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EditorialsThe Buck Passes HereIn putting off coterminality for two years, Mayor Ed Koch is delaying untilafter his re-election campaign many difficult decisions which could be madenow.reupHe wnu ujiiipuau i a u u u i m e r u n e e lsc\\jcu imei u yuan tu im plem entcoterminality of police lines are not dissatisfied with the principle of using thesame boundaries for delivery of various city services. Rainer, what they aresaying is that the manner in which the voter-mandated City Charter provisionsare being implemented is not to their liking. If the Police [Department plan hadbeen drawn up with advice taken from community boards and civic leaders, andif residents were consulted and agreed with the decisions that gave someprecincts more police density than others, the present outcry might not havebeen heard.By waiting two years for data from the census, we have only postponed thehard decisions that must be made and can be made now. At that tim e will we ber - %u2014%u20141 ^ . 1 i%u00ab* rv>l!a/n rV \\r%u00bb/M 4m r\\n+ rs lo n H rn u in i in I n}JI C O C I I I C \\ J W i l l I CM I U U ICI C I C V d l III I I I U U I I U l l O U LA ^fAA l %u2022 w i w . m i wimplement coterminality that lacks the same community input? W e suspect so.What is needed right now is for Police Department officials to sit down withcommunity boards and come up with a viable way to implement the new Charterprovisions before the 1980 deadline. Passing the buck now will only stave offproblems that will crop up once again, angry and ugly as ever, in 1983.Community Forum Views F ro m ReadersKeeping The T e r m i n a l At T h e B u s i n e s s End Of The TracksBY MARK ZULUThe Metropolitan Transportation Authority's S20 million solution to the Long Island Rail Road Brooklyn Terminal has grown to an estimated $43.5 million. Since only half of the $43.5 million necessary is available the answer of the MTA is to demolish the 1906 Terminal, without having the funds in place to complete the project. Barbara Millstcin. consulting curator of the Brooklyn Museum Sculpture Garden called the Terminal %u201c a handsome structure of grace and character.\destruction the community will be in danger of being left with another parking lo: for the indefinite future.The MTA states. \ser\\e the needs of the rider.\is. need it be done at the expense of the communities the rider passes through'.' The Coalition to Save the Long IslandRailroad Terminal Complex (Coalition) u - be holding an open forum on Wcdner/ December 12 at 6:30 p.m. at the O r Methodist Church. Hanson Place for a review of the Project. Our efforts arc directed at having representation of the MTA and their Permanent Citizens Advisory Committee (PCAC). local political representatives, members of the Community Board Two, the N.Y.C. Landmarks Commission and our Borough Historian all present for an open discussion of the Project%u2019s current status.The Terminal demolition is based on MTA%u2019s desire to route some of the increased passenger load to Brooklyn from Penn. Station. An MTA spokesperson, Robert Strum, stated that commuters will not use the current Terminal.%u201d they don%u2019t like to use it.%u201d When questioned as to commuters%u2019 specific reasons for their Penn Station preference when the Brooklyn Terminal is more convenient for a lower Manhattan destination, he admits that no survev of commuter attitudes has been made, but that part ofthe reason for non use is that the Terminal is shoddy and ill kept Mark Zulli, is co-chairman of the Coalition to Save the Long Island Railroad Terminal Complex.and lhcre has been no adveritsing to tell the commuter of the advantages of the Brooklyn facility.EMPH ASIZE EFFICIENCYRather than emphasizing what is unique and could be made available at the current Terminal, a Historic building that played an important role in ihe development of all of Long Island, the MTA has decided to emphasize efficiency in passenger move- %u25a0:U in their effort to tempt riders toT, . ,1-1 ... I Nti the MTA hired a design firm %u2022 sc p. siC i , that these changes can b. made by .molifi-.m of the present 1 nal. Tlv MTA approved their design and presented the %u25a0.n re package to the city agencies required for approval. The MTA received al> necessary approvals c. .ding that our local ( nunitv Board %u25a0%u25a0 wh > as apt coved inApril ' we ,vt -is? It wouldsppeatIhe Project : .email- consisted of two arts. The fit be bid . and financed h; The MT' wr: $20 million in hand,proceeds of a 1974 Bond issue. This included the demolition and clearing of the site, all underground train station work and the building of a glass and steel above ground waiting room.The second part was to be the commercial development of the site. This