding is dependent on their
willingness to go along with workfare,"
says Liz Krueger, associate director of the
Community Food Resource Center and a
leading welfare watchdog. "Workfare will
playa major role in how the city will be
prioritizing contracts."
No Extra Funding
Using non profits for workfare offers
the city a number of advantages, but it is
most valuable as a cost-cutter. Farming out
WEP workers is much cheaper than plac-
ing them in city offices.
Government agencies budget from
$800 to $2,250 or more per WEP worker
for supervision, supplies and other expens-
es. Moreover, some city staffers spend the
majority of their work day managing WEP
workers. By comparison non profits is a
bargain: the city doesn't reimburse them
for any expenses. And most receive no
extra funding for supervision, supplies or
training. In return, they get is free labor.
The use of welfare recipients at non-
profits has increased dramatically since
1995. Six human service agencies oversee
the program in different parts of the city,
under contracts with the Human Resources
Administration (HRA): the Washington
HeightslInwood Coalition covers Man-
hattan and the Bronx; Builders for
Families and Youth represents Queens;
and Black Veterans for Social Justice, the
Italian-American Civil Rights League, the
Jewish Community Center of Greater
Coney Island and the Church Avenue
Merchants and Block Association all cover
Brooklyn. The city refers hundreds of
WEP workers to these groups each month,
and they in tum "outsource" them to other
nonprofits.
The Washington HeightslInwood
Coalition, for example, that receives
$100,000 annually to make sure that
between 300 and 400 WEP participants are
assigned and attending work sites at any
given time. The savings to the city are
tremendous, with a cost of only about $23
per WEP recipient per month.
"I would like to deal with 600 at a time,
but I would need a bigger staff," says
Willie Col mans, WEP coordinator for the
CITY LIMITS
coalition, adding that he currently places
WEP workers with 150 different nonprof-
its. Mo t of these public assistance recipi-
ents perfonn clerical duties, he says, while
others do maintenance or community ser-
vice work. Colmans expects to receive
more WEP workers in the months ahead,
but he says he has not gotten details yet.
WEP participants themselves staff the
workfare referral program at Colmans'
organization-but real job referrals are
much harder to come by. "I wouldn' t
want to be in the Parks Department,
because I want to practice my office
skills," says loan Williams (not her real
name). She wants to work full-time for
Washington Heights/Inwood, but the
group i not hiring. Sbe faxes resumes
daily, Williams says, but has been unable
to find work.
"For me, WEP is a great stepping
stone," adds Danielle Milazzo, a single
mother who attends LaGuardia College.
She is in a program where she gets child
care for her son and car fare to go to
cbool. But making the transition from
welfare to work, she admits, ehas proven
elusive for most people in WEP-whether
they' re working in city or nonprofit agen-
cies.
Th. Soft.r SKtor
In addition to saving money, the nOI1-
profits give Mayor Giuliani's program a
more humane face. "There's been a lot of
bad publicity about workfare, stories about
people cleaning parks in freezing weath-
er," says Benjamin Dulchin, an organizer
with Brooklyn's Fifth Avenue Committee
and part of WEP Workers Together!, an
umbrella group organizing workfare par-
ticipants citywide. "The nonprofit sector is
seen as the softer sector. It carries a great
amount of moral legitimacy."
The group bas convinced several dozen
nonprofit and church leaders to sign a
"Pledge of Re i tance" stating they will
not take on WEP workers. Sixty-eight had
signed on as of late luly. "It's up to us, as
nonprofits, to set the moral basis for wel-
fare reform," says Heidi Dorow of the
Urban lustice Center. "And we can' t if
we' re backpedaling by participating in the
workfare program as it is right now."
There are plenty of nonprofits that will
take WEPs willingly, maintains HRA
spokeswoman Renelda Higgins. "That is
not a problem for us," she says.
But there are problems for nonprofits
who agree to participate. Foremost among
them: how to find meaningful tasks for
WEP workers while setting them on a road
to employment.
AUCUST/SEPTEMBER 1997
The Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB), a
Bronx-based group that offers service for
seniors, youth and the homeless, has
worked with WEP participant for several
years at its three senior centers. "When I
talk to WEP workers, they find the experi-
ence positive," says Executive Director
Carolyn McLaughlin. "The problem is
whether it's a career path."
She adds: "One of the women here in
the office, we only have limited resources
to work with her. You would like to be able
to do more and work with her on her skills,
not just have her answer the phone."
The organization seeks to hire from the
population it serves, and many employees
at its sbelters and enior centers were once
homeless or on welfare. Indeed, much of
the staff at CAB's Morris senior center
flfst came to the organization through the
WEP program. But McLaughlin says she
is unhappy the city does not allow WEPs
to spend work hours in computer skills
training, English as a second language or
other education programs.
"I'm certainly in agreement that WEP
is not the answer," McLaughlin says.
Cia Won't Count
City Hall has ignored such criticism
and explicitly ruled out education and
training as legitimate workfare activities.
And exactly how the state's bewildering
workfare rules will be re-written remains
uncertain, given Albany's current inability
to forge a bipartisan welfare refonn com-
promise. For these reasons, the directors of
nonprofit programs that have long served
people on welfare-teaching English,
reading and job skill -are uncertain what
to do next.
Under WEP, the city will require most
able-bodied mothers with children over
three (and possibly younger) to take work
assignments. These parents will still be
able to go to school after work or on days
when they are not on WEP assignrnent-
but the classes won't count toward work
requirements as they have in the past. In
June, the Human Resources Admin-
istration tentatively agreed to pay car fare
and some child care expenses for WEP
workers who want to take literacy and
other classes. But the goverrrrnent's incen-
tives for welfare recipients to get an edu-
cation will have been lost.
Th.y Ar. Employ ...
Perhaps most di turbing to nonprofit
directors are the legal implications of
workfare-which remain totally unde-
fined. "We're advi ing clients to treat
WEP people as employees," says Allen
Bromberger of the Lawyers Alliance. This
means making sure they are covered by
workers' compensation, state unemploy-
ment insurance and disability. It also
entails offering them any benefits they
would otherwise qualify for and protecting
them under worker safety and sexual
harassment guidelines. For now, he says,
no one has passed legislation creating a
new labor category of "WEP worker," so
"it's our opinion that they are employees."
Instead of taking part in WEP, a num-
ber of non profits are helping people off the
welfare rolls and into stable jobs through
alternative programs. University Settle-
ment on Manhattan's Lower East Side has
run the Community lobs Network since
last year, helped people pursue internships
and volunteer work that leads to employ-
ment. The program seeks to identify peo-
ple's work skills and find out what kind of
jobs are appropriate and available. The set-
tlement house also offers services such as
child care and peer counseling during the
training process.
"Our interest is long-tenn employment,
not getting people off the welfare rolls,"
says Michael Zisser, University
Settlement's executive director. In 1996,
60 percent of the 85 people who partic-
ipated found work, and nearly all of them
are still employed.
Zisser and his colleagues are trying to
convince the Giuliani administration to
allow welfare recipients to enter programs
like Community lobs Network rather than
WEP, but they haven't won any conces-
sions thus far ..
Sanctioning R.clpl.nt.
Ultimately, Liz Krueger argues, the
main purpose of workfare is to purge the
welfare rolls and save the city money.
''The savings from sanctions are hum on-
gou ," she says. "Of course, we don't eco-
nomically figure in the resulting destitu-
tion as a cost to the city." Therefore, she
says, her organization refuses to cooperate
with the city by taking WEP workers for
its government-funded food programs.
But Krueger may be hard-pressed to
find enough allies to stop the non-profiti-
zation of workfare. "With a few excep-
tions, nonprofits do not appreciate that
workfare does not work," explains
Maurice Emsellem, an attorney with the
National Employment Law Project, a non-
profit law finn for the working poor.
''There's no communication among the
non profits. What it's going to take is lead-
ership within the community to reach a
unified position and to develop a strategy
that's proactive rather than reactive."

PIPELINE ~
,
Miriam Qeliqi
(left, above) need-
ed 10 find special-
ized day care for
her asthmatic son
Alexander-Ryan
(right) before she
could take a
workfare assign-
ment. The city
didn't help- ulllil
Legal Aid got
involved.
e-
Day Carelessness
New York is taking a catch-as-catch-can approach to child care
as workfare numbers swell. By Brooke Richie and Robin Epstein
M
iriam Qeliqi's 7-year-old
son Alexander-Ryan has
asthma and chronic bron-
chitis. He sometimes
turns colors and can't
breathe. He can give himself medication,
but needs help using a vaporizer to open
his air passageways.
In May, when the city's welfare agency
notified Qeliqi that she had to participate
in its Work Experience Program (WEP) if
she wanted to continue receiving her wel-
fare check, she told her caseworker about
her child care concerns. In order to work,
Qeliqi needed to find a child care provider
familiar with the treatments for childhood
respiratory illness.
Under current state law, she was enti-
tled to assistance in fmding such child
care. According to 1988 legislation, when
a parent enters a work program, officials
must assess their needs-including any
special needs of their children-and "offer
at least two choices of child day care
providers who are regulated, accessible
and available to the participants and who
are willing to accept the amount and type
of payment offered."
But the caseworker at the Office for
Employment Services (OES), the city
agency that administers WEP, allocated
only $20 a week to pay for her son's after-
~ school transportation, handed Qeliqi a
i scrambled list of child care providers and
E! told her she had seven days to make pro-
~ visions on her own, Qeliqi says.
With help from the Legal Aid Society
and the organizing group WEP Workers
Together!, Qeliqi got a three-month exten-
sion from the city. She's confident she'll
be able to find appropriate child care by
the fall , when she plans to both participate
in WEP and pursue her GED.
"Just because I live below the poverty
level, it's not right for my kids to suffer,"
she says.
SklppHOv.r
Though the laws now on the books
lend legitimacy to claims made by parents
like Qeliqi, city officials have been treat-
ing state law as irrelevant when it comes to
workfare. Edtablishing new rules to fit
City Hall's WEP model and conform to
federal work requirements, the Giuliani
administration has often skipped over reg-
ulations governing welfare recipients'
child care rights along with rules govern-
ing access to education and training.
With workfare's expansion continuing
apace, thousands of mothers of young chil-
dren are searching for safe, reliable place-
ments for their children. And with the
mayor planning to double the workfare
ranks to more than 100,000 next year, the
need for child care in New York City is
going to explode. The debate over what
makes for appropriate child care is pitting
child care advocates and state Assembly
leaders, who argue for more spending on
licensed centers and monitored home-
based programs operated by trained staff,
against the Pataki administration and city
welfare bureaucrats.
State officials say it should be up to
parents to find what care they can on the
open market-and they propose subsidies
that will, in practice, cover only the cheap-
est possible informal care. Already, 80 per-
cent of the 15,000 New York City parents
currently receiving OES-subsidized child
care have placed their children with unreg-
ulated providers, according to testimony
before the City Council by Maria Vandor,
deputy commissioner of the city's Agency
for Child Development.
The reason so many parents have cho-
sen informal childcare, advocates charge,
is because OES caseworkers give parents
the impression they have no other choice.
The agency's own guidelines for its staff
reads: "Encourage the client to consider
family, friends, and neighbors"-that is,
informal providers who operate without
any government monitoring or inspection.
Though the guidelines go on to say case-
workers should show parents "how to
identify licensed child care, if needed,"
advocates say many fail to do so.
"No attempt is being made to meet the
needs of the child," says Susan Feingold,
director of the Bloomingdale Family
Program, a Head Start center in
Manhattan. "The only attempt that is being
made, ferociously, is to put mom to work."
The office of Public Advocate Mark
Green recently surveyed 234 welfare par-
ents participating in work-related activities
at a variety of locations across the city.
Sixty-three percent of them said casework-
ers had threatened them with sanctions if
they weren't able to find child care quickly.
Sanctions begin with a $90 benefit cut for
missing one day of work and reach $150
after three days. Only 3 percent of those
surveyed realized that they were not
required to work until they found child care.
James Whelan, HRA's deputy director
of public information, denies that OES
sanctions parents for child care problems.
"Our policy is that no sanctioning for lack
of child care should be happening." He
says. "If something is happening, people
should call in and let us know."
DIHlcult to PrHlct
As City Limits went to press, the state
legislature was still far from agreeing on a
budget for the current fiscal year, much
less working out the details of welfare
reform. As a result, it is difficult to predict
the child care needs for workfare parents.
To comply with workfare needs alone,
New York City could see its need for sub-
sidized child care slots grow by anywhere
CITVLlMITS
J
from 33,000 to 84,000 by the year 2002,
according to the city's Independent Budget
Office. Cost estimates to accommodate
that surge climb as high as $599 million, or
$137 a week each for 84,000 slots.
The state currently spends about $329
million on child care each year. Governor
Pata!d's proposed welfare law would allo-
cate an additional $54 million in federal
money to child care. He says that sum
would pay for 23,000 new slots, but the
math works out to only $45 a week per slot.
That's not even enough for upstate par-
ents, says David Hunt, executive director
of the New York State Child Care
Coordinating Council. The average week-
ly cost is $100 statewide, he explains. In
New York City, OES pays a maximum of
$77 per week for informal providers, while
giving licensed centers $139 to $217,
depending on the age of the child.
The state Assembly, on the other hand,
wants to invest nearly $140 million in
additional funds for child care for public
assistance recipients and $50 million for
low-income working parents, along with
$50 million more for building new centers.
But the direct expense of payments to
day care providers is only part of the equa-
tion. Quality is also a major concern.
While reliance on informal providers will
save money in the short term, research
shows that depriving children of quality
care early in life can have great costs later.
Yale psychology professor Ed Zigler,
who helped found Head Start in 1960, has
been studying child care for more than 30
years. New York's approach to child care
is a disaster in the making, he charges,
because evidence shows that informal care
is mediocre at best.
"These children are going to be propped
in front oftelevision sets," he says, and will
not arrive at school ready to learn.
Michael Levine of the Carnegie
Corporation points out that the most well-
respected research on child care for eco-
nomically disadvantaged children shows
that a stimulating early environment pre-
vents a "whole litany of rotten outcomes."
Ypsilanti, Michigan's rigorous Perry Pre-
School study, which began in the late
1960s, found lower special education,
drop out and violence rates and a lower
dependency on welfare later in life.
"If we don't take seriously who's
minding the kids while we put mom and
dad back to work, we're putting a lot of
these kids behind the eight ball in terms of
their ability to do well in the future,"
Levine says.
While child care advocates say city
policies have not changed substantially in
recent months, some activists have made
inroads. In June, WEP Workers Together!
mounted a demonstration at the headquar-
ters of the Human Resources
Administration and won a meeting with
HRA Commissioner Lilliam Barrios-Paoli.
