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Now Call Interboro Jackie’s Basepath By MICHAEL O. ALLEN and JON R. SORENSEN, Daily News Staff Writers

By Homepage, New York Daily NewsNo Comments

Thursday, April 10, 1997

The Interboro Parkway, 5 twisting miles that often require major league reflexes from drivers, will be renamed for baseball Hall of Famer Jackie Robinson, officials said yesterday.

The change is expected to be made official by Monday — the eve of a Shea Stadium celebration marking the 50th anniversary of the day the Brooklyn Dodger great broke baseball’s color barrier.

New 6-by-8-foot signs will name the route Jackie Robinson Parkway.

“We want to do it in time for the game on Tuesday night, so that when people go to that game they can travel on the Jackie Robinson Parkway,” said Mayor Giuliani, who asked state lawmakers and Gov. Pataki to make the change.

“It’s appropriate that we are naming a parkway for him because Jackie Robinson paved the way for all of the African-American ballplayers that came after him,” said Giuliani.

Charles Cesaretti, executive vice president of the Jackie Robinson Foundation, called the renaming “a marvelous way . . . to not only remember Jackie Robinson the man, but also a man who contributed a great deal to the City of New York.”

Word of the renaming came as former Robinson teammate Don Newcombe said the Dodger great should have a national holiday named in his honor. “Why hasn’t the government honored him the way it should?” the former pitcher asked.

Robinson joined the Dodgers in 1947 and sparked Dodger teams that won six pennants and one World Series before he retired after the 1956 season.

The parkway being renamed in his honor winds from Jamaica Ave. in Brooklyn — a long fly ball from the site of the old Ebbets Field, where Robinson starred — to Kew Gardens in Queens, not far from Shea Stadium.

Fittingly, the tree-lined road that was first opened in 1935 even passes by Cypress Hills Cemetery in Queens, the site of Robinson’s grave.

Like Robinson, who was a terror on the basepaths to opposing teams, the Interboro has had a reputation as dangerous for drivers because of its narrow lanes and hairpin curves. A $43.1 million upgrade in 1989-91 widened the roadway, improved the dividers between lanes and installed other safety features.

“Jackie Robinson was baseball as far as my family was concerned,” said Assemblyman Jeffrion Aubry (D-Queens), co-sponsor with Sen. Serphin Maltese (R-Queens) of the Albany bill needed to approve the name change.

Original Story Date: 041097

April 10, 1997
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77th Pct. Is Champ on Crime: Felonies Take 40% Fall By JOHN MARZULLI, MICHAEL O. ALLEN, and ALICE McQUILLAN, Daily News Staff Writers

By Homepage, New York Daily NewsNo Comments

nullMonday, April 7, 1997

Once notorious for corrupt cops and bloodshed, Brooklyn’s 77th Precinct has a tough new reputation — tough on crime.

It leads the city with a 40% decrease in major felonies — nearly triple the city’s average decline of 15.5% for all five boroughs.

“This place is like a sponge, and we’re still wringing more crime out of it,” said Capt. Ronald Wasson, commander of the 77th.

This turnaround in Crown Heights is among the success stories found in the Police Department’s crime statistics for the first quarter of the year. Throughout the city, an assault on drug-related crimes is credited with the continual drop in crime, quarter after quarter.

It happened in the heart of Brooklyn North where the department a year ago mounted an intensive narcotics campaign intended to make streets safer and to reduce shootings.

A decade ago, 13 cops from the 77th Precinct were charged with ripping off drug dealers. Shootings were so common that one minister recalls the sound of gunfire interrupting his Sunday morning sermons.

Now the area has calmed, both inside and outside the Utica Ave. stationhouse. Instead of constant complaints about gunfire, Wasson said, people call to gripe about loud music.

He credits the change to a crackdown on quality-of-life crimes. His 10 plainclothes anti-crime officers — so effective that all were recently scooped up by the citywide street crime unit and dispatched to other hot spots — took 67 guns off the streets last year. Beat cops shut down more than 80 alleged storefront drug spots for simple administrative violations.

