Event organizers Danny Barber (left) and P.O. Irizarry (right) talking with a local resident at National Night Out on Crime (photo credit: Flonia Telegrafi)

Advocates and police partner at Night Out Against Crime

By Kathy Conkwright

conkwright@motthavenherald.com

The first time Angel Irizarry and Danny Barber met one another six years ago, they butted heads.

”I didn’t really like Danny,” said Irizarry, the community affairs officer for PSA-7, the  NYPD branch assigned to patrol public housing complexes in Melrose.

“I’m not sure why. I think we were just coming from two different positions,” he said, recalling their first tense exchange at a local meeting between community and police.

So he thought at the time.

Barber, an outspoken tenant advocate from the Andrew Jackson Houses in Melrose, had his own less-than-flattering opinion of anyone in a blue uniform with an NYPD badge at the time. To him, Irizarry was no different than the others.

Now close friends, Barber and Irizarry joined forces to organize National Night Out on Crime, an annual event held to strengthen police-community partnerships. This year’s Night Out was held at the Andrew Jackson Homes on Aug. 2nd.

Serving up free food, drink, music, a large Spiderman contraption for kids and the spectacle of police officers break dancing, Barber and Irizarry hoped to help thaw relations between residents of Mott Haven and Melrose and local law enforcement.

Although they represent different sides of the community, Barber and Irizarry have tried to bridge the growing divide between cops and residents by getting the two to talk to one another.

“For some reason we’ve lost that connection,” Irizarry said, “especially here in the South Bronx where there’s a real  ‘us against them’ mentality.”

“We do have officers who get crazy and overreact,” said Barber’s brother, event organizer Russell Alston. “But we also have young men, young women and old men who give police a hard time. It goes both ways.”

Irizarry takes rookies on a tour of the neighborhood when they join the department, to meet shop owners, clergy, elected officials and local organizers – all in an effort to learn the neighborhood and forge bonds.

Irizarry’s path to policing started in an unlikely place. He grew up five blocks from Yankee Stadium, and began his career as a community organizer working for a non-profit organization in Highbridge.  By the age of 21 he was coordinating an anti-violence program in the Dinkins administration.

“I didn’t have opportunities. I didn’t have a father,” he said. “I understand that state of confusion and no sense of direction.”

Captain Erik Hernandez, Executive Officer for PSA-7, line dancing with residents

“I want the community to see that we are people, not just robots,” Captain Erik Hernandez, Executive Officer for PSA-7, explained after finishing an impressive round of line dancing alongside community members and police officers.

“A lot of times, he said, “we are just seen as law enforcement and not helping people. I want them to see the human side of crime reduction.”

While flipping hundreds of burgers for residents and police at National Night Out, a soaked towel covering his head to block the smoke and sweat, Alston pointed out that the event gives police a chance to meet people on neutral ground and learn who lives in the neighborhood.

“It makes me feel safer,” said an Andrew Jackson Houses resident named Gerri, “because any other time when the police are around I don’t feel that safe. We really need this to bring the community together.”

But one young man who wouldn’t give his name said the once-a-year outdoor event didn’t change his mind about police. “This is just one day,” he said. “Tomorrow they’ll be back at it the same way.”

“We won’t be here dancing, kids won’t be jumping,” Hernandez responded, admitting that it’s impossible for the police to have a great relationship with the community every day. “There is crime and it is a necessity to enforce the law. Our biggest challenge is to keep this momentum going after today.”

The day before the event there was a homicide just down the street, he pointed out.

“Violent crime happens every day,” Hernandez said, “particularly in this neighborhood.  Sometimes people can feel helpless. We hope this event can give them a sense of hope.”

Danny Barber and fellow LIFE Camp members

Mott Haven organization works to curb growing violence

Danny Barber has been warned that people are out to kill him because he’s trying to keep young people from a life of crime and violence.

Gang members have targeted him because he helped bring a program called LIFE Camp to the Bronx, he says. They believe his efforts could cut into their profits by reducing their ability to recruit young people to help them sell drugs, according to Barber, the Resident Association President for the Andrew Jackson Houses.

“I don’t want to go out like that,” Barber told a crowd on stage following the annual Mother’s Day March Against Gun Violence. “But they keep me going,” he said, pointing at the teenagers by his side. “They’re my joy, strength and will.”

Surrounding him, wearing brightly colored t-shirts saying “I Love My Life!” were members of the new Bronx chapter of LIFE Camp, a youth organization dedicated to helping young people make good life choices and fight against the plague of violence in their neighborhood.

The program, developed by activist Erica Ford in 2003, is built around young people recruiting their peers.

