City Limits Magazine, February 1998 Issue

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Progressive Prospects•

ln a city of roughly 7.3 million people and more than 3.5 million r e g i s " ~ / e a voters,

only 757,564 men and women elected our mayor last November. Instead of

reflecting on these numbers as a saddening commentary on our electoral system,think of it as an opportunity for renewing progressive politics in New York .

Giuliani won fewer votes than any sitting mayor since the 1920s. There's no deny-_ ...--.. '.-ing the man's popularity in lower Manhattan, Staten Island

and eastern Queens. But the guy simply has not got the viscer

al appeal of a widely popular politician. At this point it doesn't

EDITORIAL

look like anyone else in his business does, either.

Why? Because Neither Giuliani nor Governor Pataki nor

their opponents have addressed many of the issues that really

hit home for low- and moderate-income working people. The

politicians claim they represent us law-abiding citizens in

their fight against the darker forces of society----and when it

comes to busting crack dealers and gun runners, they do. But what else are they

doing for the regular hard-working New Yorker?Living standards are slipping. Studies reported in this space last month indicate

that the city's middle class is shrinking fast and wages have fallen significantly since

the 1980s. Meanwhile, CUNY enrollment is down. The city has drastically scaled

back enforcement of the housing code and, more significantly , is investing little capi

tal in housing rehabilitation. Much of the public infrastructure is a mess, schools

worst of all. More than 300 pedestrians were killed by cars last year. Poverty rates

are rising---an estimated 1.95 million New Yorkers had annual incomes below the

poverty line in 1996. And make no mistake: poverty is a quality of ife issue. Squalor

remains a very public condition throughout the five boroughs.

OK, so I've painted a bleak picture . Yet what I've described is a city that desper

ately needs leadership on issues beyond the fight against crime-leadership on

issues that touch home . Encourage wage growth, shore up the middle class, attack

poverty where it lives, invest in schools and housing, make this city a comfortable

place to live for everyone who wants to work for it, and an easier place to do business for the small companies that employ most of our workforce. Promote opportu

nity---it's the winning word, but in local politics these days, it's hardly ever heard.Pollsters nationwide report that politicians who address such elemental issues

are winning electoral majorities . Yet no New York candidate for mayor, governor or

senator has been selling such a populist progressive message . Who are they speaking

to? Not the majority ofNew Yorkers, who are too turned off to vote.

***A correction: Last month in our "Ammo" section, we misidentified the organiza

tion that oversees the South Bronx section of the city's Empowerment Zone. It is the

Bronx Overall Economic Development Corporation----not the South Bronx Overall

Economic Development Corporation (a.k .a. SOBRO). The latter is a nonprofit com

munity group, while the former is an arm of he borough president's office.

Andrew White

EditorCover photo of children at the lifeline Center by Mayita Mendez

City Limits relies on the generous support of its readers and advertisers. as well as the following funders:The Robert Sterling Clark

Foundation. The Unitarian Universalist Veatch Program at Shelter Rock. The Edna McConnell Clark Foundation. The Joyce Mertz·

Gilmore Foundation. The Scherman Foundation. The North Star Fund. J.P. Morgan & Co. Incorporated. The Booth Ferris Foundation.

The Annie E Casey Foundation. The New York Foundation. The Taconic Foundation.M&TBank. Citibank. and Chase Manhattan Bank.

City Limits

Volume XXIII Number 2

City Limits is published ten times per year. monthly except

bi-monthly issues in June/July and August/September. by

the City Limits Community Information Service. Inc • a non

profit organization devoted to disseminating information

concerning neighborhood revitalization .

Edito r: Andrew White

Senior Editors: Kim Nauer. Glenn Thrush

Managing Editor: Carl Vogel

Associate Edito r: Kemba Johnson

Contributing Edito r: James Bradley

Inte rns: Joe Gould. Jason Stipp

Des ign Direction: James Conrad. Paul V Leone

Advertising Representative: John Ullmann

Proofreader: Sandy Socolar

Photographers: Melissa Cooperman. Martin Josefski

Mayita Mendez

Associate Director.

Center for an Urban Future : Neil Kleiman

Board of Directors':

Eddie Bautista . New York Lawyers for

the Public Interest

Beverly Cheuvront. Girl Scout Council of Greater NY

Shawn Dove. Rheedlen Centers

Francine Justa, Neighborhood Housing Selvices

Errol Louis

Rebecca Reich, LlSC

Andrew Reicher, UHAB

Tom Robbins, Joumalist

Celia Irvine, ANHD

Pete Williams, National Urban League

"Affiliations for identification only.

Sponsors:

Pratt Institute Center for Community

and Environmental Development

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CITVLlMIT


http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/city-limits-magazine-february-1998-issue 3/36FEBRUARY 1998

FEATURES

Trouble in MindMedicaid managed care is just around the bend for tens of thousands ofNew York 's emotionally disturbed children. That much is certain. What's

unknown is who will be covered-and what will be lost. By Glenn Thru

Broken HomesNearly hidden within 20 acres of emptied public housing projects in the

poorest part of Newark, the Friendly Fuld Head Start Center proves that

appearances can deceive. By Helen M. Stumm

PROFILES

UPROSE Blooms in Brooklyn Sunset Park community group found a way to survive city budget cuts, but

can it bring unity to a fragmented neighborhood? By Kemba Johns

A Shot in the Arm

Harm reduction is being redefined by the volunteers of Streetwise HealthProject, who bring health care to people who have gone without for far too long.

By Dylan Fol

PIPELINES

Mixing the Message KfWelfare advocates said they dreaded the expansion of WEP in the nonprofit

sphere. According to the latest city contract, they might not have to worry.

By Carl Vog

Scoppetta's Home Stretch

CS Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta has unveiled his promised plan tomove the child welfare system back to the grassroots. The next step is paying

for it. By Atlam Fifie

ReviewPlacing the Blame

CityviewGo Get Oem Votes

Spare ChangeMayoral Mad Libs

Editorial

Briefs

Ammo

COMMENTARY

12 9By Kirk Vanders

13 0By Ron Hayd

13By Carl Vog

DEPARTMENTS

2 Professional

Directory 3 2 , 3 35 -7

Job Ads 3 2 , 3 3 , 3 5

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CITY LIMITS



Jazz Scene

Basie'sBand Gets

Union Gig

T

erence Conley remembers a nighttwo years ago when he had to stand at

an ATM to take money out of his savings account to pay the other members of his jazz trio after a bar owner

shortchanged them. "A local musician has tofight to get his money at the end of the night,"Conley says. "You still have to pay the guys."

As a pianist in the Count Basie Orchestra, fill

ing the musical shoes of His Highness himself forthe last two years, Conley no longer has to worryabout getting what's owed him. And now he

doesn't have to worry about how he'll pay thebills once the music stops, either. Last fall, the19-piece orchestra became the first unionized bigband. "We didn't look to be unionized," he

admits. "We were looking for a pension."In fact, the unionization was a simple, harmo

nious improvisation worthy of the Basie name.After management fired a 20-year veteran, the

members began to talk about the sting of not having pension benefits. By joining Local 802 of theAmerican Federation of Musicians, they can jointhe union 's $1.2 billion pension pool.

And senior bandmembers like Bill Hughes,

who has played trombone in the group for 38

years, can now stretch their legs in business class

during the orchestra's four annual overseas flights .Other agreement terms limit the amount of time

the band, which is on the road 34 to 40 weeks

every year, can travel on performance days.It's benefits like these that usually make man

agers view unionization as costly agony. But forAaron A. Woodward ill, CEO and president ofCount Basie Enterprises, who has struggled to

preserve the band after Basie's death, it was a

godsend. "It's difficult to retain good musicians,"Woodward says. "In the fourteen years CountBasie has not been with us, it's been difficult tokeep them together."

Local 802 isn't going to take five afteradding the Basie band to their rolls. The unionhas started a "Justice for Jazz Artists" campaign . "There are a few bands out there that I

FEBRUARY 1998

think are ripe for unionization ," notes unionpresident William Moriarty. Jazz musicians historically aren't as well protected as Broadwayor symphonic musicians-and many formermembers of touring bands have ended up living

in severe poverty in their later years. The JaFoundation , a charity that assists musicians, h

thrown several benefits to raise enough monto lay some fine jazz musician s in their finresting place. -Kemba Johns

w



Briem··.......... - - - - -.......... - - - - - - - - - -Labor

Union Boss

Backs BadBoy Devona

It was no shock when Gus Bevona, the profusely paid and notoriously autocratic boss

of the building services union, appealed a

sweeping court decision on his local's elec

tion. The surprise came when BrianMclaughlin, head of the mainstream New York

City Central Labor Council, rushed in with support.

On December 15, Federal Judge Richard Owen

found that Bevona-who pays himself $494,000 ayear to run Local 32B-32J-"suppressed dissent"and trampled on members' rights in an early 1997

election. Union critics documented many abuses

during the vote: leadership recommendationsprinted on ballots, unmonitored ballot boxes, and

polling hours that excluded many of the union's55,000 mostly minority workers.

In addition to electing union reps, the members

were voting on proposed bylaw changes that

would have reduced officers' swollen salaries and

guaranteed that members would have the right to

approve contracts. In his ruling, Owen wrote that

the union 's members will suffer "an enormous riskof abuse of power by the incumbent leadership"

unless future votes are conducted by outsiders.Mclaughlin, a Democratic Queens assembly

man and former electrical union official, instructed attorneys at his 500-union umbrella CentralLabor Council to join in the appeal against the

decision, arguing that the court dangerously

exceeded its authority. "[Owen 's] orders threatento fundamentally interfere with internal union vot

ing policies and the right of unions to self-govern," CLC chief counsel Douglas Menagh wrote

to labor attorneys in a bid for support.The decision to join the appeal was not a popu

lar one, even among lawyers affiliated with the

council. Only 12 of the 69 members of the council'sown lawyers' advisory committee agreed to the

appeal.

For their part, the anti-Bevona dissenters,who garnered 45 percent of the vote last time,

were stunned by the council's decision. "We

proved at trial that members of our union were

openly coerced," says Carlos Guzman, leader of32B-32J's dissident Members for a Better Union ."Brian McLaughlin, who wants to be mayor,

should align himself with the rank and ftle he is

supposed to be speaking for."

-Michael Hirsch

Swimming withsharks?

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for New YorkBuilding a Better New York

Ambition

Housing PIan

FneIsLopezElection Bid

Booklynite Vito Lopez tells City

Limits he is leaning toward a run for

Congress this fall. And to kick thingsoff, the head of the state Assembly'shousing committee has unveiled an

ambitious plan to increase the state's spending on

housing from $115.6 million to $297.6 million.Full acceptance of the $11l2 million package

isn't likely from either Governor George Pataki orLopez ally Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver. Still,Democratic party sources say Silver will probably

bargain for some of its elements during budgettalks later this year. The list includes plans to:

• boost the state Low Income Housing Trust Fundfrom $25 to $60 million.

• double the state's contribution to homeless housing from $30 million to $60 million.• create a state version of the federal low-incomehousing tax credit program, which gives tax

breaks for developers who build rental housing forthe indigent and working poor.

• inaugurate a $25 million anti-abandonment pro

gram to preserve apartment buildings in disrepair.Much of that money would go to local groups for

housing organizing.• increase funding for the Affordable Home Ownership program from $25 million to $60 million.

"I believe Shelly [Silver] will support a good

portion of this," Lopez says. "Ifwe don't get it thisyear, we're never going to get it." Silver's officedid not respond to inquiries about the plan.

Lopez told City Limits he is seriously considering a 1998 challenge ofBrookJyn Congresswoman

Nydia Velazquez. ''There's a good chance. I'll

decide by the end of this month," he says.

'1t is our practice not to comment on candidateswho just say they might run," says Velazquez

spokesman Eric Brown. -Glenn Thrush

WEEKLY UPDATES NEW YORK

For a first gtimp;e at our BriefS, try City

limits Weekly, a free fax and e-mail rt!SOUJ'Ce

for anyone wh o needs to keep on top of

what's happeniDg aaoss New York-fromjob

opportunities to late-breaking news. To be

aAIded to our fist, just call 212-479-3348, fax

212-344-6457 or e-mail [email protected]

CITY LIMITS



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DOORMEN

CityContracts

BrooklynBias Chargein AIDSFtmding

More than two dozen Brooklynorganizations found themselvesleft out of a $41 million fundingpackage in November, virtuallyensuring that their community

based AIDS programs will be shut down at theend of February. Last month, the city announcedit had found another $5 million to disburse-butthat hasn't placated the Brooklyn organizations.''This is basically a plan where federal money

is being shifted from programs that serve peopleof color to white people," charges Carol Horwitz,

a lawyer at the Brooklyn Legal ServicesCorporation A, whose group was left off the

FEBRUARY 1998

CLASS CONSOLIDATION

November list. In 1997, her organization received$105,000 in federal Ryan White Care Act Title Ifunding to provide services for people with HIV

ranging from custody planning to representationin eviction proceedings.

According to Horwitz, 75 percent of the federal funding that formally went to Brooklyn com

munity-based organizations was moved toManhattan-based groups like the Gay Men'sHealth Crisis. The Mayor 's Planning Council on

mY/AIDS had mandated that the funds be granted to geographically appropriate CBOs with along history of serving their communities.

