Northattan

Buffered bike lanes on First Avenue would be swapped with parking lanes and converted into fully protected curbside bike routes. Photo by Milos Balac/Northattan.

East Harlem resident Diego Gerena-Quinones stood before a packed community meeting in the Red Theater at Harlem Prep Charter School on 123rd Street one evening earlier this month.

Gerena-Quinones was giving personal testimony in favor of a controversial proposal to extend protected bike lanes on First and Second Avenues, from 96th to 125th streets.

“We’ve been hearing a lot of facts and statistics, which is great, they tell a story,” he said. “I’m going to do something a little bit different. I’m going to tell a personal story.”

On Gerena-Quinones’ mind was the injury summary for First Avenue just presented by New York City Department of Transportation’s Joshua Benson. From 2006 and 2010, 579 people were injured in traffic-related accidents along the stretch of road between 96th and 125th streets alone.

“I was one of those 580-something people that was struck by a vehicle,” said Gerena-Quinones.“I think it would be great to have these protected bike lanes. I know that I personally would have benefited from it.”

His message was a powerful one. After his accident this year, in which a car struck his bike on First Avenue and sent him flying over the hood, he spent six hours in the hospital in a neck brace. Months later, he is still undergoing physical therapy for the spinal injury he suffered.

But as dramatic as his story is, it does not persuade everyone in East Harlem — particularly those who own businesses on First and Second avenues. In their view, the city Transportation Department’s bike lane plan would serve only a handful of cyclists, while increasing traffic congestion, diminishing air quality and — most important for the area’s restaurants, bodegas and other retailers — hindering deliveries to local businesses.

“We’re not prepared to sacrifice our lives for the sake of a few,” said Erik Mayor, owner of the Milkburger restaurant on Second Avenue at 106th Street. Mayor told the community meeting that converting one of the current car lanes on Second Avenue to a bike lane would drastically reduce available parking, on a street already congested with double parkers.

Community Board 11 asked the city’s Transportation Department to build protective bike lanes in East Harlem two years ago. The board, together with department, held a series of public meetings to inform local residents and businesses of their plans. But not everybody got the message.

A slew of local residents and business people have come forward claiming they were not informed of the bike lane proposals, and have accused the Transportation Department of a lack of transparency. Their disquiet led to the community board’s withdrawing support for the bike lanes at its meeting in November.

Board officials subsequently decided to bring transportation officials and locals together for an extraordinary meeting at Harlem Prep Charter School in early December.

New York City has built bike lanes on city streets  at rapid rate since 1997. Fifteen years ago, the city had just 119 miles of bike lanes, marked with paint on city roads. As of July 2009, this had grown to a 561-mile network of off-street paths, traffic-protected lanes, on-street lanes with buffer zones and shared lanes marked by chevrons.

By 2030, that network could more than triple in size, if Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan gets her way.

While early development of the bike lane network met little opposition, new expansions in East Harlem and elsewhere are encountering more resistance.

A 2010 report commissioned by the U.S. Department of Transportation,“ Cycling in New York,” states that the number of New Yorkers traveling to work by bike has more than doubled since 1990. And, in gentrifying neighborhoods such as Brooklyn, it has quadrupled. The report says this is largely a result of the city transportation department’s effort to expand and improve cycling facilities.

But while numbers of cyclists have increased, the same report says that the number biking to work is still minuscule. It put the citywide figure around 0.6 percent for 2008 — just under 25,000 cyclists. Erik Mayor contends the only cyclists he sees when he looks out the window from his Second Avenue restaurant are couriers.

At the East Harlem community meeting 13-year-long resident Pablo Guzman questioned the prioritization of bike lanes given the community’s dire need for education and health funds. Gasps rippled across the school hall when the cost of the project was revealed at $300,000 per mile — around $840,000 for the 2.8-mile East Harlem project. As 80 percent of this is federally funded, the city would foot a bill of around $168,000.

Joseph Ferris, a spokesman for the bicycle advocacy group Transportation Alternatives, said that taking the federal grant into account, the real city investment in bike lanes since 2006 has been about $1.6 million, “virtual drops in the bucket” compared to spending on other transportation infrastructure.

“Traffic crashes cost New York City $4.29 billion in 2009, according to the NYC DOT’s Pedestrian Safety Study and Action Plan,” said Ferris in an email. “Bike lanes have proven to drastically reduce the number of crashes.”

Downtown from East Harlem, city figures for First Avenue between Houston and 34th Streets show a 37 percent drop in traffic accidents following the introduction of protected bike lanes. And, for the same distance on Second Avenue, a decrease of 11 percent was recorded.

According to the Transportation Department’s Pedestrian Safety Study and Action Plan, released in August 2010, traffic accidents resulting in pedestrian fatalities is one of the primary causes of death among children between 5 and 14, and among adults over 45.

Local Mount Sinai pediatrician Dr. Kevin Chatham-Stephens told the community meeting at Harlem Prep that he supported bike lanes for that very reason. In a sobering statement, the young physician said that on top of these bleak statistics, black children are 50 percent more likely to die in traffic than white children.

