Citibank was the Bank Development District branch for Community Board Three until 2007. It is still one of the two banks in the area serving nearly 83,000 people. | Hristina Tisheva

By HRISTINA TISHEVA

For four decades, government and non-profit agencies have urged residents in poor neighborhoods to use banks instead of check-cashing outlets and mattresses for their banking. And for decades, such residents have resisted, saying banks are pricey, scarce and inconvenient.

Now, a South Bronx non-profit organization, Morrisania Revitalization Corporation, in the nation’s poorest Congressional district has opted for a new track: Starting this month, it will offer financial literacy classes that advise locals to open accounts not at banks but at credit unions. They provide financial services more cheaply than banks. In poor neighborhoods like Community District Three in the South Bronx, credit unions are also more plentiful.

The shift in message is not unique to the non-profit that will offer the free four-hour classes. Experts likewise agree that given banks’ increasing fees and continued avoidance of poor neighborhoods, credit unions are a better alternative, particularly in areas like the Community District Three, where non-traditional financial institutions, like credit unions, outnumber banks 5:1.

The non-profit’s director of development, Mario Bodden, said the curriculum would explain how to manage checking accounts, when to ask for what kinds of loans, and what credit unions are. Bodden said he would definitely encourage people to open accounts with the credit unions. “They are more accessible,“ Bodden said. “There are no banks around here.” The classes are funded by the non-profit organization and should begin this month, Bodden said. They will be held once a month.

Since 1998, New York State has offered banks incentives to open in poor areas through the Bank Development District Program. The bank benefits from real property tax breaks starting at 50 percent and petering out to 5 percent by the 10th year. The branch receives an initial deposit of $10 million and the branch can renew the deposits on an annual basis. Each branch in a bank development district is required to submit a renewal application every year and the state assesses how well the branch is performing. Based on that, the state renews or withdraws the deposit, or puts the branch on probation.

“Once a BDD is established, a bank is not required to open more branches in the district,” said Ronald Klug, a spokesman for the state insurance department in Albany, “but banks are encouraged to open additional branches if there is a need.”

There is a need, according to city government analyses.

The New York State Department of Consumer Affairs concluded in a 2008 study that poor neighborhoods like Melrose in Community District Three are short of banks, even though 17 percent of its adult residents have annual incomes exceeding $40,000. Households in Melrose are inclined to save money, according to the study, which was conducted by surveys. David Weiman, professor of economics at Barnard College, said he was surprised so few banks are in this area. “You would expect more banks in an area where people make more than $35,000,” Weiman said.

Residents and small-business owners in the area say having no nearby bank inconveniences them. Marcela Lucero, 34, sells flowers in her brother’s flower shop on Kelly Street and Longwood Avenue. The shop grosses about $200 cash a day. It also accepts debit cards, but most people pay in cash. To deposit the earnings, Lucero has to travel about 20 blocks to The Hub, the trade mecca of the South Bronx at 149th Street and Third Avenue. She’s a tiny Mexican woman and though she’s never been robbed, she is afraid it may happen one day. So she waits till Sundays to deposit the money, $1,400 in all on average, because that’s when her husband can accompany her for protection.

“It’s dangerous to carry cash in the neighborhood,” Lucero said. “If there was a bank around here, I would close the store for five minutes, deposit the money and open right away. I’d feel more secure.” Lucero said opening an account with a credit union would be beneficial because fees are lower and the branches are closer to the shop. She would not have to go all they way to The Hub and, therefore, close the flower shop for a few hours.

The New Covenant Dominion Credit Union on Boston Road and 167^th Street serves about 270 residents from the Community District Three, where Lucero’s shop is located. The union’s branch and closest ATM are about 10 blocks from the shop. Since January 2011, approximately 50 new members from the area joined the union, said Bishop Joseph A. Alexander, chair of the credit union board. “We are here because banks aren’t,” Alexander said.

About a mile from the flower shop, Arieo Gonzalez, who works at a Used Cars Dealer on Washington Avenue and 167^th Street, has a similar take. Three weeks ago, he sold a Honda for $2,300 cash. Carrying so much cash in the South Bronx is dangerous, he said, but he had to anyway. “I
sold the car on Sunday and had to wait until Monday to go to a bank and keep the money here until then,” Gonzalez said, pointing at the trailer by the gate of the parking lot that serves as the dealership. To deposit the money from the sales, Gonzalez takes the bus three times a week to The Hub, 17 blocks away, where bank branches are clustered. If there were a bank nearby, Gonzales says, he would deposit the money with a teller after every sale, relieved that he wasn’t storing cash in the trailer. Gonzalez said he did not want to use a bank’s ATM because banks charge a fee for every deposit.

Another credit union covering the district is Municipal Credit Union. It has eight ATMs in the neighborhood and serves 16,685 residents.

