Mayor Edward Koch's Final Tribute

Mourners say goodbye to one of NYC's finest

By Rachael Johnson

With the eulogies finished and the organ playing “New York, New York,” the wooden casket containing the body of Mayor Edward Koch was carried through the throng at Temple Emanu-El in Manhattan’s Upper East Side.

And then something unusual happened: The mourners burst into spontaneous applause.

“I’ve never been to a funeral where people clapped as the casket went by,” said mourner Edward Summer. “He was a straight shooter.”

“It was a nice tribute,” said Fernando Ferrer, former Bronx borough president and now the acting chairman of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. “A nice send-off.”

For a little over an hour on Monday morning, the sanctuary was filled with hundreds who had come to mourn Koch, who died Friday at the age of 88. The crowd included family, friends, such politicians as President Bill Clinton and Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and fellow New Yorkers who knew and loved Koch.

“No mayor ever embodied spirit like Ed,” said Mayor Bloomberg. “He knew that New York was more than a place, but a state of mind.”

Bloomberg said that before he began his run for office, he asked Koch for advice. “Be yourself. Say what you believe and don’t worry about what people think,” Bloomberg said. “God knows he didn’t.”

Later on, when Bloomberg turned to him again for political advice about how to improve the city’s health system, Koch told him, “Limit the size of sugary drinks; no one will notice,” he recalled as the audience chuckled.

Koch was the city’s 105^th mayor. He was born in the Bronx, and graduated from New York University School of Law in 1948.

In 1966, he was elected to the City Council from Greenwich Village.  After leaving the council, Koch served in the U.S. Congress for five terms and then served as mayor from 1978 to1989. He served three terms, becoming the first mayor in history to receive both the Democratic and Republican nominations in 1981.

“He said, I’m still liberal, but I’m sane,’” President Clinton said. “He had a big brain, but he had a bigger heart.”

Koch’s close friend, James F. Gill, whom Koch appointed as chairman of the Joint Commission on Integrity in the Public Schools in 1988, also spoke at the funeral. Gill recalled a time when the two walked down the street after his fourth mayoral campaign ended in a loss to David Dinkins. People told Koch that he should run again. “He’d reply, ‘No. The people threw me out and now the people must be punished,’” Gill said, drawing laughs from the crowd.

Longtime friend John LoCicero, who first met Koch in 1963 when Koch was the district leader in Greenwich Village, said that he cherished his friend’s honesty. “He was real and didn’t cater to anyone, and that came through,” LoCicero said.

Outside, friends gathered around the temple after the casket was driven away to the cemetery.

Former NYC mayoral candidate Mark Green noted that he, too, came to celebrate Koch’s life of service. “Ed and I had a contentious start, but we respected each other.”

We Are Organized

Frustrated Bronx tenants warn future buyers of decrepit building*

By Rachael Johnson

The signs taped to the inside windows of a first floor apartment building may be homemade, but passersby can’t help but take notice. “Buyer Beware”, “We Are Organized” and “We Know our Rights” are not just idle action words. Several residents of 1265 College Avenue in the Bronx are in the third month of an ongoing litigation against College Management, a private company cited as New York City’s number one worst landlord.

 “That’s the tenant’s association,” said Angel Caballero Rodriguez, a resident of the building, referring to the maker of the signs.  “To let them (potential buyers of the building) know that we have issues here,” and that the tenants were not pushovers.  Rodriguez formed the association and was one of several who joined an action to bring a 7A claim –an administrative removal of the current landlord -- against College Management. In essence, petitioners have asked the court to appoint an administrator to run the building in place of the owner. “It’s the last resort,” said Ian Davie, attorney for Rodriguez and the other tenants, “once you notify the landlord, and call the city.”

Rodriguez, who lives in building 1265, apartment 2A, has lived there for more than 50 years and said that getting the landlord, Eli Abbot, to complete repairs was an ongoing struggle. “We have repairs and he refuses to do them. Now that we’ve sued, he’s making it look like he’s doing all this work,” he said. Rodriguez pointed out that recently contractors had come in to paint parts of the building. “I’ve been doing all my repairs,” Rodriguez said as he walked up the stairs. The landlord is supposed to do the major fixes, the plumbing or electrical work, he said. Instead, Rodriguez, who had holes in his walls, a vermin problem, and needed repairs to his kitchen, said that he has done minor fixes, like sheet rocking, plastering and painting. “You wait for the people to come do the work, but sometimes they aren’t experienced enough, so I do it myself,” he said.

