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Mayoral Issue Grid: Arts



Mayoral Issue Grid

ARTS
-Freedom Center

Arts advocates are concerned with a slew of issues - including low city funding for non-profit arts organizations; too few arts programs in the schools; lack of support for individual artists; lack of access for the public - but the only arts-connected issue that has gotten any attention in the campaign is the latest battle in the culture wars. This time, it is happening at Ground Zero.

Two cultural institutions had been invited to be part of the new World Trade Center complex. One, the Drawing Center, is a small downtown museum founded in 1977. The other, the International Freedom Center, was conceived for the site. Critics, including a few family members of 9/11 victims, started labeling past Drawing Center exhibitions as anti-American, and expressed their suspicion that future Freedom Center exhibitions would be as well. They also said that it would not be appropriate to have anything on the site that was not about September 11th, 2001.

The governor sided with the critics, demanding an "absolute guarantee" that no future exhibition or lecture would be anti-American or offend anyone, and the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation gave in effect an ultimatum that the two cultural institutions had to work out a plan for any future content with the 9/11 families who had objected.

The Drawing Center found this condition unacceptable and withdrew. The Freedom Center has until September 23rd to come to an agreement.

At a forum of the Democratic mayoral candidates held on August 16th, 2005 at Jazz at Lincoln Center, when asked about the controversy, they gave vague answers (three mentioned the word "diversity") or truncated answers (two quickly changed the subject) that seemed to indicate a tilt towards allowing the critics to determine the contents of future lectures and exhibitions at the Freedom Center.

Fernando Ferrer

When asked about the Freedom Center, Ferrer said; "I think there should be a diversity of views, exhibits, and activities in the Freedom Center. But I think that they have to be guided by a sense that we lost 3,000 people and families and this entire city have been deeply affected."

Michael Bloomberg

Bloomberg objected to the actions of the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation in regards to the Freedom Center and the Drawing Center, saying that, while he was "sympathetic" to the loss of life, "the question is what is the best memorial to them, whether you build something to the future or something that looks back. I always thought we should do both... If we are a democracy and we are going to have an inclusive process, we should stick with inclusive processes."

Related Articles

Long-Term Issues Facing The Arts In NYC
Arguments pro and con for The International Freedom Center from the Wall Street Journal
Daily News editorial calling for "oversight mechanism that would monitor the suitability of all exhibits in the future."
NY Times editorial blasting Governor Pataki for failing to stand up for "the quintessentially American principle of free speech and the role of culture, in this most cultural of cities, in helping us understand 9/11."

 

 

 

Job Hunters Get Government Help At One-Stop Centers


New York City is inching closer to having a full-service one-stop job training and placement system available to all city residents. Each borough now has at least one Workforce1 Career Center. Anyone can use them, as long as they have proof of their identity and the right to work in the United States. In practice, most users come to the centers to fulfill the job search requirements to qualify for unemployment insurance after losing their jobs.

After lagging behind other cities, in 2003 New York transferred control of its adult employment services to the Department of Small Business Services, which has made impressive progress. In its first year of managing the career centers, the department increased job placements enormously; in 2004 it served almost 28,000 New Yorkers.

But the group who could benefit most from high-quality job training and placement is not able to use the Workforce1 Career Centers -- welfare recipients. They would swamp the system, which is expected to handle only one-fifth as many users as “HRA Works,” the city’s latest employment services program for people on public assistance. They have too many demands on their time from welfare-related activities for them to use Workforce1 Centers as well.

Welfare Recipients Vs. Everyone Else

Employment services for welfare recipients have improved since the Giuliani years, when they were limited largely to Work Experience Placements, mostly in city agencies. Now adults can enter a variety of programs addressing barriers to work, such as disabilities, domestic violence, skill deficits, substance abuse. and homelessness, although their education and training prospects are still limited. Only 5,000 welfare recipients now attend CUNY, down from 27,000 in 1995, just before welfare reform began. The city’s Employment Services Programs offer basic skills programs and limited job training.

The biggest difference between job services for welfare recipients and those for other New Yorkers is the coercive element in the welfare-related programs. Advocates and program providers agree with the city that clients need to participate actively in programs and demonstrate punctuality, good attendance, and reliability in order to succeed at work. However, according to Community Voices Heard, a welfare advocacy and research group, program providers report being pressured to document “Failure to Comply” for clients who linger too long in their programs without finding work. Many clients are forced to quit programs and restart the job search process after being sanctioned for administrative problems with the welfare bureaucracy.

