City Limits Magazine, April 1988 Issue

April 1988 $2.
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2 CITY LIMITS April 1988
CitJI L i m i ~ s
Volume XIII Number 4
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City Limits (ISSN 0199-0330)
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Editor: Beverly Cheuvront
Managing Editor: Doug Thretsky
Contributing Editors: Peter Marcuse,
Peggy Moberg, Tom Robbins, Jennifer
Stem
Production: Chip Cliffe
Photographer: Cindy Reiman
Intern: Tobias Brown
Copyright Cl 1988. All Rights Reserved.
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EDITORIAL
Shadow Governments
As the media debate heats up over the political question of revising
the City Charter powers and roles of the Board of Estimate and City
Council, New York City's shadow governments continue their exercise
of unlimited powers to pursue business as usual.
Choreographed by the overarching powers of the mayor, these invisible
governments are composed of separate quasi-governmental fiefdoms
including the Public Development Corporation (see story on page 12),
Housing Development Corporation, Housing New York Corporation,
Urban Development Corporation and Harlem Urban Development Cor-
poration.
Year in and year out, these little-known and un scrutinized entities
receive hundreds of millions of dollars in public funds; set their own
priorities for raising billions of tax-exempt dollars; and determine
where, what and for whom to spend billions of these funds. These
decisions, which are remaking the face of this city and reordering fun-
damental political and economic power relations, are being made and
implemented without any public input, control and accountability. And
so far, nothing has been said about this in the loud debate about charter
revision.
While the Housing Justice Campaign and others challenge the
priorities of the mayor's 10-year, $4.2 billion housing plan and put
forward alternative housing, land use and development policies' for city
property and public funds that fall within the city's annual operating
and capital budgets, the mayor's real agenda is being implemented with
more than $2 billion that will be raised and allocated by HDC and the
Housing New York Corporation outside of the budget process and with-
out even the mild constraints of the land use review provisions of the
City Charter.
Where did these entities get the authority to use their extraordinary
public powers to implement the private housing and economic develop-
ment agendas of the real estate and corporate sectors of this city? How
can HDC, formed by the state legislature to encourage private financing
for housing "for persons of low income," issue bonds and spend hun-
dreds of millions of tax-exempt dollars - and part of its ample surplus
funds - for luxury condos and upper income rentals on the Seward
Park Urban Renewal Area (page 8) and in Tibbett Gardens?
And how has PDC been transformed from its origin in a 1966 Executive
Order as a not-for-profit local development corporation with an unpaid
board of 20 into its current status as a development behemoth with a
public budget approaching $158 million and a paid staff of 200? More
to the point, how will charter revision bring these and other parts of
the invisible government under control?
The answer to this last question is very uncertain. All of these entities
were formed to explicitly operate outside the framework of the City
Charter.
The Land Use Committee of Citizens for Charter Change has proposed
recommendations that would begin to bring these shadow governments
into the framework of the charter.
Since the essence of political power is control over the allocation and
use of public resources, and the authority to channel, control and/or
limit private development, the proposed revision of the City Charter
must address the issue of bringing New York's shadow governments
under public control. 0
INSIDE
FEATURES
PDC Plays Let's Make a Deal 12
The city's Public its
land sales are cre"ahng thousands of mdustrial Jobs.
Like the ones for a hospital parking lot.
And What If the Republicans Win? " 16
If a Republican wins the presidential race, the Reagan
like the "good old days" for federal hous-
109 policles
DEPARTMENTS
Editorial
Shadow Governments ................ .. .. 2
Shori Thrm Notes
Redemption Fight . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Credit Unions Eye NYCHA Deposits . . . . . . . . . 4
Harping Against Welfare Hotels . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Tax Attack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Lock Out ............... . ...... . . . .. .... 6
Neighborhood Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 7
Pipeline
LeFrak. Flack .... .......... .............. 8
City Views
Where's the Kitchen, Mommy? ............. 9
Legislation
The Albany Agenda ................... .. 18
Organize
Boston's Eviction-Free Zone .............. 20
\Vorkshop ................................. 22
April 1988 CITY LIMITS 3
PDC/Page 12
SHORT TERM NOTES
REDEMPTION
FIGHT
Twenty families who put
sweat and money into two East
Hariem buildings abandoned
five years ago are awaiting a
decision from the State
Supreme Court's Appellate
Division on whether the farmer
landlord can redeem the
buildings. The former owner,
PRF Realty, has negotiated a
sale of the buildings to the DAX
Group.
When PRF Realty walked
away from 172-174 E. 122nd
Street in 1981, the two 10-unit
buildings were nearty
uninhabitable and lacked heat
and hot water, tenants say. They
pooled their money to buy fuel,
replace frozen pipes and make
major repairs. Just as the tenants
prepared to buy their
apartments from the city for
$250, PRF Realty paid off the
back taxes. Tenants, in tum, filed
suit to prevent the redemption.
"We had the dream of buying
our buildings. All of a sudden
they had shattered our dreams,"
says Milagros Gerena-Rochet,
the tenant 7 A administrotor for
172 E. 122nd Street. "We had
proven that we could manage
our own buildings ... We don't
want speculators coming in to
make a profit off our building:
As real estate values climb,
owners are reclaiming buildings
they discarded as worthless a
few years earlier. "In Hariem,
the reason for that (redemptions)
is that owners have the hope
and confidence that their
property will be valuable," says
Erik Jacobs of the DAX Group,
which has baught a number of
tax-foreclosed buildings in the
area.
According to Howard Cross,
deputy commissioner of the
city's finance department, of the
6,747 Manhattan building
owners facing tax foreclosures
in 1986, only 718 failed to pay
back taxes.
City policy, which is geared
toward increasing tax revenue,
allows any former owner who
pays back taxes within the
redemption period to reclaim
.ome of _Itom are pictured above, .ay titer
fI,e forced tltem f,om tltei, Itome .
property, even if buildings like
172-174 E. 122nd Street were
left in serious disrepair.
Douglas Simmons of the
Community Law Office, which is
representing the East 122nd
Street tenants, says that a policy
change is long overdue. "We
don't believe that the city should
blindly give back buildings
without looking at the previous
owner's record of building
management," he says.
Simmons adds that
restrictions - such as a history
of serious violations or unsafe
conditions - should be
considered. "We think there$
more to eligibility then being a
former owner and plunking
down back taxes," he says.
But attorney David K.
Brownstein, who represents the
DAX Group, disagrees. "I think
there has to be blanket
approval. To look at their
backgrounds and deprive them
of their property would be
unconstitutional," he says. ':A
bad landlord should not benefit
from his bad conduct, but you
can't punish him by taking away
his property."
Brownstein explains the
typical redemption scenario:
"Most of these buildings have
been neglected. New people
come in, they go to the owner
and say, 'You have no interest in
it, so why don't you redeem the
buildings and we'll buy it from
you.' And sometimes they loon
them the money to do it," he
said.
That's exactly what DAX did.
It offered PRF Realty between
$10,000 to $15,000 in addition
to covering $85,000 in back
taxes and penalties, according
to Jacobs.
If DAX wins the lawsuit, it
plans to sell the buildings to the
tenants "so that there's no bad
blood," says Jacobs.
In a similar situation, DAX
bought a tax-foreclosed
building at 420 E. 119th Street
after tenants had made repairs,
intending to buy their
apartments for $250 from the
city. DAX sold the building that
it purchased for $150,000 to the
tenants for $180,000-
$30,000 more" than it poid for
the building.
DAX is no white knight for
tenants, charges Gloria
Quinones of the Community
Law Office. She says its original
intent to redevelop these
properties was derailed by
strong tenant and community
objections, and the city's refusal
to relinquish the redemption
payments backed the
developers into a comer,
forcing it to sell to tenants.
DEve Heyn
CREDIT UNIONS
EYE NYCHA
DEPOSITS
Fourteen credit unions and
community development
groups have joined forces to
form the New York Coolition for
Community Banking. The
coolition plans to play several
roles, from leveraging funds for
independent credit unions to
watchdogging banking
legislation and regulations.
Clifford Rosenthal, a coolition
member who also heads the
National Federation of
Community Development
Credit Unions, is negotiating
with the New York City Housing
Authority to place deposits in
community credit unions. Under
the proposal, NYCHA would
deposit $1.5 million, currently
held as security deposits, in
credit unions throughout the city.
\til Coleman, a spokesman for
the housing authority, says
NYCHA sees "no major
impediments" and that it "very
much wants to make a deal and
very much wants to make it
work."
The coalition also wants to
"bring credit unions into the
computer age," says Rosenthal.
This is critical, he says, if the
credit unions are going to help
.......... iii..oi .......... ____ ............. _ ...... ______________ -'-_'"-""'-...... ___________ -"_ _.. -- - - .
meet the banking needs of low
and moderate income people.
For example, coalition members
want credit unions to provide
checking accounts, replacing
the check cashing outlets that
have sprung up because bank
accounts have grown too costly
for many New Yorkers.
Other plans include joining
the New York Cash Exchange
network, which also would
expond the credit unions' ability
to serve their clientele. This
requires, Rosenthal says,
"conveying to them (the banks)
that we're not competitors. In
fad, we're doing them a favor
by taking over their least
profitable accounts."
Coalition members believe
these new accounts, along with
deposits from organizations like
the housing authority, will give
the credit unions resources for
housing and neighborhood
business loans. "Community-
based credit unions are
chartered to help low and
moderate income people-
their basic intent is the same as
ours," says Alison Cordera, an
organizer with the St. Nicholas
Neighborhood Preservation
Corporation and a coalition
member. "It's easier to work with
people when their goals are the
same as yours."
Rosenthal says that sentiment
underscores the rale credit
unions can play in
neighborhood revitalization.
"The city has found in dealing
with banks that they have the
resources but not the
willingness," says Rosenthal.
"We have the willingness."
DTobias Brown.
