Effort to Transform Embankment Gets a Boost

Posted on 10. Dec, 2009 by Nathaniel Adams in Health and Environment, Living, Politics and Government

Jersey City’s Historical Embankment, subject of a long campaign to turn it into a park.

By Nathaniel Adams

Robert Hammond, the man behind Manhattan’s High Line Park, is partnering up with Jersey City’s Embankment Preservation Coalition to help them in their mission, hoping to use the success of the High Line to promote their project.

“They’re in a similar place to where we were in 2003,” said Hammond, “they need a real estate and political champion.”

The Embankment is an elevated freight train line that fell out of use many years ago and has been at the center of a 12-year-old fight to decide its fate. Unlike the High Line, a structure built in 1930, wide enough for two train tracks, and constructed as a steel frame raised on metal columns, the Embankment, built in 1902, carried seven tracks and is made of huge piles of earth surrounded by stone walls up to 30 feet high.

“We sort of think of the Embankment as a land art piece we want to preserve,” said Maureen Crowley, director of the Embankment Preservation Coalition.

The coalition and the Jersey City government have been trying for years to turn the structure, which is owned by private developer Steven Hyman, into a public park. Hyman has wanted to use the property to build luxury houses. The two sides have been involved in court battles for years.

The city and the coalition have worked to have the Embankment declared a historic landmark, have tried to acquire it through eminent domain, have blocked attempts by Hyman to demolish the structure, and have filed suit claiming that his purchase of the property was invalid. Hyman has appealed decisions, run campaigns against Jersey City Mayor Jerremiah Healy, and claimed economic hardship as a reason for wanting to replace the embankment with apartment buildings.

Currently, all sides are waiting for the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., to decide in the latest of a long series of cases and appeals whether or not the original sale of the property to Hyman by the Consolidated Rail Corporation was legal and valid.

On October 25th, Mr. Hammond visited the Embankment for the first time, walking the length of it at street level and snapping photos of the vivid autumn trees lining the top and the tendrils of ivy spilling over the sides and clinging to the solid, heavy stone walls. That night he spoke at the coalition’s monthly meeting, expressing his enthusiasm for the project and inspiring the organization to keep fighting.

Since Hammond’s visit, he has publicized the project on the High Line blog, which refers to the Embankment as a “sister project.” On November 10th, he met with the Embankment Preservation Coalition in private to discuss strategies.

“It’s all in the very inchoate stage,” said Crowley. “I think he’s going to help with publicity and fundraising ideas at this point.”

The High Line endorsement comes at a time when parks and conservancy projects throughout Jersey City, Hudson County and the entire state are experiencing a surge of popularity and success. In the November 3rd elections, an item allocating 400 million dollars for, among other environmental projects, parks and open spaces, was up for public vote on ballots across New Jersey. It passed 52% to 48%, despite incumbent Governor Democrat John Corzine, the only candidate who supported the bill, losing his office to Republican Chris Christie.

On November 10th, the Jersey City Council approved a resolution to purchase a former landfill next to the Hackensack River, to be turned into a park. The land, sitting beneath the steel skeleton of the Pulaski Skyway, will be connected to a larger planned public development along the Hackensack River which will run through all of Hudson County, from Bayonne to North Bergen.

On October 15th, environmental advocacy group Hackensack Riverkeeper honored Mayor Healy with its annual Friend of Hackensack Riverkeeper award for efforts in historic preservation, creating open spaces, and promoting green policies. The group cited the above projects and the city’s work to revitalize Reservoir 3.

The reservoir is a 14-acre site in the heart of the Heights, an urban residential area of the city. Built in the 1870s to provide clean water to a city susceptible to diseases such as typhoid, the reservoir was closed in 1990. When people started venturing back onto the site in 2001, they found a vibrant mini-ecosystem behind the reservoir’s 20-foot high stone walls.

The Jersey City Reservoir Preservation Alliance, started in 2002, has been working with the city to preserve, protect, and promote the site, offering kayaking programs, ample fishing in a lake populated with Sunnys and Largemouth Bass, and painting classes with natural subjects as diverse as lakeside cat-tails, old brick gatehouses, ducks, islands, falcons, and great blue herons.

