city limits magazine, january 1994 issue

8/3/2019 City Limits Magazine, January 1994 Issue

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January 1994 New York's Urban Affairs News Magazine

eitVLimitsTRAIN1NRECKHas NevvYorkbungled itslast chancefor rail freight?

Dancing anddrawing in thehomeless shelters

Church to Bronxactivists: Get lost!

Legacy of Fear in VVashington Heigh


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e i ~ V L i m i ~ s Volume XIX Number 1

City Limits is published ten times per year,monthly except bi-monthly issues in JunelJuly and August/September, by the City LimitsCommunity Information Service, Inc., a nonprofit organization devoted to disseminatinginformation concerning neighborhoodrevitalization.Editor: Andrew WhiteSenior Editor: Jill KirschenbaumAssociate Editor: Steve MitraContributing Editor: Peter MarcuseProduction: Chip CliffeAdvertising Representative: Faith WigginsOffice Assistant: Seymour GreenProofreader: Sandy SocolarPhotographers: Steven Fish, F.M. Kearney,Andrew Lichtenstein, Suzanne TobiasSponsorsAssociation for Neighborhood andHousing Development, Inc.New York Urban Coalition

Pratt Institute Center for Community andEnvironmental DevelopmentUrban Homesteading Assistance Board

Board of Directors'Eddie Bautista, NYLPI/Charter RightsProjectBeverly Cheuvront, former City Limits

EditorErrol Louis, Central Brooklyn PartnershipMary Martinez, Montefiore HospitalRebecca Reich, Housing ConsultantAndrew Reicher. UHABTom Robbins , JournalistJay Small, ANHDWalter Stafford, New York UniversityDoug Turetsky, former City Limits EditorPete Williams, Center for Law andSocial Justice

Affiliations for identification only.Subscription rates are: for individuals andcommunity groups, $20/0ne Year, $301TwoYears; for businesses, foundations , banks,government agencies and libraries. $35/0neYear.$501Two Years. Low income. unemployed,$10/0ne Year.City Limits welcomes comments and articlecootributions. Please include a stamped, selfaddressed envelope for return manuscripts.Material in City Limits does not necessarilyrellect the opinion of the sponsoring organizations. Send correspondence to: City Limits.40 Prince St., New York,NY 10012. Postmaster:Send address changes to City Limits. 40 PrinceSt., NYC 10012.

Second class postage paidNew York. NY 10001City Limits (ISSN 0199-0330)(212) 925-9820FAX (212) 966-3407Copyright 1994. All Rights Reserved. Noportion or portions of this journal may bereprinted without the express permission ofthe publishers .City Limits is indexed in the Alternative PressIndex and the Avery Index to ArchitecturalPeriodicalsan d is available on microfilm fromUniversity Microfilms International . Ann Arbor.MI48106 .

1994/CITYUMITS

That Time of Year

True to holiday form, New Yorkers plumbed their reserves ofsympathy last month to help those less fortunate than themselves.Organizations that work with the homeless were temporarilyflush with donations, and soup kitchens had more volunteers

than they knew what to do with.But even in the shadow of the holidays, there were discussions of aless innocuous sort going on-discussions that are becoming increasingly frequent as people get more irritable about beggars on the street.Mayor Giuliani took full advantage of the growing disaffection withpanhandlers during his election campaign. But so far, his tentativeproposals for dealing with them have serious contradictions.On the one hand, he says he aims to get homeless panhandlers off thestreets. On the other, he says he intends to do whatever it takes in thecourts and the state legislature to scale back access to the city's shelters,leaving them open on a long-term basis only to people taking part intreatment programs for mental illness, drug abuse or other problems.But as officials have learned in Philadelphia, making shelter contingenton behavior and participation in programs leads directly to an increasein the number of homeless people on the streets and in the subways (see"Boomerang Policies," page 8). Indeed, two months ago, that city easedup on its restrictive shelter policies because there were simply too manypeople living on the street or in downtown subway concourses.So which will it be? Last month, Wayne Barrett reported in the VillageVoice that when Giuliani met with the Coalition for the Homelessduring the mayoral campaign, he said he was considering havingpanhandlers arrested an d charged with assault, regardless of whether ornot they physically abused anyone. That's a quick solution to thedilemma-and one that will last about as long as it takes to say, "Lawsuit."Rather, the more intelligent answers are plain for all to see: housing,with services available for those who need them; neighborhood-basedassistance for people about to lose their homes, such as evictionprevention teams, tenant organizers an d police who know how to dealwith domestic violence; accessible health care, and so on.Middle and upper class New Yorkers have access to these serviceslawyers, physicians, psychologists, drug counselors-when they needthem. Generally speaking, they also have the clout to fight the government bureaucracy when they need to. The lowest income New Yorkershave neither the clout nor the access, and that is wh y they sometimesland on the streets. If we would only learn from experience that it ischeaper and much more humane to offer access to services while peopleare still in their homes than it is to dump them into shelters-or prisoncells-then we would have begun to solve our problems instead of justexploiting them for political gain. 0

Cover design and illustration by Karen Kane .


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TIlE NEW MAYORBoomerang Policies 8Rudy Giuliani has touted Boston an d Philly's tough homeless sheltel'policies, bu t progress repolts from those cities indicate there may bemadness in the method. by Timothy Harris and Phyllis Ryan

VITAL STATISTICSUnconventional Wisdom 10I t is the economy, stupid: a comprehensive survey of shelter intakereports proves that economic trends, not drug addiction an d mentalillness, ar e the principal cause of homelessness.

FEATUREStopping Freight Dead in it s Tracks 16Ho w New York blew its chance for a piece of rail freight's future, or .. Youcan't get a 20-foot-high train under a I5-foot bridge. by Steve Mitra

PROFILEDancing with Attitude 6Art Start is tapping into New York's cultural scene to help homelesschildren discover a world outside the shelters. by Fara Warner

PIPELINESThe Church on the Hill 12Father Luis Barrios thought he was simply continuing St . Ann's longtradition of activism in the South Bronx. Th e Episcopal diocese thoughtotherwise. by Hanna LiebmanRoad to Recovery? 22Some say Communi-care health clinics ar e just what the doctor orderedfo r inner city health needs. Others aren't so sure. by James Bradley

COMMENTARYCityviewPolice, Fear an d HistoryBook ReviewReality Check

DEPARTMENTSEditorialBriefsBlood from a StoneVacate Order Ignored

Joining HandsBronx Activist Dies

2

4455

25by Moises Perez

27by J.B. Springs II I

Letters 28ProfessionalDirectory 30,31Job Ads 31

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FROMThe state is appealing a

Court that wouldfrom being forcedmake mandatory ch ild suppayments.The action comes at a timeand state welfareare encourag

. As part ofto maximizeand local govern

and demandingpay a minimumfee of $25.The injunction, issued byin the. the Stateby MFY Legal Services andLaw Services,in child sup

to prove they are unable toy the minimum and ordersbe notified of that.According to MFY attorney

are receiving pul:llic assisor Supplemental Security(SSI) benefits, and

''We are looking to theto fund child. ''The

poor can not be looked upon tofinance other folks."Federal welfare reform rulesrequire states to pursue childsupport from non-custodialparents in order to receivefederal reimbursements. Advocates suggest this is motivatingthe state's vigor in obtainingpayments from the poor.''The feds don't care if thestate collects or not," notesMichelle Schreiber, an MFYspokesperson. ''The state justneeds to show that they are[pursuing absent parents], andthe easiest way to kick up thosenumbers, the easiest targets,are poor people who arealready in the system. It'sharder to discover the whereabouts of a non-custodial fatherwho has money. But a poorperson who is in the system-the state knows where he lives,and it's easy to file a petitionagainst him."MFY attorneys claim thatrespondents are being threatened and intimidated into making payments they can't afford."People have receivedcollection notices with jailthreats," says Beth Anderson,lead counsel on the case .The city is backing the state'sappeal. ''We don't go afterthese people," says an attorneyin the city's law departmentwho asked not to be identified."But... some day they are goingto be off public assistance andthen we will be able to get somemoney into the system." A finaldecision is expected in thespring. Daniel Strachman

bulldozers tore up "Bushville," the Lower East Side shantytown at Avenue DEast 4th Street, last month. Officials cited neighbors' complaints aboutand drug dealing. The shanties were some of the Iongestand most soIidly-constructed in Manhattan.

/JANUARY 1994/ CITY UMITS

After a one-and-a-half year battle, tenants of a decrepit, city-owned building at351 East 118th Street (above, left) finally moved into renovated apartments inthe building next door on November 23rd.

