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Thousands Protest: Demand Palestinians be given homeland By SUZANNE ROZDEBA and GREG GITTRICH, Daily News Writers

By Homepage, New York Daily NewsNo Comments

Sunday, April 08, 2001

Middle East tensions spilled out on the streets of Manhattan’s East Side yesterday as thousands of protesters rallied outside the Israeli Consulate to demand that Palestinian refugees be allowed to return to their homes in Israeli-occupied lands.

Waving posters with images of bloodied children and screaming words of protest in English and Arabic, Palestinian New Yorkers and supporters called on the U.S. to stop all funding to Israel and fight for the return of all refugees to their homeland.

Cops keep an eye on Palestinian rally outside Israeli Embassy in Manhattan.

“International law stipulates that we have the right to return,” said Arjan El-Fassed, co-founder of Al-Awda, the Palestinian coalition that called the protest.

“I don’t think U.S. taxpayers want to pay Israel to continue to kill children.”

The crowd, unofficially estimated at 5,000, began assembling outside the Israeli Consulate on 42nd St. and Second Ave. in the late morning and soon stretched more than three blocks.

Shortly before 2 p.m., the throng — packed with children and teenagers — marched to Union Square, where they listened to a passionate speech from Palestinian scholar Edward Said.

Protesters accuse the U.S. of sponsoring terrorism by funding Israel.

“This is a battle against an imperialist colonial power,” Said said, winning a roar from the crowd. “This is not Palestinian violence. This is Palestinian resistance.”

Many of the protesters, some of whom came from as far away as San Francisco, carried placards with anti-Israeli slogans including “USA: Stop Funding Israeli Terrorism,” “Down with Israel” and “Zionism = Racism.”

Before reaching Union Square, protesters wearing masks threw stones at a green cardboard representation of an Israeli tank.

Traffic was tied up along the route, but police reported no arrests, despite a few heated arguments between the demonstrators and a handful of Israeli supporters.

“The U.S. is just on the brink of understanding what is going on,” said Palestinian refugee Reen Abu Sbaih, 29. “People don’t see the human side of Palestinians. We want freedom. We want justice.”

The insistence that Palestinian refugees who fled Israel when it was created in 1948 be allowed to return is one of many longstanding issues that persistently stoke violence in the Middle East.

The refugees and their descendants are spread out in camps across the West Bank, Lebanon, Syria and Jordan.

The Israeli Consulate was closed for the day, and its officials could not be reached. But Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-Brooklyn) blamed Palestinian leaders for the many failed attempts at peace in the Middle East.

Similar pro-Palestinian demonstrations were held yesterday in Canadian, Australian, Spanish and Palestinian cities.

With Michael O. Allen

April 8, 2001
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WOODLAND TO REPLACE LANDFILL Mother Nature getting back 400 acres of f ormer dumps By MICHAEL O. ALLEN, Daily News Staff Writer

By Homepage, New York Daily NewsNo Comments

nullSunday, December 3, 2000

Forget a tree. Soon, a forest will grow in Brooklyn.

In East New York, to be exact.

Atop the former dumps on Pennsylvania and Fountain Aves. now grow mugworts, fragmites, some switch grass here and there and the occasional ailanthus, the tree that grows in Brooklyn.

The greenery doesn’t hide the rusted hulks of tire rims, the orphan gravel piles and stray dogs.

Nor can it eliminate the PCBs, other toxic wastes and pollutants, construction debris and household trash buried up to 130 feet high across the landfills’ 400-acre expanse before the dumps closed in 1985.

But onto this patchy landscape, ringed by Jamaica Bay’s splendor, an unlikely collection of interests has conspired to bring, of all things, a forest.

Starting in June and over the next four years, Brooklyn will host an experiment in landfill restoration, said John McLaughlin, director of ecological services for the city Department of Environmental Protection and the man behind the forest design.

The city will denude this acreage of its poor excuse for vegetation, cover the land with an environmentally approved plastic liner to cap the old landfills, then ship or truck in more than 1.3 million cubic yards of sandy soil.

The new soil – from a foot to 4 feet in depth – will provide the base for the forest.

