Final two holdouts in eminent domain case reach agreement

Date: Fri, 30 Jun 2006 23:39:10 -0400
To:
From: "Tenant"
Subject: Fort Trumbull falls to enemy forces

Newsday

Final two holdouts in eminent domain case reach agreement
By SUSAN HAIGH
Associated Press Writer
June 30, 2006, 4:46 PM EDT

HARTFORD, Conn. -- The last two holdouts in New London's Fort
Trumbull neighborhood agreed Friday to give up their land to make way
for private development, ending an eight-year battle that went all
the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. Suzette Kelo, the lead plaintiff
in the case, agreed to have her pink cottage moved elsewhere in New
London.

"Even though she lost her land, the little pink home that launched a
national revolution is safe, and it's going to stand as a testament
to her heroic struggle and the struggle against eminent domain abuse
throughout the country," said Scott Bullock, a spokesman for the
Institute for Justice, which represented the homeowners.

Pasquale Cristofaro, the other holdout, has agreed to give up his
home but is entitled to purchase a new one in the neighborhood at a
fixed price if new homes are built. He also has the option to build
on the Fort Trumbull peninsula, as long as whatever he builds
complies with a plan of development.

"I'm relieved, but it's a sad day because the city doesn't want us
there," said Michael Cristofaro, Pasquale's son. "I'm going to have
to see that house be torn down and you can bet I'll be there when
they tear that house down. I'm not going to let them get away with
thinking that day is just going to come and go."

The amount of money involved in the settlements was not released.
Cristofaro said his family won some concessions in the final
negotiations that mean a lot to them personally. The city must erect
a plaque on the planned Fort Trumbull riverwalk honoring Cristofaro's
mother, Margherita, who died in 2003. The city and its development
arm must also transplant rhododendron bushes and arborvitae from
Cristofaro's property. He does not expect the house to be torn down
until after October, when the plants can be moved safely.

Cristofaro credited Gov. M. Jodi Rell and a representative from the
state Department of Economic and Community Development with getting
involved in the final negotiations, treating the homeowners with
compassion and understanding that small concessions were important.

"That's what the city didn't understand," he said. "People have
personal attachments to their property and money is not always what
people want. These were concessions that the city didn't even bother
to try to make. They just wanted you out."

The Cristofaros and Kelo had faced the possibility of forced eviction
from their homes to make way for a riverfront project slated to
include condominiums, a hotel and office space.

But last week, Rell announced a tentative agreement between the
city's development arm, the New London Development Corp., and the
homeowners.

Rell, in a written statement, said Friday that she was pleased the
final agreements have been signed. She thanked Kelo and the
Cristofaro for their willingness to "negotiate and responsibly settle
this very difficult and painful issue."

"Now these families can have some closure and the Fort Trumbull
economic development project will go forward without delay, infusing
new jobs and vitality into the region," she said.

The five other property owners in the case had already settled with
the city and handed over their properties. The New London Development
Corp. first condemned the properties in 2000, and the U.S. Supreme
Court ruled 5-4 on June 23, 2005, that New London had the right to
them.

The court also said states were free to change their eminent domain
laws. Legislatures in 20 states have since passed some form of
legislation limiting eminent domain. The Democrat-controlled
Connecticut General Assembly was not one of them, despite pleas from
Republicans to prevent eminent domain seizures for projects such as
shopping malls or condominiums that benefit private developers.

Rell said Friday that Connecticut should work to limit eminent domain
when the next legislative session opens in January.

Cristofaro said he is not giving up on the issue.

"It's a happy and sad day. I'm now able to get my life back, but the
thing is, I will never stop fighting for people's property rights
across this nation," he said. "There's a lot of good things coming
out because of our fight here in New London. People are uprising
across the nation."

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http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/connecticut/ny-bc-ct-xgr--newlaws0630jun30,0,2612399.story?coll=ny-region-apconnecticut

Newsday

New property rights ombudsman, other laws taking effect
By SUSAN HAIGH
Associated Press Writer
June 30, 2006, 7:58 PM EDT

HARTFORD, Conn. -- The day after the last two holdouts in New London's eminent domain case settled their challenges, a new state law creating a property rights ombudsman takes effect on Saturday.

It's one of several new laws that kick in on July 1.

The new ombudsman law does not reform the eminent domain property-taking process, which many Republicans in the Democratic-controlled legislature hoped for this year. Rather, it compromises by setting up an office to help property owners navigate eminent domain proceedings, mediate disputes and recommend changes in Connecticut's eminent domain laws.

"I think if the ombudsman was in place when this process started eight years ago, we would have avoided all of this because the city's early bullying would have been brought to a halt," said House Minority Leader Robert Ward, R-North Branford, an advocate for eminent domain reform.

Ward said he's optimistic that Gov. M. Jodi Rell's appointee for the ombudsman job will be in place by January. Ward said he'd like the person to be an attorney who is committed to property rights and has experience with eminent domain issues.

On Friday, the two remaining homeowners in New London's Fort Trumbull neighborhood agreed to end an eight-year battle to save their property from being razed for private development _ a fight that went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. Susette Kelo, the lead plaintiff in the case, agreed to have her pink cottage moved elsewhere in New London.

Pasquale Cristofaro, the other holdout, agreed to give up his home but is entitled to purchase a new one in the neighborhood at a fixed price if new homes are built. Rell, who helped to broker the settlement, said she's committed to changing the state's eminent domain laws next year if she wins the November gubernatorial election.

"We must now focus our efforts on joining with the other 25 states in the nation that have passed eminent domain reform legislation to protect our citizens from expanded, unnecessary property seizure," said Rell, a Republican. Some Democrats have hesitated to change state laws on eminent domain, arguing that the issue is complicated and that they don't want to hurt municipal redevelopment efforts.

Ward said he believes Friday's settlements in New London might help garner more support for eminent domain reform next year, when the legislature convenes in January. "In some ways, for some legislators, it will be easier for them to move forward," he said. "It won't be viewed as them picking on New London."

Among the other laws that take effect Saturday: a plan to establish a new corporation tax credit for qualified Connecticut film and digital media production, pre-production and post-production expenses over $50,000. It is part of an effort to encourage growth of the film industry in the state.

Although school is out for the summer, a new law banning Connecticut's public schools from selling soda and other sugary drinks takes effect.

Saturday also marks the start of a law that allows state taxpayers to deduct contributions to the Connecticut Higher Education Trust, the state-sponsored college savings plan. It allows a $10,000 annual deduction for joint filers, and $5,000 for single filers for the current tax year and beyond.

A new law against trafficking humans also takes effect Saturday, applying to people who coerce others into prostitution or work. They could face up to 20 years in prison, a fine up to $15,000 or both.

Also, the second phase of a statewide transportation bonding initiative kicks off on Saturday. The $2.3 billion package includes numerous projects, such as restoring commuter rail service between New Haven, Hartford and Springfield, Mass.; and improving rail stations and parking areas along the Metro-North and Shore Line East commuter lines.

Chelsea seminary drops 4 stories off its tower plan

The Villager
Volume 76, Number 6 June 28 - July 4 2006

Chelsea seminary drops 4 stories off its tower plan
By Albert Amateau

General Theological Seminary last week scaled back its plans to build a 17-story tower on the Ninth Ave. side of its Chelsea campus.

The new plan to build a 13-story building to replace the four-story Sherrill Hall has won only a few converts from the neighbors who opposed the first proposal.

The Seminary’s land-use lawyer, Stephen Lefkowitz, sent a letter on June 19 to Robert Tierney, Landmarks Preservation Commission chairperson, saying the Seminary intends to amend the application it had filed at the end of last year.

“As a result of many discussions with members of the Chelsea community and elected officials, the Seminary has decided not to pursue the application in its present form,” the letter says. “Instead, the Seminary is reviewing its needs and plans … and expects to amend the application.

The current thinking, following discussions with the community, is to reduce the size of the building on Ninth Ave. by transferring certain program space to a new building to be constructed on 20th St. between Ninth and 10th Aves. on the site of the Seminary’s tennis court,” the letter said. The courts are in the middle of the campus and a small building there has not drawn opposition.

Chris Ballard, a Seminary staff member involved in community outreach, said the move to amend the L.P.C. application would require less time and trouble than withdrawing it and filing an entirely new application.

In response to neighborhood opposition to the 17-story mixed residential and academic uses project, the Seminary on June 15 presented an alternate scenario for a 13-story building with residential condos on the Ninth Ave. end of the campus and a three-story building with 35,000 sq. ft. for the academic uses on the tennis court within the walled campus on the 20th St. side between Ninth and 10th Aves.

While a few neighbors at the June 15 meeting were willing to consider the alternative, most of them were not receptive.

“The community doesn’t want anything taller than the 75 feet allowed by the zoning,” said Robert S. Trentlyon, a founder of Save the Chelsea Historic District, a group organized in response to the project.
“Many of the people into neighborhood preservation are trying to preserve the Seminary right out of existence by being so inflexible,” Ballard said later.

Founded in 1819 on land donated by Clement Clark Moore, a Seminary professor of oriental languages and author of the verse that begins, “Twas the night before Christmas,” the first building was completed in 1827.

G.T.S., the oldest Episcopal seminary in the U.S., needs a Landmarks Commission Certificate of Appropriateness for the project because the campus, known as the Close, between Ninth and 10th Aves. from 20th to 21st Sts., is within the Chelsea Historic District. The zoning of the Close mandates a height limit of 75 ft., about seven stories.

The Ninth Ave. project, a partnership of the Seminary with the Brodsky Organization, originally called for the 17-story mixed-use complex with 82 residential condos and space for the Seminary’s administrative offices, the dean’s residence and the G.T.S. library. The site is the current location of the four-story Sherrill Hall, which is in bad condition despite having been built in 1959.

The proposed luxury residential condos are intended to generate $15 million that the Seminary needs to restore and maintain its 19th century buildings, which are badly deteriorated because maintenance has long been deferred. The Seminary’s agreement with the Brodsky Organization guaranteed that G.T.S. would receive the $15 million in return for Brodsky’s control of the residential and commercial income from the project.

At the June 15 meeting, Trentlyon said he consulted several real estate developers, who assured him the Seminary could realize the $15 million it needs by building its own replacement of Sherrill Hall with high-rent ground floor retail space on Ninth Ave.

However, Maureen Burnley, G.T.S. vice president for finance and operations, replied that the Seminary did not want to create “a commercial mall” on any part of the Close. She also said that if the Seminary developed its own non-academic profit-oriented uses, it would have to pay considerable real estate and income taxes from which it is now exempt as a religious and educational institution.
Reader Services

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S.L.A.’s Daniel walks into Soho lions’ den

Date: Fri, 30 Jun 2006 11:51:05 -0400
To:
From: "Tenant"
Subject: SLA Dog & Pony Show in Soho

NB- This is an interesting development, but also says
this is not the time to let up on any pressure.
While there seems to be an inkling of response to
complaints in Soho and the Village, I don't think
it's translated to the rest of the city.

The June 26 summit as detailed below must have
been limited to downtown or Soho residents. The
rest of us were not notified or invited.

For Boyle to claim the SLA has a new policy in
that it is holding 500 foot hearings, is
disingenuous. They have always been held whenever
someone appears for one. The problem is that the
SLA then rubber-stamped applications, or in the
rare case where one was rejected, they were
almost always granted on follow-up applications
even if the basis for complaints or rejection still existed.
How many times have we seen the SLA grant a
license because the community is deprived of
Italian cuisine and therefore the granting of a
license would be in the public interest?

In areas north of 14th Street, Tom Duane (the
only one who attended who represents areas north
of 14th) has been completely asleep on any SLA issue.
The May 5th hearing, like others before it, may
be relegated to energy wasted on domestic
consumption. You know Silver isn't serious on an
issue when it's a one-house bill. -Tenant

-------------------------------------------
The Villager
Volume 76, Number 6 June 28 - July 4 2006

S.L.A.’s Daniel walks into Soho lions’ den
By Albert Amateau

The State Liquor Authority chairperson came to a
public forum Downtown on Monday and promised a
new era in which the agency would be tougher on
applications in neighborhoods where bars and
clubs are shattering the late night peace.

Daniel Boyle, a former Upstate police chief,
picked Soho for his first large community meeting
since Governor Pataki appointed him chairperson
of the S.L.A. in January, although he had met
with in smaller groups across the state. It was
the first time in recent memory that an S.L.A.
chairperson met with community members in the
city to talk about problem bars.

Boyle introduced the newest S.L.A. member, Noreen
Healey, a Brooklyn Heights resident and the first
member from the city in more than a decade. She
recently served as principal State Supreme Court
attorney in Brooklyn and has 13 years experience
as an assistant district attorney in Queens,
Brooklyn and Nassau County. She thought her city
residency and prosecutorial experience were the
two reasons she was appointed.

For the past few years, neighborhood groups and
elected officials have demanded that Gov. Pataki
appoint a New York City resident to the three-member
S.L.A., hoping for an agency with a better understanding
of a city that has 29,000 of New York State’s 70,000
licensed premises. Pataki named Healey two weeks ago
and the state Senate confirmed her on June 22.

In neighborhoods including the East Village, the
Lower East Side and Chelsea, quality of life
forums during the past several years have
denounced the S.L.A. for making almost automatic
exceptions to the 500-ft. rule. The rule prohibits
granting a license within 500 feet of three other
licensed premises unless it can been shown at a
hearing that another establishment is : “the
public interest.” The S.L.A. had been defining
public interest so broadly that denials were rare.

Boyle told the June 26 “Quality of Life Summit”
forum attended by about 70 invited community
representatives and election officials that the
agency has already embarked on its new policy.

“Since I’ve been chairman we’ve had ten 500-ft.
rule hearings and we denied seven. Three were
granted, one with no opposition,” Boyle said.
“We’re not going to please everyone – people
have the right to hold licenses.”

Responding to a question by Zella Jones,
president of the Noho Neighborhood Association
who organized the forum at the Puffin Gallery,
Boyle said the S.L.A. would define “public
interest” in 500-ft. rule hearings after
listening to community representatives, law
enforcement officers and the license applicants.
“We’ll try to be fair and consistent,” he said.

The agency is short-staffed, with a total of 150
employees of which 28 are assigned to New York
City and Westchester, said Richard Mann, S.L.A.
enforcement chief who accompanied Boyle and
Healey. There are only about 10 S.L.A.
enforcement agents working in the five boroughs.

Nevertheless, Mann said the agency would put
personnel where it is needed.

“I can assure you that we’ll make every effort to
address your concerns,” Mann said. “The chairman
is making us much more responsive than we’ve been
in the past. If we can show that clients of a
particular bar are continually disruptive we can
give the evidence to our attorneys to take action.”

But proving that clients of a particular bar are
the ones causing problems might be difficult in
Manhattan where revelers walk from bar to bar,
Mann conceded.

Councilmember Alan Gerson, State Sens. Martin
Connor and Tom Duane and Assemblymember
Deborah Glick spoke at the event.

Earlier in June, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver
sponsored a package of bills intended to
drastically curtail the “public interest” exception,
to control rowdy bars and to allow the S.L.A. to
enforce conditions of operations that community
board negotiate with bar owners. The bills passed
the Democratic-controlled Assembly but failed to
pass the Republican-controlled state Senate.

Boyle said there is a new Rapid Response Unit in
the S.L.A. that will respond to problem bars. “We
can’t fix the past. We can fix the future. We’re
going to put as many investigators in the field
as we need,” Boyle said to general applause.


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TooManyBars.org > TMB Press Links
A project of the Lower East Side Alliance, NYC. Monday 08th of May 2006 ... "Residents rail against bars at an L.E.S. town hall" By Albert Amateau ... that end, they're pressing the State Liquor Authority (SLA) to enforce its own rules about issuing licenses ...
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... the State Liquor Authority a message ... By Albert Amateau ... "The New York S.L.A. has failed this ... year, in order to challenge the state liquor authority (SLA) regarding its ...
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V.A. Laptop Is Recovered, Its Data Intact

New York Times Washington

V.A. Laptop Is Recovered, Its Data Intact
By JOHN FILES
Published: June 30, 2006

WASHINGTON, June 29 — The government has recovered a stolen laptop computer and external hard drive that contains the birthdates and Social Security numbers for millions of veterans and military personnel, the Department of Veterans Affairs said Thursday.
Skip to next paragraph

The Federal Bureau of Investigation said in a statement from its Baltimore field office that it appeared that the data had not been copied or misused.

"A preliminary review of the equipment by computer forensic teams has determined that the database remains intact and has not been accessed since it was stolen," the statement said.

Michelle Crnkovich, a spokeswoman for the F.B.I. in Baltimore, said the computer was turned over to agents there on Wednesday. The person who delivered the laptop has not been charged, Ms. Crnkovich said. A $50,000 reward had been offered for information related to the computer.

Ms. Crnkovich said the United States Park Service had helped in the recovery of the equipment, which will be further tested by F.B.I. officials in Washington.

Veterans Affairs Secretary Jim Nicholson said on Capitol Hill on Thursday that there were no reports that the stolen data had been used for identity theft. But he acknowledged that the situation had "brought to the light of day some real deficiencies in the manner we handled personal data."

The laptop computer and a detachable hard drive were stolen in a burglary on May 3 from the home of an agency employee in Aspen Hill, Md. Some officials at the Department of Veterans Affairs learned of the theft almost immediately, but Mr. Nicholson said he was not notified until May 16.

Because of the delay, the F.B.I. did not find out about the theft until about two weeks after the burglary, which was under investigation by the police in Montgomery County, Md.

Officials at the veterans agency have said the employee violated department procedure by taking the information home. But The Associated Press reported on Wednesday that agency documents showed that the employee had approval to work on his laptop from home.

A spokesman for the agency, Matt Burns, said the employee had been put on administrative leave while the agency sought his dismissal. Mr. Burns declined to comment on the report by The A.P. "because it is an ongoing personnel matter."

Mr. Nicholson has said he wanted to dismiss the employee outright but was told he could not because of federal job-protection rights.

The records included names, dates of birth and Social Security numbers for millions of people, although the exact number has not been clear. At first, the department said information on 26.5 million veterans was affected. Later, it said the number included forces on active duty, as well as veterans.

Last week, the agency lowered the number of people at risk to 17.5 million, saying the earlier estimate had not taken into account deaths and duplication of records.

The data theft and the confusion about the scope of the breach have caused the agency to be sharply criticized by veterans' groups, and several have joined a class-action lawsuit. Federal lawmakers have also been critical.

Representative Steve Buyer, the Indiana Republican who is chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee, said he hoped that the recovery of the computer would allow veterans to "breathe a sigh of relief." But he added that it would not diminish concerns over the department's handling of personal information.

"We will hold the V.A. responsible and accountable," Mr. Buyer said.

The chairman of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, Larry E. Craig, Republican of Idaho, said in a statement that the recovery of the equipment was "wonderful for veterans and active duty personnel," adding, "We have all learned, as well, that serious changes are needed in data protection governmentwide."

The department offered to pay for a year of free credit monitoring for the veterans, which it said would cost about $160.5 million. The director of the White House Office of Management, Rob Portman, suggested Wednesday that the department pay for such monitoring with about $130 million from a food stamp employment and training program, a farmers' assistance program, student loans and a program for young people released from prison.

Asked whether the department would carry out its plan for credit monitoring now that the data has been recovered, the V.A. spokesman, Mr. Burns, said the "next steps are going to be determined after receiving additional information on law enforcement's analysis of the recovered equipment."


Related
Senators Criticize Payment Plan for Monitoring Veterans' Credit (June 29, 2006)
Panel Tries to Protect Veterans in Breach (June 23, 2006)
V.A. to Atone With Free Credit Monitoring (June 22, 2006)
Vast Data Cache About Veterans Is Stolen (May 23, 2006)

Identity TheftGo to Complete Coverage »

Readers’ Opinions
Forum: Stolen Lives

Power Control For D.C. Houses - 'Smart Meter' Test To Manage Usage

Power Control For D.C. Houses
'Smart Meter' Test To Manage Usage
By Steven Mufson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, June 19, 2006;
Page D01

Pepco Holdings Inc. is planning to install "smart meters" in 2,250 District homes as part of a $2 million pilot project to give Pepco more information about residential electricity usage and give homeowners greater ability to manage power consumption and curb monthly bills.

"As energy prices go up, customers want more control over their electric bills," said Michael J. Sullivan, Pepco's vice president of customer care. "How can they get that control? One way is to involve them in direct control over their electrical appliances."

The meters will measure customers' electricity use at 15-minute intervals and transmit the data to Pepco through a wireless communications link. Customers will get more detailed bills.

About half the residences in the program will also get "smart thermostats" that will provide customers with information about real-time electricity prices and running usage so they can adjust air conditioning or the use of other appliances.

The price of electricity can vary widely depending on time of day and season. Summer rates at peak hours are 64 cents a kilowatt-hour; rates during non-peak hours are 6.81 cents.

Pepco would also have the ability to adjust the thermostats to prevent demand from overloading the transmission system. There are 15 "critical peak" days during the summer and three during the winter. Customers would be able to override Pepco's adjustments.

Pepco said it will select the homes for the pilot project at random in all eight wards of the city and will install the new meters at no charge.

The utility will experiment with different approaches to the smart meters. One will give households information a day ahead about hourly pricing in the wholesale market for the regional power grid. Another will focus on giving customers advance information about four peak hours on "critical peak" days either through the smart thermostats or by automated phone messages. A third will offer customers rebates for reducing consumption during those peak hours.

Peak electricity is more expensive because utilities have to turn to generating plants that can be fired up quickly, and they tend to rely on more expensive fuels such as oil and natural gas.

Phil Franklin, director of business development at Advanced Metering Data Systems LLC, the maker of the meter communications system, said that the devices have been installed in 50,000 homes in Birmingham, Ala., and that there are pilot projects in Gulfport, Miss.; Charlotte; New Orleans; Covington, La.; Jasper, Ga.; and two towns in Ontario.

Franklin said the meters' wireless communication capability will enable them to tell central utility offices when power fails at individual houses. "The utility knows immediately when the power's out and doesn't have to rely on the customer calling in," Franklin said. "It allows the utility to know about the problem faster and therefore restore the power faster."

The new meters also mean that utilities would not have to send people out to read meters. Pepco employs 100 people to do that in the District.

The experiment is being run by the Smart Meter Pilot Program Inc., a nonprofit company comprising Pepco, the District's Office of the People's Counsel and Consumer Utility Board, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 1900 and the D.C. Public Service Commission. The program will be funded by Pepco.

NB - This is a very interesting article but 4 members of the Cooperative Coalition to Prevent Blackouts, are actually doing load controsl and Real TIme Pricing using Interval ("smart") Meters. One of the buildings in the CCPB is my own co-op, 601 West 136th Street, HDFC which 1998 was the first residential, multi-family building in the country to install a Interval master meters and Interval sub-meters. JRM

http://cb9m.blogspot.com/2004/05/beyond-submetering.html

Preservation of Randall's Island

Environmental Justice Legal Summit:

Preservation of Randall's Island,
and the privatization of our public spaces.

Introduction to the issues and
brainstorming community and legal strategies.

Hosted by NYC Environmental Law Project and
NYC Chapter of National Lawyer's Guild

Thursday June 29 6:30 PM

113 University Place, Manhattan, near NYU

tel. 212 334-5551 for more information and to rsvp
___
More and more community organizations, residents and activists are joining
the effort to stop the destruction of 22 acres of public park land on
Randall's Island. What about you?

The latest is:

East Harlem Preservation

With the most comprehensive links to articles and commentary since 2001!

See:

http://www.eastharlempreservation.org/docs/Randalls_Island.htm

or
http://www.eastharlempreservation.org/docs/Randalls_Island.htm

Yankee Stadium Proves To Be Undoing of a Bronx Board

Date: Wed, 28 Jun 2006 10:47:10 -0400
To:
From: "Kitchen"
Subject: Yankee Stadium Proves To Be Undoing of a Bronx Board

NB- Perhaps what happened at Bronx CB4 is the logical conclusion of the
real purpose of community boards: to provide political cover for
elected officials making bad decisions. In some ways it's similar to
what occurred at Manhattan Board 4 with echoes also at Manhattan
Boards 2 and 3.

Former Manhattan Borough President was quick to remove board members
who didn't agree with her or criticized her. Last year at Manhattan
CB 1 Fields removed chair Madeleine Wils.

So far this year, despite his promises to the contrary, the new
Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer is going right down the
path of Fields and Carrion. His new appointments shine with political
hacks. He's left many of the conflicted members -- those who rubber
stamp large developments, noisy nightclubs, etc. -- stay in place. So
the boards stay the same, covering the ass of the elected officials
by not doing the due diligence that's required. - Tenant

-----------------------------------------------------
Publication: The New York Sun; Date: Jun 27, 2006;
Section: New York; Page: 2

Yankee Stadium Proves To Be Undoing of a Bronx Board
Andrew Wolf

Bronx Community Board 4 has in recent days become among the best
known of the city's 62 community boards. This is the board that voted
against the plan to build the new Yankee Stadium. These boards only
have advisory power. But having the weight of these "official"
representatives of the local neighborhoods behind a project can
influence the higher officials who really make the decisions.

Tonight, at Bronx Lebanon Hospital on the Grand Concourse, the
board will hold its final meeting before old terms expire and new
ones begin. Fireworks are expected. The board that will be in place
next week will look quite different from the one that will meet
tonight. Members of the board who ignored the wishes of the Bronx
president, Adolfo Carrion, have been removed, and new, presumably
more pliable members will take their place.

It is the Yankee Stadium matter that has proven to be the
undoing of the current board. All of those who voted against the plan
and whose terms expire failed to win reappointment. Even the chair of
the board, Ade Rasul, who actually voted for the Carrion-backed
Stadium plan, was removed. It is said that Mr. Carrion was displeased
that he couldn't keep the other members in line. Since the boards'
powers are so limited, there is little precedent in the Bronx for
such an approach. Usually board members who show up on a regular
basis are retained without question.

The controversy over the board appointments has begun to seep
from the immediate area into the citywide press. This is because Mr.
Carrion is viewed as a potential candidate for higher office, perhaps
even mayor.This has become the first widely publicized glimpse at Mr.
Carrion in action.

To many of us in the Bronx, the idea of Mr. Carrion taking over
City Hall is ludicrous. But Mr. Carrion has assumed the mantle of the
city's leading Hispanic politico from his predecessor in borough
hall, Fernando Ferrer. Yet while Mr. Ferrer was tolerant of opposing
positions taken by his community board appointees, Mr. Carrion is not.

Each community board can have up to 50 members. Members serve
for two years, with half of the board appointed or reappointed each
year. All of the appointments are made by the borough president,
although half are chosen from among nominees of City Council members.
In most districts, the full complement of 50 is appointed. But in
some neighborhoods, such as the area served by Community Board 4,
finding people to serve in what is usually a thankless, often boring
position for no pay is nearly impossible.

Mr. Carrion's "Memorial Day Massacre"has drawn additional
criticism because Board 4 is down to only 39 members. Mr. Carrion
could have added all of the new appointees without removing a single
incumbent. Some of the axed members have served for decades.

Mr. Carrion has done this before. In 2002, he refused to
reappoint Mary Lauro to Community Board 12 in the northeast Bronx.
Ms. Lauro had blown the whistle on an episode in Mr. Carrion's career
that continues to haunt him. In 2000, while Mr. Ferrer was still
borough president, a rezoning plan for the Board 12 area was proposed
by Mayor Giuliani, designed to limit the possibility of more "hot sheet
motels" from being constructed. At the time there were 18 such
establishments, viewed as hotbeds of prostitution and other crimes,
within the area served by the board.

A small number of property owners, eager to keep the option to
develop their properties for these motels open, hired an attorney
named Linda Baldwin, then a law partner of Bronx Democratic boss
Roberto Ramirez. Ms. Baldwin convinced the community board to
narrowly reject the Giuliani plan to thwart the motels.It was
Ms.Lauro who disclosed that Ms. Baldwin was also Mrs. Adolfo Carrion.
Mr. Carrion, then a city council member, had received a $2,000
contribution from one of the property owners, Oscar Porcelli.

In Riverdale, Mr. Carrion packed the board with supporters and
then contrived to have his campaign treasurer, Anthony Perez Cassino,
made chairman. Mr. Cassino resigned his campaign post, but he remains
board chairman.The perception grew that the road to approval of land
use projects becomes smoother when the way is greased with campaign
cash.

This kind of inside baseball rarely sees the light of day,
particularly in a borough in which the district attorney has shown no
inclination of investigating any Democratic machine loyalist. But the
harsh light of a mayoral campaign is different. That is why there
will be close attention paid to this final meeting of Community Board
4 tonight.

awolf@nysun.com

Downtown Comes to Harlem

New York Times

Thursday Styles

Downtown Comes to Harlem


John Lei for The New York Times
N, a clothing boutique near Seventh Avenue north of Central Park.



By RUTH LA FERLA
Published: June 22, 2006

TALKING up N, his new fashion emporium in Harlem, Larry Ortiz posed a question: "If we had to put Harlem in a bottle, what would the scent be?" He then answered with no prompting. "It would obviously be a little retro, a little 1930's." An infusion, in short, evocative of Harlem's glory years, an era of artistic ferment that spawned Cab Calloway, Dorothy Dandridge and Nat King Cole, fused with a modern street-inflected sensibility.

Skip to next paragraph

Hiroko Masuike for The New York Times
So Hunter owns the Denim Library,
which has an extensive stock of detailed jeans.



Hiroko Masuike for The New York Times
Clothing boutiques like B. Oyama have
found a home near Seventh Avenue
north of Central Park.


Hiroko Masuike for The New York Times
Montgomery Harris moved her clothing
boutique, Montgomery, to Seventh
Avenue from SoHo.

For Mr. Ortiz, one of N's three partners, capturing the essence of the neighborhood is not just rhetoric. To succeed as a merchant, he maintained, he will need to distill Harlem, not just in a fragrance but in all of the upscale fashions, home accessories and cosmetic lines sold at his gracious two-level store in a town house on 116th Street between Seventh and Lenox Avenues.

His objective in showcasing brands like Nicole Miller, Hugo Boss, Marimekko and Jonathan Adler to the increasingly affluent enclave north of Central Park is partly to cater to a fashionably hip local population that has until now traveled downtown in search of popular fashion labels. He is also the latest in a growing number of retailers to invoke Harlem's multilayered heritage to put their wares on the fashion map.

"One of the things that is compelling to us is the idea of branding Harlem," Mr. Ortiz said. It is an idea he hopes to render concrete by offering a mix of local labels and African-American designers like Byron Lars and Tracy Reese with more established, upscale brands. "It's very important to push a lot of black designers who wouldn't get the same attention elsewhere," he said.

"This store is not about hip-hop," he added emphatically.

At 4,000 square feet, N, which opened in April in Mount Morris Park, is the largest upscale retailer to descend on the area. Like N, other newcomers are pointedly distancing themselves from the brash hip-hop aesthetic and offering fashion that deliberately summons Harlem's fabled past, along with current fashion trends being interpreted by downtown outposts like Scoop, Intermix and Big Drop and also by a clutch of stylish men's stores.

