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P i t i T a n c 1 T a h i t i X r o L r c O u t P K i m Av ! L ! %u00a3 C ! s j ! UCSSSS S %u25a0 %u201c i \\ u v u l v i h iBY LINUS GELBERResidents of Pacific Street, between Bond and Nevins Streets, established a Volunteer Block Control Group this September, following a rash of crimes in the late summer, to patrol the street between 6 and 10 p.m. The chief offenses were muggings and miscellaneous acts of vandalism, %u201c directed against residents and folks just passing through,%u201d said Pacific Street resident Joe Michenfelder. Volunteers now walk the block in two-hour shifts six evenings a week.%u201c Pacific Street has a history of crime,%u201d said resident Mark Zulli. %u201c Especially in the Spring and Fall%u2014the muggings increase incredibly.%u201d Areas surrounding Nevins Street have particular difficulties; Nevins, referred to as %u201cThe Alley,%u201d is a boundry between the 76th and 78th Precincts, thus isolated from the centers of both. The civilian patrol, however, has taken up some of the slack left by sparse police coverage in the area.%u201cOne must say that the muggings have dropped off dramatically in the last four weeks,%u201d stated Michenfelder. %u201c Burglaries, breakins, vandalism, these as well as various other felonies have definitely tapered off.%u201dThe only incident on the block in%u201c With daylight savings time now,%u201d said Michenfelder, %u201c 5:30, 5:45 is very dark. We may have to extend the patrol hours.%u201d This is one of the discussion topics for the next meeting of Pacific Street%u2019s informal block association, chaired by Michenfelder, slated for 7:30 on November 21.The Volunteer Control, although strictly an unofficial force, cooperover a month occured on November 3 at 5:45 p.m., fifteen minutes before the evening%u2019s patrols began, when two assailants attacked a woman, stole her purse and punched her repeatedly in the jaw,ates loosely with the 76th Precinct police, depending on officers to arrive quickly after a crime has been spotted. %u201c We should not be perceived as a vigilante group,%u201d said Michenfelder. If the group were to take a six-hour orientation course with the police, he explains, it could become official; but then itwould be an extension of the precinct, subject to assignment anywhere by the station. %u201c No one wants to become official. All we%u2019re talking about is patrolling the block.%u201dPacific Street is not the only street with problems. Atlantic Avenue Committee Chairman Bob Cogen admits that anti-crime has come up at Dean and Bergen Street Block Association meetings, although he vigorously denies that any moves have been made in the patrol direction. Residents of Bergen and Dean Streets have, in small numbers, had CB radios installed in their cars, with which they can inconspicuously patrol wide areas and efficiently contact the police. 76th Precinct Detective Tim Cole has noted a recent rise in the number of small blockwatcher associations. %u201c There is a concensus of people saying, %u2018we need help,%u201d explains Michenfelder. %u201c I won%u2019t say that people are running scared. But they certainly are running concerned.%u201dEventually, Michenfelder said, the Volunteer Block Control force may grow to include senior citizen blockwatching, with a central stationary CB base, mobile CB car units and walkie-talkie contact with street patrols, but all such ideas are for far in the future.Michenfelder feels that the streets of Boerum Hill, tree-lined and thick with shade, make the Hill attractive to prostitutes, and that %u201cthe give and take of prostitutes, pimps and tricks opens up the street to drugs, muggings and purse snatchings.%u201d Much of Pacific Street, he explains, was once %u201c sort of a combat zone, a meatmarket for prostitutes.%u201d He expressed great hopes for volunteer patrols%u2019 breaking crime%u2019s hold on the Boerum Hill area.Mark Zulli is more pessimistic. %u201c We had a period of relative stability in the Western World from the early 1900s up until about ten years ago,%u201d he said. %u201c That%u2019s ended%u2014violence is the sign of our time.%u201dFollowing the control group%u2019s advent,%u2018%u2018muggings have dropped off dramatically,%u201donly one incident occurringin more than a month.Newsbriefs:Slope SatelliteAwarded GrantA $61,000 federal grant, recently obtained by Satellite West, one of Community School District 13%u2019s two specialized junior high schools, is being used to fund before and after-school tutorial programs.The grant, made available through the Emergency School Aid Act, has made it possible to extend the school day by about two and a half hours. The voluntary program involves 140 of the school%u2019s 200 students. Students attending the satellite schools are admitted on the basis of an entrance exam. Satellite West is housed on the third floor of PS 307, 209 York Street.The early morning program is designed to improve math and reading skills. The after school program, \proves thinking and problem solving skills and creativity through a series of exercises. Students are grouped according to grade level.Xmas Seal GalaTo Raise FundsThe Brooklyn Tuberculosis and Lung Association (BTLA) is hosting a fund-raising gala to benefit BTLA%u2019S SUPERKIDS, an asthmatic children%u2019s exercise program. The event features a ride on the Nostalgia Train leaving the Boerum Place and Schermerhorn Street station at 9 p.m.