City Limits Magazine, December 1990 Issue

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D ecem ber 1990 N ew Y ork 's C om m unity A ffa irs New s M agazine $2

Q U E S T IO N IN G W E L F A R E R E F O R M

U P T O W N IN S P IR A T IO N D B L A C K B U S IN E S S B L U E S



11:1;'1"11

PATH TO

CONTROVERSYThousands of affordable

apartments set aside forhomeless families from thecity's shelter system are now

being allocated to the "hiddenhomeless" in a controversialnew pal cy recently announcedby the Dinkins administration .

Known as II AlternativeHousing Pathways, I the newpolicy will provide 5,700apartments for low incomefamilies c u r r e n ~ y doubled-upin overcrowded apartments.Three thousand apartmentswill come from the city' sDepartment of HousingPreservation and Development(HPD) and 2,700 will come

from the housing authority.The policy aims to reduce thenumber of homeless familiesenteril!9 the city's shelter system.City officials r e c e n ~ y announcedthat they could not meet a courtorder to close down the welfarehotels because of an inAux offamilies into the city's sheltersystem.

lilt was felt that we had to

take the best units we had and

put them in alternative pathways so it would act as an

incentive for doubled-up peoplenot to come into the shelter

system," says Nancy Wackstein,director of the Mayor's Officefor Homeless and SRO Housing.

Homeless and housingadvocates have lobbied citygovernment for years to makedoubled-up families eligible forapartments set aside for homeless families . But they say thenew policy meets the needs ofthese families at the expense offamilies al ready in the sheltersystem.

lilt's important that the

government is recognizing the

needs of homeless families whoare doubled-up, but the waythis is being implemented isbackwards and a seriousmistake," says Steven Banks,director of the Homeless FamilyRights Project. lilt pits the twoneediest groups against eachother instead of reallocatinghousing units from a lessdesperate segment of thepopulation ."

Wackstein from the mayor'soffice says housing units now setaside for moderate and middle

4jDECEMBER 1990/CITY UMITS

income families could not be

reallocated for doubled-upfamilies because this wouldrequire deeper subsidies fromthe city. lilt would cost the citymore money and this is a timewhen there is no more money

available to make thesebuildings work," she says.

The HPD apartments beingreallocated to doubled-upfamilies will come from programs that are known forproviding high-quality, newlyrenovated apartments : theSpecial Initiatives Program, theConstruction ManagementProgram, the local InitiativesSupport Corporation and

Enterprise. This means that theprimary housing optionavailable for families in the

shelter system will be lowerquality apartments centrallymanaged by the Department ofHousing Preservation and

Development. And families in

hotels will now have to wait at

least nine months beforebecoming eligible for an

apartment.''The real horror is that by

taking away the good, gutrehabilitated units an d givingthem to doubled-up families,you're creating a two-tiersystem," adds Rose Anello,coordinator of the Emergency

Alliance for Homeless Families.''You're sending a message thatshelter families are seconaclass."

Carol lamberg, executivedirector of Settlement HousingFund, which is sponsoring aConstruction ManagementProgram development in theBronx, says, ''This makes mecrazed. You don't want tostigmatize the shelter families-

they deserve a break, too.They're not suddenly bad

people. It would be better to

take some doubled-up familiesand some shelter families aswei . I

The "alternative pathways"policy is intended to reduce thenumber of families entering theshelter system. Despite courtorders to stop using welfarehotels to provide snelter by thissummer, the city r e c e n ~ y announced that an inAux of

homeless families into the sheltersystem prevents officials fromclosing down the hotels . Cityofficials say they interpret the

inAux of families as a responseto the large numbers ofaffordable afXIrtments beingprovided for families from theshelter system.

Many advocates decry thecity's interpretation, saying it

blames homeless families torentering the system rather thanfocusing on the brooderproblem of limited affordablehousing. ''The city's approoch is

to divert families from the sheltersystem rather than develop acomprehensive plan to addressthe underlying causes of thecrisis," says Banks from theHomeless Family Rights Project.

Responding to this criticism,Wackstein says the city has tobe pragmatic: ''There's notenough housing to go around

so the question is how do youallocate it." Referring to theway the new policy dividesfamilies from the shelter systemagainst those that are doubledup, she says, lilt's quite disturbing to me, but we are in an

emergency situation. We are

violating a scad of court orders.We felt we had to take the mostdramatic action to get a handleon the shelter system.... ts socialengineering at its worst." 0Us a Glazer

BANKS' REPORTCARD

The city's Department ofFinance r e c e n ~ y released theirfirst report card of bankperformance in low incomecommunities. The financedepartment will use theinformation to help determinewhich banks should receive citydeposits .

"0ur gool is access to

capital and access to bankingservices for all New Yorkers,"says Finance CommissionerCarol O'Cleireacain. ''We wantto tear down artificial barriersseparating people from thecredit they need to buy homes,build business and help livemeaningfullives."

Among the big banks thatthe city rated, Chemical Bankreceived top ratings and

Bankers Trust was at the battomof the class. The other banks inthe top five were Citibank,

Manufacturers Hanover, ChaseManhattan and RepublicNational. For medium-sizedbanks, the highest rating went toNorstar Bank and Key Bankreceived the lowest rating .

O'Cleireacain noted that

Bankers Trust scored poorlybecause it is not a retail bankand Key Bank has no New York

City branches, but is still vyingfor New York City business.

The community banking

ratings account for ur to 10

percent of the overal score abank receives when it competesto provide banking services to aNew York City agency. Withoutsubmitting to a communitybanking rating, a bank is noteligible to bid on any citybanking contract, which can

mean millions of dollars indeposits.The ratings are based on

information such as how manybranches a bank has in lowincome neighbarhoods; thenumber of mortgages and loonsthey offer in low income areas;the extent of bi-lingual servicesthey provide; and types ofbanking services offered topeople on public assistance.

"For the first time the city istaking advantage of its powerand it's identifying which banksare really meeting communityneeds," says Madeline Marquez, a loon packager from theEast Harlem CommunityCoolition for Fair Banking .

Jean Vernet, a communityreinvestment advocate at theCommunity Service Society,adds, "Hopefully this willencourage banks to stay in lowincome communities becausethey know that if they wantaccess to city business they haveto work with communities. Thepolicy won't solve all theproblems but it's a step in the

right direction ." 0 Usa Glazer

OIL UP

The drastic increase in thecost of home heating oil is

taking its toll across the city and

a growing number of NewYorkers are joining fuel

cooperatives as a way to beat

the price rises.



By Billy Allstetter

Uptown InspirationA tenacious advocate for housing and health care,Thomas Granger cajoles, persists ..and inspires.

Thomas Granger thought conditions at 544 W. 157th Street

would finally improve whenNew York City took posession

of the apartment building. But the

city, swamped by a flood of buildingseizures , turned out to be

little better than previous

owners against whomGranger had organized tworent strikes . Not only didth e city fail to make repairs,bu t Granger believed offi-cials were making unrealis

ti c demands on tenantstrying to manage their ownbuilding.

"We said , 'To hell withyou , we ' ll go on strikeagainst you, too, " saysGranger in his gravellyvoice. He chuckles, relishing a battle from the 1970s.

But when a rent strikedidn ' t get him what hewanted, Granger took his

battle public. He borroweda campaign bus from State

Sen. Joseph Galiber an d

drove it through the streetsof Washington Heightsbroadcasting his message

over loudspeakers.

ation he has listened , cajoled , ex-ploded, persisted or inspired peopleto help him and themselves. The so nof a Methodist minister and a ruralschoolteacher, Granger has always

believed that the fair deal comes to

"You can fight City Hall,"Granger told his neighbors,

and urged them to organize

their own rent strikes. Justto make sure City Hall g9t

the message , he staged asit-in at former housingcommissioner William ThomasGranpr. "You can fight City Hall ."

Eimicke's office."W e were creating

enough noise, the city gave us an in terim lease. We instigated the [ten-ant] interim lease program," saysGranger, referring to the program

where tenants in city-owned property manage and eventually purchasetheir buildings.

