City Limits Magazine, November 2000 Issue

8/3/2019 City Limits Magazine, November 2000 Issue

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Crowing in the Dark

Sme of he best things New York has to offer grew wild, the product of economic forcesthat converged at the city 's harbor over several hundred years. Some of ts worst

shames arose the same way.New Yorkers live tightly packed in apartments and are connected by public transportation,consuming fewer natural resources than most Americans. We also enjoy a vital street life, culture and economy that arise from sharing such close quarters. But to this day, hundreds ofthousands of city residents live crammed in inadequ(Jte shared spaces.Likewise, the boroughs are a vast tapestry of vibrant neighborhoods. But mnny of hemhave pathetically little parkland to play in, because developers blanketed farmland with apartments and little else.New York is a city filled with enormous assets, from waterways to subways, and not least ofall the labor and creative powers ofnearly eight million residents. But like all naturalresources, that wealth is limited. It must be spent with great care-and a long-term vision ofwhat New York will provide for future generations.Right now, the city just isn't doing a good enough job. Some initiatives, such as theEconomic Development Corporation 's plan to build afreight rail system to get trucks offcrowded roads, promise relieffrom intolerable conditions. It 's the big vision-and the proactive steps necessary to realize it-that's been missing for too long.This issue ofCity Limits shows that there are ways to build a better New York, simply bypointing development in the right direction. Jonathan Bowles finds that unlike New York,where wateifront neighborhoods have become battlegrounds between people and polluters,other cities work hard to help industries and residents coexist. Keith Kloor profiles a grouptrying to tap the potential ofbrown ields redevelopment to revive neighbo rhoods. AnniaCiezadlo tracks a grassroots effort to do what New York State refuses to: regulate the construction ofpower plants.And in New Jersey, Matthew T. Mitchell visits an environmentally smnrtapartment complex for low-income renters-a prototype for what state officials want to buildstatewide.New York has come this far, it's true, by growing bigger by any means necessary. But thatapproach puts the city in a dangerous position for the future. While economies still thrive onthe physical proximity ofbuyers and sellers, suppliers and mnrkets, and most ofall a skilledlabor force, they are no longer anchored to anyone place. In the long run, quality of ife willbe a deciding factor in where people live and work, and where businesses ultimately choose tolocate. When they demnnd a cleaner and saner city, they mean it.If New York doesn't clean up its act, it may deserve a new motto: Ifyou can mnke it there,you can make it in Portland.

***Another month, two more awards. Kemba Johnson picked up another kudo for "The

Harlem Shujjle" (November 1999), her expose of shady real estate deals funded by the U.S.government. The National Association ofReal Estate Editors-an organization whose members mnre commonly write about how to mnke a killing in the business-has named it bestmngazine article. And the Casey Journalism Center for Children and Families has honored"Mommy Nearest" (June 2000), about the city's ambitious overhaul offoster care, as topmngazine story. I'll congratulate the author next time I look in the mirror.

Cover photo by Joshua Zuckerman

Alyssa KatzEditor

City Limits relies on the generous support of its readers and advertisers , as well as the following funders : The AdcoFoundat ion, The Robert Ster ling Cark Foundation, The Hite Foundation , The Unitarian Universa list Veatch Program at ShelterRock, The Edna McConnell Clark Foundation, The Joyce MertzGilmore Foundation, The Scherman Foundation , The North StarFund, J.P. Morgan & Co . Incorporated, The Annie ECasey Foundation , The Booth Ferris Foundation ,The New York CommunityTrust, The New York Foundation, The Taconic Foundation, Deutsche Bank, M&T Bank, Citibank, and Chase Manhattan Bank.

lity LimitsVolume XXV Numb er 9

City Limits is published ten times per year.monthly exceptbimonthly issues in July/August and September/October. bythe City Limits Community Information Service. Inc anonprofit organization devoted to disseminating informationconcerning neighborhood revitalization.Publisher: Kim NauerAssociate Publisher: Anita GutierrezEdito r: Alyssa KatzSenior Editors : Sajan PKuriakos . Kathleen McGowanAssoc iate Editor: Annia CiezadloContribut ing Editors: James Bradley.Wendy Davis,Michael HirschInterns :Amanda Bruscino. Michael Haggerty.Katherine HawkinsDesign Direction :Hope ForstenzerProofreader: Sandy SocolarContributing Photo Editor: Joshua ZuckermanPhotographers: Simon Lee . Gregory PMango.Spencer PlattCenter fo r an Urban Future:Director: Neil KleimanResearch Director: Jonathan BowlesProjec t Director: David J. FischerBoard of Directors":Beverly Cheuvront, New York City Coalition Against HungerKen EmersonMark Winston Griffith. Central Brooklyn PartnershipAmber Hewins. GrantaCelia Irvine. Manhattan Borough President's OfficeFrancine Justa. Neighborhood Housing ServicesAndrew Reicher. UHABTom Robbins. JournalistIra Rubenstein. Emerging Industries AllianceMakani Themba-Nixon. GRIPPPete Williams. National Urban LeagueAffiliations for identification only.Sponsors:Pratt Institute Center for Communityand Env ironmental DevelopmentUrban Homesteading Assistance BoardSubscription rates are: for individuals and communitygroups . $25/0ne Year. $39/Two Years; for businesses.foundations. banks. government agencies and libraries.$35/0ne Year. $50/Two Years. Low income. unemployed.$1O/0ne Year.City Limits welcomes comments and article contributions.Please include astamped. self-addressed envelope for returnmanuscripts .Material in City Limits does not necessa rilyreflect the opinion of the sponsoring organizations . Sendcorrespondence to: City Limits. 120 Wall Street. 20th Fl..New York .NY 10005. Postmaster:Send address changes toCity Limits. 120 Wall Street. 20th Fl. New York. NY 10005.

Subscriber complaints call : 1-800-783-4903Periodical postage paidNew York. NY 10001City Limits IISSN 0199-0330)1212)479-3344

FAX 1212) 344-6457e-mail : [email protected] the Web :www.citylimits.orgCopyright 2000 .All Rights Reserved. Noportion or portions of this journal may be reprinted without the express permission of the publishers.City Limits is indexed in the Alternative PressIndex and the Avery Index to ArchitecturalPeriodicals and is available on microfilm from UniversityMicrofilms International , Ann Arbor. M148105.


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NOVEMBER 2000

SPECIAL SECTION: SUSTAINABLE NEW YORK

Grow ing Ino its Harlem neighbors, P.S. 90 is just another abandoned monstrosity.But agroup of community developers believes it holds answers to a pair of the era'smost vexing problems: urban underinvestment and suburban sprawl. By Keith KloorZones of Contentionaterfront neighborhoods have been dumping grounds for everythingfrom waste stations to sewage plants. Residents are saying nomore-and small businesses are getting caught in the crossfire. By Jonathan BowlesPower to the People EI!Deregulation of the electric industry has unleashed a flood of proposalsfor new power plants. It also makes the job of fighting them thatmuch easier for a coalition of neighborhood groups out to stop them. ByAnnia CiezadloIt's Easy Being GreenNew Jersey program aims to make affordable housingenvironmentally friendly.Why can 't New York do the same? By Matthew T. MitcheUIdeas to Grow Onix modest proposals that might make New York more livable in years to come,from creative demolition to neighborhood fisheries .

PIPELINESWage RageBig corporations and developers reap major subsidies from the city,but their service staffs make starvation wages. Now a wave oforganizing campaigns is trying to change the equation . By Katherine HawkinsFoundation Frustrationharitable foundations want to improve life in poor neighborhoods.So do community organizers. So why don 't more philanthropistsput their dollars behind the grassroots? By Rob McKayRunning on Advocacy m:Why fight City Hall when you can be in it? In next November'sCity Council election, it will be hard to find a ballot that doesn 'tinclude a high-profile activist-or three. By Jill Gross1TUJn

Book ReviewBlack in BrooklynCityviewFlush With Victory

EditoriallettersBriefs

COMMENTARY

DEPARTMENTS245

AmmoJob AdsProfessionalDirectory

132By Michael Hirsch133By Gregory A. Butler

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WHAT'S 1M A MAME

LETTERS , On July 1, Victim Services changed itsname to Safe Horizon. A recent column inCity Limits [''New York 's Neediest Reorganizations," September/October 2000]about our name change misrepresented ourmotives and our judgment. The columnsuggested that this change was undertakenfor reasons unrelated to our work withclients and that we diverted valuableresources in pursuit of some trendy marketing exercise. Both of these points areuntrue. While we can appreciate the spiritin which the Spare Change column is typically written, by incorrectly characterizing our name change City Limitsdemeaned our clients ' struggle to healfrom wounds of violence and abuse andour commitment to assisting them .

violence prevention training in the schoolsand mediation services in the courts. Stafftold us that the name "Victim Services" nolonger applied to their programs, nor accurately described our client base. The term"victim" has also become overused intoday's society (e.g. "fashion victim").When too many people describe themselvesas "victims," the word loses its meaning.