The nonprofit Medical and Health ResearchAssociation of New York (MHRA)-which had

been contracted by the city to disburse the $41million in Ryan White funds for 1998-received

more than 500 proposals , giving the 'green light to172 programs from 103 agencies. The 25 defund

ed Brooklyn organizations include two of thethree Haitian-run AIDS programs in Brooklyn andnine out of 10 support groups serving AIDS sufferers and their families in Crown Heights,Brownsville and East New York.

"Seventy percent of new AIDS cases are inthe outer boroughs," says Abigail Hunter of the

WilliamsburglGreenpointlBushwick HIV CareNetwork, one of three Brooklyn umbrellagroups for community-based HIV organizations. "The planning council directive of givingmore money to local CBOs was meant to

address the situation . The present funding hdone the opposite."

"The 1998 contracts are based on extrem

objective criteria set up by the city's Ryan WhPlanning Council, the state AIDS Institute andfederal government," counters Fred Winter,spokesman for the city 's Department of Hea"Citywide contracts are given out becauseeconomies of scale. There is a finite amountmoney available, and there are always w0rprograms that won 't be funded ."

However, Barbara Turk of MHRA's HIV Csays $5 million in additional Ryan White fundiwill soon be made available for 1998: $2.4 millfor case management and $2.6 million for trement, education and client advocacy. She saysorganization will go back to the list of applica

to award additional grants.''The $2.6 million set aside for critical gaps

services does not in any way make up for money cut in Brooklyn," Horwitz responHunter adds , that once the funds have been alcated to 17 different categories, there is o$131,000 for food and nutrition programs ciwide-and merely $41,000 for support grou"That's not enough for one program ," she sa"let alone programs citywide." The coalition sasking the mayor's office to stop contract negtiations with the grantees and extend 1997 funing until the new grants are reviewed.

-Dylan Fo



•UPROSE Blooms

BrooklynInPROFILE

' k. ._-...."...1; Li e many small organizations, one of Sunset Park's oldest

Executive Director

Elizabeth

Yeampierre says

UPROSE works

to build unity in

a neighborhood

that is ethllically

fra gmented.

.M_

community groups has lost city funding--and is building

a new agenda. By Kemba Johnson

Snset Park's matriarchs and patri

archs enter a modest FourthAvenue storefront with bag lunch

es in hand and questions in mind.They come to UPROSE, a com

munity organization that has served theBrooklyn neighborhood for 32 years, tolearn about changes in welfare and immi

gration laws or to have official letters translated into Spanish. They stay to talk abouttheir children and their community.

"They feed their children. They dressthem. They try to set a good example,"says Elizabeth Yeampierre, UPROSE'sexecutive director. "But then [the kids]drop out or start hanging out in the street."Puerto Rican , Dominican, Cuban-themen and women sit in the office, eat theirlunches and fmd some common ground in

a neighborhood that has seen precious lit

tie of it over the last few years .Michelle De La Uz, director of con

stituency services for neighborhoodCongresswoman Nydia Velazquez, saysthese residents have grown up with the

organization helping their families. "I call

them repeat customers ," she says. "They

say, 'You helped my mother, you helpedmy daughter. Now you can help me.'''

In addition to assisting immigrants innavigating the welfare system, UPROSE is

working in local schools to help troubledkids. The group is also building a base of

political activism against the state's plan torebuild the Gowanus Expressway and reroute traffic down the community'savenues. Yeampierre says all of UPROSE's

work has another underlying component aswell: building unity among the community's fragmented ethnic enclaves.

Despite its deep roots, however,

UPROSE has been through hard times oflate, weakened by inconsistent leadershipand by the loss of city funding that has hitscores of similar small neighborhood orga

nizations over the last few years. An independent study published by the Arete

Corporation in October found that morethan half of all small nonprofits that heldcity contracts when David Dinkins left City

Hall have since lost their funding. UPROSEis part of that disinvested majority.

Ethnic T.nslons

Fifth Avenue is Sunset Park's outdoorliving room. Pizzerias compete withMexican fast-food taqueritas. Dominican

and Puerto Rican flags label the ubiquitouscar services. And shoppers in the discount

stores spill onto the sidewalk, as young people stake their claim to street corners.

UPROSE has served this neighborhoodsince 1966, founded by Puerto Ricanactivists to support newcomers to what

had been a mostly Scandanavian commu

nity. The United Puerto RicanOrganization of Sunset Park andEducation Services, as it was called, provided day care, after-school programs andassistance with welfare and other benefits.

Recently, the group bowed to the

neighborhood's changing demographicsby dropping its full name and adopting theacronym, UPROSE. Sunset Park's Latinopopulation is now a turbulent array of ethnicities-and the neighborhood's longestablished Asian community is growingquickly as well. Ethnic tensions occasionally flare into open violence: Three Latinoteenagers beat and nearly killed a Chineseman last August. Police say it was a bias

crime."What weakens [the community's]

political presence is a lack of unity," saysYeampierre, who took charge of the orga

nization in 1996. "We really do have issuesin common: immigration, education,sweatshops and bilingual education."Keeping the racial and ethnic tensions at

bay has become part of the directive forUPROSE and a personal mission for

Yeampierre, who hopes a new focus onpolitical activism can pull Sunset Parktogether.

SurmountingChall.ng.s

Two years ago, it was unclear whetherUPROSE would even survive. During asix-month leadership vacuum before

Yeampierre's arrival, the group failed to

file reports on city-funded projects and

didn 't even start a contracted program toteach English as a Second Language. We

were in a very precarious position," says

Juan Beritan, UPROSE's board chairman.Ten days after Yeampierre became

executive director, the city's CommunityDevelopment Agency, which had provided$40,000 to run the ESL program and provide information about entitlements, canceled its contract.

"The tImIng was consistent.Organizations of color-aided by the

CITY LIMITS



•Giuliani administration-were disappear

ing all over the city," Yeampierre says."The city's shift [away from the smallercommunity groups) occurred just as theorganization was not running as tightly as

it should have been. It may have beenonly $40,000, but it made a big differencein how we were able to function."

UPROSE now depends on volunteersto help local residents with public assistance. The group relies on money from theUnited Way and other private sources to

sustain its budget, and no longer runsafter-school or day care programs.

But UPROSE still maintains its pres

ence in three area high schools and onejunior high school, where its five stafferswork. In stay-in-school programs at eachschool, 30 or so students considered at riskof dropping out learn about activism andethnic tolerance-and study their academic subjects. ''We never lose sight of ourobjectives to teach them to read, write andbe good in math ," says Yeampierre, a former civil rights attorney. "Once they knowhow to do that, they can take charge ofthemselves and their community."

Teresita Rivera-Neri, UPROSE's program counselor at John Jay High School inneighboring Park Slope, noticed studentscarving out Puerto Rican, Dominican andother enclaves in the lunchroom and classrooms. So she started aLatino Club, wherestudents read literature and perform dancesfrom all over Latin America.

"They suddenly fmd themselves in anew country," Rivera-Neri explains.''There's a fear of the unknown. In classthey'll say, 'I'm better than you,' or 'Mycountry is better than yours.' [The LatinoClub) really helps them to realize theyhave so much in common."

One of the things all the residents ofSunset Park have in common is the proposed $700 million reconstruction ofGowanus Expressway. UPROSE is educating residents about the potential healththreats of the construction and re-routedtraffic. The neighborhood already is

stricken with the third highest asthma ratein the city.

The group is organizing residents andpushing for a comprehensive study ofalternatives such as building a tunnel to

replace the Gowanus. Lucy Lopez-a for

mer Work Experience Program worker anda mother of three-lives two blocks from

the expressway with a 7-year-old asthmatic son. With UPROSE's help she 's begunspeaking out. "With all the pollution,how's every child who lives in the community going to stay healthy?" she asks.

FEBRUARY 1998

All th . Chang••

Despite the organization's state of tran

sition, women and men from the neighborhood still file into the office looking foradvice and company. "I don't have the

sense that the community knows all thechanges we've gone through," Yeampierre

says.

Still, the troubles have had consequences. "In small community agencieslike that, if the board isn 't constantlyfundraising or there's no developmentcomponent, their projects last as long as

1998

SOCIALIST

SCHOLARS

the money lasts," says Sister MaryGeraldine of the Center for Family Life,another neighborhood organization thathas served the neighborhood for 20 years."Yet [UPROSE is) still around, committedto the community."

Preparing for the future, Yeampierre

hopes to hire an Asian tutor for UPROSE's

school programs and set up workshops toteach residents how to advocate and getanswers from the city for themselves."UPROSE is here to stay," she says."We're here to be reckoned with." •

March 20th through 22nd 1998

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•

PROFILE

Karyn London

(right), a physi-

cian's assistant

who volunteers

for Streetside,

checks in with

one of her

regular patients

at an Upper West

SideSRO.

(.M

A Shot in the ArmIn the name ofharm reduction, Streetside Health Project volunteers provide health care in

some ofcity's overlooked corners. By Dylan Foley

Brendan Pearse sits in the back

of the Lower East Side Needle

Exchange's Avenue C store

front on arainy November

night, giving free flu shots to asteady stream of squatter kids and intravenous drug users.

Pearse, a physician's assistant in his

early 50s, demonstrates how to administerinjections for the three New York

University medical students he 's supervis

ing. "Make sure you clean the skin before

you inject," he says gently to one, who is

clearly nervous. A bleached blond woman

waiting nearby breaks the tension as her

sleeve is rolled up, joking about the horri

ble nicknames she had in high school.

The next woman in line is worried

she talks in hushed tones about chronicmedical problems, including diarrhea that

has gone on for months. Concerned she

might have the symptoms of tuberculosis,Pearse examines her with his stethoscope.

He decides it isn't TB after all but urges her

to go to a local clinic near her home in

Hartford, nonetheless.

Pearse is here as a member of theStreetside Health Project, a small volunteer

medical program that has been serving intra

venous drug users in Manhattan, Brooklyn

and the Bronx for six years. The operation

may be modest-it consists of a handful o

medical professionals and a tiny budgetbut it represents what may be the ultimate

form of "harm reduction," the HIV-preven

tion strategy that includes giving clean nee

dles to addicts .Streetside's volunteers bring inocula

tions and quick medical exams to needle

exchanges, soup kitchens and SROs tha

house people with AIDS. Sometimes they

make house calls to bandage abscesses o

treat thrush, an oral fungus common inAIDS sufferers . Streetside was the ftrs

medical group in New York to vaccinate a

the needle exchanges and still is the only

group that provides medical care in some

privately run SROs.

CrudglnglyACC.ptH

Harm reduction has only recently

become a grudgingly accepted practice

illegal needle exchanges appeared in New

York in the late 1980s, supported by radicagroups like ACT-UP. But in 1992, afte

several years of conflict with the police and

City Hall, several exchanges were given

waivers by the state to distribute clean

syringes .That year, agroup of medical res

idents at the Bronx 's Montefiore Hospita

and Sharon Stancliff, a family practice doc

tor volunteering for the Lower East Sid

Needle Exchange, formed Streetside."Our major goal is to show people who

use drugs that they can do something abou

their health care," Stancliff says. "We also

try to introduce health-care professional

and future health-care professionals to people they would normally see only inadverse situations."

The program now has a core group o

eight doctors, nurses and physician's assis

tants, volunteering their time, and actively

recruits students at New York-area medicaschools to lend a hand. In December, a vol

unteer pool that had swelled to 40 complet

ed Streetside's fall vaccination program

dispensing 600 flu vaccinations and 200

inoculations for bacterial pneumonia

which is often fatal to people with HIV

"The fall vaccination program is our majo

CITY LIMITS



&

group project. At other times, members do

volunteer outreach on their own," says Dr.

Toni Sturm, one of Streetside's founderswho is now a medical fellow at Mt. SinaiHospital in Manhattan.

The approach has found other adherents. For example, New York HarmReduction Educators, a needle exchangethat serves the Bronx and Harlem, is visited by a medical outreach van from Bronx

Lebanon Hospital. Many of the existingexchanges have become community-basedorganizations that also offer supportgroups, drug treatment and even acupuncture to help clients. The goal is simple:Prevent the spread of HIV through clean

needles and condoms, as well as education

about safe sex and safer drug use.The population at the needle exchanges

and SROs needs all the help it can get. Lessthan half of the 150 clients Streetside sur

veyed in 1996 had any regular health care.Another survey showed that many of the

clients lodged in three Manhattan SROswere not taking the new protease inhibitorsused to fight AIDS. In response, Streetside

held a workshop on the drug therapy cocktails and continues to advocate their effec

tiveness to clients.

CommittedActivists

Streetside's work has attracted some ofthe most low-key but committed harmreduction activists in the city-a real

world, traveling cast of ER without the

makeup or a chance to reshoot the scene."I joined Streetside because it was one

of the few preventive programs I couldfind," says Pearse, who became a physician's assistant two years ago after spending 10 years working as a paralegal. A

native of Northern Ireland-his father was

one of the founders of the Irish CommunistParty-Pearse obtained his green card by

fighting with the U.S. Marines in Vietnam,

including combat at the infamous Battle ofKbe Sanh in 1967.

Pearse grew up in Derry, a strife-tom,impoverished Catholic city directly affect

ed by Protestant-Catholic hatreds. "When Iwas a kid, the only people not destroying

things were doctors, nurses and teachers,"he says. "I became a physician's assistantto do good, provide relief and empowerwith knowledge."

