THE WALL STREET JOURNAL. ** Tuesday, September 3, 2019 |A10A
The City-Wide Tenants Union
lobbied lawmakers in Albany
this year and met last week
with Rochester Mayor Lovely
Warren, a Democrat. Ryan
Acuff, an organizer at the
group, said neighborhoods adja-
cent to the University of Roch-
ester and the city’s downtown
core are starting to gentrify,older, larger buildings as a re-
sult of capital improvements.
Cea Weaver, campaign di-
rector for the Upstate/Down-
state Housing Alliance, a ten-
ant-organizing group, said she
has been in touch with activ-
ists in cities around the state
and convened a summit last
month in Albany.ROCHESTER, N.Y.—Over the
past 20 months, residents of
the apartment building at 447
Thurston Rd. in this city said
they battled vermin, bedbugs
and poorly maintained units.
Barbara Rivera said a ceil-
ing collapsed on her children.
Mary Brown said she orga-
nized a rent strike after expe-
riencing drainage issues. The
tenants eventually sued their
landlord, and the city of Roch-
ester joined them last year.
“They were going to change
it to student housing and they
were going to jack up the price,”
Ms. Rivera, 32 years old, said of
the building owner. “They
would have kicked all of us out.”
Tenant organizers at Roch-
ester City-Wide Tenants Union
say what happened at the
building makes the case for
establishing a rent-regulation
system in the state’s third-
largest city. They are working
with Ms. Rivera and Ms.market-rate housing.
Peter Hungerford, the land-
lord whom Mses. Rivera and
Brown battled last year, sold
the three-story building in
March; the city dropped its
lawsuit in May. The residents
of 447 Thurston Rd.’s 48 apart-
ments were relocated, and the
building is being renovated
with a $10 million grant from
the state. In exchange for the
money, the new owner, Home
Leasing, agreed to set aside 20
units for former prison in-
mates and submit to state ap-
proval before increasing rent.
Mr. Hungerford said he
promptly fixed the violations
that Mses. Rivera and Brown
described. He said he did raise
rents in the building, but
warned that rent control
wouldn’t create more afford-
able housing and could deter
investment over the long term.
“Be careful of unintended
consequences, and consider
what impact this has on sup-
ply and demand,” he said.and regulations can help protect
tenants against displacement.
Alex Yudelson, the chief of
staff for Ms. Warren, said the
administration has concerns
about enacting rent controls
but is working to boost afford-
able housing in other ways.
Roughly 64% of Rochester’s
210,000 residents are renters,
according to a 2018 housing
market survey commissioned
by the city. More than 60% of
tenants are paying more than
30% of their income for hous-
ing—a common standard for
rent burdens. The survey said
the overall vacancy rate in
Rochester was more than 10%.
Tim Schmid, director of
residential properties for Ko-
nar Properties, a real-estate
firm that manages around
1,000 units in and around
Rochester, said additional con-
trols would put a chill on new
investment.
His company is developing
a mixed-use project that in-
cludes both affordable andBrown, as well as renters
around the city, to persuade
elected officials to set up one
similar to New York City’s.
The organizers’ efforts are
possible after state lawmakers
approved a sweeping rent-regu-
lation bill in June. It made per-
manent New York City’s rent
regulations and strengthened
them in favor of tenants. It also
let municipalities anywhere in
the state opt into the law that
previously covered the five bor-
oughs and Nassau, Westchester
and Rockland counties.
The first step is a formal
survey to determine the va-
cancy rate in the relevant type
of housing—buildings of six or
more units constructed before- If the vacancy rate is less
than 5%, the municipality can
declare a housing emergency
and work with the local
county to set up a board that
will regulate future rent in-
creases. Landlords would also
be restricted in how much
they could raise rents in these
BYJIMMYVIELKINDTenant Advocates Push for Rent Regulations in Rochester
Mary Brown, Barbara Rivera and other tenants sued their landlord.LIBBY MARCH FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNALSteel bands and revelers
sporting elaborate feathered cos-
tumes, Caribbean flags and
some rain ponchos marched and
danced Monday in a West Indian
American Day Parade dampened
by weather and awash in cul-
tural pride.
Brooklyn is home to hundreds
of thousands of Caribbean immi-
grants and their descendants,
and the annual march and a pre-parade street party called J’Ou-
vert, above, are a can’t-miss tra-
dition for many.
The parade unfolded under
security that has been tightened
in recent years after past out-
breaks of violence. Carey Gabay,
an aide to Gov. Andrew Cuomo,
died after being hit by stray
gunfire while heading to the
J’Ouvert festivities in 2015.
—Associated PressDr. Renzulli agrees: He says
every school using this ap-
proach should have a gifted edu-
cation specialist to help. Adding
such staff could pose financial
hurdles for schools, however.