HARPING
AGAINST
WELFARE HOTELS
Calling New York City's
welfare hotels" one of the worst
examples of social blight and
human degradation presently
affliding our city," the
Partnership for the Homeless is
asking city and state officials to
quit housing some 2,300
Alternatives to homelessness:
The Partnership for the Homeless advocates
placing homeless families in
market ra'e apartments instead of IIo'e's.
homeless fomilies in these hotels
within one year. Barring a
commitment to such a program
by the city in the next few weeks,
the Partnership will launch a
massive public campaign later
this month - with petitions,
demonstrations and other
events - to call politicians'
attention to the need for such a
program.
Modeled after a
Massachusetts program that
relocated more than 2,000
families from hotels to
permanent housing between
1985 and 1986, the
Partnerships Homeless
Accelerated Rehousing
Program (HARP) would relocate
New York's homeless families to
market rate housing. According
to Partnership president Peter
Smith, this could save taxpayers
upto$15 millon a year because
the city and state's 50 percent
share of a typical welfare hotel
room is $1,100, compared to
$700 for a market rate
apartment in the outer
boroughs or in Manhatton
above 96th Street.
"Five years is much too long,"
says Smith referring to a recent
city plan that would, among
other things, end the use of
hotels within five years.
"Although we otherwise
applaud the five-year plan, it
does not represent a serious
effort to eliminate welfare
hotels," says Smith, who is a
former Koch administration
official.
Although the city currently
houses more than 3,550
families in 59 hotels, HARP
would concentrate on the
2,300 in the 14 to 15 hotels the
Partnership labels "welfare
hotels:" large, old buildings
almost completely filled with
homeless families, where rents
run as high as $2,500-
substantially higher than the
average rent in all 59 hotels.
Under the HARP plan, the city's
Human Resources
Administration would hire
specialists to identify market rote
housing suitable for families and
help them secure leases and
move out of the hotels.
The Partnership cites
Deportment of Housing
Preservation and Development
figures showing 19,000
aportments vacant and
available in 1987 for $500 or
more per month as praof that
suitable permanent housing is
available. The city and state
would split the portion of the
rent not covered by federal
assistance. This financial
arrangement could require state
legislation allowing a flexible
maximum on shelter allowances
for families in need of
emergency housing.
Smith presented the plan to
HRA Commissioner William
Grinker last month. "I was
impressed with his openness/
says Smith, adding that he and
Grinker would meet again after
HRA had time to analyze the
proposal.
The Partnership has gained
support for HARP from the City
Club and is showing the
proposal to other nonprafit
organizations. "We are
prepared to go the streets" to
get public officials to change
their minds, Smith adds. If city
officials don't ad on the
proposal, the Partnership will
start its public campoign later
this month with a rally or petition
drive in its several hundred
member churches and
synagogues. Smith estimates
that up to a half million people
would sig_n the petition.
DJennlfer Stem
TAX AnACK
Residents of low income,
limited equity co-ops went to
courtto challenge the citys real
estate tax assessments for their
buildings. In papers filed in state
Supreme Court, lawyers for
three buildings charge the city's
Department of Finance assesses
low income co-ops at market
rate, failing to take into account
that these buildings are
operated as nonprofits with
resale restrictions.
The buildings, which are state
chartered as Housing
Development Fund
Corporations, were purchased
from the city through the Tenant
Interim Lease, Urban
Homestead or Central
Management programs.
Residents bought their units for
$250 and must sell to another
low income family if they move.
Any profit on sale of a unit is
limited by low.
"When the city sells the
buildings, its with the assumption
that the units are valued at
$2,000," explains Lee Farrow,
director of cooperative
management services for the
Urban Homesteading
Assistance Board. But the
buildings are now being
assessed at what tenants believe
are exorbitant rates, threatening
the ability of some to pay the
monthly maintenance.
One of the HDFCs filing the
court challenge, 504 West 48th
St. in Manhattan, purchased a
10-unit building from the city in
1982 for $2,500. In Fiscal Year
1987, the building was assessed
at $60,000, which amounts to a
tax bill of more than $4,500.
The buildings assessment for the
current year rose nearly 50
percent, to $85,000.
"What we're seeing this year
is buildings being assessed
anywhere from 50 percent to
100 percent of their previous
assessment, and not knowing if
the next tax yearthatthey'liget
another assessment," says
Farrow.
Lawrence Palanuk, a
supervisor in the Manhattan
real property assessment office,
, says that assessments are
gets ,e:
A standing ovation greeted Bonnie Brower (right) when she was honored by
the National Lawyers Guild for her work on behalf of low income housing.
Brower is executive director of the Association for NeiQhborhood and Housing
Development and a member of the board of City Lim,ts.
"based on a lot of schooling,"
which takes into account
income, market value and costs.
Butthe assessors do not look at
a building's books and have no
way to know if a particular
building is an HDFC with
restrictions that limit its market
value.
''These buildings are being
assessed as though they are
unencumbered," says Vivian
Kahng, an attorney with the
Community Development Legal
Assistance Center. The law suit,
filed by CDLAC and the law firm
Rosenman and Colin, seeks a
new formula for taxing
buildings sold to tenants by the
city.
As City Limits goes to press,
the city is trying to have the suit
dismissed on procedural
grounds. DTobios Brown &
Doug Turetsky
LOCK OUT
The owner of an Upper East
Side building has used a minor
fire to lock out 22 tenants whose
apartments were left nearly
unscathed.
On February 17, a fire broke
out in a new restaurant
undergoing final renovations at
1431 First Avenue at 74th Street.
After it was quicldy extinguished,
both the fire and buildings
departments reported that the
building was structurally sound.
Except for smoke damage on
the lower floors of the fjve-story
walk-up, the apartments were
unharmed.
But landlord Joseph Pecoraro
refused to lettenants back in to
their homes, at one point
physically barring tenants from
entering. Pecaoraro anounced
plans to renovate the building
and ordered all furniture and
possessions removed. "Come
back in three to six months, was
his first call," said tenant Brian
Connolly.
When reached at his business,
the Pec-O-Rama Home Fashion
Center, Pecoraro refused to
comment.
When pressed to put in
writing that tenants would be
allowed to return, the landlord
refused: "Just pay me a dollar
per month and you'll be
protected, II he repor1edly
replied.
With help from the Lenox Hill
Neighborhood Association and
Council Member Robert
Dryfoos, Pecoraro eventually
was forced to let tenants back
in. But tenants found their
apartments had apparently
been vandalized during the
lock-out. "My clothes were
strewn all over the floor, my
tables were overturned and
theres a huge burn hole in my
couch," said tenant Maureen
Pasku. There were no other fire
marks on the carpet, walls or
ceilings of her top floor studio.
Tenants also noticed that on
the night of the fire, only the
second and third floor
apartment windows were
shattered. When they returned
the following afternoon, all of
the panes were broken.
Although Pecoraro's lock-out
efforts failed, the lack of heat,
water, gas and electricity
continue to drive tenants oway.
"Just give me heat and hot water
and I'll be fine," Connolly said
two weeks after the fire.
Pecoraro allegedly prevented
the city's Emergency Repair Unit
from restoring services by
promising to do the work
himself. He has failed to follow
through. "The bottom line is that
we don't have anything.
Nothing has been restored,"
despite the intervention of
Dryfoos, three city agencies and
a neighborhood housing group,
Connolly said.
A few tenants say Pecoraro is
waiting for his insurance check
before making repairs, but
others point to a pattern of
eviction attempts before the fire
as a clear signal that hes
pushing them out. His past
threats include removing the
furniture of a rent-controlled
tenant, serving her with a
nonpoyment of rent notice-
her regular payments were
easily proven in court - and
trying to evict a retired woman
far deducting a repair expense
from her rent, tenants said.
DEve Heyn
The Bronx
The Bronx Task Force on Housing
Court is compiling information on
judges who show a pattern of tenant
abuse. According to Brent Sharman
of the Task Force, documentation will
be used to file official complaints
against those judges, possibly leading
to their dismissal from the bench.
Sharman is asking people who have
examples of abusive behavior by
Bronx housing court judges ' to con-
tact him at (212) 798-3542 . . .
Brooklyn
Elderly Brooklynites who are illeg-
ally evicted, threatened with evic-
tion, harassed or denied repairs and
essential services will receive special
assistance under a new project being
developed by the South Brooklyn
Legal Services Corporation. The
senior citizen outreach program is
being funded through a $25,000 city
grant that also will allow Legal Ser-
vices to provide a series of commu-
nity workshops on a variety of hous-
ing problems ...
The score for Brooklyn homeless
shelters was tied at one-to-one last
month. The Board of Estimate ap-
proved a 24-hour drop-in center on
Bond Street that will serve homeless
adults in the downtown area. It will
be operated by Catholic Charities.
The board defeated a mayoral plan to
open a transitional shelter in Fort
GreenelBedford Stuyvesant for home-
less women who are pregnant or have
new-borns. It also included an
emergency assistance unit. Oppo-
nents to the plan pointed out that the
community is a high-crime area with
extremely limited transportation ...
The community debate over the
massive Brighton by the Sea project
planned by developer Alexander
Muss is heating up. Hy Cohen, a vice
president of the Muss company and
a leading figure in Brighton Beach
politics, was expected to make a pre-
sentation of the plan at a recent com-
munity information meeting. Cohen
failed to show, sending instead three
people not even employed by Muss.
Supporters of the luxury tower de-
velopment have contended that oppo-
nents of the project "are just a com-
mittee of 10" (December 1987). But
according to two separate accounts,
some 400 opponents attended the
meeting ...
in Court
Peter KalikDw. new owner of the New "
Yorlc Post. might have been momentar-
" fstractBd from his newspaper this
\" . The developer-tumed-pub-
, cllarRes in housing coutt
adequate heat and
hot water to his City and Suburban
Homes tenants.
.' ,. Although the housing court judgf:J
n'lt emorce fines agaiJIst
, use a complaining t$Dant admit
to h.viAS oUn Prior to
ilrSpectfon. other tenantS testified
to. continuing problem With services.
