City Limits Magazine, June/July 1991 Issue

8/3/2019 City Limits Magazine, June/July 1991 Issue

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J un e/J uly 1 99 1 N ew Y ork 's C ommu nity A ffa irs N ew s Ma ga zin e $2.0

P O W E R P L A Y E R S : L IS C A N D E N T E R P R IS ER E D IS T R IC T IN G D IS A S T E R D A N T I- C A R A C T IV IS T S

PUBL IC HO SP ITA L PARALYS ISWhat C an B e Done?


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CirJl LimirsVolume XVI Number 6

City Limits is published te n times pe r year,monthly except double issues in June/Julyand August/September, by th e City LimitsCommunity Information Service, Inc ., a nonprofit organization devoted to disseminatinginformation concerning neighborhoodrevitalization.SponsorsAssociation for Neighborhood andHousing Development, Inc .Community Service Society of Ne w YorkNe w York Urban CoalitionPratt Institute Center for Community an dEnvironmental DevelopmentUrban Homesteading Assistance BoardBoard of DirectorsEddie Bautista, NYLPIICharter Rights

ProjectBeverly Cheuvront, NYC Department ofEmploymentMary Martinez, Montefiore HospitalRebecca Reich, Turf CompaniesAndrew Reicher, UHABTom Robbins , JournalistJay Small, ANHDWalter Stafford, New York UniversityPete Williams, Center for Law an dSocial Justice

Affiliations for identification only.Subscription rates are : for individuals an dcommunity groups, $15/0ne Year, $25/TwoYears; for businesses, foundations, banks,government agencies an d libraries, $35/0neYear, $50/Two Years. Low income, unemployed, $10/0ne Year.City Limits welcomes comments an d articlecontributions. Please include a stamped, selfaddressed envelope for return manuscripts.Material in City Limits does not necessarilyreflect th e opinion of the sponsoring organizations. Send correspondence to : CITY LIMITS,40 Prince St. , New York, NY 10012.

Second class postage paidNew York, NY 10001City Limits (ISSN 0199-0330)(212) 925-9820FAX (212) 966-3407Editor: Doug TuretskyAssociate Editor: Lisa GlazerContributing Editors: Mary Keefe ,Peter Marcuse , Margaret MittelbachProduction: Chip CliffePhotographers: Adam Anik,Andrew Lichtenstein, Franklin KearneyAdvertising Representative: Howard W. Sonner(212) 439-4707Copyright to 1991. All Rights Reserved. Noportion or portions of this journal may bereprinted without the express permission ofthe publishers .City Limits is indexed in th e Alternative PressIndex and the Avery Index to ArchitecturalPeriodicals and is available on microfilm fromUniversity Microfilms International,AnnArbor,MI48106.

2/JUNE/JULY 1991/CITY UMrTS

Painful Breaks

We've heard a lot lately from the Dinkins administration aboutsharing the pain of the city's fiscal woes. Neighborhoods havebeen told to expect wrenching losses of services and munici allabor unions are being warned about massive layoffs. But whatpain are the financial and big business communities sharing?Sure, they'll be paying some higher taxes-but all of us will. At thesame time, many of the big tax breaks that have benefited major corporations, real estate concerns an d financial institutions remain in place.An d they're worth tens of millions of dollars a year.Take the Industrial and Commercial Incentive Program. Last year itcost the city $59.3 million in lost tax revenue. The beneficiaries includedsuch needy folks as developers William Zeckendorf Jr. and Ian BruceEichner and the Holiday Inn hotel chain. Even McDonald's and WhiteCastle fast-food outlets have shared in this bounty. During the six yearsthe program has existed the city has forgone nearly $200 million in taxrevenues-a sum that could have paid for a whole lot of drug-treatmentcenters or homes for the homeless.But the giveaways don't end there. Last year the city also lost out on

some $59 million in property taxes from the World Trade Center. Thetrade center is owned by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey,which makes Payments in Lieu ofTaxes (PILOTS). In 1990 these paymentstotaled less than half ofwhat a private developer paying full taxes wouldhave paid. The state legislation that makes this arrangement possiblenever expires.There's a special irony here. The Port Authority built the trade centerwith money i t made from floating bonds. The Wall Street bondholderswho are profiting from the trade center are the same class of folks who arejacking up the interest rates on the city's own bonds. Talk about doubledipping on misery.An d there's a similar story over at Battery Park City, where the BatteryParkCity Authoritypaid roughly a quarter in PILOTS an d otherpaymentsofwhat the full taxes to a private ownerwould havebeen. Cost to the city'scoffers last year: some $80 million.These three examples alone amount to nearly $200 million in taxrevenues that stayed in the pockets of the wealthy. Isn't i t about time thatMayor David Dinkins started really talking about sharing the pain?* * *

City Limits Wins Again ..an d Again: City Limits is bringing home twomore journalism awards. Lisa Glazerhas wona Sidney Hillman Foundationaward for her outstanding reporting on the plight of families after leavingthe city's welfare hotels. And the New York Metropolitan Chapter of theAmerican Planning Association is presenting us with its third annualjournalism award for our coverage of planning issues. (Previous awardswent to Paul Goldberger from The New York Times and Brendan Gill fromthe New Yorker; some interesting company for City Limits.)* * *

Outward Bound: After more than five years, the past two an d a half aseditor, Doug Turetsky is leaving City Limits. Doug is too modest to bringattention to this fact, bu t under his leadership City Limits has ha d anexceptionally strong and stable few years. After Doug leaves, AssociateEditor Lisa Glazer will be taking control of the magazine. 0Correction: In last month's issue we neglected to name the housingdepartment photographer whose picture we spread across pages 12an d 13. It's Larry Raccioppo.

Cover photograph by Mel Rosenthal


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FEATUREThe Wrong Medicine?The city pays $400 million a year to medical schools an dteaching hospitals for doctors in the municipal hospitals.It's a bitter pill to swallow. 12DEPARTMENTSEditorialPainful Breaks .......................................................... 2BriefsChopping and Changing ...... ...... ............................. .4Auction Stopped ............. ................... ........... ........... 4City Wins AIDS Funds ............................................. 5ProfileFreewheeling Visionaries ........................................ 6PipelineThe Go-Betweens ..................................................... 8No Place for Kids ................................................... 17City ViewCut and Paste Council Districts ............................. 20ReviewCalifornia Dreaming ............................................... 21

Freewheeling/Page 6

Go-Betweens/Page 8

Medicine/Page 12

CITY UMITS/JUNE/JULY 1991/3


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11:1;1"'11CHOPPING ANDCHANGING

Broken windows and fallingceilings in dilapidated buildingsmay remain perilous becausethe city is cutting back onhousing code inspectors andchanging the way the remaininginspectors are assigned.The housing departmentc u r r e n ~ y has 273 housing codeenforcement inspectors,according to spokesperson RozPost. There are plans to cut 110positions, but these have notbeen finalized, she says."It's a disaster," says AnnePasmanick from the CommunityTraining and Resource Center."It's going to be a field day forlandlords. This signals to methat they [the housing department) are removing codeenforcement from theiragenda."Inspectors visit residentialdwellings to ensure they meetthe safety standards of the city'shousing code. If an inspector'sreport lists violations, this canform the basis of a lawsuitbrought by tenants or housingdepartment lawyers to press thelandlord to make improvements.Pasmanick from aRC saysthat with a reduced number ofinspectors, the housing deportment will only send staff toinspect buildings with heatemergencies and other direcases. When judges in housingcourt require veritication of poorconditions as a justification torwithholding rent, inspectors willnot be able provide this service.As a result, says Pasmanick,"More peaple are going to getevicted."The inspectors that remainare being reassigned to newposts in boroughs where theyhave not been working. Postsays this is a move to preventcorruption, adding that it willalso familiarize the inspectorswith housing conditionsthroughout the city.The Civil Service BarAssociation (CSBA), whichrepresents the attorneys whooversee the day-to-day enforcement of the city's housing code,argues that the transfers willresult in diminished service tothe tenants the code is designedto protect."This will prevent a lot of