VACATE ORDERIGNOREDOne and a half years ago,the city's Department of HousingPreservation and Development(HPD) posted a vacate order ona collapsing, city-owned EastHarlem apartment building. Lastmonth, four families living therefinally moved out.What happened betweenJuly, 1992, and December,

1993, is a saga of bureaucraticdelays and disaffected tenantswho finally resorted to directcommunity action to get newhomes in the neighborhood."It was blatant disregard forthe lives of our people," chargesWillie Flores of La NuevaAlternativa, a project of YoungLords , Inc ., a new group thathas formed in East Harlem tocarry on the tradition of the1960s and '70s organization ofthe same name.Floors inside 351 East 118thStreet were collapsing; exposedbeams had rotted through in thebasement and water was pouring through the walls from leakyplumbing when HPD inspectorscame to the building two summers ago . They ordered that thetenants be relocated by August10th, 1992.According to an HPDs ~ k e s p e r s o n the tenants "wereoffered alternative housing" inother city-owned apartmentbuildings, public housing or a

homeless shelter, "but theyrefused." The residents say theywere awaiting HPD's approvalof federal Section 8 rental assistance applications so they couldmove into a newly renovatedbuilding next door, where thelandlord had already designated apartments for them.Unfortunately, they had incorrect information about the procedure and filed applications inthe wrong rental subsidy program. They had to start overagain last fall.By that time, the tenants hadalready weathered one winterwith no heat or hot water andwere about to begin another. InOctober, members of La NuevaAlternativa attempted to convince HPD officials to expeditethe approval for rental assistance and get the families out ofthe building, but were told itwould take another three to fourmonths.So, on November 23rd, theysent a videotape of the buildingconditions to housing commissioner Felice Michetti, alongwith a threat of lawsuits andpublicity. Within three days,HPD had moved the tenants intotheir new apartments next door .''We had exhausted thecollaborative mode and wentinto an adversarial posture,"says Nelson Antonio Denis, anattorney with La NuevaAlternativa . "It was the rightchoice." Andrew White


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JOINING HANDSActivists in communities ofcolor fighting for environmentaljustice in the Northeast will havethe opportunity to comporenotes and discuss strategies at aconference on environmental

racism, to be held next summerin Boston.The conference will be sponsored by the Northeast RegionalEnv ironmental Justice Network,an emerging organization thatwas started a year and a halfago to connect grassrootsgroups in 12 states from Maineto Washington, D.C., and westto Pennsylvania. While thenortheast regional network isstill in its formative stages, members are busy organizing community groups based on themodel of the Southwest Networkfor Environmental and EconomicJustice, a well-organized coolition of 70 community groups inNew Mexico, Arizona andsurrounding states. That grouphas gained national recognitionin recent years, taking thenation's mainstream environmental groups to task for notaddressing issues important topeople of color.

Other regional networkshave also developed in theyears since the First NationalPeople of Color Environmentalleadership Summit was held inWashingtan, D.C. , in 1991 .There is now an Asian/PacificIslanders Network coveringsome areas of the west, Hawaiiand the Pacific islands, and anIndigenous Environmental Network that has united NativeAmerican groups nationwide.The Boston conference willaddress coolition building andorganizing and include workshops on technical issues thatarise in the fight against environmental racism, says VerniceMiller, director of EnvironmentalJustice for the Natural ResourcesDefense Council and member ofa 12-member coordinatingcommittee of the regionalgroup.A local coolition, the NewYork City Environmental JusticeAlliance (NYCEJA), is helpingset up the conference. NYCEJAhas been active for the past twoyears in various strugglesthroughout the city, includingopposition to the Brooklyn Navy

Yard incinerator."The reason we formed wasto make alliances, instead ofhaving different organizationsworking towards tI1e samething," says Michelle DePass,executive director of NYCEJA.She says the coalition grew "outof a sense of anger , out of asense of doing for the community, out of a sense that no oneelse is doing this, and we haveto." NYCEJA has a sevenmember advisory board thatincludes representatives fromWest Harlem EnvironmentalAction and the South BronxClean Air Coalition, as well aslawyers, advocates and othersfrom groups like the New YorkPublic Interest Group. Thealliance meets on a monthlybosis to share information andresources. Organizations canbecome members of NYCEJAby attending its monthlymeetings. For more information,call (212) 23A-5096 .Karen Carrilloe'I:II"I';OBRONX ACTIVIST

Pedro Cintron, a spiritedcommunity activist who led theresidents of Melrose Commonsin their successful effort to takecontrol of the city's redevelopment plan for the neighborhood, died December 1Ath aftera long illness. He was A5 yearsold.Cintron was president of NosQuedamos (We Stay), thegroup of homeowners, tenantsand business people who rewrote the Melrose CommonsUrban Renewal Plan. The original city plan would have displaced hundreds of currentresidents. But Nos Quedamosstood up to city officials andforced a revision last year. Thecommunity's plan has sincebeen adopted by the deportments of City Planning andHousing Preservation and De-velopment as their own."He must be recognized asthe aggressor that brought theofficials to the bargainingtable," says Carlos Padilla, aclose family friend and a member of Nos Quedamos. "He letthem know, either come to the

Welfare rights advocates and low Income New Yorkers demollsbaled outsidGcwemor Mario Cuomo's $l,OOO-a-plate campaign tundraiser last month. Tdemanded that Cuomo increase public assistance benefits, whic:h have notincreased in three years and now stand at about 82 percent of the federalpoverty level.

bargaining table or there will bea war between the communityand the administrative powers."Cintron helped form thegroup following public hearingsheld by the Bronx Center Steering Committee during late 1992and early 1993. The steeringcommittee, appointed by BronxBorough President FernandoFerrer, was seeking communityinput and support for a numberof redevelopment projects in theSouth Bronx. At one early hearing, Cintron stood and spokewith such force that other opponents of the city's Melrose Commons plan smiled with excitement."A friend of mine turned tome and said, 'You'd better grabthis guy and hold him . Thismignt be the guy we need,' "says Dolorinda lisante, afounding member of the group.

In February of last year,Cintron literally commandeeredanother Bronx Center hearing .From that point on, NosQuedamos dominated the planning process-and eventuallywon the support of Ferrer."If it wasn't for him, a lot ofeyes would have remained shutto what was going on in thatcommunity," notes Richard

. Kahan, president of The UrbAssembly and chair of theBronx Center Steering Commtee. "He really took on the enestablishment. He was fearlesa person who could be veryaggressive in public. But hewas also willing to do theunglamorous, non public wogoing door to door, makingsure everyone in the commununderstood what was going and was port of the decisionmaking process. You don'toften find that combination inone person.""He represented that politprocess to stop a plan the community didn't like and begin rebuifding" adds Sandra Cola Nos Quedamos organizer.was on his mind up to the velast minutes. It was very impotant to him . I visited him in thhospital a few days before hdied, and his last words to mwere to continue the struggleCintron was a Vietnam veeran and a longtime activist.participated in the movementgain community control overlincoln Hospital in the early1970s, and worked with youpeople in the neighborhood fmost of his adult life. AndrewWhite and Jill KirschenbaCITY UMlTS/JANUARY 199


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By Fara Warner

Dancing with AttitudeArt Start helps homeless children bring creativityto the chaos of life in city shelters.

Gtting the undivided attentionof children at the CatherineStreet Shelter is never easy.But a teacher's softly spokenwarning that today's Art Start classwill be canceled if participants can'tsettle down is all it takes to quiet the19 children gathered in a stuffy, makeshift library on the shelter's secondfloor.Emily Nussdorfer, an actress andperformance artist, shepherds thechildren into a circle for the first ofseveral games an d exercises they willdive into during the next hour. Eachchild takes on the tricky task of shouting his or her own name aloud andthen repeating the names of all thekids who have gone before them. It isa simple way to get to know oneanother as they learn about the importance ofrespecting each other's turn.For some, like Dan-el Padilla, a boisterous nine-year-old, it's a chance toassert one's identity, so easily lost inthe facelessness that is a part of shelterlife.Next, Nussdorfer instructs the kids,ages six through 13 , to get up andglide through the room-sliding,jumping and running across th efloor's scratched brown tiles . Her only6/JANUARY 1994/CITY UMITS

rule is that they may not careen intoone another-and that becomes partof the game as they dance about, carefully avoiding collisions . Nussdorferthen asks them to create shapes withtheir bodies and hold their poses, asfour classmates pound out a rhythmicbeat on makeshift drums fashionedfrom empty cans and jars."None of this is meant to makethem little artists," Nussdorfer tells avisitor to the class. "That is not thepoint. The point is to get them stimulated."Only for KidsArt Start, a three-year-old programthat brings artists an d homeless children together, was the brainchild ofScott Rosenberg, a visual artist, an dphotographer and teacher TeneshWebber. They met while taking partin an art exhibit by and for homelesspeople at the Goddard-Riverside Community Center on the Upper WestSide. "Other programs were devotedto adults," Rosenberg says. "Peoplebelieve the kids get art in the schools.But that's not necessarily true and wewanted something that was only forkids."Today, Art Start is an all-volunteer

