City Limits Magazine, April 1999 Issue

8/3/2019 City Limits Magazine, April 1999 Issue

1/40

A PR IL 1 9(W Y O R K 'S U R B A N A F F A I R S N (W S M A 6 A Z IN (

roodpaatriesare dishing oasocia l service

to welfare's refagees_ore tllaD tbe,. caa baadle


2/40

Warning Shots

In the December 1997 issue, our cover story was "The Brutal Truth," which outlinedwhy incidents like the Abner Louimo beating would continue to moke headlines withoutsome changes at the NYPD. Author Chris Mitchell made a case against the depart

ment's inadequate screening of new recruits, lack ofattention to red-flag behavior inofficers and the prevalent police culture.This February, the shooting death ofAmadou Diallo by four..-.......--"......... white police officers created an all-toolamiliaroutcry in the city'sneighborhoods and around the world. Outraged with the seeminglynever-ending cycle of violent incidents involving white cops andblack victims, thousands ofprotesters have filled the streets.EDITORIAL Mitchell's story covered a hot-button issue with candor and balance, going beyond quick judgments to see what can be done tomoke a difference. The tools we wrote about-such as smorter methods to chose who can join the force-have been tested around thecountry and are still available. It's past time for the police to take them to heart.

* * *When we ran Theresa Funiciello's review ofSweet Charity? by Janet Poppendieck,we never suspected that our letters page would fill as it has. Long before the accusationsstarted flying, we'd assigned Alyssa Katz to cover the changing world of ood pantries andsoup kitchens, the end of the line for the devolution ofgovernment's responsibility to helpthe poor. The feds passed the buck to the states with welfare reform, New York Stateallowed the Giuliani administration to operate its welfare program virtually unchecked,and the city has built a system based on pushing people offthe rolls, including a newprovision that will take away food stamps from another slice of he welfare population .As our cover story "Second Helping" shows, the largely volunteer network of emergency food providers is trying to catch those falling through government's frayed safetynet. Conservatives might nod in approval, arguing that charity begins at home. That looksgood cross-stitched on a decorative pillow, but true long-term solutions can't be run outof church basements. The fact that shoestring operations feel compelled to provide socialservices only confirms that welfare reform's consequences are out of control.

* * *Observant readers will recognize Alyssa's byline from past issues, but she's more thanan author around here now. This is her first issue as our new Senior Editor. An alum ofThe Village Voice and The Nation, Alyssa has already proven to be an invaluable asset.And we officially say good-bye to Glenn Thrush, who had a profound affect on thismogazine's bite and tone. He's leaving usfor the Sunday features desk at the Daily News.I know I speakfor the entire staffwhen I say that we're going to miss Glenn's skills,dedication and humor, although I moy be alone in mourning the loss of his encyclopedicknowledge of 1970s heavy metal lyrics. Ifyou detect a slackening in the barrage of cleverheadlines in these pages, stop for a moment and remember Glenn's immeasurable contributions to City Limits. We know we will.

Cover photo by Seth DinnermanCity Limits relies on the generous support of its readers and advertisers, as well as the following funders : The BTFoundation, The Robert Sterling Clark Foundation, The Unitarian Universalist Veatch Program at Shelter Rock, The EdnaMcConnell Clark Foundation , The Joyce MertzGilmore Foundation , The Scherman Foundation , The North Star Fund , J.P.Morgan &Co. Incorporated, The Annie ECasey Foundation, The New York Community Trust, The New York Foundation, TheTaconic Foundation, M&TBank, Citibank, and Chase Manhattan Bank.

(ity LimitsVolume XXIV Number 4

City Limits is published ten times per year. monthly exceptbimonthly issues in June/J uly and AugusVSeptember bythe City Limits Community Information Service. Inc. anonprofit organization devoted to disseminating informationconcerning neighborhood revitalization .Publisher: Kim NauerEditor: Carl VogelSenior Editors: Alyssa Katz. Kathleen McGowanAssociate Editor: Kemba JohnsonContributing Editors: James Bradley. Michael Hirsch.

Andrew WhiteIntern: Suzanne BoothbyDesign Direction: Jo-Anne GasterProofreaders: Anne Arkush. Sandy SocolarPhotographers: Alexandra Pais. Mayita MendezCenter for an Urban Future:Director: Neil KleimanResearch Associates: Drew Kirizaides. Laurie SchoemanBoard of Directors*:Beverly Cheuvront. Girl Scout Council of Greater NYFrancine Justa. Neighborhood Housing ServicesRebecca Reich. lISCAndrew Reicher. UHABTom Robbins. JournalistCelia Irvine. ANHDPete Williams. National Urban League"Affiliations for identification only.Sponsors:Pratt Institute Center for Community

and Environmental DevelopmentUrban Homesteading Assistance BoardSubscription rates are: for individuals and communitygroups. $25/Dne Year. $39/Two Years; for businesses.foundations. banks. government agencies and libraries.$35/Dne Year. $50/Two Years. Low income. unemployed.$10/Dne Year.

City Limits welcomes comments and article contributions.Please include astamped. self-addressed envelope for return

manuscripts . Material in City Limits does not necessarilyreflect the opinion of the sponsoring organizations. Sendcorrespondence to: City Limits. 120 Wall Street. 20th Fl..

New York . NY 10005. Postmaster: Send address changes toCity Limits. 120 Wall Street. 20th Fl.. New York. NY 10005.

To advertisecall Kim Nauer: 12121479-3352

Subscriber complaints call : 1800-783-4903Periodical postage paid

New York. NY 10001City Limits IISSN 0199-03301

121214793344FAX 12121344-6457

e-mail: [email protected] the Web: www .citylimits.org

Copyright 1999. All Rights Reserved. Noportion or portions of this journal may be reprinted without the express permission of the publishers.City Limits is indexed in the Alternative PressIndex and the Avery Index to ArchitecturalPeriodicals and is available on microfilm from UniversityMicrofilms International. Ann Arbor. MI 48106.

CITVLlMIT


3/40APRIL 1999

FEATURESCode BluesSlum landlords can rest easy. The corps of city lawyers that defendstenants against code violations has been slashed from 45 attorneysto 18 in the last four years. By Wendy Dav

On the Blockuppies and buppies are bringing new faces and higherincomes to Harlem's neighborhoods-it's all part of theevolution of l20th Street. By Michelle SolomoSecond HelpingFood pantries and soup kitchens have been struggling to serve thegrowing number of welfare reform casualties. Now this largelyvolunteer system is picking up social services where governmentleft off-and considering a strategic retreat.

PROFILES

By Alyssa Ka

Green and Leann ambitious architect is using innovations in energy-efficientconstruction to transform low-income housing . By Patrick BarnhaIndependence Dayfter six years of nurturing and financial support from aconstellation of foundations, aBronx community coalitionstrikes out on its own. By Myra Alperso

PIPELINESplit Decisionmmigrant groups that have used school boards as a portal intopolitics were relieved when the feds shot down a plan todismantle the current election system. But confusion about what todo next could throw the May vote into chaos. By Ezequiel Minay

COMMENTARYReview 132Planet Worth By Gordon MayeSpare Change 13sFun City!

DEPARTMENTS

Editorial 2 Ammo 31Letters 4 Job Ads 34Briefs 5 ProfessionalDirectory 35Vital Stats 30


4/40

Un."Ht Revl" that would unite all Americans (or at leastthe great majority who are not rich) in"an inclusive vision of fairness andeconomic security."

It is inexplicable that City Limitsinvited Theresa Funiciello to caricaturesociologist Janet Poppendieck's Sweet, Charity? Emergency Food and theEnd of Entitlement ("Nuts to Soup,"LETTERS i January 1999).

. . . . . . . . . . . .l' Sweet Charity? explores the shortcom-ings of emergency feeding as a way ofdelivering food assistance, describing howits rise both coincided with and contributedto the shredding of the government safetynet programs that were designed to protectAmericans from hunger and destitution.

None of this shows up in Funiciello's"review." Instead, she uses her page in CityLimits to push the wild-eyed theories whichmarred her 1993 book, Tyranny ofKindness: Dismantling the Welfare Systemto End Poverty in America. For Funiciello,the political conservatism of the past 20years pales beside the hypocrisy and selfinterest of the "poverty industry" when itcomes to assigning responsibility forhunger and poverty. Funiciello advocatesshutting down social service agencieswholesale and replacing them with anincome-transfer system, such as a guaranteed income, to eliminate poverty.

Poppendieck interviews hundreds ofthe people involved in emergency feedingin order to understand how and why oursociety has come to prefer charity's BandAid response to hunger over the socialinsurance programs that prevented hungerfrom happening in the first place. In thecontext of the religious right's emergenceas a major force in American politics,Poppendieck offers a valuable analysis ofthe very different values involved in theemergency feeding movement, which isessentially church- (and synagogue- andmosque-) based.Finally, she analyzes the politics ofhunger versus the politics of poverty andproposes an alternative to both: a politics

Unfortunately, Funiciello's proposal ispolitically naYve, and dangerously so. Hersavage attacks against the left-in thisreview she accuses the anti-hunger movement of advocating ''table scraps" for thepoor-only aid the right.Poppendieck raises all the big questionsabout the proliferation of soup kitchens inthe world's richest society. Because of herunique credentials as a scholar, advocateand soup kitchen volunteer, and becauseshe took the trouble to try to understand

PROGRAM IN URBAN PUBLIC HEALTHHUNTER COLLEGE, CUNYEducating public health professionals who can help create healthiercommunities.Offers MPH or MS in communitx liealth education,nutrition or environmental and occupational health. Evening classes.Tuition $185 per credit for NY State residents.