McLaughlin’s design calls for 20 species of trees – 18,000 in all – 25 species of shrubs – up to 23,000 of ’em – and 30 species of grass and wildflowers across the two landfills.

All will be plants that grew on the coastline before European settlement.

In place of the landfill stench that used to waft over East New York, the aroma of hollies, birch, cedar, hickory, maple, oak and pine trees should fill the air.

There also will be trails for hiking and bicycling, picnic areas and perches for bird watching.

The price is expected to be $221 million.

McLaughlin, 40, was born in Astoria, Queens, and raised in Brooklyn. While other kids wanted to grow up to be Presidents or ballplayers, McLaughlin knew from the time he was about 10 or 11 that he would devote his life to horticulture.

“My aunt had a house on Long Island, and every summer I would go out there and plant a vegetable garden and do the shrubs and the trees,” he said. “I loved it.”

He has lived in Brooklyn since his family moved to Greenpoint when he was 2 years old. Today, he’s married and lives in Bay Ridge.

He said the East New York forest is by far the biggest project of its kind ever tackled in New York City.

“It’s a legacy to leave on to future generations,” McLaughlin said. “I’ll never get to see the final picture of what it’ll look like because it’ll take many, many years for the trees to grow to real appreciable size. But, if I could leave it on to my children or somebody else’s children to see, then that’s a wonderful thing.”

The forest, said Leander Shelley, a community leader who served on the citizens advisory committee that oversaw the restoration of the landfills, is a dream come true.

“I grew up here in East New York in the 1950s,” said Shelley, 57. “I remember the odor and the stench from the landfill, all the garbage being processed out there and dump.

“Now, people will be able to interact with nature here, in a setting like Central Park.”

The parties in this environmental reclamation are the residents who suffered because these landfills were their neighbor, the city DEP, the National Park Service, which owns much of the land as part of the Gateway National Recreation Area, and the state Department of Environmental Conservation.

DEP will be responsible for monitoring gas emissions and maintaining the closed landfills for up to 30 years.

A century ago, Brooklyn did not reach as far as the spot where the landfill is located, McLaughlin said. The city’s growth led to the filling in of salt marshes in the area, first for human use, then for waste disposal that began in the 1950s and 1960s.

“We’ll just set the table, then have nature do the rest,” McLaughlin said. “We can’t duplicate it 100%. If you put [in] the scaffolding of the primary species, then through nature on its own, dispersal of seeds from wind or migrating birds, other species that go with that community would also come in.”

The hollies and other plants will provide food and nesting places for mammals and other wildlife such as hawks, owls and migratory songbirds.

“If they plant a forest that is available for people to use, it would be a beautiful spot to hike and look over Jamaica Bay,” said Steven Clemants, vice president of science at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. “With the height of that landfill and the view, it would be gorgeous. There’d be an amenities value to people.”

Shelley can’t wait.

I’ll be the first one walking up there when it opens up, or try to be, anyway,” he vowed.

GRAPHIC: TARA ENGBERG John McLaughlin (l.), director of ecological services for the Department of Environmental Protection, and Geoffrey Ryan stand on what used to be a trash dump. TARA ENGBERG Bird’s-eye view of 400-acre landfill that was shut in 1985 and is being converted to forest.

December 3, 2000
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Hizzoner’s Relationship Not Private Affair by JIM DWYER

By Homepage, New York Daily NewsNo Comments

Sunday, May 07, 2000

Last fall, a Daily News reporter wondered why the mayor had vanished most summer weekends. For years, the mayor made public appearances on Saturdays or Sundays all summer long, so reporter Michael O. Allen asked the mayor’s press office about his schedule.

Because the answers were vague, Allen asked for the mayor’s public calendars.

File a freedom-of-information request, the reporter was told — a classic stalling tactic, but Allen sent in the paperwork.

A few weeks later, he got a call from the press office. Withdraw your official request, and we’ll tell you what you want to know.

Yes, the mayor had cut way back on his weekends.

How come? Speak to deputy mayor so-and-so, the press office told Allen, and he’ll give you what you need.

The deputy mayor said the mayor was taking more private time on weekends to be with his son.

