Monday, June 30, 2003
Monday June 30, 2003 Unter den Linden... Well its finally hit, about two weeks late this year, but its finally arrived, the best time of the entire year to be outside in the Upper West Side of New York, when the Linden trees are in full bloom. The air is so laden with perfume in some areas it makes me swoon. The Linden are blooming all along Riverside Drive from West 72nd street to the George Washington Brige, Morning Side Drive, Central Park West, and all the adjacent streets. You can smell them along Broadway, and even on Amsterdam Avenue if the wind is right. Tonight the Linden odor was so strong I could smell iti n the Post Office at 103rd Street as i waited in line to get a Certificate of Mailing for my rent. At night I lay in my bedroom on 110th Street with the windows open, breathing the perfume laden air as it rises from the Linden trees by the Rite Aid at 110th and Broadway. A woman going down into the Number One Downtown subway today remarked to me, " What a nice smell, I smell it everywhere today, it must be some new kind of cleaner they are using on the subways" When I told her it was the trees she responded "What, in New York City?" During these weeks of Linden fever I escape whenever possible on the bicycle down the length of Riverside Drive and into the park at 95th street just breathing deeply. There's an area in Riverside Park near 79th Street just before the tunnel to the Boat Basin where there are two giant especially odiferous Linden Trees that overhang the path. The Linden season lasts about two weeks in total- usually starting around June 15 and over before June 30. It was so cold and wet this year that I thought we would miss it, because the trees had bloomed in the rain and the smell had all washed away. But this weekend it started full force. A few of the smaller trees started in Morningside park last week and are almost over, but the big trees are in full swing along Riverside.
Monday, June 23, 2003
Eviction of an old woman
J. is a feisty75 year old who is living on $639 monthly from Social Security and SSI. The rent is $930 a month. She is being evicted into the street tomorrow at 11:30 am, because she owes back rent- much of it from when she was hospitalized with shingles. She is currently blind in one eye and has skin cancer. The $639 a typical payment for woman who worked at various jobs at small businesses and never got into any retirement plan. She came to New York in the fifties from Pa. to pursue a career acting, temped at office jobs, married for a few years, had no children, divorced, and never remarried. When her Mother got old she found a good old folks home for her in Pa. But now that its her turn, there's no one left to help her out. When she moved into the VOA's Brandon Residence for Women at 340 West 85th Street in 1995 the rent was $500 a month for a 7X 10 foot room, with no telephone, and no AC. It was leveld off at 678 under a stipulation, but they claim that it should be $930 a month. There is a communal bath & WC on each floor shared by 30 women, and a communal kitchen on one floor for heating up tea water soup mix etc. The first floor of the building is pleasant with two large lounges- one with a stage, and the other for watching TV. There is a conceirge who gets all the mail and slops it into boxes. The New York Headquarters for the VOA is located on site, with offices on the second and third floors, and Richard Salyer, the President or chief minister ( yes the VOA is a religion- I found this out when I called the Secretary of State for their financials as a charity, and was unable to get them because the VOA is a religious corporation) lives and entertains in the penthouse on the top floor. In the basement is a cafeteria for the female residents where breakfast and dinner is served. The Cafeteria Workers are from one of the VOA's drug rehab programs and there is, or was, a drug rehab program on site for recent releasees. The VOA started a nonpayment case against J. in 1996-7. J.withheld rent because there were warranty of habitability problems in the residence-heavy mold in the bathrooms, electrical wires draped from the overhead fixtures and strung in the hallways, and broken doors. . After motion practice, we signed a stipuation in 1998 to get repairs, and giving J. a 3000 rent abatement. Another feature of the stipulation was that they could not bring a future holdover action against her. She got sick and defaulted on the repayment plan so 30 something Civil Court Judge Tammi Elsnor issued a warant, snapping at us from the bench that Joyce "should have saved money when she was