This summer the city council passed a resolution allowing the alliance to hire an architecture firm specializing in historic preservation to first study and assess the site to create what alliance president Steven Latham calls “a place for nature to thrive.”

Donning White, Women Honor Victims in Domestic Violence March

Posted on 02. Dec, 2009 by Valentina Rodriguez in Health and Environment

Marchers wave photos of Gladys Ricart on the steps of the Bronx City courthouse, where Ruben Diaz, Bronx Borough President, and Yolanda Jimenez, Commissioner for the Mayor’s Office to Combat Domestic Violence, address the crowd.

By Valentina Rodriguez

By early morning, scores of women had zipped their wedding dresses and pinned their veils for the big day ahead.

An outsider could have confused their preparations for a celebration. Rather than marching down an aisle, these women prepared to march for seven miles from the South Bronx to East Harlem to raise awareness about domestic violence. Donning white dresses, a total of nearly 400 people marched in support of the Gladys Ricart and Victims of Domestic Violence Memorial Walk.

From 2003 to 2005, nearly 44 percent of all fatal violence against women occurred as a result of domestic violence, according to the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene’s 2008 report, “Intimate Partner Violence Against Women in New York City.” In 2007, New York City police determined 48 homicides resulted from domestic abuse, including intimate partner violence as well as violence against children. By 2008, the incidence of family- related homicides had increased to 70 victims, according to the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene Domestic Violence Fact Sheet.

Cecilia Gaston, executive director of one of the Violence Intervention Programs, said there has been a significant increase in the number of women seeking aid from her organization since the economic downturn. With rising unemployment, she said that some men were returning home far more anxious and far more violent. In fact, the New York City Mayor’s Office to Combat Domestic Violence reports that between 2007 and 2008 there has been a 31 percent increase in family- related homicides.

For almost a decade, hundreds of women and their families have gathered to march on Sept. 26 to raise awareness about domestic violence. It was on that day in 1999 that Gladys Ricart was to be married.

Ricart, a 39-year- old native of the Dominican Republic, was home with her family in Ridgefield, N.J., distributing flowers to her bridesmaids for the afternoon’s ceremony. In the middle of the excitement, an abusive ex- boyfriend of six years, Agustin Garcia, entered her home.

In front of her family, he shot and killed Ricart as she posed for her pictures in her living room.

One particularly beautiful photo had been taken just before she was murdered. Gleaming in her white wedding dress, that photo has been a binding image for marchers each year.

The story of Gladys Ricart touched Josie Ashton, who at the time was working in the domestic violence unit for the Miami District Attorney’s Office. Ashton, who had witnessed domestic violence as a child, saw the tragedy as an opportunity for people to take action. In 2001, Ashton resigned from her position at the D.A.’s office and flew to New York City, where she marched alongside advocates and 30 of Ricart’s family and friends. They walked 40 miles from Ricart’s home in New Jersey to the church where she was to wed in Queens. Ashton wore her old wedding dress.

From Queens, Ashton marched southbound along the eastern border of the United States. Sending press releases in advance to each county along her route, Ashton was often joined by advocates for a few miles in each town. For three months Ashton slept in domestic violence shelters along the way, and marched in white until reaching her home in Florida.

Although this year she was unable to attend the march, Ashton’s work jumpstarted other marches throughout the United States, including Newburgh, N.Y., Lawrence, Mass., Milwaukee, and Miami. New York City organizations like Violence Intervention Program, Nuevo Amanecer and the Children’s Aid Society, have continued her tradition in the Bronx each year.

Survivors and advocates alike participating in the annual memorial continue Ashton’s tradition and wear either donated wedding dresses or white clothing. The men are asked to wear black as a sign of mourning.

Domestic violence is twice as prevalent in low-income New York City neighborhoods as it is in more affluent areas of the city, according to the Department of Health. Black and Hispanic women are disproportionately affected, with twice as many being injured or killed as compared to white women.

“This used to be the crime no one talked about,” said State Senator Eric Schneiderman during his address to the church of brides. “Now it’s the crime everyone is talking about.”

One of the event’s organizers, Diana Rivera, escaped death by her partner nearly 16 years ago.

