DETROIT FREE PRESS
By JENNIFER DIXON Detroit Free Press
Date: Tuesday, January 18, 2000 ; Page: 5A
Edition: METRO FINAL ; Section: NWS
Illustration: Photo ERIC SEALS/Detroit Free Press
Memo: NO POWER TO THE PEOPLE

From his vantage point behind the smudged glass of the Public Fish Market, flies circling above his head and sirens wailing in the distance, owner Vincent Schiera says he can't tell whether the Upper Manhattan empowerment zone has begun to turn Harlem around.

"I don't see it," Schiera says as he fishes live crabs from a bushel basket. Some slip from his tongs and clatter to the concrete floor, crawling at his feet. "They haven't fixed anything."

New York's zone received more money than any other -- $300 million from the city, state and federal governments. The money is split between Upper Manhattan, which got $249 million, and a U-shaped piece of the South Bronx, which got the rest.

The two zones are run independently, but a seven-member board must approve every project unanimously. Five years into the 10-year program, the Upper Manhattan zone has yet to decide who will receive half of its money. Then-zone spokesman Rodney Lopez acknowledged that getting the word out to businesses about the money has been a challenge.

In the Bronx, it has taken five years for the empowerment zone to make 30 loans to new and expanding businesses.

But Pedro Gomez, a project manager with the zone, says "the wheels are starting to roll, and we still have five years to go."

The zone's bottom-line goal is to create jobs. It requires businesses to hire one resident of the Bronx zone for every $35,000 they receive in loans.

Some officials are concerned that there may be a shortage of available workers.

"We've had complaints from businesses that some of the people we're sending don't show up or show up late, or complain about heavy lifting," Gomez says.

In Upper Manhattan, the zone is putting money into businesses that will create or retain 4,500 jobs; Harlem USA, a $64-million entertainment and retail complex, is under construction, and a Doubletree Hotel in Washington Heights in Upper Manhattan is on the drawing boards. The 300-room hotel is a block outside the zone, but it will hire zone residents.

Zone dollars also were used to help launch a credit union in Washington Heights.

"That's the business we're in -- being a catalyst to drive and spur private investment," Lopez says. "Harlem is not a ghost town, it's a thriving community.... It's an inner city that hasn't seen any major investment in four decades."

Caption: Welder Michael Laifook prepares window clips at Harlem USA, an entertainment complex at 125th Street and Frederick Douglass Blvd. The empowerment zone business is spending $64 million and hopes to bring in much more from tourism.

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