“It’s really the cops, they are doing some job,” Wasson said. “A guy stopped for urinating in the street was found to be carrying two guns. If you keep the pressure on, it really quiets things down.”

The Rev. Frederick Foy, pastor of the Mount Zion Baptist Church on Ralph Ave., has lived in the neighborhood for 38 years and says he feels safer seeing more cops on the streets and in patrol cars.

“I know at one time back in the ’70s there were some people who stopped coming to this church because their cars were burglarized during service,” Foy said. “I haven’t heard of a car being burglarized for quite some time now.”

Each of the five boroughs saw double-digit drops this period, but Brooklyn North led the way with a 21.3% nosedive. Inspector William Taylor of Brooklyn North credits the success to a laser-beam focus on drug trafficking, the engine of most crimes.

“People involved in narcotics either did the crime [or] they know who did it or have the ability to find out, and if they are asked the appropriate question and we have them under arrest, they are more inclined to be cooperative,” he said.

Expanding into upper Manhattan and parts of the Bronx, the anti-drug push has driven down crime across the city, officials said.

Fourteen precincts have yet to log a slaying this year — and nine haven’t recorded a single shooting. Gunfire cases fell by almost 30% throughout the city and, at this rate, New York this year will record the fewest slayings and robberies in a generation.

There were also impressive drops in fatal shootings on the street and in lobbies or hallways — the most common places for strangers to attack. These plummeted by 53%, from 113 in the first quarter of 1996 to 53 during the same period this year.

Still, crime rose in some areas: Rockaway, 9%; Bayside, 3%, and Forest Hills, 3%, in Queens; the lower East Side, .3%; Central Park, 3%, and Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, 5%.

Car thefts dropped by 20.4% citywide, leading the seven major felonies in declines.

But Queens remains the migraine for auto crime cops. Eight of the worst 10 precincts in the city for car thefts were in Queens, topped by a surprise No. 1 — the leafy streets of Forest Hills.

The 112th Precinct in Forest Hills led the city with 486 cars stolen, yet officers there haven’t made a single arrest for auto theft so far this year.

“The 112 is like the bank — that’s where the cars are,” said Capt. Daniel Carlin, head of the department’s auto crime division.

April 7, 1997
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Yearbook Protest Planned by Advocates By MICHAEL O. ALLEN and DON SINGLETON, Daily News Staff Writers

By Homepage, New York Daily NewsNo Comments

Sunday, April 6, 1997

Civil rights advocates yesterday announced a protest rally over Police Department efforts to get high school yearbooks for use in identifying potential crime suspects.

Accompanied by parents and students, New York Civil Liberties Union officials said protesters will rally outside Police headquarters in lower Manhattan on April 27, then march to City Hall.

“Our phones have been ringing, and people have been stopping me in the street and saying, ‘We’re with you on this one, Civil Liberties,’ ” said Norman Siegel, the executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union.

The protest was sparked by the Daily News’ disclosure that police bosses ordered detectives around the city to obtain copies of all high school yearbooks in their precincts.

Cops said they want the yearbooks because the photos in some cases could help identify suspects.

But the request drew criticism from parents, students and some public officials. Schools Chancellor Rudy Crew said the high schools won’t routinely hand over the yearbooks.

Instead, they will consider police requests on a case-by-case basis, Crew said.

Mayor Giuliani yesterday repeated his call for Crew and Police Commissioner Howard Safir to resolve their disagreement over the issue.

“I think that the best solution to this is that they try to work it out,” Giuliani said at a Little League baseball game in Brooklyn.

“There are legitimate interests and concerns on both sides.”

April 6, 1997
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Big Apple’s Falling For Millenni-Mania By MICHAEL O. ALLEN and DAVID L. LEWIS, Daily News Staff Writers

By Homepage, New York Daily NewsNo Comments

nullSaturday, April 5, 1997

New York is getting ready to stage a millennium party for the ages.

We’re talking about a year-long celebration that’s intended to blow away competition from other cities vying to be ground zero for the millennium.