Clients of the Workforce1 Career Centers attend voluntarily, and have some control over which services they use. They must go through a sequence from basic “core services,” through intensive one-on-one assistance, in order to qualify for substantial education and training benefits. They tend to be better educated than welfare recipients, and have more work experience.

Different Levels of Help for different needs

Each Workforce1 Career Center offers at least half a dozen orientation sessions each week for first time “customers.” The five major centers each have resource rooms, where job hunters can use computer stations, telephones and fax machines. Computer-savvy customers can conduct their own job searches using special databases, printed materials, and internet access in the resource room.

Visitors can register for “core services,” such as resume writing assistance, workshops on job-related skills and short-term basic skills training, preparation for the high-school equivalency diploma exams, and English classes. If they still have not found a job, they can receive one-on-one career counseling, develop an employability plan, and if appropriate, be referred to training. Individual Training Account vouchers can pay for up to $2,500 in short-term tuition costs at approved schools.

Staff at career centers can refer low-income members of “special populations” to services that deal with specific barriers to employment. “Special populations” are defined as:
• workers aged 55 or older
• ex-offenders
• veterans
• homeless people
• people with disabilities
• welfare recipients,
• domestic violence survivors
• people with limited literacy or English skills
• displaced homemakers
• and alcohol or substance abusers currently in treatment programs.

Performance Levels Reflect Client Needs

Community Voices Heard, who surveyed users of the Employment Services Program, reported that only three percent of people referred to program contractors found jobs within six months, and held those jobs for at least six months. In The Revolving Door: Research Findings on NYC’s Employment Services and Placement System (In PDF Format) researcher Sondra Youdelman attributes the low success rate to factors beyond the contractors’ control. Nine out of ten referred clients do not complete the contractors’ programs because they are sanctioned (losing their benefits), never show up to start the program, should not have been referred in the first place, or don’t comply with stringent participation rules. When clients go through a “fair hearing” to regain their benefits, about 90 percent win their cases, suggesting that sanctions are often improperly applied.

The city reports a much rosier picture from its overall “Job Center” reports. Not to be confused with Workforce1 Career Centers, Human Resource Administration Job Centers have replaced “welfare offices” as the place where applicants and recipients deal with welfare agency employees and requirements. In June 2005, the city’s Job Centers reported having found work for over 40,000 clients, about 20 percent of those welfare recipients actually able to work. Three out of four clients placed kept their jobs for at least six months. The discrepancy between the Job Centers’ reports and the finding of Community Voices Heard reflects the screening of welfare clients at Job Centers: only those who couldn’t find jobs after weeks of full-time searching were referred to Employment Services Programs.

The city’s Workforce1 Career Centers, serving unemployment insurance recipients, report placing 64 percent of users who completed services. This may understate their success, because job hunters can use the resource room and attend some classes without registering for individual assistance. “Our policy is not to turn anyone away at the front door,” Maria Buck of the Department of Small Business Services has stated. “They can come in, attend orientation, go to the resource room. But the point is we have to register them. If they are not legally allowed to work in the country, we can’t place them.”

Limitations of the One-Stop approach

One-Stop Career Centers, including the Workforce1 system, are a federal program, based on the idea that job hunters should be able to go to a single place to get everything they need to find work. This could simplify things enormously for customers, if the centers were not also expected to knit together employees from a hodgepodge of public and private agencies, each with their own constituencies, culture, funding streams and performance goals.

In New York City, the State Department of Labor is a partner in every center. The State Department of Education gives classes on site, and the city’s Human Resources Administration signs customers up for food stamps, Medicaid, child care, and other benefits supporting low-wage workers. The city’s Department for the Aging supplies staff who specialize in helping older workers. Each center also hires a private contractor to serve job hunters, a different contractor to cultivate potential employers, and a ‘disability navigator”, who helps customers with disabilities find their way to the appropriate services, and arranges any accommodations needed because of disability.

