Needle Exchange for S.R.O.'s

Manhattan community Boards

At its April 1 meeting, Community Board 7 made a significant move to respond to a year of vociferous complaints about a city agency that houses homeless people with H.I.V./AIDS in single-room-occupancy hotels. In a unanimous vote, the board gave the green light to a local nonprofit, CitiWide Harm Reduction Coalition, to expand its syringe-exchange program into three of the most notorious Upper West Side S.R.O.'s, where many of the H.I.V.-positive residents are injection drug users.

The city agency in question is the H.I.V./AIDS Services Administration (HASA). An arm of the Human Resources Administration, it provides an array of welfare aid, including various forms of housing assistance, to approximately 31,000 lower-income H.I.V.-positive New Yorkers. HASA has come under increasing fire from the City Council, local AIDS advocates and NIMBY-crying neighbors over the last year for what H.R.A. commissioner Verna Eggleston has herself recognized to be a failed system for providing "emergency" housing placements into S.R.O. hotels for about 2,500 HASA clients.

The S.R.O.-housed clients are invariably the most indigent, and many of them suffer from severe mental illness or are addicted to drugs. But despite HASA's expressed goal to move its clients into independent self-sufficiency, the agency does not have a system to provide adequate social services. Consequently, many clients' health issues are not properly monitored, and problems within the hotels are common.

The concentration of HASA clients in the Upper West Side S.R.O.'s has increased dramatically since the post–Sept. 11 tourism drop-off, as landlords have scrambled to replace lost revenue with the average HASA payout of about $50 a night per bed. In turn, not only have long-time (read: low-paying) residents of these hotels been aggressively forced out, but the ones who remained have sometimes found their homes turned into havens for drug abuse and prostitution. Local residents have subsequently complained about a number of quality-of-life concerns surrounding two hotels in particular: the Royal York at 258 West 97th Street, and the Malibu on Broadway and 103rd.

CitiWide sought the board's approval to run needle-exchange programs inside the Royal York and the Malibu, as well as Broadway Studios at 230 West 101st Street, in order to prove, in an application for a New York State–sponsored grant, that the group had solicited community input. By granting approval, the board was hoping to kill two birds with one stone: to provide better care for the HASA clients, and to temper some of the quality-of-life problems that stem from drug abuse.

Mary Sherman Parsons, who runs the Lotus Garden, a community garden adjacent to the Royal York, attended the meeting to support CitiWide's efforts. Ms. Parsons has long complained of the waste-including syringes and crack vials-that has fallen from the hotel's windows into her rooftop garden. When contacted by The Observer , Ms. Parsons said: "CitiWide Harm Reduction has helped pick up and destroy this dangerous trash, and has provided much-needed services to these ill residents. We in the Lotus Garden are grateful."

Acknowledging that many still consider it backward logic to reduce the problems of drug addiction by providing drug addicts with the tools to inject, Board 7's resolution pointed out that according to former U.S. Surgeon General David Satcher, needle-exchange programs not only do not increase drug use, but-as part of a comprehensive drug-treatment program-can actually reduce the problem. The board also pointed to a 2002 New York State Department of Health report, which found that the infection rates of injection drug users in New York have dropped over 50 percent since the state began allowing syringe sales and exchanges in 1992.

When contacted by The Observer , Board 7's health and human-services committee co-chair David Harris reported that "there was zero opposition" to the syringe exchange when the motion was in committee hearings.

"It was, I think, telling that there was support from the local residents who are concerned about what's going on in the S.R.O.'s," he said, referring to a group of people who are often torn between personal considerations and empathy for the struggles of the HASA clients who now inhabit their backyards.

"This is a step forward for our community-an opportunity to bring services to our neighbors who need our support. It's not sufficient, but it's progress, and it should save lives," said Mr. Harris.

-Benjamin Ryan

April 9: Board 6, New York University Medical Center, 550 First Avenue, Classroom B, 7 p.m., 212-319-3750.

April 10: Board 5, Fashion Institute of Technology, 227 West 27th Street, Building A, eighth floor,

6 p.m., 212-465-0907.

April 15: Board 11, P.S. 197, 2230 Fifth Avenue, auditorium, 6:30 p.m., 212-831-8929; Board 1: I.S. 89, 201 Warren Street, auditorium, 6 p.m., 212-442-5050.

