If you're wondering why the Department of Health inspectors
were neglecting the rat problem in the city's restaurants, it's
probably because most of them were far too busy inspecting me.
For the past three years I've been harassed by these inspectors
as if I were a slum landlord endangering the lives of my
grandchildren. Meanwhile, a mother who had her newborn sleep in
her bed because of rat infestation in her Bronx apartment
accidentally smothered the baby.
When a local news show photographed the rats foraging openly in a
Greenwich Village KFC/Taco Bell franchise, the department swept
into action, shutting it down, along with several other fast-food
restaurants across the city. It seemed as if the health
department actually took a sudden interest in protecting the
health of residents instead of following senseless bureaucratic
protocol.
When the Bloomberg administration enacted the city's Lead Paint
Hazard Reduction Law in June 2004, I fell into that bureaucratic
protocol web. By October of that year, I ended up in an emergency
room with severe chest pains.
Imagine hordes of inspectors demanding access to your home so
they can check if you have peeling lead-paint chips, and you
might end up there as well.
I live in a house that is more than 100 years old. I have raised
my six children in it and never had any lead-poisoning problems.
In 2003, we renovated a kitchen, and my two young grandsons, who
live upstairs, became exposed to the dust that raised their lead
levels above the accepted norms. As required by law, the
pediatricians reported the abnormal lab results to the Department
of Health. Common sense would have warranted monitoring these
levels until they were brought under control. This was not even
considered. The children were given iron supplements, and soon
their levels were normal. They are healthy, bright, and above
average in all criteria, but that made little difference to these
inspectors, who said that once I was in the system they had to
follow rules set up to monitor landlords.
I am not a landlord, I insisted. My daughter lives rent free with
her family in the house in which she grew up.
Makes no difference, I was told. After refusing to give them
access on several occasions, I relented and let in the
inspectors. Big mistake. One inspector, an Eastern European who
barely spoke English, wielded a device that supposedly found lead
paint on surfaces that never had been painted. Lead paint was
found on unpainted stairs and on an area of the ceiling that had
been replaced a few years earlier with wallboard and latex paint.
When I complained about the obvious erroneous test results, I was
told that the device cost thousands of dollars and never was
wrong and that the unpainted stairs must have had contaminated
water drip on them. I was then ordered to clear these violations
or else.
In the past two years my home has been invaded by inspectors
checking up on the corrections of these so-called violations.
I've had to pay for dust swipes and lab analyses of these swipes.
I attended a health department hearing after I was threatened
with a $2,000 lien on my home if I failed to show up. There I had
to pay a minimum $200 fine even though the judge agreed the
entire case was ridiculous.
The Health Violations room at 16 Jones St. was filled with more
than 500 people answering summons for various offenses. The
actual slum landlords could be spotted with their attorneys, and
they appeared to be at ease with these hearings. Many others
appeared to be ordinary citizens who were shocked by having to
pay fines for violations they were unaware even existed.
If the health department can close restaurants because of rats,
who's in charge of rats in the home? When Gladys Robles smothered
her 8-week-old son because her Bronx apartment was infested with
rats, her landlord, Christopher Hanover, told a Daily News
reporter that he was unaware of the rat problem. But the News
reported that the Department of Housing Preservation and
Development had cited the building for 378 violations, including
20 for rodent infestation.
Maybe these violations were never forwarded to the health
department because its inspectors were overwhelmed dealing with
violations against the various nanny ordinances - smoking ban,
trans-fat, caloric menu mandates - instituted by the mayor, whom
my daughter says reminds her of an anal-retentive hall monitor.
If our health department can return to its original mission of
safeguarding our health instead of manipulating our behavior,
tragedies like the one in the Bronx might be averted.