Mixing Strategies

But Thomas Granger knows howto do more than make noise. In 20years of fighting for better housingand health care, he has mixed hi sstrategies; depending upon the situ-

6/DECEMBER 1990jCITY UMITS

people who help themselves. Andblessed with seemingly unlimitedenergy, the 80-year-old former tran

si t manager continues to plow ahead,

taking on any project that comes hi sway.

"He 's a real leader ," says JeanieDubnau, fellow board member of theRiverside-Edgecome NeighborhoodAssociation (RENA). "He's charis

matic, well organized, an d well re-spected by the tenants."

Meeting him and listening to hi mtalk, one would guess Thomas

Granger is closer to 50 than 80. Theforce of life seems to ru n stronger insome people, and he is one of them.

SolidIy built and light skinned for an

African-American, he wears ·a goldlion pendant in honor of hi s astro-logical sign, Leo. (He stands, spreads

hi s arms , an d roars when asked whata Leo is like.)Long before hi s days of housing

and health care activism, Grangerspent almost 30 years desegregating

the Manhattan an d Bronx Surface

Transportation Authority, a subsidi-

ary of the MetropolitanTransit Authority. After be-coming the first black busdriver in the Transit Work-ers Union, he moved to the

personnel department, amember ofthe first group ofminorities promoted to

management."I was determined to turn

it from a lilly-white officeto an integrated office ," saysGranger. He went into thecommunity, scouring his

own neighborhood for

promising young people. Heconvinced a local delivery

boy to apply for a bus driv-ing job that, years later, ledto a management position.

Sonia Maisonent, now amanager for the Bronx Sur-face transit , remembers how

he helped he r get a secondshot at a typing test becausehe had faith in he r abilities

an d her aspirations.

"He gave people oppor

tunities," says Maisonent.

"He was an excellent [role]o model. He was fair bu t he

was strong. He was kind oflike a strict father."

A warning sign hangs inhis home office-"Lack ofplanning on your partdoesn't constitute an emer-

gency on my part. " In addition tomanaging the tenants association ou t

of hi s office, he serves as a notary

public, tax accountant and phoneservice for a contractor he convincedto become his ow n boss.

Humorous Side

But the strict father has a humorous side as well. The walls of hi s

office are covered with pictures ofanimals in various stages of recline,urging everyone to "Hang Loose" an d"Relax . " Favorite cartoons are



clipped and taped to the wall. Heanswers the phone with a businesslike, "Granger," bu t frequently slipsinto a friendly banter.

After almost 30 years with thetransit authority, including 12 as thehead of personnel, he retired on New

Year's Day 1976.By then, however,

In 1979 he was encouraged to applyfor the Presbyterian Hospital Community Health Council, then forming as a liaison between the commu

nity and the hospital . At his inter

view for the position, he statedbluntly, "I got a gripe with this hos-

pital. I want to dosomething to

search. "He makes it his business toknow more," says Farrow. "He willmake it his own [issue]."

his formerly"beautiful neighborhood" wasdeteriorating and

being abandonedby landlords. Hisown building wassuffering at th ehands of an inattentive owner ,with the elevator,heat and hot

water availableonly intermit-

The force of lifeimprove the situation."

Inevitably, however, victories areinterspersed with bitter losses.Granger mentions two people whosuffered heart attacks after fightsagainst landlords and city bureaucracy. After a moment of apparentdespair, he returns to his "can-do"

self. "The secret is don't keep thattension inside," says Granger. "Letit out. Let it explode ."

And he has.

seems to run

stronger in some

people, and

Thomas Granger

is one of them.

Today he proudlyrecites a list ofa c comp l i s h -ments, including

shorter emergency room waiting time, a commitment to oneclass care, on-staff

interpreters an d a

An d savor the personal rewards.Boarding a bus recently, Granger wasrecognized by the driver whom hehad hired many years before. Theman laughed while reminiscing aboutthe difficult taskmaster Granger ha dbeen. Then he thanked Granger forthe prodding that kept him at the job

and allowed him to pu t two childrenthrough college. More than 100people from all facets of Granger'slife recently attended a surprise 80thbirthday party.

tently. With timeon his hands, an da problem in front of him, he decidedto do something about it. He becameinvolved with RENA an d organizedtenants into a rent strike against the

landlord. A second landlord boughtthe buildingbu t proved no more interested in making repairs.

"He finally came here and sat inthis office an d told me he was goingto milk this building and leave," saysGranger. The man offered Granger a

kickback if he would stop organizingthe tenants an d le t the building ru ndown. But Granger refused. "Thatwasn't what I was ou t to do. I f I wasthat kind of person in personnel, Icould have been rich." Granger organized a second rent strike, andlater helped the tenants buy thebuilding from the city.

Broad EffortsAs tenants, community activists

and others recognized his ability toinspire people and get things done,they naturally came to him for help .He broadened his efforts from hisow n building to Washington Heights

to th e rest of the city. While continuing to be manager an d treasurer ofhis building, he became a boardmember of RENA, the MetropolitanCouncil on Housing, th e Urban

Homesteading Assistance Board(UHAB) and was a founding boardmember of the Self-Help Works

Consumer Cooperative, which offersmembers use of a credit union aswell as low-cost insurance, legal and

architectural services.

Medicaid officefor out-patients.The council re-

cently rewrote its bylaws, allowinghim to remain as chairman.

"He's an honest and fair gentleman who represents his communityactively and aggressively ye t heunderstands the restraints on themedical community," says Thomas

Q. Morris, president of ColumbiaPresbyterian Hospital. "He's a vigorous proponent for those people an dissues he believes in."

While he is a powerful advocatefor several groups, he refuses to betheir dogmatic mouthpiece, adds LeeFarrow, UHAB's director of cooperative management services. Someonemay brief him on an issue, bu t heusually adds to that with his own re-

"I get my paybacks." he says. 0

Billy Allstetter is a freelance writerliving in New York.

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CITY UMITS/DECEMBER 1990/7



IS NEW YORK'S TRANSIT

OFF T CK?The Transit Authority depicts its subways and buses

as a rolling melting pot. Service cuts are diluting the brew.

BY MARGARET MITTELBACH

Oa typical Thursday night, it's standing-room

only on the gleaming ne w silver cars of the #2

train coming into Manhattan from the Bronx.Air-conditioned an d grafitti-free, it comes to asmooth stop-and sits there, right in the middle

of the dark tube between stations. As the unexplaineddelay lengthens from five minutes to 15 minutes, ayoung man growls a sentiment that starts a dozen headsnodding grimly: "If I see one of those, we're-comingback-so-you-come-back signs, I'm going to tear it downand rip it apart."

I f subway officials thought they could endear themselves to riders with their current $2.1 million advertising campaign, "The Subway. We're Coming Back. SoYou Come Back," they should have thought again.

Despite the much-touted improvements to the city's43 1 miles of subway tracks, the 1,775 new subway carsan d the expensive advertising campaigns designed toattract upscale riders, the total number of fares collectedin 1990 is down six percent compared to 1989. Andwhile transportation officials blame fare-beating an d theslump in the economy for this unexpected downturn,subway critics have a simpler answer: Riders are fed upwith service that has no t improved as much as the city'sTransit Authority (TA) would like them to believe, thatcosts commuters 15 percent more than last year an d thatgets even worse the farther they get from Wall Street an d

City Hall.Although T A officials like to depict the subway asegalitarian, a moving melting pot that serves rich an dpoor alike, in fact, as the TA faces a deepening financialcrisis, transportation critics suspect it will be the peoplewho rely on public transportation the most-lower income, long-distance commuters-who will feel the bruntof the cutbacks. "At the Transit Authority," says JoeRappaport ofthe Straphangers Campaign, "the customeralways comes last."

