'\.

THE NEWS MAGAZINE OF NEW YORK CITY HOUSING AND NEIGHBORHOODS NOVEMBER 1981 $1.50
, ,
, \
. ,
. ."
, /',
, !
. . j
, \ .\
.. .'. il
\ '.,
-, \ '! '
. '.
\ \' .
( './
\\ .
SQUAmRS OR HOMESTEADERS?
Lobbying for Good Repairs
East FlalbushRehabilHation
/ ;ZJI/'
fJ
' "f
' "\'
' I ,"
"t T." : . I ,\
_ ' 0\. / \1, \:"'.
.' ' \
.\
,
" -
Short Term Notes
Smoldering Smoke Detectors
T
HOSE WHO LIVE -IN NEW
York City apartment buildings,
rooming houses and hotels should, by
the New Year, be comforted by the sight
of a smoke detector afftxed to the ceiling
of bedroom or living room. A good deal
of that safe feeling should stem from
City Fire Commissioner Joseph Hyne's
analysis that those detectors would have
spelled the difference between life and
death for 70 percent of those who per-
ished in flres this year.
But that important added protection
could be marred, say some health
advocates, by the type of detector the
owner installs under the new law that
makes them mandatory as of January 1,
1981. Two basic types of smoke detectors
are available on the market: one is based
on ionization and detects the presence of
smoke in the room. The cheaper versions
of this type of detector are susceptible to
being set off by a very smoke-filled
room. The ionization detector also emits
a minute amount of radiation-not
enough from a single u n i ~ to make a dif-
ference to an individual but, as the New
York City Council on the Environment
has noted "any amount of radiation is
too much." The other type of detector is
photo-electric. This unit detects particles
in the air-say from a burning couch or
drapery. Unlike the ionization model it
can't go off from cigarette smoke and it
is totally harmless. It also costs more.
Under the new law, owners can recoup
up to $10 of the expense of purchasing
and installing a detector from each
tenant. Tenants are also responsible for
their upkeep and maintenance which
they should be able to learn from the
manufacturer's instructions that the
owner is supposed to provide.
But what the manufacturers' instruc-
tions for ionized detectors, which most
owners it is presumed will opt for
because of the reduced cost, won't tell
tenants is that these units have a
biological half-life of 200 years during
which time radiation will still be emitted.
CITY LIMITS/November 1981
Nor will it mention that there is no way
to determine if the detector is faulty and
is possibly emitting more radiation than
it should. The ionization detectors are
classifled by the Nuclear Regulatory
Commission as radioactive waste.
"There's no way to see if they will be
properly disposed of," said Jennifer
Brown of the Council on the Environ-
ment.
In a letter to Fire Commissioner
Hynes, the Council raised the prospect
of the accumulation of hundreds of the
detectors in vacant lots where buildings
are demolished, and pointing out that
because of the availability of non-radio-
active detectors, using the ionization
models was unnecessary.
According to one distributor of both
photo-electric and ionization detectors,
Acoman Industries in Long Island City,
the cost difference in the wholesale price
to owners is approximately $5-$6, al-
2
though, depending on the sophistication
of the device, it can be much more.
Landlords, said Shirley Wasserman of
Acoman, will opt for the cheaper models
unless pressured by tenants to buy the
higher-priced photo-electric type.
At hearings ileld by the City Council
last spring on the bill that made the
detectors mandatory for all but one and
two-family homes (even these are not
exempt if they are still in construction or
unbuilt as of January 1) arguments on
both sides of the safety issue produced
scientiflc evidence to boost either a pro-
or anti-ionization detector clause in the
law. But while specialists disagreed about
the radiation threat, there was unanimity
that flre warning devices in individual
apartments were vital and would save
lives.
They were not vital enough, however,
to warrant making the owner's failure to
comply with the new law a 'C' or rent-
impairing violation. When the Council
passed the bill it failed to put the absence
of a smoke detector in the same league
with no heat or a cascading leak. 0
CORRECTION
In our October issue two printing
errors appeared in the article "Public
Housing: Making the Choice" by
William A. Price. The number of
total Boston Housing Authority
public housing units should have been
recorded as 16,500, not 165,000.
At the end of the article, the full
quote from New York City Housing
Authority Chairman Joseph J. Chris-
tian should have read: "We are now .
in a position to incorporate all we
have learned, from our successes and
from our failures, into the design of
housing and communities which will
set new standards . . . Let"us recapture
the crusading zeal which began public
housing-and let us add to this the
hard experience of the years." 0

1
Building a Hole in Fort Green'e
Much to the dismay of the yelping
dogs in adjoining backyards-not to
mention neighbors, the local commun-
ity board and at least one member of
the U.S. House of Representatives-a
city demolition crew recently showed
up at 30 Fort Greene Place in Brooklyn
and, as it's their business to do, built a
vacant lot. The late September execu-
tion of number 30 was efficient
enough; within days, all that remained
of the abandoned three story brown-
stone was a small pile of rubble and a
neatly plowed dirt patch. But the
operation was marred by one small
point: months earlier, Community
Planning Board 2 had requested that
the building be sealed as part of a
hard-fought plan to retain the original
character of Fort Greene Place and two
adjacent blocks.

CONTENTS
Volume 6, Number 9
The major component of that plan is
the new construction of 96 units worth
of federally assisted housing, in the
form of 'ow houses that are to be
consistent with the neighborhood's
older stock, on six vaCflDt lots in the
Tri-Block area. "The whole idea of
infill housing is to fill," Janet Matloff,
Community Board 2 Housing Commit-
tee chairperson told the Daily News.
"Now we have another hole."
The Department of Housing Preser-
vation and Development told the News
that it proposed the demolition earlier
in the year and it was approved by the
Community Board. But both the
Board's records and those of Rep. Fred
Richmond, Democrat of Brooklyn,
who has been involved in the Tri-Block
project, show that local residents never
returned an approval form to let the
ball swing. The razing evi-
dently resulted from a lack of com-
munication between HPD's demolition
and development divisions.
The Fort Greene infill housing proj-
ect is being fmanced with the aid of
federal Section 8 rent subsidy commit-
ments. According to the Tri-Block
plan, the ow and moderate income
families to be housed in the new build-
ings will buy into a cooperative cor-
poration and, all told, will hold a 20
percent share of the properties. It will
be the first such Section 8 subsidized
co-op in the state. And barring any
future mishaps at the city housing
agency, it is hoped the new buildings
will stand for many years to
come. DT.L.
CCITYUMI1S)
Short Term Notes ..................... ! ....... 2
AnUn-FAIRPlan ............................ 4
Market Pr ices for Mitchell-Lamas? .............. 6
Eying an East F1atbush Rehab ................... 8
Alternative Management Plans Merge ............ 12
The Out-of-Towners .......................... 14
Squatters or Homesteaders ..................... 15
A Dim Con Ed Future? ...... ' ................. 18
Lobbying for Good Repairs .................... 20
A Food Project Sets its Thble . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 22
Coyer pi.oto CRAIG E. BLAIR
3
City Limits is published monthly, except June/July and
August/September double issues, by the Association of Neiab-
borhood Housing Developers, Pratt Institute Center for Com-
munity and Environmental Development and the Urban
Homesteadinl Assistanu Board. Articles in City Limits do not
necessarily reflect the opinion of the sponsoring organizations.
Subscription SlS per year for businesses and sovernment
off'lhds; $9 per year for individuals and community-based
All comsponcience should be addrCssed to:
CITY LIMITS. 424 We 33rd SU'eC!t. New York, N.Y. 10001
(212)
Pt>$tmQ$ter send change 0/ address to: City Umiu. 424 War
jJrd Stret!t. New York, N. Y. I(}()()I
... SeCond.:ciass PQSta8e paid New York, N.Y. 10001
City Limits (ISSN 0199-0(30)
Editor ..... ... , ...... Tom Robbins
Assistant Editor ..................... , .... Ttm Ledwith
Assistant Editor .......................... Susan Baldwin
Business Manager. . . .. . . . . .. . . . . . . . . .. . .. . R.onnie Spence
Design and Layout. ...................... '.' Louis Fulgoni
Copyrighll98J. All rights nserved. Noportion orporti<Jnsqf
this journal may be reprinted withoul the express written per-
mission o/the publishers.
'I."IdI ........ fIIIIdId ................. frvm die New York eo..
.....,,....
CITY LIMITSINovember 1981
State Nixes an Un-FAIR Plan
W
HEN "HIGH-RISK"
property insurance was insti-
tuted in 1968, nobody anticipated
having to worry about what to do with
the profits. The state-sponsored
insurance "pools:' composed of
nUmerous member companies, were
designed to provide basic coverage for
inner city property owners unable to
secure conventional voluntary
insurance. Though rates in these Fair
Access to Insurance Requirements
(FAIR) plans were considerably higher
than conventional rates, it was expected
that the member companies would, at
best, break even on the deal, and pro-
visions were made to subsidize any
operating losses they might incur.
But it appears things have changed:
in late September New York State
Assembly Attorney General Robert
Abrams and Superintendent of Insur-
ance Albert Lewis had to obtain a
court order to stop what they called an
"unconscionable" effort by the New
York Property Insurance Underwriting
Association (NYPIUA-this state's
version of the FAIR plan) to distribute
SS2 million in assets to its member
companies. A joint complaint, filed by
the two officials in state Supreme
Court, charged that the NYPIUA's
move to transfer assets to its 317
members, who would use the funds for
their own investments, endangered the
continued sound operation of the in-
sUJ1lIl,CC association. The court chal-
lenge also charged that the move violat-
ed state insurance and business laws
and could irreparably harm claimants,
policyholders and taxpayers.
Accordina to the challenge, the SS2
million in question came from
NYPIUA investments of policyholders'
premiums, investments enhanced of late
by sky-high interest rates. Representing
a large portion of the Association's
total assets-reportedly $76 million as
of May 31, 1981-the SS2 million
should, said the state challenge, be held
in reserve to cover future claims and
operating expenses. Abrams and Lewis
also asserted that some of the
investment income could be used to ,
lower NYPIUA rates, which are now
, 20 to 40 percent higher than voluntary
insurance premiums.
The law requires that all of the Ass0-
ciation's income, including investment
income, be used to make up for oper-
ating deficits. Transferring any such
income to member companies, it was
charged, would "paint a misleadingly
unfavorable fmancial picture and
artificially create a deficit." Last year
New York State had to ante up S17.S
million to cover alleged NYPIUA
losses. This money came from a state
Security Fund paid by a special tax on
voluntary policyholders' premiums. So
much for "high risk" insurance.
