City Limits Magazine, January 2003 Issue

8/3/2019 City Limits Magazine, January 2003 Issue

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EDITORIAL

MOO

BELIEVE IT OR NOT, there are still sacred cowsmooing contentedly long after the budget axehas fallen. You may have heard of some ofthem, like paid teacher sabbaticals, two-manpatrol cars and a few firehouses.

But there are other budget-busters that provide big benefits to special interests-and dubious value [ 0 the rest of us. Bloomberg may notowe a party-issue politician's legion of favors,but his administration is still inclined [0 keepits friends happy--especially when it inheritedthem from Bloomberg 's hero benefactor, RudyGiuliani. In certain cases, it's the City Councilthat insists on preserving dollars for dear ones.Either way, it's costing us big-time. Thanks tothe Independent Budget Office for crunchingthe numbers on some of these big-ticket items:

Welfare-to-work contracts. Despite significant cuts, the big nonprofits and companiesthat supervise job training and searches forwelfare recipients are still getting paid hundreds of millions a year to provide minimalservices, whether or not their trainees keep

their jobs in the long haul. In this economy,[ 0 0 many of them don't. We need to invest injob training that works.

Da y care for stay-at-home moms. InNovember budget negotiations, the CityCouncil restored 2,500 day care slots. As Tracie McMillan reports in this issue of City Lim-its, more are urgently needed-but most of therestored slots will go to centers run by somereligious groups for their own communities,where most mothers are full-time parents.

Fresh Kills is still closed, even though bysome estimates the landfill has 20 years morelife in it. Disposal by private companies at outof-state landfills costs much more than dumping it here.

Luxe rents for the homeless. No way shouldthe city homeless agency continue to pay sketchylandlords thousands each month for each homeless family they house; it must demand fair treatment and conditions for all tenants in buildingsused for shelters. It also wouldn't hurt to encourage eligible families to sign up for welfa re-oncethey do, the feds will pay half their shelter costs.

And while the rest of us contemplate the

Coverphoto bySune Woods; KwameBoame, age6, en route fromWashingtonHeightsto day care in Bedford-Stuyvesant.

property tax hike, let's note that some of udon't have to pay real estate taxes at all:

Tax breaks for higher ed. New York University, Columbia, and New School Universityare big businesses. Any real estate developer withthe wherewithal [0 demolish CBGBs, as NYUreportedly seeks [ 0 do, has [0 pay its freight.

Luxury housing subsidies. Th e 421-a taxexempcion encourages builders [ 0 contributecash [0 build affordable housing. But the breakgives away [ 0 0 much for [ 0 0 little: According[ 0 the lBO, developers get $43,000 for eachcredit but give only $12,000 for each unit olow-cost construction.

If the mayor's personal financial advisor recommended investments like these, he'd befired. With our tax dollars, he-and w e -should demand much bigger and better returnsfor the city.

Alyssa KEditor

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16 THE S.CHOOL THAT WORKSThe city's Catholic hierarchy is resisting a reform promoted byoutsiders-parochial schools, born in Chicago, that succeed by

putting poor teenagers to work.By Alexander Russo

20 MARKET BABIESYoungmothers leaving welfare still discover that reliable

child care can be harder to find than a ob. Can a booming businessin homegrown child care ever fill the parent gap?

ByTracie McMillan

27 KEEPING CLOSE COUNSELMayor Giuliani's bitter downsizing of LegalAid's criminal defensepractice has had a surprising consequence: NewYorkhas a newwave of lawyers who addsocial work to their motions and pleas.

ByWendyDavis

CONTENTS

5 FRONTLIN ES: FORMERLY HOMELESS, CURRENTLYARTISTIC.. . ED OFFICIALSSNUBDUBYA.. . A DEDICATEDDAD.. . NOT YOURFATHER'S CITY OFFICIAL... AMERICANGRAFFITI III...

UNA BANANANUEVA.. .

DOMESTICPOLICY PRO

12 BAD HOUSEKEEPINGFamilies who lose their homes tofire or demolitioncan

end up in one of four city-funded shelters, where their tough timeswilljust be getting started.

ByJamie Katz

31 THE BIG IDEAEthics watchdogs rush to let city officials beg private dollars for

struggling public programs. Whowillgain? By Alyssa Katz

JANUARY 2 0 0 3

33 CITY LITGoingPublic, by Michael Gecan.Reviewed by Margaret Groarke

35 MAKINGCHANGEDoctors and nurses can't lead the war on asthma on their own.

A Bronx pharmacist shows his profession has a role, too.By Maura McDermott

37 NYC INC.Howthe Bloomberg administration can movesector-based

economic development fromthe conference roomto the real worldByAdamFriedman

2 EDITORIAL40 JOB ADS

45 PROFESSIONALDIRECTORY

46 OFFICE OF THECITY VISIONARY


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LETTERS

KEYSTONE KUDOS

Your article on New York's garbage industry ,"Wretched Refuse," [November 2002] byKeith KIoor, received great reviews from manypeople in the Ol d Forge/Taylor area, as well as

throughout the s urrounding communities andacross Pennsylvania.It has helped us receive a lot of GREAT pub

licity against the Alliance Sanitary Landfil1in Taylor, Pa. The detailed story-plus the pictures thatshow the problems we are faced with on a dailybasis-put a face on the people whose lives areimpacted, both in Pennsylvania and New York.

This article also DETAILS the true facts ofhow a giant company (Waste Management) takesadvantage of small town politicians and the people they represent--or pretend to. It shows how ahuge corporation can influence politicians andcast aside the health and well being of good, hon

est, God-fearing, tax-paying citizens. It also showshow reckless a company can be and how thiswoke up a sleeping GIANT-THE PEOPLE.

We are very grateful to your magazine. Wehope you will do a follow-up in the future ,because of the ongoing lawsuits against thisfacility. Once again, THANK YOU.

1.0. CherundoloTaylor.Pennsylvania

Your article on the garbage industry captured the true picture and facts as they are. Welived with this nightmare for almost 15 yearsand many residents just sat back and felt pow

erless, bur things have changed.On August 6, the Ol d Forge Borough Coun

cil met and REJECTED Alliance 's $40 millionproposal to expand their landfill by 147 acres.Th e audience gave the council a standing ovation. We are so PROUD of our elected officials .

Thank you for showing the human side ofthis problem: Even though this is going to bea long battle, we are united and determined tostay the course till Alliance Landfill CLOSES!!!

Louisand RuthStassiOldForge,Pennsylvania

Great article on garbage. It was written withthe facts and not one-sided bull-crap, like we getfrom our local garbage giant. Waste Managementcares less for our environment and more for thealmighty dollar.

I hope this opens up the eyes of public officials, who usually care less unless it affects theirfamilies or personal lives. It surely affects myfamily and town.

DavidScarnatoCouncilman

OldForge,Pennsylvania

"Wretched Refuse" hopefully opened upsome people's eyes in our area (Old Forge/Tay-

4

lor/Moosic/Scranton .) Waste Management hasruined what was once a beautiful mountainand didn't stink!

So much has taken place for the worst sinceWaste Management showed up. The communities that have taken their side should be fined

for doing so.It

just goes to show, "Money doeswonders."There is so much cancer and multiple scle

rosis and muscular dystrophy and other disorders in this area, it's a wonder anyone wants tolive around here. And there's all the filthy, leakygarbage trucks ruining our roads and pollutingour area . Christie Whitman should have to liveon the "DUMP," along with all the staff forWaste Management. Let them eat with thatsmell and drink the ftlthy water!

I absolutely hate seeing this dump in whatwas a beautiful area. Someone should do a studyon the cancers in this area and put the results in

all the papers. This DUMP has ruined so manylives, but Waste Management doesn't care.Sorry for sounding off but I had to do it!

KathyRazOldForge,Pennsylvania

LAWYERS APPEAL

Your story on legal services conso lidation,"Breaking the Law" [November 2002], didn'tfully include the concerns of legal servicesattorneys at Legal Services for New York City.

LSNY's 250 union-represented attorneys,paralegals and support staff oppose the attempts

of local programs to break away from LSNY . Asmembers of UAW Local 2320, we support aunified system of legal services delivery, becauseof the historical inability of many of the localprograms to provide high-quality servicesaccountable to the communities they serve. InMarch 2001, we proposed a comprehensive planto unify legal services in New York City that wasendorsed by every community representativeinvolved in the LSNY's planning committee.The City Limits article failed to mention thisstrong community support for a unified system.

