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EditorialsLet's Wane A Real War --%u2014- %u00ab. %u2014 ---%u2014 \Everyone seems to agree that the old %u2018%u2018W ar On Poverty%u2019%u2019 hasn%u2019tbeen won%u2014and probably isn%u2019t being waged very effectively. Butno one seems to quite know what to do about it.Locally, there is little evidence that our two communityanti-poverty corporations%u2014 Fort Greene and' South Brooklyn%u2014have been guilty of massive mishandling of funds, as has occurredelsewhere in the city during the 12 year history of the currentanti-poverty campaign. But as our news story in these pagesreflects, there is equally little evidence that the millions spent herehave produced the kinds of results that those sums warrant.Indeed, no one quite knows how much has been spentlocally%u2014or at least that%u2019s what we%u2019re told by CommunityDevelopment Agency officials, whose job it supposedly is tooversee the local spending and operations. It%u2019s little wonder thatwith this kind of bureaucratic inefficiency, the whole operation hasfailed any kind of accountability test.The Koch administration has promised to overhaul the wholesystem, and has taken a few tentative steps in that direction. It isperhaps too early to access what can hardly even be called thebeginnings of overhaul, but it is not too early to note that a seriousre-evaluation and total redirection is what%u2019s needed. Thedissolving of the corporation boards, with subsequent replacementof token and incomplete boards, which is the only %u201c substantive%u201dmove Koch has made so far, is woefully inadequate, particularly ifit is not followed up quickly with firm er and more productivereform%u2014including an assessment of the current staffing andprogram expenditure.The sorry fact is that poverty has not declined in the city, at bestit has simply moved and changed shape, and in the mostdevastated areas, physical deterioration has made what wasalready bad even grimmer for those who still live there. Fightingpoverty is a tricky business; obviously, no one has the answers yet.But one thing is for sure: the war will never be won when theam m unition itself is a bulky and outdated neighborhoodbureaucracy.Sound Off Foodbock from RoadorsPoor ComfortHow nice that %u201c Urban Design%u201d magazine honored the Maitlana/Strauss/Behr team for their Cobble Towers Renovation (PHOENIX, July 13. p. 20). But this is poor comfort for those of us who live nearby and still see no sign that renovations are even starting, let alone done. We look out on a most dismal sight of broken windows and piles of uncollected trash. I think awards should wait for the finished work.I%u2019ve been watching for months hoping the PHOENIX would have the first news that the renovations were to get started. Do you have any news?%u2014Elizabeth Elwyn, KaneStreetUnwarranted AttackThe attack on the West Brooklyn Independent Democrats (WBID) in your letters to the editor column (PHOENIX, July 13) by SANE president Bob Side is unwarranted. Side alleges that Bernard Gifford subscribes to the foreign policy views of Nixon, Ford, and Moynihan, and that by endorsing Gifford for Congress WBID has abandoned its principles and its long standing commitment to peace. What a bunch of baloney!WBID members carefully questioned Gifford on dozens of subjects, including foreign policy issues, in several meetings before we endorsed him. We know Gifford%u2019s positions and SANE does not, because we questioned the candidate and.SANE did not. WBID got the facts. SANE got Side%u2019s effort to trot out the old guilt-by-association to see if it still works. Well, it doesn%u2019t.Perhaps Side wished this race were between Mr. Richmond and former Congressman John Rooney, a bona fide superhawk, but it is not. Mr. Richmond helped put Mr. Rooney into Congress twice, as his Finance Chairman in 1970 and Campaign Manager in 1972. Using Mr. Side%u2019s contorted logic, Mr. Richmond should be a superhawk, too. But he is not. (Richmond is a member of the SANE Executive Committee). Given the recent changes in the composition of the 14th C.D. I doubt that anybody with a Rooney-like foreign policy could get elected in the foreseeable future. Similarly, on domestic issues, there is little danger that when Mr. Richmond leaves office that his successor will be some kind of right-winger. Even John Rooney, as he illegally used the FBI to help defeat his reform opponents, was voting in a liberal/progressive fashion on domestic issues.There are many criteria that should be used to assess candidates, including (1) position on issues as determined by public statem ents and voting record. (21 oolitical ideology and principles, (3) character, (4) community service, and (5) ability to provide leadership in a heterogeneous district.Organizations like ADA, and apparentlySANE, look only at the voting record. WBID looks at the whole candidate and the full range of responsibilities of the office. Some people who give Mr. Richmond high marks for his voting record or give his employees good marks for their assistance say that this is all that matters. We disagree. The classic pitch used by Regulars is %u201cOur voting record is good and we try to help with problems, and in return for that please do not look at anything else we do.