Page 450 - Demo

Off the Record by Jon CinerT i r r - i o T / > V A / l L o | I n %u2022 im v %u2022 v/ a i u t t v w |#As November draws near, it becomes more and more evident that David Garth is not going to turn the gubernatorial election into a landslide victory for Governor Carey. That much became clear to the Governor%u2019s campaign staff this week as the battle lines began forming for a classic confrontation between the city votes going to Carey versus upstate and suburban votes going to GOP candidate Perry Duryea.There are enough potential votes in the city to swing the margin to Carey%u2014that is, if people show up at the polls. Under normal circumstances, the average congressional race in Brooklyn or Manhattan draws about 50,000 votes. In Nassau County, the averageis about 175,000 votes. And the pivotal factor for Carey is to exceed the average turnout.That%u2019s where field operation comes in.%u2022 Garth%u2019s commercials may induce a lot of people to re-consider and vote for Carey after all. But they are not designed to get people into the voting booth in the first place. And so, this week, finally, Carey%u2019s aides put out the phone calls to local club leaders and politicans and told them they%u2019ll be expected to work on Election Day. Usually, for local Democratic leaders, Election Day is a breeze, since they can usually muster about four or five to onemargins for local candidates without much trouble. The margin will have to be a lot higher in city precincts for Carey to win.TargetsWhile almost all local Democratic candidates walk in to an elected office on Election Day%u2014the primary%u2019 is what countsthere are still a few Republican %u201c pockets%u201d throughout the city, where Democrats usually maintain a slight edge in voter registration but where popular Republicans manage to hold off Democratic challenges every two years.The Democratic Legislative Committee in Albany, headed by Senate Minority Leader Manfred Ohrenstein, has targeted a few Republican State Senate seats in the city where Democrats perceive the chance for a tip in the scales. In the past, the Committee has doled out financial aid to almost all Democratic challengers. The result has been predictable%u2014Republicans like John Marchi in Staten Island and Lower Manhattan, Roy Goodman on the East Side, and John Calandra in the Bronx, as well as others, win handily.This year the Democratic Legislative Committee is going to be a little more cold-blooded. They have targeted three races in particular in the city, where they expect to spend between $20,000 and$25,000 dollars. One race is on Staten Island, where Robert Gigante, who has reportedly raised about $50,000 on his own, is challenging Marchi. Ironically, Gigante, the Democratic candidate, is running a strong pro-death penalty against Marchi, one of the few Senate Republicans who voted against the death penalty. Obviously Ohrenstein and Co. are not hung up on one issue%u2014they are reportedly giving Gigante about $25,000.Another race is in the North Bronx, where reform Democrat Michael Benedetto is challenging Calandra, who also happens to be the Bronx County GOP Chairman. Benedetto won the Democratic primary over a regular candidate, but that does not prevent him from getting the Committee to shell out the money. He also raised a substantial amount by himself, and some feel that Calandra may be in trouble.The Committee reportedly has some money left over for one%u2014maybe two races%u2014and are now considering three races: two are upstate contests, the third is in Brooklyn, where Jack Carroll, a reformer from Park Slope, goes against Christopher Mega, a Republican from Bay Ridge/Sunset Park. The seat was left vacant when the 12-term GOP Senator William Conklin retired this spring. Mega, who is one of the few elected Republicans in the city, is considered the favorite, but Carroll iswaging an aggressive campaign on a meagre budget. Some Committee people have been impressed by Carroll%u2019s effort%u2014a poll the Committee conducted showed him rising in name-recognition%u2014but there is doubt among Committee members that he can off-set Mega%u2019s strongholds%u2014namely , in the 49th and 50th A.D.s in Bay Ridge. That area has elected the only Republican to the City Council (aside from four Councilmembers-at-large), and has two Republican Assemblymen (Mega and Dominick DeCarlo, a Duryea lieutenant) and has kept Conklin in office for 24 years. The Congressman who represents Bay Ridge, Leo Zeferetti, is a Democrat; but he has been able to maintain good stead with Republicans largely from Conservative Party endorsements.Carroll has very little money. %u201c How can he run for Senate when he has no money?