At one time, "Victim Services" was anideal name for our organization. When weopened our first office in the BrooklynCriminal Courts in 1987, no one was talk-ing about "victims;' much less their needsin the criminal courts system. However,over the years we have expanded the scopeof our services to include programs such as

Most compelling for us, however, waswhat we heard from our clients. During arecent strategic planning process we conducted several client focus groups. Unsolicited, many clients expressed embarrassment in seeking assistance from an organization that referred to them as "victims." Insubsequent interviews, clients told us: "I can 't tell people where my child isgoing . I won't say I take her to Victim Services, I'll just call it the Center." ''The word 'victim' means that something has happened to you. Why would Iwant to be reminded?" "I don 't want my daughter to have togrow up with that name. She's too young toknow better, but I realize what it means."Upon reviewing these responses and oth-

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ers, there was little doubt in our mind thatchanging our name was the right decision.Contrary to the City Limits column , webelieve "Safe Horizon" more accuratelyreflects our services and our missiontoday. First, safety is a consistent theme inall of our work.When a client calls our 24-hour domestic violence hotline, visits oneof our nine community offices, or comesinto a reception center in a court in anyborough, one of the first questions we askis "Are you safe?" The word "Horizon"aptly describes our efforts to empowerclients and to help them navigate towardsafer, healthier lives. "Horizon" is destination-focused. "Horizon" is hopeful. It con-notes new beginnings and movementtoward a positive, bright future.

To help us with this name changeprocess, we were assisted by Lippincott &Margulies, a leading identity and imagemanagement firm. Contrary to the City Lim-its column,Safe Horizon did not pay for theirservices; Lippincott & Margulies generouslydonated all of their time and resources to uspro bono. They deserve tremendous creditfor their tireless work with the Board ofDirectors, staff, funders and clients to createan identity that captures the breadth anddepth of our organization and the clients weserve. Rather than attempting to satirize thistype of corporate/nonprofit partnership,these successful projects should be celebrated and encouraged .Despite the City Limits column, wehave been overwhelmed with positivefeedback from staff, colleagues, funders,and most importantly clients about "SafeHorizon" and we are confident that ournew name will serve us well for years tocome. Gordon 1. CampbellChief Executive Officer, Safe Horizon

City Limits replies:We were indeed incorrect in implying

that Safe Horizon paid for the services ofLippincott & Margulies. We sincerelyregret the error.

Letters to the Editor can be sent to CityLimits, 120 Wall Street, 20th Floor, NewYork, NY 10005 or via e-mail [email protected]. City Limits reserves theright to edit all letters for clarity andspace.Selected articles from back issues ofCity Limits are available on our web site:www.citylimits.org.CITY LIMITS


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Media

Harlem Goes RadioactiveNw on the air in upper Manhattan:some spirited programming you can'thear anywhere else-by law. This summer, 10 high school students spent several days each week recording theirown radio shows for Kids Discover Radio 88.7, alow power FM station. Sound better than summercamp? There's just one problem: low power radio,otherwise known as pirate radio, is illegal.

In 1997, a couple of community activists-Ms.Pyramid and Peyo 1, as they're known on the air-launched WKDR as an after-school program forpre-teens in a Harlem housing project. About 25signed up to learn how to produce radio shows, editcontent, and engineer sound-tbeyeven climbed tothe roof of their building to mount the antennathemselves. Because the Federal CommunicationsCommission bans broadcasting without a license,everyone also came up with their own pseudonym,or "radio tag," to protect their identities .NOVEMBER 2000

- "I like the way I feel when 1'm talking on theair, knowing that there are people out there whowould actually listen and hear me," says Tattoo, ahigh school sophomore who hosts "Radio Divas."Her show originally featured self-styled poetry,but soon expanded to include music and talk radio.Recent topics have ranged from light-hearted talkabout relationships to serious discussions of teenpregnancy and suicide."It wasn't just a matter of teaching kids to produce and edit, but also to think critically," says Pyramid. She and Peyo have also taken their students onvisits to the Museum of Television and Radio and toother local low power FM stations. "Low powerradio is providing the kind of activities for kids thatare needed in this community," she adds."Kids Discover Radio created bridges between different generations and different groups of people who wouldotherwise never have talked to each other."The station has gone through several incarna-

tions, recently becoming part of the curriculum ata Manhattan alternative high school.Low power FM has recently experienced anational renaissance, fueled in part by a lawsuitover Free Radio Berkeley, aCalifornia station serving activists and immigrants. A five-watt stationwith a broadcast radius of a mile or two costs as little as $600 to set up and can easily r e a ~ h thousands.New York is home to about 40 low power FMstations, according to DJ Dizzy, who runs theBrooklyn station free 103point9. At least four havebeen raided this year by the FCC, including aLatino immigrant news station in Queens, a religiousbroadcaster in the Bronx and two Haitian frequencies in Brooklyn.Last January, the FCC unveiled a plan to letsome small stations go legit. So far, 750 haveapplied for licenses. But low power FM still haspowerful foes. The National Association of Broadcasters argues that micro stations interfere withcommercial channels. It is sponsoring a bill inCongress that would eliminate three-quarters ofthe frequencies available for low power FM. If itpasses, the FCC will likely refuse to grant any newlicenses to broadcast over New York's congestedairwaves. -Michael Haggerty


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Briem....... - - - - - - - - -......- - - - - - - - - - - -

Requiem on Water StreetOAugust 11 , a young mother at her city-assigned workfare job died suddenly on thejob. She had been complaining of severe migraines, but she was afraid to go to the doctor-afraid that if she left her work assignment or complained to her supervisor, she 'dlose part or all of her welfare check. Critics put part of the blame on the HumanResources Administration 's tough policies, which dock a welfare recipient's checks for evensmall infractions of the rules .At a spirited protest in front of HRA headquarters in late August, a group of welfare recipients and organizers called for better working conditions, more humane sick-leave rules, and programs that include education and training. "We're not asking for a miracle," says Renea Fields, amother of three. "Unfortunately, it takes someone to die before people turn out."

THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A FREE LUNCH

PublishingBrooklyn ByDesi&UAchitectural Digest, step aside! Black-lines is a new quarterly magazinedevoted to African-American architecture and interior design. The Brooklynbased project is the joint effort of threewomen-publisher Kathleen Ettienne, a Trinidadnative, Sheila Cadet and Atim Annette Oton-allfull-time architects new to the world of publishing.At 60 pages, the premiere issue includes amix-ture of editorials, interviews, architecture anddesign profiles , an essay on the essence of hip-hopin architectural design, and a profile on DanielChristopher Hall, the new president of the National Organization of Minority Architects. "We aretrying to reach the overall population , black andwhite ," says Ettienne, sitting in her F1atbush apartment, which doubles as Blacklines headquarters."We want this to be the type of magazine that anybody can pick up and have an appreciation for."But the main inspiration for the magazine, saysEttienne, was the trio 's desire to create a resourcefor budding black architects. "We have manyyoungsters growing up in our community who arenot aware of our master builders," says Ettienne,recalling America's first African-American architect Paul Williams (1896-1980) and Afrocentricdesigner Jack Travis, who recently completed theinterior of the Los Angeles home of actor WesleySnipes. "Black students need something to identifywith," she adds.

. It wasn't easy. None of the women had anyexperience in publishing, and quite a few magazineindustry professionals tried to dissuade them fromlaunching the magazine, says Ettienne. But theyrounded up the money nonetheless, convincingfriends and employers to buy ads in their firstissue. "We begged for ads, and the rest came fromour pockets," she says.Ettienne and her co-publishers are now working on the second issue of their magazine, whichwill examine African-American aesthetics, the roleof community development in design practice andthe sources of design inspiration. The magazinecan be purchased by subscription online atwww.blacklines.net. -Miriam Perez

But there is free legal assistanceNot10r-profits, communitygroups and organizations are eligible for free legal assistance on a wide variety oflegal issues including:

Establishing your group as a not-for-profit Lease negotiations and other real estate matters Establishing a long-term relationship with one of our member law firms . Representing your organization in litigation matters

Contact Bryan Pu-Folkes at (212) 244-4664, or email at [email protected] to see if you qualify.NYLPI, 151 West 30th Stree t, 11th Floor, New York , NY 10001-4007

CITY LIMITS


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Catch-22s

W'Burg3-BR$ l , 0 9 5 ~ Tis summer, a 26-year-old mother offour in Williamsburg opened her mailto discover one of New York City'srude ironies: She was about to be evicted for her own good.The letter from the state Division of HousingaDd Community Renewal, which controls her rentsubsidy, said that her two-bedroom apartment wasovercrowded and that she must either move into anapartment with at least three bedrooms or lose thebenefit. But with a rent ceiling of$I,095 and a twomonth deadline, her prospects didn't look good.It wasn't the first time that she and her familyhad been told to look for a larger apartment, buttheir income simply won't permit it. Her husband ,who works full-time, earns $175 a week, and shecares full-time for their four-soon to be five-children. Their rent is currently $920 amonth, andtheir Section 8 subsidy covers $553.