4/JUNE/JULY 1991/CITYUMrrs

Tenninal condition: Cutting the city's housing inspectors will allowlandlords to let more buildings fall into disrepairand increasehomelessness.litigation from moving forward,"says Abbie Gorin, a housingdepartment lawyer who is amember of the CSBA. "It will bedifficult for new inspectors topick up where old ones left off,especially in complex caseswhere hundreds of repeatviolations are at issue." Headds that corruption will not beprevented because inspectorsinclined to take bribes will do soregardless of where they'reworking.The rotation plans led toarbitration proceedings betweenthe housing department and theCSBA, with the housingdepar tment ultimately goingahead with their plans. Postsays the rotation is now beingimplemented.o JoannePassaro

AUCTION STOPPEDThe co-op conversion of twofinancially unstable apartmentbuildings is on hold following

an investigation of the co-opsponsors bX the state attorneygeneral's office.The buildings, .410-.418 E.1 3th Street and 1.42-1 M W .109th Street, are owned bySolomon Borg and AbrahamMendel. An auction ofapartments in the propertieswas s t o p ~ after the attorneygeneral's office discovered thatthe sponsors withheld vitalinformation from the offeringplan-including the fact thatboth properties were inforeclosure.'W e became aware thatcertain information hadn't been

disclosed," saxs Richard Barr, aspokesperson for the attorneygeneral. 'W e entered intodiscussions with the sponsorwith the sponsors and theyagreed to indefinitely postponethe auction."

The auction wqs an attemptto sell enough apartments tocomplete the co-op conversion.Under state law, 15 percent ofthe apartments must be soldbefore the conversion goes intoeffect.Tenant groups charge thatthe sponsors also harassedtenants in the building. Oneletter to an East 13th Streettenant from the super reads,"Contact me or I ruck upeverything serious." Anothertenant, who took the landlord tocourt, alleges in an affidavit thatthe super and the building agentthreatened to beat him up andshortly afterwards his apartment

was broken into.Franca Branchiesi, a tenantin the 109th Street building,says she and other tenants havebeen on three separate rentstrikes agains t Borg andMendel's company, MBManagement. "It's verydisturoing and distressing," shesays. "You c o n s t a n ~ y have tostruggle for basic repairs."Despite some improvements

done to prepare the building forco-op conversion, Branchiesisays that within apartments,walls are crumbling and thereare numerous leaks.

Calls to MB Managementwerenot returned.A number of tenant groupsGood Old lower East Side(GOlES), the Cooper SquareCommittee and Co-op Watch

are e n c o u r ~ 9 i n g the attorneygeneral's office and theManhattan District Attorney tolook more closely at Mendeland Borg's operations. They sayit's particularly important to stopthe auctioning of apartments inshaky buildings. ''This is a realshotgun approach ," says JanetFreeman from Co-Op Watch.''These auctions panic peaple.They think they're buyingsomething very cheap, out it'snot...it's very frightening."

Barr from the attorneygeneral's office says, ''Thematter is under review." 0 UsaGlazer


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CITY WINS AIDSFUNDSNew York City has beengranted an additional $1 7.6million in federal funds for AIDSservices programs. The money,provided under the Ryan White

Comprehensive AIDS ResourceEmergenc:r Act, supplements$15 .8 million awarded to thecity earlier this year .Although the latest grant is$7 million less than r ~ u e s t e d by' the city, the cut will noteffect the service plan developedlast winter by New York's HIVHealth and Human ServicesPlanning Council. The processof awarCling contracts andstarting projects takes time, soexpenditures on actual serviceswon't begin until significantlylater than the beginning of thegrant period, which was April1 Since the services originallyplanned for with $40.7 millionin Ryan White Act funds will bein place for less than one year,the reduced funds will still coverthe costs of operating theoriginal one-year plan.The 42 -member HIVPlanning Council, whichincludes city officials, AIDSactivists and HIV positivepeople, originally allocated$22 .6 million for health, $1 0 .9million for social and $3.7

million for mental healthservices for low-income NewYorkers with AIDS. (See CityLimits, April 1991.)New York City was among15 cities nationwide deeme dhardest-hit by the AIDSepidemic competing forsupplemental funds under theRyan White Act. The cityreceived a basic grant of $15.8million under the act andapplied for an additional $24.9million in funds.But as New York receivesnew federal AIDS funds, the

Dinkins administration is cuttingthe city's own funding for AIDSservices. Mayor David Dinkinshas proposed cuts in AIDSspending as well as other healthand social spending that willseriously erOde the infrastructureon which services for peoplewith AIDS and HIV depend, saymembers of the planningcouncil. They point to suchmoves as the elimination ofdrug-treatment programs as anexample of the kind of cuts thatwill have a strong impoct onmany people with AIDS .

PARTY

Further complicating thecouncil's work is the uncertainsituation at the Mayor's Officeon Health Policy, whichoversees the HIV planningcouncil. Carmen Rivera, whoheaded the mayor's healthoffice and served as chairperson of the council resigned lastMarch. 'W e don't know whatthe people at City Hall ar eplanning," soys Tom Petro, apolicy analyst for the mayor' shealth office. 0 MichaelBroder

A farewell party for Doug TuretskyJune 21, 6:00 p.m.40 Prince Street

Food, music, day careCost $5

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By Cory Johnson

Freewheeling VisionariesTransportation Alternatives promotes car-free citieswhere people can walk, bike, play ..even garden.

Charlie Komanoff says that he'sgoing to eliminate every automobile in New York City. Butthe brown-bearded 43-year-olddoesn't steal cars, nor strip them,smash them or burnthem. He justwants toba n them. Good luck,you say? "We know theidea sounds crazy atfirst," says Komanoff,president of Transportation Alternatives, ananti-car advocacygroup. "But imagineyour street with nomoving cars. Imaginethat same street withno parked cars. That'sa street where a childcan play, where oldpeople can sit, whereyo u could havecurbside gardens. Wethink that could an dshould happen."

move the cars faster. But that doesn'twork. For more than 50 years it's beenproven that providing more roadsleads to more vehicles using thoseroads. The only way to eliminate

Auto-Free Cities.Not bad for abunch ofbike fanatics.Transportation Alternatives' numerous small successes are due to a carefully crafted, three-part strategy toachieve their ultimate goal. All oftheir activities aim at either increasing membership, winning incremental gains for bicycling an d walking, orgenerating public knowledge abouttheir cause. Their best efforts do it allat once.Case in point: Their campaignseeking auto-free zonesin Central Park an dProspect Park. This effort is crucial to TransportationAlternatives.It's their first ever au oreduction campaign,an d a high profile campaign at that. The

group is well aware thattheir recent achievements have given thema "can't fail aura" thatcould easily fade."With every victory,we have persuadedpeople that we are organizationally effective," says Komanoff."We aren't thought ofas a group of peoplewho bangs our headsup against walls. Webang our heads upagainst doors."His group, made upof bicyclists, pedestrians an d other environmentalists, has beenfighting to get rid ofcars in New York fornearly 20 years. I tdoesn't bother them

