James Hillhouse High School was one of 43 sites around New Haven that offered breakfast and lunch to kids this summer. Photo: Brian Dowling

Reported on July 10, 2010

NEW HAVEN, Conn. – When the school year ended for the city’s public school students, so did regular meal assistance through the national lunch program that provides breakfast and lunch at school to students of low-income families.

As part of a summertime extension of this program, sites around the city opened to provide free breakfast and lunches July 6 to kids who live in areas with a high enrollment in the lunch assistance program.

“Today is cereal for breakfast,” said Betty Forbes, Hillhouse High School’s summer cook, as she walked toward the breakfast and lunch calendars posted on the cafeteria wall, “and turkey, ham and cheese sandwiches with salad and fruit for lunch.” She served breakfast and lunch five days a week as part of the Summer Food Service Program, a federally funded effort started in 1968 to provide summer meals to kids who get free and reduced-price lunches during the school year.

A report, however, showed that the summer nutrition program struggled to provide food to those who needed it last year, and in response, New Haven launched an advertising campaign to increase participation. Advocates think that the number of people participating is low because many people do not know about the program and schools have had to meet a high percentage of school-year participation to open during the summer.

About 509 of Hillhouse High’s 979 students qualified for the free and reduced-price lunch program, but according to Forbes, only 160 made it to the cafeteria on Wednesday. She expected numbers to rise as the weeks pass and more people hear about the program. The majority of kids who ate at Hillhouse were at the school during the day as part of summer classes or other youth programs, and very few are walk-ins, she said.

“If you can’t afford to send your kids to class, at least let them come over and eat,” said Forbes about the few walk-ins. In New Haven, 36 sites were open to children under 18, like Hillhouse, while seven were closed to children enrolled in a summer program at that site.

Participation statewide, though higher than the national average, is still low. Last summer, less than 26 percent of Connecticut kids who participated in the national meal program during the school year continued with the meals during the summer, according to a report by the Food Research and Action Center, a nonprofit based in Washington, D.C.

New Haven hopes to increase the program’s visibility with billboards, public service announcements and websites, as well as working with community groups, said Timothy Cipriano, executive director of food services for New Haven public schools. “A lot more could be done, but we lack the financial resources to do more,” Cipriano said. “Ideally we would have banners at every site advertising free meals, more billboards, utilize buses for their ad space.”

A lack of awareness, however, isn’t the only problem, according to Dawn Crayco, child nutrition and policy director of End Hunger Connecticut!, an anti-hunger advocacy group in Hartford, Conn. The other difficulty to increasing participation is making sure sites are available where they are needed. Some areas, Crayco explained, have schools with 30 or 40 percent participation in the school meals program, but because they don’t meet the 50 percent minimum, these schools cannot participate in the summer food program.

Congress is in the process of reauthorizing the program. With the reauthorization, school nutrition advocates hope to see the minimum participation level lowered from 50 percent to 40 percent, which is closer to the pre-1981 minimum of 33 percent.

More stories by Brian

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Related article: Community farm launches in Newark’s Lincoln Park

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The Citywide Congested Corridors Project will make Beverly Road narrower with a wider sidewalk, according to the New York City Department of Transportation. Photo: Yeong Lim

Reported on July 30

Whether you are a driver or pedestrian in Kensington, commuting on Church Avenue could become easier and safer as the street gets repaired and upgraded this summer, according to the New York City Department of Transportation.

The Citywide Congested Corridors Project initiated by the department began its construction on Church Avenue in June. The construction will improve safety and mobility for pedestrians, cyclists, transit users and motorists in the neighborhood, according to Gregory Haas, the project’s coordinator.

The construction on Church Avenue goes from McDonald Avenue to Utica Avenue, a 2.7-mile corridor. Of that corridor, approximately 0.54 miles, or 20 percent, of the construction will take place in Kensington. According to the agency’s website, the Church Avenue improvement in Kensington focuses mainly on installing signs, widening the sidewalks, and building two additional bus shelters. The project will make Beverly Road narrower with a wider sidewalk, and improve traffic signal timing.

The Citywide Congested Corridors Project is a construction project funded by the Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement Program or the CMAQ, which provides more than $8.6 billion in federal funds to state transportation agencies and urban planning groups. The CMAQ program, established in 1991, provides funds to invest in projects that improve air quality and reduce congestion, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation Federal Highway Administration.

“Church Avenue is one of 14 busy roadways across five boroughs being studied and upgraded right now,” said Haas.

According to Haas, the first five roadway projects began in February 2008. The project areas included Church Avenue in Brooklyn, Amboy Road in Staten Island, White Plains Road in the Bronx, Woodhaven Boulevard in Queens, and West 181 Street in Manhattan.

The constructions around the McDonald Avenue area began in June, according to Haas.

But, residents are more concerned about the potential safety implications than they are about the funding or timeframe of the project. “I hope it stops all the accidents around here,” said Veronica Valentine, 37, a Kensington resident. “It’s a mess here.”

