After a series of shootings in NYC’s projects, ‘Our Town Downtown’ uncovers life in NYC’s housing complexes

In early July, NYPD Officer Brian Groves was performing a routine vertical patrol in the Lower East Side’s Seward Park complex when he was shot by a man who subsequently fled the scene. A few days later, a 19-year-old was fatally shot in the Chelsea Houses. The remainder of July saw multiple infants, including a 3-year-old Brooklyn boy, caught in the crossfire of project violence.

There were 35 shootings in 28 days in public housing complexes as of early July, according to the NYPD, and reported by the New  York Post. Violent crimes are on the rise in the city this year. According to the NYPD, citywide crime is up 4.2 percent over 2011.

In light of this increase in crime and the number of shootings in complexes this summer, Our Town Downtown examined safety and life in the Seward Park complex and a number of other housing complexes across New York City. Not all housing projects are equivalent, and a significant number of variables influence the culture and safety level of any given project, including location, policing, allocated funding and general conditions. Each also faces its unique pressures and interactions within the surrounding community.

Politicians and community members alike struggle for solutions to what they see as the projects’ central issues, which has led to recent debates over security, including surveillance cameras and controversial stop-and-frisk practices.

Despite the recent shooting of Officer Groves, residents of Seward Park describe the complex as relatively safe. However, in a recent survey of 10,000 homes in 12 housing complexes by NYCHA, the organization reported nearly 60 percent of the respondents said there had been serious crime in their development in the past year, and many reported rarely leaving their apartments out of fear.

This is especially true of the Pelham Parkway complex in the Bronx, where violence is a prevalent factor. City Councilman James Vacca, whose district includes the Pelham Parkway projects, discussed the June murder of an 88-year-old grandmother, Evelyn Shapiro, who was slain in a push-in robbery (where an intruder pushes in the door, usually after it’s been cracked open) in the Pelham complex.

“We’ve seen an increase in crime in Pelham with gangs and drugs,” Vacca said in an interview. “There was another shooting there last week. It’s becoming increasingly unsafe. The Housing Authority says it has no money to make it safer for those in the neighborhoods.”

According to Vacca, locals even refer to a section of the Pelham complex as “Siberia,” citing its apparent lawlessness.

The fact that it’s known by this name, Vacca said, “speaks mountains … that it’s the most crime-vulnerable location” in the complex. He said a bodega directly across the street has witnessed multiple shootings and knifings over the years, indicating how project violence spills over and affects the larger community. “It’s turf disputes,” said Vacca, “it’s about drugs.”

Vacca may point to drug and turf wars in his district, but James Brodick, project director of Brownsville Community Justice Center, spoke to the danger in the Brownsville neighborhood of Brooklyn operating on a cycle of fear: “I think there’s two things you can look at … the crime stats and the fear factor, and they go hand in hand,” he said. “People feel unsafe [in Brownsville] even when crime is down.”

Brodick also blames significant overcrowding in the high-crime area: “[Brownsville] is a mile and a half with 100,000 people living on top of each other,” he said. “There are generations of poverty issues among housing developments. Young people are taking out their frustrations, and unfortunately that involves guns and violence.”

In Brownsville, the highly contentious stop-and-frisk practice might be a deterrent for people who would otherwise carry guns, Brodick explains, but ultimately it serves to also raise tensions. Brodick said people living in the projects do not trust authority figures, and would not even step forward as witnesses in many cases. “One of the challenges is a lack of trust with anything government,” he said. “With victims of violence … the instinct in Brownsville is you don’t go to police. People have had a negative experience or response or they’re worried about retaliation.”

Overcrowding also seems an insurmountable problem in the Queensbridge Houses in Long Island City, Queens. Raymond Normandeau, press secretary of the Queensbridge Tenants Council and Queensbridge project resident since 1973, says his complex has 96 buildings, for which the census reports approximately 10,000 tenants. Normandeau said the complex is actually intended to accommodate 8,000 or 9,000, but probably houses closer to 15,000 tenants, many illegally. “The [New York City] Housing Authority (NYCHA) has no idea who’s living in many of the apartments,” he said. “That’s absurd. They should go once a year and make sure it matches with names on the lease.”