Car chase: Jon Orcutt leads Transportation Alternatives' protest for an auto-freeCentral Park. Car-Free ParksTurning the city'sthat this ultimate goal is still an awfullong way off. "We don't define success as the abolition of all automobiles in city limits-we see it as stepsin that direction," says Komanoff."And we are gaining in strength andnumbers with everyone of hose steps.Restricting auto use is about morethan just making New York a morelivable city; it's very much about thegreenhouse effect, the situation in theMiddle East, acid rain, globalwarming . .Human powered transportation is the answer to a host of worldproblems."Komanoff, a Harvard-educatedeconomist who runs an energy conservation consulting business, saysthe auto-free city is an idea whosetime has arrived. "It used to be thatrush hour was only an hour, that whenthere were too many cars on the roads,they would just build more roads to8/JUNE/JULY 1991/CITY UMITS

congestion is to create an area wherecongestion cannot occur."Minor MiraclesImagining New York without limousines clogging up the avenues maytake a leap offaith, bu t TransportationAlternatives has been remarkablyconsistent in delivering minormiracles for cyclists. They wo n fulltime bike lanes in Central an d Prospect parks, wider curbside lanes onManhattan avenues, ramped paths onthe Brooklyn Bridge. They also madeRiver Road in New Jersey's PalisadesPark accessible to cyclists, opened aramped passage across the GeorgeWashington Bridge and are protestingthe current use of bike lanes by trafficon the Queensboro Bridge. Settingtheir sights beyond local scraps an dstruggles, in May they organized theFirst International Conference for

two largest parks intoauto-free areas may be a hard door toopen, but Transportation Alternativesis giving it a good push. They've already completed a letter-writing campaign, compiled 8,000 signatures ontheir car-free parks petition and enlisted the support of politicians including Manhattan Congressman TedWeiss, Manhattan Borough PresidentRuth Messinger and City CouncilMember Ronnie Eldridge. The response from the city's transportationdepartment? The usual bureaucraticshuffle-they've commissioned astudy to examine the effects of trafficelimination in Central Park."This isn't going to come down to astudy," insists Jon Orcutt, 27 , Transportation Alternatives' executive director. "It'sgoing to be about politics."So now there are weekly protests atCentral Park, an attempt to build alarger, louder constituency for their


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cause. Handingout leaflets at an Aprilprotest, Orcutt chats with a slicklyattired bicyclist on a high-tech whitebike, promoting the organization. Justthen a runner approaches from theopposite direction, takes off he rWalkman and starts whistling an dclapping. "No cars anywhere," sheshouts. "I'm already a member!"I f heir organizinghas worked well,Komanoff says it's not because of thelengthy experience of TransportationAlternatives' founders. "I've neverbeen an organizer before," says Komanoff. "So i f his is working better orworse than other advocacy efforts, Icouldn't tell you. But we have managed to gather a dichotomy of peoplethat cuts across all boundaries, it's arainbow, old people, young people,all races and economic backgrounds.We've really struck a chord."Soaring InterestThe chord emanates in part fromthe phenomenal recent growth in bicycling, a fact that doesn't have to beproven to anyone who has attempteda weekend stroll across Central Parkthis spring. This soaring interest hasbrought new members to Transportation Alternatives. Their paid membership has almost quadrupled in thelast five years, reaching a high ofl,300,and their two publications, the NewYork City Cyclistand Auto-Free Press,now have a combined print ru n of

nearly 20,000. "We've gotten bigboosts from Earth Day an d the American Youth Hostel's five-borough biketour," explains Komanoff. "There area lot of people who would like to usetheir bikes more if they could."A study by the Department ofTransportation that illustrates thatpoint is proudly brandished by Transportation Alternatives. Completed in1990, the study of 688 Manhattan office workers found that 28 percent ofthose surveyed would bike to work ifthere were safe bike lanes, parkingspace for bikes an d shower facilities

at their workplace. The response waseven higher-49 percent-for thosewho lived within 10 miles of theirworkplace. "But the government encourages the use ofautomobiles," saysKomanoff. "Tax breaks are given tocar owners, to corporations withparking facilities, the governmentspends billions on the infrastructurefor automobiles, fixing bridges . .1 betbikes wouldn' t wear out th eWilliamsburg Bridge." 0CoryJohnson is a freelance writeranda triathlete.

SUPPORT SERVICES FOR NONPROFIT ORGANIZATIONSWriting 0 Reports 0 Proposals 0 Newsletters 0 Manuals 0 ProgramDescription and Justification 0 Procedures 0 Training MaterialsResearch and Evaluation 0 Needs Assessment 0 Project Monitoring andDocumentation 0 Census/Demographics 0 Project and PerformanceEvaluationPlanning and Development 0 Projects and Organizations 0 Budgetso Management 0 Procedures and SystemsCall or write Sue Fox

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1I""I'a II By Doug TuretskyThe Go-BetweensThe Local Initiatives Support Corporation and theEnterprise Foundation are attracting private investorsto the poorest communities-but the new partnerships have their costs.

In an amazingly short period ofabout12 months, a ramshackle, firescarred building on the Lower EastSide was transformed into a safeand clean home for 18 low-incomefamilies. One tenant, pausing to talkin the white an d brown tiled lobby of77 Avenue C, describes his new homein a single word: "Outstanding."The story of 77 Avenue C is noaberration. Over the past four years,dozens of buildings have been undergoing similar transformations in manyof the city's poorest neighborhoods.It's all part of a program that links cityfunds to private capital under the aegisof two organizations-the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC)and the Enterprise Foundation. LISCand Enterprise engineer the renovationdeals and pu t the projects in the handsof nonprofit community groups.

The Local Initiatives Support Corporation and the Enterprise Foundation are creatures of the Reagan era.Both were born as the Reagan administration slashed federal support forhousing programs. LISC was formed

permanent force in their communities. Supporting the low-incomehousing efforts of some of the biggestlocal development groups in the ci tyst. Nicholas Neighborp.ood Preservation Corporation, Los Sures an dBanana Kelley Community Improvement Association to name a few-isone means to that end.For Enterprise, the main goal is thedevelopment of housing for the poor."The mission of Enterprise is to assistin providing decent and affordablehousing for the poor of this countryand assist people out of the cycle ofpoverty," says Bill Frey, who head'sthe foundation's New York office.

LISC and Enterprise work as intermediaries and they've paved the wayfor the renovation of some 3,200apartments in the city, and plans arenow being finalized to begin work on1,200 more units. In a city where developers often complain that it's nearlyimpossible to get work done, LISCand Enterprise have succeeded, withthe city's housing department, in creating a program that gets buildingsrenovated quickly an d within budget.And they've lured investments totaling $110 million from local banks an dcorporations-money that filters intothe hands of neighborhood-basedgroups.

Miracle on Avenue C?: Private investors primed the renovation of this building for low-incomefamilies.

