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School Preview: Local Schools Look
September 21, 2006
By Alex Kratz
On the first day of school on Sept. 5 in Norwood, PS 94 Principal Diane Daprocida laid down the law for a few boisterous, wayward students wandering the halls. “Where do you think you’re going?” she asked a sheepish youngster who promptly started walking slower and with purpose.
“First day, you have to set the tone for the entire year,” she said later after admonishing an entire class for not walking in an orderly and cohesive manner.
Like Daprocida, the Norwood News is setting the tone for another year of comprehensive education coverage with our annual school preview. In 2006-2007 many local schools are going through profound changes as they introduce new programs, philosophies and technology. Some schools have become part of the city’s bold new Empowerment Program, which gives schools more autonomy, responsibility and money.
The following is a rundown of what’s new at local elementary and middle schools. The schools omitted did not return calls seeking information.
The Bronx Dance Academy – Bainbridge Avenue.
Amy Jones, Bronx Dance Academy’s principal, is originally from Kansas City, but she worked under former Region 1 Superintendent Irma Zardoya for several years. Now, in her second year, Jones is coming into her own on the 300-student middle school’s Bainbridge Avenue campus.
With two new teachers (“who are wonderful,” she says) and money for new Smart Boards – the newest interactive and tech-savvy reinvention of the blackboard, which can be hooked up to computers and laptops – Jones is “looking forward to an amazing year” in 2006-2007.
Jones says the focus this year for her administration and teachers will be on exploring and examining how visual and dance arts can be incorporated and fused into the teaching of the humanities curriculum. She’s most looking to forward to the Academy’s many ensemble performances, especially the holiday show, set for sometime in December.
MS 254 – Washington Avenue.
Not surprisingly, PS 254 Parent Coordinator Edwin De Los Santos says the school will be focusing on getting the parents more involved this year. “When we have meetings, we want them to be involved,” he says. “We’re going to be doing a lot of different types of workshops to invite them in. We want to have raffles and work more with the PTA as well.”
For example, on Sept. 23, there will be a school orientation night where parents will have the opportunity to talk with teachers and administrators about expectations for the upcoming year.
The After School Corporation (TASC) will be helping those parents out by providing PS 254 kids with plenty of extracurricular activities. Funded by the United Way and administered by the Community Association of Progressive Dominicans, TASC tutors 400 of the school’s 550 students and also teaches them photography, video production and art. TASC also does sports and takes kids on field trips to places like Yankee Stadium and the aquarium.
This year, just like last year, but more strictly enforced, PS 254 will require students to wear uniforms: white polo shirts and dark skirts for girls or dark slacks for boys.
PS 8 – Briggs Avenue.
Finally, some relief for PS 8. Thanks to a $100,000 allocation from Council Member Oliver Koppell, the first and third floors of the school were equipped over the summer with a brand new air conditioning system – offering students relief from heat and air filtration to help asthmatics.
Also over the summer, Principal Maria Quail went to the University of Connecticut to learn how to implement the Enrichment Program into the PS 8 curriculum. The program allows students and teachers to choose projects and subjects that interest them throughout the school year. This will allow students to “develop expertise in those fields that they choose,” Quail says.
Character will also be a focus this year, Quail says. She wants her students to take responsibility for their actions and focus on building a strong community within the school walls. To accomplish that, Quail wants to tie everything into the student council so students can police and watch over each other.
“With so much going on in the world, on the streets, and with gangs, we want to develop our own little society where kids realize their actions have consequences,” Quail says. “We want our kids to really take ownership of it.”
PS 94 – Kings College Place.
“Everything is good,” says Principal Diane Daprocida, who is entering her second year at PS 94.
The school received a grant from a private arts foundation and will be implementing the Project Arts program, which will include lots of dancing and visual art instruction and will be “woven into the curriculum,” Daprocida says.
That curriculum will continue to focus on balanced literacy and balanced math, while stressing small group instruction and “mini lessons,” which will allow teachers to meet students where they are, rather than where they should be, Daprocida says.
One thing is certain. PS 94 looks good. They have shiny new paint in the cafeteria and custodians have done a “great job” on the hallways and classrooms. They have lots of new materials and a resurfaced blacktop for students to play on. And this year gym class has returned because PS 94 has hired two new gym teachers.
PS 51/The Bronx New School – Van Cortlandt Avenue East.
The beginning of every day at the Bronx New School starts with a song. Interim Principal Mary Ellen Johnson, who is filling in for Paul Smith while he recovers from a stroke suffered during the summer, says the singing brings kids together and helps build community.
During those early morning sing-alongs, Johnson wants all the students to meet all the teachers. “We want all the teachers to be responsible for all the kids,” she says.
Johnson also wants to bring the outside community into the everyday school experience. Part of the science curriculum will involve a community garden located just around the corner from the Van Cortlandt Avenue school. Johnson will also be inviting community and education leaders to read books to students as part of their Read Aloud program.
“It’s important to have a strong sense of community,” Johnson says.
PS/MS 15 — Andrews Avenue.
“Failure is not an option,” says Eddice Mebane-Griffin, the principal at PS/MS 15 — the Institute for Environmental Learning. She believes all of her 600 students can, and will, go on to college and achieve their dreams.
Besides a new food and nutrition program for kindergartners, first and second graders, not much is new at PS 15 this year, says Mebane-Griffin. They will continue to follow the city’s standard curriculums for math and reading.
Of course the Jaguars, PS 15’s celebrated track team, will continue to compete citywide. And the chess team, which placed 10th at the nationals last year, will try to improve on their impressive performance.
PS 280 — Mosholu Parkway.
As part of the Bloomberg/Klein administration’s ambitious reform plan, Principal Gary LaMotta’s school is becoming an Empowerment school year, which means a “greater sense of autonomy and a greater sense of responsibility,” LaMotta says.
As part of the Empowerment program, the principal says the school will be doing more student assessments, created by school officials, which will provide teachers and administrators with more data for analysis. That analysis will allow teachers to know more about student needs and tailor curriculum specifically to individual strengths and learning styles.
“It allows us to be much more creative with how we implement our curriculum,” LaMotta says.