TO VISIT OUR SPRING OPEN HOUSE CALL 2l2-481-5lll.VISIT OUR WEBSITE:WWWHUNTER.CUNY.EDU/HEALTH/UPH425 EAST 25TH STREET, NEW YORK, NY 10010

how Americans think, she has sparked adialogue with tremendous potential. CityLimits, instead of encouraging this dialogue, dismissed it with a sneer.Judith WalkerExecutiveDirectorNew York City Coalition

Against HungerAppalled AuthorI was really appalled by TheresaFuniciello's review of my book, SweetCharity? She portrays the book as adefenseof emergency food, when in fact SweetCharity? is an analysis of the inherentshortcomings of this approach to poverty. Ican't imagine she could conclude that thebook advocates "food pantries, caseworkers, or trucks" instead of income for thepoor; perhaps she was in a hurry.More than her distortion of my work,however, I was distressed by her portrayalof anti-hunger advocates and the hardworking volunteers and underpaid staffwho run food programs. Ms. Funicielloseems to perceive them as part of a greatgreed-induced cabal to exploit the poor.She reserves a special venom for anyonewho advocates any form of food assistance.I suspect that Ms. Funiciello and I agreethat cash is preferable to food assistancefor poor people. If the recent history ofpublic policy has taught us anyt.hing, however, it is that the political support for theideal agenda is minimal. Why, then, heapscorn upon and impugn the motives ofpeople who have worked long, hard andvaliantly to secure food assistance to supplement shrinking cash assistance andunrealistic wages?Sweet Charity? is about the ways inwhich the proliferation of private, charitable food assistance has contributed to theerosion of the public-sector safety net.Here, again, I agree with much of whatMs. Funiciello has written. But I disagree,profoundly, with her understanding ofthe people involved, their intentionsand motivations.

A ittle sociology is useful; in my view,the contribution of emergency food to thelong, dreary process that culminated inwelfare repeal is a classic instance of alatent function-an outcome unintendedby and largely hidden from those thatmake it happen. I wrote Sweet Charity? inpart to help emergency food providers seethat the more they expand, improve andpublicize their system, the more governments at all levels will be able to avoidresponsibility for developing humane(continued on page 33)CITY LIMITS


5/40

jc..m:t:

TRANSITION

RecoDStruction Debris,'4. first I thought living in 322was the worst place," saysDiane Riddick. "There wereall kinds of different people,with different backgrounds,doing their own thing."She 's talking about the apartment buildingthat used to stand at 322 Irvine TurnerBoulevard, the way it used to be before thefues, the evacuation and the demolition. "Thepeople took care of each other's kids and wasn't gonna let anything happen to them," shesays. "I got to know the people, and it began tofeel like home."For 15 years, I took photos and listened andlearned in this Newark building, afraidof strangers when I was alone in the halls,but always feeling safe when I was welcomedinto the apartments of Diane Riddick andher neighbors.

Two flre.s around Christmas 1996 drove thepeople out-City Limits ran my photos of the

APRIL 1999

evacuation in the April 1997 issue.I've tried to keep up with the tenants of 322since then, checking in to see how they've managed and how their lives have changed. For awhile, I visited the old building every few weeksand took a few more pictures. For a year, it stoodempty and barren.Then last February, I made the turn ontoIrvine Turner Boulevard, and my heart sank. Isaw what used to be a four-story building scattered across empty lots.I stumbled in frustration up and down thepiles of rubble, trying to document the essence ofthis building with my camera before it was allover. The site supervisor approached me, and Itold him what I was doing-the years I'd spentwith this building. "Go ahead and take pictures ifyou want," he said. "The building was built tolast forever. A shame to destroy it."I spent the next two months in the mud andrain, poking my camera into every pile of debris .Every day, the workers waved and greeted me,

...

Sherell Riddickshows of

fo r her momin thei

old home

and the bulldozer driver gave me a little toot.Now the building's tenants are scatteredacross the city. Riddick, who lived at 322 for 12years, has moved twice since it burned downBut she hasn't forgotten her neighbors. "I stilmiss Mildred-she was old and so funny," sherecalls. "She be walking around with one legand jokin ' and drinkin' that vodka. She gave mesome com liquor one day, and man, I was goingall kinds of ways. She drank that stuff straighand that lady was eighty-some years old. . . . Iguess it's the way it's supposed to be-a storybegins and a story ends."Her kids-IO-year-old Sherell and 13-yearold Rashawn-miss their friends and their treefort. "I didn't know what to say when the housegot burned down," remembers Sherell. "By thetime we got horne, my mother already moved toanother place and we didn't have a chance to seeour friends or anything."A block of pre-fab housing now fills the lotwhere 322 once stood . Most of the former tenantshave lost track of each other. "We tried to stay intouch, but we just can't," Riddick explains.''There was something about that building andthe people that made you different once youmoved out. It's like you're not home no moreYou're out." -Helen Stummer


6/40

Briem. . . . . . . . . . . .__- - - -.......... ----------Housing ManagementTaxedShelter4. its peak, the Oceanhill-BrownsvilleTenants Association (OHBTA) was aredevelopment powerhouse, rehabbing and managing hundreds ofcity-owned buildings in easternBrooklyn . Now, says Executive Director AbdurRahman Farrakhan, the group is getting out ofthe housing business.While OHBTA still holds title to the buildingsmostly former vacant and dilapidated propertiesrehabbed through city grants-it has passed offday-to-day management for all but about 300 apartments to outside for-profit managers.'Civil DisobedienceParking Not

Most recently, the group handed over about 860units in 30 buildings to the Bronx firm RMA, a private management company. The rest of the outsourced buildings have gone to AReO Managementand Grenadier Realty. Farrakhan says that OHBTA'sfuture is simply no longer in housing.It's a sea change for an organization that oncewas the darling of the city Department of HousingPreservation and Development (HPD), receivingmillions of dollars in community management andrehab grants and loans. It would eventually taketitle to more than 2,000 housing units.Farrakhan explains that OHBTA is fed up withthe landlord business and looking for greenerfields in economic development. "We've donewell with HPD, but I don't see this as being thefuture for us," he says. "We want to do things tohelp people become self-sufficient, and we don'twant to become dependent on government grants.We don't want to bother with that foolishness."OHBTA, formed out of the racially chargedBrownsville school-choice fight of the late 1960s,

was founded on the principles of self-help and homrule. But even as the group developed workcooperatives like a security guard training program and a construction company, it becamincreasingly dependent on HPD rehab grants.The organization's properties are widely knowto have management problems. Most of the properties OHBTA still manages are tenant-owned orental cooperatives. Buildings like these commonly owe back taxes and water and emergency repabills. But Oceanhill-Brownsville's buildings aespecially debt-laden: All but two of its 1co-ops are nearly drowning in unpaid bills. One,35-unit building at 2170 Atlantic Avenue, currentowes a total of $427,860, according to Departmeof Finance data.''We need to fix these buildings up, we need to gthese tax situations fixed up, we need to work withem," admits Farrakhan. ''But there was a toss-ubetween me paying for fuel and repairs versus paying taxes. I figured the city put aburden on me-whshould I pay them?". -Kathleen McGowa

..... wd for the IimouIInes .... c.- . . . . . . . that ferryInYestnIllll bInken home lit nIaht.

D....... in lUlls ........ op hats .... canyInaa ditquietInc . . . . . . . puppet depIdInc ..,..GiuIiani's . . . . . 011 a stick, about 30 protestersspent the aftemoon of February 11 camped outin a Wall Street-area PIItdna spot...-tis one

The demonstrators, orpnIzed by the pubIIc-tpIIC8IIIvocacy IfOUP Reclaim the StrMts, were respontInc tothe recent news that .....,... 5urI Kauirer . . . . of themayor's political action committee chief, 8nIce TeIteIbIuInto secure exclulive richIs for the an to parkoutside the Broad StrMt _.baa of the $20 ...... lnvest

ment ftnn Goldman Sachs.1heIr mn. . . . was cIer.... s a racist corporllestoop," read one 1Ian.But Wall Street w.unmoved ....., don't , . .back to IChoaI .... aet .....jobs?" shouted one . . . .dressed ........ , Dav.Mattera... . .. hese people havea lot of nene," continuedMattera, who WOIb lit . .downtown Icon CoIIIputerGroup. He felt the . . . . . . .priviIeps are a '* .......off, COIIIideriac the ....meat finIn IIInIIItic . . . . . .., ... GaIIIn8I SedilJIveatheir . . . . . , . . . one ......day off a , . . . to do......-&.... . . . . . ,Making headway: Protesters park inaprivatized spot

CITY LIMITS


7/40

---------------------------BriemBETTERLMNG THROUGH STATISTICS! &I:

e-I-MAYOR GIULlANl'SMINl>EXPANDING LFADERSHlP CANACTUAJ.lY IMPROVE YOUR QUALITYOFLIFE

I:S

&-nUl.tY, THE SANITATIONi>fPARi'MNT PICKS UP MORETRASH PER CAPITA 'mAN THEENTIRE srA'Tt OF VIRGINIA!/ikruAuy, WHEN ADJUSTtDFOR TlMEJNFLATlON, MIDTOWNTRAfTIC DtLAYS ARE GT11NGf > H O J m : R , N O T L ~ t R EACH YEAR!

~ T U A U . Y , TIiE ODDS OF YOUBEING SHOT BY ACOP AREMUCH LOWER THAN 'IltE ODDSOF YOUBlNG BORN BLACK!