MFY Legal Services has joined Bronx LegalServices in efforts to break up the LSNY sys-

tem. But creating duplicate legal servicesorganizations will increase administrative costsand reduce the direct services going to poorcommunities. Contrary to what the corporatelawyers on MFY's Board of Directors suggest,this will hurt clients, particularly in the contextof city and state budget cuts.

MFY and Bronx Legal should be accountable to their communities, yet neither has madeefforts to inform them of the impact of theirdecisions. MFY and Bronx Legal claim thatthey are breaking away to be free of restrictionson class action lawsuits, yet they have tolerated

continued on page 39

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FRONT LINES... 11""" . ...... ., _

Photography Project

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A Shot in the DarkBY THE TIME RALPH THOMAS hit middle age, the Philadelphia native had ahistory of drug and alcohol abuse, a prison record, and bleak memoriesof New York Ci ty homeless shelters. But when Thomas learned to develop his own film this year, he began seeing things a little differentl y.

"Photography is a matter of capturing that special moment, " saysThomas, a resident of Holland House , a Times Square apartment com

plex whose 300 residents include formerly homeless people , recoveringaddicts and those suffering from mental illness.

A shot of one of those moments-a Harlem woman clutching her son,which reminds Thomas of his own mother , who died nearly 40 years ago-recently hung in a Tunes Square gallery next to the work of some of his Holland House neighbors. Hosted by Bread and Roses, the cultural arm of Local1199, the city's health care union, the show marked the latest installment of"Unseen America," an effott to foster creativity and pride among New York-ers who ofren are not heard from. Past shows have included photo s by Polishasbestos removal crews, Chinese garment workers and Filipina nannies.

Earlier this year, professional photographer Gavin Maule taught 10Holland House shutterbugs to shoot and develop ftlm . During the 14-week clas s, Maule was impressed with his students' dedication and zeal.

"Everybody has their problems," says Maule. "But with a camera and

JANUARY 2003

in the darkroom, these problems seem to just go away."Richard Valentine agrees. The 40-year-old Jamaican emigre, who su

from schiwphrenia and came to Holland House after stints in homelessters, calls the photo class "a chance to fill my mind with something positi

Photos of huge residential towers figured prominentl y in the exNo su rprise, since many of the artists once lived on the streets, says

Kider, recreation director at Holland House. "We didn 't have to mathe theme," Kider says. "I t just happened."

Others chose human subjects. Joe Coleman snapped candid shotsHolland House cafeteria cooks frying meatballs and serving cheeseca

Project Renewal , the nonprofit group that manages Holland Hhopes to offer similar classes next year and to convert an unused cof the building 's basement into a darkroom.

Meanwhile, the photographers have their own plans. Thomasto shoot more nature scenes. Coleman has his eye on jazz musiciansFerdinand wants to publish a book with his own poetry and phothomeless people.

For Maule, the content matters less than the efforts of the photophers. "We do n 't usually get to hear from people from the street," he"Here , they get a voice." -Keith


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FRONT l l N E S

Doctored toDo

Little

Ascity skimps on

tutoring,parentswonderwho willbe left behind.By Steve GnagniCHOICE.That has been George W Bush'smantra when it comes ro education . If rhe bestchoice for parem s is ro send rheir children roprivate turors, rhen he wants school districts roprovide rhe cash for rhem ro do that.

No t so fast, says rhe New York Ciry Departmem of Education. Th e feds sem rhe city $140million ro pay private tutors ro give strugglingstudents exrra help , as well as ro transpon rhosewho opt ro transfer from a low-performingschool ro a better one. Several monrhs later , rheBloomberg administration is holding on ro rhatmoney for dear life.

The new funding flows out of rhe No ChildLeft Behind Act. Signed b y Bush in January2002, rhe law increased rhe feds' allocation ofTitle I money-cash earmarked for low-per-

6

forming schools with a large number of lowincome students-to each state by about 25percent. With rhat, school districts must put 5

percem of rheir total Tide I budget towardturoring services , 5 percem for school transfercosts like transponation and anorher 10 percent ro be divided between rhe two programs.In New York Ciry, that allocation would comero about $126 million.

Instead, however, Departmem of Educationbudget documems show rhat the ciry has onlyset aside $27 million-or just under 5 percentof its Title I pot- for turoring, and anorher$27 million for costs related ro school rransfers.Given rhat the school transfer program is practically stagnant so far, it is unclear how rhosefunds will be used.

Th e city Department of Education wouldnot comment for rhis srory. Bur considering thefiscal crisis facing Ciry Hall, some observers ofeducation policy say rhe ciry's move doesn 't surprise rhem. "I would guess rhat given rhe tightness of budget in school districts around rhecountry, that what is happened in New YorkCiry is probably happening around rhe country," says Bob Peterson, an ediror at RethinkingSchools, a nonprofit news journal on education .

In New York, rhe economic picture has notbeen pretry. Mayor Bloomberg has calculated a$1.1 billion budget gap for this year and a $6.4billion deficit for 2004 . To trim rhe school sys-

tern, the mayor and Ciry Council made $360million in curs for the budget passed in June .mid-November, Bloomberg proposed another$200 million slash, ro come our of cemradminisrration , purchasing , district and higschool administration , rhe teacher menror program, and summer camps .

Bur crearors of rhe federal legislation say rciry's move ma y be illegal . "Under rhe law, anponion of that 20 percem not used for onepurpose must be u sed for rhe orher purpose

says David Schnirrger , spokesperson for thu.s. House Commirree on Education and theWorkforce , whose chair John Boehner helpeddrafr the law. So for exampl e, Schnirrger sayschool transfer mone y not used for transfermust go roward turoring services.

So far, rhe ciry has not had ro spend much aall on shurrling children from their local schoolro another following a transfer request. According ro a repon released b y rhe Ciry Councilmid-November, of rhe 220 ,000 eligible kids,of Ocrober only 3 ,670 had requested transfersOf rhose , just 1,50 7 got rhem.

While a spokesman for Chancellor Joel

Klein told rhe Daily News in Ocrober that moretransfers were "in rhe works ," rhere have beeconflicting repons. Bruce Ellis, presidemCommuniry Advocacy for Educational Excellence , Inc., a Harlem-based parem advocacorganization, claims that Klein rold a room fuof Harlem residems in Ocrober rhat rhe cirywould not offer tran sfers. "I said , 'In a districlike ours, where there 's no place for peoplego on rhe elememary level, how is it beinimplememed?'''says Ellis . "He said it wasn 't."

The state Departmem of Education , whichresponsible for making sure each school districtfollows rhe law, says it does not plan ro takimmediate action , but it promises ro keewatch. "In rhis transition year, rhere may bunawareness of [rhe turoring program] at rlocal level," says James Vaughan, New YoState 's Title I coordinaror. He doesn 't entirelblame city education officials:Wirh so man y fcal needs , he says, "it can be difficult budgetarily if you encumber rhis amoum of money."

Even if rhe city funded No Child fully,would fall shorr of being enough ro serve everyegible studem-220 ,000 in rhe five boroughbased on income and test scores.

The state will put in about $1 ,200 per studemeach yearfor rhe turoring mandated by No Chi

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Left: Behind, according to the state Department of Ed .Based on that figure, even i f he city put the full 15 percentof ts Title I cash into tutoring, only about 35 percent of eli-gible students would get extra help after school. At the city'sexisting funding levels, that drops to about 12 percent.

While the schools c hance llor plays around with thebudget, these scarce services have not gotten off to a goodstarr. As happened in many cities across the country thisfall , bureaucratic delays and disorganization led New YorkCity to extend the November 15 deadline for parents toregister their kids for tutoring. Several school districtsfailed to send out the information needed for parents topick the appropriate rutor until two weeks before the deadline, creating concern among parents that their kidswouldn 't get into a program .

"My son is behind and he really needs help, " saysAudrey Harrison of the Bronx, whose seven th grader's mathscores are at the third grade level. For her, things turned outwell. When her first choice, SCORE!, rurned ou t to be full,she shuttled over to Kaplan in time to get him a seat .

But as many other parents slow ly get a handle on theirnew options, they may not have much choice in wheretheir kids get extra help, if they get it at all.

Federal guidelines stress the flexib ility school district shave to fund private for-profit and nonprofit rutoringcompanie s to offer st udent s extra help . Th e city hasapproved 23 of them . This program is a po t ential cashcow for those chosen groups--each tutor makes between$4 and $90 per student per hour. Kaplan, for example,stands to get $600 from th e city for each student itstutors spend 30 hours with thi s year .