The school will also be completing its transformation into a full-fledged K-8. The first class of eighth graders will be graduating from PS 280 next June. The additional grades have forced the school to invade their neighbor, MS 80, where some of PS 280’s classes are held. Enrollment is now up to 785.
MS 45 — Lorillard Place.
There is a big emphasis on creating well-rounded students at PS 45, says the school’s principal, Anne Marie Giordano. In addition to growing academically, Giordano wants her students to grow “socially and emotionally.”
The principal says she wants to include more project-based learning, so kids can get away from the “rote everyday stuff.” That includes building mock bridges and other engineering projects. It will also include adding more art and music to the everyday curriculum.
Now, with enrollment up to 1,350 students, Giordano wants to redefine the school’s “core values and beliefs.” She wants to be more inclusive of the entire school community. “We want to make everybody feel like they have a vested interest in our school,” she says adding that they have long-term goals as well. “We believe everyone should go to college and there’s no reason why not.”
PS 291 — Andrews Avenue.
Principal Carlos Velez says he is excited that his school is becoming an Empowerment school, which will allow him to “look at curriculum and to use tools that will better support our school.”
He’s also looking forward to the school’s continued collaboration with Dream Yard, a non-profit arts organization. Consultants from the group work together with teachers and students to put on performances, such as plays and art shows.
This year, Velez welcomes seven new teachers and a new parent coordinator, Rafael Sandoval, to PS 291’s “lovely and committed staff.”
Chess, as always, will play a big role in students’ development at PS 291. “The level of concentration is amazing,” Velez says about his little chess masters. “We are all equal here on the chess field.” Last year, the school’s chess team won the national chess championship in Denver.
Our Lady of Refuge – Briggs Avenue.
This fall, the North Fordham Catholic school is instituting Earobics, an early literacy program that will aid younger students. The program provides pre-kindergarten through third graders with individualized Internet instruction that is easily monitored by teachers.
Also new this year is a Latin class for sixth graders, which will be taught by Msgr. John Jenik. “It gives them a sense of the roots of the English language,” says Refuge’s principal of 16 years, Marivel Colon.
Colon also says the school is trying to bring back a basketball program, which has been absent the past few years. Students are only allowed to participate if they have passing grades, she says.
And now, thanks to money from the city’s Department of Education, Refuge will be providing all of its students with free breakfast and lunch.
PS 246 – Grand Concourse.
Thanks to a grant from Deutsche Bank, PS 246 will have perhaps the coolest play yard in the Bronx. Students designed the yard with the help of landscape architects and it will include a rubber track, a garden and an outdoor classroom. The bad news is that until the yard is completed (construction began early this past summer and should be done by the end of November), students have nowhere to run around.
That’s why neighbors may see members of the Roadrunners, PS 246’s track team, running through the streets for practice at 6:30 a.m.
As for academics, Assistant Principal Shelly Pope says teachers are working with Teachers’ College at Columbia to learn new techniques to institute monthly themes into their reading curriculum. In September, teachers will begin talking to students about the “writerly life.”
Pope is most excited, however, about the school’s work with the Student Success Center, which is funded by the Robin Hood Foundation. Students are evaluated at the Center in Manhattan (80 last year, 80 more this year) and then teachers are given the assessments. They use the assessments to decide where to place students and how best to teach them. “It’s helped us in so many ways,” Pope says.
Jonas Bronck Academy (Manhattan College Campus).
According to Jonas Bronck Academy Principal Maria Esponda, the most important goal at Jonas Bronck is nothing less than “trying to get kids to think out of the box and get them to look at their role in history.”
That’s a big goal, but this is a school that aims high. Now in its third year, JBA, located on the campus of Manhattan College, is transforming itself into a full-fledged college prep school.
“We’re really setting the stage for that,” Esponda says. “We have experience, we have a plan, we’ve done workshops — we’re ready.”
She also wants students to start taking ownership of their education. Over the summer, the school gave the book “Seven Habits of Highly Effective Teens,” to all incoming seventh and eighth graders. Then on the first day of school, kids went on an all-day retreat to talk about the book and how they can use some of the traits and habits they learned about.
“It has set a nice tone,” Esponda says. “They’re going to be prepared to be even more successful.”
PS 56 — East 207th Street.
Principal Priscilla Sheeran is busy improving her school. She doesn’t have a lot of time to speak with reporters. It’s probably one of the reasons PS 56 received special recognition from the state as one of 71 schools “making rapid and positive improvements.”
Consistency has also been crucial. The school has had very little staff turnover and the building hasn’t undergone any massive renovations.
The main goal for this year is integrating science and social studies into literacy and math Sheeran says. That way, theoretically, students will be carrying over what they learned in one class and applying it to what they’re doing in another class.
PS 20 — Webster Avenue.
With the additional funding it received as being one of 322 schools selected to be part of the Empowerment Program, PS 20 is going shopping. Administrators are buying new uniforms for the entire school and parents will no longer be burdened with the cost and time it takes to buy their own polo shirts and dark slacks. Plus, new uniforms “gives a cohesive look to the school,” says Assistant Principal Juan Flores, now in his ninth year at the school. “It has an impact on how the kids see the school.”
Flores is also happy to announce that PS 20 will have its first class of about 30 pre-schoolers, pushing enrollment over the 1,300-student mark.
Improving reading levels will be a key focus at PS 20 this year, Flores says. There is a new librarian, Lisa Protzmann, who is instituting an “open access” policy to provide students and teachers with more library time for special projects. In addition, PS 20 will continue with the federally funded Reading First program, which decreased the number of lowest-level readers by half last year.
Flores says they are always trying to identify different learning styles and adapting curriculum.
“We’re constantly changing to meet the needs of the kids in the neighborhood,” Flores said. “We’ll try anything.”
Trees for Life
September 21, 2006
By Editorial
This editorial is about one of those chronic neighborhood injustices that drives us nuts. We’ve written about it before and we’ll write about it again. In doing so, maybe we can collectively figure out how to address it.