''In the past, it was more like a suggestion,"says the resident, who asked to remain anonymous. '1twas, 'Look, we'll give you more moneyif you get a larger place.' But now, they'reNOVEMBER 2000

demanding it. That's when I started panicking."But finding an apartment in the neighborhoodis extremely unlikely, says Eleanor Bader, aLegalServices social worker who represents the family.DHCR's cap of $1 ,095 per month-utilitiesincluded-is unrealistic. "Williamsburg is an upand-coming area," says Bader. "You can't find athree-bedroom apartment for $1,100."Blanca Cardona, a DHCR supervisor farniliarwith the case, says the agency is obligated to enforcethe federal government's overcrowding rules forhousing subsidies. "We get audited also," she says."We have to stay within the perimeters of the law."Cardona finds it's not uncommon to find a fam-Unions

arnc=

ily of eight or ten living in a two-bedroom. "It's nosafe. It's not healthy," she says. According to Cardona, of the 3,500 farnilies receiving Section 8subsidies in the city, only four have received similar code-enforcement notices, and, of those, nonehas landed on the street. "No one becomes homeless," she says. ''That's not the objective."While individual reports suggest that the statehas become stricter about enforcing these rules, aspokesperson for DHCR could not confirm any policy change. The agency did say that it had grantedthe family asix-month extension. "We're not here todisplace people; ' says Cardona. "We just need toknow that they're looking." -JenniferWarren

So what if it's at odds with the AFL-CIO's national strategy? Big unions have hada ilent pact with New York State Senate Republicans for years. It's an important political expedient; after all, it only takes one party to kill abill. But at this LIBRARIANSSHUSH LABORyear's AFL CIO convention at the Sheraton in midtown, dissent was, quite literally, a aughing matter.

As hundreds of delegates chorused their ayes to offiCially sanctioned Republican incumbents,two lone delegates cried nay. By the end of the day, 61 incumbents got the union imprimatur, andthe room was erupting into howls of laughter every time the two shouted "no." The conscientiousobjectors were from Local 1930, the tiny city librarians' union. "I guess it was amusing becausethe vote was so overwhelmingly against us," sighs dissenting librarian Christine Karatnytsky."There were between 600 and 700 people in the room, and here we were, just two people sayingno.... It was just so absurd that, after awhile, we were laughing too." -Annia Ciezadlo


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PIPEliNE ,

On the flyering:Hotel Employeeslocal 100 is lettingGoldman Sachsworkers know thatcity dollarssubsidize thei rcafeteria-whereworkers earnpoverty wages.

:

Wage RageLooking for leverage, unions find it in the millions City Hall gives big employers.ByKatherine HawkinsBrooklyn Renaissance Plaza is a 32-story hotel-office complex on JayStreet. Opened in 1998, it has a fitness center, an underground garage, and thefourth largest ballroom in the city. Queensbased Muss Development and its partnerswere given over $50 million in tax exemptions and subsidies from New York City tobuild the complex.The building sits on cityowned land. City agencies such as theBrooklyn District Attorney's office occupynearly half the office tower, and pay Mussover $11.5 million in rent every year.

New Yorkers who clean the high-rent

high-rise , however, are struggling . EdithGiron, a single mother with four children,works as a janitor at the building and earns$6.25 an hour with no benefits. JuanaMeija, a janitor earning the same wages asGiron, needs to apply for food starrips tofeed her family. She's also had to subsist onwhat she calls "starvation wages."Both Giron and Meija will see a $1 anhour increase in their paycheck this month,thanks to a settlement reached in Septemberby Muss Development and the building 'sworkers after a bruising four-month strike.Muss has promised them that they will havehealth benefits for themselves and their fam-

ilies by January, and next April their paychecks will go up to $11.85 an hour.The strike didn 't just bring welldeserved relief to workers living in poverty.For Service Employees International UnionLocal 32B-J, it was also a trial run of anincreasingly popular union campaign strategy: pressuring companies benefiting frompublic subsidies to pay their workers a living wage. It didn't win the strike, but it putthe practice on the map in New York. ''Thisis something we are going to use again,"says organizer Bill Meyerson.The union took its inspiration from the

City Charter, which calls for all city contractors to pay a prevailing wage. Why notapply that principle, organizers reasoned ,to the increasing numbers of companiesand developers reaping city subsidies?As much as anything, the strategy is apolitical one, pressuring the city to takeaction. Guillermo Linares, the City Councilman from Washington Heights whoseconstituency includes the immigrant workforce that developers like Muss rely on,now has a bill in the works that wouldassure a living wage and benefits for workers in companies profiting from city subsidies. "One thing we learned [from the

Renaissance Plaza strike] ," Linares says,"was that when there is a public-privatepartnership, the rights of workers are verymuch part of the package."Nnunion organizers have taken upthe challenge as well. One weekbefore the Renaissance Plaza strikebegan, on May 9, demonstrators marchedoutside the Atlantic Center Mall to demandbetter wages and benefits for workers in allof malls operated by Forest City Ratner, thecity's largest retail developer. AI Sharptonled the chants, but the protest was organizedby the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now-better known asACORN. The group, organizer BerthaLewis explains, wants heavily subsidized,"big box" retail developers like Bruce Ratner to make mall tenants agree to pay decentwages and benefits. "I f you are feeding atthe public trough, then you must at least payyour workers a living wage," she says.Ratner's company, Lewis readily admits,is no worse than any other developer. Theyall have the same "dead-end, low-wage,non-union, no-benefit jobs," she says.ACORN singled out Ratner because he'sone of the biggest developers in the city, andbecause he is currently receiving more than$20 million in city subsidies. ACORN plansto use the issue of public subsidies as a litmus test during next year's City Councilelections , asking candidates to commit topassing a living wage law.In September, the New York chapterlaunched a campaign for legislation thatwould require all employers who get citymoney, as well as their tenants and contractors, to give their workers benefits and asalary high enough to keep their familiesabove the federal poverty line. It's one of75active living wage campaigns nationwide,according to Jen Kern, who headsACORN's living wage effort in Washington.So far, she says, 50 cities, counties andschool boards have passed living wage laws.The threat to revoke public subsidies iffair labor laws are not obeyed has proveneffective in other cities. Last year, UNITEused the issue to organize a muffler-making plant in Cleveland. Supertrapp, thecompany that owned the plant, spentmonths defying a National Labor Rela-

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p 7 AI

tions Board order to recognize the union. WhenCleveland Mayor Michael R. White threatened totake way Supertrapp's $500,000 tax break if theydidn't cooperate, the company backed down in lessthan a week.

T he battle for living wages in New York Citywill be more difficult. Mayor Rudolph Giuliani has been an enthusiastic supporter ofdevelopers and corporations, offering them taxabatements and other incentives.For the past year and a half, some 170 employeesworking in the cafeterias of financial giant GoldmanSachs have been trying unsuccessfully to form aunion. They work for a firm called Restaurant Associates, contracted to cater to Goldman Sachs employees in six downtown locations. The workers make $8to $10 an hour, and none have health benefits.Local 100 of the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees union has had no success so far inpersuading Goldman Sachs to force RestaurantAssociates to improve worker compensation. SoLocal 100 is working the same game plan 32B-Jused, putting the heat on elected officials. GoldmanSachs has received millions of dollars in public subsidies over the years. "Since they receive public subsidies, is there a way to force them to have contractors pay a living wage?" asks Michelle Travis, aresearch analyst for the local.New York does have a living wage law, whichthe City Council passed over the mayor's veto in1996, but it ended up covering just 1,400 employees. But this time, organizers say, term limits andchanging political winds are in their favor. RobHill ofthe SEIU, who worked with the Renaissance Plazastrikers, has a binder full of angry letters to Muss frommore than 25 elected officials, including City Comptroller Alan Hevesi, State Comptroller Carl McCall,Bronx Borough President Fernando Ferrer and PublicAdvocate Mark Green. Three will be seeking themayor's office next year, and one has his eyes on thegovernor's mansion.According to Hill, the legislation has a goodchance also because most building owners and contractors already pay decent wages to janitors. It's intheir interest, he observes, to make sure everyoneelse does too, because it helps employers stay competitive. Several cleaning contractors and developers have written to the City Council's labor committee in support of legislation favoring a livingwage law.There are, however, pitfalls in this campaign. Realestate companies like Muss might be compelled tobow to the law, but what about companies that canpack up a n ~ leave? How about Goldman Sachs,which is currently considering New Jersey's offer ofa $165 million cash incentive to set up operationsacross the Hudson?