Queensbridge, made legendary by rappers like Jay-Z who grew up there, is by many accounts, a notoriously violent project, and is located in a precinct which saw 348 felony assaults (crimes involving infliction of serious bodily injury) in 2011. Normandeau, however, places it “midway” on the danger spectrum, saying it’s not as severe as some in the Rockaways.

Does he feel unsafe? “No, I don’t feel unsafe,” said Normandeau. “I grew accustomed. Even people in Afghanistan grow accustomed.”

While there have been at least two murders in his complex this year, Normandeau and residents in other complexes seem more concerned with living conditions and how they affect safety, which can be attributed to tenants’ carelessness as well as NYCHA’s apathy and a general lack of accountability. Poor conditions seem to simply generate further disregard.

He explained: “We had an unlocked lobby door for several days, Housing Authority will not tell me the reason for the delay. They will not respond … because they don’t have to or they don’t care. If there’s a shortage of manpower, they should concentrate on safety issues.”

“I don’t know if Housing Authority has no money or doesn’t care,” he said. “You think safety issues would be corrected quickly but they are not.”

Normandeau added tenants are equally to blame, pointing to “carelessness and bad manners,” such as leaving trash lying around or allowing dogs to defecate in halls and elevators. Other issues include water leaks and mold running down the walls.

Despite these concerns, Normandeau said safety has actually been better recently, which he attributes largely to hotels cropping up in the area, including one “just a gunshot away” from the complex. These have led to increased police patrols in the area surrounding the projects. “I used to hear three gunshots a week, now I only hear one every two weeks,” he said.

Life, as a whole, seems better in the Seward Park complex, according to accounts by its residents. After the July shooting, police officers were a regular presence around the LES project which, residents report, was never a dangerous spot in the past. Officers are often posted on the corner of Essex and Broome streets, in a van which displays a couple of “wanted” posters on its window, but tenants in the area describe them as more or less fading into the background.

Vertical patrols, like the one performed by Groves at the time of the shooting, have been a routine way of life. According to the NYPD’s description, a vertical patrol is “a process by which [an officer] systematically and methodically checks each building one at a time, covering roof landings, stairwells and lobbies.” During these sweeps of public housing, police are required to stop, question and potentially frisk anyone they encounter, in the manner known as “stop-and-frisk.”

Residents of Seward do not point to vertical patrols and stop-and-frisk as the basis for the project’s safety though. Forty-one-year-old Jessica Baez, who has lived in Seward Park her whole life, since 1972, said: “What makes this building different is the community. There are different races, but we always stick together. If something is happening in the hallway, a neighbor will step outside and ask what’s going on.”

Ronald Anderson, who lived in the complex for 16 years before moving, still spends time there. He said he loves the building and has always felt safe around Seward. “It’s the first time I’ve heard of anything like this,” said Anderson, of Groves’ shooting. “It’s nothing compared to other projects, it’s a calm neighborhood.” Anderson specifically contrasted Seward with certain projects in Brooklyn, and pointed out the complex’s amenities—co-ops and balconies.

With regard to the project’s security, Anderson said: “There’s no cameras but there should be. We see cops every day now, they shoulda always been here.”

Sisters 18-year-old Elissa Febo and 19-year-old Janeece Febo’s grandmother has lived in Seward for 40 years. They said they’ve always felt safe and the shooting was the “one big” criminal incident in their memory. Now officers linger primarily outside complex grounds, but the women see detectives come and go occasionally.

“The building itself is calmer because of the cops,” said Janeece. The locks and intercoms are all functional, according to the sisters, but there are a few unsafe places such as the staircases or elevators, in which people frequently urinate.

