NYTImes:Strained by Needs, a Community Withdraws Its Helping Hands

By ROBERT DAVID ZELIGER
Published: January 22, 2006

When Henry Calderon looks down 116th Street between Lexington and Third Avenues, he sees a tuxedo store, a dental center, a nail salon, two banks, and sidewalk vendors hawking tamales and jewelry. The scene is strikingly different from the boarded-up shops and crime-ridden pockets of just a few years back.

But Mr. Calderon, who is president of the East Harlem Chamber of Commerce, fears that the arrival of an H.I.V./AIDS center on the block could sharply alter its character. The 14,000-square-foot center, which is set to open in April above a Washington Mutual bank branch, would provide counseling, medical treatment and other help to 150 people, many of them former and current drug addicts. The site was chosen by Harlem United, a nonprofit group that helps people with AIDS.

"This will set us back 30 years," Mr. Calderon said, predicting that crime rates would rise and that businesses would suffer. Community Board 11 has passed a resolution opposing the center, and Assemblyman Adam Clayton Powell IV has said that although he supports the goals of Harlem United, he does not support its choice of a location.

Many East Harlemites note that their neighborhood has more "special needs" facilities, a category that includes H.I.V./AIDS centers and methadone clinics, than any other area in Manhattan.

Patrick McGovern, executive director of Harlem United, defended his center, noting that people had similar fears about crime and business losses at a similar center his group operates in West Harlem. "But we allayed them over time," he said.

According to city health data, about 2.5 percent of the 108,000 residents in East Harlem have H.I.V., the virus that causes AIDS; that incidence, higher than in any Manhattan neighborhood but Chelsea, makes the center highly useful for local residents, Mr. McGovern said.

But merchants and others note that the center's clientele will not be limited to local residents. They say they fear that 116th Street, East Harlem's main commercial artery, will be swarmed by addicts.

Residents also point to data that they say proves East Harlem is overburdened by the "special needs" facilities. According to the Urban Technical Assistance Project at Columbia University, Community District 11 in East Harlem has 135 such centers, far more than any other Manhattan district. In second place is Community District 3 on the Lower East Side, which has 98 facilities.

Local residents also accused Mr. McGovern of rushing his plans past them. "They didn't go to a community planning board meeting to get our input," Mr. Calderon said. "We didn't find out about it until construction started."

In response, Mr. McGovern said: "We've been fully transparent about our goals." And he added, "They are not interested in the facts."

As these exchanges suggest, the road ahead for the center may be rocky. "There are going to be problems," Mr. Powell said. "There are going to be lawsuits. There are going to be demonstrations every single day in front of the entrance, which doesn't really help their clients or their purpose."