|
There are all types of
housing in New York City. Public housing involves agencies like the New
York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) and the City of New York's Department
of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD), to name a few. And then
there is the "private" real estate industry that has various
regulations regarding Rent Control and Rent Stabilization laws. And I've
had experience with all of them over the course of twenty-five years as
well as many of the other various city and state agencies that I did not
list in this paragraph such as the Department of Buildings and the New
York State Division of Housing Community & Renewal (DHCR).
Listed below are some of those experiences which are followed by a table
containing some of the "exercises in futility" with HPD and
NYCHA..
My
Experiences with Housing Issues
I began my housing
activism when I moved into a pre-war building during 1976 in the area
known as Forest Hills, which is located in the Borough of Queens. Because
of my experiences with the landlord, I was prepared for the biggest fight
of all - the one to save my own home when my landlord in Hell's Kitchen tried to illegally
evict me in 1991. The landlord hired one of the top landlord/tenant firms
in New York City. In the words of J.A. Lobbia*, who now writes the
very important series in the Village Voice called Towers and Tenements, it
was a firm that "never loses".
Based upon my prior knowledge of the rent laws, my dogged determination to
keep my home, and the southern wit of my attorney, we beat the landlord in
a summary judgment. Thanks to that prior experience, I've been able to
save more than a few of my neighbors homes in the "Hells
Kitchen" neighborhood. My experiences in fighting landlords
served me well in the fight against "only some" of our elected
officials to save the rent regulations in 1997. Having the show enabled me
to publicize the issue long before it became a "hot issue" for
the mainstream media. I was able to have many guests, including various
elected city and state officials on the show because it was an election
year and we all know how they like "free publicity". During the
fight to save the rent regulations, there were more than enough elected
officials wanting to be on my cable show. Review
the credits of DeWitt Clinton Presents and discover for yourself
who was on for the rent regulation series of seven shows as well as the
different issues I've presented to the public as an activist/cable TV
producer.
* * * *
After defeating my landlord and the firm that "never loses", I
took my attorney out for a well-deserved lunch because there was cause for
celebration because of the victory to keep my home! In my estimation, it cost my landlord approximately
$500,000 in legal, permits and architectural fees; fines; and lost rents
over a period of approximately two
years for the property that was being converted from commercial to
residential without any approved plans.
The conversation during
lunch was an interesting one from many points of view. Because I had
to visit with the various city departments in the course of my research to
build my case against the landlord, I discovered the archaic systems that
the city uses to manage various parts of the city government. As a
successful technologist in the areas of software development and program
design I stated to my attorney that "I wish that I could get my hands
on the city's computer systems so they can be fixed to properly serve the
needs of the city". It wasn't too long after that my wish came true
when I became employed at the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) and
discovered just how screwed up it is in terms of technology. See some of
the tales that are documented in the table below my experiences.
My involvement in public housing as a community activist with the City of
New York's Department of Housing, Preservation and Development (HPD) came
after my legal battle against the city's illegal and immoral efforts to
privatize DeWitt Clinton Park. It was a privatization effort that was
supported by Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, City Comptroller Alan Hevesi, Parks
Commissioner Henry Stern, Borough President Ruth Messinger and Manhattan
Community Board 4 (CB4). It was during my fight to save the park from
privatization** that I learned that Republicans and Democrats alike work
against We the People!
Shortly
after CB4 voted in favor of the privatization of the park, the issue was
put to a vote at the City of New York's Franchise, Concession and Review
Committee (FCRC). Since Republican Mayor Rudolph Guiliani controlled 4 of
the 6 votes, I thought that at the very least, the vote would be 4 in
favor and 2 against the privatization. However, democrats Ruth Messinger -
the then Manhattan Borough President - and Comptroller Alan evesi voted
in favor of the privatization making the vote UNANIMOUS! Many of us
could not believe that they all voted in favor of an enterprise that was co-owned by a known
international career criminal! Even more amazing was that prime real estate
was given away for the mere cost of $2.50 a square foot to a foreign enterprise!