The third is Bethex Federal Credit Union, chartered by the government to serve Community District Three. Bethex has contracts with cash checkers in the area, allowing the union’s customers to deposit checks into their union accounts without cost, said Joy Cousminer, president and chief executive officer of the credit union. Bethex is working with Bodden to install an ATM near the Morrisania Revitalization Center if it has a lot of traffic and enough people from the area either become members or already use credit unions. “We are working on finalizing the location,” Bodden said.

There is no question that the South Bronx is an underserved community, Allen said. “It may be the case that the community is even profitable, though not a lot for a bank,” she added. “But banks are not in a position to respond to it until the financial crisis is finally resolved.” The
banking community is very flush with funds, but is not spending it, because they’re afraid of the risks. They are very defensive. This is the worst time to look for a remedy in expansion of banking,” Allen said.

Efforts to address the lack of banks in poor neighborhoods are not new. The federal Community Reinvestment Act of 1977 was designed to encourage banks to open branches in such neighborhoods, and to meet credit needs regardless of borrowers’ income. It prohibited redlining, the practice of denying loans or increasing costs for residents of racially defined neighborhoods. The law, however, has limited reach. It’s enforceable when a bank aims to take over another bank, at which point the federal government checks on the bank’s adherence to the law.  “That’s the
leverage the Fed has,” Weiman said, noting that the Fed doesn’t usually monitor on a regular basis. “When banks need approval, the Fed will then enforce the CRA conditions. If banks aren’t merging at the moment, the Fed will not enforce.”

Even though people come to credit unions, many might still go to banks if they had a chance, Cousminer said. “I had an employee who was working with me as a volunteer when we started the union. Just a few weeks ago she said to me, ‘I’m closing my Bethex account. I now have a job and can open a bank account.’ This rational still exists. Poor people dream of having a bank account.”

Laura Thompson plays with her son Carter at an Odyssey House family center last month. | Billy Shannon

By BILLY SHANNON

Sitting in an East Harlem drug rehab center, Laura Thompson watched her energetic 2-year-old dart around a small, plain room. As her son, Carter, climbed on to a chair next to his mother, Thompson said things are finally falling into place on her long and rocky road to recovery.

Thompson, a former heroin and Oxycontin addict, has used running to help get over her dependencies. She set high goals for her life in the past year, checking off one last month when she completed the New York City Marathon.

Little more than a year ago – on Carter’s first birthday – police in Montgomery, N.Y. arrested Thompson, now 29, as she left a general store with her son and a six-pack of Corona in her arms. She had spent the day drinking and taking Percocet and Xanax, and was charged with endangering the welfare of a child.

State Child Protective Services got involved, but Thompson never lost custody of her son.

In October 2010, she went with Carter to Odyssey House, a substance abuse treatment center in Manhattan. Together they live in an East Harlem family center operated by the nonprofit, even though an Orange County judge lifted Thompson’s mandate for treatment in July.

Thompson says she last abused pills the day she entered Odyssey House, popping a few non-prescribed Saboxone – a painkiller also used to treat opioid addiction.

In March, Thompson, who was never a runner before, joined “Run For Your Life,” a club the center organized 10 years ago. The running group aims to push recovering addicts to face their demons through exercise.

John Tavolacci, chief operating officer at Odyssey House, started the running program. He draws clear parallels between fitness and overcoming addiction.

“With running, you have all of the same elements that go into living a drug-free life – discipline, sacrifice, hard work,” said Tavolacci, who runs the marathon with club members each year. “Just like marathon running, it’s not a short-term thing. It’s slow and steady. When you get to the end, you start all over again.”

According to Jon Morgenstern, a professor of clinical psychology at Columbia University Medical Center and a specialist in treatment of substance abuse, exercise as a means to battle addiction, while not very common, is quite effective.

“There’s a growing body of research suggesting exercise can develop willpower and a greater sense of self confidence,” he said. “Willpower is kind of like a muscle: the more you use it, the stronger it gets.”

On the afternoon before the marathon, Tavolacci spoke to a few dozen runners in an Odyssey House mess hall. He covered the logistics for the next day, but built to a deeper point.

“Most people have given up on you,” he said, as some in the group nodded, their eyes stern and locked in. “Most people think you’re useless. This is your opportunity to prove them wrong.”

Thompson entered Odyssey House just as the club was about to run the 26-mile trek last year. She realized she needed to get better at challenging herself to reach goals, so, when training began a few months later, she joined the club.

“It has been for myself,” she said of the marathon challenge, “but more so I can set a positive example for my son.”

Thompson was in eighth-grade when she started drinking alcohol and smoking pot. The first time she got drunk was at an older cousin’s house where they played a drinking game and guzzled Molson Ice.

She grew up in a saltbox home her father built, the middle child of three sisters raised in Hamptonburgh, N.Y., a town of roughly 5,000 people 90 minutes north of New York City. Growing up in a normal, happy family, Thompson spent spring weekends on the Hudson River, fishing for striped bass with her father, an electrician.