Most AdMIt Role
The FAIR plan f ~ , which has
cast the state Insurance Department in
its most activist,role in recent memory,
. surfaced on September 21 when Super-
intendent Lewis got a one sentence
leltelt from Richard Brueckner, presi-
dent of the NYPIUA, stating that the
multi-million dollar transfer would
occur one week thence, Though DO de-
tails on the causes or possible effects of
4
this siphOning action were provided, it
was later ascertained that it had been
approved, without dissenting votes, at
September 17 meeting of the 13 mem-
ber NYPIUA Boar,d. 10 members of
the Board, the subsequent legal chal-
lenge pointed out, are executives of
member companies that would benefit
from a fund transfer.
On September 23, citing his legal
objections and the Association's failure
to provide background information
about the distribution plan, Lewis di-
rected that the effort be halted. The
next day, Brueckner told the Insurance
Department the transfer would go
through anyway. On the 2Sth, by now
clearly incensed, the 'Superintendent
notified Association officials of a midi-
October departmental hearing to deter-
mine whether disciplinary action was
called for. The temporary court order
blocking the transfer scheme was
secured by Lewis and,the Attorney
General several days later and, pending
a scheduled late October Supreme
Court hearing, the Insurance Depart-
m ~ t hearing was postponed.
As this legal battle wore on, some
community organizations started to re-
examine the FAIR plan's potential for
neighborhood reinvestment. At least
one group, the Northwest Bronx
Community and Oergy Coalition, had
approached the NYPIUA earlier this
year about possible financing. for a
housing rehabilitation project.
The current controversy "really un-
dermines the argument they were using
then," said Jim Buckley, who works
for the Coalition. "They said they
All-Savers
Mortgages?
T
HE FIFTEEN MONTH BUYING
binge for the new All-Savers cer-
tificates was launched October 1 amidst
one of the great advertising drives of
lending industry history. A media blitz to
sell the certificates that offer tax-free in-
terest up to $2,000 was offering some
unprecedented late and evening banking
hours to sweep in new investors.
The dust hasn't settled enough yet to
see exactly how popular the savings in-
struments are, but predictions have been
widespread that total national invest-
ment could wind up doubling the initial
estimate of $250 billion. All of which is
fme for the investors, great for the lend-
ing institutions, who get an enormous
shot in the arm, but a potential problem
for government which could end up with
a tax shortfall twice what it anticipated.
Yet, what about the residential loan-
seekers who, according to the legislation
that created the certificatesas part of the
National Economic R ~ o v e r y Tax Act of
1981, were supposed to be a major bene-
ficiary of the plan? Those looking for
home mortgage loans on single-family
houses, co-ops or multiple dwellings, or
merely home improvement and rehabili-
tation loans were told to look forward to
some relief in the mortgage-parched
lending terrain. Rates could be expected
to drop 2 or 3 points below their present
level, Congress had said, as the lenders
plowed their All-Savers profits back into
the housing loan market.
But, the regulations Congress wrote
into the Act stipulating that performance
were not too well screwed down. Banks
and savings and loans associations were
couldn't do long term lending because
the money would only be around for a
year." He added that the Northwest
Bronx group-which has enjoyed much
. success securing financing for neigh-
borhood projects from conventional
lenders, including insurance companies
-was taken by surprise when news of
told that either the proceeds from the
sale of the certificates during a calendar
quarter or the amount of "new" money
coming into the bank during that
period-the amount deposited above the
transfers made from the now far less
attractive savings accounts and time
deposits-whichever is less, had to go to
these types of loans. .
The regulations leave the banks with a
rather large amount of discretion about
what kinds of loans they will make.
While the lower rate paid to savers on the
certificates helps keep the institution's
costs down there is no guarantee that
savings will be passed on in lower interest
rates.
The Savings Association League of
New York State has estimated that thus
far 20 to 25 percent of the All-Savers
purchases have represented new depos-
its. "If anyone thinks we're going to take
5
the asset transfer broke. "We knew the
FAIR plan made a profit last year,"
Buckley stated, "but we didn't know
anything about this." In light of the
NYPIUA's apparent eagerness to
spread the wealth, Buckley said his
group plans to hold another meeting
with the Association in the near future.
OT.L.
that money and put it in long-term
mortgages when it's only going to be on
deposit for one year, they should think
again," said Ed Kraemer, the League' s
spokesman.
Under the regulations the growth can
be invested in mortgages, but ones that
are far from home.
Iowa's state attorney general felt
strongly enough about where All Savers
dollars were being channeled in his state
to sue 14 out-of-state investment insti-
tutions. Local groups won't have that
kind of clout and will have to work hard
to get even ~ small piece of the All-Savers
action for their neighborhoods. The
regulations also allow the lenders to
decide whether they are living up to their
obligations under the act. There are no
standards to meet and no regulatory
agencies will monitor the use of these
earnings. OT.R.
CITY LIMITS/November 1981
" ' . " i ~ I .. " .... -Lama CO+opS?
T
HERE SEEMS NO LIMIT TO NEW YORK CITY'S
co-op market. Condos and cooperatives, launched all
over town including the unlikeliest of neighborhoods, com-
manding prices for individual apartments that could have
purchased the entire building a few years ago, have captured
whatever there is of a housing market in this city.
But many of the biggest co-op buildings in the city, ac-
counting for some 67,000 apartments in all, haven't been able
to cash in on the bonanza-at least not publicly. Those build-
ings are the Mitchell-Lama cooperatives, the balconied high-
rises clustered in former urban renewal areas and elsewhere
throughout Manhattan, the Bronx, Brooklyn and Queens.
Built as limited profit housing under legislation advanced in
1955 by MacNeill Mitchell in the state Senate and Alfred
Lama in the Assembly, the projects were developed to
provide housing for low and moderate income .families.
Income limitations require families of three or more to earn
no more than seven times their annual rent and six times the
rent for individuals and smaller families. In addition to the
co-ops built under the Mitchell-Lama bill, there are thou-
sands of rentals as well.
Key to making the co-ops affordable were the low purchase
prices, many of them made more affordable by a low interest
loan fund. That fund is long depleted and the rest of the
CITY LIMITS/November 1981 8
Mitchell-Lama subsidy cupboard has been fairly barren for
years, replenished only when year-to-ye;:tT bail-outs are
arranged for the projects.
Meanwhile, the legislature, particularly the Republican-
controlled Senate, has made bail-out money harder and
harder to get. And, at the same time, Mitchell-Lama tenants
have chafed under the resale restrictions that keep the co-op
owners from realizing anything more than the amount they
originally paid, plus their amortization, when they sell.
Now, a plan has been advanced by Governor Carey and
endorsed 'by state housing officials that would allow the
cooperatives to be resold at a market rate while splitting the
profit three ways. Half of the' profit above the owner's
original purchase price and amortization will go to a special
Project Loan Fund to provide energy conservation assistance
'to Mitchell-L,ama developments and to Ieplenish the HOPE
loan fund that would provide loans for the down payments
on apartments. Twenty percent would go to the cooperative
and thirty percent to the seller.
But this plan designed to make all parties happy, including
legislators who would like to be relieved from the yearly bail-
outs, came in for some stiff criticism and numerous sugges-
tions for changes at hearings held by Assemblyman
Alexander "Pete" Grannis, Democrat-Liberal of Manhattan,

in late September. As a result, the sponsors don't expect the
bill to go anywhere in the special session now underway and
before it re-emerges next year in the Assembly it may read
significantly differently from the way it does now. "It just
wasn't the right time for it," said Michael Lenane, housing
specialist for Grannis.
James Garst of the Mitchell-Lama Council, which en-
dorsed the bill as a starting position for negotiations,
characterized comment on the bill as "a wide spectrum of
opinion ranging from unacceptable in context to unaccept-
able in form."
The most thundering opposition came from the
representatives of the Metropolitan Council on Housing who
said the bill spelled not.hin& less than a total retreat from the
kind of low and moderate income housing the Mitchell-Lama
developments represented. That cautionary warning about
preserving the original intention of the state's biggest venture
into subsidized housing was echoed in other testimony but
few others were as inextricably opposed to any easing of the
resale restrictions.
Among those who agreed with the bill's concept but
rejected its particulars was the City of New York which holds
the mortgages on 163 projects and has provided tax abate-
ments to all the Mitchell-Lama developmeQts within its
borders. Housing Commissioner Anthony Gliedman said the
City was interested in recouping some of its tax abatement
investment. The Commissioner promised to develop a
position paper on the subject soon. Other speakers urged a
rearrangement of the split along various combinations so that
either state, owner or cooperative got a bigger piece.
A One-Thne BUp
Sponsors of the bill had no projections of what impact the
bill would have on apartment turnover in the developments,
or what levels prices would reach if uncapped. The bill's pas-
sage would "catalyze decisions to move and sell," said Garst.
But those sales, he said, would be "a one-time blip on the
graph. After that it would flatten out once you've established
a new market price for the apartments."
But wherever prices levelled out that would still be well
above their present cost and out of reach of many, if not most.
of those for whom the housing was originally targeted. Critics
such as the Metropolitan Council have argued that the Gov-
ernor and others are redeeming their own political
investments in the Mitchell-Lama program at the expense of
the program's integrity.
The bill's fashioners counter that present carrying charges
are well below the 25 percent of income used as a basis for
what tenants can afford. Therefore, they say, buyers could
afford to add a purchase money mortgage atop their monthly
rent and still be affordable.
And since part of the projected sales profit is to be plowed
back into a low interest loan fund,they say, lower income pur-
7
chasers won't be shut out. Details of this fund are not yet
worked out and provisions in the bill are markedly vague as
to who would qualify for the loans and how much there
would be available.
If enacted in some form, the of Mitchell-Lama
co-op prices would have varied effects on different projects.
The newest in the program, those on Roosevelt Island already
have rents close to $180 per room. Other projects are located
in such high demand areas that, once offered on the open
market, prices would presumably soon match the astronom-
ical amounts comparable units are
Still the Best Buy
For all their management and construction problems,
Mitchell-Lama projects have long been one of the best buys in
the city. And it has been charged repeatedly that some co-op
owners have found ways to parlay that bargain into sales
prices well above those allowed. The new bill presumably
would put an end to most under the table deals and cut the
state and the cooperative company into the deal as well.
One problem it might not solve, however, is the glaring
racial stratification that has long characterized many
Mitchell-Lama co-ops. At least one massive Mitchell-Lama
co-op, Warbasse Houses in Coney Island, is currently the
target of a federal class action suit charging manipulation of
the waiting lists to keep the development overwhelmingly
white.
