TranspareNYC Seeks Community Panelists

Do you want to get involved in the NYC budget process? TranspareNYC is looking for community panelists to help decide where $1 million in community grants will go. Last year, $907,798 was awarded to 167 organizations, including 36 new programs. The Manhattan Borough President’s office is specifically looking for people who display knowledge in Senior Services, Education, Urban Health Initiatives, Re-entry and Correctional Systems, and Parks and Recreation. Those interested can visit TranspareNYC.org, and the recruitment drive for prospective panelists ends on March 29th. Questions about the program can be directed to Linda Felstein at (212) 669-4814 or LFelstein@manhattanbp.org.

NextAct Spring Events

NextAct has scheduled two lectures on film for this spring. The first is on Thursday, March 14th, and is on Politics and the Movies by film critic Bilge Iberi. The second is on Thursday, April 18th, and is on The Life and Times of Alfred Hitchcock by film historian Max Alvarez. Both events will take place from 6 – 7:30 p.m. at the UJA-Federation of New York. The cost is $20 in advance, $25 at the door. For information and registration, contact Sarah Tornay at 212-273-5304 or stornay@jasa.org.

Success of the WSSA Food Bag Program

The Westside Senior Supported Agriculture Food Bag Program launched on August 23, 2012, and has been deemed a success. The main goal behind the program was to make it easier and cheaper for seniors to attain fresh produce, as it can become difficult for them to walk to their local farmers markets. The program matched local farmers with local seniors through GrowNYC, and provided a bag of fresh local produce bi-weekly for just 8 dollars. The first season ended last November, but a season two is already being planned for this fall, with hopes to expand to other neighborhoods besides the Upper West Side.

Makeover for UWS Dog Run

The Bull Moose Dog Run, located inside of the Theodore Roosevelt Park, is in talks of a makeover with a very high price tag, DNAinfo.com reports. The half a million-dollar upgrade would bring new turf, fencing, lighting, sound barriers, and a water playground. The most expensive aspect of the proposal is K9Grass, which would simplify waste pick-up and bring comfort to dog paws, at a cost of $250,000. Based on the opinions of the members of Community Board 7, the majority of the cost is going to need to be covered by private.

MOUNT SINAI AND CONTINUUM HEALTH PARTNERS TO MERGE

The Board of Trustees from The Mount Sinai Medical Center and Continuum Health Partners voted to approve a memorandum of understanding for a possible merger. The MOU outlines steps toward creating a new integrated health care system that combines operations of two entities.

“Our goal as an integrated health care system is to provide exceptional medical care to New Yorkers,” said Kenneth L. Davis, MD, President and Chief Executive Officer of The Mount Sinai Medical Center. “The combination will create more economies of scale, increase efficiencies, and expand access to advanced primary and specialty care throughout this citywide network.”

Stanley Brezenoff, President and Chief Executive Officer of Continuum, said, “This collaboration makes available an extraordinary range of resources for the provision of compassionate, state-of-the-art care for patients. In joining with Mount Sinai, we will further enhance our ability to provide the full spectrum of outstanding care to the populations we serve.”

 Do you want to get involved in the NYC budget process? TranspareNYC is looking for community panelists to help decide where 1 million dollars in community grants will go. Last year, $907,798 was awarded to 167 organizations, including 36 new programs. The Manhattan Borough President’s office is specifically looking for people who display knowledge in Senior Services, Education, Urban Health Initiatives,

Re-entry and Correctional Systems, and Parks and Recreation. Those interested can visit TranspareNYC.org, and the recruitment drive for prospective panelists ends on March 29th. Questions about the program can be directed to Linda Felstein at (212) 669-4814 or LFelstein@manhattanbp.org.

New York-Presbyterian Cancer Study

The American Cancer society is soon to begin its Cancer Prevention Study-3, which will help researchers better understand the factors that cause or prevent cancer. These studies have confirmed the link between cigarette smoking and lung cancer, and also the impact of air pollution on the heart and lungs. For residents of East Midtown that would like to get involved, New York-Presbyterian is available as a local registration site.

Dumpling Rally

Sen. Daniel Squadron joins a group of hungry participants for last weekend’s Dumpling Rally in Chinatown. On Saturday, March 2, dozens of locals came out to the start of the food run at the Chinatown Ice Cream Factory at 65 Bayard Street and traveled through the neighborhood visiting various dumpling houses.

Senator Squadron worked with Rally Downtown to plan the event, which aimed to bring visitors and attention to Chinatown’s small businesses that are still recovering from Hurricane Sandy.

]]> http://nypress.com/neighborhood-chatter-42/feed/ 0 http://nypress.com/at-a-standstill/ http://nypress.com/at-a-standstill/#comments Thu, 25 Oct 2012 16:02:06 +0000 Megan Finnegan Bungeroth http://nypress.com/?p=58178 BUDGET CUTS HAVE BROUGHT NEW YORK’S courts TO A CRAWL

The New York civil court system is supposed to serve as an integral resource for residents seeking access to justice. But a slew of recent cuts, combined with an influx of cases in some courts, has significantly slowed the wheels of justice in the city, and attorneys, advocates, judges and court staff say that it’s a serious problem.