Her parents made sure everyone was home for family dinner each night, even as their daughters reached their teenage years.

Throughout high school, Thompson played second base for the Valley Central Lady Vikings softball team. At 17, she began dropping acid and taking Ecstasy.

A few years later, after what she called an Ecstasy phase, Thompson started using opiates.

When she was 22, after her dealer ran out of Oxycontin and offered a cheaper high, Thompson began using heroin. Right from the start, she used it every day, and within months snorting and smoking gave way to injecting the drug.

Even so, she was taking courses at Orange County Community College and working various waitressing jobs.

Since she seemed to be doing all the things a parent expects from a young woman in her twenties, and since they no longer lived under the same roof, her parents were in the dark.

So, in her own way, was Thompson.

“In my head I was a functioning drug addict,” she said after the pre-marathon pasta lunch. “I got straight A’s in college doing dope. I had a brand new car, an apartment. On the outside everything looked good. But on the inside, everything was all messed up.”

In February 2007, 24-year-old Thompson was rushed to the hospital after accidentally overdosing on heroin at her then-boyfriend’s house.

In August 2008, she woke up in another friend’s parked car. Her friend was desperately crying, thinking Thompson was dying. She had overdosed again.

Two weeks later, it happened again. She came to while lying on her bathroom floor, her dog licking her face.

“I never was suicidal,” she said. “But I couldn’t help having the feeling of just not caring anymore. I was putting a needle in my arm and I just didn’t care what happened to me.”

In September 2008, Thompson checked herself into a 21-day rehabilitation program in Middletown, N.Y., where she kicked her heroin habit and thought she had regained control of her life.

Shortly after leaving the program, she became pregnant.

She said she stayed clean throughout the pregnancy. But once Carter was born in July 2009, she started taking prescription drugs, including Percocet for back problems and Xanax for anxiety. Soon, she was purposefully taking too much and going to dealers to get more when her prescriptions ran out. Within months, she and Carter’s father were spending roughly $1,000 a week on pills.

A month before her son’s first birthday, she had fallen asleep in a parked car while her son napped in a car seat. A concerned citizen called police and Thompson was arrested and charged with Driving While Ability Impaired and endangering the welfare of a child.

At the time, Thompson was engaged to Carter’s father, despite an on-and-off relationship through the pregnancy. She doesn’t wear the ring he gave her, but still considers him her fiancé. He is also recovering from addictions, attending outpatient treatment upstate, and she said they want to get their lives in order before setting a wedding date.

For Carter’s first birthday, Thompson had spent days organizing a Hawaii-themed “baby luau” at the home of the boy’s paternal grandparents.

All afternoon, Thompson had been drinking Corona and was taking pills to deal with the stress of the day. At the party, in front of about 40 people, she and her fiancé argued about money.

After the fight, feeling emotionally depleted, Thompson took Carter in the fiancé’s Chevy dump truck to pick up more beer. She believes it was someone at the party who called the authorities, since she was visibly drunk as she left. Leaving the store shortly thereafter, she was arrested.

An Orange County judge mandated Thompson enter rehab. It was her insistence that she not be separated from her son that landed them all the way down in East Harlem.

Thompson said being immersed in Odyssey House – and discovering the liberation she feels in meeting her goals, however small – changed her.

“I’m such a different person than I was a year ago,” she said. “I was just a mess. I was a lost soul. I didn’t know what I wanted out of anything. And today I can tell you what I want from life. I want to come out of this a better mother, a better daughter, a better sister, a better friend.”

On the day of the marathon, as Thompson ran to an Odyssey House watering station at Mile 19 in East Harlem, Carter kicked around discarded cups dropped to the street by runners. His mother had been running for more than four hours.

She spotted Carter and veered to the sidewalk, scooping him in her arms. The talkative two-year-old was surprised to see her appear so suddenly. In one motion, she hugged her fiancé and gave both a big kiss.

Handing his mother a cup of water, Carter said, “You gonna finish running, Mama?”

Thompson gave her son another big hug, and, smiling, told him she would. Knowing her family would hustle to the Central Park finish line, she hit the street for the final seven-mile stretch.

Thompson and her running partner Erica Ruiz, another Odyssey House resident, chatted as they crossed into the Bronx. Sometimes it was small talk. Sometimes it was motivation.

“Who’s at the finish line Laura?” Ruiz yelled with a large grin.

“Carter!” Thompson fired back. “I’m coming, baby!”

As the last few miles went by, the sun began to dip through the trees, behind skyscrapers.

After struggling to continue and stopping frequently to stretch, Thompson quickened her pace slightly.

With more than five hours behind her and less than a mile to go, Thompson trudged through Central Park, as dense bunches of people huddled along the barricades. Strangers shouted “Go Laura!” and “You can do it Laura!” Her name, along with Odyssey House’s green and orange square logo, was printed on her shirt.

At six hours, 35 minutes and 17 seconds, Thompson slowly crossed the finish line of her first-ever marathon. Again, she found her family.