Four years ago, Karyn London left thefeminist bookstore she founded to becomea physician's assistant. Today, she works at

the Ryan Community Health Center on the

Upper West Side and regularly visits three

nearby SROs as a member of Streetside.Her rapport with the residents translatesinto an effective approach on issues like the

FEBRUARY 1998

Streetside's work attracts some ofthe most low-key

activists in the city-a real-world, traveling cast ofERwithout the makeup ora chance to reshoot the scene.

new AIDS treatment. "I try to engage themon the subject," she says. 'They trust me

more than the people in white coats."On a bitterly cold Saturday, London

walks through the Camden Hotel in theWest 90s with a nurse and a premedicalstudent. In the forbidding maze of hallwayswith musty carpets, London's style is informal and coaxing. "C'mon, open up," she

cajoles, rapping on the doors of her regu

lars. "It's me, Karyn."

An intense woman with a head of grayhair, London admits she often goes to the

hotels more than once aweek to look in onher most worrisome cases. 'There is adegree of intimacy with the flu shotsticking someone takes time, and it is an

excellent way to get to know them," sheexplains with a chuckle. She adds that the

shots also provide an opportunity to dis

cuss other health problems.Some of London's patients begin to

emerge. A frail woman in her mid-60s

injured her foot trying to remove a corn, and

it has become badly infected. Pleased by the

attention of the visit, which alleviates theloneliness of her tiny room, she chats on

while London takes her temperature.Down the hall, a very sick transgender

woman with long brown hair hurries to one

of the bathrooms-she hasn't been to ahealth clinic for more than two years. "Shehas the same problems that people with ahistory of drug use have-she does not have

the skills for navigating the system,"London says. "People also have an additional hostili ty because they can't determine her

sex." Health-care hurdles like these aren'tcovered in med school, but they're notuncommon for Streetside's volunteers.

By way of example, London tells of a

patient named Frank, an elderly man suffering from AIDS-related dementia. The con

dition made him easy prey for other residents in the hotel, who would rob him whenhe went on drug binges. For months, shetried to get him to move into St. Mary's, askilled nursing residence for people withAIDS. But when he finally went for an

interview, he politely refused to move in,

saying he didn't like the tea they served.

InsuranceBarriers

Streetside 's 1997 budget was a minuscule $5,000, donated by two of the

group's members. The Department ofHealth provided the flu shots for free as

part of its vaccination program, but the

bacterial pneumonia vaccinations cost$10 apiece. Some medical supplies likedisposable thermometers and bandages,have to be bought; others are donated .

Streetside is fueled by volunteer labor,of which it seems there is never enough."I think we'd be eligible for variousgrants, but before we obtain money we

really need more medical volunteersfirst," Stancliff says. The biggest obstacle

is malpractice insurance. "The insurancefrom their regular jobs does not usuallycover volunteer medical activities," sheexplains. "It really is a low-risk situation,however. Studies have shown that poorpeople are very unlikely to sue."

Still, expansion plans are movingalong. "We've had requests from a soupkitchen in the Bronx to provide more basic

medical care, and we are planning to set up

a volunteer medical project with one of the

needle exchanges on the Lower East Side.We also want to start giving Hepatitis Bvaccinations," Stancliff says.

Much of the work they do is simplyfilling the gaps left by an indifferenthealth care bureaucracy. At the privatelyowned AIDS-housing SROs, caseworkersfrom the city's Health Department shouldbe carrying much of the load , but a sourcefamiliar with the hotels says the workers

aren't always dependable: "Some are conscientious, and some are appalling. The

SRO owners provide the office space forthe social workers, and this dependencyhurts their ability to advocate for theirclients."

And so London says her sickest clients

will often put off calling 911 for days, untilshe can take them to the hospital. Such is

the level of trust she has built among peo

ple to whom trust comes hard."Often their previous experiences

receiving health care have been degradingand negative," she says. 'They don't wantto go through the system alone. Whowould?" •

Dylan Foley is afreelance writer in

BrookLyn who volunteered for the Lower

East Side Needle Exchange in the early

199Os.

•

-



•Mixing the Message

PIPEliNE i

,

A new city contract confounds conventional wisdom

on nonprofit workfare. By Carl Vogel

It's hard to decide which is moresurprising: what changed or what

remained the same. When city officials announced guidelines for anew set of nonprofit workfare con

tracts in January, they stepped up pressure on contractors to find welfare recipients real, paying jobs. But anticipatedplans to pour thousands of workfareassignments into the nonprofit sectoraren't materializing.

Both developments are welcome news

Giuliani introduced his new HRA chiefJason Turner to the City Hall presscorps-officials outlined details of thenonprofit workfare plan. To the surpriseof most everyone outside the agency,HRA announced that the contractswhich begin in July-will be limited to300 assignments each, an overall reduction of 100 nonprofit workfare slots citywide.

"I thought they were going to increasethe number massively," says Peter

IIMaybe ayearfrom now we'll kick ourselvesfor notmultiplying the level ofworkers."

f-

for welfare-rights advocates, who havecriticized the Giuliani administration forfailing to help welfare recipients finddecent employment. Still, the nonprofitsand the mayor's critics alike are left wondering what this new contract means forthe city's planned expansion of the controversial Work Experience Program

(WEP).

Nonprofit Shar.The majority of New York's 35,000 to

38,000 workfare slots are in city agenciesand include everything from picking uptrash for the Parks Department to clericalwork in local hospitals. The city's HumanResources Administration (HRA), whichruns the workfare program, won 't say

how many people have been assigned toworkfare. But over the course of a year, agiven slot can be filled by several different workers, as participants find a real

job, suffer sanctions for failing to complywith the program, or decide to abandontheir welfare check.

Since 1994, six nonprofit agencieshave managed a total of 3,400 WEP slots,generally outsourcing most assignmentsto other community groups, where theworkers do clerical, maintenance andcommunity service duties. Last month,those agencies had to join others in bidding for 11 new contracts spanning thenext three years.

At a January 7 meeting with nonprofits-held at the exact same time as Mayor

Swords, executive director of theNonprofit Coordinating Committee,echoing many others who follow theworkfare program. As some observersnote, the timing of the meeting was symbolic: This plan is the swan song of former HRA Commissioner Lilliam BarriosPaoli, who told the City Council last

spring that her agency expected to add10,000 WEP assignments . She had ledobservers to believe a large number ofthese would be with nonprofits , and manyneighborhood and religious groupsmounted an anti-WEP campaign to convince nonprofits not to cooperate.

HRA says the new arrangement sim

ply allows for a wider array of approach

es to handling the workfare program."Maybe a year from now we'll kick ourselves for not multiplying the level ofworkers," says Seth Diamond, deputycommissioner at HRA's Office of

Employment Services. "But we don'twant to overextend ourselves."

A close look at the numbers showswhy the city might be able to avoid thenonprofit expansion. According to theIndependent Budget Office, in May1997-the latest month available-a totalof 2,202 WEP workers were assigned tononprofits . That's only 65 percent of thecurrent contracts' capacity.

Furthermore, pressure to meet federalwork requirement goals isn't as intense as

many had thought. While the city's ownnumbers are widely disputed, the state as

a whole has achieved the necessary percentage of eligible pub lic assistancerecipients in work activities-at least forthe time being. And if there are fewerpeople on the welfare rolls in the future,meeting the federal requirements getseasier.

P.rlormanc. Bas.cl

For the agencies that do sign up to runWEP slots, the rules have changed . The11 agencies will be handed a moredemanding contract than the one signed

in 1994. Every year, each contractor willhave to fmd paying jobs for at least 75

welfare recipients-or lose some of itsfunding. But there is a carrot along with

that stick: Nearly half of the contract'spotential payout is tied to finding WEPworkers employment outside the welfaresystem .

HRA will pay in the neighborhood of$125,000 annually to each of the contractagencies. In addition, they will earn$1,000 for each of their workfare participants who secures a full-time, paying jobfor at least 90 days, up to an annual ceiling of $115,000 .

While the city required contract agencies to report on job placement in thepast, there was no fmancial incentive.

Vicki Cusare , director of the ItalianAmerican Civil Rights League, which has

managed 1,200 workfare assignments forthe city since July 1994, says her grouphas always kept up with the workers afterthey left WEP for employment. But sheadmits the new performance-based contract will require more paperwork. Othernonprofit executives say they won't go

after the new contract because the moneyis insufficient.

"We recognize we're asking for alean and efficient program," Diamondsays. The city insists the targets can be

met, however. Apparently, some nonprofits agree. More than a few agencyrepresentatives at the HRA meeting saidthey would send in a proposal by theJanuary 30 deadline.

Cusare also says her agency is goingto reapply, but she might have been moreshocked than most when the city spelledout the rules. The January meeting wasthe first indication her organizationwould be limited to 300 assignments."We were surprised. We have more participants than that," she says. "I guesswe'll have to cut a lot of sites out." •

CITY LIMITS



s

Scoppetta's Home StretchThe child welfare system lurches back to the neighborhoods. By Adam Fifield

For Nicholas Scoppetta, it was apromise a long time in coming.

Standing on stage at theSalvation Army's 14th Street

headquarters last month, work

ing a room jammed with skeptics, the

city's child welfare commissioner said he

would accomplish what none of his prede

cessors could. He intended to reform a sys

tem where 85 percent of the city's foster

care children are removed from theirparents and placed in distant communi

ties, far from their family, friends,

schools and everything they have known

growing up. He would bring the childprotection business back into the neigh

borhoods.

His plan-which has been on the

drafting board at the Administration for

Children's Services (ACS) for more than

a year-would force a retooling of the

entire child welfare system. The city

would require that all services to families

and children, including foster care, fami

ly counseling, mental health care and

much more, be provided close to horne

whenever possible.Scoppetta also proposed an added

responsibility for foster parents. In an initiative dubbed "Family to Family," foster

parents would be required to work with achild's birth parents "before, during and

after placement," serving as mentors and

dealing closely with ACS caseworkers to

create a"community of care" for the child.

"I can't help but think that what we are

setting out to do is of truly historical pro

portions," Scoppetta told his audience of

social service and foster care providers . "Itis truly going to be a radical change."

Lacking Vital ContactsPeople who work in the field have long

argued that the city's ultra-centralized

child welfare system makes little sense.

ACS caseworkers are often unfamiliarwith the communities and lack vital con

tacts in places like schools, churches and

block associations . Social service agencies

contracted to help troubled families are

frequently located in remote neighbor

hoods, invisible to overwhelmed parents

who might voluntarily seek help. And

when children are placed miles away from

their homes, parents have trouble visiting

them and working with counselors-dras-

FEBRUARY 1998

tically slowing the reunification process.Few in the field are openly criticizing

the philosophy behind Scoppetta 's ambi

tious initiative. In fact many describe it as

"visionary" and even "revolutionary." But

they do have concerns about the details.

The draft plan Scoppetta released in late

November does not delineate how the tran

sition to his new system will be funded or

implemented , how eXlStmg community

resources will be used, or how ACS itself

will recast its bureaucracy to playa role in

a supposedly more collaborative, support

ive and creative child welfare system.

And the multimillion dollar nonprofit

foster care organizations with city contractsare not yet buying into the plan .The industry is suffering from sharp cuts in state

funding imposed two years ago, explains

Fred Brancato, executive director of the

Council of Family and Child Caring

Agencies (COFCCA), a foster care indus

try trade group. If here is no new money,"he says, "to try to respond to [Scoppetta's

plan] seems to be beyond what an agencycan do."

Resistance to change from within the

system-and a paucity of political

willpower at City Hall-have repeatedly

stymied similar reforms. As early as 1971,

the Citizens' Committee for Childrenissued a report emphasizing that child

welfare services should be stationed in

neighborhoods where most of the affected

families live. A half dozen mayoral com

missions and studies since have made sim

ilar recommendations. None of them have

generated significant reforms.

Given the historical context, it's easy to

understand why some providers are cynical

about Scoppetta's chances for success. "All

of it sounds never-never land, like a fairy

tale," says Jane Barrowitz, spokesperson

for the Jewish Child Care Association of

New York.

But Mayor Rudolph Giuliani appointedScoppetta in February 1996 with a mandate

to rebuild the system and, as an old friend

of the mayor, the commissioner has more

political support than his predecessors .Does that mean he can also muster

fmancial resources for the restructuring?

Insiders say a significant up-front invest

ment will be needed to revamp agencies so

they can better train foster parents and

staff, open new neighborhood offices,

recruit local boarding homes and build last

ing networks with other community-based

service providers. In the long run, they add,

the new system should save money by

PIPELINE

Advocates of

community-base

services. includi

John Sanchez of

East Side

Settlement Hous

want to prevent

ACS reformfrom

pushing asideminority-run

organizations.

M



•shortening the length of time children stay

in foster care. But this will take some time.

"We support innovation ," saysCOFCCAspokesperson Edith Holzer. "But we can'tdo it in a kneeling position. We don 't seehow you can attempt the reforms in thecommissioner's plan without bringing the

foster care system back up to adequatefunding." In 1995 , Governor GeorgePataki signed block grant legislationreducing child welfare funding to the cityby $131 million. The city's foster careagencies, group home providers and fosterparents are all receiving lower reimburse

ments these days, Holzer says.City Limits asked Scoppetta where the

money for his plan would come from."Costs will have to be addressed," he said.He did not, however, offer any details.

Independent Endowments

Some of the more innovative childwelfare nonprofits say this money crunchshouldn ' t undercut Scoppetta 's reforms,however. "I feel that money could bemuch better spent than it is now," saysSister Mary Paul Janchill , cofounder ofthe Center for Family Life, a Brooklynagency providing a variety of services tothe Sunset Park community. "We have ahuge amount spent on foster care andchild welfare, and neighborhood-basedfoster care is not more expensive."