Trade-Ofl'sDespite these advantages, the LISCan d Enterprise program has its critics.They say the public-private partnership creates an extra layer of bureaucracy that controls funding andfocuses attention on housing development an d management-at theexpense of grassroots communityorganizing. In th e rush to createaffordable housing, local groups maybe trading their community rootsand activist politics-for the promiseof corporate cash.a/JUNE/JULY 1991/CITY UMITS

in 1980 by the Ford Foundation; Enterprise in 1982 by developer JamesRouse. True to Reaganite fashion, bothgroups focused their programs on private investment.Though there are numerous othersimilarities between the two groups,there are also differences. The FordFoundation helped establish thenation's first communitydevelopmentcorporation (CDC) an d LISC's principal goal is to strengthen the CDCs thathave sprung up across the countryover the past quarter century. "Westart with the CDC, no t low-incomehousing or economic development,"says LISC's Marc Jahr.By providing money an d technicalassistance, LISC aims to make theselocal developmentgroups a stable an d

Enterprise works with a broad rangeof local nonprofit groups, not justcommunity development corporations, and they're willing to spendtime helping groups with little previous management or development experience. (LISC has recently started a"capacity building" program forgroups with little development experience.)Tax DealLISC and Enterprise's ability to attract corporate investments mushroomed in 1986 with the creation ofthe federal low-income housing taxcredit. Through the use of these taxcredits corporations began to investin a big way an d LISC and Enterprise,which have nationwide programs,


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expanded their New York efforts.The corporate investments targetedfor the city are pooled into a financeentity called the New York EquityFund. A corporation makes an investment in the fund, generally between$1 and $5 million, which is paid overa period of seven years. Such sums areinvested for more than good worksinvestors earn federal tax credits witha rate of return equaling about 15 to 20percent.The Equity Fund is a separate entity from LISC and Enterprise, thoughits board of directors is comprised ofmembers from the two intermediaries. The fund is essentially a banker,making loans for the projects undertaken by LISC an d Enterprise. Andlike a banker, it takes something offthe top to pay for its own operation. Inthe case of he New York Equity Fund,roughly 11 cents of each dollar invested goes to covering the fund'soperating costs.The Equity Fund also borrowsmoney from banks, which in turn itlends to LISC and Enterprise projects.These funds, which are known as

bridge loans, cover architectural andconstruction costs until the mortgageloan kicks in at the completion of theproject. According to Joe Center, who'sEcumenical Development Corporationis finalizing arrangements with Enterprise for the renovation of six buildings on West 125th Street, just 55cents of every dollar invested in theNew York Equity Fund actuallywindsup in the projects. Some advocatesargue that straightforward grantswould be cheaper and plow moremoney directly into housing development.Credit WorthyLISC and Enterprise generally getthe credit for driving the renovationprojects forward because of their ability to attract private investments aswell as foundation support. In fact,public funds make up the bulk of themoney. In th e West 125th Streetproject, nearly two-thirds of he fundsfor the $3 million renovation comesfrom the city's capitalbudget-loanedto the project at just one percent interest. Federal funds are also part of the

!I

financial package. In general, the NewYork Equity Fund provides about athird of a project's funding.The LISC and Enterprise projectdon't come cheap. The average renovation cost is about $84,000 per apartment. But rents are kept relativelyaffordable under rules connected tothe federal tax credits. A two-bedroom apartment for a three-personfamily (rents are tied to the number opeople in a household as well as thesize ofthe apartment) rents for $422 amonth. The tax credit rental restrictions stay in effect for 30 years, thoughin the first projects it was just 15years.But the tax credits pose other restrictions that are troubling to somecommunitygroups. The projects musbe ru n as typical rentals-no mutuahousing associations, limited-equityco-ops or other tenant ownership omanagement arrangements. After 15years the community group that sponsored the renovation can buy thebuilding an d convert it to tenant control, assuming there's enough moneyin the building's reserve fund to swing

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the deal.For groups born out of tenantorganizing and advocacy, the role ofmanager who must balance buildingservices with the bottom line and protect investor capital is not alwayseasy-or desirable. Abdur RahmanFarrakhan of the OceanhillBrownsville Tenant Association cautions that many of his colleagues arelosing their sensitivity to the community while trying to appease the taxcredit program investors. "We will bethe Donald Trumps of the ghetto,"says Farrakhan, who 's group is currently working on a project with Enterprise.These concerns are a classic example of the tensions that developwhen community organizing groupsbecome developers. Some groups, likethe Williamsburg-based Los Sures,have managed to maintain a strongorganizing tradition while steadilyexpanding their management an d development operations.But some groups have changedcourse as they 've increasingly workedwith intermediaries. Once known asthe Mid Bronx Desperadoes, the MBD

CommunityHousing Corporation hasassumed a decidedly more establishment name and taken on a majorand controversial-role as th edeveloper of middle-income housingin one of the Bronx's poorest neighborhoods.Part of this process is embedded inthe nature of the intermediaries themselves. The two groups both have dualroles: On the one hand they are advocates for community groups;on theother hand they are the investors' insurance that their capital will be spentprudently. Major foundations andcorporations generally feel far morecomfortable doing business with intermediaries who's boards of directors are composed primarily ofbusiness executives an d operate witha traditional top down hierarchy thansome feisty community group based

in a scruffy storefront.Because of such factors, LISC andEnterprise are growing rapidly acrossthe nation. Recently a new joint program was announced-the NationalCommunity Development Initiativewith $62.5 million in hand . The Prudential Insurance Company

contributed $15 million as did theLilly Endowment and RockefellerFoundation. Several other foundationskicked in sizable sums as well.As LISC and Enterprise grow andprosper, direct funding for community organizations is drying up an dlocal groups are becoming dependenton the intermediaries, sometimes fortheir very survival. But the LISC an dEnterprise program is not necessarilythe one that's right for many communities. The intermediaries essentiallysee the problem ofpoverty in terms ofinadequate capital and resources, notas an issue of a lack of power an dcontrol. It's enough, in their scheme,to trickle funds down into poor neighborhoods through a set of tightly controlled development programs.In a time when there's little moneyfor low-income housing or community development coming fromWashington, LISC an d Enterprise areplaying a valuable role. But their efforts are also diver ting attention-andenergy-from the underlying economic an d political factors that prevent the elimination of poverty an dhomelessness. D

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he rongedicine?The Health and Hospitals Corporation hands out more than $400million to private institutions that provide doctors for the city'shospitals. Some say it's money il l spent.BY LISA GLAZER

t's a classic urban nightmare: Saturday night at a NewYork public hospital. You've thrown out your backand you're lying on the floor of an overcrowdedemergency room. A young mother bounces her baby,trying to stop the bawling. A stabbing victim emits alow moan. Homeless people are roaming the hallways,there aren't enough nurses and ever,y available bed isbeing used. How long will it take to see a doctor? Anywhere from a few hours to a few days.This worst-case scenario isn't al ways played out at NewYork's municipal hospitals, bu t the city's public healthsystem is experiencing severe stress every single day of heyear. The agency in charge of the chaos is the Health andHospitals Corporation (HHC) , a bureaucratic behemothwith a budget of more than $2.5 billion. Created in 1970,the corporation oversees 16 hospitals, scores of neighborhood clinics, the Emergency Medical Service and sixhome health care agencies. It employs over 49,000 cityworkers and its facilities are the site of more than fourmillion patient visits per year.HHC's impressive scope of operations pales beside theenormity of its task. Public hospitals serve the poorestpeople in the city, and this group is steadily growing: In1975, nearly one in seven New Yorkers lived below thepoverty line; today that number has climbed to about onein four. Within this group is a wide array of patientscrack babies, homeless people with AIDS, sick prisoners,drug abusers in search of treatment, the mentally il l andthe indigent, not to mention the 1.3 million New Yorkerswho simply can't afford health insurance.Problems are compounded at city hospitals because themedical profession has become increasingly specializedand many low-income New Yorkers find it nearly impossible to find a family doctor, let alone afford the fees. Thismeans that diseases that could be prevented aren't, andthe emergency rooms of public hospitals are overflowingwith patients suffering with everything from aches andpains to asthma, tuberculosis, broken bones and gunshotwounds.12/JUNE/JULY 1991/CITY UMITS