"Their ideas were valid and their sug-
gestions were very good," HRA
spokesperson Renelda Higgins said of
that meeting. The commissioner agreed to
work with the group to compose a two-
page fact sheet on child care to be includ-
ed in HRA mailings notifying welfare
parents that they must participate in WEP,
Higgins said. Barrios-Paoli also agreed to
work with the group to develop a check-
list for OES caseworkers.
''The commissioner seems genuinely
committed to improving the system so that
HRA can provide people with better child
care options," says WEP Workers
Together! organizer Benjamin Dulchin.
Still, the budget numbers simply don't
yet add up to quality care for tens of thou-
sands of city children. "What good does it
do to keep telling people about the impor-
tance of the first few years in life when
policy makers in New York tell people,
'Here's some money. Go find some-
thing'?" Zigler asks. "There is a huge dis-
connect between our knowledge of human
development and the policies we put in
place about children and families."
BankersTrust Company
Community Development Group
A resource for the non-profit
development community

Gary Hattem, Managing Director
Amy BrusUo, Vice President
130 Liberty Street
10th Floor
New York, New York 10006
Tel: 212,250,7118 Fax: 212,250,8552
AUCUST/SEPTEMBER 1997

Me

PIPELINE
The Regional Plan
Association, com-
munity leaders from
two boroughs and
the City Club have
proposals that
would open the
island oasis to the
public.
Isle Fly Away
Inaction and indecision by city and state officials
threaten the prospect of a grand Governors Island Park.
By Gian-Claudia Sciara
A
prophetic chronicler of
Governors Island warned in
1913 of the danger of allow-
ing the anomalous small
island in New York harbor to
"sink to a level of mere commercialism."
It took 85 years, but now, as the federal
government hurries to rid itself of owner-
ship of the long-time military base, local
politicians are distancing themselves from
the debate and "mere commercialism" is
rearing its head.
Since the 1770s, Governors Island has
been a quiet military base closed to the
public. But two years ago, the U.S. Coast
Guard decided to shut down operations on
the 172-acre property, leaving the federal
General Service Administration (GSA) to
seek out a new owner. GSA is looking first
to see if there is a federal, state or city
agency willing to maintain the island for
public use. If it can't, however, the proper-
ty could go on the block for private sale
sometime in the next few years.
Having escaped the dense urban
development that characterizes most of
the five boroughs, the island's open
space, commanding views and harbor
location have inspired numerous ideas
about its future use, including an histori-
cal museum, the 2008 Olympic Village,
tourist and veterans' accommodations or
a university campus.
Responding to the overwhelming call
by community groups in lower Manhattan
and Brooklyn for greater access to open
space, the Regional Plan Association, a
foundation- and corporate-funded planning
group, has instead proposed transforming
the island into a harbor park. Resulting
from an early-spring, three-day brain-
storming session of design professionals,
park managers, real estate experts and
community leaders, RPA's plan envisions a
grand lawn, ball fields, an amphitheater,
marina and waterfront promenade, as well
as restaurants, guest houses and facilities
for nonprofit organizations.
The conversion of hundreds of thou-
sands of square feet of commercial space
to residential use in Tribeca and the Wall
Street area, combined with Battery Park
City's eventual completion make the need
for park land acute, explains Paul
Goldstein, district manager of Community
Board 1. "Lower Manhattan has a very
fast-growing community, and we don't
have these facilities," he says.
Along with the city and other local
agencies, the community board hired the
Urban Land Institute, a group that creates
and evaluates urban redevelopment plans,
to explore prospects for the island. Last
October, the institute determined that rev-
enue from hotels, conference centers and
historically-based entertainment could
generate sufficient income to sustain the
park. Additionally, RPA's preliminary
analysis predicts an economic boost to
adjacent communities.
Political Ab.-nee
Creating a plan is the easy part, howev-
er. Getting it off the ground is another mat-
ter. RPA has discussed its park proposal
with city officials. But Robert Pirani,
director of environmental programs at the
organization, says the city's attitude has
been uncooperative. Officials simply tell
him, "We're handling it."
Yet city and state leadership on the
issue has been nonexistent, charge frustrat-
ed community and civic groups. "The city
has been working in a vacuum," criticizes
Goldstein. "It makes sense to form an enti-
ty to oversee Governors Island, but we
need political leadership to step forward or
we're going to lose a tremendous opportu-
nity."
Manhattan's East Side Con-
gresswoman, Carolyn Maloney, and a
handful of others have suggested creating
a public nonprofit agency modeled after
the Battery Park City Authority to run the
island. Strategy and management deci-
sions would come from a joint group of
city, state and federal representatives.
But the city won't even discuss the
island's future or Maloney's suggestion
unless there's a promise of federal cash to
cover maintenance and operating costs. At
a July congressional hearing, Deputy
Mayor Randy Levine said he thought it
was more appropriate for Washington to
make the city an offer that included main-
tenance aid for the island, rather than the
federal government expecting the city to
come up with a plan.
Although GSA estimates a $10 mil-
CITY LIMITS
1
lion yearly price tag for minimum mainte-
nance and ferry access, in March the
Department of City Planni ng estimated it
would cost $25 million to $30 million for full
public access and ferry service-and Levine
recently pegged the figure at closer to $40 mil-
lion. "The issue is who pays for it," says Craig
Muraskin, an aide to the mayor. "The federal
government should provide resources to help
redevelop the island. We cannot do a thing
until then. "
Given the city and state's unwillingness to
assume any liability for the island, a self-sus-
taining plan may more easily gamer support.
The City Club, a venerable civic group that
seeks to promote efficient government, will
soon propose a model based on a Greenwich
Village-scaled residential community that
includes profitable uses, such as land leases,
retail and historic attractions, while leaving the
central space open and accessible to the public.
''We' re convinced we can make something
that's self-sustaining," says Craig Whitaker, an
architect and adviser for the group.
Watching and Waiting
Already, political stalling has been costly.
While the Clinton Administration informally
made an offer to Senator Daniel Patrick
Moynihan, proposing that the city or state buy
the property for one dollar if it went to public
use, a June congressional budget resolution puts
the island's asking price at $500 million.
Congress wants the property sold in 2002-a
gimmick to help Congress meet its commitment
to balance the federal budget. Now, getting a
better deal or an earlier sell date will require
additional legislation.
At that price, the city's hopes of finding a
buyer, even a private developer, may be slim.
"There is absolutely no one in the world that
we' ve met with that thinks that number [$500
million] is realistic," says Muraskin. As a result,
City Hall has put its search for a buyer on hold.
"The city is not pursuing anything. We have no
plan. This is a federal process. They're in
charge."
Meanwhile, GSA will begin an environmen-
tal impact statement process this fall to decide
whether to keep the island or sell it off. The
agency had originally planned to transfer own-
ership as soon as next fall , after the EIS is com-
pleted. But Congress complicated those plans.
Yet despite city and state officials' argu-
ments that an island park may not be feasible,
many observers remain optimistic. "What if
people had said that about Central Park?" asks
Congressman Jerrold Nadler, whose district
includes Governors Island. "Where there's a
will, there's a way."
Gian-Claudia Sciara is a Manhattan-based
writer on land-use and transportation issues.
AUCUST/SEPTEMBER 1997
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THE CITI NE VER SLEEP S'
Me
Novelist Edgardo
Vega Yunque is the
charismatic force
behind the Clemellle
Soto velez Cultural
Center on the Lower
EastSide.
t.
The Clemente Soto Velez Cultural Center is an oasis for
multicultural arts in New York. By Robin Epstein
M
ayor Rudy sits behind his
desk. "Fran, are there any
messages?" he shouts to
his erstwhile deputy,
who's out of view.
"Bob Herbert from the Times is here,"
she yells back.
"Do I have to see him?" the mayor
wonders, plaintively.
"Yeah," she replies.
Herbert descends from the sky, touch-
ing down in front of the mayor.
"Harassment and brutality seem to be a
central component of police work," he
says. ''The gulf between law enforcement
and residents is growing wider."
"But crime is down," Rudy whines.
"You've got me all befuddled."
"I wish you could see this from anoth-
er perspective," Herbert replies.
No, it's not City Hall. These characters
are papier mache marionettes, about three
feet tall. Their strings are pulled by the pup-
peteers of Los Kabayitos Puppet Theater at
the Clemente Soto velez Cultural Center on
the Lower East Side. The scene is part of
"In New York," an urban serial drama
mounted last spring. Under a painted back-
drop of tenement rooftops and water tow-
ers, the performances also featured a 76-
year-old Jewish rent control activist, and a
love story between a Latina anthropologist
and a firefighter.
Los Kabayitos is one of four theaters
permanently housed at Clemente Soto
Velez, which was founded in 1993 in a for-
mer public school at Suffolk and Rivington
Streets to provide a home base for a cornu-
copia of artists. The others are La Tea
Theater, the Ground Floor Theater Lab and
the Milagro Theater Company. The center
also has three associate theater compa-
nies-Vaso de Leche, Daedalus and Urge.
"It's an institution determined to
change the way low-income neighbor-
hoods are viewed," says the cultural cen-
ter's president, Edgardo Vega Yunque.
This is as much an economic development
project as it is a vehicle for entertainment
and enrichment, Vega explains.
Named after a Puerto Rican surrealist
poet and activist who organized New York
bodega owners in the 1940s, the cultural
center also provides studios for about 80
visual artists. The painters' and sculptors'
financial contributions help defray the
center's operating costs and their artwork
often adorns its theater sets. Poetry read-
ings and other spoken-word performances
abound, and writing workshops take place
in the library. In April, Frank McCourt
read from his Pulitzer Prize-winning mem-
oir, Angela's Ashes.
This month, from August 13 to 24,
Clemente Soto Velez will anchor the first
New York International Fringe Theater
Festival, an event modeled after the world-
famous avant-garde festival in Edinburgh,
Scotland. Organizers expect to sell
150,000 tickets, and the center is providing
six of the Fringe's 21 venues and hosting
48 of its 172 companies.
No Mon.y at A.II
The cultural center started out as a
scheme to save La Tea Theater, a 15-year-
old pan-Latin company. La Tea had been
renting space in the old school house from
Solidaridad Humana, an immigrant educa-
tion group that managed the building since
the mid-1970s after the Board of Education
abandoned it. But by 1993, Solidaridad
was $10,000 behind in its rent to the city
and owed staggering utility bills.
Vega, who was on La Tea's board,
along with Mateo G6mez, the theater
group' s artistic director, and Nelson
Landrieu, its executive director, decided
to incorporate Clemente Soto Velez and
take control of the building. The city
agreed to give the new organization the
lease-if they could payoff the debt. "I
said, 'OK, I can do that,'" Vega recalls. "I
had no money at all. Between November
and December I had to raise $30,000."
Somehow, he pieced it together from
grants, loans and personal donations.
That winter, the pipes froze and burst,
warping the floors. It looked liked Niagara
Falls indoors. "We had to shovel snow off
the roof," G6mez says. Adds Vega, "It was
nuts. We had no coal, no fuel , but we stuck
it out."
The end result was worth the stress,
says G6mez, sitting in his office surround-
ed by a _ harmonious mishmash of
objects-a tiled portrait of Che Guevara,
black and white stills of past perfor-
mances, a Japanese screen, an antique
typewriter. "The center has been a real
life-saver, especially in terms of the Latino
community. I look at it like an oasis, not
only for all the things it is doing already,
but also for its potential."
Over the last few years, the center has
faced a few near-death experiences, thanks
to the city's ownership of the building.
Vega, G6mez and their colleagues have
put half a million dollars worth of renova-
tions into the huge, dilapidated property,
and they pay the city $2,263 in rent on a
month-to-month lease. But they have
twice had to fight off attempts by the
Giuliani administration to auction off the
building as part of a quick fix for city bud-
get gaps.
G6mez recalls that when potential
buyers came to check out the building
prior to the first scheduled auction in
October 1996, they were met with 100
artists and neighbors holding signs that
read, ''This belongs to the community,"
and "We don't need fancy apartments. We
CITY LIMITS
need a cultural center." The campaign
proved successful.
The group marshaled the support of
community residents and elected officials,
including Congresswoman Nydia
Velazquez, City Councilmember Kathryn
Freed and Manhattan Borough President
Ruth Messinger. They wrote letters. They
passed petitions. And they sent City Hall
invitations for a Fringe Festival fundrais-
ing event.
"The mayor's office sent a bunch of
people," Vega recalls. "They saw four or
five hundred people, four theaters and the
kind of care we take. They were blown
away. Things began to turn around then."
The second auction, slated for March
1997, was indefinitely postponed.
Through negotiations earlier this year,
Vega wrested approval from the mayor's
office for his plan to raise $964,000 to pur-
chase the building. Vega hopes to secure
financing and close the deal before elec-
tion time.
It's difficult for theaters to find afford-
able rental space, let alone a building to
purchase, says Mary Harpster, deputy
director of the Alliance of Resident
Theatres/New York, which provides tech-
nical assistance and loans to its 300 non-
profit theater members. "In the 1970s you
could get your hands on a city-owned
building for very low rent. They wanted to
support the arts, they had some empty
buildings and they thought it was a good
match," she says. The city even rented
them for as little as one dollar a year. "In
the 1980s, some groups had this mythical
vision of getting a city-owned building,
but nobody did. And now it's something
nobody even thinks about."
If the center can pull off the purchase,
then, it will be a coup for the Lower East
Side. "They're like a bedrock in that com-
munity," Harpster says. "That area is
undergoing a renaissance and they are one
of the reasons that's happening."
ThHt.r of th. Oppr M
During the Spring, La Tea, which
means "the torch," helped junior high stu-
dents from a nearby school write, produce
and act in their own play based on the
"theater of the oppressed" techniques of
Brazilian theater activist Augusto Boal.
This approach encourages participants to
draw on their own experiences in order to
address social issues through the theater.
The students performed the play at the cul-
tural center and at Hostos Community
College in the Bronx.
Neighbors get a lot out of Clemente
Soto Velez, but they also give something
AUCUST/SEPTEMBER 1997
back. Ismael Sotomayor has worked as the
center's head of maintenance for a year.
He has lived in the neighborhood 15 years.
"There have been a lot of changes," he
says. "Nobody is selling drugs anymore.
People feel free to walk there. They say it's
beautiful." To show their appreciation,
Sotomayor explains, neighbors come by
and say, "We have some stuff if you need
it," and offer the center extra wood, plants
and other items. Sotomayor has seen near-
ly every play put on at Clemente Soto
Velez, some in English, some in Spanish
and others bilingual. He's excited that his
young daughter will be able to do the same
when she grows up.
A resourceful administrator, Ed Vega
has big plans for the center and its
$697,000 annual budget. With an eye
toward achieving self-sufficiency, he
wants to incorporate an entrepreneurial
component into the center's creative ethos.