The root of the problem is that New York state’s courts have been tasked with doing more with less—$170 million less. While that impact has been spread around the state, many courts in New York City have seen dramatic effects.

At the end of last year, the New York City Lawyers’ Association (NYCLA) commissioned a report (see sidebar), conducted by its task force on judicial budget buts, to find out the impact of the 2011-2012 fiscal year cuts. They surveyed 759 people, including private practice attorneys, court system employees, government attorneys and judges. Over 80 percent of respondents reported that they strongly agreed or agreed that the court’s efficiency has been compromised and that the budget cuts have had a negative effect of the administration of justice.

The cuts include offering early retirement packages and putting a freeze on hiring new employees, in addition to layoffs. Interpreters are harder to find, and security has been reduced. The courts have also practically eliminated overtime, and in perhaps the biggest and most consequential change, implemented shorter hours, closing the courts at 4:30 p.m. instead of 5:00 p.m.

“It was a drastic budget cut that had not happened before. The court budget had not been slashed in decades,” said David Bookstaver, communications director for the New York state court system. “We are good partners in government. We realize our budget was cut because of the incredibly difficult fiscal times that the state was going through at the time.”

The cuts come as a direct result of a dire budget situation for the entire state. Although the state court system, as a third and separate branch ofgovernment, doesn’t submit its budget in the same way that state agencies do, it is not immune to the fiscal crisis that has hit every state-funded entity in the past year.

Bookstaver said that the chief administrative judge, A. Gail Prudenti, who supervises the administration and operation of the state’s trial courts, did not take the cuts she imposed lightly.

“We have not had to lay off anyone in the court system in almost two decades, and we had to lay off over 400 employees,” Bookstaver said. “The chief judge felt that the court’s mission was to not close courthouse doors, as other states were forced to do.”

Slashing services and staff across the board was the better alternative to closing courts for a full day every week, Bookstaver said, but acknowledged that that extra half an hour lost every day isn’t just two and a half hours a week. The reduction in overtime allowances means that if a witness in a trial is ready to testify at 4 p.m., a judge might push the testimony to the next day, instead of risking running past 4:30 p.m. In the past, judges would routinely stay until 5:30 or 6 p.m. in order to finish out a motion or hearing, so the real time lost is much more substantial than a scant 30 minutes.

“You will start a hearing and continue it weeks later,” said Stewart Aaron, the president of NYCLA. “There are these long delays in getting resolutions with matters that are important to the litigants, leaving people and issues in complete limbo. Obviously that’s not the way to administer justice.”

Some attorneys say that the cuts disproportionately affect those who should be getting the most help to navigate the system
“We saw an almost immediate impact on the court, because there were both layoffs and earlier closures. The shortened hours definitely are a hardship in civil court,” said Dora Galacatos, senior counsel to the Feerick Center for Social Justice at Fordham Law School and a volunteer with the Civil Legal Advice and Resource Office, which helps low-income New Yorkers being sued for debt collection. Galacatos said that the court heard over 134,000 debt collection cases in 2011 alone, and that the defendants in these cases often have a difficult time getting through the process.

“Many of them are economically distressed and working poor people, so shortened hours mean less flexibility in getting to the court,” Galacatos said. Other services designed to help working people, like free childcare programs, have been cut, forcing parents to drag small children through a day in court. Small claims court used to stay open several nights each week to accommodate people who work during the day, and is now only open on one night.

The cuts have a ripple effect on litigants and the system as a whole. If someone is supposed to be in court at 3:45 p.m., they might take off work and head down to the courthouse with time to spare, only to be met with a longer-than-normal line to get through security and into the doors, due to reduced staff. Earlier closing times with less wiggle room means people are more likely to miss their times altogether, further burdening the court calendar.

In housing court, which is a specialized court that only exists in New York City, the urgent problems people come to address—tenants not receiving crucial services or landlords not receiving rent—are often stretched out and resolved in a matter of months instead of weeks.

“Let’s say you have a landlord/tenant proceeding, a simple, easy case,” said Glenn Spiegel, a real estate and housing attorney and partner with the Newman Ferrara law firm. “The landlord starts a case against a tenant because the tenant didn’t pay their rent. How long is it going to take the landlord to get their apartment back? The landlord isn’t a corporate landlord, it’s an individual, relying on those rents to pay the mortgage debt. How much longer does it take the landlord to evict that tenant that’s not paying?”

In his experience, it’s now taking two or three months for these kinds of cases, Spiegel said—and that’s if everything is perfectly by the book with no mistakes in the paperwork. If something has to be resubmitted, that can double the amount of time, he said.

Spiegel said that these types of delays could also have greater ramifications for all renters in general in the city. Landlords, knowing that if a tenant doesn’t pay up they won’t have a quick recourse to get them out, could become more skittish in choosing renters and raise their required income threshold, locking lower and middle income residents out.
It’s costing everyone more money to drag out cases, whether in legal fees or time spent away from work.