According to the New York City Department of Transportation 2009 crash report, there were eight crashes at the intersection of Church Avenue and McDonald Avenue prior to the construction; seven of these were pedestrian crashes. The Church Avenue roadway between McDonald Avenue and Ocean Parkway had 12 crashes, with seven as pedestrian accidents.

According to Councilman Brad Lander’s office, there were more than a dozen traffic complaints earlier this year. The intersection at Ocean Parkway and Church Avenue had many of the problems with 22 crashes last year. Of those, four involved pedestrians.

Construction at that intersection is scheduled to begin in August. The plans include raising the height of the pedestrian refuge island and median extension, installing new pedestrian signals, pavement markings, and upgrading “No Turns” and “Yield to Pedestrian” signs.  The construction project will also repaint the stripes on the crosswalks, stop bars and other pavement markings.

According to the study done by the Congested Corridors Project Team, islands and upgraded signs are expected to reduce the number of crashes. The anticipated traffic delay reduction by 2017 on Church Avenue corridor from McDonald Avenue to Utica Avenue will average at 187.5 seconds during the morning peak hours, and 140 seconds during the evening peak hours, the study said. Speed improvement is expected to increase traveling time at approximately 1.25 mph during the morning peak hours, and 0.8 mph increase during the evening peak hours.

Construction is expected last until December 2010.

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A public trash container at the corner of Wadsworth Avenue and 181st Street in Washington Heights. Photo: Stephen Steim

It happens every summer in Washington Heights: residents notice public trash containers mysteriously go missing from streets and parks.

While theories vary about where the containers are going, what is certain is that the missing containers put added stress on a system of public waste collection that residents say is already overburdened by illegal dumping. Combined with a lingering July heat wave that has temperatures consistently in the mid-90s, Washington Heights has a potentially pungent quality of life issue on its hands.

At a June 23 meeting of the 33rd Precinct Police Department’s Community Council, residents complained about the rise of stolen trash containers. Ignazio Terranova, a Department of Sanitation public affairs officer, said his department’s small staff makes it difficult to enforce container theft.

“I have 74 sanitation officers for the entire city,” said Terranova. He said residents should call 311 if they notice missing containers.

Despite the complaints, spokesman Matthew LiPani said the department is unaware of any missing trash containers in Washington Heights. LiPani wrote in a July 22 email: “If one was to be stolen, we would immediately replace it.”

Michael Mowatt-Wynn, 54, is president of the 33rd Precinct Community Council and lives on Riverside Drive near the entrance to Fort Washington Park at 158th Street. He notices trash containers often go missing.

“We have a continuous stream of people since it’s the main entrance to the park,” said Mowatt-Wynn. “I see from time to time the cans are gone. As soon as they get emptied, people take them.”

And why steal a trash container?

“They take them down to the river, put a grate on top of it, and it’s an impromptu barbecue,” said Mowatt-Wynn. The New York City Department of Parks and Recreation did not return calls seeking comment about missing trash containers in parks.

Some local businesses are especially frustrated by trash that piles up in front of their stores, and point to street vendors as the source.

M. Rana, 40, manages the Jimmy Jazz clothing store on West 181st Street in Washington Heights. The block is packed tightly with street vendors who he says dispose their trash in the container in front of his store. According to the sanitation department’s rules and regulations, it is illegal to dump any “trade or household waste” in public trash containers.

“Trash piles up every day,” said Rana. “The people who sell on the street make a mess. They throw away fruit and vegetables, so it stinks.”

Rana has seen as many as nine trash bags piled around the lone trash container at the corner of 181st Street and Wadsworth Avenue. He says that while the city’s sanitation workers do an excellent job of disposing of trash at scheduled times, they simply cannot keep up with the extra trash created by vendors.

The vendors tell a different story. Juan Pena, 37, runs a fruit stand a quarter block from Rana’s store. Pena says he leaves the sidewalk and street spotless at the end of each day.

“Garbage goes back with us in the van,” said Pena. “The ticket for leaving trash is $500 and the police check to see if you do.” Pena says he has never received a complaint from the storefront businesses on the block.

Community members say their neighbors are also adding to the problem. Randy Rodriguez, 33, says people throw out their home trash in public containers every day.

“The trash cans are overflowing every morning,” said Rodriguez.

Watch the slideshow.

Lincoln Park community farm launch attendees enjoy farm-grown produce and live music at the farm on July 14, 2010, in Newark, N.J. Produce is grown on the half-acre brown field using hydroponic and raised-bed farming techniques. Photo: Andaiye Taylor

NEWARK, N.J. – Robert Wisniewski stood under the shed he’d built on top of a half-acre brown field, across the street from historic Newark Symphony Hall.

“How was that okra?” he called out to a man working in an adjacent lot.

“Good, good,” the man shouted in reply, before turning back to his work.