Service Cuts

With a $100 million deficit this year and an estimated$200 million deficit for 1991, the TA has already carvedback rush-hour and late-night service on numerous sub-

S/DECEMBER 1990/CITY UMITS

way lines, including the A, B, F, J, Q and R, all lines onwhich service is already considered inadequate. Worse,unless the financial situation at th e Transit Authoritydrastically improves, bu s an d subway riders can expectmore service cuts, another fare hike by the end of 1991

an d the possibility of station closings.Transit Authority officials admit such cutbacks are

possible, but they insist cuts will no t unfairly affect anyparticular group or neighborhood. "When we look to cu tservice, we're no t doing it for any other reason bu t tobalance the budget ," says Bob Previdi, a TA spokesperson. "Decisions are based on the level of ridership. We'reno t out to screw anybody."

Such ridership-based judgments can be something ofa self-fulfilling prophecy. Deny a station regular maintenance, cu t back service on a subway line or bus route andyou're bound to lose ridership. Then the T A can sharpenit s budget ax, which never seems to fall on areas like theUpper East Side.

One example of where it may fall is the FranklinAvenue shuttle, a historic five-stop transportation linkrunning through Bedford-Stuyvesant an d CrownHeights,connecting the A an d C to the IRT to the D an d Q. While

th e T A has literally spent billions of dollars rehabilitating other lines, it recently approved a $1.7 millioncontract to conduct a study that will consider the complete demolition of he FranklinAvenue line. The shuttleand it s station stops have been left to go to seed.

In fact, the Franklin Avenue shuttle-the one subway

line that does no t ru n through a single affluent neighborhood-is also the only line that has been completelyneglected by the TA's station improvement program.While other stations have been cleansed of graffiti, repainted or completely rebuilt with an eye towards protecting their historic details, the shuttle stops remainuninviting and vandal-scarred, unscheduled for eventhe most basic improvements.

"No doubt some stations are getting the goods an dsome aren't," says Rappaport. "The TA would argue thatthey're being scientific about it, bu t that science meanspoor people are the ones who suffer."

Transit Authority officials would like riders to believe that all communities served by the subway havebenefited equally from the massive, on-going $1 0 billion



Losing Patience: The total number of fares collected in 1990 is down six percent compared to 1989.

capital improvement program. They assert that since th ewidely hailed new cars-the most obvious element ofthe subway improvements-pass through rich and poorneighborhoods alike, the program's money is distrib

uted to different areas of the city without bias.But anyone who rides the subways any distance into

the Bronx, Brooklyn or Queens knows it just isn't so.While the people at the Franklin Street stop in TriBeCaenjoy the benefits of newly laid, peach-colored terrazzo

tiling, passengers at Beverley Road in Flatbush duringthe afternoon rush must wait in line for more than fiveminutes just to get off the platform. Despite a populationexplosion in the area, there is still only one lone turnstilethrough which hundreds of passengers must exit.

Perhaps it is imbalances such as these that have ledsome riders to abandon th e subway an d the TA's fiscalwoes. As one Brooklyn transportation advocate puts it,"People ou t here just don't trust the T A anymore ."

Manhattan Bias

A look at the TA's own data on the progress of thestation restorations program shows no t only serious financial disarray but a strong bias toward Manhattanstation projects. Even in terms of the most basic stationmaintenance-repainting, removing grafitti-progressha s lagged far behind in the outer boroughs.

Specifically, while 41 percent ofthe stations in Manhattan have been either upgraded, restored, modernizedor slated for such improvements, only 28 percent of thestations in Queens, 24 percent in Brooklyn and 18

percent in the Bronx have been awarded similar treatment.

Further, while every single one ofthe 146 stations inManhattan have been scheduled for an improved clean

ing program, only 72 percent of the stations in the Bronx,60 percent in Brooklyn an d 56 percent in Queens havebeen deemed worthy of similar efforts.

While T A official s admit th e station improvement

program has focused its attention predominantly onManhattan, they contend the improvements have beenallotted fairly. "We try to figure where we can get the

most bang for our buck. Eighty-five percent of our ridersstart or end their trips between 86th Street an d theBattery, river to river. These stations are also the mostbeat up," says the TA's Previdi. "Critics of the T A don'ttake into account that we're a public agency an d we onlyhave so much money. We're no t playing favorites here."

But critics contend that anecdotal evidence of stationneglect in the outer boroughs belies the TA's approach.The most glaring example: the continued closure of th eIntervale Station in the South Bronx.

Last March, subway bandits torched the token booth




at the Intervale stop, and the resulting conflagration

damaged the elevated station so badly that it ha d to beclosed. Rather than making a commitment to quicklyrepair the station, which sits on the heavily used #2 an d#5 subway lines, the TA came ou t with a widely suspect

plan t h a ~ would have kept the station closed for fiveyears an d cost more pe r square foot to reconstruct thanit cost to build Trump Tower.

Only after intense community pressure was broughtto bear did the T A agree to revise its plan, promising tocomplete the restoration within two-and-a-half years at

the significantly lower cost of $3.9 million.Meanwhile, the TA has managed to authorize spend

ing $417 million ou t ofits five-year capital budget an d$55.5 million out of its 1990 operating budget on predominantly cosmetic improvements to other stations.

Similarly , at the Nevins Street station , a major trans

fer point on the 2, 3, 4 and 5 lines in downtown Brooklyn,maintenance has been so poor and poorly planned thatthe ceiling over the station 's mezzanine was on the vergeof collapsing in September. Because the situation re

quired emergency repairs and the closing of th e twotraffic lanes overhead on Flatbush Avenue, the TA recommended closing the Nevins stop for a year-and-ahalf-even though the station handles 15,000 to 20,000passengers pe r day. Again, community pressure wasneeded to convince the T A to only close one track at atime.

"We almost ha d FlatbushAvenue down on the subwaytracks," says Pat Smith, aspokesman for Brooklyn Borough President HowardGolden. "In a report we pre

sented in February, we toldthe TA that the Nevins sta

tion ha d such severe physical problems that it posed animminent threat to thestation's survival. But theykept putting it off. This was aclassic case of crisis management."

Wall Street to Macy's

fewer are happy paying the new $1.15 fare.How the T A will deal with the current fiscal crisis is

still unclear. But a look at ho w they have allotted money

in the past does not bode well for commuters in lowerincome neighborhoods.

During recent years, the Transit Authority has adoptedthe Orwellian slogan: "Less Is More." The idea is thatfewer people, fewer buses an d fewer trains ca n actually

provide better service. Although in some cases this maybe true-via better scheduling and better managementmore often than no t , less is exactly what it sounds like.

This is most glaringly true in the case of the city's alltoo-forgotten bus fleet. In revising the routes an d cuttingback on the number of bus drivers , the T A has succeeded

not in streamlining service but in simply eliminating 10percent of the city 's buses. Many of the buses servedneighborhoods in the outer boroughs that the subwaydoes no t reach, such as Soundview in the Bronx, southwestern Queens and East Flatbush in Brooklyn.

Although the T A claims to have improved bus service , riders and transportation analysts say service has

steadily declined in quality since the capital improvements program went into effect. Today, buses may be

newer and cleaner than they were five years ago ,bu t theyare also more crowded and fewer an d farther between.

"The community'S saying there is no way they shouldride like cattle," says Lee Brown, the Brooklyn commu-

The Transit Authority seesnothing misguided about it s

Manhattan-centric ads suchas "Wall Street to Macy 's. 7Minutes" or its self-promoting spots on television featuring two elderly womendiscussing why ridersshouldn't really mind put

ting up with delays causedby track work. With everything that goes on in the subways-shootings, stabbings,

muggings, not to mention

Manhattan Bias: This Franklin Street station in TriBeCa has peach-colored terrazzo tiling. The FranklinAvenue station in Crown Heights remains uninviting and vandal-scarred.

major delays-the TA's ads have been likened to advertisements for sour milk. No one's buying.