“It’s already expensive enough to be involved in litigation. If you have to sue somebody, you’re talking about a private case,” Spiegel said, adding that he doesn’t like having to explain to his clients why a proceeding that should take a lot less time and cost them less is suddenly going on for much longer.

Family court litigants are suffering as well. Briana Denney practices matrimonial and family law through her firm Newman & Denney, and said that she’s unfortunately grown accustomed to incredibly lengthy cases over the past year.

“Families are really in crisis by the time they go to the court system, and most people have an expectation that it’s going to be dealt with expeditiously,” Denney said. “The cutbacks have really impacted how much time judges have to deal with people. Unless it’s the worst of the worst, like serious abuse, things are getting pushed out for months or even years.”

Denney recalled a custody case where a divorced mother moved out of state with her child, legally, and when the father sought to change the custody arrangement and get the child back, the judge sided with him—three years later.

“It’s a strain financially, and it’s a huge emotional strain,” Denney said. “When the issues are dealing with kids and visitation and custody, everything is in flux and it’s really stressful for [kids] too.”

Some involved with the courts say that the slowdown can’t be attributed to budget cuts alone, however. Louise Seeley is the executive director of Housing Court Answers, an independent group with a contract from the city to set up information tables inside housing court buildings, in order to assist pro se litigants—both tenants and landlords—who appear for housing cases and need help to understand the process and their rights.

“It’s hard to tell how much of it is the cutbacks or the economy, because filings are up,” Seeley said about the backlog in housing court. She said that some days there is standing room only at the clerk’s office. “With the economy, more people are falling behind on their rent. It’s a combination of less people being able to staff windows combined with increased filings.”

Another aspect of the economy that still haunts the courts is the foreclosure crisis. State Sen. Liz Krueger said that she’s heard from many judges how backlogged the civil court system has become across the state because of the avalanche of foreclosure cases that have inundated the courts.

“There still is an enormous problem with cases coming before the courts with whoever is doing the foreclosure does not have the correct paperwork and doesn’t have the facts, and the judge has to put a delay in the case and call them back,” Krueger said. “It’s a continuing saga of an enormous waste of court resources as well as pain to the people who are at risk of losing their homes.”

Krueger said that she’s supported increasing filing fees in certain cases in order to help alleviate some of the courts’ budget constraints, enabling them to hire more clerical staff and get everything running faster, but that none of the state bar associations have supported this kind of measure.

“If the banks created this problem, I think the banks should have an obligation through increased filing costs for going to court, to pay for the increased burden on our courts to ensure that justice is done correctly,” Krueger said of the foreclosure cases.

The Office of Court Administration is gearing up for another budget season and preparing to present next year’s fiscal budget proposal this December. While no one believes that the cuts will be fully restored, there is hope that enough outrage will bring back some of programs and staff.

“The civil court is the people’s court. It used to be the jewel of the judicial branch,” said Spiegel. “There has to be a better solution than limiting access to the courts.”

If you’re worried about how to afford summer camp,
here are some cost-saving steps to consider

Summer camp is a wonderful opportunity for children to learn life lessons like leadership, independence and self-confidence, as well as trying new activities like sailing, ropes course and waterskiing. It’s hard to put a price tag on your child’s learning and growth experiences, but parents should know that with a little planning and research there are a number of ways-some perhaps obvious, some less so-to help make summer camp more affordable. Adam Weinstein, executive director of the American Camp Association, New York and New Jersey, said, “With careful planning, parents can find a camp that works within their families means. When you think about how much it costs to have a child home all summer, with child care and activities, you realize you can be paying a very small premium for a very rich experience.”

Look for camp early
It isn’t too early to look for a summer camp for the summer of 2012 or even 2013. Tour camps this summer while the camp is in action. Some camps offer early bird specials for registering now so you can register soon after the camp tour for savings. Searching for camp early also gives families a longer time to plan financially for camp.

Gifts
Camp can be given to children as part of birthday gifts and holiday gifts and parents can budget for these gifts throughout the year. Likewise, members of the extended family, like grandparents, may also contribute to a gift like camp.

Search camps by cost
There is a camp for every budget. Families can search the American Camp Association, New York and New Jersey’s website searchforacamp.org by cost as well as day/sleepaway, location, activities or single-sex/coed/brother-sister camps. (Therightcamp.com also has a good camp search engine.) Likewise, families can also call the American Camp Association, NY and NJ camper placement specialist at 212-391-5208 for free, one-on-one advice on finding the right camp at the right price for your family. Keep in mind that some Y camps, in particular, view it as part of their mission to accept a certain percentage of kids from families with modest means.