City Councilwoman Melissa Mark-Viverito sees the pedestrian islands built alongside bike lanes as integral part of her office’s “Aging Improvement District” plan. On wide avenues the islands provide additional rest stops for elderly citizens.

Proponents at the community meeting offered a laundry list of reasons why the bike lanes should be built, ranging from helping reduce obesity, to the possible reduction of smog and other pollution, which can contribute to asthma and other respiratory diseases.

Community Board Chairman Matthew Washington supports the bike lanes, but is growing weary of the debate. Speaking on the eve of the community meeting, he said opponents weren’t paying attention before.

“I’m just really looking forward to us as a community board getting beyond this issue so we can focus on more important issues,” he said, “like the 16 percent unemployment rate in our community or the 43,000 people on public assistance.”

“Hit by a fist or something hard, beaten, or slammed against something” was the language used to describe what nearly a quarter of American women experienced by the hand of an “intimate partner” last year.

That’s according to a new government report, released Dec. 14, based on a random sample of 9,000 female respondents. The 2010 National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey, carried out by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, also found that nearly one in five women had experienced rape or attempted rape.

In New York City, a network of organizations works to assist women in these troubling situations. One of them, the Violence Intervention Program (VIP), is based in East Harlem – and its employees understand that domestic violence is a problem afflicting all levels of society.

“I’ll tell you a story,” says Cecilia Gaston, the VIP’s executive director. “A 20-year marriage to a multinational businessman, college degree, very sophisticated, domestic violence – that’s me. I’m a survivor myself, although I’ve never been poor, I’m privileged, I speak five languages, I’m a U.S. citizen. Domestic violence happens across the board.”

The Violence Intervention Program is headquartered in East Harlem. Photo by Frederick Bernas/Northattan.

Gaston is sitting in a small kitchen at VIP headquarters in El Barrio, where the organization was founded in 1984. The building is deliberately inconspicuous, and its address is kept secret so “clients can stay safe” when they visit for counseling or information sessions.

One of several small rooms is decorated colorfully and scattered with toys. Supporting children whose parents are in abusive relationships is an important part of the VIP mission: “I work with them to try and express feelings, to verbalize the trauma,” explains youth counselor Lidia Flores. “We recently started mixed groups with mothers and children, which is very helpful. Sometimes the mother cannot see from the child’s view, or they have trouble expressing feelings at home and being able to spend time together. The mother might be dealing with many different things and feeling guilty she can’t provide.”

For the most needy victims, VIP offers a way out. Secret accommodation facilities in Manhattan, the Bronx and Queens provide emergency shelter for up to 135 days, or a transitional apartment for as long as two years. “When a woman chooses shelter, it’s usually a last resort,” says Gaston. “You have to give up your job, and you cannot not tell anyone where you are – not even your family.” This is to ensure that abusive partners have no way of tracking women down.

At a time when the demand for support services is rising, the fact that so much of the organization’s work is hidden means that reaching out is a very delicate task. Word of mouth is key. “A lot of people don’t know about us – especially recent immigrants who live in their enclave with friends and family,” says Valerie Leon, the community education and outreach coordinator. Gaston adds, “They come from countries where these services do not exist, so they don’t in any way assume that help is available.”

On a wider cultural level, Leon says her promotional efforts often hit a wall of social taboos about domestic violence in Latino communities. “There’s a lot of victim-blaming: People think she must like it, she deserved it, that kind of thing,” she explains. “A lot of folks make light of it like a joke – saying men get abused, and all that. Our presence might not change someone’s relationship, but at least we’re raising awareness, which is the first part of prevention.”

VIP representatives regularly visit local hotspots where women gather, such as Head Start Centers, to deliver presentations. “One of the best tools we have is other survivors,” says Leon, who is assisted by four “promotoras,” or promoters, who themselves came through the organization’s rehabilitation program. Gaston adds: “In Latin America, the community health educator is a model that works very well. It’s not me coming with my college degree and my suit to tell somebody what to do – it’s a neighbor, and they’re very successful.”

Guadalupe Perez is one of the volunteer “promotoras.” She endured an abusive relationship for 12 years before VIP helped her get out by providing therapy, legal support and shelter. Today, the memories live on: “For a long time I carried a lot of pain and anger,” Perez recalls.

“When I started talking to my therapist, I fell down. I felt without energy, and someone had to help me go outside because I wasn’t able to walk. I remember they gave me cold water, they put me on a couch to rest, because I felt terrible. I compare myself in the past to a zombie.”

Perez says her children implored her to end the relationship, and she now takes pride in using her personal experience to help others. “If I touch a lady with my history, I know this lady will change her life if she takes therapy and decides to leave an abusive relationship and start a new life,” she says. “It could save a family – the lady and her children too. And the children will not repeat the same cycle in the future.”

The “promotoras” distribute pamphlets and specially designed nail files that advertise the VIP’s 24/7 hotline, which receives some 14,000 calls every year. “It’s something a woman can keep in her purse that doesn’t raise a lot of attention – a card or brochure is obvious, you see,” says Gaston.

The VIP website provides another pathway to the organization's variety of help services. Photo by Frederick Bernas/Northattan.