.alilcOwslsnea an agreetnentpromis-
to proVlde adequat$ heat and hot
ttlt!in tli;&future,
''Havtnlan o.rder signed means that
;"e are 8Wal'tftbat there has been a con-
ttnutng problem. and they are on
to provide adequate services/'
a Catie Marshall , a spokesperson fur
city's l)ep$.rtJnent of , ips
lion and Developm it d,'
1\mant spokesperson Joyce Matz ,
that Kalikow got off easy be-
c::auee he sent letters to top HPD offt-
and to Deputy Mayor Robert Es-
, uking HPD to drop the case.
'I w,ouldn't call it just
I it. lawyers doing theD- lob:' says
who points to the agreement
a. evidence that HPD did not back
d9Wn. Failure to provide heat and hot
a $250 peT day flne.
, ... . 1Wo other landlords weren't $0
",;lucky l&Bt""m9nth. Charles Bonwel,
who owns 135-145 West 145th St. in
flarlem. was sentenced to 30 days in
liil and fined $12,000 for failure to pro-
according to HPD.
tl)sea lifu,dtord CbristQ,s Thoumplls
was arrested and ordered to remain in
, jail until fire-damaged apartments in
his 505 West 22nd St. building are ra-
He also was fined$20,0Q0.
Manhattan
As Times Square Redevelopment
pushes ahead, the Urban Develop-
ment Corporation promises its plan
for towering office buildings won't
completely change the area's flavor.
In announcing a contract with de-
veloper George Klein's Park Tower Re-
alty to dazzle the area with brightly
lit "supersigns," the agency included
a rendering of the 42nd Street of the
future. Among the retail outlets
shown benefitting from the heavy
public subsidies of the $2 billion pro-
ject are Gucci, Chanel, Cartier, Bally,
Barney's and other pricey shops ...
Queens
Housing activists throuAAout the
city will join Queens residents in a
march to protest city, state and federal
housing policies. Organized by the
Queens League of United Tenants, the
April 16 march will assemble at
Queens Boulevard and 48th Street at
noon, then proceed to a 2 p.m. rally
at the Citicorp site in Long Island
City .. .D
SOCIAL WELFARE POLICY AND LAW
Colloquium: Sponsored by N.Y.U.
Review of Law and Social Change
April 15, 1988 - 7 p.m.
& April 16 -8:30 a.m, full day
40 Washington Square South, N,Y.C.
Panels Include: - Workfare and welfare reform
- Bureaucratic disentltlement
- Women's and childrens' issues
- Welfare and homelessness
For more info: (212) 998-6370
Free & open to the public
-
...
PIPELINE
Lefrak flack
BY BEVERLY CHEUVRONT
THE FRAGILE PEACE BETWEEN
Lower East Side housing activists and
the city's Department of Housing Pre-
servation and Development was shat-
tered last month when Mayor Koch
fired the first volley in a new skir-
mish - a surprise announcement that
developer Samuel LeFrak agreed to
build 1,200 units of housing, includ-
ing 400 luxury condos, and 640 mid-
dle income and 160 moderate income
rental units on" an urban renewal site
at the foot of the Williamsburg Bridge.
Advocates were incensed, both be-
cause HPD neglected to consult them
and because the plan fails to provide
any low income units in a neighbor-
hood where, according to Elaine
Chan of It's Time, the average family
struggles on an annual $7,000 in-
come.
And while the mayor applauds the
project as a purely philanthropic ven-
ture, opponents point to discrepan-
cies in the amounts of subsidies. HPD
officially puts subsidies at $25,000 in
city funds, with up to an additional
$25,000 from condo sales. HPD De-
puty Commissioner Felice Michetti
reportedly told some activists the
total will approach $53,000, but
could not explain the breakdown of
that figure. Items like tax abatements
and land values have not even been
added into the equation.
"We thought we had established
rapport and were planning together,"
says Lisa Kaplan of Community
Board Three and the Lower East Side
Joint Planning Council, a coalition of
community groups. She says the
board's initial response was "extreme
consternation that we were not con-
sulted." ]pC, which has been talking
to a developer about the area, "would
like to see significant low and moder-
ate income housing on that site and
to recognize the absolute right of the
original occupants to move back,"
she says.
The groups are considering filing a
lawsuit to stop the project, Kaplan
adds.
When the 14-block Seward Park
Urban Renewal site was cleared in
1967 for middle and upper income
housing, its 1,840 mostly low income
minority residents were evicted, says
LeFrak's Seward Park site:
Lawer East Side leaders Christina Ortega, Roberto Caballero and Elaine Chan
are shown in front of th. S.ward Pork Urban Renewal Area.
Roberto Caballero of the Pueblo
Nuevo Housing and Development As-
sociation. Former residents were
promised new apartments there, but
were excluded from the 360-unit Se-
ward Park Extension Public Housing
project until court action forced a set-
tlement. The 600-unit, racially integ-
rated Grand Street Guild also was
constructed on the site.
The JPC and the more conservative
United Jewish Council of the Lower
East Side fought over the remaining
space. In 1980, a plan to construct
two buildings for senior citizens, a
shopping center and low income
housing was killed when then-
Borough President Andrew Stein
moved to drop the low income com-
ponent. Only senior housing was
built.
Kaplan says LeFrak met with the
]pC more than a year ago to discuss
a project on the remaining land, but
later said he dropped the plan.
Under the current proposal, LeFrak
would acquire the land for the condos
for $1. He would finance construc-
tion, then use any profits generated
from sales to subsidize the middle
income ($25,000 to $48,000) and
moderate income ($15,000 to
$25,000) apartments. The city would
retain ownership of the rental apart-
ment land, but LeFrak would own
and manage the buildings, with an
8.5 percent cap on profits.
According to HPD Deputy Commis-
sioner Kenneth Lowenstein, the con-
dos qualify for a to-year 421a tax
abatement, and the city "is consider-
ing funding the pre-development ex-
penses that are normally involved in
a project," including the environmen-
tal impact statement and architec-
tural costs .
Lowenstein says the city has not
yet appraised the land and cannot es-
timate its value. He adds that LeFrak
is "taking a lot of risk for a very, very
small return over many years."
LeFrak Organization spokesman
Edward Contese says his boss is em-
barking on this project "because he
wants to give something back to the
city." He notes that LeFrak is no
stranger to neighborhood opposition:
It broke ground on an apartment
tower at West 90th Street and Colum-
bus Avenue three years ago, after a
22-year fight with the community.
That battle ended after the city
signed a December 3, 1984, stipula-
tion giving LeFrak development
rights to the site. Four days later, LeF-
rak companies contributed $10,000
in campaign funds to Koch, Stein,
Harrison Goldin and the late Donald
Manes, all of whom had Board of Es-
timate votes on the project.
HPD will seek a Request for Qualifi-
cations asking other developers to top
LeFrak's Seward Park proposal, a pro-
cess that Contese says is merely "LeF-
rak's concept to get other developers
involved. How could anyone possibly
better it?" he asks.
Bonnie Brower of the Association
for Neighborhood and Housing De-
velopment compares the Lower East
Side project to the controversial Tib-
bett Gardens project in the Bronx be-
cause "both entail giving large tracts
of publicly owned land and huge
amounts of subsidies to private de-
velopers to create essentially upper
income and luxury housing in areas
that are predominately low income
and minority."O
CITY VIEWS
W h e r e ~ the Kitchen, MOlJ1lJ1y?
BY ABRAHAM G. GERGES
RETURNING TO HER HOME IN BUSH-
wick at the end of a school day, Sarah
noticed a lot of lights flashing and
police and fire trucks on her block.
She wasn't alarmed because this hap-
pened often in her neighborhood. But
as she approached her house, she
panicked. It wasn't just another fire,
this time it was her house on fire.
By the time her parents came home,
the fire was out. The Washington fam-
ily stood on the sidewalk in disbelief.
Everything was gone. No home, no
clothes, no savings in the bank and
no insurance.
This was the beginning of a tragedy
that strikes many New York families.
More than 11,800 different families
use the city's Emergency Housing
System each year. The number of
homeless families in the Human Re-
sources Administration's Emergency
Housing System has grown from 800
in 1978, to 2,500 in 1983, to more
than 5,000 in 1987.
Sarah, her mother and father soon
became part of that system. At first,
after turning down shelter at the Red
Cross, the family stayed with friends.
HRA studies indicate that families
who lose their apartments do not im-
mediately request city shelter. They
rely on relatives and friends for both
permanent and temporary housing.
But such arrangements only last for
a while. After several weeks, the
Washingtons outlived their welcome.
Unable to find an apartment they
could afford, Mr. and
Mrs.Washington, leaving their pride
behind, turned to the city for help.
Then the nightmare began.
Shelter Shuffle
The family was shuffled from one
hotel to another. Three days in the
Bronx, three in Brooklyn, three in
Queens. This was done because no
hotel rooms were immediately avail-
able for long-term stays. The
Washingtons also got a quick lesson
in the hotel business: Owners in-
crease their earnings by renting
rooms by-the-hour during the day
and to homeless families at night.
After many weeks on this tread-
mill, the family was given a more per-
manent "home" at Manhattan's Mar-
Child ... n without home ..
HaH 01 New Yorlc City's "ome/e .. are c"ildren. last October, tlteir numbers
"ad soared to 6,J56.
tinique Hotel. Some families consi-
dered the Washingtons lucky - the
room was better than three cots in a
congregate shelter.
But the Washingtons didn't feel
lucky. When Sarah first saw what was
to be her new "home," her first ques-
tion was, "Where's the kitchen,
Mommy?" All she saw was a 10-by-12
room with two beds, a dresser and a
tiny bathroom that was shared with
the family of four in the adjoining
room.
Sarah always looked forward to
coming home from school. Her
mother, who had a part-time job,
would arrive home soon after she did
and the two of them would snack in
the kitchen while Sarah talked about
her day at school. After dinner was
homework time, and since her bed-
room was small and didn't have a
desk, homework was done on the
kitchen table.
Sarah's shock at not finding a
kitchen was not an isolated case. The
city regularly places families in shel-
ters and hotel rooms without kitchen
facilities, then gives them $3.55 per
person for three meals a day eaten in
restaurants.
Sarah was devastated. Not only had
she lost her friends, her school and
her church back in Brooklyn, but as
far as she was concerned, her very
life. Her parents weren't dealing with
this situation much better. The entire
family structure slowly began to
erode.