“He’s also got a new love in his life,” the deputy mayor said. He gave a long, theatrical pause.

“It’s called golf.”

We now know the mayor has developed a very close relationship with a woman who is not his wife. He brought her to the party for the New York City Marathon and to be with him on New Year’s Eve in Times Square.

And he apparently stayed at the friend’s beach home in the Hamptons many weekends last summer.

Nothing here calls for Kenneth Starr and a grand jury investigation. While Bill Clinton lied about his involvement with Monica Lewinsky and confessed to being ashamed of himself, the mayor has all but boasted about his involvement with his friend Judi Nathan. She was posing for pictures all week.

Still, anyone who files Giuliani’s nonmarital relationship under the category “purely private” is hallucinating.

When three or four New York City Police detectives have the job of chauffeuring the mayor to liaisons in the Hamptons with his friend, the public life meets the private around the Douglaston exits of the Long Island Expressway. From the city line to Nathan’s condominium in Southampton, it is 75 miles.

“There’d be one or two city Town Cars in the parking lot all weekend,” said a Southampton neighbor of Nathan’s. “These big guys would be in the cars, with the motors running when you went to bed at night, and they’d be there in the morning. There were always at least two, sometimes three or four.”

Not so long ago, a New York City mayor got in trouble for sending city detectives to Long Island. In 1991, when David Dinkins dispatched two detectives to investigate a fire at the home of a friend, Giuliani clucked disapprovingly: “This poor guy gets into trouble every day.”

Last week, I asked the Police Department how much it cost the public to have the current mayor delivered by a police taxi service to his woman friend in Long Island. I wanted to know if helicopters had been used, hotels booked, food paid for, and if there had been any repayment by the mayor for these expenses.

“We never give out details of security,” Police Chief Thomas Fahey said Friday.

“Not details of security,” I said. “This is a request for costs.”

“Then you’ll be able to see which guy made the most overtime and figure out who spent the most time with him,” said Fahey.

“Give the cost information without the names,” I proposed.

“FOIL it,” he said.

“FOIL it” means file a freedom of information request. It would do no good, Fahey assured me, but I should file it anyway.

We argued some more, and then he said to put the questions in writing. I did. Late in the day, his office called back: “The chief wanted me to tell you that our statement is, ‘We’re not responding.'”

Later on, Fahey revised his official answer: “We don’t discuss security.” Of course, some of this is security, and some of it is a taxi service provided to the mayor.

Since the city has chosen to stonewall, we are free to analyze it ourselves. It is fair to say that the cost to the public of the mayor’s personal friendship was at least $200,000, much of that having to do with overtime and the need to dedicate so many detectives making $55,000 to $75,000 annually sitting in a Long Island parking lot.

Naturally, the mayor is entitled to protection, wherever he is. So are his wife and family, who continue to live in Gracie Mansion, the official residence supplied by the public. His wife and children also have police protection and chauffeurs, a reasonable precaution.

What about Judith Nathan? Asked by The News’ John Marzulli if she also receives police protection, Commissioner Howard Safir retorted: “It’s a nice day, isn’t it?”

Whatever the bright line between public and private life, Giuliani long ago declared that his temperament was a force that would shape the city.

And if he were a senator, he has even declared what the standard of public morality should be. In February, he called for the Ten Commandments to be posted in public school classrooms.

“The Ten Commandments is part of our tradition, it’s part of our history,” said Giuliani.

A few weeks later, the mayor and his “very good friend” Judith Nathan marched on St. Patrick’s Day, in a parade where gays are banned for practices seen by the Catholic Church as sinful as, say, adultery.

The wife who shares a public home with the mayor was not in that parade.