The phone number acts as a vital point of first contact: Around 1,000 women per year are then provided with further services. VIP is staffed by 38 full-time employees, assisted by part-timers and volunteers. The organization supplements federal funding with grants from the New York Women’s Foundation and other partners, and recently made $31,000 with a private fundraising event.

Gaston has worked with authorities at state and national level on the issue of domestic violence, which she says is linked closely to immigration and deportation. She says the federal Secure Communities program, first piloted by the Bush administration in 2008, is a “deadly” threat to Hispanics in New York. Under the policy, police officers submit fingerprints of all arrestees to a national database that is shared with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). If a violation is suspected, ICE can issue its own detention orders that lead to federal custody – and potential deportation.

“Police are acting as immigration officers,” says Gaston. “That means no one is going to call the police if it brings them into a community where there are people at risk of being picked up by immigration.” In domestic violence cases, she says this could lead to a fear of reporting perpetrators for the sake of avoiding any contact with the law.

“It’s a major undermining of community policing and the relationship between the community and the people supposed to be protecting them,” Gaston continues. She’s met with NYPD officials to discuss the issue: “We concluded that officers require an enormous amount of training,” she says. “In theory there are policies and protocols, but they’re not being followed – like something as simple as conducting a proper investigation at the site where the incident occurs and arresting the right person.”

On the other hand, domestic violence advocates have had their own policy “czar” at the White House since June 2009, when Lynn Rosenthal was appointed as special adviser on violence against women. And vice president Joe Biden was one of the original proponents of the 1994 Violence Against Women Act, which Gaston cites as “a critical piece of legislation” because it provides a legal framework and a funding stream for non-governmental organizations. An updated version of VAWA was tabled for a third congressional reauthorization in November this year.

Memorial for Aaron Kobe Collins in front of Wilson Houses, East Harlem. Photo by Mayeta Clark/Northattan.

“I couldn’t see his face, but I know that’s the one who did it.”

David Collins was going through his brother’s belongings trying to find his phone. It wasn’t on him when he found him wounded in the burned-out stairwell right next to their apartment on the 16th floor of the Woodrow Wilson Houses in East Harlem on that Monday night. “If I can find it, maybe I can find the killer,” he said.

Collins was in the bathroom when he heard the front door close. Shortly afterwards he heard gunshots. He ran out of the family apartment in his robe and into the dark stairwell to investigate. Collins recounted seeing a man in a hoodie and skullcap coming down the stairs. “What happened?” he asked. “I don’t know,” the hooded man replied.

Collins went inside to put on some clothes. He asked his mother who’d gone out the front door. “Kobe,” she said referring to her younger son. Kobe, 28, had been asleep shortly before his family heard the gunshots that killed him.

Collins ran back outside and up a flight of steps. When he rounded the corner he saw his younger brother slumped on the stairs. He tried CPR, but was unable to help him.

“My brother was a good dude,” said Collins. “He just loved everybody, anybody. Everybody was in the hall trying to save him.”

Police said they were called to the Wilson Houses shortly before 9 p.m. on Dec. 12, where they found Aaron Kobe Collins shot in the torso. Although he was rushed to Metropolitan Hospital by emergency services, he was pronounced dead on arrival.

“He was a loving brother and a good father,” said his sister Lasheika Collins. “Anything I needed or my kids wanted, he’d get it for us. He always looked out for his family, looked after our mother.”

Kobe was in fact battling the courts for custody of his son, who had been removed from his mother, Kobe’s ex-girlfriend, and placed in a foster home.

Lasheika Collins said she thinks her brother knew his killer, and that more than one person may have been involved. She believes the person who set up the killing is also from the Wilson Houses complex.

Sean Collins, another of the victim’s siblings, said he believes the killer was motivated by jealousy. “He was high on something, looking for nice things,” he said, flashing his own jewelry. Collins said his brother was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Lasheika Collins also said her family was thinking of suing the Housing Authority, which is responsible for their building. The walls and lights in the stairwell where Kobe Collins was murdered were blackened by a fire up to the 20th floor over a month ago, the family said. Furthermore, Lasheika Collins said that the lack of security cameras and a broken panel on the front door of the building meant that anybody could walk in at any time without hindrance or fear of detection.

Lasheika Collins said she asked the assistant manager of Wilson Houses to fix the stairwell and front door the day after her brother was murdered, but that her request was met with ambivalence. “He took his last breath on that staircase,” she said, shaking her head.

A statement from the New York City Housing Authority said that the maintenance staff planned to repaint the walls and repair the missing glass panel in the building’s front door this week. It also said the city has set aside $43 million to install cameras and improve security at several housing developments across the city, including Wilson Houses, with work scheduled to begin in 2012.

The Collins family has lived in the apartment on the 16th floor of Wilson Houses since Kobe Collins was 4. He had a learning disability, and while he was unable to do paid work in adulthood, he was fond of basketball and drawing, filling notebooks with stark, graffiti-style sketches.

Kobe Collins’ death brings to 14 the number of murders in East Harlem this year, down from 18 last year. David Collins and his sister Lasheika said that too many of those deaths have occurred near their home. “Over here’s just bad, period,” she said.

Outside their city housing block on East 105th Street, an impromptu memorial reminds residents of the violent death of their 28-year-old neighbor.