May Displace Highway Ramp

Multiple lawsuits aimed at halting or altering construction have proven powerless against Donald Trump's vision for a gargantuan real-estate development on the Upper West Side. Nonetheless, outraged neighbors are now devising tactics to prevent a likely ripple effect of the new buildings' arrival: closure of the West Side Highway's 72nd Street off-ramp.

Riverside South, as the development is called, is a $3 billion project of the Hudson Waterfront Associates and Trump New World. Running adjacent to the highway between 59th and 72nd streets, the 75-acre waterfront parcel will eventually be home to 5,700 apartments in 16 buildings, 3,500 parking spots, 1.8 million square feet of commercial space and a 21.5-acre park. To date, four buildings have gone up (and a fifth partially completed) between 66th and 71st streets. Construction on "Building A," a sixth tower between 71st and 72nd streets, was started in early December.

In order to mitigate traffic on West End Avenue, which lies to the east of the buildings, the city has required the developers to construct a new road, called Riverside Boulevard, to run along the west side of the buildings. The boulevard, which will eventually originate at 59th Street, currently runs from 66th to 71st and will soon reach 72nd Street, where it will run smack into the off-ramp.

As part of the 1992 Final Environmental Impact Statement, the city required that Riverside Drive (which begins at 72nd Street) be connected to the boulevard at 72nd Street, because driving between the two roads would otherwise cause a traffic imbroglio on West End Avenue. And according to Antonia Bryson, an attorney for the Committee for Environmentally Sound Development, a community real-estate watchdog group that battles "overdevelopment," the FEIS also states that if the ramp cannot be closed, the development project must be redesigned.

The CESD held a community meeting on Jan. 23 to discuss legal recourse to prevent the ramp's closure. Lawyers present outlined strategies for connecting the two roads without closing the ramp-an option they said Mr. Trump and his partners are obstructing by beginning construction on Tower A just south of the ramp.

Batya Lewton of the Coalition for a Livable West Side said in a telephone interview on Jan. 22 that "there has never been any reason given-transportation- or safety-wise-as to why the ramp has to be closed. [The city] did not look into the impact of closing that ramp, or the horrible traffic already at 79th Street, or at 96th Street."

Ms. Bryson said at the meeting that the only engineer to study the feasibility of making the connection without closing the ramp was sponsored by the developers themselves. "It should be the Department of Transportation's responsibility to study the situation afresh, to decide what is the best solution for dealing with the traffic that's going to be generated by the project," she said. (Paul Davis, chief executive of HWA, did not return calls for comments. Mr. Trump was out of town and could not be reached.)

Ms. Bryson added that community opposition to closing the off-ramp has "allowed Trump to get the best of all possible worlds," because any delay in resolving the matter provides him with valuable time. She said that as the developers continue their talks with the D.O.T. about connecting the roads, Mr. Trump is going forward with Building A's construction-a move that will effectively block any alternatives to closing the ramp.

On Dec. 12, Congressman Jerrold Nadler, State Assemblyman Scott Stringer and City Councilwoman Gale Brewer sent a joint letter to Department of Buildings Commissioner

Patricia Lancaster demanding the revocation of Building A's construction permit until the traffic-mitigation plan could be resolved. Mayor Michael Bloomberg eventually canceled their requested meeting with the D.O.B. and the D.O.T., telling the elected officials that he first wished to meet with the city agencies in private.

At the community meeting, John Simpson, director of constituent services for Mr. Stringer, said the trio's attempts to halt the project "keep getting stymied by the Mayor and his commissioners."

While Community Board 7 has long kept a watchful eye on Riverside South, they have yet to take a position on the off-ramp. Meanwhile, the developers declined to comment while their talks with the D.O.T. continue.

CESD's attorneys have requested that the D.O.B. revoke Building A's permit, because they claim the FEIS dictates that the road work-off-ramp removal or not-should happen in tandem with the building's erection. If the D.O.B. rejects their request, the attorneys intend to appeal to the Board of Standards and Appeals. If that fails, they always have the option of taking the matter to the State Supreme Court.