''The mission of the center is to create
business ventures in the commercial arts in
order to support the fine arts," says Vega,
who is himself a novelist. He recently
adapted "Spanish Roulette," which appears
in his book of short stories, "Casualty
Report," (Arte Publico Press), for the stage
and is directing it for the Fringe Festival.
On the drawing board are plans for
recording and film studios, a graphic
design firm and a publishing arm.
Another of Vega's income-producing
strategies-leasing the space as a movie
location-already provides about 10 per-
cent of the budget. Upcoming films star-
ring Al Pacino, Keanu Reaves and
Stephen Rea will feature scenes shot in
the building, he says.
Vega surmises that his commercial
goals helped him win City Hall's respect.
"Once I sent them the business plan, they
said, 'Oh, this is a possibility. '"
Yet Vega is also something of an ornery
visionary. In conversation, he sometimes
plays down the center's community orien-
tation and its explicitly political theater.
He points out that soap operas attract larg-
er audiences than activist plays.
Still, his actions speak louder than his
words-and political theater proliferates
on the center's stages. Vega was also an
influential force in the upbringing of his
stepdaughter, folk singer Suzanne Vega,
whose lyrics are suffused with political
and social commentary. ("I made her
watch the Watergate hearings," he says.)
And he is a powerful advocate for the aes-
thetics of American cultural diversity.
"I feel very strongly about the multi-
cultural aspect of this neighborhood and
the United States," Vega says. 'The only
saving grace the United States has, other
than jazz, is that it has so many different
people. And that has to be employed."

Bob Herbert and
Rudy Giuliani dis-
cuss police brutality
in a puppet show
mounted by Los
Kabayitos.
ME
ZEIBO
tolerance
f:W
Cops and
prosecutors are
dragging a
wider net on
child endanger-
ment cases. But
they're catching
the innocent
with the guilty.
by Elm Nauer
is mid-morning
already, more than an
hour since Twana
Davis and her three
children arrived at the
Queens County crimi-
nal courthouse. Thank-
fully, the hallways are cool despite the
sweltering July day outside. After
standing expectantly near the court-
room door for nearly 45 minutes, the
reserved 26-year-old has settled onto a
wide marble bench, watching her chil-
dren have one last talk with the assis-
tant district attorney.
By Twana's recollection, this is at
least the third assistant DA on her child
abuse case-which after a harrowing
five months is about to be dismissed for
lack of any credible evidence. Jennifer
Gottlieb rises from her crouch after delivering a tight hug and a rub
of the head to Addonia and Eddie, Twana's two eldest children and
the original complainants against her. Then the government lawyer
smiles apologetically at some visitors in the hallway, admitting
with a short laugh, "I don't want to be anywhere near this."
Gottlieb, who came on the case in its last three weeks, was
brave enough to end the long and sorry criminal justice saga of
Twana Davis. The story began in the early morning hours of
Sunday, March 2, when two police officers knocked on the door
of her Far Rockaway home, responding to a report made by the
Brooklyn police and an Administration for Children's Services
caseworker. Twana's ex-husband, who had taken the children for
the weekend, had Eddie and Addonia in a hospital near his home
in East New York. She was being arrested, police told Twana, on
suspicion of punching Eddie in the eye and whipping Addonia on . ~
the back of the neck with a dog chain. ~
In the weeks that followed, no one bothered to investigate the ..
~
complaints. The evidence of the case rested solely on the chil- 15
CITY LIMITS
dren's statements and the fact that their father felt compelled to
bring the children to the hospital to have them "treated."
Four months and two weeks later, when Gottlieb finally made
some calls, she discovered that a doctor at Brookdale University
Hospital, after fully examining both children, concluded there was
no medical evidence to back up the children's allegations, and that
their father had a disturbing habit of "leading the witnesses" while
they were talking. A school social worker had also seen the kids the
week prior to Twana's arrest and noticed no injuries. And the chil-
1997
dren themselves had abandoned their
stories-after child protection workers
sent them for four turbulent weeks to
live with their father, a man with an
arrest record for, among other things,
viciously beating their mother.
Davis' is one of hundreds of such
cases showing up in the city's criminal
courthouses this year. There has been
no formal announcement, but the
police have a new "must-arrest" policy
in cases of reported child abuse and
neglect, observes Judge Thomas
Farber, who presides over all misde-
meanor child endangerment cases in
Brooklyn. While the police themselves
refused City Limits' repeated requests
for an interview, people who populate
the criminal justice system say the
trend has been obvious for the last
eight months. New York City's famed
policy of zero tolerance for low-level
misdemeanor street crimes has moved
into the home.
Stories range from those like
Twana's, where there are allegations
but no physical evidence of abuse, to
cases (commonly seen in the newspa-
pers these days) where parents have
left their children alone in potentially
dangerous situations. In the past, these
kinds of cases have been handled by
child protection workers empowered
to move children to foster care if nec-
essary. Now they are also being han-
dled-some say "man-handled"-by
police, prosecutors and the courts.
"Last winter 1 had several women
charged with endangering their children
because they were heating their apart-
ments with a stove," observes Judge
Martin G. Karopkin, who sits in Kings
County arraignment court. "I said, what
about the landlord? Would the mother
be any less irresponsible if she let the apartment freeze up?"
There is no doubt, Karopkin says, that child abusers should be
criminally prosecuted. But in more questionable cases, prosecu-
tors and cops should be more wary of being "caught up in a pas-
sionate desire to do right."
He adds that in many of these misdemeanor cases, child pro-
tection workers don't see fit to permanently remove the children
from the home-yet still their parents are arrested for allegedly
mistreating them. If done improperly, all of this can permanently
...
when he beat her with a car
jack. Twana says, however, that
Eddie didn't hurt his children
and, after the divorce, the cou-
ple maintained an informal
arrangement where he could
take Eddie Jr. and Addonia for
an occasional weekend visit-
as long as they were supervised
by Eddie Sr.'s mother.
Twana's lawyer Vincent Siccard1 produced doctor's
records and a letter from ACS refatiDg the chlld
According to Addonia, she
and her brother were visiting
their father's house, sleeping in
the bedroom, when he came in,
"took off his belt," and asked
them to talk about how their
mother had abused them.
Addonia now shrinks from
offering additional details about
that night, but her earnest
description of the ensuing
weeks leaves no doubt about her
opinion of what happened. "I
think they put my mommy
through a whole bunch of trou-
ble. And r couldn' t see my
mommy for three weeks. I was
crying for my mommy. And I
was happy when I went home."
Police, court, and hospital
documents in the case offer only
sketchy details of the hours pre-
abuse claims. The prosecutors weren't impressed.
scar a family, he warns. "We have to remember," he says, "the
government is, ultimately, not going to a s ~ u m e responsibility for
raising these children."
I
n the case of Twana Davis, no truer words have been spo-
ken. Since she gave birth to her son Eddie Jr. 10 years ago,
Twana has taken sole responsibility for raising her children.
Though she was married to Eddie's and Addonia's father, Eddie
Davis Sr., for five years, Twana says the children's care fell almost
entirely to her. The same was true when she lived with a second
man, the father of her six-year-old son Netwan, another batterer
whom she managed to escape.
For the last two years, Twana has gone it alone, managing to
enroll full-time at Lehman College and move the children out of
a violent neighborhood in East New York, where she grew up, into
more peaceful surroundings on the second floor of a two-family
home in Far Rockaway, Queens.
Twana's friends at New Ammies Chapel Fire Baptized
Holiness Church maintain that she has done her best to guide her
children, seeing that they attend church school and services on
Sunday and Bible school on Tuesday. Twana herself serves as
vice-president of both the children's choir and the youth group.
And in a particularly sweet victory last spring, she managed to
win her children a religious education, securing a three-year
scholarship for each of them at St. Mary's Star of the Sea, a local
Catholic school. "I have always admired the way she handles her
children," says the church's junior pastor, Marian James.
But in the early morning hours of Sunday, March 2, the police
weren't interviewing Twana's pastor. They were talking to Eddie
Davis Sr. , a man with a criminal record including three arrests for
abusing his ex-wife, the worst of which happened nine years ago
ceding the arrest and, since nei-
ther the police officers nor the ACS worker involved are permit-
ted to talk about the case, there is no way to determine exactly
who is responsible.
But this much is known from piecing together accounts from
court documents, interviews with those involved and, most impor-
tantly, observations of the emergency room physician who exam-
ined Eddie and Addonia: When the children left their mother's
house on Saturday afternoon, they were fme. Their father reported
the children's abuse allegations to the police later that evening.
Then, either he or the police notified the child protection authorities.
Then, apparently at the request of the caseworker in a
Manhattan office of the Administration for Children's Services,
the children and father were brought by ambulance to Brookdale
Hospital. Around 4:30 a.m. , they were examined by Dr. David
Cabbad, the physician in charge of Brookdale's pediatric emer-
gency department.
But before the exam was completed, Cabbad recalls, Twana
Davis had been arrested. The physician says an ACS staffer con-
tacted him before he went into the examining room, telling him
the agency suspected abuse in this case. But that's not what
Cabbad saw.
"The guy brought in his kids and said the mother had been
beating them," he says. "I examined the children and they looked
fine." Eddie Davis Sr., on the other hand, "was very forceful when
r started asking the kids questions. It was like he was leading the
witness: 'Mommy hit you, right?'" Cabbad notes this pattern is
relatively frequent in emergency rooms. One parent will bring in
the kids late at night, alleging abuse on the part of the other. "It's g
!
very common, especially in custody battles." ;,
Cabbad immediately called the caseworker to tell him he saw no j
evidence Eddie had been punched or Addonia had been whipped. It ~
CITY LIMITS
(
I
was then that he was told that Twana had already been arrested. "I
said, for what? And they said, 'On the word of the father. ",
"I think somebody jumped the gun," Cabbad says. But he adds
he wasn't surprised by the response of the officers. The police
have been much more involved in ACS investigations "since they
changed the letters of the agency" from CWA to ACS, he notes.
"Every time [ACS workers] come in now, they come in with the
police."
He adds that after the examination was complete, he discussed
his diagnosis with the father, who then left the hospital with the
children. When Twana's brother and three other friends arrived in
a panic shortly after, Cabbad gave them his card, but told them
there was nothing he could do. "Unfortunately," he said, "this is
in the system."
That wasn't much help to Twana. She spent the next 16 hours
sitting a Queens holding cell awaiting arraignment, worrying about
what had happened to her children. As it turns out, Netwan, appar-
ently deemed to be in good health, was sent home with Twana's
brother. And according to police papers, Eddie and Addonia were
left in the custody of their father-per the orders of ACS.
T
wo years ago, cases like this were rare in criminal
court. Back then, the cops and district attorneys were
primarily interested in cases with hard evidence of a
serious crime: a broken arm, a radiator bum, charges of sexual
abuse. Knotty stories like Davis', lacking documented physical
evidence and featuring sharply conflicting witness accounts,
were sorted out by child welfare workers and civil court judges
trained in family law.
But tbat was before the highly publicized death of Elisa
Izquierdo. The grisly circum-
stances of the 6-year-old's
November 1995 murder, com-
bined with the fact that child
protection workers had been
warned repeatedly of her plight,
fueled the perception that case-
workers-shielded by closed-
door proceedings in Family
Court-were failing to pursue
these cases, protecting parents
at the expense of their children.
The publicity put everyone
on notice-from child welfare
officials, police and prosecutors
to teachers, hospital administra-
tors and the mayor-that the
city's children were tragically
underserved. Under intense
public pressure, Mayor Rudolph
Giuliani appointed Nicholas
Scoppetta, a respected child
advocate and a noted former
prosecutor, to head the restruc-
tured Administration for
Children's Services. At the same
time, the police and district
attorneys-sensitized by both
Scoppetta called for dozens of reforms-several of which
would sharply change the way ACS does business. Among them,
he proposed revamping the Family Court system, increasing
criminal penalties for child endangerment and, importantly,
enlisting the help of police and prosecutors in child abuse and
neglect cases.
Later this summer, Scoppetta and Police Commissioner
Howard Safir are slated to announce a formal partnership with the
city's five district attorneys in dealing with reports funneled
through the state's child abuse hotline. The most serious sounding
reports--expected to be 35 to 40 percent of the approximately
1,000 cases ACS now handles each week-will warrant an
"instant response" from ACS, police and prosecutors, meaning
they will all arrive at the scene as soon as possible. Remaining
calls will get a "coordinated response," meaning an ACS case-
worker will decide whom to bring in.
ACS officials note, however, that Scoppetta, making use of his
contacts in the prosecutors' offices, has already accomplished
much of this informally. The senior staff is now in constant con-
tact with their counterparts in the criminal justice agencies.
Officials emphasize that these initiatives are designed to net
only serious offenders. Yet physical and sexual abuse cases are in
fact relatively rare--{)nly 8 percent of parents are charged with
"abuse" in Family Court. The rest are dealing with issues of
neglect. So the criminal justice system's new approach inevitably
focuses primarily on neglect charges. It's a new universe for cops,
the prosecutors and the courts. And their role doesn't sit well with
people close to the child welfare system--even those who spend
their time advocating for abused and neglected children.
"I think for all of us, there has been a real surprise that these
the Izquierdo case and new Brooklyn's Ama Dwimoh Gelt) and Lisa Smith are
thinking about domestic vio-
[ lence in general-were looking developing cutting-edge techniques in cbild abuse
i at their own response to child
. ~ abuse and neglect calls. prosecution. They hope to prevent future crimes.
c
AUCUST/SEPTEMBER 1997 _
with a criminal complaint sworn
out by her ex-husband and a
Rockaways police officer. It
basically repeated the children's
allegations, although, interest-
ingly, Addonia's allegation of
being hit by a "dog chain," seen
all the way through the arrest
documents, was reduced to a
"plastic rope" in the complaint.
Altogether, Twana was facing
two counts of misdemeanor
assault and two counts of endan-
gering the welfare of a child.
Twana tried to explain to her
court-appointed lawyer that
there was medical evidence
showing that she had not beaten
the children. She was told this
could be produced at a later
date. In the meantime, she was
free to go home. Then the pros-
ecution asked for something
that shocked Twana: a full order
of protection forbidding her
from having any contact with
Eddie Jr. or Addonia until her
WinDing this case required the help of a crimi-
nal defense lawyer and a fa.mily law attorney.
Pew poor women can afford such a team.
next court date more than three
weeks away. Her court-appoint-
ed lawyer made no protest and
the order was granted.
As a result, Eddie Davis Sr.
received custody of the chil-
--
have turned into arrest cases and child endangerment cases going
through the criminal court system," notes Jane Spinak, the attorney
in charge of the Juvenile Rights Division at the Legal Aid Society.