Residents slowed as they approached the entrance to the building on December 15. A flattened cardboard box had been taped next to the door. Some wrote personal messages:

“RIP KOBE. Lost but never forgotten.”
“We will dearly miss you.”
“That drink was for my G.”
“RIP Kobe Ima keep them pullups scrappy S.I.P”

Green and white candles with “R.I.P. Kobe” in black marker burned at the foot of the impromptu memorial, next to empty bottles of malt liquor.

“Never bothered nobody,” said James Cromartie, a handyman for the building, who remembered meeting Collins when he did repairs on his family’s apartment. “He was a quiet kid. Kept to himself.”

Another resident Deshawn Stevenson, 15, recalled Collins working out on the basketball courts each day.

Detectives from the New York Police Department’s 23rd Precinct were unable to comment, other than to say the investigation was continuing.

“They hit my best friend,” said David Collins. “Make sure you put in that article we loved him.”

Hunter's state-of-the-art new building opened in East Harlem last summer. Photo by Ben Teitelbaum/Northattan.

Good fences make good neighbors, some say, but if a school of social work is moving into town, the set of expectations might be a little different.

Hunter College’s School of Social Work is nearly a full semester into its residency in East Harlem, and Dean Jacqueline Mondros hopes to establish a reputation as “great neighbors.”

“I would like it to be said that we came into this neighborhood in a respectful way as collaborative partners and that we helped them to make this neighborhood stronger,” said Mondros.

Although the school is not hiding in its mansion – a $135 million state-of-the-art building on Third Avenue between 118^th and 119^th streets –- it is still figuring out its public face.

Through a field placement program mandatory for all 1,100 students, the recently renamed Lois V. and Samuel J. Silberman School of Social Work at Hunter College does have over 100 students interning at East Harlem-based organizations, twice the amount from last year, and the administration plans to increase the number.

Still, the true impact of those agencies, not to mention their interns, is tough to quantify, and the Hunter-East Harlem relationship engenders mixed feelings.

The school has “done a lot to make it seem like it’s reaching out to the community, but I don’t know,” said Master of Social Work student Will Engelhardt. “Most people feel like Hunter hasn’t done much.”

Student Cynthia Rodriguez, whose field placement concerns Hunter’s community outreach, said that while the administration is clearly committed to East Harlem, the school’s plan of action is “vague” and “ambiguous.”

Nevertheless, Hunter is not merely standing idly by, and three other MSW students are now playing a somewhat unofficial role in examining the Hunter-East Harlem relationship and offering suggestions to shape that plan.

“What feedback we’re trying to give them is really what’s going on in relation to how they think they’re doing and how they’re really doing in the community,” said Meredith Marin, who is working with Gabby Macklin and Breiny Scheinert.

The trio is currently researching an assignment on “exploring community needs.” As the only group covering East Harlem, their project “has a particular relevance that extends beyond just an assignment,” Marin said.

Their exercise in community assessment, which has video and print components, has been turning heads. According to Marin, both State Assemblyman Robert Rodriguez and Mondros have personally asked for copies.

When the school announced several years ago that it was moving uptown from East 79^th Street – a decision triggered by financial implications and the desire to improve its physical space – Hunter realized that it was thrusting itself into an already roiling discussion of gentrification and social responsibility.

Unsurprisingly, public officials have said all the right things.

Former New York Gov. David Paterson said that the move would give the school “the opportunity to engage with a vibrant, diverse and growing population in need of the vast array of services Hunter offers.”

State Sen. Jose M. Serrano echoed those sentiments: “Having their main facility in East Harlem will be a great addition to the neighborhood. The services they offer will undoubtedly bring much-needed resources into our community.”

Hunter, at least rhetorically, has also taken on the challenge of becoming an agent for “positive social change,” in the words of longtime professor Terry Mizrahi.

On the school’s website, Hunter touts the “unparalleled opportunity for the School to ‘live its mission’” to “seek and encourage social work talent for and from the least advantaged.” In East Harlem, where almost half the residents don’t graduate from high school and the unemployment rate is around 17 percent, the school has found a neighborhood with real need.

Although the facility itself inspires passers-by to slow down and peer curiously into the large glass windows, Hunter’s presence is not widely recognized. “I had noticed it one day, but I didn’t really know it was there,” said Laura Dara, who lives just a few blocks away.

Yet Marin has discovered that “Hunter’s done a lot more so far for the community than people really know about.”

For one, the school has opened its doors for public events. Hunter hosted a youth summit last summer, and Mondros, who was recently honored by an East Harlem consortium of human service agencies, said that in January the school plans to hold a “community meeting so we have community people telling us what they would like to see us do.”

Marin and Mondros stress that the school is not charting a course without input from East Harlem. “They’re focusing on partnerships a lot. That’s been a really primary theme,” said Marin. “They’re very vigilant about working with what’s already here in the community.”

Even so, there are questions whether Hunter can make a significant difference in East Harlem without its students truly embedding into the neighborhood. “There are almost no students that live in East Harlem,” said Marin, and Queens-based Cynthia Rodriguez admitted that they were “in and out of the 116^th Street subway stop.”