New York City, however, has chosen to put only $10million roward these private tutors. The city's school districts will keep the rest to subsidize tutoring services runby the Department of Education itself.

T his concerns Schnittger. "T he law expects state andlocal officials to work in good faith to give parents asmany options as possible for their childre n ," he says."Th e suppl emental services provision is a safety valve toease pressure on underachieving schools and providethem with a little backup as they work to improve."

Meanwhile, in November, local schoo l officials wereexpecting to have to turn some stude nt s away from theirtutoring services. "I f there are more app lication s thanspots, one option is to increase the amount of money

through other funding sources, " says Melvin Thompsonof Community Sc hool District 9 in the Bronx. "The otheroptio n is to rank children in the order of greatest need."

And at least some of the private tutoring services willtry to do more with less. At Interfaith Neighbors, whichserves srudents from District 4 in East Harlem, readinglab director Alice Vogr estimates that for each of the 40srudents they expect to serve, the first 15 one-hour ses-sions will be covere d by the mone y they will get fromschool districts for their services . As for the rest of theschool year, she says, they will fundraise to continue thefree services .

Steve Gnagni is managing editor of High bridge Horizon.

JANUARY 2003

F R O N T l l N ES

F RSTHAN D

AFather's LamentI recently meta younglady,Stacy. Meand Stacystarted dating. She has two sons, six

and two.Myson, Jamie, s three . He's n the [childwelfare) system. The judge told me thatif I had an apartment beforemy May22 court date , I could getmyson. I wanted totry andget himhome, so we decidedto get an apartment together.

On March28, we lookedat one inMountEden. The supertold us it wouldbe $2,55 0 -one month's rent, one month's security and one month's superfee. OK, I never heard ofasuperfee, but I was like, "We need the apartment."

So on March 29,I gave him$2,550.Twoweeks cameand went by, and he hadn't giveme a ease. Icalled someone inthe Public Advocate's office and askedifthey could helpusMaybeI shouldhave not said anything.

Thesuperfinallycalled me back. "'F' you!" he said to me. " Youshouldhavenevercalledthe Public Advocate.Youwill neversee yourson again , becauseI willcall the city and telthem howabusive youare."

Acouple ofdays later, I get up to the house, and there's two womenin there-ACS[Administrationfor Children's Services) workers. She says, "We receiveda phonecall thatyouwereabusing Stacy's kid." Theydid an investigation and said noneof this is founded

knewthen the superwas tryingto get me for retaliatoryreasons.We a so got an eviction notice.Thenthe [familycourt) judge told me, "I'm not going to

giveyouyourson- you still don't have a ease." We lost our apartment. I couldn't get myson back. Allof these things are hitting us, we're arguing with each other. So Stacyandeventually brokeoff the engagement.

I hope my relationship can comearound, becauseStacyis pregnant w th myson, andwant to be there for mynew child. I have one that's three and nowI have one that's in theoven. I'm not with myother baby mama, but I'd like to be with this one. Iwant to see whenhe loses his teeth. I want to see whenthey grow back. But this systemsays you can't witness that becauseyoudon't havean apartment. Youdon't havea ease.Well, system, understand it's not myfault I don't have a ease. -Jamie Tucker, as told to MattPacenza


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FRONT LINES

Nowon the city

payroll,a veteranof homelessnessgets power's ear.By Jill Grossman

SEPTEMBER 18 . 1998. Sandra Jimenezremembers that day like it was yesterday.That fall afternoon, her two-year-old daugh

ter came home from foster care. From thatday on, Jimenez made it her mission to advocate for every parent who's ever been througheven some of what she's lived-domesticabuse, divorce, homelessness, drugs, jail andlosing a child. "You think there's no wayout," she says. "But everybody has it in them.I am proof"

Last June, the city Department of Homeless Services (DHS) hired her to bring thatmessage to its clients. As the director of theagency's new Office of Advocacy, Jimenez willbe an ombudsman for the roughly 37,000

8

Dear Mr. System

people who look to the city for shelter everynight. He r office-which she plans to staff upto nine soon, with the help of an annual

$398,000 federal grant-aims to help homeless New Yorkers navigate the city's shelter andpublic assistance systems, provide checks andbalances within the homeless services agency,and make clients' perspectives central to policy discussions and decisions.

They will do this, says Jimenez, by makingroutine shelter visits and running a hocline forcomplaints about everything from cockroachesto problems with public assistance. Her staffwill direct immediate issues to the appropriatepoint people-like caseworkers at the HumanResources Administration or analysts at DHS."I'm trying to cut through the red tape," she

says, while also transmiting "a real level ofurgency" within the agency. "My role is to pushand push and push. "

She definitely understands the need to push.At 27, in the midst of a divorce from an abusive husband, she fell deep into a heroin habit.It cost her the job she'd held for 15 years, as abilingual interpreter and clerk in Bronx FamilyCourt. She and her two youngest childrenspent a while bouncing from the EmergencyAssistance Unit - the first stop for any familylooking for shelter-to homeless shelters andhotels, back to their apartment and then all

over aga..lll."I f we didn't have food, we would go to

EAU, if we didn't have lights, we would gothe EAU," she says. "We used it as a havEven though I knew we would sleep on thfloor, it was better than where I was, being arisk of losing my kids ."

In 1996, an attempt to feed her drug habby selling two $10 bags of heroin landed her jail for three weeks. She lost her infant Marthathe youngest of eight, to foster care. That,says, "was the wake up call I needed to get bacon track." She checked herself into rehab, and18 months later, with a job as an administrativassistant and a new apartment in the Bronx,reunited her family.

Since then, Jimenez has made it her missionto mentor struggling parents and advocate forfamily reunification . She started at St. Chrispher 's Inc., the foster agency that watched oveher own daughter for nearly two years. Afa brief stint as a $25-a-day parent advocate,Christopher's brought Jimenez on staff to asexecutives with lobbying and policy work.

In that job, she succeeded in making paents' perspectives part of child welfare poli

"She has a real ability to articulate parentneeds in a more global sense," says Louis Meina, the agency's executive director. "She kpeople honest, and held the people responsiblefor delivering services accountable."

The next several months will test her abilitto do that at DHS.

Jimenez first me t Homeless ServicCommissioner Linda Gibbs while performing in The Cycle, a play she and other SChrisropher's parents wrote to illustrate thins and outs of losing a child to foster careadoption . Then a deputy commissionerthe Administration for Children's Servic

(ACS) , Gibbs established the ACS parenadvisory board, which Jimenez now cochairs, in 2000.

While child welfare advocates appreciathat parents now have a seat at the table, sowonder how much teeth the board really has."These initiatives for parents are a good thinbut if you're not making fiscal and policy desions, then you're not really moving in the righdirection," says Mike Arsham, director ofChild Welfare Organizing Project and a member of the board.

But Jimenez, who sees the ACS board a

CITY LIMITS


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model for her new office, says she's confidentshe will be able to affect homeles s policy. Shehas already begun making recommendationsin intraagency meetings for improving theEAU, Section 8 and other homeless services.To improve the intake packet, intended tomake it easier for families to get through theEAU, s he's made sure tran slatio ns in at leastSpanish are complete. She is also helpingdraft a strategy for ensuring that landlord s inscattered site apartments provide homelesstenants with the services the city requires.

But her biggest test may be ye t to come. Atpress time, the city was awaiting courtapproval to break up homeless families in theshelter system who have rejected an apartment

the city says is adequate, removing them fromthe shelter system for 30 days at a time andputting their children in foster care. Though itseems to run counter to everything she standsfor, so far she is taking a wait-and-seeapproach: "Le t's see what happens in a fewmonths, " she says.

For now, she's the closest she 's ever beento the place she's talked about for years inher performances of The Cycle: "I will climbwithout ceasing until I am sitting right nextto yo u, Mr. System," she recites in the play,"and I too will make the law that helps mycommunity."

= = =V ~ ~ '~M == =Paint Wars

HARDWARE STORE OWNERS and young graffitiartists beware: You may soon face a $1,000 fineand up to a year in jail for selling or buying twoof the most lethal weapons threatening thecity's quality of life: spray paint and markers.

