City Limits Magazine, August/September 1996 Issue

8/3/2019 City Limits Magazine, August/September 1996 Issue

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URBAN AI= I=AIRS N 'W S MA6AZ IN '

PRIMETIMESTW (NTI(TII ANN IV (RSARY Y (AR 1916-1996


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Ona Rampage

W ith the welfare reform bill quickly moving throughCongress as City Limits goes to press, legislatorsare approving a plan that makes billions of dollarsin cuts to public assistance and food stamps. PresidentClinton says he might sign the bill.Central to the legislative effort is a sharp set ofworkfarerequirements. These include a House amendment to save$27.5 billion over six years by limiting non-working adults toa total of no more than three months of ood stamps, period.To getfood supports,people under 50 will have to participatein a workfare program. The House and Senate bills also permit massive, 20 to 25 percent reductions in each individualstate's welfare spending.This is where the welfare law meets the law of unintended consequences.Despite the new requirements, legislators have included

EDITORIAL

no new money for workfare programs or for daycare and the other costs of putting unemployedadults to work. And despite the still-growingproblem of inadequate health insurance coverage, the law will add greatly to the number ofuninsured families. These are straightforwardcost-cutting bills, nothing more.Contemplate some of the unpredictablebounces. In this issue, we look at why workfare is evolvingfrom a welfare rights issue into a labor issue. Within twoyears, there may be nearly as many city residents on workfare, performing low-skill jobs, as there are members of thecity's largest municipal union. For now, the leadership ofAFSCME District Council 37 says their union won't getinvolved in the workfare debate. Yet workfare laborers are

already talking about organizing themselves. How will thelabor movement-and the city--respond when these menand women gain enough strength to demand more than theminimum wage? The battle may be bloody.Welfare reform also demands a greater reliance by government and the poor on charity. Some nonproJits are contemplating their possible roles in a privatized safety net. Inthis issue, Contributing Editor James Bradley unveils onescheme put forward in a United Way report proposing howcompanies modeled after health maintenance organizations-paid incentives for knocking people of f welfarecould take over control of he city's public assistance system.If the United Way got involved in anything like this, it wouldbe a radical change for the charity industry.

But these are radical times. The Congress claims its billheralds a return to simplicity. Yet Washington appears to beadhering to the Dr. Frankenstein model of governance,enacting creative ideas with unforeseen--and potentiallyextreme-results.

Cover photo by Michael Ackerman

Andrew WhiteEditor

(ity LimitsVolume XXI Number 7

City Limits is published ten times per year. monthly exceptbimonthly issues in June/July and August/September. bythe City Limits Community Information Service. Inc anonprofit organization devoted to disseminating informationconcerning neighborhood revitalization .Editor. Andrew WhiteSenior Editors: Kim Nauer. Glenn ThrushManag ing Editor: Robin EpsteinSpecial Projects Editor: Kierna Mayo DawseyContributing Ed itors : James Bradley. Linda Ocasio.

Rob PolnerDesign Direction : James Conrad. Paul V. LeoneAdvertising Representative: Faith WigginsProofreader. Sandy SocolarPhotographers: Ana Asian. Eric RWolfInterns: Lisa Donadio, Joe WeinsteinSponsors:Association for Neighborhood and

Housing Development, Inc.Pratt Institute Center for Community

and Environmental DevelopmentUrban Homesteading Assistance BoardBoard of Directors":Eddie Bautista, New York Lawyers for

the Public InterestBeverly Cheuvront, City HarvestFrancine Justa, Neighborllood Housing ServicesErrol Lou is, Central Brooklyn PartnershipRima McCoy, Action for Community EmpowermentRebecca Reich, Low Income Housing FundAndrew Reicher, UHABTom Robbins, JournalistJay Small, ANHDDoug Turetsky, former City Limits EditorPete Williams, National Urban LeagueAffiliations for identification only.

Subscription rates are: for individuals and communitygroups, $25/0ne Year, $35/Two Years; for businesses,foundations, banks, government agencies and libraries,$35/0ne Year, $50/Two Years. Low income, unemployed,$1O/0ne Year.City Limits welcomes comments and article contributions.Please include astamped, se lf-addressed envelope forreturn manuscripts. Material in City Limits does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the sponsoring organizations .Send correspondence to: City Limits, 40 Prince St., NewYork, NY 10012. Postmaster: Send address changes to CityLimits, 40 Prince St., NYC 10012.

Second class postage paidNew York, NY 10001

City Limits (ISSN 0199-03301(2121925-9820

FAX ([email protected]

Copyright 1996. All Rghts Reserved . Noportion or portions of this journal may be reprinted with -out 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, MI48106.

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AUCUST/ SEPTEMBER 1996

NOT READY FOR PRIME TIMES SQUAREForty Deuceanging with really good girlfriends, playing hooky with second fust loves.For Black and Latino teenagers, 42nd Street was the city 's liberated zone, a place whthe crazies grabbed the attention and kids could just plain be. By Kiema MayoDawThe Long Goodbye

he days are numbered for indigenous faces in the timeless square.Photosby MichaelAckermSLAVIN' FOR THE CITYMaking Rudy Pay EWelfare recipients in the mayor 's Work Experience Program sort mail, empty office trcans and pick up litter in the parks. Will the city's largest municipal union challenge"Welfare Exploitation Program?" By Kim Na

Sweep Revengen the belly of the BIDs, the feds say bosses are busting a union drive. Investigators hfiled charges against three midtown associations. By Glenn Thrush and Joe WeinsPROFILESoulful Sport

n East Tremont soccer league kicks away the blues of Hondurans who losttheir loved ones in the Happy Land fire. By Linda OcaPIPELINESClose to the Edgeongress says addicts and alcoholics don'tdeserve disability benefits. The loss of income, m

ical care and substance abuse treatment may land them on the streets. By Sasha AbramLazio's Lawbaby-faced suburban congressman is making his name rewriting America 'spublic housing law. His urban critics say he should leave it alone. By Glenn ThrDivided Wayhe United Way is one of New York 's undisputed charity superstars. But has its incring dependence on government contracts made it a brain trust for right-wing welreformers ? By Jam es Brad

@CTIVISMReinvestment, On-Line L...:I=--Use the Internet to find out if banks are red-lining your community. By Steve Mitra

CityviewRemain SeatedReviewLearning CurvesSpare ChangeAlms No More

BriefsLeslie O'Cora HolmesFueling Parent FireStatistically Insignificant?Re onant Aliens

COMMENTARY13By Laugh lin McDon

DEPARTMENTS6 , 7 Editorial

LettersProfessionalDirectoryJob Ads

'--1-By Ken Blumb

.----1-By Andrew Wh

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Ahhhhh Mad MobilizingLETTERS Your magazine is an oasis inthe desert. Your June/July issue featured an articleentitled "Rage in the Cage" that was wonderful. However, it lacked instructions onhow people could make some sort ofchange in the area.Teresa LingafelterRedlands, California

FINDING THE GRASSROOTS:A directory ofmore than 250 New York City activist organizations.

"A superb and necessary resource."- Barbara Ehrenreich"Awonderful guide for coalition building .. A resource

permittingus to transcend race, gender, sexualorientation, class and other boundaries."-Manning MarableAvailable for $10 plus $3 mailing costs. Checks to: North Star FundMail to: North Star Fund, 666 Broadway, 5th Fl., New York, NY 10012.

Call 212-460-5511 for more information.I' I I I I \ \ I II I( () k I I( \ (, I I '\ (

When it comesto insurance ...We've gotyou covered.