As well they might. They have arrived in a rapidly gentrifying neighborhood. Mount Morris Park, a 16-block area from 118th Street to 124th Street between Fifth and Seventh Avenues, has the highest concentration of Harlem households with incomes exceeding $100,000, said Nikoa Evans, a partner in the store and a former vice president for finance for the Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone, a federal economic development initiative. Affluent residents pay about $750,000 for a one-bedroom condominium and $2 million for the traditional brownstones that are in high demand.

But Mount Morris Park, and much of Harlem, remains a relative bargain for boutique owners, who pay rents varying from $75 a square foot to as much as $150 on 125th Street, compared with $700 on prime blocks along Madison Avenue.

Flaunting an aura of exclusivity, the new shops offer a high-style — and pricey — alternative to the wares on 125th Street. That crowded, populist thoroughfare is now home to, among others, a MAC cosmetics store; Atmos, a Japanese-owned store specializing in hard-to-find sneakers, with a flagship in the Harajuku district of Tokyo; Old Navy and H & M.

"Harlem is so much more than just 125th Street," said Faith Hope Consolo, the chairwoman of the retail leasing and sales division at Prudential Douglas Elliman. "There is so much retail potential there," said Ms. Consolo, who is scouting sites for several clients. "The challenge is to choose the right location."

Springing up along and just off Seventh and Lenox Avenues, from about 114th Street to 135th Street, are stores like Pieces of Harlem, on West 135th Street, a boutique that sells denim skirts and jackets with Victorian-inspired ruffles and pearl buttons designed by the owners, Latisha and Colin Daring. It also carries draped jersey dresses ($354) by Rachel Roy, who is married to the rap entrepreneur Damon Dash, and ribbon-trimmed T-shirts ($185) by Gwen Stefani.
Montgomery, on Seventh Avenue, sells handbags, T-shirts and lingerie emblazoned with the image of Jolinda, a head-wrapped rag doll that recalls the Southern roots of its designer, Montgomery Harris, who moved her store from SoHo to Harlem about three years ago. Ms. Harris is also known for her whimsically hand-embroidered, one-of-a-kind skirts and dresses, many in a vintage mood ($400 to $500).

Another new store is Denim Library, on Seventh Avenue, a repository for premium jeans like People's Liberation, Citizens for Humanity and Ciano Farmer, all of which are displayed folded with rear pockets on view in a series of library shelves, and sell for $130 to $750. Hats by Bunn, on Seventh Avenue, sells waxed-straw chapeaus and flat-top felt hats by Bunn, the Trinidad-born milliner.

Bernard Oyama, the owner of B. Oyama, an elegant old-world style haberdashery on Seventh Avenue, sells his own designs of suits, shirts and neckwear, which are displayed amid a collection of black-and-white photographs of dapper greats like Miles Davis and Duke Ellington, each a reminder that the Harlem of the 30's through the 60's was a thriving style capital.

"The idea was to bring back the sense of quality to Harlem," said Mr. Oyama, a native of Gabon who studied fashion design in Paris. His store draws locals and, he said, even greater numbers of clients from the Bronx, Brooklyn and New Jersey, who drop in from time to time to be fitted for custom-tailored suits ($800 to $2,200), and to pick up bow ties, cravats and kaleidoscopically colorful gingham and paisley pocket squares.

Not every store is so rarefied. Harlemade, which has been at 116th Street for six years, is stocked with books and photographs offering glimpses of the historic area and its architecture. It also sells handbags, dolls and an assortment of T-shirts bearing Harlem logos.
"I was the first to brand Harlem," insisted Murphy Heyliger, an owner. "Since then I've seen other companies realize you can get cool by putting your neighborhood on a shirt."

Mr. Heyliger is typical of the merchants catering to both residents and visitors drawn to a Harlem that is increasingly perceived as romantic and vibrant enough to draw several thousand tourists on weekends, many of whom place boutique-hopping high on an itinerary that might also include dining at Emperor's Roe or Settepani, and touring the Studio Museum, which exhibits the work of contemporary African-American artists.

Despite those attractions, some skeptical local merchants and residents wonder if importing fancy wares to Harlem is not premature. The new boutiques are interspersed with bodegas, hairdressers and discount stores, and not all of the retail landscape looks promising. Stores like N "may be too early," said Minya Quirk, the owner of Brand Pimps, a fashion consulting company, and a Harlem resident.

Ms. Quirk also frets that the goods may not be relevant to a local population. "Harlem residents have a deeply ingrained sense of personal style," she said. "They know what they want, and I think a lot of retailers might underestimate that."

Not Mr. Ortiz, who argues that his inventory was conceived expressly to appeal to style-driven locals. N offers fashion at prices that vary from $165 for a cotton shirt with grosgrain detailing to $1,000 for a leather coat. Sizes range from 0 to 16.

"We have a market here that has certain needs when it comes to sizing," he said. "We're offering larger sizes mixed in with smaller ones in a very unapologetic way. And we're always making sure we'll accommodate a variety of body types."

The fashions are often more boldly patterned than those at shops in other neighborhoods. "They reflect the way our uptown customers would like to wear clothes, and an understanding that this market is more heavily into color," Mr. Ortiz said.
Harlem shoppers also are serious fragrance consumers, which is evident from the proliferation of shops displaying ever-widening selections of designer scents. That infatuation attracted Laurice Rahmé, the entrepreneur behind Bond No. 9, with scents named after New York neighborhoods. Ms. Rahmé, who was prescient in branding the area with New Haarlem, a scent introduced in 2004, plans to open a store in Harlem this year. Her flagship is on Bond Street in Lower Manhattan. "But what happened to retailing and tourism downtown is going to happen uptown," she predicted.

Bud Konheim, the chief executive of Nicole Miller, a line with hothouse colors and animated prints that are popular at N, is confident that a presence in the neighborhood is healthy for the bottom line. The collection at N is expected to generate $300,000 to $500,000 in its first year, he said.

"Harlem is an undiscovered secret for now, but that won't last," Mr. Konheim went on. "Things are moving too fast."

The Specter of Condemnation

From: "Nick Sprayregen"
To: "Anne Z. Whitman" , "Tom DeMott" , "Jordi (George) Reyes-Montblanc"
Subject: WSJ Column - Please Read, Pass Along...
Date: Wed, 28 Jun 2006 05:18:15 -0400

The Specter of Condemnation
By SCOTT BULLOCK
June 24, 2006
Wall Street Journal

When I got the call from the Supreme Court clerk's office telling me that the court had decided Kelo v. New London -- and that the city had won -- I and my colleagues who had worked on this case from the trial court up to the Supreme Court sat together in stunned silence. First I felt shock at the damage done to the Constitution; then I winced at what the decision meant for people who had fought so hard for their rights. Susette Kelo could lose the dream home for which she had worked so hard; 87-year-old Wilhelmina Dery might be evicted from the only home she had ever known. Finally, we all shuddered at what this decision meant for home and small business owners across the country.

What a difference a year makes.

Kelo is the most universally despised Supreme Court decision in decades. And it touched off a nearly unprecedented, grass-roots backlash against eminent domain abuse -- where land is taken, not for a traditional public use like a road or a public building, but from poorer folks and given to wealthier folks, all in the name of "development."

Americans are virtually united in opposition to this practice. Polling on this matter is off the charts. Consistently, 80% or more of the people are opposed to the Kelo decision and want something done about it. The opposition cuts across the usual political divides that separate Americans today. Property owners in blue states oppose eminent domain abuse just as much those in red states. Republicans such as Sen. John Cornyn and Rep. James Sensenbrenner stand shoulder to shoulder with Democrats such as Bill Clinton and Reps. John Conyers and Maxine Waters.

Indeed, about the only people who support the abusive practices are those who stand to benefit from it: local political officials, including big city mayors such as New York's Michael Bloomberg; and planners and developers. What these beneficiaries lack in numbers, however, they more than make up for in political muscle. The result is a massive struggle in state legislatures.

The stakes are high. In the five years between 1998 and 2002, more than 10,000 properties nationwide were threatened or condemned for private development through eminent domain; in just the past year since Kelo, more than 5,700 properties have been similarly threatened or taken. Unless the laws are changed, these unconscionable practices will continue.

So far the results have been encouraging. Legislatures in 25 states have responded to public outcry by restricting eminent domain in a variety of ways. Three other states passed similar legislation, only to have it vetoed by the governor. Six states -- Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Michigan, New Hampshire and South Carolina -- have constitutional amendments to reform eminent domain that will go before voters this fall.

Importantly, last year the House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved a bill that would prohibit federal economic development funds from going to state and local agencies that use eminent domain for private commercial development. The Private Property Rights Protection Act (HR 4128) could make a big difference -- if the Senate Judiciary Committee would only allow it to be voted on by the full Senate.

The new state laws vary in the level of protection they provide. Still, even modest reforms would have been impossible before Kelo put a national spotlight on the disgrace of cities taking homes, small businesses and churches all in the pursuit of more tax revenue and an improved local economy.

Although the tide is turning, a great deal remains to be done. As Justice Sandra Day O'Connor warned in her prescient Kelo dissent, "the specter of condemnation now hangs over all property." Since Kelo, cities have pushed out motels for commercial development and replaced small businesses with upscale hotels; bulldozed houses to make room for shopping malls. There's an even stronger and uglier trend: Towns and cities are taking modest-sized houses from their owners and handing them over to the builders of trendier, more upscale homes and condominiums (whose new owners will pay higher taxes).

Meanwhile, agricultural land has been taken by eminent domain to make room for retail establishments, and members of congregations have been forced out of their houses of worship to make room for businesses that yield taxes to municipalities.

In addition to political changes, it is still vitally important that courts do not roll over and play dead. Even the majority of the Supreme Court recognized in the Kelo decision that, regardless of the U.S. Constitution, state courts are free to interpret their own state constitutions to afford a greater measure of protection to citizens against the reach of eminent domain. And many state courts, after years of neglect, have strengthened protections for people challenging eminent domain abuse.

Although most of the litigation will be directed toward state constitutional claims in the near future, I am confident that one day, perhaps in the not-too-distant future, the Supreme Court will reconsider and overturn its disastrous Kelo ruling, consigning it to the same fate as other discredited decisions like Plessy v. Ferguson (which upheld "separate but equal" treatment of the races) and Korematsu v. U.S. (which upheld the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II).

Meanwhile, in New London, where this battle began back in 2000, folks there are still fighting to keep their homes. Wilhelmina Dery passed away in March of this year but she was able to do so in her home, a few feet from where she was born the year World War I ended. Susette Kelo's little pink Victorian house -- now a symbol of the fight against eminent domain abuse nationwide -- still proudly stands.

The political officials and their big business allies who benefit from eminent domain abuse will not give up their power without a fight. This is a fight that must be faced squarely. But if it is, we will, in the end, all be more secure in our homes, small businesses, farms and churches.

Mr. Bullock, a senior attorney at the Institute for Justice, argued the Kelo case before the U.S. Supreme Court.

HILL BLOGS BACK AT ONLINE LEFTIES

Date: Wed, 28 Jun 2006 06:02:27 -0400
To:
From: "Tenant"
Subject: You're now a target of Hillary

NB - Hillary ... when pigs fly - Tenant
--------------------------------

HILL BLOGS BACK AT ONLINE LEFTIES
By IAN BISHOP
NY Post

June 27, 2006 -- WASHINGTON - After months of
fierce attacks against her on the Internet, Sen.
Hillary Rodham Clinton is ready to meet her Web
enemies head-on - by hiring a political-blog guru
who worked on John Kerry's presidential campaign.

Clinton tapped Peter Daou, Kerry's director of
blog outreach and online rapid response, to rehab
her battered image among left-wing Internet surfers.

Clinton has been pummeled in the liberal
blogosphere for her centrist stance on the Iraq
war, for backing a pro-life Democratic Senate
candidate in Pennsylvania and for being the
co-sponsor of a GOP measure to ban flag-burning
without amending the Constitution.
Daou is a political operative who runs the Daou
Report, a Web log that tracks political blogs and
news organizations to chronicle the latest Beltway buzz.

His stated goal is to build connections between
the party establishment, the media and the
blogosphere. He did not respond to an e-mail
request for comment from The Post.

On his blog, Daou wrote that he's "joining
Senator Clinton's team as a blog adviser to
facilitate and expand her relationship with the netroots."

Netroots refers to politically oriented Internet bloggers.

"There are endless possibilities for
Clinton-netroots collaborations, from Net
Neutrality to the Privacy Bill of Rights to
voting reform to so many other critical issues," he added.
Daou is working for Clinton's Senate re-election
committee, Friends of Hillary, to help the
campaign better "communicate" with supporters on
Democratic blogs, said campaign spokeswoman Ann Lewis.

His enlistment comes as the former first lady's
support on the Web founders while the stock of
likely 2008 Democratic White House rivals Kerry
and Sen. Russ Feingold soars for their aggressive anti-war stances.

The announcement of his arrival also comes four
days after the DailyKos.com's influential
founder, Markos Moulitsas Zúniga, reported on his
site that Clinton had not "reached out" to the netroots.

"So how would Hillary ingratiate herself to the
netroots if she was so inclined? Here's how, and
this applies not to just Hillary, but every
single politician seeking netroots love and
respect: 1. Be a leader. 2. Get people involved.
It's that simple," Zúniga said.

Lewis said Daou's role as a blog adviser is a new
position in the Clinton campaign army - already a
staff of more than 40 political pros.

Experts say Clinton's massing of top-rate
political operatives, despite facing no serious
re-election challengers, is a tip-off of her Oval Office ambitions.
Her political staff, spread between her
re-election committee and her HillPAC political
action committee, dwarfs that of any other
potential 2008 White House hopeful on either side of the aisle.

Daou will be rolling up his sleeves to undo the
netroots damage Clinton caused by her vote last
week against a plan to pull U.S. troops out of
Iraq by July 1, 2007 - a measure that won Kerry
and Feingold the praise of party liberals.

bishop@nypost.com
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
The Tenant Network(tm) for Residential Tenants
TenantNet(tm): http://tenant.net
email: tenant@tenant.net
Information from TenantNet is from experienced non-attorney tenant
activists and is not considered legal advice.

BP Stringer Releases 1st Study of Community Education Councils Since Their Inception

BP Stringer Releases 1st Study of Community Education Councils Since Their Inception

Report Says DOE Violated State Law by not Providing Parents with Adequate Training and Support

(June 14, 2006) New York, NY – Manhattan Borough President Scott M. Stringer today released the results of a ground-breaking new report on Manhattan’s Community Education Councils (CEC) that finds significant failures by the City’s Department of Education (DOE) and violations of state law as it pertains to their obligations to adequately provide support and training for the parent councils.

Stringer’s study, titled “Parents Dismissed,” is the first critical analysis of New York City’s CECs since they convened in 2004, through state law to replace Community School Boards as part of the shift to Mayoral Control over the public school system. The report finds that a striking 92% of respondents are not being trained on one or more of the CECs state-mandated functions and 61% indicated their council was not fulfilling one or more of its responsibilities mandated by New York State Education Law.

Borough President Stringer was joined at a press conference on the steps of the Tweed Courthouse by CEC members, parents and education advocates to announce the results and call on DOE to immediately take action to address the inadequacies and violations of the law pointed out in the report.

“There is no doubt parental involvement is an essential part of any child’s education,” Stringer said. “Sadly, this report shows that DOE is failing to deliver on their most basic duties and in doing so they are further quieting what is already the muffled voice of parents in our education system. The facts of this study speak loudly and resonate across the city: CECs are not performing their legally mandated functions, not receiving adequate training, are crippled by high turnover rates and low participation and DOE is to blame. It is time for DOE to face the facts, find solutions and uphold their obligation under the law to see that parents have a real seat at the table.”

Other key findings of Stringer’s report include: - 37% of CEC members did not hold or participate in legally mandated capital hearings.

42% stated their council did not make quorum at least once this past year.

92% said that 25 or fewer members of the public attend their monthly council meetings.
50% of CEC members stated that DOE has failed to provide them with contact information for other parent leaders in their district.

37% do not believe CECs meet their mission to promote parent engagement.
74% believe the CEC election process can be improved.

84% stated that CECs should have powers and duties they do not currently have.

Stringer’s report also proposed possible solutions to the problems plaguing the CECs that DOE could initiate, including:
Dedicating additional time and resources to parental engagement by taking steps such as increasing the number of staff assigned to engaging parental involvement.
Clarifying and improving CEC duties and training including the issuing of Chancellor’s regulations on training

Improving communication between DOE and CECs, other parent leaders and groups
Broadening the eligibility criteria for CEC members and selectors

Stringer’s study was based on one-on-one oral interviews with current members of Community Education Councils representing School Districts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 in Manhattan. The survey was conducted over the phone by Manhattan Borough President’s Office staff between April 13, 2006 and May 12, 2006. Participation was voluntary and the response rate was 68%.

A complete copy of “Parents Dismissed” can be read clicking here (PDF).

# # #

Frank Wilkinson's Legacy

Date: Sun, 25 Jun 2006 21:09:39 -0400
To:
From: "Tenant"
Subject: This is worth reading ... the other stadium fight

NB - This was sent by a friend...
The following snippet is from a documentary about him done by the BBC:
"I think the greatest irony in reviewing these monstrous FBI files is
that, to quote them, 'It does not appear that Wilkinson has shown the
willingness or capability of engaging in any act that would
significantly interfere with or be a threat to the survival and
effective operation of our government.' That was their *own* judgment
at a time [when] they were wasting millions of dollars on 132,000
pages of surveillance and disruption of my work.

The records you see on this table show that it all began with my work
in housing. We had a dream that Los Angeles would become the first
city in America free of slums. That entire dream was ended with this
beautiful stadium. The BBC documentary shows Wilkinson walking around
the field in Dodger Stadium." - Tenant

Robert Sherrill. First Amendment Felon: The Story of Frank
Wilkinson, His 132,000-Page FBI File, and His Epic Fight for Civil
Rights and Liberties_ (New York: Nation Books): 14 - 15.

January 7, 2006 by CommonDreams.org

Frank Wilkinson's Legacy
by Peter Dreier

The obituaries for Frank Wilkinson, who died January 2 at 91,
primarily focused on his role as a leading opponent of McCarthyism,
the House Un- American Activities Committee, and government spying on
citizens. In 1958, Wilkinson was one of the last people ordered to
prison for defying HUAC. He appealed his contempt citation all the
way to the Supreme Court, which ruled 5 to 4 against him. After
spending nine months in federal prison in 1961, Wilkinson through the
National Committee Against Repressive Legislation, spend more than a
decade fighting to dismantle HUAC, which was finally abolished in
1975. Wilkinson also fought the FBI. He sued the FBI to obtain its
files on him, eventually getting 132,000 documents, which revealed
that the agency had been spying on him for 38 years. A federal judge
ordered the FBI to end its surveillance of Wilkinson.

At a time when the Bush Administration is conducting an assault on
civil liberties in the name of national security, Wilkinson's battles
to protect free speech are worth recalling. But it is often forgotten
that Wilkinson began his career as an activist for affordable
housing. His crusade for civil liberties began when he was fired from
the Los Angeles Housing Authority -- the city's public housing
agency, where he was a high-ranking official -- during the McCarthy
era because of his radical politics.

Today, many consider public housing to be a failed experiment in "big
government" social engineering. But for Wilkinson's generation of
idealists -- who came of age in the Depression of the 1930s -- public
housing was part of a broad movement for social reform and economic
justice. To the extent that public housing now bears the stigma of
failure, it is due not to the progressive values that inspired
Wilkinson and others, but to the political influence of right-wing
forces who fought to undermine public housing from the beginning.
Los Angeles and other cities again face a severe shortage of
affordable housing. Many of the same battles that Wilkinson fought 50
years ago -- -- over land use, government subsidies for the poor,
racial integration, and ?not in my backyard? opposition to low-cost
housing -- confront the current generation of public officials and
civic leaders.

Until the Depression, most American opinion leaders believed that the
private market, with a helping hand from private philanthropy, could
meet the nation's housing needs. Reformers who wanted government to
play a major role in housing were a lonely voice in the political
wilderness. In the first three decades of the 20th century, a few
unions and settlement house reformers built model housing
developments for working class families, but without government
subsidy. The nation's economic collapse provided reformers with a
political opening to push their "radical" ideas that the federal
government should subsidize "social housing" and help create a
noncommercial sector free from profit and speculation. Like their
European counterparts, they envisioned it for the middle class as
well as the poor.

These reformers - economists, planners, architects, social workers,
and journalists - had faith in the positive role of government on
people and communities. They believed that well-designed housing with
adequate amenities (such as playgrounds and child care centers) could
uplift the poor.

Led by housing activist Catherine Bauer (who later became the first
woman professor at Berkeley's urban planning school) and progressive
labor unions (through the Labor Housing Conference, founded in 1934),
they pushed for well-designed, mixed-income, noncommercial,
government subsidized housing projects, sponsored by unions, church
groups, other non-profit organizations, and government agencies.
During its first few years, the New Deal build a few model
developments that reflected this vision. They included day care
centers, involved residents in cultural and educational activities,
and were physically attractive enough so that middle-class families
wanted to live there. The reformers hoped to turn these prototype
projects into a permanent government program.

But the reformers were soon outmaneuvered by the real estate
industry, led by the National Association of Real Estate Boards. The
industry -- worried that well-designed and affordable
government-sponsored housing would compete with the private sector
for middle-class consumers --warned about the specter of "socialism."
With the enactment of the Wagner Public Housing Act in 1937, the real
estate industry began to sabotage the program by restricting its
funding and by giving local governments discretion over whether and
where to locate developments. After WW2, recognizing the pent-up
demand for housing and fearing competition from public housing, the
industry mobilized a major campaign against the program. It
successfully. pressured Congress to limit it to the very poor . From
1950 to 1970, the median income of public residents fell from 64
percent to 37 percent of the national median. Senators from the South
made sure that local governments had the authority to keep public
housing racially segregated.

With limited budgets, many projects were poorly constructed and/or
badly designed - ugly warehouses for the poor - stigmatizing
"government housing" as housing of last resort. Local housing
authorities -- typically dominated by business and real estate
representatives -- often located public housing developments in areas
without adequate stores, transportation, or schools, and isolated
from middle-class neighborhoods, contributing to the concentration of
poor people in cities. The problems we now associate with public
housing were not inevitable. They were due to political choices made
in Congress and at the local level.

By the time Wilkinson -- who grew up Beverly Hills, had been a
Republican as a student at UCLA and originally intended to become a
Methodist minister -- joined the LA Housing Authority in 1942, public
housing was already controversial. Los Angeles Mayor Fletcher Bowron,
a reform minded liberal Republican elected in 1938, nevertheless
supported public housing and later backed Wilkinson's idea to promote
racial integration within the city's developments. A number of large
developments were constructed in the early1940s, starting with the
610- unit Ramona Gardens in 1941.

After World War 2, Bowron sought to expand the program, especially
for the many veterans who faced a desperate housing shortage. He
endorsed a plan to raze many homes in the tight-knit Chavez Ravine
neighborhood replace them with a large public housing development to
be designed by world-class architect Richard Nuetra that would
include two dozen 13- story buildings and more than 160 two-story
houses, as well as new playgrounds and schools. Bowron, Wilkinson and
other reformers viewed the housing plan for Chavez Ravine as a way to
improve living conditions poor Angelenos, especially
Mexican-Americans who lived in the neighborhood's substandard homes.
The ?battle of Chavez Ravine? has become a legend of urban planning,
inspiring a recent album by guitarist Ry Cooder, a play by the
Culture Clash theater group, and many books and academic articles.
In July 1950, Chavez Ravine residents received letters from the city
telling them that they should sell their homes to make the land
available for the proposed project. The residents were told that they
would have first choice for the new homes. A few residents resisted
but most left quietly.

The city's landlords, homebuilders, and business leaders, along with
right-wing political groups, mobilized to oppose building any more
developments, including the Chavez Ravine plan. They, too, wanted to
bulldoze the neighborhood, but they had other designs for the area,
so close to the city?s downtown. They utilized the era's
anti-communist "Red Scare" paranoia to characterize the Chavez Ravine
proposal -- and public housing in general -- as socialist planning.
One way to attack public housing was to attack its leading advocate,
Wilkinson, as a dangerous Communist. Brought before the House
Un-American Activities Committee, he refused to answer their
questions on First Amendment grounds and was fired from his job and
sent to federal prison, starting Wilkinson on a new career path as a
civil liberties activist.

The same business leaders who opposed Wilkinson and public housing
also ended Bowron's political career. They handpicked Congressman
Norris Poulson to run against Bowron and orchestrated his mayoral
victory in 1953. During his campaign, Poulson vowed to stop the
Chavez Ravine plan and other examples of "un-American" spending.
Under Poulson, the city bought back the Chavez Ravine site from the
federal government at a cut-rate price. Several years later, City
Councilmember Ken Hahn gave Brooklyn Dodgers owner Walter O?Malley a
helicopter tour of the area and pointed to the empty 300 acre Chavez
Ravine site adjacent to downtown and at the intersection of major
freeways. The team moved to Los Angeles in 1958 and opened Dodger
Stadium two years later. The city obviously broke its promise to the
former residents of the neighborhood, scattered by the city?s
bulldozer, to relocate them in better housing.

Versions of LA?s battle over public housing were repeated in cities
across the country. In the 1950s and 1960s, lobbying by the real
estate industry and conservatives assured that public housing would
be targeted exclusively for the very poor. Public housing became
identified with drug wars and crime, places where children are afraid
to walk to school, and elderly tenants, for whom hallways and
elevators are as dangerous as streets, are afraid to leave their
apartments. Movies such as Straight Out of Brooklyn (1991) by Matty
Rich, who grew up in Brooklyn's Red Hook projects, and books such as
Alex Kotlowitz's There Are No Children Here, chronicling life in the
Chicago projects, portrayed public housing as more a trap than a
ladder.

Not surprisingly, middle class families resisted siting developments
in their neighborhoods. Public housing became more unpopular
politically, leading to a cycle of government neglect and
underfunding which, in turn, led to poor construction design,
inadequate maintenance, racial segregation, stigmatization, and
further concentration of the very poor. Construction of new public
housing developments ended in the 1970s during the Nixon
administration. Eventually, only 1.3 million public housing units
were built - less than 1% of the nation?s housing.. It was replaced
by other kinds of government-subsidized housing, which eventually
evolved into today's largest federal program, Section 8 vouchers,
which are essentially food stamps for housing.

Despite the popular stereotypes, high-rises account for only one-
quarter of public housing buildings. But high-rise projects, most of
them in the largest cities, account for many of the problems. and
cast a giant shadow on the entire program. A decade ago, Congress
enacted the Hope VI program to encourage local housing authorities to
tear down troubled high-rise public housing developments and replace
them with scattered-site housing. This has improved neighborhoods but
with the consequence of reducing the overall number of subsidized
units for the poor.

Despite their problems, public housing developments are often better
than privately-owned slum housing, which in many cities are the major
housing option for the poor. That is why, in LA and most other
cities, there are long waiting lists for public housing.

American politicians still use misleading stereotypes about public
housing to attack the very idea of government activism. During his
1996 campaign, for example, Republican presidential nominee Bob Dole
told the National Association of Realtors that public housing was
"one of the last bastions of socialism in the world" and said that
local housing authorities have become "landlords of misery." More
recently, after the Katrina hurricane destroyed much of New Orleans'
subsidized housing, concentrated in the city poorest areas,
Congressman Richard Baker (R-LA) was overheard telling lobbyists, "We
finally cleaned up public housing in New Orleans. We couldn't do it,
but God did."

As a result of such sentiments, the U.S. spends less on government
housing subsidies for the poor than any other democratic country.
Housing subsidies for the poor are a lottery, not an entitlement. The
entire U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development budget is
only $32 billion, which provides housing assistance for less than
one- quarter of the nation?s poor. And while the number of poor
people has increased since President George W. Bush took office, his
administration is cutting housing subsidies for low-income families.

Some federal funds are still used to build new housing for the poor
-- mainly by giving tax breaks to corporations that invest in
low-income apartments. Ironically, most of today?s government
subsidized housing is built by nonprofit community development
organizations. They are typically well-designed to fit into
neighborhoods and small-scale compared with the massive public
housing towers built in the 1950s and 1960s. A growing number of
these developments are mixed-income and provide child care, job
training, and education and art programs. In other words, they look
similar to the kind of projects that early housing reformers and
their offspring,, like Frank Wilkinson, envisioned. But without
sufficient federal subsidies, these community groups lack the
resources to seriously address housing shortage for the poor.
Today, America?s cities are trying to address a serious housing
crisis, but without the federal government as a partner. In many
cities and inner-ring suburbs, few working families, including many
middle-income households, can afford to purchase a home. Many
low-income families spend over half their incomes just to pay rent.
More than a million Americans are homeless at some point during the
year. Across the nation, a new generation of housing reformers -
tenant organizers, community development groups, homeless advocates,
and others -- are waging a crusade for more livable cities and metro
areas.

Under progressive Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, for example, Los
Angeles -- where at least 80,000 people are homeless -- is trying to
deal with the legacy of this federal neglect. The city has one of the
most severe housing shortages in the nation. Elected officials,
business groups, community organizations, labor unions, religious
leaders, and housing advocates are wrestling with policy ideas --
such as $1 billion housing bond, an inclusionary zoning law to
require mixed-income housing, and stronger code enforcement against
slumlords -- to meet the growing need. But, as in Wilkinson's time,
there are political forces that resist reform. Business-back schemes
to revitalize downtown LA -- such as the Grand Avenue project and the
gentrification of Skid Row -- include few housing units for the
city's low-income working class. The influential Central City Assn.,
the lobbying arm of downtown developers and businesses, opposes
inclusionary zoning, despite the fact that over 100 California
communities have already adopted the policy.

In the struggle for better housing, Wilkinson was a visionary. He
fought for incremental reforms but he saw them as steppingstones to
a broader social justice agenda. Like his fight to protect the First
Amendment?s guarantee of free speech, Wilkinson viewed decent, safe,
affordable housing as a basic human right. The best tribute to Frank
Wilkinson's memory would be a city where people can afford to live in
any neighborhood, regardless of their race, ethnicity, or income.

Peter Dreier teaches political science and directs the Urban &
Environmental Policy program at Occidental College.

http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0107-27.htm

Queens Getting Even Harder To Afford

Date: Sun, 25 Jun 2006 05:22:14 -0400
To:
From: "Tenant"
Subject: Housing Here and Now -- reveals itself

NB - "Housing Here and Now" is essentially Acorn under a different name. I
know of at least three groups listed as part of HH&N who never gave
permission to be listed as part of HH&N. This seems to their method
of operation.

Acorn is being paid by Bruce Ratner to tear down significant chunks
of Prospect Heights. And in turn, Ratner is getting at least $100
million of free money from the state government.

Some groups go along with HH&N simply because on the surface, their
goals sound good. But the Inclusionary Zoning program, like the
421(a) tax abatements, result in a net loss of affordable housing.
But of tenant advocates throughout the city, who has ever heard of
Cloe Tribich? Being a tenant advocate for 20 years, I've never heard
of this person, who is most likely an Acorn operative.

Housing Here and Now draws it's lineage directly from the
Inclusionary Zoning Coalition which is what it was called before it
changed its name. But it comes directly from Housing First, a
landlord/developer and banking group, whose mission was detailed by
Michael Schill of NYU's School of Real Estate. (they even listed
Housing First on their web site until recently when it mysteriously
disappeared). Housing First also counts as its members the Rent
Stabilization Association (RSA, the landlord group headed by Joe
Strasberg).