Her staff represents some 44,000 children each year in Family
Court proceedings. "Overall, what we're seeing is that these are
issues about whether parents are properly supervising kids ... . That's
not a criminal question. That's a child protection question."
ACS Deputy Commissioner William Bell admits this is an
issue. "Does it do a disservice if a mother is arrested when there
has not been a 'real' crime against the child? That's something that
we have to look at," he says. But he reiterates that ACS is "first,
last and always" in the business of protecting the child. "We have
to explore allY potential crime that has been committed against a
child and then make a decision on a case-by-case basis."
T
his sounds rational enough, and it is-if the people in
the criminal justice system could be trusted to careful-
ly scrutinize these low-level cases. But such care is rare
in criminal court, particularly in the misdemeanor parts, where
judges confess they have been swamped under a caseload gener-
ated by new aggressive policing policies and Mayor Giuliani's
quality-of-life initiatives.
Instead, a system has evolved where parents accused of misde-
meanors are routinely offered a plea bargain that would ostensibly
leave them free of a permanent conviction record-most commonly
they get an "ACD" or adjournment in contemplation of dismissal-
if they agree to attend parenting-skills classes and stay out of trouble
for a year. Who could argue? It sounds like a good deal for everyone
involved. But as Twana Davis found out, that's exactly the problem.
Inside the courtroom that Sunday night, Twana was greeted
dren, at least temporarily,
because ACS was not formally involved in the case and had cho-
sen not to petition Family Court to "remove" the children to fos-
ter care. Technically, this also meant ACS had not formally
"placed" the children with Eddie Sr. , although that was the effect
of the caseworker's instructions at the time of the arrest. In crim-
inal court, it is not the job of the judge or the prosecutors to inves-
tigate the home where children are placed; they could justly
assume that the ACS caseworker knew what he was doing.
Apparently, he did not.
According to Twana, Addonia, and members of Twana's
church, the next four weeks were hair-raising for the whole fam-
ily. Routinely violating an order she knew nothing about,
Addonia would call her mother almost every night, often sob-
bing. She and Eddie Jr. were not in school, Twana was told,
because their father never bothered to bring them. Addonia
missed her friends and her bed at home. Most of all , she said, she
was just lonely for her mother.
Eventually, the children prevailed on their father to at least
take them to their church. When he complied, members of the
congregation greeting the chi ldren were appalled to see a deep,
bar-shaped bum on Addonia's forehead, apparently accidentally
made with a hot comb. "It was white, down to where you see the
flesh," pastor James recalls. "There was no reason for her to have
a mark there."
Lacking any obvious alternatives, Twana says she tried to obe-
diently suffer through until her next court date. Then one night,
Addonia called her from a pay phone on the street. She had wan-
dered out and no one had noticed, she reported. Twana, knowing
what the streets of East New York were like, ordered her back to
her father's apartment immediately. After the girl was safely
CITY LIMITS
inside, Twana sagged onto her couch and realized the time had
come to fight this thing-hard.
T
wana says she began frantically calling the people who
helped her during the years she had been battered.
Eventually, a staffer at a shelter she once stayed in rec-
ommended she call Network for Women's Services, a nonprofit
that locates volunteer lawyers for poor women.
There she got a hold of lawyer Jill Zuccardy who, as a former
family law attorney for Legal Services, immediately recognized
the suspect role Twana's former batterer was playing in this case.
Zuccardy started working her contacts in Queens, and convinced
Vincent Siccardi, a seasoned criminal defense lawyer, to take over
Twana's case pro bono. Meanwhile, Zuccardy set about pursuing
the investigation that the police and district attorney did not do.
She found Dr. Cabbad, securing an affidavit supporting Twana's
story. And she talked to people at ACS, sensing they felt queasy
about the case. Three and a half weeks after the arrest, ACS final-
ly wrote a letter to the court, admitting there was not enough evi-
dence to take the children away.
"We have an active case," wrote Helene Cook, an ACS super-
visor. However, she added, "the allegations of excessive corporal
punishment cannot be substantiated, as the doctor who examined
the children on 3-2-97 stated there was no medical evidence to
support the allegations."
Cook continued that some of the children's claims should still
be considered valid. "At this time we cannot say that the mother
physically abuses the children. However, she does engage in inap-
propriate punishment such as throwing objects at the children.
"If the order of protection is dropped against Mrs. Davis, we
can work on returning the children to her," Cook concluded.
"However, she must enroll in parenting skills classes. Of course,
we will monitor this case until services begin."
Caseworkers frequently assist parents of questionable compe-
tence by pushing them to accept parenting skills classes or other
social services. But they do not have the leverage to force a par-
ent into classes unless the agency formally removes the children
or can prove in Family Court that the parent abuses or neglects
their child. And to do that in Twana's case, they would have had
to convince a judge the children were more than likely in "immi-
nent danger," the standard Family Court requires. For obvious
reasons, ACS never sued to take Twana's children; they didn't
have the proof they needed. But the agency also refused to
declare the case "unfounded"-thereby leaving the criminal
court without any guidance.
Siccardi thought he had the facts to get the case dismissed out-
right. With the doctor's affidavit, he managed to convince a judge
to change the terms of the order of protection so Twana's children
could fmally return home. But the prosecutor vigorously fought
this change and would not consent to a full dismissal of the case.
The terms stood: an adjournment for one year in contemplation of
dismissal with required parenting skills classes.
On Zuccardy's advice, Twana rejected the offer. While the assis-
tant DA was technically offering a dismissal of the case, anyone
familiar with the court system understands the deal has the practi-
cal effect of admitting guilt to child endangerment and assault
charges. Zuccardy and others familiar with Family Court proceed-
ings felt this could severely hurt Twana if ACS later tried to remove
her children. Moreover, Zuccardy points out, there was no guaran-
tee Twana's ex-husband wouldn't try to make more trouble, with
the knowledge that she would be vulnerable for a whole year.
As for Twana, she says she wanted vindication. She was study-
ing full-time to be a social worker; she had always planned on
working with children. While her court records would be sealed,
AUCUST/SEPTEMBER 1997
she says that without a full dismissal she wouldn't be able to hon-
estly answer any employer inquiries about her criminal back-
ground. And, she adds quietly, taking parenting skills classes
would simply be a waste of her time. "I've been a parent for ten
years. I've gone through the hardest part already," she says. "I
know what I'm doing."
Still, it took nearly four more months of court appearances
and of shuttling the children to interviews before Siccardi could
convince the DA's office to drop the case. It was only after
Siccardi demanded a trial, and Gottlieb-the new prosecutor on
the case-began questioning Twana's witnesses, that the DA's
office relented.
On the day of the dismissal, Gottlieb was clearly moved by the
palpable relief of Twana and her children. She smiled broadly and
walked over to hug Addonia and Eddie Jr. after the judge said,
"Motion granted." Siccardi was impressed. "She did the right
thing," he said, walking out of the courtroom. "She didn't have to
do that. She could have covered her ass."
T
hat is a phenomenon so common it has it has been
reduced to an acronym in the DA's office, Brooklyn's
Judge Karopkin says with a laugh. "CYA: Cover
Your Ass."
Judges and prosecutors admit this is especially true in child
protection cases. "There are a lot of cases that proceed, it seems
to me, past the point where perhaps they should, because nobody
wants to take risks," notes Judge Farber, who is himself a former
Manhattan prosecutor. It's quite possible, he admits, that some of
these parents may be innocent. The publicity that surrounds child
abuse and neglect cases probably prevents prosecutors from drop-
ping weaker cases, he says bluntly. But, he adds, that is under-
standable. '1n child cases, maybe that's OK. The consequences
are so severe if an error is made. You really want to be sure."
During the last few months in Brooklyn, where Farber and
Karopkin work, the system for dealing with these misdemeanor
cases has been changing-probably for the better. Kings County
District Attorney Charles Hynes has long made domestic violence
and child endangerment cases a top priority. And in May, he estab-
lished a specialized Crimes Against Children Bureau staffed with
eight specially-trained, full-time prosecutors. Hynes' emphasis is
on learning how to properly handle children as witnesses-while
improving the initial investigations so that prosecutors do not have
to rely on the kids' accusations alone, says Bureau Chief Ama
Dwimoh.
The DA's hope is that effective misdemeanor prosecutions will
ultimately reduce the number of serious, tragic abuse cases,
explains Lisa Smith, a professor at Brooklyn Law School and an
architect of Hynes' domestic violence initiatives. Certainly, this
seems to have proven true in battering cases, she says. "I think the
abusers get a message from being arrested, being booked, being
arraigned, and going in for a court date. There is value in that,"
she says. "You see that if you put an effort into prosecution, you
can get somewhere."
"Nobody wants to prosecute," Smith adds. "They want to pre-
vent."
With such an emphasis on up-front investigations, prosecutor-
ial misfires like Twana Davis' case could be avoided. But at this
point, only Brooklyn is putting such a model program in place.
For her part, Davis says she understands the prosecutors may
have the best intentions. But, she says, they should remember one
phrase: "Innocent until proven gui lty." This fall , she hopes to
return to school and complete her social work degree.
"Before everything happened, I wanted to work for ACS," she
says, bemused. "But that's a tum-off now."
--
E L E ~ 7 I O N
Rutlis Root Rot
o roots are
grassier than Ruth
Messinger's. Just
try to name a com-
munity board, ten-
ants council, PTA or senior center
in Manhattan that has not grown
familiar with the clack of her low-
rise pumps.
Even when she's been on the
campaign trail in past elections,
Messinger has been most comfort-
able in small groups where she can
connect face-to-face with con-
stituents. In fact, professional pols
credit the Manhattan Borough pres-
ident with perfecting the "coffee
klatch" fundraising technique. Hers
contain three basic ingredients: 1) a
left-wing living room (preferably
in a rent-stabilized apartment), 2)
hot Joe 3) and the candidate forging
unusually deep personal bonds
with prospective Friends of Ruth.
In the hands of more cynical
politicians, the klatches can be lit-
tle more than shakedowns. But
most of the contributions she's
fetched this way over the years
have been of the two-digit variety.
This attitude has spread to the way
she has run her office. "I think
Ruth's strength has always been
her commitment to the communi-
ties she's represented," says
Brooklyn College Political
Science Professor Ed Rogowsky,
himself a former director of com-
munity board relations in Brooklyn
Borough Hall. "She's made her
reputation by being responsive to
what her constituents need. There's
no doubt about it."
By most estimates she is just a
primary away from facing Rudy
Giuliani in the race for mayor, yet
Messinger, the coffee-talk liberal,
seems to be morphing into an old-
--
THE DEMOCRATIC FRONT-RUNNER IS
PLOTTING A MASSIVE MEDIA CAM-
PAIGN INSTEAD OF BUILDING ON HER
TRADITIONAL NEIGHBORHOOD BASE.
By Chm 'IIn1f3h
fashioned, media-obsessed New
Democrat, hiring Chicagoan Jim
Andrews-who specializes in big
TV and radio buys-to run her can-
didacy. It may be a strategy chosen
to counter Rudolph Giuliani's cash-
fat re-election fund or to avoid get-
ting her image sullied by the tradi-
tional Democratic machine.
But in New York, where potent
neighborhood street operations
have put scores of Democrats in
City Hall, the approach is shocking
many of Messinger's supporters.
Some wonder if she has even a
slim chance of getting the big tum-
out she needs in order to win.
"Back in February, when she
was getting my endorsement, she
called me six times. I haven't heard
from her since," says one angry
Manhattan district leader, who
spoke on condition of anonymity.
"For eight years she's been cam-
paigning seriously for this and she
had a good plan for working inside
the communities. Now its like
someone pulled the plug on that. I
don't get it. Does she really want to
win? Who does she think is going
to pull out the vote for her?"
Outer-Borough Pols
T
o blame the Messinger cam-
paign's early hiccups on the
candidate alone is, of course,
unfair. Whoever faced Rudolph
Giuliani would not only have had to
overcome his 60 percent approval
rating, but also his nearly $9 million
war chest, one of the largest ever
seen in New York. Messinger, rely-
ing on a greater number of small
contributors, had raised about half
that much as of July 12. Moreover,
Giuliani has tamed, then allied him-
self with, the once-hostile munici-
pal labor unions-forcing
Messinger into the uncomfortable
situation of attacking big labor, the
Democratic Party's most consistent
source of money and field troops.
CITY LIMITS
But, to a large extent, the crux of her campaign's dilem-
ma is her political identity and approach, which has always
focused on working with local groups on grassroots caus-
es. As a City Councilmember she championed community
control on land use decisions and other issues. As Borough
President, she occasionally angered community board
leaders in well-heeled Manhattan neighborhoods by allo-
cating discretionary grant money disproportionately to the
poorest neighborhoods in the borough.
None of this has made her especially disposed to play
ball with outer-borough pols.
She's hardly the first ambitious Manhattanite to face
this problem. Twenty years ago, Ed Koch, then a full-
blooded reformer who had faced down Tammany Hall in
his Greenwich Village days, reluctantly solicited the
Brooklyn machine's help in bumping upstart Mario
Cuomo in the Democratic primary runoff. Koch convened
a series of hushed back room meetings with aides to infa-
Ruth
Messinger,
the coffee-talk
liberaL is
morphing into
an old-fash-
ioned media-
obsessed New
Democrat.
Andrews boasted of a "massive grassroots operation." But
Messinger has yet to open a single satellite operation in the
outer boroughs. And in late July, her campaign workers told
City Limits they had yet to see any campaign buttons. Still,
Jones speaks of "setting up our own field operation" to
avoid dealing with the party's county organizations.
There's no doubt she has some catching up to do. In
Brooklyn, Giuliani has culled vital endorsements from key
Democrats in some areas where Messinger might have
enjoyed a naturally sympathetic constituency. In impover-
ished East Brooklyn, where Giuliani 's workfare initiative
and his attempt to eliminate fire alarm pull-boxes made
him almost universally unpopular, the mayor has netted the
endorsement of incumbent City Councilmember Priscilla
Wooten. She controls turnout in many East New York pro-
jects and has a large patronage base in the district's
schools. In Brighton Beach, where Messinger's creden-
tials as a Jewish grandmother could help erode the mayor's
mous Brooklyn Democratic boss Meade Esposito, where the mayor-to-be
made a tacit promise granting the boss key patronage slots. Koch agreed and
won a tight race, but the compact was a disaster: Esposito's hand-picked
transportation commissioner turned out to be a crook, as did several of his
other friends at first deemed worthy of administration paychecks.
