Page 137 - Demo

W ater Loss Hurts Pocketbooks, Too, In Cobble HillBY ROB TAYLORNY City Comptroller Harrison Goldinreleased an audit June 2 that is critical of theCity%u2019s water distribution system . He saysthat leaks like the one that hit Cobble Hill lastfall account for the loss of as much as 140gallons of water every day, comprisingroughly 10 percent of New York City%u2019s dailywater usage.%u201cAll water distribution system s leak,%u201dGoldin said, %u201cbut that is no excuse for not correcting those leaks aggressively, particularlyat a time when the City has experienced frequent and serious droughts and shortages.%u201dGoldin disclosed several reasons for theleaks including an ineffectual detectionsystem , inadequate maintenance, slowreplacement of old water mains and a lack ofconcern about street work by utility companies.According to the audit, the City HighwayDepartment and private construction firmssometimes pave over and bury valves,hampering water shut-off when a mainbreaks. Goldin said that Brooklyn has 300buried valve boxes.Last October, a 30-inch main broke at Clinton and DeGraw Streets in Cobble Hill.Workers struggled for more than 12 hours,excavating three nearby valves before theycould stop flooding from the broken main.Problems ranged from severe propertydamage to non-functioning utilities, to streetcave-ins.The main, which cracked open at about3am Monday morning flooded basements andcellars in a 20 block area extending southfrom Kane and Baltic Streets into Red Hook.According to Shiela Lehman, a resident at357 Clinton, she and her husband spent nearly$14,000 repairing their damaged property. %u201cInever got any money back from the city,%u201dsaid Lehman. %u201cMy bill was rejected. At firstthey implied that they would pay, but thenthe Union Gas Company filed a law suit andwe all got notices from the city saying itwnillH not he paving they would have beenadmitting guilt if they had.%u201dGoldin%u2019s report also found inadequatevalve maintenance. In 1984, only 14.4 percentof the City%u2019s 86,000 main valves were inspected. According to the American WaterWorks Association, adequate maintenancerequires an annual survey, testing and, ifnecessary, cleaning of each valve in thedistribution system . According to Goldin, theDepartment of Environmental Protectiondoes not even come close to that standard.Both the Comptroller and the Department ofEnvironmental Protection blame staff reductions for the maintenance problem.The audit also listed a number of suggestions for improving the City%u2019s water mainmaintenance program. These included moreextensive surveys of the distribution systemto discover leaks, creation of an informationsystem to update maps of the water distribution system , the prevention of privatedevelopers from building qnhatnnHnrHmains, annual surveys to test each valve, andupdating of valve maintenance cards.According to John Lukomik, a spokesmanfor the Comptroller%u2019s Office, there are 5940detailed m aps covering the city that show thelocation of each valve. These maps have notbeen updated in Brooklyn for four years.Because there is no universal meteringsystem of the City%u2019s water supply, the auditwas not able to detail how much leakage hasoccurred in the borough.The report left little assurance to Lehmanabout the possibilities of the main breakingagain. %u201cThey%u2019re just making excuses aboutwhy they let the water run for 12 hours in amajor water shortage,%u201d she said.Commission Report Only Fuels Debate Over Store Rent IssueBY ROB TAYLORMore than a week has passed since theMayor%u2019s Small Retail Business Study Commission released both majority and dissenting reports, and local business organizationsare lining up to continue the city-wide debateabout commercial rents.Some organizations have made official announcements accusing the commission of aconflict of interest. Others have not digestedthe information and are taking time to reviewthe reports that seem to have left public opinion as divided and confused as it was whenthe commission was organized last year.The controversial reports were releasedJune 5, following 13 months of deliberation.The majority report was supported by 12 ofthe commission%u2019s 15 members and said commercial rent increases have neither harmedthe city%u2019s economy nor curtailed theavailability of sm all retail services.The dissenting report strongly disagreedwith these conclusions and accused the majority report of overlooking a %u201ccrisis%u201d it saidwas faced by city merchants.Immediately following their release, theCoalition for Fair Business Rents said it hadconcluded the commission and the Koch administration had dodged %u201cthe basic issue ofdealing with New York City%u2019s smallbusinesses and the obvious commercial rentlooting and profiteering.%u201dFAVORED INDUSTRIESThe coalition also led the conflict of interestaccusations and said the commissionmembers favored real estate and finance industries %u201cover the interests of New YorkCity%u2019s 188,000 sm all businesses.%u201dIn supporting the dissenting report, SteveNull, the coalition%u2019s president, said, %u201cTheminority correctly analyzed the raw data ofthe survey indicating that the market hasbroken down and will not be restored withoutgovernment intervention.