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

Winter Hiking in the Pemi

James writes:

The snowy weather has us thinking back to our winter hike in the White Mountains in northern New Hampshire. The Appalachian Mountain Club maintains a unique string of huts along the ridge line of the Appalachian Trail over the Presidential Range south into the Pemigewasset Wilderness. In the winter, most of these huts are inaccessible, but a few remain open for winter overnights. One of these, my favorite, is Zealand Hut. They can all be booked through the AMC's online reservation site.

Dara and I rallied two friends, Jamie and Sara, to take it on. The visit was my second time to Zealand in winter and third stay overall. The drive from New York is about 6 hours, all highway, and Friday night we stayed in the AMC's Highland Lodge in Crawford Notch--a slightly soul-less new facility but a good staging ground for hikes in the area. We picked up topo maps, bars, and other supplies here before heading off.

The winter trail head is a short drive from Highland--there is a large parking lot on the side of the road. In winter the hike in is six miles with a steady up grade. It takes several hours, so we left early to arrive at the hut in daylight. Half of the trail is over a snow-covered road, and the first section crosses several snowmobile trails, which is tedious. (In the video below, Dara calls it "interminable.") The excitement starts over the second three miles, where the trail narrows and follows an old logging railroad bed, which is today nearly covered in a dense woods. We dressed warm as though skiing, and used snowshoes lashed to our winter boots. We also brought thick sleeping bags (actually two each to double up one in the other), ski poles, water, and enough food for dinner and breakfast at the hut and lunch on the trail.

The most challenging section of the hike comes in the last few hundred feet. Zealand is located on the side of a waterfall, and the trail goes steeply up. In the winter with the snowpack, we needed the spikes of our snowshoes to dig in our footing.

The Hut comes as a welcome sight. Unlike in the summer, when the huts are staffed with a half dozen 'croo,' in winter there is only one care taker. He tends to a pot belly stove in the main room and the gas lights. The kitchen is self-serve. It's very wet and cozy. 

Here's Dara at the hut:

The main room is warm, especially around the stove, but the bunk rooms get down to around freezing at night. We snagged the bunks against the back of the kitchen wall, which are slightly warmer. We also used the stove and overhanging racks on pulleys to warm up as much of our clothing as possible. The rest we stuffed in our bags at night.

Most of the other overnighters at the hut were part of organized groups, but from what we saw some of them were far less prepared than we were on our own (one group even started a day late). The kitchen can be a scramble for space, so we booked our stove time early upon arrival.

Thanks to its waterfall location, Zealand offers the best winter view in the hut chain, with beautiful sunsets and sunrises over the Pemi. The hike out is a treat with its steady down grade, and many people (including our friends) bring cross-country skies for the ride out. With its moderate trails and beautiful scenery, Zealand offers an excellent introduction to the joys of winter hiking, as it was for Dara. It's also a fun place to visit again. 

Here's Dara during our morning departure from the hut:

TNtrack

UWS residents to protest 94th Street shelter tonight

James writes:

Neighborhood in the Nineties and other community groups on the Upper West Side have organized a protest at tonight's meeting of the Health & Human Services Committee of Community Board 7 over the conversion of a local hotel into a homeless shelter. Here are the details from Aaron Biller, head of NitN:

Show up TONIGHT at CB7, 250 West 87 St. on the proposed homeless shelter at The Alexander at 306 West 94th Street – Let the City know that transient housing is not “permanent” housing;
CB7 Health & Human Services Committee
***At Community Board 7, 250 West 87 Street**
T O N I G H T @ 7 PM
Be there early. We are First on the agenda:
ITEM #1. 306 West 94th ST (West End Ave-Riverside DR.) Presentation by Samaritan Village and the NYC Department of Homeless Services on the program for 306 West 94th Street.

Leslie Albrecht at DNAinfo has more details. Meanwhile, The Wall Street Journal and the Daily News editorial board pick up on the story I first reported here (complete recap here).