On October 23, 1993, Rivera, who was 23 at the time, was awoken at 2:00 in the morning by her boyfriend of three years. They had just broken up, and although he had never threatened her before, he now had a gun.

“Diana, let’s end it,” she recalls hearing. He shot her four times, twice in her right leg, once in her left hip, and once in her abdomen.

He saved the last shot for her head. But when he pulled the trigger, there were no bullets left.

The shot to her abdomen exited through her back and missed her spinal cord by one inch. With three bullets in her legs, it would be a year before she could walk again.

During the march, Rivera followed the marchers in a poster-clad, beige minivan, waving to crowds and cheering on the marchers.

By early afternoon, the marchers had arrived in the Bronx City courthouse, where Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz as well as Yolanda Jimenez, the Mayor’s Office to Combat Domestic Violence Commissioner, addressed the crowd. Following their speeches, Ricart’s niece, Lethy Liriano, radiant in her wedding gown, gave the marchers words of encouragement in English and Spanish to continue their trek through the rest of the city. Behind Liriano, on the steps of the courthouse, women waved photos of Gladys Ricart and banners of hope.

Tyra Robison, 33, a survivor-turned-advocate also marched. When she was 17, Robison experienced verbal, physical and sexual abuse from her boyfriend of three years. Having seen her mother also endure an abusive relationship, Robison said she had little recourse.

“Being so young, I convinced myself that I loved this person,” said Robison. “I didn’t go to anybody.”

After leaving the relationship, Robison continued her studies and moved to New York, where she volunteers for advocacy agencies like Sanctuary for Families. She said she will be attending law school next fall, and wants to focus on family law.

The march’s message was one of solidarity, remembrance and hope.

“There’s power in forgiveness. There’s power in love,” said Rivera, elegant and soft- spoken in her cream skirt and jacket.

“When people see you, they will not see what you’ve been through, they will see the greater woman in you,” Rivera said.

New Renovation Plans for Ridgewood Reservoir

Posted on 19. Nov, 2009 by Carolyn Phenicie in Health and Environment, Metro, Politics and Government

The Ridgewood Reservoir in western Queens has been allowed to re-grow into a marsh and birch forest.

By Carolyn Phenicie

Ivy has grown up a seven-foot-high fence, obscuring the view of a natural woodland where grey birch, red maple and black cherry trees grow from the leaf-covered forest floor. The whoosh of traffic on the adjacent Jackie Robinson Parkway is the only clue that indicates this little pocket of nature, the Ridgewood Reservoir in southern Queens, lies within New York City limits.

But this quiet leafy corner is about to change under a plan to renovate the area that would replace existing fences with shorter ones, install lights and repair the existing running path. This plan, like the proposals that came before it, has angered some local residents who said they feel the Parks Department is not listening to their input on the project. Many said that they believe that with the exception of a few cosmetic improvements, the area should be left in its natural state.

The reservoir, which held 154 million gallons of water, was built in 1856 and used as a source of drinking water for the growing population in Brooklyn from 1858 to 1959. Two of the three basins were drained after the Catskills aqueduct was built, and one remained a backup water supply until 1989. The Department of Environmental Protection completely decommissioned the site the next year. Since then, the area has returned to its natural habitat. Basins One and Three, about 10 and 21 acres respectively, have become forests of birch, maple, cherry and sweet gum tree. The central basin, 11.85-acre Basin Two, contains water and has returned to a marsh full of phragmites, an invasive type of reed not native to the area.

In 2004, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg gave authority over the nearly 43-acre reservoir to the Department of Parks and Recreation. At the time, the department intended to turn one of the basins into a park with ball fields. That proposal has since been abandoned because the budget for the project got cut, but it angered many area residents who believed it should be left alone.

“It’s so counterintuitive for a mayor who says he’s environmentally minded to go in and destroy an important habitat like that,” Rob Jett, who maintains the blog Save Ridgewood Reservoir, said in a phone interview.

Jett said the area doesn’t need any more recreation space. The reservoir is next to Highland Park, which already has two baseball fields, a basketball court, a football field and concrete area for skateboarding.

