Living in coronavirusword 147: the egret is back. Reflections on homelessness, housing and Community Board 7

8/24

Back again

As I enter the park today,  I see the egret is back. I haven’t seen it for weeks.   Was thinking maybe  I had to do some research on migration patterns. But here it is, back again. My sense of order restored.

Tonight is a much anticipated community board meeting. Community Board  7 is the popularly elected advisory group on public policy for my old neighborhood, the Upper West Side. The controversy is this:  New York City had record numbers of homeless people even before Covid19.   With the onset of the virus, shelters with overcrowding , no social distancing or rudimentary  prevention measures became hotbeds of Covid19. In the meantime, demand for hotel rooms plummeted. So the city, without really informing the neighborhood, began transferring homeless people for shelters to hotels. Neighbors began complaining about public masturbation, defacation  and urination and harassing cat calls. Among other complaints. The neighborhood is up in arms. A Facebook Page, Upper Westsiders for Safe Streets, now has over 12000 signators!  Meanwhile, the r old vigilante group, Guardian Angels, has entered the neighborhood and is recruiting new members for "Safety patrols." A new community organnization has hired an attorney to sue the city. It has truly become a cause celebre.  Leaders from churches  have contacted me.They/ we are trying  to figure out what the role of the faith community  is in light of this issue. While there have been no Christian rooted communications so far, leaders from one local synagogue have released a statement to  their  members. Among other things it says:

Though the process was flawed, we are deeply pained by the vitriolic response coming from some Upper West Side residents, including nasty comments on social media, active harassment of the men and also of Project Renewal staff (largely because people confuse them with residents due to the color of their skin), and photographs of the residents being posted online without their permission. 

Regardless of how one feels about the city’s decision, such rhetoric runs contrary to the fundamental Jewish principle that all people are created in the image of God, deserving of being treated as such. Further, dehumanizing these men makes the problem about them instead of seeing homelessness as a systemic issue that needs to be addressed through policy and societal change. 

We have  canceled Bible Study tonight so that any can participate in the online ZOOM meeting. 

For over two hours I listen. I am glad that my friend  Pastor K Karpen from St. Paul and St. Andrew Methodist Church speaks. As does Rabbi Lauren Grabelle-Herrmann of the Society for the Advancement of Judaism. (Neighboring West Park on 86th Street.) And Marc Greenberg of the Interfaith Assembly on Homelessness and Housing ( an organization I chair) also speaks.

My thoughts:

* Our city council rep representative Helen Rosenthal speaks clearly and to the point dispelling rumors, especially related to  sex offenders.

* The bureaucrats speak but soun, unfortunately, like bureaucrats in the face of stirred up passion.  Only in her last statement does one city official go off script and share her true feelings.

* Even though, I’m glad Marc from IAHH spoke, I wish he would have said more about our Life Skills program which helps people prepare to reenter society.

* Very glad to hear Rev. K and Rabbi Grabelle-herman speak, though we need a united neighborhood voice.

* There is no distinction being made between the residents moved here and the preexisting unprecdented  homeless population of the city, and especially our neighborhood

* In response to the furor, the mayor has said he will move people back to shelters which is no solution in the midst of a  pandemic. Or to be honest, any time. Sigh. My mentor always told me liberals were the real problem. 

* Most disturbing is to follow the chat stream online. The constant refrain of “save the children” has an almost Qanon quality to it.

* The complaint about lowered property values doesn't own up to the fact that Covid19 lowered property values as people  fled the city long before any homeless people showed up.

* Homelesspersons, many who are employed and work, were not allowed for speak for themselves. 

* Many of the angry neighbors still  do not listen to facts and their emotional responses are literally Trumoian in form and content

* The local police precinct captain could  have been less neutral reagarding Guardian Angel intervention. 

* Turns out Guardian Angel founder Curtis Sliwa now lives in the neighborhood. His public gadfly persona has served him well. 