Smaller, community-based providersdo have major concerns, though .They fear

Extended Family

Scoppetta's plan will, paradoxically, favor

the city 's big, centralized foster care agen

cies at the expense of organizations deeplyrooted in the neighborhoods.

Most of the larger organizations arebased in religious institutions and haveindependent endowments. They can better

afford to make the investment in additional services and training , notes JohnSanchez, executive director of the East

Side Settlement House, which providesfamily support services to parents in the

Mott Haven section of the Bronx.Scoppetta 's plan could encourage them tobecome heavyweight players in lowincome neighborhoods where smaller,minority-run agencies are located.

To comply with Scoppetta's mandate,the big agencies may look to merge withneighborhood-based agencies or pushthem out of the picture, inheriting their

valuable base of families . StephenChin1und, executive director of Episcopal

Social Services, drew loud applause fromthe packed Salvation Army auditoriumwhen he asked Scoppetta's deputy commissioners how agencies like his could be

expected to compete . "The agencies thatwill suffer the most from this are those

closest to what you are calling for." Noneof the five ACS staffers responded.

"I do have a level of trust about whereScoppetta is coming from ," adds Sanchez.

"But too often, these efforts are grafted ontothese communities without any knowledge

The Family To Family component of Scoppetta's plan would require foster parents to

serve as mentors for achild's natural parents. Advocates say it is on target philo

sophically-but there are some very big obstacles.

"Foster parents create a ot of friction with the bio parents," argues Edward Richardson,

asingle father who lost and regained custody of his four children. "Ninety percent of the

time, foster parents would rather keep the child than release the child." Richardson is aparent advocate at Bronx Family Central, aneighborhood-based family support agency

founded jOintly by two nonprofits, St. Christopher-Jennie Clarkson and Episcopal SocialServices.

He and his fellow parent advocates are firm believers in their own form of mentoring:

They work closely with parents who have children in the system, helping them maneuver

through court, social service bureaucracies, drug rehab and other programs.

But in Brooklyn's Sunset Park, the Center for Family Life has long since established asys-tem in which foster parents have a responsibility to work closely with achild's family, help

ing them achieve stability and learn parenting skills.

"We will not license any foster parent who is not going to be part of the work toward

reunification," says the organization's cofounder, Sister Mary Paul Janchill. "There have been

many foster parents who have worked very well with birth parents. It is a ask of working

together, of partnering, that occurs with the support ofagood foster care agency."-AF

....

of what's going on." The commissioner

should build ground rules into the plan that

will protect well-run, homegrown agencies,

he says. Otherwise, ACS may well lose the

important local connections these groupshave cultivated over the years.

''This is first and foremost a business,"

says one former city child welfare officialwho asked not to be identified. He predictsthat in 10 to 15 years, the city 's community-based network will consist of a fewmonolithic foster care agencies . "There arelarger forces at play than good will and

good intentions ," he warns.

Close Connections

Even setting aside power politics andmoney, there are also different sides to theargument that foster children should be

placed close to home. As Scoppettaexplains, 80 percent of children taken into

the city 's care ultimately return to theirfamily. Therefore it behooves the city tomaintain close connections between thechild and his parents or relatives.

But there are times when children needdistance. "If you take them out of the community, you don't have to worry aboutpeer pressure and they can start to gethelp ," says Matthew Matgranow, a 21-

year-old who spent 10 years in foster careliving in a half-dozen different neighborhoods. ''The whole issue, in the long run,

is what's better for them."Ultimately, it is the rights-and the

lives-of children and families that are atissue. Gail Nayowith, executive director ofthe Citizens ' Committee for Children,emphasizes that Scoppetta is headed in the

right direction. But she is calling forchanges at ACS as well. Staff must be better trained, the agency must do more to

educate parents about support programs

and officials should set up a complaintbureau for children, parents and foster parents who feel mistreated, she says .

''The scope of change that is being proposed is huge and the stakes are high," she

says. "We have to proceed with the maximum amount of intelligence ."As City Limits went to press, ACS offi

cials were honing the final plan . Theagency is expected to start seeking formalbids for new contracts this spring.

"If we wait for total agreement, we willnever get the system to where it needs tobe," Scoppetta told his audience at theSalvation Army. Then he took a pause foremphasis: "It will be better," he said , "thananything we 've had in the past." •

Adam Fifield is afrequent contributor to

City Limits .

CITVLlMITS



,eli

......... ....... .............. ........ ...... ...

,

tFrancisca Salce, a.k.a. Joe .

taking care of making herbusiness rise at her store on1121 St. Nicholas Avenue at

166th St. in Washington Heights.

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tasfing pizza, she'Was the first recipient of a loan undeThe Chase Community Development Group's SmaRetailers Lendin,g1;;Prograro.

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CHASE. The right relationship is everything.sM

© 1997 The Chase Manhattan Bank. Member FDIC.



What price are w e willing to pay to save th

Camelia Flye has

managed to get her

14-year-old son the

care he needs.

Others may not be

so lucky once the

state moves fami

lies on Medicaid to

managed care.

T he eight-year-old boy

bounded into the stair

well leading to the roof of

his Harlem school. A

hard-charging classroomaide carne up from behind just as the boy,

distant and methodical, was pulling a

handful of his shirt towards a lighter that

had appeared in his other hand .

When the flint sparked, the aidescreamed so loudly the boy simply forgot

to set himself on fIre.

Camelia Flye remembers taking her

son horne from school that day on the

East Side subway, which was strange

because she lived across from the

Cathedral of St. John the Divine on the

West Side. She was too distraught to even

think about what she was doing . Before

she could consciously form a plan, the

pair sleepwalked themselves into the

emergency room at Mt. Sinai, the best

hospital Flye had ever heard of.

"The thing I remember is that heasked the psychiatrist to come out and tell

me he was okay," says, sitting in an apart

ment dominated by her son's basketballtrophies. "I t absolutely shocked me. I

never heard him talk that way about me.

Then I realized how serious this all was."

Over the next few months, with

intensive therapy, rehabilitation and a

daily cupful of medication, the boy stabilized. His unpredictable behavior

which had already earned him placementin special ed-subsided, and he eventual

ly emerged from his medicinal stupor to

make a few friends. One of them was alittle girl around the same age who had

tried to fling herself off an apartment

building roof. Marta Nelson, Flye recalls,"was beautiful and sweet" and as angelic

looking as her own son.

She tells her son's story calmly, butwhen she thinks of Nelson and the other

children she saw in the hospitals, the ones

who tried to kill themselves, the tears roil

behind her glasses."They are little children," she says .

"What in the world do they have to worry

about?"

CITY LIMITS



city's most disturbed k i d s ~ ByGlenn Thrush

FEBRUARY 1998



Mental health care

executive Pasquale

DePetris sees

managed care as

an opportunity to

change a dysfunc-

tional system.

Cmelia Flye 's son, now 14, has had his setbacks,

but he has progressed so well over the last fewyears his teachers are talking seriously about taking him out of special ed and "mainstreaming" him

into regular academic classes when he becomes a

sophomore next year.Marta Nelson , also 14, is sitting in juvenile lock-up await

ing trial on second-degree murder charges.

Last November, Nelson , who in recent years has beenbounced between several foster home placements, hopped into acab with a 22-year-old friend, pulled out ahandgun and put a bul

let into the head of the Senegalese driver as he tried to escape.The daily papers focused on the fact that both girls seemed to beinvolved with the Bloods street gang, but to the people who knewher, it was the sad culmination of a deeply troubled childhood."She was a very sick child," Flye says. "I pray to God they'll begentle with her. She needs help."

The lives of severely emotionally disturbed children arefragile and their fates are unpredictable---especially if they happen to be poor. Mental health professionals have long known thatchildren like Marta Nelson are even more comp licated to treatthan mentally ill adults because their lives can be profoundlyaltered by the flawed institutions upon which they depend-families, schools, friends , social service agencies, even the criminaljustice system.

Yet for decades, the state- and federally-financed systemcobbled together to help these kids has devoted only a fraction ofthe resources necessary to keep them out of hospitals and jails."We just recently opened a facility in the South Bronx," says

Pasquale DePetris, vice-president of Steinway Child and FamilyServices, a multiservice mental health care agency based in LongIsland City, Queens. "I told my staff, 'The work you're doinghere is going to determine how many kids in this neighborhoodare going to wind up in that new juvenile correctional facilitythey just built across the street.'

"I honestly believe the reason you see all these kids in jailsis because we 've never received enough funding to really do ourjob," he adds.

That job is about to get a lot harder. Later than most states,

New York is embarking on the roadtoward moving its entire Medicaid popu

lation into managed care-a process thatfor most welfare recipients means beingplaced in an HMO . Tucked into this planis a more dangerous experiment, a program to move the state 's poorest and mostseverely disturbed children into managed

care .The outlines of the new plan are still

very vague, but according to advocatesand providers who have been workingwith Albany to come up with a new system, it's clear that the final product will

be geared towards containing costs in anHMO-style capitation system and keeping each child's use of mental health services to a bare minimum.

And City Limits has learned that thenew system will be designed to accommodate only 25 ,000 children statewideeven though a coalition of mental health

providers estimates the real number ofemotionally disturbed children in New

York State eligible for Medicaid-fundedservices to be about 120,000.

"It is a social experiment t1Je likes of which we have neverseen before," says DePetris, who has been part of the nonprofitsector's planning process . "I hope this works."

The terms of the experiment will be dictated by Albany, butits most volatile ingredients will be mixed together by local menta! health organizations. This small, tightly knit community ofneighborhood-based providers has the expertise to design a newsystem and will, quite possibly, form a network to administer theentire end result.

But there's a catch. Resources will shrink-and that means

some local groups will need to change or face extinction ."We already have a system that is dealing with only a frac

tion of the kids that need to be served," says Suri Duitch, a staffassociate with the Citizens' Committee for Children, which hasorganized an alliance of child mental health care providers toshape managed care. "I f kids aren ' t using services, it's becausethey can't get those services. We're talking about imposing managed care on a system that's never even been managed before."

The motive behind reform is the explosion in med

ical costs for the poor, an Old Faithful of red inkthat has nearly drowned the state 's budgetthroughout the 1990s. This year, Medicaid spending in New York State will reach $20.8 billion in

combined federal, state and city funding . In recent legisiative sessions, Albany lawmakers didn 't agree on much , but they didagree to pass a series of bills mandating that all Medicaid recipients-including mentally ill kids-be moved into managed care.

Under the current and much-maligned "fee-for-service" system, health care providers bill local Medicaid administrators for

each procedure they perform on covered patients. Traditionally,government pays predetermined rates for each service, whetherit's a tooth extraction, open-heart surgery or a weekly therapy session. Because more serious procedures are reimbursed at a higherrate, professionals have a fmancial incentive to do work thatbrings in the most money, even if it's not medically necessary. Inmental health care, the most expensive services are intensive day

treatmentprograms or

residential placements,

whichcan cost

CITY LIMITS



between $50,000 and $100,000 a year per patient.The managed care model turns this system on its head. The

state will now identify a set dollar amount for the sum total of allservices and it will be up to whoever runs a specific managedcare plan to determine how those resources can best be allocated .For child mental health, current Medicaid spending statewide isabout $350 million annually, according to Duitch. The total poolof money under the managed care system is unlikely to be anylarger, and could, in fact, be smaller.

To explain how all this works, DePetris-a clinical psychologist who also happens to have worked at Dun &

Bradstreet-sits at his conference table and draws a sweepingbell curve, representing the distribution of people on Medicaid.The bulge in the middle-the main body of the bell-representsthe bulk of people who will use services from time to time, typically once or twice a year. At the left margin of the chart-thetapering edge of the bell-is a small number of people who nevergo to the doctor at all. On the other end are chronic patients, therelatively small number of people who, in managed care parlance, "over-use" services. DePetris circles this end of the chart.

"This is the key, " he says. "These are where your emotionally disturbed kids fit. They need a lot more attention and money

than other people need."The 2.1 million members in New York's Medicaid system

include an extraordinary number of high-end users, many ofthem chronically ill, elderly or severely disabled .Because of this,abandoning the fee-for-service model poses problems : If he statekept all of the high-end users in the large pool of Medicaid managed care recipients, DePetris explains, they would siphon off toomany resources from more moderate users and force providersinto making across-the-board cutbacks that would affect everyone in the system.

As New York and other states began planning their newmanaged care systems, they started pressuring the Clinton administration to pull these high-use clients out of the mainstreamMedicaid population . The idea was to put them in their own sep

arate system, so each client could be given a greater per capitatreatment package than standard Medicaid clients. The result hasbeen a flurry of 16 waivers granted by the

U.S. Department of Health and HumanServices, creating so-called "SpecialNeeds Plans," or SNPs- pronounced,

appropriately enough, "snips."In July 1997, New York won federal

approval to create three such SNPs: onefor AlDSIHIV patients, another for adultswith mental illness, and a third for severely emotionally disturbed children. TheHlV and adult mental health SNPs arecurrently being bid out to managed carecompanies or networks of neighborhoodbased providers; they are expected to goon-line within a year or so. But the childmental health SNP will take at least onemore year to design because of its complexity-and the fear of Marta Nelsontype horror stories if kids fall between thecracks. Even then, the new system will

begin slowly, in the form of several moderately sized demonstration projects.

Yet if aunching the SNPs has helpedsolve a problem for the general Medicaid

population, it has created one massive

migraine for local providers.