Baez and her daughter, 14-year-old Alexandria Ali, call Seward one of the best housing complexes in the city. They say it’s primarily home to seniors, who have been there a long time, though students from the high school next door hang out in the courtyard and leave garbage around. Baez and Ali said the man who shot Groves was most likely “from the outside.” The perpetrator—described as a man in his twenties who stands 5 foot 9, with his hair braided in cornrows—is still on the loose, and the reward for information leading to his arrest has been raised to $32,000.

The two say there is overcrowding, though, and NYCHA only fixes things when the Department of Housing (HUD) is coming around. They added there is a mold problem at Seward, which “makes the walls bubble up and chip away.”
The sense of safety and calm described by residents, the accepting attitude toward police presence and the sense of community described by Baez and her daughter, is far from true of all housing projects in the city.

Authorities struggle with how to move forward security-wise. Since a 1995 merger of specialized housing police under the NYPD, regular NYPD officers patrol the majority of projects (with some exceptions—Vacca points out another project in his district, Throggs Neck, still has a housing police force). Because of high levels of crime and lower access to police personnel, many community members and government officials call for additional surveillance cameras to be installed in projects citywide. Brodick and Vacca insist cameras are a strong, blanket deterrent to crime.

“I’m not saying we should have a police state, but maybe cameras will help by being an eye in the sky and getting some witnesses,” said Brodick. “People say stop-and-frisk makes them not carry guns, cameras are not a deterrent per se, but if you’re filmed and prosecuted, you’re going to think twice. People aren’t thinking about the criminal justice system now when they commit a crime, the camera is one more resource. I hope these types of things prevent crime.”

NYCHA has already earmarked $42 million for surveillance measures, according to Sen. Daniel Squadron’s office, and now projects citywide are just waiting on their implementation, while NYCHA continues to delay the process, citing the need for additional “study.”

One commenter on Sheepshead Bites, an independent weblog that covers news in Brooklyn’s Sheepshead-Nostrand projects, pointed out that installing cameras in only some projects would merely cause offenders to move elsewhere. “Catch-22,” the commenter wrote, “projects that don’t have [cameras] are going to be 10 times worse.” Vacca said residents he’s spoken actually to want to see more police, more stop-and-frisk even.

Brodick disagrees cameras will merely shift crime: “People have always been talking about displacing crime … now it’s territorial, we’re not going to take it to a different development, it’s not drug-trade driven, it’s about respect and that will never change. The root of the violence is generational issues in housing developments, it’s not drugs.”

Politicians and community advocates alike seem to recognize NYCHA’s shortcomings in handling project security and maintenance.

In fact, Borough President Scott M. Stringer recently unveiled a plan to overhaul NYCHA, calling its board “an archaic and confusing relic” in a report.

Stringer’s recommendations have already gone into action, as a few days ago he succeeded in ousting two NYCHA board members. “The mayor’s adoption of many of my proposals for the reform of NYCHA is a significant step toward improving the lives of the over 650,000 New Yorkers who they serve,” Stringer said in a statement. “But more must be done.”

To the Editor:

Kirsten Gillibrand is a political hack and opportunist if ever there was one. (“Why Kirsten Gillibrand Could Have It All,” July 26). She shamelessly scouts for headlines to jump on and take what her handlers advise are “populist” positions. An example is Gillibrand jumping on the “Miracle in the Hudson” incident to call for an all-out war on Canada geese that resulted in the roundup and destruction of 751 geese just a couple of weeks ago from the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge—a refuge-turned-slaughterhouse, thanks to the political ambitions of Gillibrand. She should be road out of town on her broomstick come November.

