Groundhog Day on the Upper West Side

Another day, another resolution from Community Board 7. This volunteer board of neighborhood residents, hand picked by Councilwoman Gale Brewer and Borough President Scott Stringer, voted unanimously last night to oppose the conversion of the Alexander Hotel into a mens shelter, a story I first broke here.  

The resolution, though noble, left some questions unanswered:

• What good is a non-binding resolution from CB7 when the Department of Homeless Services runs scared from its constituents? 
• Why was a strongly worded amendment to that resolution narrowly voted down?
• Where was the resolution condemning DHS's bad behavior last week?
• What effect will Brewer's opposition have when she in fact advocated for the bad legislation that created this problem in the first place?

As one neighborhood resident put it in his comments to the board (video above): "Tomorrow is Groundhog Day, and I feel like we're reliving what happened previously on 94th Street and even the last couple of meetings. ... the people in this community care about what is happening to our property values and what is happening to our neighborhood."

The Columbia Spectator has published its own account of the evening:

Residents took another step Tuesday night in what has been a long—and loud—fight to keep another homeless shelter from coming to the Upper West Side.

At its full board meeting, Community Board 7 unanimously passed a resolution strongly opposing a transitional shelter at the Hotel Alexander on 94th Street...

“The community board is doing their part of the game,” 94th Street resident Itzhak Epstein said.

Epstein said he’s glad the resolution passed, including the call for a “fair share” analysis to examine the concentration of homeless shelters on the Upper West Side, but he’s not convinced it will carry much weight since community board resolutions are non-binding.

“I’m in favor, but as I said, ‘strongly oppose’ means the community board can’t do anything,” he said. “What will the mayor’s office do? Nothing. It’s a done deal, the government will go on and do as it wishes.”

Will this government, in fact, go on and do as it wishes? Is our local representation more intractable than foreign dictatorships?

If the recent community pushback is any indication, the mood of this neighborhood has changed. Its residents are starting to question their leadership, especially those that hide behind a rhetoric of benevolence while creating legislation that is good for no one. This was the message that came out from the community group Neighborhood in the Nineties when it recently indicated how concerned residents can continue to express their opposition to the shelter and the legislation that opens the way for more:

What Should WE do? 1. Get on the phone.
START with City Council Member Gale Brewer.
SWAMP HER OFFICE WITH CALLS: 212.788.6975
Gale founded the Task Force that took on the hotels in the name of affordable housing (a worthy, but unattainable goal). Although the bill was passed in Albany, it is her responsibility as our representative to take steps to stop the flooding of this district with more special needs populations.
Ask Gale Brewer to use all her resources, do all that is in her power N O W !!!:
· Issue a City Council Resolution, hold Hearings, have a News Conference demanding an end to No-Bid Contracts that waste our taxpayer dollars while doing nothing to provide real housing for the homeless
· Issue a City Council Resolution and hold Hearings on the issuance of no-bid contracts by the Mayor’s Office and City Agencies. There should be a Moratorium on rich contracts to buildings owners for housing special needs/homeless populations immediately. The City needs a long-term plan to house the homeless in appropriate facilities throughout the City NOW!!
· Request that she show up at the Community Board meeting Tuesday. [ED NOTE--she did not show up to last night's meeting, and instead Brewer was shouted down at a protest in Brooklyn concerning her opposition to a new neighborhood charter school]

Below is a post-mortem report on the CB meeting from Aaron Biller, president of Neighborhood in the Nineties--

A Studio visit with Loren Munk

James writes:

This month I dedicated my New Criterion column, "Gallery Chronicle," to the paintings and videos of Loren Munk. Here is some of what I wrote about Munk in the story:

Loren Munk came to New York to paint. When he’s not recording videos as James Kalm or writing about shows for The Brooklyn Rail, he is painting in his studio. He has been living and working in the same Red Hook loft since 1979. This history gets reflected in both his style in oil, which is heavily impastoed, rough, and rich in color, and in the connections he now depicts in his work.

Munk makes the case that personal connections matter and have always mattered in the world of art. Our links to the past matter as much as our connections to the present. So his paintings record the New York art scene in maps and lists from 1900 to today and document the inter-connectivity of a city’s artistic culture. For Munk, social media art, his videos, and his writing are all extensions of a reverential urbanism. (Hint: The City of New York could do worse than employ this urban historian for some grand artistic project.)

In preparation for the piece, I visited Munk in his studio. Here are some pictures from the visit.

Loren Munk talks about his work in his studio in Red Hook, where he has lived since moving to Brooklyn in 1979.

From Loren Munk Studio Visit

Munk develops his artist maps on paper, using Google Maps and other tools.

From Loren Munk Studio Visit

This is a study for "Minimalism to Maximalism." Munk has a concept to depict the 100-year history of art in New York over a sixty foot mural.

From Loren Munk Studio Visit

Another study that is also a finished work on paper.