%u201d one member of the Legislative Committee asked. Cold-blooded indeed. Still, Carroll, if he can get overwhelming majorities in Park Slope and Windsor Terrace, may off-set some of Mega%u2019s expected margins in the southern end of the district. In other words, there%u2019s a race, especially if the Legislative Committee can up several thousand bucks for Carroll to do mailings, and if the Carroll field operation can find the Democrats down in Bay Ridge and pull them out to vote.Coping By J u d y LinscottEverybody%u2019s got a closet habit and I%u2019m going to admit right at the start that mine has become reading %u201c personals%u201d columns, those %u201c back of the book%u201d classified where shy, sweet, uninhibited female artist seeks strong, intelligent, uninhibited male, late thirties, send photo.It all began with the newspaper strike, so you could say it%u2019s the fault of the %u201c Times%u201d and the %u201c News,%u201d without which 1 become very grouchy, which isn%u2019t pleasant, and so am liable to be too easily mollified by surprises found elsewhere. My standards start slipping. In desperation, I start reading other publications cover to cover. I discover personals. And, as they say, get an instant new lease on life.These things are great: they're as good as soap operas but they don't use up electricity and they%u2019re built into the most respectable of publications. No need to sneak down to Times Square at midnight or to draw the blinds in your own home. Caught reading them red-handed, you can always say you%u2019re apartment hunting.They make livlier and far more engrossing reading than my old closet habit of reading the Sunday %u201cTimes%u201d wedding announcements (somehow' they also feel more like real life). And since they don%u2019t purport to tell you anything about the current affairs in Zaire or at City Hall, the reader%u2019s level of expectation is (I%u2019vediscovered) minimal, and therefore easily met, in fact surpassed. Like reading the back of the Cheerios box-you%u2019re rarely disappointed.Now w'e all know that in the course of this I%u2019m going to say something which someone who fervently believes in the old adage %u201c classifieds work%u201d will find insulting. So before we go one bit further I would like to admit-for the benefit of whatever happy couples or triades out there who found themselves in the classifieds-that I am guilty of being both cynic and romantic. As far as I%u2019m concerned, you%u2019ve about as much chance of finding your soul mate through the Underground Beehive as you have of finding the right job through an agency that calls itself %u201c Ivy League Job Mart\through the publisher%u2019s sweepstakes.Nevertheless, I respect those who have faith. As a friend pointed out in a heated argument on this very subject, the process is probably as likely to get you somewhere or someone as will evenings spent in a singles bar or Saturday afternoons wandering Central Park (and if you spend your evening or afternoons in either way, I agree). Who am I to say that for $1 to $5 a line you shouldn%u2019t cast your fates to the SoHo News winds, while in the course providing highly entertaining reading, and , should you be so lucky as to-as they soCommunity Forum __In Lieu Contributions MoreBY RICHARDSON PRATT, JR.Mayor Koch and Council President Bellamy sent a letter recently to all local tax exempt institutions asking them to consider cash payments in lieu of taxes as contributions towards City services.While wc agree with their contention that such institutions should make public services contributions in consideration of their tax exempt status, we strongly lisagree with the concept of cash paymentsFollowing is our detailed response to the Mayor and Council President. 1 believe you%u2019ll be pleased to learn, as we were, that Pratt Institute%u2019s annual contributions to the people of New York City far exceed in value the hypothetical tax bill suggested by Mayor Koch and Council President Bellamv.Dear Mayor Koch:Wc at Pratt Institute concur with your and Council President Bellamy%u2019s contenED%u2019S NOTE: Richardson Pratt, Jr.. President of Pratt Institute, sent the above %u2019 nter to Mayor Koch and City Council %u25a0 %u2022 B my in response to their request ntributions from tax exempt %u25a0 :'%u25a0 miens, such as Pratt.- i r\tion that non-profit institutions should make significant in lieu contributions in consideration of their tax-exempt status. Further, we believe institutions should be held periodically accountable for those contributions. On the other hand, we have no intention of making cash payments as inContributions shouldbe expressed and, ves,assessed as variousservices to thecoinmunitv.lieu contributions, as you suggest.Our reasons are these. We do not believe that these contributions should in any way be related in some numerical fashion to arbitrarily-derived tax assessm ents. Rather, they should be expressed and, yes, assessed as various services to the community. This kind of commitmentboorishly sa y -%u201c score,%u201d certainly recouping your losses (assuming your ad has been running less than a year).On the other hand, let it not be said that I encourage this sort of thing, and