Assistance offered from the U.S government
The government offers programs that may help families save money on summer camp.
A Dependent Care Flexible Spending Account-A Dependent Care Flexible Spending Account allows parents to be reimbursed on a pre-tax basis for child care or adult dependent care expenses that are necessary to allow parents to work, look for work, or attend school full-time while they are caring for qualified dependents. Visit the FSA Feds website at fsafeds.com for more information. In certain circumstances, day camp expenses, including transportation by a care provider, may be considered dependent care services.
• Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit—the IRS allows an income tax credit of up to $6,000 of dependent care expenses if you have two or more dependents (up to $3,000 for one dependent). The amount of the credit is based on your adjusted gross income and applies only to your federal taxes. This applies to qualifying day camp expenses as well. Visit the FSA Feds website for more information.

Talk to the camp director
Parents should talk to the camp director at the camp they are interested in sending their child to. Some camps offer sibling discounts or early bird specials for registering early and payment plans‚Äîand that‚Äôs just the official policy. If you have your heart set on a camp but can’t afford it, talk to the director to see if he or she would consider a sliding scale rate in your case. You never know.

Hold a fundraiser
I know this might seem like an overly self-serving solicitation, but if you do it in a way that shows spunk and creativity-and your child helps take the lead on it-you’d be surprised how friends and neighbors might be charmed by the idea of an effort to raise money for camp. Even something as old-fashioned as a lemonade stand with good signage about where the money is going might be an attention-getter and profit-maker.  But use real lemons.  People appreciate authenticity.

Given that Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s proposal this year raises education spending by 4 percent, an $805 million bump over last year, all the activity seemed a bit superfluous. But a brief glance at the fiscal woes of school districts across the state suggests otherwise.

Take the Haverstraw–Stony Point school district in northern Rockland County. It has lost $10 million in state aid over the last three years. It has laid off 118 staff members, and will lose another 17 teachers this year.

Two of the five elementary schools have closed, as well as one middle school. Ninth graders are being pushed from middle school into high school to save money. And $11.6 million of the district’s annual budget is tied up in an ongoing court settlement with a local utility company.

Students there can expect fewer sports programs, advanced-placement classes and music classes—and ongoing struggles to educate high-needs children.

“We have in a year’s time undergone an entire transformation,” said Deborah Gatti, president of the North Rockland Central School District. “We’re operating under an austerity system.”

And North Rockland isn’t alone. Dick Weisz, president of the Guilderland school board in Albany County, said his district has eliminated 40 teachers and 40 staff positions over the last two years, and they are still looking at a $2.6 million budget deficit.

“It’s a sobering time,” he said. “Fewer adults means less education.”

Many school districts are chafing under the 2 percent property tax cap Cuomo signed into law last year, as well as a host of mandates they say drive up costs for localities and force layoffs and other cutbacks.

Much of that anger boiled up during a meeting between school board representatives and Budget Director Robert Megna in early March. Board members complained it would be “political suicide” to submit budgets that exceeded the 2 percent cap. Megna encouraged them to negotiate concessions with their local unions.

Tim Kremer, executive director of the New York School Boards Association, said he apologized to Megna after the meeting.

“I just don’t think he was in his element,” Kremer said. “They were not appreciating his responses.”

The message, though, was loud and clear, Kremer said: “Now we’re in deep. And it does not appear anything will change for us in the near future. In fact, a lot of districts talk as if this is a permanent feeling, this particular recession. It feels like we’re not going to recover from it. As some of these smaller, poorer, rural school districts say, ‘There’s just no way out of this hole.’ ”

In a statement, Megna acknowledged that times were tough for schools around the state.

“The last few fiscal years have been difficult for all levels of government, and we are pleased to have offered a long term sustainable solution to school finance by pegging aid increases to personal income growth,” Megna said. “This will result in a School Aid increase of $805 million next year and more than $1.5 billion over the next two years, in addition to significant relief through pension reform.  Working together, we can direct more resources to where they are most needed – the classroom.”

Cuomo is pushing a $250 million competitive grant program as a way to spur cash-strapped school districts to explore cost savings and shared services as a way to reduce expenditures.

But school boards are urging the Legislature to scale back the performance grants, arguing many of the hardest-hit school districts lack the skills and staffers—like grant writers—to compete for that pot of money.

But other groups say the grants are the only way to encourage districts to take the necessary steps to consolidate back-office operations and save real money.

“There’s a status quo out there that’s done things traditionally the old way. This is a more innovative and newer program that, quite frankly, awards school districts based on merit,” said Elizabeth Ling, New York State director of Democrats for Education Reform.

“That can be threatening to the status quo,” she said. “Even though the amount is relatively small, it’s easy to focus on that, rather than making the system better.”

Both the Senate and the Assembly stripped the grant program from their one-house budget bills. But Ling said she is confident that the governor can convince lawmakers to restore the funding.

“There’s a lot of moving parts right now,” she said. “We’ll look to see how it works out.”

Parents, elected officials and parent council members pled for the department to view the crowding situation as dire and budget new seats in the district. Representatives from the School Construction Authority attended the meeting, including Richard Bocchicchio, director of facilities/space planning, as well as a representative from the deputy chancellor’s office.