For over 40 years, Pelham BrokerageIn c. has res ponded to ule needs ofour clients with crea tive, low-costinsurance program s. We represent allmajor in surance carriers specializing incoverages for Socia l Service organizations. Our program s are approved byCity, State and Federal funding agencies.Let us be part of your managementteam. As specialists in the area ofnew construct ion and rehabilitationof existing multiple w1it properties,

we work closely with our customersto insure compliance on insurancereq uirements throughout the development process. Thereafter, we will tailora permanelll insurance program to meetthe specific needs of your organization.Our clients include man y of w e leadingorganizations in the New York City areaproviding social servi ces.For information call:Steven Potolsky, Pres id ent

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It would be great if City Limits could highlight an issue and provide names, addresseand phone numbers so that readers could takimmediate action. Every additional effort thcan be made to organize and mobilize NewYorkers should be welcomed.Rhonda E. HarrisonNew York City

The editors reply: Your idea is a gooone and has been considered many timeover the years. Unfortunately, we do noalways have the space, nor do we want tappear to be endorsing the positions oevery group whose phone number wwould have to list. However, we aralways happy to help people fmd the infomation and contacts they need. Readerwho want to follow up on an article arencouraged to call us at (212) 925-9820 .Say It Ain't So

Editor's note: The following letter wacc'd our way. We thought its eloquence hadbe shared. If you are interested in receivinthefree City Limits Weekly ax ande-mail buletin, send us a note!To: Congressman Charles SchumerFrom: Marie RunyonCC: City LimitsDear Chuck:I've been singing your praises far anwide for a long time, have applaudeyour positions that I know of, and havbeen waiting for you to unseat D' Amator Pataki .But just a damn minute! What is thabout the Lazio bill [City Limits WeeklMay 13] which would sound the deaknell for public housing???It's shocking that you would supposuch a measure , and I am asking yourethink. We 've got gargantuan problemin preserving housing affordability andecent housing at any rent. The Lazio biain't the way to go.Marie M. RunyonExecutive DirectorHarlem Restoration Project

Sl'lld ou r Il'ttl'rs 10:Thl' Edilor. ( , i l ~ Limits

~ ( l l ' r i l l l ' l Sln'd. \l'\I York. \Y 10(11or e-mail to: CitLim(a aol.l'om

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BRIEFS ,LESLIE D'(ORA HOLMES(1957-1996)

New York's housing community is mourning the untimely death of Leslie Holmes. acommitted activist in the struggle for fair and affordablehousing and tenants' rights inNew York City and throughoutthe world.Holmes. 39. suffered a brainaneurysm July 5 at BenningtonCollege in Vermont. where shewas teaching a summer program . She had taken a leave ofabsence after 10 years as asupervising attorney in theLegal Aid Society's HarlemNeighborhood Office andplanned to join the ColumbiaUniversity School of Law as avisiting faculty member inthe fall.

At the time of her death.

her friend. Nadine SamanichKellogg . But classwork wasn'talways Holmes' priority. "Eventhen, Leslie was busy doingtenant organizing in MountVernon," Samanich-Kelloggexplains. "But Leslie graduatedwith honors and ended upmeaning more to more people'slives than anyone else in ourclass. We don't know of anyonewho has completed more ."Holmes graduated from NYULaw School in 1986.In lieu of flowers. donationsmay be sent to the LeslieD'Cora Holmes Memorial Fundin care of Mr. and Mrs. MitchellHolmes, P.O . Box 14742.Rochester, NY 14614.

Kierna Mayo DawseyHolmes served as a enant representative on the RentGuidelines Board. where shefought against the recentincreases approved for rentstabilized apartments and wasnearly removed from her postby Mayor Giuliani for herstance. She served on theboard of the City-Wide TaskForce on Housing Court andwas also a construction-crewmember with Habitat forHumanity. Holmes was anactive congregant in the BridgeStreetAME Church in Brooklyn.

FUELING PARENT FIRE

In 1993. in recognition of herwork. the Association of theBar of the City of New Yorkawarded Holmes its LegalServices award .It was quite an accomplishment for Holmes. whose friendsat SUNY Purchase. where sheearned her bachelor's degree.were once afraid she had toomany "incompletes" to graduate. "Leslie was on the 'fiveyear-plan' that turned into thesix-year-plan .. remembers

Not many New Yorkschool parents are taking anactive role in the government's still-sputteringattempts to reshape the cityschools. But that maychange thanks to a massive,multimillion dollar infusion ofcapital into parent organizing and outreach by 18 foundations.This fall, when mothersand fathers get angry aboutthe quality of their kids' education, they can go to"Parents University" to learnhow to channel that rageinto a force for systemicschool change.last month, the "university"-a brainchild of the MetroIndustrial Areas Foundation,the Public Education Association and TeachersCollege-won a grant fromthe Donors Education

Collaborative (DEC) that couldultimately amount to $600,000over four years.All told, the collaborative's 18 foundations havepledged $2.8 million forgrassroots education organizing and policy development. The funders includethe New York CommunityTrust, the Ford Foundation,J.P. Morgan, the New YorkFoundation, and theRockefeller Brothers Foundation.The parents universitywill train parent leaders inorganizing techniques, educate them about their rightsin the school bureaucracyand given them broad policyknowledge so they can helprestructure failing schools.Parents will also tourschools in teams to see howthey are being run, explains

Marvin Calloway, a SouthBronx organizer with theIndustrial Areas Foundation."That's going to be quite achange from what principalshave experienced in thepast," he says.Other winners of grantsof approximately $150,000per year include the ParentsOrganizing Consortium,(which includes Mothers onthe Move in the southeastBronx, the Northwest BronxCommunity and ClergyCoalition, ACORN, AccionLatino and a predominantlyHaitian group in Flatbushcalled the Community ActionProject); Advocates forChildren and the New YorkImmigration Coalition; andthe Campaign for FiscalEquity, which will work withthe Education PrioritiesPanel, the League of WomenVoters and the UrbanLeague. Robin Epstein

Short ShotsBLAME THE MACHINES.EVERY TIME WE WRITE

THERE ARE SO MANYINTIMATIONS OF EVILBrooklyn Congressman CharlesSchumer, rumored to be planning agubernatorial bid, always comes up aschemer. When the Macintosh seesCouncil Speaker Peter Vallone it popsout villain. The word on other citypols is flat-out depressing. GtyComptroller Alan Hevesi, the purveyor

of so many gloomy fiscal reports, getsheaves. David Dinkins' epithets aredinginess and dankness. Poor BronxBorough President Freddy Ferrer, amayoral hopeful: he's tagged ferretIn Albany, the computer gets a littleconfused, and spews out Ouija-boardsuggestions. Governor George Pataki'sname is replaced by the lusty,Timothy-Leary verb partake. StateAttorney General Dennis Vacco, a

Buffalonian of professed substanceand rectitude, becomes vacuum and,more intriguingly, vice.

a story about politicians, the automatic spell-checker in our computerstells us nonsense. For instance, itdemands that the word Giuliani bechanged to guileless. Are they actually trying to tell us something?

OVER SENATOR AL D'AMATO,TWO OF THE OFFICEcomputers disagreed. One saysdammed. The other, no suggestions.

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STATISTICALLY INSIGNIFICANT?LABOR'S RACE LOST: UNEMPLOYMENT STATISTICS FALL VICTIM TO WASHINGTON POlITICS

35%

0%?

. , . / . ___ Black Men-.- Hispanic Men

cope with congressional budget cuts, the BLSreduced the number ofhouseholds it samplesin New York City from2,300 to 1,500. It cutsamples nationwidefrom 56,000 to 50,000,for a savings of about$2 million.1 25% ..-- ? -.- Black Teens? Hispanic Teens But Urban Instituteeconomist WayneVroman contends thereduced sample doesn'twarrant such a drasticpolicy change .Q.E"::s..c

20%

15%A... /

-r- - --. f- ?. Researchers can still". 10% - :;7 A few years ago. researchers producedshocking research describing risingunemployment rates among black andLatino men and teenagers in New YorkCity and across the nation. get some demographicThe federal government's response? data if they request it inI ...---5% 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 The Bureau of Labor Statistics has ceased writing, LeVasseur says .publishing demographic data on blackand Latino unemployment by sex and age.Now. your guess is as good as ours. But they may have tofork over a few thousanddollars to get it

Source: U.S. Bureau ofLabor Statistics processed, he adds.Asked why the BLSWant to track the unemployment rate of black men inNew York City this year? Can'tdo it. Interested in whetherHispanic teenagers are findingjobs? Sorry. Wondering howwhite women are faring in theworkforce? Too bad. InJanuary, the best source for allthat information, the federalBureau of Labor Statistics(BLS), stopped generatingmonthly summaries of thedemographics of employment

in the city.What's more, the bureau's1994 annual profile of the city,the most recent informationavailable, included half asmany specifics on race, genderand age as in the past." It's quite shocking. Thatkind of information is critical,"says Edwin Dei, who has written extensively on the underrepresentation of blacks,Hispanics and women in NewYork's core industries."Minorities are known to havesome severe labor market

Resour(esNEED MONEY FOR NEWHOMELESS SHELTERS?

problems," he explains, sothere's a lot of interest inwatching their progress.Unemployment of blackmen in New York City soaredfrom 12.5 percent in 1990 to 16.5percent in 1993-but from thatpoint on, the numbers were notpublished.

1994 profile leaves out soKen LeVasseur, a BLS many salient details, LeVasseursenior economist inWashington, says one of thereasons the agency curtailedits monthly reports isbecause it reduced the num-ber of households in its survey sample, and the data is,therefore, less reliable. To

says it was "a cost-savingmeasure to reduce the size ofthe tables in the publication."Dei, who has complained tothe BLS to no avail, is frustrated. "They don't seem to have ahandle on things," he says .