Schill was the author of the housing plan adopted by Rudy Giuliani
and Peter Vallone (neither were friends to tenants) that called by
tearing down large swaths of the city, as well as weakening
environmental and rent stabilization laws. Much of it was adopted by
Bloomberg with implementation by HPD Commissioner Shaun Donovan.

So with groups like Housing Here and Now, who needs enemies?
- Tenant
-------------------------------------------------

Queens Getting Even Harder To Afford
http://www.queenstribune.com/news/1151011279.html
By ANDREW MOESEL

In the last three years, Queens has turned from the most affordable
borough into one of the most expensive, according to a new report
from New York University.

The report, commissioned by the Furman Center for Real Estate and
Urban Policy, measured the average income of borough residents and
compared it to prices they are paying toward their rent and
mortgages. It found a consistent pattern that Queens residents are
paying more for housing while earning less.

In 2002, rent payments burdened Queens tenants less than residents in
any borough, accounting for only 27.4 percent of their total income.
By last year, that rent burden had increased to 31.7 percent of
resident's income, second only to Manhattan, the report said.
During the same period, the average market price for a unit in a 2-4
family house rose from $173,255 to $230,000, also the second most
expensive in the City. For a one family building, the average market
price increased to $388,000, up almost $100,000 from three years ago.

These increases have happened while the median income for Queens
residents has declined, dropping from $48,162 to $45,000, the report
said. The conflicting trends have led more residents to take on
expensive debt and live in less desirable conditions, officials said.

Cloe Tribich, a spokeswoman for Housing Here and Now, an affordable
housing advocacy group, said that as the market has grown more
competitive, people increasingly are forced to live in lower quality
housing. The NYC report ranked Queens the most crowded borough and
the second worst in terms of overall housing quality.

"There has to be something going on in the market to pressure people
to live in the conditions they are now living in," Tribich said. "Our
group is working with banks and landlords to make sure that quality,
affordable housing can still be a realistic possibility in New York
City."

Councilman Eric Gioia (D-Sunnyside), along with other elected
officials, has attempted to create more affordable housing by calling
on developers to include cheaper units in their new buildings. Gioia
fears that New York could lose its middle class as housing grows more
and more expensive, making it lose the character that has defined it.
"This study confirms what I've been saying for years," Gioia said,
"that until you are wealthy, it's very expensive, and in some cases
too expensive, to buy a home in New York City."

Some believe market forces are not the only factor driving up real
estate prices. In the last 10 years, the government has weakened rent
stabilization laws, allowing landlords to raise rents dramatically,
according to Bob Katz, a lawyer for Queens League of United Tenants,
a group that lobbies for tenants rights.

The majority of long-term Queens residents are senior citizens living
on fixed incomes, Katz said, making hikes in their rent an enormous
burden on their living standards. Unlike young couples that often
flee to the suburbs for cheaper housing, these older residents are
forced to stick it out, Katz said.

"They have to make a choice: this month it's the food or the rent,"
Katz said. "We have plenty of seniors eating cat food, and I'm
totally serious about that."
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
The Tenant Network(tm) for Residential Tenants
TenantNet(tm): http://tenant.net
email: tenant@tenant.net
Information from TenantNet is from experienced non-attorney tenant
activists and is not considered legal advice.

Date: Sun, 25 Jun 2006 04:19:28 -0400
To:
From: "Tenant"
Subject: Setting-up the Columbia Sell-out (how to quiet opponents)

Columbia expansion: Is community deal in store?
CrainsBy Erik Engquist & Anne Michaud

Published on June 26, 2006 Apparently not all community benefits agreements are created equal. The city's Economic Development Corp., Harlem's Community Board 9 and Councilman Robert Jackson announced last week that a local development corporation has been formed to negotiate a deal on behalf of neighbors of Columbia University's planned second campus in Manhattanville.

Developers typically promise benefits like jobs for local residents in return for community support of big projects. Though the Bloomberg administration originally approved of such pacts, the mayor has become more critical in the past two months. He characterized efforts by Queens politicians to win concessions from the Mets as "ransom.

The members of the LDC will include 13 commercial and residential property owners and representatives of the community board, tenant associations and cultural and church groups. City Hall is providing $350,000 for a conflict resolution expert; negotiations over Columbia's plans are expected to continue through the summer.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
The Tenant Network(tm) for Residential Tenants
TenantNet(tm): http://tenant.net
email: tenant@tenant.net

Information from TenantNet is from experienced non-attorney tenant activists and is not considered legal advice.

BRUSH Meeting and new website

From: Jarrendell
Date: Sun, 25 Jun 2006 02:31:44 EDT
Subject: Check out BRUSH - BUYERS AND RENTERS UNITED TO SAVE HARLEM
To: Jarrendell
CC: reysmont@yahoo.com


Click here: BRUSH - BUYERS AND RENTERS UNITED TO SAVE HARLEM

Saturday, June 10, 2006

MEETING!
TELL US OF YOUR LANDLORD'S GREATEST FAILURES!

WHEN: SATURDAY, AUGUST 12, 2006 @ 3:00PM

WHERE: RIVERBANK STATE PARK675 RIVERSIDE DRIVE @WEST 145TH STREET

AS A FOLLOW UP TO THE JOINT MEETING OF COMMUNITY BOARDS 9, 10, & 12 WE NEED TO MOVE FORWARD. COME BRING DOCUMENTS OF WHAT IS HAPPENING IN YOUR APARTMENT AND YOUR BUILDING. BRING COPIES (NOT ORGINALS) OF COURT PAPERS, COMPLAINT NUMBERS, LEGAL DOCUMENTS, HP ACTIONS, CITY AGENCY DOCUMENTS, REPAIRS HISTORIES, PHOTOS, VIDEOTAPES, AND ANY LETTERS RECEIVED OR SENT.

IF YOU CAN'T MAKE IT TO THE MEETING, EMAIL US...OR SEND DOCUMENT COPIES BY MAIL TO:

BRUSH
P.O. Box 98
New York, NY 10031

HAD ENOUGH! - JOIN BRUSH!
Broken or no locks; Broken mailboxes; Defective windows; Walls/ceilings/cracked/buckling/
holes; Lead paint; Leaks, Peeling paint in hallways or dirty hallways;Elevator not working; Stairs broken or loose; Mold; Garbage problemsFire escapes rusty / broken / defective / missing; Unsecured basement or roof; Exposed wiring; Rent overcharges;No rent receipts given; Rent receipts incomplete (no date);Inadequate or no super service, missing Co2 Detector

HAD ENOUGH! - JOIN BRUSH!ATTEMPTED AND QUESTIONABLE MCI’S, EVICTIONS, SUCCESSION ISSUES, OR ANY COURT ACTIONS.HAD ENOUGH! - JOIN BRUSH!

If your Landlord is harassing you in any form or fashion...HAD ENOUGH! - JOIN BRUSH!

posted by BRUSH @ 10:13 PM

Fw: Join Us: Oil-free Day of Action in New York

From: "dimiwi"
Date: Sun, 25 Jun 2006 03:04:15 GMT
To: reysmont@yahoo.com
Subject: Fw: Join Us: Oil-free Day of Action in New York

Jordi, FYI... ~diane wilson

---------- Forwarded Message ----------
We're hosting a National Day of Action Next Wednesday, June 28th, to expose Republican oil-corruption and tell Congress we want an "oil-free" future now. Can you join us?
Click Here

Dear MoveOn member,
We launched the campaign for an "Oil-free" Congress together, because it's time to move toward a clean energy future. But Republicans' addiction to oil money is holding us back.

Next Wednesday, June 28th, we're hosting a National Day of Action to keep the momentum going. We'll come together at gas stations across the country to expose Republican oil corruption and we're going to get lots of press attention. At all of the events, gas station visitors will leave well informed about who's responsible for our addiction to oil.

With more than 250 events already planned, we're off to a great start! Can you join an event near you? Here are the details for the closest event:

National Day of Action for an "Oil-Free" Congress

Where: W. 122nd & Frederic Douglas Ave.W. 122nd & St. Nicholas ave.New York, NY

When: Wednesday, 28 Jun 2006, 6:00 PM

Link to RSVP: http://political.moveon.org/event/oilfree/9340?id=8114-5375105-DFEYkU31sFUhZ2fLSoP6tg&t=3

Or click here to search for events near you:
http://political.moveon.org/event/oilfree/?search_zip=10031&id=8114-5375105-DFEYkU31sFUhZ2fLSoP6tg&t=4

Why are these events important? It's an election year and with gas prices rising and consumers feeling the pinch, Republican leaders will inevitably propose their standard slate of "solutions"—like opening up the Arctic to oil drilling and giving more tax-breaks to Exxon.

We need ideas that will make real progress on a clean energy future—not the same old ideas that keep us dependent on oil.

On Meet the Press this past Sunday, Shell's president clearly identified the problem. He said that he thinks energy independence is the "wrong direction" and he went on to say that he spends, "a lot more time on Capitol Hill" than at the White House pushing his agenda.

1 Republicans have taken millions in oil money and are pushing Big Oil's agenda as our national energy policy.

Congress needs to know that we're paying attention. We need them to start working for us, not Big Oil. Next Wednesday we're going to make it clear that we want an oil-free, clean energy future and we want it now.

Can you join us on our National Day of Action for an "Oil-Free" Congress?
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=1890&search_zip=10031&id=8114-5375105-DFEYkU31sFUhZ2fLSoP6tg&t=5

Breaking the addiction to oil is the first step towards energy independence and the clean energy future we all want.

Thanks for all you do,–Nita, Matt, Tom, Eli and the MoveOn.org Political Action Team Friday, June 23rd, 2006 Sources:
1. Meet the Press, Transcript, June 18th, 2006
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13296235/page/6/
Full Transcript: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13296235/

Support our member-driven organization: MoveOn.org Political Action is entirely funded by our 3.3 million members.

We have no corporate contributors, no foundation grants, no money from unions. Our tiny staff ensures that small contributions go a long way. If you'd like to support our work, you can give now at:
http://www.moveonpac.org/donate/email.html?id=8114-5375105-DFEYkU31sFUhZ2fLSoP6tg&t=6

PAID FOR BY MOVEON.ORG POLITICAL ACTION, http://political.moveon.org/?id=8114-5375105-DFEYkU31sFUhZ2fLSoP6tg&t=7
Not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee.

Urban planning icon taken out of context

Date: Sat, 24 Jun 2006 20:20:55 -0400
To:
From: "Tenant"
Subject: Urban planning icon taken out of context

Urban planning icon taken out of context
By IRWIN LOY, 24 HOURS

She's been name-dropped all week by city planners, average citizens
from unusual countries, the head of a UN organization, and even Prime
Minster Stephen Harper.

Jane Jacobs, the renowned urban thinker who passed away in April, has
almost reverential status among the more than 9,000 delegates at this
gigantic summit on city issues.

Politicians this week have slipped her quotes into speeches, even if
their governing policies arguably have little in common with Jacobs'
ideas.

It hasn't gone unnoticed by her son, Vancouver-resident Ned Jacobs.
"People are always trying to twist Jane's words to suit their needs,"
Ned Jacobs said.

But he won't be getting worked up over it.

"There are so many things Jane stood for that certainly Stephen
Harper doesn't represent, and certainly Gordon Campbell doesn't
represent," Jacobs said. "But I can't spend my life trying to correct
every misinterpretation or exploitation of her words."

http://vancouver.24hrs.ca/News/2006/06/23/1648517-sun.html
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
The Tenant Network(tm) for Residential Tenants
TenantNet(tm): http://tenant.net
email: tenant@tenant.net
Information from TenantNet is from experienced non-attorney tenant
activists and is not considered legal advice.

110 and 111 First St. - Towers? City close to settling with real estate mogul, may forgive millions of $$$ in fines

Date: Sat, 24 Jun 2006 20:07:12 -0400
To:
From: "Tenant"
Subject: Zoning with no balls. Reward harassing NYC landlord and destroy an arts district

110 and 111 First St. - Towers?
City close to settling with real estate mogul,
may forgive millions of $$$ in fines
Ricardo Kaulessar
Reporter staff writer 06/23/2006

A legal settlement is apparently in the works
between the owner of 111 First St. and Jersey
City government that could allow the landlord to
build luxury apartment towers and escape millions
of dollars of fines.

Lloyd Goldman, the owner of the former artists'
residences at 110 and 111 First St., has a
lawsuit pending against the city for $100 million
for stopping his intended demolition of the one
million square foot 111 First St. building in
order to build new housing on the site.

At the same time, Goldman has to contend with
over $70 million in fines levied by the city's
Fire Department for various building code violations.

City Council President Mariano Vega said on
Friday that the City Council at their next
meeting this coming Wednesday may approve a
resolution for the two parties to drop any
litigation between them and come to a settlement.

What the settlement would entail
Vega said the settlement would call for
amendments to the city's Powerhouse Arts District
(in which both properties are situated) that
would allow for three 40-plus story towers to be
built, with two on the 110 First St. property and
one on the 111 First St. and other measures.

The city's top lawyer, Bill Matsikoudis, and the
attorney for 111 First St. owner Dan Horgan, both
declined comment last week because there is
ongoing mediation regarding the legal disputes
between the two parties.

Mayor Jerramiah Healy said he couldn't comment on
a possible settlement because of the ongoing mediation.

However, some residents and politicians in recent
months have had private discussions with
Matsikoudis about a possible settlement. Some of
them are speaking up against it.

Also, Ward E City Councilman Steven Fulop on
Thursday addressed questions and concerns on the
future of 110 and 111 First St. at a meeting of
the recently formed Powerhouse Arts District
Neighborhood Association (PADNA).

Vega: Fines would be forgiven
Vega has been privy to the negotiations, which
have taken place since late last year, according
to various sources.

Vega said the settlement would call for
amendments to the Powerhouse Arts District to
allow Goldman to build the towers, since current
zoning prohibits such height.

"This has to come to an end sometime soon.
There's too money and too much time being spent
on this issue," said Vega. "But I think there's a
settlement that will be beneficial to all sides."

Vega said the settlement would call for fines to
be forgiven, for a 30 percent discount on any
luxury apartments in the towers if they were
built to accommodate artists, and at least a
million dollars to be paid to the city's
Affordable Housing Trust Fund, as well as
affordable housing units to be built within the towers.
He also said that at Mayor Healy's request, a
"world-class architect" would be retained by Goldman
to design the towers.

When asked about his reaction to the settlement
idea, Vega said that this is what is best for the city.

"At the end of the day, I know there will be
displeasure especially from the residents who
live in the Powerhouse Arts District," he said,
"but I have to look out for all the residents not
just a narrow band of people."

A Powerhouse of frustration and anger
Charles Kessler has lived in Downtown Jersey City
with his wife since 1982. Kessler has been
involved in the Jersey City arts scene for over
20 years and has worked with city planning to
create what is now the Powerhouse Arts District (see sidebar).
He says he would not like to see the end of an
area that could be a showcase for the city.

"The city should be defending their zoning," said
Kessler. "The thing that bothers me is that the
Powerhouse Arts District will be thrown out the
window, and it is thriving now."

Kessler cited new residents moving into the
recently opened buildings in the district, such
as 140 Bay St. and 150 Bay St., as well as two
art galleries. Also, there are future projects
approved by the Planning Board for the area.

Another major concern is that allowing Goldman to
build the towers would send a signal to other
developers who are planning to build in the
district that they should also be allowed to
build highrises instead of complying with the zoning.
Kessler said much of what he has learned about
the pending settlement has been from Matsikoudis,
with Kessler coming away frustrated whenever he
tried to impress upon Matsikoudis the need to save the district.

"There were two one-hour conversations and
several informal conversations, and it seemed to
me when we were talking, that he was practicing
his arguments for court," said Kessler. "I would
tell him 'Bill, you are not listening.' " But
Kessler conceded that Matsikoudis may have his
hands tied by Mayor Healy and by the lawyers for
Goldman. He complimented him for beating Goldman
in court last year when Goldman was pushing to get 111 First St.
demolished.

Powerhouse neighborhood organization
They may have only moved into the Powerhouse Arts
District in the last year, but the residents
there are making themselves known to the larger community.
They have formed the Powerhouse Arts District
Neighborhood Association (PADNA), with Rich Tomko
as their president.There are 90 active members of the PADNA.

There has been $75-$100 million of private
capital invested in the district in the last three years.
Tomko, who lives with his wife in the Morgan
Lighthouse building at 143 Morgan St., led a
PADNA meeting that took place on Thursday at the
Nobis Art Gallery on First Street.

At the meeting, about 30 members of the PADNA
were in attendance to question Ward E City
Councilman Steven Fulop about the proposed
settlement with Goldman. Fulop said that the
feedback he was getting from them would be
relayed to Matsikoudis and Vega in a morning
meeting on Friday.

Carrie Craft-Chu and her husband Robert moved
into 140 Bay St. in November. Craft-Chu, when
hearing about the settlement, uttered the prevailing
sentiment, "That's sucks."

She suggested that there should be litigation
against the city by the residents.

The couple later said they may consider moving
out, since they were attracted to the Powerhouse
Arts District by the lack of highrise buildings,
the arts element, and the cobblestone streets.

Legal fund
Jill Edelman, an architect who also lives in 140
Bay St., said after the meeting that a legal fund
has been forming for possible future litigation.

Many residents came to a consensus that they will
appear at the council meeting this coming
Wednesday to speak out against the settlement.

Ricardo Kaulessar can be reached at rkaulessar@hudsonreporter.com
Sidebar Powerhouse Arts District in jeopardy
The Powerhouse Arts District is 10 blocks of
historic warehouses that have been designated as
an arts and entertainment district, plus two more
adjoining blocks. The City Council approved the district in October
2004.

The district is designated to be a 24-hour,
pedestrian-friendly environment with loft-style
condos and rental units, restaurants, clubs,
galleries, theaters and of course work/live spaces for artists.
The district is bound approximately by Marin,
Washington, Second and Morgan streets.

The current redevelopment plan calls for height
limits of approximately 12 to 14 stories. Ten
percent of all new residential units in the
district are required to be affordable for low
and moderate-income artists. About 12 percent of
all ground floor space has to be set aside for art galleries.
©The Hudson Reporter 2006

http://www.hudsonreporter.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=16830420&BRD=1291&PAG=461&dept_id=523586&rfi=6
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
The Tenant Network(tm) for Residential Tenants
TenantNet(tm): http://tenant.net
email: tenant@tenant.net
Information from TenantNet is from experienced non-attorney tenant
activists and is not considered legal advice.

Executive Order: Protecting the Property Rights of the American People

From: "Nick Sprayregen"
To: "Jordi (George) Reyes-Montblanc"
Subject: PRESIDENT BUSH EXECUTIVE ORDER
Date: Sat, 24 Jun 2006 04:55:14 -0400

#message P

the WHITE HOUSE
President George W. Bush


For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
June 23, 2006

Executive Order: Protecting the Property Rights of the American People

By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, and to strengthen the rights of the American people against the taking of their private property, it is hereby ordered as follows:

Section 1. Policy. It is the policy of the United States to protect the rights of Americans to their private property, including by limiting the taking of private property by the Federal Government to situations in which the taking is for public use, with just compensation, and for the purpose of benefiting the general public and not merely for the purpose of advancing the economic interest of private parties to be given ownership or use of the property taken.

Sec. 2. Implementation. (a) The Attorney General shall:
(i) issue instructions to the heads of departments and agencies to implement the policy set forth in section 1 of this order; and
(ii) monitor takings by departments and agencies for compliance with the policy set forth in section 1 of this order.
(b) Heads of departments and agencies shall, to the extent permitted by law:
(i) comply with instructions issued under subsection (a)(i); and
(ii) provide to the Attorney General such information as the Attorney General determines necessary to carry out subsection (a)(ii).

Sec. 3. Specific Exclusions. Nothing in this order shall be construed to prohibit a taking of private property by the Federal Government, that otherwise complies with applicable law, for the purpose of:
(a) public ownership or exclusive use of the property by the public, such as for a public medical facility, roadway, park, forest, governmental office building, or military reservation;
(b) projects designated for public, common carrier, public transportation, or public utility use, including those for which a fee is assessed, that serve the general public and are subject to regulation by a governmental entity;
c) conveying the property to a nongovernmental entity, such as a telecommunications or transportation common carrier, that makes the property available for use by the general public as of right;
(d) preventing or mitigating a harmful use of land that constitutes a threat to public health, safety, or the environment;
(e) acquiring abandoned property;
(f) quieting title to real property;
(g) acquiring ownership or use by a public utility;
(h) facilitating the disposal or exchange of Federal property; or
(i) meeting military, law enforcement, public safety, public transportation, or public health emergencies.

Sec. 4. General Provisions. (a) This order shall be implemented consistent with applicable law and subject to the availability of appropriations.
(b) Nothing in this order shall be construed to impair or otherwise affect:
(i) authority granted by law to a department or agency or the head thereof; or
(ii) functions of the Director of the Office of Management and Budget relating to budget, administrative, or legislative proposals.

(c) This order shall be implemented in a manner consistent with Executive Order 12630 of March 15, 1988.

(d) This order is not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity against the United States, its departments, agencies, entities, officers, employees, or agents, or any other person.

GEORGE W. BUSH
THE WHITE HOUSE,
June 23, 2006.

# # #

Return to this article at:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/06/20060623-10.html

Save the 104th Street Automat! Designation Hearing on Tuesday, June 27

Mvilleheritage@aol.com wrote:

From: Mvilleheritage@aol.com
Date: Sat, 24 Jun 2006 02:30:25 EDT
Subject: Fwd: FW: Save the 104th Street Automat! Designation Hearing on Tuesday, June 27
To: undisclosed-recipients:;fyi

Date: Fri, 23 Jun 2006 17:02:25 -0400
Subject: FW: Save the 104th Street Automat! Designation Hearing onTuesday, June 27
From: Justin Ferate jferatetours@earthlink.net
To: Touring Friends ,Touring Friends - AOL jferatetours@earthlink.net

Dear Friends,
Below this note is a memorandum from Landmark West! regarding the upcoming hearing regarding the former Horn and Hardart Automat on Broadway at West 104th Street. We have already lost the handsome Horn and Hardart Building on West 57th Street.For those for whom the importance of this structure to American history, please pick up a copy of Lorraine Diehl’s often delicious (she includes recipes) book about the history and the nostalgia of Horn and Hardart.

The Automat: The History, Recipes, and Allure of Horn & Hardart's Masterpiece
Lorraine B. Diehl and Marianne HardartHere’s a website for more information: http://www.theautomat.net/

All my best to you all and “God bless the nickel-thrower!” (Read the book to discover who this mystery woman is!)Justin

From: LANDMARK WEST!
landmarkwest@landmarkwest.org
Reply-To: landmarkwest@landmarkwest.org
Date: Fri, 23 Jun 2006 00:01:39 -0400
To: LANDMARK WEST! landmarkwest@landmarkwest.org
Subject: Save the 104th Street Automat! Designation Hearing on Tuesday, June 27

We have just learned that the Landmarks Preservation Commission will hold a public hearing on Tuesday, June 27 to consider the designation of the former Horn and Hardart Automat at 2710-14 Broadway and West 104th Street. Make your voice heard! This is a chance to make amends for the devastating loss of the fantastic Art Moderne H&H automat at 104 West 57th Street.

Please plan to attend Tuesday’s hearing at the Landmarks Preservation Commission located at 1 Centre Street, 9th Floor North. The hearing is scheduled for 9:30 a.m., but check the Commission’s website (http://www.nyc.gov/html/lpc/html/working_with/calendar.shtml) for the most up-to-date information.

If you cannot attend the hearing, show your support by emailing Robert Tierney, Chair of the Landmarks Preservation Commission, at rtierney@lpc.nyc.gov or write a letter of support addressed to: Hon. Robert Tierney, Chair, Landmarks Preservation Commission, 1 Centre Street, 9th Floor, New York, NY 10007.

Please carbon-copy LANDMARK WEST! on any correspondence you send. Architectural Significance: This building, built in 1930 and designed by F.P. Flatt and Brothers, is an intact surviving example of automat architecture at its best and is most noticeable for its impressive polychrome terracotta Art Deco ornament. The façade features joyous Art Deco floral patterns and stylized versions of ancient Mayan motifs. As with many other automats, its iconic façade centers around a monumental, glassy portal that was designed to expose the shiny, mechanized interiors—a brilliant case of architecture as advertisement.

Automats were once a ubiquitous building type in Manhattan, but the 104th Street Automat is one of the few in Manhattan that survive. Among countless other losses is the former Horn and Hardart automat at 104 West 57th Street that is currently being demolished despite preservation advocacy efforts dating back to the early 1980s. The characteristic streamlined facades of automats offer variety to the streetscape as well as tell an important part of our city’s history, but their low scale threatens their survival and makes them vulnerable to redevelopment.

Cultural Significance: For over six decades the Horn & Hardart Automat chain was known for its inexpensive, consistent meals that could be dispensed in seconds. After opening their first lunchroom in 1888, Joseph V. Horn and Frank Hardart were inspired by a visit to Berlin’s famous waiterless restaurant and opened their first automat in Philadelphia in 1902. The opening of a large automat in Times Square in 1912 catapulted the business to national fame.

Atits height, Horn and Hardart served as many as 800,000 meals a day, although it only operated automats in Philadelphia, New York and several cities in New Jersey. Horn & Hardart automats became so iconic that they were referred to in both plays and movies.

Business began to slow down during the 1960s, resulting in the closure of numerous automats. A single automat managed to survive for another three decades but closed in 1991. The automat remains vividly alive in today’s culture through nostalgic books, websites and recipes, but sadly only a tiny handful of original structures survive.

DEP Land Management to Auction Used Rowboats

This is the NYC.gov News You Requested For: "Auctions and Sealed Bids"
June 16, 2006

DEP Land Management to Auction Used Rowboats
Rowboats abandoned on Water Supply Lands are occasionally made available at public auction. The City of New York will auction used rowboats at four Land Management Field Offices in Ashokan, Schoharie, Grahamsville, and Mahopac. Boats will be shown from June 12 through the 17, and bid proposals are due by June 26. More


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Broadway Under the Stars

June 21, 2006

This is the NYC.gov News You Requested For: "GENERAL NEW YORK CITY NEWS & EVENTS"

Broadway Under the Stars

Broadway Under the Stars will kick-off the outdoor concert season at 8pm on Monday, June 26th on Central Park's Great Lawn with a free evening of all-star entertainment featuring songs from the productions of legendary director and producer Harold Prince whose work includes Cabaret, Damn Yankees, Evita, Fiddler on the Roof, The Pajama Game, Sweeney Todd, The Phantom of the Opera and West Side Story.

Performances by Michael Cerveris, John Cullum, Christine Ebersole, Sutton Foster, Shuler Hensley, Brian d'Arcy James, Jane Krakowski, Rebecca Luker, Bebe Neuwirth, the cast of this year's Tony Award-winning "Jersey Boys" and more.

Broadway Under the Stars will be directed by Tony nominated Jeff Calhoun, choreographed by Chase Brock and the live orchestra will be led by Music Director Phil Reno. A fireworks finale will follow the performance. Produced by NYC & Company and The League of American Theatres and Producers, Inc. and presented by Target. (Note: Public can enter the park from West 81st Street at Central Park West or East 79th Street at Fifth Avenue. Persons with disabilities seating area entrance: East 84th Street at Fifth Avenue.)

In the event of rain or wet lawn conditions, the performance may be forced to cancel. Please check http://www.nycvisit.com/ day-of for more information. All bags and packages are subject to random security check.

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PS 64 CHARAS/El Bohio Landmark Designation

Date: Thu, 22 Jun 2006 07:44:17 -0400
To:
From: "Kitchen"
Subject: Landmark designation policy

MEMO from Christabel Gough (who monitors the Landmarks Commission for
the Society for the Architecture of the City):

RE: Interesting policy discussion.

Yesterday (June 20, 2006) the Landmarks Commission designated PS 64
CHARAS/El Bohio. Commissioner Roberta Brandes Gratz explained her
vote in these words:

The designation of PS 64 will be one of the most significant
decisions of the Landmarks Preservation Commission in recent
years. For the first time, the commission will be recognizing a
building not only of enormous architectural merit but one of unique
cultural significance that for the first time acknowledges and
celebrates the contribution to the robust regeneration of our city
made by community-based efforts.

First as a newspaper reporter and then as a book author, I personally
observed and wrote about the birth of the community revitalization
movement in this city and the country that took place in the late
1960s and early 1970s. While landlords neglected, abandoned or
burned-for-profit their properties in poor neighborhoods, groups of
local residents took over deteriorating buildings, cleaned them out,
made them habitable and repopulated neighborhoods that the experts
said should be torn down and land-banked. City officials turned
their back on these neighborhoods as hopeless.
Local residents knew better.

Some of the earliest and most significant efforts of this grass
roots, self-help movement took place on the Lower East Side and PS 64
was central to this activity. After the city closed this
architecturally-eyecatching French Renaissance Revival brick
building, it served as a unique incubator for the community-based
programs that saved the neighborhoods and, in turn, the larger
city. Adopt-A-Building, CHARAS/El Bohio and a multitude of smaller
efforts anchored the local population, engaged their energy in "sweat
equity," gave them hope and in so doing created the revitalization
momentum that professional planners and politicians had no clue how
to do. Eventually, the city responded positively with a multitude of
reinvestment policies that aided and built upon local successes.

PS 64 was the physical and symbolic center of the local activity that
reclaimed and restored both ordinary tenements and historic
buildings. It was sheer folly of the last Administration to auction
off this building, cutting short its productive life as a focal point
of community innovation, energy and growth.

These grass roots efforts to rehabilitate, re-inhabit and revitalize
city neighborhoods from the Lower East Side to the South Bronx spread
across the country. The empowerment of local residents of blighted
neighborhoods to improve their own buildings and communities evolved
into the urban homesteading movement credited with saving more
communities than the experts dreamed possible. Thus, PS 64 is not
only a New York City landmark in the broadest and most unique sense
of the term, it is a national landmark in the post-World War II
struggle to save American cities.

The draft designation report does a thorough and fascinating job
detailing the many levels of historic and architectural significance
of PS 64: the inclusion of community-engaging features, such as the
auditorium; the importance of the H-Plan; the classically-inspired
ornament such as keystones, rustication, bracketed sills and
pediments over the dormers that emphasize its dominant focus in the
neighborhood; and the crucial role this school played in helping
generations of immigrants make the transition into American
society. But it should be noted that no amount of stripping away of
the architectural detailing, such as the white terra cotta trim, can
diminish its importance. From the red brick walls to the mortar in
its joints, the importance is secure.

The historic preservation movement has come a long way from its
beginnings when only the most precious buildings were thought worthy
of designation. Since the city's very limited landmarks law was
passed in 1965, first residential and then industrial neighborhoods
were recognized as worthy of preservation. Not till the 1970s did
interiors and landscapes join the designatable list. And through
most of the 1980s, it was difficult to save many extraordinary Art
Deco buildings. The Empire State Building and Rockefeller Center
were not designated until the 1980s. More recently, the cultural
significance of historic buildings has gained recognition as being of
equal value to their architectural merit. And currently, attention
is increasingly focused on the landmark value of Post-War modern
buildings.

