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ifimiimuiiiiiiuiitiiiiHiiiiiiiiuiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiuiHiiitiuitininiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiHHtniJanuary 10,1974 PHOENIXHlfHWmWHtfflilHHiiiSHlIilHIItiWfflBHHlffiHHWMIHfflUUi liMHWBIPace 3District 13 Anooints Sunt.h i ~ i~ %u201cHarris Named to PostDissenter DiscreditedBY CORRINE COLEMANDespite the efforts of maverick Dist. 13 School Board Member Seymour Pustilnik of Brooklyn Heights to stop the appointment of Dr. J. Jerome Harris to the post of Community School Superintendent for the District, the board, voted 8- 1 to confirm the appointment of the Los Angelos educator at a Jan. 7 meeting. Harris is now on the job, said a Board representative.The Harris confirmation and the subsequent signing of a 3>/2 year employment contract with District 13 had been held up until Monday by an enjoining order obtained by Pustilnik on the basis of alleged evidence of falsification of the new superintendent%u2019s employment credentials.However, the restraining order obtained by Pustilnik lapsed after a hearing held by Supreme Court Judge Murray Feiden on Dec. 27,and a myriad of official statements from Los Angelos discredited Pustilnik%u2019s allegations that Harris had falsified his credientials, and the Board, on adVise of its legal counsel, ratified its earlier selection of Harris.The actions by Pustilnik were variously described as %u201cviscious%u201d and %u201cdeliberately sowing disention%u201d in the District by members of the district 13 board. One member said: %u201cWhat is difficult to understand is how there can be any explanation for Pustilnik proceeding with court action when the Board had in its possession for months proof of Harris%u2019 open to inspection by him. employment and when Pustilnik himself had apparently received confirmation of the truth of the record when he went into court.%u2019%u2019Pustilnik is the only member of the District 13 Board from Brooklyn Heights. He is a residentof Cadman Plaza. The District includes the Heights, Fort Greene, Clinton Hill, and parts of Park Slope, Prospect Heights and Bedford-Stuyvessant.According to Paul Jarvis of Fort Greene, who furnished copies of the correspondence between Los Angeles and Brooklyn regarding Dr. Harris, it appears likely that Pustilnik himself did actually have information prior to the court hearing countering his own allegations, which he neither revealed to the board or to the judge. Specifically, a letter sent to Pustilnik via special delivery mail on Dec. 20 by A.J. Shugg. Assistant Director, Employee relations Section. Los Angeles City Unified School District, confirms the Board's position and the Harris resume. The letter, a copy of which was mailed to the board after it was mailed to Pustilnik, states that the author obtained further information about the Harris emHarrisployment record which superseeded his earlier (Dec.3) statement which Pustilnik used as his sole evidence against Harris.(Though the earlier Shugg correspondence merely advises that Harris was currently then employeed as a %u201cteacher\L.A. system. Pustilnik suggested as reported here last week that this revealed that the new superin tendent never performed the vice principal role. >Other docum ents-copies of which are in the PHOENIX possession include a statementdrafted in June 1972 (long before__ jany cuuaiuci cuiuu ui n a m o aoSuperintendent here) by Robert B Case, Principal, Paul Revene Junior High School and Crenshaw High School, and received by the board's screening committee in Sept. 1973 advising that %u201cJermone Harris worked at Crenshaw High School as an Acting Boys VicePrincipal%u201d. A letter from Frank Fittlin Director of the Employee Relations Section, of the L.A. City Unified School District, verified Harris%u2019 employment as %u201cActing Vice Principal at Crenshaw High School during the entire school year 1969-70%u201d.Though the other board members are happy with the Harris appointment, advising that the Superintendent who gave his first report to the board, is already in full command, Pustilnik is not yet reconciled, they say. The dissident Board member is also on the other side of the Board's decision to oppose the K-8 single school proposal for Block 207 in Brooklyn Heights and against their decision for the continued pairing of P S. 7 and 8 and against renovation of the two schools.Ironically, Pustilnik voted < for tactical reasons, he explained1 with the Board on the P S 7-8 issue, though he has been named as chief organizer and prime mover of the effort for a Heights single school.llllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllUtllllllllllltllllllllllllllllllligillllllllllllltfIilIlllllllllIllllllllllllllillllllllllllltlillllMIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIItllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll!llllllllNeighborhood Groups AskHigh Intensity Streetlights:Crime Deterent or Tree Killer?BY JOHN BLACKMORELate last week a street lighting maintenance truck appeared on Sixth Street in Park Slope; the neighbors presumed it was there to replace a faulty streetlight. But by evening%u2019s fall an artificial twilight lingered along the street, and it was all too apparent that Sixth Street had gone the way of numerous other blocks in Brooklyn%u2019s neighborhoods. Highintensity sodium lights had been installed.The same thing occurred on adjacent 7th Street, 8th Street, 3rd Street, last month on Pacific Street in Cobble Hill, and numerous other primarily residential blocks in the South Brooklyn area. The lightingClark Talk On Nixon Set in Hgts.Former United States Attorney General Ramsey Clark will speak on %u201cThe Impeachment of Richard M. Nixon%u201d at a meeting of the West Brooklyn Independent Democrats at 8:15 P.M. on Tuesday, January 15th at the Community Room of Cadman Towers, 101 Clark Street, Brooklyn Heights. Admission is free. The meeting is the second for Clark in two weeks in the Downtown area.During the Kennedy years, Clark served as Assistant Attorney General. In 1969, he was appointed Attorney General and in that office earned a renutation as a leading exponent of civil rights.Since returning to private practice, he has continued his fight for personal freedoms and has been involved in a number of key civil rights cases. He is currently the counsel for the Alaska Federation of Natives and the attorney of record for the defendants