Environmental JusticePennissionSlipA ier years of watching the state environmental agency say yes to industrial polluters looking to put plants int h ~ i r neigh?orhoods, New York'smmonty resIdents are finally gettinga forum where they can say no.Under pressure from state environmentalistsand the federal Environmental Protection Agency(EPA), the state Department of EnvironmentalConservation (DEC) will begin taking civil rightsconcerns into account in its permitting process forneighborhood afflictions like water-treatmentplants and garbage depots.In February, DEC announced that the agencywill give minority communities earlier notice ofpermit applications, set up a dispute-mediationprocess between communities and businessesbefore permits are approved, and identify projectsthat may trigger environmental justice concerns.The plan came out of months of informal discussions between the state agency and environmental groups, including the League ofConservation Voters and the New York City

APRIL 1999

Environmental Justice Alliance.Environmental groups hope DEC's plan willgive officials pause before placing noxious projects in minority communities. "You need to builda link in special circumstances, in communities ofcolor that have been overburdened," says MathyStanislaus, co-chair of the Minority Environmental Lawyers Association. ''No agency has[taken] that step. That's what led to the environmental justice movement." - Kemba JohnsonAffordable HousingNow YouSee It...As the mayor and governor battle overthe proposed Holocaust museumexpansion in Battery Park City, housing activists might want to take theopportunity to remind the politiciansof another deal, made a decade ago, that is nowbeing routinely ignored by the city and state.When the Battery Park City Authority was created in 1968 to oversee development of the WestSide waterfront south of Chambers Street, theplan included housing for both rich and poor residents. The city budget crisis in the late 197Qsforced officials to scale back these ambitions.

Instead, the authority committed to giving thecity $600 million from future budget surplusrevenues to finance affordable housing elsewhere in the five boroughs.The deal, penned in a series of 1980s agreements, was to be fmanced with Battery Park profits. If the contract had been honored, the Department of Housing Preservation and Developmenwould have had an additional $79.2 million tospend this year. Instead, it's getting nothing.There are several reasons for this. First, theauthority hasn't been nearly as profitable as expected. Last year, it handed the city only $40 million;this year that figure is projected to be $44 million.The real problem, however, is i!l how the cityis choosing to spend the Battery Park surplus. Thecontract requires what is known as a "maintenance of effort," mearJing that the city is requiredto maintain its existing housing budget andincrease it with the additional Battery Park Cityrevenues. But the language is loose and the provision hasn't been enforced. "It's not very toughin terms of a maintenance of effort agreement,"observes Alexandra Altman, counsel for theBattery Park City Authority.And even if this provision could be enforcedaone-sentence loophole gives the city the right tomove this surplus into the general operating budget in any year "the City budget provides for general reductions in basic city services." Under theGiuliani administration, pretty much every yeafits that bill. -Carl Voge


8/40

PROFILE

Architect ChrisBenedict buildsgreen homesfor not a lot ofgreenbacks.

Creen and LeanConvinced that fuel-efficient housing doesn't have to costmore, aManhattan architect builds homes that can keepthemselves warm. By Patrick Barnhart

A rchitect Chris Benedict gother first energy-efficientaffordable homes built-the first in New York City,actually-by being sneaky.The bank that was going to help financethe deal wanted contractors to bid ontwo sets of renderings for the rehab job:traditional plans and ones with the greendetails in place. "They called themthe plain vanilla and the pistachio,"Benedict recalls .She suspected that the constructioncompanies would jack up the price onthe extra work, and that would be theend of the story on including energyefficiency. So she convinced the bank topull a bait-and-switch: They would bidout just the plain plans. Only after theyhad a lowest contractor estimate wouldthey unveil the green blueprints.

It worked. The additional costsended up adding just a bit more than 1

percent to the $4.3 million deal for 18multifamily homes-very little by energy-efficiency standards. But Benedict iscertain she can do better. "People have afear of change, and they hang their haton cost," she says. "I wanted to bringthat $54,000 down to zero. 1didn ' t wantthis project stigmatized."When Benedict starts talking aboutenergy, her eyes glow with an evangelist's fervor behind her stylish glasses,and she reels off nuts-and-bolts details toprove that buildings can be built smarter.I f it takes some subterfuge to get pastpreconcieved notions, so be it.Every winter, New Yorkers arereminded of the chinks in their homes'armor. A crack in a window seal that isimperceptible in October makes a nearbyfavorite chair too cold to sit in byJanuary. Or the place is burning upbecause the super 's apartment is on thefirst floor, and he's freezing. These con-

struction defects are more than annoying; they're expensive and wasteful. Fopoor families, the extra cost of turninthe heat up or a space heater on can meaa choice between heat or rent or food.Homes that use energy more wiselhave been around for a while, but thehave a rep for being expensive. Thatfine for a market-rate home, where thbuyer is making a decision to invest iinfrastructure now for lower utility bilin the future. But there's only so mucmoney to go around for subsidized housing these days , and spending more ufront means fewer affordable homes. Thfact that lower energy costs can help residents save enough to pay the monthlmortgage bill never gets factored in.Benedict and her partner HenrGifford say they've hit on the energyefficiency grail: green housing that doesn't cost any more to build than comparable units. They've invested a lot otime and thought into the set orehabbed row houses and tenemenbuildings that have been built arounBrooklyn in the last year. Now they juhave to convince the city to give themanother chance.

After getting her architecturdegree at Cooper Union, Benedicapprenticed at four different firmfmally striking out on her own in 1995For years she had been interested in mixing architecture with her environmentasensibilities-in sixth grade she wrotepoem about pollution-but wasn't surwhere to start.Her break came from her first clienthe NYlEnterprise CityHome HousinDevelopment Fund Corporation. CityHome hired Benedict as one of a handfuor architects overseeing their middleincome home-ownership program, whic

had already rehabbed more than 10buildings in Brooklyn and the SoutBronx. "Chris came highly recommended," says Rylona Watson, director othe program.For Benedict's first project-plans tgut-rehab 13 buildings in CrowHeights-she wasn't able to make anheadway on green architecture. But shasked Watson if she could add in energefficiency for her next contract, a hodgepodge of 18 two-, tbree- and four-familyhouses in Bushwick and Ocean Hill. WhenWatson agreed, all Benedict had to do waCITVLlMITS


9/40

Environmental HousingBenedict's housing uses "greenconstruction" and aims to rehablow-income housing for first timehomeowners.

AB

D Thennostats and heaters inapartment keep the building ata constant 72 degreesE Doors are made of recycled woodF Highest efficiency refrigeratorsG Airtight apartments allow for 40%smaller boilers and prevent heat fromrising to upper apartmentsH Walls are insulated with recycledmaterials that fill the entire cavity

'drawing is schematic

figure out how.She began attending energy efficiencyconferences, "to talk with anyonewho would talk with me," she says,"anyone who knew anything aboutenvironmentally sound construction." Atone such confab, in Boston, she metHenry Gifford."In the middle of class Henry raisedhis hand to ask the instructor a question, and the teacher deflected thequestion and didn ' t answer. ThenHenry raises his hand and asks thesame question again," Benedict recallswith a laugh. "I looked at him andthought, 'This guy must be a psycho."

Gifford isn't a psycho; he's just enthusiastic. He has self-published a gujde tosizing pipes and pumps for homes and isworking on a coffee-table book of boilerrooms. "He is the finest boiler mechanic inthe world," says Andy Padian at the Centerfor Energy Affordablity. "But he has probably already told you that himself."Gifford is the rare individual who notonly understands the theory of heating abuilding but also knows how to put boilers together and take them apart. WithGifford's unique comprehension of how a

APRIL 1999

building's heating system works, Benedictwas ready to create her dream house-{)nethat conserved construction funds byusing scaled-down heating equipment,then spent those savings on extra weatherization to keep the house warm."Choose a boiler size large enough toheat the house," reads the typical architect's specification for home heating.American builders usually overestimateto avoid angry calls from cold owners.But by taking the time to plan very carefully how the heating systems wouldwork, Benedict and Gifford were able touse small, sealed-combustion boilers,eliminating the need for a boiler roomand chimney-and saving more than$3,500 per building .Benedict also re-envisioned theventilation systems. Any New York Citybuilding without a window in the bathroom or kitchen is required to bring infresh air, which is typically accomplishedby drawing the air upward through a ceiling vent. Whlle effective, thls method connects each unit to the one above it andpunches a hole in the roof, both of whichallow heat to escape .Benedict's design seals each unit as

throughthe windowsthrough vents inbathroom and k ~ c h e nkeeping a constant andcontrolled air flow

tightly as possible, keeping heated air inthe apartment. A constantly TUnlling fanconnecting the bathroom and kitchen pullsin air through "trickle vents" above eachbedroom window and pushes it out of sidevents. It costs about $40 a year to run thefan, but the savings from controlling theamount of heat that leaves the apartments ..,are much greater. Plus, each urut is quieter,since sounds don't travel from apartmentto apartment via the ducts, and the sealanthelps deter insects and rodents.The money that Benedict saved bynixing chlmneys and roof fans wasplowed into materials like thermal windows and cellulose insulation. But thebiggest expense was the cost of completely sealing each unit. Labor is wheregreenbacks threaten to do in Benedict'sgreen vision.To guarantee the units would beadequately sealed, Benedict decided to change the typical workingarrangement for low-income projects.Home construction leaves a lot of leeway for contractors, such as the specsfor boilers. "Designs are typically donefirst by architects, then [go1 to the