And
just for the record, I would like to once again remind you that history
does repeat itself. It is Jim McPartlin, who is the subject of a Daily
News story listed in the HPD column, who led a
group of local business people that saved their businesses in
their fight against then Mayor Ed Koch who would not listen to reason when
he wanted to demolish many of the buildings in Hell's Kitchen. It
was McPartlin-led group that gave mayor Koch his only land
use defeat in his three terms as mayor and perhaps the biggest
land use defeat in the history of the city. And it appears that
based on information recently received over the past two months, that
Mayor Rudolph Giuliani will
get "caught" as Koch did in "City for Sale",
which is a a book
written by Wayne Barrett and Jack Neufield that tells of
corruption during Koch's administration. It is interesting to note
that Guiliani was the hero in that book and may just wind up being the
villain in part 2 of City for Sale.
The following table outlines some of my experience with public housing at
HPD and NYCHA.
New
York City Housing Authority
(NYCHA) |
Housing,
Development and Preservation
(HPD) |
|
When
I was hired at NYCHA I was assigned to an agency-wide project called ATIS, which is the
acronym for the Automated Timekeeping Information System. I helped
develop a rollout plan and contract that would have had the software
and hardware installed in a reasonable timeframe. However,
while
conducting research during the first six months, I kept
hearing the same story about one particular software application
at all levels at NYCHA. It was about the Human
Resources Information System (HRIS), that depending upon who you
heard it from, was in the development process anywhere from 5 to 8
years. I was flabbergasted!
Knowing
the bureaucracy at NYCHA, I decided to call on a friend who worked
on Guiliani's transition into the mayor's office. I knew I
would need assistance from higher levels in city government
if anything were to be appropriately addressed. The outcome
of our lunch was that a meeting was arranged with Anthony Coles,
who at the time was the Deputy Counsel to the mayor.
My meeting with Coles went well I thought, because he thanked me
for my concern and then
explained that the new administration needed "independent
thinkers" like me.
To
my utter amazement and shock, when I went to the Inspector
General's Office (IG) that had a letter from city hall regarding
my concerns, I was eventually treated as if I were a criminal. In fact, one person
in the IG's office
told me to stop playing "Dick Tracy"! For
safekeeping and protection as a result of this treatment, I provided someone close to me with a
copy of the original information I provided to the IG "just in
case". That was in 1995. One year after I
resigned in
1997 to enter into the political arena in an attempt to make
things better for public housing tenants, the first issue of the NYCHA Housing Spotlight was
published by Jack Ballinger, who is also a former NYCHA
employee.
The
first issue of the Spotlight was published on June 24, 1998 and
shortly thereafter, the New York Post hailed it "among
the most-read paper ever circulated at 250 Broadway"
-- NYCHA is headquartered at 250 Broadway, which is across the
street from City Hall.
Visit
Housing
Spotlight Issue 4 and view the list of elected officials
who were notified of the problems there. It was only until
this election year that one of the "public advocate"
candidates showed any interest in having a hearing of the city
council -- a hearing that I had to wait all day to testify.
Although I was told that someone would contact me based upon my
testimony, no one to this day has done so. The name of the
"public advocate" candidate is Katherine Freed and
interestingly, she is the chair of contracts committee on the city
council! What was she doing about the situation with
contracts at NYCHA for the previous years as the chair?
Especially since I did the technical review on the
"Never-Ending Contract" that was brought to the
attention of Mr. Frank New at NYCHA along with many other allegations shortly
after I resigned in 1997! Read about the city council
hearing on NYCHA Part
1 and Part
2 at the NYCHA Spotlight.
And
by all means, visit
the NYCHA
Housing Spotlight and use the search engine on the site to
do a search for "timekeeping". It won't take
a long to figure out why, upon mutual agreement with management,
that I was transferred to other applications there. It'
simple really. I wanted to insure that taxpayers funds were
wisely and properly invested.
My
"finest moment" with NYCHA came in 1998 when I visited
some friends to say hello and later discovered that NYPD was
called to remove me from the building after I had already
left. I then decided to "crash" the upcoming
Christmas Party - the one where I was told I could not attend but
managed to do so anyway. The last thing I did was to
shake Chairman Ruben Franco's hand and wish him luck in his future
life. The following day the New York Post published a front
page story that he was going to get the boot! Interestingly,
I was called later in the day by a reporter from another major
city newspaper and was asked if I had anything to do with the
story. I explained that I am responsible for many things
getting done but unfortunately, that story was not one of them!
|
My
first involvement with HPD came when a neighbor contacted me
because of his concern about
his
family's residency in the city-owned building in which they lived,
and was going to be renovated. Arrangements
were to be made for the relocation of the tenants
to temporary housing while the building was being renovated and
afterward, they would be moved back into their newly
renovated apartments with the opportunity to invest in purchasing
the apartments under state guidelines. The name of the HPD
sponsored program under which the building was renovated is referred
to as TIL, which stands for the Tenant Interim Lease program.
