SusanCampriello: My Works

The City of New York has agreed to pay $21 million to settle a discrimination class action lawsuit against the City Parks Department, plaintiffs and members of their legal team announced today at a press conference in Manhattan. As part of the settlement, the department will pay nearly $12 million in back pay and compensatory damages to those eligible and will change personnel promotion practices.

The eleven plaintiffs named in the suit, Robert Wright et al. v. Henry J. Stern, claim that they and other African American and Latino colleagues were passed over for promotions in favor of less experienced, white employees. Discrimination and retribution for speaking out, the suit claimed, took place between 1997 and 2004. Stern left the department in 2002.

The settlement was filed to Judge Denny Chin in Manhattan’s Southern District Court after 14 months of negotiations, Theodore “Ted” Shaw, director-council and president of the N.A.A.C.P. Legal Defense and Education Fund, said.“We have closed the door on an unfortunate period of unlawful conduct in the Parks Department,” Robert Stroup, director of the Fund’s economic justice program and attorney for the plaintiffs, said.

But the suit was not filed purely for economic reasons; bringing change to the department was what plaintiffs were hoping for. Stroup and the plaintiffs commended the city and the department for agreeing to the settlement and for making the positive steps to change policy under new commissioner Adrian Benepe. The settlement calls for further action from the department, including annual promotion reviews and an ongoing review of salary decisions.

Paula Loving, who ran the department’s Work Experience Program and referred to the department and fellow employees as family, said that the settlement set a precedent.

Discrimination, she said, “needs to change, it needs to stop. I pray and I hope that it will change.”

During the period of 1997 to 2004, roughly 44 percent of department employees were white, but the majority of promotions to managerial positions were given to white employees, Stroup said.

Kathleen Walker, who started working for the department in 1981 recalled telling her daughter years ago about the glass ceiling she and other employees could only look at from below. Now, she said at the conference, she tells her daughter, “instead of looking at it from one side or the other, you can pass through it.”

Walker said that she had been passed over for promotions and was moved to the office basement and had her time card pulled from regular payroll after her name appeared in a press release in connection to the suit in 2000.

Attorney and negotiator Lewis M. Steel, of Otten and Golden, LLP, said that discrimination is not endemic in the department alone; similar civil action cases have been brought by Latinos in the New York Fire Department and Police Department.

He called on the City to do a better job enforcing its own anti-discrimination laws. The city, he said, has stronger anti-discrimination laws than federal laws, and yet rather than check if there is no systematic discrimination, the city fiercely defends its illegal practices. He said that an agency to monitor discrimination should be formed.

The plaintiffs and their attorneys are glad that the case will settle, but recognize that the end of the battle against discrimination is not over. They stressed that any, and every, city employee who has faced or seen discrimination has to speak out and not fear retribution from management before the practice will end.

He and Shaw commented the strength of the plaintiffs for speaking out against the department, and noted that the $12 million settlement was only a “modest compensation” for his clients’ suffering.

“Some things cannot be undone,’ he said.

The department has not responded to inquiries as of publication.

Now posted on The Columbia Journalist.

The waiting area of the St. George Staten Island Ferry Terminal, with its aqua and blue colored tiled floor, high metallic-buttressed curved ceiling and windows to fit, looks like an indoor swimming pool. And, Tuesday morning, 400 brightly colored swimmers made a splash in it, drawing photographers, delighting children and catching the eye of commuters waiting for the ferry there.

The swimmers were Caribbean fish with names like “Convict Tang”, “Semilarvatus Butterfly” and “Scribbled Angel” and added their black-and-white stripes, solid yellow and blue-accented-with-yellow colors to the terminal’s décor.

The fish darted around two eight-foot high 2,200-gallon fish tanks, unveiled this morning by Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Staten Island Borough President James Molinaro and city officials. Their construction and installation is part of an ongoing tourism effort officials hope will benefit the borough and the city alike.