* I’ve known for over 10 years that my old neighborhood, the former “people's republic of the upper west side,” the congressional district of Bella Abzug, may she rest in power,  was no longer what it was. The more than our share argument gets made over and over. As does the send them to the east side or out to the airport arguments. Anywhere but here 

Aa a father of a son named Micah, and a member of the faith rooted activist group Micah faith leaders table, I have to object to the use as a  perjorative acronym MICAH to mean Mentally Ill Chemically Addicted Homeless. It's offensive. Micah was a working class prophet, not of the neoclassical  liberal elite. He said do justice, love mercy  and walk humbly with God. ( That is like, 
it.)

The theme is somehow fitting for the opening  of the Republican National (virtual) Convention where Donald Trump will once again be announced by acclimation for their nominee as President of  the United States. 

There is so much work to be done. And I am tired. 

I’m glad the egret is back. 

4th of July weekend Sunday 2019

7/7

Happy birthday Geraldine

My friend from Oklahoma and I exit the subway and take the half-mile walk to Beverley Church, passing by the Victorian style houses in this neighborhood named for the London setting for Peter Pan. We note the gardens, the houses that remind me of my hometown south of Pittsburgh and the ceramic workshop, Mexican bakery and Bengladeshi Halal restaurant that show the neighborhood in midst of change. A man notices our interest and offers us a fsbo (for sale by owner deal) before he goes to an agency. Only 1.7 million for the whole house. As is. Well, not today.

This day is also special because it is Geraldine's birthday. Evgeny and Geraldine are having tea as we arrive and Evgeny, always the genial host, offers to get us tea as well. Soon enough it is time for the service. 

ready for reflection

So here's what I had to say:

We are at the end of a long holiday weekend. One where we remember and honor the best of what our nation is supposed to be. The  ideals that seek to inform the best of who we are....So important these days with what  is swirling around us....

The controversy around migration became visibly real for me as I spent two weeks in El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala, the beginning places of the so-called caravans. World wide there are more people on the road than ever before...

I'm wondering what's been on your mind, this holiday weekend. What your joys, concerns are. Your families.

The gospel passage this week is a tough one.  Lots of edges and corners and twists and turns and places to get lost.  

Let me start with some free association...    

After this the Lord appointed seventy others and sent them on ahead of him in pairs to every town and place where he himself intended to go. These are the emissaries of the kingdom, LDS (apparently we can't say Mormon anymore) missionaries.  The freedom riders going to the south for  voters registration, Presbyterian missionaries across the world bringing ministries of health and education and social justice...

2He said to them, "The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. 3Go on your way. 
Life is hard for the small churches like this...God asks of us nothing beyond our best.  And yet we feel so small....and what is it, after all, what is God asking us to  do ? And what is the harvest?

See, I am sending you out like lambs into the midst of wolves. So are the migrants who are coming from Central America. And North Africa....and...dangers at every turn....from bandits to coyotes to rushing waters and burning deserts and border guards at every turn...so that's how  we're being sent out?

4Carry no purse, no bag, no sandals; and greet no one on the road. We are sent out to be completely vulnerable and dependent on the people to whom we are sent...

.5Whatever house you enter, first say, 'Peace to this house!' 6And if anyone is there who shares in peace, your peace will rest on that person; but if not, it will return to you. 
You never lose anything by offering your peace. If it's not accepted it comes back to you.

8Whenever you enter a town and its people welcome you, eat what is set before you; Accept hospitality

9cure the sick who are there, and say to them, 'The kingdom of God has come near to you.' 
Jesus wants us to be about his ministry of healing ....proclaiming the kingdom, the kindom of God
.....and here's the best news of all....
10But whenever you enter a town and they do not welcome you, go out into its streets and say, 11'Even the dust of your town that clings to our feet, we wipe off in protest against you. Yet know this: the kingdom of God has come near.'
 
This means you don't have to keep beating your head against the wall.....there comes a time to move on....