In spite of the shiny new trains, highly publicized efforts to boot the homeless ou t of subway cars an d stations an d fancy renovations of selected Manhattan stations, a lot fewer New Yorkers are happy riding. Even

10jDECEMBER 1990jCITY UMITS

nity liaison to the Transit Workers Union. "That's whythey're taking alternative transportation."

Although the T A regularly rates an d reports the ontime performance of its subway lines, the agency has

never gone on the record with on-time performance forany of its 200-odd bus lines. Recent reports from the



since so many people ridethe vans it looks like we'vegot less ridership than weactually do. That means lesservice. It's a vicious cycle."

To make matters worse

in communities that mus

rely on sometimes irregulabus service to take commuters to the subways, ridersmust pay twice since there isno free transfer between thebus and subway systemsRather than working to eliminate what are known as"double-fare zones," the TA

has recently created more othem: In January, the TA

eliminated free bus-to-sub

way transfers at eight of 10

stations where they had pre

viously been available, cit-15 ing fraud an d abuse of the

paper transfers as the reason=:; Although the T A has ef

fectively eliminated fareabuse at these eight oute

« borough transfer points,Joe Rappaport, straphangers Campaign: "Poor people are the ones who suf fer." commuters on these lines

were each forced to pay anestimated $575 more just to

MTA's Inspector General's office, however, paint a bleakpicture of the bu s system's reliability.

Reviewing the quality of midday service for selectedbus lines in Brooklyn, the Inspector General foundservice to "of poor quality overall" with "high levels of

service irregularity." Similarly, in a report on middayservice for selected lines in the Bronx, the report notedthat on some lines, irregular service led to a high numberof overcrowded buses, with half-hour-long waits at busstops not unusual, even on the most heavily traveled

lines.

Real TimeThe T A has also found some creative ways for making

its buses appear to run on schedule. Fo r example, whenon-time performance proved poor for the Bx30 buslinein the Bronx (taking passengers from subway-less Co-opCity to the 205th Street IND terminal), the T A simplyincreased th e official "headway"- the term used for th etime passengers are expected to wait between buses

Rather than increase service, they increased the officialwaiting time between buses from 16 minutes to 20minutes. Magically, th e bus isn't "late" anymore.

Marooned would-be bus riders in many areas of thecity not served by the subway no w have the option ofriding illegal, uninsured gypsy vans that crowd city busstops and, incidentally, still charge only a dollar. Transit

advocates, however, say that the vans will only causebigger headaches for commuters as the TA contemplatesmore service cuts.

"The gypsy vans are there because bus service ispoor," says Desiree Cumberbatch, chair of BrooklynCommunity Board 17's Transportation Committee."Unfortunately, bus service is based on ridership. And

get to work this year.While the Transit Authority is quick to hike costs to

commuters or cu t services, many transit-watchers advocate that T A officials try taking a bite ou t of their ownhides. According to a report on T A staffing produced by

State Sen. Franz Leichter, between 1984 an d 1989, th enumber of vice-presidents within the T A rose from 28 to63, the number of managers making more than $100,000a year rose from 7 to 25, an d th e number of managers

making more than $50,000 a year rose from 108 to 2,500.Despite this dramatic growth in management, service

failed to impr0ve. Overall on-time performance for th e

subway system (based on the TA's ow n internal, unpublished time schedules) actually fell from 83 percent inJune 1984 to 81 percent in June 1989. Similarly, thenumber of trains taken out of service in 1985 averaged

159 pe r day, and by May 1989 the daily average was still158 pe r day.

As for the bus system, improvements are even moreillusory. Despite increased levels of managerial staffingand hundreds of ne w buses provided through the capitaimprovement program, New York City still has one ofthe worst bus fleets in the country, with New York Citybuses more likely to break down than the buses in any o15 major cities that Leichter's office surveyed.

Despite limping buses, increased fares and reducedservices, the T A never needed to woo the work-a-day

commuters from neighborhoods like Sunset Park orMarble Hill with a we're-coming-back-so-you-come-backad campaign. These commuters couldn't afford to hail acab or a limo instead of taking the IRT. Ironically, it'sthese very same riders who may need to launch theirown campaign to bring the Transit Authority back tothem. 0

CITY UMnS/DECEMBER 1990/11



Questionable BenefitsWelfare is now a contract-many single mothers will have to work or train toreceive their welfare check. Will they benefit from the changes?

Eva Feliciano: "Every day is a battle. "

BY MARY KEEFE

va Feliciano sits with 23 other women in a class using newspapers tobuild reading comprehension and vocabulary. When she's askedabout herself, she leans back, he r face lights up and she tells a difficultstory with a surprising lack of bitterness. Speaking in a calm, direct

manner, the tall, dark-haired 26-year-old describes the last three years of

he r life: how he r marriage broke up , how she applied for welfare , lived withrelatives when she couldn't afford an apartment and then became homeless,

living with her three young children at the Prince George Hotel for nearlya year.

12/DECEMBER 1990/CITY UMITS

Life has improved somewhat sincethen. Now the family has an apartment in Washington Heights, th e

children are enrolled in city-run daycare an d Feliciano has volunteeredto participate in a comprehensivejob-training program. She wants towork at a job where she ca n makeenough money so she and her kidsdon't riskbeinghomeless again. "You

are anxious to do so many things bu tyou don't know where to begin," she

says. "You just have to take one stepat a time."

Feliciano is one of thousands ofwelfare recipients who are no wworking or training as part of welfarereform, an d every step ofthe transition is difficult. In Feliciano's case,the demands can be overwhelming:parenting three children under theage of six, living on an income wellbelow the poverty level, dealing withthe constant demands of the welfarebureaucracy an d trying to catch up

with a basic education. "I try to keepa positive side up but it is a hard fightto keep going," she notes. "Everyday is a battle."

Welfare reform is now underwayacross the country an d Feliciano isn'tthe only person battling to keep up

with the program. Under the old system, unemployed single women withchildren were automatically entitledto government assistance. Now manyof these women will have to provethat they're deserving by putting inffi 20 hours a week in job preparation,

it! vocational education or work pro-grams-and if they fail to meet this

stipulation, they risk losing theirbenefits.

In this brave ne w world, welfare isseen as a contract: government provides training, child care an d welfare money and poor women areexpected to participate in trainingprograms and then move on to jobsand out of poverty.

Holes in the Contract

Unfortunately, there are somesizable holes in the "contract." Less



than half of the city's welfare mothers have a high school

degree, bu t job training and education programs arebeing funded from austerity budgets, an d most will

provide only superficial assistance. Once women receivetraining, they're entering an extremely tight job market.The few who do land a job are hardly rewarded: the mini

mum wage rarely covers the rent in New York City andwelfare reform only provides much-needed child care and Medicaid for

participate or are assigned to the program. In New YorkCity, women with children under the age of six areexcluded from mandatory participation in the program,

but this will soon be changed and only women with

children under the age of three will be excluded. About

270,000 New Yorkers receive AFDC and within five

years, 20 percent ofal l eligible recipients are expected totake part.The road towards welfare reform

up to a year after someone gets a job."It's a contract I would never sign

an d no lawyer would ever recommend," says Mimi Abramovitz, aprofessor of social work at HunterCollege an d the author of "Regulating

the Lives of Women," a book aboutwelfare.

"Welfare reformhas been lengthy an d marked by ideo

logical battles. Passed during thetwilight months of the Reagan administration, the Family Support Act

of 1988 requires states to change theway welfare works in an attempt toencourage self-sufficiency. The federallaw sets the broad outlin e of the

ne w system, leaving the details toindividual states. In the New YorkState legislature, politicians wrangled

for18 months before finally passing

abill last July.

does not address

the fundamental

No matter how hard individualwomen like Eva Feliciano try to trans

form their lives, broader realities will

limit their progress. Welfare rightsadvocates say that the majority of

welfare reform participants are likelyto remain on the welfare rolls, end-

problem, which is

that grant levels

are way too low."In New York City, the Human Re

sources Administration (HRA) is

overseeing most ofthe changes undera program known as BEGIN, which stands for Begin Employment/Gain Independence. All told, federal, stateand local governments have provided HRA with a mere

$15 million for the implementation of BEGIN. The

agency has run a number of welfare-to-workprograms inrecent years, but none on the same scale as BEGIN.

lessly repeating training, work or jobsearch programs so they can keep receiving benefits.And women who get jobs may lose them once their childcare an d Medicaid is taken away. "When women end upback on welfare, the women will be blamed," says

Abramovitz. "It acts as a kind of a set-up."