Most of these trends are fairlywell known-and beyond thecity's immediate control-butthere 's another, lesser knownsituation that contributes tomedical gridlock. Each year, theHealthand Hospitals Corporationpays more than $400 million toprestigious medical schools andprivate teaching hospitals for theprovision of doctors and seniorstaff at city hospitals. Known asaffiliation contracts, these arrangements have profound implications for health care in NewYork-and they're one of the fewareas where the city can actuallymake changes."The priorities of the medicalschools are not necessarily HHC'spriorities," explains AnjeanCarter, a health care analyst forthe Community Service Society. Referring to basic medicaltreatment for men, womenan d children, she says, "Primarycare is the kind of care most people need, yet primary careis at the bottom of what the medical schools are interestedin. They're more interested in research and medical specialties.""There's an institutional imbalance in the whole healthcare industry-between actual community needs and thehigh-tech training an d activity that goes on-and that'sreflected more than anywhere else in New York City," saysRobb Burlage, a founding member of the Health PolicyAdvisory Center (HealthPAC). "Affiliation contracts arethe inner spine of activity."Spinal AdjustmentPolicy experts an d health advocates have been arguingfor years that this spine should be reshaped so it bendstowards primary care, but progress so far has been minimal. While hospital emergency rooms provide a wide


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Up1IlIiIIIt .... well: Many New Yorkers needbasic medical treatment, but the medicalschools and teaching hospitals are moreinterested in specialty medicine and research.z...~ ~ - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ~ ~

range of treatment, including primary care, much ofHHC'sresources are directed toward highly specialized hospitaltreatment for extremely il l patients, and many medicalstudents use these patients to learn lucrative medicalspecialties such as radiology and surgery. In 1988, a mere20.2 percent of the 2,228 graduate medical students inresidency programs in HHC hospitals were training inprimary care areas such as family practice, pediatrics andgeneral internal medicine, according to a study compiledby the Community Service Society.Two years ago, the board of th e Health and HospitalsCorporation formally approved a strategic plan that embraces the need for community-based , primarycare. "HHChas an agenda for the next decade," reads the corporation'slatest annual report. "Itmustbecome a community-orientedhealth care system. We believe it is the only viable methodology that allows us to address growing health careneeds ..Furthermore it focuses on the right issue-how tokeep people out of the hospital by keeping them well."

Like a glacier, the plan is a significant-but slowmoving-force. The pace of change should come as nosurprise, considering the players. Despite a hefty budget,HHC is a lowly city administration an d the medicalschools and teaching hospitals occupy a unique positionof clout and prestige in the city. "You have to thinkbeyondmedicine," explains Eli Ginzberg, a medical economistfrom Columbia University. "This is part of the ongoing,dynamic relationship between a weak city an d powerfulsub-interest groups."In recent years, 21-year-old HHC has been trying to flexit's administrative muscles, but it's been hard to shake theweakling reputation. Established as a semi-independentpublic benefit corporation, HHC has never lived up to itspromise. It was meant to make health care delivery anefficient and apolitical process bu t the system is stillplagued by red tape an d patronage. Because City Hallcontrols the corporation's finances-plugging deficits andgrabbing surpluses-there's little incentive for produc-



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tivity. Matters aren't helped by the fact that investigations,exposes and political infighting have led to the dismissalor forced resignation of numerous top employees.After 14 months on the job, HHC's new head, EmilioCarrillo, age 40, has emerged as a target for muckrakersfollowing allegations that he took loans from his subordinates and used his city credit card for personal expenses.But despite scandals and severe budget-slashing, Carrillohas also propelled the corporationforward-helping HHCmove towards financial independence, aggressively promoting the strategic plan and openly standing up to theaffiliates, many of whose contracts are up for renewal thismonth."We're giving a tremendous amount of money andresponsibility to the medical profession and we've madeit very clear to those that we contract with that we musthave community-based, primary care," he says. "Someaffiliates are more open to this idea than others. Well,we're open to the idea of new affiliates coming in. We'regoing to have to look wherever we can to find the serviceswe need."Dual IdentitiesThe bleary eyed doctors at Bellevue Hospital have twoidentification tags attached to their white coats-one is forBellevue Hospital/Health and Hospitals Corporation, theotheris for New York University Medica l Center. Welcometo the world of institutional affiliations.The Bellevue-NYU Medical Center connection is justone ofmore than a dozen affiliation arrangements betweenpublic hospitals and private institutions. Each one has aunique and complicated history, bu t all have one thing incommon: They're very expensive. In 1989, for example,HHC paid nearly $3 7 million to Columbia for medicalstaffing at Harlem Hospital; more than $41 million to NewYork University Medical Center for providing doctors toBellevue, Goldwater and Gouverneur; and a whopping$53 million went to the Catholic Archdiocese's medicalschool, New York Medical College, for services at Lincoln,Metropolitan and Bird S. Coler hospitals.People in favor of the affiliations like to compare themto close marriages, with both partners benefiting from thearrangement. Critics of the system describe them more asan annexation. Either way, it's clear that when the affiliation system started in 1961, there were reasons for bothsides to be interested. At that time, the municipal hospitals were in the midst of a doctor shortage and seriousquestions had been raised about the quality. of medicalcare. They needed new, high-quality doctors. For theirpart, the medical schools and teaching hospitals werehaving financial troubles. An annual cash infusion lookedgood, and they could always use a new stream of patientsfor their students to practice on.The affiliation brainstorm came from Dr. Ray Trussell,who was head of the city's Department of Hospitals, theprecursor to HHC. In a 1963 report, Trussell stated, "To myknowledge, no large city is facing its public medical careresponsibilities ..with such a clear-cut philosophy of therespective roles of the public and private sectors and howthey can work together for the mutual benefit of both."How mutually beneficial the contracts truly are hasbeen a source of debate. "You've got a public hospitalsystem paying $400 million to a private system ..andinstitutions serving a minority population contractingwith institutions that are primarily white. It's been a14/JUNE/JULY 1991/CITY UMITS

politically sensitive issue for quite a long time," concedBruce Vladeck, who runs the United Hospital Fund ansits on the HHC board.Despite these misgivings, the affiliation contracts disolve the doctor shortage and improve the quality of cain the city's hospitals-but a new set of problems emergeFrom their origin in 1961 all the way to 1983, the multmillion dollar contracts were little more thiill letters agreement between the two institutions. How many dotors were provided, what type ofwork they would do, homany hours they were paid for, even what amountsalary they would receive-all this was left to the affiliateWith the affiliates getting so much freedom, it wouseem logical that HHCcould at least supervise the contracAfter all, this is how it works when government contracout for everything from consultants to cleaning. Not swith the self-governing medical profession. To top off tharrangement, in the early years the affiliates even oversathe contracts, a classic example of the fox guarding thchicken coop.As the result of this very limited accountability, unknown sums of money have been frittered away. "Unt

Close scrutiny: HHC is starting to demand more accountability from thaffiliates.recently the corporation was very lax in enforcing thcontractual relationship," says VIadeck from HHCboard. "The issue is when affiliate x bills hospital y forcertain amount of services, are they actually providinthat amount of services. The answer is: Nobody knows. Band large, HHC is just no t very careful."Questions about wasted money abound. A statcomptroller's report from 1986 found lapses in attendancfor physicians from the Long Island Jewish Medical Centeand the New York Medical College who were working aQueens and Lincoln hospitals. When the comptrollerstaff asked the medical supervisors about these doctorthe supervisors were often unsure of their whereaboutHealth care advocates say that becausemany of he aIflliadoctors hold numerous part-time positions, it's extremeldifficult to keep track of who is working where and whenAnother area of ambiguity has been the use of HHspace and patients for research projects led by doctor


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doctoring: A 1988 study found that just 20 percent of the doctorscity hospitals specialized in primary care.