As many of our readers know, we (Mosholu Presevation Corporation, the nonprofit that publishes this paper) have been working on beautification efforts for a long time. So have lots of other people. The Jerome-Gun Hill BID, the new Fordham BID, Montefiore, local elected officials, businesses and citizens spend lots of time cleaning up litter and graffiti and trying to make this area nicer and more attractive.
It’s hard, under-appreciated and never-ending work, but we all do it because we like things to be nicer. That’s why we are always saddened by the nagging problems that are harder than most to resolve.
And one of the most upsetting, frustrating, depressing problems is the killing of trees.
Groups like the Fordham Bedford Housing Corporation the Mosholu Montefiore Community Center and Montefiore’s School Health Program have all worked mightily to plant trees and care for them.
But, for some reason we will never really fathom, there are neighbors in our midst who seem offended by the growth of trees. Some people see them as the proper place for dog waste. Others just like to break things and snap the small trees in half. Some people seem to think that a tree pit and the guards placed around them are the perfect place for garbage as if the trees provide mini landfills for their convenience. And some people just tear the bark off them, which will surely kill them.
Seeing this state of affairs, one of our correspondents wrote in to say that our tax dollars are wasted on trees that will mostly get killed or just die, as many do in our hot and polluted city.
We have a different view. We are determined to help more living things survive in our overwhelmingly built environment. Trees cool our sidewalks, provide oxygen and beautify our world.
More and more, trees are being planted on our streets and in our parks. We need to help protect them and request more. Between the tree massacre on Mosholu Parkway 18 years ago and the loss of trees due to the filtration plant construction, we are barely keeping up.
So, when spring rolls around again, throw some water on the trees when they’re dry, help keep the tree pits clean, and teach children to love and care for them. Without the green of the earth, we wouldn’t be able to breathe.
A Welcome Collaboration
We attended one of the Chihuly Nights at the New York Botanical Garden last week. Featured, in addition to the splendid sculpture you’ve seen pictured in these pages over the last few issues, was a wonderful concert by the folk musician Erin McKeown. Emceeing the event was WFUV’s Rita Houston.
Yes, we just mentioned WFUV and the NYBG in the same paragraph, and it has nothing to do with the dreadful radio tower dispute.
When the tower came down last spring, the opportunities for collaboration between the two venerable Bronx institutions arose. We hope there will be many more like this one.
Building Named for Monte Chief
September 21, 2006
By David Greene
Spencer Foreman, MD, became a legend in his own time on Sunday, Sept. 17, when Montefiore Medical Center, the massive Bronx hospital he leads, renamed a newly renovated building after him.
“This is not a retirement party, I want to make that perfectly clear,” Montefiore Chairman Jay B. Langer said about the ribbon-cutting ceremony and unveiling of the Spencer Foreman, M.D. Pavilion at the hospital’s Gun Hill Road entrance.
The honor is unprecedented because Foreman will continue on as president, a position he has held at Montefiore since 1986. Because of Foreman’s leadership, Montefiore now ranks in the top 1 percent of U.S. hospitals, based on its investments in medical innovation and cutting-edge technology, officials said.
Foreman’s contributions at Montefiore extend beyond the hospital’s walls. This year, Montefiore is a finalist for the Foster G. McGaw prize, which is awarded to the hospital that distinguishes itself in its efforts to improve the health and well-being of everyone in its community.
“The hallmark of Spike Foreman’s career as a physician and executive has been his innate understanding of a hospital’s deeper role in its community,” said Dick Davidson, president of the American Hospital Association, referring to Foreman by his nickname. “The organizations he has led not only have excelled at their mission of medical care; they have been leaders at changing and bettering the lives of the people in the communities around them.”
Among other distinctions, Foreman is a fellow of the American College of Physicians and a member of the National Academy of Science’s Institute of Medicine. He is also a professor at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. Before coming to Montefiore 20 years ago, Foreman was president of Sinai Hospital in Baltimore. His legacy, however, will always remain in the Bronx.
“In so many ways, Montefiore is a model health system for much of urban America,” Foreman said at the ceremony.
Group Drums Way Through Boroughs
September 21, 2006
By Jordan Moss
On a sweltering Thursday afternoon in July, Quoom Wilburn and two friends caught a downtown D train at the Bedford Park station. They were off to see Wilburn’s father in Bedford Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, but the trio had another reason to be on the subway that day; they wanted to make some money. So began a frantic – not to mention noisy – roller coaster ride through three boroughs.
Wilburn, 28, and his buddies, brothers Aniayah and Yeshai Lewi, are drummers with The United Drummers of Israel, a group the dreadlocked Wilburn helped found. While they occasionally gig at clubs in Manhattan and Queens, subway cars are often their venues, and straphangers their audience.
They started in the car at the front of the train, positioning their drums in the space by the train’s doors, before unfolding the little stall each carried under his arm, and sitting down. Wilburn, with his big smile and big voice, is a natural entertainer. “Some of you are gonna like it. Some of you are gonna love it. There’s always one hater!” he roared above the noise of the accelerating train.
According to Aniayah, who, like the others, recently became a father, the drummers play off each other, rather than following a particular musical piece or rhythm. Regardless, they’re always in unison, whether they drum slow and soft or hard and fast. They use the palms of their hands, but also their fists and fingers, and Wilburn occasionally licks the thumb and forefinger of his left hand, and runs it across the vibrating drumhead, creating a distorted screech.
As the train began to brake for the Kingsbridge Road stop, Wilburn whipped out a Yankees hat, turned it upside down, held it out in front of him, and paced the aisle. “Money for the drummers!” he shouted.
Aniayah was similarly animated. “Clap your hands, it raises our self-esteem!” he yelled. “Smile New York, the world needs positive energy!”
When the train came to a halt, and the doors sprung open, the drummers each grabbed their chair and drum (Yeshai is stuck with two), exited the car, and sprinted to the next one down. After a few polite “excuse me’s” to create room, Wilburn started again: “Some of you are gonna like it. Some of you… ”
Wilburn loves to flirt and make people laugh, and most of the time the drummers get a great reception. Kids giggle, and watch wide-eyed, and adults put down their newspapers, applaud and allow themselves a smile; a few even buy the group’s CD and DVD. Occasionally, however, the drummers will bump into someone who isn’t so welcoming. “I’ll pay you $5 if you shut up,” Wilburn recalls one man saying on a previous outing.