10/40

mecharucal engineer for heating, then to constrution," saysJohn Spears, president of the Sustainable Design Group inGaithersburg, Maryland. "There is hardly any feedbackbetween them."With Gifford, Benedict was already working much moreclosely with a mecharucal engineer than most architects do,and she thought it only made sense that the two of them wouldwork closely with the construction crew as well. "During thejob I was out at the job site three or four times a week,"Benedict says. "I'd go in with our drawings and if there is afour-foot piece of ductwork, I look for it and then check it off.""Chris was the most thorough architect we have everworked with," says John Frezza, whose Strategic Constructionin Brooklyn was the general contractor on this project. "Shewas on top of the job from start to finish, and that raised ourcosts a lot."The city Department of Housing Preservation andDevelopment agreed to pay $28,000 of the $54,000 Frezza'scompany required for the extra work, and CityHome obtaineda grant from the Joyce Mertz Gilmore Foundation for theremaining cost. But Frezza maintains he will raise his bid inthe future. "From an engineering perspective, it is the idealway to build a home, but the additional work raises my laborcosts further," he says. "These are 'lost cost' projects and thesavings need to come from somewhere."There are ways around the labor-cost problem. In NorthCarolina, more than a hundred energy-efficient affordablehomes have gone up in the last four years, built by Habitat forHumanity-but of course, that manpower was donated.Another route is tapping into federal Department of Energy

funds earmarked for weatherizing eXlstmg housing.Spears secured waivers that allowed the money to be usedfor new construction, buying him $1,500 per unit for aMaryland project.Benedict argues that with the work that has already goneinto her plans, the cost for future projects will go down, notup . "Once we get a couple contractors bidding against eachother, I'm sure we can keep the price down," she says.She may not get the chance soon. Although she is currently working on a 19-building project for CityHome,Benedict is back to "the dumb way of doing things," as sheputs it. The city is waiting to see some fuel bills before itgives the green light to funding another round of energyefficient CityHomes.

"I f these homes really do save residents as much as Chrishas predicted that they do, and I fully expect that they will,then I really think that we have a model for the future,"Watson says . "We need to document the cost savings thatthese homes provide and then see about building more."So for now, Benedict settles for helping the families thathave recently moved into her green homes learn how to makethem work to peak capacity. To ensure the residents getthe hundreds of dollars a year in fuel bill savings, she's evengiven them her home phone number, in case they have a question at an odd hour."More and more people need to see the demonstrations,"says Spears, who's been working in the field for 25 years. "It'sjust that old habits are hard to kick." Patrick Barnhart is a Manhattan-based freelance writer.

planners Network 1999

planners Network ConferenceJune 17-20, 1999

University of Massachusetts at Lowell

It is a critical time for work and workers in the United States.Most workers are putting in longer hours, at lower wages, inless stable jobs. Inequalities by race and education arewidening, and gender inequality persists as well. At thesame time, the U.S. labor movement is newly revitalized,and community-based campaigns have scored many successes. The June Conference will explore the connections andintersections between community and work and be held inLowell, Massachusetts, cradle of the U.S. industrial revolution. For information regarding conference registration:joanJenlon @uml.edu, #(978)934-3895; submitting workshop ideas or papers, being a co-sponsor, or joining thelocal planning committee: ,#(617)983-3202 Also check the website at www.plannersnetwork.org/ pn99 .htm

Planners Network is an association of practitioners,activists, educators and students involved in physicatsociat economic and environmental planning in urbanand rural areas who work to promote fundamentalchange in our political and economical systems.

Planners Network 1999

CITY LIMITS


11/40

Split DecisionUnder new voting rules, this spring s chool board ballots areturning into wild cards. By Ezequiel MinayaI t'S business as usual at theweekly meeting of CommunitySchool Board 26. Assembled atIntermediate School 74 in Bayside,Queens, the nine-member grouplistens to the director of the district's drugprevention program describe his effort.At lecture's end, board member SachiDastidar offers a unique perspective. In theone-fifth of district households that areSouth Asian, Dastidar says, talking aboutdrugs is taboo, so educators must treadcarefully. He stops momentarily to rub histired eyes with the heels of his hands,searching for a way to illustrate his point."In my culture, even a grown man wouldnot dream of smoking or drinking in frontof his parents," he says.Dastidar, who was born in Calcutta,India, and elected to the board in 1996,often pursues issues that aren't on themeetings' agendas. The differencebetween his merely being a concerned parent and becoming one of the first twoSouth Asian elected officials in New YorkCity was four votes out of 5,024. But hadthat election been held under a new andcontroversial set of voting rules approvedlast summer, Dastidar's fellow boardmembers wouldn't hear his insightsbecause he wouldn't have been elected.On the recommendation of the TaskForce on the New York City CommunitySchool Board Elections, the state legislature eliminated a long-standing systemthat distributes votes proportionallyamong school board candidates. The hopewas that a standard winner-takes-all ballotformat would increase declining turnout.But minority and immigrant groups, whohave long used school boards as politicalforums and springboards to higher office,said the switch would hurt their electionchances in districts where their numbersare diluted .The Justice Department agreed and inearly February struck down the law, sayingthat the shift would diminish the influenceof minority voters without guaranteeing ahigher turnout. The agency's jurisdiction,however, was limited to the Bronx,Brooklyn and Manhattan; in Queens andStaten Island, the law is still in effect.

APRIL 1999

With aMay 4 vote fast approaching, cityelection officials, potential candidates andthe groups who help them are wonderingwhat happens next. "Everyone's sostressed out about this," says Judith Baum,who works with candidates at the nonprofit Public Education Association."Everything's still up in the air."

T he election system used toselect New York City's 32 schoolboards, known as "proportionalrepresentation," is uncommon in the UnitedStates, employed only in the city and inCambridge, Massachusetts. The schoolboard elections are further distinguished byallowing non-citizens to vote. 'This votingsystem is good for minority people. It's easier to get a candidate elected," saysMorshed Alam, a Bangladeshi schoolboard member in southeast Queens."Representationis important, and this givesus achance."Under the system, voters list their top nine preferences for a' district'scandidates-who usuallyrun on slates-on a paperballot. The threshold forvictory is 10 percent of theballots cast. Extra votes acandidate receives beyondthat go to the personranked second on a voter'sballot until that candidatereaches the 10 percentthreshold, and so on. Thisvote cascade continuesdown the line until thenine-person board is chosen. With the vote transferfrom one candidate to another, contendersfrom smaller voter blocs receive morevotes than they otherwise would have.After some widely publicized incidentsof corruption, in 1996 the school boardswere stripped of their most importantduties, including the power to hire principals and directly appoint superintendents.Still, members of underrepresented groupssee school boards as important politicalposts. For example, the only Asian

Americans who hold elected office inNew York State, 11 in total, are all cityschool board members. Board slots canalso be trampolines: Alam parlayed hisboard position into 40 percent of thegeneral vote last year in an unsuccessfulbid for state senator."It's an important opportunity forparents to have a say in educational policy,"says Margaret Fung, executive director ofthe Asian-American Legal Defense andEducation Fund. "It's a first step forpoliticians entering the arena, and forimmigrant parents it's an entry in both"education and politics.For blacks and Latinos, who often livein neighborhoods where they make up asizable part of the community, proportionalrepresentation doesn't always matter asmuch. All the same, it can also provide

a turning point for a neighborhood'spolitical growth . City CouncilmemberGuillermo Linares started his public fcareer in 1983 as a school board member, at a time when Inwood's now-established Dominican community was stillgrowing. "Blacks, Latinos and Asiansare diluted in [some] districts," saysLinares, who is Dominican . "Minoritiesstand to lose a lot if they lose proportional representation."

PIPELINE

Sclwol boardmember SachiDastidar creditsthe current votinsystem for makinhim one of hecity's first SouthAsian electedofficials.


12/40

fW

I f city education officials had their way,proportional representation would gothe way of the dollar subway token.The task force assembled to make the votemore popular recommended using votingmachines, limiting voters to four candidate choices and eliminating the transferof extra votes. 'The current system of proportional voting , with its paper ballots, isnot understandable," says Alan Garter,executive director of the task force and aCUNY professor of educational psychology. "It is very different from the electionspeople are accustomed to."The prevailing view in Garter 's group isthat voter confusion has led to steadilydeclining participation in school board elections, from 14 percent of eligiblevoters in 1970 to 5 percent in 1996, whenthe task force was formed. After holdingmeetings throughout the city and interviewing parents, school board members and district superintendents, the task force concluded that all ethnic groups disliked proportional voting-but particularly, the taskforce took pains to observe, recent immi-grants who were unfamiliar with voting.Many education advocates disagree.They cite a jump in voters in 1993-theyear of the Rainbow Curriculum andHeather Has TwoMommies-as proof thatmore publicity and voter education canbring people to the polls. And they contendthat the Board of Elections is anxious toget rid of a complex system that requirestallying by hand; in the last election threeyears ago, it took nearly amonth to get thefinal count.''The implication that minority voterscan't do this is racist," says KathleenBerger, president of School Boards forEquity, Accountability and Community, acoalition of school board members thatrecruits and trains candidates. ''The confusion is not in the vote but the tally. TheBoard of Elections just doesn't seem toknow how to count them."The Justice Department was alsounconvinced. As part of its mandate toenforce civil rights in designated problem zones nationwide, the agency has toapprove any election-law changes inBrooklyn, Manhattan and the Bronx. Itsaw no evidence that the new systemwould increase voter turnout. But oneresult was clear to investigators: Underrepresented groups would have a hardertime getting elected. The feds calculatedthat the threshold for winning wouldjump from 10 percent of ballots cast to31 percent.