young and made better plans for her future." We stopped the eviction by declaring Bankruptcy under Chapter 13. US Bankruptcy Judge Cornelious Blackshear was more accomodating, we kept the case alive for four years. When the Bankruptcy was finally dismissed for failure to pay the trustee during a bout of pnuemonia, January 2002, the case went back to Civil Court, and after more manurverings Civil COurt Judge Milin issued a judgement of eviction but stayed it 30 days to permit the respondent to "Move with Diginity" How does one move with diginity to the street, or Riverside park? I was getting ready to go on vacation, so we filed for bankruptcy again, this time under Chapter 7, with no repayment plan under a new theory. The VOA came roaring into court screaming that Joyce deserved to be evicted, that she was simply decalring bankruptcy in bad faith to stop an eviction, but US Bankruptcy Judge Gropper stopped them dead, stating that everyone stands equal under the law- if Enron and other large corporations can obtain relief under the shield of bankruptcy so can a 73 year old woman with no money and no place to go. This time I had new theory - under bankruptcy law, - specifically" the anti discrimination rule" no government entity can discriminate against a debtor for insolvency, or owing back rent. Therefore they may retain their possession of their apartments even after all the back rent is discharged under bankruptcy. The Government may not discriminate against them by evicting them because they owed back rent. The Second Circuit Court of Appeals recently upheld this theory in "In re Stolz" and I guess City housing praying that their tenants don't find out about this. Anyway, in our case my job was to prove that VOA is so entwined with the government that it is, or stands in the place, of a government entity. As you can see from their website, the VOA is the largest provider of Homeless services and services to the aged in the area. 95% of their funding is from Government contracts. The constitution of New York state provides a constitutional right to shelter - which in this town, the VOA overwhelmingly provides. So I reasoned, the VOA stands in the shoes of the Government in providing this service which the State Constitution mandates is a right . Unfortunately, because the Brandon is not a shelter- it is supportive housing, or as the VOA falsely claims "housing for professional women and students," we lost. ( My other case- with the two 80 year olds in a HPD TIL building won) So here we are, at the eleventh hour, once again looking for someplace to put Joyce. The Marshall just called, he's having Adult Protective services come, but he agrees with me that they are useless. I've called all the senior services, but they are full to the gills with homeless seniors. Basically Joyce can go to Peter's Place on 23rd street, and they will try and find a placement for her for the night. (The guys at our church shelter are usually bussed in by the City at 7:30 for the night at our mens' beds, and are bussed out at 5 am the following morning).I've been looking for months, and have found nothing in Manhattan. Most social workers tell me that unless the person is actively homeless, they can't find them a placement. Last resort- we are looking for a large space at Manhattan Ministorage on the West Side Highway. They allow access 24/7 and according to a NYT article last summer there are showers and toilets. I've visited the one downtown in the west village and there are large cubicles separated by cyclone fencing with an electric light. Years ago, I represented some guys at the Stanford, a flop house on the Bowery. They lived in cublicles separted by Chickenwire, with an overhead light. Now that the flops are gone, I guess we'll have to go into storage.
Then there's a possibility of a "facility" somewhere in the outer boroughs, usually between something like the Bruckner expressway, and the Hutchinson parkway, located two trains and three buses away from the old neighborhood and old friends. There's an 8 pm curfew, with a monthly trip by ambulette to the Rite Aide on White Plains Road for diversion. There's tapes of movies twice a week in the lounge, and yarn crafts, and a cafeteria for all your meals. You share a room, and are limited to a minimum of personal possessions cause you don't need them anymore. Your social security check is signed over to the facility, and they immediatly ask the government for more money- another 1500 - cause its impossible to keep you there for 639 monthly. I've visited people in such places and they are all desparate to get free....
