2,000-gallon tankers like this would truck used cooking oil from restaurants to Port Morris.

Will the smell of used oil  foul the air, residents ask

A proposal that clean air advocates say will cut air pollution nationally has some Port Morris residents saying “Maybe so, but what about our air?”

They expressed concern about a proposal to store used cooking oil in a former garage on East 140^th Street at a public forum in January.

Saying the new facility will bring jobs and help the environment, a non-profit organization that helps the homeless and former jail inmates get back on their feet, wants to store the oil, which would be recycled into diesel fuel.

The Manhattan-based Doe Fund, which trains jobless New Yorkers then puts them to work in catering, pest control and sanitation, would expand its training capacity to the new field of “yellow grease” recycling, picking up used cooking oil from restaurants and delis. The oil is mixed with standard diesel fuel for conversion into cleaner-burning biodiesel fuel at processing plants.

Proponents of the new recycling technology consider it a healthy alternative to petroleum-based diesel, because it is domestically produced, renewable, and limits the buildup of troublesome used cooking grease in sewer systems. It also cuts down on air pollution, since there’s less truck transport of the greasy goo to landfills, they contend.

But some advocates and area residents who attended the January forum expressed concern about what they fear are possible harmful effects on the neighborhood, saying the area is already saturated with polluting and odor-causing industries.

“To have something like this open up in this area again? It’s like a slap in our face,” said Alex Ruiz, who owns and lives in an apartment building around the corner from the facility.

City and state regulatory agencies are reviewing applications for permits that would allow the Doe Fund to install two 8,000-gallon containers in the former limousine, two blocks east of the Bruckner Expressway.

Port Morris is one of several neighborhoods around the city zoned to allow heavier industries such as waste transfer stations and recyclers to cluster.

Marian Feinberg of the advocacy organization For a Better Bronx said South Bronx neighborhoods have suffered from odors, despite assurances from offending industries. She pointed to the NYOFCo fertilizer plant in Hunts Point, which spread nauseating smells over a wide area for more than a decade before closing its doors last summer.

“This community has way more than its fair share,” said Feinberg. “This zoning is something this community has been upset about for a long time. We’d like to see it spread out a little bit.”

Ruiz agreed. “Everyone wants to come into this neighborhood, but there are residences here,” he said. He pointed to a waste transfer station on East 138^th Street that promised to be odor-free before opening. The odors from the plant can be overpowering when the wind blows a certain way, Ruiz said.

Representatives of the Doe Fund, and of the engineering firm it has hired said the state and city’s rigorous permitting process should serve to reassure residents.

“Every imaginable scenario they’ve put in front of us and said, ‘How are you going to handle this?’” said Leslie Mesnick-Uretsky of AKRF, the engineering firm.

“We’re a different kind of business owner than others you’re used to in the neighborhood,” she added, citing the Doe Fund’s reputation as a helping hand in the city.

For now, the Doe Fund uses the garage to park its five trucks. Employees for the non-profit—all formerly homeless or incarcerated—pick up used cooking oil at area restaurants, then deliver it to two processing facilities, one in Hunts Point and another in Westchester County.

If the state and city provide the permits the group is seeking, they would instead truck the grease back to Port Morris, then would offload the viscous liquid into the containers through hoses. A tanker truck would pick up cooking oil in Port Morris and take it to a processing facility where it would be converted to diesel. Regulators would restrict pickups to one a day.

Wilhelm Ronda, the director of planning for the Bronx borough president’s office, told the forum the Bronx gets more contamination from industry than the other boroughs. He said his office would be vigilant about monitoring the plant.

Ronda, too, cited the controversial NYOFCo plant in Hunts Point, saying its unwillingness to hire trained technicians to curb the stink was at the heart of its problems.

“The community paid the price for that incompetence,” Ronda said.

There is value to the new grease recycling technology that can benefit communities, Ronda said, but added that the odor risks bear watching.

“The concept is a progressive one, but solid waste is a hard issue for Bronx County,” he said.

Students work hard, sometimes through their lunch breaks, to stay aheadPhoto by Stephanie Rabins

He worked in the financial sector, installing computer workstations for a big company that was acquiring smaller firms.