if you get yourself killed or find yourself a friend for life or some tacky weirdo, don%u2019t come running to me. I just read the things.For sheer mild-mannered kinkiness and absurdities the %u201cVillage Voice%u201d is really best, and in this vein I%u2019m sorry to see that the feisty %u201c SoHo News%u201d can%u2019t do betterIt%u2019s dog eat dog in this lurid classified game, and the SoHo%u2019s meagre collection of uninspired longings is indeed proof of the sorry fact that they just haven%u2019t made it. To their credit, the SoHo seekers do seem less hung up on the age, race, sexual persuasion and so on of the seekees than those at the Voice who are so immersed in the details of this business that reading the Voice column amounts to a crash course in post-sixties personals jargon. (Do not, for instance, make the mistake of confusing WBF with %u201c working brick fireplace,%u201d or you%u2019ll get bogged down immediately.)The interim dailies are also a big disappointment in this field and I%u2019m sorry to say that the News World-about as lively as they come in this limited news-blackout context-has nothing to offer. The Wall Street Journal likewise offers unlimited potential of its own peculiar variety, butthe closest they come is a column headed %u201c personnel,%u201d which I%u2019m sorry to report is a whole other thing.The best of the weekly supply are in The New Republic, although the New York Review of Books runs a close second in the pseudo-intellectual knee jerk liberal seeks kind vein, while The Saturday Reviewbless their sterile little hearts-clearly has no notion of what a %u201c personal%u201d is.But whilst sportive physicians seek (Jriental ladies in the New Republic or a Northest Oklahoma couple seeks anything in the NY Review of Books, there%u2019s only one place I%u2019ve discoveed thus far where you can seek, as they say in the classified business, to %u201cget rid of it.%u201d Majority Report, which calls itself %u201cthe women%u2019s new spaper%u201d carries something rather distastefully called the %u201c used husbands%u201d column, wherein any fed-up and vindictive used wife can warn the world about Joe P. (small, Irish, charming, loves money but hates making it). Now it seems to me there%u2019s a more efficient way of working this whole business, and I%u2019d like to see the used husbands team up with the Westchester wives of the New Republic or for that matter with the WBF%u2019s of the Voice so that everyone can get a clear look at what%u2019s available.And no complaining. After all, you only get what you pay for.Significant Thanshould grow out of and reflect the institution%u2019s own history and raison d%u2019 etre. In lieu contributions are no less significant, carry no less weight for lack of a dollar figure. Indeed, many of these contributions cannot be assessed even now for they are investments in the city and its people, and the dividends will be yielded in the years to come.Your letter of July 19 has set me thinking about this subject in some depth and I am appreciative for the opportunity to respond. We assumed all along that Pratt%u2019s contributions were large; now we know they are. I would like to tell you about some of the specific ways Pratt, beyond its primary function as an academic institution, serves the people of New York City. And, Mr. Mayor, we are proud to stand accountable to you as the representative of the citizens of this great city.First, I would like to describe several well-established Pratt programs that are involved specifically in community service.The Youth Skills Discovery and Development Project: Each year upwards of 600 neighborhood school-age youngsters are selected to participate in an intensive, 10-week summer session that includes classroom and tutorial instruction in athe Dollarvariety of academic subjects, ranging from visual arts and dance to basic reading, math and study skills. A follow-up program during the school year ensures continuing enrichment. Funded by private sources and Pratt at a level of nearly $100,000, the Youth Skills offers important remedial and advanced instruction that the N.Y.C. school system has not been able to provide.In addition, there is The Saturday Art School, where some 100 additional youngsters are involved year round in this program, which is nearly as old as the Institute.The Activities/Resource Center: Built three years ago with private funds at a cost of $5.5 million, Pratt has deliberately made this space available to community-oriented and other organizations for a variety of functions, ranging from the Colgate Women%u2019s Games to the Public Schools Athletic League track meets.We are pleased to be able to offer these services, to do our share in keeping New York City a great city. Along with your inspired leadership and that of President Bellamy and others, we will succeed in completing the turnaround we%u2019ve begun and in creating an even greater urban environment.- PHOENIX October 12. 1973