J. is a feisty75 year old who is living on $639 monthly from Social Security and SSI. The rent is $930 a month. She is being evicted into the street tomorrow at 11:30 am, because she owes back rent- much of it from when she was hospitalized with shingles. She is currently blind in one eye and has skin cancer. The $639 a typical payment for woman who worked at various jobs at small businesses and never got into any retirement plan. She came to New York in the fifties from Pa. to pursue a career acting, temped at office jobs, married for a few years, had no children, divorced, and never remarried. When her Mother got old she found a good old folks home for her in Pa. But now that its her turn, there's no one left to help her out. When she moved into the VOA's Brandon Residence for Women at 340 West 85th Street in 1995 the rent was $500 a month for a 7X 10 foot room, with no telephone, and no AC. It was leveld off at 678 under a stipulation, but they claim that it should be $930 a month. There is a communal bath & WC on each floor shared by 30 women, and a communal kitchen on one floor for heating up tea water soup mix etc. The first floor of the building is pleasant with two large lounges- one with a stage, and the other for watching TV. There is a conceirge who gets all the mail and slops it into boxes. The New York Headquarters for the VOA is located on site, with offices on the second and third floors, and Richard Salyer, the President or chief minister ( yes the VOA is a religion- I found this out when I called the Secretary of State for their financials as a charity, and was unable to get them because the VOA is a religious corporation) lives and entertains in the penthouse on the top floor. In the basement is a cafeteria for the female residents where breakfast and dinner is served. The Cafeteria Workers are from one of the VOA's drug rehab programs and there is, or was, a drug rehab program on site for recent releasees. The VOA started a nonpayment case against J. in 1996-7. J.withheld rent because there were warranty of habitability problems in the residence-heavy mold in the bathrooms, electrical wires draped from the overhead fixtures and strung in the hallways, and broken doors. . After motion practice, we signed a stipuation in 1998 to get repairs, and giving J. a 3000 rent abatement. Another feature of the stipulation was that they could not bring a future holdover action against her. She got sick and defaulted on the repayment plan so 30 something Civil Court Judge Tammi Elsnor issued a warant, snapping at us from the bench that Joyce "should have saved money when she was young and made better plans for her future." We stopped the eviction by declaring Bankruptcy under Chapter 13. US Bankruptcy Judge Cornelious Blackshear was more accomodating, we kept the case alive for four years. When the Bankruptcy was finally dismissed for failure to pay the trustee during a bout of pnuemonia, January 2002, the case went back to Civil Court, and after more manurverings Civil COurt Judge Milin issued a judgement of eviction but stayed it 30 days to permit the respondent to "Move with Diginity" How does one move with diginity to the street, or Riverside park? I was getting ready to go on vacation, so we filed for bankruptcy again, this time under Chapter 7, with no repayment plan under a new theory. The VOA came roaring into court screaming that Joyce deserved to be evicted, that she was simply decalring bankruptcy in bad faith to stop an eviction, but US Bankruptcy Judge Gropper stopped them dead, stating that everyone stands equal under the law- if Enron and other large corporations can obtain relief under the shield of bankruptcy so can a 73 year old woman with no money and no place to go. This time I had new theory - under bankruptcy law, - specifically" the anti discrimination rule" no government entity can discriminate against a debtor for insolvency, or owing back rent. Therefore they may retain their possession of their apartments even after all the back rent is discharged under bankruptcy. The Government may not discriminate against them by evicting them because they owed back rent. The Second Circuit Court of Appeals recently upheld this theory in "In re Stolz" and I guess City housing praying that their tenants don't find out about this. Anyway, in our case my job was to prove that VOA is so entwined with the government that it is, or stands in the place, of a government entity. As you can see from their website, the VOA is the largest provider of Homeless services and services to the aged in the area. 95% of their funding is from Government contracts. The constitution of New York state provides a constitutional right to shelter - which in this town, the VOA overwhelmingly provides. So I reasoned, the VOA stands in the shoes of the Government in providing this service which the State Constitution mandates is a right . Unfortunately, because the Brandon is not a shelter- it is supportive housing, or as the VOA falsely claims "housing for professional women and students," we lost. ( My other case- with the two 80 year olds in a HPD TIL building won) So here we are, at the eleventh hour, once again looking for someplace to put Joyce. The Marshall just called, he's having Adult Protective services come, but he agrees with me that they are useless. I've called all the senior services, but they are full to the gills with homeless seniors. Basically Joyce can go to Peter's Place on 23rd street, and they will try and find a placement for her for the night. (The guys at our church shelter are usually bussed in by the City at 7:30 for the night at our mens' beds, and are bussed out at 5 am the following morning).I've been looking for months, and have found nothing in Manhattan. Most social workers tell me that unless the person is actively homeless, they can't find them a placement. Last resort- we are looking for a large space at Manhattan Ministorage on the West Side Highway. They allow access 24/7 and according to a NYT article last summer there are showers and toilets. I've visited the one downtown in the west village and there are large cubicles separated by cyclone fencing with an electric light. Years ago, I represented some guys at the Stanford, a flop house on the Bowery. They lived in cublicles separted by Chickenwire, with an overhead light. Now that the flops are gone, I guess we'll have to go into storage.
Then there's a possibility of a "facility" somewhere in the outer boroughs, usually between something like the Bruckner expressway, and the Hutchinson parkway, located two trains and three buses away from the old neighborhood and old friends. There's an 8 pm curfew, with a monthly trip by ambulette to the Rite Aide on White Plains Road for diversion. There's tapes of movies twice a week in the lounge, and yarn crafts, and a cafeteria for all your meals. You share a room, and are limited to a minimum of personal possessions cause you don't need them anymore. Your social security check is signed over to the facility, and they immediatly ask the government for more money- another 1500 - cause its impossible to keep you there for 639 monthly. I've visited people in such places and they are all desparate to get free....