"There are still a number of unanswered questions," said
Michael Lenane. "How do you work a limited market price
waiting list with open market sales? Go down the list to see
who can afford it now?" Overall, Lenane said, the question
should be asked, "Is it in synch with the Mitchell-Lama
program to all of a sudden have sales of $90,OOO?"O
CITY LIMITSINovember 1981
East Flalbush Eyes a Project's
RehabilHaflon by Tim Udwitb
V
anderveer Estates, a 30 year old housing complex that
dominates four full blocks and houses . about 10,000
people in .the East F1atbush section of Brooklyn, has been
deteriorating for almost as long as it's been in existence. So
-vhen owner Faymor Realty announced last January that
Vanderveer would get a multi-million dollar shot in the arm,
in the fonn of a federally insured rehabilitation loan for most
of the complex's apartments, many area residents had high
hopes. Hailed as the largest "tenants-in-place" rehabilitation
project ever undertaken in New York City, the Vanderveer
effort, its planners say, won't lead to displacement. Despite
such assurances, some of the development's tenants and
others in East F1atbush are keeping a close watch on the rehab
work itself, and on Vanderveer's chances of remaining a rea-
sonably-priced rental complex.
Known as a "tandem" loan, the $24 million project's
ftnancing arrangement involves banks and federal housing
agencies. Citibank, through its subsidiary Citicorp Commun-
ity Development corporation, is providing a short tenn con-
struction loan to cover costs during the complex's planned
CITY LlMITSINovember 1981 8
one year renovation. After the work is done, the department
of Housing and Urban Development will provide Vander-
veer's owners with long tenn ftnancing, in the fonn of a 40
year, 7Y2 percent mortgage. The mortgage will come from the
Government National Mortgage Association, a HUD-spon-
sored low interest mortgage pool, and is to be insured by the
Federal Housing Administration. It will be serviced by
Anchor Savings Bank.
Over $11 million of the total $24 million Vanderveer loan is
being used to payoff the development's previous mortgage.
The rest, at an average of $6,500 per unit, is for repairs,
including the installation of new heating plants, over 15,000
new windows, and bathroom and kitchen Projected
energy cost savings of 20 percent and a "J-51" city real estate
tax abatement, the plan's sponsors say, will keep rent
increases for current residents at a rnil$num once the
renovation -is complete.
Although Faymor's negotiators originally approached
HUD with plans to rehabilitate the entire Vanderveer com-
plex, the fmancing package had to be placed in a lottery with
proposed loans for other projects around the country. To
improve its chances, the Vanderveer plan was broken ,into
five "blocks." By the luck of the ~ r a w , three were approved.
Ken Patton, a vice president of the giant Helrosley-Spear
real estate firm, helped negotiate the deal and has taken an
active role in managing the rehabilitation work, which began
last spring. Patton describes his role as that of a "facilitator"
trying to "help coordinate the work that needs to be done
among the various parties involved." He believes Vanderveer
"beat the odds dramatically" in the federal lottery . As for the
1,0000plus apartments in the two remaining unlucky. sections,
Patton asserts their renovation will be fmanced "by luck or
wit." He says fmancing plans for the two sections will be
submitted to the next HUD lottery in January. Failing there,
Patton says, a city Participation Loan interest subsidy will be
sought for the rest of the project.
J
udging from the optimism Patton exudes, the odds of
success at Vanderveer seem good, but for many people in
the 59 building complex and the neighborhood of one and
two family houses in its shadow, all bets are still off.
Their skepticism stems at least in part from the complex's
rocky past. Locals say Vanderveer, built by Faymor Realty
in 1949, suffered the effects of inadequate maintenance early
on and in the project's first 20 years, its mostly white tenancy
watched the gradual deterioration that resulted. During a
period of rent decontrol in the early '70s that coincided with
an intense block-busting campaign in East Flatbush, a mass
exodus of long-time Vanderveer residents occurred. By the
mid-' 70s , the complex-like the neighborhood-housed a
primarily black, middle class population.
As the decade advanced, so did Vanderveer's problems.
"It was a pretty common strategy," says Lamar Williams, a
former organizer with the local Neighborhood Stabilization
program \vho worked in Vanderveer. "You move in black
families, decrease services, and play on the racism that's
institutionalized in society anyway." Security became a major
problem at the complex. A management scheme which of-
fered a month's free rent to new residents attracted a
substantial transient population. Rifts between American and
immigrant Carribbean blacks hindered tenant organizing,
Williams recalls. Residents' incomes dropped and the com-
plex's deterioration accelerated.
Neighborhood concern is based largely on
the alleged mishandling of a moderate rehabilitation plan
three years ago, when Faymor negotiated a refmancing deal
with the New York Bank for Savings, holder of Vanderveer's
original mortgage. The 1977 agreement freed up two million
dollars for an itemized list of capital impr.ovements to be
completed by January, 1981 but according to the local Neigh-
borhood Stabilization office and the non-profit Flatbush East
Community Development Corporation (FECDC) , only
$100,<XX> worth of improvements were ever made in the
complex. FECDC has registered complaints with both the
bank and its federal regulator, but neither has initiated action
on the matter.
By the time HUD approved the development's renovation
9
plan early this year, conditions at Vanderveer prompted Phil
Gallagher, an East Flatbush resident and co-chair of the
Brooklyn Committee for Better Housing, to protest the
federal agency's decision. In a February letter to the agency's
Area Office, he acknowledged the protest's seemingly para-
doxical nature, but said the HUD approval, in the absence of
a close look at Faymor's record and ability to handle the
ambitious plan, was viewed by area residents as "controver-
sial at best, and seemingly hasty and ill-considered." The
owners' performance at Vanderveer, wrote Gallagher, had
long been characterized by "terrible management and cal-
culated negligence."
I
n mid-October, FECDC, the Neighborhood Stabilization
office and the Vanderveer Estates Tenants Association
called a meeting to see if the current rehabilitation effort was
faring any better. About 50 tenants attended, and, while it's
clear from what they said that work is well under way this
time around, some of them seemed to wish it wasn't.
Concerns were raised at the two hour session about the
quality of some materials being used in the rehabilitation, and
poor maintenance was an ongoing issue. But the most vehe-
ment complaints involved work scheduling; one resident's
home was reportedly robbed when, without notice, someone
entered the empty apartment at rnid-day to work and appa-
rently left it unlocked. In addition, tenants said, because
CITY LIMITSINovember 1981
safety precautions were lacking, window installation and
other rehab work was hazardous to residents.
Project "facilitator" Patton concedes that "there's been
problems" with some contractors, but insists "the overall
quality of the work is fme."
As the work goes on for better or worse at Vanderveer,
many people who live in and around the development are
genuinely baffled. Why is such an ambitious project being
attempted now, they wonder, after so many years of neglect?
Why has a real estate executive well-versed in cooperative
housing appeared on the scene? Why has Citibank chosen
Vanderveer as its ftrst East Flatbush community development
project? Some of the area's more suspicious residents can't
help looking for clues in neighboring Flatbush, where
Citibank is now ftnancing co-op conversions.
Patton says co-oping at Vanderveer "is not necessarily
precluded" by conditions of the federally-aided rehabilitation
CITY LIMITS/November 1981
10
fmancing, "but it's not intended." As for the possibility of
his own Helmsley-Spear taking the reins at Vanderveer after
renovation is complete, says Patton: " N e v ~ r . " But he adds
that Faymor may soon share or even give up ownership of the
complex. "We're actively looking for a new management
team," Patton acknowledges. "We keep that possibility
open."
Meanwhile, a rehabilitation monitoring committee, made
up of representatives from management, Citibank, FECDC,
Neighborhood Stabilization, and the Vanderveer tenants'
group, continues the fairly regular meetings it began last
spring in order to keep communication lines open. "Some-
body's got plans for Vanderveer that they're not telling us
about," observes Michelle Corbin, executive director at
FECDC and a monitoring committee member. She may be
right, but Corbin, like a lot of other people in and around the
Vanderveer, is doing all she can do while the sawdust flies:
waiting and watching. 0
Getting Aid to 7A Administrators
Getting the judge to replace the land-
lord of a declining building and install a
new manager to try and make things
work solves part of a building's problem
-but only a small part. The next crucial
step involves repairs-usually catch-up
repair work that may be backed up for
months, if not years.
The city housing department provides
a number of tools for these building
managers-or 7 A administrators as they
are called for the section of the law under
which they are appointed. One such tool
is a no-interest "Financial Assistance
Payment" of up to $10,000.
Since 1978 the city has been offering
these loans with terms so reasonable they
are almost closer to grants, but until last
year their success had been limited. Ad-
ministrators have encountered difficul-
ties wading through mounds of paper-
work and also persuading contractors to
do work when the city is paying the
bill-at a time schedule that virtually
always meant months of waiting.
In July, 1980, with assistance from
two private foundations, a new loan fund
was piggy-backed atop the Financial
Assistance Payments program: operating
as a revolving loan pool the program
was to provide administrators with quick
payments once contractors have com-
pleted their work and the job has been
inspected and approved by the housing
department.
As of September 30, 1981, $311,000
had been spent in 7 A-managed buildings
through the program. Another $509,000
in loans has been committed. This buzz
of activity has prompted the Department
of Housing Preservation and Develop-
ment to give the program its own
director, Susan Carr, and a staff of four .
York Community Trust and $10,000
from the Fund for the City.
In spite of the steady growth in
numbers of 7 As using the Financial As-
sistance Payments program-formerly
called 7 A Seed Money-loans have
tended to be clustered, going to buildings
and in Manhattan and the
Bronx.
According to Carr, one reason for this
is that few community groups in
Brooklyn, where only three loans were
made in the first year of the accelerated
loan program, have focused their atten-
tion on getting these funds for buildings.
A number of tenant advocates in the
Bronx and Manhattan, on the other
hand, have been eagerly pursuing the
loan pool, she said.
Another possible reason is that some
administrators and tenant advocates re-
main skeptical of the advantages of the
program pointing out that while pay-
ment of contractors after inspection may
have increased, getting the city out to in-
spect and approve the work is still a
lengthy process. The city has acknowl-
edged this bottleneck and has assigned
an inspection team to focus particularly
on the 7A payments program.
Repayments of the assistance loan are
set according to the building's needs and
ability to pay, said Carr. Paybacks range
.from $50 per month to $400 per month
starting one month after construction is
complete. These rather lenient terms are
an acknowledgement, says Joseph Shul-
diner who heads the housing depart-
ment's unit overseeing the 7A program,
that most of the 7 A buildings will wind
up in the city's hands anyway for back
taxes. "The key," he says, "is to get the
7 A administrator the cash flow he needs
to run the building." 0
Tenants and 7 A administraton can
inquire for more lnfonnadon about the
7 A Financial Assistance Program at
556-7772.


According to a study by the Fund for
the City of New York which adminis-
trates the quick payment program, most
administrators who received an advance
payment from the revolving pool, which
is then later reimbursed by the city, were
able to meet their bills some five weeks
sooner than they would have without the
program. The loan pool originated with
a $40,000 contribution from the New .. ------------------..