With the designation of PS 64, recognition of the importance of the
grass roots community and historic preservation movements comes front
and center. It is long overdue.

Designating PS 64 won't by any stretch of the imagination stop
development on the Lower East Side; it will, however, stop
inappropriate development and make the appropriate and beneficial
possible. And, as I said following the public hearing, the
outpouring of that community was the strongest and most amazing
expression of local concern for the preservation of a landmark in an
ethnically and economically-mixed community that I have witnessed.

No professional, outside expert can define better than the local
resident what is significant in a local community.

Ironically, property owners and developers across the city are today
reaping great profits from the early preservation efforts of the very
residents and local businesses now threatened with
displacement. Officially, the city has been slow to recognize and
honor this history. Designation of PS 64 would be a step in this
long-overdue direction. This is a shining moment for the Landmarks
Commission and I'm pleased to be part of it and to vote aye.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
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Columbia, gem of West Harlem

Date: Thu, 22 Jun 2006 07:06:02 -0700 (PDT)
From: "J Reyes-Montblanc"
Subject: Columbia, gem of West Harlem
To: voicers@edit.nydailynews.com.

Dear Editor:

Thank you for this June 19th editorial "Columbia the gem of West Harlem" which reflects so many mythical misconceptions and mis-information that are taken by many in the unkwnowing public to be facts and which I will take this opportunity to clarify and de-mythify them.

First - Columbia University has been located in West Harlem for over 100 years in our historic neighborhood called Morningside Heights. So Columbia is not coming to West Harlem, it has been here all along. West Harlem if the home of the highest concentration of quality instituions of higher learning including Columbia and sadly congruently the worst public schools in the City.

Second - Community Board 9 Manhattan is "West Harlem" which is composed of our well known historic neighborhoods of Morningside Heights, Manhattanville (a small portion of which is Columbia's expansion target area), Hamilton Heights and the newly designated Sugar Hill.

Third - The "tattered swath of West Harlem" [West Manhattanville], to which you refer, is actually the creation and fabrication of Columbia University and their properties are the most "tattered" of all. Most if not all vacant buildings in the area belong to Columbia University and the loss of businesses and local employment has been a sore point in our community for the 25 or 30 years CU has been quietly acquiring and decommissioning properties there.

West Manhattanville may not be pretty, granted, but it is a vibrant, economically viable area, that provides homes, employment and services needed not only by the residents of West Harlem by many Manhattan residents as well.

The impact on affordable housing for West Harlem residents income levels will be catastrophic and tenant displacement in Manhattanville and Hamilton Heights are already beginning to be felt not only in CB9M but also in the adjacent CB10M (Central Harlem) and CB12M (Washington Heights/Inwood) districts.

Fourth - All those "shopworn warehouses, auto repair shops and a couple of gas stations" are the mainstay tax-base and employment source of West Manhattanville as Columbia's properties are tax excempted, vacant shells belonging to a "not-for-profit" institution. Further as Columbia acquires more property the tax-base of West Manhattanville is further eroded and local jobs disappear. These industrial jobs are highly desired and within the educational attainment of our residents while the much promised Columbia's 9000 jobs, will be scientific, professional, academic, technical and very few current residents of West Harlem will qualify or even be considered to fill them, except for the janitorial, maintenance and perhaps security jobs, if at all, while the good paying industrial local jobs will have disappeared.

Fifth - That Columbia is cramped for space is regretable and no one is suggesting that they should not expand, what concerns the West Harlem community is the effects of that expansion, concerns which your editorial so esily ignores altogether. Concerns about job loss, tenant displacement, community affordable housing, hazardous research labs, unwarranted threat of eminent domain to intimidate and harass local property owners to sell to Columbia and many other issues which you do not address at all in your glorification of the Columbia's Manhattanville Plan.

The West Harlem community, over a period of many years developed our own vision for the development of West Harlem, our 197-a Plan allows Columbia's expansion as a good neighbor co-existing with the long-time industrial and residential residents and without the many noxious effects anticipated in the Columbia Manhattanville Plan.

Sixth - "Harlem leaders" have nothing to say about what will or will not transpire in West Harlem between the community and Columbia. Development in Central Harlem, Washington Heights/Inwood and East Harlem are their business and their responsibility, their development has never been discussed with West Harlem leadership; so there is no obligation, except for our mutual affection, respect and courtesy to even consider what "Harlem Leaders" have to say about developments in West Harlem however, when overlapping interests coincide, our communities have never failed to work together and will continue to do so in the future, just as we are doing in the "125th Street River to River Plan".

Seventh - The West Harlem LDC, whose creation was facilitated by CB9M, will, when fully empaneled, be reflective of the most wide representation of West Harlem local interests working together for the benefit of all the citizens of West Harlem.

CB9M will address all the land use issues when the land use review period starts and has been in conversations with Columbia's technical people throughout the last 30 months and will continue to address those isssues with Columbia the gem of West Harlem.

Sincerely,


Jordi (George) Reyes-Montblanc, Chair
Community Board 9 Manhattan
565 West 125th Street
New York, NY 10027-2301
CB9M Tel: (212) 864-6200
CB9M Fax: 212-662-7396
JRM Tel: (212) 862-5051
JRM Fax: 212-926-1765
Reysmont@Yahoo.com

http://cb9m.blogspot.com/

www.neighborhoodlink.com/manhattan/com9

CB9M Calendar


http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ideas_opinions/story/427791p-360759c.html


Columbia, gem of West Harlem

Columbia University is on the brink of a multibillion-dollar expansion aimed at maintaining the school as a preeminent 21st century institution while transforming a tattered swath of West Harlem into a vibrant source of learning - and jobs.

The university has purchased most of the properties west of Broadway between 125th and 133rd Sts. and is seeking to have the area rezoned. Where there are now shopworn warehouses, auto repair shops and a couple of gas stations, Columbia would erect an open campus, including a world-class center dedicated to studying the brain in the hope of finding cures for Parkinson's, Alzheimer's and other diseases of the mind.

Columbia's expansion would be a boon to the city at large and to Harlem in particular. The university, occupying chronically tight quarters, needs room to attract tomorrow's scholars to New York. And the benefits to the locals start with land on which the city Education Department could open a competitive high school with seats reserved for the neighborhood's best and brightest.

In the first phase of Columbia's plan, which is still being shaped in discussions with the city and the Harlem planning board, the university would build the mind-brain institute, relocate its business school, construct housing for faculty and students, and open a square block of public space, modeled on Bryant Park. The streets would remain open to the public, facilitating access to the Hudson River. Retail stores would line the ground level in many places.

All in all, Columbia President Lee Bollinger has devised the outlines of a campus that would mesh nicely with the community and has acquired the tract with a minimum of fuss. The university is negotiating to buy more properties, and Bollinger says he intends to do so without asking the state to step in and exercise the power of eminent domain. That is as it should be at the moment.

Now it's time for Harlem leaders to help shape the future of an important corner of the city. Community Board 9 has formed a local development corporation that will negotiate a so-called community benefits agreement with the university. The group's 13-member board already has representatives from property owners and tenant associations, with about half the seats remaining to be filled.

The board will have much to discuss with the university - for example, employment on the new campus for Harlem residents or access to superior health care services. So far, all players seem to be proceeding in good faith. Here's hoping that progress continues, in what could be a win-win-win for Columbia, Harlem and the city.


You can e-mail the Daily News editors at voicers@edit.nydailynews.com. Please include your full name, address and phone number. The Daily News reserves the right to edit letters. The shorter the letter, the better the chance it will be used.

Originally published on June 19, 2006

ATTENTION : DOT Road Work and Bridge Demolition within CB9M

New York City
Department of Transportation
Iris Weinshall, Commissioner

Division of Bridges
2 Rector Street – 8th Floor
New York, New York 10006
Tel: 212/788-2100 Fax: 212/788-9015


Web: www.nyc.gov/dot

Important Notice

New York City Department of Transportation Division of Bridges
Demolition of the West 151st Street Footbridge (Abandoned) / Conrail-Amtrak, Manhattan

Contract No. (HBCYO95) Borough of Manhattan Community Board #10 June 19-23, 2006

Commencing the week of June 19th, the New York City Department of Transportation Division of Bridges will begin single lane closures on the northbound Henry Hudson Parkway for demolition work of the footbridge at W. 151st Street.

Currently the contractor is mobilizing construction equipment in the area. The preparatory work for demolition will begin with the removal of both the approaches and the components. We will finish the project with the complete removal of the bridge and restoration of the surrounding area. This project is expected to be completed by June 23, 2006. This bridge is owned by the Department of Parks & Recreation. NYSDOT is planning to build another pedestrian bridge in the vicinity of this location in the near future.

The general hours of operation will be Monday through Friday, 11:00 P.M.–5:00 AM.

Regular updates will be provided as the project develops. Questions relating to this project may be addressed to:


Sudhir Jariwala, P.E. (917)559-1329

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^


Subject: Milling/Paving Schedule for CB 9 - Riverside Drive
Date: Tue, 20 Jun 2006 11:51:28 -0400
From: "Orzeck, Josh"
To: nyc-cb9m@juno.com
CC: "Roveto, Scott" , "Forgione, Margaret" , reysmont@yahoo.com


We are going to start repaving working on Riverside Drive from 119th Street to 12 Avenue, this milling could start as early as 6/28/06 thru 7/5/06 excluding the July 4th Holiday. I would like to know if there are any concerns for this work.
We will continue work in CB9 for the rest of July
Thanks,

Josh

Josh Orzeck
Community Coordinator
NYC Department of Transportation
Office of the Manhattan Borough Commissioner
212/487-3085


***********************************************************
This message and any attachments are solely for the individual(s) named above and others who have been specifically authorized to receive such and may contain information which is confidential, privileged or exempt from disclosure under applicable law. If you are not the intended recipient, any disclosure, copying, use or distribution of the information included in this message and any attachments is strictly prohibited. If you have received this communication in error, please notify us by reply e-mail and immediately and permanently delete this message and any attachments.
Thank you.

NYC – Department of Transportation

Ax rent hikes, tenants howl

From: Jarrendell
Date: Tue, 20 Jun 2006 16:23:28 EDT
Subject: [orgs] yesteday's RGB meeting - articles in English
To: reysmont@hdfccentral.org


Ax rent hikes, tenants howl

Calling affordable housing in New York City "a crisis," hundreds of city tenants urged the Rent Guidelines Board yesterday to reject a proposed rent hike between 3% and 8.5% for rent-stabilized apartments.

"We cannot afford another increase," said Ursula Morgan of Norwood, the Bronx, during a public hearing at Hostos Community College. "If you want to see a city full of homeless people, keep raising the rent, and that's what's going to happen."

The board is considering raising rents between 3% to 6.5% for one-year leases and between 5% to 8.5% for two-year leases. The board will vote June 27 on any increases, which will take effect Oct. 1.

The board entertained comments from the public for several hours at a sometimes raucous hearing. Tenants chanted, "Freeze the rents" while holding signs that read, "We have to survive. Zero increase" and "Landlords don't need big rent hikes."

Audience members hissed Eamon Toscano, a landlord in the north Bronx, who asked the board for a 10% rent increase to help cope with rising costs for oil and insurance.

"When we pay all the bills, there's not much left," Toscano said.

According to the Rent Stabilization Association, a landlord group, the average rent in the Bronx is $674 a month - nearly $200 below the city average.

But Adele Bender of Queens argued that tenants shoulder much of the burden.

"I know the landlords talk about their expenses, but what about our expenses?" she said.

City Council Speaker Christine Quinn (D-Manhattan) denounced the proposed hikes and urged the board to "dramatically reconsider."

The board will hold another public hearing from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Thursday at the Great Hall at Cooper Union in Manhattan.

Tracy Swartz

Originally published on June 20, 2006

Community-Benefits Agreement Talks on Horizon

Columbia Spectator
Home > News

Community-Benefits Agreement Talks on Horizon
Local Development Corporation, Which Will Negotiate With Columbia on Expansion, Formed
By Erin Durkin
Issue date: 6/20/06 Section: News

Representatives of the Manhattanville community have formed a local development corporation which will negotiate toward a community-benefits agreement with Columbiastarting this summer.

The local development corporation was formally established in March, but an announcement Monday by Community Board 9, Councilman Robert Jackson ( D-Washington Heights ), and the New York City Economic Development Corporation indicated readiness to begin the long-delayed negotiations originally slated for last January.

At the request of Jackson and CB9, Columbia has waited for the LDC to be ready before entering discussions about community benefits. A community-benefits agreement is a pact in which a developer promises to provide certain perks to people who live and work in the neighborhood where it plans to build. Each one has different components, but agreements reached in other parts of the city have generally included promises to build affordable housing and to set aside jobs for local residents.

Columbia 's plan to build a new campus on 17 acres in the Manhattanville section of West Harlem has generated significant community opposition, and the University hopes that a benefits package will mollify some critics. To go forward with its expansion, Columbia needs approval from the city to rezone the area, which would be attained through the Uniform Land Use Review Procedure.

CB9 has an advisory vote in this process, but Chair Jordi Reyes-Montblanc said, "There is no possibility of a quid pro quo, that we'll pass the ULURP if they do this or that."

Reyes-Montblanc said that community-benefits agreement negotiations can begin in the coming weeks because of a series of meetings held between technical advisers to Columbia and CB9, which compared the University's development plan with the board's 197-a plan. "Columbia finally came to the table, and we sat down and had a number of technical reviews. And we feel that we know exactly where we agree and where we disagree," he said. "Now there is something to talk about."

Though negotiating sessions have not yet been scheduled, Reyes-Montblanc said that "we expect that once things start to happen they will happen pretty fast."

Six of the 13 seats on the local development corporation, which is capable of entering into a legally binding agreement, have been filled so far. Its current members are Reyes-Montblanc; Patricia Jones, chair of CB9's 197-a committee; Maritta Dunn of Manhattanville Houses Residents Association; Julio Batista of the Housing Development Fund Co-op Council; Sarah Martin, the president of Grant Houses Residents Association; and Debbie Brown of Manhattanville Area Consortium of Businesses.

Nine seats must be filled to achieve a quorum before negotiations begin. The local development corporation is currently looking at representatives of commercial and residential property owners, tenant associations, cultural and arts associations, and faith-based organizations to fill the remaining seats. It is also assisted by John Bickerman, a conflict resolution expert appointed by the city.

As to what an ideal agreement would look like, Reyes-Montblanc said, "I haven't the foggiest idea." "This will be dictated by the circumstances, discussions with Columbia, what they want, what the community wants, who will blink first," he said.

Jackson said in a statement: "Manhattanville can be a model for how to balance the interests of our City's communities and its large institutions. By negotiating in good faith, I am confident that we can craft an agreement that meets the community's needs while ensuring Columbia's long-term viability. I am optimistic that we will be able to resolve the outstanding issues."

Martin Smith, Jackson 's director of constituent services, said that while the councilman played an integral role in establishing the local development corporation, he would let it chart its own course. "Robert will support whatever it is [they agree to]," he said. University President Lee Bollinger said in a statement: "We welcome the formation of the Local Development Corporation, acknowledge the great amount of work which has already been done, and look forward to completing our work together to achieve a shared vision of the future for the Manhattanville area."

Martin, the Grant Houses president, said that her first priority in an agreement would be "letting people stay where they are if they want to." As it currently stands, the expansion plan will displace many residential tenants and businesses from the expansion zone.

In addition, she said, "We're trying to see how we can get them to do something about the lab," saying she would look for a commitment to build only biosafety Level 1 and 2 labs. "Further down the road at the end of the day, there'll be talk about jobs," she said.

While players in the upcoming negotiations expressed optimism, Tom Demott of the Coalition to Preserve Community, which has opposed the expansion, cautioned that, "People shouldn't delude themselves into thinking that these vast differences don't exist and that there's some magical ... agreement that can be reached that can erase that."

Dirty Secrets of China's Economy

Date: Sat, 17 Jun 2006 22:41:56 -0400
To:
From: "Kitchen"
Subject: Biz Week: Dirty Secrets of China's Economy

By Brian Bremner
The Dirty Secret of China's Economy
Business Week Online
June 16, 2006

The mainland's rapid growth has only worsened its
environmental problems, and the government
expects pollution to quadruple by 2020
http://www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/content/jun2006/gb20060616_397339.htm?chan=topStories_ssi_5

The 2008 Beijing Olympics is being billed as one
of those glorious defining moments in history
that will signal China's arrival as an economic
power. But what if the global media pack and the
millions of tourists who descend on China two
years from now take away a less-than-flattering
impression of the Middle Kingdom?

Yes, China is a remarkable growth story. But it
is also fast becoming an ecological wasteland,
home to world-class smog, acid rain, polluted
rivers and lakes, and deforestation.

Environmental problems play a role in the death
of some 300,000 Chinese people each year, according to World Bank
estimates.

China's torrid growth statistics­the mainland
clocked 10%-plus growth in the first quarter­also
mask the huge economic costs of this evolving
environmental crisis. On June 5, China's State
Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA)
issued a report that the mainland's pollution
scourge costs the country roughly $200 billion a
year, or some 10% in gross domestic product, from
lost work productivity, health problems, and
government outlays. That is a staggering admission.

DEEP IMPACT China, of course, isn't the first
high-speed developing economy to grapple with the
tradeoffs between prosperity that lifts millions
out of poverty and environmental damage that
degrades living standards (see BusinessWeek.com,
2/27/06, "Is Beijing Greedy for Oil?"). Think of
Japan in the 1960s. What's different is China's
outsized impact on the global environment.

China's economy is only about one-fifth the size
of the U.S, but is already the second biggest
emitter of carbon dioxide in the world, second
only to the U.S. China's emissions jumped 33%
during a 10-year period ended in 2002, according
to the latest World Bank figures. A miasma of
dirty air from China is spreading across East
Asia and even reaching the West Coast of the U.S.

There is no denying that Chinese President Hu
Jintao's government takes the problem seriously.
Not only is it bad for the mainland's
international image, but it could be an explosive
political issue later in the decade if left unresolved.

RENEGADE POLLUTERS Pan Yue, vice-minister of
SEPA, predicted last summer at an environmental
conference in Beijing that "the pollution load of
China will quadruple by 2020" if nothing is done.

Some 20% of the population lives in "severely
polluted" areas, according to SEPA estimates, and
70% of the country's rivers and lakes are in grim
shape, figures the World Bank.

Changing all this will require a tremendous
amount of political focus by Beijing. It will
need to crack down on environmental renegades
inside Chinese industry, encourage a move from
high-sulfur coal as the mainland's primary energy
source, and push to secure the most
environmentally friendly technologies from abroad
(see BusinessWeek.com, 8/22/05, "A Big Dirty Growth Engine").

The "policy elite has realized that China, with
its huge scale of economic development and
emissions, cannot consume energy and pollute the
earth the way traditional economies have done in
the past," says Wenran Jiang, director of the
China Institute at the University of Alberta,
Canada, who made a presentation on climate change
in early June to Chinese and World Bank officials.

PRESSURE TO COMPLY The good news is that some
effective measures can be taken without huge
outlays of government spending. Last November,
for instance, China agreed to expand a promising
pilot program, dubbed GreenWatch, started in
1998, from 22 cities to nationwide by 2010. The
program is designed to expose the worst
industrial polluters by publicly disclosing
once-confidential information on factory
emissions, and by ranking companies on their environmental performance.

The idea is that public pressure on the laggards
will yield improvement. Some sort of pressure is
desperately needed in China, where 60% of
companies violate mainland emission rules,
according to data compiled by World Bank senior
environmental economist Hua Wang, who wrote a
recent paper on the program. Similar approaches
launched in the mid-1990s by the Philippines and
Indonesia improved corporate emission law
compliance by 50% and 24%, respectively, Hua points out.

Relocating heavy industries like steel away from
population centers is another option. In early
2005, for instance, the government ordered
Beijing-based steelmaker Shougang Group to wind
down its iron and smelting operation in the
capital by 2007 and transfer the facilities out
of the city. Shougang plants, mainly fueled by
coal, belch out 18,000 tons of dust and contaminants a year.

PLAN FOR NUCLEAR While China can't do much about
its ravenous energy demand, it could do a far
better job of shifting to cleaner technologies
and using its power more efficiently. China
consumes more than three times the world energy
average to produce one dollar of gross domestic
product­4.7 times the average for the U.S., 7.7
times the average for Germany, and 11.5 times the
average for Japan (see BusinessWeek.com, 4/11/05, "China's Wasteful
Ways").

Beijing has mapped out a plan that calls for
hiking reliance on natural gas from 3% to 10% by
2020. Plants fired by gas burn fuel twice as
efficiently as turbines fired by coal, which now
accounts for two-thirds of China's fuel. The plan
also calls for building 30 new nuclear reactors.

Cummins (CMI ) imports and makes diesel engines
for mainland buses that are 30% more efficient than gas engines.
Royal Dutch Shell Group (RD ) is licensing
technology to fertilizer plants that converts
coal into synthetic gas, which burns more
efficiently. General Electric (GE ) is making a
killing selling gas turbines. And both GE and
Veolia, of France, are marketing technologies
that will harness the methane gas produced from
decomposing garbage and sewage, as well as the
huge amounts of gas that escape from China's coal mines.

PROFIT OR PRIDE? That said, there are some
inside the Chinese government who think the
country should get rich first and leave the
environmental clean-up for another day. Skeptics
wonder whether post-Olympics Beijing will lose interest.

"The world will either benefit from a responsible
rising China or it will suffer from a China that
continues to pursue profits at the expense of the
climate and environment," says the University of
Alberta's Jiang. It will also make a critical
difference to the lives of millions of ordinary Chinese citizens.

Comments
Nickname: Pffefer
Review: "China's large wild animals have been
wiped out except for areas in the north and
southwest. Small mammals, birds, and even insects
are almost non-existant in the cities." Are you
kidding me? Where the heck did you go in the PRC?
I know many people who own pets, and here in my
yard I have tons of insects, right in the middle
of Beijing! Some ignorant Westerner making
ridiculous generalizations after two weeks in
China. Well, that is not new, is it?
Date reviewed: Jun 17, 2006 9:55 PM

Nickname: China Law Blog
Review: I have no doubt that the Chinese
government in Beijing (and Shanghai too) is
serious about cleaning up the environment.

However, I have real doubts that their sincerity
will be enough to move the intractable
bureaucrats and industrialists to really do
anything. It is going to get a lot worse before
it starts getting better. www.chinalawblog.com
Date reviewed: Jun 17, 2006 8:53 PM

Nickname: grey
Review: For those saying "look to yourself
first," you obviously have not been to both the
US and China. Maybe China is #No. 2 in CO2
emissions, but trust me, they are #No. 1 in
pollution, in general. The cities are especially
horrifying. I am extremely happy that my company
no longer forces me to go to China.
Date reviewed: Jun 17, 2006 8:07 PM

Nickname: Kansan-boy
Review: The article seems to imply that China's
central government can act independently outside
of vested interests. However, the "some" inside
government who view profit first (last paragraph)
are not simply just a few policy contrarians.

Many, if not most, high-ranking officials have
connections within private industry, as well as
the state sector--which is common throughout
Asia. We can see more clearly if we stop looking through only a Western
lens.
Date reviewed: Jun 17, 2006 6:22 PM

Nickname: HuDiNi
Review: Having been to the region, I've seen
first hand, how bad it is! Not only China, but
Indonesia as well, has such poor air quality that
traffic cops need to put on face masks or choke!
But as for the economy: U.S.A. = $11 trillion.
Japan = $5 trillion. China only $1.5 trillion.
Foolish people jump at China's growth rate of
10%. America's rate of only 4%, equates to four
times that of China. But it's rates that are
looked at, not the totals. What America throws
away, China could never take in! Our American
social programs are larger than the total economy
of India and more than the growth rate of China.
So have no fear of China overtaking the economy.

They could never catch up! You're welcome!
Date reviewed: Jun 17, 2006 6:16 PM

Nickname: Andre
Review: "Before critizing China for the
environmental problems it causes we should
seriously think of the USA and its incredibly
high pollution rates. First, look at yourself,
then tell others to do right." The US has pretty
stringent pollution controls in line with just
about every other civilized country. It's the
current race to the bottom that's leading to
worldwide dismantlement of vital environmental
safeguards. China can't implement any meaningful
pollution controls because every other poor
country will jump at the opportunity to capture
some business. Nor can the developed countries
strengthen their pollution rules for fear of
driving away even more companies to places like China.
Date reviewed: Jun 17, 2006 4:57 PM

Nickname: cr@ig
Review: Hello all, I just returned from a
two-week vacation in China. My wife and I
traveled from Bejing to Shanghi by train and bus.

We have been back for a week now and I'm sure
that it will take at least another week for my
lungs to recover from the air quality in China.

Some days you could only see a couple of blocks
in any direction because of the smog. When
traveling by train you can't help but notice the
enourmous amount of garbage that has been dumped
along the tracks. It is one continuous landfill.

China's large wild animals have been wiped out
except for areas in the north and southwest.

Small mammals, birds, and even insects are almost
non-existant in the cities. CCTV 9 is China's
only English "news" channel and one report
proudly proclaimed that China would be the
largest vacation destination in the world by
2020. A little optimistic, me thinks. I'm glad I
had a chance to go there but in the future my
visits to Asia will be to countries up wind of China.
Date reviewed: Jun 17, 2006 4:05 PM

Nickname: Lake J.
Review: You are not overstating the case in the
least. I am currently visiting China from the US,
on a problem related to these air pollution
issues. I had heard it was bad, but in some areas
it is unbelievable. Visibility in the worst areas
is 1-2 miles on an otherwise clear day. I don't
know how people can stand it long term.
Date reviewed: Jun 17, 2006 1:57 PM

Nickname: the reader
Review: Before critizing China for the
environmental problems it causes we should
seriously think of the USA and its incredibly
high pollution rates. First, look at yourself, then tell others to do
right.
Date reviewed: Jun 17, 2006 12:45 PM

Nickname: Jeffrey Rush
Review: It seems to me that the West thinks too
highly of the impact of the Olympics. The West
assumes that Chinese live only for the sole
purpose of Olympic events, thus all Chinese
policy must consider the Olympics before any
decision is made. What a great joke. This only
shows the ignorance of the West.
Date reviewed: Jun 17, 2006 12:24 PM

Nickname: dagon
Review: We are struck in a global nightmare dance
where no nation can relent in pushing for
economic growth in the same manner as a bunch of
dying people are pushing for the last gasps of
air before drowning. Soon oil will be too
expensive and scarce to support all this and the
whole thing will come tumbling down. It's pathetic.
Date reviewed: Jun 17, 2006 12:08 PM

Nickname: michaelzheng
Review: Well, I'm Chinese. We realized these
problems decades ago, but effective
counter-measures are hard to find. What's worse,
to a goverment that GDP growth is the priority,
they don't have incentives from within.
Date reviewed: Jun 17, 2006 9:37 AM

Nickname: Reflecture
Review: This article just doesn't accurately
portray how bad the pollution problem and the
connection to exports. The truth is that the main
reason for manufacturing in China is not labor
costs, but the lack of pollution costs. If China
made companies follow even basic pollution laws
many would not manufacture in China. Chinese
labor is cheap but just not that good. The big
incentive to hire these super unskilled peasants
is the lack of any environmental (and other)
regulations. Otherwise the factories would be
moved to other Asian countries. The pollution is
so bad that even neighboring countries like South
Korea have days where the air blowing in from
China is so toxic the government puts out alerts
not to go outside. Our company, Reflecture, has
moved our office from Hong Kong to Singapore
because of the pollution from China.
Date reviewed: Jun 17, 2006 1:32 AM

Nickname: Ohio CPA
Review: Each day that China is allowed to trash
its environment, maintain its cheap currency, and
avoid other production costs of developed
countries, more manufacturing jobs are lost. And
once lost they will not return. Imports from
China should have a duty applied equal to the
costs that are being avoided by not protecting
its environment and employees. Stop the
unnecessary loss of manufacturing jobs to China
because of this unacceptable competitive advantage.
Date reviewed: Jun 16, 2006 11:25 PM

Nickname: d0k0night
Review: Naw. The Chinese don't care. They will
rape and pillage the land and do whatever it
takes to speed growth. So they drive a few
hundred species extinct? Not an issue. At all. If
they have no problems demolishing the poor
citizen's home with little to no notice, how can
we possibly expect them to care even one iota
about land, or even nature, for that matter?
Date reviewed: Jun 16, 2006 9:19 PM

Nickname: cole
Review: Is this is the same China that Al Gore
has heralded as a model in his latest documentary? Am I missing
something?
Date reviewed: Jun 16, 2006 7:53 PM

Dirty Secrets of China's Economy

Date: Sat, 17 Jun 2006 22:41:56 -0400
To:
From: "Kitchen"
Subject: Biz Week: Dirty Secrets of China's Economy

By Brian Bremner
The Dirty Secret of China's Economy
Business Week Online
June 16, 2006

The mainland's rapid growth has only worsened its
environmental problems, and the government
expects pollution to quadruple by 2020
http://www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/content/jun2006/gb20060616_397339.htm?chan=topStories_ssi_5

The 2008 Beijing Olympics is being billed as one
of those glorious defining moments in history
that will signal China's arrival as an economic
power. But what if the global media pack and the
millions of tourists who descend on China two
years from now take away a less-than-flattering
impression of the Middle Kingdom?

Yes, China is a remarkable growth story. But it
is also fast becoming an ecological wasteland,
home to world-class smog, acid rain, polluted
rivers and lakes, and deforestation.

Environmental problems play a role in the death
of some 300,000 Chinese people each year, according to World Bank
estimates.

China's torrid growth statistics­the mainland
clocked 10%-plus growth in the first quarter­also
mask the huge economic costs of this evolving
environmental crisis. On June 5, China's State
Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA)
issued a report that the mainland's pollution
scourge costs the country roughly $200 billion a
year, or some 10% in gross domestic product, from
lost work productivity, health problems, and
government outlays. That is a staggering admission.

DEEP IMPACT China, of course, isn't the first
high-speed developing economy to grapple with the
tradeoffs between prosperity that lifts millions
out of poverty and environmental damage that
degrades living standards (see BusinessWeek.com,
2/27/06, "Is Beijing Greedy for Oil?"). Think of
Japan in the 1960s. What's different is China's
outsized impact on the global environment.

China's economy is only about one-fifth the size
of the U.S, but is already the second biggest
emitter of carbon dioxide in the world, second
only to the U.S. China's emissions jumped 33%
during a 10-year period ended in 2002, according
to the latest World Bank figures. A miasma of
dirty air from China is spreading across East
Asia and even reaching the West Coast of the U.S.

There is no denying that Chinese President Hu
Jintao's government takes the problem seriously.
Not only is it bad for the mainland's
international image, but it could be an explosive
political issue later in the decade if left unresolved.

RENEGADE POLLUTERS Pan Yue, vice-minister of
SEPA, predicted last summer at an environmental
conference in Beijing that "the pollution load of
China will quadruple by 2020" if nothing is done.

Some 20% of the population lives in "severely
polluted" areas, according to SEPA estimates, and
70% of the country's rivers and lakes are in grim
shape, figures the World Bank.