At the Rockefeller station in Manhattan they changed for the F train, and at Delancey Street they switched to the Brooklyn-bound J train. By the time they reached Bed-Stuy they’d played perhaps 25 impromptu concerts, and made something approaching $100. At Wilburn’s father’s house, the drummers offered a prayer to God, just as they did on boarding the D train at Bedford Park. Inside, Wilburn handed out ears of corn, and counted the proceeds of a successful trip, carefully straightening out each one-dollar bill.
Wilburn lives on East 199th Street in Bedford Park, but he spends much of his time in Brooklyn, where he was born and raised. Drumming has always been part of his life. “I was learning from a baby, hitting pots and pans,” he said. Wilburn’s father is also a drummer, and like his son calls himself an Israelite, a group who believes they descend from the 12 Tribes of Jacob.
Aniayah wears a bandanna. A gold colored Star of David (or Shield of David, as Israelites call it), smaller than a dime, is attached to the front and hangs over his forehead. “Drumming is a big part of our culture,” he said. “It got us through 400 years of slavery.”
The United Drummers of Israel are a loose affiliation of 20-plus drummers, providing Quoom with a handy pool of talent to accompany him on the subway. Wilburn himself plays several times a week, and for several hours at a time. It can be exhausting, he concedes, especially running between subway cars at each stop with a bulky two-foot-tall drum in tow.
After a cooling drink, it was off to work again; laughing and joking, Wilburn, Aniayah and Yeshai jumped back on the subway.
Armory Hurdle Still Not Cleared
September 21, 2006
By Alex Kratz
Though it was slated to be released Sept. 18, the Kingsbridge Armory Request for Proposals, or RFP, has been delayed again as the Economic Development Corporation (EDC) continues to work on language for the project’s design guidelines.
As of press time on Tuesday, Sept. 19, members of the Armory Task Force, an advisory group of elected official and community representatives, were still waiting to look at one last draft of the RFP before it’s released to the public.
An EDC spokeswoman said the final version would be released “early this week.”
The previous draft, which the Task Force previewed on Aug. 29, contained some encouraging language from the standpoint of community activists, who said they were pleasantly surprised at how much the EDC had incorporated community input into the RFP. Most notably, the RFP draft spelled out preferences for contractors who brought in the most living wage jobs, which has been defined by the city as $10 an hour, plus $1.50 an hour in benefits.
On the downside, the draft did not guarantee a certain amount of community space and called for the building of only two schools with 1,000 seats. The Kingsbridge Armory Redevelopment Alliance (KARA), which is spearheaded by the Northwest Bronx Community and Clergy Coalition but is endorsed by several local officials and community organizations, has been adamant about its desire for four small schools and 2,000 seats to reduce overcrowding.
KARA leaders hope that EDC will stick to the good parts of the draft and amend the parts they don’t like.
Regardless of the outcome, KARA is planning to hold a rally on Sept. 30 to celebrate completion of the first stage in the redevelopment process – the release of an RFP. KARA officials say there is reason to rejoice, but big hurdles remain. Once a developer is chosen, possibly by next June, local leaders involved in the process say it will be up to the community to mobilize and negotiate a strong Community Benefits Agreement.
The project must also get through the city’s Uniform Land Use Review Procedure (ULURP), which will involve every level of city government beginning at Community Board 7.
Puerto Rican Politics on film
September 7, 2006
By Jordan Moss
It’s hard to know whether to be inspired or depressed by Rafael Rivera-Viruet’s fascinating documentary focusing on the development of Puerto Rican politics in New York City, “Politics con Sabor,” the first installment of which was shown to a small audience at Hunter College last week.
The pride felt by an ethnic community coming of age and fighting to overcome vicious barriers — like the imposition of literacy requirements on Puerto Rican-born American citizens trying to vote — and taking its place near the top of the city’s power structure is glorious.
Herman Badillo epitomized that ascension when he became the first Puerto Rican borough president and congressman.
But in the 1960s and 1970s, the typical infighting among politicians allied with different political clubs devolved into out-and-out factional violence among Puerto Rican elected officials and community leaders when federal anti-poverty money began flowing to the city, particularly to the south Bronx and Harlem. In watching that skirmishing, captured by still photos and recollections of participants, you can just hear the air hissing out of the Puerto Rican community’s once-buoyant campaign balloons. Jewish leaders took advantage of that squandering of Puerto Rican power and it was almost 20 years before another Puerto Rican followed Badillo into Borough Hall.
Even current Bronx leaders like Democratic boss Jose Rivera — no stranger to rough-and-tumble politics — say that the fighting stifled Puerto Rican political empowerment.
In the film, Rivera says that he thinks that a particularly vicious battle for the City Council between Gilberto Gerena Valentin and Ramon Velez “set us back some 22 years.”
Peter Rivera, the assemblyman who championed the film project in the state legislature, surprisingly and poignantly said at one point in the film, “Maybe there are no victories in those kinds of battles that politicians engage in.”
Outside electoral politics there are stories of empowerment that are just as important, and they get screen time, too. Some of them probably would be suitable documentary subjects of their own, like the raucous awakening of a younger generation of Puerto Ricans epitomized by the Young Lords (several alumni, like Juan Gonzalez and Pablo Guzman now populate the city’s media establishment). Or grassroots neighborhood leaders like Evelina Antonetty who were rare community anchors at a time when chunks of the borough were literally vanishing.
This movie, funded by politicians, could have been a disastrous puff piece. Instead, Peter Rivera and his colleagues did the right thing and placed it in the capable hands of the Centro de Estudios Puertorriqueños at Hunter College.
The result is a rich and nuanced look at Puerto Rican politics that we can only hope will educate future leaders and inspire them to apply their power more productively than some of their forbears.
The DVD of the film, which is in two parts (the second one focuses heavily on Bronx politics) goes on sale Sept. 21 for $49.95 (plus S & H) for individuals and $395 for institutions. To order, call (212) 629-6590 or Centro at (212) 772-5686.