Few people are aware that 50 per-
cent of the homeless in our city are
children. In October, 1987, there were
6,156 children between the ages of
five and 18 living in temporary resi-
dences throughout the city. Only
3,809 of them were registered to go
to school. It is safe to assume that 50
percent of our homeless children
have not even been touched by the
school system. Although there are 17-
year-aids who drop out of school,
there are also seven-year-old children
who have never attended school, and
others, like Sarah, who may stop
going to school because of this major
disruption in their lives.
Sarah's mother was forced to quit
her job in Brooklyn. She was worried
about Sarah's reluctance to go to her
newly assigned school and was afraid
to leave her in a hotel totally unsuited
for raising a child. The role of the
security guards was questionable.
Pimps, prostitutes and drug .dealers
were seen on a daily basis. Other
women warned her to stay away from
the guards, who were seen not as pro-
tectors but harassers. They had a
reputation of asking for special
"favors" in return for certain
privileges, whereas drug dealers
freely entered the building, often
using the children as couriers for
drug sales.
Although it was illegal to have a
hot plate in their room, Mrs.
Washington, like all the other
mothers, bought one anyway in an
attempt to make their food allowance
last longer. Dry goods and cans were
stored in all corners of the room. A
street cat was smuggled in to help in
the endless battle against roaches and
mice.
While Sarah's mother was caught
up in the daily struggle to feed, clothe
and protect her family, Sarah's father
was becoming more and more de-
spondent. He couldn't accept his ina-
bility to get the family out of this
mess. The wages from his job were
insufficient to pay for even a small
apartment in their old neighborhood,
especially now that his wife had
stopped working. The house they had
owned had not been luxurious, but
was affordable because it was left to
them by his deceased father. His feel-
ings of helplessness started him
drinking, and as a result, he lost his
job.
Surging Numbers
The city spends an average of
$2,000 per month for a room like the
one in the Martinique. Last year, 60
hotel owners were paid over $50 mil-
lion for rooms, some of which had
serious health and fire violations. Ap-
proximately 3,500 families live in
these dirtgy hotel rooms each night.
Some 12,500 of the hotel residents
are children. Twenty-five thousand
children go through this system each
year. They are the invisible homeless.
In the event that programs are not in-
itiated to prevent homelessness, the
caseload is expected to increase to
8,800 families by 1992.
As chairman of the New York City
Council's Select Committee for the
Homeless, I have toured most of the
homeless hotels and shelters in the
city. The above story of Sarah and her
family is a compilation of the many
Growing numbers:
In 1978, 800 families were in 'he city's she/,er system; ,oday "'ere are more
'han 5,000.
stories I have heard from the hun-
dreds of people I have spoken with
in similar situations. This reinforces
my belief that putting families with
children into these hell-hole environ-
ments only destroys the family struc-
ture and can traumatize the children
to such a degree that they become the
disturbed adults of tomorrow.
I have met many families who have
lived in hotels such as these for over
five years. They want to get out. How-
ever, they must live in a hotel for at
least 18 months before even becoming
eligible for a city-owned apart-
ment - and after that there's still a
long waiting list. Half of the families
living in this so-called "emergency
housing" leave within three to five
months; the rest remain for about two
years. Fire victims, battered spouses
and other trauma victims tend to stay
for shorter periods of time. Only 10
percent of families who leave the sys-
tem return within one year. The re-
mainder leave the system perma-
nently. Eighty percent leave on their
own, while 20 percent get placed into
city renovated apartments.
On one of my tours, I visited a small
hotel. The owner was receiving
' $2,000 per month for a tiny room
without a kitchen or bathroom. It con-
tained literally nothing but a bed and
a television set. The occupants were
a mother and an ll-year-old girl.
After talking to the mother, I noticed
the child huddled in one corner of
the bed, watching TV. When I asked
her why she wasn't in school, she said
she didn't like school anymore. She
looked sad, forlorn and severely de-
pressed. On the spur of the moment
I asked her if she would like to spend
a day with me to learn what a city
council member does. In her with-
drawn state, she seemed ambivalent.
I told her I would call her the next
. day so she would have time to think
about it.
Why did I do this? As I looked at
her, I saw thousands of faceless chil-
dren lost in this inhumane system,
children whose every day is the same
as the last - no place to play, no
place for quiet study, no privacy, loss
of self-esteem, and nothing to look
forward to - caught in the endless
trap of poverty and homelessness.
Maybe I could make at least one day
memorable for her.
With great difficulty 1 finally got in

touch with her, and she agreed to
spend the day together. Our first stop
was breakfast with the Fireman's
Union. We then went to another break-
fast meeting on jobs for youth. "Do
you think I can get a summer job?"
she asked. Our next stop was a City
Hall press conference where I intro-
duced her to Mayor Koch. "I hope
you're enjoying your day with Coun-
cilman Gerges," said the mayor.
"Who knows, maybe you may be a
councilwoman someday." Doesn't he
know that the city's policy of placing
children like her in welfare hotels
seriously impairs their ability to
fulfill such a future?
After a Council committee meet-
ing, I took her to lunch. As we ate,
she started to become more animated.
She told me that her mother drinks
a lot. "How do you stop people from
drinking and using drugs?" she
asked. "My friend who lives in the
next room uses crack. I told her not
to. And the mother of the boy down
the hall threw an iron at him, and he
now wears a brace on his neck. I hate
living here."
I asked her why she wasn't going
to school. She explained that she
didn't like her new school but when
she went to school in Brooklyn, be-
fore they became homeless, she never
missed a day. This was not new to
me. Families who become homeless
should be housed in their old neigh-
borhood to prevent this loss of friends
and teachers in order to maintain the
continuity of their education.
When we returned to the hotel, she
immediately exclaimed to her
mother, "Guess who I saw and shook
hands with and spoke to? Mayor
Koch! I might even be on TV!"
Leaving her back at the hotel was
like putting an innocent person into
jail. She had a good day that day, but
what about the rest of her life? What
about the thousands of other children
that spend homeless years with no-
thing to look forward to?
My research into the problem of
homelessness has indicated that
there are better, more humane and
more cost-effective solutions to this
ever-burgeoning problem:
1. Rehabilitate 50 city-owned aban-
doned buildings with 100 apartments
each, and take all homeless families
out of the hotels over the next five
years.
2. Legislation should be passed
eliminating "warehousing" of the es-
timated 25,000 to 75,000 vacant
apartments throughout the city that
are being withheld from the rental
market.
3. Implement a program to prevent
people from becoming homeless by
placing city workers in housing
courts. These workers would try to
resolve landlord/tenant problems,
preventing needless evictions.
4. Use the monies spent in payment
of exhorbitant rents for hotel rooms
to build permanent low and moderate
income housing.
5. Implement a more coordinated
effort in renting the approximately
3,000 renovated, vacant apartments
owned by the city.
This question must be asked: If the
solutions are so simple, why hasn't
the city implemented these pro-
grams? The answer is almost unbe-
lievable. The city believes that if you
make housing programs too good,
people will use homelessness as a
vehicle for getting an apartment. The
mayor told me this privately when I
met with him two years ago to recom-
mend these solutions. He also made
these statements publicly. Ironically,
the city's own statistics reveal that
families placed in apartment-style
emergency housing leave the system
faster than families placed in hotel
rooms. For these reasons, I have intro-
duced legislation to force the city to
implement some of the the above re-
commnedations.
It is no wonder that the Report of
the Commission on the Year 2000 con-
cluded: "This year the city will spend
about $80 million in mostly federal
funds to house homeless families in
hotels. This represents the worst pos-
sible social policy. We could hardly
devise a more destructive policy for
all involved if we set out to do so."
The city presently spends more
than $131 million to house homeless
families. We can do a much better job
with the same amount of money by
implementing the above policy
changes. Families like the
Washingtons should be placed in
another apartment in a reasonable
amount of time so that never again
will a child have to ask, "Where's the
kitchen, Mommy?" 0
Abraham G. Gerges is a city council
member from Brooklyn and chair-
man of the Select Committee for the
Homeless.
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FEATURE
PDC Plays Let's Make a Deal
BY DOUG TURETSKY
P
ull into a parking lot near st.
John's Episcopal Hospital in
Brooklyn. Take a good look
around. The New York City Public De-
velopment Agency, which sold the
site to the hospital for $19,700 in
1985, credits the parking lot for some
3,000 jobs.
Take a ride over to College Point
Corporate Park in Queens. The Pepsi
Cola Bottling Company of New York
bought a large site there from PDC in
1986. Pepsi has yet to break ground
for the new plant, but PDC lists 1,150
jobs on its 1987 Employment Report
in connection with the sale.
Sunset Park worker loads
Together, the Pepsi and st. John's
land sales account for 54 percent of
the job growth PDC links to its 1985
and 1986 sales of city-owned prop-
erty. In fact, the parking lot sale
amounts to almost one-third of the
Only a fraction of PDC's budKet is allocated to in-place industrial parks. About
30,000 people work at t"is rooklyn industrial strip.
T
he Public Development Corporation
says it is keeping thousands of jobs in
the city. Critics charge the figures are
cooked to justify the agency's freewheeling
real estate deals.
total jobs credited towards PDC's
1985 and 1986 land disposition pro-
jects.
Created some 22 years ago to shore
up the city's sagging manufacturing
base, the Public Development Corpo-
ration has become a development be-
hemoth, with its fingers in almost
every major project in New York. In
1979, the agency had just 10 employ-
ees. Now, with 200 staffers and a mul-
timillion dollar budget, the agency
touts projects for some of the city's
biggest developers - and campaign
contributors - as they go before the
Board of Estimate. The agency is rife
with political cronyism and short on
public oversight.
PDC's mandate of industrial job re-
tention and creation seems to have
become lost as the agency has focused
its economic development efforts on
the sale or lease of city-owned land.
Several former PDC employees say
jobs are little more than the justifica-
tion for the land sales PDC under-
takes. "Jobs were simply not the
issue," says Chelli Devadutt, a former
PDC labor services coordinator. De-
vadutt charges that PDC's design de-
partment would use only square foot-
age to estimate a project's job poten-
tial. Job statistics were put together
simply for public relations purposes.