Under this cloud of history, Messinger went to Brooklyn earlier this year
to discuss the terms of an alliance with top Democratic operative Jeff
Feldman and Assemblyman Clarence Norman, the Brooklyn Democratic
Party leader. Cordial chatter filled the room. Norman made what he thought
was a modest, reasonable offer: he handed the Manhattanites a $150,000
shopping list for miscellaneous campaign expenses-the largest being the
cost of setting up Messinger field offices and embarking on the alI-impor-
tant get-out-the-vote drives. "We weren't asking for shit. We asked for twice
that much during last year's judicial races," said a leading Brooklyn
Democrat on condition of anonymity.
Ruth and an aide nodded politely, said they would call back and thanked
the leaders for their valuable time. They never made the call. ''We took the
piece of paper and then we crumpled the piece of paper up and threw it in the
garbage," says Messinger's campaign press secretary Lee Jones, with voice-
quavering vehemence. "It's just not the kind of thing we ever plan to do in this
campaign."
A few days later, the Kings County Democratic organization formally
endorsed native son Sal Albanese for mayor.
The parties are certainly not as strong as they used to be-and their sup-
port is not utterly essential-but they still control local operations and can
muster high turnout in the projects, senior centers and middle-income co-op
complexes that contain the highest concentrations of voters in the city's most
populous borough. "It's true the bosses don't run things anymore," says
Rogowsky. "But if you're running a campaign that's already short on money,
you need every bit of help you can get."
How Hard She Crashes
T
he danger for Messinger is not merely that she didn' t emerge with a
Koch-style deal-but that the machine's leaders now may actually find
glee in her failure. Says one prominent Brooklyn Democratic Party
fixer: "Let's give her as much lip service as she's entitled to and see how hard
she crashes. She doesn't like us. She's never liked us. She's not going to like
us. So, you know what? Fuck her."
Bronx regulars take a more civil attitude towards Messinger, but their sup-
port is thin--despite the avowed help of Borough President, former
Messinger rival Fernando Ferrer and powerful county leader Roberto
Ramirez. ''We support her, but how hard will we work for her?" says one for-
mer high-ranking source who worked on Ferrer's aborted campaign. In
Queens, the party has backed her, but popular Democratic Borough President
Claire Shulman has defected to the GOP camp.
In a recent interview with The New York Observer, media consultant
AUCUST/ SEPTEMBER 1997
dominance, Giuliani picked the energetic, ambitious Jules Polenetsky to run
for Public Advocate on the mayor's ticket. In Williamsburg and Bushwick-
the borough's most concentrated and politically progressive Hispanic neigh-
borhoods-powerhouse Assemblyman Vito Lopez has lined up with
Giuliani, along with his voter-rich train of community organizations.
Nonetheless, Messinger's support in central Brooklyn remains strong, with
Congressman Major Owens, State Senator Velmanette Montgomery and a
string of local church leaders providing her with energetic backing. But even
these Messinger supporters are beginning to wonder when--or if-the candi-
date's campaign will ever establish a presence in their part of town. "She has
almost no visibility in Central Brooklyn," says an aide to a Brooklyn council
member who considers himself a Messinger supporter.
A Media Behemoth
A
ll things considered, it's no wonder Andrews and Messinger are talking
so enthusiastically about their media campaign. "It is true there is a
media focus, but you have to understand we're going up against a media
behemoth in the fall," Jones explains. "Much of the campaign is going to be
decided over the airwaves. It's impossible to get out there and shake enough
hands .... Per dollar, media is the most cost effective way to spend your money."
Manhattan county Democratic leader Denny Farrell, a Messinger backer,
says her strategy reflects the state of modern politics. ''To tell you the truth, I
think guys like me are basically obsolete. Ten, 20 years ago, you won a race
by going on bended knee to the kings. But today that's not the way you do it.
You run a TV campaign."
Besides, Jones assures the flock, ''The campaign is in its very early stages.
There are people who are being Monday morning quarterbacks and here we are,
on the sidelines, doing our wind sprints before the game." StilI, when pressed on
the campaign's specific plans for setting up a citywide field operation--or on the
content of Messinger's TV spots-he demurs. "As the organization develops
we'll be happy to give details, but it doesn't serve much useful purpose for me
to sit around and discuss these aspects of the campaign," Jones adds.
In one respect, Jones is almost certainly right: there is enough time to work
out the kinks. The fact that Messinger faces her biggest challenge in the gen-
eral election-should she win the primary as expected-gives her campaign
two months more than in traditional New York campaign years, when the
Democratic primary has been the deciding contest.
After all, among her chorus of advisors Messinger can count John
Mollenkopf, the CUNY political science professor who wrote the book on
Koch's masterful manipulation of neighborhood-based political machines and
nonprofit groups. In addition, Messinger has maintained an aggressive sched-
ule of attending outer-borough flesh-presses.
And she's started to get encouragement from the unlikeliest quarters. "I
still don' t think she'll win, but she's in a lot better shape than I was at this time
in my campaign," Ed Koch says. "It's still early. Nobody should panic. She
could still pull it out."
~
ELEG1 ION
Crowd Control
with the total school population expected to
grow by about 20,000 students each year for
the foreseeable future, this boon won't come
close to eliminating the need for busing, split
sessions and hallway classrooms.
"Whatever is being put back now does not
make up for what is needed," says Sandra
Lerner, the Bronx representative on the Board
of Education. She points to the fact that the
mayor gutted the central board's five-year
capital plan, which began with a request for
$7.5 billion, was cut to $3.4 billion in 1994
and then slashed to $2.9 billion in late 1995.
The mayor and the City Council appropriated
another $1.4 billion a year ago, mainly for
exterior repairs, but more than a third of that
won't be spent until the tum of the century.
Though the mayor's campaign commer-
cials tout recent classroom spending, his
views on the overcrowding problem have not
revealed a great degree of urgency.
During last September's overcrowding
crisis, the mayor advised kids during a radio
interview to read the biography of Abe
Lincoln who, he noted, learned in a one-room
school and taught himself by reading.
"Whether a school is a physically good school
or not . . . when you want to, you can learn,"
he said at the time.
1 EVERY YEAR, THE PUBLIC SCHOOL POPULATION
He continued in this vein last January
when he told a gathering of community news-
paper editors: "The best universities are over-
crowded because everybody wants to go to
the best university-and they stretch. . ..
Some of the best schools in this city are over-
crowded. And I'm a parent. If I had a choice
between a school that had small class sizes
that didn't do a very good job on reading and
math scores and a school in which my child
was going to be in an overcrowded classroom
GROWS BY 20,000 KIDS. THE POLITICIANS STILL
HAVEN'T FIGURED OUT WHERE TO PUT THEM.
By Jordan Moss
onn Jordan's daughter, Samantha, was supposed to attend
kindergarten this fall at PS 56, two blocks from the fami-
ly's apartment in the Norwood section of the Bronx. But
because of severe overcrowding, district officials decided
to bus the five-year-olds to a school in distant Crotona.
Jordan never fancied himself an activist, but now he is spending his sum-
mer vacation, with other members of the Northwest Bronx Education
Committee, collecting thousands of petition signatures in the hopes of getting
Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and Schools Chancellor Rudy Crew to come speak
with the community about school overcrowding and long-neglected repairs.
Parents from Queens District 24, the most crowded in the city, are fed up,
too. The school yard of PS 19 in Corona is so jammed with portable class-
rooms that, as one parent says, it looks like a "trailer park."
These are only two examples of a crisis that has been documented by a
host of government agencies, fiscal watchdogs and education advocates. Still,
no long-term solution is in sight.
The mayor and City Council sprinkled a little election-year fairy dust
across the five boroughs, in the form of $865 million for portable classrooms
and new leases on private buildings that can be converted into schools. But
but they performed better educationally, I'd
put my child in an overcrowded classroom. And I think a lot of parents make
that choice." Notably, Giuliani has opted out of the city's public education
system altogether, sending his son Andrew to a private school.
Ruben Quiroz, president of Acci6n Latina, a Corona-based organization
that works with parents to improve schools, says politicians aren't making
this issue a priority. "They say they have done something to make education
their issue," he says, but the "central issue-which is overcrowding-is not
being resolved."
OppOSition Attacks
T
he conventional wisdom holds that the city's legion of decaying and
overcrowded schools is Giuliani's Achilles heel in the upcoming elec-
tion. But without a comprehensive proposal detailing where money for
new buildings would come from, opposition attacks have fallen flat.
It has been two years since Harold Levy, a vice president and counsel at
Salomon Brothers, and his chancellor-chartered commission meticulously
documented the extent of the school repair and crowding problems, calling
for a "Marshall Plan" to fix them. The report denounced mismanagement at
the Board of Education, but said the biggest problem was a lack of money.
The authors called for a hike in the property tax, amounting to about $75 a
year for homeowners. But no candidate is calling for that in an election year.
Ruth Messinger's "first priority would be education," says her spokes-
woman, Lisa Daglian, and that would include "getting as much space as
CITY LIMITS
quickly as possible." But, she adds, "that doesn't mean a trailer-park educa-
tion. That takes away open space for kids who are already cramped." At press
time, no one in the campaign would discuss the Levy Commission's idea of
raising taxes for education.
The Reverend Al Sharpton did not reply to queries about his agenda on
school crowding. But Council member Sal Albanese agrees with Messinger's
criticism of portable classrooms, suggesting that an expanded leasing pro-
gram is the way to go because it allows for "flexible growth" and brings new
seats on line faster. But he opposes raising the property tax, because the city's
relatively low tax rate is "one of the reasons we're able to keep middle class
families in the city." He says he is also hopeful a proposed state bond act for
school construction will be approved.
As City Limits goes to press, the state legislature was debating the merits
of such a plan, known as the LADDER program, which includes a $2 billion
bond act to improve school facilities. City Democrats hope that, if the plan is
passed, half this money would go to New York City.
Albany insiders say LADDER has a chance because Senate Republicans
from upstate and Long Island have crumbling schools in their own districts.
However, Pataki has not spoken in favor of the plan, and he may seek to stall
any school-aid effort until next year so that he can deliver the goods at the
height of his re-election campaign. Besides, if the state's fiscal 1998 budget is
not approved by August 4, the proposal will be moot: The bond act, which
must be approved by the voters, and cannot be placed on the November ballot
after that date.
A Billion Dollars a Year
W
ith spending in the current five-year capital plan for schools at about
$4.2 billion and the possibility of an additional billion dollars from
the bond act, Steven Sanders, a Manhattan Democrat who heads the
Assembly's education committee, is hopeful the city may eventually tum the
comer on school overcrowding. Still, he acknowledges, "everyone agrees we
have to spend at least a billion dollars a year, certainly, over the next five
~ W e have to spend
a billion dollars a year over
the next 5 years-and
even over 15 years."
years-and even over the next 15 years." In fact, the Board of Education has
said that $21 billion would be needed over 10 years to create sufficient space
and return the system to a "state of good repair."
Sanders warns, however, that any state bail-out will offer only a temporary
fix. He recommends the city come up with "a reliable funding stream" dedi-
cated to the schools. And what about the property tax? "1 wouldn't want to say
at this point what the funding stream would be," he said. ''That's up to the
mayor and the Council ."
Council Speaker Peter Vallone's spokesman, Michael Clendenin, throws it
back to the state. "Our problem could be solved very easily," he said. "If
Albany just gave the city its fair share [of education aid], if we just got what
we were entitled to, we wouldn't have any overcrowding."
Sanders dismisses this, noting that the $250 million to $350 million the
city loses each year because of the inequitable distribution of state school aid
is "not nearly enough to resolve the infrastructure [problems], the over-capac-
ity, and the influx of new students."
Meanwhile, parents vow they will organize in the hopes of forcing the
issue. The Parents Organizing Consortium, a citywide umbrella group of
grassroots organizations, will "put heat on the mayor regarding overcrowding
and class size" this fall, says POC Coordinator Christine Marinoru. "We want
to capitalize on the fact that this an election year."
Jordan Moss is editor of Norwood News, a Bronx community paper.
M&T BANK IS NOW ACCEPTING
APPLICATIONS FOR ITS ENTREPRENEURIAL
INGENUITY GRANT PROGRAM
Manufacturers & Traders Trust Company-New York City Division (M&T Bank) is now accepting
applications for grant awards under our Entrepreneurial Ingenuity Grant Program (EIP). EIP was
established to provide not-for-profit community development organizations with a one-time financial grant
in recognition of their income-generation, business creation and operational efforts.
M&T Bank's EIP Grant Program will provide financial grant awards of up to $15,000 to three competitively
selected community development corporations in support of a community and/or non-profit owned businesses.
AUCUST/SEPTEMBER 1997
For further information, please contact:
John D. Hendrickson
Community Development Unit
350 Park Avenue, 5th Floor
New York, NY 10022
(212) 350-2584
-
E L E ~ 7 I O N
Whatcha Gonna Do?
CITY LIMITS ASKED THE DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATES FOR MAYOR TO
GET REAL ABOUT OUR NEIGHBORHOODS. HERE'S WHAT THEY SAID.
--
he Democratic Party primary for mayor is around the comer, and proposals of substance have begun to emerge. We wanted details of the contestants'
plans on a handful of the most critical issues facing the city and our readership, so we asked for succinct, substantive responses to five straightforward
questions. Brooklyn City Councilman Sal Albanese and Manhattan Borough President Ruth Messinger gave it their best shot, and their answers are i
reprinted below. For two weeks, we pressed the Reverend AI Sharpton and his campaign staff to share their thoughts as well, but they never supplied ~
answers to our questions. Judge for yourself. The primary date is September 9. In our October issue, we'll focus on the general election. ~
~
CITY LIMITS
For lUi New Yorkers, tile tIrimg. Yet rates -Ii; and nkIed or
IoHkI lorkers have few f.WOI'bIities to make a doooot iYiJg. What do yoo to do to _e
jobs that offer tile potm! fir kNlg-term .. and doooot wages for my residents?
SAL ALBANESE: Under my administration, I would appoint an economic develop-
ment czar, someone with a wealth of knowledge and experience in the busi-
ness world. This czar's role would be to put together a strategic plan that
would diversify New York's industries in an effort to create a sustainable
economy for the city. In addition, I would reserve 25 percent of the city's $8
billion contract budget for city-based companies who employ city residents.
Living-wage job development will be the cornerstone of my administration.
My primary focus would be on developing a policy that would bolster exist-
ing small business and manufacturing in New York. Current policy has
focused on retaining jobs in the Finance, Insurance and Real Estate (FIRE)
sector of the economy, while neglecting the remainder of the city's business
community. The recently publicized example of the Swing1ine Stapler manu-
facturer's departure from Queens is a prime example of the city's neglect of
small business. Small business is the real engine that fuels the New York City
jobs economy, providing 70 percent of jobs in the city.
One of the first steps in spurring job creation would be to eliminate the
Unincorporated Business Tax (UBT). The UBT deters small businesses
and entrepreneurs from locating in the city and hiring city residents. New
York City has become a hot bed for New MedialHigh Tech pioneers.
