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April 18, 1974 PHOENIXiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiMiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiitiiiiiiMiiiiiiiiiiiiiiitiHiiiMiiHiiiiiiiHiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiHiiiiiiiiiiiiaiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiwiiiiiiiiiiiifiiiiiHkiiiHiiwuiiiiiiiiiiiiiHiitiiiiiiiiiiiiimiimMiHiiumiwitwniiiHmwaBeeeeeBeneeParks Get Spring CleaningFoliage, Courts, ProgramstAt w ork putting Prospect Park in Shape (M ic h ae l Puryear Photo).BY JOHN BLACKMOREIt%u2019s spring cleaning time inBrooklyn%u2019s parklands. Gardeners, maintenance men, foresters, construction crews, andrecreation officials are workingwith doubled effort in anticipation of the summer crush. Deadlimbs and foliage are beingcleared, trees planted, fertilizerspread and grass sown. Springtulips have been planted aroundthe Litchfield Villa and in themusic grove in Prospect Park;renovation has begun on thestone house at J. J. Byrne Parkon Fourth Avenue; and threemore tennis courts have openedat Fort Greene Park.A Brooklyn borough recreation official announced the firstof the season%u2019s recreation programs for area kids. The JuniorBaseball Olympics, a baseballski I Is contest, will begin a seriesof weekly events on Saturday,April 20, at the parade groundsin Prospect Park; and onSaturday, May 4, at CommodoreBarry Park in Fort Greene.There w ill be four eventsincluded in the Olympics: baserunning, pitching to a target,outfield throwing, and hittingfor distance. Four age groupsfrom 8 to 15 will compete forplaces in the weekly eliminationrounds leading to the grandfinals to be held June 1. %u201c Unlikethat mess in New Jersey, %u2019 %u2019 boysand girls will be competingtogether. Registration takesplace between 11 and 12 a.m. onthe day of the event.The three additional tenniscourts in Fort Greene Park havenow been completed, and areready for play. Now that thereare six courts in all, the courtswill be officially supervised, anda tennis permit is required.Permits can be obtained at theLitchfield Villa in Prospect ParkMonday through Friday, andSaturdays until noon. Thepermit costs $15 per year foradults, $10 for senior citizens,and $4 for those under 18.Work was begun Monday on atoddlers%u2019 playground adjacentto the Litchfield Villa nearProspect Park West and 4thStreet. This playground is atemporary facility to serve thetoddlers in the neighborhooduntil work is completed on thelong-awaited Third Street Adventure Playground. Theslides, swings and sandbox willbe removed when the adventureplayground is ready for use.Those of you who rememberthe maintenance fiasco at areaparks last summer should beforewarned that budget cuts willcause the same situation to existthis year. The littered greensand overflowing trash barrelsmay become an endemic featureof our neighborhood retreatsuntil the bureaucratic wheelsturn their attention to thenecessity of expanding maintenance crews.Near the end of last summer,PRCA initiated a new procedurewhich alleviated somewhat thelitter problem. By the simpleexpedient of distributing plastictrash bags near waste tins, theoverflow was cut to a minimum.Plastic, however, is producedwith oil derivatives; and oil, assome have found, is not plentiful. So look to a phasing-out ofthis waste containing procedure.IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIB IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIS IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIB S IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIim illlllllllllllllllllllllB .Local Community Groups to SurveyHeights Senior Citizens on NeedsBY DAN ICOLARIThe Heights and Hill Community Council and its affiliates, with assistance from Brooklyn Catholic Charities, have announced a senior citizen survey in Brooklyn Heights to obtain data on concerns, issues and services relating to Heights senior citizens. Input will be used as the basis for a program proposal to be submitted to the New York City Office for the Aging, to obtain funds for improved living conditions and delivery of services here.Volunteers from the Brooklyn Heights Association, the Junior League, and other community agencies and organizations will conduct a face-to-face random survey, while other community groups and agencies hold meetings with various senior-citizen organizations.But the survey will have a wider impact that a mere description of its basic purposes suggests. It will be used to update (and hopefully to correct inaccuracies in) the 1970 Census figures for elderly people living in the Heights. Census figures are used as the basis for funding and program development by the many agencies concerned with the problems of aging at city, state and federal levels. And for the past two years, representatives of various City agencies have been trying to analyze the problems without really knowing the people they%u2019re trying to help-how many there are, where they live, who they are, and what they want.In its unique position as community-based advocate for the aging, the Heights and Hill Community Council under Hirer tor Patricia Molloy has been in contact with many of these agencies, but when Councilman Fred Richmondcalled an exploratory, working meeting on April 16, it was the first time some effort at consolidation had been made.Sarah Brown of the Brooklyn Heights Association, centrally involved in the planning and direction of the survey, hopes it will help the Heights community in developing an overall, long-range answer not only to the problems of the aging, but also to the problems created by the presence of eight SRO (single-room occupancy) hotels in the Heights. %u201c 1 think it may also familiarize many Heights residents with the problems of older people, and might just establish communication between two previously isolated groups.