Robin Epstein

RESONANT ALIENSPledging to create a "realand solid immigrant movement in the United States, acoalition of Hispanic, Asianand civil rights groups areplanning an October 12 marchon Washington . They aim toprotest the immigrationreform bill that appears headed for President Clinton'sdesk."Immigrants are here tostand for their rights and forwhat this country is built on,said Miguel Maldonado,

pointing to the Statue of

Liberty during a July 2 rallythat drew 150 protesters,including Public AdvocateMark Green and Bronx CityCouncil Member Jose Rivera,who chairs the council's laborcommittee. Maldonado, anorganizer for the ImmigrantWorkers Association, read aseven-point roster ofdemands, including universalfree education, greater healthservices, and a reformation oflabor laws."The notion is that immigrants take and government

gives, said Julie M. Edo, anorganizer for the AfricanPeoples Council. *This isn'ttrue. We give a lot. We workfor this country.The Washington march isbeing organized by theCampaign for Civil Rights andSelf-Defense, a Los Angelesbased group formed in 1994 toprotest the passage ofProposition 187, the stateanti-immigrant statute.For more information, call(212) 505-0001.Joe Weinstein

IF YOU'RE PlANNING TO GOAFTER AMEMBER OF

How about shutting down a fewscreening offices. Staff at the Gtizens'(ommittee for (hildren tracked thetravels of homeless families . On average they endured 45 days of meetings, explanations and form-filling

before being granted placement in ashelter with a bed of their own. Andthat's before anyone starts talkingabout a permanent home ... For acopy of the report, entitled "GettingShelter: The Homeless FamilyOdyssey," call (212) 673-1800.

(ongress because of their vote on,say, the welfare reform bill, load upon some valuable ammo first Headto CongressionalQuarterlys site atAmerica Online's "Newstand." Clickon the "Search (Q" button andpunch in the topic of your choice:You'll get recent action, a summary

of the bill and info on the key players, including campagn finance information and a pithy bio. While you'rethere be sure to click on the "keystaff contacts" entry so you can target your angry phone calls to theappropriate underling.



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Carlos Zavala,19, is headed forPurdue Universityon a soccerscholarship.

S o , - l f u i p : ~ ,, ' . - .. .. . - .

The soccer players on the MapesAthletic Field in East Tremonthaven 't stopped their game forthe hard and fast summer rainthat has driven spectators to crowd underawnings beside warm trays of rice, chicken and ribs .As the rain lets up, 19-year-oldCarlos Zavala ventures closer to theaction, waiting for his team to take tbefield as the previous game comes to anend. Zavala has spent many years playingthe game on the Mapes field and atRoosevelt High School , where he wasvoted most valuable player before he graduated in June. Last year, a scout spottedhim at a citywide all-star game, and thisfall he 's going to Purdue University inIndiana on a soccer scholarship.Zavala's trajectory has all the markings of an urban fairy tale, Horatio Algerupdated for the 1990s . But as he looksover at the scrimmaging teams, he adds atragic twist to that classic rags-to-richestale: "I lost two uncles at Happy Land," hesays. "Both of them used to come to thisfield to practice."The March 25, 1990, arson attack on

the Happy Land social club in the Bronxkilled 87 people, most of them workingclass Honduran immigrants who lived nearSouthern Boulevard. The arsonist, JulioGonzalez , is serving a life sentence for themurders.Zavala 's link to the tragedy is notunique on this playing field."Most people here had someone die inHappy Land," says Astin Jacobo , a localactivist who started a soccer team in 1991

to help heal the pain felt by those who hadlost loved ones in the fire. Later, that single team grew into the United FriendsSoccer League, which today has IO teams ,including one made up of immigrants fromPeru, another of Mexicans, and others bailing from Guatemala and El Salvador.These days, athletes and their fans comefrom neighborhood s all over tbe Bronx toparticipate.Nevertheless , the horrifying event thatgave birth to the league always remains inthe background . For many families in theborough 's still-small Honduran community, the words "Happy Land" have becomeincongruous shorthand for their worst

nightmare , evoking the same pain"General Slocum " and "TrianShirtwaist" evoked for an earlier genetion of New York City immigrants . TGeneral Slocum pleasure boat caughtand sank in the East River in 1904, kilmore than 1,000 German immigrants;Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire of 1took the lives of more than 140 workmost of them Italian and Jewish immigwomen. Tbe Happy Land arson occuron the Triangle Shirtwaist fue's 7anniversary.Reinaldo Palao, the league's top ocial, is haunted by three boys in particwho died in the fire. "I saw them growin Honduras ," he said, "I remember thwhen they were small." He bolds his hpalm down and parallel to the groundgive substance to his memory of tchildhood, a gesture that also betrayslingering disbelief in their fate .Come TogetherJacobo , president of the CrotCommunity Coalition , a neighborhogroup founded in the early 1970s to res

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the area from the city's urban renewalwrecking ball, says the idea for the leaguecame to him as he was mulling over waysto help the community come together inthe aftermath of Happy Land. "I thought,why don't we start a team to put thisbehind us," he recalls.The coalition had just succeeded in convincing the city to put up bleachers andlights at the adjoining softball field, and"Jaco," as he is greeted affectionately byplayers, had sports on his mind. "Soccer isthe main sport in Central America," he says.The competition, he thought, could helpfathers and sons come together and forget,at least temporarily, their terrible loss. Andit has. Today, the league provides opportunities for sportsmanship, national pride,camaraderie and the comfort of familiarfaces ."Mothers of some of the kids who diedcome to the field with happy memories ofthe past," Jacobo says. "Instead of leavingthem grieving alone, they can come here."Rodrigo Vargas, a construction workerand former professional referee inHonduras, lost two brothers-in-law in theHappy Land fire. He was one of the peopleJacobo first asked to help make his idea fora soccer league come true."I picked up seventeen young guys andtrained with them for two months," Vargassays. "People said, 'Let's play a game.'More people came, and then we said, Let'smake a league. '"Vargas is, by his own admission, a disciplinarian focused on playing the gamethe way professionals do. "Everyone needsdiscipline," Vargas says. ''I'm very strict. Ifthey don't respect my discipline, I signoff." The rigorous standards don't scareplayers like Melvin Martinez, who joinedthe league two years ago. Martinez, 25,plays for the San Isidro team, named forthe patron saint of a community inHonduras where many of the players comefrom. The team collects weekly dues to payfor sneakers and the yellow shirts emblazoned with the team name.Busy ScheduleMartinez says the league has been alifesaver for some men who did not knowhow to handle the flood of grief after thesocial club fire. "We have a lot of youngpeople who began drinking when theirfathers died in Happy Land," he says. Hekeeps a busy schedule with the team,which also plays other tearns on LongAUCUST/SEPTEMBER 1996

Island. "Monday, Tuesday, Wednesdayand Friday we practice, and we playSaturday and sometimes on Sunday."The league has really taken off in thelast three years, according to Jacobo . "It'sstronger because people come from different places. They come from MorrisHeights, West Farms, Kingsbridge," hesays . Jacobo, who is 65 years old, remembers that when he arrived in East Tremontin 1970, 182nd Street-just north ofMapes Field-was the boundary betweenLatinos and blacks on one side and theItalians on the other.

"Only white people used to play here,"he recalls. "That's fmished ."City Councilmember Jose B. Rivera,who represents the area, says Honduransare still "a very small minority" among theLatino population, which is largely PuertoRican. But it's big enough that the community is planning its own Honduran Dayparade on the Grand Concourse in September. "We're trying to encourage them tocome out and organize," Rivera says.Jacobo lobbied Rivera and BronxBorough President Fernando Ferrer to payfor lighting and bleachers on the soccerfield. Rivera says he has earmarked$650,000 for new bleachers for the softball

and soccer fields in the current city budget."We expect the bleachers to be put in bythe fall," he says. Ferrer's office is alsochipping in some cash, according tospokesman Clint Roswell.As an activist and a member ofCommunity Board 6, Jacobo has urgedofficials to protect Mapes Field from theencroachment of nearby St. BarnabasHospital. Hospital officials wanted to builda parking garage near the field's baseballdiamonds but later abandoned the idea.Jacobo and others feared the garage wouldhave eventually led to the hospital's usurping of the field. St. Barnabas spokesmanThomas Murray is terse on the subject:"We are not proceeding with that project,"he says.

The community is keeping a watchfuleye on St. Barnabus, though , because players and spectators love their field andintend to keep it."Here we meet a lot of other Honduransand enjoy our food," says Louis Martinez,a coach for the Aduana team.Carlos Gonzales, a coach for ClubDeportivo Peru,agrees. "If he team loses, wecontinue to be happy because people in thecommunity came out," he says. For Jacobo,that was always the point.