At a pre-proposal conference for potential operators of the Queens Career Center, the city was asked about the managerial structure of the center. “[W]hatever internal processes that you have in place for your organizations, you can still bring here to this center,” explained Marilyn Buck of the Department of Small Business Services, “but obviously work in conjunction with all the other folks on site. And the same is true for all those other partners.”

Each partner agency keeps a count of how many clients they serve, even when the service is just a referral to another partner or an off-site organization working with a special population. However, they do not have an equal incentive to make sure that other partners count their clients. “[W]e are trying to make sure we have all of the nuts and bolts in place to make sure that information can flow between the Department of Labor [and] us,” Buck replied when asked who takes credit for individual job placements.

Budget Rumblings From Washington

The laws that govern both welfare and the One-Stop Job Centers expired several years ago, and are the subject of Congressional wrangling. There have been attempts to cut funding for both programs. While the welfare caseload has dramatically dropped, much of the money no longer spent on benefit checks now supports low-earning former recipients so that they can survive on skimpy paychecks.

Funding for One-Stop Job Centers has remained roughly constant, but the President and the House of Representatives want to consolidate it into a block grant, a step that often is followed by cuts. Today, funds are dedicated to specific target groups, with formulas that distribute them among regions based on economic and social needs. Combining the funds into a lump sum would shift power to the states, which could dole out the funds on less rational grounds.

Linda Ostreicher, a former budget analyst for the New York City Council, has been in charge of the Social Services topic page since November, 2001. 

 

City Council Stated Meeting - September 15, 2005


Every two weeks the New York City Council meets for its Stated Meeting to introduce and pass legislation. Gotham Gazette covers these meetings and posts a summary of the bills passed.

QUOTE OF THE DAY:
"It's been 80 years since the Triangle Shirtwaist fire, I wouldn't think people are willing to re-live it." – Councilmember David Yassky on a bill to increase fines for employers who lock workers inside a building.

MEETING SUMMARY:
GREEN BUILDINGS
The New York City Council passed a bill (Intro 324-A) mandating more stringent environmental standards for the construction and rehabilitation of municipal buildings, including schools, hospitals and city offices.

These "green buildings" aim to save energy, produce less pollution, and conserve natural resources. They also restrict the use of certain types of harmful building materials, which some say contribute to respiratory disease.

"Our young people who have asthma will not be exposed to the same sorts of toxic substances in our schools," said City Council Speaker Gifford Miller.

In addition to city-owned buildings, the requirements also apply to private development projects that receive more than $10 million in city funding. The legislation would take effect in January 2007 and will have an impact on an estimated $12 billion in new construction.

Supporters also hope that the regulations will save the city money on its future energy bills and encourage new areas of the construction industry, which focus on building more environmentally friendly structures.

The measure passed unanimously.

CIVIL RIGHTS PROTECTION
The council approved a measure (Intro 22-A) aimed at strengthening the city's existing human rights law.

Currently, city residents are protected against discrimination as a result of "the actual or perceived age, race, creed, color, national origin, gender, disability, marital status, sexual orientation or alienage or citizenship status of any person."

Intro 22-A adds "partnership status" to the list of protected classes, further emphasizing the city's position on domestic partnership for both gay and heterosexual unmarried couples.

The measure also guarantees that the city's standards are worded differently from state or federal law. This is meant to prevent judges from applying weaker federal and state laws to city human rights cases.

"The bottom line is we are in an environment where... human and civil rights are being restricted more and more with each passing day," said Brooklyn Councilmember Bill DeBlasio. "Localities have to stand up for their own visions for what makes a community and how we protect the rights of individuals."

The measure passed by a vote of 42 to 3, with one abstention. The three Republican council members - Andrew Lanza, Dennis Gallagher, and James Oddo - voted "no." Peter Vallone, Jr. abstained from the vote. (For more on the bill, see "Human Rights Law: Will It Become An Issue In The Mayoral Campaign?" by Andy Humm, on the civil rights topic page.)

WORKER PROTECTION
Another council bill (Intro 629-A) increases fines for stores or businesses that lock their employees, in particular janitors or those stocking shelves, inside the workplace.

Last year, the Brooklyn community group Fifth Avenue Committee identified more than three-dozen supermarkets in the city where workers were being locked in at night. Business owners said they did it for security reasons, but elected officials pointed to the safety hazards.

"People were being locked in from the outside," said Councilmember David Yassky. "God forbid there was a fire or someone had a heart attack because they wouldn't be able to get out."