organization, not yet a full-fledgednonprofit corporation, and receiveslittle funding except for in-kind contributions from the city's Board ofEducation, the Department of Homeless Services and the HumanResources Administration. Technically speaking , the program is aproject of the New York Foundationfor the Arts, an organization that helpsmany small groups get off the groundby serving as a nonprof it conduit forany charitable contributions.Currently, Art Start is ru n byRosenberg, Webber an d four volunteers. Approximately 10 0 artists havecontributed their time and talents tothe program, an d Rosenberg estimatesthey have worked with more than2,000 children since its inception.The group has brought JoffreyBallet dancers Peter Narbutus andJennifer Polens, video artist FlorenceOrmezzano and muralist SusanOrtega, among others, to the CatherineStreet Shelter to teach their crafts tochildren who have little access toresources many New Yorkers take forgranted. Each of the classes usuallytakes a field trip to a museum, atheatre or another of the city's cultural centers. Rosenberg believes theopportunity to browse through thebright galleries of the Museum ofModern Art, for example, ca n changethe way a homeless child sees theworld. After visiting the museum, onegroup of children created their ow nmasks.Few Creature ComfortsOne look around the CatherineStreet Shelter, just east of Chinatown,is enough to explain why these artistsfeel it is so important to work withhomeless children. I t is a massive,impersona l building, a former schoolhouse that was recently convertedfrom a barracks-style shelter into aprivate-room facility with a hodgepodge of tiny rooms, one to a family.There are few creature comforts here,save for some small black-and-whitetelevisions an d th e cheap cots thatpass for beds.What is less obvious is the inheren t instability of shelter life an d itseffect on the children who reside here.Many are able to attend school onlysporadically, pulled out when theirfamilies are transferred to anothershelter or kept ou t when a mother hasto spend a day dealing with the nightmarish city welfare, housing or health


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bureaucracies and can't find a way toget her child to class. Often familiesin the shelter system pass throughseveral different facilities over a period of many months before they finally find a permanent place to live.That makes it difficult to keep a childin a steady situation in school.As a result, Art Start limits each ofits programs to six-week "semesters"so that, at least for a little while, theclass can serve as a consistent element in a homeless child's otherwiseconfusing an d unsettling life.Rosenberg an d Webber startedsmall, with a few classes at the EastThird Street Shelter pu t together withthe support of the Artists Who Careprogram, operated by volunteers atthe city's Human Resources Administration. Art Start has since movedto Catherine Street, and no w runsbetween 50 an d 60 classes there eachyear. Rosenberg an d Webber plan toreturn to the newly-renovated EastThird Street Shelter this month,where they will work with homelesspregnant teenagers.A Little ImaginationOn a cold November night, EmilyNussdorfer is using dance and movement techniques to bring a little imagination into the children's lives. Thedoors to the library are closed, shutting out the institutional world of theshelter.In the class, Nussdorfer strives no tonly to teach her art form, bu t to helpencourage the children's socializingskills. It's important not to run intoeach other and to be willing to watchas others create, she explains. Earlyin the class the children are aggressive, slamming into one another likebumper cars. But as the minutes passthe message sinks in an d they beginto calm down. Nussdorfer talks aboutthe idea of communicating with eachother through little performances, an dinstructs them to use their bodies tospell out the words, "Eye contact."The game is meant to suggest thatthis is a safe space for them, explainsRosenberg. "It's a place where theycan make a connection without anyfear."As a last exercise, each child picksa movement and a sound they wouldlike to teach to someone else. Someof them are obviously inspired by rapmusic and hip-hop dance steps.Others, like a young girl namedMelissa, imitate the grace of a jazz

dance. Whatever the movement, eachis duly admired by the others in theroom.In the end, Nussdorfer asks themwhat they have learned. Renata talksabout shapes and movement an ddirection. Dan-el throws in , "Eyecontact." And Jesus, who has beenquiet for much of the class, quietlyadds, "Rules.""It's different teaching each time,"Nussdorfer says wearily when theclass is over, watching th e lastchildren go back to their crowdedrooms at Catherine Street. "Tonight

"It's a placewhere they canmake a connection

without any fear."

was definitely a struggle. But theylive in such a chaotic uncentered environment that it's hard for them tosettle down."Smiling FacesIn the final week of the class, thechildren will draw and write abouttheir Art Start experiences. Rosenbergpublishes a newsletter after each sixweek program is finished, giving the

children an additional forum for thwork.In one ofthe newsletters, the chdren were asked to draw "Life in NYork City Today." A picture oncover depicts children yelling "Heand the words "New York" embzoned with scary teeth. Other ptures show children wielding guand kids getting shot. But therehappy images as well. In one newletter, there are drawings of childrdoing jetes and dancing with attituinspired by the performance clastaught by the Joffrey Ballet danceIn these pictures, the childrensmiling.It's not just the children who habenefited from the Art Start expeence. Nussdorfer says the class htaught her about her own craft,well as how to teach it. "When I cahere, I had a curriculum, bu t [Ilearned] to be flexible. In that wI've learned from the children."For Rosenberg, th e childreeagerness to come week after wehas been gratifying. He recalls twhen he began Art Start at the EThird Street Shelter, he got to kna couple of kids who came for a serof classes and then dropped outsight. A few months later, thshowed up at Catherine Street: "Thcame running down the hall, yelli'It's Art Start! ,,, he recalls. "They wso happy." That's when Rosenbknew for certain the program whitting home.Faro Warner is a reporter fBrandWeek.r-------------------------Subscribe to CityLilnits

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Boomerang PoliciesThe experiences of other cities show that Giuliani's

hard-line homeless proposals could come back to haunt him.L ike New York, cities all across the country havebeen searching for ways to stem the flood of men,women and children entering their homelessshelters. Many have tried hard-line strategies akinto those proposed dur ing last year's mayoralcampaign by Rudolph Giuliani. But theresults of those strategies have not been asbeneficial as some promoters would haveNew Yorkers believe."Some [cities], such as St. Louis andBoston, have policies which include substantial restrictions and limitations for thosewho need to enter or take advantage of theservices offered," read Giuliani's campaignpaper on homelessness. "Others, such asPhiladelphia and Washington, D.C., haveretreated from expansive and unrestrictedpolicies that have proved worthless incoping with the problem."Thus, the paper continued, New York'sapproach is an anachronism and must bereformed. The candidate proposed instituting new rulessuch as requiring proof of homelessness, redirectingfunding toward programs for chronically homeless familiesand individuals suffering from mental illness, drug addiction, alcoholism, HIV and other health problems, and

instituting a 90-day limit on shelter for families not participating in treatment programs."If the families know what the rules of the game are,then they abide by the rules," Giuliani's senior policyanalyst, William Grinker, told City Limitsduring the campaign. "If the rules are thatthere's a limited right to shelter and thenyou have to leave, then that's what peoplewill do," he continued. "It's the experiencein every other city in the country,"Among the cities whose shelter policieswere lauded as models by Giuliani andGrinker, Philadelphia and Boston were perhaps the most frequently mentioned. In fact,neither city has a shelter policy as restrictive or as successful as candidate Giulianicontended. Quite the contrary. Massachusetts has seen an increase in the number ofpeople living in the shelters since new ruleswere put in place a few years ago. AndPhiladelphia, with a severe cutback in thenumber of shelter beds, has had a dramatic increase in thenumber of people living on the streets and in the subways.City Limits asked writers in both cities to send us reportson the status of the shelter policies there and the impactthose policies have had.

Prove It or Lose It "When you keep setting up new andhigher hoops for people to jumpthrough for shelter, a certain numberjust won't make it," says LeslieLawrence of the MassachusettsCoalition for the Homeless. "Peopleended up staying in dangerous situations, going back to abusive boyfriendsor literally staying on the street beforemaking it into the system."BY TIMOTHY HARRIS

F Our years have passed since theMassachusetts Department ofPublic Welfare instituted a "gettough" approach to sheltering thehomeless. Yet today, the number offamilies living in the state's homelessshelters is at an all-time high. Andadvocates for the homeless have documented that many families remainedin crisis situations or on the street as adirect result of the state 's policychange.In November , 1989 , MichaelDukakis was still governor and thestate's economy was in the middle ofa devastating decline. In an effort toreduce the number of families entering the shelter system, his administration adopted a rigorous policy basedon the premise that every family seek-a/JANUARY 1994/CITY UMITS

ing shelter was not necessarily homeless. Families that couldn't documenttheir homeless status were refused atthe door, and the number of new families seeking shelter dropped quickly-about 30 percent in the first month.Since that time, families have hadto present official documents confirming their homeless status, in theform of eviction notices, caseworkerreports or similar papers. For twoyears, the policy had the impact thegovernment desired: the averagenumber offamilies in shelters steadilydecreased, from a high of 1,200 pernightin 1989toalowof620inJanuary,1991.Advocates maintain these numbersreflected a problem driven temporarilyunderground rather than solved.