Q
11 CITY LIMITSINovember 1981
AHemative Management
Programs Merge By SUSAN BALDWIN
One of a number of experimental programs launched by
the city housing department two years ago to improve
management in city-owned buildings and pave the way for
their sale to tenants or groups is quietly being phased out and
folded into another older program.
The Management in Partnership Program, under which
community groups manage tax-foreclosed residential build-
ings under the supervision of a private management firm, will
gradually be replaced by the sometimes controversial nine-
year-old Community Management program.
The new program will include five groups from the two-
year-old MIPP program, who will be granted a number of
the privileges of the current 14 Community Management
groups for a probationary one-year period.
"Over the course of this year, these MIPP graduates will
merge with Community Management," said Bruce Dale,
director of the rehabilitation bureau for all the alternative
management programs at the city's Department of Housing
Preservation and Development. "Our goal is to tighten up the
performance of all the groups in this division as soon as
possible because we have no idea how tight the Reagan '
squeeze will be. But we do know the bullet will be bit."
Under MIPP, once touted as the most successful alterna-
tive program, community groups wit}1 no experience in
management, rent collection, repairs, and rehabilitation spent
two yJlrs as community-or junior-partners working and
studying under private managers-senior partners-to learn
these skills. Compared to Community Management, MIPP
was considered by many city hall observers to be more cost-
effective because the private companies with track records in
the business world were presumed to be more efficient than
community groups. But one problem MIPP community par-
ticipants cited was the lack of rehabilitative work done. As a
result, they said, the buildings need more intensive repairs
before they can be sold and put back on the tax rolls.
As of October 1, three MIPP graduates-People's Fire-
house in Brooklyn and Banana Kelly Neighborhood Im-
provement Association and the Alliance for Progress, both in
the Bronx-joined the Community Management ranks with
the stipulation that they must work under the scrutiny of one
of the former senior partners-Coalition Management Train-
ing Corporation (CMTC)-in developing repair and rehab
plans. Two other groups-Manhattan Bowery Project in
Brooklyn and the Community League of West 159th Street in
Manhattan-are expected to become Community Manage-.
ment provisionals late in November. They will also report to
CMTC, the management arm of the New York Urban
Coalition.
Two Brooklyn groups-Ministries for Intergroup Action
(MIA) and Crown Heights Management and Maintenance
Corporation (formerly a Community Management partici-
pant)-have been dropped because of irregularities in their
CITY liMITS/November 1981
12
offices. A third-Bronx-based Morris Heights Neighborhood
Improvement Association, also a former Community Man-
agement participant-was also eliminated from MIPP. And a
fourth-STRESS, Inc. in Manhattan, has been reassigned to
Belson Management Associates, a senior partner whose
contract ends in eight months, for more intensive training.
The contract for the last of the three senior partners-Souk,
Inc. (a subsidiary of the Jackie Robinson Management
Company)-expires in November and will not be renewed.
Supervisory Role
A focus of controversy during the summer was the ap-
proval by the city of the CMTC contract before the Board of
Estimate vote in late August. Some community groups were
angered by this promise of a consultant contract to CMTC,
noting that normal procedure would call for them to enter the
competitive bidding process. After some debate, the Board
did approve them as a demonstration project for six months
at $196,000, not the $500,000 originally requested, with the
proviso that they must be reviewed in the next three to four
months. Their contract began October 1.
"We have just so much money to spend [$322,000] and 100
units to rehab," said Ron Webster, head of the People's
Firehouse management program. "We'll probably
concentrate [the funds] where the tenants )Vant to buy the
buildings. But face it, if we have to spend $10,OOO-a-unit to
fix up a building, then we're only talking about rehabbing 30
apartments. "
The MIPP rehab contracts fall into the more modest cate-
gory of the People's Firehouse, while the more' established
ones amount to $1 million or more with the highest being $1.8
million. The total Community Management contract for this
year comes to $17,841,50l-a figure that includes the
Community Development allowance ($13,912,021) and esti-
mated rent collections ($3,929,490).
Harry DiRienzo, of Banana Kelly, is less optimistic about
the program. A graduate of MIPP under CMTC's tutelage,
he asserted, "There has already been too much overlapping
and waste. MIPP shouldn't have lasted two years. Two
months would have been more like it. And now before any-
thing happens, any work is done, we're being asked to re- .
structure rents-for some apartments at $65-a-room. That's
too much for the people up here, and we won't collect it until
the Section 8 [federal rent subsidy] is in place to cover the
increases. "
"For some of these places here," DiRienzo continued,
"the initial jump they want in rent is from $160 to
$350-a-month all in one shot. I know we wouldn't have got-
ten into Community Management without being in MIPP.
This was politically helpful, but we just won't evict people for
nonpayment of these rents. It's against our principles regard-
ing shelter."
little as a 3O-day turn-around period.
According to Dale, the MIPP and Community Manage-
ment staffs will probably be merged within the next six
months. In the meantime, Denise Caldwell, a former
Community Management coordinator and director of MIPP,
is making firm contract commitments between CMTc' and
the MIPP graduates in an effort to get work carried out in as
"We've had complaints from tenants about their b ~ d i n g s
while in MIPP, and they're absolutely legitimate," she ex-
plained. "We are not going to make these people buy their
buildings before they're ready for sale, and we're not going to
leave the graduate groups holding the bag for work that is not
done." 0 .
Thousands
Seek
Harlem
Brownstones
More than 5,000 applications have
been sent by the city housing department
to city residents who have shown some
interest in the 12 vacant landmark
brownstones in Harlem that are to be
sold by lottery sometime in December.
The deadline for applying was October
21.
The proposed upset prices for the
buildings range from as low as S5,000 to
$42,000 for a fashionable late 19th cen-
tury structure designed by Stanford
White on Strivers Row on West 139th
Street.
Minimum household income for qua-
lifying must be S20,OOO-a-year. Lottery
participants must present proof of
income in the form of tax returns or W2
forms in order to enter the lottery. But
the Department of Housing Preservation
and Development has said that incomes
of $40,000 to S50,000 would be pre-
ferable as families in this income bracket
would have an easier time handling the
expense of carrying the proposed
2O-year, low-interest loan and mortgage
costs. HPD has reserved S1 million from
its old Section 312 funding-federal one
percent construction loan funds-to
cover this pilot project.
Following an outpouring of Harlem
residents opposing the lottery at a stormy
July meeting, the l30ard of Estimate vot-
ed six to five in favor of the lottery plan
with the stipulation that residents of
Manhattan Community Boards 9 and 10
where these properties are located would
have their names placed in the lottery
pool three times, while outsiders' names
would only be entered once. Also, a resi-
dent must rehabilitate the property with-
in a two-year period and live there a min-
imum of three years before reselling it.
"We are not happy with the decision,
but it went through and we can't stop it
now, but we certainly can monitor it,"
said Lois Penny, a local homeowner and
leader of the Anti-Lottery Committee
that attempted to block its city hall ap-
proval. "And you better believe we'll
13
know whether it's a fair lottery," she
added. "We're t finished yet. We cer-
tainly are not lying down and playing
dead."
The lottery foes see the auctioning of
these 12 vacant brownstones as the be-
ginning of a possible major displacement
movement in Harlem where the city is
estimated to own somewhere between
7,000 and 12,000 properties, many of
which are occupied.
Two of the vacant brownstones are in
the Community Board 9 area, while the
remaining ten are located in Board 10's
territory. The thirteenth building that
was scheduled to be sold in the lottery
was redeemed by the original owner, but
the city had no record of this transaction
until several weeks ago.
Both the local Den:lOcratic Council-
man Fred Samuel and the Congressman
Charles Rangel "enthusiastically" sup-
port the lottery as well as future sales in
Harlem. 0 S.B.
CITY LIMITS/November 1981
,
Rent Complaint Board:
The Ouf-of-Towners
The 'Conciliation and Appeals Board,
responsible for enforcing the rent stabil-
ization law in about 800,000 New York
City apartments, is frequently cited by
stabilized tenants as one of the weakest
links in a generally weak regulatory sys-
tem. CAB members and staff blame the
Board's shortcomings on chronic under-
funding and short-staff mg. Its landlord-
funded sponsor, the Rent Stabilization
Association, was in fact charged by the
state Attorney General in June with
failing to adequately fmance the enforce-
ment agency. Others, including the New
York State Tenant and Neighborhood
Coalition, an organizing and lobbying
group, have attacked the system's per-
formance on the grounds that it is
influenced more by political machina-
tions than any intention to provide
sound tenant protections. In an illustra-
tion of this point, NYSTNC has charged
that at least two CAB members live
outside New York City, in violation of
the Public Officers .Law. According to
the Coalition, these and other Board
members, mayoral ap intees all, were
chosen on the basis of their political ties.
"It's not a bad deal-$15,000 a year for
one afternoon a week," NYSTNC
spokesman Bill Rowen said of the CAB
positions. "These are patronage plums."
Tenant and Landlord Members
The two members charged with violat-
ing residency requirements are Marc
Goodman representing tenants and
Frank Barrera, a landlord representative.
The nine member Board is equally split
between owner and renter members,
along with a Chairman. Goodman, an
accountant and former president of
School Board 11 in the Bronx, has served
on the CAB since 1974. Barrera, a real
estate attorney who has worked for the
Brooklyn and New York State Boards of
Realtors, has been on the CAB since
1969 and is said to be planning to leave
the agency at year's end.
Goodman is listed in the Bronx
telephone directory with a CO-OD City
CITY LIMITS/November 1981
address, but could not be reached there
in repeated calls. His wife was reached at
a New City number listed, in her name,
in the Rockland County directory. After
some hesitation, Mrs. Goodman said her
husband didn't live in New City and
supplied the Bronx listing. In August
Goodman told the Westsider he owned
"a vacation horne upstate," insisting
that he voted and paid taxes in New York
City. But according to Bill Rowen, who
heads the NYSTNC Tenant Protections
Committee that raised the residency
issue, "Everybody in the Democratic
organization in the Bronx knows he
doesn't live in the city."
Barrera, reached at a Garden City,
Long Island number and queried about
the NYSTNC charge, conceded: "No, I
don't live in New York City."
utters to Koch
The residency issue was raised by
Rowen in a series of three letters to
Mayor Edward Koch sent in March,
May and August, all of which ques-
tioned the two members' legal status in
light of the Public Officers law, which
requires that such positions be filled by
city residents. The letters also pointed
out that four of the Board members'
four year terms, including those of
Goodman and Barrera, officially expired
on December 31, 1980, but the members
have been allowed to remain. Rowen
urged that tenant organizations be pro-
vided the opportunity to recommend
new appointments.