Rodriguez said that 1265 was once a nice place to live, but today, with poor or no repair work being done, a landlord who appears indifferent, the building in foreclosure, tenants in litigation, a building that’s for sale and in the middle of negotiations to be sold for the third time in just a few years, it’s certainly not what it used to be. “It’s an old building and if you don’t keep it up, it gets worse,” said resident Danielle Cipriano.

Abbot’s company, College Management, had a combined 724 violations for three of its buildings, according to the NY office of the public advocate. Tenants in each of the three attached buildings-- 1259, 1265, and 1269 College Avenue -- have reported Class A, B or C violations. Building 1265, where Rodriguez lives, has 232 violations, 26 of them are Class C violations. Class C violations, described by Wiley Norvell, a spokesman for the office of the public advocate, are “anything immediately hazardous. Urgent, needing to get people out of the building; an exit problem, if the building has no hot water, lead paint, especially if there are children.”

“Kids are constantly running. They could get hurt,” Rodriguez said about the worn metal material peeling off  the window seals on each floor. “You’re not safe going up and down the stairs,”he said, pointing to visible cracks on the stairs of the walkup building. “It’s not livable.”

In courtroom 560 last Thursday, Abbot sat quietly at the defendant’s table making his first appearance since the trial began in June. He was listening to testimony from his contractor Robert Riviera about the painting he had completed in the building. Every so often, Abbot would put his hand on his head and rub his brow. According to the Housing Preservation and Development office (HPD), Abbott is listed as the head officer of College Management, but College Management is not included as a party on the foreclosure complaint.

College Management is listed as the buildings’ owner on the Department of Buildings’ sign that hangs above the tenants’ mailboxes in 1265. Rodriguez’s name, along with 36 additional tenants --including 10 “John Does”-- are listed on the foreclosure complaint. Davie confirmed that the property was being foreclosed on, but there are several other oddities about the case. “There’s a different name on the deed to the building,” Davie said.  “It’s not really clear [what’s happening].”  

It was a little after 5p.m. and Danielle Cipriano was just home from work.” We have every kind of rodent, every kind of problem,” she said standing in the first floor hallway. Mice and roaches have found their way into 4A, Cipriano’s apartment. Vermin are classified by HPD as a Class B violation, posing a threat to one’s health, but not an immediate threat. According to a building registration summary report compiled by the HPD, she has reported nine violations in her apartment. Six of those are Class B violations.

“The buildings are old and not kept up properly,” said Cipriano, who has lived at1265 College Ave for seven years. Cipriano has  dealt with several problems, she’s had water leaking in her bathroom since 2006 and said that a contractor was just sent to do the repairs. “It’s constant, they just replaced my pipe,” she said, leaning against a wall that she didn’t notice had fresh paint on it. “Ugh,” she sighed while looking over her shoulder at the marigold-colored on her suit jacket. “I smelled it. I just didn’t know where it was.” There was no sign to warn residents that the walls were still wet.

According to the building registration summary report, Cipriano also reported a Class C violation in January of this year, under Section 27-2005, 2007 of the housing code, which describes “the illegal fastening of a lockable slide bolt installed onto the exterior of door (egress room).” It appeared as though Abbott had illegally barred her from entering her own apartment. “The landlord tends to harass them,” said Ian Davie, the tenant’s attorney. “He’ll walk through the building on Sunday morning, banging on doors to collect rent. He’s been doing that for years.”

Davie will litigate two more cases against Mr. Abbot. Dominga Sanchez, also Davie’s client, is one of several others who live at  1259 College Avenue (adjacent to building 1265) and who joined a separate suit.

In apartment 1B, Sanchez slides her foamy leather couch back from the wall exposing the sinking, warped and peeling flooring. She points to a part of the ripped flooring while finishing up a phone call and then walks into the kitchen. When she hangs up, she explains through a Spanish language translator that three months ago, pieces of the kitchen ceiling started to break off and fall to the floor. Then  she motions to the bottom of her fridge which has collected brown stains from rust and decay. She said she’s been waiting, ever since the day she moved in -- a year and eight months  -- for a new fridge.

“Repair it and let us live as human beings,” she said in Spanish as Rodriguez translated. “No one should live like this, not even animals.”

Susanna Blankley, director of housing organizing at the Community Action for Safe Apartments (CASA) worked with the tenants of 1265 so they would be in a stronger position to assert their collective rights for fairer housing conditions. Blankley declined to give details about specific issues tenants had with Abbott and the building during a phone interview, due to the sensitivity of the buildings’ current business negotiations, but did confirm that the building had been up for sale, and that they are currently negotiating for a new owner to purchase buildings 1259, 1265 and 1269.