Danny Barber at the Mother's Day March

Ford tells the story of Ronald Merritt, who says LIFE Camp saved his life. A former gang member, he heard Ford speak at a funeral for one his friends, put down his gun and picked up a camera. Now he’s an established cinematographer who shoots most of the videos and public service announcements for LIFE Camp, as well as producing music videos for well-known artists.

Mott Haven resident Keyauana Ramon heard about LIFE Camp earlier this spring, and decided to attend a meeting in hopes of making a difference in her own neighborhood.

“I’ve already lost more friends than I can count,” said the 15-year-old, “and I don’t want to lose another to gun violence, fighting or prison.”

Her friend Soniannette Diaz, like Keyauna a resident of the Jackson Houses, nodded her head in agreement. At the Mothers Day March, she said LIFE Camp has taught her to respect people, and helped her improve her grades.

The week of the Mothers Day March, the 40th precinct reported seven murders. Violent crime is on the rise citywide, for the first time in more than a decade. In the Bronx, homicides jumped by 34%, while rape was up 22%, and felony assaults 2.7%.

In Bronx public housing the problem is more severe. Homicide claimed 27 victims in 2010, compared 13 the year before. The number of shooting victims on Housing Authority properties skyrocketed by 71%.

According to David Kennedy, professor of Criminal Justice at John Jay College and director of the Center for Crime Prevention and Control, many of these shootings can be traced to anger flaring over a perceived slight or to vendettas governed by a street code born in the prison system that lays out rules about respect

Mott Haven resident Javiel Riveria and his family know first-hand the danger of mixing guns with conflicts. Nine months ago Riviera’s 21-year old son Luis Soto got into a fight with another young man. Shots were fired. The police who responded shot and killed Soto.

“It’s like the wild, wild West out there,” he said. “When I grew up we settled our differences with our fists. Now, if a young person gets angry he just shoots.” Pleading to young people, he asked them to be more responsible and stop the killing.“

I wish they could see how my family has been destroyed, he said. “When you shoot someone,” Riveria added, “You don’t just take the life of the person you killed but you also take your own life and destroy families and loved ones along the way.”

“Guns make young people think they’re in charge of what others do and in control,” said 14-year-old Mott Haven resident Gabriel Cruz. But, says the teenager, kids don’t talk about how they worry every day about whether they’re going to see their friends or their parents tomorrow.

Cruz has already lost his 4-year old nephew and an older step-brother to gun violence. He says he joined LIFE Camp because he didn’t want to lose any more people in his life.

The program starts with a six-week training that provides classes on topics such as non-violent conflict resolution and health and wellness. Using young people’s interest in film and music, it develops leadership skills and teaches them how to turn their passions and talents into businesses.

Barber is looking for funds to keep the program going in the summer, when young people have time to take part in training—and time to get in trouble.

“My life would have been very different had a program like this been around when I was younger,” said LIFE Camp member Lisa Lorenzi.

Before she joined, she said, she would have been afraid to come to an event like the Mothers Day March. Now, she continued, as Danny Barber stood next to her and cheered her on, “Everybody is united and working together. We’re making a movement!”

A version of this story appeared in the June/July issue of the Mott Haven Herald.

Community Leaders: A. Mychal Johnson from stephanie rabins on Vimeo.

Community leaders: Lou Torres from stephanie rabins on Vimeo.

Neighborhood leadership takes many forms. From organizing farmers’ markets to advocating tenants’ rights, Mott Haven has many residents who work hard to make the their neighborhood a better place to live.

The Mott Haven Herald caught up with two local leaders–one who lives in a row house and holds a seat on the community board and one who lives in a housing project and is the voice of its tenants–to find out how they came to dedicate their time and effort to working for their community.

Mychal Johnson knows what gentrification looks like. He grew up in the Wicker Park neighborhood of Chicago, whose struggles in the 1970s with depopulation, arson and crime invite easy comparison with the South Bronx of the same period.

Like Mott Haven and Melrose, Wicker Park has seen remarkable growth over the past decade, but its appeal to white-collar, college-educated residents has raised rents and prices, forcing many longtime residents to leave. “I didn’t want that to happen to this neighborhood” says Johnson, who moved to New York City with his family in 2003 and has lived in Mott Haven ever since.

Hoping to improving his neighborhood while keeping it affordable, Johnson became involved in community organizing as soon as he moved to the Bronx. And while he was working on the house he was finally able to buy, a friend stopped by with an idea.

“He said, ‘Why don’t you apply for a spot on the community board?’” Johnson recalled.

“My daughter went to school here,” Johnson says of his decision to join the board, “and I had become very close with people in the neighborhood.”