"I was part of making them up," says
Devadutt, "I was like Alice in Wonder-
land over there."
When the Public Development Cor-
poration takes a peek through its look-
ing glass, it sees real estate deals.
"The real name of the game is 'let's
just do deals,'" says a former PDC offi-
cial who requested anonymity.
But PDC is responsible for more
than just selling land - the agency
also oversees the city's industrial
parks. Along a 30-block strip of
Brooklyn's western waterfront lies
the Sunset Park In-Place Industrial
Park. Some 500 businesses employ-
ing approximately 30,000 people are
located in this park. Despite these
numbers, PDC pays relatively little at-
tention to the park. Driving through
it, a casual observer wouldn't even
know the area had any special desig-
nation. Brandon Stewart, executive
director of the South West Brooklyn
Industrial Development Corporation,
which has managed the park since
1981, says PDC is "still trying to find
money in their budget" for signs.
PDC has a budget of $157.8 million
for Fiscal Year 1988. About $1.5 mil-
lion of that is allocated for the mainte-
nance and management of the city's
eight in-place industrial parks. These
parks were designated by the city, lit-
erally by marking the area on a map,
.
"'
PDC's neglected industrial park:
Although about 500 businesses operate at Sunset Park 'n-P'ace 'ndustria'
Park, not enough is being done to maintain the area, critics comp'ain.
because of high concentrations of
manufacturing enterprises or land
zoned for industrial use.
In comparison to the amount allo-
cated for the in-place parks, more
than $9 million is being spent by PDC
on the controversial 42nd Street Re-
development Project. PDC is under-
taking improvements of the 42nd
Street subway station and covering
legal and environmental impact
study costs for the project. Another
$19 million is allocated for land ac-
quisition, demolition and relocation
for downtown Brooklyn's colossal
MetroTech project. Two hundred resi-
dents and 100 small businesses will
be relocated to make way for this $770
million, heavily subsidized develop-
ment.
Pen Stroke
These glitzy commercial develop-
ment deals have become the Public
Development Corporation's meal tick-
et. It wasn't always so. PDC was
brought to life with a pen stroke in
June 1966, when Mayor John Lindsay
signed Executive Order No. 14. Or-
ganized as a nonprofit local develop-
ment corporation, PDC's mandate
was to bolster the city's sagging indus-
trial and manufacturing base.
One of PDC's first jobs was to man-
age two city-owned industrial parks,
one in College Point, Queens, the
other in Bloomfield, Staten Island.
When the Board of Estimate estab-
lished College Point in 1972, it set a
goal of generating 16,000 jobs. But it
appears to have fallen far short of this
mark. A 1985 audit report of College
Point by Comptroller Harrison Gol-
din revealed: "After 13 years and the
investment of almost $47 million by
the city, PDC-sponsored projects have
generated only 1,660 new jobs and
$10.6 million in land sales as of Jan-
uary 1985. " Although efforts at Col-
lege Point were hampered by land
conditions - the site is essentially a
marsh - PDC never adequately as-
sessed the situation, according to the
audit. "College Point is a microcosm
case study of PDC's failure to disclose
infrastructure problems and always
saying it will get better tomorrow,"
charges Goldin spokesman Jon
Lukomnik.
Despite a dubious record with one
of its most costly projects, PDC con-
tinued to expand. While the city lost
manufacturing jobs at an incredible
pace -losing 43 percent of its blue
collar jobs between 1970 and 1980,
according to the federal Bureau of
Labor Statistics - PDC began to
change its focus . PDC officials
wanted to get in on the city's hot com-
mercial land deals. As the agency
crowed in its 1984/1985 development
report, "Since 1979, PDC has grown
into a sophisticated real estate de-
velopment and service organization."
PDC's rapid expansion coincided
with the rise of the Koch administra-
tion and its policies of priming the
financial and real estate industries
with tax breaks and other subsidies.
Although it receives its funding
through the Board of Estimate, PDC
is not part of the city government. It
essentially operates at the behest of
the mayor and with little oversight
from other elected officials. PDC can
sign contracts for any amount with-
out Board of Estimate approval. The
agency also can offer sole-source
deals on city land, a practice that re-
ceived intense scrutiny following re-
velations of the municipal corruption
scandals. A no-bid deal with Joshua
Muss to build an office tower over a
Queens parking garage was nixed
after it was learned that the developer
gave $10,000 to Donald Manes's cam-
paign fund one month after the late
borough president threw his support
behind the project. At that time, Muss
also fed the campaign coffers of
Mayor Ed Koch with $3,000 and then
Manhattan Borough President An-
drew Stein with $2,000. (Muss cur-
rently is building a PDC-sponsored
hotel and office tower in. downtown
Brooklyn.)
'Mayor's Private Brokers'
In a memorandum to Citizens for
Charter Change, Community De-
velopment Legal Assistance Center
attorney Maria Arias writes , "There
appear to be neither rules nor regula-
tions governing the activities of PDC,
nor any mechanism for reviewing its
actions." One formet PDC official de-
scribes the agency as "the mayor's pri-
vate brokers."
While the office towers get the
headlines, PDC is also brokering city
land with the goal of bolstering New
York's dwindling manufacturing
base. "The basic industrial strategy,"
says Dan Kurtz, PDC's vice president
M CITY LIMITS April 1988
"There appear to be neither rules nor regulations governing the
activities ofPDC, nor any mechanism for reviewing its actions,"
observes attorney Maria Arias.
for industrial development, "is to dis-
pose of manufacturing zoned, city-
owned land."
This "strategy" says little about re-
taining the city's existing industrial
companies. "You're talking deals, not
any master plan for economic de-
velopment. There isn't any," charges
a former PDC staffer.
Rick Recny, former head of the
Local Development Corporation of
East New York, which manages the
East Brooklyn Industrial Park for
PDC, complains that the agency is no
longer interested in providing park
security, energy grants and other
special services to the companies al-
ready based in the industrial parks.
"What we're ending up with now is
that PDC doesn't see the importance
of continuing to provide these ser-
vices. What they want to do is sell
the land and get out." Adds Recny,
who now runs industrial sales for the
national real estate giant Time
Equities, "The retention effort has
estate committee. That committee
evaluates sales before bringing them
to the full board for approval.
According to Diana Concanon, a
PDC spokeswoman, the sale was
never completed. After months of
negotiations and review - the deal
came before the board twice, rejected
the first time because the sale price
was too low - PDC eventually recog-
nized that a sale to Kleinsleep might
be construed as conflict of interest.
But other questionable deals have
been completed. One of the key
players at PDC is Margaret Guarino,
who for years was vice president for
industrial sales and now is in charge
of strategic planning. According to
the Village Voice , Guarino was ap-
pointed to her job in 1981 by Mayor
Koch on recommendation from
former Brooklyn Democratic boss
Meade Esposito. In July 1983, PDC
removed a Staten Island site from
public auction and negotiated a sale
with Staten Investors, whose princi-
pals are associates and campaign con-
tributors to Esposito and Staten Is-
land Deputy Borough President Nick
LaPorte.
According to several former PDC
staffers, politics run rampant at PDC.
Guarino was instrumental in getting
Steven Spinola, a Manes crony, ap-
pointed president of PDC. (Spinola
has since left, reportedly for a
$130,000 raise, to head the Real Estate
Board of New York. REB NY is the real
estate industry's primary lobbying
firm and one of the biggest campaign
contributors in the city.)
The Wed tech Corporation, which
allegedly made payoffs and jobs avail-
able to associates of indicted Con-
gressman Mario Biaggi and former
Bronx Borough President Stanley
Simon, negotiated a land sale with
PDC in 1982. Simon's Board of Esti-
- been dismantled."
Even if cash for land sales is PDC's
primary concern, jobs remain part of
the equation. But it's not clear where
jobs figure in the agency's evaluation
process. Recny recalls negotiations
for a site in East New York between
two companies and PDC. Public De-
velopment Corporation officials
pushed for a deal with a company
called Rug Renovating. But Recny
supported sale of the site to Brooklyn
Welding, a minority-owned company
that also offered more jobs. PDC was
only willi'ng to sell Brooklyn Welding
another site, where the company
would have to apply for a zoning
waiver. In the end, PDC lost both
sales.
First-Source ReCourse
Negotiated Deals
Until the municipal scandals broke
in the winter of 1986, most of these
land sales - like the ones for the
back office projects - were
"negotiated," or sole source, deals,
which sometimes raise questions of
propriety. In May 1985, PDC's board
of directors approved the sale of a site
in the Bronx to Kleinsleep.
Kleinsleep's chief, Herb Klein, is a
PDC board member. On the same day
the board approved the sale to
Kleinsleep - with Herb Klein abs-
taining from the vote - the directors
also reelected Klein to head its real
Corpo-
ratioQ. like other , New .... York
,
says its job creation etforts are
targeted to low inc6me,minority
residents. But PDC president Jim
Stuckey and other" economic de-
velopment agency heads showed
up inifurce!at a March l 'City Coun-
ell hearing to oPPOSt; . a "first-
source
1
' htring"hill. '1W;>
Intro. 963, commonly known as
the Bill, >would re-
quire busjnesses receiving city
loans, tax breaks or subsidies to
target a specific number 01 jobs to
low income residents. The bill
would hold the city agencies
negotiating the deals accountable
{or ensuring the companies make
good faith efforts at meeting hiring
targets. Companies failing to com-
ply would be fined. d .
Chelli Devadutt, a former PDC
staffer now with the Community
Service Society's employment and
econontic development depart-
ment 'd,at the coullcilhearing,
"Th '. failed
to develop policies which link em-
ployment, economic development
and community development to-
gether." She believes the first
mate vote was needed to approve the
sale.