The Justice Department decision hadplunged the upcoming school boardelections into a state of confusion .Technically, election officials can use thenew system in Queens and Staten Island.And meanwhile, city lawyers are askingthe agency to reconsider its decision. "I amalarmed at the thought that this rulingmight preclude an improved electoralprocess for the Community School Boardelections scheduled for this May," SchoolsChancellor Rudy Crew wrote in apreparedstatement.In late February, the city's Commissioners

of Elections crowded into a small conference room, trying to choose between usingthe old system citywide or in only the threeboroughs where they had to. Taking a cuefrom Cambridge,which uses scannable ballots, the city started talking to scanner vendors. Board president Doug Kellner hadhoped to plow through the city 's convoluted contracts process by May. "If we movequickly, it can be done, but we have to havethe will to do it and get all the little detailsout of the way," he said. "We could do it."But his fellow commissioners werenot so motivated. One suggested postponing the May elections, while another wanted to use both systems.Another was sleeping. The fmal , accepted suggestion was totable the discussion for a week.When they did make a decision it wasfor a unified election using proportionalrepresentation. Ultimately, the commissioners believed that the feds had more legalpull than the state. 'That the people who feltmost strongly on this issue wanted a singlesystem maybe had an influence," Kellneradmits. "But the commissioners understandthat we don't get to make the law on this."Kellner's hope to use scanned ballots,however, evaporated. It became clear thatthe board wouldn 't be able to navigate thecontracts process in time, especially afterCouncilwoman Margarita Lopez andDeputy Mayor Ninfa Segarra asked fortime to educate voters about the change.So the Board of Elections finds itselfright back where it started: counting ballots by hand . Kellner doesn't feel sorry foragency officials. "Since 1996 everyoneassumed the system was going to change,so no one worked on using the technologyavailable," he says. "The Board of Elections never invested the manpower to doschool board elections as effectively asprimary and general elections." Ezequiel Minaya is aBrooklyn-basedfreelance writer.

NANCYHARDYInsuranceBrokerSpecializing inCommunityDevelopment

Groups,HDFCs andNon .Profits

Low .CostInsurance andQuality Service.

Over 20 Yearsof Experience.

270 NorthAvenue, NewRochelle, NY10801

914 .654 .8667

CITY LIMITS


13/40

Independence DayA cadre of oundations gave aBronx community servicecoalition lije--


14/40

Much of Miller's time at CCRP'sSurdna Foundation office was spentbeating the bushes for money. Over thelast six years, she raised some $9 million from 20 banks and private foundations for CCRP operations and another$44 million from federal, state andprivate sources for the CDC's socialservice programs.Her pitch to the trend-conscious foundation world worked because it wassimple: They would be funding intelligentprograms that were growing quickly. "I fwe didn't prove ourselves and prove ourability to produce what the neighborhoodneeded and wanted, [the fundersJ wouldnot stick with us," she says. CCRP's warchest underwrote program start-up costs,computers and consultants who helpedthe CDCs win grants and manage theirnew projects.Some programs, like a ob resource andtraining center that has helped 700 midBronx residents fmd work, were joint ventures. But most were individual programsdone with CCRP's help. When Phipps,Mid Bronx Desperadoes and Mount Hopedeveloped four new community familyhealth practices in collaboration with localhospitals, for example, CCRPprovided$300,000 for renovations. CCRP put up

another $150,000 in pre-developmentmoney for a Mid Bronx Desperadoesshopping center anchored by a Pathmarksupermarket. CCRP-funded consultantshelped Mount Hope open a credit union,and another grant helped PhippslWestFarms plan six new neighborhood parks.Miller acknowledges that this explosive growth wasn't always easy to handle.Staff at the CDCs ballooned-Mid-BronxSenior Citizens Council went from about160 staff members to 230 and PhippslWestFarms increased from less than 20 to 150.And even with the new staff, the groupswere overwhelmed at times.The project's evaluator, Gerri Spilkafrom the OMG Center for CollaborativeLearning, wrote that inexperience insome program areas and the lack ofmanagement caused certain programs tobe "hit and miss, trial and error." Shesays, "They were taking on new programs and needing more senior management [skillsJ. The directors are visionaries and leaders, but not necessarily adeptin management."

"A lot of [training] was done, but noone would disagree that more could havebeen done," responds Miller. "We knew ifwe didn't move, we wouldn't be able toraise the money for the programs."

ofNEW YORKI N CORPORA TED

For 20YearsWe've Been ThereForYou.

YourNeighborhood

HousingInsuranceSpecialist

R&F OF NEW YORK, INC. has a specialdepartment obtaining and servicing insurance fortenants, low-income co-ops a ~ d not-for-profitcommunity groups.We have developed competitiveinsurance programs based on a careful evaluationof the special needs of our customers.We havebeen a leader from the start and are dedicated tothe people of New York City.

Fol' !II/orma/ioll call:Ingrid Kaminski, Executive Vice PresidentR&F of Ne w YorkOne Wall Street CourtNew York, NY 10005-3302212 269-8080 800 635-6002 212 269-8112 (fax)

c-

Late last year, Miller left the longhours and frenetic pace that CCRPwas demanding. She now works aa consultant for CCRP and other grouplooking to set up CCRP-like organizationnationwide. Her successor, Joe Turnerco-founded Harlem Directors Group,collection of AIDS services organizationsand worked at ARRIVE, which teacheex-cons community organizing. Now aCCRP he has his work cut out for himmaking do with a sharply reduced budgetSurdna and several other originafunders-including the Edna McConnelClark Foundation, Booth Ferris and theOpen Society Institute-have stuck by thnew nonprofit. They're providing a totaof $1.2 million for administration andoverhead for the next two years.The funding reductions have alreadybeen passed along to the four CDCs whichamong other things, will no longer receive$130,000 per year in operational supporfrom CCRP. The groups have also beenforced to undergo a considerable amount oreorganization, although to date all of theprograms remain in place."Most CDCs have a history with soloflights ...not sharing staff, sharing information, never giving up their grants," he saysBut in this case, he insists, the four groupsremain committed to each other. "It's nolike one person showing up with a bag omoney [anymore]. It's an adjustment, buthe groundwork was really laid well."

Turner and his board of directors-fonow, it consists of representatives of thefour organizations and Miller, but locaresidents will soon be added-are nowlooking for ways to pump the fundingback up. They are considering cashgenerating ventures, akin to theMid-Bronx Senior Citizens Council'scatering business, such as opening thrifshops or a building maintenancecompany. Turner is also hoping that theCCRP coalition's next round of planswhich may include neighborhood safetyprograms and small business developmentprojects, will attract new funders.Miller, who pioneered CCRP'saggressive fundraising strategy, stressesthat the coalition must not lose itsmomentum. "They have enough moneyto see them through the next coupleof years," Miller says. "Whether itsurvives depends on what programsCCRP, Inc., produces ." Myra Alperson is aManhattan-based freelance writer. Additional reportingby Kemba Johnson.

CITYLIHITS


15/40

ARRESTED DEVELOPMEIIT: THIRD IN A SERIES ON CITY HOUSING POLICY IN RETREA

APRIL 1999

The city's housing ladepartment has lost morthan half its attorneys ithe last four years, leavintenants to try to prosecutbad landlords on their OWDBy 1VelJdyDavis

argarita Ortiz lives in a7-by-1O-f$375-a-month studio in a singroom occupancy brownstoneWashington Heights. Sincemoved into 560 West 184th Strlast May, she has gone for monwithout heat or hot water. Mcrawl across her stove. Her sleaks nonstop, and the narrow communal hallway is strewn wgarbage bags.There's no tenant organization in the building. The other rdents are too scared, Ortiz says. Mostly immigrants fromDominican Republic, they're frightened of being deportedworried about angering the building's drug dealers with a unifront. But without a tenant association to back her up, Ortiz habrought her landlord to court for the 250 building code violatiagainst the SRO.Her landlord's attorney says that the owners are workingcorrect the violations, but Ortiz says the problems have gounchanged for the nine months she's lived there. "It's not fashe says. "He's suppose to fix all the problems that are insthe apartment."Ortiz is in Housing Court, though-as a defendant, faceviction for not paying her rent for her dirty and dangerous apment. It's the only way she can see to get her landlord in frona judge.In past years, Ortiz could have turned to the DepartmenHousing Preservation and Development's legal office.There, of a squad of lawyers with the sole job of enforcing the houscode could have put the weight of New York City behind her fito get her leaks fixed and her heat turned back on.But today, that's no option. Severe cutbacks have crippledHousing Litigation Bureau (HLB). Just four years ago, bureau had 46 attorneys; now, according to their union , onlyare taking cases .