-Benjamin Ryan

Feb. 4: Board 7, Lincoln Square Neighborhood Center, 250 West 65th Street, 7 p.m., 362-4008.

Ads Are Imminent

What with marketing gurus having already colonized bike-messenger T-shirts and restaurant bathroom stalls, it would seem as if Madison Avenue couldn't possibly find another surface in the city to plaster with advertising. Not so. Prepare yourself for an imminent eruption of messages wrapped around that ubiquitous New York feature, the parking meter.

After a year of ironing out the details once the Department of Transportation approved the plan, a one-year pilot program to test this "alternative" style of advertising in New York City is finally set to begin.

At its May 7 meeting, the Upper West Side's Community Board 7 (echoing the April resolution of the Upper East Side's Community Board 8) voted unanimously to send word to the D.O.T. of its vehement disapproval. Balking at what it described as the excess of sidewalk ads on phone booths and bus shelters already, Board 7 countered with a completely different plan: to do away with the optical nuisance of parking meters altogether by installing muni-meters: the centralized meters covering multiple cars that have cropped up around the city.

Despite community protests, the project is still a go. The 500 spots slated to appear this summer will include 250 meters that run along both sides of Broadway between 66th and 99th streets-but in keeping with Board 7's requests, the signs will not appear in front of landmark buildings, mostly from 69th to 72nd streets. Additionally, 300 advertisements will premiere on Third Avenue between 72nd and 96th streets.

The Upper West Side ads will consist of paperback-sized panels owned by Snap Marketing. Park Place Media-which has run a program in Springfield, Mass., for the last three years-will post their triangular ads on the Upper East Side. Meanwhile, both companies are working to secure locations in a number of other cities across the country.

The pilot program dictates that all ads will be evaluated in terms of public perception, proper upkeep, appropriateness within the landscape and potential revenue. The banners will be removed after one year. The program, if successful, could possibly lead to an expanded city-wide campaign.

How do New Yorkers stand to benefit? A fee will go to the New York City general fund: a maximum of $90,000 during the year if the ads-which cost advertisers $150 and up per pole, per month-run at full capacity. But the prospective revenue isn't enough to convince some. "It's just a very dubious way to raise a very small amount of money," board member Elizabeth Starkey told The Observer . "It makes the entire city seem to be up for sale."

Indeed, some individuals expressed more general concerns about the project's financial feasibility. Joshua Bocian, director of constituent services for City Councilwoman Gale Brewer (who takes a neutral position on the matter), told The Observer, "The information that we're getting [from the D.O.T.] is that it just may not make economic sense to do this, because the amount of money that [the advertising firms] will collect just might not make it worthwhile."

Transportation committee co-chair Andrew Albert complained at the meeting that the plan "would bring visual clutter to the Upper West Side. It's a further commercialization of the street," he said. He and the board voiced concerns about potential vandalism of the ads and problems with upkeep, and said they doubted that the proposed plan would effectively address these issues.

Richard Greene, vice president of business development for Snap, told The Observer that he shared the concern about keeping the city clean, but maintained that his company's meter advertising could help achieve just that. "As long as [the ads] are kept clean and attractive," he said, "then, personally, I would rather see some attractive communication piece on a standard gray parking-meter pole."

Chip Fisher, a lifelong New Yorker and president of Park Place Media, agreed that phone-booth and bus-shelter advertising has become a menace. "Those things are absolutely out of control," he told The Observer . "They're ridiculous-especially the telephone-booth thing: It's just exploded to the point where it's nauseous." Alternatively, he said, the parking-meter ads "are not offensive-they're fun, they're rhythmic, they can be interesting, they're appealing to the eye. We're open to discussing this," Mr. Fisher added. "We want to put it in places where it's going to be attractive. We're not interested in saturating the whole city."

-Benjamin Ryan

May 15: Board 8, Rockefeller University, 1230 York Avenue, Caspary Auditorium, 7 p.m., 758-4340.

May 16: Board 9, 565 West 125th Street, 6:30 p.m., 864-6200.

May 21: Board 1, St. John's University, 101 Murray Street, auditorium, 6 p.m., 442-5050; Board 11, Thomas Jefferson Recreation Center, 2180 First Avenue, 6:30 p.m., 831-8929.