What has happened since 1991bears out Lawrence's assessment. InAugust of that year, the newly-electedRepublican governor, William Weld,moved to tighten the state budget, inpart by gutting several emergencyassistance programs designed to prevent homelessness. The state ceasedpaying disaster relief benefits to peoplewho had been burned out of theirhomes and eliminated a program thatpaid the arrears on utility and fuelpayments for destitute families facingthe prospect of no heat or hot water.Additionally, the state halted its policyof helping homeless families get outof the shelters by paying their first


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month 's rent and security deposit ona new apartment.The result? By early 1992, the shelter system had become overwhelmedwith new families seeking shelter. Thenumber has more than doubled since1991, with more than 1 ,30 0 familiesstaying in the state's shelters eachnight, surpassing even the highestnumbers recorded by the state prior tothe implementation of the get-toughapproach.Although the stiffer entry guidelines have led to some families beingrefused a place in a shelter, GreaterBoston Legal Services an d the Massachusetts Coalition for the Homelesshave been helping families obtain thespecific documentation they need tocomply with the state guidelines. Theyhave also been documenting instances

of families refused entry, and are preparing lawsuits charging the Weldadministration with ignoring the statelaw that establishes a right to shelterfor homeless families .Still, Massachusetts policy mightbe considered liberal compared tosome of Rudolph Giuliani's proposals. For example, there are no lengthof-stay limits placed upon families orindividuals in the shelters. And whilesome state funding is targeted toshelters providing special services,these are offered in addition to otherless service-intensive alternatives andtHelr use is entirely voluntary.Timothy Harris is a Boston organizerand a founder of Spare Change, anewspaper written and sold by home-less men and women.

Quid ProtocolBY PHYLLIS RYAN

I f you want a place in a Philadelphia homeless shelter, you have tostay clean and sober, pu t most ofyour money in a savings account andpay a small part of your income to thecity.Those were the rules until a fewmonths ago, that is, when publicofficials an d business leaders finallydecided there were simply too manypeople living on downtown streets andin subway stations; that's when theyrelaxed the shelter regulations andmade it easier for the homeless to comeinside.Back in 1988, Philadelphia beganrequiring all homeless men, womenan d families to comply with certainrequirements , popularly known as the"protocol," in exchange for food andshelter. These guidelines stipulatedthat homeless people save 60 percentof their income, pay another 15 percentto the shelter and submit to drugtesting i f requested. There were otherrules enforced by individual facilities,such as curfews and prohibitions onfood being brought into the shelters.The protocol , devised by cityofficials and homeless advocates working together, was implemented at atime when public opinion and mediareports depicted life in the shelters as"easy living." When the guidelineswere pu t in place in October, 1988,

they had an immediate impact. Withinfour months, the number of peopleliving in the city's homeless sheltersdropped from 5,600 to 4,200.In that short period of time, 40 0families and individuals were askedto leave the shelters for failing to

comply, according to Jane Malone, director of the city's Office of Services toHomeless and Adultsduring the administration of Mayor W. Wilson Goode. No advocates claim that theevictions forced homeless families with children to sleep on thestreets or in the subwayconcourses of CentralPhiladelphia.But researchers, including Dr . DennisCulhane of the University of Pennsylvania,found that the single male populationon the streets increased dramaticallyas a direct result of the protocol.As the number of homeless peopleliving on the streets an d subwayconcourses of Philadelphia's CentralCi ty increased, business leadersdemanded that something be done.They had staked the city's economicrecovery on the area and on the

construction of the new conventcenter that opened there last summIn response to their complaints,newly elected mayor, a conservatDemocrat named Ed Rendell, movtwo months ago to make a large nuber of shelter beds available to mand women who refuse to (or areable to) comply with the protocol, jto get them off the street and out ofsubways. He also eased the requiment that shelter residents remclean and sober.Since then, with the helpadvocates and outreach workers,concourses have been cleared. Yetshelter system is now too smallcope with the number of peopleneed of its services, largely becausethe still-continuing downsizing tfollowed the implementation ofprotocol. Today, there are only 2,2beds in the system, yet even cofficials concede that on an averwinter night they need at least 3,0beds and, in bad weather, many moThat means hundreds of men, womand children are being bumped frshelter to shelter, night after nighta desperate shell game to make spfor newcomers. Others remain onstreets.Ultimately, the protocol has provhazardous to homeless people' s heasays Joe Rogers, deputy executive rector of the Mental Health Assoction of Southeastern Pennsylvan"Where are people supposed to gWe see a lot of youpeople who are not ato access other servisuch as long-tewelfare. They havemoney to pu t towrent [and, becausethe protocol,) they denied extended svice."

" It is not enousimply to have discentives," adds Chane, who recenpublished an analyof city shelter recothat proves homlessness is far more common in Phidelphia (and in New York) thpreviously believed. "There needbe incentives to stay [housed) in community by making services a[Thsources available," he says.

Phyllis Ryan is executive directorthe Philadelphia Committee forHomeless.ern u.TS/JANUARY 199


10/32

Unconventional WisdomHomelessness is not a pathology after all.

Anew study of New York City and Philadelphiahomeless shelter records reports that homelessness is far more common than city officials oradvocates previously believed, and underminesthe increasingly popular argument that the majority ofhomeless people suffer from drug addiction, mental illness or other psychological problems.The study, by Dennis Culhane of the Leonard DavisInstitute at the University of Pennsylvania, found thatone of every 30 New Yorkers-and one out of every 20 ofthe city's children-spent time in a homeless shelterbetween 1988 an d 1992.Culhane and city researchers calculated their findingsfrom government data bases listing the name, social security number and date of intake for every person enteringthe cities' shelter systems in recent years.This is the most comprehensive effort yet to calculatethe number of homeless people in either city. Previousefforts have simply counted the number of shelter residents at a single point in time. For example, the federalcensus found that only one-half of one percent of NewYork City's total population was living in the sheltersystem on one night in 1990.Culhane's study discounts the value of one-night shelte r counts, and this has major consequences forpolicymakers . One-night shelter counts overrepresent the

How Many HoIIIelelS?239,425 _Id.nts of New Yorl CIty . . . . .. . . . .. . . . . .1 . . . . . . . . . . b . . . . . JI.III.,. 1,1_'" Dec_ .... 31, 1992.l"IuIt'.3.3 ....-.tol .....Y......,_1I.8n. . .8 perceat 01 . . Afttcu AIIIerica NewY ......5 perceat of al New Yorl CIty chldren.4.5 percenlofNewYorlCity's . . . . . hildren.

0.5 percent of . . . . . . . New Y ......

chronically homeless who suffer from drug addictionand mental illness , because they spend much more timein shelters than those who are not chronically homeless.Yet such counts have been the basis for many policydecisions; government agendas are increasingly focusingon dealing with the chronically homeless.In a survey over a longer period of time, the truevariety of homeless people becomes apparent, Culhaneexplains, and a much smaller proportion of the homelessare in the shelters for the long haul. The majority, therefore, are less likely to be substance abusers or mentallyill.Because of the similar rates of shelter use inPhiladelphia and New York City, Culhane concludes thatregional economic trends are the most likely cause ofhomelessness. He argues that policymakers could bestreduce the number of people entering the shelters byfocusing resources on "rebuilding (or creating) the community and social support infrastructure that would enable people to stay in their own homes." In other words,if people can tap whatever assistance they need whilethey still have a home to live in- to help stave off aneviction, for example, or demand heat and hot water fromtheir landlord , or deal with an abusive spouse-then theywill not have to go into the homeless shelters. And thatwill save the city money. Andrew White

Different Methods,Different ConclusionsOne-day counts of the homeless can obscure thedimensions of the problem

'"'"Q)So..Q

4%-r- - - - - - - - - - - - r - - - - - - - - - - - - ,3.27%

3%-r-- - - - - - - - - - -+_I II II I

2% -+- - - - - - - - - - - - -+-

1%-r-- - - - - - - - - - -+_0.32%o%lJ__ LJ

One day: 1990 F'tve years:1988-1992The census bureau's one-day count of the homeless in 1990found less than half of one percent of the city's populationliving in the shelter system. But a new five-year analysisshows that more than three percent of city residents spenttime in the shelters between 1988 and 1992.