Changing all this will require a tremendous
amount of political focus by Beijing. It will
need to crack down on environmental renegades
inside Chinese industry, encourage a move from
high-sulfur coal as the mainland's primary energy
source, and push to secure the most
environmentally friendly technologies from abroad
(see BusinessWeek.com, 8/22/05, "A Big Dirty Growth Engine").

The "policy elite has realized that China, with
its huge scale of economic development and
emissions, cannot consume energy and pollute the
earth the way traditional economies have done in
the past," says Wenran Jiang, director of the
China Institute at the University of Alberta,
Canada, who made a presentation on climate change
in early June to Chinese and World Bank officials.

PRESSURE TO COMPLY The good news is that some
effective measures can be taken without huge
outlays of government spending. Last November,
for instance, China agreed to expand a promising
pilot program, dubbed GreenWatch, started in
1998, from 22 cities to nationwide by 2010. The
program is designed to expose the worst
industrial polluters by publicly disclosing
once-confidential information on factory
emissions, and by ranking companies on their environmental performance.

The idea is that public pressure on the laggards
will yield improvement. Some sort of pressure is
desperately needed in China, where 60% of
companies violate mainland emission rules,
according to data compiled by World Bank senior
environmental economist Hua Wang, who wrote a
recent paper on the program. Similar approaches
launched in the mid-1990s by the Philippines and
Indonesia improved corporate emission law
compliance by 50% and 24%, respectively, Hua points out.

Relocating heavy industries like steel away from
population centers is another option. In early
2005, for instance, the government ordered
Beijing-based steelmaker Shougang Group to wind
down its iron and smelting operation in the
capital by 2007 and transfer the facilities out
of the city. Shougang plants, mainly fueled by
coal, belch out 18,000 tons of dust and contaminants a year.

PLAN FOR NUCLEAR While China can't do much about
its ravenous energy demand, it could do a far
better job of shifting to cleaner technologies
and using its power more efficiently. China
consumes more than three times the world energy
average to produce one dollar of gross domestic
product­4.7 times the average for the U.S., 7.7
times the average for Germany, and 11.5 times the
average for Japan (see BusinessWeek.com, 4/11/05, "China's Wasteful
Ways").

Beijing has mapped out a plan that calls for
hiking reliance on natural gas from 3% to 10% by
2020. Plants fired by gas burn fuel twice as
efficiently as turbines fired by coal, which now
accounts for two-thirds of China's fuel. The plan
also calls for building 30 new nuclear reactors.

Cummins (CMI ) imports and makes diesel engines
for mainland buses that are 30% more efficient than gas engines.
Royal Dutch Shell Group (RD ) is licensing
technology to fertilizer plants that converts
coal into synthetic gas, which burns more
efficiently. General Electric (GE ) is making a
killing selling gas turbines. And both GE and
Veolia, of France, are marketing technologies
that will harness the methane gas produced from
decomposing garbage and sewage, as well as the
huge amounts of gas that escape from China's coal mines.

PROFIT OR PRIDE? That said, there are some
inside the Chinese government who think the
country should get rich first and leave the
environmental clean-up for another day. Skeptics
wonder whether post-Olympics Beijing will lose interest.

"The world will either benefit from a responsible
rising China or it will suffer from a China that
continues to pursue profits at the expense of the
climate and environment," says the University of
Alberta's Jiang. It will also make a critical
difference to the lives of millions of ordinary Chinese citizens.

Comments
Nickname: Pffefer
Review: "China's large wild animals have been
wiped out except for areas in the north and
southwest. Small mammals, birds, and even insects
are almost non-existant in the cities." Are you
kidding me? Where the heck did you go in the PRC?
I know many people who own pets, and here in my
yard I have tons of insects, right in the middle
of Beijing! Some ignorant Westerner making
ridiculous generalizations after two weeks in
China. Well, that is not new, is it?
Date reviewed: Jun 17, 2006 9:55 PM

Nickname: China Law Blog
Review: I have no doubt that the Chinese
government in Beijing (and Shanghai too) is
serious about cleaning up the environment.

However, I have real doubts that their sincerity
will be enough to move the intractable
bureaucrats and industrialists to really do
anything. It is going to get a lot worse before
it starts getting better. www.chinalawblog.com
Date reviewed: Jun 17, 2006 8:53 PM

Nickname: grey
Review: For those saying "look to yourself
first," you obviously have not been to both the
US and China. Maybe China is #No. 2 in CO2
emissions, but trust me, they are #No. 1 in
pollution, in general. The cities are especially
horrifying. I am extremely happy that my company
no longer forces me to go to China.
Date reviewed: Jun 17, 2006 8:07 PM

Nickname: Kansan-boy
Review: The article seems to imply that China's
central government can act independently outside
of vested interests. However, the "some" inside
government who view profit first (last paragraph)
are not simply just a few policy contrarians.

Many, if not most, high-ranking officials have
connections within private industry, as well as
the state sector--which is common throughout
Asia. We can see more clearly if we stop looking through only a Western
lens.
Date reviewed: Jun 17, 2006 6:22 PM

Nickname: HuDiNi
Review: Having been to the region, I've seen
first hand, how bad it is! Not only China, but
Indonesia as well, has such poor air quality that
traffic cops need to put on face masks or choke!
But as for the economy: U.S.A. = $11 trillion.
Japan = $5 trillion. China only $1.5 trillion.
Foolish people jump at China's growth rate of
10%. America's rate of only 4%, equates to four
times that of China. But it's rates that are
looked at, not the totals. What America throws
away, China could never take in! Our American
social programs are larger than the total economy
of India and more than the growth rate of China.
So have no fear of China overtaking the economy.
They could never catch up! You're welcome!
Date reviewed: Jun 17, 2006 6:16 PM

Nickname: Andre
Review: "Before critizing China for the
environmental problems it causes we should
seriously think of the USA and its incredibly
high pollution rates. First, look at yourself,
then tell others to do right." The US has pretty
stringent pollution controls in line with just
about every other civilized country. It's the
current race to the bottom that's leading to
worldwide dismantlement of vital environmental
safeguards. China can't implement any meaningful
pollution controls because every other poor
country will jump at the opportunity to capture
some business. Nor can the developed countries
strengthen their pollution rules for fear of
driving away even more companies to places like China.
Date reviewed: Jun 17, 2006 4:57 PM

Nickname: cr@ig
Review: Hello all, I just returned from a
two-week vacation in China. My wife and I
traveled from Bejing to Shanghi by train and bus.

We have been back for a week now and I'm sure
that it will take at least another week for my
lungs to recover from the air quality in China.

Some days you could only see a couple of blocks
in any direction because of the smog. When
traveling by train you can't help but notice the
enourmous amount of garbage that has been dumped
along the tracks. It is one continuous landfill.

China's large wild animals have been wiped out
except for areas in the north and southwest.
Small mammals, birds, and even insects are almost
non-existant in the cities. CCTV 9 is China's
only English "news" channel and one report
proudly proclaimed that China would be the
largest vacation destination in the world by
2020. A little optimistic, me thinks. I'm glad I
had a chance to go there but in the future my
visits to Asia will be to countries up wind of China.
Date reviewed: Jun 17, 2006 4:05 PM

Nickname: Lake J.
Review: You are not overstating the case in the
least. I am currently visiting China from the US,
on a problem related to these air pollution
issues. I had heard it was bad, but in some areas
it is unbelievable. Visibility in the worst areas
is 1-2 miles on an otherwise clear day. I don't
know how people can stand it long term.
Date reviewed: Jun 17, 2006 1:57 PM

Nickname: the reader
Review: Before critizing China for the
environmental problems it causes we should
seriously think of the USA and its incredibly
high pollution rates. First, look at yourself, then tell others to do
right.
Date reviewed: Jun 17, 2006 12:45 PM

Nickname: Jeffrey Rush
Review: It seems to me that the West thinks too
highly of the impact of the Olympics. The West
assumes that Chinese live only for the sole
purpose of Olympic events, thus all Chinese
policy must consider the Olympics before any
decision is made. What a great joke. This only
shows the ignorance of the West.
Date reviewed: Jun 17, 2006 12:24 PM

Nickname: dagon
Review: We are struck in a global nightmare dance
where no nation can relent in pushing for
economic growth in the same manner as a bunch of
dying people are pushing for the last gasps of
air before drowning. Soon oil will be too
expensive and scarce to support all this and the
whole thing will come tumbling down. It's pathetic.
Date reviewed: Jun 17, 2006 12:08 PM

Nickname: michaelzheng
Review: Well, I'm Chinese. We realized these
problems decades ago, but effective
counter-measures are hard to find. What's worse,
to a goverment that GDP growth is the priority,
they don't have incentives from within.
Date reviewed: Jun 17, 2006 9:37 AM

Nickname: Reflecture
Review: This article just doesn't accurately
portray how bad the pollution problem and the
connection to exports. The truth is that the main
reason for manufacturing in China is not labor
costs, but the lack of pollution costs. If China
made companies follow even basic pollution laws
many would not manufacture in China. Chinese
labor is cheap but just not that good. The big
incentive to hire these super unskilled peasants
is the lack of any environmental (and other)
regulations. Otherwise the factories would be
moved to other Asian countries. The pollution is
so bad that even neighboring countries like South
Korea have days where the air blowing in from
China is so toxic the government puts out alerts
not to go outside. Our company, Reflecture, has
moved our office from Hong Kong to Singapore
because of the pollution from China.
Date reviewed: Jun 17, 2006 1:32 AM

Nickname: Ohio CPA
Review: Each day that China is allowed to trash
its environment, maintain its cheap currency, and
avoid other production costs of developed
countries, more manufacturing jobs are lost. And
once lost they will not return. Imports from
China should have a duty applied equal to the
costs that are being avoided by not protecting
its environment and employees. Stop the
unnecessary loss of manufacturing jobs to China
because of this unacceptable competitive advantage.
Date reviewed: Jun 16, 2006 11:25 PM

Nickname: d0k0night
Review: Naw. The Chinese don't care. They will
rape and pillage the land and do whatever it
takes to speed growth. So they drive a few
hundred species extinct? Not an issue. At all. If
they have no problems demolishing the poor
citizen's home with little to no notice, how can
we possibly expect them to care even one iota
about land, or even nature, for that matter?
Date reviewed: Jun 16, 2006 9:19 PM

Nickname: cole
Review: Is this is the same China that Al Gore
has heralded as a model in his latest documentary? Am I missing
something?

Date reviewed: Jun 16, 2006 7:53 PM

MON - Picture the Homeless sleep-out

We'll be sleeping outside of an entire block of abandoned buildings, all of whom are owned by the same landlord.

MONDAY, JUNE 19TH:
PROTEST HOMELESSNESS with Picture the Homeless
Everyone who wants to participate should come to the office of Picture the Homeless
at 5PM (170 East 116th Street, Suite 1W, between Lexington and 3rd, 6 train to 116th) on
Monday, June 19th, for dinner and a prep session.
.........

MONDAY, JUNE 19TH:
PROTEST HOMELESSNESS with Picture the Homeless

It's that time again, folks! Picture the Homeless is leading a THIRD sleep-out protest action to raise awareness around abandoned buildings, the housing crisis, and homelessness. On a warm night next week we'll pitch our (proverbial) tents on the sidewalk in front of a whole block of empty buildings. Come join us!

"This is in the spirit of the sit-ins from the Civil Rights Movement," said Roosevelt Orphee, a leader of our Housing Campaign. "But despite all the progress that was made in that era, the atrocities facing people of color today are even more extreme--you have tens of thousands of people living in shelters here in NYC, and 90% of them are African-American or Latino! Are they trying to run us out of New York?"

The protest will happen the day after Father's Day, and is being organized by homeless dads, many of whom are veterans. We'll be sleeping outside of an entire block of abandoned buildings, all of whom are owned by the same landlord.

Everyone who wants to participate should come to the office of
Picture the Homeless at 5PM
(170 East 116th Street, Suite 1W, between Lexington and 3rd, 6 train to 116th) on Monday, June 19th,
for dinner and a prep session.

Then we'll head out to the target block and set up camp!

If you can't make it, please do help us out by passing this email on far and wide.

For more info, call Tyletha or Sam at 212-427-2499
In solidarity,
Picture the Homeless

Bronx Board Is Shuffled After Rejecting New Stadium

Date: Mon, 19 Jun 2006 03:35:11 -0400
To:
From: "Kitchen"
Subject: Two weeks after other papers reported it...

NB - Isn't it lovely when the politician says something like, "The borough president
along with his fellow elected officials oftentimes appoints new people to serve on
their community board in an effort to expand community involvement."
- The BP appoints all members. CMs recommend, but the BP appoints.
- reporters practice the art of journalism of stenography
- Virginia Fields and now Scott Stringer have offered similar statements. - Kitchen
===================================================

Bronx Board Is Shuffled After Rejecting New Stadium


By TIMOTHY WILLIAMS
Published: June 19, 2006
When a Bronx community board rejected the plan to build a new Yankee Stadium on land occupied by two neighborhood parks last year, the result was a surprising setback for Adolfo Carrión Jr., the Bronx borough president, who had been one of the new stadium's most ardent public supporters.

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Enlarge this Image
Librado Romero/The New York Times

As Bronx borough president, Adolfo Carrión
appoints members of community boards.

This month, seven months after that vote, Mr. Carrión has replaced or demoted several of the board members. Some say Mr. Carrión's motives are to get rid of board members who voted against the stadium.

Mr. Carrión has declined to say whether the dissenting votes were the reason the members were not reappointed, but several current and former members of the advisory panel have accused him of acting out of vindictiveness, saying he is discouraging community involvement and stifling debate — which they say are unattractive traits for a man who might run for mayor in 2009.

"It's called revenge," said Mary L. Blassingame, a board member who lost her position as chairwoman of the board's housing and land-use committee this month after 21 years. "This shows total disregard for the community."

The vote, though nonbinding, was particularly embarrassing for Mr. Carrión, board members said, because he had approved the appointments of each of the 39 board members and had directed a vigorous lobbying effort to win the vote on the stadium issue.

Mr. Carrión declined to comment for this article. But in a statement, Anne Fenton, a spokeswoman for Mr. Carrión, said, "The borough president along with his fellow elected officials oftentimes appoints new people to serve on their community board in an effort to expand community involvement."

Community boards are allowed to have as many as 50 members, all volunteers. They are picked by each borough president for two-year terms and act in an advisory capacity. If Mr. Carrión fills each of the vacant slots with new appointees, the board will have a total of 39 members.
Some members say that if he wanted new voices represented on the panel, Community Board 4, he could have added members rather than replace existing ones.

Four members whose terms expired this month were not reappointed, including the board's chairman, Ade A. Rasul. All but Mr. Rasul had opposed the stadium project, which the board rejected in November. The vote was 16 to 8, with 5 abstentions; 10 members were not present during the vote.

Mr. Rasul, who did not return calls to his home last night, told colleagues that even though he voted for the new stadium, he was being removed because he had failed to deliver the board's vote for Mr. Carrión, according to current and former members of the community board.

Louise Williams, a former board member, was mailed a form letter signed by the borough president last month, telling her that she would not be reappointed after a single two-year term.
"You have to take a stand when injustice is being done, and I stood up and talked so now I'm off the board?" she said. "Adolfo Carrión is not thinking of the needs of the community."

The Yankees say they need a new ballpark because the current one is old and they need more of the lucrative luxury boxes that many teams now use to generate revenue. Despite the community board's opposition, the City Council approved the project in April.

The $800 million stadium is awaiting clearance from the National Park Service and, because of the bond financing involved, the Internal Revenue Service. It would sit on two popular parks across 161st Street from the current Yankee Stadium, which would be torn down and replaced by a new park. It is scheduled to be finished in 2009.

The plan encountered significant opposition in the High Bridge neighborhood, just north of the stadium, as residents complained about the loss of the parks and the potential increase in traffic and pollution in an area with high asthma rates.

The discord marked the second time in recent months that members of Community Board 4 had publicly criticized Mr. Carrión. In February, several board members said a community benefits agreement negotiated by Mr. Carrión with the Related Companies for a new shopping mall at the site of the Bronx Terminal Market had shortchanged Bronx residents.

Maria Simmons, who lives near Yankee Stadium, said she was circulating a letter that would eventually be sent to Mr. Carrión saying that his failure to reappoint the dissenting board members runs counter to the ideals of democracy. She said she wanted to get 5,000 signatures of Bronx residents on the letter before sending it.

"It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out what happened," she said. "With all due respect, what we want to communicate to him is, 'Don't play with people who put their trust in you.' "

MANHATTAN COMMUNITY BOARD 9, CITY COUNCILMEMBER ROBERT JACKSON AND NYC ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION, ANNOUNCES THE FORMATION OF D9 LOCAL DEVELOPME

Community Board No. 9 - Manhattan
565 West 125th Street, New York, NY 10027-2301
Tel: (212) 862-6200 Fax: 212-662-7396

Hon. Jordi Reyes-Montblanc – Chair, Reysmont@Yahoo.com

June 19, 2006



FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: (212) 864-6200

MANHATTAN COMMUNITY BOARD 9,
CITY COUNCILMEMBER ROBERT JACKSON AND
NYC ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION,
ANNOUNCES THE FORMATION OF
D9 LOCAL DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION

New York City, June 19th, 2006 -– NYC Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC), Manhattan Community Board 9 (CB9M), and City Councilmember Robert Jackson announces the formation of D9 Local Development Corporation (LDC). The LDC will negotiate benefits on behalf of the community in regard to Columbia University’s proposed expansion in West Manhattanville.

In response to requests from Columbia University and CB9M leadership, The Office of Deputy Mayor Daniel L. Doctoroff and New York City Councilmember Robert Jackson have been assisting local community leaders and Columbia University to develop a process for dialogue and negotiations which are expected to begin soon.

In 2005, Columbia University proposed a rezoning plan for the area of West Manhattanville to facilitate expansion of its academic facilities. At the same time, CB9M advanced its planning principles for the area district in its 197-a plan, which had been under development for several years. Columbia's plan, which calls for significant expansion of its campus, corresponds with several elements of CB9M's vision, but also differs in important ways. In discussions throughout spring 2006, CB9M and Columbia University have jointly reviewed specific areas where the two plans differ and where they overlap. The City encourages the initiation of negotiations prior to the public review process.

"Manhattanville represents an opportunity for the community and Columbia University to work together to create common ground," stated Deputy Mayor Doctoroff. "We are committed to working with all stakeholders to maintain a process that will provide clear direction in shaping a future for Manhattanville. This process will not only contribute to the ongoing revitalization of Upper Manhattan, but also ensure that there is a place for New Yorkers to generate the kind of intellectual capital that will keep our City an the economic and cultural capital of the world."

In early 2005, a working group consisting of members of CB9M, the Office of Councilmember Jackson and City officials was established to develop a strategy for creating a dialogue between the community and Columbia University. The working group also provided technical assistance for the formation of a Local Development Corporation (LDC) which will represent the community in its discussion with Columbia about community benefits and the future development of the West Manhattanville area. Additionally, Council Mmember Jackson committed $150,000 to enable completion of the community’s197-a plan. The City provided $350,000 and worked with Councilmember Jackson’s office, CB9M leadership and Columbia to select a conflict resolution expert who would help Columbia and the community come to an agreement.

At the request of Council Mmember Jackson and CB 9, Columbia has awaited the formation of the LDC and the identification of the community's negotiating team before entering into discussions about community benefits.

In fall 2005, the City Planning Commission requested that the community and Columbia enter into a dialogue about the plans, and make good faith efforts to identify common ground and achieve consensus prior to the public review of the university’s land use application and community board’s 197-a plan. This dialogue has been ongoing since February of this year with the 197A Committee of CB9 and their technical advisors and representatives of Columbia.

The LDC was formally established in March 2006 and currently comprises a 56-member board: Jordi Reyes-Montblanc, Chair of CB9M; Patricia Jones, chair of CB9M’s 197-a committee chair; Maritta Dunn of Manhattanville Houses Residents Association,;; Julio Batista of the HDFC Council; and Sarah Martin, the president of Grant Houses Residents Association; and Debbie Brown of the MAC (Manhattanville Area Consortium of Businesses). When fully constituted, the LDC will consist of a total of 13 representatives of commercial and residential property owners, tenant associations, cultural and arts associations, community-based organizations, CB9M, and faith-based organizations. The LDC expects to begin a series of meetings with Columbia University, which will continue though the summer. It is expected that negotiations/discussions will ensue over the course of the summer.

“Manhattanville can be a model for how to balance the interests of our City’s communities and its large institutions,” said Councilmember Robert Jackson. “By negotiating in good faith, I am confident that we can craft an agreement that meets the community's needs, while ensuring Columbia's long-term viability. I am optimistic that we will be able to resolve the outstanding issues."

"The formation of the LDC and initiation of formal negotiations will continue the process of reflecting the community's goals and desires as identified in the 197-a plan in an agreement to be signed by Columbia University and the LDC," said Jordi Reyes-Montblanc, Chair of Community Board 9.

Columbia University President Lee Bollinger said, "We welcome the formation of the Local Development Corporation, acknowledge the great amount of work which has already been done, and look forward to completing our work together to achieve a shared vision of the future for the Manhattanville area. Columbia is committed to advancing its mission of service to New York City, the nation, and the world - a mission that begins by working in partnership with our neighbors to build a shared future that realizes the aspirations of the university and the local community that is our home."

The LDC will give the community a platform from which to negotiate with Columbia,, and as well as an organization to administer ensure the delivery of community benefits. The Bloomberg Administration and Councilmember Robert Jackson look forward to facilitating the start of negotiations this summer, prior to initiation of the formal land use public review.

Less Housing for Residents of Average Pay, Report Says

New York Times N.Y. / Region

Less Housing for Residents of Average Pay, Report Says
By JANNY SCOTT
Published: June 16, 2006


The number of New York City apartments considered affordable to hundreds of thousands of moderate-income households — with incomes like those of starting firefighters and police officers — plunged by 17 percent between 2002 and 2005, according to a new report by researchers at New York University.

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Multimedia

Map: Fewer Affordable Units

The report, to be released today, for the first time puts hard numbers on a cost squeeze that has intensified with the real estate boom. The researchers found that the number of apartments affordable to households earning about $32,000 a year, or 80 percent of the median household income in the city, has dropped by 205,000 in just three years.

While precise comparisons for earlier periods are not available, this appears to represent the sharpest decline in the number of apartments within the reach of such households since the mid-1990's.

The report also found that while the median rent for unsubsidized apartments jumped to $900 from $750 — a 20 percent increase in three years — the median household income in the city shrank to $40,000 from $42,700.

Whether the rising housing costs are seen as a sign of the city's economic vitality or a harbinger of trouble depends on who is talking. Several economists said they were proof of the city's success: Lots of people still want to live in New York. But housing experts warned that high rents could force workers out of the city or into overcrowded conditions and multiple jobs.

"The market will work through this, but there are people who really lose," said Chris Mayer, director of the Paul Milstein Center for Real Estate at the Columbia Business School. "Whether that's a city problem really depends on how much city government or residents feel this is an inevitable thing they can't fight, or whether they're going to try to do something about it."

City officials say the rapid rent increases may slow down in coming years as new construction adds more units to the market.

The study — by researchers at the Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy and based in part on the city's Housing Vacancy Survey, done by the Census Bureau every three years — found that the combination of stagnant incomes and rising rents had landed especially hard on households with incomes of $24,000 to $32,000.

The current minimum salary for a city firefighter is $32,700. Police officers start at the equivalent of roughly a $25,000 salary while in the police academy and jump to about $32,000 in their first year. Experienced home health aides, nursing aides, child care workers, bartenders, coffee shop hostesses, tour guides — who work in industries the city hopes will continue to grow — make similar amounts.

Two out of every five New York City households earn $32,000 or less.

In calculating the decline of units, the study's researchers assumed that the rent that is truly affordable to a household is no more than a third of its income. While the city lost 205,000 out of about 1.2 million units affordable to households earning $32,000, the number affordable to households making $24,000, or 60 percent of the median, declined by nearly 92,000, or 15 percent.

"We couldn't believe the numbers," said Vicki Been, director of the Furman Center and an author of the report. "It's pretty remarkable."

Ms. Been said it was not possible to compare the rent increases between 2002 and 2005 with increases in the previous three-year period because of differences in the samples used by the Census Bureau. Adjusted for inflation, the increase in median rent between 2002 and 2005 was 8 percent. She said the median rent for all units increased 1.8 percent between 1996 and 1999, adjusted for inflation; for unsubsidized units, the increase was 5.6 percent.

There are multiple reasons for the recent rise in rents, economists and others say. The population is growing, and housing construction is only beginning to catch up. Many new arrivals make more money than people already here. Much of the new housing has been for people with higher incomes, and most of it has been for sale, not for rent.

Some housing experts say escalating rents pose a threat to the city's well-being. They say workers needed for crucial service jobs will move away, if they are not already doing so. Those who choose to stay will double and triple up in apartments, settle for illegal housing or scrimp on education and health care — investments that might help them get ahead.

"So this disparity between income and rent is worrisome from a public policy perspective," said Elaine Toribio, a senior policy analyst for Citizens Housing and Planning Council, a policy research group. "At the high end, you could reach a point where the Goldman Sachs employee says, 'I'm going to Hoboken.' And at the lower end, you force people to make unsound decisions."
But some economists say high housing costs go hand in hand with economic growth, not stagnation. Andrew F. Haughwout, a research officer at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, studied 25 metropolitan areas in various time periods including 1980 to 2005 and 1990 to 2005 and found the fastest growth in places where housing prices rose the most.

"You might expect in places where housing gets really expensive, it will have a negative impact on economic growth," he said in an interview. "That's a kind of received wisdom: If a place gets too expensive, people move out and it shuts down. The logic doesn't hold together too well. Because why does a place get too expensive? It's typically because of high demand for that place."

In New York, the availability of more expensive apartments rose significantly between 2002 and 2005. The number of unsubsidized apartments, including rent-regulated apartments, renting for $1,000 and $1,200 a month rose by 58,000, or nearly 34 percent; the number renting for $1,200 to $1,400 rose by 57,500, or 52 percent; and apartments for $1,400 and above rose by 74,432, or 31 percent.

City officials say they believe that the rapid escalation in rents may be slowing and that they will continue to do so over the next few years in part in response to the current housing construction boom. Last year, the city issued permits for the construction of nearly 32,000 new housing units, a 34-year high; the number of permits issued in the first quarter of 2006 was up 27 percent over the same period last year.

Even if most of those new units are for relatively well-off people, city officials say, some existing housing will in turn become available as lower-priced apartments. At the same time, they say, the Bloomberg administration has continued to pursue its goal of creating or preserving 165,000 units of housing affordable to low- and moderate-income people.

"Clearly, one solution to the problem is increasing the housing supply over all," said Shaun Donovan, commissioner of the Department of Housing Preservation and Development.

"Through rezonings, revising the building code, a range of initiatives, we're focused on trying to make sure that the current level of housing starts continues. On the other side, though, we do also clearly want to increase the number of subsidized units through the mayor's housing plan."

The Furman Center's report, called State of New York City's Housing and Neighborhoods 2005, ranked the five boroughs and 59 community districts in terms of 30 indicators like median monthly rent, income diversity and overcrowding. Rents were highest in the district that incorporates Greenwich Village and the financial district and lowest in Mott Haven, Hunts Point and central Harlem.

The study found that the rental vacancy rate rose slightly in the city as a whole but declined in much of the Bronx. The percentage of household income spent on rent was lowest on the Upper West Side and highest in Highbridge in the Bronx.

"We're an economy that has a great addiction to low-wage labor," said John H. Mollenkopf, director of the Center for Urban Research at the City University Graduate Center. "To the extent that we want low-wage labor, we have to make housing available for low-wage people to live in."

http://forums.delphiforums.com/HDFCCentral/messages/?msg=742.1

1ST ANNUAL NYC KIDSFEST BRINGS FREE FAMILY FESTIVALTO MORNINGSIDE PARK IN WestSide HARLEM

To: "Jordi Reyes-Montblanc"
From: "Brad Taylor"
Subject: NYCKidsFest Press Release
Date: Wed, 14 Jun 2006 11:22:40 -0400

Hello Jordi,

FYI info from the Press Release for this event is appended below. I have dropped off informational cards and a poster at the CB9M Office and will be sending out word to our mailing list. Any help you can give with getting the word out would be appreciated.

We'd also love to have you come by the event and say a few words. We have reached out to Scott Stringer, Danny O'Donnell, Keith Wright and Inez Dickens on that front as well.
Brad

1ST ANNUAL NYC KIDSFEST

BRINGS FREE FAMILY FESTIVAL TO

MORNINGSIDE PARK in WestSide HARLEM

(New York, NY)—Presented by The Friends of Morningside Park,
NYC KidsFest is a free, one day family event bringing performances
of outstanding artistic quality to New York families. Packed with
music, theater, dance, storytelling, and much more; this festival
promises to delight, inspire and arouse the imaginations of children
of all ages in an atmosphere of fun.

The 2006 Festival takes place on June 17th from 12pm-5pm in
Morningside Park and promises to be one of the most diversely
programmed festivals in town. It will feature some of the finest
children’s performing arts groups in New York City.

Highlights include a hilarious and sophisticated performance of
Los Tres Cerditos/The Three Little Pigs by Los Kabayitos, New York’s
only Latino Children’s theater that performs plays in both English
and Spanish.

Other highlights include The Deedle Deedle Dees, a rock band for kids
that like to sing about a lot of silly topics, The Harlem Improv Troupe
which features teenaged performers, Uptown Dance Academy and a
performance by Treehouse Shakers, a dance theater company for young audiences that mixes live music and theater.

Location:
Morningside Park—113th Street @ Manhattan Avenue.

Closest trains: No. 1, B, or C Exit 110th street.
Alternatively: the M4 and the M7 Buses.

Date: Saturday June 17, 2006
Time: 12pm- 5pm

For more information visit www.nyckidsfest.com, and
www.morningsidepark.org, or call 646 229 1900

CB10M Newly Elected Officers for 2006-2008 - CONGRATULATIONS!!!

From: "Yasmin Cornelius"
To: ycornelius@cb10.org
Subject: Community Board 10 Officers
Date: Tue, 13 Jun 2006 11:48:43 -0400

Greetings, Please be advised:

On Wednesday, June 7, 2006, Community Board 10 elected its officers for 2006-2008.

Please note the following for your records:

Chairperson
Neal Clark

1st Vice Chairperson
Dawud Muhammad

2nd Vice Chairperson
Jabari Osaze

Secretary
Gloria Richardson

Assistant Secretary
Ernestine Roach

Treasurer
Carolyn Tolbert

Respectfully,

Yasmin H. Cornelius
District Manager
Community Board #10
212-749-3105 (office)
212-662-4215 (fax)

http://www.cb10.org/

CONGRATULATIONS!!!

CB9M Arts & Culture Organzing Meeting Draft Minutes

CB9M

DRAFT MINUTES - REVISED 21Jun06

Arts and Culture Committee Organizing Meeting
Monday, June 12, 2006

In Attendance: Tamara Gayer, Vicky Gholson, Christa Giesecke, Savona Bailey-McClain, Lee-Ann Pinder, J. Reyes-Montblanc, on chair; Diane Wilson

Chair called the meeting to order and appointed all CB9M members in attendance to be members of the newly formed Arts and Culture Committee and Lee-Ann Pinder as a Public Member.