The big show will kick off with a Times Square New Year’s Eve bash unlike any other. The teeming throngs will be able to watch jumbo television screens showing a 24-hour live broadcast of scenes from each of the world’s 24 time zones.

At the Jacob Javits Convention Center, a small gathering of 40,000 people is planned, with music, performers, a gourmet dinner and, of course, fireworks over the Hudson River.

“This is the beginning of what I think will be one of the great, great New York celebrations as we lead up to the year 2000,” the city’s chief cheerleader, Mayor Giuliani, said yesterday. “It’s an opportunity for us to show off what has become really . . . the central part of the world.”

Seeking to draw more tourists than ever before, organizers will kick off a 1,000-day countdown to the millennium tomorrow in Times Square with musicians from more than 50 college and high school marching bands.

The countdown will lead to a year-long celebration that will begin when the ball drops at midnight Dec. 31, 1999, and end at midnight one year later.

A high point will be July 4 celebrations in the year 2000, featuring Op Sail 2000, billed as the world’s largest parade of tall ships, representing 50 countries and stretching for 10 miles.

The Javits party will take place on four stages, a total of 2 million square feet of dance floor with the hottest talents of the day entertaining the audience, said Steve Leber, chairman of the event, Celebration 2000.

The party will launch a week-long show of collectibles — everything from rare stamps to comic books, Leber said.

Officials could not say how much the festivities would cost or who would pay for them. But Giuliani guaranteed that returns to the city “conservatively will be 10, 15, 20 times the cost of it, probably a lot more than that.”

Giuliani yesterday named the New York City Convention and Visitors Bureau as the official Millennium Committee, to prepare and market the city as the world’s most sought-after destination to ring in the next thousand years.

The bureau has set up shop on the Internet (http://www.nycvisit.com) to receive applications for its millennium logo contest, which will select a design to promote events through the year 2001.

It also has set up the Millennium Club, in which — for a $20 fee — members will get the inside track on news and planning for millennium-related events.

Giuliani was asked if he had any fear the hoopla could bring more people to the city than it can hold.

“We’ll test the outer limits of it,” he said. “We’ll see how much New York City can take.”

Highlights of the Millennium Celebration

1,000-Day Countdown — The clock starts ticking at noon tomorrow with a Times Square performance of the Millennium Marching Band, 1,000 high school and college musicians. The 30-minute ceremony will feature Mayor Giuliani conducting “Stars and Stripes Forever.”

Times Square 2000 — Starting at 7 a.m. on Dec. 31, 1999, giant television screens in Times Square will begin a 24-hour live broadcast of people and cultures from each of the world’s 24 times zones.

The Millennium Ball Drop — The traditional New Year’s Eve countdown in Times Square will take place Dec. 31, 1999, with special hoopla that’s still being planned.

Celebration 2000 — A New Year’s Eve extravaganza for 40,000 people at the Javits Convention Center, complete with music, performers, a gourmet dinner and fireworks over the Hudson River.

Op Sail 2000 — Billed as the world’s largest parade of tall ships — representing 50 nations and stretching for 10 miles — will fill New York Harbor from July 3 to 9, 2000. President Clinton will be on hand for the July 4 celebration.

April 5, 1997
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Rudy Tarnishes Golden Parachute By MICHAEL O. ALLEN, Daily News Staff Writer

By Homepage, New York Daily NewsNo Comments

Saturday, April 5, 1997

Mayor Giuliani yesterday moved to limit the golden parachutes that enable top aides to bail out of government with hefty payouts — but he didn’t cut the cord entirely.

In an executive order, Giuliani amended a regulation that enabled top city officials to accumulate 228 days of unused sick leave and vacation time — and cash in that time when they leave office.

The crackdown came one month after the Daily News disclosed that Giuliani failed to limit the lucrative payouts even though he pledged reforms three years ago.

Under the April 1 executive order, top appointees will be allowed to accumulate vacation time amounting to no more than a half year’s pay.

Deputy Mayor Randy Mastro said the administration should get credit for cutting back on a practice that has cost thousands of dollars. For example, First Deputy Mayor Peter Powers left government with $14,627 in accumulated leave after 21/2 years in office, The News reported last month.