Many of today's latest multimedia applications and Internet tools are
being developed in New York. I would also make available incubator
space for burgeoning entrepreneurial industries and light manufacturing
businesses. The city must create support structures which both new and
small businesses can depend on to grow and build. I would also offer tax
incentives and low-cost loans to small and light manufacturers who hire
city residents to help them expand their businesses and provide addition-
al local jobs.
RUTH MESSINGER: The mayor pretends that an unemployment rate nearly twice the
national average is a sign of economic health and ignores the fact that more
than 20,000 fewer New Yorkers had jobs in the first quarter of this year. He
is unwilling to acknowledge a problem exists.
I believe that City Hall has a major role to play in encouraging and shap-
ing economic diversity and growth. And that role includes guaranteeing that
the benefits of economic growth are shared by all of the city's residents. To
do this I would:
* Initiate a "City Hire" program. This would give city residents the first crack
at jobs created through the awarding of tax breaks, funding of development
projects or letting of contracts. All newly hired teachers, cops and firefighters
would be city residents.
* Help small businesses. Key to supporting and nurturing small businesses is
ensuring their access to technical assistance, technology and credit. The
mayor showers tax breaks on Wall Street and cuts services to Main Street. My
office recently helped secure $750,000 in capital for small business loans
through the Manhattan Borough Development Corp.
* Train the city's current and future workforce to compete for jobs more effec-
tively. This means reinvesting in our schools and developing curricula that
graduate young people who meet the needs of 21st Century employers.
Higher education can become more accessible to the poor by working with
pri vate funders to sponsor scholarships to local colleges.
* Strategic support for emerging growth industries. I would form an Office
of Science and Technology that would be a bridge between the city's wealth
of university-based research and expertise and the capital markets. This
kind of matching of public, non-profit and private resources has spurred the
economies of Silicon Valley, Boston, Research Triangle Park and other
localities.
* Invest in the future. The city's infrastructure needs to be retooled for the
coming century. The bulk of the funding should come from the federal gov-
ernment-as urged by Felix Rohatyn, Robert Kiley and other business lead-
ers. The mayor of New York City must be a clarion for such investment.
AUCUST/SEPTEMBER 1997
110 yoo awee Iitb tile my's lorkfare policy as tt _ exists? What kind of IlMartrto-work prfr
P11fdd yoo alttooate?
ALBANESE: The city's Work Experience Program is a debacle. By definition, jobs
must be 50 percent of any welfare-to-work program. As mentioned in the pre-
vious question, living wage job creation will be a central focus of my admin-
istration. Currently, WEP participants simply work for their benefits without
any hope of obtaining a real job afterwards. With the city's unemployment at
twice the national average and the administration's invisible job creation
strategy, there is no hope in sight. I would also end the practice of having
WEP workers perform the jobs of attrited civil servants. The city must hire
civil servants to carry out city services and not use welfare recipients as a
labor pool of indentured servants.
In addition, I would include obtaining a college degree as a form of work
preparedness. The current program forces students to choose between a B.A.
and a broom. Students in the WEP program should be allowed to work on cam-
pus, 10 to 15 hours a week to fulfill their work requirement. Each participant
in the WEP program must have a skills assessment and a physical assessment
to ensure their work assignment adds to their knowledge base (where possible)
without jeopardizing their health. Under my administration, any welfare-to-
work program would also provide transitional support services and life skills
counseling to ensure that the people who need it most have access to the help
they need to better their lives and those of their families.
MESSINGER: I believe in work-and believe people can and should work. But the
mayor's workfare program is no way to achieve this. As my report "Work to
Be Done" made clear, moving people from welfare to economic indepen-
dence requires more than workfare-it takes job creation and training. The
mayor's program is focused on one goal: cutting the welfare rolls. Just look
at his program's poor results: last year just 17 percent out of 218,200 welfare
recipients in work-related programs found jobs.
Some 58 percent of the city's single mothers on welfare do not have a high
school diploma. Unless our workfare program begins with getting them a
OED, their chances of finding employment that leads to economic self-suffi-
ciency remain minimal. The mayor has made it difficult-if not impossible-
for CUNY students who receive welfare to stay in school. In a job market
increasingly demanding higher skills, this is counterproductive.
We also need to create jobs. Welfare changes will add some 80,000 more
people in the next few years to the 280,000 already looking for work. These
jobs must be for people with a variety of skill levels and targeted to New
Yorkers, as under my City Hire program. City Hall enters into some $6 bil-
lion worth of contracts each year. These contracts can be used to generate
6,600 entry level jobs for public assistance recipients and other "hard to
place" workers.
Without adequate day care many of our efforts will be fruitless. Some
15,000 New York City children are already waiting for a place. Welfare
changes will more than double the need. The mayor has failed to fight for nec-
essary funding from Albany or launch the partnerships between the private
and public sectors that can help fill the gap.
Crioo down and lUi of IU have booome safer in recent years. What llUd yoo do to
keep tt down? HOI llUd yoo change or .ve tile GUiani aOOUstration's poice stratBgj?
ALBANESE: My administration would increase patrol strength in neighborhoods.
The neighborhood beat cop who has a familiarity with the community and its
residents has the best chance of preventing crime while also assisting in solv-
ing local crime problems. In addition, I would streamline the NYPD.
Currently, there are thousands of NYPD officers performing administrative
duties and desk work which could be performed more cost-effectively by
civilians. These officers could then be easily redeployed to active patrol and
enforcement duties that would make the city even safer than it is today.
The first line of defense in fighting crime is prevention. Crime experts
from across the country agree that providing viable after-school programs and
activities that keep young people off the streets and out of trouble are essen-
-
tial components of sustaining the decrease in crime. I would seek to expand
neighborhood Latch Key programs, fully fund varsity and junior varsity
sports programs in the public schools and advocate for federal funding for
summer jobs initiatives.
One area of public safety which the current administration has neglected
is reckless driving. There has been a 38 percent increase in automobile fatal-
ities in the past year. Most urban communities across the nation issue approx-
imately 14 percent of their vehicle summonses for reckless driving. Only 2
percent of New York's summonses are issued for reckless driving. My admin-
istration would crack down on dangerous drivers and make a serious effort to
reduce traffic fatalities in the city.
MESSINGER: The drop in crime began under the Dinkins administration and has
been aided by the management initiatives of Bill Bratton. But in too many
communities the police remain less effective than they could be. We also can
do much better in preventing youth crime.
We must get back to some of the fundamentals of community policing.
This means officers walking a beat and getting to know the people and busi-
nesses in the neighborhoods they patrol. This will have three effects: it will
deter crime because of a regular police presence, it will make residents and
business owners feel safer and it will nurture better relationships between
communities and officers.
Far too many New Yorkers are distrustful of the police. There have been
nearly 20,000 complaints filed with the Civilian Complaints Review Board
since July 1993. Yet even among the complaints substantiated by the CCRB,
a tiny number ever result in disciplinary action by the police commissioner.
This undermines public confidence in the force and breeds a distrust that
hampers crime prevention and investigation efforts. Requiring that all new
recruits be city residents will help forge better relations, as will giving the
CCRB more credibility.
Our focus on youth crime must be prevention, not incarceration. The
mayor has cut $15.7 million from the neighborhood-based youth programs
that are essential in helping steer kids away from crime, instead focusing on
arrests and lock-ups. This is the very approach that police chiefs around the
country will tell you is doomed to failure. We need to invest in youth pro-
grams and keep our schools open until 6 PM in order to discourage kids from
turning to crime in the flfst place.
CL: What do YOU believe is the largest problem facing the New York City school system, and what
wodd you do to solve tt?
ALBANESE: The lack of performance-based accountability. There is no substitute
for monetary and material resources for the school system. The $1.5 billion
cut from the system over the past three years must be restored and additional
monies allocated to address current inequities. Both accountability and
resources are necessary for the public school system to be a success.
The reason why some under-funded schools succeed and some better-
funded schools fail is educational leadership and accountability. Principals
must be held accountable for the educational performance of the children in
their schools. This can be done by offering them four-year performance-based
contracts. Good principals are successful at supervising and motivating teach-
ers to excel. They are also resourceful at acquiring outside resources and pro-
gram funding for special initiatives in their schools. My administration would
advocate for the creation of school-based councils involving parents, com-
munity and faculty.
I would also promote the development of a Leadership Recruitment and
Development program for the public schools. The system needs to identify
good teachers who would make good supervisors and administrators. We are
not grooming teachers who have the potential to become good leaders. These
teachers must be identified and then given the option of entering a skills
building and development program that would put them on a career track to
become principals.
MESSINGER: The central issue confronting our public school system is insuring
-
that our children receive the highest quality education possible. When fewer
than half of our children can read at grade level; many have decades old text-
books-or no books at all; numerous classrooms are dilapidated and over-
crowded; many teachers are teaching subjects they have no training in; and
many schools have had to close science, history, art and music programs
because there were not enough teachers or classrooms, then we cannot say the
city is providing children with the best possible opportunity to learn.
It is time to make education a priority. We need to do for our schools what
together we did to combat crime. We must marshal resources-not cut more than
$1 billion from classrooms as the mayor has done. We must establish innovative
programs such as tuition forgiveness that will encourage our best CUNY stu-
dents to become public school teachers. We must provide the ongoing profes-
sional training that will help our teachers grow and learn with each succeeding
class, and we must pay them enough so they do not leave for the surrounding
counties. We must give principals and school administrators the freedom and
responsibility to ensure that the highest educational standards are met-and hold
them accountable when they are not. And perhaps most importantly, we must
have a system that assumes all children can learn if given the opportunity.
CL: IlII'i1g the 1980s and early 1990s, the Koc/J and 0iDJs alDistratioos developed and rebtIt tens
of tOOusands of II1its of affordable Under GMiaJi, the city's capital spendiJg 00 hoosiJg has lopped
by about half. MeanwIiIe, the city is in !lie Bidst of a severe housing Between 1993 and 1996, the
I1IIOOer of apartments rentiJg for less than $500 a IIMNIIh Iiopped by 113,000, and for the first time in
decades, the federal govemment is no longer providing the city with new rent subsidies for low-income
people. How do you propose to preserve and expand affordable in New York?
AlBANESE: The flfst step toward expanding and preserving affordable housing is
to ensure that NYCHA and HPD are run efficiently and competently. I would
select commissioners with experience in the housing industry and who pos-
sess vision for the department. Without a long-term strategy for affordable
housing and an agency focused on implementing that strategy, New York will
continue to suffer a housing crisis.
The city must also work with many of the successful nonprofit organiza-
tions who have already put up thousands of units of affordable housing in
many areas of the city. Nehemiah housing in Brooklyn is a prime example of
what can be done when the city works with communities to develop housing.
There are other examples of this type of partnership in areas of Harlem, the
Bronx and elsewhere. These programs can be expanded and duplicated.
I would propose a $5 billion to $8 billion, five-year capital plan targeted
toward building quality affordable housing, particularly in areas of the city
that need revitalization. Under my administration, the office of the mayor
would also be used to lobby the federal and state government for the city's
fair share of existing housing dollars.
MESSINGER: The city's continuing housing crisis manifests itself in three ways:
an affordability gap, a shortage of available units, and disrepair and abandon-
ment. We are doing a terrible job of preserving the housing we have, losing
some 16,000 units a year to abandonment. The mayor has cut housing code
enforcement, yet this is the most cost-effective way to protect our housing
stock. The city should return to cyclical building inspections. Combining cer-
tain housing, buildings, fife and health department functions gives us a jump
start on achieving this goal. The city should also direct more funds to the 8A
and Participation Loan programs, targeting them to community-based organi-
zations and other property owners who are clearly dedicated to properly
maintaining buildings in their neighborhoods for the long-term.
A serious city commitment to housing preservation will not alone solve the
affordable housing crisis. Even in this time of federal pull-out, there are things
we can do to spur development. We need to craft more innovative mixes of
tax-exempt bonding, abatements and credits to produce lower income housing.
Allowing developers to apply 421a and 80120 tax credits to the renovation of
city-owned buildings would generate more low-income rental and cooperative
apartments. The creation of a state low-income housing tax credit program
would add to the pool of development dollars. The city should also encourage
increased investment in affordable housing by union pension plans .
CITY LIMITS
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CITY LIMITS
(Lette rs Continued from page 4)
Over the last 10 years I've become
wiser about the nature of the beast that
must be confronted and who the real
enemy of economic growth is in commu-
nities like Bedford Stuyvesant. The pre-
sent losers in this debacle are the commu-
nity residents. I will utilize what I have
learned from the experience to educate
those who will come after us how not to
bring economic development to under-
served communities.
Rev. James H. Daniel, Jr.
21st Century Partnership
WhHlchalr Disr.sped
Although I was very interested to read
about the challenges faced by disabled ten-
ants in NYCHA apartments, ("Disabled
Need Not Apply," June/July 1997), I
cringed again and again as I encountered
the phrases "wheelchair-bound" and "con-
filled to a wheelchair." Wheelchairs gener-
ally increase the mobility and therefore the
liberty of disabled people (except maybe
in NYCHA apartments) and should
accordingly be thought of in a positive
light. While the phrase "wheelchair
bound" may serve to gain sympathy for
people already regarded as pathetic in the
popular consciousness, I found it disre-
spectful. What's wrong with the descriptor
"wheelchair user?"
Saf.tyChKk
Cora Roelofs
Brooklyn
I was delighted that the parent patrol at
PS 70 was featured in Mary Blatch's article
"Parents on Patrol" (May 1997). Please
note that my company, Crime Reduction
Strategies, Inc., was hired by the Citizens
Committee for New York City-not the
patrol-to work on safety-related initia-
tives for the Comprehensive Community
Revitalization Program in the South Bronx.
The patrol is one of the resident-led initia-
ti ves that I am proud to have provided tech-
nical assistance to under my contract.
BeaLurie
President
Crime Reduction Strategies, Inc.
Mam. It, Chang. It
Maxine Greene wrote a lovely column,
"Remembering Paolo Freire" (June/July
1997). In it she quotes from Freire: "To
exist, humanly, is to name the world, to
change it.. .. " I would be very grateful if
she could tell me where exactly that quote
is in his writing.
Malve von Hassell
via email
It's from "The Pedagogy of the
Oppressed, " (Herder & Herder 1970).
-Maxine Greene
AUCUST/SEPTEMBER 1997
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CITYVIEW
Fostering Abuse
By Danielle Joseph
Danielle
Joseph is a
writer with
Foster Care
Youth United.
-
I
magine yourself a child, at home watching television one
afternoon with your brothers and sisters. Suddenly the
doorbell rings. Your mother goes to open the door and it's
the police. You sense some kind of confusion and as you
approach the front of the house, a policeman grabs you,
gathers up your other siblings and says, "Get ready, let's go.