May 7, 2000
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‘AMADOU’S ARMY’ HAS NEW RECRUIT IN WINNIE MANDELA By MICHAEL O. ALLEN SUNDAY NEWS STAFF WRITER

By Homepage, New York Daily NewsNo Comments

nullSunday, December 19, 1999

The Rev. Al Sharpton’s efforts to recruit people for “Amadou’s Army” – a group of New Yorkers who will go to Albany for the Amadou Diallo murder trial – got an unexpected boost yesterday from Winnie Mandela.
Mandela, the South African anti-apartheid activist and former wife of Nelson Mandela, arrived at Sharpton’s Harlem headquarters unannounced to support the effort.
“It’s wonderful that, as we stand here and fight for a child from Africa, Amadou Diallo, the queen from Africa and everywhere else would make a surprise appearance,” Sharpton said.
“Amandla! Amandla!,” Mandela, her right fist up in the air, said, chanting the Zulu word for power and a rallying cry of the anti-apartheid movement.
“In South Africa, they used the police to carry out their racist laws, but out of that was born a progressive police movement,” Mandela said. “They did exactly what you are doing here.”
The gathering was for Sharpton’s weekly radio show, at the end of which about 200 people attending were asked to sign up to attend the trial at its new venue in Albany.
State appeals court judges stunned the city Thursday when they moved the trial to Albany from the Bronx, ruling that the four cops charged in the Feb. 4 killing of Diallo could not get a fair trial by jury in the Bronx.
Saikou Diallo, Amadou’s father, said his son’s rights would be diminished by the trial being moved to Albany and called for the federal government to take over the case.
Sharpton said the signup would mobilize the same multiracial group that protested in front of city Police Headquarters in lower Manhattan in the shooting’s aftermath.
“If the cops involved in the shooting think they’ve gotten away with something by having the case moved to Albany, they should check out Justin Volpe’s new address,” Sharpton said, calling for a rally Tuesday to urge prosecutors in the case to seek federal intervention.

December 19, 1999
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Art of controversy: New ‘Sensation’ sparks throngs of protesters By Michael O. Allen, Michael R. Blood and Dave Goldiner, DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS

By Homepage, New York Daily NewsNo Comments

nullSunday, October 3, 1999

NEW YORK — The controversial “Sensation” exhibit opened Saturday amid heated protests outside the Brooklyn Museum of Art — and a massive show of support from art lovers.
Nearly 1,000 mostly Catholic protesters prayed, clutched rosary beads and held signs denouncing the exhibit, which includes a portrait titled “The Holy Virgin Mary” decorated with elephant dung.
“Enough is enough; We draw the line here,” shouted Desiree Bernstein, a member of an evangelical church on Staten Island. “This is not art to me. This is an abomination.”
But block-long lines also snaked outside the museum as a near-record number of supporters waited to see the explosive show.
Museum officials opened the doors early to accommodate a massive crush of visitors — many of whom passionately defended the museum’s right to have the exhibit.
“I don’t feel it’s offensive at all,” said Julie Durkin, 21, a student at Parsons School of Design. “People just need to be open-minded.”
Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, who started the controversy over the show when he denounced it 10 days ago, was nowhere to be seen.
Aides said the mayor — who slashed city funding and plans to sue to evict the century-old museum — did not plan to comment on the opening.
He seemed like the only New Yorker keeping his lips sealed Saturday, as protesters of all stripes created a near-carnival atmosphere outside the stately museum on Eastern Parkway.
Conservative politicians blasted the exhibit as a “hate crime.” Catholic activists handed out anti-exhibit vomit bags, and a nun held a sign reading, “Defend your Holy Mother against this porno.”
They were joined in an unlikely alliance by animal rights activists, who object to several works in the exhibit that include dead animals.
“There’s a fundamental difference between free expression and art that causes harm to living beings,” said Adam Weissman of the Animal Defense League.
On the other side of the trenches in the budding cultural war, a potpourri of artists and First Amendment advocates also rallied behind a separate set of police barricades.
Gary Schwartz, executive director of the National Campaign for Freedom of Expression, handed out leaflets reading, “Hey, Rudy, I’m a taxpayer too.”
“The purpose of art is to challenge,” Schwartz said. “Whether it offends some people shouldn’t determine whether other people can see a painting.”
One artist dressed in a Grim Reaper costume to dramatize Giuliani’s supposed antipathy toward the arts. Others held signs of the mayor’s face splattered with dung.
Despite the tension, the protests were peaceful, with police reporting only a few shouting matches. One veteran anti-Giuliani protester, Robert Lederman, was arrested when he refused to stay behind the barricades, police said.
Police said there was a bomb threat at the building earlier.