Using as many fish-related puns as possible, Bloomberg and Molinaro said that the borough’s $750,000 capital project will draw tourists to the terminal. An estimated 60,000 people use the ferry system every work day. Molinaro said that the ferry is the city’s third largest tourist attraction, after the Statue of Liberty and the Empire State Building.

“Something’s fishy,” Molinaro said, beginning the event. He followed up by pointing out the “schools” of children, wearing blue, yellow and purple fish-head hats commemorating the event, crowded around him with their parents, and said that during rush hour, everyone would “be packed like sardines.”

“Holy Mackerel!” the mayor said, taking the microphone later, warning that he would use “a boat load of fish puns.”

“What’s the porpoise, you ask,” he teased the audience before speaking seriously about the tank project.

The tanks are the latest phase of the overhaul of the Staten Island Ferry system. Other projects have included the renovation of both terminals, the addition of three new ferries last year, and the installation of a talking kiosk for visually impaired passengers in St. George, with plans to install one in the Whitehall terminal.

“I really think these tanks will add to the allure of Staten Island,” Bloomberg said, stressing the second syllable of “allure”, drawing laughter from the crowd.

Bloomberg said that he also enjoys fish tanks and has had them installed in every one of his news offices. Fish have a calming effect, he said.

He also used the event to promote the Staten Island Zoo, which will assume tank maintenance and monitoring duties next year.

But not everyone agrees that the 5,000-pound tanks are a boon to the island.

Before the brown butcher paper was untapped from the tank’s 3-inch acrylic sides, Helen Walker waited for the ferry on her day off, on her way to her union office.

“Do you think a fish tank will mean anything to people without a job?” the Silver Lake resident, who holds down two jobs, asked.

She voiced concern that the borough was placing a stronger emphasis on tourism than on its citizens and their troubles and that waterfront development here was attractive to wealthier individuals, but excluded poorer ones.

But other commuters saw the tanks differently.

“It’s nice to see projects going on in the terminal; to see a little life,” said Rafael Loveszy, 16, who was, with his siblings, waiting for the ferry to Manhattan for a musical rehearsal.

Walter Levendosky, aquarist and keeper of the Staten Island Zoo watched with displeasure as small children slapped their hands against the tanks.

The fish in the tanks cost anywhere between $8 and $60, he said.

Regardless of cost and politics, the tanks made an impression on one busy commuter who hurried towards the entrance with a friend. “These tanks are just the most amazing thing I’ve even seen,” she said.

One of the fish in the new tanks.

(As seen on The Columbia Journalist.)

MANHATTAN, Jan. 29 — The recent death of actor Heath Ledger in his SoHo apartment has given new impetus to a proposed New York State law that would restrict rights to photographs and other images of deceased celebrities to only their estates or families.

Such a law would ensure, for example, that Matilda, Ledger’s 2-year-old daughter with actress Michelle Williams, could benefit from images of her father but photographers could not.

The estates of deceased celebrities and photographers have gone head-to-head in the past, most famously over the sale of a T-shirt depicting Marilyn Monroe in an Indiana court last year. Thirteen states have laws that restrict the licensing of deceased celebrities’ images by photographers, but New York is not among them.

“Enough states have it, so New York’s holdout is an inconvenience,” Alan J. Hartnick, of Abelman, Frayne and Schwab, said today at a New York State Bar Association panel on the issue.

Because no national law exists, the prevailing law is that of where the celebrity died.

Lawyers at the bar association’s annual meeting engaged in a lopsided debate of the postmortem celebrity privacy bill at the Marriott Marquis in Times Square.

A supporter of the bill, Hartnick cited a similar and more swiftly moving bill that concerns the use of images of fallen soldiers and veterans.

Under that bill, the name, portrait of or picture of armed forces, living or dead, cannot by used commercially by anyone but the family.

“Why should soldiers be treated differently than Heath Ledger?” he asked.

Chris Serbagi, who represented the estate of photographer Sam Shaw in the Monroe case, argued that the bill would serve only the interests of a few—two or three—people.