“It’s appropriate to have these kinds of restrictions,” Mastro said of the cutback.

Asked why Giuliani continued to let top aides cash out with a half year of unused vacation pay — which in some cases could total nearly $70,000 — Mastro said, “You have to work a number of years to accumulate” that much leave time.

The change took effect Tuesday and won’t apply to appointees who recently stepped down, including Deputy Mayor Fran Reiter and welfare adviser Richard Schwartz.

Original Story Date: 040597

April 5, 1997
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Rudy: McCall Playing Politics By MICHAEL O. ALLEN, Daily News Staff Writer

By Homepage, New York Daily NewsNo Comments

Sunday, March 30, 1997

Mayor Giuliani snapped off a defiant reply to state Controller Carl McCall’s complaint that the city improperly blocked two state auditors from checking on city agencies: See you in court.

Stepping up a long-running political feud, Giuliani accused McCall of misusing the controller’s office by flooding city agencies with performance audits that far exceed McCall’s authority.

Giuliani vowed to fight a promised McCall legal challenge over the decision to stop the state auditors from analyzing records at city health and social services offices on Friday.

“We are happy to meet him in court,” Giuliani said, citing a 1977 state court ruling that he said restricts McCall’s office to financial audits. “The fact is he has no right under the Constitution of the state to do performance audits of the city.”

The Republican mayor, who is seeking reelection in November, charged that the Democratic controller had launched numerous audits in a bid to cost him votes at the polls.

“This isn’t looking at the books, the accounts and the records of the city,” Giuliani said. “These are audits to create negative, political audits that he’ll release in August, September and October.”

McCall fired back, insisting that his office was fulfilling its oversight role by auditing delivery of city services.

“The mayor has yet to deal with the substance of any audit,” said McCall. “He has not identified any particular audit that was inaccurate, or incomplete. All we get is the response that it’s political. And I say, ‘Where is the evidence?’ ”

McCall said his office would seek court subpoenas to get city records needed to complete the audits. The audits focus on the city’s screening of welfare applicants and handling of requests for birth and death certificates.

While gearing up for reelection, Giuliani has touted his success in shrinking the welfare rolls and speeding response to requests for copies of birth certificates.

He vowed to block McCall from conducting any further audits at least until after this year’s mayoral election.

“If he wants to subpoena records for these broad-based performance audits, we are happy to test our legal position in court,” Giuliani said.

Original Story Date: 033097

March 30, 1997
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29 Job Agencies Cited as Slackers By MICHAEL O. ALLEN, Daily News Staff Writer

By Homepage, New York Daily NewsNo Comments

nullThursday, March 27, 1997

Job-seeking New Yorkers are being ripped off by unscrupulous employment agencies that charge illegal fees, refuse to give refunds and violate other regulations, a new city investigation shows.

Six consumer investigators who went undercover and applied for jobs through 29 employment agencies this month uncovered violations of city rules at all but three of the firms.

In all, the investigators found 51 violations — like those that confronted Deirdre Archibald, a Brooklyn mother of two who said she got a runaround when she sought a job through a Queens employment agency in 1995. The investigation found:

Six of the 29 firms operated without required city licenses.

Nine companies illegally charged fees as high as $100 before placing the applicants in jobs. Fees may be charged only after placement.

Ten of the firms failed to post required signs indicating their license numbers, fee schedule and where dissatisfied clients can file complaints.

City consumer investigators padlocked two other Manhattan agencies — J & U Employment Agency and 8 Chatham Square Employment Agency — for continuing to operate without a license after being cited by investigators last year.

“It is really unconscionable and a disgrace that employment agencies throughout the city are luring the public in with false hopes of jobs and ripping them off,” said Consumer Affairs Commissioner Jose Maldonado.

If found guilty, the companies could face fines totaling $37,100.

Archibald, a Grenadian immigrant, said she found out about unscrupulous practices she went to the City Wide Employment Agency in Queens to seek a secretarial position. Her resume outlined her work experience in Grenada and New York.