rom the affiliate institutions. According to a cityfiled back in 1982, "HHC has lostto tens of millions of dollars ..becausehas never billed the affiliates for the cost of space rentalr research activities conducted at its facilities."this report, a policy was instituted, bu t it's farlitch-free. According to the state comptroller's 1986Queens Hospital billed the Long Island Jewish3 for research space used during983. As it turns out, the billing was incorrect, and onlyhalf that amount was owed. But how much did Longend up paying? A mere $6,000.

to Sweden, HawaiiMoney has also been lost through lax supervision ofand education policies. According to the cityreport, HHC paid for doctors to attendin Sweden and Hawaii, even though regulatravel outside the continental US wasand their spouses hadin topics such as interior design, French, math andplaying reimbursed by the corporation.Fred Winters, a spokesperson for HHC, responds thate comptroller's reports are outdated and irrelevant. Hethat the hours doctors work, the amount of rent dueand the costs incurred for extra classes andnow the subject of close scrutiny. These days, hepays for some work-related classes andbut the executive director of each hospital is refor making sure this falls within strict guide"This is the smallestpart of he affiliation contract1.5 to three percent," adds Winters. "It's not a bigHow much does three percent of$400 million comeSome $12 million-not exactly small change at amore than 400 employees.As well as conferences and extra classes, the contractsallow the affiliates to charge HHC for chauffeurs thatbetween city hospitals and the medicaland teaching hospitals. When asked how muchspent on this service, Winters was unable todetails. "This is the smallest part of the smallestspending," he says. "I have no idea how manythere are and no way of finding this ou t for you. Ibegin to understand why you want to focus on this."Since 1983, there's been some tangible accountability

there's still a long way to go. An 82-page

contract has been drafted, with sections outlining theaffiliates' responsibilities to the Health and HospitalsCorporation, but there are no hard guidelines on exactlyho w many primary care doctors the hospitals shouldhave. HHC's Office of Affiliations and the executive directors of the hospitals oversee the contract, which is astep forward, but the amount of money paid to doctors isbasically still set by the medical schools and teachinghospitals.Still, larger issues loom over these specific items."There's a couple of levels on which people criticizeaffiliation contracts," says Charles Brecher from the Citizens Budget Commission, a business-funded watchdoggroup. "There's the relatively narrow contract enforcement tact, that there ought to be better monitoring of thecontract. But there's also the idea that they aren't a goodprogrammatic fit with the major role of HHC as familydoctor to the poor. The affiliates train fancy, high-techdoctors who have a bias no t to do community health care.They're not interested in primary care. I think that is a faircriticism of the affiliation program."

The way this bias works can be seen in HHC's fiveNeighborhood Family Care Centers: East New York,Cumberland, Segundo Ruiz Belvis, Sydenham andMorrisania. These family care centers serve areas withdire health needs and were created as a way to increasecommunity-based care. Because almost all of the centersare mostly staffed by hospital doctors, the affiliates havea fair amount of control over operations-and the centersare languishing. "Underutilized, understaffed, unsupported and overlooked," is how they're described by theUnited Hospital Fund's City Hospital Visiting Committee.Despite all these criticisms, there's another point ofview. "The affiliation system has done more good than anyother system for health care in New York City," saysMartin Begun, an outspoken associate dean at the NewYork University medical school. "There's a lo t of gossipabout rip-offs, failure to identify community needs,enormous costs and little benefits. But I can assure you thecity gets it's money's worth."Begun says that medical students work long, hardhours and deserve every penny they earn. He acknowledgesthat some doctors may turn up late or not at all, bu t saysthey're the rare exception. "You're dealing with professionals," he says. "They know what they're meant to bedoing."When asked about how the medical schools are going toget behind the new community-based, primary care emphasis at HHC hospitals, Begun becomes hesitant. "I hearabout this bu t I don't think it's going to happen," he says."Medical schools are educational institutions. They'renot necessarily part of the health care system. We exposestudents to a number of options including primary careand community medicine but the number of studentsdoing internal medicine is dropping. They're going intoesoteric specialties-radiology, surgery, orthopedics."Begun says it's no t right to blame the medical schoolsfor broad, systemic problems. Can they help it i f studentshave huge loans to repay and are interested in lucrativespecialties, which can pay twice as much as primary carework? Is it their fault that government and insurancecompanies provide better reimbursement rates for specialties than primary care? And are there any better alternatives than the affiliation system?

Part of the response comes from Sue Kaplan, the execu-CITY UMn5/JUNE/JULY 1991115


16/24

tive director of the New York State Council on GraduateMedical Education, which was established by Gov. MarioCuomo to promote primary care. "At each point in thesystem there's a responsibility for pushing this agenda [ofprimary care] forward," she says. "It really.isn't fair.to putall the onus on medical schools and teachmg hospItalsthey're responding to what medical students 'Yant and.totheir institutional needs and it's a very complIcated mIX.But I don't think that excludes anyone actor in this play."Contradictions, OpportunitiesIf he medical schools aren't interestedin increasing thetraining they provide in community care, some critics saythe city should simplify matters by hiring their owndoctors, or contracting to independent groups of doctorsknown as professional corporations. Three hospitalsConey Island, Woodhull an d Coler-are currently usingthis arrangement. Others say this is unrealistic, and ad-vocate continuing to push the perimeters of contractnegotiations . For better or worse, says Burlage fromHealthPAC, "affiliation contracts are really the only placewhere we ca n negotiate terms of care and training. At themoment there are severe contradictions. But there are alsoopportunities. "It's all a question of political will, an d ifHHC ca n trulystand up to the affiliates-and get backing from CityHall-then these o p p o ~ t u n i t i e s can b e c o ~ e r e a l i t i e ~ . ~ t h -erwise, it will be busmess as usual, WIth the affIlIatesbenefiting an d patients suffering from lack ofbasic care. 0

"Cajolery About Primary Care"In New York City, Emilio Carri llo, the head of theHealth an d Hospitals Corporation, has started todemand that medical schools pay more attention toprimary care. He's following in the footsteps ofDavid Axelrod, the assertive state health commis-sioner who resigned recently after a stroke. Theseefforts are not making the medical schools happy , ascan be seen from this report to the New York Acad-emy of Medicine:"...Our quarterly meetings with the State Commis-sioner of Health feature histrionic statements rang-ing from saber rattling to painfully transparent cajol-ery especially about primary care . .in developingsites for primary care, we just do not believe it isuseful for our medical students to be assigned to thestandard urban hospital Medicaid clinic ... to haveour students visit a site where the homeless arelocated, at 6:30 p.m., will serve no useful purposes

for the patients an d will be an unsatisfactory educa-tional experience for our students . .most of he deansare unwilling to establish Departments of FamilyPractice ..the illness patterns we face require muchmore sophisticated training." -From a Jan. 10,1991presentationby Nathan Kase, head of he AssociatedMedical Schools of New York.