City Councilmembers Peter Vallone, Jr. andPhilip Reed are pushing legislation to strengthen existing anti-graffiti laws. Decades ago, thecity banned the sale of aerosol paint and permanent markers to anyone under 18 andbarred vendors from putting those items inaccessible display cases. Since then, one mayorafter another has vowed vigilance. David Dinkins offered a $500 reward for tips on art vandals. Rud y Giuliani created a task force thatencompassed 17 city agencies and offices. Andin recent months , Mayor Bloomberg hasstepped up efforts to enlist neighborhoods in aprogram to paint over graffiti.

JANUARY 2003

FRONT LINES

House CallA ew days after MayorBloomberg announcedcuts to the city's capital budget, BroadwayperformPaulaLarkejoinedreligious leadersin praying for him,and to end the shortage ofaffordable housinginthe five boroughs.As part of HousingFirst!, a coalition of communitygroups, hey calledfora O-year,$10 billioninvestment towardcreating 100,000 newhousingunits and preservingmorethan 85,000.

None of that, say Vallone, Jr. , and Reed , hasworked. This summer City Council investigators sent minors into 70 hardware stores andseven art supplies shops to attempt illegal purchases of spray paint and markers. Th e results:Half the hardware vendors and all but one ofthe art stores were scofflaws.

And the evidence on the street is clear, saysVallone, Jr., noting that his office gets 10 to 20complaints a week about graffiti.

So he and Reed are call ing for a law thatmakes a second graffiti offense a class A misdemeanor . (As of now, any offense gets a$500 fine and three month s in jail.) They alsowant to outlaw the sale of etching acid tominors, and require sto res to post signsexplaining th e law.

For juvenile justice advocates , this pushreopens an old debate. 'The city shouldn't beputting people in jail for low-l evel crimes likegraffiti," argues Mishi Faruqee , head of theCorrectional Association of New York 's Juvenile Justice Project, noting it costS about $350a day to imprison yo ung offenders. "And stiffening penalties never works as a deterrent. "

Young graffiti artists have certainly fouways around it. They either have ofriends buy the spray paint for them , or sonline or at underground graffiti paraphnalia shops.

"I t didn 't work in 1982, it didn 't work1992, and it won't work now, " scoffsBravo, a hip hop activist and former grafartist. "Th e kids are smarter than yo u."

The councilmembers are also up againbudget crunch. Th e Department of ConsuAffairs says it's doing the best it can with resources it has. While agency staff wouldto do more, Assistant Commissioner PauToole notes that hardware and art supstores are not licensed , which means Csumer Affairs would first have to invest inuring out where those shops are. "It wotake resources to do it," Toole says.

Scill, that financial reality doesn 't seembother Vallone, Jr. "It's one of the reasondon 't think we need to be cutting the po[budget] at all, " he says. "Even the so-caquality oflife crimes need enforcement. "

-Kai W


10/48

FRONTllNES

= = : H- ~ S t N G ,= = ~

New Bunch of BananasAFTER YEARS OF LIVING under roofs riddledwith holes and in apartments with unusabletoilets-and in some cases, without heat andhot water-residents of nearly two dozenbuildings in the Bronx recently got some newsthat things may soon start to get bener.

State Attorney General Eliot Spitzerannounced in early November that he hadreplaced Yolanda Rivera, the longtime directorof Banana Kelly, a community developmentgroup in Longwood, and all its board memberswith a group of established local leaders and

housing developers .Chaired by former Bronx Borough President Fernando Ferrer, the new board includesBanana Kelly founder Harry DeRienzo, VictorAlicea, president of Boricua College, AlyahHorsford-Sidberry, an affordable housingdeveloper, and Mavelin Morales, a formerBanana Kelly employee and tenant.

Th e attorney general made the move underan agreement with Rivera that requires that she

URBANlEGEND

Culture Clash

and her board members break all ties with theorganization for at least 10 years.

This deal has been several years in the making. Founded in the late 1970s, Banana Kelly hasdeveloped hundreds of units of affordable housing and run programs for youth. In February2001, following reports of deteriorating buildingconditions and alleged mismanagement, Spitzer 'soffice began an investigation into Rivera andBanana Kelly, examining the group's financialrecords, tax returns and correspondence withgovernment agencies about grants and contracts.

A month later, Rivera handed the management of Banana Kelly's buildings over to theSoutheast Bronx Community Organization(SEBCO) . Th e 34-year-old housing groupbegan making emergency repairs. But last Jan

uary, the city Department of Housing Preservation and Development said it would not giveSEBCO the millions of dollars needed to completely rehab the buildings until Rivera wascompletely out of the picture.

Rivera refused to let go, and in May she soughtto break her contract with SEBCO. At that point,says Marla Simpson, assistant anorney general inthe Charities Bureau, her office knew that replacing Rivera "was our last best chance to rescue the

reach amongSouthAsians.

buildings from going under. " For Rivera, it wstep down or face litigation . A spokespersonRivera declined to comment on the deal.

As part of the new agreement, Spitzer's offichas stopped investigating Rivera and her boarmembers . Th e attorney general has, howevhanded its materials-which include allegatioof mismanagement and misappropriationfunds--over to the U.S . Attorney's office forown investigation. With the help of the nboard, Spitzer's staff will continue to look ithe management and financial practicesBanana Kelly .

In the meantime, the new board is makithe desperately needed building repairs a toppriority. With Rivera out of the picture, HPhas agreed to put $8 million toward rehabilit

tion of the 21 properties.While a group of tenants organized by Mothers on the Move celebrated the removalRivera--one resident called her a "crook"-thenote that the new board will have to convincethem tha t it should be trusted . "We are the onwho have been suffering ," says Serlender Glova 21-year resident of 788 Fox Street, whichmore than 300 housing code violations. "feel that we should h ave input." - Jill Grossm

Now,De O'Connor facesthe biggest challenge of her short career atthewomen's center:howto increase the beds at her shelter while the city is miredin its deepestfiscal crisis sincethe 1970s.At press time, the center was hoping to open a new facilityto boostbeds from37 to 46. But womenwillcontinue to sit on the waitlist. "Alotof ourwomendon't want to go to the other shelters ... Noone there knowstheir language, and they feelembarrassed."

The last few years havebeen a crash course on both Asiancultures anddomestic violencefor De O'Connor,a first-generation Americandaughter ofBengalis from India.

"Being Asianis so manydifferentthings," she says.Thosedifferences areclear in her shelter. Her staff members speakabout 20 of the 55 Asianlanguages spoken in NewYork, a number she is workingon improving.

SOON AFTER THE PLANES hit the WorldTradeCenter towerslast September,the domestic violencehotline at the NewYorkAsianWomen's Centerstartedringing off the hook. Within weeks, complaints of abuse against Chinesewomenhad shot up 50 percent.

But for alltheir differences, thereis one strongcommonalityamongall herclients:Leavinga husband is taboo. Many Asian women believetheir husbandshave the right to beatthem,says DeO'Connor.So her caseworkers andvolunteerspendup to 12 hoursa daywitha client, illingout paperworkforimmigrationapplications, public assistanceand housing.In some cases, they workwithpolicetoremovea husband from theapartment.

Theyalso teachthe generalpublicas wellas doctors and policeabout theintricacies of domestic violencein Asiancultures.

But the space crunch limitsthe worktheycan do. "We've been hesitant todo moreoutreach to the smaller communities. It's really hard to go out thereand say, 'Ifyou need help, we can provideit to you.'We just can't say that."

-Jamie Katz

10

"Chinatownwas so devastated. Tension wasmuchhigher," says TuhinaDeO'Connor,executivedirector of the women's center.Meanwhile,calls fromMuslimsdropped because offear of persecution , she said, so the center uppedout-

CITY LIMITS


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12/48

I N S I D E TRACK

Bad HousekeepingThe city's other emergency shelters areno haven fromcatastrophe. By Jamie Ka

Brownsville ' s AmboyStreet is lined with shelters for families whose former homes are uninhabitable. A city audit calls conditionshere " deplorable ."

FOURSHElTERS.THREEAUDITS.And a lot of ratsand roaches.

Hilda Garcia , then a 3D-year-old mother oftwo, was living in Queens when firemen kickedeveryone out of her building, which didn't havefire escapes . "We went to a hotel for a week. Itwas fine, bu t there wasn 't any money for foodand nowhere for us to cook. The Red Crossfound this for us," she says in Spanish .

"This " was 186 Amboy Street , one of 13buildings in Brownsville, Brooklyn, run byAmboy Neighborhood Center, under contract

12

as an emergency shelter. The Garcias lived therefor the next four years.