The proposed model stands
in contrast to the city’s current
gifted program, in which about
16,000 children in kindergarten
through fifth grade—a small
share of elementary students
in a system for 1.1 million stu-
dents—attend their own class-
rooms or schools after an en-
try test. Those who test in are
disproportionately white and
Asian, according to city data.The mayor’s School Diver-
sity Advisory Group wants to
phase out such rigid tracking,
along with selective middle
schools, calling them inequita-
ble and exclusionary. Some par-
ents welcomed the recommen-
dations while others were
outraged at the potential loss
of options they see as escapes
from low-level instruction.
The mayor and schools
chancellor have said they will
review the panel’s proposals.
Under Dr. Renzulli’s
method, a teacher with some
fast learners in a classroom
can cluster them together forhigher-level challenges. He
doesn’t oppose separate
classes in some cases, such as
advanced math. But overall, he
says he aims to address the
problem of children tuning out
and missing their potential.
His approach has waxed
and waned in New York City. It
drew attention under Richard
Green, who became the city’s
first black chancellor in 1988,
but then fell out of favor when
a new chancellor took over in- In 2005, the University
of Connecticut Research and
Development Corp. turned the
model into a business, Renzulli
GREATER NEW YORK
When all children get such op-
portunities, he says, those who
show strong motivation, cre-
ativity and leadership can dive
into deeper work but don’t
need to be siloed.
“Give more kids the chance
to throw the ball around and
we’ll find out which should be
quarterback,” says Dr. Ren-
zulli, a professor at the Uni-
versity of Connecticut.
He has a minority stake in a
company, Renzulli Learning, of-
fering a database that lets stu-
dents and teachers find proj-
ects online that appeal to their
particular interests, skill levels
and learning styles, whether
dissecting a virtual mummy,
designing a playground or in-
venting a board game.
Some parents don’t believe
such an approach can nurture
academic excellence. And some
education experts caution the
model is hard for teachers to ex-
ecute when facing classes of 30-
plus students with wide ranges
of ability and preferences.
“The choreography and lo-
gistics are very difficult,” says
James Borland, an expert in
gifted education at Teachers
College, Columbia University.
“Teachers rarely get the sup-
port they need to make differ-
entiation a reality.”Learning, selling online tools
and teacher training.
Around 2007, hundreds of
city schools used it, but the
number plummeted after a
2011 ownership change and
new name, says Michael Di-
Mauro, chief executive officer
of the company. He says he
bought it with partners, in-
cluding Dr. Renzulli, in 2017
and restored its name.
Some gifted-education ex-
perts say students need much
more structured opportunities
to do accelerated work, such
as honors tracks.
Jonathan Plucker, president
of the National Association for
Gifted Children and professor
of talent development at
Johns Hopkins University, rec-
ommends starting gifted pro-
grams around third grade. He
proposes finding high-poten-
tial students through a mix of
state test scores and teacher
recommendations, and giving
them extra instruction that
challenges them.
“Every single school in New
York City should have an ad-
vanced-learning program,” he
says. “Enrichment can help with
creativity and get them pas-
sionate about going to school,
but I still want to get them to
the level they should be at.”Joseph Renzulli, an 83-
year-old pioneer in gifted edu-
cation, says please don’t label
a child “gifted.”
Instead, call her a gifted
mathematician, singer or poet.
“I talk about the development
of gifted behaviors,” he says,
“rather than ‘you’re gifted and
the kid next to you is not.’ ”
Dr. Renzulli’s work was
touted by a diversity panel that
surprised many New York City
families last week with its call to
end the district’s current form
of gifted programs, and to scrap
the standardized test for 4-year-
olds that determines entry.
The panel, appointed by
Mayor Bill de Blasio, cited Dr.
Renzulli’s “schoolwide enrich-
ment model” as an alternative.
Rather than separating
young children deemed gifted
into their own classrooms, Dr.
Renzulli promotes a broader
effort to offer students of all
abilities hands-on projects
that tap into their interests.BYLESLIEBRODYGifted Debate Puts Spotlight on Expert
Diversity panel looks to
method that says all
pupils need projects
that tap their interestsJoseph RenzulliUNIVERSITY OF CONNECTICUT’S NEAG SCHOOL OF EDUCATIONProgram Gives
Students ChoicesNine schools in New York
City now use Renzulli Learning
in various ways, and others
use parts of its philosophy.
Principal Louis Pavone says
he offers children Friday after-
noon “enrichment clusters” at
P.S./I.S. 78 in Long Island City,
which serves prekindergarten
through eighth grade. Stu-
dents’ choices include song-
writing, 3-D design, scrapbook-ing, reviewing local restaurants
and studying fish in city wa-
ters. “It extends the walls of
the classrooms,” he says.
About 74% of its children
passed state tests in reading
and 67% in math in spring
2018, about in line with stu-
dents of similar backgrounds,
by city data.
About 100,000 students
use the platform world-wide.
The software typically costs
$10 a student, or $3,000 a
school, the company says, add-
ing that the firm isn’t yet turn-
ing a profit.Rain Doesn’t Dampen Revelers’ Spirits at the West Indian American Day Parade
FROM LEFT: JEENAH MOON/ASSOCIATED PRESS; MICHAEL NAGLE/EPA/SHUTTERSTOCK
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