16"Whoever listens to you listens to me, and whoever rejects you rejects me, and whoever rejects me rejects the one who sent me."

When we truly serve in his name and his spirit, he will be there there for us, with us.....and in us... 

17The seventy returned with joy, saying, "Lord, in your name even the demons submit to us!" 18He said to them, "I watched Satan fall from heaven like a flash of lightning. 19See, I have given you authority to tread on snakes and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy; and nothing will hurt you. 20Nevertheless, do not rejoice at this, that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven."

With every healing, every curing, every restored relationship in reconciliation, every restored substance abuse addict, every child reunited with its  parents, every act for social justice, every victory of the people, even small ones, every true act of grace....Satan falls from heaven....

In dangerous circumstances, God will keep us safe. God joins us in the victory that has already been won. 


And especially in what we do, we are not to glory. Not to seek credit or honors or Facebook likes. Our glory is that we do them because that is what  we do. Because that is what it means to follow Jesus.


Amen

As always we share communion. And today sing Happy Birthday to Geraldine. Then go downstairs for more sharing, including a cake.

We leave for the long subway ride to Marcus Garvey Park where we will meet with the Ecclesia congregation of homeless people.

                                                       ****

When we arrive at the Drummers Circle, it's very quiet. Seems the volunteers bringing food didn't know where to bring it and randomly gave it away. There's no bringing people together for our circle of worship if there's no food to share. We'll share the last few lunch bags and that's it for today. Time for a slow walk back through Harlem/ 

                                                     ****

The day will end helping to set up the beds and serve the dinner for the women at homeless shelter at Saint Paul and St.Andrew Methodist Church (SPSA) where West Park worshipped for 3 years. the church continues in this volunteer work here. Apart form the usual sandwiches or pizza, Kate always serves a full meal.

dinner is ready

"Everyone deserves Sunday dinner," she says. And her 4th of July special includes salmon, ribs and fried chicken, rice, potato salad, coleslaw, corn on the cob and strawberries, blueberries and whipped cream on poundcake for a truly All-American dinner. 

No better way to spend the 4th of July.

kitchen volunteers

A cold day and a conversation with Helen

2/27

Westside Clergy meets with Helen Rosenthal

The weather has turned cold again. I wake up Joe and La Toya and ask him to stop in my office before he leaves. I’ve been talking with contacts at the Interfaith Assembly. Even though the latest life skills program started last week, Joe could still get in if he shows up today. The program involves what you might call employment readiness plus the kind of basic planning and organizing skills it takes to manage a life. Everyone in the program gets a mentor to walk with them usually there’s an employment internship at the end of the program. And there’s a tie in with housing with Valley Lodge, one of our Westside Federation for Supportive and Senior Housing facilities. We were going to host the program but it wound up at our friend the West End church instead due to some unresolved building issues.  Joe promises to check it out. Later in the day, he tells Danielle there’s a conflict with his GED program and he may not make it.  OK then.

Two guys, one  with Otis on his shirt, are in to look at the elevator. After five years, we’re ready to get it going again. I show them the engine room in the basement and they prepare to open it up and check it out.

Karen comes in to play the piano and Cara is happy for the music as she works.

John H comes by to return  the keys from his Dark Lady Players rehearsal, talk about his upcoming immersive event in Brooklyn and a four day festival he’s planning. As radical as his Shakespeare authorship theories are (http://www.darkladyplayers.com/), John is getting better and better at presenting his ideas in ways that entertain and engage and not just weigh you down with academic argument. He’s still got a long way to go pushing that dramaturgical stone up hill, but it’s a start.

Outside, Marty is sitting in the freezing cold, hand outstretched.

Marty its freezing cold.

It’s cold every winter.

But this is the coldest in years.

Listen, if you’re going to play Broadway, you have to play Fargo, North Dakota first. Without an overcoat. JFK walked down Pennsylvania Avenue without an overcoat. Harry Truman walked down Pennslvania Avenue without an overcoat. Where’s Oral Roberts from? Iowa? Kansas?