Her mother, who had come down to surprise her, hugged Thompson and told her, “Words cannot explain how proud I am of you.”

Later, Thompson said, “My mom and me haven’t always seen eye to eye. My actions played a big part in that. But we’re starting to build a relationship back and it really meant a lot, her being there to support me.”

Thompson’s life since the marathon has been hectic for all the right reasons. She got a part-time job as a barista at a Manhattan hotel for which she wakes up before dawn to squeeze in shifts before her morning college classes start.

Her main goal now, aside from taking good care of Carter, is to finish up a bachelor’s degree in business administration at Berkley College. She expects to graduate in April, eight years after she first began college.

Thompson knows the road ahead will be continue to be tough, but she is confident her time at Odyssey House has instilled a tenacity that will not abandon her.

As she nestled next to Carter recently as the two watched Thomas the Tank Engine on TV, she said she wanted nothing more than to prove to her son that nothing in life is insurmountable.

Offerings for the deceased sit in the auditorium of the Union Settlement Association on Nov. 2 | Vikram Patel

By VIKRAM PATEL

The deceased joined the living on a clear, chilly night in East Harlem this past Wednesday.  Skeletons and marigolds jostled for space in an auditorium on the second floor of a massive brick building while candles flickered on an altar filled with bread and fruits – offerings for the departed.

Scores of community residents – mainly Mexicans – gathered at the Union Settlement Association’s 15th annual Day of the Dead celebration, an ornate gala honoring the lives of friends and loved ones that have passed away.

Día de los Muertos, as it’s called in Spanish, is a colorful example of Mexico’s traditions that have made their way over to the U.S., where the Mexican national holiday is celebrated on Nov. 2, coinciding with All Souls’ Day, a Roman Catholic day of remembrance.

East Harlem is home to one of the biggest populations of Mexicans in New York City, according to the Department of City Planning.  A study conducted by CUNY’s Center for Latin American, Caribbean & Latino Studies found that if current population growth trends continue, Mexicans will become the city’s largest Latino group in 2023.

The Day of the Dead celebration kicked off with a traditional Mexican meal in the Union Settlement’s first-floor cafeteria, where hungry attendees feasted on tortas, guacamole and champurrados, a sort of Mexican hot chocolate.

The Union Settlement Association is an organization dedicated to creating educational and employment opportunities in East Harlem by providing immigrants with social programs that foster leadership and self-sufficiency in the community.

Melissa Nieves, Union Settlement’s director of adult education, said she’s learned a great deal about the Day of the Dead celebration over the years and has grown to love it, despite the fact that she’s Puerto Rican and didn’t grow up with the custom.  Speaking to an audience of Mexican devotees, she introduced the celebration and used the opportunity to dedicate the night to the memory of her father and grandfather.

In Mexico, families traditionally visit the graves of loved ones and bring things like the departed’s favorite dish to leave at the site.  Many also decorate the gravesites with trinkets similar to those at the East Harlem celebration.

One of the biggest differences between American and Mexican celebrations is that Mexican observations are generally much bigger and more public.

Miguel Cossio, an artist and teacher who helped create Union Settlement’s altar with students and community members earlier in the morning, said that the Day of the Dead is more festive when celebrated in Mexico, where crowds gather in the streets to venerate the deceased.

Twenty-four-year old Zyanya Vazquez, who immigrated to the U.S. from Mexico when she was 6, still remembers the scenes she saw as a child.

“My favorite part is the parade,” she said.  “Everybody dresses up and they start dancing.”

Jose Montiel, a 32-year-old bartender who attended the celebration with his family, said back in Mexico his parents would leave out mole, a famous Mexican sauce, for his dead grandfather who enjoyed eating it.

“We would even leave out a shot of tequila,” Montiel said with a smile.

Cossio, however, explained that the night is not only for those who have lost someone close to them.

“It doesn’t need to be a loved one,” he said.  “It could be someone you really admire.”

People in the U.S. and abroad routinely set up altars for their favorite personalities, including historical figures like Frida Kahlo, Emiliano Zapata and Diego Rivera.

By 8 p.m., more attendees had begun trickling in to hear Mariachi Real de Mexico, which serenaded the crowd with an ensemble of horns and strings.  Ramon Ponce, musical director of Mariachi Real, said that music in Mexican tradition is very important when conducting rituals, especially in something like this.

“It’s a joyous celebration,” he said of Día de los Muertos.  “Not a sad one.”

The mariachis were followed by Raíces de Mexico, a dance group in authentic Mexican garb that showcased some the country’s traditional dances.  Next up was a skit representing a dialogue between Jose Posada, one of Mexico’s most renowned cartoonists and political satirists, and a narrator reciting rhyming verses.

Posada was a pioneering figure in 19th and early 20th Century Mexican art.  His 1913 zinc etching entitled “La Calavera Catrina,” or “The Elegant Skull,” depicts a female skull wearing a grandiose Victorian hat – which would go on to become one of the most famous images in Mexican art – a satire on the aristocracy of the time.