%u201dPatricia Molloy of Heights and Hill would like to see long-range programs provide optimum choices for the elderly. At this point, there are many proposals being tossed around-proprietary homes, domiciliary care, congregate housingall of which she feels have merit for some elderly Heights residents. But she cautions no one solution will work for everybody. Right now, her immediate concern is trying to create a secure home for the elderly in the Weller Building, part of the St. George Hotel complex. %u201c It's the building where the majority ot elderly live m tne St. George; it%u2019s in comparatively good shape and needs only minimal upgrading. If we could guarantee the management a stable occupancy, they might be willing to make improvements,%u201d she said. Ms. Molloy also would like to create a Senior Citizen Advice Bureau and Coffee Shop in the vacant drug Store on the Weller Ruildino%u2019s first floor. Councilman Richmond volunteered to investigate foundation financing on a 2-to-l basis, ifHeights and Hill can raise twothirds of the operating costs of such a facility.Rita Schwartz of the City Office for the Aging called for a long-term program \to be elderly, and we don't want to be forced out of our community.%u201d She expressed the frustration ofher agency in trying to cope with immediate needs and problems on a day-to-day basis: \band-aid applied to a hemorrhage.%u201d she said.Carroll Kowal of HDA's Special Purpose Housing Department has been working on the conversion of a Manhattan hotel into congregateunits, in which suites are shared by several people occupying individual rooms within the suite; meal preparation is communal. Under this arrangement, community is encouraged and the dreadful isolation of single-room occupancy is avoided. But, as alwavs, there areC ontinued on P ag e 17N e w Position for A zodionO nce Task Force Is Ended ?Over the years, Sam Azadian%u2019s South Brooklyn office of the Mayor%u2019s Urban Action Task Force has made the mammoth departments of City government both more responsive and more visible to people in neighborhoods.Amazingly, even after the Fort Greene office of the Task Force closed during the Lindsay administration, Sam Azadian%u2019s South Brooklyn office remained open. But there had been rumblings for some time about its closing when on March 11, Azadian's boss informed him the Task Force office would be supplanted by a local Office of Neighborhood Government, and that he would ne supplanted as deputy commissioner of water resources. Azadian was given a month's notice; his term of employment was to end officially on April 17.But in the last few days, Azadian has been told he may still have a job, with an as yet unnamed City agency. Further, John Carty of the Office of Neighborhood Government has informed him that funding for April, May and June will keep the doors open at leastthat long at the Task Force office. At this point, even if the Task Force office should close permanently, it's possible Sam may take over the directorship (or co-directorship) of an Office of Neighborhood Government that would serve either of the areas within Community Planning Boards 6 or 7-or both.In an interview, Azadian said, %u201c I think the Task Force has accomplished something very important in South Brooklyn. We started out essentially as citizen advocates for delivery of services in neighborhoods. But in time, groups within the community found out who to call and what to say. Now, rather tnan filing compiainis with various agencies on behalf of local residents, 1 think a similar office might begin to address itself to developing programs on issues such as abandoned houses, or jobs-that sort of thing. I'd like to see our communities develop mini-cabinets on issues of local concern. With a committee on the environment, or on transportation, perhaps-whatever the community decided were its priorities-we could hold community meetings once a month. At those meetings, committees would report to a central cabinet, and community policy could be developed.\As one South Brooklyn civic worker observed, %u201c Sam%u2019s helped a lot of people around here-I%u2019m one of them. And he did it without asking for any pay. The mosi important thing he taught us was that we could speak for ourselves.%u201d -D vi IcolarlwiMtiiufflmiiHinHiHMmimimtmmMiHmHiHtMMiMHintmittniim F i & i n u155 Atlantic Avenue Brooklyn. New York 11201 Tel 643-1032A weekly community newspaper published 50 times 2 year by Advoc2t6 Prosc *rv%u2019 serving the neighborhoods surrounding Downtown Brooklyn, including Boerum Hill, Brooklyn Heights, Carroll Gardens,Cobble Hill, Fort Greene and Park Slope.Subscription rate is S5 00 per yearThe entire contents ot TH E PHOENIX are copyrighted and may not be reproduced in any form without express permissionApplication to M ail at Second C la ss Postage Rates is Pending at Brooklyn, New York