The okra had come from the new community farm that is now sprouting from the field. Wisniewski, sustainability director for Newark’s Lincoln Park Coast Cultural District, was busy shuffling containers and deciding what to do with brown paper bags full of unclaimed tomatoes that Thursday afternoon. The leftover produce symbolized one of the major challenges facing the farm.

In the weeks since its launch, the farm’s managers are looking to overcome key tests whose outcomes will determine whether it will be a long-term fixture in Newark’s Lincoln Park neighborhood.  According to Wisniewski, Lincoln Park is a produce desert with no fresh vegetables available within a mile of the farm.

The nonprofit cultural district sees its role as facilitating the housing, educational, cultural and now, the nutritional needs of the Newark residents it serves. To that end, the organization has added the farm to a list of other projects it has launched in the community: its annual, three-day Lincoln Park Music Festival; new mixed-income sustainable housing that will include 32 units; and the planned Museum of African American Music.

The farm sits atop unusable soil, behind the facade of what was once the South Park Presbyterian Church. The crops grow where the building once stood, and the soil’s toxicity stems from pollution from fuel tanks that once powered the building.

To grow crops in the space, farmer Brian Barry brings in outside soil, and also uses a technique called hydroponics, which enables him to grow the produce in a nutrient-rich solution instead of directly in the plot’s native soil.

Weekly shares cost $20, and earn customers a basket of assorted produce, including collards, tomatoes, okra, and assorted herbs and lettuces. When shareholders pick up their food on Wednesday evenings, they also receive preparation tips and instructions on how to properly store and maintain the produce.

While Barry and Wisniewski man the farm during pickup hours, they also employ two seniors, both paid by the Urban League’s Mature Worker program, to tend it up to four hours per day, usually in the mornings.

The worker program, along with a startup grant, were both pivotal funding sources for getting the farm off the ground, but Wisniewski seeks to rely mostly on revenue to sustain farm operations.  For that reason, the gap between interest in farm shares and actual sales reveals both the farm’s potential, and the highest hurdle it must clear. The farm can currently feed 20 to 25 families per week, according to Barry, and about 25 people have signed up. However, to make the produce affordable, the district decided not to require consumers to pay upfront for all of their shares for the season. According to Wisniewski, only about eight to 10 people actually show up to retrieve their shares weekly.

The price of the produce is also not affordable for many in an area where nearly half of all families live below the poverty level, according to 2000 census data. The district’s recent mixed-income housing initiatives bring potential customers who are more likely to be able to afford the shares than the average Lincoln Park resident.

Jan Zientek, senior program coordinator at the Rutgers New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station, agreed that building a sustainable business model for the farm will not be easy. “The economics of the project are hard to figure,” he said during a telephone interview.  Still, Zientek is skeptical of the long-term prospects for grant-supported farms, and thinks the share-supported model that the Lincoln Park cultural district is trying to build has greater promise for long-term sustainability, despite the startup hurdles they face.

Zientek visited the farm recently, and said he thinks it has a shot. He noted common problems such as blossom end rot on some of the tomatoes, and cabbage that had been nibbled on by moths. But the issues affected only a portion of the produce, and the remedies were simple: lighter-colored boxes for produce to preserve moisture, and cloths over the cabbage to deter the moths.

Wisniewski is clear-eyed about the challenge of building a consistent customer base, and has been considering additional revenue for the farm, including distribution to local restaurants. Back under the shed, perhaps trying to figure the economics of accounting for absentee shareholders, he mulled what to do with his orphaned tomatoes. He decided to try pitching the produce to Allure, a bar and lounge across the street.

The establishment’s chef, William “Staff” Powell, recalled the visit the following week.   “They have nice produce,” he said. “The quality is good.”

He mentioned that while it is impractical for him to buy anything but bulk for restaurant cooking, he would consider creating specialty dishes made with the locally grown vegetables.  “That type of thing might appeal to customers,” he explained. “Everyone is going green.”

During a recent Wednesday pickup, Vashti White, who owns a trio of health and wellness-related businesses in nearby Montclair, claimed her first share.

“I thought it was great,” she said of the vegetables two days later. “The food was fresh and flavorful.”

While she plans to sample other growers’ produce, White said she is leaning toward partnering with the LPCCD farm for her restaurant, Raw N Simple. “I really like the fact that this is a local effort,” she said. “For that alone, and the freshness of the food, I would lean toward buying there.”

The farm’s managers must contend with other issues endemic to urban farms, including insects and rodents, possible theft or vandalism, and limited space. Wisniewski explained that the cultural district wants to use the farm as a living laboratory to devise solutions to some of these issues. While urban farming is not a new practice, the cultural district is aiming to grow 100 percent of its produce onsite to ensure complete local sustainability.

Kelli Koontz, a writer and drug counselor who lives one block from the farm, bought her first share a couple of weeks after attending the farm’s launch party.  “I see it as an investment in this community,” said Koontz in her kitchen, as she cut a tomato that came with her share. “I see the garden as a catalyst for the beginning of change.”