Discussion re the formation of the Committee and its future plans ensued:

1. The Committee will coordinate arts and cultural elements of Community Board 9 Manhattan.

2. The Committee will identify arts and cultural organizations, individual artists and individuals who work in actual culture production in CB9M and bring them to the table.

3. The Committee will conduct a broad survey to determine the scope and nature of the artistic community in CB9M. This would include a list of arts organizations but more comprehensively it would identify the number and type of artists functioning in our community (what is their medium/discipline, their fields of interest and their needs). This would be done not merely for statistical purposes but to bring artists into close contact with each other and to boost the visibility and viability of the artistic community in the district; The Committee will therefore survey what arts and cultural programs currently exist within CB9M and provide them support in such areas as fundraising, writing CB9M letters of support, helping them navigate city bureaucracy, etc.

4. It was noted that in addition to acting as lobbyists, promoting and overseeing projects, the Committee should consider forming an arts and cultural district.

5. The Committee should assume a pro-active posture and generate ideas—i.e. creating a Broadways Arts Festival, poetry competition, projects that partner the arts with children, etc. The Committee should serve as a brain trust, not only to develop projects in our community as it relates to the arts but also to implement such programs.

6. The importance of maintaining close ties with other committees in CB 9M was stressed.

7. It was noted that a Mission Statement must be drafted; the Committee must set objectives for the year, such as some CB9M event ofr Thanksgiving or other feasts and holidays; this should be accomplished by the September Committee meeting. The Committee should make a presentation in September at the General Board Meeting when the full Board reconvenes after summer recess.

8. The importance was reaching out to individuals, not just organizations, was discussed at length; the Committee needs to focus on the actual members of the creative community in the district. The Committee should create a list of artists and help match them with resources, grants, space for exhibits, etc., thereby assisting them to gain visibility.

9. It was mentioned that we should look at clusters, i.e. graphic artists, rather than paying particular attention to individual artists.

10. Noted: The Committee should identify what arts, what cultures we are aiming to serve. Should we include technology applied to arts and culture?

11. Noted: The Committee should act as a catalyst, whereby individuals can demonstrate their respective arts or cultural endeavors.

12. Noted: It would be ideal if the Committee was fully functional by summer 2007 when the piers start opening. Perhaps we can create special arts and cultural events/public relations to coincide with the opening. Another event we may want to consider is having an art exhibit and concert under the 12th Avenue and Broadway viaducts.

13. We should utilize space already available in the CB9M area; it was noted that there are some venues for art shows and a residence for artists in our community but many do not know of their existence.

14. It was noted that there are many journalists and artists residing in our district. We must involve them in our endeavors; such artists must be celebrated as ‘free spirits’—we need that ‘glue’ to get them to come out and get involved with the Board.

15. In conducting the survey and making its presence known as a new resource for the arts community, it was suggested that the committee use the following methods: put an item in politicians newsletters, get stories published in local papers, flyer community organizations and create a blog with a link to CB9M; also suggested that we assist in providing marketing support to such groups as Harlem School of the Arts, Dance Theatre of Harlem, Riverbank and Aaron Davis Hall and other such groups within CB9M.

16. Another idea for consideration is the Committee working with the Landmarks Committee and conducting art tours of the neighborhood.

17. The Committee should look to embrace the new banking institutions and other areas of the private sector, federal, state and local agencies as possible venues and funding sources.

18. It was suggested that the Committee look at the 197A Arts and Culture section and extrapolate important points into our Mission Statement.

19. Noted: “A desire to view the creative arts as an industry cluster with many professionals. Therefore we can start to advocate for these individuals better within our district.”

20. Noted: the Committee should view the summer months as a period of brainstorming and organizing.

21. As a follow-up to this meeting, each member should write two sentences about how we envision the Arts and Culture Committee to incorporate into the Mission Statement. Bring these thoughts/notes/bullet points with you to the next Skull Session of the Committee to be held on Tuesday, June 27th at 6:30 PM.

The next organizing meeting of the Arts and Culture Committee will be held on Monday, July 10th at 6:30 PM.






CB9M Arts and Culture Committee Mailing List:

Tamara Gayer
Vicky Gholsen
Christa Giesecke
Jordi Reyes-Montblanc
Alberto Magnan
Savona Bailey
Michael Palmer
Lee-Ann Pinder
Linda Walton
Diane Wilson

Upper Manhattan Residents March For Affordable Housing

On NY1 Now: News All Day
Manhattan

Upper Manhattan Residents March For Affordable Housing

June 11, 2006

Residents of Upper Manhattan took to the streets Saturday to demand more affordable housing.

Thousands of marchers from Washington Heights, Harlem and Inwood joined community leaders in a protest against Columbia's University's plans to expand into the neighborhood. They say Columbia's presence will lead to displaced residents and higher rent.

They also say that landlords such as the Pinnacle Group, one of the largest owners of rent-stabilized apartments in the city, are trying to kick out tenants.

"The landlords have gone ballistic in raising the rent. They have refused to repair apartments, forcing people to get out. In some cases they give you money under the table just to get tenants out to turn the buildings into co-ops and rent them to people with a lot of money, so working class New Yorkers are being pushed out of the city," said Assemblyman Adriano Espaillat.

Columbia University says only a few people actually live on the 17-acre site that is to be developed and there will be no immediate impact on them or their homes. The school says it is committed to working with concerned residents.

As for Pinnacle, the management group says it's committed to providing quality housing for New Yorkers and that it's willing to meet with any tenant group or official who has concerns.

Carrion, Our Wayward Son

Date: Fri, 09 Jun 2006 05:12:35 -0400
To:
From: "Tenant"
Subject: Carrion, Our Wayward Son

NB - A perfect example of how community boards have no legitimacy beyond the officials that appoint them. In Manhattan, Quinn and Fields had already purged CB4 (and possibly 2 and 3), leaving Stringer open to putting more hacks on the boards. In the old days people came up through tenant and block groups. Now, it's nightclubs. - Tenant

-------------------------------------------
From Field of Schemes
Remember when Bronx Community Board 4 http://www.fieldofschemes.com/news/archives/2005/11/bronx_board_giv.html voted 16-8 last November to oppose the New York Yankees stadium project, and local residents exulted, "We beat the Bronx machine"?

Well, the stadium may have been approved regardless, but the Bronx machine apparently hadn't forgotten the slight - on Tuesday, members of the board learned that borough president Adolfo Carrion had http://www.villagevoice.com/blogs/powerplays/archives/002665.php booted CB4 chair Ade Rasul and several other longtime board members for their role in the stadium nose-thumbing. (Rasul had actually backed the plan, but apparently not fervently enough for Carrion's tastes.)

"This whole thing is truly shameful," CB4 member Lukas Herbert, who still has a year to go on his board term, told me in an interview for the http://www.villagevoice.com/blogs/powerplays/archives/002665.php Village Voice website.

"It's an unpaid advisory board where everyone's a volunteer, and some of these people have over 20 years of experience. To have the borough president kick them off the board simply over a one-issue disagreement is absolutely disgusting."

From the Voice:
Carrion, Our Wayward Son
By Neil deMause June 07, 2006

When Bronx Community Board 4 voted last November to oppose the city plan to drop a new Yankees stadium on top of Macombs Dam Park, providing the project's only speed bump on the fast track to approval, it seemed only a matter of time before Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrion exacted his revenge for this act of insubordination. That time was last night, when community board members learned that Carrion had bounced board chair Ade Rasul and several other members, declining to reappoint them after their terms expired last month.

The actual list of those getting the axe is still a state secret--the borough president's office hasn't been willing to provide names, or even a total body count. But Carrion's slate of new committee chair nominees, which was the ostensible agenda for last night's meeting, left little doubt about the reasons behind the purge: For the board land-use committee, which had voted unanimously to oppose the stadium plan, Carrion picked a new chair who wasn't even on the committee.
(Rasul, who had nominally supported the new-stadium plan, was apparently targeted for not whipping his troops into line.)

It was by all accounts a wild night in the Bronx, with shouting matches breaking out between longtime board members and Carrion community liaison Aurea Mangual. At one point, when Jim Fairbanks, chief of staff for Bronx councilmember Helen Diane Foster, demanded an explanation why Foster's recommended reappointments had been rejected, Mangual tore into him for disrespecting the borough president's office.

"This whole thing is truly shameful," says Lukas Herbert, a stadium opponent who survived the Tuesday night massacre thanks to being only halfway through a two-year appointment. "It's an unpaid advisory board where everyone's a volunteer, and some of these people have over 20 years of experience. To have the borough president kick them off the board simply over a one-issue disagreement is absolutely disgusting."

The next battle is likely to come on June 27, when the board meets again to take up Carrion's slate of committee chairs. Asked how he expects that to go over, Herbert quips: "They were taking names at this meeting [of those opposed to the slate]. I might be kicked off the board before then."

Along a Viaduct, a Restaurant Row Emerges

New York Times
Square Feet

Along a Viaduct, a Restaurant Row Emerges
By ALISON GREGOR
Published: June 7, 2006

When Pete Skyllas first approached the abandoned freight house at 12th Avenue and 135th Street in West Harlem in search of the owner, all he remembers was the stink. "It was horrible," he said. "You couldn't come within five feet of the place because you couldn't breathe."
Skip to next paragraph
Enlarge this Image


Photographs by Jennifer S. Altman for The
New York Times
A view of the building at 701 West 135th
Street, top, which is being reconstructed.
Above, the arch of the viaduct at the site
in West Harlem.


Mr. Skyllas said he removed about 30 Dumpsters' worth of trash, much of it drug paraphernalia, from the building before buying it from Clear Channel Communications two years ago. Now the structure, which is at 701 West 135th Street, is being reconstructed, poised to become a fulcrum in a five-block restaurant row developing in the shadow of the Riverside Drive viaduct in West Harlem.

The gritty area, stretching along 12th Avenue between St. Clair Place and 135th Street, runs next to the Hudson River but is dominated by a highway overpass. For years, this stretch of land has intimidated joggers and cyclists who happened into it.

The area was once a meatpacking district, but has evolved since the 1970's into auto shops, warehouses and manufacturing businesses. But with the nearest residences up a steep stairway along Riverside Drive, it quickly developed into an area whose dimmer corners were used for drug sales and prostitution.

Now the transactions happening in the neighborhood involve commercial real estate.
"This neighborhood has always been very remote, and before, this place was maybe a dead zone," said Mr. Skyllas, who two years ago planned to move his plumbing business into the 20,900-square-foot building.

But then he learned about an $18.7 million reconstruction of two Harlem piers nearby at 125th Street — one intended for recreation and the other for water taxis and excursion boats — and a new 18-acre campus proposed by Columbia University to extend up to 133rd Street.

Mr. Skyllas said he quickly realized his building might flourish as a venue for restaurants and clubs. "Now, this area is going to have a heartbeat," he said.

Two restaurants have leased space in the building; they will be run by established New York City restaurateurs, coaxed to the neighborhood, in part, by its ample parking, Mr. Skyllas said. A lease is under negotiation with a third restaurant for the final space in the building. One of the confirmed tenants is a duplex restaurant-club called Alma Thai Latin Cuisine that will offer a fusion of Thai and Latin cooking. The restaurant will open in early 2007.

The owners, who also run the Umbrella Bar and Lounge and Mamajuana Café in the Inwood section of Manhattan, say they are paying about $11,000 a month for their 6,000-square-foot space, or about $22 a square foot annually — considerably less than the going rate for restaurant space in Harlem, which is about $60 to $70 a foot off the main avenues and can rise to $125 a foot.

Carlos Saint-Hilaire, co-owner of Alma, said the area had incredible potential. "This area is supposed to be the next meatpacking district," said Mr. Saint-Hilaire, referring to a once-gritty area of the West Village that has become a fashionable neighborhood with many upscale restaurants, popular clubs and expensive boutiques.

The revival along the five blocks of 12th Avenue has taken years to get rolling. An upscale Fairway Market began attracting people from the Upper West Side to the area when it opened at 132nd Street in 1995. And the first restaurant and bar, Dinosaur Bar-B-Que, opened in the neighborhood at 131st Street in late 2004.

The Hudson River Cafe, a restaurant and bar specializing in wines of the Hudson Valley and meals made from organic produce, will open this summer at 133rd Street.

Hamlet Peralta, who demolished an auto repair shop to develop the cafe, which will have live jazz, has plans for another restaurant in the area. He has been negotiating with the owner of a wholesale business along 12th Avenue to open a Mexican restaurant in the building, which has a striking river view from its third story, framed by the filigreed arch of the viaduct, he said.

Hudson River Cafe is to have a patio, outdoor bar and terrace, which he hopes will lure boaters who use the Harlem piers, scheduled for completion in the summer of 2007. Eventually, that project, financed by state and city agencies and featuring a landscaped bicycle path running along 12th Avenue, may also include ferry service to New Jersey.

Predictably, real estate agents have created a name for the tiny neighborhood: ViVa, for Viaduct Valley, evoking the ornate arched bridge supporting Riverside Drive, which was built in the late 1800's.

"This area is under a gorgeous structure," said Marlene Hartstein, a managing director at Warburg Realty Partnership who is representing the commercial space at 701 West 135th Street. "There's a lot going on there, and there really isn't any more space, because Columbia University has taken almost everything."

Andrea Rojas, the second restaurant tenant in the former freight house at 135th Street, is creating a duplex pizzeria and bar centered on an Italian brick oven. He said Columbia's proposed expansion, which would reach as far north as 133rd Street, was a boon to the area.

Dinosaur Bar-B-Que, the strip's pioneer restaurant, features blues and jazz bands along with smoky brisket sandwiches. Its owner, John Stage, redeveloped the site of an old meat
warehouse — which has since been acquired by Columbia University — maintaining the thick concrete pillars spaced every 11 feet as a foundation, but carting in antique wood from barns in upstate New York to frame the 7,200 square-foot building.

A conventional observation about the area is that it is difficult to get to, but Mr. Stage said this was a fallacy. Because the area is tucked under an overpass with ramps, cars can easily enter and exit the Henry Hudson Parkway from both directions.

The subway is only a block away, and a working bus depot is on 133rd Street. Train tracks run right past the neighborhood. Residents are campaigning to get Amtrak to stop there.

Residents of West Harlem have lived for decades along the streets perched above the strip, and a restaurant row along the avenue buried below them was part of a community plan developed under the city's charter many decades back but never realized. That plan also envisioned the area as a regional transportation hub.

"The original plan for that area when it was still a meat market was for it to be developed into a restaurant and nightclub row, because of its location," said Maritta Dunn, the chairwoman of economic development for Community Board 9. "There were no homes around there to be bothered."


More Articles in Real Estate »

CB9M Street Closings and Fairs - Summer 2006

COMMUNITY BOARD NO. 9 MANHATTAN
STREET CLOSING FAIRS

NAME...........................PLACE...........................DATE

Public School 161.............499 West 133rd Street...............9-Jun-06 (Health Fair)

P.S. 153.............................1750 Amsterdam Avenue..........10-Jun-06

New Convent Temple.......1805 Amsterdam Avenue........17-Jun-06

Miss Black American Princess Inc
Morningside Ave./119th St...................................................18-Jun-06

Hamilton Terrace Block Association

48 Hamilton Terrace.............................................................18-Jun-06

500 Block Assoc. of West 149th St....West149th St.,
(Btwn Amsterdam & Broadway...........................................24-Jun-06

The Children's Enhancement
West 137th St.& Riverside Drive..........................................1-Jul-06

Convent Garden Committee Association..Convent Ave.,
West 151St/West 152 St........................................................4-Jul-06

Federation of Multicultural Services..550 West 149 St.,
(Btwn Amsterdam & Broadway)...........................................8-Jul-06

Apostolic & Missionary Church
St. Nicholas Pl./West 153rd St./West 155th St...................8-Jul-06

Church of The Crucifixion
459 West 149th St. (Btwn Convent & Amsterdam)...........15-Jun-06

Our Lady of Lourdes Church
463 West 142nd St. (Btwn Amstedam & Convent).............16-Jul-06

Convent Ave. Family Living Ctr.
34 Convent Ave (Btwn West 126th & West 129th St.).......19-Jul-06

150-155 Edgecombe Ave. Block Assoc.
409 Edgecombe Ave. (Btwn W 150th St. & W 155 St.).......19-Jul-06

150th St. 500 Block Association
557 West 150th St. (Btwn Broadway & Amsterdam)..........21-Jul-06

West 141st St. Block Association
West 141st St. (Btwn Broadway & Riverside Drive)............29-Jul-06

Broadway & Amsterdam Block Assoc.
West 148th Street (Btwn Broadway & Amsterdam)............29-Jul-06

Samson Lodge # 65
454 West 155th St. (Btwn Amsterdam & St. Nicholas) .......29-Jul-06

Phase Piggy Back Inc.
202 Edgecombe Ave (Btwn W 142nd & W 145th Sts.) ........29-Jul-06

Harlem Week Inc.
West 122nd St. (Btwn Riverside Dr. & Claremont Ave ........30-Jul-06

St. Catherine of Genoa Church
506 West 153rd St (Btwn Amsterdam & Broadway) ...........5-Aug-06

West 153 St. Block Association
West 153rd St. (Btwn St. Nicholas & Amsterdam) ...............12-Aug-06

The New Security 5 Block Assoc.
Edgecombe Ave (Btwn W 145th & W 150th Streets) ...........12-Aug-06

Hamilton Playground Association
Hamilton Place (West 140th & West 141st Streets) .............12-Aug-06

150th St. 500 Block Association
West 150th St. (Btwn Broadway & Amsterdam) ..................18-Aug-06

General Grant Resident Assoc.
West 124th St. (Btwn Broadway & Amsterdam) ..................19-Aug-06

600 Block Association
West 151st St. (Btwn Broadway & Riverside Dr) .................26-Aug-06

500 Block Assoc. West 149th St
W. 149th St. (Btwn Amsterdam 7 Broadway) .......................31-Aug-06

West 151st St. Block Assoc.
West 151st Street (Btwn Amsterdam & Broadway) .............26-Aug-06

Gospel Mission Baptist Church
610 West 149th St. (Broadway & Riverside Drive) ...............26-Aug-06

St. Nicholas Place Block Association
St. Nicholas Pl. (Btwn 153rd St & 155th St.) ..........................2-Sep-06

New Stestament Missionary Fellowship
West 114th St. ( Btwn Broadway & Riverside Dr) .................10-Sep-06

500 Block Association
West 149th St (Btwn Asmterdam & Broadway) .....................9-Sep-06

Convent Ave. Baptist Church
Convent Ave (Btwn West 144th & West 145th Streets) ........10-Sep-06

Interfaith Assembly on Homelessness
Broadway (Btwn West 110th St. & West 118th Sts) ...............16-Sep-06

Upper West Side Recycling Ctr.
Broadway, Eastside (Btwn W 110th & W 118th Sts. ................7-Oct-06

Council on the Environment Inc.
Broadway Eastside (Btwn W 114th St & W 115th Sts) ............14-Nov-06

Manhattan: Harlem Theater Site Is Named Landmark

Date: Wed, 7 Jun 2006 14:50:35 -0700 (PDT)
From: J Reyes-Montblanc reysmont@yahoo.com
Subject: Manhattan: Harlem Theater Site Is Named Landmark
To: CB9M

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/06/nyregion/07mbrfs-brief-008.html

Manhattan: WestSide Harlem Theater Site Is Named Landmark

By DAVID W. DUNLAP
Published: June 6, 2006

One of the earliest existing theater buildings in New York designed especially for movies — or "photo plays," as they were called when it opened in 1914 — was given landmark status yesterday by the Landmarks Preservation Commission. Now a furniture and carpet store, the structure at Broadway and 135th Street was once the Claremont Theater and dance hall. It was designed by Gaetano Ajello and ornamented with a terra-cotta movie camera on a tripod. Thomas Edison recorded Claremont patrons in 1915 in a short film that can be viewed at http://memory.loc.gov/mbrs/awal/4185.mpg .





NB - The Claremont Theatre is located on the southeast corner of Broadway and 135th Street in the Manhattanville area of WestSide Harlem - JRM.

http://www.open-video.org/surrogates/keyframes/4591/4185_04427.gif&imgrefurl=http://www.open-video.org/details.php?videoid=4591&surrogate=storyboard&h=64&w=86&sz=6&tbnid=3xMTTEnh1SpTtM:&tbnh=54&tbnw=73&hl=en&start=5&prev=/images?q=%22Claremont+Theatre%22%22&svnum=10&hl=en&lr=&sa=N

http://www.open-video.org/index.php
Claremont Theatre, N.Y.

Shows the entrance to the Claremont Theatre in New York City at 135th St. and Broadway where Edison is showing Gertrude McCoy and Bigelow Cooper in On the stroke of twelve. Large numbers of men, women and children leave the theater, some as many as two or three times. Delivery boys, a wagon, automobiles and a boy on rollerskates pass by.





Download: MPEG-1 • 33.43 MB

Video Information
Year: 1915
Genre: Historical
Keywords: Theaters--New York (State); Actuality--Short;
Duration: 00:03:42
Color: No
Sound: No
Amount of Motion: Medium
Language: English
Sponsor: Thomas Edison
Contributing Organization: Library of Congress, Motion Picture, Broadcasting, and Recorded Sound Division
Transcript Available: No
Copyright Statement: Public domain

Digitization Information
Digitization Date:
Digitizing Organization:
Library of Congress

Montefiore Park Neighborhood Association Meeting

Montefiore Park Neighborhood Association
Serving The Community Since 1995
From Amsterdam Avenue Through Riverside Drive
Between 135th and 138th Streets
601 West 136th Street, Apt.18
New York, NY 10031-8101


The Association Cordially invites you to our
second meeting of the year

Wednesday, June 14th, 2006

7:30 PM

583 Riverside Drive, 7th Floor

Special Panel:

Hon. Robert Jackson, NYC Council Member 7th District
Hon. J. Reyes-Montblanc, Chair, Community Board 9 Manhattan
Chief Raymond Diaz, Commander, NYPD Manhattan North
Inspector Peter Winski, Commanding Officer 30th Precinct
Raymond Montalvo, Department of Environmental
Protection, Noise Control
Aisha Fraites, Coordinator, Parks & Recreation Department
Supervisor Rodney Duncan, Department of Sanitation


We will discuss important issues related with our neighborhood and Summer Programs.


Hope to see you, remember this is your neighborhood !

God – Respect - Moral

Montefiore Park Neighborhood Association
Serving The Community Since 1995
From Amsterdam Avenue Through Riverside Drive
Between 135th and 138th Streets
601 West 136th Street, Apt.18
New York, NY 10031-8101



La Asociación les invita muy cordialmente a la segunda
reunión del año

Miercoles 14 de junio del 2006

7:30 PM

583 Riverside Drive, 7mo. Piso

Panel Especial:

Hon. Robert Jackson, Concejal del Distrito 7
Hon. J. Reyes-Montblanc, Pres., Junta Comunitaria 9 Manhattan
Jefe Raymond Diaz, Comandante, NYPD Manhattan Norte
Inspector Peter Winski, Comandante del Precinto 30
Raymond Montalvo, Principal, Departamento Protección Ambiental Control de Ruidos
Aisha Fraites, Coordinadora, Departamento de Parques & Recreos
Supervisor Rodney Duncan, Departamento de Sanidad


Se tratarán temas y asuntos de importancia de la vecindad
y programas para el verano.

¡ Esparamos verles, recuerde que esta es su vecindad !

God – Respect - Moral

The Port Authority of NY & NJ WTC Transportation Hub M/WBE and General Subcontractors Conference

Forwarded Message

Date: Wed, 07 Jun 2006 07:48:57 -0400
From: "hudson moving and storage"
Subject: Fw: The Port Authority of NY & NJ WTC Transportation Hub M/WBE and General Subcontractors Conference
To: whitmananne@yahoo.com


----- Original Message -----
From: Maxwell, Walter
To: Maxwell, Walter
Sent: Tuesday, June 06, 2006 8:01 PM
Subject: FW: The Port Authority of NY & NJ WTC Transportation Hub M/WBE and General Subcontractors Conference

The Port Authority of NY & NJ
Phoenix Constructors JV
Are sponsoring a

MBE/WBE &
GENERAL
SUBCONTRACTORS’
CONFERENCE FOR

The
World Trade Center
Transportation
Hub Project

EMBASSY SUITES HOTEL
102 North Avenue
New York, NY 10281
(Battery Park City, bet. Vesey & Murray Sts.)

Thursday, June 15, 2006
8:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.

Continental breakfast will be served.
Come and learn about pre-qualification,
M/WBE certification, procurement and
contracting opportunities on the World Trade
Center Transportation Hub Project!

If you plan to attend, please RSVP by
Friday, June 9, 2006 either by email,
fax or send by mail.

FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION,
PLEASE CONTACT:
Phone: (212) 344-3500
or (212)344-4243/Fax:
or email abner@spectrumpcc.com
or mail to:
Mr. Juan Martinez,
Spectrum Personal Communications Corp.
c/o WTC Transportation Hub Project
40 Exchange Place- Suite 250,
New York, NY 10005

June 10th 2006 - Tenants March and Rally

From: BFrappy24@aol.com
Date: Thu, 8 Jun 2006 15:30:52 EDT
Subject: CPC 2 HOUSING & TENANTS RIGHTS MARCH, SATURDAY, JUNE 10, 11 AM
To: Reysmont@yahoo.com


June 8, 2006

To CPC Members and others who are interested:

We urge everyone to come out this Saturday and join the march against
displacement and for affordable housing and legal services to defend
tenants who are being driven out by landlords and developers.

The march will start at 11:00AM at 3333 Broadway (135th Street and
Broadway).

The Coalition to Preserve Community has joined other groups under the
umbrella group Project Remain/Nos Quedamos. This effort has been
coordinated by Assemblyman Adrian Espaillat.

Present at a press conference today was a diverse group including
tenants from Pinnacle, those facing eviction from Columbia's expansion plan,
other tenant associations facing buyouts and harassment, and lots of community
groups, community board members, lawyers from legal aid, elected officials or
their representatives, the board chairs of CB 9M and CB 10M, CB 12M and many others.

Assm. Espaillat and our Nos Quedamos/Project Remain campaign have
worked hard to coordinate this six month effort of meetings, tenant rights
advocacy, and gathering of testimony and this march on Saturday is the culmination
of that effort.

Whether you have participated before, or will just be coming for the
first time, we need everyone to come out. If you can't walk too far, there
are buses.

If you just want to walk a little of the march, that's OK too. We just
need you all out there and hope you can come and help defend our
neighborhoods, help preserve the community.

All out, Nos Quedamos, We Will Remain. (espanol abajo)
(Note: If you need flyers call Tom DeMott at 212 666-6426 or
Luis Tejada 212 234-3002.

There will also be a feeder march gathering at 9AM at Marcus
Garvey Park which will proceed to 135th and Broadway. For info on that, call
Nellie Bailey at 212 234-5005).

WILL NORTHERN MANHATTAN TENANTS BE DISPLACED?
TENANTS MARCH FOR AFFORDABLE AND DECENT HOUSING

SATURDAY, JUNE 10, 2006

START AT: 11:00am at 135 St & Broadway

MEET ON THE PLAZA OF 3333 BROADWAY
We will march uptown on Broadway. (see the route below)

RALLY AT: 3:00pm at Post Ave (between Dyckman & Academy)
Transportation Available

March Route: Broadway to 164th to St Nicholas- walk over to 193rd down
Fairview- land on Broadway- make a right on Nagle to Dykman- staying on
Academy and
Post Ave
________________________________________________________________
¿SERAN LOS INQUILINOS DEL NORTE DE MANHATTAN DESPLAZADOS?
MARCHA DE INQUILINOS PARA VIVIENDAS ASEQUIBLES Y DECENTES

SABADO, 10 DE JUNIO, 2006

ENCUENTRO EN LA PLAZOLETA DEL 3333 de Broadway
MARCHA EMPIEZA: 11:00am en la 135 St y Broadway

REUNIÓN MASIVA: 3:00pm en Post Ave (204 St) (entre Dyckman y Academy)

TRANSPORTACIÓN DISPONIBLE

La ruta de la marcha: Broadway a 164th a St Nicholas- camine a 193rd,
abajo hasta Fairview- llega en Broadway- hace a la derecha en Nagle a
Dykman- quedando en Academy y Post Ave

Community-Benefits Agreement Talks on Horizon - Local Development Corporation, Which Will Negotiate With Columbia on Expansion, Formed

Columbia Spectator

Community-Benefits Agreement Talks on Horizon
Local Development Corporation, Which Will Negotiate With Columbia on Expansion, Formed
Erin Durkin
Issue date: 6/7/06 Section: News

Article Tools


Representatives of the Manhattanville community have formed a local development corporation which will negotiate toward a community-benefits agreement with Columbiastarting this summer.

The local development corporation was formally established in March, but an announcement Monday by Community Board 9, Councilman Robert Jackson ( D-Washington Heights ), and the New York City Economic Development Corporation indicated readiness to begin the long-delayed negotiations originally slated for last January. At the request of Jackson and CB9, Columbia has waited for the LDC to be ready before entering discussions about community benefits. A community-benefits agreement is a pact in which a developer promises to provide certain perks to people who live and work in the neighborhood where it plans to build. Each one has different components, but agreements reached in other parts of the city have generally included promises to build affordable housing and to set aside jobs for local residents.

Columbia 's plan to build a new campus on 17 acres in the Manhattanville section of West Harlem has generated significant community opposition, and the University hopes that a benefits package will mollify some critics. To go forward with its expansion, Columbia needs approval from the city to rezone the area, which would be attained through the Uniform Land Use Review Procedure. CB9 has an advisory vote in this process, but Chair Jordi Reyes-Montblanc said, "There is no possibility of a quid pro quo, that we'll pass the ULURP if they do this or that."

Reyes-Montblanc said that community-benefits agreement negotiations can begin in the coming weeks because of a series of meetings held between technical advisers to Columbia and CB9, which compared the University's development plan with the board's 197-a plan. "Columbia finally came to the table, and we sat down and had a number of technical reviews. And we feel that we know exactly where we agree and where we disagree," he said. "Now there is something to talk about."

Though negotiating sessions have not yet been scheduled, Reyes-Montblanc said that "we expect that once things start to happen they will happen pretty fast."

Six of the 13 seats on the local development corporation, which is capable of entering into a legally binding agreement, have been filled so far. Its current members are Reyes-Montblanc; Patricia Jones, chair of CB9's 197-a committee; Maritta Dunn of Manhattanville Houses Residents Association; Julio Batista of the Housing Development Fund Co-op Council; Sarah Martin, the president of Grant Houses Residents Association; and Debbie Brown of Manhattanville Area Consortium of Businesses. Nine seats must be filled to achieve a quorum before negotiations begin.

The local development corporation is currently looking at representatives of commercial and residential property owners, tenant associations, cultural and arts associations, and faith-based organizations to fill the remaining seats. It is also assisted by John Bickerman, a conflict resolution expert appointed by the city.As to what an ideal agreement would look like, Reyes-Montblanc said, "I haven't the foggiest idea." "This will be dictated by the circumstances, discussions with Columbia, what they want, what the community wants, who will blink first," he said.