"I resent that we call this welfare reform," adds LizKrueger, a welfare advocate for the Community Foodand Resource Center. "We took a system of incomesupport that wasn't working and we put a bunch of

layers on top it. It's just another layer of bureaucratic

requirements."Timothy Casey from the Center for Law and Social

Policy adds that for al l the hullabaloo surrounding thechanges, the most important revisions have been overlooked. "Welfare reform does not address the fundamenta l problem, which is that grant levels are way too low,

way below the poverty level," he says. "The cash grant

alone is 65 percent of poverty level. Over the last 10 or

15 years, there's been roughly a 30 to 35 percent reduc

tion in the [total] welfare grant."

Casey argues that welfare reform doesn't change thecurrent system in any kind of dramatic way and thestatus quo will basically remain. "I think many people

have been misled into believing that the new work

program rules are going to have a dramatic impact on thesize of the welfare rolls," he says. "Based on al l theavailable studies that is not going to happen. Even if one

makes the most optimistic assumptions, we are talking

about modest changes. Already we don't guarantee a jobto al l those wh o want one, and we don't guarantee aliving income to those who get one. You're ou t thereworking and still taking care of your kid, doing all thisstuff and you still end up poor. You're working two part

time jobs and you still end up poor. That makes nosense."

Who Is AffectedThe government's main welfare grant is Aid to Fami

lies with Dependent Children (AFDC) and welfare reform will affect al l AFDC recipients who volunteer to

Changing Attitudes

The changes mandated by welfare reform are theresult of a gradual shift in the nation's attitude towards

the poor. Forcing welfare recipients to work or train inorder to receive benefits implies an acceptance of thenotion that poverty is the result of an individuals'failings and those individuals must "prove themselves"before being deemed worthy of assistance. This approach ignores the larger workings of an economic system that demands a large group of unemployed or underemployed people as a buffer against increased wagedemands from employed workers. It also assumes thatthe economic system treats all individuals equally, regardless oftheir gender, race or class. But this assumption is challenged by the facts: 97 percent of AFDCrecipients are women, an d in New York, the overwhelm

ing majority are black and Latino. Additionally, many

women and people of color have historically been relegated to jobs with poverty-level wages.

In the 1960s, there was a brief surge of welfare-rightsactivism, with women on welfare demanding increasedbenefits and better services. But most of the debate about

welfare in the past decade has been framed by conservative ideologues and liberal social service providers whoadvocate on behalf of the poor. Without direct inputfrom women on welfare, the framework ofthe debate hasbeen extremely limited.

"A lot of people who didn't know about welfare have

been making social welfare policy," says Theresa Funi

ciello, a former welfare recipient who is co-director of

Social Agenda, a private consulting agency. Pointing

much ofthe blame for welfare reform's failings at socialservice providers, she adds, "In my view, recipients




were sabotaged bythe institutionsthat were supposed to servetheir interests.Socia l -service

providers neverframed the debatearound there notbeing enoughmoney in welfare

[payments]. Fo rthem, the questionwas how muchmoney therewould be in thesocial welfarepot." She contin

ues, "These workprograms don'tproduce jobs andmoney for welfarerec ip ien t s -but

they do producemoney for institu

tions. And they

Back to School: Welfare recipients at a comprehensive training program run by the FederationEmployment and Guidance Services. Only the lucky few get to attend such programs .

welfare reformand to encourage

recipients to voluntarily take part.But to meet thefederally man

dated levels ofpar t i c ipa t ion ,

thousands ofwomen will beforced to join eachyear. In the firstyear alone, 53,000

welfare recipientswill be sent letters

informing themthat they're obligated to participate in the reformprogram. (HRA officials admit that

only about a thirdof these womenmay actually windup joining BE-

produce another layer ofthe bureaucracy that can lobbyfor it's own continuation."

Crippling LimitationsDespite these crippling limitations, welfare reform

may actually improve some women's lives if the city

provides decent day care, a few good training programs

and if the administrative changes are handled withoutsevere punitive measures being taken. The extent to

which this occurs is mostly up to HRA. The overburdened agency runs the city's shelter system, foster careand numerous other services and does not have a repu

tation for efficiency or compassion. But ne w commis

sioner Barbara Sabol inspires a degree of optimism:

Advocates say she's open to suggestions, aware of theproblems that plague welfare reform and sympathetic tothe plight of the poor. Still, a ready ear and an open mindmay not be enough to implement the raft of changes demanded by welfare reform.

Catherine Zall, who heads HRA's Office of Employ

ment Services (DES), is responsible for overseeing much

of BEGIN. She's an upbeat, take-charge former management consultant for Arthur Young and Co. who likes to

minimiz e complications and focus on possibilities. "Theimportant years are now as we develop the programs,"she says. "If we're no t careful we will lose the opportunity."

Despite this enthusiastic approach, welfare reform isalready set up as a numbers game where the city isconsumed by the need to meet federal requirements-orlose federal funds. By the end of the first year, sevenpercent of those eligible must be putting in their 20

hours a week and by 1994 federal rules require 20

percent of hose eligible to be participating. Zall estimatesthat a full 60 percent of those eligible will be sweptthrough the system to reach that rate. I f the city fallsbehind, federal funding for AFDC, which comprisesthree-fifths of the state's welfare grant, will be cut.

The city has pledged to do extensive outreach about

14jDECEMBER 1990jCrTY UMITS

GIN.) With so

many people being called in, huge amounts of moneywill be spent just to process and keep track of the pro

gram participants.And while massive implementation of welfare reform

may look good on paper, it's bound to create confusionat the ground level. Welfare is administered through 39site offices staffed by thousands of caseworkers-eachwith an average of 160 cases. BEGIN participants willhave to keep reporting to their regular caseworkers an d

also visit newly created BEGIN centers. At the BEGINcenters they'll file applications for training-relatedexpenses like carfare and lunch and also list requests formoney for day care. But so far there are only four BEGINcenters in the city-two in the Bronx and two inManhattan-and only three more are in the pipeline.BEGIN employees may be just as overworked as theagency's welfare caseworkers.

In the past two decades, administrative changes in the

welfare system have led to large numbers of people being

cut from the welfare rolls, a process commonly known aschurning. Some advocates are fearful that requiring welfare recipients to participate in BEGIN may just be

another way to trip them up and cut them from the rolls

when they fail to turn up for training.But HRA officials say the agency is committed to

reducing the number of famillies churned from the welfare rolls by 75 percent and a ne w process for mediatingdisputes is now being implemented. I f t works it will be

a stark reversal of Koch-era policies where welfare-towork programs often saved more money by cutting offbenefits than by putting people to work.

Troubling Questions

Even if HRA manages to reduce the bureaucratichassles imposed by welfare reform, troubling questionsremain about th e job training and education portion ofthe effort. After a decade of drastic reductions, many of

(continued on page 16.)



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(continued from page 14.)

these programs are underfunded, understaffed and struggling to meet the demands of an extremely needy popu

lation.Advocates and policy analysts seem to agree that

comprehensive programs that provide a range of counseling, training and follow-up services under one umbrella are the best way to meet the needs of women withlimited educational backgrounds. But these programs

are also the most expensive to run-and they're extremely scarce.