Garcia had mixed feelings about conditionsat the shelter . "They 're not so bad, they're not sogreat. They don't make us pay rent-that's thebest part for me. " The not so great: "There aremany rats; there are many cockroaches. Thereare drug problems and people spend time in thehallways, with other people, making noise. "

Fetid slums are not what the city is supposedto be paying for . When people lose their homesin a fire or get or dered to vacate a dangerous

building, those who have nowhere else to go crum to the American Red Cross, which directsthem to hotels or to one of four city-sponsoreshelters. There, residents wait for social workersto help find them permanent housing.

But a series of audits of three of these sheters, run under contracts issued by the cityDepartment of Housing Preservation andDevelopment (HPD) , make clear that Garcia'sexperience was typical . A June audit from CityComprrolier Bill Thompson describes Amboyas a facility with "deplorable cond itions." T

CITY LIMITS


13/48

audit also points a finge r at HP D for allowingconditions in the build ings to deteriorate: It concludes that HPD's mo ni toring of the facilitieshas been "inadequate."

Amboy Neighborhood Center ha d provi dedshelter under city contract for nearly threedecades. Last June, following the a udi t's release,HP D did not renew its contract for the AmboyStreet facili ty.

"I t was mutually agreeable that they wo uldstep out, " HP D spokesperson Barbara F lynntold City Limits. "Pardy financial issues, andpardy because they did n't do a partic ularly goodjob ." Amboy president Diana White did notreturn calls from City Limits .

Clogged sinks and roach and rat infesta tionswere just the beginn ing . Other conditions reported in the audit include d missing smoke detectorsor batter ies; damaged floor tiles, walls and ceilings;holes in walls, floors and ceilings; clogged bathtubs; leaking pipes and faucets; peeling paint;kitchen cabinets missing doors or otherwise damaged; and nonfunctional or broken win dows.

Such findings were not unique to Amboy .Two other audits found comparable, though lesssevere, problems ar HPD shelters under a different contractor. Two groups , 456 West 129thStreet Housing Corporation and 138 West143rd Street HFDC, receive a comb ined total of$3.9 million a year to operate Convent Fami ly

Living Center, a strip of four buildings on West129th Street in Harlem, and Harriet TubmanFamily Living Center, consisting of four morebuildings on West 143rd Street. Both groups aresubsidiaries of West Harlem Group Assistance, athree-decade-old community development corporation.

The audit on Convent found that its facilitieswere not maintained in "safe and sanitary condition," reporting roach infestations, peeling paint,and a hole in the floor of one apartment, amongother conditions. Additionally, the review foundthat many repairs were delayed for an "inordinateamount of time" and that the same problems

were often noted in more than one inspectionvisit before repairs were comp leted. Many repairstook three to six months to be completed.

The audit on the Harriet Tubman center like-wise found detrimental conditions, includingroach infestations, peeling paint and leaks frombathroom ceilings . Of nearly 600 work orders thatshould have been prepared for conditions requiring correction, 163 were not available; 200 of thework orders didn't even indicate that actio ns hadbeen taken to correct the problems noted .

Th e organization running these two sheltersdisagreed with the findings of both audits. Donald No tice, executive director of West Harlem

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Group Assistance , says that high tenant turnoveis an important factor contributing to the conditions in apartments, one he feels the audioverlooked. He also says that inspectors noteonly the apartments in poor condition, ignoringthose that were well kept. The comptrolleraudit , covering fiscal year 2001, "wasn 't a fassessment," he concludes.

In its written response to the Convent audit,the shelter operator reported that it immediately fIXed all physical problems in the buildingdoubled the frequency of extermination anmoved to have its staff educate residents aboukeeping their apartments clean.

HP D also disputed to the comptroller theaudits ' findings that the shelters were "unsaand unsanitary ."

Deputy Comptroller Greg Brooks calls thdisagreement "a lime surprising ." But he alsays that in spite of HP D 's objection to t

Familiesin theseshelters often don'

find permanenthousing for years.

Someare

contentto keep livingrent-free.

audits ' conclusions , the agency seems to be trying to mitigate conditions . "You get a sense thaHP D wants to improve," he says.

Last April, nearly a year after the comptroller's office first notified HP D of its criticfindings, HP D informed the comptroller that

it was committing $3 million to repair andrehabilitate West Harlem's buildings, includinga gut rehab of each of the Convent propertiesNotice says HP D had earmarked the repaifunds before the comptroller 's audits. Construction, however, did no t begin until Setember . "What the city's doing now is greatNotice says of the overhaul.

At 26 Convent Avenue, a huge room wrecently split into two smaller spaces: one wsoon become a privately funded technologycenter and the other is a reading room. Newbright blue paint covers the walls, and books fshelves around the room. Ruben Rankin, dire

CITY LIMI


15/48

ror of maintenance services at Convent, proudlydeclares that his staff did the work. "That's love ,"he says.

In a first floor apartment where a woman hasjust moved in with her girl and baby boy, a newshower curtain hangs in the bathroom, and themattress is still wrapped in plastic. The apartmentappears freshly cleaned, and from his white cribthe baby watches visirors walk through the room.

IF THEIR FORMER LANDLORDS don't fix their uninhabitable places, the families that end up in theseshelters often get stuck, sometimes for years at atime, waiting for permanent housing ro open up .HP D can't move particularly quickly ro get people inro new apartments, says Sandra James, asocial worker at Amboy. She notes that the ciry'shomeless agency pays landlords thousands ofdollars a month ro take in its clients, as opposed

ro the maybe $800 Section 8 brings. "If a landlord knows that, he's not going ro take an HPD,Section 8 client," she concludes.

Garcia's family recend y found an apartmentin East New York, where Section 8 subsidies willpay part of their rent and they will have ro coverthe rest, using her husband 's earnings from hispart-time job at a clothing facrory. "We've beenlooking for an apartment for six months," shesays. "Why? Many times, the owners-the landlords--didn't accept us since there are so manypeople looking. "

But while Garcia had a happy ending, Amboy'sworkers are still left in the lurch. Amboy's last con

tract with the city expired in July 2001, and theworkers haven't had a contract with their agencysince March 1999. Of he 66 staff employed at theAmboy shelters, 32 are still working under a provisional arrangement between Amboy and the city.At the time of the audit, five of Amboy's 13 buildings had already been closed for renovations .

HP D has put Amboy's long-term contract outro bid, and there are no guarantees workers will beable to hold onto their jobs. The city is solicitingbids from organizations with reputations for providing high-quality services to homeless families,including HELP USA. Undeterred, in an Octoberletter ro her workers Amboy's Diana Whiteinformed them that her agency intends ro respondto HPD's request for proposals. (Five-year contracts for Convent and Tubman are also up forgrabs starting next year.)

Staff say they di d no t find out aboutAmboy's troubles until their union found a CityLimits Weekly article reporting the ciry wouldnot be renewing Amboy's contract. "We werekept in the dark, " says Russell Thomas, who hasbeen working for Amboy's maintenance s taff for13 years. Now Thomas says he and his coworkers are waiting to learn of the fate of their jobs:"W e're caught in the middle of the struggle."

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16/48

A Windy City high school gives low-income teenagers a Jesuiteducation for j ust $2,200 a year-if they're willing to work for it.But will New York 's Catholic schools givethe made-in-Chicagomodel a chance? By Alexander Russo

EACH WEEKDAY MORNING, about 100

students at Cristo Rey, a Jesuit high school inChicago, troop onto buses wearing shirts andties and looking like slightly younger versions ofall the adults going to work. After gettingdropped off downtown , they walk to their jobsat law firms, insurance companies and banks.

Started six years ago in Pilsen, an extremelypoor Mexican community on Chicago's NearWest Side, Cristo Rey combines some of thetypical features of a parochial education-rigorous classesand an emphasis on discipline andcollege attendance-with an unusual workstudy requirement called the "corporate internship program."

But these are no ordinary internships. Insteadof the loose hours and nonexistent pay that characterize traditional efforts to link work andschool, students hold down real full-time jobs,with the hours split between four students .Cristo Rey kids fax, ftle, deliver, copy and answerphones just like any other entry-level worker forfive full days a month, while at the same timecompleting a demanding academic programand paying their own tuition through their jobs.