After President George W. Bush was inaugurated in 2001, though, background checks became tougher. And after the attack on the World Trade Center in September, still more stringent requirements made it even harder for ex-offenders to hold jobs in the financial technology industry.

Worries about security “made it difficult to get a McDonalds job, regardless of any references,” said Hopkins. “People with criminal backgrounds—they try to give you the bottom of the barrel.”

A rough time followed for Hopkins, 34, who has lived for most of the past decade in Melrose or in Harlem. He struggled to earn a stable income and spent time living in homeless shelters.

It was when he was leaving one such shelter that Hopkins heard the name “Per Scholas” from a job placement agency. That was in 2006. Now, Hopkins finds himself turning down exciting international work in favor of his steady job here in New York, so he can spend more time with his kids.

Per Scholas, a non-profit organization whose mission is “dedicated to using technology to improve the lives of people in low-income communities,” trains computer technicians, encouraging them to gain industry-standard certification when they complete a 15-week course.

Hopkins is a poster child for its success.

Founded in 1995, Per Scholas has just moved from Hunts Point to a new and much larger home on East 138th Street in Port Morris. There, near the East River on an industrial block, the school has built a gleaming new headquarters.

Rep. José Serrano and Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski were scheduled to tour the new facility on Feb. 8 to highlight the the educational and economic benefits it has created.

When it began, Per Scholas simply aimed to get computers into the hands of schoolchildren and teach computer literacy to a South Bronx community that was largely being left out of the technology boom.

In 1998, it began training un-employed and under-employed people to work on computers. The original school was located in Port Morris, and long-time teacher Maureen Monaghan remembers working in a small space that held only about 13 people.

As Per Scholas grew, it moved to the American Bank Note Building in Hunts Point. When it returned to Port Morris last October, it purchased its own floor of a building, giving it 16,000 square feet of space. The new Per Scholas Institute for Technology is equipped with classrooms, a library, a student lounge and offices for teachers, administrators and job coaches.

“Each new evolution has resulted in a higher quality instruction,” Monaghan boasts. “This place is just magnificent.”

“The interior is really impressive,” says Hopkins, who graduated from the institute in 2008. “It’s more inspiring than the other building.”

Per Scholas is now equipped to train 450 students per year, tuition free. The program demands 15 weeks of full-time study in computer assembly and repair, network connection and specialty areas like printer and laptop repair, and encourages students to become A+ Certified, the industry standard for computer technicians.

Gaining certification was especially helpful for Hopkins. Though he had already worked in computing when he started at Per Scholas, both he and Monaghan, the veteran instructor, agree that anyone who is dedicated can make it through the institute.

“Somebody who has no experience,” Hopkins says, “if they focus and want to learn this, they will come out with great skills.”

Dina Montes, communications director of Per Scholas, says the program is all about economic independence. “I’ve seen all types of lives,” says Montes. Many students have been unemployed for a long time, she said, while others arrive straight from high school. (A diploma or GED is required, along with math and reading entrance exams).

Still others, like Hopkins, have been incarcerated or have lived in shelters. Per Scholas uses its relationships with local community organizations to recruit.

In addition to classroom time, students work on the production floor, where Per Scholas refurbishes computers for resale, one way the organization fulfills the “green” part of its mission.

Students also receive life skills and job placement assistance. “The more you build confidence, the more you can win over in an interview,” says Monaghan.

All this has led Per Scholas to its remarkable success rate; over 80 percent of its graduates land full-time work in the New York City area, as Torrey Hopkins has.

Hopkins is now working towards a Bachelor’s degree in computer science. Recalling when his criminal conviction made finding work difficult, he said, “People look past your experience and say ‘Why don’t you take this low-paying job?’”

Per Scholas helped him break that cycle. “They gave me a great foundation in the industry,” he says. “I’m in it for life.”

On 141st Street and Jackson Avenue, men wait for someone to hire them.Photo by Carla Candia

As the economy sputters, immigrants wait in vain at ‘La Parada’

By Carla Candia
carla.candia@journalism.cuny.edu

Dozens of day laborers dressed in ripped jeans and worn t-shirts stood on the corner of East 141st Street and Jackson Avenue in the Bronx one morning this Fall.

