Page 40 - Demo
P. 40
Bellamy Opposed to Westway, However...CONTINUED. .good reason for voting for you. %u2018T v e got to have good consistent work coming out of this office over a period of tim e before I can think of another office.%u201d Anyway, she adds, \Bellamy has no doubt that her job will enable her to establish a record she can put before the voters in some future race, not only in her three statutory functions but through her involvement in all sorts of governm ental and civic bodies concerned with urban affairs. She is. for instance, chairman of the Task Force on Child Im m u n izatio n ; a p la in tiff in a su itchallenging Con Ed rate increases; she serves on bodies dealing with health, economic development and transportation.On Westway, Bellamy says, %u2018%u2018I%u2019m opposed to Westway and will continue to be opposed.\the pro-Westway forces may be successful in maneuvering the issue around the Board of Estimate because, now at least, anti-Westway forces command a majority. She has asked the Corporation Counsel for an opinion as to whether the matter must come before the Board, but as of this writing, several weeks after the request, she had not received a reply.Although some of her old supporters in Brooklyn feel that Bellamy%u2019s political ambitions have caused her to depart from the ranks of the reformers, Bellamy plainly sees herself as still in the good government ranks and thus she is perceived nationally. Last Friday, for instance, she flew to St. Paul to give a paper on %u201c A Progressive Agenda for America%u201d before the Fourth Annual National Conference on Alternative State and Local Policies. The organization is a latter-day continuation of the Movement of the 60s, as indicated by the fact that the other person giving a paper on the same subject was Sam Brown, director of Action, the parent organization of the Peace Corps ar.d Vista. Brown was one of the leading figures in the anti-war movement of the late 60s and early 70s. Bellamy, characteristically, was back in her office the next day, even though it was a summer Saturday afternoon.Asked why she was so quick to endorse Congressman Fred Richmond after he admitted that he had solicited a black 16-year-old boy and an undercover policeman in Washington, she says, %u2018%u2018He called me up on the phone and asked me to and 1 said yes.\serious matter....what he did was the wrong thing to do. Soliciting and paying is wrong.%u201d A public official%u2019s private life is his own, she says, unless it affects his ability to serve. But it was %u2018%u2018the money element%u201d that made Richmond's actions wrong, for Bellamy believes it is wrong to buy the bodies of others regardless of sex.She has, of course, heard the rumors attributing her support of Richmond to the fact that he was a major financial contributor to her campaign. %u2018%u2018He did, in fact, contribute substantially, a gift of $1000 and a loan of $9000%u201d but she says she %u2018%u2018was under no compulsion for that reason to endorse Richmond.%u201d She said she made the endorsement because Richmond had so well represented his district, because they were colleagues in government and personal friends and because of his support of her. She says she has repaid about half the $9000 loan to date.Turning to another subject%u2014whether she is still as close to her home district as she used to be%u2014she says %u201c probably not as much as I%u2019d like, but 1 still live in the community and like where I live.%u201d And shepoints out that she is still easy to reach; she has a listed phone number. For a while, she says, she had an unlisted number because so many people had called her in the middle of the night when she had a listed number; now that she has a public number again, it%u2019s not so bad, although she wishes people wouldn%u2019t call quite so early in the morning.Nonetheless, Bellamy can%u2019t get to everything in her old senate district as she used to because she now represents the entire city. She says, however, that few differences have developed between her and her old political comrades in the West Brooklyn Indepedent Democrats. %u201cThe major difference with WBID is on the Congressional seat.%u201dPRIVATE LIFEBellamy%u2019s not reluctant to discuss how politics affects the private lives of politicians, saying only that she%u2019d draw the line if the question were too personal, believing even politicians have a right to some privacy. Asked what politics did to her personal life, she says %u201c it doesn%u2019t do good things.