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17/24

By Mary Keefe

No Place for Kidsare clamoring for day care, but the city's centers

room for only 12 percent of the eligible kids.ower income families are no different than any other: parentswant the best for their childrenwhether they live in a Loisaidaor an Upper East Side coWhen it comes to day care, parentsaccessible, safe, nurturing caresomeone they can trust.But for many of New York's poord working class parents, the city'sday-care system, run by theild Development (ACD),n be a bureaucratic nightmare. Par

o find basic informationtheir children in dayand often must bear interbefore a child care slotavailable.Access to day care may be the singleimportant step for parents lookbeyond public assistance.t a day-care bureaucracy that prolittle information about availand far too few spaceswho need them feeds a sysm that blames the poor for their

You feel like you're on trial."Parents like Whittaker must wrestlewith a child care bureaucracy thatseems to believe lower income parents are unable to make choices aboutcare for their children. According toMimi Abramowitz, a Hunter College

it's another wait in the endless line ofgovermnent offices they must visit toreceive help.Many parents say these centersaren't much of a resource. They sayACD workers often provide incomplete or wrong information. Phonessometimes go unanswered for days ata time and paperwork is continuallylost.Scarce SpaceBut i f more parents did get theinformation they need and sign up forACD day care, they would join the

This makes parents like Maureenangry. "[Women living onwant to do something, bu t wewhere to start. We sit backd say, 'I don't know what to do withkids.' They don't let us in onand then they make us theand say, 'They don't want to"

Uncaring bureaucracy: Kassandra Whittaker says the day-care system "makes you feel like you 'reon trial."Still, Gannaway was lucky. Byshe found a model programthat includeschild care information-aopportunity. Now her son is in acenter he loves and she's had

year of job training. "I would havebut I didn'toptions," she says.But many parents--even those whotheir children into day care, refrustrated. Says Kassandrasingle parent who's sonenrolled in an ACD program: "Parneed to feel more in control andpart of the decision-making,part of the system. But whenu go to ACD you don't feel part ofe team to get your child in day care.

professor and author of a book onwomen and welfare, in much publicpolicy today there's "a deep distrustof the capability of poor families, especially those headed by women, toraise their children properly."When parents try to find subsidized day care they often hi t brickwalls. Some 67,000 people called anACD help line last year, but the agencyonly managed to "service" one-thirdof them. Parents often go to city-runday-care centers in their neighborhood to try to arrange for care. Therethey are told they have to sign up at anACD Resource Center-and there arejust seven scattered throughout thecity. For working parents that canmean a day off work, often withoutpay; for public assistance recipients

14,000 children already on the waitinglist. City-subsidized day-care centershave spaces for some 45,000 kidsjust 12 percent of those eligible.Spaces for infan ts and toddlers arethe most scarce. Only about four percent of those seeking care can find it.For pre-schoolers, some 35 percentcan find day care.Waiting lists are most unbearablein neighborhoods swelling with largenumbers of young, low-income families. In areas like Washington Heights,Flatbush and parts of the Bronx andQueens, it's almost impossible to findcity-subsidized day care. One director of an ACD day-care center close todowntown Brooklyn says childrencome from as far as Rockaway, Queens,dropped offby parents that then go on

CITY UMrrS/JUNE/JULY 1991/17


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to Manhattan to work. That meanscostly commutes and long subway orbus rides with young children.Competitive PressureNow there's more pressure thanever on the city's day-care systembecause of the welfare reform rulesthat went into effect last October. Lowincome working parents now mustcompete for the limited number of

day-care spaces with publicassistancerecipients who are required to joinjob-training programs. Under the newrules, ACD gives welfare parents ahigher priority for day-care assistance.The city had planned to create 1,260child care slots to meet the addeddemand for day care, bu t has delayedthe plan to save money during thesefiscal hard times.Now the poor most battle the poor-

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est for the few day-care slots thbecome available. For parents likWilliamsburg mother Idalmi Pagait's a battle that could hwart her harwork. It's been more than a year sincPagan, who works full time and goto school at night, applied to ACD focare for her three-year-old son. "I amost failed a course because I was sdistracted," says Pagan. Now herbabsitter is quitting by the summer. "I'getting desperate," says Pagan, adding that officials just tell her workinparents are a low priority.Even when working-poor parenget subsidized care, it doesn't necesarily come cheap. They pay for caon a sliding scale. For Sandra Bladea computer operator, that amounts$218 a month for her two kids, one whom attends part time. But aftpaying rent, that only leaves the family $170 a month for food, clothintransportation and other necessitiesWhat happens when poor parendon't know about the city's day-cacenters? Or they can't get their kidin? Or the sliding scale slides tohigh? For those who don't have family or friends that can fill in, it oftemeans turning to unlicensed day-carproviders. For some, it may mealeaving young children home alonAnd for still others , it may mean abandoning jobs for the welfare rolls.

continued on next pag

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Making Day CareThe actual number of daycare spaces in the city's childcare system has stayed roughlythe same for more than a decade.

It will take all the creativity citypolicymakers can muster tobreak that barrier.The Agency for Child Development has a set of rules an dprocedures far more cumbersome than those followed byprivate day-care providers. According to some experts , bystreamlining those rules the citycould integrate the public an dprivate systems. The city couldthen purchase space in privatecenters or could issue vouchersto eligible parents who coulduse them to buy private day care.ACD now does this on a verylimited scale.All state and federal child caremoneynow goes directly to ACD.Some advocates suggest openingup that funding stream so nonprofit agencies or communitygroups that want to open up daycare centers couldapply directlyfor the funds rather than havingto appeal to ACD.Expanding family day careindividuals licensed to care forchildren in their homes, nowaccounting for 17 percent of thecity 's day-care spaces-couldhelp ease the shortage for infants and toddlers.There are no vouchers forfamily day care but some advocates say ther should be. And anew state law may encourageunlicensed family day care providers to legalize.For years ACD has been unable to build or acquire new facilities for group care. But nowthere's a plan, sponsored by theLocal Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) , a national groupthat secures funding for housingdevelopment , an d Child CareInc., a child care advocacy organization , that would link theconstruction of day care centersto housing being built by localcommunity groups with LISCfunds. The plan calls for up to15 centers serving as many as1,000 children. (See relatedarticle, page 8.) 0 Mary Keefe

continued from previous page.But there is hope for improvement.Last year, Congress passed the mostimportant child care legislation in ageneration. Millions of day-care dollars will begin to flow into the city this

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111''11111 By Elliott D. SclarCut and PasteCouncil DistrictsThis is a time when City Hall hasprecious little to provide forNew York neighborhoods, soit's absolutely essential thatgovernment supports political andsocial enfranchisement as strongly aspossible. Unfortunately, i fthe recentlyreleased redistricting proposal is allowed tostand, if willdash any hopefor the vital,broad-basedpolitical activis m this citydespera te lyneeds.This is nosmall matter asNew Yorkersmaybe the mostpolitically disenfranchised citizens in the UnitedStates. New York City contains morepeople than 41 of the states, yet untilcharte r revision, they were essentiallygoverned by eight officials elected tothe Board of Estimate. The 35-member City Council was involved in thepolitical process bu t was little morethan a step-child. All this was changedby the new city charter, which abolished the Board of Estimate and created a newly powerful City Councilwith 51 members, to be elected on thebasis of neighborhood districts.The Big LoserWhen the City Districting Commission crafted their proposals, three criteria seem to have been at work. Twowere explicitly mandated by thecharter and the third was dictated bypolitics. The charter required thatdistricts reflect the city's ethnic, racial and cultural diversity and thatthey also respec t neighborhood geography. Politics required that districtboundaries do minimal political harm

City View is a forum for opinionand does no tnecessarily reflectthe views ofCity Limits.