Jackson said in a statement: "Manhattanville can be a model for how to balance the interests of our City's communities and its large institutions. By negotiating in good faith, I am confident that we can craft an agreement that meets the community's needs while ensuring Columbia's long-term viability. I am optimistic that we will be able to resolve the outstanding issues."

Martin Smith, Jackson 's director of constituent services, said that while the councilman played an integral role in establishing the local development corporation, he would let it chart its own course. "Robert will support whatever it is [they agree to]," he said. University President Lee Bollinger said in a statement: "We welcome the formation of the Local Development Corporation, acknowledge the great amount of work which has already been done, and look forward to completing our work together to achieve a shared vision of the future for the Manhattanville area."

Martin, the Grant Houses president, said that her first priority in an agreement would be "letting people stay where they are if they want to." As it currently stands, the expansion plan will displace many residential tenants and businesses from the expansion zone.

In addition, she said, "We're trying to see how we can get them to do something about the lab," saying she would look for a commitment to build only biosafety Level 1 and 2 labs. "Further down the road at the end of the day, there'll be talk about jobs," she said.While players in the upcoming negotiations expressed optimism, Tom Demott of the Coalition to Preserve Community, which has opposed the expansion, cautioned that, "People shouldn't delude themselvesinto thinking that these vast differences don't exist and that there's some magical ... agreement that can be reached that can erase that."

Pinnacle probed - Morgy investigates landlord who's king of evictions

Date: Wed, 7 Jun 2006 14:59:46 -0700 (PDT)
From: "J Reyes-Montblanc" reysmont@yahoo.com
Subject: Pinnacle probed Morgy investigates landlord who's king of evictions
To: "JRM"

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/local/story/424353p-358061c.html

Pinnacle probed
Morgy investigates landlord who's king of evictions
Juan Gonzalez is a Daily News columnist.
Email: gonzalez@edit.nydailynews.com

Pinnacle Group LLC, the landlord whose aggressive tactics in evicting tenants have been exposed by the Daily News, is now being investigated by Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau's office.

Prosecutors have subpoenaed housing records that Pinnacle filed with the state's Division of Housing and Community Renewal, law enforcement and government sources said this week.
The probe is the latest blow for Pinnacle, one of the city's largest owners of rent-regulated housing.

Last week, state Attorney General Eliot Spitzer asked the DHCR for Pinnacle records on file at the agency.

DHCR also has begun its own review to see whether "there is any pattern of problems with Pinnacle" in overcharging tenants, agency spokesman Peter Moses said yesterday.

Even the Catholic Church is getting involved. Organizers of an affordable-housing rally and march scheduled for Saturday in Washington Heights - an event that will focus on Pinnacle's practices - announced yesterday that Edward Cardinal Egan is expected to speak there.

Assemblyman Vito Lopez (D-Brooklyn), chairman of the Assembly's Housing Committee, told me he plans to hold hearings next month on Pinnacle.

For months, hundreds of angry tenants and neighborhood leaders have claimed that Pinnacle is a virtual eviction mill.

They say Pinnacle systematically harasses and forces out long-term tenants, many of them immigrants, elderly or poor, then illegally charges newcomers far higher rents than permitted by state housing law.

The News has documented many of these horror stories, prompting authorities to act.

Last month, this column revealed that Pinnacle and its various subsidiaries filed an astonishing 5,000 eviction proceedings in Housing Court since January 2004 - nearly one for every four apartments it owns. In some cases, the company sought to evict more than half of a building's residents within months of taking over a property, city records show.

Since then, The News has reported several examples where the DHCR ruled that Pinnacle, after renovating empty apartments, had improperly charged new tenants hundreds of dollars more per month than rent regulations allow.

In some of those cases, after tenants filed protests with the state, the company tried to justify its higher rents by submitting documents to the DHCR claiming thousands of dollars in improvements that were never made.

The agency ordered Pinnacle to sharply cut the rents and refund thousands of dollars to the tenants involved.

Morgenthau's investigators, according to one source, are focusing on documents Pinnacle filed with the state to justify rent increases for individual apartment renovations or for building-wide rent increases, known as an MCI increase.

"We have not been contacted by anyone regarding any investigation," said Ken Fisher, Pinnacle's attorney and a former city councilman. Fisher said he had personally called Spitzer's office after he learned of the attorney general's decision to look into tenant allegations against Pinnacle.

Joel Wiener, Pinnacle's chief executive, says all of Pinnacle's actions are legal and aboveboard. He claims he is spending millions to refurbish slum tenements and thus saving affordable housing.

But it has become clear that Weiner's definition of affordable is out of reach for many of his tenants. Originally published on June 7, 2006

Mastectomy Hospital Bill in Congress

If you know anyone who has had a mastectomy, you may know that there is a lot of discomfort and pain afterwards. Insurance companies are trying to make mastectomies an outpatient procedure. Let's give women the chance to recover properly in the hospital for 2 days after surgery.

Mastectomy Bill in Congress

It takes 2 seconds to do this and is very important...please take the time and do it!

Breast Cancer Hospitalization Bill - Important legislation for all women.

There's a bill before Congress now called the Breast Cancer Patient Protection Act which will require insurance companies to cover a minimum 48-hour hospital stay for patients undergoing a mastectomy. It's about eliminating the "drive-through mastectomy" where women are forced to go home just a few hours after surgery, against the wishes of their doctors, still groggy from anesthesia and sometimes with drainage tubes still attached.

Lifetime Television has put this bill on their web page with a petition drive to show your support. Last year over half the House signed on.

PLEASE Sign the petition by clicking on the web site below. You need not give more than your name and zip code number.

http://www.lifetimetv.com/health/breast_mastectomy_pledge.html

Thank you -- Please pass on!

Taínos, La Ultima Tribu / Tainos, The Last Tribe

Special Screening of
Taí­nos, La Ultima Tribu (Taí­nos, The Last Tribe)
Saturday, June 10, 6 pm / Admission: Free

http://elmuseo.org/

El Museo del Barrio, 1230 Fifth Avenue at 104 th Street. Film and performance programs take place in El Museo del Barrio's Heckscher Theatre.

In time for El Barrio Week and Puerto Rican Day Parade celebrations, El Museo presents this film about an expedition headed by a young archeologist who accidentally discovers the last tribe of Taí­no Indians, who have been living hidden away from civilization for more than 500 years.

The movie, released in 2005, was filmed on location in the Puerto Rican towns of Comerio, Arecibo, Juana Diaz, Jayuya, Gurabo, Ponce, Manati and Naranjito. Written and directed by Benjamin Lopez. In Spanish with English Subtitles. Director will be present.




COMING SOON!
After renovation, El Museo del Barrio's Permanent Collection installation, highlighting Modern & Contemporary selections; Graphics, Popular Arts including Santos de Palo; and the Taínos and their legacy.



Taíno:
Ancient Voyagers of the Caribbean

Organized by Dr. Dicey Taylor, Guest Curator, coordinated by Fatima Bercht, Chief Curator of El Museo del Barrio, and designed by Ted Anderson and Donna Ostraszewski, of the Gallery Association of New York State, Hamilton, N.Y.

Taíno: Ancient Voyagers of the Caribbean presents rare and beautiful objects in stone, ceramic, shell and bone that illustrate diverse spheres of Taíno culture: mythology and cosmology, religion and ancestor worship, chiefs and chiefdoms, festivals and ball games, navigation and astronomy, ceramics and cuisine and daily life and technology.

Taíno: Ancient Voyagers of the Caribbean is a Permanent Exhibition that opened October 26, 2000.

Harlem in 2016 - 125th is uptown’s street of big dreams.

The New York
REAL ESTATE



Harlem in 2016
125th is uptown’s street of big dreams.
By Alexandra Lange





Columbia Manhattanville (Rendering courtesy of RPBW/SOM)

The (New) New York


There’s never been a musical named after it, but 125th Street could give 42nd Street a run for its money in the name-recognition department. The buses arrive, drop tourists at the Apollo Theater, maybe swing by Sylvia’s or Amy Ruth’s for lunch. On Sundays, the local churches fill with non-locals absorbing the Gospel. But often that is it. There’s nothing else distinctly “Harlem” to see, since the out-of-towners have Old Navy and H&M at home. “There’s something as precious here as the atmosphere of Paris,” says Harlem historian and booster Michael Henry Adams.

“They will sweep it all away and turn it into Paramus, New Jersey.” “They” are the forces of economic development. And “they” are well aware 125th could and should be different from 34th Street, from Sixth Avenue, from Atlantic Terminal. “You can easily envision 125th Street as a worldwide capital of African-American and Latino media, culture, and entertainment,” says Doctoroff.

The community wants more Harlem-centricity: more theaters, more clubs, more indigenous culture packaged for the 21st century. The city has some other ideas, which are not necessarily incompatible with this vision. In January, Los Angeles entertainment architect Jon Jerde led a one-day charette for the city-owned site on 125th between Second and Third Avenues—locals and executives from the world of Latin media met to discuss how the area might be transformed into a center for businesses and performance spaces. That’s also the site for Uptown New York, a public-private mixed-use development site for which the city just went back to the drawing board, after protests over the MTA bus garage included in the first request for proposals.

In central Harlem, the Apollo Theater has a neglected sister in the Victoria Theater. A winner for the redevelopment rights has yet to be named. Earlier this month, the Empire State Development Corporation asked the board to explain why it didn’t pick the highest bidder—though preservation, entertainment, and local job creation had been the goals. The two finalists offered a new Savoy ballroom and theaters (plus an Ian Schrager hotel), or a B.B. King entertainment center and black and Latino music clubs.

A river-to-river study by City Planning might upzone the corners of Lenox, Malcolm X Boulevard, St. Nicholas, and Lexington, creating mixed-use hubs over subway stations, while downzoning and protecting rows of rowhouses on 124th and 126th. A condo building boom is currently under way in the neighborhood, the emblem of which is the Kalahari on 116th Street, which has a Kente-cloth-patterned façade.

Hotels designed to keep tourist dollars in the neighborhood are part of the next wave of building. All the Victoria proposals include hotels, and a Marriott is to be part of the large tower planned for the corner of Park and 125th Street. This has been envisioned as Harlem Park, a 30-story multi-use, multicolored tower designed by Enrique Norten of ten Arquitectos. But there is currently no construction on the site, and it’s been reported that the project is troubled. This is too bad from an aesthetic point of view. “What I wish for is some architecturally significant buildings on 125th,” says Studio Museum director Thelma Golden. “Enrique Norten’s building is an amazing sign of the possibilities of this street to distinguish itself and change the way people experience it coming across the Triboro from La Guardia.”

West Harlem, a.k.a. Manhattanville, could combine the street’s entertainment focus with an academic hub—including a theater—drawing Columbia students and professors up Broadway to a new campus and the entire neighborhood west to the new Harlem Piers, set to open in 2007.

Uptown and Gown
A look north from 125th Street.



Map by Jason Lee.
(1.) Harlem Piers W Architecture and Landscape Architecture, spring 2007.

(2.) Columbia Manhattanville Renzo Piano Building Workshop and Marilyn Taylor/SOM, 2016.Columbia has bought or leased over 60 percent of the real estate between 125th and 133rd Streets from Broadway to Twelfth Avenue. Via this concentrated move, the university hopes to solve its persistent space shortages by building a second campus over the next 25 to 30 years. Phase one would include the renovation and development of 125th Street—currently home to auto shops, a McDonald’s, and a storage facility—with a theater, an art-school building, and a center for the study of the mind and human behavior (that’s where Columbia is hoping to cure Alzheimer’s). Standing in their way is the community board, which had other ideas for the area articulated in its own plan—light manufacturing, preservation of historic buildings, affordable housing, access to the soon-to-reopen Harlem Piers—and no use of eminent domain. This summer, both sides will sit down with a professional mediator to negotiate—potentially leading to a major rezoning of the area in 2007.

(3.) Apollo TheaterBeyer Blinder Belle with Davis Brody Bond, under renovation.

(4.) Loews-Victoria Theater RFP issued, no completion date.

(5.) Harlem ParkTEN Arquitectos, no completion date.

(6.) Kalahari Apartments Frederick Schwartz and GF55 and Studio JTA, September 2007.

(7.) Uptown New York Reissuing RFP, 2006.

(8.) Latino Entertainment Corridor Architect TBA, no completion date.

(9.) East River Plaza Greenberg Farrow Architects, spring 2008.



NEXT: The Fresh Kills of 2016



Furl It Write to the Editor -->RSS Feeds -->



June 5, 2006 issue of New York Magazine

Apartment Rents Expected to Rise 5 Percent

From: SBaileymcc@aol.com
Date: Sun, 4 Jun 2006 08:31:57 EDT
Subject: Interesting story
To: reysmont@yahoo.com

Updated:2006-06-02 17:09:54


Apartment Rents Expected to Rise 5 Percent
By Noelle Knox, USA TODAY
Updated 5/30/2006 11:30 AM ET

If you're a renter trying to save for a down payment, or you're just trying to move out of your parents' home, it'll likely get harder this year. Rents are rising faster than they have in six years.

Apartment rents are expected to increase 5.3% this year — about double last year's increase — the National Association of Realtors says. That's the highest jump since 2000, when the Internet boom created lots of jobs for young adults out of college. In April, rising rents were largely to blame for a sharp jump in consumer inflation.
"This is going to be the highest rental increase year since 2000, and it's going to be a broad-based increase in rents, not just limited to a few markets," said Hessam Nadji, who manages research for Marcus & Millichap, a real estate firm in Northern California.

"Renters are already facing higher energy prices and relatively moderate wage growth," Nadji says. "This is going to really squeeze a lot of households."

No one needs to tell Rosa Shephard. The $1,600 rent she pays for a two-bedroom apartment in Laguna Beach, Calif., will rise by $100 a month this Friday. It's a 6.3% increase, and Shephard's salary as an administrative assistant isn't rising as much, so she's trying to find a cheaper place to live.

"I'm trying to find a one-bedroom for $1,200," says Shephard, 53. "It just doesn't exist."

There are four driving forces:

• Job growth. U.S. businesses have generated 4 million new jobs in the past two years. New hires typically look for rental property.

• Rising home prices. From 1980 to 2000, the median price of a home was 12 times higher than the annual average rent. By this spring, it was 21 times higher, Nadji said. The median-priced home now costs $223,000, making the American dream a fantasy for more renters, whose competition for apartments then drives up rents. There's little relief in sight in such areas as Phoenix and South Florida, where home prices soared more than 30% in the first quarter of this year over the same quarter last year.

• Condo conversions. When the housing market was at its blazing peak, many investors who owned apartment buildings kicked out tenants and sold the units as condos. One out of three apartment buildings sold last year were converted into condos for sale. That took 191,400 apartments off the market, according to the NAR. In addition, the number of new apartment buildings under construction is down this year.

• Hurricane Katrina. About half the 100,000 displaced families in the New Orleans area haven't returned. Most of them were renters, says Lawrence Yun, an NAR economist, and "that's putting additional pressure on rental units throughout the country."

LOW VACANCY
Low vacancy may bring higher rents
Markets with the lowest apartment vacancies in 2006*:

Fort Lauderdale 2.7%

New York-Manhattan 2.8%

Las Vegas 3.0%

Los Angeles 3.0%

Orange County 3.1%

U.S. average 5.3%

* year-end forecast
Source: Marcus & Millichap Research Services


Copyright 2006 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.


2006-05-12 12:19:57

Big KATRINA Talk SAT.

Join the New York Solidarity Coalition with Katrina/Rita Survivors

At A Special People's Legislative Town Hall Meeting With Federal, State & City Elected Officials

Saturday, June 3, 2006
1:00 pm to 5::00
Fordham University - Lincoln Center Campus
113 West 60th Street, Auditorium
New York, New York
(trains: #1, A,C,D,E to 59th Street & Broadway)

Sponsored by New York Solidarity Coalition With Katrina/Rita Survivors and Department of Campus Ministries/ Fordham University. For further information call 718. 789-1732.

http://groups.google.com/group/nynolasupport

Imagenation REVOLUTION

[ from my mail ...]

Greetings!

Purchase your ticket today for the
Imagenation REVOLUTION!
Benefit Concert and Awards at
Harlem's World Famous Apollo Theater

June 2nd, 8 p.m.

Get your tickets NOW!


Please join us, dead prez, Martin Luther and others
at our fundraiser. Proceeds will benefit the opening of
the Imagenation Soul Cinema, Harlem's first and the
nation's only independent cinema dedicated to films
from the African and Latino Diaspora.

SOUL CINEMA SUPPORT COMMITTEE:

BLACK THOUGHT, CHARLES STONE III, DANNY GLOVER,
DANNY SIMMONS, DEAD PREZ, DJ JAZZY JEFF, EILEEN
NEWMAN, EMIR LEWIS, ESSIE CHAMBERS, EYKAH BADU,
JACQUIE JONES, KAY SHAW, KEITH A. BEAUCHAMP, KISHA
IMANI CAMERON, LEE DANIELS, LUCILLE L. MCEWEN, MAHEN
BONETTI, MICHAELA ANGELA DAVIS, NAS, NELSON GEORGE,
RAOUL PECK, ST. CLAIRE BOURNE, STACY SPIKES, THEMBA
SIBEKO, THOMAS ALLEN HARRIS, TRACY MOORE MARABLE,
VOZA RIVERS, WARRINGTON HUDLIN and growing.



* WHAT: Imagenation REVOLUTION! at the Apollo
w/dead prez preceded by an invitation only NYC
premier of a Starz In Black Film DEAD PREZ: IT'S
BIGGER THAN HIP HOP

* WHEN: June 2nd at 8pm (doors open at 7pm)

* WHERE: The Apollo Theater, 253 W. 125th Street,
NYC (btwn 7th & 8th Ave.)

* WHO: Presented by Imagenation in association
with the Apollo Theater

* WHY: Benefit to open the Imagenation Soul Cinema

DON'T BE LEFT OUT!
Visit www.imagenation.us to get your tickets today.

We hope to see old friends and make new ones. For
those of you who can not attend, but wish to support
to this important project, we encourage you to visit
www.imagenation.us and click the donate button
(Located at top and bottom of the home page).

Sincerely yours,

Moikgantsi Kgama, Founder & Gregory Gates, Executive Producer, Imagenation
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

CLICK HERE FOR DISCOUNT REVOLUTION TICKETS!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

* REVOLUTION! Concert and Awards

2006 REVOLUTION! Benefit Concert and Awards

Hosted by fashionista Michaela angela Davis and M1,
this benefit concert and awards ceremony at the
Apollo Theater will feature performances by dead
prez, Martin Luther, Burnt Sugar Arkestra Chamber,
Imani Uzuri and Kameko. Preceded by an
invitation only NYC premier of the Starz In Black Film
DEAD PREZ: IT'S BIGGER THAN HIP HOP.

The Revolution Awards are presented to artists and
industry leaders of color who use their works to
inspire social change, help foster solidarity
throughout the African Diaspora, blaze new trails or
exemplify a dedication to independent cinema. This
year's recipients include Warrington Hudlin (Founder
of the Black Filmmaker Foundation and DVRepublic),
Lee Daniels (Film producer - Monster Ball), dead
prez (Hip-Hop activist), Keith Beauchamp (Filmmaker
- The Untold Story of Emmett Louis Till) and Thomas
Allen Harris (Filmaker - The Twelve Deciples of
Nelson Mandela).

Previous recipients include Chuck D, Stanley Nelson,
Erykah Badu, Roger Guenveur Smith, Talib Kweli,
Sherry Simpson Dean and Joe Brewster.

CLICK HERE FOR DISCOUNT REVOLUTION TICKETS!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

* Film Screening

dead prez: It's Bigger Than Hip-Hop

dead prez, one of the nation's preeminent
underground bands, performs in the band's first
televised concert special. Starz InBlack's Original
production "Dead Prez: It's Bigger Than Hip-Hop"
spotlights one of the only true to its roots hip hop
groups at the forefront of a movement to reclaim
hip-hop culture from its bling infatuation. This
one-hour original concert includes intimate
interviews with dead prez members M-1 and stic.man,
who share their thoughts on such topics as world
politics, urban poverty, Black pride, healthy living
and the power of Black women.

"Dead Prez: It's Bigger Than Hip-Hop" also features
insights into the band and its music - including
tracks like "Know Your Enemy" and "Hell Yeah" and
interviews with fans, other hip hop artists and
historians. Experience a viewpoint outside the
mainstream as these uncompromising musicians present
their vision to create a new movement within hip-hop
culture.

"Dead Prez: It's Bigger Than Hip-Hop" premiers exclusively
on Starz InBlack, at 10 p.m. ET/PT on Friday, June 9, 2006.

CLICK HERE FOR DISCOUNT REVOLUTION TICKETS!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Imagenation, Cinema for the People -

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Imagenation
College Station
P.O. Box 127
New York, NY 10030

e-mail: gregory 'at' imagenation.us
http://www.imagenation.us

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Imagenation, a Harlem-based organization, was
established in 1997 to counteract negative images and
stereotypes that are propagated about people of
color, through mass media; and, to establish a chain of
independent art-house cinemas. Imagenation uses
independent cinema and progressive music to foster
solidarity and cross-cultural exchange throughout
the African Diaspora, with special focus on the USA
and South Africa.

WEEKEND REMINDERS: UPTOWN FUN!

From: "Harlem One Stop"
To: "List Member"
Subject: WEEKEND REMINDERS: UPTOWN FUN!
Date: Fri, 2 Jun 2006 04:25:58 -0700

WEEKEND REMINDERS: UPTOWN FUN!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Friday - Sunday, and then, some..,


a WEEKEND filled with history, architecture, art, music and gastronomic delights..

FRIDAY: Straight Out of Harlem, A Creative Outlet - First Friday Series, Remembering Johnny Hartman

Join us for a special evening as we celebrate Johnny Hartman--the man and his music.
Special performance by Lori Hartman and photography of Bill May.
Friday, June 2, 2006 from 5 - 7 pm
704 St.Nicholas Avenue @ 145th Street
RSVP at 212-234-5944

www.straightoutofharlem.com


SUNDAY: 18th Annual Hamilton Heights House & Garden Tour

An annual fundraiser by the Hamilton Heights Homeowners Association to benefit youth organizations in the community and a unique opportunity to see the interiors of a dozen remarkable houses in one of Harlem's most distinguished landmark neighborhoods. This is a self-guided tour.

Tickets: $25.00 each and may be purchased at start of tour at the Hamilton Grange National Memorial, 287 Convent Ave at W. 141st Street.
Sunday, June 4, 2006 11a.m. to 4 p.m.


www.hamiltonheights.org


SATURDAY: Walking Tour - Central Harlem: Lenox Ave - 125th Street

Join us for a 90-minute stroll along two of Harlem's most famous and historic streets: Lenox Avenue, the neighborhood's premiere boulevard, and bustling 125th Street, the pulse of Harlem, Mecca of Black America. Tour will highlight neighborhood history and landmarks and the new Harlem.
Saturdays at 11:15 a.m.
$15.00 per person.
RSVP suggested 212-658-9160
Meet Guide at Lenox Avenue and 116th, SE corner. Subway: #2, #3 to 116th.

www.harlemonestop.org


SATURDAY: EL BARRIO WEEK - Galeria 106 Art/Health Expo

The third annual Galeria 106 open-air art exhibition takes on an added dimension this year with the inclusion of a health fair, enabling community families to receive health services and information.
Saturday, June 3 @ 11 AM - 7 PM
Free
Abrazo Fraternal del Barrio, Inc.
159 East 116th Street
New York, NY 10029
212.289.3871;
pspromo@aol.com

SATURDAY: EL BARRIO WEEK - PERFORMANCE FLAMENCO LATINO

Kick off El Barrio Week (June 3 -13) with Flamenco Latino, as they present the music and dance of Spanish Flamenco and the Afro-Caribbean roots of salsa. The troupe combines the strength of somber Flamenco brazeo, intricate palmas and intense footwork with their flair for the hip-swiveling movements and mean rhythms of salsa. Presented in collaboration with Community Works and New Heritage Theatre Group, in association with the Harlem Arts Alliance.

Free with suggested Museum admission contribution. Free for people who live or work in East Harlem.
Saturday, June 3 @ 2:00 PM
Museum of the City of New York
1220 Fifth Avenue at 103rd Street
New York, NY 10029
212.534.1672

www.mcny.org


SATURDAY: EL BARRIO WEEK - El Barrio Week Tour with Artist Yasmín Hernández

Artist Yasmí­n Hernández presents an in-depth tour and discussion of Soul Rebels, her site-specific installation featuring eight portraits of musicians and poets, and Between the Lines: Text as Image. An Homage to Lorenzo Homar and The Reverend Pedro Pietri. Hernández will discuss how the arts serve as a vehicle for social change while providing a look inside the cultural and political history that shaped the work of the featured artists.
Saturday, June 3 @ 2:00 PM
Admission: Free. No registration required.
El Museo del Barrio
1230 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10029

www.elmuseo.org


SATURDAY: EL BARRIO WEEK - SEMILLA

Mexican Folkloric Music performed by an emerging collective of young Mexican artists dedicated to the study and promotion of "Son Jarocho" and "Son Huasteco." This lively music is danced mostly in festivals, on streets and parks of the coast of Veracruz and other neighboring towns. Not only can you dance to these sounds, but every song tells a hilarious and/or dramatic story that makes this type of performance a whole interactive experience! Truly exciting -- everyone ends up dancing!

Saturday, June 3 @ 9:00 PM
Art for Change
Carlito's Café y Galeria
1701 Lexington Avenue (between 106th and 107th)
212.534.7168

www.artforchange.org


SATURDAY: UPTOWN ART STROLL - WASHINGTON HEIGHTS/INWOOD

May 31 - June 18th. In four years, the annual Uptown Arts Stroll has grown from a one-day event that primarily attracted visual artists to a three-week extravaganza that offers a rainbow of visual and performing arts. This is a testament to the growing arts community in Washington Heights and Inwood and to the support that Northern Manhattan's residents and organizations have given to the effort. The bridges built between the different segments of our population become stronger the more we work together on common goals. In this way, art serves as a universal language.

The website — a collaborative effort of WaHI Online, www.WaHIarts.com and The Manhattan Times — gives you an overview of the events and venues where the 2006 Uptown Arts Stroll lives and breathes. The website also lists the artists, arts groups and sponsors whose inspiration, perspiration, and contributions have resulted in an event that can make all Northern Manhattanites proud.

noon - 5 pm
Mural Painting
Inwood Community Services, 651 Academy St. near Broadway
Young people working with D-aRts Youth Organization and art educators will continue to work on their community mural.

11 am - 5 pm
Top of Form @ Student Artwork and Tag Sale
P.S./I.S. 187 School Yard, 349 Cabrini Blvd., north of W. 187th St. (Rain date: 10 June)
Portraits and still lifes by 6th, 7th and 8th graders.

noon - 5 pm
Art in the Garden (Inwood)
RING Garden, Broadway, Dyckman St., Riverside Dr. (Rain location: Holy Trinity Episcopal Church, 20 Cumming St. near Broadway, 212-567-1177)
Outdoor art exhibits and performances. Curator: Elizabeth Popiel, scenicdesigner[at]hotmail.com

noon - 5 pm
Open Studio – René de los Santos
121 Sherman Ave. bet. Dyckman and Academy Sts.
Paintings.

noon - 5 pm
Open Studio @ Hersilia Méndez
222 Seaman Ave., E-8, at Indian Rd., 212-569-2866
Painting and sculpture.

noon - 6 pm
Open Studio @ Charles Ramsey and Yori H. Ramsey
33 Vermilyea Ave., Apt 3E, bet. Dyckman and Academy Sts., 212-567-8640
Paintings.

1-3 pm
Opening Reception and Poetry Recital
Washington Heights Branch Library, 1000 St. Nicholas Ave. at W. 160th St., 212-927-3533
Artwork by Community Arts Showcase. more info »

1-6 pm
Lobby Show
77 Cooper St. at W. 207th St., 646-796-9798
Internationally known tapestry artists will exhibit woven works, both miniature and mural.

www.artstroll.com


SUNDAY: UPTOWN ART STROLL - WASHINGTON HEIGHTS/INNWOOD

June 4, noon - 5 pm
Opening Reception
Office of City Council Member Robert Jackson, 751 W. 183rd St. near
Ft. Washington Ave., 212-928-1322
Artwork by members of the Union of Dominican Visual Artists. more info »

noon - 6 pm
Open Studio @ Charles Ramsey and Yori H. Ramsey
33 Vermilyea Ave., Apt 3E, bet. Dyckman and Academy Sts., 212-567-8640
Paintings.

2-4 pm
Outdoor Music @ The Renaissance Street Singers
Fort Tryon Park. Take the footpath from Margaret Corbin Circle, walk straight north on the path until you come to the big stone steps.

www.artstroll.com


MONDAY: UPTOWN ART STROLL - WASHINGTON HEIGHTS/INWOOD

June 5th, 8 pm dinner, 9 pm showtime
"Bridging Souls ... with Music"
Coogan' Restaurant, 4015 Broadway at W. 169th St., 212-928-1234
A night of cabaret with Broadway performers to benefit The Actors'Fund of America. Hosted by Broadway singer and actor James Stovall. $12/$15.

www.artstroll.com


TUESDAY - WEDNESDAY: UPTOWN ART STROLL - WASHINGTON HEIGHTS/INWOOD

June 6, Tuesday
6-8 pm
Opening Receptions in Inwood
Manhattan Times, 5000 Broadway (entrance on W. 212th St.), 212-569-5800
two07art Gallery, 634 W. 207th St. at Cooper St., 212-304-0621
Photographs from the Union of Dominican Visual Artists (with special guest Mike Fitelson), paintings by Gabriel Marchisio, and a group show. More info: Manhattan Times, two07art Gallery.

June 7, Wednesday
noon - 2 pm
Classical Chamber Music Concert
Fort Washington Collegiate Church, W. 181st St. at Fort Washington Ave.
Dr. Benjamin Metrick on piano and friends performing the Music of Camille Saint Saens, Johannes Brahms, and more.

6-9 pm
Opening Reception and Rooftop BBQ
Rio Gallery, 10 Ft Washington Ave. bet. W. 159th and W. 160th Sts., 212-568-2030
“Impedimenta”: paintings by Natasha Rubirosa curated by José Reyes. more info »

and more... check WEBSITE

www.artstroll.com

NYC BUS RAPID TRANSIT STUDY

PROJECT OVERVIEW

A faster more reliable bus may be coming your way in the future.

MTA New York City Transit, the New York City Department of
Transportation and the New York State Department of
Transportation have been studying the creation of Bus Rapid
Transit in New York City that would improve the speed, reliability
and appeal of the bus system. The agencies have led a detailed,
five-borough review of potential corridors and have identified 15
possible corridors throughout the city.


PUBLIC MEETINGS SCHEDULED

Come to the meetings and:
- Learn about the 15 candidate corridors identified
- Learn about what's been happening on the study
- Provide your input in selecting the five demonstration corridors

Presentations will cover the same content.
Feel free to come to the session most convenient for you.

For further information, meeting directions, or special needs accommodations,
please contact Veronica Bailey-Simmons at 917-339-0488 or visit the Website
at: www.mta.info/mta/planning/brt.

Meeting Locations are accessible to the mobility impaired.

Photo IDs are required to access meeting locations.