The wind was blowing, and many workers wore sweaters and had their hands tucked in their pockets. They were eating sandwiches and drinking coffee provided by an evangelical group called Together in Misericordia.

“We see their needs and want to help them,” Ramon Mendez, a member of the religious organization, speaking in Spanish, as did all those interviewed for this story.

These days the men who wait for contractors to hire them for the day need all the help they can get. Things have been slow at “La Parada,” which means “The Stop.”

More and more frequently, the workers who gather there, most of them Latino and most of them undocumented, wait on the corner for eight hours or more without an offer of employment.

On that October morning, most of them hadn’t been able to find work for two weeks.

Rafael, 38, from Dominican Republic, says he’s been a regular at “La Parada” for eight years. He’s never seen it so bad.

“This is for dogs,” Rafael said about the fruitless all-day wait. “My body hurts. Sometimes I arrive home more tired than if I’d been actually working.”

Gustavo is trying to earn enough to go back home to Puebla, Mexico, where his wife and four children live.

The 32-year-old, who has been living in New York City for five years, loathes the wasted days when he returns home with no money in his pockets.

“I feel disappointed and sad,” he said with gloomy eyes. “I try to think that the next day is going to be better.”

Because they don’t have money, Gustavo and his brother, Julio, 38, walk to “La Parada” every morning from Manhattan. Their hike from East 103rd Street takes them between 45 minutes and an hour.

Without jobs, laborers from “La Parada,” sometimes must depend on charity to survive.

Alberto, 42, who came to the U.S. seven years ago from El Salvador, regularly goes to soup kitchens or shelters for food and a warm place to sleep. “If churches didn’t give us food, this would be worse,” he said.

There are other spots where laborers can look for day jobs, but the competition is more ferocious than on East 141st Street and Jackson Avenue.

“In other places, there can be 300 or 400 people,” said Gustavo.

On “La Parada,” names are commonly replaced by nicknames like Ganso (Goose), Chino Mexicano (Chinese Mexican), Capullo (Cocoon) and Mapache (Raccoon). Gustavo and Julio are known as “Los Hermanos Puebla”

“Sometimes we have stories we don’t want people to know, and that’s why some won’t give their names,” said Gustavo.

Hours pass slowly at “La Parada.” Some of the laborers read the paper and talk about politics and world issues. Others drink.

The drinkers are called “The Cobras,” a reference to Cobra beer. They usually drink out of bottles and cans covered by paper bags.

“I’ve already got a ticket from the police for being with “The Cobras,” said Rafael.

According to Gustavo, fines range from $75 to $120. The Police Department did not return calls and emails seeking comment on its policy toward street-corner shape-ups.

Business owners in the area are unhappy about the gathering of workers.

“It’s a double-edged sword. I feel sympathy because they are trying to find a job, but I don’t want them in my backyard,” said one man, who would not give his name for fear of reprisals from the day laborers. “Sometimes they drink and urinate.”

Julio said that he goes to “La Parada” not because he wants to, but because he doesn’t have another choice.

“If we had a steady job, we wouldn’t be here all day,” he said.

In November, he decided to go back to Mexico after two years in New York.

“He got tired of not finding a job, and he didn’t want to stay for another winter,” said his brother.

But, like many other day laborers, Gustavo says he will endure the cold in the hope of finding a steady job.

“I’m always here. Rain or shine,” he said.

A version of this story appeared in the Winter 2009 edition of the Mott Haven Herald.

President and CEO Christine McMahon addresses the crowd during Fedcap's community meeting at the Mott Haven Branch Library.Photo by James Cook for Fedcap

A nonprofit with its roots in Manhattan and branches throughout the city has set its sights on the South Bronx, with hopes of bringing jobs to the neighborhood.

Fedcap, which creates jobs and trains people who have difficulty finding work to fill those positions, plans to expand its services locally. The organization held a “listening session,” at the Mott Haven Branch Library on July 28th to get feedback from residents about the community’s needs.

Residents and representatives from neighborhood groups gathered to ask questions and fill out surveys, in the first of several forums the group plans to hold over the next year to help locals overcome barriers to employment.