16/40

Though cutbacks are a familiar theme in the Giuliani era, thecity's housing department has suffered some of the harshest. Andthe stakes here are particularly high. The city's entire mechanismfor enforcing building laws runs through Housing Court. It's up tothese city lawyers to go after the city's repeat scofflaws-theincorrigible slumlords who repeatedly run buildings into theground and fleece the most vulnerable tenants. Quietly, theGiuliani administration has devastated this safety system.The cutbacks among building inspectors-from 332 at thebeginning of the decade to 224 today-are well documented. Butfew outside Housing Court have noticed the demise of the litigation bureau, which acts as the legal muscle behind the inspectors.It's as if he police had no prosecutors to back them up."We've seen fewer and fewer cases litigated by [the HousingLitigation Bureau]," says Angelita Anderson of the nonprofitCity-Wide Task Force on Housing Court. Judge Jerald Klein, whohas served in Manhattan's Housing Court since 1987, agrees."There is absolutely an appreciable and noticeable decrease instaff, and there is a substantial reduction in the amount of activitythe HLB does," he says.The numbers back them up. In 1990, 12,786 code-relatedcases were heard in Housing Court, according to the Mayor'sManagement Report. In 1993, the mayor's office broadened itscalculations to include in that number every case opened. Even

BvenMayorRudolph Giuliani admitssomething is seriously wrong withthe c i t y ~ s housing code enforcement.

with that more generous measure, the number of code violationcases dropped to 9,925 by 1998-a 22 percent decline.And that doesn't tell the full story. Of those cases, more than80 percent were fIled by tenants. In practice, it's now up to tenantsto try to enforce the city's laws-to bring offending landlords tocourt and try to ensure that judges' orders get carried out. It's nosurprise that they don't have much success. Many withhold rentinstead, putting themselves on the verge of eviction.In an extraordinary moment, even Mayor Giuliani has admittedthat something is seriously wrong with the city's housing codeenforcement system, hinting that it might be up for reform. 'Theenforcement mechanisms are not taking place," he said inFebruary. 'That's the place where changes have to be made."

Busing Court was created in 1973 with the ideathat tenants living in a dangerously run-downbuilding could go to court and leave with an order

directing their landlord to make repairs. If thelandlord was truly incompetent or unresponsive,the tenant could get an order appointing an independent administrator to run the building.Under this plan, a section of the city's housing department isthere to back tenants up. HPD's inspectors document theviolations, ranging from cracked plaster to dangerously rottingfoundations. These violations are checked in the department'scomputer system against the landlord's record, like a parkingviolation against a car's license plate. But housing inspectors haveno power to impose fmes or order repairs.Some landlords deal with the violation right away, since old

ones can come back to haunt an owner trying to refinance amortgage or increase rents in a rent-regulated building. For thousands of others, however, the inspector's black mark is nothingbut a blip in the HPD computer banks, easily ignored or dismissed. The 1996 Housing and Vacancy Survey-the most recentavailable-found that 94,110 rental units in the city had five ormore problems, from broken plaster and peeling paint to backedup toilets and water leakage.So although Housing Court was designed to enforce the housing code, very few cases actually involve landlords being sued forinfractions: just 5.7 percent, according to the Fund for ModemCourts. In reality, what most motivated tenants do is stop payingrent; eventually their landlords will bring them to court for aneviction, and there's a chance the whole mess can get sorted out.HPD Commissioner Richard Roberts has emphasized that theunit's core mission is to help tenants with support and technicalaid, to assist them in taking their landlords to court for violations.But most boroughs have only one HLB attorney to handle alltenant-initiated cases, and these lawyers are usually too busy to domuch good. "[The attorney] is a decent person," one neighborhood organizer says, "but his caseload is so overwhelming that wedon't even make him part of our calculations."Although they take up a lot of attorney time, lawyers say theseenforcement cases aren't very effective. Even winning isn't muchof a guarantee, since a landlord can easily ignore a judge's orderto make repairs, leaving a tenant with only one option:fIling another case. Any money collected in fmes goes to the city,not the tenant-and according to a 1996 city comptroller's report,the housing department collected only 7 percent of all the finesassessed in court."[Enforcementcases] are awaste of time, totally useless," saysKen Rosenfeld, a former Rent Guidelines Board lawyer who isnow legal director of the Northern Manhattan ImprovementCorporation.What often ends up happening, lawyers say, is that the samelandlords get hauled into court repeatedly, and problems persist.There are only two ways to break the cycle: though contempt ofcourt fmdings or comprehensive cases. These are the heavyartillery in the housing law, the kind of cases that can send landlords to jail. ''For landlords with a lot of money, [only] thethreat of jail becomes the convincer," explains Walter Strauss,a Brooklyn Housing Court judge since 1994.But both procedures are virtually impossible burdens for tenants acting alone. Without a lawyer, a tenant doesn't have muchof a chance to fIle the legally complex paperwork necessary tohold a landlord in contempt for failing to follow a judge's orders.And although anyone can fIle a comprehensive case-sort oflike a class-action suit against a landlord on behalf of all of thetenants--{)nly the city has the authority to move ahead basedon HPD records alone, without taking the time and trouble toorganize tenant-plaintiffs.It's the one chance that the housing department has to proactively prosecute known slumlords. In a few cases, longtime litigation unit staffers can take personal credit for taking down a few ofthe most notorious landlords in the city. For example, LeonardSpodek, infamous in Brooklyn during the late 1980s as theDracula Landlord, was forced out of the real estate businessthanks to a combination of criminal prosecutions and HousingCourt maneuvers led by the HLB.But with departmental downsizing, attorneys say they don'thave time to start these time-consuming cases. According to onelongtime litigator, a typical housing department attorney used tocarry about 50 comprehensives per year. But during the last two

CITY LIMITS


17/40

years, the Housing Litigation Bureau has opened only about 200comprehensive actions annually, working out to about 10 perlawyer each year. The result: more slumlords escaping justice."I see bad actors staying in the game a lot longer," complains onesenior HLB attorney, who, like nearly every lawyer interviewedfor this article, spoke only on condition of anonymity.Attorneys also can't take on cases to get an outside administrator appointed to run a bad building; they just don't haveenough time. In fact, lawyers lament, all they can do is try tokeep up with the avalanche of heat and hot water complaintseven though they keep seeing the same flagrant lawbreakersagain and again in court.

"

inter is busy season for the Housing LitigationBureau: Last year, it logged 143,000 heat and hotwater complaints. So in September, anticipatinganother understaffed winter, the housing attorneys asked HPD management to address theshortage. 'The bureau can't do its job," says Abbott Gorin, shopsteward for litigation bureau attorneys. "We are extremelyconcerned that people will suffer."HPD brought on four part-time temp-agency attorneys at theend of January, and Commissioner Roberts promised that some ofthe slack would be taken up by clerical workers and paralegals. Theunion protested, but nothing yet has corne of the grievance. Robertsrecently pledged to hire three new lawyers next year. He also saidthat HPD would reorganize the department's legal structure "toincrease attorney productivity."

In the meantime, morale is low. There have been four new toplawyers for the bureau since I994--the latest, Elizabeth Bolden, isan ex-Family Court lawyer with no previous Housing Court experience. Most of the rank-and-file lawyers are at the low end of thepay scale, earning approximately $38,000 a year, so there is anongoing exodus leaving for other city agencies where the salariesand opportunities are better. "People who would have really likedto stay left in despair," says one senior attorney. "In general, wehave not been treated with much respect."It's not just staffing; some attorneys feel like they aren't given

APRIL 1999

the leeway to do their jobs properly. Tenant advocates andoutside lawyers report that the cases are not being prosecuted asaggressively since Giuliani took office. "I don't think historicallywe were championed by the agency, but we were allowed to doour own thing," remarks one embittered HLB staffer.One lawyer, in the midst of complicated litigation to put abuilding into receivership, says that he has been asked to back offthe case. Others say they must get permission from the bureauhead before bringing contempt charges against a landlord, wherein the past they relied on their own judgment. ''Every time a landlord makes a phone call, you have to jump through hoops torespond to them," charges one staffer.r or years, the tenants of 392 Clinton Avenue inBrooklyn lived with leaky ceilings, broken buzzers,dangling electrical wiring and broken windows intheir four-story Clinton Hill walk-up. At their wits'end, they decided in 1997 to organize and seek legalhelp to force their landlord to fix the more than 700 violationsagainst the building, according to Hamilton Steele, the leader ofthe tenants' association. It didn't occur to them to tum to the cityfor assistance. After all, they had been in and out of HousingCourt for years without learning that HPD even had a staff oflawyers to enforce the housing code.Local tenant activists at the Pratt Area Community Councilreferred 392 Clinton's residents to Brooklyn Legal Services,which brought the landlord to court. "The reason why we got PrattArea Community Council and Brooklyn Legal Services isbecause the city wasn't doing anything," Steele says. The case isstill in Housing Court, but Pratt has taken over administering thebuilding and is arranging for repairs.It's a roundabout way to handle the work that the city has abdicated, and the extra load is starting to tax some of the nonprofitlegal groups that have taken up the slack. They're hoping thatMayor Giuliani meant it when he said that changes needed to bemade. Wendy Davis is the editor ofThe Manhattan Spirit

Housing lawyKen Rosenfelsays that tenabringing landlords to court"a total wastof ime."


18/40

SUBSCRIBE TOTHE PREMIER NEW YORKURBAN APFAIRS NEWSMAGAZINE

(ityLimitsLearn what City Hall doesnt want you to know about New York's neighborhoods.And find out what New Yorkers are dOing about it. With award-winning newscoverage and more than 20 years of journalism experience, City Limits uncoversthe story in housing, social services, politics and organizing.

"Tremendously helpful to anyone who needs to understand the polItics ofpoverty and moo tn New York Ctty. Conststently tncIsiVe and rellable.-

-Jonathan KozoL author ofSavage InequalitiNews. Analysis. Investigative reporting. Read it in City Limits and know it first.

OO'HER CITY I.JMl'ffi OOMMUNITY INFORMATION SERVICE PUBIJCATIONS:City Limits W ~ k I y AN INDISPENSABLE SOURCE ON POlJTICS, COMMUNITY AGrION AND NEIGHBORHOOD NEWS.