—Patty Adjamine

Double Standard 

To the Editor:

Reading “Brewer Intros New Bike Legislation” (July 26), I would like to commend Council Member Gale Brewer and Queens Councilman James Vacca for new legislation, but was disappointed that they can only see one side of this problem of lawbreaking bikers. Why only concentrate on commercial bikers? Whatever laws they break are also broken by other bikers who do the exact same things—going through red lights, against traffic and on the sidewalk, shaking up pedestrians, especially the elderly. Why are these other offenders exempt from punishment? Why the double standard?

—Bunny Abraham

Photo Courtesy of Wiki Commons

by Alissa Fleck

Violence is on the rise in the City this summer and cops blame everything from heat waves to the recession to tensions caused by—the ultimate hot-button issue—stop-and-frisk (or would that be the impending soda ban?). Unfortunately, either way, the City’s housing projects seem to suffer most in times like these. While it’s nearly impossible to point to the City’s most dangerous projects, here we report on conditions in four of the most problematic and dilapidated repeat-offenders.

 4. Sheepshead-Nostrand

“Cops Resond to Call for Jumper at Nostrand Houses, Turns Out to be Elevator Repairman” reads a recent headline from Sheepshead Bites, Sheepshead Bay’s self-proclaimed “only independent news blog.” The story continues: “If you saw heavy police activity turn up near [Sheepshead-Nostrand Housing Projects] at around 2:30 p.m. today, the answer is no, it wasn’t another violent incident in the [projects]. It was just an elevator repairman.”

Nonetheless, this mishap speaks volumes about what you can expect at Sheepshead-Nostrand on any given day. The blog also reported the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) recently recommended the NYPD implement terrorism task force technology in this Bed-Stuy housing project. A commenter on the blog speaks to the level of disrepair in the project: “What this goes to show is that seeing a repairman on a roof actually fixing something gave the residents such shock, that they could not comprehend as to why anyone would be up there.”

3. Brownsville Houses 

Brownsville is the highest housing project concentration area in Brooklyn, and generally considered one of the City’s most dangerous neighborhoods. There are 18 projects in the mile and a half stretch of Brownsville, including the Brownsville development, which contains 27 buildings.

James Brodick, project director of Brownsville Community Justice Center, described Brownsville as 100,000 people “living on top of each other,” which certainly sounds like a recipe for disaster. Brodick also offered up generations of poverty issues and territorial disputes as deeply rooted causes the Brownsville projects have so much consistent trouble avoiding infamy’s spotlight.

2. Marcy Projects

News One For Black America released a list of “The 7 Most Infamous U.S. Public Housing Projects.” Brooklyn’s Marcy Projects ranked #2. While news reports point to the human danger in Bed-Stuy’s Marcy Projects, a perhaps greater concern is three-foot rats might get to you before anyone else does.

1. Pelham Parkway 

It might be enough to say residents of the Pelham Parkway Complex in the Bronx, which recently witnessed the murder of an 88-year-old grandmother, refer to a section of the project as “Siberia” and refuse to set foot there. City Councilman James Vacca, who oversees the Bronx district that includes Pelham, knows exactly where Siberia is located. Violence spills over into the community, he reports, which manifests in the numerous shootings at stores just across the street. Again, violence and disrepair—a general overarching sense of apathy and hopelessness—seem to go hand-in-hand.

Vacca pointed to things which discourage Pelham residents most: “urine in the hallways…buzzer systems that do not work…inadequate lighting…the quality of life…the crime.” It’s essentially the lawlessness that pervades when people sense they’ve been forgotten.

New Home: The Enterprise sits safely inside the Space Shuttle Pavilion its new home on the deck of the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum. Surrounded by dramatic lighting and a series of images and video stations, the Enterprise sits just 10 feet off the ground, allowing visitors to walk underneath and around the original NASA orbiter.

Brewer Intros New Bike Legislation

Following last week’s news from the Department of Transportation (DOT) that they will be unleashing a new education and enforcement team for commercial cyclists on the Upper West Side, Council Member Gale Brewer announced that she’s also introducing a new bill to reform the city’s commercial cycling laws at a Council meeting on July 25. Brewer teamed up with Queens Councilman and Transportation Committee Chair James Vacca to craft legislation that will give the DOT more enforcement power over businesses whose delivery cyclists break the law.