Department officials agreed that capacity is strained, but said that, in their view, rezoning and new rules regarding out-of-district enrollment would be sufficient to deal with the problem. Other suggestions raised at the meeting were creating a new, more stringent kindergarten lottery, enacting more restrictions on out-of-catchment enrollment and sibling enrollment, and undertaking a dramatic reconfiguring of school zones to relieve the burden on schools like P.S. 87, which is well over 100-percent capacity already.

“We commend CEC 3, which has come up with a very detailed analysis, and we are concerned with capacity. But when you look at District 3 as a whole, we do see some buildings that we determine are underutilized,” said Jeffrey Shear, chief of staff for deputy chancellor Kathleen Grimm, who oversees finance and administration at the department.

However, many disputed the assertion that several buildings in the district were underutilized. They said that space was being shared or had been taken over by charter schools, or included specialized programs such as bilingual education, special education or gifted and talented programs that were incompatible with swelling seats at the kindergarten level.

“There are more children, and there will be more children,” said Assembly Member Linda Rosenthal at the meeting. “We can’t wait until they arrive at the school’s doorsteps, and say, ‘Oh, I guess we calculated wrong.’ We can’t afford to just move the lines, and we can’t move kids from one school to another or have a school relocated to another building.”

Representatives speaking on behalf of State Sen. Tom Duane and Borough President Scott Stringer, who has convened a “war room” to address overcrowding in Manhattan schools, echoed Rosenthal’s concerns that zoning and lottery solutions wouldn’t be enough to combat the district’s baby boom.

Rosenthal said she’d asked the department to count numbers more accurately, and parent council members said they’d asked education officials to walk with them through crowded classrooms and schools, and to produce numbers that projected growth in the district’s future population.

Education officials had agreed to inspect the schools with parents, and were working on pinning down a date as of last week’s meeting.

At the close of the meeting, parents from several neighborhood schools spoke about the conditions and crowding in their facilities.

At press time, another war room meeting was slated for Dec. 22. The timeline is tight, as parents and the department have to come to a consensus by February, when enrollment begins.

“We appreciate working very closely with Office of Portfolio Planning [another DOE office] and with the Deputy Chancellor. We don’t want to presuppose anything, but we do want us and them to recognize the urgency of this situation,” said Noah Gotbaum, chair of the parent council, after the meeting. “And we’re going to have to solve the problem in the long term. We can’t ask parents and kids to sacrifice like this for something that won’t even work for 12 months.”

Alas, I believed these beckoning works of art were too pricey. I recently stared at a huge portrait of Arlo Guthrie on a masterpiece of an Italian movie poster for his iconic film Alice’s Restaurant. This poster of Woody Guthrie’s son brings a rush of fond feelings. I tailed Arlo touring Ohio and Pennsylvania when Alice’s Restaurant made him the singing star of the anti-war movement.

I was researching my first article for the New York Times Magazine—and no, I didn’t write that I smoked opium with Arlo (and time rushed but stood still like it does during acupuncture). Nor did I write that I declined Arlo’s sweet pass. He said, “Hey I been wantin’ to find me a Cancer chick.” Nor did I write that Alice herself was a cheerful lush. She took me to a party where the movie’s producer made an entrance dressed in full 18th-century armor, and Alice got drunk and fell giggling over the back of a sofa with her strong legs in the air.

Back to the Chisholm Larsson gallery—and my own giddy pleasure making friends with its warm, welcoming owner, Robert Chisholm. (Unlike Alice, he didn’t know I was going to write about his spellbinding store.)

I immediately discovered I’d been totally wrong about prices. Many incredible posters make you feel blessed by beauty and sell for less than $200. Chisholm displays posters like a high-end Parisian art gallery.

The enchanting and huge (79-by-55-inches) 30-year-old poster of long-haired Arlo wearing a top hat costs only $550. I figured the rare, archival piece for well over $3,000. It would transform any room into a totally hip New York space.

I discovered that I really like gallery owner Robert Chisholm and could spend days listening as he adroitly flips through magnificent and rare posters by artists like Milton Glazer (“a really sweet man,” says Chisholm). Glazer’s lush poster for the New York Spring Flower Festival ($240) features a beautiful woman with flowers for hair. Chisholm really loves the classic Spanish design of a poster for an Almodovar movie Matador, starring Antonio Banderas (“a cross between Cocteau and Picasso”). I love a drop-dead gorgeous poster ($160) of a hoop-skirted lady and two tots feeding swans in Central Park circa 1875.

One Italian poster for Andy Warhol’s movie Heat or Calore ($500) features my neighbor and friend Sylvia Miles as a young woman, lushly bosomed and open-mouthed.

Chisholm and his partner, Lars Larsson, have been selling great vintage poster art for three decades and have 45,000 posters on their website. The Japanese are snatching up Polish posters (still reasonably priced) because of the clean graphics.