The 45-year-old mother of two said she thinks buying produce from the farm will change her family’s eating habits.  “I’m really looking forward to investing time in preparing things a little bit differently,” she said, noting that the farm would help her family eat healthier.

Koontz also looks forward to involving her 11-year-old son in the process, turning the food pickup and preparation into a family project.

The farm fits into the cultural district’s broader plan for Lincoln Park. The district sees the neighborhood as an artists’ hub. In addition to figuring out operational details, its planners also want to achieve syncretism between the neighborhood’s artiness and the farm’s layout.  When farm operations resume next year after a winter hiatus, Wisniewski envisions creating an “art farm park” that is both a working farm and an artist space fit for performances and exhibits, in line with the broader Lincoln Park arts milieu.

Additionally, the cultural district is considering redesigning the farm to make a statement about what it means for the urban and the agrarian to exist side-by-side. Wisniewski said the design theme would be the “built environment that grows,” and would feature “cool structures made of natural materials,” that illustrate how urban residents can sustain themselves without having to forgo the benefits of urban living.

While honing the produce growing process, the district is looking to shore up the community aspect of the farm next year by considering programming such as cooking classes and workshops on how to grow food.  In fact, the community outreach might be the key to boosting the farm’s shareholder revenue. Three weeks after she’d initially purchased her share, Koontz said she was happy with the produce, which her family used up in a week and a half.

But would she consider prepaying for shares for the entire season?

“Not at this juncture,” Koontz said.  While she would invest in a prepaid share if more of her neighbors did it, she said she didn’t want to be out on a limb as one of only a few seasonal shareholders because, “I guess I don’t have enough faith that it’s going to sustain just yet.”  If more people invested, though, she said she would “definitely” invest in shares.

Koontz, who likes the change that the farm brings to the community, and hopes it will last, thinks more consistent communication, including regular newsletters and programming, between LPCCD and Lincoln Park community members would increase engagement with the farm.

View the slideshow

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Across the street from his house, Mike D’Arcy chats with his neighbors, founding members of the Kingston Uptown Residents Alliance. From right to left: Michael D’Arcy, Doris Soldner, Eric Winchell, Jerry Soldner. Photo: Celia Seupel

Michael D’Arcy is making sausage and onions tonight.  Scarlett, his sprightly 9-year-old who likes to run barefoot, shouts from the living room and demands help.  D’Arcy covers the skillet, folds his arms across his compact body, tattoo peeping out of a sleeve, and peers at Scarlett’s computer screen.  On the other side of the narrow living room, Tristan, 7, broods over the computer game.

Garrulous ex-marine, former chef, gardener of backyard herbs and stay-at-home dad, 37-year-old D’Arcy is an unlikely crusader for public safety.  He was never involved in a civic association or local politics.  He wasn’t even in student government at Rondout Valley High School, but when Kingston’s violent crime entered D’Arcy’s back yard on Feb. 20, 2010, an activist was born.

It was Friday evening, sometime between 9:30 and 10:00 p.m. D’Arcy and his wife, Claudia, had just turned out the lights when they heard sobbing.  As the sobbing grew louder, Claudia crawled out of bed and peered out the window. She saw their friend, Gretta Scoe, disappear into her small house at the back of their neighboring yards.

Minutes later, as the D’Arcys lay wondering, sirens wailed down the street. The couple threw on clothes and ran next door.

“The EMTs were already treating her,” Claudia recalls. “She ended up with a big egg on her head and two huge black eyes. She had to have stitches between her eyes.”  The D’Arcys learned that Scoe had been attacked from behind as she walked home only half a block away on the corner of Wall and St. James streets. As Scoe struggled, she was thrown to the ground, landing on her face. The assailant got her purse: $20 and a debit card.

“My wife walks past that corner every day. Every morning, every afternoon,” says D’Arcy.  “I couldn’t sleep.”  Online all night, D’Arcy searched for resources—neighborhood associations, civilian patrols, some way to make sure an attack like that didn’t happen again.  He found nothing for Kingston, so he made his own. By 8 a.m., D’Arcy says, the flyers were ready.

Claudia puts it more like noon. “He woke me up around five in the morning and said he was going to start a neighborhood watch. That afternoon, we were handing out flyers.  By Saturday night, the logo was designed.” The D’Arcys’ neighborhood blog was transformed into the official Kingston Neighborhood Watch site. “We had our first meeting on Sunday.” Claudia laughs. “It’s been a wild ride ever since.”

Claudia D’Arcy’s profession, Internet search and social marketing, has been instrumental. “Within six weeks, we had over 1,000 hits on our Facebook site,” says Claudia.

The Kingston Neighborhood Watch holds pot-luck meetings and encourages residents to meet their neighbors and neighborhood children, to watch out for each other and to report suspicious or criminal activity. It also organizes neighborhood walks to raise awareness.  Members don bright yellow shirts and, armed with flashlights and whistles, walk as a group through streets that have known violence, talking to residents.