%u201dAside from their conclusions, the tworeports%u2019 solutions differed widely. The majority opted for less intervention policies andinstead suggested that the city try to expandthe supply of small retail space and alsomake one-year lease extensions with 15 percent rent increases mandatory if negotiationsbetween a tenant and landlord falter.The minority or dissenting opinion recommended an immediate one-year moratoriumon lease evictions as well as mandatorynegotiation and binding arbitration betweentenants and landlords.LIKES MINORITY REPORTKeith Getter, the executive director of thePark Slope Fifth Avenue Local DevelopmentCorporation says that his organization hasnot yet reached any conclusions about thereport, but from his perspective he personally agrees with the minority report. %u201cThecommission was not well represented bysmall business and was not composed of thebroadest, range of opinion,%u201d he says. %u201cThe intervention measures in the minority reportgo a step further than the majority reportwith recommendations for arbitration. It wasa compromise position.%u201dGetter says that on Fifth Avenue, many ofthe merchants%u2019 leases have not come to term.%u201cWe just don%u2019t know what is going to happendown the road. But, I would say there is a fairamount of support for protections right now.%u201dBoth reports were based on a survey conducted by Louis Harris and Associates of 12neighborhood retail areas throughout the city. According to Ronald Shiftman, a memberof the commission who helped write thedissenting report, the interpretation of thesurvey data is what caused disagreement.%u201cWe did not want the data to be misread,%u201d hesays. %u201cThe minority felt very strongly thatsome degree of intervention was needed.%u201dNOT READY TO RESPONDOther business groups were not preparedto respond to the two reports%u2019 recommendations and said they had not had the chance toread the information compiled to draw a conclusion.Bob Ohlerking, of the Downtown BrooklynDevelopment Association, an affiliation ofthe Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce, says hehad not read the report, but the Chamber ofCommerce is on record as opposing any intervention policies. %u201cUltimately, themembership of the commission didn%u2019t matter,%u201d he says. %u201cSmall retail merchants hadthe chance to testify at the hearings and voicetheir concerns. The ultimate issue is that anyrent control would not be good for the retailcommunity. Yes some businesses will gethurt, others will not. But ultimately, the shoestore and the dry cleaner will have to move ifthey can%u2019t compete with the otherbusinesses.%u201dAnother group, Revitalization of theSouthern Area of the Slope (ROSAS), had notstudied the reports either. Both the director,Ed O%u2019Brien, and board member, Nancy Dennigan, say they will not comment until theyhad had a chance to read them. Dennigansaid that ROSAS would not have an officialcomment until the entire board had examined the information.Close to East River Ferry Decision, Says Port AgencyNearly six months later than planned, theCity%u2019s Department of Ports and Terminalssays that it is about to recommend to CityHall an operator of the ferry-service linkinglower Manhattan to Fulton Ferry inBrooklyn.%u201cWe%u2019re getting much closer to a final selection,%u201d said Marcia Reiss, a spokesperson forPorts and Terminals on June 10, %u201cbut it%u2019s aCity Hall procedure and they will be actuallymaking the announcement.%u201dReiss wouldn%u2019t say when the recommendation and announcement would be made butadds that %u201conce City Hall approves the propossal, we hope to obtain an interim permitso that the firm can operate the service untilthe Board of Estim ate approves a final contract.%u201dRequest for Proposals for the commuterferry service were issued last year followinga successful four-week trial period during thelate summer of 1985. Figures compiled atthat time indicated that ridership expandedon the weekends and during peak commuterhours, but dwindled at other times. TheDepartment of Ports and Terminals hadhoped to name an operator by the end of 1985,but the decision was delayed because some ofthe firms vying for the contract began toteam up to increase their chances of beingnamed.%u201cWhile the proposals were beingevaluated, all the parties began playingmusical chairs and forming alliances,%u201d saidReiss. %u201cIt became so confusing, so we askedfor new proposals.%u201dFive final proposals were submitted March26 by: the Citizens%u2019 Committee for UrbanFishing; Dircksen and Tallyrand, Inc.;Floating Through America, Inc.; SkylineManagement Commuting and Sightseeing inpartnership with Two Trees Management (ofBrooklyn); and Friends of Fulton Ferry Landing in partnership with South Street SeaportMuseum, Seaport Line and Prospect ParkEnvironmental Center, Inc.Reiss said the official annoucement wouldbe made by City Hall after its ConcessionsCommittee reviewed the recommendation.%u201cFrom there it could take as long as six months for the Board of Estim ate to approve acontract,%u201d she added.Because of the delay and the demand forthe service, a temporary permit will be offered. Reiss said that no interim permit wasissued to a company to operate the servicewhile the proposals were being reviewed dueto a possible conflict of interest that couldarise if the temporary operator also wrote aproposal.The six week trial period last summer andfall was cut short because of a problem withthe boat that was being used. However,Seaport Lines, the operator, said it had hopedto extend the trial beyond the alloted time.The proposals under consideration for thepermanent franchise have been slimmedfrom an original seven that were submittedas prospective franchisees linked their plansto make stronger bids. %u2014 R.T.It Was a Fair Time on Vanderbilt AvenueKids perform %u00ading, merchantsselling, and foodvendors servingthe works was thefare for the day atthe Vanderbilt Mertion's second annual VanderbiltAvenue Festival onJune 14.IIPAip , fMMJune 19,1986, THE PHOENIX, Page 5