Queens Borough President Helen M. Marshall believes the area should be preserved as a natural habitat, Dan Andrews, the borough president’s press secretary, said in a phone interview.

Those calling for the preservation of the area also found vocal allies in Comptroller Bill Thompson and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., who published an op-ed in The New York Times in May 2008 calling for the preservation of the area.

“Ridgewood Reservoir offers visitors a rare chance to lose themselves in a forest, to hear bird song, to touch wilderness and to sense the divine,” they wrote. “The city shouldn’t let that slip away.”

When the project was first proposed in 2004, the parks department held a series of public meetings with the community, Jett said. Those who attended felt the department wasn’t really listening to their ideas: primarily, to leave the reservoir mostly untouched and refurbish the recreation areas at Highland Park.

There’s not a lot of trust between the agencies involved and the public because many decisions are made behind closed doors, Geoffrey Croft, NYC Park Advocates president, said in a phone interview.

“It’s not the way these projects are supposed to work,” Croft said.

The current incarnation of the plan is the result of four listening sessions held with the public, according to Patricia Bertuccio, a press officer with the parks department. Since that time, designers and contractors have been working on three conceptual designs for the first phase of the project. The broad concepts will go through several phases of review before construction.

Despite the public meetings for the downsized project, Jett and others said they feel the department is once again not listening to residents’ concerns. Specifically, he said, community boards don’t like plans for new lighting. Also there are no plans for the installation of exercise stations or park benches along the existing track that runs around the reservoir, as residents had requested.

The department has worked “very diligently” with the community, citing meetings during which members of the community could speak directly with project designers, Bertuccio said in a phone interview.

“We think we’ve been doing a great job working with the community and we’ve gotten some positive feedback from them,” she said.

More money in less time: Workers’ cooperative in Sunset Park helps immigrants weather economic downturn

Posted on 14. Nov, 2009 by Jeannette Neumann in Health and Environment, Immigration, Money and Economy

By Jeannette Neumann

Alicia Chavez used to work 48 hours a week at a Sunset Park baking factory, shuttling hundreds of loaves an hour from oven to cooling rack during her 5 pm to 1.30 am shift. She earned $350 a week for herself and family – two adolescent boys and her husband, who still works there.

Two years later, she earns slightly more money in less than half the time.

Chavez, 34, is president of Si Se Puede! We Can Do It! Inc., an all female workers’ cooperative based in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. The 23 members provide housecleaning services to more than 400 regular clients.

“Now, I’m a business woman,” Chavez said. “Before, everyday was the same. I was like a machine at my old job. Now, I see everything differently. I have a better salary and more job security.”

Like all workers’ cooperatives, We Can Do It is owned and controlled by the workers. Twenty of the women are from Mexico, two are from the Dominican Republic, and one is from Bangladesh. Although there is a hierarchy, including president and treasurer, for instance, there is no board of directors, meaning decision-making is democratic; Chavez refers to all of the women in the housecleaning cooperative as “directoras.”

Employees at the Center for Family Life in Sunset Park, a 30-year-old community service nonprofit, were instrumental in starting the co-op and continue to act as consultants for the women, helping to organize monthly meetings. Potential and regular clients call the Center directly to hire the women. The nonprofit recently started two other workers’ co-ops, one for babysitting and one for house repairs, called We Can Fix It.

Since We Can Do It opened in August 2006, the women’s wages have increased from $8 to more than $20 an hour. Chavez and the other women attribute part of that increase to a monthly marketing campaign, often held in neighboring Park Slope, aimed at attracting clients who prefer to pay workers directly, rather than a middleman, as it is customary in many housecleaning agencies.

Wages and quality of life – greater pay for fewer hours worked, for example – often do increase over time in workers’ co-ops since the members set the priorities for their business, said Lynn Pitman, associate outreach specialist at the University of Wisconsin Center for Cooperatives in Madison.

That makes cooperatives especially attractive in a downturn, said Jim Jenkins, director of communications at the National Cooperative Business Association in Washington, DC.

“Historically, when there’s an economic or social crisis, people tend to turn to co-ops as a way to move beyond their current situation,” Jenkins wrote in an email. “As more and more consumers grow skeptical of big business, they tend to look for business models with more integrity, transparency and value – cooperatives are the often the model they tend to trust.”