On August 14, shortly after the third
letter was sent, Rowen and the NYSTNC
committee got their frrst response from
City Hall, in the form of a letter from
Deputy Mayor Nathan Leventhal with
an attached opinion from the city
Corporation Counsel. The opinion said
CAB members are indeed mandated to
live in New York. Leventhal stated in his
letter that, in 'light of the legal opinion,
"all candidates for appointment to the
CAB will be required to be New York
City residents." Leventhal stated there
was nothing illegal about members serv-
14
ing beyond their terms' expiration.
While stressing that Board decisions
were legally valid even if some members
violated the residenc requirement,
Leventhal added that he had asked CAB
Chairman Emmanuel "Wally" Popoli-
zio (who hails from the mayor's Green-
wich Village club) to find
out whether any current members lived
outside the city. Anybody found to be in
violation of the law, 1!.eventhal wrote,
"will no longer be allowed to serve. I
assure you," he concluded, "that deter-
mination will . be made within the next
few days." Goodman and Barrera
are still full- fledged CAB members.
In order to reappoint Board members
whose terms have expired or will expire
at the end of the year, and to appoint
replacements for as many as four
members who may be the CAB,
the mayor will soon submit recommen-
dations to the City Council Rules Com-
mittee. After that committee holds
preliminary hearings, the matter must be
referred to the full Council for con-
firming vote.
The Rules Committee hearings,
Rowen said, will provide tenants with an
opportunity to challenge improper ap-
pointees and relate "CAB horror
stories" to Council members. NYSTNC
and other tenant groups have long
assailed the Board for failing to fulfill its
lawful responsibilities. Major complaints
have included the CAB's inability,
and! or reluctance, to closely monitor
services in stabilized units, compel
owners to inform new tenants of previ-
ous occupants' names and rent levels,
and handle rent overcharge complaints
in a timely, effective way.OT.L.
Lower East Side Tenants:
SQUAmRS OR HOMESTEADERS? By Tim Ledwith
O
UTSIDE, IN THE LATE MORN-
ing sun of October 20, a fresh coat
of paint dried on the street level facades
of the solid looking Lower East Side
buildings. Inside, in a crowded living
room turned tenants' office, members of
the 272, 274 and 278 East 7th Street
Tenants Association met with friends
from the community to talk about the
three city-owned buildings' uncertain
future. Residents told of their two-front
battle against years of neglect in the
buildings and a current effort by the city
housing agency to evict them. As the
story unfolded, the gathering of.50
seemed to become convinced that its
eventual outcome will bode well or badly
not only for the occupants themselves,
but for the fate of Loisada, as their
neighborhood is called, and the lot of in
rem tenants in neighborhoods all over
New York.
While a gas range flared to warm the
crowd, the East 7th Street tenants
announced a plan to put the heat on their
municipal landlord. They demanded in a
press release distributed at the meeting
that the Department of Housing Preser-
vation and Development sue the City of
New York for failing to provide essential
services in the buildings, located between
Avenues C and D. The demand drama-
tized the tenants' contention that, in the
absence of responsible management on
the city's part, the three buildings have
survived only through residents' home-
steading efforts. "If it wasn't for tenants
maintaining the property, " charged
tenant spokesman Rolando Politi, "this
place would have been gone long ago."
Liz Gonzalez, the East 7th Street resi-
dents' legal aid attorney, added that an
"Article 78" proceediQg would be
instituted against the city for its handling
of the three buildings since May, 1978,
when they were foreclosed for tax ar-
rears. Gonzalez said the legal action,
which is used to challenge local govern-
ments to follow their own mandated
rules and regulations, would essentially
be based on "the fact that they took over
15
. ~ .
~ ' 1 ~ _
,. t_
- .
CITY LIMITS/November 1981
properties that were in bad shape and
made them much worse by not doing
anything with them." To emphasize the
point, she produced three HPD compu-
ter print-outs listing housing code
violations found in the buildings over the
last three years; unfolded, each was
several feet long.
Two days after the meeting, while 22
of the occupants were scheduled to ap-
pear in Manhattan HousQlg Court on an
eviction proceeding brought by the city
housing agency, Article 78 papers were
med in state Supreme Court. The ag-
gresSive legal strategy's immediate effect
was to postpone the eviction case for two
weeks. At month's end, the Supreme
Court case was still pending.
Legal Scramble
The late October legal scramble
marked anew, decisive phase in the East
7th Street properties' tumultuous recent
history. The buildings went in rem after
years of declining services, deterioration,
suspected arson, landlord-tenant struggle
and changing ownership-forces that
frequently pave the way to abandon-
ment. After tax foreclosure, HPD
informed the tenants they would be re-
located and the buildings closed down as
part of the agency's "consolidation"
program for city-owned property. But
here communications appear to have
failed: legal tenants were still in the
buildings when water service was cut off
in two of them, and code violations went
unrepaired. As setvices declined, so did
occupancy. According to current resi-
dents, the number of tenanted apart-
ments plummeted from 62 (of a total 72)
in January, 1977 to as few as 10 two
years later. By late 1980, the situation on
East 7th Street reached such a drastic
point that the housing committee of
Community Board Three recommended
the properties immediately be put up for
auction by the city.
Meanwhile, new residents were begin-
ning to take over units in the three
buildings. Though progress was slowed
by internal dissension fostered by the
vagueries of ownership and control, by
early 1981 the occupants were expanding
their ranks and some repair work was
under way. Tenants association members
say they removed four tons of debris
from the buildings and unclogged a
CITY LIMITS/November 1981
backed-up drainage and sewage system.
On February 8, a bank account to
cover operating and repair costs was
opened by the association, and residents
started paying into it monthly rents of
$100 per unit. By I the end of June,
recognizing the tenants' progress, the
community board reversed its previous
stance, voting to support the tenants'
request that HPD spare their buildings
from the auction block and let them into
the Department's Tenant Interim Lease
program (TIL, an in rem alternative
management program, offers tenants an
11 month lease and some money for
building system repairs, and is intended
to lead to the purchase of apartments by
low income residents).
On July 9, the city housing agency told
Community Board Three the East 7th
Street properties wouldn't be admitted to
the interim lease program and, because
new occupants were ineligible for reloca-
tion under the consolidation program,
they would be evicted. As summer
passed without litigation being initiated
1R
against the occupants b HPD, the ten-
ants association sought a meeting on the
matter with Housing Commissioner
Anthony GlieclIDan. In an October 3 let-
ter to tenant representative Politi,
Gliedrnan nixed the meeting request,
saying his understanding of the East 7th
Street situation was that two of the
buildings had already beep closed due to
poor conditions and the third was "in
the process of being closed."
As for their prospects of entering any
government-aided rehabilitation pro-
gram, the commissioner indicated the
three buildings would require work the
city can no longer afford. Though he
cited the "revitalization of empty deter-
iorated buildings" as matter of high
priority for this Agen , " Gliedman
said "the amount of [section 8] funds
available for the gut rehabilitation of
buildings has been cut drastically by the
federal administration." He suggested
the East 7th Street tenants might submit
proposals for the housing agency's
Urban Homesteading an Sweat Equity
programs next year, cautioning that
"this will be a highly competitive City-
wide competition.'"
Eviction
Confmning HPD's previously stated
intention to clear out occupants,
Gliedman added that "the only remain-
ing tenants, with one or t""o exceptions,
are not legal tenants and are being evict-
ed by this Agency."
The tenants flatly reject the implica-
tion that they are squatters, describing
their membership which the association
puts at around 70, as a mixture of home-
steaders, legal tenants and self-help
developers. "Squatting is an insulting
term," said tenant Politi,
who has lived on East 7th Street since
last winter. "It sounds like you're sitting
here doing nothing. We are doing preser-
vation and development here. " The
HPD position fails to consider that
point, he charged. "They're just
thinking in terms of dollars once again."
That charge is echoed by other resi-
dents, who say a drift toward gentrifi-
cation in Loisada is being encouraged by
housing agency Policies. Said Denise
Miller, who has lived in one of the East
7th Street buildings since February:
Supporters and tenants gather at East Seventh Street buildings meeting.
"This place is crazy with speculators.
- The city wants to sell the buildings to
someone big." Decision-making power
on questions of in rem auctioning,
consolidation and rehabilitation assist-
ance, another resident added, "needs to
be given to people in community groups,
community boards and community
management groups."
. The case's broader implications ap-
parently haven't been lost on
hood activists in the Lower East Side and
elsewhere: 46 housing, civil rights,
church and political organizations gave
their support to a position statement re--
leased by the East 7th 'Street group in
early October; following the October 20
meeting, numerous organiZations joined
the residents' Article 78 proceeding as
"friends of the court."
While that case was pending in Su-
preme Court in late October, and all
other legal action involving the three
properties remained on hold, so did
major repairs in the buildings. If the
tenants are able to stay in place, the work
ahead will be major: the buildings need
extensive roofmg, plumbing and' heating
system overhauls. A city estimate placed
the prospective renovation cost at
17
$300,000 per building. The occupants,
who recently commissioned an architect
to do their own estimates, believe they
can make the repairs for half that
amount. .
Such questions, the occupants con-
tended even as the legal battle wore on,
could best be resolved through an out of
court settlement with the city housing
agency. "TherC:s still no open commun-
ication with Gliedman's office:" Politi
lamented. Efforts like those of the East
7th Street tenants, he added, constitute
"an alternative for poor people and the
city itself, but they don't want to recog-
nize it."D
CITY LIMITSINovember 1981
'.
...... ,_ .. 'I'
,.'
"
; ...
-
'}
.. IIr
A Panel Sees a Dim Con Ed Future
T
WO-AND-ONE-HALF-YEARS
after- it was formed to seek solu-
tions to New York City's astronomical
energy costs, a study panel has reached
an unpublicized and unheralded deci-
sion, The Public Utility Review Board
voted 5 to 3 last June that the logical
step was to have the state's power
authority take charge of the generating
and transmitting equipment currently
owned and operated by Con Edison.
The difficulty the Board had reaching
that decision may be a good indication
of how difficult it will be to achieve
that goal, ,
PURB was created by resolution of
the New York City Council in late 1978
to study methods of providing electri-
city at the lowest feasible cost to New
Yorkers. The PURB bill would have
passed several weeks earlier but the
Majority Leader's staff had misplaced
the stenographer's copy of the legis-
lation, apparently the only copy in
existence. Recovering from that set-
back, the City Council leadership, not
yet nationally reknowned as an archi-
tect of balanced political bodies, used
its formidable gifts to sculpt a Board
CITY LIMITS/November 1981
By RICHARD SCHRADER
impervious to political or economic
leverage.