From the very beginning, the training and education

process appears to be woefully inadequate. A woman onwelfare who has ha d little experience in the work worldmay have only a limited idea of what employable skills

she has. The BEGIN process probably won't help herfind out: Only 12 percent of BEGIN participants will gothrough in-depth career planning; the rest will have agroup orientation session, a brief personal interview and

be sent on their way.To meet the requirement of 20 hours of work or train

ing per week, women can head in two main directionsthey can take part in programs ru n by the Human Resources Administration or they ca n try to find programs

on their own, either through the city's Department ofEmployment (DOE), through the Board of Education'sadult learning programs or through one of numerous ofprivate, nonprofit or for-profit programs.

In the next year, HRA estimates that about 13,000women will be assigned to programs ru n within the

agency. These programs include English-language andliteracy classes, a work-study set-up where participantscombine work experience an d job-search training, an d aprogram called Job Club, which provides motivational

and work skills training combined with an actual jobhunt. None ofthese programs have a dazzling track record for leading people to jobs. The Job Clubs are arelative success story, bu t even there only 71 percent of

those enrolled actually finished and only 38 percent of

those that completed the program managed to find jobsthat averaged $6 dollars an hour-a wage that won't liftmost families above the poverty line. Only two-thirds ofthose who found work kept their jobs for longer than amonth.

Another 15,000 women are expected to enter pro

grams on their own-and those who finish HRA programs and don't have a job will depend on training and

education programs outside the agency to fill their 20

hours a week. There are large numbers of literacy,language, job training and education programs in thecity, bu t on the whole they are isolated and are struggling to provide the kind of comprehensive trainingrequired by the most needy.

Feeling the PressureThe city's Department of Employment is an obvious

place for welfare reform participants to look for trainingprograms, bu t DOE is feeling the pressure of poorly educated students and a scarce supply of jobs. Much of themoney for DOE training programs comes from the federal government, through the Job Training and Partner

ship Act OTPA), which funds Testing and Placement

(TAP) centers and short-term training programs at 40community-based organizations. In recent years , JTPA

16/DECEMBER 1990/CITY UMns

programs have been criticized for "creaming" the bes

students to meet federal requirements for job placementbut in th e past year there's been a policy shift and thstate no w requires public assistance recipients to mak

up 40 percent of those in the programs.Because of these changes, about 1,600 of the 4,00

people in DOE adult job-training programs this year wilbe public assistance recipients. And according to DOE'ow n estimates, only 39.4 percent of the welfare recipi

ents who finish training programs will have jobs 1weeks later, and they will earn an average of just $224 week.

TAP centers, which serve more than 20,000 peoplper year, are under even more pressure. The centers ara quick stop-they only provide brief interviews, information about jobs and referrals to training programsbut with welfare reform they will be expected to do morin-depth assessment and serve a more disadvantagepopulation, al l with the same or even smaller budget, according to Nora Wang, DOE's coordinator of adult pro

grams."What has happened agencywide is that the popula

tion we serve is needier and needier," surmises JuliErickson, assistant commissioner at DOE. "That ha

made it very difficult for us to ...train people and gethem jobs." What's needed , she says , is a broader rang

of services and more counseling as part of trainingprograms. But most DOE programs are in small organizations without those resources and-once again-there ino money for expansion.

Ironically, state legislators have sabotaged the chanceof some of the welfare recipients with the most potentiafor success. College degrees do get people off welfare. O

158 surveyed AFDC welfare recipients who finishedtwo- and four-year colleges in New York, 89 percen

have been employed since graduation and 87 percent aroff welfare, according to a March 1990 study by MarilyGittell , director of the Howard Samuels State Management and Policy Center at the City University of NewYork (CUNY) Graduate Center. There are about 5,00AFDC recipients studying at schools within the CUNYsystem, and it would seem like good policy to supporthem. But state legislators decided otherwise. Thoswho want to attend four-year colleges won't be eligiblfor child care and other expenses-nor will those in two

year programs that focus on liberal arts or pre-professionastudies.

Flawed Framework

In the final analysis, New York City's implementationof welfare reform amounts to an attempt to make the besof a bad situation. As Krueger puts it, "When I thinkabout the broader picture, I say we're starting off withseriously flawed federal legislation. It makes the wron

assumptions about why people are poor and who poopeople are. I t doesn't look at the labor market, it doesn'address the minimum wage or required health benefits . .idoesn't look at the issues broadly enough and it draws onthe myth that people don't want to work."

Still, she adds, "There are some good things thacould come ou t ofthis. I f New York City does this righ

they can say we didn't hurt anybody in the process. Andthey can start some smaller pilot projects that could

work. .but they have to stretch the rules because they'rno t good rules." D



v

By David Hatchett

Minding the StoreBlacks still don't have a cut of the city's business pie.

On Church Avenue in Flatbush,African Americans have led amuch-publicized boycottagainst two Korean-owned gro

cery stores. The boycott is about alleged mistreatment of black shoppersby the stores' owners. But for manyAfrican Americans, the boycott begsthe telling of anotherstory: the decades-oldquestion of why Africa n Americans don'town more of the busi

nesses in their neighborhoods.

store in Bedford Stuyvesant, saysAfrican-American shopkeepers oftenface a number of hurdles. Becausetheir stores are commonly in neighborhoods labeled high risk, where firesand robberies occur more frequentlythan other areas, wholesale distributors are reluctant to accept checks or

lend to black businesses because ofracism and conservati ve lending practices," says Lawrence King, programdirector of the West Harlem Community Organization.

Still, African Americans are not

the only group to face racism. Cubans,Vietnamese and Chinese are amongthose who have been able to overcome obstacles similar to those facedby black entrepreneurs and establishrelati vely strong community businessinfrastructures.

New York City's 1.7 million African Americans operated 25,256 busi

nesses in 1987, according to a recent U.S. Department ofCommercesurvey. The city'sKorean populati·on ,

which numbers just200,000 to 300,000,runs some 10,000 businesses, according toB.J. Sa, secretary general of the Korean Association of New York.

SuNam, former pres -

dent of the KoreanAmerican Business Association, says th eKorean formula for suc

(j ) cess is simple . Koreans come to the United

:3 States, work at menial§ jobs and save everyg hing they earn, often

Long before the civilrights legislation ofthe1960s, African Americans made inroads intothe city's business community. "Blacks at onetime owned lots ofbusiness in New YorkCity," says Walter Stafford, an urban planningprofessor at New YorkUniversity. In the 17th

and 18th centuries,

Stafford points out,African Americansdominated the city's

catering business. Justa small part of New

York City's population

'--_--'...=-'----':.......:.c.::::.;:..:...:....:.._---.:.-'---''-- ____________ -.Jg§ owning no other

Black Entet1Jrise: Will the next generation have a shot at owning a shop? clothes than the blue

jeans they wear towork. After several

in 1840, blacks owned a dry cleaningfirm, two dry good stores, a confectionery, two coal yards and two of the

better restaurants in the Manhattanfinancial district. African Americansowned real estate valued at $835,000in 1853.

Despite the end of slavery in 1865,

a host of legal and social barriersblocked the continued developmentof black businesses. In "How Capitalism Underdeveloped Black America,"Dr. Manning Marable writes that whitebankers were reluctant to make loansto African Americans and insurance

companies often refused to coverblack-owned businesses. Black business owners were also often prohibited from suing creditors in the courts.

Hurdles

Many of the same institutional

barriers remain today. Jitu Weusi, ablack activist who owns a health food

extend credit, says Weusi. He alsosays that utility companies frequentlydemand large cash deposits frombusinesses opening in predominantlyblack neighborhoods.

But perhaps the biggest hurdle issimply the access to capital. A June1988 study of 203 smal l businesses in

New York City by Interface, an independent research organization, foundthat private lenders approved a muchgreater percentage ofthe loan applications from whitebusiness owners thanfrom minority-owned firms. DavidGallagher of Interface says this is in

part because banks generally wantphysical assets that can be securedagainst the loan in case of default.Minority-owned businesses are oftenservice or retail firms with few such

assets.But these practical concerns may

mask other reasons for denying capital to blacks. "Banks will often not

years a family will pool its savings,along with $1,000 cont ributions froma circle ofrelatives and friends, to pull

together the $30,000 or so needed tostart a small business, says Nam.