But Pitman cautioned that a workers’ cooperative is still susceptible to the challenges all businesses face.

“If the members say ‘we really want to pay our workers this amount of money,’ but there’s not a demand for those services – it doesn’t matter if you’re a co-op or not,” she said. “You have to deal with what the market is demanding.”

Chavez said she has seen the demand from her 20 regular clients dip only slightly amid the downturn.

“I haven’t experienced the recession,” Chavez said.

Two other coop members, Margarita Pavon, 31, and Daniela Salazar, 27, said they have received fewer calls from clients since January. Despite the ebb in workflow, they said they feel lucky to have a job, as friends and family struggle to find employment.

As of 2007, the income of one in five families in Sunset Park was below the poverty level, according to the most recent estimate by the American Community Survey, an ongoing project of the U.S. Census Bureau. In neighboring Park Slope and Red Hook, the poverty rate was a little less than one in ten families during the same period.

Current data documenting the impact of the economic downturn on Sunset Park’s low-income residents isn’t available yet, but there is evidence that many are scrambling to secure a salary.

Migdalia Garcia, 40, said nearly 200 people sit down every week in the unemployment office where she works on 4th Avenue to fill out paperwork, hoping to qualify for one of the 25 jobs available at any given time. About 9 in 10 are men, most from Mexico, she said. Sunset Park is home to the city’s largest Mexican population, according to the 2000 census.

“Three years ago, it used to be that there were more jobs than people looking for them,” Garcia said. “Now, it’s completely the contrary.”

Pavon said that since she joined the co-op in February 2008 she’s worked fewer hours for a better salary. But most importantly, she said, there’s more time for the things that really matter to her.

An aunt used to pick up her two children, America, 8, and Alan, 12, from school at 3pm because Pavon was always working.

“They didn’t like that,” said Pavon, shaking her head and wrinkling her nose at her daughter, America, who nodded her head in agreement.

Now, Pavon walks America and Alan home.

“I decide my time,” Pavon said. “I’m my own boss.”

In September, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus in Washington, DC invited the 23 women to their annual conference, highlighting We Can Do It as an example of Latino entrepreneurs who have started a successful “green” business. For health and environmental reasons, the women encourage their clients to use organic cleaning products – such as baking soda and vinegar. About 70 percent of their clients use organic products now, Pavon said.

The recognition has reminded the women of the importance of their work, Chavez said.

“Before, I felt like I didn’t have a life here or there,” she said, referring to her native Mexico. “I hadn’t done anything important in my life and I felt like I was in limbo.”

Now, she said, she has a purpose.

“Working at the co-op, our children have less probability of ending up in the street because we’re home more,” Chavez said. “We’re helping the environment and our community.”

Improved Health In East Harlem Starts With Access to Fresh Foods

Posted on 22. Oct, 2009 by Valentina Rodriguez in Health and Environment

AT THE MARKET: East Harlem residents purchase produce at a farmer’s market on 104th street. Operating from July to November, these markets offer some of the few  places to purchase fresh fruits and vegetables in the neighborhood. Photo: Valentina Rodriguez

By Valentina Rodriguez

Ever since 2005, when she developed a pinched nerve in her back, walking even short distances has been difficult. Alice Colson, who uses a wooden cane to support her pained left leg, walks to the Associated Supermarket closer to her home on 116th Street only for everyday items like bread and milk.

“I don’t even want to say how much weight I’ve gained,” said Colson, a 54 year-old retired group home employee who now lives off disability assistance.

She attributes her weight gain both to her inability to exercise, as well as to the paucity of quality fresh foods near her home.

In East Harlem, where two out of three food stores is a bodega, lack of access to affordable, healthy and fresh food is making residents overweight and sick, studies show.

Take Colson’s case. To buy better and more varied fruits and vegetables, which her doctors recommend, Colson must take a taxi once a month from her apartment on 116th Street and Park Avenue to Pathmark grocery store on 125th Street and Lexington Avenue. Using both food stamps and out-of-pocket money, Colson must add the $12 roundtrip cab fare to her $250 monthly grocery bill to feed her family of four.

Not everyone in East Harlem can afford that.