Local business owners also said they haven’t seen much benefit from the addition of Hunter. “Same for my business,” said Peter Dei, the owner of a 99-cent store across the street. “No change. No different. All the same.” And Faris Ali, who works at nearby Super Delicious Deli Food Inc. said that his rent increased when construction of the school began, but business was only starting to improve.

Another point of contention is the response of East Harlemites to Hunter’s aspirations. Until Hunter proves itself, residents may view the school with a wary eye. “The residents are kind of jaded. They’re kind of like, ‘Oh yeah? What’re you going to do for us?’” said Marin.

Next week Hunter will at least answer that question for 100 East Harlem children, as the school is donating 100 books in support of primary education. That’s just one way Hunter is trying to become a great neighbor.

“I want this to be the best place in the country,” said the former No. 1 tennis player in the world, John McEnroe, standing on a courtside balcony at his academy on Randall’s Island. “My aim is to bring tennis back to the forefront, to bring the buzz back. I’d like someone to make it and be the best player in the world, like I was.”

John McEnroe teaching a student at his academy on Randall's Island. Photo by Frederick Bernas/Northattan.

Opened in 2009, the facility boasts 20 courts -– 15 of which lie under temporary “bubble” roof structures that can be removed for outdoor play in the summer. The Sportime Corp. invested $18 million in the project before McEnroe became a partner and opened the John McEnroe Tennis Academy. But now trouble could be brewing as the company plans to expand into a nearby parking lot, building nine additional courts at an estimated cost of $7 million.

On Dec. 5, a small but noisy group of protesters accused McEnroe of “stealing public land” outside a fundraiser for “The Nation” magazine, where the sporting legend was a keynote speaker. They cited concerns about high prices and the resulting difficulties for community access, as well as a perceived lack of outreach by McEnroe’s academy into local schools.

“The parking lot is an open space that’s used by the public,” said Marina Ortiz, a community organizer who took part in the demonstration. “First and foremost, it’s city land and it should not be turned over to a private enterprise with rates that are not affordable to children and people in East Harlem and the South Bronx.”

Hourly prices for court rental vary from $40 to $105 depending on time of day and level of membership, which starts at $71 per month, with a joining fee of $500. Ben Schlansky, the chief legal officer for Sportime, said these rates are competitive by city standards and added that “50 percent of courts are reserved for parks permit holders from May 1 until Columbus Day.” That means anyone who holds a New York City public tennis permit can use the facilities at no extra cost.

Schlansky said a lack of transportation makes it hard for many public permit holders and locals to reach the island, and that Sportime and the McEnroe Academy were committed to widening outreach. “We already work with public schools to offer free community programs through the Randall’s Island Sport Foundation,” he said. “We’ve also discussed designating one of our employees to act as a liaison with the community, so we can branch out and establish more contacts.”

Mark McEnroe, a younger brother of John who is the academy’s general manager, described two such partnerships, with the DREAM Charter School in East Harlem and the Hyde Leadership Charter School in the South Bronx. “We also met Geoffrey Canada from the Harlem Children’s Zone and basically offered to take kids from schools in his purview and train them,” McEnroe said. “We haven’t been successful in making that happen, but not really because of lack of effort -– you’d be surprised how difficult it is to get schools to give you their kids to train for free.”

Sportime wants to convert this parking lot into nine new tennis courts. Photo by Frederick Bernas/Northattan

Sportime will submit its formal expansion bid to the city’s land use review procedure in the new year. Informational meetings have already been held with subgroups of Community Board 11, including the Parks and Recreation Committee. “We went there to listen, gather all the questions together, and get the board members the information they need to make an informed decision,” Schlansky said.

Frances Mastrota, who chairs the Parks and Recreation group, is taking a cautious approach. “I want to improve the land that right now is not worthy of a parking lot,” she said, “but I have to be sure that I get full value for what I’m giving.

“We hope to have a rain garden and we’re asking for lighting,” Mastrota continued. She added that the board would like to see greater equality in the way tennis scholarships are allocated: “We’d like to see scholarships that aren’t openly competitive, so children who have never held a racket in their hand can compete and then perhaps be offered one.”

Mastrota, who moved to East Harlem in 1959, says the community “felt robbed” when the tennis center originally opened without going through city land review procedures. “Parks activists were livid and frustrated by the inability to fight back,” she said. “We have been burned and the scars remain. There is a lack of trust in their word.”

Sportime’s current expansion plan includes a garden in an adjacent parking lot, as well as 45 new trees, but it recently drew criticism from elected officials that led to the postponement of a city hearing. On Dec. 15, DNAInfo.com reported that Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, Comptroller John Liu and East Harlem Councilwoman Melissa Mark-Viverito all aired concerns about the tennis center pricing out locals.

“Based on what I’ve heard so far, it seems that Sportime’s current facility at Randall’s Island has not fully engaged with the local community,” DNAInfo quoted Mark-Viverito as saying. A spokesman for Scott Stringer said the borough president was concerned that Sportime had not been “sufficiently transparent with information about the existing 20 tennis courts and the extent to which they can be made more accessible to the surrounding community and general public.”