Still, after almost six months in action, D’Arcy finds his membership numbers disappointing. “Only 166 members in a city of 23,000,” says D’Arcy. “Why?”

Whatever the reason, it is not for a lack of crime.  The Kingston Crime Reports map shows a total of 145 crimes reported in the city of Kingston during the month of July 2010, including breaking and entering, violent robbery, assault, and property crimes. Almost every month, police reports show, there are reports of shots fired.

According to Kingston Police Chief Gerald M. Keller, a 38-year veteran of the department, crime is better in Kingston than in similar nearby cities such as Poughkeepsie and Middletown and a lot better than it was in the early ’90s. “It was a hot time,” says Keller, “a very bad situation in midtown and Broadway East.” Broadway East was a housing project notorious for drugs and shootings. The complex was eventually cleaned up in the late ’90s after new management hired private security and evicted about 50 families, according to Keller.

Still, for residents, the city’s crime rate in contrast to surrounding bucolic farmlands and small villages can seem outsized. According to New York State Department of Criminal Justice statistics, Kingston experienced 759 Part I or “index” crimes in 2009. Index crimes include murder, rape, aggravated assault, and property crimes.  Kingston accounted for 22 percent of Ulster County’s violent crime and 70 percent of the county’s burglaries.

Poughkeepsie and Middletown crime figures are higher. Kingston shows a 37 percent decline in property and violent crime since 2005, whereas Middletown shows only a 4.5 percent decline and Poughkeepsie shows none.  According to criminologist Alan Lizotte, Dean of SUNY Albany’s School of Criminal Justice, comparing a city’s Part I statistics to cities of similar population and geographic area is a good way to evaluate the crime rate.

“Under 1,000 Part I crimes a year is not bad for a city the size of Kingston,” says Keller.

“Not bad?” says D’Arcy.  “Try telling that to a family that lives in midtown, or the store owner who had his window shot out.”  D’Arcy hastens to add that the police and sheriff’s departments have been very helpful. “What the police have done with the neighborhood watch is amazing. Many patrolmen have stepped up and given me their phone numbers.”

But D’Arcy perceives a “huge divide” between city police and citizens. “I’ve talked to hundreds of people and there is a lack of trust between people and the police.”

“There was a time when cops were around all the time,” says Margaret Napoli, a 30-year-resident of Kingston. While walking her dog on the evening of July 1, 2010, Napoli rounded the corner of Clinton Street just as a man shot two other men only a block away from her home. “It’s getting bad. They should bring the state police in.”

Cops walking a beat—one crime solution often mentioned by residents—is not an option, according to Keller. The police department does not have the manpower—12 to 15 sworn officers per shift—and the city does not have the money.  Kingston police patrol in their cars, frequently responding to emergency calls. They rarely emerge just to mingle, and, residents say, communication suffers.

D’Arcy is trying to forge a new kind of bond between the public and the police, a contract of mutual aid.  According to city council representatives, the tech-savvy D’Arcys are already succeeding.

“One of the biggest differences the neighborhood watch has made,” says Jennifer Fuentes, alderwoman for D’Arcy’s Ward 5, “is ClickFix.”

The neighborhood watch website devotes a page to reporting problems using SeeClickFix.com. It’s easy to mark the problem-spot on the Kingston map and post a complaint. Suspicious character lurking.  Dangerous speeding.  Drug dealing. Other people can add their voices to the complaint, vote to have it fixed and see other issues that have been reported, too.

“We never had anything like this before,” says Fuentes. “People are posting regularly. People are taking the time to report things.  It’s even on the Daily Freeman site now,” said Fuentes, referencing the local daily newspaper. “It’s pretty impressive.”

“The neighborhood watch has brought a number of community members together,” says Andrea Turco-Levin, Alderwoman for Kingston’s Ward 1. Turco-Levin showed up on D’Arcy’s doorstep the day after the Kingston Neighborhood Watch was born and asked how she could help.  “He’s created an awareness at a grassroots level.  One way Mike D’Arcy has really influenced me is when I see something going on, something suspicious or wrong, I don’t just say to myself ‘Oh, that’s disgusting,’ I call the police dispatcher now and I tell them.”

“It’s difficult to do as a volunteer,” says Fuentes. “Mike’s degree of commitment and energy is fantastic. When he started I made him promise he wouldn’t burn out.”

“I’m here to stay,” says D’Arcy. But he does admit to getting discouraged at times.  “Then my wife reels me back in,” says D’Arcy. “She says, ‘Just calm down. Let’s just do this.’”

Claudia D’Arcy leans back in the kitchen chair, tired from work and not yet ready to eat. Scarlett runs into the kitchen with Pumpkin the cat draped over her shoulder, looking for dinner. D’Arcy dishes up sausages for the kids and takes the sausages and the kids back into the living room.

“When we first met,” Claudia says, “I didn’t even own a computer. He was the geek and I was the activist. Now it’s totally reversed.” Still, she admits to wondering if she and her husband have made themselves into targets.

