Gioia Sees 'Disconnect' Between City, People
BY THOMAS COGAN

City Councilmember and candidate for Public Advocate Eric Gioia (l.), speaker at the November luncheon meeting of the Sunnyside Chamber of Commerce, posed with Dazies Restaurant owner Lily Gavin and Sunnyside Chamber President and Sunnyside Business Improvement District (BID) founder John Vogt.

Eric Gioia, 26th district city councilmember, who is already a contender for the office of Public Advocate in the 2009 city elections, spoke to the November luncheon meeting of the Sunnyside Chamber of Commerce, held as usual at Dazies Restaurant, on Queens Boulevard near 40th Street. Gioia, hoping to succeed retiring Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum, described the public advocate's office as he sees it, and also described his involvement in a new veterans' group that is based on a plan he observed in process in Los Angeles. He answered questions about middle class housing and the economic crisis and mentioned the "disconnect" that New Yorkers who love their city see between the city and themselves; and that is something that propels him to seek that citywide office, he said.

Following Gioia, David Whyne of Sunnyside Community Services supplied vivid evidence of such a rift, and how it is going to affect SCS and the programs it puts into effect. There were also some news announcements, one of them surprising.

Nearing the last year of his two terms in the city council, Gioia surveyed his council district for the luncheon audience and said, "These neighborhoods really mean the world to me." He means to embrace a far greater number of neighborhoods as public advocate, which he calls "the attorney general of New York City". His interest in veterans was sparked, he said, by his father-in-law's disclosure that when he came home from service in Vietnam his immediate feeling was discouragement and isolation. He told Gioia that Iraq and Afghanistan veterans might feel the same now and that an organization appealing directly to them is as necessary as the one he should have had some 40 years ago. Gioia said he heard about a group in Los Angeles that seemed to be answering that need. He went to California to meet some of its members and found them to be recent military leaders with the aptitude to lead in civilian life. Such talent must exist among New Yorkers who, like those in Los Angeles, have served in Iraq and Afghanistan. Now, a group called New York City Vets has been formed to deal with their problems— and with 1,200 local military members serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, the problems are bound to be manifold.

When the luncheon attendees were free to ask questions, actor and political activist Dan Jacoby asked about Hunters Point South, the proposed residential project to be built where Newtown Creek meets the East River. Gioia has campaigned for affordable housing to be included in the HPS plan (which has since been approved by the city council). He said that the description of HPS as "middle class" in its appeal is questionable. "Everybody thinks they're middle class," he said, but lower middle or working class people are discovering the middle class of the statisticians is far beyond their earning level, and that's the case in this new project, he said. While many are thus shut out of new housing, they may be facing a crisis of affordability where they currently live, he pointed out, bringing up the fact that 1.9 million persons in the city receive Food Stamps. As a result, he said, "How many bells are on the front door, how many mattresses are in kitchens?" Having extra residents crammed into apartments only means, along with the Food Stamps figure, that New York is a city in trouble. "People feel strong [ly] about their neighborhoods and about the city, but they see a disconnect" between the city and them, he said. He is therefore on what he calls a door-to-door campaign for public advocate to reconnect city and citizenry.

Whyne, of Sunnyside Community Services, reported to the meeting that SCS's adult day services program for those with Alzheimer's and other cognitive ailments has lost its Department of Aging funding because of the radical cuts being made in the city's budget. That means the program's budget will be half of what it was—and that, he said, will probably kill it. He added that SCS no longer has a role in the program. Responsibility has been shifted to the Visiting Nurse Meals-on-Wheels Service, which is to dispense the frozen meals many have decried in recent months.

Among the news items was word that there is no lead in the paint on the Sunnyside Arch on Queens Boulevard at 46th Street, south side, so scraping and sanding can proceed on this muchdelayed refurbishment project. More assured of occurrence is the Christmas tree lighting ceremony at Sabba Triangle on Queens Boulevard near 50th Street: it takes place Monday, December 1 at about 7 p.m. The news that surprised several was the resignation of Glenn Yule as executive director of the Sunnyside Business Improvement District, or BID. Yule, who assumed the BID office after retiring from the police force in April, is reportedly becoming an executive in a security firm. He is succeeded by Alyssa Bonilla, Sunnyside resident and community activist, who was interviewed for the post at the same time as Yule.