“The legislation…will relieve the burden on the NYPD to chase down commercial bicycle scofflaws and grant enforcement responsibilities to the DOT,” said Brewer in the statement. “We are all working together to come up with a new way to educate businesses and delivery cyclists about relevant laws. If businesses and their delivery cyclists don’t know the laws, we will educate them. Once they know the laws, DOT will have discretion to enforce them.”

“I am tired of hearing complaints from every corner of the city about commercial cyclists riding recklessly and with abandon,” said Vacca. “The creation of a civil penalty will give DOT what it needs to enforce the laws on the books.”

Right now, if a business fails to post signage explaining the rules of the road to their cyclists, it’s up to the NYPD to enforce the rule. Vacca’s bill would create a civil penalty up to $100 per violation for breaking the existing laws, and Brewer’s gives a special team of DOT inspectors enforcement power.

Former UWS Officer Remembered
Long time Upper West Siders may remember Det. Vincent Lupinacci as a community affairs officer who truly cared about the neighborhood. Lupinacci retired from the NYPD in 1992 after serving on the force since 1960; he passed away on Friday, July 13 of complications from a series of strokes, according to Sam Katz, the former 20th Precinct Community Council president.

Katz remembered Lupinacci as a “fixture” in the 20th Precinct and noted that he was promoted to the rank of detective in 1988. Current precinct Community Council President Ian Alterman said in an email that Lupinacci was the first police officer he got to know personally, meeting him when he was a teenager at I.S. 44 in the early ’70s. “Although he was no pushover, all the kids loved him,” Alterman recalled. “It may well be that his example (he practiced ‘courtesy, professionalism and respect’ long before it became an NYPD slogan) helped give me a view of the NYPD that ultimately led to my presidency of the Council four decades later.”

Land Mark West! Screens Indie Doc
Upper West Side preservation advocacy group Landmark West! is hosting a screening of the film The Vanishing City on Thursday, July 26 at 6 p.m. The movie takes a critical look at New York’s luxury developments and zoning policies while chronicling the loss of some of the city’s old neighborhoods. The screening will be followed by a Q&A session with the filmmakers.

At the Macaulay Honors College Screening Room, 35 W. 67th St. Tickets are $15, $10 for Landmark West! members. Space is limited and tickets must be purchased in advance by emailing landmarkwest@landmarkwest.org or calling 212-496-8110.

Meltzer Publishes Short Story book
Upper West Sider Dan Meltzer has been chronicling the goings-on of his neighborhood for years, and has now has released a book collecting his short fiction, often inspired by real life. The book is entitled Outsiders. Meltzer, who is also a playwright and a journalist, has won O. Henry and Pushcart prizes for his short fiction, and he brings his best work to the collection. The unidentified first-person narrator of many of the stories offers stark observations of a city that many will recognize as one they almost know. The characters could be real New Yorkers—only a touch stranger than reality.
Meltzer says in his author’s note that the stories are all about “individuals who live outside the fold, who can’t or won’t conform to the demands and customs of society. Some thrive; others either seem to get by or they don’t or they just drive those around them crazy, usually thanks to some peculiar need or idiosyncrasy.” The book is available on Lulu.com.

Economic Boom from Same-Sex Marriage
A year after the Marriage Equality Act was enacted, the city estimates that the law has generated $259 million in economic impact and $16 million in direct city revenue. The city issued 8,200 same-sex marriage licenses over the past year, resulting in a boost in the tourism and hospitality industries, as half of those couples held wedding celebrations somewhere in the five boroughs. NYC & Company, the city’s official tourism agency, and the city clerk’s office conducted an economic impact survey that found that over 200,000 guests traveled from outside the city for their same-sex weddings, leading to over 235,000 hotel room bookings.