FEBRUARY 1998

Trying to make sense of a system whose complexities are becoming increasingly brain-scramblingeven to professionals, DePetris clicks his penagain and dutifully scrawls another bell curve on

his memo pad. This time the chart represents the24,000 or so Medicaid children in the mental health care SNP.

For the majority of emotionally disturbed kids, he pointsonce again to that big bulge in the center. These are children whohave underlying problems and need moderate but consistenttreatment, kids with attention deficit disorders, for instance, or

behavioral problems associated with troubled home lives. On thelow-use end of the scale are kids who experience sporadicepisodes of mental illness and have less stressful family situations. At the high-use end of the bell-and he circles this partagain-are the most sick children, Marta Nelson and CameliaFlye's son among them.

Within the boundaries of this little circle lies a huge andpotentially fragmenting problem. Even inside the relatively safeharbor of a SNP, costs will still be capped. And that ultimatelymeans less money for everybody.

Because the vast majority of mental health services are provided by nonprofits-a result of the 30-year-old movement to

deinstitutionalize the mentally ill-local organizations will ultimately have to make the toughest decisions. Will a significantper

centage of the money continue to go to costly therapeutic servicesfor the sickest kids? Or will it be redistributed more cost-efficiently, spread around to a greater number of less-expensive socialservice programs?

It is a dilemma that threatens to split the tightly-woven net

work of neighborhood-based providers into two camps: thosewho want to preserve intensive services and those who want toadopt a more broad-based approach.

'There's not enough money in this system as it is," saysJohn Shaw, director of mental health at St. Dominic's House, afoster care provider that often deals with emotionally disturbedchildren. "Now people start cannibalizing each other for the few

dollars that are left under managed care."Last year, the state legislature acknowledged the dilemma

Day treatmen

centers, like

Lifeline in

Queens, succe

by providing

years of educa

tion along wit

clinical servic

Managed care

threatens theivery existence



and agreed to temporarily "carve out" several services from managed care, in effect allowing the old fee-for-service to continuefor the most intensive treatment programs. Among those servicesare state psychiatric centers, long-term residences and communi

ty-residence programs.But those exemptions expire in 1999. And there 's a growing

recognition among providers that all but the most intensive services need to be thrown back into the managed care pot if the system is to have any chance of succeeding . For one thing, they say,managed care is an effective system only if the pool of participants is large and inclusive . And for the system to be flexibleenough to promote efficiency as well as quality care, every service needs to be available to clients without bureaucratic barrierserected to protect special services.T he details of the managed care debate may seem

esoteric and technical to outsiders. But they produce a visceral reaction from Ethel Wyner, whowatches over 155 severely ill children at theLifeline Center in Douglaston, Queens . The

state's inclusion of day treatment programs in the SNP has placedLifeline in jeopardy of a radical downsizing-or of elimination .

ForWyner, the fight is

et classrooms, with their 3-to-l student-to-staff ratios, sit next toeven cozier counselors ' offices. Packed into Lifeline's two small

buildings are social workers, nurses, occupational therapists , psychologists and psychotherapists, along with a complement ofNew York City public school teachers. There is a doctor on staffwho adjusts children 's medication levels, balancing their need tobe alert with the teachers' need to maintain control.

But the essence of what makes the place different from standard special education settings is found in two tiny aquamarine

rooms that could easily be mistaken for a couple of cleaned-out custodial closets. The children walking by take no notice, but the cells

strike a discordant note, compared to the vistas of children skippingbetween classes and disassembling their tuna fIsh sandwiches.

"These are the quiet rooms," Wyner says . "They are used

for when children throw fIts and really act out." Wyner's assistant chimes in: "Did you notice the doors? They 're the heavyduty type. We have to replace them from time to time, and I getthem from a company that makes them for jails."

To Wyner, the rooms aren 't an embarrassment, they are thereason she's in business. "These are not children who would beappropriately placed in other settings," she says.

In meetings with state health officials recently, Wyner has

been told day treatment will be targeted for signifIcant cutsbecause the price of Lifeline's services are too expensiveto be supported under the managed care model. Currently,Lifeline's students remain in the school for as long as sixyears, until they are capable of returning to regular special

ed classes.But now the pressure is on to shorten those stays sig-

nifIcantly-and use day treatment as a short-term tool tostabilize children , then ship them back out to clinical andeducational environments that are less intensive and less

costly.

as personal as her commit-ment to an organizationshe founded with a groupofQueens parents in 1969.

On this point, executives who run larger, more diversifIed organizations-and who can tolerate the loss of theirsmaller day treatment programs-believe Wyner will have to get

in line or get out of the way.

Wyner, who runs her center with a fIrm if manicured hand,is waging a campaign to have day treatment centers carved out so

that she can protect her fragile funding sources from the managedcare scalpel.lt's astand that is controversial with her fellow mental health providers.

For Wyner, the fIght is precisely as personal as her 40-yearcommitment to an organization she founded with a group ofQueens parents in 1959. That year, her group opened the fIrstschool catering to the needs of "attic children"-kids with severeproblems who couldn 't function in normal school environmentsand were kept home by their parents . "The options back thenwere to put them in the state hospitals," says Wyner, sitting in an

office flIIed with donated furniture and a view of the largelyabandoned Creedmoor Psychiatric Center, a massive brickpilethat warehoused an astounding 6,000 patients 40 years ago. "Oryou could take them to private clinics , which even back in thefIfties cost something like $20,000 a year."

Over the years, Wyner and her staff have created a model

facility for educating and treating children from ages 4 through16 whose mental illness places them on the severe end of thespectrum of emotional disturbance . The students, who arereferred by the Board of Education , are among the toughest casesto deal with-toddlers who are so deeply withdrawn they hardlynotice when a visitor enters their classroom , hyperactive oraggressive grade- schoolers who frayed the nerves of their special ed teachers, psychotic teens who would be prone to hurtingthemselves if they didn't stick to a strict regimen of counselingand medication .

To deal with this range of problems , Lifeline has created an

environment that is a hybrid of clinic and school. The vest-pock-

''There are organizations out there that need to change whatthey are doing in order to survive . It's a philosophically differentway of seeing the process ," DePetris explains. "Day treatment is

the most costly of services ," he adds. "You may have 900 kidstaking up 30 percent of the funding. I don't think we've done

enough to be innovative."Wyner 's anger flares when she hears this kind of talk.

"These people are running industrial companies in a sense," sheresponds. "It 's not based on what a child's needs are. It's based

on where the bucks are coming from ."She has powerful allies on either side of the aisle in

Albany-including Republican State Senator Frank Padavan,who has helped Wyner by winning passage of legislation pro

tecting day treatment facilities in the past. "I consider this a fIghtfor my life," she says. "This is what keeps me from retiring to

play with my grandchildren and bake brownies ."B ut the priorities articulated by DePetris and othersaren't merely an industrial budget-cutting strategy. They represent a philosophical shift towardsintegrating intense social work with traditionalmental health strategies .

"You can 't extricate a kid's mental health problems fromeverything else in their lives," says Julia Stewart of the Puerto RicanFamily Institute, which runs abroad slate of mental health programs."Clinic-based , intensive therapy is nice, but what does it do to help

a child whose family is faIling apart?What you need to do is go into

CITY LIMITS



HouseCalls

Wen ll-year-old Jonathan

was banned from the schoolbus for hitting the driver, his

mother Nery Bonet knew exactlywhat to do. Bonet, who works as a

parent advocate for the MentalHealth Association, called her caseworker, who immediately agreed totake the boy to and from schoolherself.

"There was no hassle," says

Bonet, whose son takes Lithium tocope with depression. "My caseworker is great."

To parents with troubled kids, thewords "caseworker" and "great"seldom reside so peaceably in thesame sentence. But Bonet's caseworker is part of aspecial programgeared toward wedding social services and mental health care.

So far, the state-funded Homeand Community-Based WaiverProgram (HCBWP) is only asmalldemonstration pl'Qiect serving thefamilies of children who would otherwise be placed in state hospitalsor residential programs. But themove toward intensive case management-and the move away fromintensive inpatient and residentialprograms-is likely to be a key

component of the new managed caresystem currently being designed forthe state's Medicaid-eligible, emotionally disturbed kids.

The central premise of intensivecase management is that mentalhealth workers need to stabilizevolatile family environments beforethey can successfully treat achild'sunderlying psychiatric problems. Andthat means practitioners mustspend more time in their clients'homes-and less times usheringpatients onto the clinic couch.

Bonet's son still receives standardtherapy, but he also gets avisitevery week from an academic skillscounselor, a 24-hour-a-day crisiscoordinator and his primary casemanager.

Families in the program also haveaccess to respite care workers whowill take children out to the moviesor place them in an overnight bedwhen astressed-out family is on theverge of fragmenting.

"About 80 to 85 percent of whatyou're seeing [in an emotionally dis-

FEBRUARY 1998

turbed child's behavior] is theimpact of those systems," says JohnShaw, director of mental health withSt. Dominic's Home, a oster careagency that has a12-child commu

nity-based demonstration pl'Qiect."It takes awhile to get at the actualmental health issues. In a ot ofcases, the behavior you see is ahealthy reaction to bad circumstances."

To the state officials obsessedwith cutting Medicaid costs, HCBWPis acheaper alternative than inpatient and residential programs. Ayear in the program costs about$54,000 per child. The same stay in

ahospital can MIn in excess of$100,000 per year.

Some less labor-intensive casemanagement programs are evencheaper than standard outpatientpsychiatric treatments.

"The main goal is to keep the kidsout of the heavy clinical environments," says Julia Stewart, head ofmanaged care for the Puerto RicanFamily Institute, which Mlns a ederally funded program for children. Forchildren who have just been releasedfrom the hospital, case workers from

the institute can spend from 15 to 17hours aweek in the house, workingwith parents or guardians to stabilize the family. But workers mightspend even more time if he parents

have AIDS, dMlg problems or mentalhealth issues.

"The cost of intensive case management is about $550 amonth,"adds Stewart. "It's about $140 asession for outpatient therapy. With

one you get a ull month's visitswhenever the family needs it-withthe other you get four therapy visitsin an office."

For Bonet, the waiver programhas been a ifesaver. "If it wasn't for

this," she says, "he wouldn't be living with me. It was just getting outof control."

But Bonet doesn't know howmuch longer the services will last.Children are typically cycled out tospecial ed or aclinical therapistafter ayear, and her son's expiration date is about to come due. "Ihaven't thought about what I'll dothen," she says. "I deal with life onaday-to-day basis. It does no goodto worry about what's going to happen next." -GT

Nery Bonet say

an innovative

case managem

program is the

only thing keep

ing her son

lonathan (fore-

ground) out of residential trea

ment facility.



Local mental

health groups

need to sort out

their differences ifthey are to create

a system that can

reach all the kids

who need help.

that home and help stabilize things. You can't do it by sitting in youroffice and waiting for the client to come in. We as mental health

practitioners have lost our commitment to communities."''The whole concept of aclinic with a one-time-a-week visit

doesn't work," agrees Jacob Barak, vice-president in charge ofmanaged care for the Jewish Board of Family and Children'sServices, the largest children's mental health provider in the city."I'm convinced that moving to managed care is the best way to

change that system."The centerpiece of the reform these practitioners promote is

an intensive case management system based on the principle that

social workers should be given caseloads small enough to allowthem to spend their time in the homes of clients, helping familiesget the services they need to stabilize and care for their children.

This "case-coordination" model, its proponents argue, canlargely replace more intensive therapies, including state hospitals, residential care settings, some day treatment programs andeventually even the clinic-based approaches currently used by

most mental health providers.There are several case-coordination demonstration projects

underway right now in the city (see "House Calls"). All have one

aspect in common: Participating families have access to help 24hours a day, seven days a week-whenever and wherever theyneed it.

The demonstration projects are an exception, but as a gen

eral rule, Medicaid doesn't reimburse these kinds of services."It's crazy, but mental health providers are not funded to bringpeople care in their homes," says John Shaw of St. Dominic'sHouse. "I can have a psychiatrist go to the home to see what'sgoing on, but I can't get the money to send someone into thathome to keep things together." And that's a basic element ofintensive case management.

But under the managed care system now being devised, thatwill probably change. The most compelling argument to thestate's bean-counters for promoting case-coordination is the factthat it is often cheaper than standard outpatient therapy-as littleas $550 per month.

Thus, many community-based groups who buy into the

model have agreed to accept the basic realities of managed care,

including tighter caps on spending and theend of most carve-outs protecting specia

services.''The idea that managed care's no

going to happen is nutty," Stewart says"The [current) system's unintegrated andperhaps, grossly misdirected. Everyaspect of the system needs to change. Andwe might as well be the ones to do it."I f there is division among

providers about the need fochange, there is broad agreemenon one fundamental issue: Theproviders themselves should b

the ones who devise the new system.

In a report issued last October, th

Children's Mental Health Alliance,broad-based group of 45 mental healthcare organizations from around the citythrew down the gauntlet. They outlinedseries of principles managed care mus

reflect: adequate funding, good coordination between agencies, a respect for thexpertise and effectiveness of loca

groups, and a comprehensive statewide assessment to find ouhow many kids really need to be included in the SNPs.

"I think we are going to need to create a balanced systemthat preserves all of what we do well," says the CitizensCommittee's Suri Duitch, the report's author. "We can't forgethat this has the potential to be a great opportunity to figure ou

how to serve kids better."The coalition members also agreed that one of the option

for running managed care within the SNP should be a network othe local groups themselves.