in the Attica Prison case. He is also member of the faculty at Brooklyn Law School.trucks came quietly, and without warning, as part of a city-wide drive to replace all of the existing mercury vapor lamps with the sodium variety as a crime deterent. %u201cAt least they could let the people on the blocks know what%u2019s going on before they put them in,%u201d exclaimed Sheldon Goldberg, President of the Pacific Street Block Association, a reaction shared by many community residents contacted by the PHOENIX, notwithstanding their views on the lights.If there is any question whether sodiumization will hit your block or neighborhood, let this notice serve: a city electric and gas official reported to the PHOENIX Monday that practically all of Brooklyn%u2019s street lights will be converted, and this year. %u201c80,006 to 90,000 sodium lamps will be installed before the end of the year in Brooklyn,%u201d the official said. This constitutes all but 6,000 lamps in the borough, and these exceptions are mainly for parkways and highways. DECIDED TO FIGHTCertain block associations, particularly the Pacific Street group, have decided to stand and fight. Goldberg reported that the vast majority of Association members are %u201c strongly dissatisfied%u201d with the sodium lights. %u201cI can no longer tell if it%u2019s cloudy or clear outside, the lights make it all look the same,%u201d Goldberg said. But aesthetics is only part of the concern, the very lives of the young saplings being planted along neighborhood streets is apparently in jeopardy. Some botanists believe that the constant exposure to high-intensity light denies these voune trees their natural %u201csleep,%u201d so when the first heavy frost comes, they%u2019re not as resilient to its effects. \that while trees are being planted all over the city, this new program is introduced which may mean the death of these very trees,\Goldberg commented.When Goldberg cited this information to Martin Burell, administrator of the city's Bureau of Gas and Electricity, he reportedlyresponded, %u201cShow me one tree that%u2019s been hurt, or one study that proves that lights hurt trees.%u201d Mr. Goldberg reports that such effects are evident, and can be seen right in Brooklyn Heights. %u201cYou can see it along Henry Street, where the trees are under the sodium lights, the leaves remain on the trees.%u201d The Pacific Street Association thought the matter had been settled last month when an inspector arrived on the scene in response to their complaints. The inspector was apparently sympathetic to the Association%u2019s demands, promising to exchange the 250 Watt sodium lights with 150 Watt ones, and to install shields around the lights so they wouldn%u2019t unceasingly glare into people%u2019s homes. However, last week the Association received aletter from Mr. Burell saying that the 250W lamps would remain, period. %u201cWhen I called him on the phone, Burell said he didn't know anything about any inspectors, and even denied that 150W sodium lamps even existed,\reported, %u201cLater, switching his story around completely, he promised to install the 150W bulbs. But as far as putting back the mercury vapor lamps, he said that was a dead issue.%u201dNO STAND YET ON 6TH ST.The Sixth Street Association has yet to take an official stand on the sodium light issue, but were slated to discuss the matter this week. When the PHOENIX talked with Mort Weiner, the President of the Association, he had not receivedany official complaints from block residents, but felt strongly that block associations, particularly in landmark areas, should be consulted before such changes are made. %u201cMy own personal reaction is negative, particularly from what I've read about the possible harmful effects to trees. Aesthetics is another question, I think we had adequate lighting before,\Weiner, emphasizing that his opinion should not be misconstrued with whatever stand the Association should make.\with them,%u201d added Edward Dunn, another 6th Street resident, %u201cI like the idea of the light they give, but hate the lights themselves, if you catch my meaning.%u201d Mr. Dunn,Continued on Page 18Brooklyn Heights Assn.To Hold Public M eetin g%u201cAn afternoon with the Brooklyn Heights Association%u201d - that%u2019s the theme of a public meeting to be held Saturday. Jan. 12, at 2 p.m. in the sanctuary of Plymouth Church of the Pilgrims on Orange and Hicks Streets. The public is invited.There will be a half-dozen brief tab s giving the latest information on environmental problems, street lighting, landmark preservation, recreation, trees, sanitation, Fuiiuii Ferry Faik. Block 207 and other topics of vital interest to Heights residents.And there will be free refreshments plus a color slide show entitled %u201cA History of Brooklyn Heights\shown in public.The show traces in words and pictures the architectural styles and history of local landmarks.The presentation, which draws upon the collections of the Long Island Historical Society, depicts Columbia Heights at the turn of the Century, the Brooklyn Bridge under construction and numerous other scenes. It's been prepared by the Junior League, a Brooklyn service organization, for future use in conjunction with a fund-raising walking tour of the Heights.The meeting is sponsored by the Brooklyn Heights Association, one of the oldest and largest com munity civic organizations in the United States. Members of the public will be the star performers at the meeting. Committee chairpersons, representing two dizen standing committees w ill be on hand to mix with participants and personally listen to your comments and suggestions and to answer questions.\everybody\Edwards F. Rullman. \planned this public gathering for after the holidays and during the daylight hours on a weekend to make it as convenient as possible for people to attend The show, talks and refreshments are on the house.%u201dThe meeting is designed to provide exposure to what's happening in the Heights in a minimum amount of time. %u201cIt%u2019s a good opportunity to review ma jor events of the past year and gain a glimpse into the future,%u201d says the Association.%u201c If you are free Saturday af ternoon stop in at Plymouth Church. Hear some talks, pick up some literature, meet other residents, ask questions and have a snack, urges the BHA. And, while you%u2019re there, you'll no doubt be captivated by Plymouth Church it s a national landmark, added Rullman.