Violators can be fined $5,000 for a first offense and up to $20,000 for subsequent incidents. The bill passed unanimously.

EMPIRE ZONE IN LOWER MANHATTAN
The most vigorous debate of the day was on a measure (Intro 693-A) to support the creation of an Empire Zone in Chinatown and Lower Manhattan.

Empire Zones are designed to target areas of poverty and unemployment with tax incentives. After the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the city applied for the designation to help Lower Manhattan's economy. However, Governor George Pataki chose to award the Empire Zone to Renssalaer County, the home of upstate Republican State Senate leader Joseph Bruno instead.

Now Lower Manhattan has another chance for the assistance, and Councilmember Allan Gerson, who represents the area, says it is still desperately needed.

However, Lower East Side Councilmember Margarita Lopez argued the council should have done more to require that one parcel of land within the Empire Zone, which has been empty for 30 years, is used for affordable housing.

"We talk about affordable housing in this campaign year," said Lopez, "but we don't act."

Gerson said that because Empire Zones are under state control, the City Council did not have the ability to require apartments be built there at this time.

"I promise to work tirelessly to make sure that it is used for affordable housing," said Gerson.

The measure passed by a vote of 42 to 2, with one abstention. Margarita Lopez and Tony Avella voted "no." Charles Barron abstained because he said he wasn't sure whom to believe.

Council members Diana Reyna, Allan Jennings, Oliver Koppel, Miguel Martinez, and Phil Reed were absent.

The next Stated Meeting is scheduled for September 28, 2005.

 

Times Endorsement of James Vacca


13th District (Pelham, City Island, Throgs Neck, Allerton and Morris Park): Single-family homeowners worried about overdevelopment give this Democratic district a conservative streak. The current council member, Madeleine Provenzano, a Democrat, has straddled party lines on many votes. To fill her seat, she has endorsed Stephen Kaufman, who ran a ridiculous and losing State Senate campaign last year as both a Democrat and a Republican. In this race, Mr. Kaufman, who also has the Conservative Party line, is one of six Democrats in the primary.

The candidate whose credentials make him the standout in the field is James Vacca. As the district manager for Community Board 10, he has become renowned as a solver of problems large and small. He has blocked oversized construction, challenged City Hall on the aggressive proliferation of parking tickets and been a longtime advocate for senior citizens. Mr. Vacca would be a welcome dose of steady energy on the Council. We endorse James Vacca.

City Council Races -- Selective Newspaper Endorsements


CITY COUNCIL RACES

District 2

Gur Tsabar: New York Times, Daily News, Amsterdam News

Rosie Mendez: Gay City News, The Villager

District 4

Daniel Grodnick: New York Times

Jack Lester: Daily News

District 5

Jessica Lappin: New York Times

George Spitz: Daily News, Amsterdam News

District 8

Joyce Johnson: Daily News

Melissa Mark Viverito: New York Times, Amsterdam News,El Diario

District 9

Yasmin Cornelius: New York Times, Daily News

Inez Dickens: Amsterdam News

Cynthia Doty: West Side Spirit

District 13 Ishmael Betancourt: Amsterdam News

James Vacca: New York Times,, Daily News

District 25

Bryan Pu-Folkes: New York Times, Amsterdam News

 

District 28

“Endorsing any of these clowns is out of the question” Daily News

District 41

Darlene Mealy: New York Times, Daily News, Amsterdam News

District 45

Kendall Stewart: Carib News

Sam Taitt: New York Times, Daily News, Amsterdam News  

 

 

 

 

Times Endorses Darlene Mealy


41st District (Bedford-Stuyvesant, Ocean Hill and Brownsville): The Boyland family, headed by the retired Assemblyman William Boyland Sr., regards this district as its own private political preserve. After Mr. Boyland won re-election to the Assembly two years ago, he stepped down and handed his seat over to his son, William Jr. Now he is running for City Council, hoping to succeed Tracy Boyland, his daughter, who is term-limited.

Mr. Boyland, who did not make himself available for an endorsement interview, told the good-government organization Citizens Union, ''I would like to do what Tracy did.'' That alone is reason to consider extending term limits to include family members. If Ms. Boyland distinguished herself in the Council, it was for nonperformance.