SHOWING: Betsy Feliciano, above left, carries a picture of the Virgin Mary during a protest Saturday at the Brooklyn Museum of Art. Viewers, left, examine Chris Ofili’s “The Holy Virgin Mary” during opening day of the British exhibit.
MUSEUM SHOWING: John Dixon looks at “Angel” a silicone and acrylic sculpture by artist Ron Mueck during the opening day of the controversial British “Sensation” exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum of Art in New York on Saturday. New York City mayor Rudolph Giuliani opposes the show.null

October 3, 1999
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After 27 years, man retires from job as keeper of Lady Liberty’s flame By MICHAEL O. ALLEN

By Homepage, New York Daily NewsOne Comment

Sunday, September 26, 1999

Over the years, Charlie DeLeo figures, he must have climbed the iron girders through the upraised arm of the Statue of Liberty to the torch more than 2,500 times.

“I knew it was time to leave because my legs gave out,” he conceded one day last week.

Thursday was DeLeo’s final day on the job changing Lady Liberty’s 750 light bulbs, a job he did for more than 27 remarkable–and much-chronicled–years.

For the occasion, friends and co-workers held a long sendoff picnic for him. Perched on his head was an off-white baseball cap they gave him. Embroidered on it were the words “Keeper of the Flame.”

“I had butterflies in my stomach, because, you know, I’ve spend most of my life working at the Statue of Liberty,” he said of his last day on the job.

Reminiscing with his co-workers, DeLeo recalled that Americans had just walked on the moon for the first time and were still dying in Vietnam when he began his life’s work.

His love affair with the Statue of Liberty began when he was 9 years old. His fourth-grade class from Public School 42 on the lower East Side made a trip to the island in 1957.

He visited again in 1968. This time he was a Marine, bedecked in ribbons, including a Purple Heart for a shrapnel wound he got during a mortar attack on his unit in Vietnam.

DeLeo remembers muttering under his breath as he stood before Lady Liberty, “Man, I’d give my right arm to get up to that torch one time.”

“Little did I know God would hear my prayer, and that four years later I would become the keeper of the flame.”

On impulse, during a visit in January 1972, DeLeo, who was unemployed at the time, decided to ask for a job. Three months later, he started work.

Through the years, there have been countless stories in newspapers and on television about DeLeo and his work.

“Spencer Christian once interviewed me for ‘Good Morning America,’ and he said, ‘Charlie’s job is not for the fainthearted,’ They showed me doing my thing, and then he called me Spider-Man, and I am like Spider-Man,” DeLeo said.

Though DeLeo stands little more than 5-feet-5 and weighs not a wisp over 140 pounds, “pound for pound, I’m a crackerjack,” he said.

DeLeo has devoted so much of his life to his work, there were some things he never got around to. He never married, for instance.

“I certainly don’t worship the statue, but I talk to her,” he said. “Ever since my mother died of cancer in 1974, Lady Liberty has been like a mother figure to me.”

FLEET 2 (KRT122 Vert C, 5-20-98) A U.S. Navy helicopter from Light Helicopter Anti-Submarine Squadron 94 (HSL 94) flies by the Statue of Liberty Wednesday during the opening ceremonies of Fleet Week ’98 in New York City.

(c) 1999, New York Daily News.

September 26, 1999
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KEEPING IT IN THE FAMILY No One Likes To Think About Dying, But Estate Planning Is Your Most Important Financial Obligation By MICHAEL O. ALLEN

By Homepage, New York Daily NewsNo Comments

nullSunday, April 25, 1999

It wasn’t long ago that Gerald and Toby Sindler thought estate planning – setting up trusts so heirs are not hard hit by inheritance taxes – was something that only the wealthy needed to worry about.

“And we do not consider ourselves to be wealthy,” said Gerald, who owns Career Objectives, a Mt. Kisco, N.Y., personnel agency, with his wife.

But a brief course in financial planning opened their eyes.