Among the initial nine board
members were vice presidents of both
Con Ed and the Long Island Lighting
Company, the Executive Director of
the New York Chamber of Commerce
and the president of a gasworks local
whose members stood to lose their
rights to strike 'if the utility were
publicly owned. Within the six
months of PURB, the Con Ed repre-
sentative asked that the Board be
dissolved, Eugene Mastropieri, the
chairman of the council committee that
designed PURB was indicted for fraud,
embezzlement and conspiracy, PURB
stationary was printed after arduous
negotiating with Majority leader
Thomas Cuite and the Rev. Morton
Van Allen, PURB's first chairperson,
resigned in anguish after he too,
suffered indictments for fraud, embez-
zlement and conspiracy. Rev. Van'
Allen went to jail (having just con-
cluded an introductory Business Ad-
' ministration course at Harvard),
Councilman Mastropieri took leave of
his council seat, and Mr. Cuite, ever
18
attentive to matters of s tecraft,
assigned his staff in the rovision ,of
legal and secretarial service to PURB.
Martin Seham, the leg counsel for
the Owners Commitee, a.tt association
of large commercial bull . g owners
including the
l
Empire Stae Building
and Rockefeller Center, ecarne the
new chairman. Theodore Barry and
Associates were selected t prepare Part
One of the study, "Caus s of High
Electric Rates." Barry atfHbuted the
major causes of hig}} electricity rates in
New York to: a low load factor, bur- ,
geoning underground dis 'bution costs,
higher local taxes and fue costs. In
July, 1980, the Board awarded Barry
the contract for the secon half of the
study, "Economic,Electri Supply."
The law firm of Berle Bu ell and Case
was hired to study meth of aiding
low income customers through rate re-
form and direct as'sist&nce programs.
, Members of POWER (feople Out-
raged With Energy RateS) the coalition
of church, tenant and senibr citizen
organizations that origin y lobbied the
Review Board bill throu the City
Council, testified before tHe PURB
concerning a wide range of energy
matters. Slowly, painstakingly, all the
disparate fragments of New York's
energy policy began to assume more
coherent patterns. Before many alterna-
tive scenarios, be it conservation,
cogeneration, recycling, equalized rate
schedules or future methane produc-
tion, stood Con Edison's intricate
ftnancial arrangements. Each policy
possessed a dazzling array of uncer-
tainties, some fraught with troubling
ftscal implications. But only those
investments that enhanced the Com-
pany's earnings per share, price/
earnings ratios and stockholder divi-
dends received serious attention from
company management or utility regula-
tions. And always, those plants that
were most capital intensive, ftt the
taxing needs of the company's account-
ants and lent itself to centralized
construction spurred management
enthusiasm. To replace 5,000 mega-
watts of power in the early 1990s-
nearly half the installed
Ed envisioned building on the banks of
the Hudson in Ulster County four coal
plants and resurrecting the ghost of
nuclear power. The entire tab would
run to $20 billion.
T
HEODORE BARRY'S PART
Two forgot its meatier predeces-
sor. Load factor and distribution
network were curiously absent from the
new text. Instead through a series of
convoluted graphs, the engineering ftrm
sought to stir rather tired waters: re-
lieve the Company's property tax
burdens, waive the prohibition on coal,
and remove any remaining restraints on
Con Ed's right to shower the city be-
neath a rain of sulfur oxides, particu-
lates an4 carbons of all varieties.
POWER had raised the issue of
public power early in the Board's
deliberations. In this context, public
power came to mean an acquisition of
the Company's 'generation and trans-
mission system by the Power Authority
, of the State of New York (P ASNY) a .
utility that already supplies
electricity to the MT A, municipal
hospitals and most city buildings.
P ASNY hardly offers a haven for
those who would trod the soft path;
proud owners of the Indian Point III
MEMBERS OF THE PUBUC
UTILITY REVIEW BOARD
Martin SebalD Chair-legal counsel
for the Owners' Committee, an asso-
ciation of large conunmercial building
owners.
Edward Livingston-Con Edison
Vice-President in charge of Commun-
ity Relations.
Amalia Betanzos--President of the
Wildcat Corporation, a job training
agency that places ex-offenders.
Ira Freibeher-Lilco Vice President.
Robert Emerick-President of
POWER, a coalition of church, tenant,
trade union and senior citizen organi-
zations.
Charles Hughes-President of Local
372, District Council 37, American
Federation of State, County and Muni-
cipal Employees.
William Kirnme-President of Local
101, Transport Workers Union.
Rev. Floyd Flake-Baptist minister
from Jamaica, Queens.
Donald Moore-Director, N. Y.
Chamber of Commerce.
nuclear factlity in Peekskill, the agency
most frequently dons the corporate veil
as submissive business partner to more
assertive investor-owned utilities. Still,
cogeneration, hydro, and conservation
programs have all received open
responses from the agency.
PURB's fmal recommendations came
at a stormy meeting last June. The
usual banter ensued: predictable out-
bursts by Con Ed, coupled with yet
another suggestion to dissolve the
Board; windy diatribes' by consUmer
advocates and antagonists alike; and
overall, a faintly veiled hostility
between the utility representatives and
everyone else.
After the endless debates, the scores
of charts and numbing statistics, after
the meticulously prepared testimonies,
the calculation of advantages, the cir-
cuitous investigation of risks, through
that murk only a single thought pos-
.sessed much clarity: a future with Con
Ed meant only more rate increases,
degraded environments, abused
I 19
customers and disastrous mishaps. So
PURB spoke with the bifurcated con-
sciousness that the City Council had
given it. Burn coal, slash the fuel use
and gross receipts tax but Con Ed
should no longer be in the business of
generating or transmitting electricity.
When Seham of the Owner's Commit-
tee cast the ftfth and deciding vote for
a PASNY takeover calling the
Authority a "last, best hope" PURB
moved the city and state nearer than
ever before to closing down the Com-
pany's franchise. j
The resolutions must still clear Mr.
Cuite's City Council, then steer
through the goblins in Albany. And
P ASNY has all manner of protest. But
public power has never come this far in
New York City: that may be the untold
political story of New York in the Koch
Era. 0
Richard Schrader is Director oj Energy
Project oj the New York State Wide
Senior Action Councii.
CITY L1MITSINovember 1981
LOBBYIN.G
FOR
GOOD
REPAIR
By Toby Sancbez
Just about every mortgage written
contains some strong language that re-
quires the owner to keep his property in
good condition and repair-or else face
foreclosure. And for years housing or-
ganizers have looked longingly at that
clause and tried in vain to get banks to
use it. But, thanks to a 55-year-old court
ruling the "good repair clause" has been
rarely enforceable.
This past spring, however, a bill that
would change that situation cleared the
New York State Assembly, and although
it faces stiff opposition in the Senate, its
passage would yield a tough and effec-
tive tool for building imd neighborhood
preservation. Making that happen, ac-
cording to the bill's supporters, is going
to take a broad-based and persistent
effort.
The good repair clause is a written or
implied requirement that the owner of a
mortgaged property will keep it in good
condition and repair. If not, the bank, to
protect its investment, may foreclose,
demanding immediate full payment of
the entire outstanding loan, and interest.
But, in actuality, this power Of fore-
closure has rarely been enforced because
of a 1926 Appellate Court ruling that
limited foreclosures to those compara-
tively rare situations wnere the resale
value of the building had declined so
much that it was approaching the
amount of the mortgage.
As Bob Blank, Executive Director of
the Aatbush Development Corporation
explained it, "If a building is worth a
million dollars and the mortgage is
$300,000, the bank can't foreclose
because its chances of recouping its
investment are not considered to be in
CITY LlMITSINoyember 1981
jeopardy. The bank can always foreclose
for nonpayment of the mortgage, but
not for leaking roofs, busted pipes and a
broken boiler. We tried several times to
persuade the banks tQ foreclose on 'good
repair,' but it didn't work, as long as the
mortgage was being paid."
Only a Ploy
Roger Hayes, a long-time neighbor-
hood activist, recalled that the good
repair clause had never been more than a
useful ploy. "We would use the good
20
repair clause as a threat and this helped
us get to the negotiation stage with a
number of banks. We never got a fore-
closure, but we did get the banks to put
pressure on the landlords more directly. "
To make the good repair clause en-
forceable as a method to prevent deteri-
oration of multiple dwellings, the New
York State Assembly this spring passed
bill #4141 which would enable the bank
to foreclose if the owner fails to correct
serious housing code violations threaten- '
ing the health and safety of the occu-
pants . . The bill applies to buildings of
four units or more and would enable .
tenants and community groups to bring
the problems to the attention of the
bank. The bank, after certifying that the
dangerous violations do in fact exist and
allowing the owner a reasonable time in
which to correct them, could declare the
entire balance of the principal and
accrued interest due and payable.
In a letter to community groups in
May, before the Assembly's passage of
the bill, Blank wrote, "With this bill a
mortgagee [bank's] hand is strength-
ened .. If a mortgagee is then reluctant to
use this weapon, we would look to public
pressure or the present CRA [Commun-
ity Reinvestment Act]. If such reluctance
is widespread, we would have to seek
further remedies, perhaps through a
strengthened CRA.' ,
The good repair bill was sponsored in
the Assembly by Democrat from Queens
Ivan Lafayette, G. Oliver Koppell,
Democrat-Liberal of the Bronx, Alex-
ander Grannis, Democrat from Manhat-
tan and Herman D. Farrell, Democrat-
Liberal from Lafayette
explained, "The purpose of the bill is to
make it easier to foreclose and to shift
the burden of protecting buildings on to
the banks. It's to help the good owner
protect his building from the effects of
bad building next door or across the
street."
The sponsors consider the bill
important, but not a panacea for all
housing problems. Harriet Davis, an
aide to Assemblyman Koppell cautioned,
"This bill is not going to do much for
severely deteriorated areas. It is good for
places like Pelham Parkway, but not for
Tremont Avenue. It will only work
where a bank thinks its property is
attractive to purchase. Banks are very
sophisticated now and recognize that one
buildmg can ruin a block. They hold a
lot of paper in certain areas and they are
anxious to prevent spot erosion."
Ernest Skinner, Assistant Vice-Presi-
dent at Citibank's Flatbush Community
Development Pilot Program, agreed
with this assessment. "We are deflnitely
for 4141. It makes no sense for us to lend
money for rehabilitations if we don't
have the assurance that the buildings are
going to be maintained. We're for this
bill and would work for it, to protect our
own investments."
Alan Rothstein, a lobbyist for the Citi-
zens' Union and Michael Lenane, Dep-
uty Director of the Assembly Housing
Committee, both consider the chances of
its passage by the Senate very slim. Roth-
stein explained, "The Senate has shown
a tendency to be more favorable to
landlord interests than to tenant in-
terests. The price for passage of this bill
would probably have to be considerable
'watering down.' And the banks may not
want this bill because it would pU,t them
in the middle of landlord-tenant dis-
' putes." Lenane added that the powerful
landlord lobby could be expected to
oppose the bill. "They might ' say,"
speculated Lenane, "We'll give you the
good repair clause, if you give up 'war-
anty of habitability.' That would put us
in a real \:lind. How often would the
good repair clause be used? Which is the
more valuable piece of legislation for the
majority of tenants?"
