New York Times article on rebuilding aid and community concerns,

NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document Scme of the Neediest Get the Least 9/11 Recovery Aid Continued From Page Bl Joft worthy of more ald than an 1m- migrant who lives and works in a tiny apartment? Underlying the words of several residents of Chinatown and the Low- er East Side at the hearing was an- ger over the apparent lack of diversi- ty among officials involved in the rebuilding. Of the 13 directors, gov- ernment advisers and executive staff members of the development corporation onstage, 11 were white men. Two of the three board mem™ bers who are members of ethnic minorities did not attend. "We're trying to get across that Lower Manhattan is not only the ground zero area," said Vivian Wil- liams, who spoke at the hearing and is a member of Good Old Lower East Side, a community group. "When this horrific act took place, we were also living in a war zone. So there are a whole lot of issues that have to be addressed. We know we want a me- morial, and we respect that, but how about the people who are still living and trying to make it?" A difficult calculus is at the heart of many of the decisions about the $21.5 billion in federal rebuilding aid. Grants to residents, for example, of- fer the most aid to those who lived closest to the site. Therefore, fam- ilies living in Battery Park City and parts of TriBeCa, where the median household income is $125,000, are eli- gible for $14,500 in grants. In Chinatown, where streets were also blocked and garment factories shut after Sept. 11, household income is only a third of that in TriBeCa. Yet families there are eligible for grants that reach a maximum of $7,750. The many Chinese familles and others in a smaller zone north of Canal Street are eligible for a maximum grant of $1,750. City and state officials say it is only natural to give more money to the residents closest to the disaster site. Small businesses are important, they say, but big companies that pay OUR LEMANLO ACATO •COMPENSATION Por TOXIC AIK& HEALM HLYEILE DAMAGES (WRIFERS) •EXPAND DISASTEK RELEF TO EVERYOME AFFECIET. • AIR QUALITY STUDY LE*LASA •HEALTH COVERAGE (INSURANCE) SIMPROVE RELEE CROCES KEEREGONEKN AT ISSUE Residential Assistance Residents in these zones are eligible for assistance. The median household income south of Canal Street and west of Broadway is $125,000. East of Broadway it is $40,000. ASSISTANCE Zone 1... $14,500 Zone 2......... 7,750 Zone3.......... "1,750 Development Gorporation Mariiynn K. Yee/The New York Times Atthe Chinese Staff and Workers Association yesterday, members and volunteers discussed plans for today's march and rally in Chinatown to support equalizing development aid in Lower Manhattan. large salaries also benefit the city said. with payroll and income taxes. In addition, Peterson Littenberg City economic development offl- cials also say that aid programs for Architects, the urban-design firm hired to help the development corpo- small companies are less restrictive ration's staff with planning, is focus than those for large companies and can provide up to three times the ing on ways to revive the parts of Lower Manhattan not in the immedi» benefits per employee when tax ate vicinity of ground zero, including breaks and other noncash incentives Chinatown and the Lower East Side, are counted. officials said. Community advocates also used Christopher Kui, the executive di- the hearing as an opportunity to rector of Asian Americans for Equal- raise many issues that were prob- ity, sald that roughly 40 garment lems in those neighborhoods long be- factories had closed since Sept. 11 fore Sept. 11, Including a lack of and that business at many of the adequate medical care anda dearth neighborhood's 500 restaurants was of low-priced housing. Many of the prosrams they complained about, still down 20 percent to 30 percent. "The revival of Chinatown is an though, are administered not by the integral part of the revitalization of Lower Manhattan Development Cor- Lower Manhattan," he said. "We did poration but by the Federal Emer- not experience the physical destruc- gency Management Agency andthe tion of buildings that the area around city and state economic development the World Trade Center did, but agencies. much of the economic activity in Nevertheless, the residents' com- Chinatown stopped after Sept. 11." ments have caused Louls R. Tomson, One roadblock, he said, is that the president of the development cor- some aid programs use Canal Street poration, and others to take a closer as a dividing line for benefits, even look. After the hearing, Mr. Tonson though many businesses and resi- took a walking tour of Chinatown, dents affected by the disaster are talking with small-business owners north of Canal. and visiting a garmentfactory on Kong Lian, the owner of the Sun Mott Street. Dou Dumpling Shop at 214 Grand "It was a modest beginning to un- Street in derstanding the issues that Chinatown, is one such were small-business owner. In August, Ms. raised at the hearing," Mr. Tomson Kong signed a lease for her current said. "Our mandate is to focus first location after five years on Mott on the World Trade Center siteand Street. After the attacks, she said, the area immediately around it. But renovations were delayed because we wouldn't have been given the job contractors and city building offi- of overseeingthe revitalization of cials were in short supply. Lower Manhattan south of Houston Once she opened at the Grand Street if we weren't intended to Street site in December, restrictions make Chinatown and the other neigh- on travel and parking discouraged borhoods downtown good communi- visitors. Layoffs of garment workers ties in which to live and work." also hurt. As a new business north of The development corporation is Canal Street, the restaurant could planning to hire Asian Americans for benefit little fromcity andstate Equality, a nonprofit community grant programs. group, to help administer its residen- After investing close to $300,000 in tial grant program in Chinatown and personal savings and taking a low- provide other services for the corpo™ interest loan from Asian Americans ration, people involved in the process for Equality, Ms. Kong said the shop was breaking even, but only because she and two family members have drawn no salary for six months. The frustration of people like Ms Kong and Ms. Williams, the Good Old Lower East Side member, are likely to be on display at a march and rally today, Organized by a coalition of community groups called the Beyond Ground Zero Network,participants are planning to march from China- town to Foley Square for a demon- stration at 12:30 p.m. Melissa Aase, a program director of University Settlement, part of an- other community coalition called Re build With a Spotlight on the Poor, said that even if all the issues being raised by the downtown residents were not clearly within the purview of the development corporation, its guiding principles say that its efforts are intended to help people at a wide variety of income levels. "We're trying to encourage them to see themselves as a group that can exert policy leadership," she said. "But so far, it's not clear they're thinking about low income people in this effort." The New York Times NYC-WTC_000143200