“Even with modest assets, you’ll be surprised how quickly things mount up,” he said, “what with the house and life insurance, in addition to anything that we’ve managed to accumulate over the years.”

Gerald Sindler is now 59 years old. His wife is 56. The Westchester home they bought for $ 65,000 27 years ago, and now own outright, is now worth at least $ 450,000. And that’s just the beginning. So one day about a year ago they made an appointment with the Ettinger Law Firm, which specializes in trusts, estate and elder law.

What they found out shocked them.

“Our estate was in jeopardy not only from the government and the inequitable tax system, but if one or both of us became chronically ill, the absolute cost of long-term care would virtually eat up any finances we have,” Sindler said. In which case they could also forget about any inheritance they might want to pass on to their two grown children.

Today, with a will, revocable trusts that allow the couple to split their assets in equal halves (by law, each is allowed to protect up to $ 650,000 from inheritance tax), and a long-term health-care insurance policy, they are breathing a little easier.

The Sindlers are not alone.

A generation ago, planning your estate and writing a will was easily put off until much later in life. But changes in tax laws – and in the way Americans accumulate money and plan their retirement funds – have estate lawyers and financial advisers saying that everyone, no matter the size of their estate, should work out a financial plan and write a will.

A DREADED TASK

But estate planning is not something most people do easily.

Whether it is the misconception that they do not have enough assets to merit a proper will, or the too- common belief that they are invincible, many people put off dealing with it until “later.” Someone else will handle it, they say to themselves.

The main reason is fear. “This is always a hard conversation to have with clients because most people are not eager to talk about their own mortality,” said Betsy Dillard, an American Express financial adviser based in Manhattan.

“I feel obligated to have that discussion with my clients because wealth preservation is a critical element of financial planning,” she continued. “Think about it, you save and you save and you save throughout your life. Ultimately, it all comes down to who are you saving for.”

David Dorfman, a Manhattan estate lawyer, said one of the main advantages of estate planning is that it can help you stay out of probate court, or avoid costly guardianship hearings if the surviving spouse – or other heirs – should become seriously ill.

“If you don’t have a will, the court will appoint a public administrator to administer the estate and then the family will be paying unnecessary lawyer fees and other fees to strangers,” he said.

Most people want someone they love, or a charity or organization of their own choosing, to inherit that money, no matter how large or small the amount.

AFTER DEATH, TAXES

Another compelling reason to put your finances in order, according to Arden Down, Chase Manhattan Bank’s director of financial planning services, is the ravenous federal tax system, which imperils unprotected estates.

All a person’s assets at the time of death – cars, houses, jewelry, 401(k) and other retirement accounts, life insurance policies, savings and personal investment accounts – are counted as part of the gross estate and may be subject to taxes at a rate of 37% to 55%, regardless of the fact that taxes may have already been paid on many of these items, in one form or another.

“Isn’t that a dirty trick?” Down said. “If I’m aware of what’s going on from the other side of the grave, I’m now pissed off. I can’t take it with me, but I don’t like what’s happening to it either.”

The Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997 gradually increases the size of an estate that is exempt from federal estate taxes. This year’s limit is $ 650,000, and it is supposed to be raised to $ 1 million by the year 2006. The value of the estate above that amount at the time of a person’s death is subject to inheritance tax.

This has nothing to do with me, you say. I don’t have a million dollars to leave to my family, I don’t even have $ 650,000. Think again, says Michael Ettinger, head of the law firm the Sindlers are using. The strong economy is transforming households in the Northeast Corridor, especially those of the so-called baby boomers, and their attitude toward wealth preservation. And the effects of the long-running Wall Street bull market on the New York region, and in particular on real estate values, find even modest wage-earning homeowners with a net worth beyond $ 1 million.

And even those with assets well below the million-dollar mark need to think about their future, said Sandra Busell, a Nassau County estate attorney with clients in Brooklyn and Queens. An estate that consists of a house worth $ 200,000 and another $ 100,000 in various savings accounts needs estate planning too, she said.

A TAX-FREE GIFT

One of the ways to reduce the size of an estate – and any potential tax liability – is for both spouses to give each of their children an annual tax-free gift of up to $ 10,000.