The non-Boylands in the race are plenty, which could splinter the vote to the family's advantage. The ball of fire here is Darlene Mealy, a transit worker and first-time candidate who has devoted years to organizing distressed neighborhoods and helping transform them into safe, desirable places to live. Ms. Mealy has the makings of a dragon slayer, which this underserved district needs. Darlene Mealy gets our endorsement.

Times Endorses Bryan Pu-Folkes


25th District (Jackson Heights, Elmhurst, East Elmhurst, Corona, Rego Park and Woodside): Even in this city of variety, it's hard to match the diversity in this district. The incumbent, Helen Sears, deserves credit for her work in seeking accommodation for day laborers in the district and extending health care services for immigrant women. She also helped the successful drive to keep Wal-Mart out of the district. But some of her votes in the Council have been off key -- like her opposition to the lead paint bill and a resolution calling on the government to uphold immigrant rights under the Patriot Act.

Her main opponent is Bryan Pu-Folkes, a lawyer who serves as a city human rights commissioner and has a long history as an immigrant advocate. Mr. Pu-Folkes, whose parents emigrated from Burma and Jamaica, shows the promise of being more than just a good public servant. He is already a role model for young immigrants and could pull more of them into civic life. Among his top priorities would be to reduce pollution and expand public green spaces, both important goals for a district with high rates of asthma. Bryan Pu-Folkes has a firm grip on the issues and exudes a confident eagerness to take them on, and wins our endorsement.

Times Endorses Sam Taitt


45th District (East Flatbush and Flatlands): Two years ago the incumbent, Kendall Stewart, barely won re-election in a crowded field in this central Brooklyn district, where the population is mostly rooted in the Caribbean. Now Mr. Stewart, a podiatrist born in St. Vincent, faces a showdown with the second-place finisher, Sam Taitt.

This is the third race for Mr. Taitt, who began this campaign badly by successfully challenging the nomination petitions of three opponents. That would be reason to look for another candidate if the district was not so much in need of better representation. Mr. Taitt -- a native of Barbados, who teaches communication at Kingsborough College -- has both the experience and the drive to do a better job. Since the last campaign, he has worked hard on community education and economic development projects. He is leading an effort to form a community credit union, which could offer hope to residents overlooked by conventional banks.

Mr. Stewart has been a disappointment in the Council. He is chairman of the committee on immigration but has done little with the position. Sam Taitt offers a fresh approach, and he gets our endorsement.

An Elegant Old Hotel Gives New Lives to the Homeless


This series, in partnership with Open House New York, looks at the physical city since the birth of the preservation movement 40 years ago.

For decades the Prince George Hotel, with its burnished wood, lavishly detailed ceilings and classical columns welcomed visitors to Edith Wharton's New York. But then the hotel declined, becoming one of New York's notorious welfare hotels in the 1980s, when it housed about 1,600 people. The city closed it in 1989.

Today, the hotel on East 28th Street has reopened, combining aspects of both of its previous incarnations. It once again provides housing to the formerly homeless, but the number of residents is far less, and they are able to take advantage of supportive services right in the building. At the same time, the Prince George has been restored to its former glory in what now has become one of Manhattan's official historic districts, called Madison Square North, with particular attention to its once-again elegant ballroom, a grand gathering place.

We at Common Ground, a non-profit dedicated to solving homelessness, are trying to preserve a piece of New York City's history and architecture and at the same time address a pressing social need.

A Model That Makes Sense

Common Ground currently houses approximately 1,700 individuals in a total of eight residences, including the Times Square Hotel and The Christopher in Chelsea. We are looking to develop 3,000 additional homes in the next ten years.

Supportive housing offers people a home while also providing them with an array of services in their apartment building. Working in partners, we have been able to offer the tenants on-site employment, counseling, health and social services. Research has shown that as individuals move out of homelessness, the supportive housing model fosters self-sufficiency and stability. In addition, supportive housing has also shown to be the most effective means to prevent homelessness and the most fiscally efficient -- the annual cost of providing an individual with supportive housing is far less than the average cost of providing a person with emergency medical or psychiatric care and shelter.