Arred Electrical Corporation,
headed by Ralph Arred, an associate
of Biaggi, negotiated land sales from
PDC in 1982 and 1983. Arred also was
one of the subcontractors on PDC's
Fordham Plaza office tower - a pro-
ject that went ahead because the city
and state contracted for floor space
at what critics charge was a highly
inflated rent. A recent Voice article
notes that the state Division of Hous-
ing and Community Renewal signed
a rental lease in 1986 for office space
at Fordham Plaza costing $25 per
square foot: Last month, the Board of
Estimate considered a lease for
School District 10 at Fordham Plaza
for $17 per square foot.
Counting Jobs
All these land deals, "wired" or
otherwise, are sold to the public on
the basis of jobs. Whether it's the At-
lantic Terminal development in
Brooklyn or sale of a small lot to a
Queens manufacturer, estimates of
the resulting job retention and crea-
tion are made. But it wasn't until
1985, some 19 years after PDC was
formed, that the agency was obligated
under its city contract to issue annual
reports on employment at its projects.
The agency has just two people re-
sponsible for monitoring employ-
ment, and they apparently have some
trouble keeping track of the numbers.
In its employment report for Fiscal
Year 1987, PDC credits land sales for
the year with retaining 4,341 jobs and
creating 253 new ones. But in its an-
nual report to the Board of Estimate,
PDC says the same 43 sales retained
3,676 jobs and created 1,003 new
ones.
PDC lists these statistics on its
Board of Estimate report under the
heading of industrial development.
What the report doesn't note is that
approximately 60 percent of the re-
tained jobs come from a single sale:
to Bronx-Lebanon Hospital Center.
Another 20 percent of the jobs come
from a sale to Consolidated Edison.
Neither of these organizations are
likely to pick up shop and move to
New Jersey or the Sun Belt.
The agency predicts that the 43 "in-
dustrial" companies buying land
from the city in 1987 will have a 28
percent increase in employment over
Iron workers in East Brooklyn's industrial park:
PDe is not inte,esteel in provcieling the services to keep firms in East New York.
cha'ges a former local development corporation leade,.
the next three years. That estimate
greatly eclipses previous years' ex-
perience. In 1985 and 1986, 171 com-
panies negotiated land sales with
PDC. While the 154 companies that
submitted employment statistics for
those years reported a cumulative 5. 7
percent rise in jobs, the 1986 purchas-
ers actually had a 6 percent drop in
employment.
Because of computer problems at
PDC, complete statistics are not avail-
able for the 154 reporting companies.
But of the 121 companies with com-
plete figures, 60 percent failed to
meet their employment projections
for 1987.
Ultimately, the employment figures
are meaningless because PDC does
not base them on its involvement
with the company. Deborah Alligood,
who until recently was PDC's assis-
tant vice president for employment
services, explains, "We don't report
on the net increase in jobs, we report
on the growth." In other words, PDC
does not attempt to link a company's
rise (or fall) in employment to the
specific project slated for city land.
That's why PDC can credit 3,000 jobs
to a hospital parking lot or 1,150 to a
Pepsi plant that has not even begun
construction.
Fred Palm, who monitors PDC for
Comptroller Goldin, offers a sobering
analysis of these job figures. Palm be-
lieves that PDC's job numbers for its
commercial developments are far
more fanciful than those for indus-
trial projects.
PDC claims its MetroTech project
will save and retain some 12,000 jobs.
So far, the agency has lured two ten-
ants to the project: Securities Indus-
tries Automation Corporation and
Brooklyn Union Gas Company. Brook-
lyn Union, which will bring 1,500 em-
ployees to MetroTech, is tied to the
city since the utility's catchment area
is Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Is-
land. All Brooklyn Union is doing is
relocating a few blocks from its cur-
rent headquarters on Montague Street
in Brooklyn Heights. Nobody seems
to be asking what is going to happen
to the building Brooklyn Union is vac-
ating. SIAC is relocating from its Wall
Street offices.
Other PDC projects are also an-
chored on such dubious footing. Half
of the Fordham Plaza project is
tenanted by public agencies, accord-
ing to PDC's own report. The Atlantic
Terminal project is teetering because
the Health and Hospitals Corpora-
tion, a city agency, pulled out on its
tentative lease agreement. PDC is cur-
rently searching for another city
agency to become a prime tenant.
Much like Brooklyn Union, cityagen-
cies cannot fly the coop and relocate
outside New York.
Clearly, the Public Development
Corporation draws no distinctions be-
tween real estate development and
economic development. Palm sums
up PDC officials' assessment of their
projects this way: "If the lights are on
and I can see it at night, it's a success."
o
16 CITY LiMns April 19 ..
FEATURE
And What If the
Republicans Win?
BY CHRISTINA Whether t ~ e y pitch their a p p e ~ l to
the center rIght of the Repubhcan
ROSSOMANDO party as do George Bush and Robert
A
recent analysis by the Wash- Dole, or, like Jack Kemp and Pat
ington-based Center for Bud- Robertson, are battling for control of
get and Policy Priorities the party's far right wing, the candi-
bares out what many housing advo- dates' message on housing is virtually
cates already knew: Housing fro- the same: Get the federal government
grams have been the hardest hit 0 all out of the housing business. Let the
federal domestic programs under the marketplace and the economy take
Reagan administration. Funds for the care of the problem.
Department of Housing and Urban
Development have been cut by 60 to
80 percent since 1981, construction
of public housing units has come to
a virtual halt, and the focus of federal
housing assistance has shifted to sub-
sidizing rents in existing housing and
George Bush
In his campaign statement on hous-
ing, Vice President George Bush
points proudly to the Reagan admin-
for low income families. To end hous-
ing and welfare dependency, Bush
would allow more flexibility to state
and local governments in their im-
plementation of federal programs.
For example, he cites one propsal that
allows local housing authorities and
owners to phase in or delay rent in-
creases for tenants who are newly em-
ployed, as an incentive to keep a
newly acquired job. He also supports
ideas such as transferring ownership
and control of public housing to ten-
ants. Finally, Bush pledges to "main-
tain an unyielding commitment" to
equal housing opportunity through
enforcement of federal fair housing
laws.
Bush's overall sense of the pro-
blems in low income housing might
best be summed up in a recent cam-
paign comment. The vice president
assured a crowd of well-wishers that
most of the nation's homeless are
limited such assistance to rental
units.
Housing advocates may begin to
think of the Reagan administration as
"the good ole days" if another Repub-
lican president is elected. On the
campaign trail, the four GOP candi-
dates have had little to say about
housing, and what they are saying
amounts to promises to provide
"more of the same" if they are
elected - which could mean a
whole lot less for housing in coming
years. Many economists agree that it
won't be long after the elections be-
fore the country is in another
economic recession. And while the
government's budgetary woes will
make it even harder to devote signifi-
cant resourCes to housing, another
900,000 units of privately owned and
subsidized housing could be lost
within the next 10 years, according
to Government Accounting Office es-
timates.
A
ll the Republican candidates sing t.he
same tune when it comes to housing:
City Limits contacted campaigns of
each of the Republican presidential
hopefuls to learn their plans for low
income housing policies and alleviat-
ing homelessness. Three of the four
candidates in the race before Super
'fuesday responded, but despite sev-
eral calls to his campaign headquar-
ters in Lynchburg, Virginia, former
TV evangelist Pat Robertson declined
to respond.
Get the government out. Priming the
country's economic pump will allow the
marketplace to house the poor.
istration's policies that have put hous-
ing "again within reach of America's
families." He pledges to maintain
those policies -low inflation, low
interest rates and strong job crea-
tion - as the basis of a housing pol-
icy for a Bush administration that
"will be sensitive to all."
Bush says he will maintain low in-
terest rates, which he sees as the key
to providing affordable housing. He
also pledges to maintain the mortgage
interest tax deduction. While the vice
president opposes direct assistance
for people who can't afford housing,
he wants to continue to help those
who supply mortgages.
Bush singles out urban homestead-
ing programs and unspecified exper-
iments in low income ownership or
cooperative housing as the way the
federal government ought to continue
its commitment to provide housing
mentally ill, a statement that even his
special advisor on homelessness
could not support.
Robert Dole
Like almost every candidate, Se-
nate Minority Leader Robert Dole em-
braces the goals of the Housing Act
of 1949 to provide a "decent home
and a suitable living environmewnt
for every American family." However,
Dole says that as the federal govern-
ment became a major housing pro-
vider, it created a dependency on fed-
eral solutions and dollars. He wants
to "restore the balance" in housing
between federal, state and local gov-
ernments and the private sector.
Dole points out that there is an
adequate supply of decent housing
in most parts of the country. What is
lacking is afford ability. "The most ef-
fective way to address the affordabil-
ity problem, " Dole says, is "to get the
federal deficit under control so we
can keep inflation in check and in-
terest low." He concedes that further
assistance to help pay the rent may
also be necessary and suggests that
housing vouchers should be main-
tained.
Dole also says he would preserve
the stock of assisted housing, but
doesn't say how. He applauds the
huge cuts in funding for low income
housing programs that have been
enacted during the Reagan adminis-
tration and claims that while federal
funding was decreased, the number
of families receiving housing assis-
tance actually increased.
Dole also sees the homeless popu-
lation as limited primarily to former
mental patients. The Kansas senator
applauds the McKinney Homeless
Assistance Act as "a step in the right
direction" to aid the homeless, whose
problems are "an especially difficult
problem, with so many
deinstitutionalized patients."
Jack Kemp
According to New York Con-
gressman Jack Kemp, the way to give
low income people and young
families access to homes and prop-
erty is "by reforming the way we tax
our money, spend our money and
value our money."
Specifically, Kemp's answers to the
housing problem are his answers to
all the nation's woes. He wants to
lower the capital gains tax rate, re-
store the gold standard of valuation
for the dollar and allow the president
a line-item veto for budget legisla-
tion. He would, however, provide a
"social safety net of housing pro-
grams," including housing vouchers,
elderly housing programs and a bet-
ter program of public housing. He
would also widen the availability and
eligibility for federally guaranteed
mortgage programs.
