EPA lead cleanup effort for homes near Ground Zero

NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document very much those topics also concerned, directly center of a controversy as a private developer of power plal.tg, TrstisGas or indirectly, the effects of crime and unequal. gangs. Mr. Raheem described how community policing might work, and Energy Systems, has pl’oposet’f.that it be converted into a power plant. asked if students thought it would At the end of the five-month work­ help. Some deemed it reasonable, but shop, the students are expected to that they wanted beautified. The one young woman objected to having have developed a proposal for the city’s budget shortfall was also an is­ police officers live in neighborhoods site illustrated by maps detailing ev­ sue. But the Tulsa youths expressed they patrol; she said a policeman erything from the placement of little personal fear of violence from who lived in her commimity was its buildings and landscaping to a pedes­ gangs or drug dealers. biggest drug dealer. trian and vehicular access plan. In Newark, where a mayor will be In a city with an exceptionally high The idea is not just to understand elected next week, students live in a dropout rate — 40 percent Is a good real estate. The students are apply­ much poorer and more violent com­ estimate — that Mr. Raheem’s stu­ ing important mathematical con­ munity. Here young people tell a dents have reached senior year de­ cepts as well as learning about de­ very different story. At Technology fines them as among those with the sign, graphics and photography. High School, for example, Tariq Ra­ most perseverance and talent. Even They are also familiarizing them­ heem teaches history to seniors who so, he has had to spend one class pe­ selves with the city’s political struc­ have concluded that the chief elec­ riod a week, all year, trying to con­ ture, polishing their public speaking tion issues should be gang violence, vince them their future would bright­ skills and learning to work in groups. police corruption and the presence of en if they attended college; most The workshop is an example of the drug dealers on the street. never before considered the idea. increasing use of practical projects, In a walk around the city, Mr. Ra­ Mr. Raheem says roughly half his not just to prepare students for the heem’s students observed strewn students are going on to college in the world of real work but to stretch the crack vials. In class discussions, they fall. Still, attrition rates there are boundaries of their imagination be­ complained of living in fear that they high among students who come from yond the jobs held by the people they would be shot if they wore clothing communities characterized by vio­ see every day. Often these projects that by chance matched a gang’s col­ lence, unemployment and poverty. are shepherded by corporations or or, or If they merely went outside In • In a number of cities, the Annen­ nonprofit groups that have im­ the evening. Those fears were palpa­ berg Center’s two-year-old project. mersed themselves in the troubled ble during a student panel’s recent Student Voices, has improved teen­ New York City school system in agers’ civic awareness and attitudes ways that were not the case a gener­ interviewing of the candidates, to be ation ago. broadcast at 6:30 p.m. tomorrow by toward political Involvement, and sharpened the desire of many to par­ The mock development program NJN, New Jersey’s public television at l.S. 71 is the brainchild of Michael service. (A student discussion of the ticipate in public affairs as adults. These are hopeful signs, though Johnson, an M.l.T. club member and issues will be broadcast on WBGO- a former urban planner who works in FM [88.3], NewarkpubUc radio,'at8 there is no hard evidence that such student attitudes actually lead to po­ financing for the New York City Eco­ p.m. on Monday.) litical particjpationjater in life. nomic Development Corporation. T_1----------------- II. . .

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