"Whoever gets the building, there are people here who have had longevity, and I hope the changes are better off for everybody,” Rodriguez said.  Davie said that their main focus was to help the tenants. “We have no problem with the building being sold, so long as it’s sold to a responsible purchaser who won’t put the tenants through the same problems they’ve experienced for so long.”

*This story was written but not published for the web in November 2012.

What to do about media coverage

Should the media change the way it covers mass tragedies because of how frequently these events have started to occur?

As far as I know, there's no preceded recorded tragedy in American history like what happened at Columbine High School in 1999. But regretfully, after the Columbine shooting so many more of these mass tragedies started to occur: Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Va., Fort Hood, outside Killeen, Tx., Casas Adobes, Az. and now Century 16 in Aurora, Colo.

Yesterday, I watched part of a round table discussion NBC News' The Cycle where journalist Toure said this:

"Psychologists say that there's a deep-seeded long festering rage that stems from feeling marginalized and feeling powerless; that leads to wanting to do something to get back at the world."

"Also sobering is the way we in the news media may be feeding these people's last wish. They want recognition, they want infamy, the want power after what they feel is a tiny insignificant marginalized, misunderstood life. What happens after they shoot up the school or the multiplex, every news network rips up its plans and sends reporters to the scene and does days of non-stop coverage."

(see the full clip here: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/#48263305)

I agree.

This is not to say that we should not have strict gun laws and work tirelessly on figuring out a profile for these kinds of people, but is the endless media attention giving the killer what he wanted? James Holmes' name will go down in history in a wretchedly infamous way, as the "Batman Killer". According to CNN, the shooter "entered the sold-out movie theater dressed in black, wearing a ballistic helmet, a tactical ballistic vest, ballistic leggings, protectors over his throat and his groin, a gas mask and black tactical gloves was wearing full body armor." Police also said that Holmes had colored his hair red and told police that he was "the Joker". The Joker's character didn't fear years in prison or death, but the character was a sociopath who wanted to be infamous for his crimes. 

Was Holmes playing a character?

How can we report stories without giving these murders what they want? Just by doing their job, the police learn everything about the suspect and the media has a duty to give this information to the public. I've seen less coverage of the suspect and more coverage of the victim, which may be a solution.

Unfortunately, in 1999, America had to learn how to prepare for mass public murders when Columbine happened. This was a person tragedy for me because I'm from Colorado. And, I grew up in Aurora, Colo.

The Columbine shootings occurred when I was headed to college, but I remember one of the photos in Time magazine showed a picture of teenage girl running out of the building, crying. I recognized her instantly. We took ballet classes together, in fact, she was one of my good friends in class. We stood next to each other at the barre, and always joked and laughed. A few months later, I came home from college and went to the mall to finish up some Christmas shopping and I saw her. She was working at one of the kiosks. I could tell that she recognized me as well, but her demeanor was so different from what I knew of her. It was like, she didn't want me to approach her.

This kinda of trauma changes each person who goes through such tragedy in many different ways but, it does beg questions to be answered about the gun laws here in the US.

Is it reasonable for private citizens to carry automatic weapons. Because the only instance when those weapons are "needed" are when an actor plays a character in a movie - in war too, but is war always necessary? - and the setup is a character seeking something from the world that he/she wasn't given.

What do you think?

China sends its first female astronaut in to space

http://www.cnn.com/2012/06/16/world/asia/china-space-launch/index.html?hpt=hp_t2

What's one great thing you've seen in your community today?

It wasn't completely clear to me, and I didn't ask, but I saw a young graduate and his mother and sister in Baltimore city, waiting for a bus. The young man had on a graduation gown and his cap was in his hand. I thought about all the statistics in the news and in magazines explaining that staggering numbers of black male youth graduate from high school and here was this young man, going to/coming from his graduation with his family.

Congrats grads!

Are we doing this to ourselves, people?

This morning, I skimmed through an article on 'The Grio'
(http://www.thegrio.com/entertainment/shonda-rhimes-scandal-presents-blueprint-for-survival-of-blacks-on-network-tv.php) that questioned: "Does Scandal succeed precisely because we never have to deal with Pope's blackness?"

Scandal is a TV show on ABC that's loosely based on the life of the Washington, D.C. insider and crisis management expert Judy Smith, played by Kerry Washington. Washington's character is Olivia Pope the "fixer" when it comes to high profile crisis situations that almost always involve some kind of scandal - think Monica Lewinsky.  Rhimes, the creator of Grey's Anatomy and Private Practice also on ABC is the creator of Scandal. Pssst...BTW, Washington and Rhimes are black women.