Kemp points to his support of the
Urban Homestead Act as the way to
give all low income housing tenants
the opportunity to manage and own
their projects and apartments. As a
principle sponsor of Urban Enter-
prise Zone legislation, Kemp under-
scores his belief that the government
ought to help private industry with
new tax incentives for equity invest-
ment and hiring of disadvantaged
poor people in specially designated
target areas. 0
Christina Rossomando is a freelance
writer based in Washington, D.C., cov-
ering low income policy issues,
Since 1980, the Housing Energy Alliance for Tenants CoopenItiYe Corp. (H.E.A.T. COOP) has provided low
cost home heating oil and energy use reduction servk:es.
The H.E.A.T. Coop has targeted for services the largely minority low and middle income neighborhoods of the
Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan and Queens. H.E.A.T.'s general purpose is to provide assistance and services that lead
to neighborhood stability.
As a proponent of economic empowerment for revitalization 01 the City's communities, H.E.A. T. remains committed
to assisting newly emerging managers and owners of buildings with the reduction 01 energy costs (long recognized as
the single most expensive area of building management). H.E.A. T. has presented tangible opportunities for tenant
associations, housing coops, churches, community organizations, homeowners and small businesses to gamer
substantial savings and lower the costs of building operation.
Through the primary service of providing low cost home heating 011, various heating ptant services and
energy management services, H.E.A.T. members have collectively uved over 1.5 m0110n dollars.
Ifbrking collaboratively with other community service organizations with similar goals, and working to establish its
viability as a business entity, H.E,A.T. has committed its revenue generating capacity and potential to providing
services that work for and lead to stable, productive communities.
If you are interested in learning more about H.E.A.T. or if you are interested in becoming a H.E.A.T. member, call
or write the H.E.A.T. office.
Housing Energy Alliance for Tenants Coop Corp,
853 Broadway, Suite 414, New York, NY. 10003, [212] 505-0286
LEGISLATION
The Albany Agenda
BY JENNIFER STERN
THE STATE LEGISLATIVE AGENDA
on housing for the 1988 session is
shaping up as another battle between
the Assembly and the Senate. Among
the major issues are several that have
been considered - but not resol-
ved - by the legislature in the past
because of incompatible bills in the
two houses. They include rights of
succession to leases on rent-regulated
apartments, the effect of major capital
improvements on rents, apartment
warehousing and buy-outs of Mitch-
ell-Lama buildings.
The effort to resolve the issue of
rights of succession received new im-
petus early this year when a state
court ruled that only the tenant on
the lease is guaranteed the right to
renew a lease under rent regulation.
Many legislators in both houses - as
well as Governor Mario Cuomo - are
intent on passing legislation that will
extend this right to family members
and, in some cases, other tenants.
One succession bill already passed
by the Assembly in this session is far
more liberal for tenants than the bills
proposed by the governor and in the
Senate, but it falls short of what ten-
ant-rights activists would like to see.
The Assembly bill , A-3503A,
would allow some relatives of the
leaseholder to renew the lease if the
primary tenant moves out. Under the
bill , many relatives would have this
right, including spouses, children
Robert J. Spontak, CPA
accounting, audit and tax
services covering
individuals, businesses,
not-for-profits, & co-ops
Reasonable fees
718-622-3780
Cuomo on tenont succession rights:
The go"ernor',. bill on tenant succession i, one of three currently being con,i-
dereCi by the ,tate Legislature.
and stepchildren, siblings, grandchil-
dren, parents, stepparents, grandpa-
rents and parents-in-law. In addition,
the bill would allow other tenants of
the apartment who have lived there
at least two years to renew the lease
if the primary tenant dies or is hos-
pitalized with a terminal illness.
Among the groups this latter provis-
ion would protect are homosexual
partners of people who die of AIDS.
In contrast, the governor's proposal
would allow relatives to renew a
lease, in the case of a primary tenant
moving out, if they have lived in the
apartment continuously since the in-
ception of the lease or the commence-
ment of the relationship. If the tenant
dies, this right is extended to family
members who have lived in the apart-
ment for at least two years.
A bill in the Senate, introduced by
Housing Committee Chairman John
Daly, has even more limited rights of
succession. Under that bill , S-7248,
only spouses, parents, children, step-
parents and stepchildren of the pri-
mary tenant who have lived in the
apartment continuously since the in-
ception of the lease or the commence-
ment of the relationship can renew a
lease, if the primary tenant dies or
moves away. The bill also gives the
right of first refusal on a new lease -
if one is offered - to a wider class of
a primary tenant's relatives who have
lived in the apartment continuously
since the inception of the lease or the
commencement of the relationship.
But this does not guarantee the re-
newer would be offered the apart-
ment at the rent-regulated rate.
"Neither the Daly bill nor the gover-
nor's do anything for unrelated room-
mates," says Michael McKee of the
New York State Tenant and Neighbor-
hood Coalition. "They are left out in
the cold." McKee says his group finds
even the Assembly bill too restrictive
since it applies to tenants under rent
stabilization but not under rent con-
trol. NYSTNC supports instead a bill
introduced by Assemblyman Richard
Gottfried, which allows anyone who
has lived in an apartment with the
primary tenant for six months 10
renew the lease whether the primary
tenant moves away or dies.
MCIs Continued
Tenant groups also have been pres-
suring legislators to change the laws
regulating MCI rental increases. Al-
though traditionally considered a
landlord's compensation for the cost
of building improvements, MCI in-
creases result in a permanent rental
increase. "We want to change the law
so that the rent increase for MCI is a
temporary surcharge," says McKee.
Once the cost of the improvement is
paid for, the rent should revert to the
pre-MCI level, he says.
In previous sessions, the Assembly
has passed a bill that would make the
MCI increase a five-year temporary
surcharge. In addition, the Assembly
bill has excluded from consideration
in the formula for calculating the MCI
increase two-thirds of the amount of
any J-51 tax abatement received by
the owner. No similar bills were con-
sidered or have been proposed in the
Senate so far this session, according
to Housing Committee counsel
Richard Runes.
Landlord "warehousing" of rental.
apartments is another issue the As-
sembly has acted on in the past, but
which has not resulted in legislation
because of Senate inaction. In the cur-
rent session, the Assembly Housing
Committee has passed a bill, spon-
sored by Assemblyman Richard
Gottfried, making landlords responsi-
ble for renting habitable apartments
and subjecting them to fines if they
do not comply. The . full Assembly
passed similar bills in the last two
sessions and is to pass this
as well.
"Lost Housing" .
A fourth issue involves the fate of
some 100,000 state:wide Mitchell-
Lama . apartments for moderate-in-
come tenants. The 20"-year term in
which landlords are' .required to pro-
vide the moderate rents in exchange
for low-interest mortgages and tax
abatements is rapidly' coming to a
close. Three thousand of these units
have already been sold by landlords
at market rates, according to Tom
Viola, assistant commissioner of the
state Division of Housing and Com-
munity Renewal. "These units have
already been lost as affordable-hous-
ing," he says.
To prevent landlords from selling
off these units without ample warn-
ing to tenants, state Housing Commis-
sioner William B. Eimicke issued reg-
ulations last July that, among other
things, require owners to file notice
with DHCR of their intent to sell 180
days prior to the buy-out and to hold
public information hearings for ten-
ants. These regulations recently with-
stood a court challenge from a de-
veloper. Although the regulations do
provide tenants with a buffer against
a buy-out, only state legislation can
prevent them, either through post-
poning the time when they are per-
mitted or by providing inducements
for landlords to stay in the program.
The Assembly previously passed
A-3030, which delays the buy-out
period 15 years and places sold units
under rent stabilization in areas
where it applies. The bill is similar
to one Governor Cuomo proposed, al-
though his contains a few additional
provisions to induce landlords to stay
in the program. These include raising
from the current 50 percent to 400
percent the cap on rent increases for
tenants whose income exceeds the
program limit and raising the profit
landlords are allowed to make from
operating the building from 6 percent
to 8.5 percent. A number of proposals
are being discussed in the Senate,
says Runes, adding that "the im-
mediate pressure is off as a result of
the court decision upholding Com-
missioner Eimicke's regulations. " D
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20 CITY LIMITS Aprll1988
ORGANIZE
Boston's Eviction-Free Zone
BY KATE O'LEARY
LIKE LOW INCOME RESIDENTS IN
urban areas throughout the nation,
Boston's poor are faced with spiraling
housing costs, speculation and gen-
trification. Profit-hungry developers,
eager to take advantage of Boston's
growing housing shortage, are in an
eviction frenzy as they empty older
buildings ripe for condominium con-
version.
But neighborhood organizations
like City LifeNida Urbana, which
serves the Hispanic Jamaica Plain
and the predominately black commu-
nity of Roxbury, are fighting back with
a novel weapon - the establishment
of an eviction-free zone. This zone
would be a target area to discourage
speculators from evicting residents,
with the ultimate goal of stopping all
unjust evictions.
To give an example of the problems
faced by these communities, City Life
points to the history of one triple de-
cker - the architectural style that
predominates here. It is located in an
area that borders the now-abandoned
Orange Line elevated train. When de-
molition started on the el, real estate
prices in the area soared and building
sales rose at a record-breaking pace.
Since vacant buildings are more
valuable, when the owner of this tri-
ple decker decided to sell, he evicted
all his tenants. His buyer, who im-
mediately converted the building
into condominiums, turned out to be
a high public official - the director
of the city's Public Facilities Depart-
ment, an agency that serves as the
clearinghouse for the sale of publicly
owned buildings and land.
Housing advocates viewed the pur-
chase of this building as a virtual
municipal sanction of open season
on the neighborhood and the loss of
even more affordable housing in Bos-
ton's low income communities.
Leaders at the 15-year-old City Life
say it has organized around many is-
sues in Boston's working class com-
munities, but housing has always
been at the forefront of its efforts. City
Life activists stress that housing is a
basic right and that the right to de-
cent, affordable shelter is more im-
portant than the right of landlords,
developers and speculators to make
a profit off someone else's home.
In the past, its strategies have fo-
cused on organizing tenant unions,
mobilizing residents to demonstrate
against the policies that assisted gen-
trification and displacement and
educating residents about alternative
solutions to the housing crisis.