“Everybody knows where we live,” says Claudia. “But I’m not going to change my life or how I walk home because of it. I just can’t think about that.”

Grit runs in the family, but if anyone is inspired by the softer side, it’s D’Arcy. “My wife and my kids empower me in a way the military never did,” he says. “I do it for them: for my friends, for my neighbors.”

More stories by Celia

JoLinda Ruth Cogen enjoys a moment in the pavilion garden at the Christian Cultural Center on Aug. 1, 2010, in Brooklyn. Photo: Stephanie Coutrix

“The cuffs are off,” says JoLinda Ruth Cogen with a smile and sigh of relief. On June 30, Cogen wrote her last correspondence as president of the 32nd Precinct Community Council. After five years of leading many of Harlem’s community activists, her hands are now free to take on different activities in this new phase of her life.

“I have always been impressed with JoLinda’s commitment and connection to our community,” says Franc Perry, who as chairman of Community Board 10 has known Cogen for many years. “She truly wants the best for Harlem and works to see that we get the best.”

During the last 15 years, Cogen has played a key role in creating opportunities for Harlem residents to learn and contribute to their community. She introduced programs such as the Harlem Toastmasters and the district’s first Community Emergency Response Team. As a black Republican woman, Cogen has been criticized as being out of touch with local political ideals. Her reputation is mixed among officers at the 32nd Police Precinct. Her critics say she is pushy and too outspoken. Nonetheless, the overwhelming majority of Harlem’s residents support and applaud Cogen, first electing her as vice president of their police community council, then as president for two terms. Along with religion, this has given her the strength and motivation to keep defending her beliefs.

Now that she will be spending less time advocating, a lot of Cogen’s energy will be focused on her new career, working for Prudential Douglas Elliman as a licensed real estate salesperson and Harlem specialist. In early August, four months after obtaining her licence, Cogen’s grin is up to her ears when she finds out she will soon be planning her first open house.  “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail,” she says. “I have plans for this new phase of my life, and I’m excited about them.”

Although Cogen spent time in Harlem during her childhood and today lives near Dorrance Brooks Square, she is not originally from Upper Manhattan. Born in Brooklyn on March 4, 1956, she was raised in Flatbush on Sterling Street by a police officer and a paraprofessional teacher’s aide. In 1974, while her younger brother joined the U.S. Marines, Cogen received a scholarship and studied political science at Boston College.

“I wanted to be an attorney, but I would have been too arrogant,” she says, taking the last bite of her pizza at a popular Italian restaurant on Amsterdam Avenue. Humor aside, she explains law school would have been too expensive; her undergraduate education was funded though her college’s Black Talent Program, which helped around 80 percent of underprivileged black students graduate from her class in 1978.

“Back when I met JoLinda, there were few black women who demonstrated that kind of leadership and success,” says Leroy Baylor, WHCR radio talk show host who met Cogen at a training seminar for inspirational speakers. “JoLinda was never a follower. She’s a person who speaks her mind and who is dedicated to what’s right.”

Indeed, lacking a graduate degree did not stop Cogen from making her way to the top. She excelled as a sales representative for such Fortune 500 companies as Xerox, AT&T and Wang Labs. She purchased a house in Somerset, N.J., at age 27, and enjoyed all of what New York had to offer a thriving young professional. Although she had been a Democrat in college, Cogen registered with the Republicans when they rang her doorbell. “I was making money and identified more with those values,” she says. “I didn’t vote for Obama. I didn’t think he would be a good leader, and I still don’t. Palin would have done a better job dealing with this oil spill.” It’s no secret Cogen voted for Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona in the last presidential elections.

Not all Democrats in her community see her political stance as negative. “Of course the fact that JoLinda is a registered Republican automatically sets her up for criticism,” says Baylor. “But it’s a good thing JoLinda works for black people’s needs from the other party. It gives balance. I’m happy she’s a Republican.”

Due to the economic recession in the early ‘90s, Cogen could no longer afford her house and moved into a smaller apartment in New Jersey. “I’ve been outsized, rightsized, and downsized five times,” she says, tightening her face. “You learn a lot from people who try to minimize you so they can equalize you.”

Her independence and strength stems from skills she learned from her father, with whom she was very close. “I’m a daddy’s girl and a man’s woman,” she says. “I’ll admit this has gotten me in trouble more than once.” Cogen does not deny being a flirtatious woman; this afternoon her coquetry helped get better restaurant service and extra cheese on her pizza.

The most important man in Cogen’s life was her father, a dedicated police officer who took risks to help others. “He was at work one day when a woman came in with her infant, asking for her welfare check,” Cogen recounts. “When the woman found out the check wasn’t available yet, she threw her child far and high up in the air.”

Cogen’s father leaped across the room and caught the baby, breaking several bones in his upper body. He was put on disability for two years, suffered from depression and alcoholism, and died three days before his 55th birthday. Cogen was deeply affected by his death, but found appeasement in religion on April 23, 1983.