No, Tulsa, Oklahoma, I lived there ten years.

He took all the money he made from broadcasts and built a hospital. Who else is from Tulsa, Joel Osteen?

I don’t think so. He’s somewhere else.

I listen to him every week. He knows that if you want to get people to listen to your sermon, you have to start with a good story. Just like my father. Remember that, Reverend.

Marty, stay warm.

                                                      * * * *

Cara, Danielle and I have been scrambling around getting ready for our meeting with our new City Council member Helen Rosenthal. Our neighborhood clergy are gathering to meet with her. She’s been held up by a budget committee meeting. Her first. So we have time to review our agenda before she arrives. Which she does, soon enough, breathless and in need of a little food after a day of no breaks since breakfast.

Here are the issues we raise:

Helen makes a point

* Food justice. Especially the Lunch4Learning campaign to secure universal free school lunch in the city.  Also support for the ongoing work to create a sweatshop free Upper Westside.  We talk about ways to visibly identify the small businesses who have pledged to obey the law and honor fair labor practices. Still strikes us as strange that simply obeying the law is still a fight…She wants to work with us on this and take part in our worker solidarity day in May. And we talk about the overwhelming demand on our food pantries and programs since the draconian cuts last November.

* Homelessness. We’re all experiencing the effects of the doubling of homeless people during the Bloomberg years. And the warehousing of people . And the inefficiency and irrationality of the privatization of homeless services. She writes down those phrases, warehousing, privatization of homelessness. Father Duffel points out that as chair of the contracts committee, Helen has power over who gets these contracts. It’s time to get them away from slumlords and work with successful community based programs like WSSFSH. Helen takes careful notes.

* Finally, landmarking. There are a variety of issues here. It affects many of our congregations. There is the basic church state issue: our buildings were left to us not as ends in themselves but as means to mission. That needs to be primary with no imposition from outside. On the other hand, we are aware of the work done in the UK (sadly not US) in the area of theology of built environment. That is what we build, where we build and how we build, and conversely, what we preserve or tear down, has profound theological and spiritual consequences for the communities we live in. We do believe, however, that if a community deems a particular building as an integral part of its cultural heritage, there is an accompanying responsibility to help preserve that building as part of our common shared legacy. You can’t impose state restrictions on the one hand and then use separation theory to avoid support. Helen admits as to not having known what to do when the West-Park designation came before Community Board 7 while she was chair. And that the community and politicians had left promises unfulfilled. We agree to have one meeting focusing just on this.

Pastors Elise and Bob, Councilmember Helen Rosenthal and Marc Greenberg of the Interfaith Assembly

We’ve reached the end of our agreed upon time.  The Dzieci folks are anxious to begin their  Sacred Harp singing. Elise is anxious to get to Advent and prepare for tonight’s Palestine Film Series movie. Mark G of the Interfaith Assembly, Helen and I retreat to my office to wrap up. She is interested in a regular meeting with our clergy group as a sounding board, values check. I encourage to continue to create her own office, that is be herself and not try and live up to any other images of what a Councilmember is. She is already doing that. An engaging combination of policy wonk, numbers cruncher and boundless enthusiasm for political engagement.  This should be good.

                                                      * * * *

While I’m meeting with Helen and Marc, a friend of my friend Jack, Mark P, drops by a DVD of Jack’s living memorial. When I’m alone later, I watch it and am happy to see that I was there. And that I too was a reader and part of this living tribute. I study the pictures. Remember the day. He left a collection  of 10 poems as well.

Dzieci enters the sanctuary. Lloyd and the Workcenter contingent are in the gym for Open Choir. Martin and Noche still in rehearsal. I’m on my way to join Elise at Advent for the Attack, another in our Palestine series. Raises questions about the complexity of relationships under occupation. And we struggle with insights into what pushes people into terrorism, the limits of liberal tolerance without attention to power dynamics.  Elise asks me to lead the discussion. As always, it’s hard. Very hard. Emotions run deep. We stay at it. (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0787442/)

El encuentro

10/14

Sean. Back again. Not prepared to deal with this yet.