A Political Response
The recent skyrocketing numbers
of evictions told them that something
new must be done. "About two years
ago, we began to rethink some of our
strategies," members of City Life said.
"We felt that we needed an organizing
strategy that was better publicized
and more coordinated with other
community organizations. We felt
that in order to counteract the aggres-
sive selling campaigns of the real es-
tate industry and the policies of the
city of Boston that lead to gentrifica-
tion, we needed to develop a strong
political response." Thus the concept
of creating an eviction-free zone was
born.
Initially, organizers hoped to in-
clude a large geographic area where
many community groups could work
together. Reality soon forced City Life
to downsize its goals.
The planning process was
launched by a coalition that included
City Life, the Legal Services Center
of Jamaica Plain, the Greater Roxbury
Neighborhood Authority and the Rox-
bury Technical Assistance Project of
the University of Massachusetts.
Many other groups soon followed, in-
cluding Massachusetts Fair Share,
the Massachusetts Tenants Organiza-
tion and several other neighborhood
and church organizations.
A press conference was held to an-
nounce the plan for an eviction-free
zone, and City Life aimed at holding
massive events to generate tenant
awareness of their rights and put
landlords on notice that these neigh-
borhoods would be off-limits to
speculators.
"Unfortunately, we found that
many of the groups that were in our
coalition shared our goals but did not
have the means to do the large-scale
grassroots organizing that would be
necessary to undertake this project,"
City Life members said. Many of the
coalition groups "had a larger
agenda, trying to tackle many of the
problems that plague our neighbor-
hoods. In addition, the eviction-free
zone was too large in area and
number of people for our resources."
Reexamination
This realization forced City Life to
reexamine the project. On the plus
side, members say, they had gained
important allies and achieved some
publicity for developing an eviction-
free zone. "But we were largely still
working in isolated tenant struggles,"
they observed.
The solution was to target a much
smaller geographic area and work to
build an effective project. Rapid dis-
placement along the Orange Line el
made that community an ideal target
area. With 25 volunteers, City Life
began canvassing door-to-door to in-
form residents of their tenant rights
and to let them know where to go for
help. Because the neighborhood is
largely Hispanic, both canvassers and
literature had to be bilingual.
After achieving an initial goal of
meeting with tenants in 25 percent
of the buildings in the community,
City Life held a parade and outdoor
party to kickoff the establishment of
the zone, It selected the triple decker
purchased by the Public Facilities De-
partment director as a fitting site to
center the neighborhood party.
Other local sites were incorporated
into a mock game of Monopoly, with
a "greedy landlord" pitted against
"the spirit of the community." City
Life leaders say few were surprise
when the landlord landed in jail.
Zone of Progress
Now six months into the project,
City Life members say they are en-
couraged with the progress of their
eviction-free zone. "Word-of-mouth
referrals to our office have increased,"
they noted. Tenants are telling their
friends and relatives about the con-
cept and new tenant groups have or-
ganized. Tenants in a number of
buildings owned by one speculator
have formed a coalition and prepared
a petition to put him on notice that
evictions in the community will not
be tolerated.
The impact has been political as
well. When recent elections for the
Jamaica Plain neighborhood council
were held, a slate of affordable hous-
ing advocates that include several
City Life members were elected and
now comprise a majority of the coun-
cil.
"The most exciting thing to hap-
pen, however, is the renewed interest
of other groups in taking this project
into other communities," organizers
said. "This gives us hope that the
zone may eventually grow back to the
size that we originally conceived it
to be -- and just maybe even larger."
Their work is continuing with
more canvassing, this time with the
target of reaching all of the approxi-
mately 10,000 households in the
neighborhood. A spring event is plan-
ned and organizers are beginning a
pledge campaign to rally support to
block evictions.
With the combination of hard
work, dedication and determination,
City Life is creating a sanctuary for
Boston's low income tenants, where
they can truly be free from unfair evic-
tions.O
Kate O'leary is a member of City
Life's housing committee. City Life
can be contacted at (617) 524-3541,
or 355 Lamartine St., Jamaica Plain,
MA02130. -
CHANGE]OBS
Change
the
World
Each month COMMUNITY JOBS lists hundreds of jobs and internships
able in socially responsible organizations across the country. It lists jobs in peace and
justice worlc, the environment, women's issues, social service, legal advocacy, alterna
tive media, and more. Each ad describes the hiring organization, lists the job's duties and
requirements, and tells you how to apply. If you're an employee looking for meaningful a
student looking for an internship, or an activist wanting to keep informed about what is happening
at the grassroots, you'll want to subscribe to COMMUNITY JOBS today.
o Send me 12 issues (1 year) of
Community jobs for $12.
o Send me 6 issues (6 months) for $9.
o Payment enclosed.
o Please bill me.
o I've enclosed an extra $IO/year for
first class delivery.
o $3.00 enclosed for sample copy
.name ____________________________________________________ _
address __________________________________________________ __
city _______________________________________ state _ zip __ _
--__ ( C ~ y ) - - - -
1516 PSt., NW Suite CL . Waahinaton, OC 20005
2021667-0661
WORKSHOP
BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT SPECIALIST. Govt. affiliated
devlpt. corp. in Manhattan seeks individual to provide assistance
to business constituency. Individual should have working knowl-
edge of programs for business and entrepeneur develpt. , famil-
iarity with licensing & other govt. procedures relevant to owning
& operating a business. Real estate &/or financing backgrnd. a
plus. Spanish helpful. Requirements: MA in Economics, Busi-
ness Planning or related field, or BA & 3 yrs. related expo Salry
$25 to $30K, good benefits. Resumes: MBDC, Manahattan
Borough President's Office, 1 Center St., 19th Fir., NYC 10017.
ASSOCIATE ATTORNEY. Guliemetti & Gesmer, PC., a small ,
progressive firm in lower Manhattan, seeks an assoc. attorney
with 1 to 4 yrs. post-degree expo for full-time employment. The
firm has a gnrl. civil litigation practice, with specialties in artist
rep. , real estate (particularly litigation with lofts) matrimonial and
personal injury (principally sexual assualt). Resume & writing
samples to Guliemetti & Gesmer, P.C., 401 Broadway, Suite 1901,
NYC 10013, att: Carolyn S. Lewin.
COMMUNITY ORGANIZER. Responsibilities: Training & tech.
assistance for comm.-based orgs. addressing health issues
faced by low income residents. Assist CBOs to identify issues,
implement strategies & organize their communities. Qualifica-
tions: BA, minimum 2 yrs. related paid prof. expo required. MA
plus 1 yr. related paid prof. expo acceptable. Exp. in comm.
organizing &/or health consumer advocacy. Work with grassroots
orgs. Fluency in Spanish pref. Travel within 5 boros. Salary:
$26,797 + compo benefit package. Resumes: Roger Hayes,
Community Service Society, 105 E. 22nd St., NYC 10010. EOE.
HOUSING COORDINATOR. ENTITLEMENT SPECIALIST. New
& innovative model program working with the homeless seeks
housing coordinator & entitlement specialist. Resumes: Judith
Blustein, Northern Manhattan Improvement Corportation, 601
W. 181st St. , NYC 10033.
Department of Housing
Preservation & Development
\c
l\j ...
Associate
City Planner
The Manhattan Planning office of HPD is looking for a
Project Director to assume full responsibility for
borough-wide planning for all HPD housing efforts on
the Lower East Side, East Harlem, Cooper Square and
other neighborhoods. Will also work with community
groups.
Previous supervision of professional planners and ar-
chitects, as well as experience in urban planning are re-
quired. Knowledge of NYC zoning issues preferred.
Salary $40-49,000. Excellent Benefits. Send resume to:
Ina Schwartz, Personnel Liaison, HPD, 100 Gold
Street, RM 9196, New York, N.Y. 10038. Equal oppor-
tunity employer.
EDWARD I. KOCH,
Mayor
ABRAHAM BIDERMAN,
Commissioner
providing complete architectural and engineering services to non-profit developers
NEW CONSTRUCTION, REHABILITATION AND CONVERSIONS
D Building Evaluation and Inspection
D Feasibility Studle.
D Preliminary Design/Scope of Work Studies
DComplete Construction Drawings & Specifications
D Construction Supervision
HUD SECTION 202 SENIOR CITIZENS HOUSING, HOMESTEADING PROJECTS,
GROUP HOMES, HPD RFPS, DSS/HHAP RFPS
Call John Harris RA. for an evaluation of your project's needs
CHRISTIANSON/HARRIS ARCHITECTS
458 BERGEN STREET BROOKLYN, NEW YORK 11217 (718)398.1440
eitv Li its
News #Or the Other New "ark
40 Prince Street New York NY 10012 (212) 925-9820
Dear Friend:
city Limits is a survivor. Like a neighborhood that
perseveres, City Limits continues to beat the odds.
Alternative pUblications come and go, but we've kept going--
and growing--over the past 12 years, bringing you information
that can't be found in any other New York city publication.
We've done this thanks to you. But now city Limits needs
your help more than ever. Our costs are rising dramatically:
Printing bills alone have skyrocketed almost 40 percent in
recent months. The price of a subscription does not cover our
costs, so we're asking you to dig into your pockets and help.
Unlike the neighborhood movement we cover, city Limits
cannot turn to some of the corporate sources that fund
housing--because we often say what advocates think, but
cannot say aloud.
For example, we've called for government takeover of
utilities, a concept that has disturbed some corporate
boards. We've never pulled punches in telling the true story
about the real estate stranglehold on New York City,
frequently an unpopular topic on some foundation boards. And
we play perhaps our strongest card as a critical watchdog of
government, a practice that does not encourage government
support.
That's why your help is urgent! What can you do? First,
make sure your friends and neighbors become city Limits
subscribers. Or consider giving them a gift sUbscription.
Second, we need your donations. For $25 you can be a
city Limits Supporter, while $100 or more will make you a
Sustainer. No matter how much or how little you can afford to
give, your tax deductible contributions will help ensure the
future of your magazine.
Only with your help will city Limits continue to
survive.
Sincerely,
. ! .-
f
.' ,
T ~ m '-Robbins
Member, Board of Directors

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April 1988 $2.

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