Source: "Public Shelter Admission Rates in Philadelphia and New York City," published by the Fannie Mae Office of Housing Research.10/JANUARY 1994/CITY UMITS


11/32

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12/32

By Hanna Liebman

The Church on the HillFor decades S1. Ann's was a vibrant center ofcommunity action. But in recent months, activistsand organizers have been unceremoniously evicted.The lobby of St. Ann's Episcopal Church in the Mott Havensection of the Bronx is stilldotted with reminders of themany activist programs that werehoused and promoted there in recentyears. A certificate of "domestic partnership" is tacked to the bulletinboard, testimony to St. Ann's onceactive Gay an d Lesbian ministry. Asculpture embellished with eerieskulls an d bearing the legend "Closeit Down" is on display, used in ademonstration against the nearbyBronx/Lebanon medical waste incinerator by the South Bronx Clean AirCoalition, which has worked out ofthe church since its founding twoand a half years ago.But the church's days as a havenfor aggressive neighborhood advocacy12/JANUARY 1994/CITY UMITS

have come to an abrupt end, at leastfor now. The offices ofthe gay ministry, the Clean Air Coalition an d anumber of other organizations haveclosed or moved out of the church.All were once part of a lively consortium of community groups dedicatedto unifying and mobilizing the peopleof Mott Haven. But each has fallenvictim to a recent change in management-and some say vision-of thisSouth Bronx parish.When the Episcopal Diocese ofNew York abruptly suspended Father Luis Barrios from his position ofpriest-in-charge at St. Ann's last summer, just 18 months after he took thepost, the diocesan leadership characterized him as a rogue minister whohad an "authoritarian leadershipstyle." Bishop Richard Grein charged

that Barrios was manipulating layleaders, "forcing them into makingdecisions they believed were not inthe best interest of the parish," according to the July issue of TheBishop's Newsletter.Today, the tremors accompanyingBarrios' dismissal continue to reverberate in Mott Haven, an d the fullimpact is only no w becoming clear.Attendance of Spanish-speakingparishioners at the church's Sundaymass has declined dramatically. st .Ann's vestry, or board of directors, isso bitterly divided that it is unable tomeet normally, members say, an dabout one-third of its 14 members saythey are on the verge of resigning orhave already done so.Most importantly, activists andorganizers in the neighborhood chargethat a vital center of community lifehas been extinguished."The church was a model of acommunity church in the poorestcongressional district in the UnitedStates," says Chris Norwood, director of Health Force: Women AgainstAIDS, a program that, for the timebeing, still leases office space on the


13/32

church grounds. "Groups from theClean Air Coalition to AIDS groupsfound an enormous welcome underseveral pastors. The community feelsthat the diocese has abandoned thatrole for th e church.""There was a lot of potential there,us working together with the needleexchange and Health Force," addsMary Robinson, a parishioner whora n a federally-funded perinatalprogram for drug-abusing mothers atthe church. But now, she says, "Theactivists are gone. It's over."Hands-On MinistryThe tradition of activism at St.Ann's has strong roots. In the 1960san d '70s the church leadership organized tenants in the neighborhood tofight landlords who were burningdown buildings to collect insurance.In the late 1970s, large communityfairs graced th e wide church yard,an d young ministers worked withhomesteaders in the surroundingcommunity. The Mott Haven AIDSTask Force was foundedat St. Ann's in 1988, whenlocal activists began tonotice the rapid spread ofthe disease among theirpeople."It's necessary to get really hands-on in a community like Mott Haven,"attests the Reverend EarlKooperkamp, Barrios' predecessor as interim rectorat St. Ann's and now assistant minister at th eChurch of the Intercessionin Harlem. But Barrios,who first came to th echurch to do pastoral workin 1985, went further thanhis predecessors.

that keep people apart," shecontinues. "Charity means that yougo out to the corners of the community an d bring those people into thechurch ..extending the reach of thechurch beyond its physical boundaries."Barrios maintains he was developing "a broad-based communityministry, ... a very, very known, traditional approach, especially in a verypoor community." But the diocesehad come to believe that the fieryminister reached too far, sanctifyingsame-sex unions, welcoming theneedle exchange program an d opening the church to an organization demanding Puerto Rican independence,as well as backing up his supportwith leadership and resources.It was Barrios' aggressiveness thatthe diocese ultimately foundunacceptable. He roused ire an dsuspicion when, during a speech hewas invited to give on Latino challenges in the church at the Cathedralof St. John the Divine, th e seat of the

Bishop Grein wrote in his forseverance letter to the priest, the rewas the same.No IllusionsFollowing Barrios' departuresummer, Mother Martha Ovebecame st . Ann's interim pastor.has been involved with the chuand the surrounding communitya decade as a deacon an d assisminister, bu t the neighborhood onizations were under no illusiabout her vision of St. Ann's roleth e neighborhood once sh e toffice. "She wanted to terminate[perinatal] program the day shehere," says Robinson.Very soon she did. The churccontract with the Bronx PerinConsortium wa s canceled, aRobinson moved out.

Since then, all but one of the grothat formerly used church spaceoffices or public events have disctinued their association withAnn's. Many of their membersthey have had conflwith Mother Overall. Wthey say they are reluctto dredge up once moreskirmishes that followhe r installation, theycharge that she unceremniously ousted some acists while blatantly igning others. Overall refuto be interviewed for tarticle, saying the chuwas not interested in prcoverage at this time.

"Some people thoughtthat he was risque," saysRobinson. "He'd talk aboutsex so young people couldunderstand. He'd say youneed to use condoms.Some people took offenseat that. But he was givingadvice. That's what a minister does."

Father luis Bamos was a popular figure and a leader among Mott IIaftn ac:tIvIsts,until his retnCWal from 51. Ann's last summer by the diocesen leadenhip.

The situation since Brios' departure has broua "rugged way of dobusiness" for activgroups, says AmerCasiano, a steering commtee member of the ClAir Coalition. The coalitis no w surviving withouhome. But, says NLaboy, also on the steercommittee, "It has beebig setback for us." Tgroup had won a grantopen a resource a

"Father Barrios had a real amplevision of pastoral care," adds JoyceRivera-Beckman, executive directorof St. Ann's Corner of Harm Reduction, the needle exchange programthat recently moved to new officesaway from the church."He broke down ideological walls

diocese, he publicly denounced thechurch powers as racist. Whether ornot the edict from the diocese forBarrios' removal was executedbecause, as his supporters contend,the church institution is racist, orbecause Barrios "waged a media an dprotest campaign that fostered fear,intimidation an d falsehoods," as

fundraising library for neighborhoresidents in a room at the chucenter, an d were about to begin wwhen Barrios departed. Now, thmust look elsewhere. Laboy has abeen forced to look for a ne w meetand work space at a crucial pointheir campaign against the neaincinerator, whose owner recenern LIMITS/JANUARY 1994


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filed bankruptcy and is thus vulnerable to community challenges.Losing the backing of the churchhas had a deeper significance formany of the groups, including theClean Air Coalition, because St. Ann'sacted as a fiscal conduit for government and foundation funding. Now,they are on their own, and musteither establish official nonprofitstatus with the government or findanother fiscal sponsor.And then there is the loss of thecommunity life itself that made theseactivists' days so productive. "Wecontinue our work but there is avacuum now," says Rivera-Beckmanof Health Force. "There isn't th echatter or th e clatter of differentpeople coming into the church."Divided ChurchWithin the hierarchy of the churchitself, the change has also taken a toll.Of the vestry's 14 members, who areelected for two-year terms, half areHispanic. According to one member,Father Gustavo Perez, five of the sevenfavor resigning their posts, while onehas already done so; they claim Over-

all has fostered division between theLatino, African American and Caribbean American members of the vestry.Ousted activists note that a majority

"If I'm not involvedwith the community,I don't deserveto be a priest"

of the vestry, which is the voice ofthe parishioners, ha d supported themeasures Barrios instituted, as wellas earlier outreach programs.Division within the vestry is no tnew. Some members of the boardbitterly opposed Barrios' agenda fromthe start, an d the actions of one ofthem, Viola DeChebert, apparentlyhelped prompt his removal. In his

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July newsletter, Bishop Grein noteshis "determination to reestablish theright of the people of St. Ann's toworship in their parish church, freefrom the threat of violence of outsidegroups," a reference to a letter senthim by DeChebert.The reconfiguration of St. Ann's,shorn of many of its extracurricularactivities, raises profound ques.tionsabout th e liberal tradition of th eEpiscopal Church in New York, an dabout th e nature of th e church'sresponsibility to the communities itserves, say some disappointed parishioners. It is uncertain whether theturmoil at St. Ann's is an isolatedevent or a sign of the direction of thediocese itself, whose current bishopis considered by many to be moreconservative than his outspoken predecessor, the Right Reverend PaulMoore, who retired in 1989. BishopGrein was unavailable for comment,despite repeated calls to his office."Are there broader implicationswithin the Episcopal Church? I don'tknow," says the Reverend Kooperkamp. "This situation has been sotortuous. The more I think about it,the less I know ... It's been a sad andtragic situation. It didn't go down theway anyone expected it to."Father Perez, who is in the processof converting to the Episcopal faithfrom Catholicism, says Barrios'punishment is of fundamental importance to the church. "To me, if I'mno t involved with the community, Idon't deserve to be a priest," he says."Saying a priest who becomes tooinvolved is a 'social worker' is just anexcuse for not getting involved at all,"he adds, referring to an argumentsometimes made in the dialectic ofpriesthood.For his part, Barrios, who remainsa priest in good standing in theDiocese of New York, hardly intendsto be silenced by his sudden unemployment. "They just took the building, nothing else," he says. "New Yorkis my congregation and it will continue to be." While he looks for a ne wflock-he considers himself a "priestin exile"-Barrios is teaching coursesat two colleges-Hostos CommunityCollege in the Bronx and the NewYork Theological Seminary inManhattan-and is working on a bookabout his own particular brand ofliberation theology. 0Hanna Liebman is a reporter forMediaWeek.


15/32

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16/32

Stopping FreightBY STEVE MITRA-re O"'tant ,wish and hum of c"'" and trucks mown

out the gentle sounds of the Harlem River lapping at theedge of the Port Morris section of the South Bronx. Highways and bridges crisscross the industrial neighborhood,providing easy access to the biggest marketplace in theUnited States for consumer goods.