But the main message the group wants to send to the stat

is that the system should not be designed by outsiders-mosespecially not by a for-profit HMO.

"The SNP must not be able to deny access to services or create obstacles to service through administrative and bureaucraticburdens on the child and family," Duitch says. "We do not advo

cate adopting [an HMO as the care provider) as a w ~ l e . The system would have strong incentives to underserve children."

Jacob Barak puts it even more simply: "You just can't hava big HMO come in here and run everyone into the ground."

No one knows that better than Joan Papageorgiou,Queens parent who was a member of a private HMO throughher employer's health plan. She had to fight the HMO to obtainappropriate services for her 17-year-old son, who had beendiagnosed with an attention deficit disorder. Because her son

needed more help than what was offered by the HMO's basiplan, she found herself on the wrong end of the managed carebureaucracy, having to fight for every additional expense heson incurred. "You're allowed only 20 visits. By the tim

you're done with the intake and the evaluations, you've used up

like half your visits," she recalls.Not only did she have to go through a bureaucratic hassl

but she had a hard time finding a provider near her house whowould accept her insurance.

"It's a little scary that they now want to put the whole system on managed care," says Papageorgio, who now works as

parent advocate for Steinway Services."Because there have been times when I would have killed

to have my kid on Medicaid." •

CITVLlMITS



he Friendly Fuld Head Start Center sits surrounded

by the huge, abandoned Hayes Homes public hous

ing project in Newark's Central Ward. If it weren'tfor a few cars parked nearby and parents occasionally bringing children in and out the front door, the

two-story building with iron bars on the windows and a dismal

stone exterior could easily pass for empty."We can't control what the outside looks like," says direc

tor Helen D. Reid. "But when the children corne inside, we make

sure it's a nice and friendly haven for them." In fact, the contrast

is shocking. The center is the only occupied building amid 20

acres of dark, l2-story

towers. As I stand onthe cracked concreteplayground during the

first of many visits over

the course of severalmonths, I feel the eyes

of the thousands of pan

eless windows-somestill framed by flutter

ing curtains valiantly

holding on.

A few years ago,

the Hayes project was

home to 5,000 tenants

FEBRUARY 1998

in nearly 1,500 apartments. Built nearly 45 years ago, the cityhousing authority never put adequate resources into its mainte

nance and management. And so by the 1980s, conditions were

horrendous , crime rates were high, and city officials were plac

ing one demolition plan after another on the table. Tenant leaders

and local organizers fought against razing the buildings for years,

but by the early 1990s, Hayes Homes was emptying out.

The demolition began in December. The city has since

knocked down five of the towers, including one directly behind the

Friendly Fuld Center. The rest will soon follow. The buildings are

to be replaced by 206 federally subsidized prefab row houses,

developed by the New

Communities Corporation, a local commu

nity development group.

Inside the Head

Start center, the class

rooms and play areas are

bright and clean, lined

with books and draw

ings by the 93 childrenwho attend. Twenty

three adults work here

for Head Start, and

downstairs a neighbor

hood center has an after-

Danie1le, & stu

dentin theI'riendly FuldBeadStartprogram, sta.res oat th e aban-

doned publichousingbuildin

that encircle thcenter.

In Hovember, tfull contingentB&yesBomes

was still st&Dding.The buildi

on the left bas

8lDce been torndown, and &ll

are sl&ted fordestruction.



Aknot or Bead Start kids walts ror their parentsoutside the Friendly FuldCenter last March after a run day oractivities.

OPPOS1'l"B: Ta.mmy grins through thewire rence that separates the Bead

Start play area from the looming structures on the 2O-acre site.

By January, demolition was in higb gear as crews toppled tower after tower.The Stella Wright Public BouslngPrqject in the background remaina open, butthe city hopes to eventually tear it down as weD.

school program and summer day camp for children aged 6 to 14. Inone form or another, the Fuld Neighborhood House has been on o

near this site since 1911, when it was apredominantly Jewish com

munity. It merged with the Friendly Neighborhood House in 1971

Parents from what's left of the surrounding community areencouraged to volunteer. Reid says that despite the abandoned

buildings that surround them, the center doesn 't really feel iso

lated because it is still connected to the families that had lived

here. Although they've moved out into other parts of the Centra

Ward, they continue to bring their children to the program.

The center also helps some parents go back to school, ge

credentials and return to work at the center full-time. Others go

on to teach in the public schools. School staff nearby say

Friendly Fuld children are easy to work with and well prepared

for kindergarten.

I

utside the center, I notice people wandering around

the buildings, plodding along the disheveled side

walks or sitting on the crumbled concrete walls likeghosts amid the ruins. Each explains that he or she i

a former tenant spending time remembering life in the

Hayes Homes.

''This place wasn 't so bad. Everyone knew each other, and

it worked out. The elevators broke down a lot, and that wasn'

good," James tells me. "I f these buildings were in Short Hills

they would never have been let go like this. They would have

been kept up, and we would still have a place to live.""I grew up here," Lamott says . "I miss it, and I come back

as often as I can just to be around the place.You know if the peo

ple in charge had family living here, it would never have been

neglected like it was. Nobody cares about the poor until it comes

time for blaming ."

CITY LIMITS



IDslde,thel'riendlyFu1dCenter lives upto it s name.Bere, .&tis con-

centrates on the

tine art of shoe

tying.

Shirley says she used to live in Hayes with her mother, whohas since moved to Florida. "It was awful. The water was brown

and the plumbing was always backed up ," she recalls. But sheadds that she finds herself nostalgic for those days: "I come backhere because I miss my mother."

During one of my visits last fall, fences , yellow tape anddynamite lines were in place in preparation for the first demolition,and folks from the surrounding community were carting away any

thing that could be turned into money before it all went to the

dumping site. The blocks around Hayes are among the poorest in

the Central Ward, which has the highest poverty rate in Newark.

"The Hayes Homes is an abandoned city in the heart of a

city," says Ray Codey, director of development for New

Communities. "High rises are not by definition doomed to fail

ure. They are if they aren't managed and respected properly.Trump Tower works. There are many high-rise buildings for lowincome people in our country and in the world, and if they arewell maintained, they work."

Five years ago, New Communities had plans to use a $24million federal homeownership grant to renovate two of theHayes towers into condominiums. The city housing authorityrefused to cooperate, however, and tenants charged it would cre

ate divisions between renters and owners. Now, in addition to the206 townhouses , the group plans to construct a community center with social services, employment and job-training programs,and daycare facilities.

CITY LIMITS



•

hen Hayes Homes opened in 1954, ReverendBenjamin F. Johnson, aBaptist minister who spokeat its opening, said the project "would do more todefeat Communism than 100 Joe McCarthys ."Mayor Leo P. Carlin commented at the festivities

that those "who Iive in bright and cheeried surroundings, such as

those provided in this project, will lose the feeling of futility ofexistence and discouragement which breeds crime."

Afew years later, a state law was passed prohibiting discrim-

ination in public housing, and Hayes Homes was forced to changeits policy of segregating buildings by race. Many white tenantsmoved out. Those who held the purse strings began to lose interest.

For the next 20 years, city officials and local leaders arguedabout who was to blame for the declining physical condition ofthe project. In 1979, housing authority director Milton Buckblamed union maintenance workers for not doing their jobs andbureaucrats for abusing contract rules, and said his agency sim-plydidn 't have enough money for repairs. The feds shot back thatNewark had failed to spend $50 million allocated for moderniza-tion. Afew years later, HUD administrators charged the NewarkRedevelopment and Housing Authority with simply not applyingfor money it was eligible to receive.

In 1985, Newark filed plans to tear down the complex.

FEBRUARY 1998

From that point on, virtually nothing was spent on repairs, andtenants had to fight for everything .

Helen Reid and I stand looking out at the bleakness of theabandoned buildings through the Head Start center's metal-barred windows. "They'll be imploding these apartments soonenough ," she says . "We don't know what will be happening to us,

but I hope we can stay.We are a vital service to so many childrenwhose families desperately need us."

As I walk back to my car through the weeds and broken

glass, I think about the families that had lived here trying to bringup their children, following their hopes amid the dreary, danger-ous hallways and broken elevators . Now their memories are wait-ing for the wrecking ball.

Few outsiders know about the sparkling world alive behindthe Friendly Fuld facade. Too often our attitudes are set by whatappears to be, rather than by what we would fmd if we botheredto open the door, sit down and learn what is truly going on. Toooften we judge a place by where it is. Not expecting any good ina "bad" neighborhood , that is all we see. •

Helen M. Stummer has been photographing the residents ofNewark's Central Wardfor 17 years. Her work will be shown at

O.K. Harris in Soho from March 21 through April lB.

Many formerresidents visitethe lla.yes Homin themonthsbefore the demlition. Shirley

remembers thesense ofcommunity amidst the

ma.ny problems



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Placing the Blame..... --......-"

By Kirk Vandersall

"The Future Once Happened

Here: New York, D.C., L.A. and

the Fate ofAmericasBig Cities, "

by Fred Siegel, The Free Press,

1997, 260 pages, $24.Fred Siegel doesn't like the direc

tion of late twentieth century

urban America, though he's

hopeful about its recentadvances under the direction of a

new generation of activist big-city mayors. He is not alone.

Residents from every comer of our cities have been dissatisfied

with the strength of their local economies, the safety of their

streets, the quality of their public schools and the cohesivenessof their neighborhoods. Many were only too happy to "hire"

new leaders like Richard Riordan and Rudolph Giuliani and

give the incumbents and their ideas a rest.

But while I can agree these new mayors have begun to suc

cessfully address important issues long ignored or ineffectually

handled by their more liberal predecessors, Siegel-a Cooper

Union professor and New Democrat theorist-stretches his

argument thin to develop his central thesis: Beware the urban

liberals who have destroyed our cities. While many of Siegel's

conclusions about how better to manage cities are on target, his

historical argument is highly selective, ultimately making "TheFuture Once Happened Here" an enormously frustrating book.

According to Siegel, New York, Los Angeles and

Washington, D.C., squandered their rich inheritance on liberal

follies and policy wagers over the last 30 years. Guilt-ridden

liberals decided to exempt African-Americans from the immi-grant model of acculturation, replacing the settlement houses

and New Deal work ethic with a no-strings-attached welfare

system. Radical black activists and white leftists constructed a"riot ideology," where non-blacks and non-liberals were held

hostage morally and fiscally by the threat of riots and crime.

Siegel claims this riot ideology was responsible for the

"explosion" of the welfare state, rampant crime, unaccountable

social service agencies, a bulky public workforce, overdepen

dence on federal funds, and the practice of accusing reformerswith racism. These ills caused, and then defmed, the decay of

America's three capitals.

There 's a lot to deal with here, but I will address just a few

items. First, Siegel's discussion of race reduces the breadth and

depth of black experience in American cities to a simple dis

course on the history of black nationalism. Where his history of

New York racial politics is more expansive, it closely tracks

columnist Jim Sleeper's study of the city's race relations in his

1990 book, 'The Closest of Strangers." Sleeper, however, is

more attuned to the give-and-take between the city's racial

groups. He notes tribalism in New York goes back at least to

FEBRUARY 1998

Tammany, but today "because

there's no dominant tribe, toler

ance is what makes things go."

Siegel, on the other hand, seems to

envision a city where we just won't talkabout race any more. We do, indeed, need

public policy which presumes and requires

personal responsibility transcending race,

as Siegel insists. But that is not usually the

most important issue when assessing the

community impact of a particular policy.

Second, a more thorough comparison of

the three cities would have been instructive.

Siegel relies primarily on New York to devel

op his argument and therefore misses some key

points. For example, he praises Los Angeles for

focusing on bridges, highways and general

infrastructure while deriding New York for

spending its federal money on welfare. Yet he fails to mention

that in the power-sharing arrangements between Los Angeles,

Los Angeles County and California, the city of Los Angeles has

little control over anything other than infrastructure. L.A.

County controls the welfare system, while New York City bears

one of the highest shares of administrative and fiscal responsi

bility for welfare in the country.

Third, Siegel's history has some serious omissions. While

there were indeed some "gigantic policy wagers" made by iiI>-

erals in the 1960s, the seeds of neighborhood conflict and dete

rioration were planted long before the welfare rights movement

and the Ocean-Hill Brownsville conflict over race and schooling. Sixties liberals inherited a long legacy of neighborhood

redevelopment, suburban subsidies and metropolitan highwayconstruction that isolated city neighborhoods and restricted their

development. The resulting economic decentralization drained

jobs from the city, further weakening New York City's fiscal sta

bility. Robert Moses was not exactly the archetypal urban liber

al that Siegel fmds culpable-but despite some of his achieve

ments, Moses is clearly responsible for many of the biggest chal

lenges to community development in New York.

Finally, Siegel correctly points out Giuliani 's tragically inad

equate attention to New York City's failing school system.

Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley, by comparison, has staked

his political future on a virtual takeover of the Chicago Public

Schools. This requires the mayor to articulate a vision of the role

and purpose of public schools and their relation to the city's

economy and civic life. And in a city like New York, this wouldrequire extraordinary civic leadership as much as good policy.

If you seek the provocative-if loosely formulated-musings of an informed iconoclast, you have the right book. But

from a historian, I expected more. If you want to piece together

the political history of urban policy in New York or struggle with

the relationship between race and policy, start elsewhere.•

Kirk Vandersall is coordinator of research and planningfor the Paramount Unified School District in LA. Countyand is former executive director of he NYC Coalition Against

Hunger.