includes a new office building. Financing is to be by the Tri-Borough Bridge and Tunnel Authority which has yet to receive enabling legislation.The MTA%u2019s part 1, first let out for bids .early this year, was bid for by two contractors. Their estimated $20 million Project came in at $32 million from one contractor and $38 million from a second. MTA had an answer to the cost of their Project. They would divide Part 1 into two Phases. Phase 1 is to be the demolition of the heavy underground work. Phase 11, the glass and steel above ground waiting room and the below ground finishing work.Phase 1 of what has now become a three part Project was let for bids. The twocontractors that bid on the combined Phase 1 and II earlier this year, pooled their resources and entered a joint bid on October 15, 1979. That bid was $35.5 million. Part II, the TBTA commercial development work, as far as we can tell, has not been finally planned, estimated or funded.While we have had letters of support from groups as disparate as The BridgePlaza Block Association; The Brooklyn Chapter of The American Institute of Architects; the Advisory Council On Hi .toric Preservation in Washington, D.C., a group in the process of determining the building eligibility for the National Register of Historic Places. It was not until November 19, 1979 that we have had any official support for our position.On that day ihe Permanent Citizens Advisory Committee (PCAC) to the MTA, a 2%u2018 i cm appointed body with represent alives fi u both the city and the surrounding counties, voted to recommend that MTA not accept the $34.5 million bid to construct Phase I. What is more they enumerated five specific reasons for their decision: (1) Lack of more than one bidder. (2) Possible collusion between the two firms that entered the single bid and hadAssemblyman Pesce sought to persuade us at P.S. 58 on October 25 and again at Christ Church on November 8 that %u201cwe don%u2019t want each locality doing its own tax assessment%u201d .This must be because: 1. We aren%u2019tmature enough to do our own tax classification, assessment, equalization, or rate setting. 2. The Assembly wants the people operating the present system to operate the new system because they have been doing such a splendid job at it. 3. People in Albany and City Hall know our neighborhoods so much better than we do. 4. %u201c By-district%u201d assessment might dispreviously bid separately on the combined Phase 1 and Phase II (3) Failure on MTA%u2019s part to do a feasibility study on the possibility of achieving increased passenger handling ability through restoration and renovation. (4) No assurance that all parts of the Project w I be completed once anyone is started. (5) Cost effectiveness of the entire Project.ASK FOR REVIEWWe understand that Community Board Two acted in good faith in approving what was presented to them as a feasible and funded project. But circumstances change. Since we felt that this Project is certainly not funded and the desirability and cost efficiency of ii are open to question, we have asked that Board Two review the current situation. We had hoped the Board might ask MTA to hah the process leading to demolition pending further study of current financing -.formation. The Planning and District Development Committee of the Board 1 shied our request.All this occurred h fore the latest bids came in and PCAC%u20191 stand was known. Certainly as Commit v Boards vote on a Project that does no d its responsibility and involvement wt the Project is of such a vast nature.please union and financial groups accustomed to %u201c special%u201d relationships with Albany and City Hall.One thing Assemblyman Pesce didn%u2019t explain. How come the Assembly report%u2014five years after Hellerstein%u2014 says %u201ccurrently, no satisfactory method exists i for keeping the tax rolls up to date%u201d ? Shouldn%u2019t that problem be solved first, before spending a lot of money installing some new unmaintainable classification system? Or do we have the wrong people studying the wrong problem?%u2014ThorntonJ. Willett, Kane St. Block Assoc. Inc.Sound O ff F e e d b a ck from R e a d e rsTimes Plaza Board; Guard The Tenants, Not The OwnerThe Times Plaza Hotel Community Board lakes exception to the tone of the an ides on ihe hotel by Linus Gelber in the November 15 and September 27 issues of The Phoenix. The snide and flippant tone of his attack on Congressman Fred Richmond, and the article in which he refers to our efforts to improve conditions at ihe hotel as a %u201c vendetta,%u201d are not worthy of the serious press coverage this situation deserves. Gelber%u2019s contention that there is something personal about the concern of the Board to force Mr. Abraham Ailon, the hotel%u2019s owner, to conform to City