Exercise in Democracy
September 7, 2006
By Editorial
In this issue, we give significant play to two Democratic primary races – one for the state Assembly and the other for Congress.
In both races, the challengers barely have enough money to print up campaign literature much less to do the kind of direct-mail and get-out-the vote operations that would give them a prayer of victory.
But Joseph Thompson, who is challenging incumbent Assemblywoman Naomi Rivera, and Jessica Flagg, who is challenging veteran Congressman Eliot Engel, are nonetheless contributing to the health of our democracy. By raising important issues, having conversations with voters, and forcing the incumbents to do the same, they are exercising the muscles of our body politic. If they didn’t run, even fewer people would know what our representatives’ names are, what they do and what their records are.
None of our other elected officials – Congressman Jose Serrano and Assemblymen Jose Rivera and Jeffrey Dinowitz – face a Democratic primary challenger. Some have nominal challengers in the general election (most often these are placeholders for parties who do not campaign) but in reality they get to skip the election and the accountability that democracy thrives on.
Primary elections are especially critical in New York City, where in most cases, securing the Democratic nomination in September is akin to victory in November.
So, we thank Jessica Flagg and Joseph Thompson for waging their campaigns despite the long odds. They are doing their part for democracy and for the people of their respective Assembly and Congressional districts.
We urge you to do yours. Vote on Sept. 12. If you have questions about your registration or where to vote, call (212) VOTE-NYC.
Armory Delay
We’re disappointed that the city didn’t hold to its word that they would release a request for proposals for the Kingsbridge Armory in August. But we’re glad they have set a concrete date of Sept. 18 to issue the detailed call for bids on the project.
We hope that we can stop the Armory Clock in our Sept. 21 issue. For now, the clock keeps ticking …
Thompson Challenges Rivera in Assembly Race Rematch
September 7, 2006
By Alex Kratz
The posters say it all. On a window outside of a Norwood bodega, surrounded by beer and cigarette ads, campaign posters for Democratic candidates in the 80th Assembly District, Naomi Rivera and Joe Thompson, square off.
The poster for Rivera, the incumbent who’s just finishing her first two-year term, looks glossy and professional. It’s printed on substantial poster board and the picture of the candidate is clear and vibrant. A wavy American flag sets the background, while a small Puerto Rican flag highlights Rivera’s name. Rivera’s mantra – Mother, Neighbor, Leader – is prominently displayed.
Next to Rivera’s poster is Thompson’s. While almost as big as Rivera’s (about the size of a big screen television), Thompson’s poster is decidedly less polished. His picture, while in color, is fuzzy. The paper is thicker than standard printer paper, but after a little wear and tear, is beginning to fray at the corners. Thompson’s mantra is staggered underneath his picture: Solving Problems; Creating Opportunities. It looks like it was made at Kinko’s.
The sharp contrast in quality perfectly illustrates the differences in the two candidates, who face each other in the Democratic Primary on Sept. 12. Rivera, daughter of Assemblyman and Bronx County Democratic boss Jose Rivera, is backed by the Bronx Democratic machine. Thompson, on the other hand, is running his campaign out of his apartment.
Rivera’s campaign organization, the Committee to Elect Naomi Rivera, has spent more than $33,000 on campaign-related activities since the beginning of 2005. Meanwhile, Thompson barely topped the $1,000 mark for a couple of activities this past summer.
“I have less money than you have in your wallet right now,” Thompson said in an interview last week.
Thompson, a 67-year-old retired cop who serves as president of the 49th Community Precinct Council, says he is challenging Rivera because she’s been absent from many of the key community battles, specifically over crime and development, that are being waged on the streets.
“There are a lot of major issues that are not being addressed,” Thompson said.
Recently, Thompson said, Rivera stayed out of a fight concerning rezoning in both Indian Village and Williamsbridge Road (the 80th A.D. includes some of Norwood, but is predominately in the east Bronx). The community wanted Indian Village rezoned, but Williamsbridge Road to maintain its status and not be rezoned for heavy commercial use. In the end, they were both rezoned, despite the efforts of Community Board 12 (which Thompson serves on) and Councilman Jimmy Vacca.
“I didn’t see the position or the work [from Rivera],” Thompson said. “I saw the Board’s work, I saw Vacca’s work. This is a situation where local politicians have to weigh in with their views.”
Rivera said the city wasn’t going to give the community everything they wanted on both of those sites. “It was either this or we don’t do [any of the rezoning] at all,” she said. “It’s all a compromise and I worked very closely with Jimmy Vacca on this.”
As for her lack of presence, Rivera says even when she’s not there physically, she always sends a staffer in her stead. “You have to remember that I’m in Albany half the year,” she said.
Thompson also says there is an “epidemic” of gang violence in the district that is being ignored. “No one has taken on the fighting of the proliferation of gangs and gang violence,” he said.
The former Bronx detective, who was wounded twice in the line of duty, says he wants to see stiffer penalties for gang activity. “Everything comes down to what laws are on the books and what we can enforce, which means we need to have new laws. We need new weapons to fight this battle,” Thompson said.
Rivera says she’s “tough on crime,” but doesn’t think stiffer penalties are the answer.
“I’m not looking to incarcerate our youth, but help our youth,” she said. “I’m not looking to get paddy wagons out there to pick up all our kids who are hanging out on the streets.”
Rivera says she’s delivered on her commitments in Albany and that any criticism she’s receiving over her lack of presence is just “rhetoric.”
Meanwhile, Thompson, who lost to Rivera in a primary two years ago, says he won’t back down from a tough fight despite his lack of funding. He’s knocking on doors and counting on word of mouth to make up for the difference.
“Getting involved is better than writing a check,” he said.
Bronx AIDS Services Marks Two Decades of Advocacy
September 7, 2006
By James Fergusson
Janice, 57, discovered she was HIV-positive in 1991. “It was a big shock,” said the Fordham resident, a quiet-spoken woman with a kind smile, who asked that her last name not be used. “At that time you were handed a death sentence.”
But thanks to advances in medicine, people with HIV/AIDS are living longer, and through organizations such as Bronx AIDS Services (BAS), which celebrated its 20th anniversary this summer, those with the disease have access to a multitude of free services.