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@CTIVISM "

Reinvestment, On-LineNew technology makes community banking activismeasier than it has ever been before. By Steve MitraA mid the tidal wave of information dispensed on theInternet are a number of valuable resources that can helpcommunity activists command the attention of the forces of capital.If your community needs more bankbranches or easier access to mortgages andsmall business loans, some of the tools discussed on this page can help.Under the Community ReinvestmentAct of 1977, every lending institution isrequired to "meet the credit needs of thelocal communities in which the institutionis chartered." The legislation can be a powerful tool in the hands of activists. Whenbanks seek to merge with one another orexpand their operations, they must win regulatory approval. That's when a window ofopportunity opens for community residentsto challenge institutions they believe discriminate against minority and low incomepopulations. Solid research is essential, andnew software and on-line databases may bethe key to success.The Law

Believe it or not, the CommunityReinvestment Act itself isn't an unfathomable piece of legalese-and reading itcan be illuminating. You can find the fulltext (nicely indexed) at the World WideWeb site of the Office of the Comptroller ofthe Currency (OCC). The address iswww.occ.treas.gov/cra/cra.htm.Finding Your Bank'sCRA EvaluationRegulators give each lender a rating ofeither "Outstanding," "Satisfactory ,""Needs to improve" or "Substantial noncompliance. " Bear in mind that banks ' ratings don't always reflect their lending practices. Of 1,069 CRA ratings announced inthe first quarter of 1996, only 20 (roughly1.87 percent) got a failing grade, accordingto the industry newsletter RegulatoryCompliance Watch .

If your financial institution is a state orfederally chartered bank and amember of the Federal Reserve, you canfind its CRA rating on the Web. TheOCC's user-friendly database is at:www.occ.treas.gov/cra/crasrch.htm.

The regional Federal Reserve Bank ofNew York-and some of the Fed 's otherbranches-also put ratings on the Web. Trywww.ny.frb.org/bankinfo/cra.Building Your CaseJudging a bank's performance and transforming raw data into sophisticated analysisdemand computing resources rarely available to community groups-until now.The federal Home Mortgage DisclosureAct (HMDA) requires lending institutionsto file reports on all mortgage loan applications. You can get hold of this data on theInternet thanks to the folks at the Right-ToKnow Network . They 're on the Web at:rtk.netl. HMDA data is available from 1990onward, with a lag time of about eightmonths. Look for 1995 data to be availablesometime in September.In June, the Center for CommunityChange, a nonprofit that assists low incomegrassroots organizations, released "HMDAWorks," powerful new software that combines HMDA and census data for each census tract in metropolitan areas . The software allows you to tailor queries to answerspecific questions and goes well beyondwhat banking regulators require. Forinstance, you can generate reports showingloan application and rejection rates by race,income and types of loans. You can discernif a bank's loans in a minority census tractare going to upper-income whites, a possible indication that the area is gentrifying.You can tell if a certain census tract is getting less than its fair share of loans from allinstitutions-not just single lendersthereby pointing to a severe need .At $150 for community groups, thesoftware-available for both Macintoshand PC-compatible computers-is a prettygood deal. It comes with one year's data forone metropolitan area of your choosing,and 31 pre-programmed queries , allowingyou to readily print reports. Additionalcities and years are available ($15-$25 percity, per year). Call the Center forCommunity Change at (202) 342 0567 formore information.Speaking Your PIKeJosh Silver, director of research andpublications at the National Community

Reinvestment Coalition (NCRC), advisesactivists and nonprofit groups to approachlenders directly if the credit needs of theicommunity are not being met. Proposeforming a community lending partnership, he says, and don ' t assume that bankexecutives won't welcome the idea . Manyof them understand the advantages oworking with communities rather thanagainst them.

If this tactic doesn't work , howeverremember : you can submit written comments and present oral testimony to regulators reviewing a bank prior to its CRAexam. Find the dates of CRA reviews andthe addresses to which written commentmust be sent at the Web sites below.The OCC's upcoming CRA examinations are listed at: www.occ.treas .govcra/duecra.htm . The Federal DeposiInsurance Corporation 's examinationschedule is linked to the agency 's hompage at: www.fdic.gov/.The New York branch of the FederaReserve lists upcoming examinations othe Web at: www.ny.frb.org/bankinfo/cra.You can also call NCRC at (202) 6288866 to get the dates of upcoming examinations by snail mail.The most effective time to lean onlending institution by submitting testimonyto regulators is when a bank applies tmerge, open a branch or acquire anothecorporation. The New York Fed posts proposed mergers on a weekly basis atwww.ny.frb.org/pihome/news/mergeacqFrom the OCC, it 's available atwww.occ.trea s.gov/weekly/wbdown .htm(Or by sending e-mail to: [email protected]).CRA "Reform"The CRA law has been a target oRepublican lawmakers since they wocontrol of Congress in 1994. A Senatbill to gut CRA was defeated last yearBut in the House, Congressman JimLeach (R-Iowa) is pushing a bill in thfinance committee that would "streamline" the application process and curtaiopportunities for activists to intervenwith regulators.The Clinton administration has registered opposition, but the bill has not yegone to the House floor and its fate iunclear Steve Mitra is senior editor ofPoliticsNowa Washington-based on-line magazine.

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PIPEliNE ;,,

fW

Close to the EdgeCongress and Bill Clinton have eliminated federal disabilityaidfor addicts, effective next January. Will thousands end upon the streets? By Sasha AbramskyM ichelle lives at SamaritanVillage in RichmondHill, Queens, one of sixresidential programs inNew York that help heroin addicts switch to methadone and thenwean themselves off drugs altogether. Nowin her mid-30s, Michelle has a history withhard drugs going back nearly 20 years. Butshe's been clean for eight months, recentlygot her GED and plans to find a job whenshe graduates from her rehabilitation program this fall.

spending federal aid money on a dissolute,drug-dependent lifestyle. The legislation'ssponsors, Republican Senator JohnMcCain of Arizona and Congressmen JimBunning (R-Kentucky), Bill Archer (RTexas) and Clay Shaw (R-Florida), evenwon the support of New York's mostly liberal congressional delegation by arguingthat the money saved-as much as $3.5billion over seven years-would be betterused to boost income supports for retirees.

7

continue receiving money for treatment.The hurdles are getting steadily higherhowever. Many of those kicked off SSIwill tum to city- and state-funded welfareand drug rehabilitation. But there havebeen extensive cuts in all of these programs in recent years. The Giulianadministration is aiming to reduce thenumber of men and women receivingHome Relief-public assistance foradults, primarily those without childrenby more than 35,000 this year, mainlythrough the city's new eligibility reviewand workfare requirements. And few subsidized drug treatment programs are available to men or women who don 't receivepublic assistance.Legal advocates predict that nearly

The cost of Michelle's treatment, about$22,000 a year, is paid by Medicaid. Shequalified automatically for governmenthealth insurance starting in 1991, whenshe began receiving SupplementarySecurity Income (SSI), the federal incomesupport program for people unable to workbecause of their disabilities. "I f it wasn'tfor SSI, I'd probably be dead by now,"says Michelle, whose counselors askedthat her last name not be used. "I didn'thave much life left in me. I had a damagedimmune system . If I didn't get that money,I wouldn't have been able to get a placeand get off the streets."

Those who fail to make

In March, President Bill Clinton signedlegislation abolishing SSI benefits for thenation's 200,000 addicts and alcoholicswhose primary disability is their addiction.This restriction, which takes effect JanuaryI, 1997, will make it more difficult forpeople like Michelle to get the help theyneed to right their capsized Ii ves. The newlaw supersedes another measure passed byCongress in 1994, which required addictson SSI to enroll in rehabilitation programsand have their federal checks sent to"responsible third parties."Meanwhile, Congress is also on theverge of passing a law that will require theDepartment of Housing and UrbanDevelopment to use the new SSI guidelines in assigning housing subsidies for thedisabled. This could effectively makemany addicts-newly disqualified fromSSI-ineligible for both public housingand Section 8 rent subsidies.Proponents of the strict new SSIregime argue it will prevent addicts from

the transfer to public assistanceare likely to drop throughthe social safety net altogetherBurNucratlc HurdlIn early June, the Social SecurityAdministration (SSA), which administersthe program, began sending letters toaddicts explaining the impending cut-offand giving them 60 days to appeal. Theagency estimates that about 160,000addicts will be able to demonstrate theyhave disabling ailments other than addiction and will remain on the SSI rolls . Butofficials also predict that, as of January, atleast 40,000 addicts nationwide will losetheir disability income, their medical benefits and access to treatment. In the future,as many as 50,000 people a year are likelybe barred from the disability program,reports the Congressional Budget Office.In New York City, 9,000 addicts standto lose SSI next year, according to a memorandum recently sent to drug rehabilitation centers by the city Department ofMental Health, Mental Retardation andAlcoholism Services. State officials havebeen encouraging counselors at residentialtreatment programs to help clients clearthe new bureaucratic hurdles so they can

two-thirds of the city's drug-addicted SSrecipients will fail to qualify for alternative forms of aid, says Jill Boskey of thMFY Legal Services' SSI Law Project"It's not easy to get welfare," Boskeyexplains. "You have to jump throughhoops. And a lot of them won't be able tjump the hoops . I can say that for certain.Ironically, those addicts who do managto get on the welfare rolls after losing theifederal disability benefits will no longebe required to enter treatment programs aa condition for receiving assistance.Those who fail to make the transfer tpublic assistance are likely to drop throughthe social safety net altogether, adds DavidBeriss, health policy analyst for thNational Coalition for the Homeless, anmay, as a result, push homeless shelterand hospital emergency rooms "past thbreaking point."Beth Raymond, Samaritan Village'planning director, says the resulting miseryfor many men and women will worsenpeople's addictions and increase the incidence of AIDS. "People despair and tak