The experts say it is better to act sooner, rather than later. Consult a financial adviser and a lawyer when drafting your estate plan – each has a valuable role to play.

Taking these steps was how Gerald Sindler and his wife discovered their financial house was not in order.

“Not only did we have to worry about some distant future time,” he said, “it brought it into the very real present for us.”

GRAPHIC: timothy cook illustration

April 25, 1999
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3 Who Died In ’94 SoHo Fire Remembered By MICHAEL O. ALLEN, Daily News Staff Writer

By Homepage, New York Daily NewsNo Comments

Sunday, April 11, 1999

As the skirl of bagpipes filled the air, scores of firefighters milled about a Manhattan church yesterday, reliving a tragic event the pain of which has not diminished five years later.

It has been a half-decade since three firefighters were killed in a March 28, 1994, fire on Watts St. in SoHo; Firefighter James Young died almost immediately after the blaze, and Firefighter Christopher Siedenburg died a day later.

Capt. John Drennan hung on 40 days before finally succumbing, his heroic battle to survive memorialized at a funeral at St. Patrick’s Cathedral.

Yesterday, the three members of Engine Co. 24 and Ladder Co. 5 were remembered at a Mass at St. Anthony’s of Padua Church, two blocks from their firehouse.

“These were great guys, and hopefully they’ll continue to be remembered,” said Capt. Pat Ruddick, who was a lieutenant under Drennan until he became a captain three days before the fire. “I know, for myself, that a day doesn’t go by that I don’t think about them. Even now.”

For the families, the years have not made their loss easier to take.

Eddie Young, 38, said he was gratified at all the people who came to pay their respects to his brother James and his fallen comrades.

“We miss him too much,” said Young, holding his 3-year-old son James. “I guess being here today makes you remember that he’s not here anymore.”

“I’m proud that we named him after my brother,” Young added. “My brother is a great man, and we’ll always have my son to remind us of him.”

Bob Drennan, 47, said he was consoled by the priest’s words that his brother was in Heaven.

As hard as it was for him to deal with losing his brother, he felt just as keenly the deaths of Siedenburg and Young, Drennan said.

“They were so young, just starting out, really,” he said.

His brother, he said, packed so much into his life it seemed he lived two and half lives.

As a reception began in the church basement after the Mass, scores of firefighters ran out to answer an emergency call.

“You can’t think about the tragedies,” Ruddick said. “If you go out with this constantly in your mind, it’s going to hinder your ability to work. We just come to work and do our job everyday.”

April 11, 1999
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QUICK CASH STRATEGIES Where to Go When You Need Money in a Hurry By MICHAEL O. ALLEN, Daily News Staff Writer

By Homepage, New York Daily NewsNo Comments

Sunday, April 11, 1999

The man sitting before Clifford Jones had come to him several times before, to bury loved ones. But this time, the man wanted a loan. He needed $ 2,800 to fix the transmission on the car he depended on to get to and from work.

“You know I’m good for it, too,” the man told James, a co-owner of Harlem’s Unity Funeral Chapel.

“How could you turn down someone who trusted you with their loved ones?” James asked. And so he not only arranged for the man to get the loan, but to pay it back over six months without interest.

This is a bit unusual, of course, and not something many people could arrange – but it demonstrates one of the many solutions that could help someone in a sudden financial bind that requires a quick infusion of cash.

Swallow your pride

Whatever is driving your money needs, it’s smart to recognize that no choice is easy, and all likely have both advantages and disadvantages. The range of options run from very good and advisable to pretty awful.

You could certainly seek out your funeral director or pastor, sell jewelry or a family heirloom, get a cash advance on your credit card, even borrow from your employer or against your retirement accounts. But it’s never wise to drop in on your neighborhood loan shark.

That person, said Erroll Louis, a business consultant who was co-founder and former manager of a Brooklyn credit union, is no longer the trench-coat clad thug with a broken nose.

She just might be the kindly old lady down the block who’ll give you the loan – but with not enough time to pay it off and at 150% interest – with friends to enforce the terms.