If you want to beat out the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery, grab the Italian poster ($700) for Easy Rider depicting a magnificent Jack Nicholson. Or snatch another poster (circa 1968) from the National Portrait Gallery featuring Lyndon Johnson and Lady Bird as rifle-toting Bonnie and Clyde. Check out the gallery website (www.chisholm-poster.com) and prepare to be enchanted.
–
Susan Braudy is the author and journalist whose last book, Family Circle: The Boudins and the Aristocracy of the Left, was nominated for a Pulitzer by publisher Alfred Knopf.

Nadler’s two bills would open up any post office closings to public scrutiny. The U.S. Postal Service would have to justify closings of branches, hold public hearings and require a public assessment for need of the closure. To save money, another bill would let the Postal Service tap into the retiree health benefits fund to pay health insurance for retirees.

Nadler stood with Postal Service union representatives and elected officials from the West Side and downtown Manhattan on August 20 to announce his plan.

“I am far from convinced that these…cuts and closures are actually creating real relief from the Postal Service’s massive budget woes,” Nadler said in a statement. “There is no excuse for the Postal Service to give short shrift to customers and cut services that every person and business depends on.”

In the mayor’s budget, $30,000 was chopped from the $190,000 each board receives. The money goes toward office expenses and the staff that handle day-to-day operations.

Community boards have an advisory vote on land-use issues and certain business licenses. But for residents, the boards provide a venue to voice concern, criticism or praise for development projects and quality of life issues.

Borough President Scott Stringer, who made community board reform a cornerstone of his first term, called the cuts outrageous, noting that 1990 was the last time community boards saw a raise in their budgets.

“The city’s proposed cut to community board budgets threatens the first line of democracy in our city,” Stringer said.

Comptroller William Thompson, Bloomberg’s rival for mayor, said the cut will render community boards ineffective.

“They’re the eyes and ears for our government, and the eyes and ears for our borough presidents,” Thompson said. “The mayor is trying to reduce their voice, cut them to the point where he can turn around and say, let’s get rid of community boards and borough presidents.”

The Council members in attendance promised to restore the cuts, if not increase the budget. Council Member Robert Jackson of Harlem, part of the budget negotiating team, said if Albany passes the city’s revenue package, there will be money for the boards.

Helen Rosenthal, chair of the Upper West Side’s Community Board 7, said that the budget cuts stifle 8 million people from voicing their opinions.

“We need this forum where people can have their say,” Rosenthal said.

“Most of these nonprofits get funding from all three levels of government in various degrees,” said Assembly Member Dick Gottfried. “With state and city budget cuts, they’re facing a real difficulty.”

Gottfried has hosted several town hall meetings in Manhattan with other local elected officials to talk to executive directors and representatives from these groups. Government funding cuts, coupled with a decrease in donations and corporate support, have forced many organizations to reduce their workforce, cut administrative costs and even eliminate some programs that provide a public service.

“If the governor’s proposed cuts go through,” Gottfried said, “I think there’ll be significant cuts in personnel and services around the state.”

On the bright side, the town hall meetings have provided an opportunity for organizations to share their stories and plans for navigating the bad economy.
“The audience has been learning from each other,” Gottfried said, “more than from what they’re learning from me or other elected officials.”

Below is a snapshot of how a handful of local groups are wrestling with shrinking budgets and increased needs.

—Dan Rivoli

AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY
Central Park West and West 79th Street
212-769-5606
www.amnh.org
Natural history fans, exhale—the blue whale and dinosaurs are safe. And so is the American Museum of Natural History’s mission to bring science and education programs to the public. But the famed institution has already begun trimming its programming and staff, and will continue to do so in the months ahead.
Last summer, after the first city budget cuts were announced, administrators began offering buyout options to some longtime employees: they decided to leave about 30 empty positions unfilled, according to Charles McLean, senior vice president for communications and marketing.

Programmatic cuts included an educational initiative that brought college students in for training and research, and the popular “Starry Nights” Friday jazz series.
Now, with the endowment down by about 25 percent (a loss that’s a little bit better than what other cultural institutions are experiencing, according to McLean), the museum will also be closing some of the less popular halls on a rotating basis to reduce security costs.

“Not the big halls that everybody comes to see,” McLean said, noting that the whale and dinosaurs are absolutely not under consideration for temporary closure. “Parts of the museum that have less traffic.”

Together, these measures are intended to trim the $170 million operating budget by approximately 10 percent, which should help the museum prepare for future financial hardships as well.

“I think the problem is nobody knows how long this will last or where it’s going,” McLean said of the economic downturn. “And I think you have to act prudently and responsibly in the face of a lot of unknowns here.”
—Charlotte Eichna

STANLEY M. ISAACS NEIGHBORHOOD CENTER

Seniors display artwork they created at the Stanley M. Isaacs Neighborhood Center, which may face budget cuts as high as 15 percent. Photo By: Andrew Schwartz

415 E. 93rd St.
212-360-7620
www.isaacscenter.org
Like many human service organizations, the Stanley M. Isaacs Neighborhood Center is caught between two opposing forces: as the economy worsens and funding contracts, its clients tend to require even more support.