REVIEW



CITYVIEW

states to offer voter registration materials to welfare recipients

and the disabled.

He failed, but since taking office, the Pataki and Giuliani

administrations have worked to undermine Motor Voter 'simplementation . Pataki cut Motor Voter funds to the State

Board of Elections, and delayed and prevented effective imple

mentation of the law in agencies that serve low-income and

Co Cet Dem Votesurban populations-prompting voting rights orga

nizations and eventually the U.S. JusticeDepartment to sue the state. In turn, the governor

has urged Congress to repeal Motor Voter altogeth-

Ron Hayduk was

Coordinator of

the NYC Voter

Assistance

Commission from

1993 to 1995,

and is currently

assistant profes-

sor ofPolitics at

Touro College.

By Ron HaydukPlitical pundits have all but declared the 1998 elec

tions over, pronouncing George Pataki unbeatable

and Al D' Amato nearly so. But the pundits' reading

of the polls is far too premature.

Just look at the numbers. Recent Republican vic

tories in New York were based on razor-thin margins that

could easily be reversed. The bulk of the state's regis-

tered voters are Democrats, most of whom reside in New

York City. They outnumber Republicans in the state by afive-to-three margin. The curse of the Democrats has

er. Giuliani, for his part, has blocked efforts by

New York City'S own voter registration agency, the Voter

Assistance Commission-which I used to head-to use city

agencies to register more voters.

Despite these impediments, hundreds of thousands of unreg

istered New Yorkers have been added to the registration rolls in

the past few years, thanks to Motor Voter and to registration

efforts by local groups.

Recent Republican vidories

in New York were basedbeen low and declining voter turnout-particularly ofurban, low-income and minority Democrats-which has

prevented the party, and the city, from retaining the keys

to the Governor's mansion.

Remember, George Pataki defeated Mario Cuomo in

the last gubernatorial election by a mere 173,798 votes

out of more than five million votes cast. Six years ago,

on razor-thin margins that

could easily be reversed.AI D'Amato sank Bob Abrams by only 124,838 votes. Both

candidates had a roughly 1 percent margin of victory. These

are weak odds on which to bet that the Republican

regime will continue well into the next millennium.

To be sure, the Democratic Party 's weak performance has resulted from many things-tired candi

dates and a fractured state party among them. But at

the end of the day, it was low voter turnout-and the

Democrats' unwillingness to mount a massive get

out-the-vote campaign-that doomed both Cuomo

and Abrams .Regardless of all the high-gloss ad c a m p a i g n ~

and boutique polling strategies peddled by high

priced political consultants, the fact remains that

electoral politics is a relatively simple business. InPataki's 1994 win, turnout upstate was higher than

normal-about two-thirds of the registered elec

torate. And even though Cuomo received 72 per

cent of the votes cast in New York City, only 49percent of registered voters turned out in the five bor

oughs. We've got the voters, but they've got the votes.If even a small portion of the disaffected voter base here in

the city decides to take part in this year 's election, the incum

bents' presumed victories could well be thwarted.

Ironically, Republicans seem to understand this calculus

better than Democrats. The GOP has worked assiduously

against efforts to expand the franchise in areas where minority

voters are likely to turn out heavily for Democratic candidates.

D' Amato unsuccessfully opposed the federal "Motor Voter"

law in Congress and sought to remove a key provision forcing

So why aren't these potential new voters playing a decisive

role for the Democrats? Because the party is not exactly out

there seeking their support. If it were, Democrats could proba

bly choose the state's leaders from now until the end of time.The problem is that the ever-increasing costs of elections have

pushed the Democrats closer to people wealthy enough to fill

their campaign coffers-a powerful constituency that makes its

own demands of the party. Those demands represent a very dif

ferent agenda than that which would spark a fire underneath the

non-voters and get them to the polls.

Candidates with the political ~ a v v y to recognize the poten

tial power of these non-voters-and the political gumption to

wage a real, issue-oriented campaign that speaks to the interests

of this sleeping giant-could turn the tide on the Republicansand send them back out to sea.

Without drawing the party's traditional base into the politi

cal process, Democrats ' attempts to appeal to a magical "mid

dle" or to supposed "swing" voters have become a recipe for

continued failure. Relying solely upon high-priced, poll-crazycampaign consultants for advice won't do either. Take the

example of Ruth Messinger's campaign-which, in its consul

tant-driven wisdom, opted to not open a single outerborough

campaign office and to focus instead on an underfinanced

media blitz.

This year's Democratic challengers should learn what New

York politicians used to know by heart: You need to get out

the vote by concentrating on field organizing. You need to

knock on doors and ask for votes. And then you need to startlistening to what those voters want from you and find a way

to deliver. •

CITY LIMITS



Survey SaysChlldr.n's HMlth:

Race, Poverty and Healthnews in "Growing Up ...Against the Odds: The Health

of Black Children and Adolescents in New York City" is

bad, very bad. Sure, a lot of the facts and figures have the

ring of the all-toa-familiar: Homicide is the leading cause ofdeath for blacks aged 15 to 24. Black mothers are almost fivetimes less likely to get prenatal care than their white counterparts.Sickle-cell disease strikes about one in 375 African-Americanchildren, but funding for research doesn 't reflect this prevalence.

Yet page upon page of statistics explaining how the odds arestacked against New York's young black population makes forpretty grim reading. The Urban Issues Group report, edited by

Dr. June Jackson Christmas, catalogues everything from tuberculosis to suicide. It also explores the factors that exacerbatehealth problems, including homelessness, malnutrition and lackof health insurance. Again, numbers prove their assertions.

But thorough as the study appears, its authors contend thefull picture cannot be seen clearly without plugging gaps andresolving inconsistencies in the available information .

"Growing Up...Against the Odds," $20 suggested, UrbanIssues Group, 212-973-3602.

W.lfar. Programs:

National Trouble

Welfare reform has broadsided New York with suchtremendous changes, sometimes it's hard to remember other cities face the same problems.

Arecent 34-city welfare survey from the U.S .Conference of

Mayors helps regain some perspective. Unfortunately for comparison purposes , the report doesn't include NYc. But it doesgive insight into problems and solutions from Chicago to LittleRock, Arkansas, on topics such as jobs, assisted housing, emergency food requests and interaction with state-level agencies.

Of course, most of the material is self-reported by mayoralstaffs, so a reader must take the "exemplary programs" with a

grain of salt (imagine what Rudy's PR crew would tout!). Thatsaid, even a quick glance shows that New York could learn a

thing or two from other cities. For example, Philadelphia'sWorkwise program includes four weeks in the classroom and90 days of job search assistance for welfare recipients. AndDenver has a program that trains recipients in high demandoccupations , such as nursing and child care.

Overall, statistics reveal an urban landscape struggling tohandle federal demands. Seventy-one percent of the respondents reported their state does not cover the cost of centerbased child care. Inadequate transportation is a problem in 84percent of the cities . And requests for emergency food assistance from legal immigrants increased in 75 percent of thecities.

The surveyors, like most mayors, didn't look into buildinga political consensus to change the welfare laws, however.Instead they ' re settling for ways to lessen the laws ' impact.

"Implementing Welfare Reform in America's Cities," $15,

U.S. Conference ofMayors, 202-293-7330.

FEBRUARY 1998

• • •Crantwrltlng: AMMOAGlimpse Behind the Curtain ........ IIII!!_I!'!- , " ~ ! P . ! ! '

Don 't spend too much time on what you 've already

accomplished . Demonstrate your accountability to thecommunity. Make an attempt at evaluation. Don 't over

state the neighborhood's need .

These and dozens of other suggestions for successfulgrantwriting fill two-thirds of the Fall 1997 issue of"Community Change," the semi-regular newsletter of theCenter for Community Change. In one article, seven foundationofficials reveal what makes them move on after a quickglance--e.g. "Slick proposals get very skeptical looks. Areally

well done proposal is simply easy to read and well thought out."Another piece counts off 10 mistakes community groups makewhen seeking funding. Some are obvious, like failing to makea good case for your project. Others are more fundamental

like relying too much on foundations for money, and notenough on your own community or membership.

Each issue of "Community Change" covers a variety of topics of interest to anyone working at the grassroots , especially in

economic development. For example, the 24-page Fall issuealso covers the inequality inherent in the current economic

boom, how the U.S. stacks up against other industrializednations in supporting workers, and ideas for increasing the

number of decent jobs for people coming off welfare. It's a

potent combination of concrete suggestions and insight intoinner-city economics.

"Community Change, " $20for4 issues, CCC, 202-342-0567.

Hlsc.llanMUs:

Revolving Door, Enviro Health• What 's a welfare official to do when the government safetynet is being dismantled? Move to the private sector and land a

welfare contract, of course. The Service EmployeesInternational Union has published a list of former publicemployees nationwide who traded in government paychecks for

high-level, highly paid positions in private corporations cozying up to their former agencies . One notable New York inclusion : Richard 1. Schwartz, former senior advisor to Mayor

Giuliani who designed much of the current workfare programand went on to create "Opportunity America." Others havemoved into the lobbying business for Lockheed Martin, EDS,

Maximus and other top welfare contractors. "Big Bucks

Bonanza: Welfare 'Reform ' and the Revolving Door; " Free,SEIU, 202-898-3347 .• If you need to know more about the link between seeminglyomnipresent chemicals and human health , try the "ResourceGuide on Children 's Environmental Health," a new tome froma well respected national organization with serious medicaldepth. The 244-page guide provides a thorough list of addresses, phone numbers and information available from both privateand government agencies. Chapters list useful databases and

surveys, as well as a glossary of industry terms. "ResourceGuide on Children's Environmental Health, " $15, Children'sEnvironmental Health Network, 510-450-3818.

W



EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR . Asian children's policy/advocacy nonprofit seeks energetic and passionate leader for political advocacy, community organizing,strategic planning, fundraising, administration and PRo Required: 3+ yearsprofessional experience with high-level responsibilities, BA, strong analyti

cal/leadership/fundraising skills, nonprofit management experience, strongpublic speaking/writing skills. Send cover letter, resume and salary requirements . CACF Search Committee, 120 Wall Street, Third Roor, New York, NY

10005. Fax: 212-344-5636. (http://www.cacf.org)

SPECIAl. ASSISTANT TO THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR needed for rapidly growing nonprofit organization. (See www.WorkingToday.org for more inf9rmation)Outstanding writing skills desired, as well as flexibility in terms of formats and

purposes-features, press releases, newsletters, advocacy, analysis andhuman interest. Good editorial skills and attention to detail important. Mustbe proficient on the computer and in navigating the Intemet. Interest in labor

and a communications background a plus. Salary commensurate with e x p e r ~ ence. Full benefits. Mail, fax or e-mail resume with three different writing samples to: Working Today, P.O . Box 1261, Old Chelsea Station, NYC 10113. Fax:212-366-6971. E-mail : [email protected]. No phone calls please.

FAMILY SUPPORT COORDINATOR. Manage human service staff in a welfareto-work program at the Urban Horizons Economic Development Center inthe South Bronx. Develop protocols for working with job-training partici

pants around case management, advocacy, intervention, and resourceand referrals. Coordinate discussion groups, workshops and activities.Must have administrative, community organizing and program planningskills and a strong interest in welfare-to-work models. Knowledge of current welfare laws/WEP. Ability to lead a team and work within a multidisciplinary team. Excellent written and verbal skills required. MSW plus 3-5 years direct servi ce/superviso ry experience required . FAMILY SUPPORT

WORKER. BSW or related degree plus 2-3 years, or 4-5 years 'experiencein casework, advocacy and community organizing in a job-training environment. Fax or mail resume and cover letter to: WHEDCO at Urban

Horizons, 50 East 168th Street, Bronx, NY 10452. Fax 718-839-1172.Attn: Dale Joseph. Bilingual (English/Spanish) speaking candidates areencouraged to apply.

The Hudson Guild, a 100+ year old settlement house serving the Chelseacommunity of Manhattan, seeks a COORDINATOR O F COMMUNnY ORGANIZING

ANDADVOCACY. The Coordinator will design and implement an effective community-building and advocacy role for the agency, working with staff andcommunity members to identify j'lnd work toward common goals. Candidate

must have significant paid work experience as community organizer, building coalitions with diverse groups of people in communities. RequiresBachelor's degree, solid group-work skillS and ability to be open and flexiblein work style. MSW or other relevant Master's preferred. Full-time pOSition,competitive salary, excellent benefits, creative, progressive work environment. Send/fax resumes to: Dr. Kathy Gordon, Hudson Guild, 441 West26th Street, NYC 10001. Fax : 212-268-9983.

COMMUNnY DEVELOPMENTIPOI.LUT1ON PREVENT10N EDlIC4TOR to design anddeliver pollution prevention education to small businesses in NYC. Master's inenvironmental management, science education, community development and 3-5 years experience in relevant field/area. Demonstrated ability to work independently, interact with diverse audiences through workshops, personal presentation(s). Communication skills, electronic technology proficiency.TV DEVELOPMENT POSIT1ON to design economic development programs in NYC

neighborhoods. Assist in linking local market development, "healthy house" education and sustainable development. Presentation skills and electronic t e c h n o ~ ogy profiCiency. Master's degree preferred in community development, planningor economics with 3-5 years progressive experience. Demonstrated ability toassess community capacity, solve problems creatively and work as teamresponding to local concerns. Send/fax cover letter and resume to: GloriaRoman, Personnel AsSistant, Cornell University Cooperative Extension, 16 East34th St., 8th A., New York, NY 100164328. Fax: 212-340-2908.