“The first thing to do is not jump off a cliff, or dig a deeper hole in order to get out of the one you are in,” Louis said. “The idea is to get creative quickly and realize the first option is not always the best.”

The only ways to raise cash quickly is either to borrow or sell something with hard cash value.

Louis said he advises those in need to swallow their pride and call a friend or family member. They might just have enough to spare for a while, or know someone who does, without the onerous conditions that other options come with.

But be aware that owing money to someone you know can quickly put a strain on that relationship. You should weigh that cost before making your request.

Sell your jewels, not your wheels

If a person has a family heirloom or valuable jewelry he or she is willing to part with, it could be sold to one of the many high-end jewelry resalers in New York City.

Paul Lubetsky, owner of Windsow Jewelers on Fifth Avenue, said furniture, clothing or electronics equipment probably won’t fetch much of a return because that type of merchandise has only about a 5% resale value.

You could sell your car, but you probably need it to get around, making jewelry a better option to get your hands on quick dough.

“For example, a Rolex watch that’s in good condition could be worth 40% to 50% of its retail value to us,” Lubetsky said. “If a piece is signed, like Cartier, Tiffany or Bulgari, we would purchase it at a large percentage above its intrinsic value because there is a high demand in the second-hand market.Also, anything that’s antique would go for a large amount above its intrinsic value, sometimes as much as 20 times.”

Another option is to go to a pawn broker, an industry that has been working overtime to clean up its image and, in recent years, has come under tighter state regulations.

Alan Wohlgemuth, manager of Century Pawnbrokers at 725 Eighth Ave., said state law bars his store from buying merchandise. He could only take the item people bring in as collateral for a loan, for which he can only charge 3%, plus a small monthly storage fee.

One advantage in this type of transaction is that there is usually no credit check.

“Usually you leave a diamond or some other jewelry and walk out of the store with the cash and ticket that is good for four months,” Wohlgemuth said.

Hidden costs of quick loans

“Borrower beware” should be the guiding principle of someone who wants to look into a home equity loan, refinancing or a second mortgage on a property, said Sarah Ludwig, executive director of the Neighborhood Economic Development Advocacy Project – which works with groups in neighborhoods underserved by the city’s largest financial institutions.

The problem with going to a commercial lender like the Money Store, or answering any of the mailings that tend to flood some communities, as she sees it, is that there are a lot of hidden fees that could drive up the cost of borrowing and make one’s financial situation even worse.

“What people don’t understand is that there are tons of fees upfront and during the life of the loan. If you are going to refinance to get a small loan, do your homework,” Ludwig said.

The cost of taking this step without being aware of the responsibilities is great, since a home is often the single greatest asset anyone has. Mess up and you could end up homeless and in greater debt than you started with.

One of the quickest ways to free up cash is to get an advance from your credit card, said Paul Quinn, a Chase Manhattan Bank senior vice president for personal credit services. The cash comes quickly, sometimes in just a few moments at an automated teller machine. But the interest rates can be sky-high. Also, something to keep in mind: credit card companies exist to keep you in debt.

“If it is a longer-term need, you need to think about an installment loan that you could take 12 to 60 months to pay back,” Quinn said.

And the annual interest rate on this transaction could range from 10.99%, if you already have an account with Chase and are willing to let the bank deduct the payment directly from your account, to 12.99% if you have good credit but no relationship with the bank.

Of course, many credit cards charge north of 20%, so know the terms before you’re obligating yourself to heavy duty interest payments.

Quinn said, however, that a credit union would offer rates on a personal loan that are very competitive with those of banks.

Some people might chose to borrow from a retirement account such as an IRA or 401(k) plan. There are some rules that must be met to qualify, but the one significant advantage is that the interest that you pay back on such a loan typically goes into your own account – meaning you’re paying the interest back to yourself.

“Those type of borrowings are excellent for someone looking to pay off a credit card debt,” Quinn said.

But such gambits scare Erroll Louis, the former credit union manager.

“To me, this is almost the same as selling off your future,” he said. “You may in fact be delaying your retirement by as long as five years.”

GRAPHIC: Christoph Hitz illustrations

April 11, 1999
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