From Glamorous To Grim To Gorgeous

The area around the Prince George, Madison Square, was Manhattan's social center in the 1850s, attracting prominent families who lived in brownstones on and near Fifth Avenue. The completion of the Lexington Avenue subway transformed the area from an affluent residential neighborhood to a commercial district. The Prince George, north of Madison Square Park, was a key part of that. One of the city's largest early 20th century hotels at 14 stories tall, it was constructed in two phases, with the main building going up in 1904 and a northern wing added in 1912. Howard Greenley, a prominent architect who served as the president of the Architectural League of New York, designed the building and decorated the interior.

The hotel is modeled in the Beaux Arts style and has many classical and neo-Renaissance flourishes. Its ground floor included the Lady's Tearoom, the English Tap Room, and the Hunt Room. A spacious lounge later became the Prince George Ballroom. Designed by Greenley, the ornate ballroom featured Renaissance-inspired murals and reproductions of famous paintings, along with intricate woodwork, marble mosaic floors, ceiling murals, and elaborate carvings.

For decades, the Prince George Hotel and its restaurants were favorite gathering places. Even in the 1950s, long past its heyday, the hotel continued to draw middle-class tourists. But as tourism in the city declined in the 1970s, the Prince George, along with many New York hotels, began to suffer. With the rise in homelessness in the 1980s, many private hotels in the area, including the Prince George, began to accept contracts from the city to house homeless families. During this period, the ballroom served as a dining hall, social service office and basketball court.

Since the Prince George did not offer adequate facilities, services or security to its residents, the hotel became dirty and dangerous, ridden with drug use and crime, damaging its residents and the surrounding community. Writer Jonathan Kozol called the Prince George at that time "one of the grimmest places I've ever been." After standing vacant for several years, the Prince George was purchased by Common Ground in 1996.

Backed by federal, state and private funds, the renovation began two years later, the work of Beyer Blinder Belle, the architects who designed the renovation of Grand Central Station. Historic rehabilitation tax credits financed some of the renovation of the lobby. In 2001, after the hotel was largely renovated, the city designated the surrounding area a historic district. This would set restrictions on future changes, if any, to the building's exterior.

The hotel, in its current incarnation, welcomed its first tenants in October 1999. Today, the Prince George provides 416 units of permanent, affordable, supportive housing for low-income or formerly homeless adults, including people with HIV/AIDS or mental illness and the elderly. The residents pay 30 percent of the income in rent. About half the residents have incomes of less than $10,000 a year. Common Ground's social services partner, the Center for Urban Community Services, provides tenants with on-site access to social, medical and psychiatric services, along with benefits counseling and a wide range of community activities. The building also includes such facilities as a computer room, lounges and an art studio.

At the Prince George, the physical setting contributes to giving residents a sense of dignity. The ornate tearoom, as well as part of the lobby, has been elegantly restored. The Prince George also features a gorgeous rooftop deck with a community garden.

A Ballroom Restored, Creatively, Collaboratively

In 2004, Common Ground launched an ambitious project to restore the 5,000 square-foot ballroom and adjacent former Hunt Room. The project presented an opportunity to offer needed training and jobs. Common Ground, working with four other non-profit groups, arranged for at-risk youth, high school students interested in restoration arts, architectural students, and individuals with HIV/AIDS to work on the renovation. Students at the Parsons School designed and built an entry foyer and gallery space in what had been the Hunt Room. Faced with an area that was beyond restoration, the students developed an airy, modern space that is now the World Monuments Fund Gallery, which serves as a special exhibition and events space.

Meanwhile, staff from the Alpha Workshops, which provides training and employment in the decorative arts for people with HIV/AIDS, restored the original plasterwork and paint in the Neo-Renaissance Ballroom, which had suffered significant water damage when the building lay vacant. They also provided hands-on training to a group of young people from the Brooklyn High School for the Arts, YouthBuild USA, and the Foyer program at The Christopher, the Common Ground facility that houses young adults who have been in the foster care system. The ballroom's elaborate Renaissance details — including heavy columns ornamented by cartouches, garlands, angels and acanthus leaves — have been restored through this unique partnership.

The ballroom, which can seat up to 299 guests, and the World Monuments Fund Gallery at the Prince George have opened as a special events and exhibition space available to the public. The income generated by renting out this space goes to support our efforts to house chronically homeless adults -- an innovative re-use of a beautiful old building.

Kelly Castagnaro is director of communications at Common Ground.

 



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