He claimed that a similar California statute was created and pushed by Anna Strasberg, executor of Monroe’s estate. He accused her of using the law to capitalize on Monroe, asserting that through royalties Strasberg has made untold millions.

The California law, which retroactively covers celebrities who died before 1985, was signed into law in October last year.

Monroe died in 1962 in California.

State courts in New York and California ruled in two cases last year that such statutes should not act retroactively and cover celebrities who passed away before Jan. 1, 1985.

Serbagi argued that Anna Strasberg should never have received image rights, as she was not family and was not a friend of Monroe.

Strasburg is the widow of Lee Strasburg, the acting coach to whom Monroe left a portion of her estate. Shaw was the photographer who captured many iconic photographs of Monroe. His family allowed an entrepreneur to use one image on a shirt and was sued by Strasburg.

David M. Marcus, a grandson of Shaw, also denounced the new statute, speaking from experience that a photographer’s livelihood stems from sales from and commissions for their artistry.

“There will be a chilling of free speech if this is passed in New York,” Marcus said.

A new public health plan was announced Wednesday at a press conference attended by leaders of public action groups, medical societies and health care professionals, who generally supported the plan but voiced some concerns.

Richard N. Gottfried (D-Manhattan), chair of the Assembly Committee on Health, unveiled the new plan, New York Health Plus, which would guarantee health coverage and decrease coverage spending for all New Yorkers by $4 billion a year.

Estimates say that employers and individuals spend $63 billion a year in premiums, deductibles and co-payments. Under the new plan, the cost to the State would be only about $59.2 billion.

Enrollment in the plan would be optional, however, private individuals and employers that provide coverage for employees who opt in would be able to chose their own participating health care providers or a public provider, like Medicare. If adopted, employers would no longer have to provide health coverage to employees, and instead pay a premium, which would be set by the State.

Gottfried said that he hoped the lower cost, which would be below current rates, would entice individuals and companies to join the plan, but acknowledged that enrollment would likely be small at first, and then evolve over time as it attracts providers and subscribers.

Because the plan would be funded by taxes and taxpayers, Gottfried trusts that coverage would be accountable to the public and not shareholders, holding costs to a minimum. He stressed that pressures from the bottom up would balance pressures from the top down, ensuring that the State and providers will agree upon the best price and coverage for those enrolled.

“Currently insurance companies pay what the market will bear,” Gottfried said, noting that he believes the government can run a health care system for less money than the current, employer-based system. Raising costs for employers has forced many to stop providing health care to employees, he pointed out.“The vast majority of New Yorkers will have higher take-home pay,” he said.

The real audience for the plan, Gottfried admitted, is Governor Spitzer, who, in July of this year announced that he would develop what he called “a partnership for universal health care coverage,” which would involve taking steps towards increasing Child Health Plus eligibility, streamlining Medicaid enrollment and monitoring Medicaid spending and growth, ultimately ensuring health coverage to all 400,000 New Yorkers.

New York Health Plus was built to expand open the Family Health Plus and Child Health Plus, existing State programs for individuals who do not have health insurance but do not qualify for Medicaid. But to make the new plan attractive, it must appeal to residents who do receive health coverage on their own or from employees.

“Unless it is for all of us, I don’t think it is politically realistic,” Gottfried said to a smattering of applause, arguing that smaller plans—plans that are less inclusive—would not attract the 96 percent of voters who have coverage and would not otherwise vote for a measure that would take their money but offer nothing in return.

Representatives of groups in attendance, including the Commission on the Public’s Health System, the Metro New York Health Campaign, Rekindling Reform and the Academy of Family Physicians voiced support for the plan because it offers coverage to the currently uninsured as well as benefits for New Yorkers with insurance.

Many called the plan a step in the right direction, saying that any move towards implementing a public health system, accessible to and including all New Yorkers should be applauded.