Saturday, June 21, 2003
First Day of Summer... Today started very gray, I overslept because there was no light outside, on today, the longest day of the year. Even the birds ( yes we have birds that chirp in the morning in Manhattan) seemed subdued in the mist and gray. I lay in the living room lethargically reading an alarming story about the Shrub administration's reaction to global warming in yesterday's Times and drinking coffee until my friend Judy from the Garden called to see what's up with the Garden Compost, and do I have plans for today etc. About a half hour later, after we both dragged ourselves to the garden for the first day of summer, it started raining lightly, so we decided to erect one of our little tentlets over the compost area so we could work in comfort, protected from the rain, and later, if the sun ever comes out, we could work in the shade.
The tentlets were our brainstorm to protect us from the rain at our annual Garden benefit party this past Wednesday. They looked festive and I hung lights on the musician's tent. Alec Baldwin, the actor, attended and presented one of our environmental awards - a framed picture of the garden to ABC TV for their support of environmental projects in NYC. Pictures of the garden are posted at www.westsidecommunitygarden.org.
The tentlets are 10 foot square shelters made out of aluminum poles that hold up a roof made out of some type of translucent plastic cloth. Judy and I found them last Saturday while we were on our annual quest to find the cheapest decent paper plates for the benefit. We found cheap plates and better yet we found the tentlets for $19.97 at National Wholesale Liquidators out on Route 17 in New Jersey.
Anyway, the compost area is exactly ten foot square, with a concrete brick wall behind the bins on the west side, and our tool shed bordering the east side of the compost area work yard. Overhead on the south side of the area is our giant fig tree -[ which made it safely through the winter, thank you very much] and on the north side, where the neighborhood guys hang out on the sidewalk drinking beer and malt liquor, is the compost gate to the garden. The three wooden bins themselves are about three and a half foot square and four foot high, with removable wooden slats on the front and interior walls, and are set flush against the concrete wall.
People come from the neighborhood and deposit their coffee grounds, tea leaves, vegetable parings and rotten fruit through the compost gate onto the end bin. One man keeps his stuff in the freezer and bicycles over from the East Side with bags of frozen spoiled fruit and vegetable waste. There's a stable on 89th Street, so we scrape up horse offerings left on 90th Street on their way to the Central park Bridal path. Although Judy will reluctantly carry the pail for me while I collect the offerings, only a Presbyterian will actually scrape the stuff up off the street in broad daylight.
Today, although the compost pile was hot underneath, it was smelling rank because it had rained during the night and it's way too wet. The remarkable thing about a good balanced compost pile is that if its kept turned and has a goodly population of red worms, it has a fresh almost piney smell, despite all the horse manure.
So these two women of a certain age - let us say well over 50- dragged one of the disassembled tentlets from the shed to put up in the lightly sprinkling of rain. Because of the presence of the compost bins, all assembly had to be done above the bins, sort of in midair, with Judy holding the assembled pieces flat while I formed the aluminum rod roof assembly.
The first problem was assembling the slippery wet aluminum rods. They are numbered with tiny numbers that can't be seen by middle aged eyes without glasses to clue you in as to where each rod fits. The # 7 roof rods have little wire loop tabs that must be depressed firmly with a (wet) thumb while the rod slides into a rigid plastic corner of the roof square.
After the wire things slide into the plastic joint, they pop up through a slot to strengthen the corner joint. Unfortunately, the wire tabs are made for heavy strong men's hands to depress, and we struggled away for about a twenty minutes in the intensifying rain to get the rods properly seated in the plastic corner joints. The rain intensified then, and we stood in the tool shed for a few minutes while it poured, nursing our smarting thumbs while Judy prayed loudly to the God of Complaining.
When it let up a little, the "dimples and bumps " problem emerged when I charged out to work on the center roof rods and side rods which connect the corner joints together.
The dimples and bumps problem is based on the premise that in cheap tentlets, each connecting aluminum rod has a dimple which corresponds to its corresponding rod's bump. The dimples and bumps must be mated exactly to slide together, and then you must turn the rods smartly to lock them. Naturally, there are two ways to turn the rods smartly, and if you lock them in the wrong direction, it's impossible to proceed to the next step of assembling the tentlet.
As the rain intensified again Judy stood in the downpour holding the partially assembled rods in midair while I tried to locate the dimples and bumps and clicking them together one way, then another, until the roof assembly was "complete."