The news follows the economic predictions many made before marriage equality was passed in the state.

“Marriage equality has made our city more open, inclusive and free—and it has also helped create jobs and support our economy,” said Mayor Michael Bloomberg in a statement.

“As the legislative sponsor of the Marriage Equality Act, I couldn’t be more proud that so many same-sex couples have taken advantage of their long-awaited right to marry across our great state this past year,” said Upper West Side Assembly Member Daniel O’Donnell, who married his longtime partner last year in the city.

Photo by Ed Yourdan. Photo courtesy of Flickr Commons.

Department of Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan held a press conference to announce the DOT’s new education and enforcement program for delivery cyclists. The commissioner was joined by Council Members Gale Brewer, Jessica Lappin, Dan Garodnick and Council Transportation Committee Chairman James Vacca, as well as some local restaurant owners, to introduce the efforts and explain the program that will target first the Upper West and then the Upper East Side.

A special six-person unit of the DOT will go door-to-door to businesses and explain to employers the legal requirements and safety information for their delivery cyclists. After a six-month period, businesses who violate the laws will receive fines ranging from $100 to $300.

The program comes after the Upper West Side community has called repeatedly for holding businesses accountable for their delivery cyclists’ reckless behavior.

“Cycling is a financially smart, healthy, and green way for restaurants to do business in New York City, but only when delivery cyclists are educated and obey relevant laws,” said Brewer. “The Upper West Side has the City’s highest number of 311 complaints regarding cyclists.”

Brewer’s office produces literature detailing cycling laws and has held educational forums for business owners as well.

The education portion of the DOT program will give businesses brochures on safety and the laws as well as ID cards their cyclists can fill out and keep on them. Employers will be required to provide upper body apparel with the name of their business clearly identified as well as safety equipment like lights, reflective gear and helmets.

“We need to put the brakes on dangerous delivery bicycles,” said Lappin. “Education and enforcement will make us all safer on our streets.”

UWS Slasher Convicted
A state Supreme Court jury found Upper West Side resident Julian Kurita guilty of second degree murder last week. Kurita was convicted of killing his father, Fumitaka Kurita, in their shared Upper West Side home on July 19, 2010. That night, police received a 911 call from the defendant, a former sushi chef, at his West 87th Street apartment. He told police that he had stabbed his father, slitting his throat, and then slashed his own wrists. When officers arrived on the scene, they found the father face-up on the floor, bleeding from neck and not breathing. Kurita had killed him as he was sitting down to the dinner table. His attorney argued in court that he was mentally ill at the time—Kurita told police he had gone off his medication—and didn’t know what he was doing, but the jury sided with the prosecution and agreed that he was responsible for, and guilty of, the murder.

Property Taxes Demystified
Upper West Side City Council Member Gale Brewer and representatives from the city’s Department of Finance will be available to help residents with property tax questions at a seminar on Thursday, June 7 from 6:30-8:30 p.m. at the American Folk Art Museum, 2 Lincoln Square. Bring questions about commercial, residential, condo and co-op property taxes and get answers directly from the department that handles them.
New Cardiac Treatment at Local Hospitals
Two Manhattan hospitals—St. Luke’s and Roosevelt—are getting ahead in the treatment of slow heartbeats. The two hospitals will be among the first in the nation to treat patients with INGENIO pacemakers, which help people who suffer from bradycardia, a heart rate of usually less than 60 beats per minute.
“The INGENIO device enables physicians to treat pacemaker patients with an advanced and comprehensive set of therapies,” said Emad Aziz, a doctor in the Department of Medicine and Cardiology at the hospitals. “The INGENIO pacemaker’s MV sensor is easy to optimize and will provide needed therapy for patients to help them feel less fatigued during physical activity.”
With this new device, doctors can keep tabs on their cardiac patients’ health from a distance; the device’s wireless technology can transmit patients’ data to doctors in several locations in North America.