Montiel, the bartender, said he learned many things at Wednesday’s celebration that he hadn’t known about the holiday before, like Posada’s contribution to Mexican art and to the Día de los Muertos celebration.

Ponce, however, worried that too many Mexicans in the U.S. overlook Day of the Dead rituals. When asked if he thinks the younger generation of Mexicans is losing touch with the traditions, he said somberly, “In a way, they are.”

Montiel says that he brings his kids to functions like these because he wants them to remember their culture.

“We bring the kids so they can learn,” he said.

The night ended with a procession that led to a small garden in the back of the building.  The sounds of the mariachis’ trumpets resonated through the halls as marchers carried candles into the dark of the night, offering the deceased one last prayer.

Homeless rights advocates joined New York City Councilmember Charles Barron yesterday to denounce a state judge’s ruling allowing the city to dump a subsidy program affecting thousands of formerly homeless residents.

On the front steps of City Hall, Barron decried New York Supreme Court Justice Judith Gische’s conclusion that the Bloomberg administration can terminate the Advantage Work Program, which helped more than 16,000 homeless people transition from temporary shelters to permanent housing using city, state and federal funds.

In the decision, which was handed down Tuesday, Gische ruled that the Advantage program was not a binding social contract between the city and the tenants, but rather a social benefit program, so the city can use its discretion to keep or terminate it.

“That’s legal gobbledygook,” said Barron in front of City Hall Thursday afternoon. “This is a moral, legally binding contract.”

Read more of this article originally published in Black Star News

Students and teachers from CUNY schools across the city rallied recently to protest a new wave of tuition hikes announced last month. To view an audio slide show by reporter Elizabeth Dilts, click the link above.

Platypus, a student-driven international organization, is one of many small groups finding new audiences at Zucotti Park. | Cory Bennett

By CORY BENNETT

In less than 60 seconds, the flyers were gone and protesters at Occupy Wall Street were peppering Amy Miller with questions about the controversial mining technique of hydraulic fracturing, or “hydrofraking.”

“They were like, ‘What’s hydrofraking? What can I do to help? Who can I call? What can I do?’” she said. “It was like kids in a candy store.”

Miller hadn’t been to the protests previously, but had a few minutes to stop by and help a friend handing out flyers opposing hydrofraking. She immediately new she had to get her politically active friends involved.

The next time she came back, it was to promote her own agenda: stopping the scheduled expiration of a New York State tax surcharge on those making more than $200,000. Within 10 days, Miller, a professional psychologist who works on progressive political issues, had unloaded 2,000 flyers and was printing more.

Groups ranging from to communists to Marxists to theater troupes have latched on to the ever-growing masses at the Occupy Wall Street protests that began on Sept. 17. The movement has steadily acquired the backing of large-scale organizations; labor unions, celebrities and activists all started showing support in the protests first few weeks. But for less-prominent organizations, Occupy Wall Street is an unprecedented chance to reach a new, diverse and voluminous audience hungry for political discourse.

“Every day, we have hundreds of people just dying to sign these petitions,” said Miller, who estimated that her group has roughly 2-to-3 volunteers handing out flyers at any given time. “These people are engaged, they care and they’re intelligent.”

At the west end of the park, Jeremy Cohan and Ross Wolfe were fielding questions on Marxist theory in front of a 7-foot-wide vinyl banner bearing their organization’s name — Platypus.

Platypus is a graduate student-driven international organization motivated by addressing and critiquing “the general disenchantment with the present state of progressive politics,” according to its statement of purpose. They organize reading groups, coffee chats, public debates and publish a monthly review.

Cohan and Wolfe, a University of Chicago graduate student in Russian history, bantered with a rotating group of 10 people assembled around a makeshift pulpit. The references ranged from the household — Weber, Nietzsche — to the more obscure — Theodore Veblen. They discussed the possibility of a “Rooseveltian New New Deal,” the danger of redistributive politics as a “way of pacifying people” and questioned the relevance of the protests.

“If we claim to be a vanguard of the political discussion on the left and there is an event where people are calling themselves political and doing political things, we should be there calling out, discussing, questioning,” said Cohan, a New York University sociology graduate student.

Across the park, 10 actors in identical People’s Theater Project T-shirts played a theater game called “Statue.” Mino Lora, co-executive director of the Washington Heights theater group, called out terms and phrases for them to interpret in freeze-frame. One actor pulled out his empty pockets and stared at them at the word “bailout;” two actors hugged with the call for “better world.”

Lora said the group usually plays to audiences of about 50 at various Washington Heights venues. Many more than that filtered through during the performance at the protests, with about 20-30 watching from beginning to end.

“It was really good for our members to see that our struggle and work for immigration and economic justice exists elsewhere too,” Lora said. “We are not alone.”