"One way to Manhattan, one way to Queens. It's beautiful. It brings tears to one's eyes," says John Dean, associateresearcher at the Regional Plan Association. "This is anirreplaceable tract of land." It is also the site of the HarlemRiver rail yard, 90 acres that have been lying fallow for twodecades.Some 20 miles away, freight trains ply the tracks alongthe vast acreage of northern New Jersey's rail yards near thewestern shore of the Hudson River. More than two-thirds ofthe goods brought into these yards are transferred to trucksand hauled into New York. The trucks crowd the HudsonRiver tunnels and bridges, clog the city's highways and costNew York manufacturers and shippers a fortune in transportation costs, far more than those paid by their counterpartselsewhere in the country, where rail freight services reachwell into most cities. New York's lack of a proper transportation infrastructure is one reason why the city's manufacturing base has been gutted in the last 30 years,

abandoned by a now-defunct railroad company in the early1970s. State agencies produced careful, detailed plans todevelop a major freight facility here, with feeder lines capable of handling high capacity modern railway traffic.More recently, in 1991, Governor Mario Cuomo includedthese plans in his "New, New York" agenda, with the ambitious title, "Freight Link America." Development of theHarlem River Yard, he said, would "reaffirm New York'sposition of strength and potential in the world market."There was just one small problem with Freight LinkAmerica, however. Two years before Cuomo announced hisgrandiose vision ofrenewal, the state's Department of Transportation (DOT) had already given Harlem River Yard Ventures, a group of politically connected developers, control ofthe site. The group announced plans to build an industrialpark there that relegates rail to a minor supporting role.Despite all of the governor's hype, the Harlem River Yard isno longer slated to be anything approaching a major railfacility.

losing more than 700,000 jobs, economistssay.Over a decade ago, New York Stateset out to alter the cost equation

Worse yet, the basis for that deal, City Limits has learned,was a short-term study, prepared by consultants hired by thestate DOT, that failed to take into account a massive, $175

million state and city investment in a modern rail linkthen under construction. Experts said the new linkbetween the Hudson River line and Port Morris

would have made the Harlem River Yardowtheatate a contender in the freight marketplace. Yet remarkably, the consultants were asked to lookat development possi

bilities only overthe next three

and bring freight rail backacross the Hudson tothe Harlem RiverYard, which was

16/JANUARY 1994/CITY UMITS

blew a $175 lRillioninvesllnent and killed anyhope for a .... ght rail revival


17/32

ead in its Tracksto five years, before anyone expected the link to be completed. And the developer 's 1989 contract with the stateincludes a 99-year lease on the site."You don't award a 99-year lease on the basis of a studywhose span is three to five years," says John McHugh, amember of the transportation committee of the Associationof the Bar of the City of New York, which has been investigating the matter. "It's sheer idiocy."According to McHugh and a growing coalition of community activists, legal experts and transportation professionalswho oppose the plan, the industrial park deal was a fatalblow to the chances for reforming the transportation infra.structure of New York: the Harlem River Yard is the last,best piece of government-owned land large enough to handlea modern freight rail facility in New York City. And construction on the industrial park is scheduled to begin thisspring.

I New York City, 90 percent of all freight moves by truck.A Regional Plan Association analysis shows this to be ananomaly: in other cities, only 41 percent of all freight iscarried that way. Because of this, about 30,000 trucks enterNew York City every day, bound for points in the fiveboroughs, Long Island and New England. Two-thirds ofthem pass through Manhattan.It is a far cry from just 30 years ago, when half of all thiscity's cargo moved by rail. Freight trains rattled alongManhattan's West Side and across Brooklyn, Queens andthe Bronx. From there, the trains moved north, crossing theHudson and on to points west at a bridge upstate. Fordecades, freight cars also crossed the Hudson River and NewYork Harbor on barges unloaded-and reloaded-on Manhattan and Brooklyn piers.

But many of the railroad and barge operat ions hadlapsed by the 1960s and 1970s, casualties of governmand business policies favoring highway transportation. Aas railroads across the northeast went bankrupt, the ctransportation infrastructure failed to keep up with theest freight car technologies. In 1976, Congress created acompany, Conrail, to take over the defunct railroads innortheast. And before long, Conrail chose to concentratoperations at its sprawling yards in northern New Jerwith easy access to the nearby ports-and the rest ofcountry.

Still, the idea of New York City regaining its footholthe rail freight business had not been abandoned. Byearly 1980s, state planners concluded that opening a mern, regional, "intermodal" freight facility at the HarRiver Yard-where shipping containers could be loaonto trains or unloaded onto trucks-would save metroptan manufacturers and shippers $100 million a year. Aall, it costs as much to ship freight from the rail yards in NJersey to Pittsburgh-400 miles-as it does to get from NJersey to Queens by truck. They also determined thatplan would dramatically reduce truck traffic in Manhaand boost blue collar employment citywide.

But to make the plan work, something had to be dabout the tracks cutting through the South Bronx: clearanbelow the rail lines' bridges and in its tunnels were tooto accommodate modern freight cars, and the tracks hacross busy commuter lines. State officials set ou t to lay ntracks from Highbridge to the Harlem River Yard along amile route called the Oak Point Link at a cost of $62 millBecause of cost overruns, delays, and legal problems,Oak Point Link was sti ll far from completion by 1987 wthe state's contractor on the project, the engineering fMorrison Knudsen, pulled out citing technical and deproblems.



18/32

Suddenly the economic viability of the Harlem RiverYard looked doubtful. Without the Oak Point Link, therecould be no intermodal rail yard.

Tha t ' s when the state decided to look at alternative usesfor the valuable industrial land , according to Paul Pastecki,a coordinator with the commercial transport division of thestate 's DOT. Officials from DOT commissioned the consulting firm of Temple, Barker & Sloane (TBS) to study thepotential for developing the yard quickly and on a shortterm basis. William Rennicke, project manager for TBS,recalls that he was asked to examine the three- to five-yearviability of the yard. "They asked us what would it take froma private operator's perspective to plunk money down," hesays. "Basically, our work was done so that they could begindevelopment of the yard, so that they could get somethinggoing fast."

While the study was being done, Rennicke says, it wasassumed that the Oak Point Link would not be completed."At the time the project was discussed ,we were told there were problems withthe [underground) fault lines for thelink," says Rennicke. Given the limitedtime scope of the study, he adds, "weassumed the Oak Point Link was notgoing to happen." The TBS study concluded the Harlem River Yard could notbecome a full-scale modern intermodalyard-that it would accommodate andattract only a quarter of the traffic originally projected.

track, the government continued pouring money into theOak Point Link on ariother. The state hired a new contractoto complete that project after Morrison Knudsen pulled outand, by 1991, it had become the centerpiece of GovernorCuomo's "Freight Link America" plan to connect New YorkCity with the rest of the nation's freight lines. Today, theOak Point Link is slated for completion in late 1995, andaccording to state officials, the work is on schedule.It has turned out to be more expensive than planned: thefinal projected cost is $175 million-almost three times theoriginal estimate. Of that, about $100 million comes fromthe Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, $33 millionfrom the city and the rest from the state.

The irony of the government spending millions to buildnew tracks while supporting a plan that will underminetheir potential has not been lost on everyone inside government. "This is certainly not worth the investment in the OakPoint Link, " says Stephanie Pinto, former director of the cityDepartment of Transportation's commercial transportationdivision. Pinto had worked for the agency for three yearswhen she resigned last May-frustrated, she says, by the

Pastecki confirms this study wasused short ly after as a basis for contract ing out the development of the rail yards.In 1989, the state awarded a 99-yearlease to Harlem River Yard Ventures-aconsortium of the Galesi Group, aRotterdam, New York-based developer,Browning-Ferris Industries, a Texasbased waste hauling company, and theHunts Point Market Food Cooperative

The Har1em River Yanllies within easy access of the biflgest marketplace in the United Statesfor consumer goods.

to develop the yard as an industrial park with a rail component. The proposal the group came up with is now thedevelopment plan adopted by the state; it includes a wastetransfer facility, warehouses and possibly a factory that willprocess recycled paper. Only 28 acres will be allocated torail, less than one-third of the total 90-acre site.Harlem River Yard Ventures touts the plan as a way tobring jobs into the Bronx fast. " It's a very important projectthat will serve a public purpose," says Anthony Riccio,project manager for the group. "It will bring rail and bluecollar warehousing jobs into the Bronx ... How many othercompanies do you know of that are moving into New YorkCity?"But even as the development plan moved forward on onela/JANUARY 1994/CITY UMITS

bureaucracy's lack of attention to developing rail in NewYork City. She says that because of the small size of theHarlem River Yard Venture's rail component, "there's nevergoing to be serious rail there."

Pinto is not alone in her assessment. "When they cut thaamount ofrail down to 28 acres, they were assassinating theeconomy of New York," says U.S. Representative JerroldNadler of Manhattan, a longtime advocate ofrail transportation. "We need a fully developed rail system.