But some experts say the Koreanmodel ofbusiness success won't workfor African Americans for a number of

reasons. Foremost, says Belozi Harvey, executive director of the ThirdWorld Trade Institute in Harlem,African Americans cannot match thefinancial or educational cloutofmanyof the new immigrants. In 1911,fewerthan two percent of the newly arriving immigrants to the United Statesclaimed to have managerial or technical skills, against 32 percent of thosearriving in 1986. One-third of theAsians in the United States have college degrees, against only 17 percentof whites and a much smaller percent

age of blacks. And recent changes inU.S. immigration policies are de-

CITY UMnS/DECEMBER 1990/17



signed to specifically bring more

wealthy an d highly skilled foreignersto our shores.

Market MattersBut one of the biggest barriers of all

may be one of the most basic of business issues: defining a market. A 1988National Priorities Report by the National Urban League notes that many

of the businesses newly arrivingimmigrants establish are specificallytargeted toward providing food, clothing, education and counseling services for their own communities .These

include travel agencies, which specialize in arranging travel accommodations back to their home countries;Hispanic grocery stores that stock foodproducts consumed primarily in

Central and South American countries; and Asian-American food andclothing stores.

Outside a small range of hair-careproducts, black businesses produce

few products that do no t have tocompete with those made in largequantities outside of the black community, the Urban League report adds .

While many black leaders rightfully point to racism as a major barrier

to black business success, antidiscrimination efforts may have alsohampered the growth o f small African

American shops and services. Theeasing of racial segregation in New

York City in the 1950s and 1960s hurt

black businesses, says Lloyd Williams,president of Harlem's Uptown Chamber of Commerce. As the color barriers were lowered somewhat, middle

class blacks began to live and work

Perhaps the

biggest hurdle.IS access

to capital.

outside traditional black communities. With them went the financialcapital and technical skills that had

fueled local black-owned businesses

in earlier decades.But the frustrations of would-be

black business owners long predated

the growing mobility of the blackmiddle class. The boycott of the Korean stores is only the latest chapter inthis ongoing saga. In the 1930s, African Americans organized the Citizensfor Fair Play of New York to lead

boycotts of Jewish businesses in Har

lem, where the owners refused to hireAfrican Americans. In the 1940s and1950s, black anger was directed at the

large number of West Indian immigrants who opened up businesses in"American" black communities. WesIndian business owners were oftenderisive ly referred to as "black Jews"by African Americans who ha d come

to New York long before the Caribbean blacks.

The lack ofblack commercial punchis more than a dollars and sense issue- i t strikes at the very fabric of thecommunity. S m a l ~ businesses provide a cultural vision that embracesself-reliance and role models for youngpeople," says Brooklyn AssemblymanRoger Green.

For black-owned businesses todevelop, centuries-old racist barriersmust crumble. But experts add tha

local and federal government mus

also expand programs that provideaccess to capital and technical assistance. Recipes for such programs

include the creation of a small busi

ness institute by the state and the cityand the restructuring of federal SmalBusiness Administration loans soborrowers don't have to provide muchup front capital.

Such programs would be a boon toany would-be business owner. Without this assistance, blacks are likely toremain at the back of the entrepreneurial bus. 0

David Hatchett is a New York-based

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By Amy Bachrach

Turning CrisisInto Opportunity

Recently overheard at GracieMansion: "If you make me goahead with these cuts, I willhave to close two hospitals

and thousands of children will die oflead poisoning." Said another official, "And I'll have killed them because I couldn't afford to hire enoughhousing code inspectors."

A tad melodramatic? Not really.Mayor David Dinkins has just called

•.. , ....

city officials are looking to trimbudgets.

It's easy to blame the city's current fiscal problems on the recession. But that makes it sound as ifthere was nothing that could havebeen done to prevent this fiscal mess.Many of our problems result frombad fiscal policies from past administrations. In the 1980s, officialspassed up opportunities when money

was more readily availableto invest in the city's physi

;. . . . 11 .feill IIi l l I . . . at. .cal and human services infrastructure. Instead, the citysponsored programs of-,....

for another round of cuts in spending from al l city agencies this yearand bigger cuts for the year ahead.He's telling us there is no money,and although we've heard this be

fore, the daily barrage of numbers ina tumbling economy makes the refrain "no money" credible. Yes, NewYork City is in crisis. But solutionsare available, and it is the energy andideas of New Yorkers like ourselvesthat are the source of awnsers to thecity's problems.

ReluctanceSome may still be reluctant to say

it, but the fact is the city is in a recession. Because of this, our tax coffersare no longer full. Real estate sales

are down, so property tax revenueshave dropped. Corporations are laying employees off, so personal in come tax revenues have fallen.

But as the economy declines, theneed for human services actuallyescalates-for public assistance,housing, education and health.All of these require major investments of resources at the very time

City View is a forum for opinionand does notnecessarily reflect

the views of City Limits.

enormous tax incentives todevelopers such as J 51,which encouraged the conversion of low income housing into luxury high-rises.This policy eroded the city's

tax base, excusing those most ablefrom paying taxes while stealing lowincome housing from the poor, manyof whom now sleep on our streetsand in our subways.

Now money is indeed tight, bu twe have seen that it can be raised ifthe public is convinced it is forpurposes taxpayers favor, such ashiring more cops. The Dinkinsadministration should try to convincethe public that the best use of our taxfunds is for the kind of social investments the mayor has long espoused.Such investments will prove to becost effective in the not-so-distantfuture, saving us the greater sums ofmoney that will have to be spent oncrime fighting, poorly trained youth,

teen pregnancy and other preventable social problems.

Serious FlawsThe City Project, which manages

ALTERBUDGET, a coalition of morethan 250 nonprofit human serviceproviders and advocates, believesopportunities exist to plug the budgetgap and expand services. At the sametime, officials can also correct someserious flaws in the city's tax structure by making it more progressiveand equitable. Toward this en d theCity Project offers several proposals:

Broaden the sales tax base. Instead

of increasing the existing sales taxon everyday consumer necessities,

introduce a two percent sales tax onprofessional services, such as thoseof a lawyer or an accountant. Thiswould add $250 million in revenueswithout placing an excessive burdenon business.

Increase personal income tax. Thepersonal income tax (PIT) is the city'sonly progressive tax. The upper limitof the PIT should be raised to 4.3percent, the top rate before the citychose to lower it in 1986. This wouldadd $350 million-a lot more daycare centers.

Increase the commuter tax. Thecommuter tax should rise from thecurrent 0.45 percent to one percent.The millions ofpeople who commuteto work here everyday put a lot ofwear and tear on the city. They needand want-the city to be as safe andclean as much as its residents do. Weneed the commuters to contributetheir fair share. This would add $160million-a lot more teachers and parkmaintenance workers .

Increase the property tax in equi-table ways. Property tax is by far the

largest single source of city taxrevenue, bu t along with sales tax, themost inequitable. The city shouldcollect $300 million more from realproperty by raising either rates orassessments. It should do this in waysthat require those most able to carrythe additional burden to do so.Contrary to the commonly held belief,the poor do pay taxes. They pay taxesthrough their rent, which includesthe property taxes passed along fromtheir landlords. The city must alsoaddress the unfair tax assessment of

small homes. Homeowners in poorneighborhoods pay proportionallymore in property taxes than those inwealthier communities.

New York City is in crisis. TheDinkins administration must act nowto turn this crisis into opportunity.By reaching out to his old-time allieswho now feel shut out-and no t justthe financial community-this administration can send a message ofhope and encourage everyone to contribute in meaningful ways. In sodoing, this crisis can open the doorto the kinds of changes this city haslong needed . 0




By Lisa Glazer

The Tenant Psychopath"Pacific Heights." Directed by JohnSchlesinger. Starring MatthewModine, Melanie Griffith andMichael

Keaton.

