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NEW YORKREGION RK The Journal News Saturday, January 23, 1999 3A www.nyjournalnews.com SUNY faculty protest core; curriculum 1 NYC parks 95 clean Commissioner uses activists to make the most of his budget BILL VARNER The Journal News NEW YORK When he was a teen-ager growing up in the north Bronx, Robert Bieder didn't want to go anywhere near Pelham Bay Park. It wasn't clean, it wasn't safe, and he thought it smelted bad. But that was 20 years ago. Now, Bieder thinks the city's third largest park is in the "best shape it's ever been," thanks to the Parks Department and its work with the community group he formed last year, the Friends of Pelham Bay Park. "I'm on Community Board 10 in the Bronx, so I deal with just about every city agency there is," Bieder said.

"They are the only one that, when you go to them with a problem, wants to help. Every other one is a problem." The Parks Department may indeed be the least controversial agency of Mayor Rudolph Giuliani's administration. Whether restoring the cross-country course at Van Cortlandt Park or renovating the pavilion at Orchard Beach in Pelham Bay, Parks Commissioner Henry Stern is credited with making the most of limited financial resources by inspiring community activists such as Bieder. It was Stern's turn to sing his department's praises yesterday, as he presented the sixth annual State of the Parks report at The Arsenal in Central Park. Using a rating system endorsed by Columbia University, Stern said the city's 28,000 acres of parkland are "cleaner and safer than they ever have been." He put the cleanliness rating at 95 percent, up from 74 percent in 1993.

The city's parks got a black eye last fall when an outbreak of a dozen robberies occurred in Central Park. But, overall, crime in the 843-acre park fell 22 percent last year. The biggest recent criticisms of the Parks Department have come from groups such as the Green Guerrillas, who are dedicated to preserving community gardens Mayor OKs seizure of drinkers' cars NEW YORK Police Commissioner Howard Safir's plan to seize the cars of people arrested for driving drunk in New York City was given the green light by the mayor's office late yesterday. Earlier in the day, mayoral spokeswoman Colleen Roche said Safir's plan had not yet been approved that hinted at possible discord between Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and the commissioner. But shortly alter 5 p.m., Safir emerged from a meeting with Giuliani saying the plan was a go.

"There was no disagreement at all," Safir said. "We just wanted to make sure we do this carefully, and we do this correctly." Under Safir's "Zero Tolerance Drinking and Driving Initiative," if a person is arrested for drunken driving, his or her car would be seized by police and stored. However, if the person was driving someone Rise's car, the car would be given back to the rightful owner. A defendant would get his or her car back only if acquitted. The initiative is expected to be implemented within the next month.

Rep. Maloney backs Lowey's Senate bid ALBANY Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-Manhattan, said yesterday she was supporting a fellow congresswoman, Nita Lo-wey, D-Harrison, for next year's Democratic U.S. Senate nomination. Maloney had been one of the few remaining New York Democrats mentioned as potential contenders for the nomination for the seat being vacated next year by Democrat Daniel Patrick Moynihan.

But during an interview yesterday with Albany's WROW-AM radio, Maloney said she Was supporting Lowey's possible candidacy. Lowey has said she is seriously considering running for the nomination, but would back off if first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton decided to run. Gigante conviction upheld on appeal NEW YORK Genovese crime boss Vincent "Chin" Gigante was properly convicted of murder conspiracy and racketeering after two federal judges concluded he was feigning mental illness, a federal appeals court ruled yesterday. The ruling by the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals supported the way the trial was by U.S.

District Judge Jack B. Weinstein in Brooklyn. Gigante, 70, who headed the nation's No. 1 crime family, was sentenced in December 1997 to 12 years in prison after Weinstein determined that the so-called "Oddfather" had been feigning mental illness to avoid Compiled from wire reports. part of a children's park at Orchard plans for '99 on 33,333 trees by September.

Construct Galileo Park in the Bronx for $1.8 million. Eliminate the backlog of 3,729 tree stumps that need to be removed. Create an additional 500 "greenstreets" (shrubs and trees on medians). Break ground for a Jack Nicklaus-designed, 18-hole golf course at Ferry Point Park in the Bronx. of being reported to his office.

Overall, Stern has dealt with a decline in employees from 6,000 when Giuliani took office to 1,500 now by putting more than 5,000 Work Experience Program participants to work cleaning up parks. He also created the Partnership for Parks program in 1995, a public-private organization that has mobilized "friends" groups such as Bieder's at Pelham Bay. When Stern was appointed, the department had a list of about 400 activists; now Partnership for Parks has more than 28,000. There are signs of progress throughout the parks system. The work at Orchard Beach is the first done there since Robert Moses created the park in the A spiral slide awaits installation as Bronx.