DATES AND LOCATIONS:

Bronx
Monday, June 5, 2006
Hostos Community College
120 E. 149th Street
Savoy Multi-purpose Room
Bronx, N.Y.
Two Sessions: 4:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.
Brief Presentations: 4:30 p.m. and 6:30 p.m.


Staten Island
Wednesday, June 7, 2006
126 Stuyvesant Place, Jury Room
Staten Island, N.Y.
Two Sessions: 5:30 p.m. - 7:15 p.m. and 7:15 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.
Brief Presentations: 6:00 p.m. and 7:45 p.m.

Manhattan
Thursday, June 8, 2006
MTA Headquarters
347 Madison Avenue (at 45th Street)
5th Floor Board Room
New York, N.Y.
Two Sessions: 4:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.
Brief Presentations: 4:30 p.m. and 6:30 p.m.

Queens
Tuesday, June 13, 2006
Queens Borough Central Public Library
89-11 Merrick Boulevard
Auditorium
Jamaica, N.Y.
Two Sessions: 4:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.
Brief Presentations: 4:30 p.m. and 6:30 p.m.

Brooklyn
Wednesday, June 14, 2006
Long Island University – Brooklyn Campus
1 University Plaza (Enter from Dekalb Avenue)
Health Science Center Building, Room 119
Brooklyn, N.Y.
Two Sessions: 4:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.
Brief Presentations: 4:30 p.m. and 6:30 p.m.

New York Council Calendar for the week of 06/05/2006 to 06/09/2006:

Date: Fri, 2 Jun 2006 04:42:05 -0400 (EDT)
From: webmaster@council.nyc.ny.us Add to Address Book Add Mobile Alert
To: Reysmont@yahoo.com
Subject: RE:Council Calendar

New York Council Calendar for the week of 06/05/2006 to 06/09/2006:
*************************************************************
DATE: Monday, June 05, 2006
*************************************************************
COMMITTEE: DEFERRED* Zoning & Franchises, Chairperson(s):Tony Avella
TIME: 9:30 AM LOCATION: Committee Room - City Hall
DETAILS: See Land Use Calendar Available in Room 5 City Hall


COMMITTEE: ADDITION* Land Use, Chairperson(s):Melinda R. Katz
TIME: 10:00 AM LOCATION: Committee Room - City Hall
DETAILS: All items reported out of the subcommittees
AND SUCH OTHER BUSINESS AS MAY BE NECESSARY


*************************************************************
DATE: Tuesday, June 06, 2006
*************************************************************
COMMITTEE: Joint Meeting. Finance; Health; Task Force on Hospital Closings , Chairperson(s):Joel Rivera, David I. Weprin, Helen Sears
TIME: 9:30 AM LOCATION: Council Chambers - City Hall
DETAILS:

NEW YORK CITY COUNCIL FISCAL YEAR 2007 EXECUTIVE BUDGET HEARINGS

9:30 - 10:00 Chief Medical Examiner

10:00 - 11:45 Health and Hospitals Corporation

11:45 - 1:45 Health & Mental Hygiene


COMMITTEE: Joint Meeting. Finance; Parks & Recreation , Chairperson(s):Helen D. Foster, David I. Weprin
TIME: 1:45 PM LOCATION: Council Chambers - City Hall
DETAILS:

NEW YORK CITY COUNCIL FISCAL YEAR 2006 EXECUTIVE BUDGET HEARINGS

1:45 - 3:45 Parks & Recreation


*************************************************************
DATE: Wednesday, June 07, 2006
*************************************************************
COMMITTEE: Joint Meeting. Finance; Education , Chairperson(s):David I. Weprin, Robert Jackson
TIME: 10:00 AM LOCATION: Council Chambers - City Hall
DETAILS:

NEW YORK CITY COUNCIL FISCAL YEAR 2007 EXECUTIVE BUDGET HEARINGS

10:00 - 12:00 Education

12:00 - 1:00 School Construction Authority


COMMITTEE: DEFERRED* Joint Meeting. Finance; Transportation , Chairperson(s):John C. Liu, David I. Weprin
TIME: 1:00 PM LOCATION: Council Chambers - City Hall
DETAILS:

NEW YORK CITY COUNCIL FISCAL YEAR 2007 EXECUTIVE BUDGET HEARINGS

1:00 - 1:45 MTA New York City Transit

1:45 - 2:30 Transportation

2:30 - 3:15 Taxi & Limousine Commission


COMMITTEE: ADDITION* Joint Meeting. General Welfare; Finance , Chairperson(s):David I. Weprin, Bill de Blasio
TIME: 1:00 PM LOCATION: Council Chambers - City Hall
DETAILS:

NEW YORK CITY COUNCIL FISCAL YEAR 2007 EXECUTIVE BUDGET HEARINGS

1:00 - 3:00 Human Resources Administration / Social Services


*************************************************************
DATE: Thursday, June 08, 2006
*************************************************************
COMMITTEE: Joint Meeting. Contracts; Finance , Chairperson(s):Miguel Martinez, David I. Weprin
TIME: 9:15 AM LOCATION: Committee Room - City Hall
DETAILS:

NEW YORK CITY COUNCIL FISCAL YEAR 2007 EXECUTIVE BUDGET HEARINGS

9:15 - 10:00 Design & Construction

10:00 - 12:00 Office of Management & Budget - Overview of Budgets - Revenue, Expense & Miscellaneous Budgets, including Debt Service & Pension appropriations

12:00 - 12:30 OMB - Contracts Budget
Jointly with Committee on Contracts

12:30 - 1:30 Finance

1:30 - 2:00 Comptroller

2:00 - 2:30 Independent Budget Office

2:30 Public


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Columbia's Planned Expansion to Manhattanville Draws Fire From Small Businesses, Community Board

New York Sun
Real Estate


Columbia's Planned Expansion to Manhattanville Draws Fire From Small Businesses, Community Board

By JULIA VITULLO-MARTIN
Special to the Sun
June 1, 2006

Columbia University's planned expansion northward from its Morningside Heights campus into West Harlem, which it calls Manhattanville, is now quietly being reviewed by the Department of City Planning. But the negotiations will not stay quiet for long. Columbia's expansion is not only opposed by several small business owners in the area who have refused to sell the university their property, it is also at odds with the local community board's official plan. And while many issues are ostensibly technical - current zoning disallows most of what Columbia hopes to do - the substantive disagreements are fundamental.

Columbia wants a virtual blank slate on which to build Renzo Piano's ambitious scheme.The community board basically wants an improved and denser version of what it has now - a mix of industry, warehouses, a few restaurants and bakeries, and several housing projects. "Columbia has an all-encompassing plan that depends on the complete removal of buildings, people, places, and things between 125th and 133rd Street and from Broadway to 12th Avenue," a local resident and member of the Coalition to Preserve Community's steering committee, Tom DeMott, said.

While this is somewhat of an exaggeration, according to the map Columbia has posted on its Web site, Mr. De-Mott is correct that Columbia plans to wipe out most of what is now in its "expansion zone." But to succeed, it must first get the city to change the area's manufacturing zoning, which outlaws nearly all new residential and many new commercial uses. Current zoning also maintains low height restrictions on buildings, thereby prohibiting construction of Columbia's proposed towers. In part because of the zoning restrictions,West Harlem has an old-fashioned industrial look. By Manhattan standards, it holds relatively few businesses, and limited residences other than public housing projects, which are allowed in manufacturing zones.

Even as residential and mixed-use developments spring up all around it, West Harlem seems caught in earlier depressed times.
Both Columbia, which is New York's 12th-largest employer, and Community Board 9, one of the city's most active boards, submitted their seemingly con tradictory plans to City Planning, which essentially asked for time out. "We knew Columbia's goals, and we knew the community's goals. We saw that these were two very different approaches to the future of the area," a spokeswoman for City Planning, Rachaele Raynoff, said. "We invoked a rule long on the books that we hadn't cause to use before - a coordination-of-plan rule - that lets us say we would like them to sit down and resolve their differences. It's better to resolve differences from the ground up rather than impose anything."

The community board does not oppose Columbia's expansion as such, but says that it wants the university to adhere to the planning guidelines it has developed over 10 years of work, guided by the Pratt Institute. That means preserving some historic buildings, retaining a few industrial uses, encouraging affordable housing, and not using eminent domain to coerce property owners into selling.

One such owner, Nicholas Sprayregen, whose father started their company, Tuck-It-Away Self Storage, with one building in 1980, said that his business is thriving and he intends to stay. He now owns five buildings, four of which are desired by Columbia. "I serve this community," he said. "I can't move. I won't move. I have no problem co-existing with Columbia."

Similarly, the owner of Despatch Moving & Storage, Judy Zuhusky, said, "We not only need to be where we are in Manhattan for accessibility to clients, we have to be located on a wide street like Broadway that can handle tractor trailers. We set our roots down here many years ago, and we're willing to live with Columbia. They're a neighbor. They're welcome to be here. But we need to respect each other."

Yet Columbia's goal, Mr. Sprayregen argues, is "to own 100% of everything. They have no desire for nuance, for compromise, for diversity."

Columbia's vice president for government and community affairs, Maxine Griffiths, said that Columbia is making every effort to include diverse shops and businesses in its plan, in part by maintaining 125th Street as well as 12th Avenue as commercial corridors. The immensely popular Dinosaur Restaurant, for example, located in a building recently purchased by Columbia, will surely have a home in the plan, Ms. Griffiths believes. "I can't imagine it could be otherwise," she noted.

In its application to City Planning, Columbia has asked for zoning map and text changes to convert nearly all of the expansion area to C6-2, which would normally allow medium density commercial, community facility, and residential development. Such development is compatible with what most activists, including community board members, want for West Harlem. But Columbia has inserted what zoning lawyer Howard Goldman called a cute trick - proposing half the normal permitted residential density. Mr. Goldman, who represents the West Harlem Business Group, says that asking for low-density residential is very unusual, but that one result would be the maintenance of low property values.

When the time comes for exercising eminent domain, the state agency, the Empire State Development Corporation - acting for Columbia - would have to pay far less. Ms. Griffiths said the university simply doesn't need higher residential zoning since it will house most of its students under community facility zoning, which permits dormitory towers.

The business group also wants rezoning to allow denser residential and commercial development. "Right now," Mr. Sprayregen said, "I'm not allowed to develop my own property to its full commercial potential. This is a blatant example of blight by zoning, blight forced upon the neighborhood by city regulations. Despite zoning, the neighborhood is far better off now than it's ever been, yet Columbia, ironically, is claiming it's so terrible and so blighted."

At the heart of this struggle is the ancient question of who benefits. Manhattan is booming, businesses and enterprises are expanding, and those who invested early in blighted neighborhoods expect to reap the rewards of their foresight. As Ms. Zuhosky pointed out, "This is an island where everyone wants to be. We can all get along as neighbors, so long as everyone is fair."

New York Sun
Real Estate


Columbia's Planned Expansion to Manhattanville Draws Fire From Small Businesses, Community Board

By JULIA VITULLO-MARTIN
Special to the Sun
June 1, 2006

Columbia University's planned expansion northward from its Morningside Heights campus into West Harlem, which it calls Manhattanville, is now quietly being reviewed by the Department of City Planning. But the negotiations will not stay quiet for long. Columbia's expansion is not only opposed by several small business owners in the area who have refused to sell the university their property, it is also at odds with the local community board's official plan. And while many issues are ostensibly technical - current zoning disallows most of what Columbia hopes to do - the substantive disagreements are fundamental.

Columbia wants a virtual blank slate on which to build Renzo Piano's ambitious scheme.The community board basically wants an improved and denser version of what it has now - a mix of industry, warehouses, a few restaurants and bakeries, and several housing projects. "Columbia has an all-encompassing plan that depends on the complete removal of buildings, people, places, and things between 125th and 133rd Street and from Broadway to 12th Avenue," a local resident and member of the Coalition to Preserve Community's steering committee, Tom DeMott, said.

While this is somewhat of an exaggeration, according to the map Columbia has posted on its Web site, Mr. De-Mott is correct that Columbia plans to wipe out most of what is now in its "expansion zone." But to succeed, it must first get the city to change the area's manufacturing zoning, which outlaws nearly all new residential and many new commercial uses. Current zoning also maintains low height restrictions on buildings, thereby prohibiting construction of Columbia's proposed towers. In part because of the zoning restrictions,West Harlem has an old-fashioned industrial look. By Manhattan standards, it holds relatively few businesses, and limited residences other than public housing projects, which are allowed in manufacturing zones.

Even as residential and mixed-use developments spring up all around it, West Harlem seems caught in earlier depressed times.
Both Columbia, which is New York's 12th-largest employer, and Community Board 9, one of the city's most active boards, submitted their seemingly con tradictory plans to City Planning, which essentially asked for time out. "We knew Columbia's goals, and we knew the community's goals. We saw that these were two very different approaches to the future of the area," a spokeswoman for City Planning, Rachaele Raynoff, said. "We invoked a rule long on the books that we hadn't cause to use before - a coordination-of-plan rule - that lets us say we would like them to sit down and resolve their differences. It's better to resolve differences from the ground up rather than impose anything."

The community board does not oppose Columbia's expansion as such, but says that it wants the university to adhere to the planning guidelines it has developed over 10 years of work, guided by the Pratt Institute. That means preserving some historic buildings, retaining a few industrial uses, encouraging affordable housing, and not using eminent domain to coerce property owners into selling.

One such owner, Nicholas Sprayregen, whose father started their company, Tuck-It-Away Self Storage, with one building in 1980, said that his business is thriving and he intends to stay. He now owns five buildings, four of which are desired by Columbia. "I serve this community," he said. "I can't move. I won't move. I have no problem co-existing with Columbia."

Similarly, the owner of Despatch Moving & Storage, Judy Zuhusky, said, "We not only need to be where we are in Manhattan for accessibility to clients, we have to be located on a wide street like Broadway that can handle tractor trailers. We set our roots down here many years ago, and we're willing to live with Columbia. They're a neighbor. They're welcome to be here. But we need to respect each other."

Yet Columbia's goal, Mr. Sprayregen argues, is "to own 100% of everything. They have no desire for nuance, for compromise, for diversity."

Columbia's vice president for government and community affairs, Maxine Griffiths, said that Columbia is making every effort to include diverse shops and businesses in its plan, in part by maintaining 125th Street as well as 12th Avenue as commercial corridors. The immensely popular Dinosaur Restaurant, for example, located in a building recently purchased by Columbia, will surely have a home in the plan, Ms. Griffiths believes. "I can't imagine it could be otherwise," she noted.

In its application to City Planning, Columbia has asked for zoning map and text changes to convert nearly all of the expansion area to C6-2, which would normally allow medium density commercial, community facility, and residential development. Such development is compatible with what most activists, including community board members, want for West Harlem. But Columbia has inserted what zoning lawyer Howard Goldman called a cute trick - proposing half the normal permitted residential density. Mr. Goldman, who represents the West Harlem Business Group, says that asking for low-density residential is very unusual, but that one result would be the maintenance of low property values.

When the time comes for exercising eminent domain, the state agency, the Empire State Development Corporation - acting for Columbia - would have to pay far less. Ms. Griffiths said the university simply doesn't need higher residential zoning since it will house most of its students under community facility zoning, which permits dormitory towers.

The business group also wants rezoning to allow denser residential and commercial development. "Right now," Mr. Sprayregen said, "I'm not allowed to develop my own property to its full commercial potential. This is a blatant example of blight by zoning, blight forced upon the neighborhood by city regulations. Despite zoning, the neighborhood is far better off now than it's ever been, yet Columbia, ironically, is claiming it's so terrible and so blighted."

At the heart of this struggle is the ancient question of who benefits. Manhattan is booming, businesses and enterprises are expanding, and those who invested early in blighted neighborhoods expect to reap the rewards of their foresight. As Ms. Zuhosky pointed out, "This is an island where everyone wants to be. We can all get along as neighbors, so long as everyone is fair."

Wines of the Times: Bierzo, a New Taste of Spain

New York Times

Dining & Wine

Wines of the Times

Bierzo, a New Taste of Spain
By ERIC ASIMOV
Published: May 31, 2006

EVERY once in a while an unfamiliar wine region rises and demands attention. Suddenly, that region and its wines begin to wallpaper your mind like a new hit tune, so that you can't get them out of your head. Most recently, I've been hearing the song of the red wines of Bierzo.
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Emanuel Berk/Rare Wine Company
HEAD TO THE NORTHWEST A hillside
vineyard of the Descendientes de José
Palacios winery in the Bierzo region of Spain.

Multimedia
Wines of The Times: Bierzo

What the Stars Mean:
(None) Pass It By
* Passable
** Very Good
*** Excellent
**** Extraordinary

Ratings reflect the panel's r
eaction to wines, which were
tasted with names and
vintages concealed. The
panelists this week are
Eric Asimov; Florence
Fabricant; Gerald Marzorati,
an assistant managing editor
of The Times; and Roger
Kugler, sommelier at Suba.

The tasted wines represent
a selection available in good
retail shops and restaurants.
Prices are those paid in liquor
shops in the New York region.

Tasting Coordinator: Bernard Kirsch
More Wines of The Times

Readers’ Opinions
Forum: Wine and Spirits

Bierzo? Absolutely. It's a small, ancient region in the northwestern corner of Castilla y León, almost on the eastern border of Galicia, which is due north of Portugal on the Atlantic coast. Most wine drinkers, I suspect, have never heard of Bierzo, but word is getting around. And if you get the opportunity to taste a good bottle, with its haunting, exotic wildflower, licorice and fruit flavors, you can't help but remember it.

Spain has offered up more than a few big new things in the last 20 years. Though it had more acres of vineyards planted than any other country, only Rioja and sherry registered on the consciousness of the world. Years of repressive government kept the wine industry antiquated.

But reform and greater economic freedom in the 1980's brought investment and innovation and Spain is now a leader in modern winemaking. Think of the regions and wines that have become noteworthy in the last two decades: Ribera del Duero, albariño from Galicia, verdejo from Rueda, Txakoli from the Basque region, Penedès, Toro, Jumilla and Priorat.

Bierzo is now on that list, and judging by the Dining section wine panel's tasting, it deserves the spotlight. Florence Fabricant and I were joined by two guests, Roger Kugler, sommelier at Suba, a Spanish restaurant on the Lower East Side, and Gerald Marzorati, an assistant managing editor of The New York Times with an interest in Spanish wines.

We sampled 16 bottles, fewer than our usual 25, because those were all we could find. It's an indication, partly, of how few producers in Bierzo are marketing their wines to the world. Indeed, those 16 bottles came from just nine producers, with one, Descendientes de J. Palacios, accounting for five of them.

If you have been following Spanish wines, Palacios may be a familiar name. Álvaro Palacios was among the pioneers who brought the Priorat region to international attention in the late 1980's. In 1999, he and his nephew Ricardo Pérez Palacios established Descendientes de J. Palacios in Bierzo, hoping to achieve a full range of successful wines.

It was a formidable challenge. The leading red grapes traditionally planted in Priorat, garnacha and cariñena, were somewhat familiar to wine drinkers outside of Spain as grenache and carignane. But the signature red grape of Bierzo, the mencía, is practically unknown. In a business that relies on familiarity for its marketing, this was a serious disadvantage.

To their credit, new Bierzo producers like Palacios and Dominio de Tares, which was founded in 2000 and produced three of our 16 bottles, stuck with the mencía grape instead of replacing it with fashionable varietals like merlot or syrah. Indeed, these producers acquired mencía vineyards, planted on steep hillsides, that were 40, 50 even 100 years old.

The beauty of these old-vine vineyards is apparent in wines like our No. 1 bottle from Palacios, a 2002 from a single vineyard, Fontelas, in Corullón. This was clearly an ambitious bottle, with plenty of toasty oak flavors. Yet the fruit, mineral and floral aromas and flavors were intense enough to stand up to the oak, and the wine had both power and harmony. It also had a price tag, $99, that made it the most expensive bottle in our lineup. It should improve with a few years of aging.

Our No. 2 wine, a 2003 Vega Montán from Bodegas Adriá, was also our best value at $16. This was an earthy, floral wine with complex, balanced flavors that really allow you to appreciate the quality of the mencía grape. Two other inexpensive wines also finished high on our list, a 2003 from Pago de Valdoneje for $11 and a 2003 Pucho for $14.

Why did we prefer these wines to some others, like the '01 Villa de Corullón from Palacios, the '02 Bembibre from Dominio de Tares for $45, our No. 9 wine, and an '02 Paixar for $90, which did not make our cut? To varying degrees, both of these ambitious wines sacrificed some of the qualities that make Bierzo distinctive in favor of oaky vanilla flavors that could come from anywhere.

In ancient regions all over the world, this tension between distinctive wines and geographically indistinguishable wines screams out as producers aim for the international market. It's a matter both of style and of economics. Do you make wines that emphasize the singular qualities of a particular region and its grapes, and hope that the world will admire them? Or do you aim to make wines in styles with a track record of popularity?

It's easy to understand the economic impetus for choosing the popular path. Yet in Bierzo, I think, it's more complicated than that. As in southern Italy, where nobody really knows the limits of what can be done with the aglianico grape, producers are exploring the potential of the mencía. Its appeal as an easygoing wine is evident; these wines will go with a wide range of hearty foods.

But what happens when you employ modern techniques in the vineyard and the cellar in an effort to produce wines worthy of aging? Can you still tease out elements that will make these wines supreme expressions of Bierzo rather than some generic super-Spanish wines? With the Fontelas, we guessed yes. With some of the other big wines, we were less certain.

Nonetheless, I have to give the Bierzo producers the benefit of the doubt. They are giving
the world mencía, and they ought to be congratulated for that. It could so easily have been syrah, again.


Tasting Report:
Introducing the Flavors of the Mencía Grape

Descendientes de José Palacios Corullón Fontelas 2002
$99*** Big yet balanced, with all the distinctive Bierzo floral, herbal and fruit aromas and flavors; needs aging. (Importer: Vieux Vins, Vineburg, Calif.)

BEST VALUEBODEGAS ADRIÁ ; VEGA MONTÁN MENCÍA 2003
$16***Floral aromas with lingering flavors of plum and earth; understated yet winning. (Marble Hill Cellars, New York)

Pago de Valdoneje Mencía 2003
$11**½ Exotic floral and licorice aromas; lively. (Antalva Imports, Los Angeles)

Pucho 2003
$14**½ Somewhat piercing fruit flavors yet earthy and enticing. (DeMaison Selections, Chapel Hill, N.C.)

Descendientes de José Palacios Villa de Corullón 2001
$48**½ A modern blockbuster: jammy with lots of oak. (Vieux Vins, Vineburg, Calif.)

Tilenus Pagos de Posada Mencía 2003
$40** ½ Pleasing combination of fruit and floral flavors balanced with oak; ambitious but straightforward. (European Cellars, Charlotte, N.C.)

Dominio de Tares Baltos Mencía 2004
$16** Flavors of licorice, earth and plenty of fruit. (Classical Wines, Seattle)

Luna Beberide Mencía 2004
$17** Balanced, fruity and easy to enjoy. (Grapes of Spain, Lorton, Va.)

Dominio de Tares Bembibre Mencía 2002
$45** Bright aromas of fruit and flowers, but heavy on the oak. (Classical Wines, Seattle)

Descendientes de José Palacios Pétallos 2004$20**Pretty berry aromas and flavors, offset by toasty oak. (Vieux Vins, Vineburg, Calif.)

More Articles in Dining & Wine »

Mothers' Exposure to Air Pollutants Linked to Chromosome Damage in Babies

National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences
National Institutes of Health


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
FEBRUARY 15, 2005

NIEHS PR #05-03
NIEHS CONTACT:
John Peterson
(919) 541-7860

Mothers' Exposure to Air Pollutants Linked to Chromosome Damage in Babies

A new study of 60 newborns in New York City reveals that exposure of expectant mothers to combustion-related urban air pollution may alter the structure of babies' chromosomes while in the womb. While previous experiments have linked such genetic alterations to an increased risk of leukemia and other cancers, much larger studies would be required to determine the precise increase in risk as these children reach adulthood.

The air pollutants considered in this study include emissions from cars, trucks, bus engines, residential heating, power generation and tobacco smoking. These pollutants can cross the placenta and reach the fetus.

The study was funded by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, part of the National Institutes of Health, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and other private foundations. The research was conducted by scientists from the Columbia University Center for Children's Environmental Health. Study results will be published in the February issue of Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers and Prevention, and are available online at http://cebp.aacrjournals.org.

"This is the first study to show that environmental exposures to specific combustion pollutants during pregnancy can result in chromosomal abnormalities in fetal tissues," said Kenneth Olden, Ph.D., the director of NIEHS. "These findings may lead to new approaches for the prevention of certain cancers."

Researchers monitored exposure to airborne pollutants, known as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), among non-smoking African-American and Dominican mothers residing in three low-income neighborhoods of New York City -- Harlem, Washington Heights and the South Bronx.

"Although the study was conducted in Manhattan neighborhoods, exhaust pollutants are prevalent in all urban areas, and therefore the study results are relevant to populations in other urban areas," said Dr. Frederica P. Perera, director of the Columbia Center for Children's Environmental Health and senior author of the study.

Exposure to combustion pollutants was assessed through personal questionnaires and portable air monitors worn by the mothers during the third trimester of their pregnancies. Researchers then calculated the concentration of air pollution to which each pregnant woman and her baby were exposed. Study participants exposed to air pollution levels below the average were designated as having "low exposure," while those exposed to pollution levels above the average were designated as having "high exposure."

"We observed 4.7 chromosome abnormalities per thousand white blood cells in newborns from mothers in the low exposure group, and 7.2 abnormalities per thousand white blood cells in newborns from the high exposure mothers," said Perera. "In particular, stable alterations were increased, which are of greatest concern for potential risk of cancer, since cells with this type of abnormality can persist in the body for long periods of time."

Chromosomal abnormalities were measured in umbilical cord blood by a "chromosome painting" technique called fluorescence in situ hybridization, one that enabled researchers to observe the structural changes within the chromosome. Chromosomes are the threadlike packages in the nucleus of the cell that contain the cell's genetic information.

"This evidence that air pollutants can alter chromosomes in utero is troubling since other studies have validated this type of genetic alteration as a biomarker of cancer risk," said Perera. "While we can't estimate the precise increase in cancer risk, these findings underscore the need for policymakers at the federal, state, and local levels to take appropriate steps to protect children from these avoidable exposures."

Previous studies conducted by Perera and colleagues showed that combustion-related air pollutants significantly reduce fetal growth, which may affect cognitive development during childhood.

The study is part of a broader, multi-year research project, "The Mothers & Children Study in New York City," started in 1998, which examines the health effects of exposure of pregnant women and babies to air pollutants from vehicle exhaust, the commercial burning of fuels, and tobacco smoking, as well as from residential use of pesticides and allergens.

The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences is a federal agency that conducts and funds basic research on the health effects of exposure to environmental agents.

For more information, please contact John Peterson, public affairs specialist with the NIEHS Office of Communications, at (919) 541-7860, or call Heather Ross, senior media specialist with the Columbia Center for Children's Environmental Health, at (212) 576-2700, ext. 243.

# # # #

The URL for this press release is: http://www.niehs.nih.gov/oc/news/airpollutant.htm

NIEHS News Alphabetical Index of Health Topics Environmental Health Information
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Last Modified: 27 Feb 2006

Columbia's Planned Expansion to Manhattanville Draws Fire From Small Businesses, Community Board

The New York Sun

June 1, 2006 Edition > Section: Real Estate >

Columbia's Planned Expansion to Manhattanville
Draws Fire From Small Businesses, Community Board
BY JULIA VITULLO-MARTIN - Special to the Sun
June 1, 2006
URL: http://www.nysun.com/article/33667

Columbia University's planned expansion northward from its Morningside Heights campus into West Harlem, which it calls Manhattanville, is now quietly being reviewed by the Department of City Planning. But the negotiations will not stay quiet for long. Columbia's expansion is not only opposed by several small business owners in the area who have refused to sell the university their property, it is also at odds with the local community board's official plan. And while many issues are ostensibly technical - current zoning disallows most of what Columbia hopes to do - the substantive disagreements are fundamental.

Columbia wants a virtual blank slate on which to build Renzo Piano's ambitious scheme.The community board basically wants an improved and denser version of what it has now - a mix of industry, warehouses, a few restaurants and bakeries, and several housing projects. "Columbia has an allencompassing plan that depends on the complete removal of buildings, people, places, and things between 125th and 133rd Street and from Broadway to 12th Avenue," a local resident and member of the Coalition to Preserve Community's steering committee, Tom DeMott, said.

While this is somewhat of an exaggeration, according to the map Columbia has posted on its Web site, Mr. De-Mott is correct that Columbia plans to wipe out most of what is now in its "expansion zone." But to succeed, it must first get the city to change the area's manufacturing zoning, which outlaws nearly all new residential and many new commercial uses. Current zoning also maintains low height restrictions on buildings, thereby prohibiting construction of Columbia's proposed towers. In part because of the zoning restrictions,West Harlem has an old-fashioned industrial look. By Manhattan standards, it holds relatively few businesses, and limited residences other than public housing projects, which are allowed in manufacturing zones. Even as residential and mixed-use developments spring up all around it, West Harlem seems caught in earlier depressed times.

Both Columbia, which is New York's 12th-largest employer, and Community Board 9, one of the city's most active boards, submitted their seemingly con tradictory plans to City Planning, which essentiallyasked for time out. "We knew Columbia's goals, and we knew the community's goals. We saw that these

http://www.nysun.com/pf.php?id=33667 (1 of 3)6/1/2006 9:11:23 AM

AIR MORE STINKY, KIDS LESS THINKY

New York Post

AIR MORE STINKY,KIDS LESS THINKY
By CARL CAMPANILE
'May 30, 2006 -- EXCLUSIVE

Children exposed to high levels of city air pollution while in the womb are nearly three times more likely to have mental deficiencies than other kids, an explosive Columbia University study has found.

Feeling Exhaust-ed
Study of 183 3-year-olds showed:
* 42 of the kids were exposed to high levels
of air pollution, such as auto exhaust.

* Three years later, these same kids
scored 5.7 points lower on cognitive tests.

* These kids were 2.9 times more likely to
suffer from learning delays that
affect academic performance

The analysis compared the learning ability of 183 3-year-olds from Harlem, Washington Heights and the South Bronx with the level of pollutants they were exposed to before birth. The moms wore air monitors while they were pregnant, and the kids are being studied over a number of years.

The study found that 42 kids exposed to the highest readings of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in utero - mostly exhaust fumes from cars, buses and trucks, as well as power generators - scored 5.7 points lower on cognitive tests than did kids in the sample who were subjected to lower levels of pollutants. The scores were 6 percent lower than the other kids - but that means the risk of being developmentally disabled for the most-exposed 3-year-olds was 2.9 times greater, because the kids tended to fall below a crucial cutoff score.

Such delays in cognitive development could lead to academic difficulties in literacy and math when the youngsters attend school, the study authors claim.

The researchers said the findings were groundbreaking because they were unaware of any other inquiry linking exposure of pollutants in the womb to the mental development of kids several years later. Prior studies have shown that pollutants can reduce fetal growth.

In-utero exposure to pollutants did not have a significant impact on mental development at ages 1 and 2, the report said, and researchers do not know why it took