That was four and a half years ago. Since then, more families have been fixing up houses like Johnson’s in Mott Haven’s historic district. New restaurants have opened, and artists have found studio space in the neighborhood’s lofts and warehouses.

As a member of Board 1, in recent years Johnson has been focused on trying to guide development, particularly on the waterfront. Last year, the board won a fight against the New York State Department of Transportation’s plan to widen the Major Deegan Expressway. Johnson was a vocal opponent of the state plan, and he says the win was “crucial to the rebirth of the lower Grand Concourse and creating green space along the Harlem River.”

He continues to press for more community input into the city’s Comprehensive Waterfront Plan, and is now looking at ways to address the presence of so many waste transfer stations in Mott Haven.

More challenges lie ahead, he says, noting the rapid gentrification of other neighborhoods in New York City and the way it has pushed out long-time residents.

In addition to his service on Board 1, Johnson continues to do other organizing work. Last spring he traveled to Bolivia for the World People’s Conference on Climate Change. There he acted as co-president of one of the summit’s committees; when he got home, he participated in a panel about the conference.

Almost a mile away from the handsome block near Alexander Avenue where Johnson lives, Lou Torres is hard at work in his own corner of Mott Haven. In a brightly-lit first floor office of the Moore Houses, near St. Mary’s playground, Torres serves as president of the tenants association.

Like Johnson, Torres has also traveled the world, though for different reasons. He spent many years working as a musician and an actor, director and producer of films. But he always knew he would come back to his home base in Mott Haven.

In his capacity as president of the New York City Housing Authority complex, Mr. Torres leads art workshops for children as well as health, legal and educational programming for the residents in his buildings.

Keeping track of two 20-story buildings and representing over 1,000 residents is not an easy job. Torres is often the first to hear about problems in the building, but as a rule he can’t fix them alone.

But Torres is as upbeat about his work as Mychal Johnson is about his. Even after suffering a stroke last year that left him unable to speak for four months, Torres, who has regained his ability to communicate with words, although he still speaks slowly and sometimes haltingly, remains positive. He is in his office almost every day, working to improve quality of life in the Moore houses.

When asked about his accomplishments, Torres seems proudest of the work he’s done with Mott Haven’s young people. He has organized teen anti-violence events and rewarded participants with group trips and prizes. He holds educational workshops right in his office in the Moore Houses, teaching kids animation and other computer programs.

But getting money allocated for the things he wants to get done can be tricky. And as president, Torres also has to worry about serious security matters—about crimes committed on the property, police response time and even police harassment of Moore House residents.

All the while, Lou Torres continues his own filmmaking projects. Quick to hand out a head-shot, he is in the process of trying to fund and produce at least one film, and looking forward to acting in more. His resume ranges from a co-producer credit on the award-winning independent movie “Manito” to playing small parts in “Law and Order” and the big-screen blockbuster “Fantastic Four.”

But even with so much in store, Torres never talks about leaving the Moore Houses, just as Mychal Johnson’s travels continue to bring him back to Mott Haven. Though the men followed different paths to leadership in Mott Haven, both are taking their cues from those who built their neighborhood back up after the hard times of the 1970s. They’re staying.

The Mott Haven Farmers Market at Padre Plaza Success Garden, Saint Ann’s Avenue and E. 139th Street, will bring organic produce from farmers in New York and New Jersey to shoppers every Wednesday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. through Nov. 3. Sponsored by Sustainable South Bronx and managed by Padre Plaza Community Garden, the market plays host to Wassaic Community Farm, Trinity Farms and Nolasco Farms and also sells baked goods prepared by Stylish Cakes and Javin Curtin. The Mott Haven Farmers Market accepts EBT Cards and WIC Vouchers. Shoppers can also take advantage of the city Health Department’s Health Bucks program and receive one health buck (worth $2) for every $5 spent.

Free modern dance classes for teens will be offered at the Betances Community Center, East 146th Street and St. Ann’s Avenue, from July 15 – August 19. The classes, for boys and girls 13-17 years old, will meet on Thursdays from 6:30-7:45 p.m. Call 212-204-6518 to register and for information.

A trash can overflows, while an outdoor recycling container at Mitchel Houses has a fence blocking access to it.Photo by Sergey Kadinsky

Housing Authority facilities make recycling difficult

Glass, metals, apple cores: It’s all the same to Mott Haven residents, according to a report published in the Daily News on Oct. 4. Citing confusion and lack of space for recycling, the report, based on Sanitation Department figures, pegs the recycling rate for Mott Haven, Port Morris, and Melrose as the worst in the city.

Only 16 percent of what should be recycled is, according to the report, compared to the citywide average of 42 percent.