“New York Health Plus sets the bar for any health care program that’s adopted by New York State,” Pamela Bennett, director of Citizen Action of New York City, said of the proposed plan. “New York Health Plus would make New York a much more healthy place to live, work and do business,” she continued.

But others did not see the plan as a finished proposal, but more of a jumping-off point for other plans.

Mark Hennay, director of Metro New York Health Care for All Campaign, called the plan “the beginning of a conversation,” between the State Assembly and Senate and his and similar groups that would lead towards broad and comprehensive health care reforms.

The New York Health Plus plan, as written, does not state a plan for how to raise revenue to support the system. The plan does not quote tax deductions for those who opt out of the plan, as they would still have to support it to a certain degree. But, larger companies and wealthier individuals who join the plan would have to pay more to support the plan than small businesses and less wealthy individuals. Deductions would depend on how the agreement is constructed, Gottfried said.

Vitto Grasso, the executive vice president of New York State Academy of Family Physicians, called for an amendment to the multi-payer plan to allow physicians to negotiate with the State to “streamline and foster uniform administrative procedures among the many managed care plans that would participate in New York Health Plus.”

“Collective bargaining between physicians and the State should include discussion of ways to reduce excessive medical liability costs,” he said in his statement.

“Overall,” Grasso said, “the proposal represents a very positive approach.”

Richard N. Gottfried discusses New York Health Plus

Author Joseph Berger spoke Oct. 16 about his new book at the 92nd Street Y, bringing to life his own experiences and those shared by immigrants in New York City.

A long-time reporter for the New York Times, Berger based the book, “The World in a City,” on articles he wrote for the paper spanning the broad topic of immigration yet by introducing scenes and characters, like the cobbler in Chinatown and the part-time nanny from the Bronx, explores the issue on a neighborhood level.

The discussion was moderated by Berger’s former colleague at the Times’s religion desk, Daily News columnist and professor at the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University Ari Goldman.

The talk, just like the book, began with the story of a young and recently immigrated Berger, his brother and a friend exploring New York City by foot in the early 1950s, and both progress to show haw the city has changed in the last half-century.

The city was a mix of “European beige” during his childhood, but now with 60 percent of the city’s population being immigrants or the children of immigrants, one can visit “25 different countries for the cost of a MetroCard,” Berger explained. This is a paradigm of what is happening in the rest of the country, he continued.

Berger noted that the rich variety of race helps immigrants adjust to the city’s own history has been built upon immigration since the first Dutch and English settlers arrived nearly 400 years ago. He argued that New York City lacks the sense of nationalism and xenophobia known in Paris and offers a more fluid class system than London as two reasons immigrant populations today mesh relatively well with each other today here and not there. He illustrated the idea with an example of Brazilians and Middle Easterners living together in Astoria, Queens.

The ethnic diversity of immigrants entering the City is not the only change Berger has witnessed, for advancements in technology have made it easier for immigrants in New York to contact and keep in touch with family and friends in their countries of origin. One example described in the talk as well as the book is of a husband and wife living in the Bronx in 2005 speaking to their children in Ecuador via an internet and video feed and a television. Their children showed off their gown-up bodies in new clothes (it had been years since the whole family had seen each other) and they showed off the evidence of a new brother on the way; a pregnant belly.

(In the 1950s, Berger’s own mother had to wait weeks for replies to letters sent via air mail to her aunt in Poland.)

Berger believes that immigrants who have recently arrived and who are on their way will continue the pattern of previous immigrant generations who merged with and assimilated into the life of the City.

“The World in a City: Traveling the Globe Through the Neighborhoods of the New New York” is available in stores and includes short guide to where to go and what to eat in each neighborhood visited.

Kitty Charm That’s So Raven woke up at 4 a.m. to get here. Dollchateau Casanova IV came from Princeton, N.J. And Billy Idol and Disco Noferno lounged in a chenille sweater and Chippendale bowtie, respectively. These cats are in New York not for the famed Jelical Ball, of which T.S. Eliot wrote, but for the Cat Fanciers’ Association-Iams Cat Championship this Saturday and Sunday, which returns to the Madison Square Garden Expo Center for the fifth consecutive year.