“I can’t spend the $6 to $7 cab ride every time I have to go to Pathmark,” says Genevieve Andre, 45, who has lived in East Harlem for 12 years, while her 5-year-old daughter, Angelique, munched on french fries from a $2.89 McDonald’s Happy Meal (590 calories and 20 grams of fat for a hamburger, small bag of fries and a 12-ounce soda).

Dr. Hector Estepan, medical director of Boriken Family Health Center in East Harlem, said nearly 40 percent of the adults and 35 percent of the children in his clinic are obese. Poverty is the culprit, he said.

A 2007 study published in Epidemiological Reviews found that minority and low- income groups across the United States have disproportionately higher rates of obesity than the general population. In this neighborhood, which has a 38 percent poverty rate, and where 88 percent of residents are Hispanic and black, 31 percent of the adults are obese. The citywide rate of obesity is 22 percent, according to a report from the East and Central Harlem District Public Office. That report also revealed that people in East Harlem tend to suffer from heart disease at a higher rate than in the rest of the city, and that 18 percent of obese adults in the neighborhood are also likely to report having diabetes.

Only four percent of bodegas in East Harlem carry leafy vegetables, according to a 2009 report from the city’s food policy coordinator in the Office of the Mayor. The report also noted that in areas like Northern Manhattan, South Bronx and Central Brooklyn, quality grocery stores are rare to come by.

“In these areas, food dollars are likely being spent at discount and convenience stores whose line of food products is limited, of poor quality, and generally more expensive than the same products sold at supermarkets,” said Benjamin Thomases, the city’s food policy coordinator in a testimony last June before the City Council Committee on Community Development.

To develop more grocery stores in underserved areas, including East Harlem, the city has launched the Food Retail Expansion to Support Health (FRESH) initiative. The program provides zoning incentives for grocers to build new stores as well as sales tax reductions for existing grocers to expand their produce sections. The initiative also encourages bodega owners to stock low-fat dairy products, like one percent milk instead of whole milk, and helps them improve and expand their produce display.

Some residents, however, remain skeptical.

“I don’t know how it translates to access for people in this area,” said Maritza Owens, Director of Harvest Home Farmer’s Markets.

Owens, who manages 13 farmer’s markets in underserved New York City neighborhoods, said that her East Harlem markets provide some of the few places in the neighborhood where residents can access fresh greens.

“I feel like people in low-income areas are penalized,” said Owens, who runs four markets in East Harlem.

Unlike in more affluent neighborhoods where markets open year-round, the markets in this neighborhood are open only from July to November. With nearly 60 percent of her customers relying on subsidized incomes, Owens said the markets operate during state-run government assistance seasons.

The Women, Infants, and Children Program, or WIC, is one of the government assistance groups partnering with the markets. Leticia Cobeo, Director of the East Harlem WIC Program, said she has 1,000 enrolled families. For four months each year, her program provides 500 families with a one-time $24 check under the Farmer’s Market Nutrition Program, which was developed to encourage families to purchase from the markets.

Half of her enrollees are left with no money for fresh produce, as her program is only allotted enough for 500 families, on a first-come, first-serve basis.

And for those who do not purchase from farmers markets, making cheap, healthy choices in the grocery store can be challenging. A shelf of sweets stands at the right side of the Associated Supermarket entrance on 116th Street, where last week customers could purchase 16 honey buns for $4, at 400 calories per bun. On the left side of the same aisle, a small bag of spinach costs $3.99, at 20 calories per three-ounce serving.

“If I want to eat healthy, it’s more expensive,” said Jessica Cruz, 28, as she meticulously reviewed her coupon magazine in the grocery store aisle. “It’s cheaper to buy the processed foods that are unhealthy.”

Cruz said she spends $75 to $80 every two to three weeks to feed her family –herself, her husband, 29, her 7-year-old daughter, and her 3-month-old daughter. Now that her husband has been diagnosed as having high cholesterol, she said that healthy, unprocessed foods are becoming increasingly important for them, but prohibitively expensive.

Dr. Estepan, the director of the family health center, said that the health of his patients and of the neighborhood is unlikely to improve until foods become both more abundant and affordable.