NYCHA Net!
No fixes, but $10M for broadband (At least now they can Google ‘mold removal’)
A FAST Internet is one thing, but how about fast repairs?
NYCHA tenants used to living with leaky pipes, spreading mold and nighttime gunfire shook their heads in disbelief Thursday at Mayor de Blasio’s plan to drop $10 million on free Internet access at five city housing developments.
Almost without exception, tenants wanted the money to fix more urgent problems before streaming Netflix.
“Can you fix the plumbing first?” responded an incredulous Shawna Simmonds, 40, at Brooklyn’s Red Hook Houses, one of five developments getting Internet access as part of a pilot program expected to begin next year.
A faster Internet, she said, “is not as serious as the bigger problems. We have living issues. Quality-of-living issues.”
De Blasio said the city will install broadband systems at Red Hook East and West in Brooklyn, Mott Haven in the Bronx and Queensbridge North and South.
“We’re still grappling with the inequalities we face,” he said. “So many of us are trying to address income inequality, in particular. But we can’t do it if we don’t guarantee broadband access.”
NYCHA plans to spend $300 million over three years to repair roofs, including at Queensbridge, and Federal Emergency Management Administration money will upgrade Red Hook and other developments damaged by Hurricane Sandy. NYCHA this week also initiated a new Fix-It Forward plan to speed up repairs.
But the Internet money comes out of next year’s city budget as the Housing Authority faces a $98 million deficit this year, and a federal judge has ordered NYCHA to remedy mold from units where tenants have asthma.
At Red Hook, temporary boilers still operate nearly three years after Sandy and a notice posted at 9 Lorraine St. stated the trash chute would be out of order “until further notice.”
Tenant Lawrence Silas, 81, doesn’t have a computer for an Internet hookup but does have huge swaths of paint peeling off his walls and a bathroom teeming with black mold.
Silas, a retired factory worker, says the mold got worse after Sandy hit. NYCHA workers peeled off the plaster and scrubbed the walls.
“They said they were coming back. That was two years ago,” Silas said, pointing to a gaping ceiling gash that’s been there since 2013.
“The last time they painted was 1999,” he said. “I don’t care what the mayor says. I don’t care about how many millions of dollars. They don’t come to Red Hook.”
Queensbridge Houses, the first development to get the Internet upgrade, is one of 15 high-crime projects targeted this summer by the NYPD.
“I’m for anything that they’re going to do, but they need to do the work in people’s apartments also,” said Queensbridge tenant Velma Harrell, 63. “I had mildew in my window, and any time I would sleep in my room it would trigger my asthma.”
But Queensbridge Tenant Association President April Simpson, 53, said the upgrade will help students who now have to use local library Internet access to do homework.
“It’s going to be an asset for the community, especially for the kids and even for people
trying to find jobs,” she said.