Soaking wet by now, we took the balled up plastic cloth roof and stood under it while we spread it onto the roof rod assembly. As soon as the roof cloth was partially stretched over the rods, they began popping apart again, and the dimples and bumps had to be lined up again and turned smartly again, this time under the plastic cloth, until the roof assembly was squared off over our heads while we held it flat, so we could fit the tentlet to the corners.
Wholly disheartened by now, I put the top legs into the corner elbow, hoping that they would lend some structural integrity to the assembly, and also hoping that the legs would not slip out and fall between the compost bins and the concrete wall. [ did I mention that the bins are bolted to the wall?]
Against all reason, this worked after a fashion. Although the dimples and bumps kept popping apart, we finally got them to hold together by looping the tentlet's interior Velcro tabs tightly onto the aluminum rods. But, while this operation was underway, rain collected in the slack pockets of the roof where the dimples and bumps were coming apart and dumping down on us when we Velcroed the tentlet to the rods. After more trial and error, we put both top and bottom leg sections on each corner and pulled the tentlet down over each corner, stretching the tentlet tails down each leg and fastening them to a hook at the bottom of each pole to form a tight structural unit. Of course we couldn't open the tool shed door, but a couple of blue slates and Belgian blocks dragged over to prop up the legs of the tentlet by the tool shed raised it enough to provide clearance for the door. Yes, it's lopsided, but we will be able to turn the compost in comfort in the only tented compost bins in New York City.
The tentlets were our brainstorm to protect us from the rain at our annual Garden benefit party this past Wednesday. They looked festive and I hung lights on the musician's tent. Alec Baldwin, the actor, attended and presented one of our environmental awards - a framed picture of the garden to ABC TV for their support of environmental projects in NYC. Pictures of the garden are posted at www.westsidecommunitygarden.org.
The tentlets are 10 foot square shelters made out of aluminum poles that hold up a roof made out of some type of translucent plastic cloth. Judy and I found them last Saturday while we were on our annual quest to find the cheapest decent paper plates for the benefit. We found cheap plates and better yet we found the tentlets for $19.97 at National Wholesale Liquidators out on Route 17 in New Jersey.
Anyway, the compost area is exactly ten foot square, with a concrete brick wall behind the bins on the west side, and our tool shed bordering the east side of the compost area work yard. Overhead on the south side of the area is our giant fig tree -[ which made it safely through the winter, thank you very much] and on the north side, where the neighborhood guys hang out on the sidewalk drinking beer and malt liquor, is the compost gate to the garden. The three wooden bins themselves are about three and a half foot square and four foot high, with removable wooden slats on the front and interior walls, and are set flush against the concrete wall.
People come from the neighborhood and deposit their coffee grounds, tea leaves, vegetable parings and rotten fruit through the compost gate onto the end bin. One man keeps his stuff in the freezer and bicycles over from the East Side with bags of frozen spoiled fruit and vegetable waste. There's a stable on 89th Street, so we scrape up horse offerings left on 90th Street on their way to the Central park Bridal path. Although Judy will reluctantly carry the pail for me while I collect the offerings, only a Presbyterian will actually scrape the stuff up off the street in broad daylight.
Today, although the compost pile was hot underneath, it was smelling rank because it had rained during the night and it's way too wet. The remarkable thing about a good balanced compost pile is that if its kept turned and has a goodly population of red worms, it has a fresh almost piney smell, despite all the horse manure.
So these two women of a certain age - let us say well over 50- dragged one of the disassembled tentlets from the shed to put up in the lightly sprinkling of rain. Because of the presence of the compost bins, all assembly had to be done above the bins, sort of in midair, with Judy holding the assembled pieces flat while I formed the aluminum rod roof assembly.
The first problem was assembling the slippery wet aluminum rods. They are numbered with tiny numbers that can't be seen by middle aged eyes without glasses to clue you in as to where each rod fits. The # 7 roof rods have little wire loop tabs that must be depressed firmly with a (wet) thumb while the rod slides into a rigid plastic corner of the roof square.
After the wire things slide into the plastic joint, they pop up through a slot to strengthen the corner joint. Unfortunately, the wire tabs are made for heavy strong men's hands to depress, and we struggled away for about a twenty minutes in the intensifying rain to get the rods properly seated in the plastic corner joints. The rain intensified then, and we stood in the tool shed for a few minutes while it poured, nursing our smarting thumbs while Judy prayed loudly to the God of Complaining.