%u201d And asked, as she always is, about not being married, she says, %u201c I haven%u2019t made some decision not to get married. I%u2019m getting a little old (she is 36) to have children at this point, but I still have plenty of time to get married. It%u2019s a very open option.%u201dBut she agrees that politics and marriage are not an easy match. Not only are there tremendous demands on a politician%u2019s time, but the personal attacks on politicians%u2014and Bellamy can understand why they have mounted so since the Vietnam War and W atergate%u2014are even more wounding on the family than the politician.So one is left with the impression that Bellamy will deal with her personal life as she does with her political ambitions: she%u2019ll just see what happens. In politics she%u2019ll work hard at her job in City Hall (not attempting to keep her accomplishments a secret) and privately she%u2019ll go to the occasional show (usually off-Broadway). %u201c I like to go to the movies and I like a nice dinner in a not particularly fancy restaurant.%u201dWherever she goes%u2014as when she went to the movies in Brooklyn Heights on July 4th%u2014there%u2019ll be people approaching her like those %u201c nice Republican ladies,%u201d asking, %u201c How are you, are you getting enough sleep?%u201d And wherever she goes, whether privately or politically, she%u2019ll be collecting votes. It just seems to happen to her.Ombudsman%u2019s Office RestructuredLast February, in a letter to all city agencies, Council President Carol Bellamy announced that she was %u201c moving the om budsm an%u2019s office away from individual complaint service toward the identification of com plaints and an analysis of the agency response to those com plaints.\To those ends, Bellamy restructured an office that is vaguely defined by the recent City C harter am endm ents into three parts: community liaison, program analysis, and direct case \and resolution.The first com ponent attem pts to stream line the communication with the community boards, with the district m anagers and the \that form the local complaint m echanism.The analysis of the complaints is d e sig n e d to fo cu s on p a tte rn s of complaints, and to coordinate overlapping agencies in expediting service complaints. For exam ple, Bellam y%u2019s office found that it was receiving several com plaints from home attendants in the H um an R eso u rces A d m in is tra tio n %u2019s $100 million home atten d an t%u2019s program , some of whom had not received their pay for several m onths. They also found that voluntary hospitals were turning away pregnant women under medicaid because a new state regulation m ade it appear as if the hospital would rot be re-im bursed.Bellamy has given testim ony on the home atten d an t%u2019s program , although it is still a major source of com plaints; and she has helped set up an interim system for medicaid mothers so that they do not have to worry about being turned away at the door of a local hospital.T he office does h a n d le serv ice com plaints directly (566-2850), although Bellam y's em phasis is on making the om budsm an the %u201c court of last reso rt.%u201d Th. office averages about 300 complasms per week, more in the w inter m onths and less in the sum m er, that mostly deal with derelict cars, faulty catch basins, Con Ed (which generates the most non-city agency complaints), street lights, etc. The office in this capacity acts as a %u201c filtering\referring complaints to respective agencies. In some instances, however, the om budsm an is indeed the court of last resort. For instance, there were some cars in Alley Pond Park in Queens that had been abandoned for almost five years. Neither the police departm ent, nor th e p ark s d e p a rtm e n t claim ed responsibility. All the agencies involved were finally brought together in a m eeting in a search for accountability.\afternoon.