John McEnroe was adamant that part of his personal mission is promoting broader access to the sport he loves, and the expansion would aid that: “It’s an expensive game, and I’d like to make tennis available to every kid,” he said. “It would be nice to make it more affordable to as many people as possible – that would be my goal.

“Hopefully they’ll see the expansion is something that will be good for the city and good for kids, and if they decide not to do it, that’s just bad luck.”

In the basement of a New York City Council District office in East Harlem one recent Tuesday evening, three women sat at a large oval table poring over a nine-page listing of 105 citizen proposals for local parks and recreation projects.

Some were modest and very specific: Repave paths in St. Mary’s Park in the south Bronx. Others sought grander goals: Build a park reserved exclusively for the newly popular extreme urban sport of parkour. And several were maddeningly vague, for a process that is supposed to come up with concrete plans for particular sites: “Jogging tracks,” read one proposal, while another suggested “Play grounds renovations.” Neither specified where those projects should be carried out.

“There’s not enough information on some of them to vote yes or no,” said a frustrated Kioka Jackson.

Jackson, 37, and her colleagues in this venture, Susan Rodriguez and Frances Mastrota, hold no elected office. But an innovative experiment in democracy, called participatory budgeting, has given the trio of East Harlemites the power to sift through proposals and help determine which might get implemented in Council District 8, which also includes Manhattan Valley and Mott Haven in the Bronx.

They are just three of dozens of volunteers on nine different committees –- from Housing to Education to Parks and Recreation -– who are currently slogging through 557 of their neighbors’ ideas collected at community meetings this fall.

Melissa Mark-Viverito is one of four City Council members trying out participatory budgeting. Whereas Mark-Viverito and other elected officials normally speak for their residents when allocating public funds, they are now encouraging those residents to speak for themselves.

So, instead of shouting from the sidelines, Jackson, Rodriguez, Mastrota and the other volunteers have to draw up a citizens’ game plan and put it into action. In each district, at least $1 million will be spent next year on infrastructure improvements chosen directly by constituents.

Mark-Viverito’s community outreach started with local nonprofit groups. When Rodriguez, who runs an organization dedicated to AIDS/HIV research and treatment for women, learned about the new program, she quickly jumped on board. “I think what Melissa has done is really ambitious,” said Rodriguez. “Once you build that foundation of people participating in their community, good things can happen out of it.”

Rodriguez, Jackson and Mastrota are part of an eight-volunteer team of “budget delegates,” tasked with whittling down the parks and recreation idea list into a handful of specific proposals.

The ideas were gathered in October and early November, when the entire council district was invited to suggest an idea -– any idea -– whether at one of several neighborhood assemblies or through an online form. Hundreds of suggestions later, small committees of untrained volunteers must find a way to assess all those potential projects and submit just a few for a final community-wide vote in March.

The first parks and recreation budget delegate meeting had a disappointing turnout. Five of the eight volunteer committee members didn’t show, and Mastrota immediately pointed out, “We don’t even have a quorum.”

The delegates were joined by two facilitators. Also volunteers, facilitators are members of the council district office, the local community board or major community-based organizations, people generally more knowledgeable about governmental processes who help guide the committees in their decision-making.

One of them, Will Engelhardt, taped two oversized sheets of paper to the wall — one labeled Priority, the other Non-Priority — and recommended that each delegate come up with five projects for each list. But that exercise wasn’t as simple as it sounded.

After Rodriguez described Thomas Jefferson Park, on 112^th Street between First Avenue and the FDR Drive, as a “ghetto park” and a “dump,” Mastrota bristled, responding that it had received a “high rating.”

And somehow “Redevelopment of Blake Hobbs Park” made its way onto both hanging sheets of paper.

“I thought that there was some tension between the delegates, and that at times people weren’t listening to each others’ ideas,” said Engelhardt. “But I think that is to be expected, as most budget delegates will probably have strong opinions about certain issues.”

The delegates themselves expressed exasperation at the early lack of progress. “It’s a little discouraging when meetings drag on and you don’t get to the meat and potatoes of what you need to do,” said Rodriguez.

However, Mark-Viverito said she was pleased with the vigorous debate. She briefly visited the parks and recreation committee session, engaged in small talk with the budget delegates, reminded them that “we want to go by what’s on the list, as far as projects people have identified,” and then left them to their work. She later issued a statement saying she was “thrilled to see a strong level of participation and engagement from the delegates.”

More than 1,000 cities around the world use some form of participatory budgeting, but Chicago is the only other U.S. city to try it. The experiment that began there in 2009 “shows clear signs of promise, growth, and rapid extension,” according to a report issued earlier this year by the Harvard Political Review.

Although $1 million can’t change the whole district’s landscape, it is a significant portion of the annual $5 million or so that Mark-Viverito controls directly for these types of infrastructure projects. To put that into perspective, New York City’s budget has been estimated at $67 billion by the City Office of Management and Budget.

Despite the initial stumbling blocks, Jackson, Rodriguez and Mastrota remain optimistic as they discuss whether to create green streets in East Harlem or implement free WiFi throughout the entire district, two of the proposals on their long wish list.

