5/10/00 Queensbridge Enquirer

[NYC]

NYC HA Executives Paid Respects at Mob Funeral
14 Day Notice Could Ruin Credit, Cost Job
We Welcome HUD Former Asst. Secretary Whistleblower

May 10, 2000. Make copies for your children to sell, then they keep ALL
the money that they collect; beats candy sales! Back issue reference
copies are available at the Queensbridge library and
http://www.deja.com/~queensbridge. Email your religious and cultural
event notices and NYCHA dirt to NYCH...@yahoo.com. To send
anonymously, at any library, log on to:
http://MailStart.Com/welcome.html and send your tips to:
NYCH...@yahoo.com. This way Email can not be traced to a computer that
you normally use at work. Some NYCHA employees Email anonymously from
the library on Murray Street. Some material here is reproduced from
internet sources.

UPDATES ON NYCHA BRIBERY: The April 8, 2000 Staten Island Advance
reported "John Honohan, 39, of Berry Court in Rossville, met three times
with a contractor who was awarded a contract to replace doors in city
housing developments between December, 1998 and June, 1999, according to
the city Department of Investigation (DOI). Honohan allegedly accepted
about $5,500 in payments during that time from the contractor ..."
Honohan is one of several NYCHA employees scheduled to be sentenced in
June and July. Why is there such a problem with HUD funded doors? HUD
had OK'd Faulty Fire Doors in Manhattan's Selis Manor, a home for the
blind. The doors wouldn't open like they were supposed to if there were
a fire. On April 2, 1986, several tenants at Queensbridge Houses met
with HUD Engineer Gwendolyn Pueblo. The day before, all the tenants of
the building where Pueblo visited had been made to stay home so that new
apartment doors could be installed. This was part of a contract for
Queensbridge Houses budgeted at $1,069,000 for apartment doors and
hardware. Pueblo was shown that some apartment doors were not changed as
scheduled. Those tenants were told that they would have to stay home
from work an additional day as they had "Special Size Doors." Some of
these doors had been measured by our own impartial independent engineer
who found them all to be NORMAL SIZE. On May 23, 1986 we telexed then
HUD Secretary Samuel Pierce "Your engineer Gwendolyn Pueblo claims to
have surveyed the building. All the tenants that we ask tell us that
they were never surveyed. Your engineers noticed our new door and also
noticed that some apartments did not have new doors. We informed your
engineers that contractor has told some people that special doors have
to be ordered as they are a "different size". Did your engineers
consider this normal in a structure of this type? Some people say that
the doors are really all the same size! Are they? They certainly look
the same". On August 28, 1986 we sent a letter to NYCHA's Public
Information Office saying "Pursuant to our phone conversation I am
submitting my information request in writing. New apartment doors have
been installed in Queensbridge Houses. Please tell me if according to
contract all doors are the same price or if some apartment doors may
cost extra due to their being special (non standard) size. Please see
copy of letter to NYCHA Chairman Popolizio of May 27, 1986. As of today
my FOIA request has been ignored by Chairman Popolizio." NYCHA's Public
Information Office never replied. HUD and NYCHA refused to answer our
questions re doors. In 1988 a petition was signed by every apartment of
the building Pueblo visited stating that nobody was surveyed. The
tenants petitioned HUD for an INVESTIGATION. Just how corrupt is HUD?
Tenants feel that HUD looks the other way at NYC HA malfeasance as
proper investigation would implicate HUD itself! The Thursday March 5,
1992 NY Post page 4 mentions HUD directing the New York City Housing
Authority to give work to an organized crime-tied firm which the NYC HA
had not intended to give. How honest are the HUD Secretaries? Sam Pierce
never replied to our advisories re organized crime infiltrating the
NYCHA contract process. We found indications that Jack Kemp had been
involved with raising money for a phony prisoner-of-war scam. A 1/13/95
COMTEX electronic news feed said that the US DOJ was probing Housing Sec
Henry Cisneros. HUD Region II office already has a reputation for
issuing phony reports to protect the New York City Housing Authority.
Recently the Public Housing Spotlight news service reported that "Change
Orders are authorization for "Extra" payment by NYCHA in addition to the
contract price to a contractor for work not in the original contract."
So if you lost a day's pay back in 1986 to stay home for an apartment
door that didn't get changed as promised, you may have gotten screwed
twice, as your tax dollars may have gotten stolen. If the door you got
was too short, that's your "special size door".