Parking Regulation Map Goes Online
The Department of Transportation announced the launch of an online map that will show parking regulations for every block in New York City. The new tool came about as a result of legislation authored by East Side Council Member Dan Garodnick designed to increase transparency of street and transit data. The map shows parking signs, indicates when roads were last resurfaced and gives a street evaluation for roads in good, fair or poor condition. The DOT hopes that the tool will make resident parking easier, allowing people to check the map for alternate side regulation days before setting off on the daunting task of finding a spot in whatever neighborhood they’re in. This could cut down on the time that drivers are wandering the streets if they know which streets to avoid before they set out.
“New Yorkers shouldn’t be flying blind when they are looking for parking,” said Garodnick, who attributes the idea for the map to his mother. “It can be extremely annoying to drive to a new neighborhood and only learn the parking limitations once you have arrived. This map will let drivers know what they are getting themselves into when they plan a trip, and ultimately will save them some unnecessary headaches.”
Council Member James Vacca, chair of the transportation committee, compared deciphering parking regulations to “understanding Morse code” and praised the city for making it easier, and DOT Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan promised to continue using technology to help residents navigate the city’s transportation system.

Central Park Walking Tour
Local preservation advocacy group Landmark West is sponsoring a walking tour through Central Park led by professor Andrew S. Dolkart, director of the Historic Preservation Program at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning & Preservation. The walk will be Wednesday, June 20 at 6 p.m., and tickets ($25, $15 for members) for the limited number of spots must be purchased in advance. Email landmarkwest@landmarkwest.org to RSVP or call 212-496-8110 for more information.

Plants and Crafts Festival
The Broadway Mall Association is dedicated to maintaining and enhancing the malls of Broadway from the Upper West Side through Harlem. On Sunday, June 10, the organization is hosting its 35th annual Plantathon and Music Festival. At this free festival, participants can sample international cuisine from over 50 food stands, browse the displays of over 400 craft and plant exhibitors and listen to the music of Linda Miller, Havana Central, and Blue Haze on Broadway between 72nd and 86th streets. Famed actor Eli Wallach will be signing autographs and discussing his autobiography at the Author’s Corner from 2-4 p.m. The festival runs from 11 a.m.-5 p.m. and is open to all. For more information, call 212-764-6330.

Over $1 Million Raised for Health Care
Last month, St. Luke’s and Roosevelt hospitals held their annual joint fundraising gala on the Upper West Side at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine on West 113th Street and Amsterdam Avenue. The event honored world-renowned endovascular neurosurgeon Dr. Alejandro Berenstein, as well Richard E. Cappetta, president and CEO of MicroVention, the company that makes the microcatheters that Berenstein uses to treat patients. The gala raised more than $1 million to help support the hospitals’ initiatives.

Since 2008, yellow cabs in the city are required to have a touch screen that provides maps, fare information, and a credit payment system. Many of these systems are already provided by CMT. This new tech gives CMT equipped taxis nationwide with audible touch screens. The new monitors will allow passengers to hear fare changes at regular intervals, and provide a new way for the visually impaired to use their credit and debit cards. With the swipe of a special card, or by asking the driver, riders can make the screen accessible to visually impaired. The touch screen is then divided into large, easy to navigate sections that are prompted by step-by-step spoken instructions.

Council Member Vacca and Former Governor Paterson testing the new audible touch screen taxi technology.

“I know that New York City is one of the most difficult places for blind and visually impaired individuals to navigate, because my own father was blind. This issue is personal for me,” said Vacca in an emailed statement. “This technology will make a real difference for people who need it.”

The new touch screens are the latest in a string of pro-accessibility measures championed by Vacca, who is also Chair of the Council Transportation Committee. On March 28 the City Council passed three bills aimed at improving mobility for the visually impaired, including a bill by Vacca that requires the Department of Transportation to post maps online that are accessible to those with sight and hearing disabilities.