Archibald said the company charged her $100 up front — then failed to deliver and gave her the runaround when she demanded a refund.

“I was very angry. It was very stressful,” said Archibald. “They gave me a lot of petty excuses.”

Archibald said she demanded her money back after months of constant calls to the firm produced just one job interview — and she did not get that position.

“When I went back for the refund, it was such a hassle,” Archibald said. “Every time I went there, somebody had a backache and couldn’t look through the books right now.”

She filed a complaint with the Department of Consumer Affairs in August. The complaint produced an $80 refund in December. The refund helped the firm avoid being cited for a consumer violation.

The owner of City Wide Employment Agency denied Archibald’s allegations. The woman, who declined to give her name, said Archibald missed several appointments to settle her refund application. One refund check even was reissued because it expired, the woman said.

“This license is my life, my bread and butter,” she said. “Whatever we do, we have to do honestly. It is my life.”

March 27, 1997
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City Council Holding Rent Line By MICHAEL O. ALLEN, Daily News Staff Writer

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nullWednesday, March 26, 1997

The City Council yesterday endured glares, chants and boos, but ultimately got cheers from tenants as it overwhelmingly approved largely symbolic action to continue laws that restrict rent hikes.

The 47-to-3 vote, which sets the stage for Mayor Giuliani to sign the bill before an April 1 reauthorization deadline, also makes it tougher for landlords to impose large rent hikes on luxury units that become vacant.
The decision came before a boisterous, heavily pro-tenant crowd of about 300 that packed the City Council hearing gallery and spilled over to the City Hall Public Hearing Room, where they heard the Council proceedings over speakers.

But the decision could be rendered essentially meaningless by the state Senate where Majority Leader Joe Bruno (R-Rensselaer) has vowed to let the rent protections expire June 15 unless state lawmakers agree to a two-year phaseout of the half-century-old rent protection system.

City Council Speaker Peter Vallone (D-Queens) cited that threat after the vote. “We have sent about as clear and convincing a message as we could to the majority leader of the Senate,” he said.

March 26, 1997
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City Set to Boot Latino Center By MICHAEL O. ALLEN, Daily News Staff Writer

By Homepage, New York Daily NewsNo Comments

nullMonday, March 24, 1997

The city plans to pull the plug this week on a Latino cultural center when it auctions off the former lower East Side school the group has restored and called home for the past 18 years.

Charas/El Bohio Community and Cultural Center will have to find a new home after Thursday, the day the city plans to sell the group’s 605 E. Ninth St. headquarters for as much as $1.5 million.

The Giuliani administration says the group is being shown the door simply because they are not “good citizens.”

Deputy Mayor Randy Mastro said El Bohio doesn’t pay its rent on time and has failed to present credible plans to purchase the building itself. Mastro also said the group had allowed members of the notorious Latin Kings gang to use the place for meetings.

The center, with a $200,000 annual budget, funds after-school programs in music, theater and computers.

It sponsors community conferences and discussions for youngsters, low income residents and immigrants with grants from organizations like the New York Foundation for the Arts, the City Department of Cultural Affairs, the National Endowment for the Arts, United Way, NYNEX and individual contributions.

The group has garnered support from artists and politicians, including Rep. Nydia Velazquez (D-Westchester), Manhattan Borough President Ruth Messinger, Councilwoman Kathryn Freed (D-Manhattan) and State Sen. Martin Connor (D-Brooklyn).

“If the mayor wants to pick a fight with me, I’m ready for that,” Messinger said. “But he should not pick a fight with the young people of the lower East Side.”

Though they admit a problem with late rent payments, the center’s co-founders, Armando Perez and Carlos Garcia, said the administration’s efforts to take the building is based on politics and the center’s support among Democrats.

Perez and Garcia also admit that they have had Latin King members in the center but only as part of their attempts to reach out to struggling Latino youth.

When the group first moved into the old Public School 64, it was flooded, everything of value had been stripped and the roof had caved in, according to the founders.

“This building would have been torn down a long time ago if it were not for us,” Perez said.