"New York cannot survive on white collar industriesalone," Nadler continues. "You've got to have manufacturing-i t provides traditional entry-level jobs and a larger taxbase. Ifwe had a decent rail system, we could have all kindsof manufacturing in New York."


19/32

The 28 acres devoted to rail under theHarlem River Yard Ventures plan is notenough to develop a facility of any significance, agrees Hoy Richards , a transportationexpert at Texas A&M University. "I t justdoesn 't make sense that this is going to beheavily utilized."Most major intermodal yards are as big ashundreds of acres, Richards explains . It takesthat much space to move trains efficientlyand to store containers and trailers beforethey are trucked away. It is this storage spacethat's missing in the Harlem River Yard proposal. According to an analysis by the Regional Plan Association, the area alloted for

The state's plan for the Harlem River Yard is "sheer idiocy," says lawyer John McHugh (above,with colleagues Unda Coleman and Deborah Shennan).storage is enough for only about. one-fifth the volume oftraffic than was originally projected in a 1982 plan for theyard, no t counting the goods that will be delivered there andimmediately trucked to the nearby Hunts Point Market Cooperative, which supplies most grocery stores in the region.

"The whole purpose of the Harlem River Yard was tohandle the bulk of city [freight) traffic," says Pinto. "At thispoint that is not going to happen."

What's left then , is a small-scale rail yard capable ofserving the Hunts Point Market an d the few factories andwarehouses that may be built on the site. But it will beutterly insignificant in comparison to other rail yards in theregion: Conrail's yards in Kearny, New Jersey, have room for1,700 storage containers. Another in Jersey City can accommodate 4,000. The current plan for the Harlem River Yardprovides for only 350. And by acreage alone, the yard won'tcompare in size with those in other major cities nationwide-even San Francisco, a city with one-tenth the population of New York, has a 36-acre rail yard with enough spacearound it to expand to 56 acres, should volume warrant it.As currently planned, the Harlem River Yard may getlittle use , because it won't be economical for Conrail ortrucking companies to go there, says Robert Cavazos, asenior policy analyst with former City Comptroller LizHoltzman, who coauthored a report critical of the projectthat was released in March of 1993. "You need 40 acres totruly exploit the technology and the economies," he says.

will get sizable public subsidies. Because the state ownsland, the developer will not be subject to property tawhich would have amounted to $2 million annuallyaddition, an analysis by the comptroller's office shows the developer will be getting the property at substantibelow the market rate for unimproved industrial land inSouth Bronx. The analysis shows that the market ratefor the property is $3.35 million a year; Harlem River YVentures has projected that it will pay $1 million a yeathe state-a percentage of its gross revenue. "Thus ,"report concludes, "[Harlem River Yard Ventures) willceive a $2.35 million per year rent subsidy, or $24 milover ten years.""I can't believe this thing will go," says Richards of TeA&M. "I t seems to me like there's some hidden agehere."

What is clear is that key players in the developmgroup are well-connected; one of them represents a clacase of the revolving door between city government andreal estate development industry.In 1980, Anthony Riccio was policy analysis directorthe Office of the Deputy Mayor for Economic PolicyDevelopment. That year, he coauthored a report identify

two sites for major intermodal rail facilities: the PYards at 60th Street in Manhattan-now slated to ccording to the comptroller's report, instead of saving $100 million in shipping costs annually, as originally projected, the current plan will save only$6.5 million. And instead of the 5,000 jobsthat Cuomo predicted in his "New, New

In1880.come Donald Trump's Riverside South devel

ment-and the Harlem River Yard. The reportCapital Improvement Plan for New York CiRail Freight System," emphasized thaminimum of 40 acres was necessary

an efficient, modern rail yard.York" plan, only 1,500 jobs will be cre Riccio lettthe public sectorated-"l,OOO at the low end," admitsRiccio of Harlem River Yard Ven-tures. . .d rev . . . . . . his opinionabout the ......i . u . size of aYet , even as the publicbenefits have beenheavily pared down,

the Harlem River functional freight rail yard.Yard Ventures

The following year, Riccio wpromoted to become the cidirector of the Office of RFreight Development,

porting directlyMayor Ed Ko

From 1986CITY UMITS/JANUARY 1994


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standards. Since990 he served as thecommissioner of thecity's Department of Ports,International Trade and Com-

. . . . . . . . . . dj.. ......... freight rail engines generate about one-tenth asmuch diesel soot as trucks in pro

portion to the loads they carry, thecity is missing out on a valuable opportunity to reduce truck congestion and the ai

pollution it generates, says John Klotz of the Sierra Club.

.. t . . . . the who .merce.In 1990, Riccio left the public sector

and subsequently reversed his opinion aboutthingb.ckto rail.-

the minimum size of a functional rail yard. Hewas hired on as the project director for the HarlemRiver Yard Ventures in 1991 and is one of the primarydesigners of the current plan.His boss, Francesco Galesi, is chairman of the GalesiGroup and a heavy contributor to top state political campaigns. In 1989, one of his subsidiaries, Rotterdam Ventures,violated state law by contributing too much money to Governor Cuomo's reelection campaign. Newsday reported lastFebruary that half of the $5,000 the governor received fromGalesi had to be returned. Newsday also reported that Galesigave $4,000 to the campaigns of Senator Alfonse D'Amatobetween 1986 and 1991. In addition, Harlem River YardVentures gave $1,000 to Bronx Borough President FernandoFerrer's campaign in 1990.Also involved in the project in its startup phase wasStephen Karsch, one of the owners of Sloan's Supermarketsand former president of the Hunts Point Market Cooperative. Karsch was also a prominent campaign contributor toD'Amato, whose brother, Armand D'Amato, reportedly introduced his client, Browning Ferris Industries, to the Galesigroup and Karsch, according to Newsday. Browning Ferrisjoined the Harlem River Yard Ventures, but pulled out of theproject in 1991. And last August, Karsch pleaded guilty todefrauding grocery suppliers $3.5 million over a 10-yearperiod through a coupon scam. He and his companies havealso contributed hundreds of dollars to Bronx BoroughPresident Fernando Ferrer's campaigns.Karsch could not be reached for comment. Riccio, however, defends the Galesi Group' s plan and believes the criticism from other quarters is unwarranted."There's been nothing on that yard for 20 years," he says."Now I've got to listen to people who want a Taj Mahalthere?" Riccio is vehement in his claim that, however small,the yard will be adequate to serve the needs of New YorkCity. Asked about his own decade-old conclusions about thesize of a viable yard, Riccio replies: "How much did I knowabout capacity then? Very little."But pressed with numbers about rail yard capacity, heasserts: "Rail will never be the major mode of transporta tionin the Northeast. It will always be truck-dependent."State officials similarly defend their decision to award a99-year lease based on a short-term study, not a long-termanalysis: "We find that long-term studies are nothing butdreams," says Pastecki.

L ast month, the federal Environmental Protect ion Agencydeclared Manhattan to be in violation of federal air quality20 /JANUARY 19 94/CITY UMITS

"What they're doing here is immoral, because the cityneeds to cu t down on congestion," Klotz says. "This facilityis no t going to accomplish that."

The final environmental impact statement on the projecis being filed with the state as City Limits goes to press. Aftera 10-day comment period, the state DOT can give the finago-ahead, says DOT's Pastecki. It does no t have to go througha city review process because the state will remain owner othe land, charging rent from Harlem River Yard Ventures.While the debate over the Harlem River Yard has beentaking place among rail experts, community-based opposition has geared up slowly. Most of it stems from the work othe Bronx Clean Air Coalition, founded in 1991 to oppose amedical waste incinerator in Port Morris. Member groupscome from all over the Bronx, from Mott Haven to Riverdale.Since last summer, the group has been addressing the issueof the Harlem River Yard, and members have testified againsthe plan in public hearings before the state DOT."To me it's really a common sense issue, because I knowthe terrible state of our air," says Alisa Eilenberg, who headsthe Riverdale Committee for Clean Air, part of the Bronxcoalition. "It's just common sense to preserve what we haveand use it for public and transportation purposes."

In October, the group assembled experts and politiciansto explain the issue to the community at large. The gatheringdrew more than 100 people from throughout the Bronx. Yeit has been difficu lt for the opponents to sustain communityopposition, in large part because it is such a technicalcomplex issue, coalition members say.In any case, the borough and city leadership have supported the plan. "I think it's a wise trade-off because of theeconomy," says Kevin Nunn, deputy director of planningfor Borough President Ferrer, citing the desperate need forjobs.

The Dinkins administration also took a favorable stancetowards the development. In fact, according to a city officiawho asked not to be identified, the city Department oTransportation was critical of the project, but their objections were superseded by the Economic Development Corporation (EDC). Chris Ward, senior vice president at EDCgave the plan his "strong support and commitment" duringpublic hearings this past summer.Mayor Rudolph Giuliani released a statement during hiscampaign saying he would push for the "full construction othe Harlem River Yard in the Bronx as an intermodal facilityto serve industrial needs." Opponents of the Harlem RiverYard Ventures plan took heart, believing his commentsmeant he opposed the Galesi proposal. But while transition


21/32

team officials say Giulianistands by his statements,they add that he has noposition on the currentplan as yet.