“And of course the people we’re serving are the ones with greatest needs,” said Wanda Wooten, the center’s executive director. “There’s a long list of services we provide and everything is being threatened with budget cuts, I’m afraid.”

The center, which provides hot meals for seniors, social work support, after school services and more, gets a little more than half of its $6.3 million budget from the government. Already, administrators have trimmed costs by 8 percent by reducing part-time and less critical social work expenses. But if the governor and mayor’s budget proposals go through, the total for combined cuts could be as much as 15 percent.

Additional staff reductions are therefore likely, Wooten said, and the center will also probably have to cut back on specialists. These include instructors for children’s art workshops, and for ballroom dancing, yoga and tai chi classes for seniors.

The cuts make it incredibly difficult to deliver quality service, and to fulfill one of the center’s goals of keeping local seniors active, healthy, safe and independent. Which, Wooten adds, is “much cheaper than someone going into a nursing home.”
—CE

MUSEUM OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK
1220 Fifth Ave.
212-534-1672
www.mcny.org
Founded in 1923, the Museum of the City of New York was able to weather The Great Depression. And because the public nonprofit acted early when the current fiscal crisis was looming, the museum is weathering this recession as well.
President and Director Susan Henshaw Jones said the city’s cuts were anticipated, allowing the museum to balance its budget.

“Our board counseled us to act early on, and we did,” Henshaw Jones said. “It’s a dynamic situation, but one we are managing and to good effect.”

The museum receives $1.2 million in energy and general operations support from the city’s Department of Cultural Affairs. But the department is facing an 11.7 percent cut for the next fiscal year, and Henshaw Jones is anticipating that will trickle down to her organization.

Administrators also cut general operations, like staffing and administrative support, so that the museum could preserve public programs and exhibitions—especially because attendance is up.

“People are going to local museums and not doing more expensive things,” Henshaw Jones said. “We think we can be a place for the heart and for the mind in these difficult times ahead.”
—DR

MARTHA GRAHAM CENTER OF CONTEMPORARY DANCE

316 E. 63rd St.
212-521-3611
www.marthagraham.org
Martha Graham Center of Contemporary Dance is one of about 570 arts organizations in the state that are cursed by bad timing. Grant money from the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA) is distributed four times a year; last year, organizations on the March and July schedule received their funding as planned, but those who had been counting on October and December disbursements—which included Martha Graham—were told they’d have to wait until the State Legislature completed its deficit reduction plan, which is still being negotiated.

LaRue Allen, Martha Graham’s executive director, explained that the funding crunch comes on the heels of a massive effort bring the dance company and school out of a $5 million deficit incurred during a high-profile legal battle over the Graham estate. Allen and company emerged victorious but had to make major cutbacks to work off the debt. The group now functions with a budget that was cut by more than half, to $2.8 million.

“We are literally counting paperclips,” Allen said.

Should the $150,000 grant previously provided by the state evaporate, Martha Graham would need to cut several initiatives, Allen said. A program that works with 13 schools each year in the Bronx, Queens and Manhattan is on the chopping block, as well as “Teens at Graham,” which serves young adults, often from disadvantaged backgrounds, who have a deep interest in dance. Dancers may also lose their jobs.
“For us to lose the NYSCA funding and to lose it midyear without a period to make adjustments and to plan is just devastating,” Allen said.
—CE

KAUFMAN CENTER

Kaufman Center would have difficulty maintaining the Special Music School. Photo By: Joan Jastrebski

129 W. 67th St.
212-501-3303
www.kaufman-center.org
Thanks to serious budget limitations, the Special Music School, a partnership between the Kaufman Center and the city’s Department of Education, might soon lose its “special” status.

“We’re considering cutting anything that isn’t central. Everything is up for question,” said Kaufman’s executive director, Lydia Kontos.

Kaufman has already gotten state and city budget cuts, and expected grants from the New York State Council on the Arts are on hold, pending the outcome of State Legislature’s deficit reduction plan.

“I don’t know that we can go back on obligations,” Kontos said. “We will have to sustain a loss.”

This year, the Department of Cultural Affairs decreased Kaufman’s funding by 4 percent, from $200,000 to $192,000.

These losses will impact the number of presentations held at the Merkin Concert Hall and will cause the center to stop free ticket distribution.

“Last year, a special initiative from the Department for the Aging enabled us to provide free tickets for seniors from JASA and Lenox Hill for the Tuesday matinee concerts in Merkin Concert Hall,” said Joan Jastrebski, Kaufman’s director of marketing and communications. “That $10,000 was not available to us this year, and we were not able to offer those free tickets to seniors.”

Kaufman doesn’t anticipate an imminent resolution for its economic troubles and is focusing efforts on making do with what it has.