Buried in the press packet for"Pacific Heights" is the explanation for the movie' s genesis. A California screenwrit er,

Daniel Pyne, rented an apartment heowned with his wife to "the wrongperson."

"I had to evict somebody from athree-flat building," he recalls. "Ithought it would be a really simpleprocedure. He didn't pay, so he ha dto leave. But then I started learning

more and more about the law. Hewas scamming us, and even thoughhe didn't pay, he still had a right tobe there. That's the law."

As the press release from Twentieth Century Fox puts it, the situationwas resolved only after "the tenantdragged them through the laboriousand costly California eviction procedures."

Mighty LeapsHmmm. There are some mighty

leaps being made here about who

has power in a landlord-tenant situation, and these assumptions arerepeated in "Pacific Heights," themovie that grew from Pyne's experience.

To se t the record straight: landlords are in control an d it's tenantswho are in a vulnerable situation.That's why there are laws to protectthem. Yes, there are tenants whopull scams or trash apartments, bu tthere are also landlords who don'tdo repairs, don't provide heat andhot water, who sexually harass their

tenants or threaten an d intimidatethem. These are all justifiable reasons for withholding payment of therent. There are also tenants who don'tpay rent because they've just losttheir jobs or are in the midst of acrisis. California and New York havelengthy and complex eviction proceedings for exactly these reasons.An eviction is rarely a simple matterof clear right and wrong.

But in Hollywood, a place with alongstanding love of simplified versions of reality, such complexitiesare left on the cutting-room floor.Pyne decided to liven up the story by

20 /DECEMBER 1990/CITY UMITS

pushing his situation to its extremel imits-i t 's about a sweet, wellmeaning yuppie couple who mort

gage themselves to the gills, buy aVictorian mansion, then make themistake of renting one of their apartments to a wealthy businessman whonever pays hi s full rent. When thelandlords, Patty Palmer and DrakeGoodman (played by Melanie Griffith and Matthew Modine) try to getrid of their tenant, Carter Hayes, theyfind ou t the process isn't as easy asthey hoped i t would be. And behindhis aviator sunglasses and finelytailored suits, Hayes turns out to be asadistic maniac determined to de

stroy and defraud his landlords.What we end up with is a small

dose of sloppy political commentary-basically "Housing CourtScrews Landlords"-within aslightly more successful attempt atcreating a sleek, sophisticated psychological thriller.

Unsympathetic CharactersThe move does have slick edges

lush music, sharp cinematography ,meticulous design-but the characters are loosely drawn and unsympa

thetic. Goodman and Palmer makeso many major screw-ups that it'shard to feel sorry for them. To startoff, they can barely fill out a mortgage form. They manage to do a lovelyjob renovating their mansion, butthey rent to Carter Hayes even thoughhe doesn't have as much money onhand as he says he does. And onceHayes starts to get seriously nasty,Goodman doesn't handle the situation very well-he lets his frustration boil over and beats the hell outof Hayes. This happens more than

once, and is the real reason that theeviction proceeds at such a snail'space. I f Goodman could have kepthis fists to himself, a lot of his problems would have been solved.

As viewers, we're supposed to beupset when Hayes doesn't pay rentan d the young landlords have toscramble to meet their mortgage payments. Palmer goes to a seedy neighborhood to try and get a quick $5,000loan to avoid foreclosure. But she'sstill driving a snazzy yellow jeep ..

Carter Hayes is a slightly moreinteresting character. Deftly actedby Michael Keaton, he becomes truly

Not a Friendly Face: Michael Keaton plays CarteHayes, the evil tenant in "Pacific Heights. "

fearsome by insinuating nicenes(sending notes and gifts to the landlords to apologize for the "mix-upthat has caused a delay in his renpayment) then slowlybut sure1y sabotaging the couple's dreams. He drillholes in the middle of the night anbreeds cockroaches that infiltrate thadjacent apartment, causing the quieChinese couple next door to mov

out. As the tension escalates, he attempts to kill Palmer and Goodmanbut when the police arrives, tells hiside of the story and gets an order oprotection against Goodman.

Nonetheless, the eviction finalltakes place and Carter Hayes moveon to his next victim, bu t gets caughby Patty Palmer, who turns into anamateur sleuth. So all's well thaends well. The final irony is thadespite all their difficultiesGoodman and Palmer manage toresell their house for more than the

paid-to another attractive yuppicouple.I f a tenant had been through th

wringer with a difficult landlord, yocan be sure they wouldn't come ouahead. And if the tenant was poor, hor she could easily end up on thstreets homeless. But then again, thamight be too strong a dose of realityThe main problem with "PacifiHeights" is that it's hard to take seriously. The director should have increased the tension half a notch anturned it into a blood-and-guts horror flick: "The Tenant PsychopatFrom Hell." 0



No Marxist Manual!

To the Editor:

RobertW. Snyder gives agood feelfor my "The Closest of Strangers:

Liberalism and the Politics of Racein New York" (City Limits, Nov.1990). As an old contributor to CityLimits, I thank you for running hisfine review.

But I don't believe, as Snyder suggests, that problems of race are sim

ply the product of economic inequalities and that killing capitalism'sabuses will dissolve racism. I f I did,

I' d have written a Marxist organizer's

manual, not the essay on civic cul

ture and moral responsibility I didwrite. I believe that economic injus

tice leaves its victims no alternativebut to uphold transracial moral values and discipline-the basic truthsof political activism that know no

color. Otherwise they'll never organize well. The community housing movement understands this andhas rejected a politics of race. Theparlor an d academic left isn't as

smart; it has deferred to the misleadership of racial demagogues andnarrow nationalists .

I share Snyder's hope that my exasperation with such people won'tdiscourage the good readers of City

Limits from reading and debating"The Closest of Strangers." Snyderis right: the subject is much too

important to ignore. To help the

debate along, I'll gladly send otherreviews of the book, along with acopy of Snyder's, to anyone wh owrites me at 225 E. 14th Street, 2B,NYC 10003.

Jim SleeperAuthor, "The Closest of Strangers"

Very, Very ExcellentTo the Editor:

What a wonderful story youprinted on the workings of Part oftheSolution (POTS) in your October

issue of City Limits. These hardworking folks ru n a fantastic pro-

!I

gram of rehabilitation. One visit totheir place will be sure to convinceyo u of the merit of their honestcommitment to the homeless. They

give labor to the task of the homeless

becoming active an d very produc

tive members of the community.They strive to do this with limited

funding an d do it excellently. Their

contributions to the quality of lifehere in the Br:onx is worth noting. Iwould be the first one to set them upas a model of how a shelter should be

run and would suggest that any group

contemplating the operation of asmall shelter use them as a role model.

Keep up your very, very excellent

publication that keeps us informedand on our toes.

Henry Muller Jr.East Tremont NeighborhoodAssociation

Editor's note: City Limits wel-comes letters from our readers.We ask that you try to keep yourletters to 300 words in length.

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GUTSY.

INCISIVE.

PROVOCATIVE.Life inside a city-owned crack den...public agencies cutting

deals for private developers...landlords who collect the

rent and let their buildings rot. Each month, CITY LIMITS

probes the misguided public policies and inefficient bu-

reaucracies besetting NewYork. But we don't think it's

goodenough just to highlight the muck. CITY LIMITS looks

for answers. Weuncover the stories of activists and local

organizers fighting to save their neighborhoods. That's

why CITY LIMITS recently wonjournalism awards-one

from the National Association of Real Estate Editors forinvestigative reporting and another from NewYork's

Citizens Housing and Planning Council.Isn't it time you

subscribed?

p - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - .: YES! Start my subscription to CITYLIMITS. :

I 0 $15/one year 00 issues) II 0 $25/two years II Business/Government/Libraries Io $35/one year 0 $50/two years

II 0 Payment enclosed. Add one issue IIto my subscription-free!

I Name II II Address I: City State _ Zip :

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City Limits Magazine, December 1990 Issue

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Transcript of City Limits Magazine, December 1990 Issue