Fifteen feet north near a cacophonous drum circle, Travis Morales handed out a special edition of Revolution, the Revolutionary Communist Party USA’s newspaper, normally distributed on college campuses.

“People are down here because they’re searching for answers,” said Travis Morales, who works at Revolution Books, a communist bookstore on West 26th Street. “The world cries out for revolution everywhere you look.”

By the third week of the protests, Revolution Books had distributed 100,000, $1 copies of Revolution, the newspaper spreading the teachings of Bob Avakian, the Revolutionary Communist Party’s leader. An additional 100,000 copies were being ordered, Morales said.

“Bringing people the truth about how the world doesn’t have to be this way and how we can get out of it is a tremendous impetus,” Morales said. The truth, according to the newspaper, “is this: That 1 percent, in the military, is in reality fighting for the other 1 percent: the big capitalist-imperialists who run this country.”

As Morales discussed this, a passerby bought the last copy of the paper. Morales briefly consulted with another woman at the table. Several minutes later, she returned with a large stack of papers, which the two instantly started giving out to the people waiting.

Teachers and public officials stand behind a sign advertising BRAVE, the city’s new crisis hotline for bullied schoolchildren. | Ilana Kowarski

By ILANA KOWARSKI

Now bullied schoolchildren in New York City have a number to call for help, a crisis hotline sponsored by the teachers union in response to a series of suicides by ostracized teens.

The United Federation of Teachers spent more than $50,000 to create an anti-bullying hotline and publicity campaign, with the backing of the New York City Council and other community organizations.

“We want to make sure that students have a place to go for support,” said the UFT president, Michael Mulgrew.

The hotline went live on Oct. 19 and will be accepting calls for the rest of the school year. Children can reach the hotline at 212-709-3222, Monday through Friday between 2:30 p.m. and 9:30 p.m.  Calls will be answered by professional counselors from the Mental Health Association of New York, and all conversations will be confidential, as required by law.

Mulgrew hopes that the anonymous service will make it easier for bullied students to admit that they need help.

“What we found is that the hardest step is the first step, because they are ashamed of being outcasts,” he said.

According to mental health experts, anonymous hotlines alleviate the stigma of psychological distress. “The person on the other end answering the phone doesn’t know you,” social worker Elana Premack Sandler wrote in a blog post. “That anonymity has made hotlines a real resource for people struggling, not just with suicidal thoughts, but with day-to-day mental health crises.”

Gloria Jetter, a hotline volunteer and full-time counselor for the Mental Health Association of New York,, said that she  would offer children an opportunity to talk through their problems and strategize about how to deal with bullies. “We will always encourage them to speak to a trusted adult,” she said.

Lawmakers praised the union for paying the full cost of the hotline.

Council Speaker Christine Quinn said that the hotline comes at a time when it is urgently needed: 66.4 percent  of teachers say they have witnessed bullying, and many say that they felt powerless to stop it, according to a 2011 survey by the New York Civil Liberties Union. 

“The reality is, if you poll parents and ask them what makes them worry, the first thing they talk about isn’t grades or college admissions; it’s bullying,” Quinn said.

However, funding for the anti-bullying hotline is not guaranteed after this year. Mulgrew said that the union might not be able to pay for the program in the future, but he promised to campaign for the donations necessary to make sure it survives.

Research into the effectiveness of such suicide hotlines, which serve a similar function, has shown that they provide deterrence. In 2007, the American Association of Suicidology issued a report demonstrating that depressed individuals were significantly less likely to say that they wanted to kill themselves after they received anonymous counseling over the phone.

Several politicians pledged to support the hotline with financing, including Public Advocate Bill de Blasio, who described it as “a powerful initiative that lets any student know that help is never more than a phone call away.”

Bullying has been a concern among New York legislators for years, and the union’s anti-bullying campaign is one of many in the state’s history. Just last year, the state passed the Dignity for All Students Act, which mandated civility courses for kindergarten through 12^th grade students.

State Democratic Leader John Sampson vowed to continue supporting such initiatives.

“To give our children the world class education they deserve,” he said, “we must first give them a school environment free of harassment and discrimination.”

By LINDA THOMPSON

In a neighborhood where one out of four adults are obese, Harlem food temple Sylvia’s Restaurant has partnered up with a local diabetes center to encourage patrons to eat smaller, healthier portions.

From now on, customers will be asked if they want to save half their meal for later before they dive into their fried chicken, fried shrimp, pork chops and collard greens. Those who say yes will go home with the other half of their dinner in a free reusable, dishwasher-safe container – an upgrade on the doggy bag.

Sylvia’s is the first restaurant in Central Harlem to participate in the Save Half for Later campaign, which is sponsored by Mount Sinai’s Communities IMPACT Diabetes Center and the East Harlem Diabetes Center of Excellence. According to a 2006 community health profile of the city’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, 27 percent of adults in Central Harlem are obese – almost double the rate for the borough, at 15 percent.

