NEWSHEEL
121
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NEWSREEL
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A west side story: I
At I.S. 88, a Harlem intermediate school, students set off stink
bombs several times a week, and false fire alarms are a daily
occurrence.
In the same school, as many as two dozen students cut classes
each day and roam through the corridors singing, banging on doors
and hurling trash baskets into classrooms.
Narcotics pushers and plainclothes narcotics police, both dressed
as students, roam the corridors of Brandeis High School on West
84th Street. A Brandeis student who reported a fellow pusher to
authorities last week was beaten up and hospitalized briefly.
It is not unusual during holidays at Brandeis that a number
of its students travel to nearby loan of Arc ]unior High School,
where they disrupt classes by shouting and running through the
halls.
Vandalism in school district No. 5, which includes 25 public
schools in Central Harlem and the West Side, totalled $100,000
last year.
In spite of these incidents, however, most parents, teachers and
school offwials familiar with conditions in the schools do not believe
their schools are in as bad shape as others in the city ....
mManhattan Tribune, March 22, 1969
A west side story: H
West 85th Street between Riverside Drive and West End Avenue
has gained the reputation among social workers in the last 10 years
of being a "dumping ground" for some of the most insoluble of
welfare problems--the ex-mental patients, alcoholics, disabled and
aged who have no families and must live alone.
There are 400 welfare cases on the block, people living in furnished rooms that wind through a dozen old buildings. The views to
the east and west belong to the middle-income apartments that
line the main avenues bracketing the block; the idle on West 85th
Street mainly look upon one another as they stand by the stoops
or stare out the windows.
The cares of the day there include the loss of welfare checks to
thieves and loan sharks and the fear of residents to use the hallway
bathrooms because of prowling narcotics addicts.
However, the block has begun to fight back with the assistance
of an experimental welfare program that residents praise because
the caseworkers stay on the block all day, five days a week. In the
rest of the city, caseworkers can visit recipients only occasionally,
122
THE
PUBLIC
INTEREST
and the needy mnst make trips to one of the 38 area centers for
extra help.
On West 85th Street, the Department
of Social Services has
opened a center whose caseload is limited to the block. Eight welfare
workers serve there, assisted by three seminary volunteers,
two
workers from Vista (the domestic peace corps), and health specialists
from local hospitals. Unlike the usual welfare procedure of waiting
for the troubled to apply for aid, workers gcr from door to door
trying to ferret out problems. "Don't feel left out," advises a twopage newspaper now produced on the block.
The idea for the block center came from Michelle Kleier, a young
social worker who viewed her previous role as a roving caseworker
as ineffective because she could get to the block only about a halfday
each week. The center was opened in September,
1967, in a drab
building at No. 325, with Mrs. Kleier in charge, after welfare officials
had been convinced that the intensity of problems on the block was
worth an experiment.
Speaking of the chances of success, Mrs. Kleier said she was encouraged because a sense of community
had begun to vie with the
prevailing mood of isolation.
"Get them out of their rooms," she said.
The center is now the heart of the block, offering an alcoholic
clinic staffed by welfare specialists from the Bowery, a high-school
equivalency
course; a furniture workshop, sewing lessons, cooking
classes for potential cafeteria workers, health services, and a place
to meet at night for Bingo, Pokeno and conversation.
"I say this place is a blessing," Mrs. Helen D'Arcy, a thin, retired
chambermaid,
said. She told how she became a Bingo champion
after years of "keeping to myself" on the block.
Mrs D'Arcy and other elderly residents complained
that their
lives were still disrupted by criminals.
Detectives
and agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation
descended
on the block recently when welfare checks were to be
delivered. The rumor was that they were after a group of young
loansharks and narcotics addicts who engaged in usury in one building and had been intercepting
checks and terrorizing residents. But
no arrests were reported.
"'I don't know, some landlords just don't care what goes on," said
Wolf Zigmond,
a landlord at No. 342. He stood near the barred
window of a lobby office from which his tenants" checks are distributed. Residents have long despaired of mailboxes, which have
been rifled by thieves.
Mr. Zigmond said he cashed the checks for his tenants and took
"only what is mine"--rents
averaging $18 a week for a room plus
occasional loans of $5 or less, which he said were interest free.
The more hopeful programs are those concerned with schooling
or jobs for young parents, social workers indicate. But the limited
outlook for the bulk of West 85th Street's residents, troubled by old
age, drink and disability,
is that the center might bring a bit of
comfort and friendship to their lives ....
--New York Times, March 23, 1969
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