My
attendance was requested at the next tenant meeting because there was no documentation
available for the program, which at the time I could
not believe. I nonetheless attended the meeting to at least begin
an
education on public housing issues in the area. As I sat
quietly and listening to what was being discussed, I finally asked if there was any paperwork associated with
the TIL process. I was told by one of the tenants that yes, there
was so I requested to see it. When the tenant returned from
her apartment and handed me the "paperwork", I was in
SHOCK after first reading it!
I
had to read the one sheet of paper that was handed to me three
times over to make sure I was reading it correctly! The
"paperwork" was a "license
agreement" that indicated that the "Licensor may terminate this
Agreement at any time with or without cause upon three (3) days
written notice to Licensee. Upon termination of this
Agreement, Licensee shall promptly vacate the Temporary Apartment." In essence, the agreement was asking
people to surrender their tenant rights, some of who were Latino.
The "agreement"
in question was written
on the letterhead of Clinton Housing Development Company, Inc (CHDC),
a local not-for-profit housing group. Interestingly, I did not know where this letter was
going to eventually lead, but in due time I discovered that the executive
director of CHDC was also a long-time member of Manhattan
Community Board 4! His name is Joe Restuccia.
As
a result of my involvement with the privatization of the park
issue and now this one, I began to become all too familiar familiar with the questionable behavior of some of
the community board members regarding public housing and HPD.
Their behavior wasn't isolate to only one issue.
I worked with my friend to develop a contract
between CHDC and all of the tenants in the building to ensure that
their rights were protected AND they got what was promised
them. Because the process was taking longer than expected as
a result of the actions of certain members of CHDC and CB4, I asked another
neighborhood housing activist who I recently was introduced to -- Ron Nelson,
a person who is thoroughly
familiar with the activities of CHDC -- to take over because the
issues of the renovation of the park were beginning to take up
much of my time.
Ron
Nelson has been fighting CHDC and its questionable practices
including illegal evictions that
are known throughout the activist community. As of this
writing, if the situation continues, CHDC and Joe Restuccia as it's
head could wind up owning more real estate than Donald Trump!
And remember, Restuccia is a long term member of CHDC.
Does
anybody see anything wrong with this picture? A member of a
community board whose company receives all of the residential
renovation work sponsored by HPD in the
Chelsea and Clinton areas? Ron Nelson has CHDC in court with
two legal actions for a number of years and even THAT hasn't stopped the questionable practices of
CHDC or its ability to "buy" buildings at $1.00 for each
one - Yes, that's right a whopping 100 pennies per building!
In
the commercial area of Clinton, there are illegal evictions there
too. Jim McPartlin recently filed a 50 million dollar suit
against the city for illegally evicting him from his family's long
term gas station business. See the recent Daily
News articles about this story. And guess who is
involved in this illegal eviction for that land grab? HPD, and CHDC
along with one of Mayor Giuliani's campaign contributors!
|
*The Village Voice was the first major newspaper to write about my fight
against the immoral and illegal privatization of DeWitt Clinton Park and
J.A. Lobbia's article on the issue greatly helped in saving and restoring
the park for the neighborhood.
**Privatization is another term
for union-busting. We are often told by elected officials about how union city workers do not perform
up to standards. The
public has "swallowed" the story that union employees are
non-productive and go along with privatization. .That is one of the reasons is that "fat cat" government projects can be given to
private businesses who are sometimes owned by friends of friends. It took me 17 years to
discover a the ills of privatization and what is behind it.
That's why I decided to produce a cable TV mini-series called "Americans
Educating America" -- a series that is about the importance of unions in
America.
Although NYCHA is funded for
the most part by federal tax dollars through HUD, its boards members are
appointed by the Mayor of the City of New York. For those of you who
pay federal taxes, you should be concerned about how your taxpayer
dollars are being spent at NYCHA. The NYCHA Housing Spotlight
is a great source of information about what goes on there. After
reading it, contact your elected officials and demand that something be
done about the waste of your taxpayer dollars.
Find
out who your Congressional representatives are and e-mail them. Demand
that they fix the problems at NYCHA. If you know your Zip code, you can
find them at: http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/ziptoit.html
|