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more drugs. And if they're using more, they're sharingmore needles and having more unsafe sex."Mass expu lsions of addicts from SSI are not unprecedented. In the early 1980s, tens of thousandsof people wereremoved from the rolls after Congress stiffened standardsfor qualifying as disabled . "It was amajor contributing factor to homelessness, particularly in New York City," saysBryan Hetherington, chief counsel of the Public InterestLaw Office of Rochester and one of the lawyers who challenged the law, eventually winning its repeal in the SupremeCourt in 1984. "People who were mentally incapacitateddecompensated. They were wandering the streets. It becamea national scandal."Hetherington's team based its winning case on the argument that it was illegal to ask people who had alreadyproved they were disabled to do so again. This time around,though, the law doesn 't question whether people are addicted nor question whether their addiction is disabling. It simply denies addicts the right to claim benefits for a disabilitystemming from their addiction. The new law will be moredifficult to challenge in the courts, says Hetherington.In RecoveryBefore Michelle enrolled in rehab, her life had beena long spiral into despair and self-destruction . Her parents began dealing drugs when she was a teenager andwent to prison when she was 18. She began using angeldust, and , when she was 20, heroin. She later became aprostitute, lost her home and lived in a shack in an abandoned lot in Brooklyn. In 1989, she got pneumonia andfound out she was HIY-positive. Doctors told her thatunless she changed her behavior, she would be deadwithin a year."I f it hadn't been for SSI, I'd never have gone intorecovery," she says. "When I get depressed, I want to use."Michelle 's friend Larry, a recovering addict whose habitbegan when he was 14, quietly states: "Cutting SSI, I don'tthink it's right. For a substance abuse person, we all knowthat using drugs is a symptom for something else. I think itwould be wrong to take those benefits away. I really do." Sasha Abramsky is aWashington Heights-based freelancer.


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In City Hall Park,New York CityHousing Authoritytenants protest RickLazio S proposals-which couldincrease their rents.Lazio, oppositepage, is reversingsix decades ofhousing policy.

Lazio's LawThe young Long Island congressman behind public housingreform is a powerful neophyte. By Glenn ThrushThink of Congressman RickLazio as a male version ofSusan Molinari.Like the Staten Island congresswoman who will keynotethe GOP convention this month, LongIslander Lazio is a new age, middle-ofcenter Republican who 's young, cute,polite to his elders and pronounces theword "idea" as "I-deer." And Lazio professes to have tons of them.After just two terms in the House, he isstill a neophyte on urban policy. Even so,Lazio is hammering some of those ideasinto a law that is likely to reverse 60 yearsof public housing policy in the process.

In Washington, where getting yourname attached to a successful reform bill isthe quickest guarantee of political props,the 38-year-old former Suffolk Countylegislator is on the verge of having hismeasure pass both houses of Congresswith the President's blessing, more or less,according to top administration officials."It's Lazio's bill," says a senior staff member of the federal Department of Housingand Urban Development. "It's mostly ourideas, but he 's the guy whose name will beattached to it."

The main goal of the legislation is toboost the number of middle income tenantsin public housing developments, on thetheory that families with higher incomestend to care more about their community.''We want to create a more healthy, morebalanced, sustainable income mix betweenall classes, including people with jobs andthose who can't-or won 't-find employment," Lazio explains.For New York City, the bill providesfor the near-total deregulation for the nextthree years of the New York City HousingAuthority, which manages 164,000 unitsof housing with about 600,000 tenants. If tpasses with the deregulation measureintact, the city will have the freedom to sellpublic housing developments to privateinvestors or turn whole projects into middle-income enclaves. (NYCHA officialswould not comment on the bill, but authority Chairman Ruben Franco has said heonly wants more freedom to promote areasonable level of income-mixing.)Lazio's plan also puts the entire $6.3billion public housing budget into blockgrants to states and local housing authorities. It repeals the 27-year-old BrookeAmendment, which caps rents for poor

s

tenants at 30 percent of their income. Anit allows management to evict tenants whcannot afford to pay new, higher rents. Taccommodate the people that would bdisplaced, Lazio calls for HUD to issuenough Section 8 rent subsidy vouchers sthat former tenants can find apartments othe private market.In a nod to Gingrich conservatives, thmeasure would compel tenants to come uwith an exit strategy from public housinrequiring them to sign an agreement prdicting when they plan on moving into prvately owned quarters.The bill passed the House by a widbipartisan margin in May, even thoughof Lazio 's fellow moderate Republicavoted against it-mostly in a proteagainst the Brooke repeal.The Senate hpassed a similar, milder version of the bin January. HUD sources say the final vesion of the bill is being worked outnegotiations between Lazio and HUSecretary Henry Cisneros."It's a bad bill," says Billy Eastoexecutive director of the New YoTenants and Neighbors Coalition, whotenant members have lobbied heavily fpreservation of the Brooke Amendment."I don 't see a real commitment to twelfare of tenants. All this income-mixintalk is nice, but what are you going to dwith all the poor people you 're goingdisplace?"It. Bett.r BootstrapTo Lazio, it 's all part of agrander idea build-a-better-bootstrap overhaulHUD that borrows elements from JacKemp, Booker 1. Washington and BClinton 's own nearly-forgotten urbahousing policy."Our old mission , as we had definedin the past, defined success by how manunits we had and how many people wesheltered," Lazio says. ''The new missiowill be radically different. We will creaan environment where people have thability to work and seize the opportunitiin their lives ."Lazio knows all about seizing opportunities. In 1992, he unseated longtimDemocratic incumbent Tom Downeattacking the better-financed incumbefor the hundreds of checks Downebounced in the House bank. Lazio's recoras a county legislator wasn't especialnoteworthy, but his father had been an aidto former county Republican Leader Buz

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Schenk. The county GOP leadersltip chosehim for the race because of his fresh faceand ltis pedigree.Once Lazio was anointed, SuffolkRepublican leader Howard DeMartinidecided to chaperone ltis charge down toWasltington to meet the latest model ofNew York Republicanism. "We had a shortaudience with Susan Molinari in heroffice," DeMartini recalls. "She was helpful. But, you know, when I left I got theimpression that she thought, 'This is a nice,sweet kid who doesn 't stand a chance.'"Lazio pulled it off. He ran a smart raceand won by six percentage points, spendingalmost all of ltis money on negative ads and"Bounce Downey" bumper stickers.By all accounts, Lazio knew next tonothing about the subject when SpeakerNewt Gingrich appointed ltim to head thehousing subcollllllittee. His colleaguesacross the aisle say he benefited from aRepublican disinterest in urban issues ."I tltink he had to be pretty junior to begiven the housing subcommittee, becauseI'm sure nobody senior wanted it," saysBarney Frank, the MassachusettsDemocrat who debated Lazio on the bill."The poor guy. He's kind of like the guy inJerusalem who 's in charge of the pigs.Everybody hates pigs in Jerusalem.Everybody hates public housing in theRepublican Party."During ltis first few months , Housestaffers recall Lazio reading woodenly fromquestion sheets put together by committeeexperts .But he was an eager study and soonhe began talking about the need to get rid ofmany public housing projects , wltich hetook to calling "giant hulks of despair."When word started getting around thatLazio planned to include a repeal of thepopular Brooke Amendment, oppositionlobbyists scoured ltis district to see if tenants in Suffolk public housing were quite sodespairing about life inside their "hulks."