NOVEMBER 2000

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Foundation FrustrationWhy are big-rrwney philanthropies afraid of community organizers?By Rob McKay

I t just doesn't add up. Wealth generated by the stock market's unprecedented rise continued to skyrocket in1999, and charitable donations to nonprofit organizations ballooned to an alltime high of $190.2 billion. This wave ofphilanthropy brought marked increasesin giving to education, art, health, humanservices and religion.But according to a new report, community organizing has seen only' limitedbenefits from this windfall.Lack of money is nothing new in thisprofession; any veteran organizer candescribe its low wages and long hours.Organizers persist because of their commitment to working with poor peopledespite the obstacles-with tenants todemand heat from landlords, or welfarerecipients to call for fair treatment. But ifthe will is there, why isn't the money?The report from National Center forSchools and Communities, a researchand support center for grassroots organizing for school reform based at Fordham University, marks the first time aconcerted effort has been made to findthe answers to that question. While thestudy largely confirms what cashstrapped organizers already know, it doesadd facts and statistics to back up common complaints. For example: only twoof New York City's 100 largest foundations list community organizing as amajor interest, and grants to communityorganizing account for only 1.5 percentof the overall giving of those top 100foundations. In fact, funding is so precarious that 15 of the agencies initially considered by NCSC went out of businessbefore the study was completed.

"Philanthropy could play a great rolein creating a democratic society, but wethink it's not performing up to par," saysNCSC Director Sally Covington, the principal writer of the report and formerstaffer of the National Committee forResponsive Philanthropy, a Washingtonbased group focusing on foundationreform. "With this study, we're trying tomake foundations more responsive. Wechose New York City because it's thefoundation capital of the world andbecause these foundations give so much toagencies in other cities, while effectivecommunity organizing groups in theirNOVEMBER 2000

own backyard are underfunded."The NCSC study consisted of interviews with executive directors or highranking employees of 24 nonprofits inNew York City that do community organizing exclusively. According to theanonymous interviewees, most foundations just don't understand communityorganizing. Another frequent complaintwas the trendiness of the philanthropyworld, described by one respondent as"a desire to fund the flavor of themonth." Yet another lament was thatfoundations put too much emphasis onshort-term results, ignoring communityorganizing's long-term effects.Why are so many professional giversnot supporting this truly nonprofit effort?"It's an invisible activity," explainsMadeline Lee, executive director of the$81 million New York Foundation,which gave out close to $1.5 million toorganizers in 1999. "It's an effective wayto change policies and move money, buteven if you see its results, you don't seethat community organizing was whatbrought them about. Therefore it's not inthe people's consciousness."Victor De Luca, president of the JesseSmith Noyes Foundation, which gives 75percent of its annual largess to organizers, adds: "If you haven't done it or beena part of it, it's hard to understand theways in which it changes life on a grassroots level and a long-term basis."Most spokespersons for major foundations contacted by City Limits were notforthcoming with reasons for not supporting community organizers. GeorgeSoule of the Rockefeller Foundation wasuncommonly direct. "We don't reallyfund community organizers," Soule sayssimply. ''We like to fund things that canbe backed with facts and evidence thatchange has happened. You want to seewhat the results are."But what's so difficult to understand?The report points out that communityorganizing has led to billions of dollars inpublic and private sector investments incommunities that wouldn't have gottenthe funds otherwise. Organizers havealso improved city services, removedincompetent school district superintendents, won back-wage payments, cleanedup toxic waste dumps and rehabbed

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housing, among other accomplishments ."By filing lawsuits, you can get thingsdone in the short term," explains NadiaMarin-Molina, executive director of theWorkplace Project, a Long Island-basedagency that defends the labor rights ofSpanish-speaking immigrants. "But community organizing changes things in theshort term and empowers people to continue on after they leave your office ."Marin-Molina enjoys support from various foundations , but she tailors her proposals for certain donors . For example,when seeking grants for Workplace's landscaping and housecleaning worker cooperatives' she refers to the projects as "economic development"-not communityorganizing . "We talk about our work in away that's palatable to them , because weknow they prefer service provision or education," she says. "It's a waste of time totry to change their way of thinking ."Organizations interviewed for thereport complained that grants were toosmall considering the time it takes to cultivate relationships with foundation s. "It 'sthe smaller foundations that support community organizing ," says Mary Dailey,executive director of the Northwest BronxCommunity and Clergy Coalition. "Thelarger foundations tend to go with whatthey are familiar with-direct social service provision. Even when they claim toventure out of that arena, they want to feelsafe and fund community building initiatives on the part of those same social service organizations ."

KimKlein,co-publisherof the bimonthlyGrassroots Fundraising Journal and authorof the book Fundraising for Social Change,believes activists will always get boxed outof this economy. 'There are about 42,000foundations, and between 400 and 500 identify themselves as progressive," she said."About 5 percent of them give away 90 percent of the money, and about 70 percent giveaway $60,000 or less per year.The disparityis similar to the wage and wealth gap, andthe progressive agencies are left out."Klein 's theory is that community organizing is too threatening for people withpower and money. 'The big foundationscome from excess wealth," she notes .'They were set up to protect the interest ofthe founders . The idea that they are goingto address the unfair distribution of wealthis ludicrous ."Others argue that the foundations havenobler intentions but are hobbled by a cul-

ture of timidity. "Foundations are afraid ofbeing criticized through the media ," saysPablo Eisenberg, a senior fellow atGeorgetown University and former executive director of the Center for CommunityChange in Washington , D.C. "If community organizers picket the house of a rich andpowerful person , it could get out that theygot funding from X foundation . X foundation doesn 't want that."

Local TackOne reason foundations shy away from

NewYork is thatsocial problems in the cityare perceived as too big, confusing andintractable. Earlier this year, acoalition oflocal grantmakers made a bid to improveNewYork City's profiIa, going after asmallpot of Ford Foundation cash earmarked forsmaller foundations to re-grant- to localorganizing groups. Working together, theygot input and suggestions from about 30New York CIty organizing groups, andhammered out a proposal that theythought Ford would like.

No dice--fIe foundation turned themdcrM!. "We were somawhatsurprisad: saysMarlene ProviDr, execulive director of theJewish Ftmd for Justice, one of the co8abo-rating funders. "We 1hought we had raasonto be optinistic. It wasn't ahuge amount ofmoney. butwe Ihoughtwere in good positionto do some good thingsMIl it"

Provizer and her collaboratorsincluding the Jesse Smith Noyes Founda-tion, the New York Foundation and NorthStar-have been working to get biggerfoundations more involved in New YorkCity, both by lobbying friends at otherorganizations, and by issuing reports likethe one from the Nationel Center forSchools and Communities.

They also haven't given up hope withFord. "There ara some folks within Fordwho sat thIs as a first and not as a aststep," she says. "We're hoping they'll gen-erate more funds for it, and be able to domore. It's not quita aU ovar and done with.-

-Klthlsen McGowan

BUt without funders , communityorganizing wouldn 't even exist. The24 groups in NCSC's study had acombined operating budget of $7.4 millionper year in 1997, of which $4.6 million (63percent) came from foundations. Fiveagencies got all their funding from founda-

tions , while 14 got 80 percent or more.Covington laments the fact that only 37percent of foundation donations to community organizing came in the form ofgeneral operating grants. "Small agenciesreally need core support so they can buildtheir operations," she points out. "Manyinterviewees said they would like moregeneral operating funds so they could dothings like hire a development director.These groups need an initial increase infoundation support in order to diversifytheir funding sources."The report concludes with a few recommendations. The first, not surprisingly, isfor foundations to give more. That could bedone by awarding multi-year grants or byincreasing grant sizes . Doubling support to3percent of overall gifts would be adrop inthe bucket for foundations, but it wouldflood community organizers with money.Another suggestion is that foundation suse their influence to tell the rest of thephilanthropic world about the effectiveness of community organizing . This couldbe accomplished by including communityorganizers in networks , research and casestudies .Another suggestion is that foundations help community organizers build visibility at city and state levels by facilitatingcoalition building , networking and strategy development.Barbara Bryan, president of the NewYork Regional Association of Grantmakers, a 245-member group that strives tomake philanthropy more effective, agrees."Foundations are beginning to understandthat it isn 't just money that they can give,"she says. 'They have connections, experience, knowledge and the ability to validatean action. Those kinds of things will payoff more for community organizinggroups, especially those that are isolatedfrom other service providers ."

It remains to be seen whether thisNCSC report will have an effect on philanthropy, but it might be a sign that theship's come in. "The report in itself is agood sign ," says Betty Kapetanakis, executive director of the North Star Fund."Within the last five years there 's beenmore of an interest in community organizing, and this report is an acknowledgement of its importance." Rob McKay is an editor/reporter for theTimes Newsweekly of Queens and a former community organizer. For copies ofthe NCSC report, call 212-636-6558.