One of three plans El Bohio put forward is to buy the building for $1 and turn it into a combination community center and low income housing development, which would need a city tax abatement and a zoning change.

Mastro ridiculed that idea.

“They offered $1 for more than a million dollar property,” he said. “That’s not a good faith plan.”

March 24, 1997
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AFFIRMATIVE INACTION City Work Scarce, Say Minority Firms By MICHAEL O. ALLEN

By Homepage, New York Daily NewsNo Comments

nullSunday, March 23, 1997

Many female and minority contractors say they are doing far less business with the city since Mayor Giuliani overhauled an affirmative-action program created to boost their chance of getting contracts.

Twenty of 30 minority and female-owned firms surveyed by the Daily News sharply criticized the 1994 policy shift, saying it has hurt their ability to grow and compete with larger and more established companies. Two others praised the new program and eight had no opinion.

“I just don’t see anybody there reaching out to really help me,” said Lina Gottesman, owner of a metal-refinishing company that has won only one city contract, for $ 5,000, in three years.

The News conducted the survey to assess the overhaul in the absence of hard data showing the number and percentage of contracts awarded to minority and female-owned companies.

City officials provided incomplete statistics despite a year of requests under the state Freedom of Information Law.

Many contractors, however, said the results were clear.

Teresa Johnson said that under a 1992 program for business headed by women and minorities, the city routinely contacted her Manhattan software company.

“I saw my business with the city increase significantly,” said Johnson, 44, who founded her firm in 1988.

Since the policy change, said Johnson, no one calls, and she no longer does business with the city.

Mayor David Dinkins began the 1992 program to reverse alleged discrimination in city procurement. He cited a study that found businesses owned by women and minorities won 8% of $ 3 billion in contracts in 1989, although they represented 25% of bidders.

His program enabled female and minority-owned businesses to win contracts even if their bids were 10% higher than the lowest offers.

Giuliani scrapped the race-based remedy as counter to his goal of “one city, one standard.” A court later ruled the price break illegal.

He also deemphasized a directive that had urged agencies to award 20% of their contracts to minority and female-run firms.

In ordering the overhaul, Giuliani launched a plan he said would help all fledgling firms. He said that because most female and minority-owned businesses are small, they would be aided without penalizing other companies.

Since the switch, officials have said the city is helping more minority and female-owned firms than ever. “I’m proud to say that every year since I’ve been here, that program has grown,” Business Services Commissioner Rudy Washington said when he was named deputy mayor in April.

But The News found:

The city has not compiled an annual tally of the number and value of contracts awarded to minority and female-owned firms since mid-1994.

Washington agreed that a tally is the best way to gauge the program’s success but said, “data gathering is just not a priority right now.”

With many agencies no longer reporting how many minorities and women receive awards, the city has no way of knowing if the goal of awarding 20% of contracts to minority and female-owned firms is being met.

Although the city still invites firms to register as minority or female-owned, Washington could not cite any benefit firms get by doing so. “Good question,” he said.

Most of the minority and female executives surveyed by The News said city agencies seem to feel no pressure to alert them about contracts.

“When you don’t have a goal program . . . encouraging city agencies to meet those goals, you can’t have the same type of results,” said John Robinson, president of the National Minority Business Council.

Many contractors knocked a new Bid-Match program, under which agencies are supposed to notify small firms of contracts worth up to $ 25,000.

“I built six McDonald’s . . . in this city. Each one cost me $ 600,000, so what can you do with $ 25,000? Nothing,” said developer Lee Dunham.

Two firms said they have thrived. Carlos Errico not only won contracts to paint police, fire and sanitation vehicles, but the city put him in touch with a bank that financed the expansion of his Queens shop.

More typical, however, was the view of insurance agent Sam Dunston, head of the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce minority and women development committee.

“Some minorities may be getting business, but I don’t know any of them,” he said.

GRAPHIC: MISHA ERWITT DAILY NEWS CONTRACTS: Teresa Johnson, who runs software firm, has seen business with city fall off.

March 23, 1997
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