They ' re still looking.''The Island has never had-or encouraged-that kind of development." saysSam Miller of Long Island HousingServices , wltich handles fair housingissues. In Suffolk, the federal Departmentof Housing and Urban Development listsonly nine small housing authorities with acombined federal operating subsidy of lessthan one million dollars.In fact, on Long Island , HUD is primarily in the business of supporting middle-class housing, spending $1.9 billion a


year in Suffolk County to cover federallybacked, single family home mortgages.Long Islanders-many of whom have fledfrom the city-tend to tItink of publichousing as someone else's urban problem,"giant hulks" in Brooklyn or Chicago .''There's a bias out here against anyrenters, so imagine what people think aboutpublic housing tenants," Sam Miller says.Which is why Lazio has surprisedmany House-watchers by devoting most ofhis energy to writing the massive reform ofurban public housing . "I grew up in theshadow of New York City and my parentsare from F1atbush," Lazio explains. "I realize the GOP needs to make up a lot ofground in the cities."Elimination of HUD

While Lazio was speed-learning housing issues, an ad hoc committee of HouseGOP freshman convened for the purposeof plotting the utter elimination of HUD.To the surprise of some Democrats, theyoung subcollllllittee chairman turned outto be a HUD defender.But if Lazio defended HUD 's right toexist, he also carried the Gingrich camp'sattacks on Secretary Henry Cisneros' mostcherished agenda item, fair housing policy.In late 1995, Lazio made speeches callingfor a restructuring of HUD that wouldinclude dissolving HUD 's fair housingunit, transferring its functions to theJustice Department. The idea was popularamong landlord-friendly conservativesdesperate to stop stepped-up enforcementof anti-redlining laws and HUD 's housingdiscrimination regulations.Lazio's plan got nowhere, but it had itsdesired chilling effect: Cisneros called offhis fair-housing bloodhounds. "We gotcreamed and we backed off," says a HUDsource close to the secretary.Still, Lazio's efforts to save the housingagency were not lost on Cisneros. Today,

the two enjoy a cordial, even close relationsltip. "He's built up a lot of good willwith Cisneros," says the source.The basis for their friendsltip isn't justpersonal. In truth, Lazio 's proposals arenot fundamentally different fromCisneros's own 1994 HUD reconstructionplan, wltich also proposed increasing middle income tenancy, deregulation, blockgrants and a broad voucher plan.The main differences between Lazioand Cisneros center on moderating theBrooke repeal so it will hurt fewer tenants.Lazio, who admits he took a "beating" during the debate with Frank, says he will beflexible. The other sticking point, he says , isover the precise number of middle class tenants authorities will be allowed to admit.

"None of these problems are unsolvable," says another prominent HUD official. "And neither of these two issues areenough to get Bill Clinton to veto this bill.""No poor people are going to be without housing," Lazio maintains, adding:"It's time that housing authorities startedgiving people the option of vouchering outof the system." Still, neither HUD norLazio's office have released projections ofhow many tenants will be displaced by theloss of Brooke protections .Moreover, Lazio's vouchering-out ofthe safety-net won't provide much protection for New York City tenants , becausethere are virtually no affordable privatemarket apartments for poor people to spendtheir vouchers on. For years, low incomehousing groups have been reporting thatmany landlords habitually refuse to rent toSection 8 tenants. "Vouchering in NewYork City is a joke," Billy Easton says.Sharp.nlng th . MI onIn the face of such criticism, Laziocalmly rolls out the ideas, many of whichmake ltim sound like a New Democrat. Hisnext idea, it turns out, is his oldest one-rebuilding HUD."No community has just a housingproblem. They have an education problem,a jobs problem, an economic developmentproblem. I want to move all of the community development programs from all theother federal agencies and put them inHUD where they belong."Does that mean he will seek anincrease in the agency 's overall budget?''No,'' he says, with a calming, charming laugh , "though I wouldn't be opposedto the idea ."

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Divided WayA chnritable giant angers old friends by helping to advanceRudy Giuliani's welfare privatization schemes. By James BradleyThe New York City chapter ofthe United Way, one ofAmerica 's oldest and most venerable philanthropies, is playinga key role in the Giulianiadministration 's controversial plans to privatize much of the city 's welfare system,City Limits has learned.Since 1993 , the organization has beenunder contract with the city's HumanResources Administration (HRA) to pro-

vide a wide range of data on social, healthcare, and neighborhood issues. But with thecontract, the United Way has ventured intothe minefield of welfare reform , subcontracting with an upstate research organization to map out possible plans for privatizing the city 's income support centers,where people apply for benefits and meetwith their caseworkers.In a 1995 report produced under a quarter-million dollar United Way contract, theorganization presents a plan for a privatelyrun welfare system operated by "IncomeMaintenance Organizations ," based on theHMO model. Under the plan, pools of public assistance recipients would be assigned

to individual centers and the IMOs wouldseek to "reduce public assistance use by adefined population . .." The agencies wouldbe paid according to how well they got people off public assistance. IMOs could reducethe city 's welfare rolls by 1,000 a month, thereport says, through tough screening andeligibility assessment and by providing daycare, education , job training and such hardto-define services as "moral leadership" and"eyeball-to-eyeball persuasion."

These controversial proposals are putforward in a report prepared for the UnitedWay by a Rochester-based outfit called theCenter for Governmental Research (CGR).City officials refused to comment onwhether they intend to move forward withsuch a plan to completely reshape the coreof the city's welfare program .During the last 12 months , the city hascontracted out some of the HumanResources Administration's smaller welfareprograms, signing a $43 million deal withthe Hellenic American NeighborhoodAction Committee (HANAC) to superviseHome Relief recipients and move them intorehabilitation and, when possible, off wel-

7

fare. But after the FBI began investigatinwhy that contract went to the highest bidder-and why several former city employees were working for HANAC-MayoGiuliani canceled the deal.Soon after, City Comptroller AlaHevesi raised questions about a $3.4 millioHRA contract with the United Way for wefare-related services, including operatinlnfoline, the city's information and referrservice for people seeking benefits and othcity services . Hevesi charged the contrashould have been awarded to the lowest bider. HRA promptly revoked the contract.The United Way 's involvement in privtization research has many in the social sevice sector asking why the organizationlauded for its $72.5 million in disbursments to more than 700 nonprofit agecies-seems to be advocating a conservtive welfare reform agenda that may undemine many of its member agencies ."There are a lot of people concerned.doesn't look good ," says one nonproexecutive who, like many others inteviewed for this article, requested anonymty because his organization receives funing from the charity. "The United Waystepping out of its role as a funder, abecoming a policy maker. They can ' t actan advocate for their members becautheir primary concern is getting momoney from the city administration.""I'm concerned when an organizatithat begins as a funding source becomless of a funding source," adds MadeliLee of the New York Foundation. "It ishealthy thing when you have the businecommunity generating a different sourcemoney that is independently administereBut when an organization becomes tclosely allied with the city, that's somethidifferent altogether."Board MembersSome of the United Way of New Yorkown board members say they didn 't knoabout the organization's privatization worJames Dumpson, who serves on the UnitWay 's executive board and on the commtee that oversees the organizationresearch , told City Limits he had no ideathe subcontract with CGR and the privazation studies. Dumpson opposes privating income support centers: "That's a fudamental government function that cannbe contracted out," he says.Executive Director Phil Coltoff of tChildren's Aid Society, one of the Unit

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Way's member agencies, was also surprisedto learn that the organization was behind thereport. ''That's not my position, and not theChildren's Aid Society's. Income supportcenters are a clear function of government."For most of its I09-year history, theUnited Way has raised money almostentirely through workplace donations , inwhich employees sign off a small fractionof their paychecks to go to charity. Today,the New York City chapter, formed in 1938,provides millions of dollars in much-need-

the final year of the Dinkins administration,when HRA awarded a one-year, $1.25 million, sole-source research contract to theUnited Way for producing reports on AIDS,teen pregnancy, and the needs and demographics of low income neighborhoods.That year, the United Way parceled outa research subcontract to CGR, billed as"an independent, nonprofit research andmanagement consulting organization thatserves the public interest." United Way andHRA officials selected CGR to explore pri-

The United Way has ventured intothe minefield ofwelfare reform.

zation, however. In aNovember 1993 study,"Lessons Learned from Privatization," Sellwrote that turning welfare administrationover to private companies can result in"reduced HRA headcounts and costs,increased opportunity for innovation, and anenhanced pool of contractors." The reportalso looked at how privatization of city services has succeeded in places such asPhoenix,Los Angeles,Michigan, Tennesseeand San Francisco. The case studiesinvolved the contracting out of janitorial,security and other services that have nothing to do with public assistance.No examples of privatizing welfarewere offered, other than an unspecified reference to San Francisco contracting outcertain "social services."