“We don’t have recycling here,” said Princella Jamerson, who has lived in the Mill Brook Houses for 35 years. “We had cans outside for recycling, but people put all of their trash there.”

How much is recycled in the area depends in large measure on the New York City Housing Authority, which operates 17 public housing projects, including Mill Brook, here.

“The Housing Authority tries,” said Andrew Jackson Houses Residents Association president Danny Barber. “But it’s also the people. You have to educate the residents.”

The law requires city residents to sort their trash, putting glass, plastic and metal, paper items and food garbage into separate containers.

Housing Authority spokesman Howard Marder said that efforts are being made to inform residents of their recycling duties.

“We distribute literature, we speak at resident association meetings, we speak with the staff so they know what to do,” said Marder. “If a location needs more receptacles and more signs, we want the staff to tell us and we will provide them.”

When a residential building does not recycle its trash, owners are punished, but tenants are not. For landlords of small private apartment buildings, fines serve as an incentive to recycle. Gregorio Sanchez, a landlord of three units on East 157th Street was once lax about recycling, but an enforcement agent prodded him to be more careful.

“I once got a ticket; it was a black bag kicked by a Sanitation agent,” said Sanchez. “He heard broken glass inside.”

For having glass mixed with his regular trash, Sanchez was fined $25. He could have challenged it, arguing that the glass vase inside was broken into pieces when disposed, but citing a busy work schedule, he paid the ticket.

To prevent future fines, Sanchez put up signs for his tenants, and sweeps his sidewalk. “If we don’t pick it up, they ticket us,” he said.

Even though the Daily News report is based on a Sanitation Department survey from July 2009, Robert Lange, director of the Sanitation Department’s recycling program disputes the recycling report. “It is accurate, but other factors need to be considered,” said Lange.

“No city, recycles everything,” Lange said. Inevitably, some paper, plastic and glass can’t be recycled because the items have been used to store food or clean up after pets.

The best any city has achieved, Lange said, is to divert 55 to 60 percent of its paper, plastic, glass and metal for re-use, instead of burial in landfills.

That still exceeds the 16 percent recycled locally, and Lange believes that local residents have the potential to increase their recycling by a further 30 percent, bringing it closer to the citywide average.

Because private companies collect their trash, commercial properties are excluded from the Sanitation Department’s surveys, but local business owners who belong to The Hub Business Improvement District have their own street cleaners along Third Avenue and East 149th Street.

“My sanitation guys sweep and service the streets,” said Vinnie Valentino, the BID’s executive director. On the corner of Third Avenue and East 149th Street, there are two recycling containers, in a pilot program for recycling in BIDs.

Private housing developers have also taken steps to ensure a better environment. Nos Quedamos, a Melrose-based community development corporation, is the sponsor behind 12 projects consisting of multi-family townhouses and apartment buildings.

“We assisted homeowners along Elton Avenue in securing recycling receptacles from the Department of Health,” said Anna Vincenty, the assistant director of community relations at Nos Quedamos. “Among older buildings, there are special receptacles to keep rats out.”

Alongside its older dwellings, Nos Quedamos also manages recently-built apartment house for seniors and working families. The organization promotes recycling vigorously.

“This happens in all of our buildings,” said Vincenty. “People don’t know what to recycle, so we have seminars.”

Nos Quedamos buildings have recycling rooms with trash chutes on every floor of the properties it manages. NYCHA projects that predate the recycling law only have trash chutes in their hallways. As a result, in order to dispose of their recyclables, residents must go outside and look for special green bins.

“They should have indoor trash recyclables,” said Mitchell Houses resident Mark Scott, 22. Looking at the outdoor green recycling container, Scott said it was unrealistic to expect every resident to recycle, especially during the winter months.

Inside Scott’s apartment building, which was built in 1966, the hallways are too narrow to accommodate a new room for recyclable trash.

“The fire code prohibits storage of anything in hallways or interior entranceways,” said Marder. “Therefore in order to recycle, residents have to leave the building.”

Nevertheless, Marder said that residents can make a difference in improving their communities. In August, the Housing Authority announced the formation of “green committees” for each Housing Authority development. Thirty-eight projects around the city have them, including Mott Haven, Patterson and McKinley.

“It seems simple,” said Anthony Bonilla, 27, a lifelong resident of Mott Haven Houses. “More education needs to be done.”

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

Betances Houses residents are tired of sharing their building with live --and dead-- rats.

Tenants complain that they live in ‘The stinkiest building in New York” and say the Housing Authority makes things worse

By Lindsay Lazarski
lindsay.lazarski@motthavenherald.com