2O/JUNE/JULY 1991/CITY UMITS

to incumbent City Council members.The proposed districts prove beyondany reasonable doubt that these threegoals cannot be met simultaneously.In the redistricting process so far, thelobbyists for the incumbents and theadvocates for diversity have won out.The big loser was neighborhood integrity. I f this loss isn't redressed,incumbency may prove a worthlessprize and diverse representation couldbe a meaningless gesture.Why? Because neighborhoods arethe key to a strong, healthy city.Vibrant neighborhoods pump cash,talent and energy into the urbanemetropolitan core. New York has avariety of neighborhoods, some strong,others fragile. I t is a matter of thehighest strategic priority that the socialand political infrastructures of theseareas be enhanced in every way.This is not going to happen i f theredistricting commission's preliminary proposals are adopted. The oddshaped geographic forms that theredistricting commission has put forward as political neighborhoods areat sharp variance with the districtsestablished for community planning,schools, police, fire and sanitationservices. These districts were painstakingly developed to efficiently servethe neighborhoods that make up thecity. Furthermore, since the mid-1970s there has been a continuouseffort to make these slightly differingdistricts mesh with each other.It is difficult to believe that a council member whose only connection toa neighborhood is some narrow isthmus extending from someplaceneighborhood residents rarely venturewill really reflect a community'sconcerns on central issues such astraffic, school performance, real estatedevelopment and crime. Yet it isprecisely the shared experience withsuch concerns that mold local residents into the politically activeneighborhood advocates who providethe only hope for pulling New YorkCity through what could become theworst fiscal crisis of its history. Be-cause ofthis,council districts must beas similar as possible to the establishedcommunity planning and municipalservices districts. This is the only way

that districts can link neighborhoolife to the larger political life of thcity.Without any similarities betweecommunity planning board districand City Council districts, it's easy predict problems. For those with rsources, disenfrachisementwill servas a further spur to leave the city. Fthose without resources, city life wibe beset by even greater political apthy and cynicism. The best intentionof the voters who adopted the necharter will be effectively thwartedWelfare for Low-Level PoliticosWithout identifiable and accounable local political leaders, neighbohood groups will turn to the ledemocratic politics of the local breaucracy to get things done. Thcouncil will then be viewed as noting more than a welfare institution fthe care and feeding of a lower levpolitical types and not as an institution to lead the city and its communties. Once it loses its populalegitimacy, it will be difficult for evethe best-meaning council members stand up to the powerful economand politica l forces that comprise thcity's "permanent government."Even the noble goal of having a CiCouncil that reflects the city's divesity will be quickly lost. The pastichof small areas, which the redistrictincommission used to draw districtswhich minority candidates could apparently win, are sufficiently smathat it is even questionable wheththey will remain demographicalstable beyond the first election. Cosequently, no one ca n honestly prdict how these configurations wiwork beyond the next few years.would have been far better to respeneighborhood history and integritA little bi t of patience an d theneighborhoods willbe a sure reflectioof the city's many hues. 0

Advertisein City Limits.CallHoward Sonner.(212) 439-4707


21/24

By Eric Weinstock

Dreaming?ofQuartz: Excavating the Future

IbyMike Davis, Verso,, $24.95.or New Yorkers anxious to followth e call to "Go West," LosAngeles is the city of manydreams. From gold-starredon Hollywood Boulevard toe eternal summer of Zuma Beach,may seem to be the urban promland. But as Mike Davis portrays"City of Quartz," nothing could be

"Cityof Quartz" is a comprehensiveof Los Angeles, the city thatIt All Together," according toBut it's Davis whoit all together in this book,the reader from the barrio tomembership in theand Bloods to the HillcrestClub. In this way, Davis makesthat Los Angelesboth utopia and dystopia,and hell of the Americapitalist-dream.

an d Eazy-EIn addition to his grasp of LA'stheimported or raised in the movieexperiences ofsuch as Bertolt Brecht, Jamesr, Joan Didion,and Nathaniel West.conversant with music fromthe Beachrappers Eazy-E and NWA,with movies from "Chinatown""Mad Max."Davis explores LA's shifting powerit s development andplace in the US andeconomy, its ecology, its police

and the Catholic Church. Despites leftist ideological base, Davis goesbeyond any simplistic Marxistto these topics. He gives theth e intricate details andthat make LA come toGroundAlthough LA has an anti-developgroup named "Not Yet Newthe two cities share much inBoth have rapidly growingand poor populations. Bothhad commercial constructionin the 1980s that transformed

their skylines. New York's CardinalO'Connor is matched in his conservatism by LA's Archbishop Mahony.David Garth has practiced his political wizardry in LA's mayoral elect ionsas well as New York City'S. DonaldTrump, frustrated by New York'srefusal to embrace hi s 125-storycolossus, has plans to build it facingthe Pacific. Ethnic conflicts in Flush-

Los Angelesfunctions asboth utopia

and dystopia ofthe American

dream.

ing over development and politicalturf are echoed in Monterey Park,North America's first Chinese majority suburb.But Los Angles may also be movingahead of New York in some ways. Therace hate found in Howard Beach andBensonhurst also exists in the orangegroves and sunny climateofLA. Whiteflight, blockbusting and discrimination have made many New Yorkneighborhoods highly segregated.These patterns are reaching anotherlevel as LA becomes, in Davis' words,a city of "secessionist suburbs andburgeoning barrios."Suburban SplitIn LA County, areas are allowed tosecede and pay a fee for governmentservices still provided. This allowssuburbs to gain control over land useand zoning without having to incurthe overhead costs of creating theirown government (the major concernholding back Staten Island in its"flight" from New York City'styranny).This has led to fierce battles between restrictive zoning advocates and

developers. Many environmentalistsand planned growth advocates in NewYork and Los Angeles are genuinelymotivated by their desire to seeappropriate development and thecreation of low-income housing. Butthese groups have been joined byracists and property owners eager tosee their neighborhoods "preserved"from low income, nonwhite residents.The inherent, and at times explicit,racism of "no-growth" advocates islaid bare by Davis. The same peoplewho brought us Proposition 13 (thelate 1970s California tax revolt thatforeshadowed the Age of Reagan andour current fiscal woes) are now fighting hard to stop any new developmentin LA.Opposing "no-growth" and restrictive zoning are developers who aregenerally uncaring about the environment, infrastructure and communityconcerns as they plan moremegaprojects for the wealthy (whilepretending to be concerned about thepoor). In the strange calculus ofinterest-group politics and economicforces, the construction unions, eagerfor work, have been instrumental inhelping their longstanding industryfoes defeat growth limitationreferenda.As Davis notes, the jobs versusenvironmental quality polls anddebates are misdirected. "It is notsurprising that poor people, especiallyrenters, will choose jobs over environmental quality when the two areartificially counterposed. If it werethe only choice offered, most peoplewould also op t to cut their toe offrather than their leg. Such dubious,but ubiquitous survey methods onlyreveal people's relative anxieties, nottheir substantive opinions."One of the best aspects of "City ofQuartz" is that it makes California'sgeography come alive even i f you'venever made it west of the Rockies (orthe Hudson River for that matter).Don't understand Carson's Burbankjokes? Always wondered whereSepulvadaBoulevardis? Feelingnostalgic for the days of Joe Friday andSam Yorty? Then "City of Quartz" isa must read-and a helluva lo tcheaperthan airfare. 0Eric Weinstock is the director of thehousing research project for theCommunity Training and ResourceCenter and an adjunct instructor ineconomics at Brooklyn College.

CITY UMITS/JUNE/]uLY 1991/21


22/24

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SY.INOIS

Life inside a city-owned crack den .. public agencies cuttingdeals for private developers .. landlords who collect the rentand le t their buildings rot. Each month, CITY LIMITSprobes the misguided public policies and ineffiCient bureaucracies besetting New York. But we don't think it'sgood enough just to highlight the muck. CITY LIMITS looksfor answers. We uncover the stories of activists and localorganizers fighting to save their neighborhoods. That's whyCITY LIMITS recently won journalism awarcis--one fromth e National Association of Real Estate Editors for investigative reporting and another from New York's CitizensHousing and Planning Council. Subscribe NOW-prices aregoing up due to postal increasesl

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Documents

City Limits Magazine, June/July 1991 Issue