ed funds to hospitals, community development corporations, job training agencies,senior centers, churches, and emergencyfood providers.In 1992, the United Way's national organization suffered a devastating blow whenWilliam Aramony, then the agency's president, resigned amid allegations of corruption and financial mismanagement.(Aramony was convicted last year of using$1.2 million of the United Way's money forlavish personal expenses. He was sentencedto seven years in prison.) As a result, thenational organization and its chapters acrossthe country suffered the first decrease indonations since World War II.New York City's chapter was no exception. Contributions fell by $8 million in1993, and consequently the United Wayimposed a 17 percent cut on hundreds ofhuman service agencies that rely on theirfunding . Corporate downsizing also led to asharp decrease in workplace donations. Sothe United Way looked to government grantsto fill some of the gap, its executives say.With the new focus has come a growingwillingness to stake out controversial publicpolicy positions. Last year, the United Wayof New York State, along with the UnitedJewish Appeal and the State CommunitiesAid Association, released a state welfarereform proposal calling for time limits andcuts in entitlements .The United Way of New York City hasworked with HRA since the 1980s ondeveloping a comprehensive human services data base, and has administereddropout prevention programs for the Boardof Education since 1988. But its relationship with the city becarne closer in 1993,AUCUST/SEPTEMBER 1996

vatization options because the organizationwas not based in the city and was thus perceived to be more independent, accordingto Ralph Sell of CGR. After Giulianibecame mayor in 1994, the city inked anew three-year contract with the UnitedWay, upped to $1.5 million per annum . Asthe United Way's subcontractor, CGRreceived a new three-year deal as well.Sell, the organization 's director ofsocial research, wrote CGR's eight reportsfor HRA and the United Way. He also fliesdown from Rochester at least twice a weekto meet with HRA officials. "We're nonpartisan and objective," Sell says. "Wenever made recommendations. We just tryto present some balance for decision-makers to go forward."There's no question that CGR 's reportscome down strongly on the side of privati-

In a 1994 report entitled ''PrivatizationInitiatives," Sell mentions for the first timethe idea of contracting out income supportcenters. "I have previously done work withHMOs. I thought that the same idea might beuseful to income support centers," Sellexplains. The concept is further illuminatedin the 1995 report, "Privatization Possibilitiesfor HRA Income Support Centers."Nothing UnusualLawrence Mandell, the United Way'sexecutive vice president, says there is nothing unusual in what the United Way hasbeen doing with the Giuliani administration. "We've worked with the Koch administration, the Dinkins administration, theGiuliani administration." he says. "Our jobis to work with government on behalf of theagencies we support.''There would be cause for concern if

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our research was supporting some kind ofpolitical agenda, but that's just not true ."Yet, according to a member of theUnited Way 's Research Advisory

Comrnittee-a group of academics thatmeets monthly to discuss research topicswith HRA-the United Way has been reluctant to scrutinize the Giuliani administration 's policies. "It's not always a comfortable relationship," says the member, anurban policy expert who also asked not tobe identified. "HRA sets a research agendaand United Way gets a research staff. Buunfortunately it gets a staff whose agenda islargely set by this relationship. When thoseof us on the advisory committee want to dosomething that doesn't fit in HRA's planwe have difficulty pursuing it."

The United Way has not publiclyendorsed the welfare privatization planbut Lawrence Mandell says he believesnonprofits may be able to do a better jobthan the city when it comes to runningincome support centers."Is there some value that nonprofits canbring to those centers?" he asks. "Wbelieve strongly that when the nonprofitdeliver services, there 's a great deal oinnovation and creativity." He also addthat the United Way itself could possiblyhandle this task. "Whether or not theUnited Way would be interested in doingthat remains to be seen," he says. "If wfeel we can playa constructive role in anyof the changes taking place in welfare bygetting the nonprofit sector more involvedthen we may have an interest."For now, the flap over the HANACcontracts seems to have slowed down thprivatization zeal. But many in the sociaservice sector say it appears that privatization is inevitable, and they are concernedabout what could happen when a fundamental government function such as welfare eligibility or case management iturned over to a private entity.

"It would set a dangerous precedent ,says Ron Deutsch, associate director oSENSES , an Albany-based advocacygroup composed of religious, labor andnon-profit leaders. "I f you have a privatorganization running something likincome support centers, what kind of faihearing process will people get? What if idoesn't work? Will HRA take it oveagain? Will this organization be able to cupeople off at will? What kind of safeguardwill be in place? It presents a whole host oproblems ." CITY LIMITS


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My assignment is to retrace mypost-pubescent steps through this notorious district. I am to recaIlsights, impressions and feelings that link me to this place. It is adifficult task, not because the memories and the images aren 'tvivid, but because it's hard to figure out what they mean, whetherthey are worth keeping at all. T1Illes Square is a place most NewYorkers seem eager to forget and, in many ways, I'm no exception. Recollections , oftentimes , like old theaters, get torn down tobe replaced by newer and shinier versions .Adecade ago, when the final 3: 15 p.m. bell would sound at theFiorello H. LaGuardia High School ofPerforming Arts, sending arush of eager teenagers back out into the world, many of the students would land-not at home in their respective boroughs--butmere blocks away from the school's doors . Dead smack in themiddle ofT1Illes Square."We would hang out there for hours upon hours everyday,"recalls a friend ofmine, a laGuardia alumna whom I met long afterhigh school. "It really didn 't matter what type of crew you had, orif you were a freshman or senior. For the most part, everybodyfound something to do or someplace to go in that area. Most of uswould crowd McDonald's, hang out in front of the train station, orchill at Playland," she says, referring to the fabled video arcade.I didn't go to LaGuardia. I went to Murry Bergtraum, a brownslab of high school wedged between the Brooklyn Bridge and OnePolice Plaza, so I mostly made my way to T1Illes Square, "FortyDeuce," on Friday and Saturday nights.On those evenings, I'd get there after an hour-long train ridefrom my Brooklyn home (the subways ran at a snail's pace backthen) with my homegirls in tow, eager to flirt with the passingcrews of fellas from different high schools. "Ooh, ooh, damn he 'sa cutie!" one of my girls would giggle and point out. Invariably,in a matter of minutes, the ugly one would shout back. "Yeeeah,gurl. Whazz up with them seven digits?"On weekends like those, the number of Black and Latino teenswho flocked to 42nd Street grew beyond imagination. Thousandsdeep, we got high off our own energy and special presence. Andon especially exciting holidays like Easter and Christmas, those ofus who could would steal away some time from our families toparade our new gear (leather suits, suede-front sweaters, Leejeans, sheepskin coats, Cazal glasses) on the ave. We'd come fromas far as the North Bronx or Far Rockaway just to check out adouble-feature and to immortalize our good times on Polaroidstaken against intricately spray-painted white sheets (courtesy ofthe "two-fer-$7" street camera man) . We brought a special rhythmto the Deuce, too, what with occasional boomboxes blasting theBronx's KRS-l and cardboard boxes spread open on corners asthe only necessary props for the stunning breakdance showcasesthat marveled many white passersby.As a teenager in the Reagan Dynasty '80s, the Deuce wasmomentarily the mall we urban kids never had. It was where Iplayed hooky on a double date with my second first love. It iswhere my really good friends and I would catch really bad moviesat rat-infested , gooey-floored theaters.And not just for me, but for thousands of Black and Latinokids throughout New York from "small towns" like Brooklyn andQueens, 42nd was the place that legitimized our sneaking suspicions that we really did live in the New York other people traveledhalf a world to see . Somehow, home-whatever borough thatwas-was dwarfed by the Deuce's fluorescence .AUCUST/SEPTEMBER1996

I remember this sensation mainly becauseT1Illes Square was one of the few public Ulspots that actually beckoned young peoplekids like me. For reasons beyond us, therereally was no place else in New York City that -would openly receive such numbers of urbanteens in all of our knapsacked glory. 0. :IBut there is another reason the Deuce lives in 11 0my memory bank. Coming up in NYC at that time,Times Square was much sought after "neutral ground"--thatprized place in an era when territory seemed like everything.By the mid- '80s, the crack epidemic was at it height and itseffect was far reaching. Where you were from mattered everywhere you went, and in ways people who were not teenagers atthat place in time would never understand. See, 42nd Streetwasn 't at all like 125th Street or PitkinAvenue or Farmers Boulevard.Nobody, except for the homeless, really lived in Times Square.Of course, we hadno idea we were in a grand tradition ofteenage frolicking at 42nd. We werecompletely oblivious to the fact thatother generations of outer-boroughkids since the 1930s had occupied thedeuce, much like we did.New York's theater district hadlong since evolved into far more than acolorful place for wholesome familiesto enjoy a production of "Oklahoma."Single-handedly, it held the country'slargest concentration ofcrazies, misfitsand bad guys. Prostitutes worked theWest Side Highway to Broadway.Pushers did too. There , directly in themidst of such obvious insanity, werereligious zealots willing to baptize youon the spot. On 43rd and Broadwayunder the awning of an abandonedNathan's, there were fanatics who reveled in shoving blown-up photos ofaborted fetuses in your face. Only a l'Iew blocks down on 45th, a Hebrew ,Israelite sect used megaphones toremind you , as if you had forgotten,"Jesus was a Black Jew!"The moralizing was set against the obvious, lascivious back-drop. The '70s and '80s also opened the door of T1Illes Square to ia barrage of sex shops. Burlesque had actually been a part of the ."JBroadway scene as early as the 1930's, but as VCRs made theirway into American homes, so did VHS and Beta Triple-X skinflicks. With the porn shops came more porn theaters, with porntheaters came more peep shows, and so on.I'm not nearly as sure how we came into the picture. I suspectthe initial draw was The Latin Quarter, whose legendary hip-hopFridays made it the first seminal, centrally located hip-hop club inthe city. In the dead of winter, even, I would stand with my girlfriends and hundreds of other hip-hop heads---all of us pressed


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Thephotographs byMichael Ackerman

Jfichael Ackerman1VLtarted takingphotographs in westernTImes Square back inthe eatly 1990s thenstopped to do otherthings. ~ e n h e returned last yeat, hesaw how drastically theplace had cleaned up,dried out, ironed athousand of ts humancreases into crispcorporate planes.He has been takingpictures there ever since,photographing itintensely to "seize theremains before theyentirely disappeared."