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Running on AdvocacyActivists will be campaigning for themselves next Election Day-and they have Rudy to thank.By Jill GrossmanTp Legal Aid attorney Steve Bankswas flush with victory after another successful battle with City Hallwhen he made up his mind to runfor City Council. It was the winter of 1999and Rudy Giuliani, in a stunning turnabout, had agreed he would not evict fivecommunity programs from a Brooklynbuilding and replace them with a homelessshelter. Banks and the Legal Aid Societyhad fought the eviction and won."After that experience, peopleapproached me and asked me to run,"Banks recalls. And the lawyer,who's been a thorn in

on the ballot has given candidates the possibility of multiple nominations. Foractivists, this is a once-in-a-lifetimechance for them to get into City Hall.Their philosophies on issues and theirexperiences navigating government andbuilding coalitions make them feel certain that they can rewrite legislation andchange budget allocations. Thesechanges, they hope, will reflect the needsof the people for whom they have beenadvocating, and for constituencies theybelieve have been shortchanged for toolong. For Banks, challeng-the side of three mayors while fightingfor the rights ofthe underdog,agreed.For advocates of social

For advocateso/socialchange,

ing laws is nothingcompared with thepower of shapingthe city's finances. "Wespend more onpolice overtimethan we do onthe entire ParksDepartment bud

change likeBanks, the timeis ripe to seekelected office inthe city. The combination of term limits,

get," he said on arecent Saturday

the time is ripe toseek elected office

in the city.afternoon before heading to a campaign stop inCarroll Gardens and then on towhich has opened 35Council seats come 2001, andthe availability of matching campaignfunds has resulted in a spirited run forelected office by New York's activists.These candidates come from all walks ofactivist life, from housing and homelessadvocates and human rights and civilrights champions to proponents for moreyouth services in the city.Not since 1991, when the Councilexpanded from 35 to 51 seats, has therebeen the promise of someone other than

party apparatchiks representing NewYork's neighborhoods in the Council.Political observers point out that given thepacked field of candidates, it will be nearly impossible for party machines to controlthe council elections in 200 1. 10 the olddays, the party machine threw its formidable fundraising capabilities behind afavored candidate, leaving the insurgentscrambling for money. Now, the city'scampaign finance reforms assures theaspiring councilmember an extra four dollars for every dollar he or she raises. Andthe success of both the Working FamiliesParty and the Green Party in winning spotsNOVEMBER 2000

Queens for his son's soccer game. "That'san outrage."

The changing laws aren't the onlyopportunity that has dropped inthe lap of the new crop of wouldbe politicians. They have beenblessed with eight years of Giuliani, whoseretaliatory venom has had an effect themayor surely didn't intend: It has putmany of New York's fiercest activistssquarely in the public eye.Giuliani's will to wreak retribution onanyone who opposed his policies hasbrought New York's activists, many ofthem political neophytes, more ink than ifthey'd hired top flack Howard Rubenstein.Liz Krueger is living testament. This September, she steamrolled her opponent inthe Democratic primary and stands a fighting chance of unseating II-term State Senator Roy Goodman come November.Krueger had years of practice for thechallenge, as she fought with the mayorover the city's food stamp and welfare benefits as associate director of Community

Food Resource Center. Withthe arrival of the Giuliani administration, she says,"we had tochange strategies and ithelped honeour skills."Anothervaluable lesson: "Youhad to learn topress."Michael Ben-jamin, a housing and jobdevelopment activist with hissights on the council seat from Highbridgeand Morrisania, agrees the Giulianiadministration has helped the activistcause. 'The media thrives on conflict, andGiuliani provided that. The progressivesgot a much larger audience than they'dnormally have."Banks profited from the power of thepress when he had to run interference forCouncilmember Stephen DiBrienza, whois vacating the Brooklyn seat Banks nowhopes to occupy. DiBrienza was the chiefsponsor of a bill improving conditions inhomeless shelters-legislation the mayorsaw as an affront to his own authority. Giu-

liani retaliated by threatening to evict community programs from a city-owned building in the councilman's district and replacethem with a homeless shelter. Faced withBanks' legal ferocity and the bad press the

Top. MajoraCarter;bottom. StevenBanks


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Top: Liz Krueger;bottom. MichaelBenjamin

$ -

case was attracting, Giuliani backed down.Banks' activism over the last twodecades has included an arrest last year forprotesting the police shootingof Amadou Diallo, hischallenge of organized crime inthe courts,and his filing of somany law

s u i t sagainstthe city for"bureau cratic iner-tia and

count. At a recentfundraising house party forhis race-he's raised over $50,000 todate-former Mayor and Giuliani foe EdKoch noted that he was sued more by thispublic interest attorney than by anyone elseduring his 11 years as mayor. "And he wasoften successful," Koch said. "I admirehim."It's difficult to imagine Rudy beingmagnanimous to a former adversary. Inprevious administrations, activists hadtheir share of problems but were often ableto reach working compromises with thepeople running City Hall. These days,there's little but ill-disguised hostilitybetween the two sides.

Indeed, much of the allure of theseaspiring councilmembers is that they arepolitical outsiders, armed with theresilience that comes from years of negoti-

ating unpopular causes. These are notparty functionaries nominated to the balloton the strength of their allegiances to political bosses. In most cases, they've proventheir credentials by doing real work withlasting consequences in the communitiesthey seek to officially represent. Nowthey 've been presented an opportunity tohelp write the laws instead of fighting tochange them.Oficially, the Council is responsible for approving the citybudget, drafting legislation,overseeing and proposingchanges in the operations of the city agencies and weighing in on land use issues.But in practice, how effectively one doesthose jobs has everything to do with building strong and supportive relationshipswith constituents-something many current counciimembers don't botherdoing.Some of the recently emergingcandidates say their independencefrom the city's traditional politicalstructure-from communityboards, political clubs and theoffices of elected officials-givethem insight into how to use thesepowers more effectively. "Somebodyworking on the ground knows what'sneeded and what's worked so far," saysMajora Carter, program director at ThePoint, a comm unity development group inthe Hunts Point section of the Bronx.Carter plans to run for Pedro Espada'sCouncil seat next fall with the hope ofinfluencing the city's budgetary and landuse policies, particularly as they affectminority communities. Elected in 1998,Espada is one of the few councilmemberscitywide eligible to run for re-election nextyear.

"You've got to make a connection withpeople ," says Carter, who brought together500 neighborhood residents in March toprotest the threat of a waste transfer stationin Hunts Point. Because Espada comesfrom a political family, she says, hisapproach to working the system has been"working with it rather than working forthe people who elected him."Others, too, have dreamed of changingthe system from within. Errol Louis, acommunity development consultant fromFort Greene, is poised for a second try athis neighborhood's Council seat. As theco-founder of a Brooklyn credit union, he

remembers the late nights sifting throughloan requests from nonprofits trying tostay afloat. "Here I am writing out a loanfor a measly $23,000 for an incrediblyeffective program," Louis recalls, "and I'mlistening to people make a mess of things,people selling out their constituents."Louis' first Council run, against MaryPinkett in 1997, ended with him getting just30 percent of the vote despite a fistful ofendorsements, including one from The NewYork Times. This time, Louis doesn't have todeal with a party-backed incumbent;instead, he has a field of at least six candidates to contend with. Laments Louis, "Ireally don't care for the horse race."The more the merrier, says Charles

Activists are jumpingat the opportunityto help write lawsinstead of ightingto change them.

Barron, who is making his second bid forPriscilla Wooten's East New York seat."This is long overdue," Barron exults."Democracy has opened up at last."

Ocourse, getting elected is justthe beginning. Koch predictsthat the Council chambers will

provide ex-activists with arude awakening: "It would be nice to bringthe people who have been throwing rocksat the government to come inside the government and realize that their demandshave been too great."Steven Banks says fellow advocateshave warned him that he will not make asmuch of an impact from an elected positionas he would as a Legal Aid attorney. "Ithink that's wrong," he contends. ''Peoplelike me have to be willing to be a part ofgovernment to make it work if we're goingto make changes. And if not now, we'renever going to have this opportunity again."CITY LIMITS


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He says he's as prepared to govern as run,pointing to his success in helping create a coalitionof lower and middle class New Yorkers aroundhomelessness and mental health issues-groupswith very different interests and perspectives.Krueger, too, says her advocacy work adds upto the perfect resume. "It has been an enormousadvantage to have been an activist," Krueger says ."I've learned to work with coalitions of people,and it is not uncomfortable for me to disagreewith people or for them to disagree with me."Democratic political consultant HankSheinkopf is encouraging advocates to put theissues they stand for front and center in their cam-paigns. "With a lot of people competing, it'sessential to have one thing 10 run on," he pointsout-and expertise on an important neighborhoodissue could be a deciding factor.Joe Presley has lobbied for mv and AIDS-related programs for nearly a decade. Now thedirector of public policy for the New York AIDSCoalition, he sees his bid for Mary Pinkett's seatas an extension of that work. "I have been able toaccomplish a lot," he says, pointing to his mostrecent victory-winning an increase in state andcity funding for AIDS services after organizinglobbying trips to Albany and City Hall. "I seemyself as a coordinator, and city government islacking coalition politics."After the election, the strength of any new pro-gressive councilmembers will likely come in numbers. "You can't just have one person-they'll beeaten up, or at least ignored," emphasizes theSame Boat Coalition's Leslie Cagan, a longtimesocial activist who has worked on Democraticpolitical campaigns. The coalition, founded in1995 as a counterattack to the newly electedRepublican mayor, governor and Congress andtheir cuts to social programs, hopes to "lay a foundation" by helping elect at least a half dozen newprogressives to the Council in 2001. Ideally, theywill be politicians who will ensure financial support for social programs and stop "tremendousgiveaways to the corporations," she says.