Davis, of Koppell's office, stressed
that any chance of success for the bill's
survival hinges on creating a broad
coalition; including more than tenant
and community groups but religious
organizations as well. To succeed, she
said, the bill needed support from areas
"like Queens that are just starting to
worry about deterioration. We need to
impress the conservative members of the
, Senate and their staffs that the bill isn't a
threat to all owners." 0
Toby Sanchez works in the Technical
Assistance unit oj the Assoc. oj
Neighborhood Housing Developers.
COTYLIMI1S):
Manhattan ,
Soho Zat-W. Broadway & Canal St.
New Morning Books-169 Spring St.
N.Y. Marxist School (lSI W. 19 St.)
Stand-7th Ave. & W. 14 St.
Idle Hour Books-59 Greenwich St.
Stand-737th Ave.
West 4th St. Books-l48 W. 4th St.
StaQd-65 W. 14 St. (Sixtb Ave.)
Stand-Bleecker & W. 11 St.
WendeU'sBooks-302 W. USt.
Vinnr's Variety-2Horatio St.
Stand-385 8tb (W. 29 St.)
Unity Books-235 W. 23 St.
Cbina Books-US Fifth Ave. (19 St.)
Revolution Books-16 E. 18 St.
Stand-Union Sq. East & 15 St.
Stand-14 St. & Ave. A
Stand-417 Third Ave. (E. 29 St.)
Stand-E. 34 St. & Lexington Ave.
City Limits is available at these newsstands and bookstores.
If you know of other outlets for City Limits, caD 239-9423.
Tobacco Road-Cbristopber & 7tb Ave.
Inner World Books-687 Broadway (3rd St.)
Stand-E. 23 St. & Park Ave. So.
, Readers Statlonary-Univ. PI. & E. 9 St.
Paradox Books;-128 E. 4th St.
Astor Smoke-St. Marks PI. & Third Ave.
Eastside Books-34 St. Marks PI.
Stand-46 W. 42 St. (5-6 Ave.)
Coliseum Books-1771 Broadway (57 St.)
Stand-Broadway & W. 62 St.
Stand-2422 Broadway (89-90 St.) ,
Red Letter Books-Amsterdam Ave. & W. 92, St.
Magazine EmporiuD!-Broadway & W. 111 St.
Stand-Broadway" LaSalle St.
Stand-2795 Broadway (107-108 St.)
21
Brooklyn
Stand-1521 Kings Highway (E. 15-16 St.)
Stand-13 Newkirk Plaza
Stand-Cortelyou Rd. & flatbusb Ave.
Stand-Bedford & TUden
Stand-Utica & Churcb Ave.
Stand-Bedford & Oarkson
Stand-Rogers" Maple
Falasba Empire-1OS9 Nostrand Ave.
Stand-Washington & Sterling PI.
Stand-Myrtle & Ryerson PI.
Stand-26 Court St.
Community Books-141 7tb Ave.
Stand-Union St." 7th Ave.
Stand-Hanson PI.
CITY LIMITS/November 1981
A Neighborhood Food Project Sets its Table
L
UNCH TIME FOR THE FOOD SERVICE TRAIN-
ees is over and the kitchen is being used for a knife-
sharpening class. Next door, in a large gray dining room,
seven black and Hispanic trainees earnestly discuss the
nutritional and cost differences between orange juice
concentrate and powdered lang. In their fourth week of
training at the school at 330 West 42nd Street in Times
Square, in twenty more weeks between 35 and 40 people
previously categorized as "hard-core unemployed" should
be ready for employment in private industry. Based on
startlingly high rates of placement-95 percent the sponsors
say-for the program's previous three cycles the chances
for placement look good.
Aside from the unusually clean kitchens, the facilities
appear similar to any food training service center that
might be organized by industry or a union. But on the
dining room blackboards, interspersed with instructions on
menu and food preparation are lessons stressing spelling,
math skills and leadership. And, a brief discussion with
Peggy Powell, the food project's director, reveals a training
program with unusual goals: "Much of our time is spent
on attitudinal development-analyzing orders, learning
CITY lIMITSINovember 1981 22
By MICHAEL POWELL
teamwork and building character. Job training is not just a
story about skills."
. This apparently successful approach is the summation of
the organizing experience of a novel New York City group
called the Mutual Aid Project. Besides sponsoring the food
training program, this group that traces its origins to some
domestic anarchiSt strains is also, along with the Caring
Community, a senior citizens center, planning to open a
multi-service center in Manhattan's Greenwich Village.
Another program, utilizing technical assistance from the
regional office of the National Consumer Co-op Bank, will
combine the Mutual Aid Project with Los Sures, a
community housing group in the Williamsburg section of
Brooklyn, to establish a small community-rqn cafeteria and
cultural center. Both programs will draw upon the food
service trainees and will eventually include food-buying
services as well. Each of these efforts, noted Rick Surpin,
the Project's director, will be molded not by the planners,
but by the J)a;Iticipants. "The shape that the cafeteria and
even the food program take will, in large part, be
determined by the users," he says. "These programs must
not be solely dermed by their relation to us, the Caring
Community or Los Sures."
.. That concept is central to MAP's notion of community
organizing-and it is also a difference it hopes will distin-
guish it from other organizing attempts. Stressing that he
doesn't Plean to knock the community move.ment,
Surpin differentiates the Project from both direct action
and housing organizing. "Most direct action organizations
are defined by single issue campaigns," said Surpin.
"Though these are effective and necessary in the short run,
I question whether this work is a long-term answer to the
problems we are facing. " Similarly, while lauding the
efforts of local housing and development groups, Surpin
observed that these groups frequently encounter severe .
limits on their mobility and work. "Many housing groups
are, by their nature, corporately defined. Governmental
guidelines can serve to limit their responsibility to the
neighborhoods," Surpin said.
The Mutual Aid Project, by contrast, eschews
governmental funding, concentrating instead on developing
leadership and teaching local residents to work
coopenltively outside of governmental structures. The
creation of political leaders is not a stated objective. Surpin
explained, "We are interested in developing the idea of a
citizen within a community. Politics, even at the commun-
ity board level, is not something that we feel we have to
deal with, at least not immediately."
Much of these tactics and philosophy are an outgrowth
of concepts developed at the Highlander School in West
Virginia. An initial training site for many early civil rights
and union organizers, the Highlander School had a basic-
ally anarchist philosophy. "The school started as a place
for the coal miners to meet, eat and talk," Surpin
commented. "However, once they defined the issues, the
workers and organizers went out to the action and then
came back and taught what they had learned." In this
manner, organizers functioned as co-workers and staff to
the miners, rather than generals commanding and mobil-
izing troops. Similarly, songs and poems developed out of .
actual experiences and conversations. As Surpin pointed
out, "The song 'We Shall Overcome' was nothing more
than a quote culled from one of the many workers at the
school. This is what we mean by developing an indigenous
culture based on present day experiences." A direct out-
growth of this philosophy, the Los Sures cafeteria project
will attempt to wed social and cultural organizing with job
training and the provision of nutritional food.
Island Organizing
This is not the first time the Mutual Aid Project has
organized around social and economic issues. The Project
has worked with similar coalitions since its inception in
1977. Now located in lower Manhattan, at 17 Murray
Street: the Project originally worked with senior citizens in
their own communities. Eventually concentrating in Coney
Island, the Project helped form the Coney Island Health
Center Inc., and the Concerned Tenants of Coney Island.
Both groups had similar structures; and there was little
formal emphasis on political connections, with most of the
time spent on leadership development and needs assess-
ment. After a series of studies and .conversations, the
groups decided to concentrate on transportation and
health. Thanks to intensive organizing, the groups success-
fully battled the use of two fare zones, while a new health
center is due to open in a few months.
However, despite Surpin's insistence that the Mutual Aid
Project is not interested in local political power and takes a
neutral approach to politicians, several Coney Island pols
reacted to their organizing with ill-disguised fear. As Surpin
explained, "the notion of an independeIJ,t group lobbying
around unconventional issues made the politicians nervous.
This does not meanwe were interested in political office:"
However, as with the Mutual Aid Project's insistence that
they are not interested in politics, Surpin's statement is
. slightly disingenuous; entrenched political structures rarely
view the organizing of previously uninvolved citizens
around volatile issues with equanimity. Surpin, is probably
correct, however, in stating that "the local politicians
would have done fme if they had treated the people as
citizens rather than serfs." Ironically, due to this opposi-
tion, several citizens galvanized by the Mutual Aid Project
are now weighing runs for political office.
Still, the Mutual Aid Project does not claim to be
unconditionally non-political. "In a wider sense," admitted
Surpin, "groups such as ours, especially in the present
political climate, must deal with progressive issues. The
obvious advantage of an organizer is the ability to reinforce
positive progressive issues and reactions."
Based on that outlook, the Los Sures cafeteria will
aggressively encourage the development of local of
resistance; oral histories, plays, music and dance drawing
upon local experiences and reactions will welcomed. .
And, drawing upon Los Sures strength to shore up the
Mutual Aid Project's weaknesses, Surpin stated, "We will.
especially use the tenant and community contacts that Los
Sures developed through their .organizing. "
The challenge for the Mutual Ai_d Project, Los Sures and
other housing groups will be to let the cafeteria and
training programs develop in such a way that control is
exercised by the participants. This is not an easy task in a
political environment that encourages local groups to take
over and "claim" all programs within their service areas.
However, the long term benefit for Los Sures and other
communities will be great if the cafeterias do become the
local hothouses for social, cultural and economic develop-
ment as the sponsors hope. 0
23 CITY LiMITS/November 1981
Planners Network FoNm
A series of Friday evening forums called "Land at Six" will
be presented by the New York Area Planners Network. The
schedule, from November through April is: November 20,
Making the Planners Network Work, a report on the national
conference and the launching of local projects; January 22,
Land Markets-New York City Real Estate. how urban land
became capital, with Bob Fitch of the Department of Metro-
politan Urban Studies at N.Y.U.; February 19, Land Fil/-
Creating New Urban Land, from the water grants to Battery
Park City, with Betsy Blackmar of Yale University and Barry
Light, Vice President of the Urban Development Corporation
and the Battery Park City Authority; March 19, Land
Banking-Government Accumulation oj Urban Land-
Capital jor Whom? with Sandy Bayer of the Task Force on
City-Owned Property and Peter Stein of the Trust for Public
Land; April 16, Land oj Enterprise-Urban Enterprise Zones
-Economic Development or Tax Give Away? with Gini
Sherry of Pratt Institute.