Bronx AIDS Services started with limited resources and just 15 employees. Over time, however, as the AIDS epidemic continued to rage, government funding for AIDS programs crept up. Today BAS, which is headquartered on Fordham Road, has an annual budget of $8 million and 100 full-time employees.
“They [BAS] really really came through for me,” said Janice, one of 22,000 known Bronx residents with HIV/AIDS. “They helped me with housing problems, and they helped me with food.”
As well as providing a food service, and free legal aid to help with housing issues and custodial battles, BAS helps its clients access benefits, healthcare, mental health counseling and substance abuse programs.
“We are in some ways an anti-poverty agency for people who live with AIDS,” said SJ Avery, BAS’ chief executive officer, who has led BAS for the past 14 years. “The impact of AIDS is doubly harsh on poor people. We can’t expect people to take their medicine or be connected to a physician if they don’t have stable housing.”
At the same time, said Avery, prevention is increasingly an important part of their work. Through a walk-in service and two mobile testing units, BAS conducts thousands of HIV tests each year. They offer counseling and connections to medical care for those who test positive, and advice on avoiding infection to those who don’t.
Through outreach initiatives, BAS seeks to test and educate vulnerable groups of people, and they run several unique programs, including GO GIRL!, which provides HIV and domestic violence prevention services to girls in the juvenile justice system, and HOLA, a support group created for and by gay Hispanic men.
Rafael Lopez, a Norwood resident and HOLA’s general coordinator, was diagnosed with HIV in 2003. Lopez says he feels healthy, but his medication – five tablets a day – is a constant reminder of his disease.
Like Janice, Lopez has kind words for BAS. “Thanks to them, I was able to be certified as an HIV counselor and I’ve become much more active in the HIV community,” he said. “I’ve grown as a human being, and as a Hispanic gay man.”
In 1981, when HIV/AIDS was first identified, it was dubbed GRID, or Gay-Related Immune Deficiency. Only later did health officals, realizing that the disease didn’t only affect gay men, change the name to AIDS, or Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome.
Around 900 cases of HIV/AIDS are diagnosed in the Bronx each year – which as a percentage of the population, is more than any other borough. The majority of BAS’ clients cite drug use, specifically sharing needles, as the “at-risk behavior” that led to them contracting the disease.
For Avery and Jose Davila, BAS’ executive director, one of the keys to keeping these numbers in check is fighting the stigmatization associated with HIV/AIDS. Stigma breeds ignorance, they said, and discourages people from getting tested and seeking help.
“When we [Avery and Davila] were first in the field in the 1980s, hospital workers would leave trays of food outside rooms and some physicians were refusing to treat people with AIDS,” Avery said.
“Today, you don’t see some of the wicked ostracizing you used to see,” she continued. “But is stigma still there? Sure.” Avery gave a recent example: At BAS’ 20th anniversary bash, a waitress asked what BAS stood for. When Avery explained, the waitress’ first reaction was to utter “Ooh,” and make a face.
Stigma can also manifest itself in bullying. Earlier this year, teenager Raven Lopez (no relation to Rafael) was harassed by classmates at her Fordham school for being HIV positive. Lopez, whose mom, Michelle, is a BAS board member, was forced to move schools. (In the fall, BAS is hoping to visit local schools to educate students on the disease.)
If fighting stigma is one of BAS’ primary challenges, obtaining funding is another. At a federal level – and over 50 percent of BAS’ funding comes from federal grants – an increasing chunk of the available money is being set aside for “abstinence-only” programs. While BAS does talk about abstinence, Avery said, they don’t apply for funding that would prevent them from talking about condom use.
“The great irony is that they’ve [abstinence-only programs] not been proven to be effective,” Avery said. “They make people of a certain religious persuasion feel good, but there’s not demonstration they’re effective.”
Davila, who’s taking the helm at BAS when Avery retires in December, is also concerned about the “medicalization” of AIDS services, which is funneling money away from social service organizations like BAS and into clinics and hospitals. He thinks this is a mistake. “A lot of people won’t go to a clinic,” he said. “You want to meet people where they are.”
To make BAS more independent, Davila is eager to increase the organization’s fund-raising abilities and set up a for-profit section of BAS, to support programs that are strapped for cash.
As Davila looks forward, Avery, on the eve of her retirement, looks back. “People died right and left when I was first in this field,” she said. “There is still no cure, no vaccine … but to see people live longer is probably the most striking of the changes.”
Janice is one of these people. She watched her husband die of AIDS but, 15 years after her own diagnosis, Janice is still very much alive, and able to enjoy time with her “beautiful granddaughter.”
Ed. note: For more information about Bronx AIDS Services visit http://www.basnyc.org or call (718) 295-5605.
Armory RFP Set for Sept. 18
September 7, 2006
By Alex Kratz
Local residents and activists are still keeping their fingers crossed that the city will soon release a request for proposals (RFP) for the Kingsbridge Armory. The RFP will give potential developers design guidelines to use when creating their visions for the Armory.
In May, city officials said an RFP would definitely be released by the end of August. Two weeks ago, Economic Development Corporation officials were saying the RFP was set for an “early September” release. Now, participants in the Armory task force, a loose group of community leaders and elected officials who are advising the EDC about the Armory development, say the RFP is set to be released Sept. 18.
Community Board 7 Chair Greg Faulkner, a member of the task force, is optimistic about the new date, but balances that with a dose of “healthy skepticism.”
Assuming the RFP comes out soon, Faulkner said they are looking at choosing a developer by February and finalizing a contract by June.
Whenever the RFP is released, Faulkner says the community has done its part in the process. “I think the city heard us and we came in as a united community voice,” he said.
Engel’s War Record Draws Red Flagg
September 7, 2006
By Alex Kratz
Democratic anti-war candidate Jessica Flagg is dead broke. She has no job. Four months ago, she was almost kicked out of her Riverdale apartment. She’s borrowing money from her family just to survive and keep her shoestring Congressional campaign afloat.