%u201d But there is more to being an elected official than having good positions on issues, especially in a Congressional District where the population is already masssively weighted toward support of liberal/progressive causes and candidates. The 14th C.D. is not a swing district that we risk losing to a right-winger.On leadership, character, and political principles, Mr. Richmond gets very LOW marks. On leadership, for example, because of his poor relationships with both the Hassidic and the Black communities, Mr. Richmond is laying so low on the Crown Heights crises that you would not think the area was in our Congressional District, but it is, and the situation cries out for mediation and leadership from all elected officials%u2014and Mr. Richmond cannot provide it.On character, Mr. Richmond tells the public he is trying to get federal loans for NYC, while secretly urging the Ford Administration to illegally cut off loans and send the City down the tubes to bankruptcy. Mr. Richmond%u2019s personal wealth has continued to grow, but he remained silent on the disastrous economic and physical deterioration of our City while his buddy Abe Beame played at being Mayor. We need officials who will blow the whistle on incompetence and neglect instead of being silent partners to it. Mr. Richmond%u2019s manipulations of the tax-free money in his foundation to develop his political career is a whole story in itself.One or two endorsements do not necessarily describe a person%u2019s political principles and ideology. A pattern of endorsements over a decade does. One reason WBID opposed Mr. Richmond in 1973, 74, and 76 is because for the past decade he has endorsed the James Mangano slates and almost every major opponent to Pesce, Bellamy, Wolf, and Ferraioli%u2014from 1972 to the present. After you have battled against Mr. Richmond%u2019s slates in the streets a few times you have to come to the conclusion that this man does not stand for the same things that we stand for. SANE is not being fair if they condemn Gifford for endorsing one Brooklyn Regular %u2014Howard Golden%u2014but wink their eye at the fact that Richmond endorsed Golden, too, and also endorsed dozens of our other Regular opponents in the past decade.Mr. Gifford has well thought-out positions on complicated political, economic and moral issues. WBID is enormously impressed with him. I urge SANE and other groups to call Gifford for Congress at 855-2245 and invite him to present his views to them.%u2014James I. Masters, PresidentWBID.Be ConsistentHow serious a crime is it to have sexual relations with a consenting minor?Here in Brooklyn it must be pretty serious. After all, Judge Leonard Scholnik just said he would sentence to five years%u2019 probation a young Marine who murdered his 14-year-old sister%u2019s lover, to defend her honor. Sounds like the Judge thought the murder was almost justifiable homicide.On the other hand, here in Brooklyn it must be a pretty petty crime. After all, our own Congressman Richmond pleaded guilty to soliciting a minor, and he got off with agreeing to seek therapy. He%u2019s running for re-election, and lots of people are saying that anyone who is offended or outraged by his conduct is overreacting and is antigay. How would Judge Scholnik have handled it if the young %u201cvictim%u2019s%u201d parents had taken action against Richmond in his jurisdiction?As a final irony, it should be remembered that before he went to Congress he was Councilman Richmond. And he was appointed to the City Council when none other than Councilman Leonard Scholnikdecided to go %u201c upstairs%u201d to the judgeship.My guess is that the crime is neither heinous enough to justify homicide nor petty enough to be laughed off. But let%u2019s at least be consistent in our reactions to people, not to the external power the people hold.%u2014Renee Vera Cafiero, Hicks St.Not Her ProblemWith reference to the %u201c Sound Off%u201d letter by Democratic Committeeman Jim Senyszyn (July 27), it seems to me that he is jealous of smart women or feels more comfortable supporting losers. These are his problems; not Carol%u2019s.%u2014Sian Mongin,Parks PlaceTwo Banks TaleAnyone interested in a tale of two banks? Earlier this year, Williamsburgh Savings Bank and the Greater New York Savings Band promised South Brooklyn Against Discrimination (A.I.D.) in writing that they would advertise in local papers that they were ready and willing to make mortgages and home improvement loans.There was a mortgage interest rate crunch on June 1,1978. Mr. Jerome Maron, President of the Greater New York, wrote A.I.D. to state that Greater New York was totally suspending its mortgage advertising program. Williamsburgh Savings Bank also stopped advertising for mortgages. But Williamsburgh, wishing to continue to do business with Brooklyn people, shifted its ad campaign to focus on home improvement loans and student loans. (See the back pages of the last two issues of the PHOENIX.)Incidentally, Williamsburgh made over 900 home improvement loans last year while Greater New York made 28. Why is %u201c Big Red%u201d reluctant to spend some of its SI.5 million advertising budget in Brooklyn. Only the Shadow and Jerome Maron knows.%u2014Herb Steiner, Third Street, Chairman%u2014A.I.D.Gay RightsToday, Monday July 31, 1978, 1 p.m., I went to Atlantic Ave. Guild (Atlantic Antic office) to ask to march in the Atlantic Ave. Parade to carry a sign which would say, Human Rights Starts At Home. Attached also the American flag. And the woman in charge of the Guild said no way. As I did 3 years straight, I banged my fist on the table and cried out why. A man was behind me and both the woman and man told me to get out or we will call the police.So the man behind me picked me up and threw me out of the office. And I feel deep down that something should be done about this. Because gay people' have a right to march, too. Because lucre's a VERY loi^c amount of gay people in Brooklyn in THIS AREA. So gay people stand up, and take pride in yourselves. Freedom for all, not for some.%u2014Jimmy Flowers, Pacific StreetAugust 3,1978, TH E PHOENIX, Page 5