A select few cats and their owners were on hand Wednesday for the Championship Preview.

By Sunday afternoon, one of the 325 contestant cats will be named the “Best of the Best,” chosen from among the ten best cats of breed, division and color. Iams trainers will demonstrate training techniques with the help of four trained felines. Children and young adults will be judged on their knowledge of cat care and breed specifics. And, roughly 500 cats will be available for adoption through involvement of the Mayor’s Alliance for NYC Animals.

Cats of 41 breeds recognized by the Association, including a seven-and-a-half-year-old Premier (the class for spayed or neutered cats) British Shorthair, who breaks the breed winner standard with her tortoise-shell coat, will come from 37 states, three Canadian provinces and four foreign countries to be judges of their eye shape and color, jaw shape, bone structure, and agility.

In the agility competition, a small number of cats must navigate an obstacle course complete with tunnels, stairs and jumping gates. The cat with the fastest time wins.

Other breeds competing include the Briman (“Sacred Cat of Burma”), Devon Rex, Egyptian Mau, Havana Brown, Ocicat and Scottish Fold.

The cat owners and handlers come not just to win the silver trophy and myriad Iams products but for the experience of New York in fall. “The air of New York City overwhelms with excitement,” Denise Christensen, wearing a necklace spelling “WINNER,” says stroking her Premier Ragdoll Dollchateau Casanova IV and known affectionately as Lardie, another Championship sophomore. Ragdoll cats act like their name suggests. Teri Thorsteinson, from Virginia, who owns Sphynx cats Billy and Disco (who, in his Chippendale bowtie, is returning for his third try), says that the Championship is really about “being in New York” and eating at the restaurants and seeing the shows. “Competing is minor.” Billy wore a stripped chenille sweater to protect his fragile skin. Thorsetein said that something as minor as using a different laundry detergent for their towels could cause a major skin irritation or rash.

Iams, a sponsor of the Championship, will hold six cat training performances and demonstrations throughout the weekend, Janice Gantenbein, Iams cat trainer said. She, along with Karen Thomas will show interested persons how to train the four performing cats, as well as give tips and lessons on how to care for cats and check if they are healthy.

The Junior Showmanship competition is designed to showcase young people how to properly care and handle their animals, which can be house pets or cats lent to them by professional handlers and trainers, Roeann Flukerson, the marketing director of the Alliance explained.

For those left out of the Fanciers’ frenzy, the Mayor’s Alliance for NYC Animals, an organization that matches stray, abandoned and rescued animals with new homes will host 19 local rescue groups and shelters and hopefully find owners for the 500 available for adoption this year. Last year roughly that number adoptions from the groups came directly from on-site placements and interviews held at the Championship, Alliance President Jane Hoffman said. Over 1,200 cats have been placed through the show in the past five years. The Championship is the largest indoor Alliance event, she continued.

Liz Dickinson, of Downington, Pa., explained that the Championship is a “long, very busy weekend” and that the over 12,000 spectators and cat lovers who attend the show are always interested in the competitions and exhibitions. “New York City is a big deal,” she continued. Her cat Kashi Saga Pirate Winter, or Winter, who won Best Norwegian Forest cat in 2004, retired after that Chamionship the age of three.

But the busyness of the show preview was too much for red Abyssinian Hottownsummerinthecity, known as Pumpkin and owned by Lauren Castle Flynn. He dashed up the escalator and onto the main arena mezzanine, causing Garden staff and other cat owners to search bathrooms, stairwells and the arena seats themselves for the fast cat. The sixteen-month-old Permier short hair, who was last year’s Best Short Hair, was eventually found in an arena bar. Christensen, who was set up next to Pumpkin near the escalator, said that the cat had been aggravated by the Sphynx cat next to him.