Giuliani has a lot of nerve complaining about the rescue of Elian. "At
least they entered the right house! In 1998, NYPD detectives busted down
the door of the wrong apartment in The Bronx and sprayed two dozen
bullets. Another wrong-door police raid, in 1997, occurred in a Brooklyn
apartment that contained three children. Parents were handcuffed and
guns were pointed at their heads. In 1998, Rudy's NYPD paid more than
$1,000 to repair the Bronx apartment of Ellis Elliot. The police
mistakenly dragged this innocent man - naked - into the street, and
fired more than a dozen shots during the terrifying home invasion" -NY
POST 4/25/2000 by Jack Newfield. Remember the 1994 incident when black
undercover cop Desmond Robinson was shot repeatedly by Del Debbio, who
was off-duty and thought Robinson was a gunman? The court found "the
Police Department and city are responsible for the assault." It is
claimed that the NYPD orchestrated "a conspiracy to destroy evidence."
On Saturday March 25, 2000 we heard police attack WBAI-FM radio reporter
Errol Maitland on the air. He was covering the funeral of Patrick
Dorismond, the unarmed Haitian immigrant shot to death March 16 by an
undercover narcotics cop in Manhattan. Maitland broadcasting live via a
cell phone said "I've been pushed by a police officer onto the ground,"
Errol screams. "He just told them to f--k me up. He told the other
police to f--k me up. ... I'm down on the ground. I'm trying to get
myself up. I'm now on my back. I'm still broadcasting ... you're live on
WBAI. This is how the Police Department in New York is operating -"
Police initially charged him with disorderly conduct, and wound up being
shackled to a bed in Kings County under police guard - as if he were
some deranged felon. It is clear that the cops were the deranged felons.
Did police agents provocateurs incite the funeral riot? So Mayor
Giuliani and Safir BOTH have prostate cancer. Makes us think of dolls
and pins and unhappy people!

We would like to take this opportunity to welcome as a whistleblower:
Catherine Austin Fitts, 48, a 1978 Graduate of the Wharton School of
Business with an MBA in Finance. From 1989-90 Fitts served as Assistant
Secretary of Housing - Federal Housing Commissioner at the Department of
Housing and Urban Development. She says "I was fired by Jack Kemp in
late 1990 because I would not go along with the questionable political
practices, which seem to be built into HUD's machinery and purpose." We
wrote in a previous Queensbridge Enquirer issue about some of Kemp's
apparently fraudulent shenanigans raising money for non-existent POWs
before he worked for HUD. Upon request we will post that issue at our
WWW site. When there was talk about Kemp running for President we
notified the media of our findings. As far as Ms Fitts' info goes, she
has SO MUCH dirt to report that we are giving her a hot link from
http://www.deja.com/~queensbridge.

NYCHA IN COURT: A Manhattan jury in March awarded $6.6 million to a
teenage boy who got lead poisoning in a NYCHA housing project built 13
years AFTER a municipal ban on lead paint. He was initially diagnosed
with elevated levels of lead in his blood in 1988, when he was 3 years
old. The project was built in 1973, about 13 years AFTER lead-based
paints were outlawed in New York. The New York Law Journal, April 26,
2000 tells us that Supreme Court Justice Emily Jane Goodman ruled that
NYCHA denied tenant Ricky Faison a fair NYCHA administrative hearing
when he appeared pro se. Pursuant to his Article 78 petition challenging
NYCHA, Judge Goodman vacated a NYCHA decision based on improprieties in
Mr. Faison's administrative hearing, which she called "replete with due
process violations." "the Hearing Officer failed to honor Mr. Faison's
explicit request to bring in character witnesses and, in fact, made
light of it in a cruel and demeaning manner." We ourselves have been
treated in a demeaning manner by NYCHA counsel after a judge granted us
permission to examine NYCHA documents. This denying due process reminds
us of the way former Queensbridge Tenant Association President Janet
Cole was treated. She was hauled in for a NYCHA "administrative
hearing". As character witnesses several Queensbridge Houses tenants
were barred from the hearing and when NYCHA saw that Janet Cole was
represented by an attorney, NYCHA said that they couldn't find the
paperwork for the case. Case was eventually dropped. It would seem that
NYCHA has a policy of retaliatory action for tenants who act "too
uppity" and don't "stay in their place". The editors of the Queensbridge
Enquirer were sent threats of eviction three times in 1999, TWICE in one
day. On April 10, 2000 NYCHA mailed us a "14 Day Notice" in an UNSEALED
ENVELOPE. If deliberately left unsealed, and handed to the wrong person,
this could cause embarrassment to victim tenant and labelling of said
tenant as a "dead-beat". By "coincidence" this was at the same time that
Newsday was asking NYCHA questions about (and preparing a very nice
story about) the Queensbridge Enquirer. Have you been wrongfully served
with a "14 Day Notice" for not paying your rent? Did NYCHA report this
to a credit bureau? How will this effect your credit rating if you want
a loan for a home or co-op? If Queensbridge Houses goes co-op, will you
have to move to the Rockaways? Did you know that potential employers
often check credit reports. You say that you already have a job that
pays well? What happens if your credit report indicates that you are a
dead-beat who can't pay rent on time? The employer may think that you
are living beyond your means, that maybe you have an addiction -drugs,
gambling. Maybe you might steal from the job. Better not to hire! Maybe
even a good idea to fire! We Emailed NYCHA Chair John Martinez on Wed
May 3 to ask him "whether or not this type of service by NYCHA is
reflected in reports to credit reporting agencies". There was no reply
by press time. NYCHA has set a precedence by taking EIGHT months to
comply with an FOIL request. Now NYCHA can reply publicly at
http://www.deja.com/~queensbridge. You can Email the NYCHA Chair by
going to our Queensbridge URL. See if you get a response! If you were
wrongfully served, whether intentional or due to lack of due diligence
on NYCHA's part, your "Right to Quiet Enjoyment" of your apartment was
shattered. Your Civil Right Violated. Civil Rights violation whether
malicious or due to negligence, we are told, are actionable in Federal
Court. If interested in taking part in such an action or to talk about
this problem on TV or Radio contact us ASAP. We can get you media
attention. You can also call radio call-in talk shows and speak your
mind. It's free programming for the station and free time for you.
Listen to Housing Notebook, WBAI-FM 99.50 MHz most Mondays at 7:00 PM.
Call in with your NYC HA complaints. Since Federal funding is involved
we may be able to get this on national television. We hear of Seniors
emotionally distressed by wrongful service of 14 Day Notices. Has NYCHA
attempted to wrongfully evict anyone you know due to its wrongful
actions? Could there be hanky-panky involved with rent payments? Back
when cash was accepted, we had heard of cash being accepted for an
apartment that was not on the rent rolls! Did NYCHA switch to "NO CASH"
due to endemic rental payment hanky-panky? Are some people's checks and
money orders used Ponzi style to finance someone's stock market
ventures. Are all your rent payments deposited to NYCHA's Chase
Manhattan Bank account? Speaking of Chase "...Chase's Paris branch with
full backing of its New York office displayed "excessive zeal" in
enforcing anti-Jewish laws and was held in "very special esteem" by
Vichy authorities" -Daily News 12/24/98.