It’s the Columbus Day Holiday. Not for me. in the progressive world, there’s this high minded effort to change this to indigenous people's day. I get that. Columbus was the beginning of the imperial conquest of this hemisphere. In places like Puerto Rico, entire native populations like the Tainos were wiped out, just gone. 

However, it’s more complicated than that. During the years I worked in Central America, the peasants, the campesinos, referred to this day as el dia de la raza, the day of the race. And also as el encuentro, the encounter. When Europe encountered America. And a whole new race, a whole new people was born. The vast majority of Latin American peasants, campesinos, are mestizo. Oppressed by the Ladinos, the so called limpieza de sangre, pure blood, who in truth are not, but so the line is drawn. In many cases, the tainos and so many other indigenous peoples live on in  today’s campesinos mestizos. So you can’t ignore them in this discussion. El encuentro makes a lot of sense, no matter how it came about, a new reality was brought into being. You can’t roll that back.

Carman Moore comes in with posters for his weekend festival. Marc is getting ready to record him.

Sean is still there. I ask him his plan. He seems asleep. I’ve got other things  to deal with.

Like the bald man, who excuse the analogy, looks like the old guy on the back in the day Uncle Ben’s Rice box. Only mean. He’s on the steps with a load of cardboard. Stephen asks him to leave. He does so. And the cardboard is left behind. 

After a late appearance at 78 Below, I’m back to the church. A couple is constructing some kind of shelter in the 86th Street door. I say excuse me, you can’t block the door. There’s a white guy, sloppy heavy and long haired. An attractive blond woman. Ain’t this a church? he says. I get so tired of this. Yes...I say, so...

You know, sanctuary, whoever, whenever?

Yeah, but you can’t block the door. 

So we know what kind of church you are.

Just sayin’, can’t block the door..you try out front, I think there’s a space there...

Nothin’ but niggers there, man, you think I want my girl raped? Ah, so that’s where this is going.

I point to the side. Not sleeping there, says the blond.

I go back inside. Stephen’s there. We open the door together. What are you lookin’ at? says the blond, don’t look at us...makes me uncomfortable.

Ah, he gets off on it,says the guy.

I should just let it pass, but I respond. No...I...don’t...I’m responsible. All I said was don’t block the door...

Jesus. You talk about Jesus. I guess Jesus did me a solid tonight. Yeah, Jesus..

Just sayin’, don’t block the door.

Oh yeah? We’re leavin’. Jesus. Jesus..... And as they start down the street, he turns around and says over his shoulder, Jesus can suck my girlfriend’s dick. And I just stare. Can’t even begin to exegete that one.

Just then Jeremy wheels up on his bike. Everything OK? And I tell him the story of the bad couple. He looks at me. Shrugs his shoulders. Long night of rehearsal. Was going to come down to 78 Below. Didn’t. 

Peace, Jeremy.

And he’s off again on his bike. 

It’s enough. Enough.

Rosh Ha Shana 5774

9/4

It's Rosh Ha Shana. The Jewish New Year.

It's late. I've been gone all day. On the steps, Keith is there with Joe. After all our emotional conversations, after all the struggle to start out in a new direction, after all the promises...back on the steps. Keith, what's up? I don't understand. 
He shrugs his shoulders, wags his head, Ah, I got fed up. (Referring to whee he was staying.) Couldn't take it any more.
The steps, you shouldn't be here, you need to be somewhere. What about your daughter?
Ah, that's complicated. 
So I shrug my shoulders.

Walk around the side on 86th Street. And there's Sean. At least he's got his electric cart back. And another shitload of clothes. He asks me to take two big bags inside for him. OK, I'll do that, but you can't be here all day...