Not all cats are born to be shown, said Joy Yoders-Dey of Deydream Cattery and owner of last year’s Best of the Best title winner. Some cats have a disposition for staying calm when lifted and show themselves off and others do not. It is not just about being beautiful, she added.

The CFA Iams Cat Championship runs from Sat., Oct. 13 from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Sun., Oct. 14 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. in the Madison Square Garden Expo Center. Tickets cost $15.00 general admission and $13.00 for seniors and children.

Robin Beckett cradles her British Shorthair Renegade at the CFA Iams Cat Championship Preview at Madison Square Garden

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the President of Iran, spoke Sept. 24 at Columbia University’s Alfred Lerner Hall. Ahmadinejad was invited to speak at the School of International and Public Affairs’ World Leaders Forum by Columbia President Lee C. Bollinger.

Hundreds of protesters — denouncing the invitation and Ahmadinejad himself — lined Broadway near the school. The demonstration continued through Ahmadinejad’s speech at the school.

Inside the campus gates, gatherers were slightly less loud than the crowd on assembled on Broadway. They played anti-war music, held signs, shouted their opinions and entered into debate with each other, finally sitting on a large patch of lawn to watch the forum on a jumbo screen. More screens were set up for Columbia students, faculty and staff in the Journalism School.

A small, but vocal minority of those assembled in and around the school thought that Bollinger’s invitation was appropriate, as it offered a chance for the United States and students at Columbia to hear what Ahmadinejad had to say and opened topic of a nuclear Iran up to debate.

On both sides on the campus gates President Bush was targeted along side President Ahmadinejad.

To read more detailed stories, written by my writing class, visit the Columbia Journalist.

Reacting to reports that some children are preying on weaker children on the City’s school buses, a New York City councilman called Wednesday on the Department of Education to provide monthly reports on school bus incidents.

Councilman Bill de Blasio (D-Brooklyn) said he is “troubled” that the issue, which he thought had been dealt with months ago through hearings and the firing of a Department of Education employee, still lingers. While the abuses themselves are unacceptable, it is more unacceptable that the public had not been given accurate information, he said, continuing, “Parents need to know that the situation is being acted on immediately.”

He will introduce his legislation next month.

Councilman Robert Jackson (D-Manhattan), the chair of the education committee, noted that while the City spends $1 billion on busing per year, there is “no reason our children can’t be safe [on buses].” Roughly 142,000 children ride school buses every day. Last year 3,547 complaints of alleged abuse on buses were raised, according to de Blasio’s press release.

“Bus drivers can’t be a bus driver and a bus monitor,” said Brooklyn resident A.J. Rothstein. He has already comforted his 5-year-old daughter Michelle’s tears this year, after older children—first-graders—called her names on a bus to their yeshiva school in Midwood.

Rothstein hopes that de Blasio’s legislation and that video cameras Councilman James Vacca (D-Bronx) has proposed to be placed buses come to pass.

While the council members acknowledged the progress the Department made last spring after abuse reports first surfaced in the “Daily News,” Councilman John C. Liu (D-Queens) blasted the Department, saying that misinforming the public on the number of abuse cases reported “is indicative of a Department that does not get it,” his voice rising in anger.

In response to the allegations, a Department of Education spokeswoman, Marge Feinberg, defended her department via e-mail, saying: “There are incidents that happen and they are dealt with and should not be exaggerated. We take these matters extremely serious. The material in the press recently were cases as old as 2005, and we responded to these cases by making improvements to our investigative unit. We hired a chief manager of our investigative unit who has a military background, and we hired investigators who have either law enforcement or investigation backgrounds.”

Feinberg did not comment on why no monitors are present on buses or how the Department is tracking abuse complaints.

Councilman Peter F. Vallone, Jr. (D-Queens) announced that a public hearing on the safety of children on school buses will take place on Oct. 10.

Councilman Vincent Ignizio (R-Staten Island) speaks with, from left to right, Councilmen Peter F. Vallone, Jr., John C. Liu, a representative of James Vacca, Bill de Blasio and Robert Jackson outside City Hall.