42nd Street betweenSeventh and EighthAvenues.AUCUST/SEPrEMBER 1996

"SEIZE THE REMAINS BEFORE THEY DISAPPEAR."


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CLOCKWISE FROM UPPER RIGHT:In front ofPort Authority Bus Terminal,Eighth Avenue; 39th Street and EighthAvenue; Broadway and 43rd Street; 43rdStreet between Eighth and Ninth avenues;Corner of42nd Street and Eighth Avenue.


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37th Street and Eighth Avenue.

aill CITY U)I4I1


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a nSlavintheC;

uIn this new-wage era, the fight over workfare isn't about

welfare rights as much as it's about workers' rights.itting, shoulders tensed, watching pensively from acramped comer of the conference room, HoraceJohnson hardly looks like an in-your-face challengeto New York City's largest municipal labor union.Yet this young man, fresh from work in hiscivvies-pressed chinos, pink oxford shirt, impassive smile-ispositioned to become amajor threat tomunicipal unions representing low-skilled workers. Here in NewYork, that's District Council 37, the local arm of the American

Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME).Johnson works more than 20 hours a week, yet he isnot an employee. He can't be called a replacementworker either, even though he's doing work onceperformed by some of the 17,000 city employees who have retired or taken buy-outs since1994. As a mail clerk at the city'sDepartment of Cultural Affairs, he receivesminimum wage and has no hope of a raise,promotion or overtime. No matter how hardhe works, he has almost no chance of beinghired as a permanent employee, yet he still has _to report to the job faithfully. Even one unexcused absence is grounds for losing weeks of"wages"-that is, his welfare checks and food stamps.

hanks to Johnson and thousands of otherson public assistance, the city has plentyof people to fill clerical, janitorial, streetcleaning and park-worker posts leftempty because of budget cutting andattrition. At City Council hearingsin March, Human Resources Administration Commissioner Marva Hammons testified that there were

as WEP. Not coincidentally, union leaders at that same hearingreported that the city had essentially stopped hiring new lowskilled workers.The bulk of these new WEP workers are single, childlessrecipients of Home Relief, who under a two-year-old state law arerequired to work for their benefit checks. But the numbers areguaranteed to climb now that the city has begun to enlist tens ofthousands of mothers receiving Aid to Families with DependentChildren. Mayor Giuliani has estimated that by late 1997 the citywill be "employing" 50,000 men and women on Home Relief andanother 35,000 AFDC moms.That means the city will be home to a transitoryworkforce of at least 85,000 people. Comparethat to DC 37's membership of 125,000 citynurse's aides, custodial assistants, sewercleaners, caseworkers, accountants andother workers, and it's apparent that WEP isalready endangering DC 37's future bargaining power. One would think MayorGiuliani would have the makings of a seriouslabor battle on his hands.Thus far, however, he does not. DC 37'sexecutive director, Stanley Hill-who has drawn

criticism from his rank-and-file for being soft on recentcontract talks with the mayor-has decided to leave this fightto a citywide coalition of organizers, lawyers and other unionreps. That leaves them undermanned and outgunned by the city.Their work could, nonetheless, break new ground in turningworkfare into the one of the most important workers' rights movements in years, attempting to unite the interests of low-wage andno-wage workers.For his part, Horace Johnson just hopes these people knowwhat they're doing. The WEP program has been good to him, hesays. He likes his clerical job. It is the1,390 people working for their welfarebenefits in Mayor Rudolph Giuliani'sWork Experience Program, better known By Kim Nauer prospect of making his "training" positionpermanent, with better pay and benefits,AUCUST SEPTEMBER 1996


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WendellOrtiz (center)talks with WEPworkers,explaining theorganizingcampaign atHRA's 16thStreet placementcenter.

that lured him out to this crowded conference room at the FifthAvenue Committee's Brooklyn offices on a stormy June nightSome two dozen other WEP workers and half again as manycommunity organizers are in the room, talking-arguing, actually-about creating a workers' rights campaign called ''WEPWorkers Together!" The organizers are trying to run things byconsensus, but the louder workers are carrying the meeting andimpatience is reigning. "We don't need therapy!" hectors onewoman. There is a cry for immediate action. Labor action!Suddenly it is all union talk: recruiting shop stewards, organizing demonstrations, arranging work slow-downs. But professional union representatives are conspicuously absent, and itmakes Johnson nervous. He remembers the result of his lastattempt at labor organizing. Working at a restaurant, pressing fornight differential pay, he came in late one day and was fired on thespot. It is a lesson the organizers will do well to remember as theycraft this welfare-union hybrid. ''I like this job a lot," Johnson sayscarefully. "I don't want to be isolated."

ince the mayor created WEP early last year, organizations like the Community Food ResourceCenter-an advocacy and technical support organization for people on food stamps and publicassistance-have argued that the program is justone more stealth attempt to bump people off thewelfare rolls. They argue that the mayor's versionof workfare is a form of indentured servitude that offers almost nopromise of job training or full-time paid employment. The citysimply tells welfare recipients to show up for face-to-face meetingsand be at their job sites on time. Missed work days are met withsanctions, including being kicked off welfare for weeks at a timeuntil the city's bureaucracy can be convinced to re-open the case.

Although legitimate complaints surfaced almost immediatelythe program received scant media attention until three months agwhen City University ofNew York administrators reported that thWEP work requirements had forced thousands of college studenout of school and into make-work sanitation and parks jobRepublicans and Democrats alike took to the students' defense, submitting state legislation to allow on-campus work sites for studenand lobbying the mayor to be more sensitive.Welfare rights advocates had hoped that DC 37's Stanley Hiwould make the WEP program a public issue, but this hasn't hapened, says Liz Krueger, CFRC's associate director. ''I believhe's doing close to nothing," she says. ''Is he in bed with Rudy?don't know. I've never gone to dinner with either of them. Buta union is supposed to protect its workers and, institutionally, figfor the existence of paid labor, [DC 37] is not doing that"

ill counters that he did talk about the WEissue during labor negotiations earlier thyear, pushing the mayor to make moworkfare participants legitimate ciemployees, but Giuliani wouldn't budgAt the very least, Hill says, he thought hhad a commitment from the administration-albeit not in writing-to support more pilot programs likthe one DC 37 has instituted with WEP workers in the schoocafeterias. There, after training, workers are brought onto the citpayroll as unionized employees. Between 30 and 40 people havobtained jobs this way, Hill says.For his union membership, Hill negotiated a five-year contract guaranteeing substantial raises after 1997 and no layoffAs for the WEP participants, the only thing Hill won wasthree-line sentence concluding, ''It is not the city's intention t

CITY LIM IT


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use WEP workers to displace active city employees."Hill explains rus priorities must lie with rus unionizedemployees. He says that DC 37 attempted to organize welfareworkers a decade ago , but the effort was rebuffed by thecourts . "We cannot go out and get these people to sign a card,"Hill insists. "The simple fact is, we don 't represent theseworkers."Bill Henning, vice president of Local 1180 of the

Communication Workers of America, says that's no excuse forducking the fight. His local represents about 6,500 clerical supervisors throughout city government, and its leaders have decided totake a back-room role in the citywide WEP organizing effort. Forthe last three months, CWA has been meeting with communityorganizers from the Fifth Avenue Committee and the UrbanJustice Center as well as with a battery of public service lawyersto come up with an effective strategy for reshaping the hours ,wages and training provisions of the program.Just recently, labor sources say, CWA initiated private talks tobring other unions on board. The Teamsters, wruch represent sanitation workers, and a couple of DC 37 local presidents are reportedly interested.

"In a technical, legal sense, they may not be considered workers," Henning admits. "Yet we think it's critical to consider themas w

Documents

City Limits Magazine, August/September 1996 Issue