But with many of the city's more influentialactivists queueing up for Council seats, someobservers fear a fall in the number of good watchdogs. Filling the city government with theseadvocates is as important as maintaining vocaland effective activists organizing in the communi-ty outside City Hall, Cagan points out. ''What'simportant is building stronger links betweenactivists not in the elected arena and those inelected office," she says. Politicians, even if theystart the job with best of pedigrees and intentions,need to have someone to keep them honest. Jill Grossman is managing editor of TheRiverdale Press.NOVEMBER 2000

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Cities hold thekey to fightingsuburban sprawl.Now a Harlembrain trust is askingenvironmentalists toreturn the favor-by

investing in NewYorks future .By Keith Kloor

Afirst glance, it's hard tosee how an abandonedschool in Harlem wouldbe of much interest toenvironmentalists waging waragainst the steady march of WalMarts and subdivisions acrossAmerica. Built nearly a centuryago for waves of immigrant children, P.S. 90 on 147th Street hasbeen shuttered for over 25 years,its majestic, rotting structure astriking symbol of urban decayand a neighborhood's decline.Crisply renovated tenementsand a gleaming three-year-oldpolice precinct speak to the neighborhood's striking transformationin the last decade, as communityredevelopment dollars havereplaced vacant lots with vital resources. The school looms nextto them as an ugly reminder of the not-so-distant past, when druggangs roamed the neighborhood, taking over entire buildings .The gangs didn't care that P.S. 90 was chock-full of asbestos.According to local lore, they used the school's basement to dumpdead bodies.But to Phil Thompson, a political science professor at Columbia University and an advisor to the Harlem Congregations forCommunity Improvement (HCCD, a group that has taken onmajor urban redevelopment projects in this neighborhood , theschool looks more promising. In its boarded-up windows andflooded basement, he sees the future of Harlem.

HCCl leaders and Thompson envision P.S. 90 being reconsti-

tuted as a technology center for area residents, providing an arrayof high-tech training and services for residents and businessesdesperate for skilled workers. HCCl's president, Rev. PrestonWashington, promises nothing less than "the center for the mostadvanced technological and telecommunications found in anyinner city community in the world."But to hear it from Thompson, P.S. 90 also holds one answerto some of the most vexing .problems of our age. Think gridlock.Air and water pollution. Shrinking open space. At the center of itall slouches that creeping monster known as sprawl. In the suburbs, sprawl is no longer merely a quality of life issue; in manycommunities, it has become public enemy number one. Spurredby rising public disenchantment, a loose coalition of planners ,

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politicians, and activists has coalesced to form amovement calling for "smart growth" as a strategicresponse.Smart growth encompasses everything from thepromotion of growth boundaries, which preventsuburbs from consuming pasture, to public transportation, denser development and the protectionof open space. And it's picking up momentum . Inthe last year, 37 governors mentioned sprawl intheir State of the State addresses, and Vice President AI Gore has made his "Building Livable Communities Initiative" a key issue in his campaign. In1999, state legislatures introduced about 1,000land-use reform bills; 200 of them passed. Billionsof public and private dollars have been set aside tobuy up dwindling forests and farms. And last year,30 philanthropic foundations-from the Bank ofAmerica to the Ford Foundation--came together tohelp form the Funders ' Network for Smart Growthand Livable Communities, which is looking forways to make their money more effective. In theeyes of some longtime advocates for controlleddevelopment, like Richard Moe, President of theNational Trust for Historic Preservation, "sprawl isfinally getting the attention it deserves."Upper Manhattan couldn't be more differentfrom the suburban and rural communities struggling with sprawl. Harlem residents live in highdensity high-rises and rowhouses. They mostly getaround by public transportation, and shop, by andlarge, in modest storefronts. But though it's notpart of the problem , Thompson believes Harlemmust be part of the solution.The alternative? At worst, a neighborhoodwhere condos Harlem 's current residents can ' tafford are built alongside relics like P.S. 90, untilthe toxic properties become so valuable that private developers will pay to clean them up. And atbest, in Thompson's view, sitting on the sidelinesof the smart growth craze would be a missedopportunity to bring badly needed developmentdollars to Harlem .To rebuild the area around Bradhurst Avenue,HCCl has taken advantage of every governmentprogram in the alphabet. But none of them has yethelped places like P.S. 90, which will cost at least$1 million to clean up. So like any good salesman who sees anopening, Thompson has been making his pitch to environmentally minded investors. You want to keep bulldozers from rollingover more forests and farms ?Take a look at all this dormant landwe have in Harlem. You want to keep city folks from flocking togreener pastures in search of the American Dream? Help cleanup these properties so they can be converted not just into Starbucks and multiplexes, but also into affordable homes, cleanparks and good schools.When Preston Washington ta1ks about the future of northeastHarlem now, he's looking beyond the blocks of rehabilitated housing and stores that HCCl and the network of churches it works

with have built over the last 14 years. With P.S. 90, he's focusingNOVEMBER 2000

on how the neighborhood can construct its own engine of growth.''We see technology as an enabler of economic opportunity," hesays. "What better way to address the digital divide than to builda top-notch technology center in an inner city?" He wants to transform other hulking hazards in the neighborhood-including a former film processing plant on 146th Street-into a culinary insitute, day care centers, affordable housing.What Thompson and his partners intend to supply is the wayto get there. They will be a clearinghouse for all the possiblesources of funding for cleaning up polluted land, including government programs and private grants. On top of that, they plan tocreate an investment fund to get those sites developed. By aggressively pulling together the resources to do the job, they hope toreclaim orphaned pieces of New York City and put them backinto service-as public resources that won ' t get built without ahelping hand.Te idea that contaminated land needs to be cleaned up andput to good use is not new. Neither is linking the reuse ofthese "brownfields" with curbing suburban sprawl. TheSierra Club, Trust for Public Land and other environmental groups have spent the last decade championing transportation,land use, and tax policies that encourage development to stay inareas where it already exists-and to stop it before it threatenswildlife and open space.In brownfields, they see a ready supply of land that is sittingfallow when it could instead provide choice central sites for commercial, industrial and, in some cases, housing development.''With brownfield redevelopment, there are clearly opportunitiesto take some of the pressure off of greenfields and farmland," saysDeron Lovaas of the Sierra Club's national anti-sprawl campaign.It's obvious that redeveloping brownfieJds benefits outlyingsuburbs and rural areas by helping keep them pastoral and peaceful. But Thompson and a handful of other urban policy analystshave begun to point out that green pastures are just half the picture. For smart growth to work, they say, it's also going to have tointimately involve cities and the people who already live there.New York certainly has no lack of brownfields. According tothe Public Advocate's office, the city has more than 3,000 acresand over 6,000 individual properties sitting dirty and fallow-areasthat if cleaned could provide jobs, housing, and room in a citybursting at the seams. By not advocating for brownfields redevelopment, New York City and State also forgo millions in federaldollars that could help revitalize these areas. And New York's lackof a state law funding cleanup or protecting redevelopers of brownfields from liability has made it difficult for private players to dothe job [see sidebar, "Brownfields Brownout"]'Yet as Thompson sees it, brownfields are the only real bargaining chips cities like New York hold-and the time to playthem is now. "If we don't move forward on this, we 'll see a citythat becomes even more economically and racially polarized,"he contends . "I think the opportunity in Harlem is one where wecan actually have development and economic and racial integration without losing the fabric of the neighborhood . But unlesswe can make this happen, what we'll see instead is a rich, whiteManhattan ."To realize that vision of a Harlem rebuilt for Harlem, Thompson has brought together HCCI, the Boston-based C o n s e r v a t i ~ n Law Foundation (CLF), and Oakland's Policy Link, a social advo-


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to Grow OnNew York is the biggest, baddest city around. Andit may not look that way at rush hour on Canalit's in some ways the most environmentally friendlyAfter all, most of us don't drive. And we tend to live

apartments, consuming less oil, gas and electhan typical house-dwellers. But who says we know

to stay on top? When it comes to planning for a future,U.S. cities have been taking the /ead-and through aresistance to change, New Yolk risks being crushedits own huge weight. So listen up! These innovations

ideas that are working for other cities might even beenough for New York.