“I really do love what’s going on here,” said Rodriguez. And when, after the first few frustrating hours, Mastrota was asked if she still believes participatory budgeting is worthwhile, her eyes narrowed with intensity as she emphatically proclaimed, “Yes!”

Once a month, the East Harlem Taste Trolley titillates Northattan’s taste buds, taking 45 hungry diners on a tour of the area’s gourmet restaurants.

Five years ago, when she conceived the idea of opening La Casa Azul bookstore in East Harlem, Aurora Anaya-Cerda knew it would be no easy task. Despite the area’s rich cultural heritage, similar ventures have struggled in recent times.

Aurora Anaya-Cerda has raised $72,000 to open a new bookstore in East Harlem. Photo by Johnny Ramos.

The advent of new technology – think kindles, iPads, e-books – has played a major role, along with rising Internet sales. “The industry has already changed so much,” says Anaya-Cerda. “I still have each draft of my business plan – I’ve seen how it goes from 20 to 35 to 46 pages. And there’s no denying bookstores have closed in New York City. I’m very aware of that because I visited them before it happened.”

But Anaya-Cerda is in an ebullient mood. In early October, her campaign to raise $40,000 in 40 days closed with around $36,000 in private and online donations. An interest-free matching loan from an unnamed benefactor makes a grand total of $72,000 – and Anaya-Cerda says “every penny” is accounted for. “The next phase is looking for a commercial space,” she continues. “I’m aiming to open in a year, because I know it takes time with negotiations, landlords, permits and all of that.”

Her mission is simple: “To promote Latino writers, writers from Latin America, literature in Spanish, literature for teens and bilingual books for kids.” Another key goal is helping people get in touch with their Hispanic identity through reading. With a résumé that includes starting an online store, organizing a children’s book festival and hosting dozens of smaller events during the last three years, Anaya-Cerda is confident she can overcome harsh economic realities and find a sustainable business model that serves the needs of its community.

On Nov. 8, the elders of that community were out in force at the Nuyorican Poets Café, a downtown venue that helped foster cultural identity for many Puerto Rican immigrants in the 1970s. The news about Anaya-Cerda’s fruitful fundraising is cautiously received. “I’ve been teaching Shakespeare for more than 30 years, and nobody reads anymore,” says writer and educator Miguel Algarín. As co-founder of the iconic café and a professor emeritus at Rutgers University, Algarín has experience behind his words.

Sery Colón performs outside the Nuyorican Poets Café, Nov. 8. Photo by Frederick Bernas / Northattan.

Sery Colón, whose own Latino bookstore, Agueybana, closed in 1998 after five years in business, agrees. “Seventy thousand dollars alone might just go into taking care of the location,” says Colón. Amid escalating gentrification on the Lower East Side, Colón says the rent on his space spiraled out of control – and when Amazon came along, he “just couldn’t compete.”

Colón tried again in 2007, when he co-founded Cemi Underground with Luis Cordero. Despite offering a broader choice – art, clothes and other merchandise, as well as books – and occupying a prime East Harlem location on Lexington Avenue, the venture was shuttered after just two years. “We did a lot there, but people were not supporting books,” says Colón.

Ed Morales, a journalist who also teaches at Columbia University’s Center for the Study of Ethnicity and Race, says the Amazon effect should be a big cause for concern at La Casa Azul. “The distribution model is similar to music,” he says. “There are no record stores – people want to buy online and get those deep discounts. Right now, it’s very difficult for any bookstore to get off the ground.”

In late 2007, two established Spanish-language outlets on West 14th Street, Librería Lectorum and Librería Macondo, closed within weeks of each other.

Anaya-Cerda’s online donation drive was widely reported in New York media, and even made it to the Huffington Post “Latino Voices” homepage. But it was an article in the “Daily News” on Oct. 27 that caused one El Barrio business owner to react with frustrated surprise.

“A friend of mine told me there was a woman doing a fundraiser based on trying to open up the very first bookstore here in Spanish Harlem,” says author Deborah Cardona, sitting behind her front desk at the Deja Vu Book Lounge on East 116th Street. After five years selling street literature in the local area, Cardona opened this physical space in July.

“So I found her number, called it and told her, ‘Maybe you were trying to open up a different type of bookstore, and that’s fine,’” Cardona says. “‘But don’t tell people there isn’t a bookstore.’”

Anaya-Cerda says she only learned about the Deja Vu Lounge during that call. And Cardona is clear that she is in no way against La Casa Azul: “The idea is wonderful. I want my community to get back to reading. I don’t have a problem working with her, and I am open to collaboration.”

Jesús Papoleto Meléndez believes the new bookstore will raise awareness of Latino identity. Photo by Frederick Bernas / Northattan.

Nourishing awareness of cultural history among the local population is a call that resonates with Jesús Papoleto Meléndez, another elder statesmen of Nuyorican poetry. “When I was a kid, there were no Latino authors – we became those authors,” he says. Meléndez has worked with students of all ages in El Barrio and beyond, and he believes the new bookstore can become a valuable resource.

“My generation spent its time breaking through walls,” Meléndez continues. “We created a whole legitimate literary movement. Our quest was to identify ourselves in the context of this culture, which was a big unknown. The people who came from Puerto Rico at least had memories, but I was born here – I had a different reality, so I was really displaced from our own cultural identity.”