_AND FROM THE CENTER FOR AN URBAN FUTURE. NEW YORKS ONLYN E I G B B O R H O O ~ R I E N T E D POIJCY INSTITIJ'I'E

NEIGHBORROOD J1JSTICE: ACOMMUNITY RESPONSE TO JUVENILE CRIMECHILD WELFARE WATCH: COMPREHENSIVE COVERAGE OF THE CHILD WELFARE SYSTEM

YES! Start my subscription toCity Limits magazine.Individuals/Nonprofitso $25/one year 110 issues)o $39/two years 120 issues}Business/Government/Libraryo $35/one year 0 $50 2 yearsYES! Send my copy ofNeighborhood Justice.0$5.00YES! Send my copy ofChild Welfare Watch.0$2.00YES! Send my copy ofthe Child Welfare Forum video.0$15.00

NameAddressCi

YES! please send me theCity Limits Weekly E-mail and Fax Bulletin.E-Mail Address:____________or Fax Number:.____________o FREE

State ZiSEND YOUR ORDER TO:

City Limits, 120 Wall.Street, 20th FloorNew York, NY 10005, (212) 479-3344


19/40

The view downJ20th Street.

APRIL 1999

The day I interviewed to become a tenant organizer was the first time Istepped foot in Harlem. It looked like a slum to me, with boarded-upstorefronts and front yards full of trash. But the part that really made methink twice about working late hours was the wooden boards and cementblocks where so many windows should be. The number of abandonedbuildings was astonishing.

Then I noticed that underneath the peeling paint, rows of townhousesboasted graceful architectural detailing, recalling a time when Manhattanabove 96th Street was a fashionable address . Very quickly, I began to seeHarlem as many strangers do, with a vision of history and potential:a faded landmark district, fit for tour buses on the way downtown aftergospel music at Abyssinian and lunch at Sylvia 's.All it needed was money.

But after spending months walking the blocks of central Harlem,talking to tenants and digging up building records , I started to see the realstory-that residents were worried, tenant organizers and advocates overwhelmed, and rents skyrocketing. Everyone who knew the neighborhoodwas aware of impending change, but nobody knew how to control it oreven exactly what "it" was.

by Michelle Solomon

OneHarlem streetellsa storyof change


20/40

art of my job as an organizer and researcher was toprepare reports that tenants and block associations could use tounderstand what was happening . For each building on a givenblock, I found out who lived there, who owned it, how much itowed in back taxes and what shape the building was in.The specifics Idug up showed a neighborhood in the middle ofsomething more complex than a one-way trip from decrepitude torenewal, and they question some conventional wisdom about urbanrevitalization. In Harlem , tenants have always been able to hangonto their homes, despite living in the midst of abandonment,drugs and decay. In the late 199Os, a powerful real estate market,on top of city policies that encourage middle-class home ownership, may defeat the tenants even as it renews the neighborhood.For now, crack houses rub shoulders with half-million-dollarlandmark brownstones , and longtime residents welcome the redevelopment that may eventually push them out of their neighborhood. One of the blocks I examined , much like all the others, is120th Street between Adam Clayton Powell and Malcolm Xboulevards. It 's a typical south Harlem block, with a long,uniform row of three-story townhouses-a shady street with widestoops and an old-fashioned feel.So far, the residents of 120th Street don't feel like gentrification has been a bad deal-in fact, nearly all of them are pleasedwith the way things are shaping up. But it's New York City 'spoliticians and its real estate market that are creating the future ofthis block, not these tenants. In 10 or 20 years, this neighborhoodmay well be transformed. And the forces of change are visibleright now, in the townhouses and on the stoops of West 120thStreet.

Rbert Taylor was baptized on the comer of 120th andLenox , at Mount Olivet Baptist Church and he 's spent 46 ofhis 47 years living on 120th Street. He says that at one timeor another he 's been a super innearly every building on the block.He knows the history of this blocklike his own , reeling off a list oflandlords and bad mortgages and

repossessions for each townhouse: That owner won't rent outapartments or sell her house because she can ' t afford to fLX itup . In that one, the 105-year-old tenant on the ground floor isbeing harassed by the owners , who are struggling over the titleto the building.He points to the yellow bow-front facade of 121 West 120thStreet, where he lived for four years until he decided this winter toquit doing drugs and move to Orlando to clean up. "God took meout of that building," he says. Taylor says that youcan't buy drugson the block anymore, but his neighbors say that as recently as sixmonths ago, 148 was an active crackhouse. Taylor just got backfrom Florida, and being back home is a mixed bag. Many of thepeople walking by hug him. Others, who call his name fromacross the street, he ignores.It's not just Taylor-people on 120th Street know each other,sharing gossip that most downtown Manhattanites think only getspassed around in small towns. That came across vividly on oneafternoon I spent on a brownstone stoop with Elka Sihdab ,a slender, businesslike woman who runs a small hotel on theblock. Each person strolling by got a farniliar hello, and manystopped to chat.Sihdab 's patience has paid off. Five years ago, with a loanthrough the Historic Properties Fund, she renovated her 1891townhouse , fixing up its rising-sun stained glass windows andbrass detailing. She paid $40,000 for it in 1982-about a tenth ofwhat it would go for today-spent $75,000 converting its 10single-room efficiencies into three family-size apartments in1994, and today rents out much of it to tourists at $40 a night.Sihdab 's savvy entrepreneurship and concern for the neighborhood are both clear from the way she talks about the many opportunities for restoration and the impressive credentials of herfavorite contractors.It 's buildings like hers that have led to the popular belief thata once-forsaken neighborhood is being reborn. The New YorkTimes ran three articles on this theme last year, praising the"hearty group of urban pioneers who fought to restore" Harlem .It would be satisfying to leave the story there: neighborhoodsaved. Score one for the pioneers.

FOR SALE SIGNS$ 2 5 0 K ~ - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

$200K$150K$100K$50K

110

.1987

115

.1992

.1992

118 129Addresses on

CITVLlMITS


21/40

But it's not so simple. New York City owns 35 percent of theproperty in Harlem, according to Deborah Wright, chairwoman ofthe Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone, and its housingprograms have been at least as influential as individual investorsin central Harlem's revitalization. Instead of providing the affordable housing that the private owners aren 't, the city has helpedsteer the neighborhood away from low-income rentals and towardhome-ownership.On 120th Street, the city owns nine of the 60 buildings on theblock. Its chief influence has been to duplicate what the privatemarket already does-produce housing for middle-class peoplewho want to buy homes. There's one tenant cooperative at the endof the block; there are also three city-owned buildings slated to beconverted into three-family townhouses.Two of those, 102 and 106, are now under construction.They 're being rehabbed through the Homeworks program,through which the city helps secure developers and belowmarket-rate mortgages for people to buy and fIx up city-ownedbuildings. According to a development insider, one of these twohas been bought by a West Indian woman and the other by aninterracial family, white and Chinese, from the Upper West Side.The two brownstones sold at market price, for $348,450 each.In order to qualify for the program , you have to earn over $54,000a year, be able to put 10 percent down and have thousands ofdollars on hand to cover closing costs. To clear the mortgage, thenew owners will probably have to charge tenants at least $700each month per floor. The going rent on a floor-through on thisblock is now $1,000.But the average 1997 household income in Harlem was justover $24,000 a year. On 120th Street, 26 of the 41 occupied residential buildings are SROs, and more than half the block 's renterslive in "kitchenettes, " studios that rent for $200 to $350 a month .That gap between what renters now pay and what new ownersmust be able to afford is serious, but it doesn 't seem to worrysome Harlem leaders . At a public forum, I asked Wrighta former commissioner of the Department of HousingPreservation and Development-about the gap. "At the end of theday, you can't really stop gentrifIcation unless people own," she

In a fast-changing real estate market, sales prices areallover the map, even on a single block. The databelow is from the city's property transfer records.

1988

I138

.1980

I144

.1991

I151

120th Street

. 1978

I155

said . "People will have to take seriously the opportunities to workto increase their income so they can own." Wright's opinion ispowerful ; she stands to control some $300 million in governmentmoney in Harlem .Right now, 16 of the block's buildings appear to be owneroccupied. Buying a townhouse was much easier 10 years ago,when many of the buildings sold for $25 ,000. City propertyrecords report that the two most recent private sales on the blockwere for $265,000 and $345,000, and a local realtor says that thenext will be for $375,000; these new owners certainly aren't poor.The renovation of 152, a spiffy brownstone with polished brasslamps and new cast-iron illigree gratings, is typical of the returnof the black middle class. The owners are lawyers from upstatewho rent out huge one-bedrooms for around $1 ,000 a month.Their father lives on the fIrst floor, the third is rented to aColumbia graduate student and the fourth is occupied by aTime Warner marketing specialist. The previous owners tried toget loans and a mortgage to fIx up the property in 1993, but itwasn't until 1997 that lenders thought the Harlem housing marketwas strong enough to provide the funds.Though the middle class is moving in, most people here livemore like Robert Card, who tries to keep 139 in decent shape.Thetownhouse, its peach-yellow wash of paint now flaking , wasbought in 1952 by the "Orange Benevolent Society," still honoredin gold-painted letters on the glass above the door. The city stilllists the society as the owner, but tenants say the real landlordabandoned the building two years ago, piling her belongings intoa van in the middle of the night and vanishing.Since then , Card, his daughter and two other remaining tenants pay the oil bills and maintain the building. Though theirrooms are well-kept, the paint in the hallways is peeling and thereare leaks in the roof and from the fIxtures in the common bathroom. It's a lot of work but a cheap deal-they haven 't paid rentin two years.Card has been trying to turn thebuilding into a low-incomeco-op, but since the landlord hasvanished there 's little he can do.