fire, health and building codes is irresponsible. Ailon, former owner of the Greenwich Hotel in Manhattan, closed after community pressure, is a veteran of the welfare hotel wars, and Gelber would not be the first to be seduced by his persuasive verbal abilities.Our Board considers that the death of several men and the serious injury of another is not a matter for flippancy. In our earlier days, we were primarily concerned with the effect of the Hotel on the community. Discovering the enormity ofIhe Times Pla/.a Hotel Community Board is made up of: Lillian Beckford anu Patricia Snyder: Co-Chairpersons and Ralph Felder, Thrae Harris, Nicholas Hoffmann, Naomi Kroger, Joanna MacDonald, Marsha Mitchell, Wallace Nottage, Robert Snyder.the problems v. i-'.in the h cl, however, we broadened our tnt--rests include advocacy of the tenants. We have never tried to close the hotel.Last April the Board recommended placing non-referral status on the hotel due to appalling fire, safety, sanitation and security conditions. This action was taken after two suicides, a fall from a defective window in which a man broke his pelvis, %u2022and the death of a man hospitalized after a 45-minute wait for an elevator. %u201c Non-referral%u201d means that welfare centers no longer refer clients there and was imposed by Crisis Intervention Services (CIS) of the Human Resources Administration against the hotel for psychiatric patients.FORCING RENOVATIONSWe recommended non-referral as the most effective way to force an owner to undertake renovations, which he has m motivation to do so, as long as he receives welfare referrals which fill his hotel.We have exchanged letters with Ailon and discussed in detail improvements which we felt necessary to provide minimal standards of decency. Although his counterproposals were inadequate, he has failed to comply even with them and with the timetable he himself provided.At our last meeting-which Gelber says %u201c smacks of vendetta and feud%u201d - wc compared Ailon%u2019s proposals and timetable %u201cwith the present condition of the hotel. Although some improvements had been made, the Board reiterated four demandswhich it felt must be met before it could recommend ending non-referral: (1) crash bars (2) replacement of defective window frames (3) sufficient security personnel (4) screening of all tenants by CIS social workers before admission.During out last inspection, we observed window frames so rusted and weakened that merely leaning against them could dislodge them, and could result in injury or death to tenants or passersby. A few weeks ago an tnfirc casement window fell onto Atlantic Avenue. Luckily, no one was struck.We requested Congressman Richmond%u2019s help, and the resulting barrage of publicity-cameramen trailing wires and lights, reporters and photographers competing for space-might have made for a hectic tour, but in effectiveness it surpassed month of meetings and negotiations. Years-old violations were suddenly corrected. Not has his help been confined to hotel tours. He and his assistant, Frank Silano, continue to work on establishing a food program; obtaining CETA workers, snd pushim or weekend and night staff coverage. Gelber%u2019s comment that %u201crichmond%u2019s visit seemed to 'cave dubious results\ saying that the hole was !,000 percent better-Snydcr%u2019c comment was describing the freshly painted walls of the lobby, not the hotel as a whole.The most horrible event at the hotel was the suicide of a man who had had both legs amputated and was confined to a wheelchair. After an ele- n-month stay in a mental hospital, he was accented by the hotel on a Friday evening, even though wheelchairs cannot pass through the hotel%u2019s doors. Half an hour before he leaped to his death Mon. morning, he was observed dragging himself down the hall towards the bathroom. His death is ample and tragic justification of our demand that no tenant be accepted before screening by CIS.SCARCE HOUSINGThe scarcity of housing for welfare and psychiatric tenants puts pressure on all concerned to lift the non-referral, but we will recommend this only after dangerous conditions have been corrected. For too long, Abraham Ailon has been the beneficiary, without sufficient inspections into conditions at the hotel, of enormous quantities of our tax monies.Times Plaza points up the problems of welfare recipients and psychiatric patients. Their accommodations are often inferior to those in prisons, even though they have been convicted of no crime ot-ier than that of being old or poor or ill.We continue to welcome he help of concerned politicia and government officials in our eftorts to improve the quality of life of Times Plaza - sidents and the impact ot the hotel on the community.Page 8, The PHOENIX, December 6,1979