The forums are held at the City University Graduate
School 33 West 42 Street, in the Third Floor studio. Forums
begin at six p.m. Admission is free but contribu-
tions are accepted. 0

Movies on Neighborhoods
As part of a series of fIlms at the Museum of Modern Art,
two movies dealing with topics of neighborhood change will
be shown on November 17 at six p.m. "Survival of a Small
City", by Pablo Frasconi and Nancy Salzer shows the
conflicts within an old and industrial neighborhood as it
becomes involved in, and affected by, a process of economic
NEW PUBLICATIONS
TENANT FACf BOOK AVAILABLE
A fact book answering flfty basic questions frequently asked
by1.enants is available in a new 1981-82 editi09 from the Open
Housing Center. The Center is a non-proflt housing group
working with VIctims of housing discrimination. Copies of the
Fact Book can be purchased at the Center at 150 Fifth Ave.,
New York City 10010 at $3.00 each. There is an additional
charge of $1 for mailing and handling. Other booklets and
materials prepared and kept current by the Center are also
available, including "Government Assisted Co-ops and rEn-
tals", "A Temporary Place to Stay," and "The Apartment
Rental Book." A complete price list will be sent lipon request.
For .more information (212) 989-7346.0
Displacement, a 42-page study by Richard LeGates and
Chester Hartman of the Legal Services Anti-Displacement
Project is available for $2.50 from the National Housing Law
Project, 2150 Shattuk Ave., Suite #300, Berkeley, California
94704. Attn: Lucy Mandoriao.O
revitalization and architectural preservation .
Through the words of the people involved, the fIlm relates
the issue of historic preservation in Norwalk, Connecticut to
the diverse, larger issues involved-development versus dis-
placement and the problems of preservation. Playing along
with it is "Neighbors: Conservation in a Changing Commun-
ity," a fIlm by Richard P. Rogers about neighborhood
renewal in South Boston. For more information call (212)
663-9156.0
Silkscreen Project
The Silkscreen Project, a printing re-
source center at St. Mark's Church-in-
the-Bowery, 2nd Ave. and 10th St. on
Manhattan's Lower East Side, has
started its 1981-82 season of service to
community organizations. The Project
offers a series of workshops that train
members of community groups to de-
sign and print their own banners, pos-
ters, flyers and T-shirts. Intensive, four
hour workshops are being held on
weekends at a cost of $20 per session,
or $35 for two. All materials for print-
ing are provided at the workshops.
For details on upcoming workshops,
call the Silksc.reen Project at
982-9005.0
Lerner, VValker, Levy & Cohen
1960 Broadway
New York, New York 10023
Attorneys at Law (212) 873-7900
Tenant Representation
Here's How
BENEC
Saves You
Energy
Dollarsl
Customized Energy Audits
Recommendations With Under 3 Year Paybacks
Contracting For Retrofit
Heat Distribution Balancing
Energy Management Micro-computer Design
and Installation
BENEC
1
53 East 34th Street
I d Inc
New York. NY 10016
n ustnes 212 689-4499
Complete Energy EffIciency For B.ulldlngs
1
The I'
ClieDlistry of
Caring

THE CllDlSllb"S JUST RIGHT AT CHEMICAL.
Member FDIC
Services for Non-Profit.
Community-Based Organizations
in New York City. Long Island
and Westchester:
Grants up to $2500
Loans against government
funded contracts and grants
Technical Assistance
Chemical Bank
Urban Affairs Departmem
230 Park Avenue- Room 424
New York. N.Y. 10017
Construction Manager/Supervisor
. Minimum 5 years experience in . all phases of building
rehabilitation. Site supervision, organizational and admiq-
istrative expertise required. Growth potential.
Resume and salary requzrements to:
MVDC
931 Columbus Ave.
. New York, NY 10025
TENANT ORGANIZER
To work with community group, Clinton neighbor-
hood, Manhattan (34th-59th Streets, 8th Avenue to the
Hudson River). Duties include: assisting tenants in
formation of tenant associations, tenant advocacy in
housing court, helping resolve landlord-tenant .
problems,
Devotion required. long hours, evening meetings
essential. Good benefits, bi-lingual preferred, related
experience. Salary range $10,500-$11 ,500
Contact : John Glynn or Nancy Kyriacou
Housing Conservation Coordinators, Inc. 541-5996
ONE STOP SHOPPING for your
DRY. WALL PRODUCTS
DISTRIBUTORS OF NATIONAL GYPSUM
U.S. GYPSUM GEORGIA PACIFIC
BOOM EQUIPMENT UP TO 6 STORIES
GYPSUM WALL BOARD" DRY WALL STEEL PRO
DUCTS DRY WALL SCREWS NAILS JOINT
CEMENTS & TAPING TOOLS INSULATION
NOISE CONTROL STRUCTURAL STEEL FRAMING
SHAFTWALL SYSTEM COMPONENTS ADHE
SIVES & SEALANTS POWER FASTENING TOOLS
FIRE LUMBER SUSPENDED &
CONCEALED CEILINGS & COMPONENTS STRUC-
TURAL LUMBER PLYWOOD POWER TOOLS
HARDWARE DOORS & BUCKSMETAL & WOOD
(212) 8759700
550 Hamilton Ave., Brooklyn
Community Anti.;Arson rdinator
Assist community groups to develop and se anti-
arson strategies including early warning redictions
. and education campaigns.
Develop materials and train community g oup staff
and volunteers in property research and building ana
lysis and in implementation of prevention strategies
Coordinate exchange sessions between community
groups
Qualifications: SA plus experience with cOTmunity
organizing, neighborhood hoUSing, research and arson
issues. Self-starter able to assess community group
resources and propose appropriate scope 0 effort.
Salary 17K. Send resume to: NY Nfighborhood
Anti-Arson Center 424 W. 33rd St. NY NY 1 1 .
Equal Opportunity Employer
309 FIFTH AVENUE
NEW YORK, N.Y. 10d16
Specializing in
Group Liability, Health
Insurance Programs and
Fidelity Bonds
Contact: Paul Sourifma
(212) 684-4710
Work Shop
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Foro non-profit independent community organiza-
tion in Central Brooklyn, N.Y. Seeking on experi-
enced person to direct a stoff of 25 persons, have
fund-raising abilities, liaison to the Boord of Di-
rectors, leadership development.
Send Resumes to:
Muriel King
Crown Heights Progress Council
1123 Eastern Parkway
Brooklyn, NY 11213
Tel. (212) 774-2102
.
COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT
DIRECTOR _
Excellent opportunity for individual with community development
expertise. Diverse responsibilities will include program creation, im-
plementation & administrotion, development of long & short range
goals, funding & grant development aimed at the renewal &
stabilization of the Pelham Parkway area of the Bronx.
The qualified candidate will be a highly motivated, creative individual
with an M.S. degree in Business Public Policy, Planning or equivalent;
and will have significant experience & demonstrated success in hous-
ing rehabilitation & community development with emphasis on ten-
ant, landlord, government & other related groups/ agencies.
Salary is commensurate with experience. Please send resume
including salary history & requirements in confidence to: Ms. G.M.
Goodman
JEWISH COMMUNITY COUNCIL
990 PELHAM PARKWAY SO.
BRONX, NEW YORK 10461
BUSINESS MANAGER
-
Person with energy and initiative to help develop and
implement promotional activities. including direct mail. for
small New York City magazine that's looking to grow. Also
solicit advertising and coordinate circulation. Should have
some business or program management experience and be
interested in community issues. Salary negotiable. Send
resume and references to City Limits, 424 W. 33 St.. New
York, NY 10001. An equal opportunity employer.
6.
914-997-1534
GIBSON WINDOWS, INC.
'We Can Save You Money"
Minority Owned
Distributor of
Thermal Break
Alum DHA2.5
HP9O- Windows.
Also storm win-
dows and doors.
-------------------------
To: The Editors, CITY LIMITS
424 West 33rd Street, New York, New York 10001
Please enter my subscription to CITY LIMITS.
Individuals and community-based organizations:
o One year $9 (ten issues) 0 Two years $15 (twenty issues)
Private businesses, foundations, firms, banks, government agencies, officials and city wide
groups:"
o One year $25 0 Two years $40 Corporate sustainers 0 $50 0$75 0$100
"group rates are available
Enclose check or money order for $- ___ , payable to ANHD / CITY LiMITS
Name:
Address:
inquire about . p e ~ i a l rates for ldw income
Where are New York City's neighborhoods going?
CI!Y Limits tells you.
Yet, there I. a growing network of
~ - ;. . ". - - - w. - - groups and individuals who are tack-
Our neighborhoods are chang-
ing . .. fast.
The preuure. are as complex as
they are immense. Owner abandon-
ment has emptied over 200,000 apart-
ments throughout New York City since
1970. Vast city tracts remain rubble-
strewn and vacant. Thousands of
buildings stand empty and decaying.
Some neighborhoods, however, are
experiencing a revitalization so rapid
and intense that long-time residents
are faced with displacement . Rents
are skyrocketing. Co-op and
condominium conversions claimed
16,000 rental units in 1980 alone.
ling the dilemmas facing our com-
munities. They are turning lenders'
"redlines" into green ones, aban-
doned housing into tenant-managed
buildings and rubbish heops into
gardens.
They are also fighting for the right
of low income tenants to remain in
their homes as real estate values
escalate, and insisting that there is
another side to neighborhood housing
besides speculators' profits.
Join the thousands of informed peo-
ple who read and rely on CITY LIMITS.
" ... heartfelt thanks to CITY LIMITS
for providing relevant and importc;mt
reporting of events not easily
obtainable from any other source. "
Martin and Liz $ostre,
Tenant Organizers
" . . . does for tenants what New
York magazine does for the trendy
elite .. . provides service, facts, ideas,
information .. . a consumer guide for
the conscience. "
Jack Newfield, Village Voice
"" " "essential reading for me as a
citizen and as a teacher-researcher ."
Prof. Herbert J. Gan.,
Columbia University
" " " " the bible for anyone concerned
about housing, housing budgets,
policy, legislation and the plight of
tenants in New York City."
Ruth Meuinger,
City Council Member
" " " . an invaluable tool and forum in
New York City' s struggle to preserve
decent housing " . . an important link
between government and" organized
community people."
Carol Bellamy, City Council President
CITY LIMITS I. the magazine that
for six years has provided news and
analysis of what is happening to our
communities and why.
The sale of city-owned buildings: to
tenants or landlords? " . "The uphill
struggle of the National Consumer
Co-op bank . .. Saving through fuel-
buying plans. " . Evicting the landlord
... Is there fair housing in New York
City? ... The battle for open space.
These are just a few of the stories
CITY LIMITS covered in the past year.
In the coming months we will con-
, tinue to look at these and many other
issues. We hope you'll join us.