For decades, parochial schools have provided an escape hatch for ambitious low-incomestudents who might otherwise have to attendstruggling neighborhood schools . But the average parochial high school tuition-$4,000-plus in New York-remains insurmountablefor many families . At Cristo Rey , students'wages cover about 75 percent of the cost ofrunning the school, as opposed to the typicalparochial school, where tuition covers abouttwo-thirds of the costs . Thanks to the internships, students get valuable work experience,employers get able young workers, and familiesget a drastically reduced tuition of $2,200-roughly half the cost of most other Catholichigh schools in the area.

To its proponents , the Cristo Rey model is asustainab le way of expanding access to quality

16

education, with much larger numbers of poor

students gaining access to parochial educationthan would be available through scho larships atexisting schools . " Even with all the scholarshipmoney in the world, you couldn 't give accesstoall these kids, " says Jeff Thielman of the CassinFoundation, a Cristo Rey funder .

Among skeptics, reservatio ns are not so muchideo logical as practical . "I t is sort of sad that children have to do this to get a good education ,"says Noreen Connell, executive director of NewYork's Ed ucational Priorities Panel, a budgetwatchdog group . " It sounds really onerous, "echoes Brad Hoylman, communications directorof the New York City Partnership, a municipal

business group that has sponsored public-privateeducation collaborations. "How do they findtime to work?"

At first, Cristo Rey was a Chicago-only phenomenon . But then San Francisco venture capitalist B.]. Cassin started a foundation to helpfind additional locations and start-up funds fornew C risto Rey schools. Since then, three moreCristo Rey schoo ls have been started--one inPorrland, Oregon, one in Los Angeles, and onein A ustin, Texas-w ith another opening upnext fall in Denver . Officials in Boston, NewBrunswick , and Tucson are all either considering or planning on opening a Cristo Rey schoolin the near future . The idea has been profiled inBusinessweek and the LosAngeles Timesas well ason public television . Visitors have flocked to theChicago school to see how it works.

Now, i f all goes as planned , the Cristo Reymodel is coming to the Bronx . After conducting a nine-month feasibility stud y, chief proponent and founding president William Ford hassecure d a three-year lease for the top floor ofthe Immaculate Conception Parish ElementarySchool on East 151st Street in Mott Haven.Ford already has over $1 million in fundingand says he 's on track to admit the first class of100 freshmen to Cristo Rey High School New

York in August .

There's just one snag: Thus far, Cristohas not yet received formal approval from theCatholic Archdiocese to open a new school. Atthe office of the Archdiocese, spokespersonNora Murphy would make little comment onCristo Rey , saying that there are "amicableconversations underway and that the Archdiocese is awaiting a ddi tional documenta tfrom the state Board of Regents before a decsion is made.

But the possibility of a new Catholic higschool in the South Bronx-the first decades- has raised hackles among existingCatholic schools in the neighbor hood. They

Cristo Rey as competi ng with them, both ifundraising and for the brightest, most motivated students, and many of them aren't happabout it . Without their coope ration, it 's conceable that Cristo Rey might no t b e approve d.

Murphy says the main concern is how wthe new school will complement those alreadyin place . "We don 't want a new school to comin that is not blended into the mix," she sa

Others are more blunt, though they donwant thei r names used in print. "We don 't sport them," says the principal at another nearby Catholic high school. "What's needed heis a school for students who need a lot of remdial help. That 's not the target they have ."

STARTE D S IX YEARS AG O with j ust students taking classes in a defunct elementarschool building, the Chicago school has been aremarkable success , both academically anfinancially . Because 99 percent of studecome from Mexican-American families, manyof them recent immigrants, Cristo Rey has adual-language Spanish-English curriculum.

There are no honors courses or academictracks . But even though the school requires nostandardized admissions test and only acceptsstudents who are not app lying to other Catho

CITY LIMITS


17/48

JANUARY 2003


18/48

schools, enrollment, grad uation and collegeattendance rates have been extraordinarily high .Enrollment has grown to more than 450 students, half of whom are given scholarships thatfurther red uce the cost of attending the school.In a neighborhood where public schools have a55 to 60 percent gr aduation rate , over 90 percentof Cristo Rey students graduate high school , andover 85 percent of them are in college.

Thanks to the model 's appeal , as well aseffective fundraising, a new school buildinghouses the students , and a library and gymnasium are already under construction next door.More than 110 Chicago businesses , includingCIGNA and most of the top law firms in town ,have hired Cristo Rey students this year. "Everybody knows about Cristo Rey," says freshmanNancy Maldonado, who lives in the neighborhood and works at a downtown law firm.

For the Jesuits , who have long been known as

that they would continue the work-study formateven if they didn 't need it for funding. "The expe-riences that our students were having in the cor

porate sector were opening up more doors thananyone could name, " says founding prin cipal Sis-ter Judy Murphy, "mainly in students' minds ."

A three-week orientat ion program help sprepare new students-some of whom havenever even gone downtown-to dress appropriately, make eye contact, shake hands firml yand operate office equipment. They type atleast 40 words a minute. Showing up for workis mandatory, and the school claims a 98 percent work attendance rate .

On the first da y of school six years ago ,sophomore Juan Marquez carne back from hiswork-study job at a downtown insurance compan y headquarters bursting with excitementabout where he'd been and how easily he 'd beenaccepted into this new world. "The y gave me

"The experiences that our students werehaving in the corporate sector

were opening up more doors thananyone could name ," says founding

principal Sister Judy Murphy,"mainly in students ' minds. "

educators, Cristo Rey represents a return to theircore mission of serving the poor. The Jesuitsalready run nearly 50 high schools nationwide,but many of these schools have become eliteinstitutions that are extremely competitive to getinto and charge $8 ,000 to $10,000 a year intuition. In some cities, Jesuits have also opened

a handful of "nativity" schools , small, personalized middle schools specifically for poor kids,but these schools are expensive to run.

Th e work program at Cristo Rey was actually the brainchild of a group of Jesuits and anourside consultant hired to corne up with a wayto open an inexpensive high school that, unlikemost parochial schools, wouldn't need ongoingfinancial support from outside . The Chicagoschool is 95 percent self-sufficient in coveringits operational budget , which is one of the program's main goals.

There were unexpected benefits to the workrequirement as well. Cristo Rey educators now say

18

the security code! " he told the principal . "I cango anywhere in that building ."

For low-income immigrant students likeMarquez, whose neighborhood experience offerslittle exposure to adults from other backgrounds ,this work experience may be as valuable as anything he can learn in a classroom . "You get to see

lawyers and other people at work ," says rreshmanEduardo Ramirez, who works at a big law firmdowntown. "Maybe you want to be like them ."

BY AN D LARGE , the students seem to liketheir jobs and are proud of their school. "Youget more responsibility downtown ," explainsAngel Velasquez , a clean-cur sophomore whoworks at Norther n Trust Bank.

Cristo Rey is not easy, though. Becauseroughl y a quarter of the student bod y is atw o r k - a n d not in class--each da y, school officials had to develop a slightly longer school dayand year to ensure that academics aren't given

short shrirr . To help keep costs down , mateachers work he avy loads. Because ofschedule, students sometimes miss ou t

sports an d other school events because of woWork come s first.

Th e hours, not to speak of rushed anonymty of downtown office life , can be hard , too,students . "People are so rude downtown ," ssophomore Tatian a Martinez. "Some whipeople think Latinos are lazy."

Convincing employers to take on hschool students as real employees was alsostruggle, especially at first, says Sister Murp"They didn 't quite believe that adolescecould be asked to do real work ," she recalls

And just like in the Bronx, the Chicagschool initially faced serious opposition fromother local Catholic schools . Even thoughhad close ties to the neighborhood , was ledtop Jesuit officials with strong connectionsthe Archdioce se, and was championed Chicago's late, beloved Cardinal JosepBernardin , Cristo Rey was controversial at firIt still is: Just last spring, plans for a seconCristo Rey on the South Side were pur on hoin part because of opposition from existinCatholic schools nearby .

Times have been hard for Catholic schoolsIn Chicago and around the country , urbCatholic high schools have been closing regu

larly over the past decade ,as

interest aenrollment have dried up and Catholic familiehave moved out of cities. Cristo Rey wasfirst new Catholic high school to open Chicago in 30 years. To ease orher schools ' feof losing enrollment to Cristo Rey, the schowas initially forced to start with sophomoreand juniors rather than accepting freshmenand almost had to agree to take no one whohad gone to a Catholic elementary school.