\Brooklyn, sponsoring the event, offer an evening of touring the vintage subway cars, viewing the historic transit exhibit and motion picture showings of subways past and present and partaking of food, cocktails and dancing. A taxdeductible subscription of $35 is requested. For reservations and ticket information, contact Don Herman at .624-8531.Drug-Free CenterHosts Sr. DinnerPhoenix House, the drug-free therapeutic located in the Prospect Heights section of Brooklyn at 174 Prospect Place between Vanderbilt and Carlton Avenues, will host its third annual pre-Thanksgiving day dinner to be held on Tuesday, November 21,from 2p.m. to 5p.m.The dinner will be for senior citizens of the community. Those in need of transportation, will be provided with transportation by Phoenix House. For information please call 789-4616. Make reservations early.Slope LandmarksEligible for FundsOwners of Park Slope landmark houses are eligible for funds under the federally funded Facade Improvement program according to Landmarks executive director Lenore Norman.The neighborhood had been excluded last spring by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) on the grounds that it was too affluent to qualify for the program. Under the program money is available to low and moderate income homeowners for external restoration of landmark buildings. Maximum grants are $10,000, but the amount is based on the owner%u2019s income.%u201c It was simply a misunderstanding,%u201d says Norman. Park Slope had in need of transportation will be beginning. Then the OMB excluded it because in aggregate Park Slope had a higher income level. OMB has now decided that individuals in Park Slope who qualify for the program will be considered.%u201dOther neighborhoods included in the program are Boerum Hill, Carroll Gardens, Cobble Hill and Stuyvesant Heights. Manhattan neighborhoods included are Hamilton Heights, Mt. Morris Park, Jumel Terrace, and St. Nicholas.Greater N.Y. Bias Stirs ComplaintsRepresentatives of Against Investment Discrimination (AID) complained to the state legislature%u2019s Committee on Consumer Affairs and Protection November 9 that the Greater New York Savings Bank has discriminated against Park Slope in its money lending practices.The testimony came during the first of a series of hearings to be held throughout the state investigating the mortgage granting practices of New York savings banks.%u201c In the five years I%u2019ve sold real estate in Park Slope, I%u2019ve never once had a mortgage with GreaterNew York,%u201d said real estate broker John Noonan. Also speaking for AID were Lynn Kearney, Dale Gutierrez, Bernard Block, and Richard White and members of two other anti-redlining groups, Bank on Brooklyn and Bank on Bronx also testified.Redlining means the practice of geographical discrimination in money-lending.%u201cThe gist of the hearing was that banks are refusing to advance funds for mortgages at the present rate of interest,%u201d said Brooklyn assemblyman Harvey Strelzin who chairs the committee. %u201c Not only are they making it difficult to get mortgages at all by demanding 30 percent down, and in some instances 50 percent down but it appears that the Greater New York Savings Bank has refused to grant any mortgages.%u201dAssemblymen Peter Sullivan, Joseph Ferris, and Strelzin represented the 15-member legislative committee.New Local PaperAppears MonthlyA new monthly newspaper about Atlantic Avenue and the surrounding community is scheduled to appear this December.Atlantic Currents, published by Boerum Hill residents John HamiJton-DeGrussa and Edward Moran, will be distributed free to local homes and businesses.\and events that make living in downtown Brooklyn so# interesting,%u201d said Hamilton-DeGrussa. He said that the paper plans a press run of 10,000 copies, with possible articles on merchants and new residential developments as well as regular columns on arts, community activities, and %u201c practical columns for the home or apartmentdweller.%u201dZoning ChangesFace EvaluationThe recently proposed zoning modification for Montague Street, limiting specific types of commercial uses in an attempt to nrecervothe street%u2019s diversification, is expected to go before the City Planning Commission in January.First, however, the commission%u2019s Brooklyn office is reviewing commercial and shopping patterns on Montague Street as comparedXANADU OPENS: Workers are putting the finishingtouches on a new downtown Brooklyn music club, Xanadu.Manager Jimmie Welcome said that the ciub, located at376 Schermerhorn Street, the former site of Smucker%u2019sCiub, is scheduled to open November 31.with other historic districts such as Park Slope and Cobble Hill.The office also will study how a zoning change might affect rent structures, said Brooklyn planner Victor Le Plattenier.Proposed by the Brooklyn Heights Association (BHA) the rezoning would divide the street into three commercial categories: service consumables (eating and drinking), retail services (barber shops, laundries, and banks), and package retail (clothing and food stores).' Each category would be allowed to occupy a maximum of 25 percent of each block, and a single store could have a frontage of only 25 feet. Non-commercial uses such as apartment entrances would take up the slack.n^Arcia CJlira** AJ- - %u2014 -------- 0 _ %u2022 v %u00ab . ) v g i i u v m v / l H I VBHA, is meeting with several individual merchants to iron out objections they have to the proposal. These include fears that the zoning would be too restrictive, and might dissuade other stores from opening on the street.Rezoning Montague was proposed before when a Burger King franchise opened on the street in 1976. The BHA abandoned a push to ban fast food restaurants, however, because it was felt such a move discriminated against one type of restaurant and would not have survived a court challenge.LePlattenier said the new proposal is more likely to be legal since restrictive zoning regulations have been impostd elsewhere%u2014as on Eighth Street in Greenwich Village.After it goes to the City Planning Commission, the proposal will be certified as complete and referred to Community Board Two. The board will then hold a public hearing to recommend or disapprove of the plan. If approved by the board, the proposal will return tu Llic Planning v o n u n issio n for another public hearing and, if approved there, will go to the Board of Estimate for a final decision. The entire process may take five to six months, LePlattenier said.%u2014G.F.November 16,1978, THE PHOENIX, Page 25