On top of all that, she’s challenging incumbent Eliot Engel in the Democratic primary in the 17th Congressional District on Sept. 12. Engel, who represents Norwood and Bedford Park, is just finishing his 18th year in the House, has spent almost half a million dollars on his campaign this past fiscal year and still has over a quarter million left in his war chest.
Flagg, 52, insists she never wanted to run in the first place. Two years ago, when she ran to protest Engel’s support of President Bush’s plan to invade Iraq and won 11 percent of the vote, Flagg had a horrible experience in her first foray into electoral politics.
“It was very physically demanding and it took its toll,” Flagg said about the 2004 race. “It was extremely stressful and painful.”
She was campaigning full-time and caring for her father, who was suffering from late-stage Parkinson’s disease, and slept poorly.
So why on earth would Flagg want to subject herself to another punishing campaign?
At a meeting organized by the liberal activist group MoveOn.org last March, Flagg crammed into Engel’s Bronx office with 40 other constituents to ask her congressman why he wasn’t backing resolutions that would bring about a swifter end to the war in Iraq. (Flagg supports an immediate withdrawal from Iraq and wants Bush impeached for lying to make his case for war. Engel adamantly refutes her claim that he’s a Bush apologist, but doesn’t support an immediate pullout of troops, saying it would be “irresponsible.”)
When Flagg accused Engel of giving pat answers that could have come from a Bush administration spokesman, Flagg says the veteran lawmaker responded by asking her if she was giving a campaign speech. Flagg says she just wanted answers from her representative, but a seed was planted. Two months later, Flagg threw her hat back in the ring.
“Poverty be damned,” Flagg said. “I’m going to do this.”
In a phone interview from his office in Washington, Engel, a 59-year-old former teacher and state assemblyman, says he can’t understand why Flagg is running. Engel says she’s attacking his initial war support to jump into Congress without paying her dues on the local level. Today, Engel says he would have voted differently if he knew what he knows now about Bush’s faulty intelligence.
“She has to find some kind of reason for her candidacy,” Engel said. “I don’t doubt that she feels passionate about certain issues,” he added.
Flagg, a marketing consultant (with no current clients) who became a pro-democracy activist in 2000 after the Bush-Gore election debacle, says she wouldn’t be sacrificing her time, employment and possibly her health if she weren’t displeased with Engel.
“I wouldn’t waste five minutes on this campaign if I didn’t believe in it,” Flagg said.
“I’m sick to death of machine politics,” Flagg said, adding that she believes Engel is part of a national political machine beholden to big corporations. As for Bronx politicians, Engel is only one of two elected officials who operate almost entirely outside the fold of the borough’s regular Democratic apparatus (Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz being the other). Fund-raising gives Engel a huge advantage during the campaign, Flagg says, but ultimately causes him to fall on the wrong side of key issues.
Flagg points to Engel’s support of a controversial telecommunications bill that passed the House in June. The Communications Opportunity, Promotion, and Enhancement (COPE) Act of 2006, authored by Joe Barton (R-Texas), would allow phone and cable companies to enter the broadband market and offer TV, voice and Internet services without receiving local approval.
Phone companies, including Verizon and AT&T, poured millions into lobbying for the bill, which passed. Verizon and AT&T are big contributors to Engel’s campaigns. In 2005-2006, Verizon contributed $32,000, more than tripling the amount given by any other individual donor. In total, Engel received $44,000 from telephone utilities over the past year. Only nine other lawmakers received more money from phone companies. Only four of the top 20 recipients of phone company funds are Democrats.
Engel said COPE promotes competition between cable and phone companies, resulting in lower prices for consumers. He said he voted for an amendment — which wasn’t included in the final bill — that would have protected net neutrality. Internet providers (including Verizon) want to end net neutrality, which assures Internet surfers equal access to each and every site on the web, so they can charge corporations that want speedier access to their sites. Engel is also supported by cable company unions, he said, which are against the bill.
Engel says Flagg’s attack on his telecommunications stance is misplaced. Flagg’s a political novice, he says, and doesn’t understand how huge bills like the COPE Act work. Compromises must be made on a bill like that, Engel said. “There are a million different pieces,” he said. “You aren’t going to ultimately agree on all of them.”
(Jose Serrano, Engel’s neighboring colleague in Congress, voted against the bill, as did Jerry Nadler, an Engel ally from Manhattan whom Engel often compares himself to. Joseph Crowley, the other Bronx congressman, voted for the bill.)
In defense, Engel says he never lets corporate donations sway his decisions. If it were up to him, Engel says he would love to have publicly financed campaigns that weren’t influenced by private donors. But this is the big time, he says, and campaigns cost money.
Engel’s unlikely to lose. A firefighter, Kevin McAdams, was much better financed and able to field an organizing staff when he lost big to Engel in 2004 (McAdams barely doubled Flagg’s 11 percent). Engel says he’s brought in more than a hundred million dollars in federal money for projects and programs in his district, which stretches over three counties. He consistently receives high grades from liberal Democratic organizations. He’s pushing the Fuel Choices for American Security Act, which aims to make the U.S. less dependent on foreign oil. Plus, he has seniority, which he believes will give him tremendous clout if the Democrats take over the House.
But Flagg sees a career politician who’s gotten too comfortable in office.
Nevertheless, both candidates say the country is on the wrong track. Engel blames the Bush administration. Flagg blames the Administration, Republicans and the Democratic “machine.”
Engel has a raft of endorsements, including The United Federation of Teachers and the Working Families Party. Flagg has been endorsed by anti-war mom Cindy Sheehan.
As it happens, the candidates bumped into each other outside a Riverdale CVS recently. Engel was with his teenage son, Flagg with a supporter. Flagg told Engel she admired what he had done in Washington, but that she wanted her opportunity to do good things as well. Engel said, “Don’t you think we agree on 95 percent of the issues?” Flagg said, “Well, probably more like 90.”
Later, talking about the interaction, Flagg said, “But the 10 we’re different on are really different.”
Gonzalez Indicted
September 7, 2006
By Alex Kratz
If State Senator Efrain Gonzalez is found to have defrauded the West Bronx Neighborhood Association, as a recent indictment alleges, he didn’t have to go very far to do it.