In the end, these fears proved groundleTh e new school in Chicago has ended up having little or no negative effect on nearbyCatholic schools . Nob ody has closed because

Cristo Rey . Enrollment has actuall y gone up percent at a nearby all-girls Catholic schooland Latino enrollment at a nearby elite Jesuithigh school has also been on the rise.

One reason is that two our of three Cristo Rstudents corne our of public schools , not othCatholic schools. (For most Catholic high schooit is the other way around.) And Cristo Rey relarly diverts interested farnilies who aren't receimmigrants , or who can afford to pay regutuition , to established Catholic schools .

As a result , Cri sto Rey has won aamount of local support among Catholic educators. "I think it 's a great thing, " says Broth

CITY LI M I


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Michael Quirk, president of the De La SalleInstitute , a nearby Cathol ic school. "There areso man y kid s underserved in Ch icago that we

need more alternatives. "

MONSIGNOR JOHN GRAHAM , principalof Cardinal Hayes , a boys school located in MottHaven, is proud of his school's efforts to keeptuition to just $ 4,250 per year. Two-thirds of thestudents at his school are Hispanic; most of therest are African-American . Over 95 percent graduate, according to Graham, and 96 percent areaccepted into college . "We have the lowestCatholic tuition in the metro area," he says, inaddition to giving financial assistance to 35 percent of all students. Like other Catholic educatorsin New York, Graham refUsesto talk about CristoRey. "I don't want to go there," he says.

Th e poorest borough in the city , the Bronxalso has the city 's highest number of publicschools on the list of Schools Under Registration Review, the state 's index o f failing publicschools . While she laments the fact that students and their families have to go to suchextreme measures just to get a decent education , Noreen Connell , for one , sees Cristo Re yas a worthwhile experiment. "You 're givingthem work experience , which isn 't bad," shesays. "It 's something that the students an d families have volunteered to do. It 's an effort to create smaller and better high schools ."

But Ford knows that he has yet to win everyone over. Leade rs of other Catholic schools in thearea are particularly worried. There are already 14Catholic high schools serving the borough,including fWo nearby schools-Pius V for girlsand Cardinal Hayes for boys. "Their schools arealready up and running, and it 's hard to raisemoney and attract students ," says Ford , pointingou t that the idea of a "shiny new school " isunderstandably threatening. "We 're meant toexpand the pool, rather than cut into a finite pieof students. But to them it 's just so many words ."

On e problem ma y be that the Bronx Cristo

Rey is not as closely linked to the Jesuits and thearchdiocesan community as its Chicago counterpart. Instead of being sponsored and run byJesuits , the Bronx school will be more looselyaffiliated with three different Catholic congregations. Ford , like man y other Cristo Rey proponents nationally , is a layperson. The school 'sadvisory committee did not include anyonefrom the Archdiocese, and local Jesuits don'tnecessarily see the idea of starting a new schoollike Cristo Rey as their own . "This didn 't comefrom us," explains Sister Nora Cronin , the Jesuitofficial in charge of high schools in New York."This came from Mr . Ford, who wanted to have

JANUARY 2003

the backing of the religious community."Cristo Reyneeds archdiocesan approval i f t is

going to call itself a Catholic school and approach

traditional Catholic funders. So far, the school hasreceived $750 ,000 from Cassin and $250,000from the Hol y Sisters , and needs $2.5 millionmore to balance its budget within five years. Likethe Chicago school , Cristo Rey New York planson being self-sufficient within five years. "We 'renot asking for a penn y, a building, or a single person from the Archdiocese ," says Ford. Nonetheless, he's worried the school won't be approved asprompdy as he would like. "There are some fac-tions within the Archdiocese that are concerned,"he says, "and some openl y hostile."

based on a dual-language Spanish-English curriculum like the one in Chicago. While MoHaven has a substantial Spanish-speaking pop

ulation, many families have been there forlonger than Chicago 's recent Mexican immgrants , and there are also significant numbero f Mrican-American families. Chicago's Quirk,whose De La Salle school has a similar demographic composition, says he doubtsAfrican-American students would be interestedin a Spanish-English program.

Ford, who carefully pronounces the newschool's name with a Spanish accent, says thpersonally he would like to have a Spanish-language program at the school. This would

In Chicago 's working-class Pilsen neighborhood, where public school graduatiorates hover around 60 p e r c e n ~over 90 percent of Cristo Rey students graduat

Ford expects the Regents to give their approval

by January, and he hopes the Archdiocesewill

fol-low shottly thereafrer , despite his lack of formalcredentials. In the meantime, he is going forwardwith the rest of his plans for next fall's opening.

Rather than the private buses and vans usedin Chicago, the Bronx Cristo Rey is going to relyon public transportation to get students to andfrom work each da y. Minimizing the commutetime to midtown and Wall Street workplaces isthe main reason , bu t trains will also save theroughly $1 ,000 a day that the Chicago school' sbuses cost. Ford is alread y enlisting an arm y ofvolunteers to a ccompan y students each day.

Academically , the new school may no t be

reflect the community culture, he says, andhonor

the memoryof

hisaunt

, a RomCatholic nun an d one of the four Americachurchwomen killed in El Salvador in 1980

As in Chicago , undocumented students winot be accepted for now , due to emplo ymeand immigration considerations . But a dual-laguage program is especially important to Forbecause he would like to be able to enroll undoumented immigrant students someday. "Ithem as the community that is in greatest needhe says. "It 's my community 100 years ago."

Alexander Russ o ([email protected]) iChicago-based education writer.


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MARKETBABIESIn a post-welfa re world, New York spends more on chil

care than ever before. We've bought a new legionhome-based entrepreneurs-and a shaky start for kidand workers al ike. BY TRACIE McMILLA

KWAME BOAMEIS ONLY 6 YEARS OLD, but he's already got a hell uva comm u te. Every Monday morning, Kwame's mother, Kimberly Paul,rustles him out the door at 6:30 to take the A train from their apartment inthe Dyckman Houses, at the northern tip of Manhattan, to the island'ssouthern border. In the Broadway-Nassau station, next to the magazinestand on the A platform, they meet Kwame's great-grandmother, who shepherds Kwame onto the train to Bedford-Stuyvesant, where he goes toschool. For the next five days, he'll stay with his grandmother and greatgrandmother. Kwame won 't see his mother again until Friday .

Kwame's weekly commute and bi-borough living are Paul's response toa common conundrum: a low-income parent 's need to find affordable ,quality child care. Almost since the city began building its publicly fundedday care for low-income families through its Agency for Child Development (ACD) in the 1970s , waiting lists have numbered from thousands totens of thousands .

Then came welfare reform. Th e move of tho usands of parents intothe workplace was accompanied by a massive surge in the number ofthose who turned to the city to help them pay for child care. The city

20

PHOTOGRAPHS BY SUNE WOOD

welfare agency, the Human Resources Administration (HRA), set usecond child care s ys tem exclusively serving fami lies on welfare or recely of f it. By August 2002, more than 40,000 children received child carpaid for by HRA, up from 14,000 in 1998 .

Kwame used to be one of them. When he was 4 , Paul was tryingget o ff welfare b y taking a paralegal course . HR A paid for Kwame 's ccare whi le his mother took the class, as well as for the first year afrer left public assistance , through a voucher she gave to his caretaker . Oshe'd finished "transitioning " off of welfare , Paul's child care was taover by AC D . Again , she got a voucher-a coupon for c h ild care that could give to an y kind of provider she could find.

But even with the $200 a month for ch ild care-Paul is now respsible for an equivalent amount herself-she still couldn't fmd a wamake it work . Her job at a law office regular ly requires her to work land that calls for e xtra cash for child care that s he just doesn 't have.very hard to be momm y over the phone ," she says, "but if ! had some[caring for Kwamel up here, we wouldn 't be ab le to eat because I'd hato pay the overtime ."

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Paul is lucky, relarivelyspeaking. Her mother, Sandra Robinson , isn't justa grandmother to Kwame-she takes care of young children for a living,watching six young kids in her home every day. Though it's a right fit, thesituation works. Paul can keep her job and stay off welfare. Kwame has stable adult supervision. And Robinson gets paid for caring for Kwame,which

in turn helps her cover the housing costs for herself and her aging mother.Th e after-school hours at Robinson's house are busy, to pu t it diplomatically. Four wee ones, ages 2 to 4 years, toddle through the kitchenand living room, scrambling to play with cardboard tubes and grabbingat the Sesame Street guitar the older children are playing with. Milk mustaches have to be wiped after snack time, 2-year-old Diarrah stoppedfrom wearing Robinson 's eyeglasses ou t of the house, and all of themlightly admonished for singing Eminem lyrics. When it's rime to go to thepark, Robinson instructs Kwame and Ashad, who's 8, to form a humanbarricade against the onslaught of toddlers trying to rumble ou t the door.