“Growing up I was not very religious, even though I went to Catholic school,” she says. “I had a couple of meaningful relationships with men until I was 30. Then I found Jesus as my personal lord and savior and was celibate for 10 years until I met Michael. If I had learned about the glory of virginity early on, I would have waited for marriage. Or I would have gotten married earlier.”

On most Sundays, Cogen and her husband attend the 10:30 a.m. service at the Christian Cultural Center on Flatlands Avenue in Brooklyn. A coach bus leaves Harlem at 9 a.m. sharp from 125th Street and Lenox Avenue, giving the community’s evangelical charismatic Christians around an hour to catch up or read the newspaper before arriving at the complex. Cogen is usually part of the conversation, making jokes and having a good time with her friends.

“JoLinda always goes out of her way to introduce herself to people and to make them feel comfortable. She’s extremely social,” says Nicole Lyte, who for several years has been sharing these Sunday rides with her.

Cogen met Michael at her godfather’s cleaning business on West 140th Street. “On our first date she chose a low-key restaurant, like a Friendly’s, so if she needed to bail she could,” says her husband of 15 years. After four decades of being single, she had finally found a man who accepted her desire to be a devoted wife, while remaining the same independent and active woman she has always been.

Michael Cogen’s support has been crucial to his wife during the past decade, especially as she became increasingly involved in local politics. “My relationship with the police had become very difficult around a year ago,” says Cogen. “They didn’t appreciate my involvement in their business. I was close to resigning my volunteer position but then decided to stay on board as president for a little while longer.”

Given Cogen’s communication and advocacy skills, she often places 311 calls on behalf of her neighbors to report late-night noise complaints. “I didn’t realize they keep records of the callers until recently,” she explains. “So now I’m known as the crazy caller.”

However, the support from her peers is undeniable. “JoLinda has always fought against ongoing or potential wrongs to her community,” says Sgt. Keith Taylor, her neighbor for the past 10 years. “She has never felt that Harlem should be given less respect or resources than any other New York City community.”

One of Cogen’s goals as community council president was to help Harlem become less isolated. She founded the Harlem Toastmasters club, which meets twice a month at the Harlem State Office Building and teaches individuals how to enhance their communication and business management skills. With the rise of gentrification, Cogen saw the importance of offering Harlem residents the opportunity to become more competitive professionals in both the local and global marketplace. “The image in you is the image you’ll do”, she believes. “I enjoy helping others gain confidence; by enhancing their image, they improve their lives.”

Cogen is looking forward to improving her own life by pursuing more of the activities she had to put aside. For example, she is writing a book on relationships and will lead new “for singles only” motivational sessions. “I’m not single anymore,” she stresses. “But I was single long enough to give good advice on that topic.”

A big fan of John Wayne movies and World War II documentaries, Cogen intends to use some of her new downtime to relax in front of films. “I watch everything related to Nazism because history always repeats itself,” she explains. “Like the situation in Harlem. Hopefully things will change, but for now, black people are again being pushed out. That’s been happening forever.”

She accepts that with freedom comes accountability. “My new title is JoLinda. Just JoLinda. I’m going to stay in the background.” One could have doubts about Cogen’s ability to remain on the sidelines, but it is quite clear that throughout her life she has been nothing but open to change.

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The Morristown Police Department can alert subscribers to neighborhood-level emergencies and issues via cell phone text messages with photos and emails through Nixle, a community alert network.

Reported on July 10, 2010

MORRISTOWN, N.J.—What does a bear on South Street and a $7,200 SL3 bike stolen from Marty’s Reliable Cycle Shop have in common? Both earned a spot on Morristown’s community alert network. An unidentified homicide victim in Newark was returned to his family with the alert’s help.

The man slain in Newark was returned to his Bernardsville family after the Essex County prosecutor’s office, which believed the victim lived in the area, contacted the Morristown Police Department, which broadcast a Nixle alert. The Bernardsville Police Department identified the man but the killer was not found, according to Stuart Greer, a detective in the Morristown Police Department.

People want news instantly, police officers are not everywhere and technology is costly. Partnering with Nixle Community Information Service, starting this week, the Morristown Police Department can alert subscribers to neighborhood-level emergencies and issues via cell phone text messages with photos and e-mails. Alerts can include information on road closures, traffic, weather-related incidents, missing persons, wanted persons, child abduction attempts, burglaries and suspicious criminal activity in real time, thus improving public safety.

The department, which did not have an existing instant alert mechanism, joins surrounding communities like Chatham Township, Madison, New Providence, Hanover Township and Morris Plains as well as cities throughout the country that use Nixle.

More than 4,000 agencies nationwide have partnered with Nixle since 2009. It is not clear how many New Jersey agencies are included since phone calls to Nixle’s Mount Laurel headquarters were not returned. Nixle’s partnership with International Justice and Public Safety Network, an international computer-based message system that links local, state and federal law enforcement agencies, prompted police departments’ participation.