You are coming with us. You will see your mother soon. You
will be gone for only a few days." You are terrified. You try to
say "No" and put up some kind of resistance.
And no matter how much your mother protests, she fails to
prevent the police from taking you away. You are put in a police
car and taken to a strange office where you are surrounded by
people who call themselves social workers. After sitting for
what seems like forever, you are finally taken to another strange
place to live with unfamiliar people.
Weeks pass, and you are left wondering, Why was I taken
away? When will I see my mother again? The policeman said it
was only for a few days. It's been almost a month.
What is going to happen to me?
This scenario comes to life for many New York
City children every day. Children are tom from their
families and prevented from having any kind of con-
tact with parents and siblings, sometimes for weeks.
No one would deny there are cases where children
must be separated from their parents in order to pro-
tect them from serious abuse. But during the last year
and a half, since Elisa Izquierdo was killed by her
mother, politicians and the press have been demand-
ing that children be quickly pulled away from their
parents whenever there's even just a suspicion of
abuse or neglect.
But this idea that a child is automatically made
safe once he or she is removed from a neglectful or
abusive parent is a myth. If only it were that sim-
ple. First of all, being taken from your parents is
traumatic. And life in foster care can be just as horrible or
worse than living with natural parents. Every year, the city's
Administration for Children's Services (ACS) investigates more
than 1,300 cases of reported abuse or neglect of children in fos-
ter homes. Researchers have also found that children in foster
care are twice as likely to be abused there as children living at
home. Just last month, a little girl was allegedly beaten to death
in Brooklyn by members of her foster family.
This is no surprise to me. When I lived in foster homes, my
foster parents cared more about their government stipend check
than about me. Most of my friends who have been in foster care
will agree. Tanya, a friend of mine, says her foster parent told
her, "I do not care what you do just as long as I get mine and
you do it on the streets." At least when I lived with my natural
mother, I knew she took care of me because she cared-not
because she was being paid.
My friend Linda Sanchez, now on her own at 17, had it even
worse. "My foster mother almost never bought us any food to
eat," she says. "Her son and her son-in-law tried to molest me.
They even offered me money [for sex]."
It will be a long time before I forgive my agency for allow-
ing one of my foster parents to abuse me and the three foster
children I lived with in Bedford-Stuyvesant. Even though my
foster mother received a food stipend for us, she spent more on
marijuana and cigarettes each week than she spent on food for
us in an entire month. And there was psychological abuse. It was
not uncommon for her to yell into the intercom, "Bitch, get your
ass downstairs. Now!" She was referring to one of us, of course.
I called my social worker at the foster care agency that over-
saw my placement and I asked him to investigate this woman.
He said I complained too much. I went to his supervisor, who
life in foster care can be
just as horrible or worse than
living with natural parents.
also ignored me. I went so far as to call ACS. The city investi-
gator set up an appointment with my foster parent when I was
not around. During the interview she denied all my complaints
and the case was dismissed. It does not take a genius to know
that an investigator should interview the person making the
complaints. But he did not.
I fear many children who do not need to be separated from
their parents will suffer the way my friends and I have. Instead,
whenever it's possible, their natural mothers and fathers should be
given help to care for them properly. More emphasis should be
placed on family preservation. Preventive services should be pro-
vided to families in crisis. If the city thinks a child is at risk, it can
step in and help the family with counseling, therapy, drug rehabil-
itation, parenting techniques and whatever else is necessary.
There is one small problem: city statistics show that ACS
caseworkers refer 40 percent fewer families to preventive ser-
vices today than they did five years ago. Parents nowadays are
more likely than ever before to lose their children to foster
care. This is a direct result of the ignorant attitudes of
reporters, editorial writers and politicians. Foster care has
become a political football game of kicking around children
and their families. "Remove children at the first sign of abuse,"
the tabloids scream. "Deranged mothers are destroying their
children's lives."
But I know the abuse my friends and I witnessed flIst-hand
in foster care. Rescuing a child is much more complicated than
just taking her away from her mother .
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Real Estate, Corporate and Tax Legal Representation to Organizations
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Title and loan closings 0 All city housing programs
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100 Remsen Street, Brooklyn, NY 11201, (718) 624-6850
LAWRENCE H. McGAUGHEY
Attorney at Law
Meeting the challenges of affordable housing for 20 years.
Providing legal services in the areas of General Real Estate,
Business, Trust & Estates, and Elder Law.
217 Broadway, Suite 610
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(212) 5130981
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KOURAKOS & KOURAKOS
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Attorneys at Law
New York, N.Y.
(212) 551-7809
Reach 20,000 readers in the nonprofit sector,
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ADVERTISE YOUR BUSINESS
OR SERVICE IN THE CITY LIMITS
PROFESSIONAL DIRECTORY!
Call Faith Wiggins at
(212) 479-3344 or (917) 792-8426
CITYLlM'TS
INVEST1GATlONS COORDINATOR to implement fair housing testing program.
Housing background/experience necessary. Familiarity with NYC neighbor-
hoods. Need someone smart, quick-to-Iearn, team player. Will train. One year
grant beginning 9/16/97, FT, benefits, low $30s. Resume to: Phyllis Spiro,
Open Housing Center, 594 Broadway, Room 608, NYC 10012. EOE.
ORGANIZER/ACTIVIST with NJ Citizen Action, the state's largest consumer
watchdog coalition working on multiissue campaigns. Qualifications include:
experience in community, student, church, political organizing; good writing,
phone and computer skills; interest in health care or lead poisoning preven-
tion a plus. Car required. Salary high 20s, plus good benefits. Send resume:
AW, NJCA, 400 Main Street, Hackensack, NJ 07601.
CONSTITUENT SERVICESILEGISLATIVE ASSISTANT. City Council Member Joan
Griffin McCabe seeks hard working, dedicated individual for 6 month posi-
tion responding to constituent inquiries, aiding communities in solving
problems and assisting with legislative work. Must have strong writing
abilities, excellent telephone skills, proficiency in word processing and
perSistence. FT or PT. Salary commensurate with experience. Fax resume
and cover letter to: Allison Walsh, Chief of Staff. (718) 436-2656. No
calls please.
COMMUNnY ORGANIZER. The Bronx Cluster of Settlement Houses seeks qual-
ified individual for Community Building Project. A new initiative, the ten Bronx
Settlement Houses want to help reconstruct new positive relationships with
people and institutions that can help improve our communities; become
involved around organizing local issues with other organizations; carrying out
our own projects. Qualifications: BA with three years organizing or relative
experience; communication skills; work cooperatively with diverse staff and
community; ability to handle multiple tasks; creativity and energy. Salary high
20s with excellent benefits. EOE. Fax cover letter with resume to: Blanca
Ramirez, Community Building Project. (718) 293-9767.
PROGRAM OFFICER. The Jewish Fund for Justice (JFJ), a national public chari-
ty that supports grassroots organizing and advocacy in 5 areas: Women in
Poverty, Investing in Youth, Economic Justice, New Americans and Building
Community, seeks a full-time program officer. He/she will be responsible for
conducting outreach to new grantees, evaluation of applicants and making
funding recommendations to the Board of Directors. Salary range: $35,()()().
$45,000 with full benefits package. Send cover letter and resume to: Deb
Roth, Director of Operations. 260 5th Avenue, Room 701, NYC 10001.
People of color encouraged to apply. No phone calls please.
PROJECT MANAGER. New Destiny Housing Corporation, a not-for-profit housing
development agency affiliated with Victim Services, seeks a Project Manager
to develop supportive housing projects for low-income domestic violence sur-
vivors. The Project Manager is responsible for site identification, financial
analYSiS, proposal writing and coordination of the development team. In addi-
tion s/he assists with the property management of New Destiny's four exist-
ing projects and works closely with the Director and staff to plan and sup-
port the future development of the corporation. Requirements: BA (Masters
a plus); 2-5 years of experience in real estate management/development,
urban planning, public policy or a related field; multi-family underwriting and
loan management experience; strong computer skills (Microsoft Office);
excellent written and oral communication abilities. Applicants should be self-
motivated, able to work independently and handle multiple tasks. Salary
competitive with excellent benefits. Send resume and cover letter to:
Executive Director, New Destiny Housing Corporation, 2 Lafayette Street, 3rd
Floor, NYC 10007.
COMMUNnY SERVICE SPECIALIST. To work with South Bronx/Harlem service
providers to strengthen, expand and fund services for women/adolescent ex-
offenders from Rikers Island. Rve years' experience in program development
for substance using, homeless or ex-offenders' prior experience working with
women or adolescents, successful fundraising experience required. Must
have excellent program planning, writing and communication skills. BA/BS
required., advanced degree in public health, social work or related field, pro-
ficiency in Spanish preferred. $40-48 with excellent benefits. Job code:CSS.
RESEARCH ASSOCIATE. To work with community-based organizations to imple-
ment evaluation activities. Conduct site visits and focus groups, report
observations on evaluation, workshops, trainings; train CBO staffs on eval-
uation procedures, conduct literature searches, train/supervise data entry
staff, generate statistical reports, etc. BA/BS in health or human services
field, strong computerized database and writing skills required, MA/MPH and
proficiency in Spanish preferred. $3440 with excellent benefits. Job code:
RA. PEER HIV/AIDS EDUCATOR. To coordinate South Bronx high school peer
HIV/AIDS program. Assist with curriculum development, recruit and train
AUCUST/SEPTEMBER 1997
peer educators, teachers and community leaders and coordinate related out-
reach activities. Assist with data collection. Conduct youth discussion and
focus groups. Write monthly project reports. BA/BS and four years' related
experience in HIV/AIDS education, strong writing skills required. $24-30K
with excellent benefits. Job code:PE. Send resume, cover letter mentioning
position/job code and three references (no phone calls please) to: Search
Committee, Hunter College Center on AIDS, Drugs and Community Health,
425 East 25th Street, NYC 10010. AA/EOE/ADA employer.
DIS11IICT MANAGER for Manhattan Community Board 5. Candidates must
have extensive knowledge of NYC government; management experience;
excellent administrative, writing and verbal skills; computer proficiency; abil-
ity to work comfortably with board members and officers, public offiCials, city
and state agencies, petitioners and members of the public. State salary
requirements and send resume to: Vikki Barbero, c/o FIT, Room C914, 7th
Avenue at 27th Street, NYC 10001.
ECONOMIC DEVElOPMENT COORDINATOR. Mount Hope Housing Co. seeks per-
son to develop/oversee innovative Individual Development Account Program
promoting economic self-sufficiency. Salary to $30,000 with benefits.
Requires MA with excellent writing, financial and computer skills. Bilingual a
plus. Fax letter with relevant experience, accomplishments and technical skills
and resume, attn: Development Director (718) 299-5623 by August 22.
The New York Industrial Retention Network (NYIRN) seeks to hire two indi-
viduals for two PT positions. NYIRN is a new nonprofit dedicated to strength-
ening New York's manufacturing sector, retaining manufacturing jobs and
building the capacity of community-based organizations. labor unions and
others to engage in economic development. COMMUNnY ORGANIZER. One
position requires extensive community organizing. This individual will work
with local development corporations, unions, churches and CBOs to build a
network to identify companies that are at-riSk, to assess their needs and to
work with companies and network participants to develop and implement
remediation strategies. RESEARCHER. The second position requires strong
research and analytic skills to analyze information on individual companies,
to build a database of company information and to use the findings to mobi-
lize appropriate network participants. This individual will also assist NYIRN
in completing a survey of manufacturing conditions and must have some
background in statistical and financial analysis. Resume and cover letter to
NYIRN, 30 Flatbush Ave. Suite 420, Brooklyn NY 11217.
JOB DEVELOPER. Brooklyn-based displaced homemaker center seeks dynam-
ic individual to work with mature women returning to job market. Develop
effective job placement strategies. Build relationships with business com-
munity. Lead employment workshops, individual career counseling sessions.
BA, 3 years' experience, computer literacy. MA a plus. FT. Excellent benefits.
Resume, cover letter to: C. Marsh, WISH, 421 Rfth Ave., Brooklyn, NY
11215. EOE
ORGANIZER. New organization of Public Assistance recipients working in NYC's
workfare" program, WEP, seeks two organizers to build a union-like organi-
zation of workfare workers to fight for decent conditions and the right to a real
job. Responsibilities: Organize workfare workers at their work sites, build this
site-based organizing into citywide campaign. Qualifications: Minimum two
years community or labor organizing experience or four years volunteer expe-
rience. Experience in leadership development and organization building.
Bilingual (Spanish-English) a plus. Salary $26-30k, dependent upon e x p e r ~
ence. Full benefits. Send resume and cover letter to: WEP Workers Togetherl,
c/o Rfth Avenue Committee, 141 5th Ave., Brooklyn, NY 11217. (718) 857-
2990, ext. 18. Fax: (718) 857-4322. Phone inquiries welcome.
CHINESEBlUNGUAL COMMUNnY ORGANIZER. Coalition for Asian-American
Children and Families (www.cacf.org) seeks organizer to mobilize citizens of
child welfare system to advocate for change. Must have passion, organizing
experience, excellent public speaking skills in English and Chinese. Mid 20s,
excellent benefits. Send cover letter/resume: CACF, 1 West 34th St.,
#1202, NYC 10001; fax: 212-868-1373.
POlIT1CAL ORGANIZERS. NYPIRG seeks FT political organizers to coordinate
campaigns on college campuses developing students' advocacy organizing
and media skills. Work w/ campus and community on social justice, envi-
ronment, higher education and consumer issues. NYPIRG seeks a diverse
staff to join our dedicated group of activists, attorneys and lobbyists; people
of all backgrounds urged to apply. Excellent interpersonal skills and bache-
lor's degree required; experience w/ student organizations, campaigns and
media helpful. Send resume to: Tarika Barrett, NYPIRG, 9 Murray St., NYC
10007 or fax to 212-349-1366.
(Job Ads continued on page 39)
c
o
~
e
Di
Epstein
ow that there's a truce in the rent control war, we can sit back and examine the root cause of
the conflict. To wit: upstate legislators detest New York City.
It wasn't always that way. The Rockefeller Republicans
came down for the symphony every now and then. They could
scrape together memories of happy visits to FAO Schwartz.
But today, Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno's confederates
and their constituents haven't a shred of interest in-let alone
sympathy for-our town. Empire Staters who wouldn't dream
of jotting a "c" after their "NY" want nothing to do with us. To
these agrarian denizens, the Big Apple is mealy and unsavory,
marred with too many bad spots to be salvaged, even for pie.
It's too late for the adults, so fuggeddabout 'em. But their
children are still impressionable. They can still be turned on to
the appeal of our metropolis, acquire the skills and outlook of
expert walkers, gourmet grazers and culture vultures.