REAL ESTATE section. We have heard so much about Queensbridge Houses
apartments being sub-let that we thought about starting a real-estate
section exclusively for Queensbridge Houses sublets. But it turns out
that some people don't want to pay anything at all for their sublets! We
recently received anonymous Email saying that a mentally feeble person's
apartment was taken over by drug dealers. The victimized person's
guardian allegedly spends the victim's money on fine clothes and there
is rarely any food in the fridge unless a kind hearted hooker who also
uses the apartment brings some in. Management KNOWS how to catch a lot
of sub-letters, but can't be bothered. It is a lot easier to send 14 Day
Notices to people who pay their rent on time. From our WWW site you can
link to the "Housing Spotlight" where you can read about the lover
(herself a NYCHA employee) of a NYCHA big who moved in with her mother
in a housing project and didn't tell NYCHA, so the mom's rent is thereby
staying low. An anonymous Email said that a similar thing is happening
at Queensbridge Houses where a NYCHA employee is living rent-free with
his girlfriend. The Email goes on to say that in this same Tenant
Patrolled building drugs are sold and that customers write in the
apartment numbers of innocent victims. Guess whose apartment could be
raided? How come management no longer distributes the District Attorney
tip-off letter that we formerly saw once a year?

MORE FROM OUR EMAIL: "I'm looking into doing a story about tenant
relocations within NYCHA, especially families and senior citizens being
permanently moved out of their apartments when their apartments are
renovated. (I've heard the tenants are told this will be a temporary
process, but it turns out to be permanent.) Do you know if this really
happens?" Any info? We can forward to the person asking.

The Housing Spotlight (you can link to it from our URL) reports that a
TA president's husband is being paid by three NYC HA contractors, all at
the same time? One contractor once made a mistake and handed an envelope
stuffed with cash to the wrong person. Contractor got envelope back. We
have heard that TA Presidents all over the city are routinely offered
"gifts" from contractors. Queensbridge Tenant Association President Nina
Adams reported such an offer to NYCHA, but NYCHA told her that offers to
TA Presidents were a routine thing and that many TA Presidents accept.
Ms Adams told the contractor to go to hell. It might be interesting to
ask other current and past Tenant Association Presidents what types of
offers they have gotten and how they handled them! Former Queensbridge
Tenant Association President Dorothy Peterson was quoted in Newsday in
April, that we write about fantasies. At the Housing Spotlight URL you
can link to a Real Audio sound clip containing a conversation wherein
DOI Investigator John Kilpatrick discusses how he learned that 2 NYCHA
execs attended a Mafia connected contractor's funeral. Spotlight also
tells us of some NYCHA employees who took a trip (paid for by
contractors) out of the country "to look at new boilers". Are trips used
as payoffs? Are travel arrangements made through politically connected
travel agents?

Fed up with Cable-TV rate increases? Would you like another company to
provide competitive service? The Queensbridge Tenant Association is
investigating the possibilities. Attend the meeting Saturday May 20,
2000. Boulevard Gardens gets their cable TV from RCN. What happened to
our planned competitive installation of cable-TV by RCN? Did RCN come
across unexpected expenses? Who wanted to paid off?

* * * THE END * * *

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