Parks Department In 1999, the New York City Parks Department plans to: Plant a tree in front of every house in the city where there is space and someone to care for it Plant 13,000 street trees. Support volunteer renovation of five neighborhood parks using a $900,000 grant from the Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Foundation. Attach identification labels that Giuliani has vowed to sell for development if the opportunity arises. Otherwise, activists such as Victoria Kalinowski, executive director of the Friends of Van Cortlandt Park, say only that they wish Stern could do even more to help them. "The number of city employees at the park has gone down," she said.

"So I would like to see more staff in the park. There is still more to be done. I'd like to see them inspect trees regularly, cut down dead ones quicker. Stern boasted yesterday that the Parks Department has eliminated a 10-year backlog in dead-tree removal, and that dead trees are now cut down within 30 days person as a hair found in a New Jersey home where James C. Kopp, a 44-year-old anti-abortion protester, lived last year, the official said.

The first DNA tests did not exclude a match between the two strands. Kopp has eluded authorities since they obtained a warrant for him as a material witness in the Oct 23 sniper shooting of Dr. Barnett Slepian, a 52-year-old obstetrician-gynecologist who performed abortions. The search for Kopp was recently extended to Chef GordonThe Journal News Beach in Pelham Bay Park in the 1930s, Bieder said. Coming this year will be a new $2.6 million playground and $725,000 restoration of the Bronx (World War I) Victory Memorial.

Crotona Park in the Bronx, once a haven for junkies and prostitutes, has become safer. "In 1992, a majority of the lights were out," said Rosemary Ordonez, leader of a Friends of Crotona Park association formed last year. "In the last three to four years there has been a lot of improvements. We got new lights, and all the playground equipment is being replaced. Now, on a regular basis, I see people bringing their kids in to play." Still, after the Friends of Crotona Park held the its first Christmas tree lighting ceremony this year, vandals cut the tree in half.

Seton Falls Park, about 10 blocks south of the Mount Vernon-Bronx border, has also seen a resurgence. It was tabbed for development, or to become a landfill, until Christine Foreman formed the Seton Falls Preservation Committee and, with Parks Department help, submitted a grant proposal that netted $500,000 for restoration. "I don't know what we would have done without the Parks Department," Foreman said. "When they saw that the community was really interested in taking care of the park, they got behind me." er is thought to have fired the rifle bullet that killed Slepian as he stood in the kitchen of his home in the Buffalo suburb of Amherst But The Buffalo News reported Friday that the hair was in a packet, with at least two bullets, that was found buried in the ground more than 50 feet from a tree where police believe the sniper stood and fired. Last week, FBI Director Louis Freeh, on an official visit to Mexico, asked Mexican authorities to join the hunt for Kopp, federal officials have said.

Genuine Professors fear loss of academic freedom; say trustees overstepping YANCEY ROY The Journal News Albany Bureau ALBANY Chanting and car- rying banners, about 100 faculty members marched on State Unf- versity of New York headquarters yesterday to protest the adoption of a core curriculum for the sys- tern's colleges and universities. 's The professors said SUNYs "general-education curriculum" will infringe on academic free-' dom, creates the possibility of politically driven courses and could water down existing curric- ula. SUNY officials countered that the faculty union was overreact-1 ing and that each campus will have flexibility in meeting the core requirements. The new curriculum doesn't become effective until the fresh-1 man class of 2000 enters. Essentially, faculty union mem-1 bers said they thought the SUNY i board of trustees was oversteps ping its bounds by getting in? volved in courses.

'f "The fundamental issue is its the faculty that should determine the curriculum," not the SUNY board of trustees, said Ken Kallio a psychology professor at SUNY- Geneseo. Kallio and colleagues carried signs stating "Keep the public iir public education" and chantedj slogans such as "Board of trust-; ees, rotten to the core." The pro- test lasted an hour. tS Under the plan, students would have to earn at least three credit hours in mathematics, natural sci- ence, social science, American his tory, Western civilization, "Other; World Civilizations," humanities? and arts, foreign language aniK basic communication, reasoning and information management tcC graduate. Trustee Randy Daniels said; that when the curriculum was adopted last month, "We needed to restore academic rigor and give it focus." Protesters said the 17 colleges and universities were too diverse to adhere to a "one-size-fits-all" plan. SUNY spokesman Jon Soren-sen said union members' fears were overblown.

He said individual campuses can devise their own plans for how students meet the requirements. He noted that a faculty task force in 1997 agreed there should be systemwide common goals for students although these goals stopped short of recommending subject areas. Even protesters agreed the final verdict on the plan won't be made until campuses submit theif course proposals and SUNY officials decide what degree of leeway will be allowed. That won't be for months. Toyota vehicles ONLY coupon iwiin Genuine Toyota Muffler Service Includes: Install Genuine Toyota Muffler Includes Lifetime guarantee on muffler, tailpipe and labor.

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