When it let up a little, the "dimples and bumps " problem emerged when I charged out to work on the center roof rods and side rods which connect the corner joints together.
The dimples and bumps problem is based on the premise that in cheap tentlets, each connecting aluminum rod has a dimple which corresponds to its corresponding rod's bump. The dimples and bumps must be mated exactly to slide together, and then you must turn the rods smartly to lock them. Naturally, there are two ways to turn the rods smartly, and if you lock them in the wrong direction, it's impossible to proceed to the next step of assembling the tentlet.
As the rain intensified again Judy stood in the downpour holding the partially assembled rods in midair while I tried to locate the dimples and bumps and clicking them together one way, then another, until the roof assembly was "complete."
Soaking wet by now, we took the balled up plastic cloth roof and stood under it while we spread it onto the roof rod assembly. As soon as the roof cloth was partially stretched over the rods, they began popping apart again, and the dimples and bumps had to be lined up again and turned smartly again, this time under the plastic cloth, until the roof assembly was squared off over our heads while we held it flat, so we could fit the tentlet to the corners.
Wholly disheartened by now, I put the top legs into the corner elbow, hoping that they would lend some structural integrity to the assembly, and also hoping that the legs would not slip out and fall between the compost bins and the concrete wall. [ did I mention that the bins are bolted to the wall?]
Against all reason, this worked after a fashion. Although the dimples and bumps kept popping apart, we finally got them to hold together by looping the tentlet's interior Velcro tabs tightly onto the aluminum rods. But, while this operation was underway, rain collected in the slack pockets of the roof where the dimples and bumps were coming apart and dumping down on us when we Velcroed the tentlet to the rods. After more trial and error, we put both top and bottom leg sections on each corner and pulled the tentlet down over each corner, stretching the tentlet tails down each leg and fastening them to a hook at the bottom of each pole to form a tight structural unit. Of course we couldn't open the tool shed door, but a couple of blue slates and Belgian blocks dragged over to prop up the legs of the tentlet by the tool shed raised it enough to provide clearance for the door. Yes, it's lopsided, but we will be able to turn the compost in comfort in the only tented compost bins in New York City.
Friday, June 20, 2003
Turning the Compost - Well here it is another rainy weekend in NYC. I'm sitting here contemplating going to our garden on West 89th Street to transplant Farinacious Salvia into the shady east side of the Garden before the hot weather hits next week, and turning the Compost, which is wet as hell at this point, but cooking away nicely. Our red worms which used to live in the compost and help me turn it died in the protracted cold winter, so I've got to go down to 14th streeet market and see if Christina Datz from the Lower East Side Environmental Action Center is still around selling them. I like to turn compost. Its the perfect ruminative activity for turning over legal problems that come my way. First I do a lot of research, then I turn the compost. Right now I have a 75 year old client in fairly good health who is penniless and is going to be evicted on the street, unless I can come up with a new angle. Its an old case- five years, and we've been through Civil Court NYCounty with several stays, twice to Bankruptcy Court, and on to US District Court with a unique procedural argument I came up with a couple of years ago whilst turning compost, but now it looks like the end is nigh. Don't feel sorry for the landlord- the landlord is a well known very well funded charitable organization which prides itself for helping people- just not my client. She doesn't want to move into a "facility" and none of the agencies i have contacted have any rooms. So it's back to the Compost and then to court again.
The Hallelujah Man... I was riding my bike up Broadway this afternoon and I saw him again, the Hallelujah Man. He' been a fixture on the upper west side since i moved here in the 70's. Today he was at 97th street handing out trachts and saying God ,God, God, God, God Loves you, God Loves You, God, God, God, to everyone who passed. Usually he just stands on a corner and shouts Halleujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah. He's toned down the volume some from the old days, after some people hasseled him up at 106th street. The Hallelujah man is about 70 now, a slight light skinned black gentleman, always impeccably dressed and wearing a fedora. Today he was dressed in a sharply pressed gray suit, and carried a raincoat. By his accent I would say he's Haitian, one of the remnants of the Haitian community which used to dominate the streets east of Broadway between 97th street and 106th street. His appearences have decreased some since the late 90's perhaps due to age and increasing frailty. I don't mind his shouting, in fact there is something rather reassuring about it now after all these years. Sitting on the couch reading on a rainy night, I'll hear him in the distance shouting Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah over and over again and I'm comforted.
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