.1980I

162

.1994I

166


22/40

REAL ESTATE LISTINGCity property records report 139 residential sales during thelast two years in 45 blocks of the Central Harlem/MountMorris area, bordered by Central Park, 125th Street,5th Avenue and Frederick Douglass Boulevard. Fifty-three weresold through city programs--the New York City Partnership,the Neighborhood Entrepreneurs Program or tenant coopsales-and 86 were sold through the private market.Highest recorded price paid for a townhouse during this

NUMBER OF APPLICATIONSFOR SRO COVERSIONS

140 r - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - -,

120

100

80

60

40

20

Citywide applications -.Harlem applications -0 -

______________________________________1994 1995 1996 1997 1998

While applications to turn single-room occupancy buildings into apartments and hotels have spiked citywide, Harlem has been hit hard: Ha"of all bids now come from Harlem, up from a quarter three years ago.SOURCE: SRO Law Project, from HPD data.

Here, too, city policies make a huge difference in a building's fatFive years ago, before the city stopped seizing tax-delinquent propeties, Card's building would have been a likely candidate for a tenanownership program. Instead, the city created a system in which prvate investors take over and auction off buildings that carry lots of tadebt. This is where Card 's building is going, and it means he and hneighbors have little chance of staying once it gets sold off.Just across the street at 118, the new middle-class owners of aSRO-a young African-American husband and wife-aren't anmore settled. They decided to buy their first home in the neighbohood because it's "a very residential section of Manhattan, accessibto many enjoyments. Broadway 's a hop, skip and a jump; all thtrains come uptown," the wife explains . "Mount Morris Park isgold mine. Commercialism's gonna boom as soon as major corportions establish themselves here. It's gonna be beautiful."They bought the SRO in 1992 for $105,000, planning to conveit into apartments. Instead, the owners have found themselves in thmiddle of an ugly legal battle (which is why they didn't want thenames used in the story). The two remaining tenants don ' t wantlose their homes, and the owners know that they are accused of "tring to force out a local artist"--one of the occupants is a sculptor whhas lived and worked in the neighborhood for decades.The fight has drained energy and goodwill from both parties, anthe new home-owners feel guilty. "I admire the woman's workavers the husband. "I love her being in the neighborhood." But, hsays, the family can't pay the bills on the money from these tenantrent alone.There are "valid reasons why people can't afford the rent, bowners have that too," he explains. "I am accepting the risk. If t godown, I'm out. All they have to do is move."Bfore I was done with my research, I got another tour of thblock. My new guide, 26-year-old Edward Poteat, probabunderstands the future of 120th Street better than anyone. Hought to, since he stands to profit from it quite well. Poteat grew uon 110th Street and Fifth Avenue and came home, after attendinYale, to work in real estate.Poteat started in the business in 1994, with friends who wetaking over their grandfather's failing management companOriginal owner Victor Horsford had pieced together his enterpriout of properties he'd acquired one by one after arriving in Harlefrom Antigua in the 1930s. His heirs have expanded into a fuservice real estate operation, Horsford & Poteat, working out of oof their grandfather's old brownstones.Poteat walked me down l20th Street, showing me the blocthrough a realtor's eyes. He says prices have jumped dramaticallyjust the two years he's been around. Rent for studios has jumped fro$550 a month to $650 in the past year alone; shells that his companhad been able to buy for $50,000 are now selling for $120,000.The new residents , he says, are "definitely middle class and uppworking class, not the typical Section 8 subsidized housing crowThey 're middle-class blacks from Queens, downtown Brooklyn anthe northern Bronx who want to move horne. They grew up here,their mom lived here."Poteat's perspective is bigger than this one street: he's chairmaof Community Board lO 's Housing Committee and a developer fone of the city's Neighborhood Entrepreneur Program sites on 149Street. And his vision for 120th Street has a lot in common with cigovernment's. He pictures Harlem full of working families and gooopportunities for middle-income black home-ownership. Gentrfication, for him, is another word for a future. "Harlem was goinnowhere before 'gentrification' hit it," Poteat says. "If I have to loa squatter to get a family, so be it." Michelle Solomon is a student at NYU Law School.


23/40

.... ... ................. .. .. ...................,

tFrancisca Salce, a.k.a. Joe,taking care of making herbusiness rise at her store on1121 St. Nicholas Avenue at166th St. in Washington Heights.

CALL: CHASE COMMUNITYDEVELOPMENT COMMERCIALLENDING 212-622-4248

Moving in the right directionJoe's Pizza's got the dough.Joe's Pizza was a first. Not only did Francisca Salcmake a neighborhood name for her store with gretasting pizza, she was the first recipient of a loan undThe Chase Community Development Group's SmaRetailers Lending Program.The Small Retailers Lending Program is a uniquChase initiative whose purpose is to expand access bank loans for hard to finance small businesses, paticularly those located in low- and moderate-incomcommunities.This program made it possible for Ms . Salce to obtaa loan to relocate her restaurant, renovate the nespace and still remain in the neighborhood in whicshe has built a successful business.Which is just fine by Joe's Pizza's customers, whswear by the dough.

L.......... ........... ... Community Development Group

CHASE. The right relationship is everything. sM


24/40

tomers, volunteers are wondering howjust food-and even if they should. ~ ~ '


25/40

n the tiny basement of Morrisania's HolyTabernacle Church, a group of Bronx residentsclusters around a row of six computers. They'rehere to learn the skills that will prepare them for a

decent job, but few have ever used a computerbefore. New arrivals start by learning how to tum the machines offand on, and how to use a mouse.

"What do you see on the lower left?" asks church volunteerFrances Brown. "Start!" comes the response. "So what do you do?Click! Click on the left!" she exhorts with passion usually reservedhere for Sundays.

Most of the 15 adults enrolled in this six-week class originallycame to the church for its Monday soup kitchen or its Tuesday foodpantry. Unlike most city food pantries, which allow each familyonly one or two visits a month, Holy Tabernacle hands out foodevery week.

With determination, Brown raises her voice above the drone ofan industrial freezer in the adjoining kitchen. Meticulously tooth-picked rolls of muenster cheese and ham, along with pound cakeand cans of apple juice, await the students when they're done.Brown makes silk flowers for a living, but she appears to spend allher free time running the church's food and arts programs, round-ing up about $20,000 in public money each year to buy govern-ment surplus, food that corporations couldn't sell, and meat andcereal from a discount wholesaler.

AI,lla KatzAPRIL 1999


26/40

At today's class, one woman reports that she comes to the foodpantry to help herself and her son stretch her disability checks and$10 a month in food stamps into a workable budget. Another hasa job, and is a regular volunteer at the pantry-and an occasionalcustomer when making ends meet for her family becomes impossible. A third came to this class because, she says, her workfareassignment isn't giving her any skills that'll help her find a job.Job training is a new venture for Brown, thanks to a $15,000grant from the New York Community Trust's Beyond Hunger initiative. Next week, the class will start working with a professionaltrainer. ''The food and the computers work together," Brownsays, "because when you see people out there, it's not justbecause they're hungry but because they feel worthless. Theydon't have people to turn to, and they don't have skills. We helpthem pick themselves up and learn how to do things to get jobs."Her program is one of 15 Beyond Hunger projects underwrittenthis year by New York Community Trust, which is channeling itsanti-hunger funding into counseling, client monitoring and jobtraining at food pantries and soup kitchens.The Trust is the only foundation interested in branching out.City Harvest, the nonprofit that collects restaurant leftovers forsoup kitchens, got a Philip Morris grant to look into opening akitchen to train the unemployed for jobs in food servicea model that the tobacco giant has been pushing nationwide.Mazon, a Jewish Response to Hunger funds programs that shepherd clients towards self-sufficiency and away from emergencyfood. And in the last decade, a few New York "souper kitchens,"with paid staff and extensive foundation and governmentsupport, have grown far beyond their initial food function,providing everything from case management to HIV prevention,English as a Second Language classes to job counseling.

These programs rise from a growing recognition that emergency food providers are perfectly situated to branch out fromfood delivery to social services. Funders see that the most needypeople show up in soup kitchens and food pantries, often bonding with volunteers who work there. Volunteers like it becausethey recognize it's a good way to help people become self-sufficient and reduce the need for food assistance in the first place.The question for the providers is how much more can theypossibly take on, when simply keeping up with the demand forfood is stretching the charity food system's capacity to the limit.Welfare reform, low wages, chronic unemployment and inadequate public benefits conspired to bring an estimated 600,000city residents to soup kitchens and food banks last year. Food forSurvival, the city's central "food bank," reported a 38 percentincrease in the amount of food it handed out between the summers of 1997 and 1998 . Even so, the New York City CoalitionAgainst Hunger estimates that 2,000 people a day were turnedaway in the first part of 1998.Much of the increased demand has fallen on smaller groupsthat are not necessarily equipped to deal with the added burdenof writing grants, hiring staff and running a social serviceorganization. Half have budgets of $10,000 or less a year, andthe majority are church-based groups relying on volunteer help."We're not equipped, nor should we handle it," declares SisterElizabeth Judge, who runs the Little Sisters of the Assumptionfood pantry in East Harlem. ''The government has reallydumped responsibility."

Yet while her head says one thing, her heart does anothSister Elizabeth is continually making phone calls on behalfthe people who come in for groceries, trying to get their benefrestored or utilities turned back on.The loose network of emergency-food providers has recenfound itself at a crossroads. Foundations, the government atheir own instincts compel providers to add to their list of resposibilities, even as they strain to make an inherently inefficiesystem meet the increasing demand for food. At the same

Documents

City Limits Magazine, April 1999 Issue