But does that matter? 


As inquisitive as the writer, Kia Miakka Natisse point may seem, why does a show's success have anything to do with some one's race? From Cosby to Scandal, shows succeed because they are good.  I don't think we ever dealt with Bill Cosby's 'blackness'.


Natisse's question makes me wonder why she brought it up. What about Pope's blackness do we need to deal with? Should the other characters on the show suddenly turn to Pope and ask, "How are you dealing with being a black woman handling all these scandalous issues?" or "Can I add my expertise to make things less black-- ahem, I mean better ?" It's just as silly as other black leaders questioning whether President Obama was black enough (http://www.cbsnews.com/2100-215_162-20063860.html). Shall the writer's pose that question to Washington's character in season two? Or make sure that she shows her birth certificate to add to the 'drama' of the show? These kinds of articles suggest that black (and blacks for that matter) women handle things differently because we're black. I handle things as a human being who has compassion, intellect, and decency. 


In fact, one of the comments to Natisse's rhetorical question came from Kayla Anderson:


You're right Kia Miakka Natisse. They should address her "blackness" whatever that means. They should have her point out that she's not a regular human being because she's black and then she can break out and sing "I'm Blackity Blackity Black Y'all" and in case that doesn't work she can tell people to kiss her "black" whatever when things go wrong. She can manufacture drama about her hair and follow every stereotype in the book that exists about black people because no one would assume that she's black by looking at her. She has to make sure that she lets people know by making an announcement about it and explaining how hard it is to be black because that's what "blackness" is right. I'll now go back to reading "How to be black in such a way that you will make all the black people happy that you're not somehow hiding your blackness despite the fact that people look at you and assume you're black." Thank you for reassuring me that racialism is a wonderful thing.


What does Natisse mean by 'blackness'?


She has the right to approach an article the way she wants to because she is the writer. But, the real question we need to answer is: Why are we doing this to ourselves, people? It's not just that article in particular or one's like it, but it's comments by black people that make black people uncomfortable and remind us in an ugly way that we're black. An example I mentioned above was the one by Cornel West, Princeton professor who question the president's 'blackness'. We should remind ourselves in a beautiful way that we're black. Everyone else does.


I'm not a psychologist, but I think it has to do with a lack of self-acceptance. We all struggle with it, but we have to find a way to treat it and learn how to love ourselves. One way of doing this might be to accept success. Shonda and Kerry certainly have.


What do you think?

Pajama party?

"I'm back in my pj's," a friend of mine told me.

At 2p.m. today, those were not the words I'd expect to come from a licensed attorney. But they did.

They're the new 'dying breed': Lawyers. Highly educated, well-respected, hardworking and unemployed.

It's 2012, and again, I see how the 2008 recession changed everything. I get a glimpse of it from my friend(s) -including myself -who are trained professionals. The legal industry took a hit and earners from that career path (except maybe criminal attorneys) faced a financial challenge.

But for my friend, who was accepted in to law school, graduated, and passed the bar exam before the financial crisis exploded, the question isn't so much about will he make six figures, it's when will he start working again.

The legal market in D.C. is saturated but, being an attorney in the 20005 (or whichever variation) zip code is a better alternative if your not at law firm or in house. Contract attorney work, sometimes called "doc review" is so ubiquitous in D.C. that it's become another career for attorneys who are not in law firms. Document reviewers are licensed attorneys that review one parties' set of documents early in the litigation phase. It's part of the discovery request. A firm will hire an agency to staff a group of lawyers to review documents that they will turn over to the other party. With the amount of work in DC, there are new doc review project that start everyday or even every week. It's incomparable anywhere else in the country. The other great thing about it is that you don't need the D.C. bar to do this kind of work, so an attorney from Florida could come to D.C. and do this kind of work immediately.

Things have changed.

Recently, the D.C. bar issued a rule saying that doc review is "the practice of law". The practice of law requires a license and attorney's must be licensed in that particular jurisdiction. This is important because before the rule was implemented, doc review was done by licensed attorney's from any jurisdiction. When the D.C. bar implemented this rule, all attorney's not licensed in the District were scaled considerably from taking on most of the doc review projects.

Isn't it bad timing to implement a rule such as this one when the nation is struggling to keep people employed?

Heretofore, we have more lawyers in their pajamas sitting on their couches waiting. Not for money to come, but to use their skill set again.

What do you think?