In July, Gonzalez sat down for an interview with the Norwood News in a virtually empty two-room suite on the same floor of his district office on the Grand Concourse. Paintings of him as a stately, younger, slimmer lawmaker adorn the wall along with framed logos of his Dominican cigar company.
The suite, which Gonzalez has a punch code for and referred to as his other office, is the headquarters of the West Bronx Neighborhood Association (WBNA), the same non-profit group Gonzalez stands accused of siphoning money from for his own purposes.
On Aug. 25, Gonzalez, who represents the entire Norwood News readership area, was indicted on federal mail fraud charges. The indictment accuses the veteran Bronx lawmaker of using $37,412 of WBNA’s money for personal expenses, including rent in Monroe, NY, and in the Dominican Republic, Yankees tickets, membership at a Dominican vacation club, clothes and college tuition.
That Friday morning, Gonzalez, 58, surrendered to federal authorities. In the afternoon, he appeared in front of a federal judge at a courthouse in Manhattan, but did not enter a plea. According to his lawyer, Murray Richman, Gonzalez will plead not guilty.
The senator was released on $25,000 bail and told not to leave New York. Gonzalez is scheduled to return to court for a pre-trial conference on Oct. 13.
“I will fight for my constituents like I’m going to fight for this case,” Gonzalez told reporters on the courthouse steps Friday afternoon, adding that he would continue to serve as a state senator.
Richman, Gonzalez’ attorney of 30 years, says the indictment is missing something, most notably a charge saying the senator actually stole money.
“An alleged crime that appeared over a period of six years and this is what they come up with?” Richman said. “What is mail fraud anyway? I’m asking you? Do you see the word ‘larceny’ anywhere?”
In Richman’s opinion, the mail fraud charge smacks of a witch-hunt. “He was a target and they were looking for a charge,” Richman said. “What could be sexier than getting a politician?”
The mail fraud count carries a maximum sentence of 20 years and a fine of $250,000.
The Gonzalez indictment stems from a joint investigation by the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Southern District, and the New York City Department of Investigation (DOI).
“Individuals are elected to public office in order to represent the public’s interests. Instead of using government funds to help the community he represents, this defendant served his own interests while allegedly siphoning government money into his own pockets,” DOI Commisioner Rose Gill Hearn said in a statement.
Heather Tasker, a spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s office, said the investigation is ongoing.
Richman said he doesn’t believe federal prosecutors will go to trial with only the one count of mail fraud. He expects superseding charges, or replacement charges, if prosecutors intend to take the case to trial.
The investigation began in August 2004. Gonzalez, his wife and several other Bronx officials were subpoenaed by federal prosecutors who were investigating the senator’s relationship with a handful of non-profits, including WBNA, the National Hispanic Policy Institute and the Institute for Multicultural Communication, Cooperation and Development. Gonzalez helped found all three groups and each employed family members and/or associates of the senator. The state attorney general’s office, which tracks tax records for all state non-profits, said that the National Hispanic Policy Institute is delinquent in filing forms and that the Institute for Multicultural Communication, Cooperation and Development didn’t have to file because it had less than $25,000 in assets.
“I haven’t done anything wrong,” Gonzalez told the Norwood News in September 2004. “Everything is just speculation. Whatever the investigators are looking for will come out in the process.”
A year ago, the Norwood News reported that, despite tax forms indicating that West Bronx had spent $210,000 on “conventions, conferences, and meetings,” Bronx community leaders had never heard of WBNA. On tax documents, WBNA states that its purposes include educational, cultural, youth programs, community issues, family values, environmental issues, voter registration drives and scholarships.
“We shun all publicity,” said a volunteer who answered the phone at WBNA in 2004. “We don’t really say all the things we do. We prefer to remain silent and help people. If the Lord acknowledges us in the afterlife, that’s good enough for us.”
According to public campaign finance records, Gonzalez’ Friends of Senator Gonzalez campaign committee donated $38,800 to WBNA over a four-year period beginning in 1999.
The Albany Times Union reported on Aug. 26 that WBNA received $112,000 over several years from Pathways for Youth, a New York City non-profit. Pathways, in turn, received at least $30,000 from Gonzalez in member items — state funds doled out at the discretion of individual lawmakers. The senator distributes $290,000 to non-profits in member item funds each year, according to the Times Union. For a story in the previous edition of the Norwood News, Gonzalez refused to divulge his member items.
In July of 2005, Pathways for Youth and an affiliate, the Gloria Wise Boys & Girls Club, were cut off from city contracts – which ran into the millions of dollars – after allegations of impropriety stemming from a DOI probe, according to a Daily News article.
A week after the indictment came down, Lucia Sanchez opened the locked door of Gonzalez’s district office at 1780 Grand Concourse. She looked apprehensive and said she’d been flooded by calls from reporters. On tax documents from 2003, Sanchez is listed as the only director, officer, trustee or key employee of WBNA (Gonzalez’ brother is also listed in previous filings), though she had no title and received no compensation for her work. On 2004 tax forms, Sanchez, who lived with Gonzalez for a time, and a woman named Kenia Castanos, are listed as secretaries who received no compensation.
Sanchez said she’s employed by Senate Minority Leader David Paterson’s office, but is assigned to Gonzalez’ office. When asked about her relationship with Gonzalez, Sanchez said, “No comment.” A Paterson staffer said the office would look into Sanchez’ employment but didn’t call back to comment.
Several calls to WBNA’s voice mail seeking comment were not returned. No one answered when the Norwood News knocked on their door last Thursday.
Gonzalez’ indictment is just the latest in a series of troubles for Bronx politicians. In 2003, Assemblywoman Gloria Davis stepped down after pleading guilty to bribery. And in 2004, State Senator Guy Velella also pleaded guilty to bribery charges and resigned.
Many of the senator’s Bronx colleagues said they respected Gonzalez and hoped the charges against him weren’t true.
One of the longest serving Hispanic state senators, Gonzalez is up for re-election this fall. He’s running unopposed in the Sept. 12 Democratic primary and faces Conservative Party candidate Ernest Kebreau in the November general election.
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