I know that man, I know that. but you got to talk to those people. I can't be in no place with no 8 people. I'll lose it .I'll assault someone. can't do it. You got to talk to those people. They shoulda had me a place soon as I come back from getting my feet cut off. Shoulda had me a place. Can't be taking my cart to no shelter. Look, sometimes I just want to give up. Wheel my self into the middle of the street and just sit there and wait to see what happen. Can't take it no more. 
So I agree to take his stuff inside for the night.
What time can I get my stuff tomorrow?
Try around 10, I say.

Some people call this the Yupper West Side now. For all intents and purposes the old red neighborhood is nearly completely gentrified. The sidewalks sometimes gridlocked with SUV baby strollers. Some home owner reds and octogenarian activists in rent controlled apartments still around. And there's the young adult meeting/mating grounds between 78th and 86th. But for the most part, it's quiet, respectable. Sometimes I get complaints and want to say, if you want to live in Westchester, live in  Westchester.

Still, there's a whole world that goes unnoticed. The world of the public housing projects, the homeless, the dope dealers, the SRO's, the poor eldery, the crazies...they're all here. I suppose if you pretend that you don't see them, they become invisible, don't exist. And you don't see them.

The streets are filled with people walking home from their after shul New Year's dinners. Whole families walking home. It's a time for new beginnings. To eat apples and honey and challah and wish for, hope for a sweet year. Rosh Ha Shana. L'shana tovah, my friends, l'shana tovah...

Heading in that direction

7/24 

                                                           Zeljko's My Dream Is

Pillows. Why are people leaving pillows on the steps? They have to go immediately to the garbage. And a shoe brush. A shoe shine brush. Yes, a shoe shine brush. 

Danielle has found a purse. We figure out that last night our neighbors from across the street met here. Good to see Luli. Told her to tell Martin to call me. Sure enough, a woman comes looking for her purse and we have it. Minor miracle.

Max and Gabe are back to work again. RL directing them as we work on emptying out the 4th floor. Getting ready for Matt and Stan and the Representatives who are already here rehearsing when the cleanup's not going on.

Bella here too, sorting out papers.

As for me, I’m completely consumed with working out a strategy to get our real estate contract in front of our presbytery on Saturday. My colleagues at our neighborhood  Study this morning all helped in developing the way to make this happen. Our system exists to facilitate mission. But that doesn’t prevent some  from using the rules to play out their personal battles. My colleagues have helped me feel we can do this. So it’s all in to make it happen. Despite my anxiety, the process of working a strategy still engages me, gets me going.

As soon as I’ve done my first draft, Danielle and I grab the rubber gloves and head outside. Sean was still here when she arrived. Apologetic, open. She brought him clean clothes. The rest is up to us. Throughout the afternoon, the aching sensation in my nose, the queasy stomach will remain. And there is no champagne today.

Although the sounds of Ethel in the balcony comes close.

Late in the day Zoran drops by. Zeljko’s co producer. Serbian filmmaker himself.Professor at the School of  Visual Arts.  My host at the screening last week. His students worked with Zeljko in shooting My dream is....I give Zoran the whole tour. 

We head to Slightly Oliver for conversation. Tums out Zoran comes form the vestigial Jewish community of Belgrade. Grandparents were Holocaust survivors. He is a bearded bear of a man with a lust for life and an incisive mind. He’s done the Southern European Film Festival in LA. Wants to bring it to New York City. West-Park maybe?

But even more so, is interested in a film series on confession. One of those times  where you throw out an idea and start to see what gathers around it. We talk about the word in its fullest sense. In the popular mind, it’s about a statement of guilt, or responsibility. Truth telling about what I did. On the deeper level, confession is an honest, naked statement of who I am. At my core.  Or who we are, collectively. Need to sit with this. See where it goes. Perfect for what we’re trying to do. Lust for life, creativity. Not exactly champagne. But moving in that direction...