Privately funded, Nixle makes money, according to its website, through technology licensing and sales to the private sector.

With police department budgets frozen or slashed, the technology-driven network adds more public safety at no cost to the department or subscribers, other than standard text message rates.

“Like most smaller police departments, Morristown doesn’t have the budget to pay for a secure system like Nixle,” said Greer, who noted that supervisors are trained in decision-making for posting alerts.

Subscribers can log onto www.nixle.com, enter zip codes to follow, and an e-mail address and cell phone number for alerts to be sent. For text alerts only, users can text the zip codes they want to receive alerts about to 888777. Nixle keeps user identities anonymous.

For people who do not text or e-mail but have a computer, Greer suggests going to the Nixle website. The downside is that it does not have the immediacy that texts and e-mails offer.

Police Chief John Paton of Chatham Township said he used Nixle mostly for road closure alerts in the past year. On July 8, he alerted residents that the township’s water was safe to drink despite its “colored” nature.

Chad Rybka, a police officer in the Madison Police Department, said Nixle stopped a contractor’s scam in May. “Unfortunately, the incident did not result in an arrest but the resident did not become another victim,” he said.

Nixle is credited with assisting law enforcement personnel in Fayetteville, N.C., with an arrest in June after police broadcast an alert containing surveillance camera photos and information about a break-in. At a shopping mall in Amarillo, Texas, police captured a fugitive wanted for aggravated robbery and probation violation after an alert was sent out in January.

The bike and bear? The bike was not recovered and the bear went away without incident, said Greer.

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On Sunday afternoons when the Morristown Farmers Market closes, several vendors donate their unsold fresh fruits, vegetables and breads to the Community Soup Kitchen.

MORRISTOWN, N.J.—Morristown Farmers Market fresh fruits, crisp vegetables and savory bread are new, healthful options for Community Soup Kitchen visitors for the first time in its 25-year history.

When 300 daily visitors arrive for a hot lunch at the soup kitchen’s dining room, they can also shop for fresh produce and bread to prepare their own meals at home. Five farmers and a baker are donating their unsold food each Sunday afternoon when the farmers market closes.

The donation drive, which started in June, grew out of the soup kitchen’s “Healthy Choice” program, an initiative started in 2009 to bring healthier food choices to the soup kitchen guests. It was made possible through a grant from the Fannie E. Rippel Foundation of Morristown. In what seems to be a growing national trend, vendors are donating their unsold food from farmers markets to soup kitchens.

“Tomatoes, corn, zucchini, peaches—typical farmers market fare. We have four, five sometimes six tables filled with hundreds of pounds of food each day for guests to take home,” said Lois Nichols, assistant director of the Community Soup Kitchen and Outreach Program.  The nonprofit organization rents space from two churches on South Street to host the soup kitchen and its outreach services arm that began six years ago. Organizers also host educational workshops on healthful food preparation; the most recent one was on how to make a vegetable casserole.

Participants in the market’s donation program include Baker’s Bounty in Union County, E.R. & Son Organic Farm in Middlesex County, Grossman Farms in Mercer County, Michisk Farms and Pittstown Fruit Farms in Hunterdon County and Union Hill Farms in Morris County. People can also donate at the market by dropping purchased items into the Community Soup Kitchen’s container.

While vendors do not get money for unsold items, a good feeling comes from the experience. Kim LaPrete, owner of Baker’s Bounty, said, “It’s nice to know that it’s going to a good cause.” Through its participation in the Union Square Green Market in Manhattan, LaPrete’s company also donates to City Harvest, which facilitates food donations to food pantries and soup kitchens throughout New York City.

Marla Drury, director of development and community outreach at the Community Soup Kitchen and Outreach Program, said Morristown Memorial Hospital nurses conducted free health screenings during the past five years and determined that 80 percent of the soup kitchen’s visitors have health issues such as high blood pressure and diabetes.

“The nurses explained to our volunteers the huge connection between food choices and the well-being of our guests,” Drury said, acknowledging that it is “more expensive to buy fresh produce and easier and faster to pop open canned food.” The grant money and educational component of the program is helping with these issues, she said.

For the second year, the Minneapolis Farmers Market is donating its leftover bounty to a local soup kitchen and other nonprofits. In the first three weeks of this market’s season, 18,737 pounds of produce were collected–4,312 pounds more than in the same period last year, according to its website.

In 2009, vendors at a farmers market in Bridgeport, Conn., donated more than 10,000 pounds of end-of-day produce to a local soup kitchen and a family re-entry program that helps people released from prison begin their lives anew.

The Community Soup Kitchen and Outreach Program in Morristown operates six days a week at the Church of the Redeemer and on Saturdays at St. Peter’s Episcopal Church. Thirty-two religious establishments and corporations supply the daily meals and volunteer servers to the area’s homeless, working poor and elderly.

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