Twelve East Harlem restaurants are currently participating in the campaign. They will soon be joined by Lolita’s, another Harlem hotspot a couple of blocks further down Lenox Avenue, says Carolyn Zezima, director of the IMPACT Diabetes Center.

The diabetes center approached Sylvia’s because of its status as a neighborhood icon.

“It is an institution, to say the least,” says Zezima. “If any restaurant represents the community, this is it.”

Tren’ness Woods-Black, the third-generation owner and the restaurant’s vice-president of communications did not have to think long when she was asked to participate. “This was a no-brainer. Anything that’s getting people to eat healthier, we want to be a part of,” she says.

Woods-Black stressed that Sylvia’s has been doing its bit to promote healthier eating for over 10 years: using less sodium, less salt, serving all-vegetable plates.

But big portions are part of the soul food ethic, Woods-Black adds.

“We’re not French,” she says. “People come expecting a big meal.”

The campaign realized early on that asking restaurants to reduce their portions wouldn’t have the same success. Also, getting people to eat healthier is something you do little by little, argues Gina Keatley, an IMPACT Diabetes Center board member. That is why the Save Half for Later campaign targets portion size and not the high salt, cholesterol and saturated fat-rates soul food dishes often carry.

“With this, people are ordering what they actually want,” Keatley said. “They’re just eating less of it.”

In the back of the restaurant, Tricia Burgess was having lunch with four colleagues. She works at the Apollo Jazz Theatre, just a couple of blocks away, and says she comes here two to three times a month.

Burgess doesn’t consider herself a health-conscious person. “No,” she laughed and looked to her fellow diners for affirmation. But she applauded the initiative nonetheless. “This is putting me in my place and forcing be to me more conscious of what I’m eating.”

Plaintiff Maurice Griffin, 23, said he quit his carpentry work to participate in the Pre-Apprenticeship Training Program. Griffin talks to reporters after the press conference. | Lani Conway

By LANI CONWAY

Seven construction workers filed a federal lawsuit against Atlantic Yards developers Tuesday morning for failing to pay wages and uphold promises of labor union employment.

“Not only was I lied to, and my classmates, but Brooklyn was lied to,” said Clarence Stewart, 46, one of the seven plaintiffs at a press conference in Fort Greene, Brooklyn. “We were promised things. We were told we would be millionaires and we were told we would work on the project.”

Stewart had quit his job as a maintenance worker to participate in the Pre-Apprenticeship Training Program run by Brooklyn United for Innovative Local Development, a Brooklyn-based organization that supports development as a way of creating job opportunities.

The plaintiffs argued that staff at Brooklyn United failed to deliver the promised union cards after students completed the 15-week program. In addition, the plaintiffs said staff repeatedly said that they would be connected to well-paying union jobs at the Atlantic Yards project construction site.

Instead, said Stewart, they were offered jobs at McDonalds and fitness centers after graduating from the program last December.

The federal lawsuit was filed in the United States District Court in Brooklyn.

New York City council member Letitia James organized the afternoon press conference. Addressing the small crowd, James publicly denounced the job training program, referring to it as “the biggest bait and switch in the history of Brooklyn.”

The Atlantic Yards Project was announced in 2003 by Bruce Ratner, Chief Executive Officer of Forest City Ratner Companies LLC. The project sought to develop 22 acres in Prospect Heights into a residential and commercial complex, including the 18,000-seat Barclay Arena, future home of the New Jersey Nets NBA basketball team. In addition, developers of the project promised to bring 17,000 union construction jobs and 8,000 permanent jobs for members of the community, according to the Atlantic Yards website.

The pre-apprenticeship training program was set up as part of the Community Benefits Agreement, a legally binding document signed in 2005 by Atlantic Yards Development Co. LLC and eight Brooklyn-based community groups. Atlantic Yards developers funded the training program.

The idea behind the agreement was to provide jobs and benefits to low- and moderate-income members of the community.

However, the complaint speculates that the training program was merely a ruse to win over residents who had doubts that the Atlantic Yards project would create the number of jobs developers claimed.

Forest City Ratner Companies LLC could not be reached for comment.

Marie Louis, chief operating officer at Brooklyn United claims that the allegations addressed in the complaint have no grounds.

“No, we did not promise anyone union cards,” she said in an interview after the press conference. “We can’t do that. It’s not ours to promise. What they pulled out in the suit was a quote from the letter we had sent advertising the program for those who might want to do construction work.”

The quote she referred to was referenced in the complaint document: “After many years of delay,” the ad read, “we are preparing to launch a pilot of the Pre-Apprenticeship Training Program for people interested in training for employment in the construction building trades.”

According to Louis, the organization did not promise the 36 students union employment at the Atlantic Yards project site after graduation. She also said the organization has no control over where students are placed. “We provide them with support in terms of connecting them with employment,” Louis said. “At the end of the day, no matter how many interviews or opportunities we identify, we can’t guarantee anyone anything.”