“I don’t see a place to turn right now,” Kontos said. “I’m just trying to plan more carefully and construct a budget for next year.”
—Eleanor Goldberg

COUNCIL SENIOR CENTER
241 W. 72nd St.
212-799-7205
www.ncjwny.org
Although the economic downturn has forced Council Senior Center to make program cuts and start charging for recreational courses that were previously free, it has also expedited the center’s “creative aging” endeavors.

“We’re partnering up with The New York Public Library, Julliard, NYU and Columbia so that we’ll be an institution without walls,” said Director Ed Bartosik. “Elders want a menu of opportunity and this is the most cost effective way.”

Seniors can, for example, get discounts for a partner organization’s offerings through the center, and take part in programs like the library’s “Book of the Month Club” and discussion groups. By collaborating with neighboring institutions, Bartosik aims to stretch his budget and his members’ opportunities.

“We need to take into account how elders spend their time,” he said. “The silent generation is thinning out and we need to build a new audience with baby boomers.”

The center itself still has plenty to offer, but prices have increased. On Feb. 2, the cost of 20-week exercise and health classes was set at $25 (they were previously free), and the price of 20-week art classes rose to $50 from $25. Further increases may be considered in September, depending on economy.

“We aren’t supported by city, state or federal funding. We get funding from the National Council of Jewish Women and their donor base is lacking,” Bartosik explained.

The price hike will not come as a surprise to members.

“We’ve been notifying people since November,” Bartosik said. “Most people feel that we should’ve been charging a while ago.”
—EG

NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY

The New York Public Library may be forced to reduce its six-day a week service.

212-930-0800
www.nypl.org
There are 16 branches of the New York Public Library currently operating on the East and West sides of Manhattan. With Internet access, periodicals, computers and, of course, free books, usage typically increases during periods of economic hardship.
“There’s no institution in the city of New York which is more full service than the library,” said Assembly Member Jonathan Bing, who worked to restore Saturday library service a few years ago.

Heidi Singer, a library spokesperson, said that circulation of library materials is indeed up by 3.5 million items, and library visits have been up by 2 million over the last year. But the state has proposed a cut for this year of $2.8 million, or 13.5 percent, coupled with a proposed city budget cut of $23.2 million, or 17 percent. Which means unfettered library access may once again become a luxury New York can’t afford. Currently, all branches are open at least six days a week, according to Singer, but the proposed cut in funding would result in a loss of this six-day service—“something that New Yorkers fought long and hard for and has proved to be an important resource for the people of New York in this time of economic difficulty,” she wrote in an email.

The St. Agnes Branch, at 444 Amsterdam Ave. near West 81st Street, has been undergoing renovations since October 2007, and Singer reports that work is moving along as planned, and will not be affected by cuts.
—CE

LENOX HILL NEIGHBORHOOD HOUSE
331 E. 70th St.
212-744-5022
www.lenoxhill.org
Through The Great Depression, two world wars, the Sept. 11th terrorist attacks and a slew of other debilitating crises, the 115-year-old Lenox Hill Neighborhood House has survived. Now, as the economic state worsens, the organization’s resilience will be tested again.

“People depend on us to care for their children and feed homeless. We just have to focus on clients and helping people the best we can,” said Executive Director Warren Scharf.

Lenox Hill, which assists 20,000 needy individuals a year through meal services, day care programs, housing options and more, relies on governmental funding and private support, both of which have been severely reduced.

“The city has closed all of the adult day programs, not because they don’t work, but because we don’t have the money,” Scharf said.

More reductions are on the way, as the mayor proposed 5 percent cuts to senior centers and 4.5 percent cuts to case management contracts for older adults; Lenox Hill runs two centers, as well as a case management program that services homebound seniors.

“We have 1,100 clients who are frail and homebound. A $60,000 loss is two case managers,” Scharf said, explaining how the cuts would affect the Lenox program.
But many of the older clients are hopeful, often reminding Scharf that “somebody’s done it before, and we need to do it again.” And though Scharf is certain that the organization will endure, he isn’t optimistic about an immediate focus on reviving service organizations.

“Even when the economy comes back, the first order isn’t going to be funding poor people,” he said.
—EG

GODDARD RIVERSIDE COMMUNITY CENTER
593 Columbus Ave.
212-873-6600
www.goddard.org
Stephan Russo, executive director of Goddard Riverside Community Center, isn’t yet sure how bad the cuts are going to be—but he is preparing for the worst.

“It is imperative to start making plans,” Russo said.

The center, which serves 16,000 people through 16 sites and 22 programs, operates on a $24 million budget. Already last July, $175,000 was cut, and foundation funding took a dip. Now, Russo is predicting a 10 percent funding cut, and thinks Goddard may be as much as $1 million to $2 million off budget next year.

The cuts have already resulted in the closure of one program, fewer trips, a tighter grip on supplies and a hiring freeze. Looking forward, Russo said that city cuts may threaten the very existence of Goddard’s senior center. Goddard will also likely offer fewer meals and ask parents of children who use its programs to contribute more money. Although core services will endure, Russo explained, there’s no doubt that you “do less with less.”
—CE

With additional reporting by Nick Broad.