Brownfields Brownoutrwrt. the nMtaIIzatIon I i former IndusbtaI land can

entire neighborhoods. In Stamford, Connecticut, anplant ex..fuel depot and ex-manufacturing complex will

wWf for housing, offices, retail, asports arena, a ire staand a ferry terminal. East Palo Alto, California, which has

out on the Silicon Valley boom, has been restoring aindustrial area to supply space for the tech industry

employ nearly 4,000 workers. And among Chicago's manyefforts is the removal of illegally dumped garbage

asite known as Kildare Mountain. All of these were madepublic and private investment

York has seen some cleanups under a tUIuntary state proBut pIanneIs, erNironmentalisls, dew!Iopers and political lead

that most 01 New York aty's estimated 6,lXXl brcMnfieIds,01 them in poor \WI re.e- be cIeiIra! up v.flh.state law that strong incentNes b' builders to choose

and dean them up. Without established cleanup stanor a aw protecting property buyers from lawsuits, "develand lending institutions are scared off by liability andSWfS Val Washington, head of the Albany lobbying group

Advocates. And she points out that New York paysprice by waiting: "A developer who doesn't want to take

his shoYeI out to the farmland."environmentalists don't agree on is how to do it Big

like the Sierra Club and the Natural ResourcesCouncil have sided with Assembly environmental

Richard Brodsky, who insists on identicalstandards for every project But a bill sponsored by

Coalition, an assemblage of nearly a hundredjustice and community development groups

their funders, insists that such exacting standards willprevent brownfields redevelopment on a large

because the costs will be too high.they are urging cleanup standards tailored to the

use of each project "The one-size-fiIHIl characteriis a misnomer; insists Mathy Stanislaus, an environconsultant and coalition member. "Both the federal

and states have cleanup standards that based onthe ultimate use is of the property.

other state in the Northeast now has a brownfieldsSWfS Stanislaus. And with New York's Superfund cleanup

year, Albany legislators know they'll have toby next spring to clean up the state's acta sense of urgency now," SWfS Stanislaus. "I think the

of passage are very strong."

cacy group, to explore potential redevelopmentprojects and create a fund for cleaning up anddeveloping brownfields like P.S. 90.The group sees the project as an evolvingexperiment, in which each project will be a testing ground for using the fund's dollars more andmore effectively. Brownfields cleanup is a notoriously difficult process. The technical demandsof making sure a former industrial site is safe arejust half the battle. Most cleanups also demandintricate legal maneuvering, to protect developers and investors from liability should cleanupcosts spiral out of control, or a future tenantdecide that the history of their

say in how it's eventually used and will requirethat projects benefit the community. To developthe site, investors can tap into a host of otherresources out there for neighborhood development, such as the affordable housing tax. credit.And profits , while likely to be small, are definitely part of the plan. "Return on a project likethis will be blended," says Thompson. "Youmight attract funds from the government to dobrownfields remediation, and then private dollars for development."

By pooling cash specifically for brownfieldscleanup, the Conservation Law Foundation willbe the first-ever syndicator, asbuilding sounds like a goodexcuse to sue. (Legal action isfair game, however, if a developer has genuinely failed toproperly clean a site.) CLFwill help HCCI navigatearound the red tape. "We figure out where the deal-breakers are," says Jim Hamilton ,director of CLF 's BrownfieldsInitiative. "And then we figure out how to overcome theobstacles."

"Theprojects haveto becommunity-controlled.

far as anyone can tell, of fundsdesignated to clean up pollutedland in urban areas. In that role,it will function much like theLocal Initiatives Support Corporation and other organizationsthat pull together communitydevelopment funding and channel it into carefully selected revitalization projects. And likeLISC, the HCCI-CLF collaboration intends to make seriousdemands on the developers theywork with, helping them obtainresources on the condition thatprojects bring badly needed benefits to a low-income neighborhood. ''The key is that the projects have to be community-controlled," says Hamilton. "Thelast thing we want is to fund adeveloper across the country tocome in and plunder these properties."

Aconsummate matchmaker, Thompson has been soliciting interest from groups thatput money into sociallyresponsible projects , fromunion pension funds to religious institutions and foundations; the Ford Foundation hasalready committed to supporting the brownfields fund, andthe AFL-CIO is considering it.These players won't just becontributing money to makebrownfields green-they areliterally investors, who hopeto end up making a return onthe deal_

The lastthing wewant is tofund adeveloper tocome in andplundertheseproperties."

CLF's president, Doug Foy,likes to think of brownfieldsredelopment as a potentiallylucrative variation on the program-related investments thatWith HCCI as its local developer in Harlem,the Conservation Law Foundation will serve as aconsultant and financial intermediary. As a firststep, it will identify sources of funding forcleanup, including tax credits, EnvironmentalProtection Agency grants and foundation grants.

If New York State finally gets its long-awaitedbrownfields law, it will likely also have stategrants and tax. credits to draw on. When the funding is in place, HCCI will hire environmentalengineers and do whatever it takes to clean a siteup. Once a property is certified clean, it becomeslike any other piece of potential-filled realestate--except that the partnership will have a

foundations often make to helporganizations grow. Many foundations givecharitable donations to environmental groups;why shouldn't they get something in return fortheir money? By bankrolling community development organizations that are committed tobrownfields redevelopment, investors can fightsprawl and make a profit at the same time, Foybelieves. "You can blend hard-boiled Wall Streetmoney with socially conscious investment," saysFoy. "I see the potential for some real magichere."New York's lack of a state brownfields law,however, poses aparticularly tough challenge fora scheme like this, because investors need toknow they're safe from legal action and other

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attract new new money or players the table." Thompson hopes thatthe liability issue can be dealt with project by project, by purchasing private insurance if necessary.Paradoxically, it's New York's lack of any state mechanism forcleaning up brownfields that created a vast opening for a privateinitiative like this one in the first place. Eddie Bautista of NewYork Lawyers for the Public Interest believes that the impasse inAJbany over creating a New York State brownfields law may inadvertently lead to more creative and strategic partnerships likeThompson's. "Nobody's waiting for brownfields legislation," hesays. "We can't afford to."

Jhillip Thompson's passion for complex ventures driven by ideas makes sense when youlook at his resume. He is a accomplished policy wonk, befitting his position this year as Vis

iting Fellow in Urban Studies at the MassachusettsInstitute ofTechnology. But underneath the brainy academic lies a savvy behind-the-scenes tactician who isno stranger to the problems of inner cities or the corridors of power: He served during the Dinkins administration as deputy general manager of the New YorkCity Housing Authority. And perhaps most importantly, he sees the big picture out on the American landscape. "I f we don't figure out how to make cities moreappealing and livable, as well as more dense, then thealternative, with increasing population growth, issprawl," he says. "We grow .out or grow up."But it wasn ' t until just over a year ago that he couldsee a way to bring city and suburb together in commoncause. First, Preston Washington invited him to joinHCCl's board of directors.HCCl's fruitless attempts to move the city Department of Housing Preservation and Development to dosomething with P.S. 90 had frustrated Washington for adecade. The school sits in the middle of Harlem's revitalized 4O-square-block Bradhurst section, which is nowin the second phase of a $200 million redevelopmentprogram overseen by HCCL Despite its decrepit stateand prohibitive cleanup cost, the city did nothing out ofthe ordinary to try to revive it. Observes Thompson,'The school had not been viewed historically as abrownfield ." In fact, the city intended to demolish it andtum the space into a parking lot for the precinct next door.Unlike HPD, HCCI was ready to look beyond traditionalways of doing business-in part because its own once-amplefunding from the city has dropped steadily during the Giulianiadministration. Instead of relying primarily on government andfoundation grants for the housing redevelopment and its deliveryof social services for people with HIV/AIDS, the group wantedto tap into alternative ideas and sources of funding for community development. "I think they saw that they needed to crossbridges and reach out to make new connections," says Thompson .''They are beginning to realize, along with everyone else, thatrelying on government funding alone is no longer the ticket."HCCI has certainly been more willing than some communitydevelopment corporations to enter partnerships with private companies. Through HUD, it has struck up an alliance with the tech-NOVEMBER 2000

nology giant Cisco Systems, which is wiring all of HCCl's buildings, providing computer hardware and setting up a technologytraining facility to be run in conjunction with local colleges.At around the same time HCCI was making its overtures, oneof Thompson 's graduate classes at Columbia was entering a jointproject with the Conservation Law Foundation. CLF has becomevirtually synonymous with the salvation of brownfields, havingplayed an instrumental role in winning an $8 billion cleanup ofBoston Harbor. To combat sprawl and protect the environment,CLF advocates that new development be channeled to existingurban areas. Three years ago, with just this goal in mind, thegroup kicked off its Brownfields Initiative. That program now hashalf a dozen redevelopment projects underway in New England,

including the conversion of an old industrial laundry into affordable housing.Previously, the group had depended on grants from the Environmental Protection Agency and private developers . WithThompson's class, CLF wanted to survey the field and see if herewas a market for brownfields acquisition that also existed amongsocially responsible investors. "By looking at more fundingsources, we were looking to increase the size of the pie:' saysCLF's Jim Hamilton.During the course of the project, students interviewed nearly60 potential investors--everyone from pension fund managers tofoundations-and found they were enthusiastic about the the initiative. The AFL-CIO was one of them . "We think this is anexcellent use of pension funds that want to achieve both a finan

cial and social return," says Brandon Reese, a researcher in

Rev. PrestonWashingtonhopesbrownfieldswill helpsave Harlemirom arunawayreal-estatemarket.