%u201d said one Bellamy staffer. -J .C .Crown Heights Blacks Rally In %u2018Show of Unity%u2019BY PETER HALEYChanting \ain't going to take it no m ore,\som e 2,000 black s ra llie d and marched in Crown Heights last weekend, in a show of strength aimed at the police and the local Hasidic community.N um erous la rg e -siz e d photo portraits of Arthur M iller, the black community activist who died by suffocation in a tussle with police in June, were among the signs carried by dem onstrators at the July 16 combined rally and march sponsored by the Crown Heights Black United Front,M iller's death and the near-fatal b e a tin g of a black youth by Hasidim brought blacks together for the m arch. It followed a route from the 77th police precinct to the 71st police precinct with a rally held midway at Kingston Avenue and Eastern Parkway across the s tre e t from th e L u b av itch er H a sid im %u2019s h e a d q u a rte rs at 770 Eastern Parkway.Along Eastern Parkway between Kingston and Brooklyn Avenues, several hundred policemen lined up on e ith e r sid e of police b a rric a d e s . H asid ic re sid e n ts leaned out of windows and stood on rooftops and in front ot buildings, w hile 100 feet f u rth e r b eh in d both these hum an and wooden b a rric a d e s black le a d e rs denounced both the police and the Hasidim for %u201c terro rism %u201d in the Crow n H e ig h ts co m m u n ity . Earlier, 150 off-duty cops, who had split off from a police rally at the nearb> B rooklyn M u seu m ,dem onstrated at this same site, shouting %u201c W e%u2019re num ber 1%u201d while black community residents taunted them .PEACEFUL THIS TIMEThe Black United Front protest was peaceful throughout the afternoon, but as the march concluded at the Empire Boulevard and New York Avenue 71st Police Precinct, w hich blacks have accu sed of favoring the Hasidim, Reverend Herbert Daughtry told the crowd m assed in front of the station house th at th e F ro n t w ould re sp o n d differently %u201c the next tim e.%u201d%u201c The next time the Hasidic terrorists strike out at our people, w e%u2019re going to tear this community u p ,%u201d said Daughtry, who rem inded d e m o n s tra to rs th a t th e p ro te s t showed that blacks could %u201c turn up the pow er%u201d when it was necessary.Black power was the them e of th e sp e e c h e s d u rin g th e rally acro ss from th e L u b av itch er H asidim %u2019s Eastern Parkway h ead %u00adquarters. While the 100 greenjacketed m em bers of the week-old Black C itizen s linked a rm s to %u201c fe n c e %u201d off U nited F ro n t dem onstrators from the police and generally helped keep the overcast afternoon \poiiiicai ieauers caiieu fur justice and greater black representation in Crown Heights.Jitu W eusi, Black Community Congress Chairman and one of the principal organizers of the march, d e sc rib e d th e m arch as a dem onstration of %u201c our an g er%u201d over M iller%u2019s death and the Rhodes beating. Weusi said the march wasthe first step towards organizing ourselves.%u201d The Black United Front%u2019s agenda includes demands for a federal investigation into Miller%u2019s death; that the city charter be amended to eliminate the %u2018Hasidic-dominated%u2019 Community rm im ing uciaiu y auu make CiOvvii Heights %u201c whole%u201d ; and the removal of %u201c special%u201d police protection for the Hasidic community. Black leaders, along with staging the rally and establishing the Black Civilian Patrol Front, have declined to meet with city officials including Mayor Koch until they are %u201c ready%u201d and have planned a boycott of localHasidic businesses.The afternoon%u2019s rally heard speeches by Reverend Sam Heron, Reverend Clarence Norman, Assemblyman A1 Vann, MUSE museum director Andrew Gill, State Senator Vander Beatty,n -------i - i %u2014 n n n r _1___ : ______ __ c %u201eu i u u M j f i i v . v y n u , C I 1 U U U 1 U U U t* tUPinn, Black Urban Leader Leon Modeste, Health and Hospital Board member Dr. Vernal Cave, Rev. Herbert Daughtry of the Black Community Congress and Black United Front, and Corinne Rhodes (mother of Victor Rhodes, the 16 year-old black beaten by a group of Hasidim). The speeches urgedblacks to develop political power at the ballot box and in the community.%u201c He better talk right,%u201d declared a young black in his twenties as one black politician stepped behind the podium. %u201c No peace now,%u201d the. . x u - j j ~ j r %u00bb %u2014 u : ~ ,J U U I U a u u w u . u v u i u v m i l l f m o I. Vcompanions muttered %u201ca .38 for a .38%u201d and \listened while the speaker called for the development of power that corresponded to the number of blacks in Brooklyn and across the city.Resentment towards the police and Hasidim ebbed and flowedPage 8, THE PHOENIX, July 20,1978