For her part, Robinson would recommend the job--with a fewcaveats. "Day care is very viable," she says, "but you've got to love kidsbecause they will drive you crazy." As a former worker in youth nonprofits and social services, she's still a bit astonished by her terms of employ

ment. "So yes, for this full day, ACD pays me $1.88 an hour for the olderones, $2.30 for the younger. Is it amazing or what?" Robinson chucklesand shakes her head with a touch of incredulity. Last year, she grossedabout $16,000. "It's just unbelievable ."

In the field of child care, where the median wage nationwide is $7.43an hour-barely more than that of a parking lot attendant-Robinsonis getting by OK. But she still finds it a struggle to make her home agood place to take care of kids. ''I'd be so happy just to have a backyard, "she says. "It took me six months just to pay for the fence. "

ROBINSON'S HIGH-ENERGY apartment-based business is part of abooming cottage industry . There are about 8,500 registered "family daycare" providers like Robinson in the city, up from 3,400 in 1993, according to Department of Health records; private research suggests that about

JANUARY 2003

The Monday move: Every week , Kimberly Paul (left) takes sonKwame to meet his great-grandmother, who shuttles him to ch ildcare so Paul can go to work. Mom will pick him up on Friday.

half of them are actually caring for kids. About 13,000 children are currently in city-subsidized family day care. These chaotic microbusinesses agovernment's best answer, fornow, to the urgent challenge of finding chilcare for the tens of thousands of women on or leaving welfare.

"There has been a huge increase, a huge increase" in family day care

says Nancy Kolben, executive director of Child Care Inc., a citywidresource and referral nonprofit. Kolben attributes the boom , in part, torapid increase in the number of child care vouchers issued by the citywelfare and child care agencies. Those vouchers brought in a wide newstream of cash for child care businesses, easily accessed by anyone withbasic training in the field.

Today, family child care has been the fastest-growing kind of regulaed care the city pays for, increasing by roughly 38 percent between 199and 2002. Care in formal child care centers increased by just 7 percent

A lot is riding on the ability of family day care providers to make work in the long haul. Though New York City only subsidizes child carfor low-income families, it's still straining to meet the need. In 2000,there were an estimated 570 ,000 children living under the federal povety line in New York City. Th e city's public child care system cared for

little under 100,000 of them-barely even one-sixth of poor kids. Todayof those who are covered, about one-third are in "informal" care-yes,public money pays their babysitters, who are virtually unregulatedAmong children whose care is paid for by the city's welfare agency, threin four are in informal arrangements.

The dire need for child care isn 't unique to New York. Before Congress adjourned for elections, one debate surro unding reauthorizationwelfare reform hinged not on whether or not to increase child caspending, but if the increase should be $1 billion or $5 billion.

New Yorkers will benefit from those additional dollars-but onlythe money goes into increasing access to government-regulated care. Thawon't happen automarically. Virtually all of the expansion of child cafollowing the welfare reform of 1996 has come in the form of voucherThe city's welfare agency covers its chi ld care needs exclusively through

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22/48

vouchers, and vouchers accounted for nearly one in three of ACD's children last year. In the early 1990s, only a couple thousand vouchers wentout for child care annually, mostly used to tide parents over until a slotopened up at--or was added to--a day care center working under contract with the city. By 2002, more than 59,000 vouchers were issued tofamilies, representing 60 percent of all city-subsidized child care.

Amid the flood of vouchers, toy-filled child care centers, with twodozen toddlers and a cluster of young, smiling teachers, haven't materialized . There's no central agency responsible for constructing child carefacilities, and so far public dollars have not gotten much built.

Which is where people like Sandra Robinson come in. Because itdoesn't require the construction of new facilities, family day care circumvents the most formidable obstacles to expansion . Because it relieson an infinitely expandable pool of providers without increasing permanent capacity, family day care is extremely hospitable to a market-driven,voucher-based system. Because it does require training, licensing andregistration, family day care addresses concerns from parents and policymakers alike about quality of services that arise with the use of informalcaregivers. And becauseit draws on women'schild-rearing experience, some politiciansand foundation officersare wagering that family day care could havean added bonus: providing employment forwomen leaving welfare.

toys, a television and VCR, a crib, a side table, and a few large toys nely tucked against the wall. As the kids finish their lunch, Espinal is ftering between spoon-feeding l-year-old Jalani, keeping the fivequiet at the table, and making sure that 2-year-old Patrick continues hisasthma treatment, a steaming nebulizer securely over his nose anmouth. Meanwhile, her husband, Luis, off for the day from his job inthe Saks stockroom, drags nap time cots into the room.

The toom where Espinal cares for the kids used to be her living rooNow it 's a full-on, home-styled version of a child care center. She and Ltheir three children, and their black Labrador retriever all pretty muchin the apartment 's two bedrooms and modest kitchen. Her bedroom hcomputer desk and filing cabinet shoved in next to the bed and dresser

The business is in operation six days a week, from about 7 a.m. to 6 pon weekdays, 8 to 6 on Saturdays-a full 65 hours of work. For her effoEspinal brings in about $4,000 in subsidies and private cash a month. Afrerexpenses and taxes, she nets about $2,000, or a little less than $8 an hou

Espinal is doing pretty well. Still, the work can be thankless. Even sof her own clients think that child care is just something that women d

- - - - - - _ ~"Some parents ththat you are not prosional, that it's notjob," says Espinal eperatedly. "You enjthe kids, but it 's a job

With such massdemand, though, chcare retains a signilicappeal as a businenterprise. "The nnever ends," explaNancy Biberman, exetive director ofWHEDCO , which runs a care training and refernetwork for day cproviders in the Bro"And frankly, the potetial for generating nhome-based child carpretty endless."

But child care is ahigh-stress, low-wagevocation, an d transforming welfare mothers into reliable, welltrained child care workers has proven a diffi-cult proposition. Doingit well, it turns out,takes massive investment of additional dollars. In New York City,one program spends $4million a year simply topay salaries and providesupports to 125 former

Na 'Shawn Taylor, Brianna Thornton-Roach and Khalid Bowman are three of SandraRobinson's six customers. To accommodate them , Robinson 's family lives in one room .

Biberman's sapitch jibes with Espinexperience. "I've go

welfare recipients working as child care providers in their own homes.The emerging business of family day care is exactly what the creators of

New York's voucher system dreamed of: a private, demand-driven marketplace for child care services. For that achievement alone, it's not a failure.But unless the public and private sectors both take on the monumentaltask of making it viable-as a job, and as a dependable service for its customers-homegrown child care will never succeed in keeping low-incomeparents at work.

IT'S JUST AFT ER NOO N, AN D M ILA GROS Espinal is crouched ata table that barely meets her knees. She 's sharing her table with five smallkids chasing peas and carrots around plastic plates, underneath a wallcovered in finger paintings. The room is not large, but in addition to thelunch table it holds two more tables, an additional eight minusculechairs, one lounge chair, three large shelf units crammed with books and

22

so many calls and I hto send them to a friend, and the friend sends them to someonebecause she doesn't have any room," says Espinal, who's had her own chcare battles. A mother at 16, Espinal dropped out of college because couldn't find child care, and she spent four years on and off of welfWhen she finally decided, afrer working as a child care home monitor, open her own day care business, the fact that she'd be able to be howhen her kids came home from school was a selling point, too . "Thatmy major reason," she explains. "They weren't doing good in school. Esince I've been back at home, they've been doing great in school."

Now in her sixth year as a child care provider-she upgraded skills through WHEDCO's training program two years ago--Espinhas expanded up to a gtoup family child care home, licensing her towatch over as many as 12 children. Rotating some through in shmeans she cares for 13 daily. The volume of kids means she makenough money to employ an assistant; she ended up hiring one of

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charges' parents, a woman who was sick of working in a factory. Now theassistant is taking child care and ESL classes in addition to working forEspinal-she wants to open her own child care place.

Still, the price of success in the child care business is steep: It is a life-consuming enterprise. In a city famous for the t iny dimensions of ts apartments, providers effectively give up their living room and kitchen for thejob. Sandra Robinson, for example, lives in the front room of her threero

Documents

City Limits Magazine, January 2003 Issue