Meléndez believes the Nuyorican literary legacy holds wider significance in today’s changing America, and for other Hispanic communities. “We made a collective identity for ourselves and gave it a voice, so anyone else could attach to it, which is what they’ve done – even Latino immigrants,” he explains.

Aurora Anaya-Cerda is an example of this trend: Her parents arrived in the United States from Mexico when she was 5 years old. In addition to her literary pursuits, she works at El Museo del Barrio organizing family programs. “I believe a big part of educating children is teaching them about their identity, or at least making them comfortable in knowing their stories,” she says. “Celebrations and traditions are very important for children finding out who they are, so that’s what the bookstore will provide.”

Meléndez thinks the adult market will be tougher to crack. “You always have to focus on kids when it’s about books, because big people are into their customs or habits,” he explains. “The only opportunity to change their behavior is at child level – and it’s like a shark feeding frenzy when kids see book fairs at school. So, let this bookstore be a new candy store for children in East Harlem!”

What would you do with a million dollars? That’s the question four New York City Council members are asking their residents. The money’s in the bank; now they just need to figure out how to spend it.

Cache of guns brought in during Harlem gun buyback event. Photo courtesy of the New York Police Department.

The indoor basketball court at Harlem’s Bethel Gospel Assembly church was eerily quiet on a recent October Saturday. A few police officers sat behind computers facing an empty row of chairs. A lone visitor arrived, wearing a cap and holding a large brown paper bag – his contribution to the gun amnesty sponsored that day in a joint initiative between law enforcement and religion.

City police and the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office had pooled their funds to offer $200 bank cards for each operable handgun brought in, or a $20 card for shotguns or rifles – with a limit of three guns per person. Handguns were higher value because they are easier to conceal and more often used in the city’s crimes.

Gun buybacks have been staged periodically in the city for at least two decades, but the October program had a special urgency, coming just weeks after the shooting death of Harlem high school basketball star Tayshana Murphy. Rumors that Murphy’s murder would spark reprisals in the neighborhood prompted community leaders like Iesha Sekou, founder of Street Corner Resources, to request the October buyback at a second venue – the Holy Family R.C. Church in Central Harlem.

“We wanted to give young people the opportunity to think about it and to turn in illegal weapons,” Sekou said.

By 4 p.m., 139 guns had been surrendered across the two locations, including a .22-caliber semi-automatic with a silencer.

“Our gun buyback took 139 dangerous weapons out of our neighborhoods, and will hopefully save lives,” said Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. in a post-buyback announcement that reflects the conventional wisdom of elected officials in many states.

Yet critics say gun buybacks are a waste of taxpayer dollars and don’t effectively get guns off the street. A handful of studies have cast doubt on them as a crime-fighting technique, and the prestigious National Academy of Sciences concluded in a 2004 review that “the theory underlying gun buy-back programs is badly flawed.”

“A gun buyback program is a Junk B Gone program for gun owners, nothing more,” said Alex Tabarrok, research director for the Independent Institute, a think-tank specializing in socioeconomic and legal issues in Oakland, Calif.

“It’s like standing outside of McDonald’s and offering to buy half-eaten Big Macs and expecting that this will help address obesity crisis,” Tabarrok said in an email interview. “A Big Mac buyback and a gun buyback are equally ineffective.”

Such sentiments run in stark contrast to the priorities of Vance, the Manhattan district attorney, who has embraced gun buybacks with the enthusiasm of his predecessor, Robert Morgenthau, and Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who co-chairs the national coalition Mayors Against Illegal Guns.

“I’m more concerned about getting guns off the street,” Vance said in an interview at Bethel Gospel Assembly, where he spent that October Saturday morning to show his support. “It’s that simple.”

Police-clergy buyback partnerships were initiated in New York City in 2008. According to the New York Police Department, some 7,000 guns have been turned in at church buybacks since then.

Officials say they can assure the anonymity of those who want to turn in guns at churches, which are regarded as neutral locations for buybacks. At Bethel Gospel, for example, officials ordered a reporter not to interview the man in the cap – or any of the dozens of others who brought in guns – lest they feel intimidated and change their minds.

Police also say they will not examine security camera footage from around the church to try to identify any of the people who brought in guns.

Still, Mel Hazel, supervisor of security at Bethel Gospel Assembly, wondered how many felt reassured by the police statements.  “Some people don’t understand the fact that it really is anonymous” said Hazel. “You can just bring the weapon in, no questions asked. And sometimes people don’t trust that issue.”

Joining Vance at the Bethel Gospel buyback event was District 9 City Councilwoman Inez E. Dickens, who is also a strong supporter of such programs.

“This is one way of encouraging our young people and anyone else that has a gun in their home, hidden, to bring the gun in, with no repercussions,” said Dickens. “If we get five guns off the street today and save one youth’s life, or from being maimed, then it’s been a total success.”

As for the weapons turned in during the buyback, they are headed for the smelter, and could turn up at a dry cleaners near you.

“You’ve heard the phrase swords into plowshares,” said Vance. “Well, we’re turning guns into hangers.”