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Tearing Down the Road

cities are dlscovertng that hIghways are a go.business. Take Milwaukee. The Park East Freeway

through the northern part of downtowrHlntil next sum-that is, when it is scheduled to be demolished. Tearingthe Park East will open up about 18 acres in land

downtown Milwaukee and allow construction of anew apartments, as well as a new riverfront park.

haifillile-iong strip of freeway is apiece of a plannedsystem of highways encircling Milwau-

The spur sees heavy traffic, but planners saw no reasoneight-block stretch couldn't be replaced with awide,

isn't the only city replacing concrete withAfter the Embarcadero Freeway collapsed

1994 San Francisco earthquake, the city optedit. As far back as 1974, Portland was tearingto create waterfront parks. And Toronto, Prov-

and Akron are now pursuing similar plans.whose real estate isn't so valuable

in the shadow of obsolete highways. In the Southcommunity groups have been urging the state Depart-Transporation to tear down the Sheridan Expressway.along the Bronx River for a little over a mile, and

the Cross Bronx and Bruckner expressways, thewas part of Robert Moses' unrealized dream for a

linking New York to Connecticut. About 32,000 v e h ~ travel it each day, most of them trucks headed to and

Hunts Point markets, but planners argue that theget by without it.the state proposed $420 million in renovations for

the Sheridan's exit ramps, the Point Community O e v e ~ Corporation, Youth Ministries for Peace and Justice

.groups proposed an "un-build option. In an areathere is only one acre of parks per 1,000 residents

and federal standards call for between four and sixgroups have urged DOT to tear out the expressway,

it with a boulevard and parkland, and expand publicto the Bronx River. The Bronx groups and their allies

City Council have succeeded in getting the DOT to con-demolition as an option as the state conducts an envi-

impact study for the reconstruction project.-Mlctael Hstterfy

AFL-CIO's Office of Investment. "Our philosophical underpinning is a long-term vision.Workers' pension funds are uniquely suitedwithin the capital community to take a longterm and high-road approach to investing insuch projects as brownfields," says Breese.Instead of looking for a quick return, Breesesays, it makes better sense to help tum communties around, which has far greater benefitsfor union members in the long run. "We want toinvest in something that benefits the worker'sentire career."The students' report was encouraging. "Itopened my eyes," recalls Thompson. And it convinced him that the right kind of coalition couldconceive a new model of

conversion of those properties into new.housingand stores, those resources are often out of reachfor longtime residents.Groups elsewhere in the country are alsotrying to spread awareness that smart growthhas to mean more than saving open space forsuburbanites , or creating new hip urban neighborhoods for Wall Street brokers and dot-comrevolutionaries. "Smart growth policies have tomake sure the benefits are spread out and notfocused on upper-income residents," saysJudith Bell , Vice-President of PolicyLink."Otherwise, you wind up with a dynamic thatpushes poor people to the fringe." PolicyLink isworking around the country with communitygroups like HCCI, helping toincorporate equity into urbanrownfields redevelopment

one that made sure inner citiesgot their fair share of the dividends and provided decentfinancial returns to investors.TJ...e A =l.-C10 development initiatives likeI II rJ brownfields reclamation. Poli

It wasn't long beforeThompson brought HCCI andCLF together to explore a collaboration on brownfieldsreclamation projects inHarlem. In them he sawforces that would put brownfields to use for the community. HCCI has a stake inHarlem, unlike private developers who are interested onlyin getting the highest marketvalue. And CLF is the rarenonprofit organization thathas the technical, legal, andeconomic expertise to actually clean brownfields up.

wants tohelp revivebrownfields.cyLink advises that such initiatives shore up neighborhoods' resources by increasingthe stock of affordable housing, creating land trusts anddeveloping tax revenue-sharing initiatives.Instead oflooking for aquick return,

it hopes tohelp turn

Indeed, one of the reasonsthe AFL-CIO is interested ininvesting is because its members are increasingly beingpushed from their homes andneighborhoods by gentrification. But while intiatives likethe Harlem project have greatpotential to reclaim space inhot neighborhoods, it's thepoorest, most marginalizedurban areas that Thompsonbelieves stand to have the mostto gain from the redevelopment of brownfields-and themost to give back to the smartgrowth cause. "I think that

omp son is skittishabout revealing othertargeted sites forredevelopmentbesides the school. "If I start

.members'neighborhoodsaround.identifying these other brown-field sites," he warns, "then speculators aregoing to buy this land before we get it. Thatcould kill us." He has reason to be nervous:Where opportunistic developers see thatrenewal is under way, they go cherry-picking,sitting on cheap properties until they can resellthem at substantial profit."A lot of vacant lots already exist in the city,and some people are just sitting on them, waiting for the value to rise," concurs Omar Freilla,transportation coordinator for the New York CityEnvironmental Justice Alliance. This practiceslows redevelopment in neighborhoods that needit the most. And when market forces do push the

dealing with the hard issues inthe hardest neighborhoods isthe real key to fighting sprawl," says Thompson. "You have to deal with crime, and education, and ugliness, because that's why peopleleave cities."In other words, you curb sprawl by makingcities more livable-economically, environmentally, and aesthetically. The ConservationLaw Foundation's Jim Hamilton has his ownway of posing the same challenge. "Fixingurban sprawl," he says, "requires fixing wherepeople live."Keith Kloor is an associate editor of Audubonmagazine.

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Waterfront neighborhoods are sick of being dumpinggrounds for dirty industries. But efforts to protect peoplefrom polluters are starting to lock out good neighbors, too:the businesses that make the city run. By Jonathan Bowles

Brbara Vetell wasn't expecting garden parties when she andher husband moved to Greenpoint, Brooklyn, 30 years ago .Their new bouse may bave been a few blocks from the heartof aquaint residential neighborhood and as close to the East

River waterfront as you can get in Greenpoint, with great views ofthe Manhattan skyline. But it was also across the street from a largeGallo Wille distribution center and down the block from severalsmall factories and two radio transmission towers. A steady streamof truck traffic, the buzz of manufacturing and an occasionalunpleasant odor were all part of living in the heart of Greenpoint'sworking waterfront. "We are in a mixed-use neighborhood," saysVetell. 'That 's something that comes with the territory."But in recent years, Vetell and other Greenpoint residents bavecome to view the industrial businesses that operate on their EastRiver waterfront-and the industrial zoning that permits thosebusinesses to be there-as a major threat to their quality of life. Tothem, the M-3 zone that stretches along the river, which designates land for heavy industry, doesn ' t just bring sewing shops andcabinetmakers as neighbors. They could just as easily be stuckNOVEMBER 2000

with waste transfer stations and power plants .Just look at Greenpoint's other waterfront, along the NewtownCreek. Also zoned M-3 , this part of Greenpoint is a wasteland. It'shome to 17 waste facilities, the largest sewage treatment plant inthe state, a dozen toxic chemical companies, several gas storagefacilities, a sanitation depot, an abandoned incinerator and anever-present stench that makes one long for the olfactory pleasures of the New Jersey Turnpike.. This April, residents' mistrust of industry reached a new low.The community discovered that Con Edison and KeySpan Energywere planning to build an electric power plant on an abandonedfactory site along the East River, a block away from Vetell 's houseand only a few minutes walk from the center of Greenpoint's historic residential district.

"In Greenpoint, our houses are mixed in with the industry.We're right next to welding companies and feather factories. Noone's upset about that," says Vetell, who is a freelance producer oftelevision documentaries. "We just don 't want any more of the junkthat's in the air from power plants and waste treatment facilities."

Power planor park?Desperate tprotect itswaterfront,Greenpointvotes to kicindustry ou


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Fishing for Answers

I man I lsi! taR, aad he wII bec:oIM emIroI.....at least, is the new s t r a t ~ at Chicago's Interre

Sustainability Project. This year, the organization willup tiny tilapia farms in a handful

Documents

City Limits Magazine, November 2000 Issue