Wworking mothers’ need for childcare, transportation to and from work, the lack of job opportunities for high school students and young adults, and the need for more computer-training programs were among the concerns residents raised.

“We know that it’s not as simple as ‘bring the jobs in,’” said Christine McMahon, chief executive officer for Fedcap. “We want to gauge the barriers that exist to long-term economic independence.”

Fedcap created over a thousand jobs last year, according to McMahon, a number she said the organization hopes to double in the next five years. The group uses state and federal contracts to provide manufacturing, custodial and mailroom jobs, while also offeringtraining to help applicants land and keep work.

Councilwoman Maria del Carmen Arroyo supported the nonprofit’s push for opportunities in the South Bronx.

“This is something that I think is going to be important for the community,” Arroyo said. “We’ll work together to connect as many of the dots as possible, to create as many opportunities as possible, so the people that I represent will have good jobs that allow them to support their families.”

Originally founded in 1935 as an employment resource for disabled workers, Fedcap has expanded its reach to serve communities around the city where jobs are scarce.

The Bronx has the highest unemployment rate in New York City—peaking at 11.7 percent in June, according to the Department of Labor.

“Each time we asked, where is the greatest need? We were consistently pointed here,” McMahon said.

Mott Haven resident Joyce Austin said she hopes Fedcap will meet its goals. “The neighborhood needs it,” she said. “In fact, the whole Bronx needs it. But if they can start with just one neighborhood, that’s great.”

Fedcap plans to hold more information sessions in the coming months, with dates and locations to be announced.

A rendering of the Gateway Mall as seen from Manhattan

Coalition monitors Gateway Mall’s promise

By Joe Hirsch
news@motthavenherald.com

Will the mall rising near Yankee Stadium live up to an agreement to hire local job seekers when stores open in the coming months?

A newly-formed coalition is skeptical.

Calling itself the Neighborhood Advisory Council, the coalition met at the offices of housing advocacy organization Nos Quedamos on Melrose Avenue in late March to tackle some of the area’s toughest problems, including jobs.

Some 40 local organizers, police officials and local residents also addressed issues of education, health and the environment, housing, and crime and safety, in what organizers say will be an ongoing series of meetings designed to let residents and advocates inform the public and speak their minds about the issues.

The new mall, called the Gateway Center, signed an agreement to give priority to job seekers from the neighborhood. “People have choked on the agreement,” said Jeanette Puryear, executive director of the Mid-Bronx Council Services, which, along with Nos Quedamos, is spearheading the Neighborhood Advisory Council.

Angel Cruz, executive director of the Gateway project’s Fast Track Unit, which was created to ensure that the developers live up to their end of the bargain, assured the audience that he will be working for them, not for the businesses.

He acknowledged that the sputtering economy is likely to swell the number of job applicants from across the city. Nevertheless, he tried to assure the dubious audience, saying, “I’m an agent of the community.”

Home Depot will be the first store to open at the mall, on the site of the former Bronx Terminal Market. Bed, Bath and Beyond, Staples and Target are among the other national franchise giants that will open branches in the mall.

Job applications are online. “Those jobs have to be made available to people who live here,” Puryear insisted.

“At 16 years of age, I was able to go and get my first job,” at Alexander’s, then the borough’s leading department store, said a woman who declined to give her name. The woman lamented that local retailers no longer make the same type of effort to hire locally.

“That is not existing anymore,” she said.

In addition to the Gateway Mall, the meeting addressed concern about rising gang activity and about access to health care.

Saying gangs are now recruiting children as young as 7 to join, NYPD officials and officers from the 40th Precinct described efforts aimed at steering local youth away from gangs.

Also, a health expert said that hospitals continually discriminate against poor people by offering more timely and more complete care to patients with private insurance than to patients with Medicaid, or the uninsured. Charmaine Ruddock of Bronx Health REACH said her organization is pressing Attorney General Andrew Cuomo to ratchet up investigations into discriminatory practices at hospitals across the city.

Patients who feel they have received substandard care because they are on Medicaid or have no insurance, are urged to contact Bronx Health Reach at 212-633-0800, ext. 1232 or to file a complaint with the hospital.