From Loren Munk Studio Visit

Munk keeps track of the artists he keys into his work with long lists

From Loren Munk Studio Visit

One of his works nearing completion. Each painting can take years.

From Loren Munk Studio Visit

Munk has been working on Ascension, one of his largest paintings, for several years.

From Loren Munk Studio Visit

Two diagrammatic paintings of artistic influences: Hans Hofmann and Joseph Beuys.

From Loren Munk Studio Visit

One of his paintings now on view at the Elizabeth Foundation. 

Loren Munk, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (2006–10), now at the Elizabeth Foundation.

From Loren Munk Studio Visit

Munk at work on his video project as James Kalm, recording "The James Kalm Report" at the opening of Joe Zucker's latest show at Mary Boone Gallery.

And here's a chance to see Munk in person this week: This Thursday, February 3, at the Elizabeth Foundation's show "I Like the Art World and the Art World Likes Me", Munk will take part in a panel discussion featuring curator Eric Doeringer in conversation with Jennifer Dalton, Munk, and William Powhida. The panelists will discuss their reasons for making art about the art world and the ways that their subject matter and art careers have influenced one other. Free and open to the public: February 3, 6:30 pm, 323 West 39 Street, 2nd Floor. 

Department of Homeless Services Runs Scared From CB7 Protest

Aaron Biller, president of the community group Neighborhood in the Nineties, speaks out against the homeless shelter at the community board protest.

James writes:

Hundreds of Upper West Siders packed the small conference room of the Community Board 7 tonight for what was supposed to be a face-to-face with New York City's Department of Homeless Services and Samaritan Village, the people attempting to open a 200-bed men's shelter in a tourist hotel on West 94th Street. The hotel is being forced to close thanks to disastrous legislation in Albany that had been trumpeted by this community's local representative, Councilwoman Gale Brewer. (Go here for the complete story.)

Peter Thorne from WPIX Channel 11 showed up, along with several newspaper and online writers--only thing is, the Department of Homeless Services and Samaritan Village declined to appear. The meeting therefore did little to answer residents' concerns about why a shelter has been proposed for a family neighborhood, a block from a school, that is already saturated with such facilities (and where few residents but the politicians had a problem with the tourist hotels). As one resident, Miriam, said in her statement to the board: "this has become a middle-class family neighborhood. People have put their blood, sweat, and tears into this neighborhood." Why, she wondered, should taxpayer money go to undermine the sweat equity and investment that residents have spent restoring their neighborhood by paying for a homeless shelter to move in?

One answer came from a representative from the office of Congressman Jerry Nadler, once a resident of 94th Street himself. City government is able to offer lavish deals to landlords to use their buildings as "emergency" shelters because the city can tap into Federal money from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development. Such a story goes to show the damage that wasteful federal dollars can do to a local population when used to override market conditions. Through federal taxpayer money, each of the SRO's tiny rooms could be rented for homeless use at thousands of dollars a month, above market demand. That's a powerful calculus. As one resident put it to me, associates in his law firm can't afford to live on the Upper West Side, but thanks to sweetheart deals from the Feds, a large homeless population can.

Councilwoman Brewer herself declined to show for the meeting. Several questions therefore remain unanswered, for the DHS, and for Brewer:

1. Can the shelter be fought on legal grounds? Is the shelter consistant with the requirement of "permanent housing" stipulated in Albany's legislation?

2. Could anything be done, through rezoning, to allow the hotels to continue operation? If tonight's protest is any indication, only the SRO Law Project (Brewer's advocacy group) and the hotel workers union have a problem with them.

3. What can be done to have the permanent tenants of the hotel stay put, which could prevent the shelter from moving in? Some have been offered $50,000 each to vacate their apartments.

4. How much did Gale Brewer know, and when? Faced with community unrest, Brewer has attempted to reposition herself as an opponent of the facility. She should be applauded for taking this position, but Homeless Services has reported that Brewer's office was in communication about the proposal before it was first announced to the public.

5. If Brewer knew about it, why did she do nothing to stop it before it became a done deal? Were her actions guided by union pressure or a backroom deal with the city to deliver the shelter to DHS, which has now backfired. 

6. The Upper West Side has become a centrist community. When will the neighborhood start seeing local and state representation that is more in line with their interests (rather than merely the interests of trade unions--see Brewer's own friends list). The radical control of the Upper West Side's Democratic Clubs cannot be sustained now that the neighborhood's voters have realized the damage that bad legislation, proposed by their representatives, can do.

The tense scene at tonight's meeting. 

Peter Thorne has filed an excellent report on the DHS disappearing act for WPIX 11. Full story here:
 

UPDATE! Reports continue to come in:

Leslie Albrecht of DNAinfo on the DHS no-show (including a cameo by yours truly in the brown plaid shirt)

Gina Lee of the Columbia Spectator