Elizabeth Holtzmanand Congressman Nadlerhave been the leadingpolitical opponents of theproject. Holtzman'sformer aide , David Eichenthal, says the cityshould delay the projectby withholding paymenton the Oak Point Link.

Construction af the Oak PointUnk will allow NewY ItICity to be a contender In the freightmarketplac;e.

Ironicall y, th e mmentum of freight raipicking up so quicthat if New York City fto come up with a mern intermodal yawithin the next decait may lose out to its surban competitorsLong Island. State Setor Norman LevyNassau County, wchairs the Senate traportation committee a

Nadler recommends a more urgent, drastic step: "Weshould junk the lease and turn the whole thing back to rail,"he says. Nadler says the state still has the final say, andshould drop the curtain on Galesi and Harlem River YardVentures immediately.

M eanWh i l e , as the state and city governments fiddle,nationwide use of intermodal rail facilities is on the rise. In1983, 4.1 million trailers and containers were shipped byrail; in 1991, the number had grown to 6. 2 million, according to the American Association of Railroads.

has long been criticathe state DOT, is calling for the development of a networkrail facilities through the city leading out to the islaWhile this would include one small intermodal facilityNew York City, most of the intermodal traffic wouldunloaded in one huge yard-in the center of Long IslandMeanwhile, opponents of the Harlem River Yard phave become increasingly cynical about the possibilitychanging the minds of the state DOT planners or the govnor. "The key to our long-term economic survival isdeveloping adequa te rail facilities," says Robert Brill, chof the Transportation Committee of the Association ofBar of City of New York. "What we need is visionary leadship. Instead, what we have is pure myopia." 0

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By James Bradley

The Road to Recovery?What will Communi-care dollars buy: clinics run bythe community-or hospital annexes for the poor?People used to come into theHighbridge Extension Clinic inthe Bronx for checkups, and i fthere was anything wrong withthem, they were referred to a nearbyfamily planning center or to LincolnHospital. Services an d hours at Highbridge were limited, andonly one part-time physician was available; theonly full-time memberof the medical staff wasa physician's assistant." I t was basicallytriage," says CeciliaMoffatt, the clinic's assistant director.

While the refurbishing has generally been welcomed as long overdue,the Communi-care program remainsvery small, designed to serve about65 ,000 city residents. Some healthcare advocates question whether thehighly promoted project is little more

"The potential for abuse is there,says Lani Sanjek of th e Patient'Rights Hotline, a health care consumer advocacy group. She arguethat many of the city's major hospitals have displayed little accountability to their local communities . What'more, sh e asks, why should thgovernment pay to develop privatclinics that will compete with publiinstitutions?Showcase ProgramWhen Mayor David Dinkins begathe Communi-care project in April1992, it was hailed as visionary showcase inthe midst of difficulfinancial times , with

$48 million going tospruce up clinics run bythe city Department oHealth (DOH) and theHealth and HospitalCorporation, the agencyresponsible for the city'public hospitals. Sincthe program's inceptionmore than 100 primarycare physicians an d 60nurse practitioners havbeen added to the clinics ' staffs.

Today , the staff atHighbridge consists oftwo primary care doctors, a pediatrician an da physician's assistant.The doctors here knowtheir patients and theirfamilies, and take a moreactive role in theirhealth. Even little thingsca n be attended to now;for example, the staffCommuni-care clinics, such as this one in the Highbridge section of the Bronx, arebrillling primary hMlth care to undenerved neighbortloods.

So far, 13 clinics inneighborhoods including Harlem, the SouthBronx, Bushwick, Forregularly telephones patients to remind them when it ' s time for acheckup."I see patients every day, and youteach them when to come in , how tofollow up, and when to go to theemergency room, " says Dr. Mayobanex Torres , a physician there. "Thisis a ne w approach to everything. "The Highbridge Extension Clinicis one of 20 city clinics that receivedan infusion ofmoney last year throughthe Communi-care program, a Dinkinsadministration initiative to increasethe availability of primary care inimpoverished communities. So far,13 referral centers like Highbridgehave been renovated , expanded andtransformed into comprehensive ,community-based health centersspecializing in preventive care .Seven more will follow in the nextcouple of years. The services arecovered by the patients ' health insurance or , i f they are uninsured, byMedicaid.U/JANUARY 1994/CITY LIMITS

than a Band-Aid stuck across the gaping wound of inadequate primaryhealth care services in New York'spoorest neighborhoods. The scale ofthe shortage is tremendous: the Community Service Society, a philanthropic and research organization ,concluded in a 1990 survey that 1.7million New Yorkers lack access toadequate primary care.But there is a much larger debateswirling around the program, an d itcenters on privatization, a hot topicin government circles today . WhileCommuni-care's first phase focusedon improving city-owned an d operated clinics, the program's secondphase, Communi-care II, will providestate financing to nonprofit organizations to develop as many as 30 new,private, community-based primarycare clinics around the city. Many ofthe nonprofits in the program will bemajor hospitals , officials predict. Andthat has some health care advocatesworried.

Greene, Jamaica and East New Yorkhave been refurbished. Renovationwork will be far more extensive inthe next seven clinics, according toDOH officials. New facilities inBushwick, Jamaica an d Tremont, foexample, are slated to be considerably larger than current Communicare centers; they will each have eighmedical teams (for a total of foufamily practitioners, four pediatricians, eight nurses, eight medicaassistants) an d a radiology suiteoffering mammograms, X-rays andother services. All 20 clinics in thefirst phase of Communi-care will bemanaged by the Health and HospitalCorporation starting next year as parof a plan to consolidate the city'health care system.Communi-care clinics have doctors on call 24 hours a day, sevendays a week. This is expected torelieve pressure on the city hospitalsemergency rooms , long the principaif not the only source of health care


23/32

services for many residents of poorneighborhoods. And because theproblem of inner city health care hasalways been more complex thansimply a shortage of facilities-there'salso been little in the way of outreachand education around primary carethe new program is designed to fosterbonds between physicians and thecommunities they serve."The days of the family doctor withthe little black bag are clearly over,"says David R. Jones of the Community Service Society. "But under thissystem, we can establish a sense ofrelationship between patients, doctorsand community.""It's what medicine is supposed tobe," adds Dr. Barry Liebowitz, president of the Doctors Council, a unionof physicians in the public sector."Instead of two ships passing in thenight," he says, referring to the impersonal, haphazard effect whenemergency rooms are used for primarycare, "people will have a doctor whoknows them, who cares about them,who can coordinate their serviceswith hospitals. It completes the circleof public health."$250 Million in CapitalInstead ofreceiving money directlyfrom the city budget, new Communicare II clinics will be financed throughthe Primary Care Development Corporation (PCDC), an independentnonprofit organization created earlierthis year. This summer, MayorDinkins won City Council approvalfor $17 million of city funds which,along with private grants, enabledPCDC to commence operations inAugust.Under the Communi-care IIprogram, the state will provide $250million in capital for deve loping newclinics by selling bonds through thestate's Medicaid Care FacilitiesFinance Agency. The bonds will beguaranteed by the city, according toRonda Kotelchuck, executive director of PCDC. Nonprofit organizationswill develop, own and operate theclinics.But many advocates for community-based health care question thewisdom of handing responsibili ty forprimary care to the private sector,fearful that large, unresponsive institutions may wind up dominating theprogram. "Will these funds go to afamily planning clinic or to New York

Hospital?" asks Sanjak. "To whatextent will they support genuinelycommunity-based clinics? Thatremains to be seen."Sanjek cites revelations a fewmonths ago about the segregationistpolicies at Mount Sinai MedicalCenter, which up to that time maintained separate maternity wards forwomen on Medicaid and thosecovered by private insurers, as an

"We don't wanthotshots who don't

understand theneeds of the poor."

example of how the private sectorhas not always acted in good faith."They segregate, an d provide secondclass care to people who are poor andpeople of color. There's a long history of this," Sanjek adds.With the change in mayoraladministrations, the future of theplan remains uncertain. The citymust insure the bonds, and that willrequire the approval of the incomingadministration of Rudolph Giulianias well as the City Council.The issue of accountability hasemerged as a sticking point for someCity Council members. The PCDC isan "off-budget" item, meaning it isnot subject to the same oversight bythe council as other city agencies, afact which a number oflegislators arecritical of, including the powerfulcouncil speaker, Peter Vallone.Another opponent is CouncilmemberUna Clarke of Brooklyn, who serveson the Health Committee."We're asked to use public dollarsto fund a private entity in which wewill have no oversight," Clarke says."There has to be some accountabilityfor public dollars."Clarke is also concerned thatPCDC's 20-member board of businessexecutives, philanthropic leaders, cityofficials and community representatives is neither diverse enough norsufficiently knowledgeable about

community health needs. "They wa board of monied people who attract big private sector dollars,"says. "We don't want hotshots wdon't understand the needs of poor."There are other concerns as wKotelchuk and city officials argue tthe city's shaky financ

city limits magazine, january 1994 issue

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