As part of the training program, the plaintiffs received hands-on training at a construction site in Staten Island. But when they arrived on the site, program participants say in their lawsuit, they received little to no supervision, and were expected to do heavy labor for free.

“We performed tasks from demolition to carpentry, plumbing, tiling and electrical wiring, which lasted approximately two months, and we were not paid,” Noriega said at the press conference.

Noriega and the other complainants argue that these jobs performed violated the minimum wage provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act.

However, according to Louis, participants knew that the work was part of an unpaid internship and even signed a waiver that indicated hands-on training would not be compensated by wages or stipends.

Molly Thomas-Jensen, staff attorney at South Brooklyn Legal Services, which represents the plaintiffs, says that defendants have a legal obligation to compensate her clients. “You cannot waive the right to be paid for your labor,” Thomas-Jensen said.

Thomas-Jenson also noted that any document signed by the plaintiffs had yet to be released to South Brooklyn Legal Service.

Atlantic Yards Development Company LLC, Forest City Ratner Companies LLC, Brooklyn Arena LLC and others were also listed as defendants.

The defendants now have 21 days to answer or move to dismiss the complaint.

Light shines through Kiki Smith's rose window in the Eldridge Street Synagogue. | Wyatt Marshall

Looking over the main sanctuary of the Eldridge Street Synagogue from the upper balcony, the warm glow of Edison bulbs in ornate golden chandeliers softly illuminates the sanctuary’s Moorish flourishes, faux marbling, and hues of deep red and brown. Look up, though, and celestial blues and yellows explode through a modernist rose window installed in 2010 and designed by the feminist artist Kiki Smith.

The juxtaposition is fitting for an Orthodox synagogue that is now a national historic landmark and aims to preserve the past while at the same time looking to the future. When the Eldridge Street Synagogue celebrates its 125^th anniversary on Saturday, Nov. 13, there will be a reenactment of the 1886 laying of the cornerstone and a time capsule will be placed in the synagogue’s attic to be opened on the synagogue’s 250^th anniversary in 2136.

“The number itself is magical,” said David Sitzer of the upcoming 125^th anniversary. Sitzer has read the Torah on and off for the synagogue’s congregation, the K’hal Adath Jeshurun, since 1971. The congregation has not missed a Saturday service since the synagogue was completed in 1887, though it has met in the building’s modest basement since the building fell into disrepair and the upper levels were abandoned in the 1960s.

It took a 20-year, $18.5 million restoration effort, completed in 2007, to return the synagogue to its original beauty.

The Eldridge Street Synagogue was the crowning achievement for immigrant Ashkenazi Jews from Eastern Europe who called the Lower East Side home in the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries. It was the largest Jewish neighborhood in North America, with roughly 1.6 million Jewish residents, according to the Eldridge Street Museum, which maintains a museum on-site.

“The synagogue was built by people who had ‘made it’ in the 1860s and 70s,” said Hanna Griff-Sleven, the director of the family history center and cultural programs at the Eldridge Street Museum.

Eventually, though, those who had “made it” left the neighborhood for more affluent parts of town. After World War II, the synagogue’s congregation shrank as Lower East Side Jews moved to the suburbs and other parts of the city and tighter immigration laws prevented new immigrants from filling their places.

Since then, visitors to the synagogue walk through a neighborhood that is very different from the Lower East Side of a hundred years ago.

“Everybody thinks that it’s going to be the Lower East Side, circa 1910, when they come to the synagogue,” Griff-Sleven said. “We’re in the middle of Chinatown.”

“Smack in the middle,” as Sitzer puts it.

Approaching the synagogue, signs for Chinese businesses dominate the street. Two doors up from the synagogue is the Buddhist Association of New York. The neighborhood is a far cry from the tenement-lined streets of 100 years ago.

Griff-Sleven said she sees the neighborhood’s new population as an opportunity to integrate into a new community of immigrants who now call the Lower East Side home. Each June, the museum hosts a block party called “Egg Rolls and Egg Creams, a cross-cultural celebration of the Jewish and Chinese communities of the Lower East Side/Chinatown.”

The synagogue, as exemplified by the installation of Kiki Smith’s rose window, is a celebration of “the old and the new,” Griff-Sleven said. People no longer come to the Eldridge Street Synagogue just for its religious importance, but for its architectural and historical significance as well. On a recent Sunday, that included three young men, smartly dressed, who came inquiring about Smith’s window.

“Slowly the hipsters are finding us,” Griff-Sleven said with a smile.

Sitzer, who still reads the Torah for the K’hal Adath Jeshurun congregation on occasion, said that though the congregation may be small, the synagogue’s beauty, rich history, and a new demographic of worshippers should keep the congregation alive.

“It’s all young people that come,” Sitzer said. “It’s a group of people that are friends with each other, and the synagogue is beautiful.

“And,” he added, “services start a little later.”

To contact this reporter email wbm2108@columbia.edu.