You've heard of the Fresh Air Fund, the TImes-sponsored
charity that exposes city kids to the wonders of lawns, malls and
the odd cow or two by shipping them to live with a family in the
'burbs or exurbs for a few weeks? Well, it's time to create a
Dirty Air Fund. City Limits could be the sponsor.
All we need is an armada of urban families willing to take in
deprived, upstate kids who've never gallivanted over the
Brooklyn Bridge toward the Manhattan skyline at twilight;
bopped to the beat of salsa blaring from cars in Washington
Heights; cheered on marathon runners at the 20-mile "wall" near
Lincoln Hospital; or treated their taste buds to delicious morsels
from five continents in Queens.
The Fresh Air Fund's direct mail pulls out more stops than
Sally Struthers. Its appeal begins:
"' Are you sure we can walk on the
grass?' Jeannie and Ginnie, eight-year-
old twins, worried it might be danger- ~ ~ " ! I ! ! I ! ! ....
ous. Back home, in the South )II!
Bronx, the grass often hides things
like shards of glass. They don't play
outside very much." It continues: "But
for two precious weeks last summer,
the twins got to go on a country vaca-
tion-and even run through the grass
without their shoes on."
I mean really. Stoking fear and prej-
udice for $25 donations. I'm not saying
the Fresh Air Fund doesn't show kids a
good time. But the Dirty Air Fund can
raise the ante. We've got buskers,
beaches, big shots and bagels. Real
ones, not frozen.
Never mind the Empire State
Building and the Hard Rock Cafe. Take kids to the neighbor-
hoods. Help them get past (or wallow in) the grime and glimpse
the street-corner epiphanies. Deliver those only-in-New-York-
City adventures.
With "Men in Black" the summer's sleeper, a jaunt to the
1964 World's Fair site in Flushing Meadows is definitely called
for. Kids would love to see where Will Smith and Tommy Lee
Jones get slimed trying to stop the alien from hijacking one of
the flying saucers that perch on those spindly towers. And
Brooklyn's summer bookends-the Mermaid Parade in Coney
Island on Memorial Day and the West Indian Parade on Labor
Day-are a perfect introduction to the borough that on its own
would be the nation's fifth largest city. To kids raised on MTV
and the Web, interaction is a quiet art. Click the remote; type a
flame. But audience participation on Amateur Night at the
Apollo would incite them to articulate their opinions with gusto.
Holidays are good, too. Let's invite the children to dance in
the streets on Simchas Torah in Borough Park, light candles at
midnight on Greek Easter in Astoria; learn how to be fabulous
on Halloween in the Village; and see the pets get blessed on St.
Francis of Assisi Day at St. John the Divine.
We can also dispel the notion that the city has no wildlife
(except lowlifes). Kids can sleep overnight at the Bronx Zoo; fur-
bereft polar bears go for dead-of-winter swims; dragons snake
through Chinatown streets; elephants storm the Queensboro
Bridge for circus rendezvous; the Black Rodeo has an odd cow or
two; subways course with biodiversity;
the Brooklyn Botanic Garden has car-
nivorous plants.
Don't shield young visitors from
New York City's hardships. The dairy
belt hasn't licked poverty either. Just
introduce them to people who keep
their communities in motion.
If we can win upstate hearts and
minds, the city won't keep getting
shafted every time Albany eeks out a
budget. And when these kids reach vot-
ing age, they'll be pounding our pave-
ments, looking for an affordable walk-
up. Or they' ll be back where they came
from, but instead of feeling every penny
spent on the city is going to a lost cause,
they'll be happy to add their little twist
to the gyroscope that gave them the ride
of their life.
~ " - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - I
.t:1
CITVLlMITS
(Job Ads Continued from page 37)
EVICTION PREVENTION COORDINATOR. The Church Avenue Merchants
Block Association, Inc., known as CAMBA, is a not-for-profit organiza-
tion In the North Flatbush section of Brooklyn formed as a merchant's
association in 1977. It has grown over the past 19 years, working with
150 neighborhood-based businesses, organizations and institutions to
a broad array of comprehensive services to over 10,000 par-
ticipants annually. CAMBA is currently seeking a Coordinator for its
Eviction Prevention Program, the Bridge Fund of Brooklyn. CAMBA has
previous funding to establish a loan fund specifically for at-risk
individuals and families to prevent eviction and subsequent homeless-
ness. The Bridge Fund serves the needs of the working poor, disabled
and elderly families and individuals of Brooklyn who are facing home-
lessness due to a financial crisis from exceptional expenses and/ or cir-
cumstances. The Fund enables clients to keep their present homes by
offenng Interest-free loans and financial counseling. The successful
candidate will have a proven track record of solving housing problems,
knowledge of public entitlements, and strong di rect service experience.
Responsibilities include evaluating loan requests, accessing both pub-
lic and private eviction prevention funds, community outreach, case
management, writing monthly reports, and coordinating with other
CAMBA services. The individual must be a self-starter with good admin-
istrative skills and excellent verbal and writing skills. He/ she must be
able to listen, understand, and address the unique needs of each
client. This position is a great opportunity for someone who is seeking
to bUild a program. 3-5 years of relevant experience and an undergrad-
uate degree are required. Bilingual a plus. Salary is commensurate with
experience. Send or fax cover letter and resume to: Coordinator\ B.F.
CAMBA, 1720 Church Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11226. Fax: (718) 287-
0857. EOE.
ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANTIBOOKKEEPER. Nonprofit community based
organization has chall enging position available. Responsible for provid-
ing support services to staff; handle all daily office functions including
telephones, generating business correspondence, prepare financial
reports as per employer, government and private contract obligations,
maintain files as well as internal monthly financial statements,
accounts payable and receipts and all other bookkeeping functions.
Excellent reading and writing skills required. Knowledge of Microsoft
Word, Excel, Access necessary. Non-for-profit bookkeeping experience
a must. Good communication and inter-personal skills required.
Candidate should be self-motivated and have ability to identify and
resolve problems. Must possess high school diploma. Bilingual
(Spanish-English) preferable. Fax or mail resume with cover letter to
Ms. Storm Russell , Executive Director. Jamaica Housing Improvement,
Inc. 161-10 Jamaica Avenue, Suite 601, Jamaica, NY 11432. (718)
658-5050. Fax: (718) 858-5065. Deadline: August 29.
CO-DIRECTOR for Westchester People's Action Coalition (WESPAC).
White Plains-based peace and justice organization seeks co-director
with office management and administrative skills; fundraising experi-
ence; strong speaking and writing abil ities. Full time. Salary low-$20s
plus medical. Resume desired by August 15. Affirmative action a pri-
ority. WESPAC, Box 488, White Plains, NY 10602.
AFFORDABLE HOUSING COALmON COORDINATOR for East Bay Housing
Organizations (EBHO). Work with membership committees to coordi -
nate all programs, implement ongoing Affordable Housing Education
Campaign, monitor and respond to local housing issues and to state
and federal legislation. Supervise interns, produce newsletter, collab-
orate with other organizations, represent EBHO at public forums,
fundraise. Excellent communications skills, leadership qualities, solid
understanding of affordable housing issues, fundraising experience,
computer skills. Salary $32k with benefits. Resume by August 18 to
Elissa Dennis, EBHO, 1700 Broadway, 7th Floor, Oakland CA 94612.
EOE.
ANHD has office space available for 2-3 people. Ideal for a small non-
profit organization. Use of copy and fax machine. Two desks and phone
jack also available. Rent is negotiable. Call Maruja at: 212-463-9600
for more details.
LET US DO A FREE EVALUATION
OF YOUR INSURANCE NEEDS
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We have been providing low-cost insurance programs and
quality service for HDFCs, TENANTS, COMMUNITY MANAGEMENT
and other NONPROFIT organizations for over 15 years.
AUCUST/ SEPTEMBER 1997
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The Chase Manhattan Bank Housing Opportunities Program (HOP) is now
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together will receive over $1.72 million this year.
Coooecticut
Bridgeport Neighborhood Housing Services Inc.
Bridgeport Neighborhood Inc.
Christian Activities Council
Connecticut Housing Investment Fund, Inc.
Fairfield 2000 Homes Corporation
Fair Haven Development Corporation
Greater New Haven Community loan Fund
Habitat for Humanity for Hartford Area
Habitat for Humanity of Greater Bridgeport.
Connecticut
Habitat for Humanity of Greater New Haven
Hill Development Corporation of New Haven
Housing Development Assistance Fund, Inc.
Housing Operations Management Enterprises. Inc.
Mutual Housing Association of Southwestern
Connecticut
Naugatuck Valley Housing Development Corporation
Neighborhood Housing Services of New Haven, Inc.
Neighborhood Housing Services of Norwalk, Inc.
Neighborhood Housing Services of Waterbury, Inc.
Shore Area Community Development Corporation
Washington Park Assoc. Inc.
New Jersey
Bergen County Community Housing in Partnership
Brand New Day, Inc.
Collaborative Support Program of New Jersey
Corinthian Housing Development
Episcopal Community Inc.
Fairmount Housing Corporation
Habitat for Humanity Newark. Inc.
Homes of Montdair Ecumenical Corp.
Housing and Neighborhood Development Services Inc
la Casa de Don Pedro
Morris Habitat for Humanity, Inc.
Paterson Coalition for Housing
Paterson Habitat for Humanity, Inc.
Paterson Task Force for Community Action, Inc.
Project live
Spectrum for living Group Homes
Straight and Narrow
SI. James Community Development Corporation
Unified Vailsburg Services
Urban league of Hudson County, Inc.
.tmY.12Ik.
Abyssinian Development Corporation
Affordable Housing Partnership of Albany County, Inc.
Albany County Rural Housing Alliance, Inc.
Albany Housing Coalition, Inc.
Allen A.M.E. Neighborhood Preservation and
Development Corp.
Apropos Housing Opportunities & Management
Enterprises
Aquinas Housing Corporation
Arbor Hill Development Corporation
Asian-Americans for Equality
Association For Neighborhood and Housing
Development, Inc.
Association of Brooklyn Clergy for Community
Development
Astella Development Corporation
BEC New Communities HDFC, Inc.
Bellport. Hagerman, East Patchogue Alliance H.D.F.e.
New York (coot'd)
Belmont Arthur Avenue local Development Corporation
Better Neighborhoods, Inc.
Bishop Sheen Housing Foundation
BRC Human Services Corporation
Bridge Street Development Corporation
Buffalo Neighborhood Housing Services, Inc.
Capital District Community loan Fund, Inc.
Capitol Hill Improvement Corporation
Carroll Gardens Association, Incorporated
Catholic Charities of Broome County
Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Brooklyn/Queens
Chautauqua Area Habitat for Humanity, Inc.
Chemung County Habitat for Humanity
Clinton Housing Development Company, Inc.
Community Access, Inc.
Community Assisted Tenant Controlled Housing, Inc.
Community Development Corporation of long Island
Community Housing Innovations
Community Service Society/Housing Development
Assistance Program
Cooper Square Committee
Corporation for Supportive Housing
Cypress Hills local Development Corporation
East New York Urban Youth Corps Housing Development
Fund, Inc.
Eastside Neighbors in Partnership
Empire Housing and Development Corporation
Fifth Avenue Committee, Inc.
First Ward Action Council. Inc.
Flatbush Development Corporation
Fordham Bedford Housing Corporation
Greyston Foundation
Habitat for Humanity - Broome County
Habitat for Humanity - Flower City
Habitat for Humanity - Nassau County
Habitat for Humanity - New York City
Habitat for Humanity of the Capital District
Habitat for Humanity of Ontario County
Habitat For Humanity of Syracuse
Habitat for Humanity of Westchester
HELP Homeless Service Corporation
Highbridge Community Housing Development Fund Corp.
Hill And Vale Affordable Housing, Inc.
Homeless and Travelers Aid Society of the Capital District
Hope Community, Inc.
Housing Action Council
Housing And Services. Inc.
Housing Help, Inc.
Housing Opportunities for Growth, Advancement aod
Revitalization
Housing Opportunities. Inc.
Human Development Services of Port Chester, Inc.
Institute For Community living, Inc.
Interfaith Council for Action, Inc.
Interfaith Council for Affordable Residence
Interfaith Nutrition Network. Inc.
lawyers Alliance for New York
leviticus 25:23 Alternative Fund
liberty Resources, Inc.
local Initiatives Support Corporation
long Island Housing Partnership, Inc.
low Income Housing Fund
Manhattan Valley Development Corporation
Marketview Heights Association
New york (coot'd)
MBD Community Housing Corporation
Mercy Haven, Inc.
MidBronx Senior Citizens Council, Inc.
Mount Hope Housing Company
Nassau-Suffolk Coalition for the Homeless
Near Westside Neighborhood Association
NEHDA, Inc.
Neighborhood Housing Services of New York City, Inc.
Neighborhood Housing Services of Rochester
New Destiny Housing Corporation
New York ACORN Housing Corporation
New York landmarks Conservancy, Inc.
North Amityville Housing Rehabilitation Association, Inc.
North Brooklyn Development Corporation
Northeast Area Development
North East Block Club Alliance
Northern Manhattan Improvement Corp.
Northfield local Development Corp.
OceanhillBrownsvilie Tenants Association, Inc.
Old First Ward Community Center
Parodneck Foundation for Self Help Housing and
Community Development
Pastoral and Educational Services
Pathways to Housing
People's Economic Opportunity Projects of the lower
East Side, Inc.
Polish Community Center of Buffalo, Inc.
Pratt Area Community Council, Inc.
Pratt Institute Center for Community and Environmental
Development
Project Hospitality, Inc.
Putnam County Housing Corporation
Resurrection House, Inc.
Ridgewood Bushwick Senior Citizens Council, Inc.
Rockland Housing Action Coalition
R.O.U.S.E. Rural Preservation Corporation
Rural Opportunities
Senior Housing Resource Corporation
Settlement Housing Fund, Inc.
SFDS Development Corporation
Sheltering The Homeless Is Our Responsibility, Inc.
Southern Brooklyn Community Organization
Southside United Housing Development Fund
Corporation
Southtowns Rural Preservation Co., Inc.
SI. Nicholas Neighborhood Preservation Corporation
Star of the Sea
Suffolk County United Veterans Halfway House Projen Inc.
The Bridge, Inc.
The Enterprise Foundation
Troy Rehabilitation and Improvement Program
University Neighborhood Housing Program, Inc.
Urban Homesteading Assistance Board
Utica Community Action
Victory Housing Development Fund, Inc.
Volunteers of America of Greater New York
Washingtonville Housing Alliance, Inc.
Westchester Housing Fund
Westhab, Inc.
West Side Federation for Senior Housing
Wyandanch Homes and Property Development
Corporation
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l997 The Chase Manhattan Bank. Member FDIC.