The New York Public Interest Research Group (NYPIRG), the state 's largeststudent-{Jirected consumer, environmental and government reform advocacyorganization seeks DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR. Reporting to executive director,the successful candidate will oversee all foundation grantseeking and reporting, managing the organization's growing list of major donors and overseeingthe organization's special events program . The Development Director will alsodesign and implement new fund raising projects as opportunities arise. Sendresume, cover letter and salary history to: H. Bozzi, NYPIRG, 9 Murray St., 3rdA., New York, NY 10007. No calls please. EOE/ME.

continued on pages 33 and 35

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Does your nonprofit need corporate. real estate,tax or other business legal services?

Lawyers Alliance for New York has a staff of skilled lawyersand a roster of 400 volunteer attorneys from leading NY firms .We specialize in providing free or low-cost legal services to nonprofit corporations. We also offer helpful publications and workshops on many nonprofit legal issues.

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GEORGE C. DELLAPA, ATTORNEY AT LAW15 Maiden lane, Suite 1800

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CITY LIMITS



The New York Publ ic Interest Research Group (NYPIRG), seeks an individualwho is skilled as a MICROCOMPUTtRSUPPORTSPECW.IST, is civic-minded andhas a strong desire to work in a dynamic office environment as a consultantor full-time employee. Public interest salary+benefits. Send resume to:Computer Operations Search Committee, NYPIRG, 9 Murray St., 3rd R. , New

York, NY 10007. No calls please. EOE/ME.

ADMINIStRATIVE ASSISTANT. An organized self-starter with excellent writtenand oral communications skills is sought by a nonprofit lender. Macintoshexperience is essential, including MS Word and Excel. Experience handlingphones, voicemail.maintaining data bases/mailing lists, purchasing. Ableto teach/self-teach new computer programs and features. Good phone presence. Salary: up to $30K, DOE. Excellent benefits, include 403b. Cover letter and resume to: M Position, UHF, 10th R., 55 John St., NYC 10038.

SOCIAL WORKER. NMIC seeks an experienced social worker. Requirements:MSW, bilingual English/Spanish, 5-10 years experience in grassroots, community-based settings with immigrant populations. Provide case management, supervise staff and MSW students, perform administrative tasks.Salary: Commensurate with experience. Send resumes to: NMIC, 76

Wadsworth Ave., NYC 10033. Fax: 212-928-4180.

Growing community development organization in Ft. Greene, Brooklyn hasthe following job opportunities: SENIOR PROPERTY MANAGER. Experienced,highly organized individual to oversee apartment rentals, collections, tenantrelations and maintenance staff. Must be computer literate. Experience withrental subsidies and knowledge of building systems required. ECONOMIC

DEVELOPMENT DlR£CTOR.. Self-starter to implement community economicdevelopment initiatives, including job creation and commercial revitalization.Previous business or community economic development experience. Good

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communication, organizational and computer skills. ASSISTANT DlR£CTOR

Highly organized individual to oversee and supervise tenant organizing, property management and housing programs and personnel. Must have excellenwriting, communication, computer and problem-solving skills. Communidevelopment and some supervisory experience required. TEHANT ORGANI

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JOB DEVB.OPERS needed for Job Bank of large South Bronx CDC . Salarlow to mid $30s plus benefits. Immediate hire. Must have 2-3 years experience. Bachelor's degree in Human Services. Fax or mail resume ancover letter to: Mary Barnett Lockman, Director of Social Services, MouHope Housing Company, Inc., 2003-05 Walton Avenue, Bronx, NY 10453

Fax: 718-378-0041 .

CHILD AND FAMILY CASEWORKERS. Two full-time positions in downtowBrooklyn. BA in Early Childhood (0-3) or Human Services. Provide services young children and families. Conduct home visits. Ability to motivate teenagmothers in developing and managing goal plans. Good writing skills a musSend resume to: Personnel Office, Project Chance, 136 Lawrence StreeBrooklyn, NY 11201. Fax: 718-330-0846.

BEACON CENTER DIRECTOR. Innovative school-based community center locaed in East New York. Must possess budgeting skills, youth program experence, staff development and strong supervision skills. Bachelor 's degrerequired. Bilingual (Spanish) preferred. Excellent oral and written communcation skills. Salary $38,000-$40,000. Fax resumes to Emily Van Inge718-647-2805. .

continued on page 3

LAWRENCE H. McGAUGHEY

Attorney at Law

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W5



Mayoral Mad LibsThe Giuliani administration has made a lot of libs mad, but here's your

chance to play Mad Libs with Rudy! Just gather a few friends-don't let

them see the story-and ask them each in turn to give you the appropriate

type of word. Then plug in the responses. The results might be hilarious,

crazy, siJly-or cause you to lose your city contract!

ANOUN is a person, place or thing. Autocrat, Donna Hanover, snit and

forehead are nouns.

AVERB is an action word. Prosecute, misrepresent and crossdress are

verbs.In case you've forgotten all the parts of speech, here's a quick review :

An ADJECTIVE describes something or somebody. Self-aggrandizing,

squinty, cop-lovin' and vengeful are adjectives .

An EXCLAMATION is any sort of funny sound, gasp or outcry. Hell

no! You're fired! and Get down, Andrew! are exclamations.

An ADVERB tells how something is done, modifying a verb. Tirelessly,

When a PLURAL is asked for, be sure to make the word mean more

than one. For example, budget cut is pluralized as budget cuts.

menacingly and willfully

are adverbs.

THE STATE OF THEhere CITY

today aftera year of

~ r e s h a p e d .hiS great . N6 fJN - - - - - , a year th____ city. Before my ad . . at 1

N6fJN-- - - - . TOday mJIllstration thi .New Yi ' people say N ' s City Was aJ.

orkers h ew York C' . anaVe bee Ity IS

n freed fr____ om the . ADJECTiVE- .

ADJECT iVE - Welfare r; . .

elfare check 1 eCIPlents are learnin OUN of crime.. have given g to____

$ ---- VEREl- - - for theirADVERB - - wealthy co .- - ~ " ' ~ t L Y to stick rporatlons tax b

against the Ii h BER around. reaks equalinggt, those

~ t ' L l f R A L ~ that cross thAnPLVRALEXPLETlVE ' are herded into sid e street

• U,",Vl ANtMAI· d 1hav Ii eWalk pen lik'Yes, it's true e orced the union. s e so many-1 do have an s to kiss my

T enormous _____he police now h ____

ave orders to ".... NOUN----.. But 1 will.....est any not rest .

to Or othe"'" one who sell on It alone'''VISe s, smOkes r; k .____ ' ee so f .

VER"R-- ' Wntes soa Yankeesc. ERB marijuana. All b ngs that refer

ap With a big Us ads will s·stock Imply be pictures of .

market . A D J E ~ grin. And l ' me mremaIns m pretty c e r t ~ ; -____ '<Q.Ul as long

ADJECT iV i J : - - , no as the.., VERB affordable hou . one will notice.LO these smg.

ingth . ~ p u r S U i t s 1 d e d i e time 1'm cate myself j____ Or the next year Th .

next ADVERB-- running ar . at IS, not COUnt____ oUnd the coun -NOUN-- . try seeking to be 1

e ected YOUr

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CITY LIMITS



Continued/ rom page 37

SENIOR STAFF AITORNEV, Economic Development. Lawyers Alliance for New

York, the leading provider of free and low-cost legal services to nor.profI t orga

nizations in New York City, has an immediate opening for a Senior Staff

Attomey. Work closely with diverse clients in the areas of economic develop

ment, assisting them in designing new vehicles for job creation and business

development in low-income communities. Supervise outside law firms handling

cases pro bono. Minimum 6 years corporate transactional experience required ,

with real estate and finance experience preferred. Salary $60K, DOE . Faxresume and cover letter to LANY Search Committee #2, 212-941-7458.

ASSISTANT DIRECTOR FOR ADMINISTRATlON. The American Red Cross in

Greater New York is seeking an experienced professional to join the lead

ership team of the Relocation Support Program. The Assistant Director,

Administration , manages the administrative functions of a $600K program

providing of f-site supportive services to homeless and formerly homeless

families. Responsibilities include database management, contract adminis

tration, report writing, fiscal management, and some program oversight.

Requires B.A ., minimum 5 years administrative experience. You must have

experience in database management, contract administration , or both.Applicants with related Master's and/ or supervisory experience preferred.

Salary low to mid $30s and benefits. EOE m/f/d/v. Fax or mail resumes to:American Red Cross, Employee Resources, Dept. F124, 15 0 Amsterdam

Ave. , NYC 10023. Fax: 212-875-2357 .

DIRECTOR OF ADMINISTRATION. Brooklyn Legal Services seeks a director of

administration to administer grants, manage financial and record-keeping

systems, support fund raising, and supervise non-casehandlers. Good orga

nizational skills and commitment to public interest work essential. Salary

commensurate with experience. Fax resume to Chip Gray, 718-855-0733.

Catholic Charities has the following full-time positions available: JOB READI-

NESS COORDINATOR. Coordinate & implement Job Readiness Program for the

graduates of the Education Outreach Program & others. Plan & arrange job

readiness workshops. Assist in the goal setting and outside referrals for

partiCipants. Assist in the fundraising for the program. B.A. , B.S. or B.S.WKnowledge of Spanish. Prior experience working with people in need. Good

interpersonal, communication & networking skills. Ability to handle variedresponsibilities. Teaching ability helpful. Able to accept flexible hours. EDU-

CATIONAL PROGRAM COORDINATOR, Coordinate Education Outreach Program

by recruiting, training & supporting mentors . Develop activities and curricu

lum with the Education Outreach Support Team. Maintain records for par

ticipants . Assist the Job Readiness & Center Coordinator. B.A . or B.S.

Knowledge of Spanish. Prior experience working with people in need. Good

interpersonal, communication & networking skills. Teaching experienceAbility to handle varied responsibilities & able to accept flexible work hours

Excellent benefits, 19 holidays. Send resume, salary requirements and

include job title in your response to: 1011 Rrst Ave. , Rm 1654, NYC 10022.

Or fax to 212-838-0637.

Help Build a National Tenant Movement! LEAD ORGANIZER: Mass Alliance

of HUD Tenants seeks experienced organizer for HUD tenant coalition in

Eastern MA and part-time support to local tenant buy-out deal. Supervise

and train staff, organize tenant groups and local campaigns . Prefer 3-5

years organizing, supervisory and training experience (preferably in hous

ing). and knowledge of HUD housing or ability to learn . F/ T. Salary: high$20s-low $30s plus benefits. Send resume to: MAHT, 353 ColumbusAve. , Boston, MA 02116. VISTA PROJECT COORDINATOR: National Alliance

of HUD Tenants (Boston) seeks organizer/ administrator for a nationaltenant organizing VISTA project to provide technical assistance and field

support to 40 NAHT VISTA sites. Prefer experience with VISTA, organizing/ training experience, project administration and knowledge of HUD

housing or ability to learn . F/ T. Salary: High $20s-low $30s plus benefits.

Send resume to NAHT, 353 Columbus Ave ., Boston, MA 02116 .

SOCIAL WORKER. NMIC seeks an experienced social worker. Requirements :M.S.W., bilingual English/ Spanish, 5-10 years experience in grassroots,

community-based settings with immigrant populations . Provide case management, supervise staff and M.S.W. students, perform administrative

tasks. Salary commensurate with experience. Send resumes to: NMIC, 76

Wadsworth Ave ., NYC 10033. Fax: 212-928-4180 .

LET US DO A FREE EVALUATION

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wp



At M&T Bank,we put ourmoneg

where our neighborhoods are.We are now accepting applications for our Community

Action Assistance Plan (CAAP) Grants Program.

We believe that the continued success of M&T Bank is

directly tied to the quality of life in the neighborhoods that

we serve.

That's why we are renewing our commitment tocommunity organizations that are committed to making our

neighborhoods better places to live and conduct business.

We are offering grants of $500 to $5 ,000 to eligible orga

nizations which provide essential neighborhood services.

Prospective applicants should be aware that in 1998 the

Bank will be focusing its community fmancial support

Brooklyn:

East New York (Atlantic and Pennsylvania Avenues)

Park Slope (Flatbush at 8th Avenue)

Bay Ridge (5th Avenue and 78th Street)

Manhattan:

Sutton Place (East 55th Street and 1st Avenue)

Lenox Hill (East 75th Street and 2nd Avenue)

Bryant Park (41 West 42nd Street)

Peter Cooper (East 20th Street and 1st Avenue)

efforts on projects related to housing and economic develop

ment initiatives. Therefore , CAAP applications featuring

such activities will receive priority consideration.

M&T Bank's CAAP Grants Program for 1998 is open to

community-based, not-for-profit, tax-exempt organizations

located in Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens and Nassau County.

To obtain an application or further information, stop by any

one of our branches or mail your request to the address

below. Applications must be submitted by April 17, 1998.

Rfth Avenue (West 32nd Street and 5th Avenue)

135th Street (498 Lenox Avenue)

Nassau County:

Great Neck (23-25 North Station Plaza)

Oceanside (12 Atlantic Avenue at Long Beach Road)

Queens:

Forest Hills (101-25 Queens Blvd. & 67th Drive)

mM&fBank

M&T BANK Community Action Assistance Plan Grants Program

City Limits Magazine, February 1998 Issue

Documents

Transcript of City Limits Magazine, February 1998 Issue