Access No: 9300119056 ProQuest - The New York Times (R) Ondisc Title: CHOICES AND SMILES FOR NEW YORK CONSUMER Authors: KIRK JOHNSON Source: The New York Times, Late Edition - Final Date: Monday May 27, 1996 Sec: 1 Metropolitan Desk p: 1 Length: Long (2059 words) Illus: Photo Subjects: RETAIL STORES & TRADE; CONSUMERS & CONSUMPTION; REGULATION & DEREGULATION OF INDUSTRY; NEW YORK CITY Copyright 1996 The New York Times Company. Data supplied by NEXIS (R) Service. Article Text: From the window of his small stationery supply store at the Avenue of the Americas and 18th Street in Manhattan, Michael Jacobs saw his world transformed as giant retail stores, one after another, moved into the once vacant and grimy strip of warehouses where he had operated his store since the mid-1970's. The new stores, with their employee uniforms and their emphasis on smiling, suburban-style service and vast selection, changed everything -- the buildings, the neighborhood and, in the end, Mr. Jacobs himself. He recreated his 2,800-square-foot shop in the megastores' image. He bought uniforms and name tags for his employees, and walkie-talkies so they would not have to shout to one another over customers' heads. He began accepting returns. He extended his hours, opened on Sunday for the first time, and last Christmas hired his 14-year-old son, Andrew, as doorman. Every new touch, Mr. Jacobs admits, was borrowed from the bigger players across the avenue. 'I made it into the 20th century by following these other stores,' Mr. Jacobs said. 'It's like going to college for getting the customer in your store -- you have to pick up and steal these little ideas.' In a region where the arrogant sales clerk and the sky-high utility bill are stock symbols of the economic landscape, greater consumer choice is breaking out all over, or is poised to. Some of the effects may not be positive -- more competition, consumer experts say, probably means more business failures, for one thing. But as Mr. Jacobs's story shows, a new wave of competition is empowering customers to demand better treatment, and businesses from telephone companies to grocery stores are giving it. 'It means getting at eye-to-eye level with the customer,' said Stan Sorkin, a vice president of Pathmark Stores, which operates 17 suburban-style supermarkets in New York City and plans to open eight more in the next five years. Mr. Sorkin takes the eye-level idea literally: the customer-service booths in Pathmark stores have all been lowered by 18 inches, so that shoppers do not feel looked down upon. The economy in the New York area, and particularly the city itself, has traditionally had a split personality: poor service, limited selection and high prices, especially in poorer neighborhoods, coexist with encyclopedic choices in other areas, like home delivery of expensive foods. A kind of island economy mentality, with expectations of scarcity amid plenty, has been reinforced by habit, politics, high taxes and land prices, and zoning regulations that city officials and business people say inhibited the entry of competitors. The new pattern of consumer choice has been spurred partly by Government deregulation and technological innovation, but it is mostly the result of old-fashioned competition, as companies that once avoided New York have declared its barricades worth surmounting. Last year, Wal-Mart came to the New York region for the first time, opening two huge discount stores on Long Island. Office Depot entered as well, opening three of the four largest stores in its national chain in New Jersey and Long Island. The Old Navy Clothing Company came to the Avenue of the Americas, and plans to open stores in the Bronx and Brooklyn later this year. Fairway brought supermarket-scale shopping to Harlem. Stop and Shop arrived from New England, bent on expansion. The change goes beyond retailing. A new company has opened in Stamford, Conn., selling natural gas under utility competition rules that took effect in New York State on May 1. Orange and Rockland Utilities plans to begin a pilot program this summer to let customers choose their electricity supplier. Nynex, which consumer groups say has one of the worst telephone service records in the nation, is merging with Bell Atlantic, which has one of the best. More Choices, More Demands Experts say that consumer choice, once established, tends to be self-perpetuating, attracting new customers while raising the expectations of old ones. That in turn puts pressure on businesses to keep up with their customers' demands, as well as with one another. 'Consumers have a higher expectation of what companies are going to do for them,' said Jerry DeSanto, director of information and investigations at the Better Business Bureau of Metropolitan New York. 'If you walk into a Gap, you assume you're going to get good treatment, and the competition is so fierce for your dollar, that if you go anywhere else, they'd better be as good.' New competitors say that businesses in New York have generally been slower than elsewhere in responding to consumers' changing demands. That spelled opportunity. 'Stores became more customer friendly elsewhere in the country, and as that gap widened, it made it more appealing to come here,' said Don Sussman, the vice president and general manager of the Long Island-New Jersey division for the Stop and Shop Supermarket Company. Stop and Shop, based in Massachusetts, bought a 17-store Mel's Food Town chain on Long Island last year, and is now building its first four new stores in the region, all on Long Island. Some of the bigger established businesses in the city have bent with the winds. Macy's and Lord & Taylor have liberalized their return and exchange policies since the late 1980's, either by extending time limits for returns or eliminating the restrictions altogether, according to surveys by the Better Business Bureau. Companies also say that keeping up with consumers does not simply mean being nicer. In many cases better customer service means materially different service. The new Pathmark stores, for example, will all feature lines of prepared meals to reheat at home. And a Wal-Mart spokesman said that getting customers out of the store without long waits has become as important as attracting them. Mr. Jacobs has found that shoppers lured from outside the neighborhood and even the suburbs to what was known as the Ladies' Mile are different from the local customers that his store, Jam Paper and Envelope, once depended on. Because they do not live nearby, they will come back only if they want to. That changes everything. 'You only get one crack at them,' Mr. Jacobs said. 'If you want them back, you've got to make them happy.' No Guarantees Of Survival But the expanding menu in the region does not guarantee a world of sweetness and light. Better service or not, some businesses in the region will undoubtedly fail. And some, like the deli and variety store that were on Mr. Jacobs's block, will be physically displaced by new merchants. Others simply might not find a way to compete in the new era. And for some businesses, like utilities and telecommunications, experts say the picture is still developing. With the passage of the Federal Telecommunications Act, heightened competition among telephone companies is expected to drive down long-distance rates. But local service rates are generally expected to go up, and the result may be a wash. The merger of Nynex and Bell Atlantic, while holding the promise of better service for Nynex customers, also represents a net decrease in competition, making consumer experts cautious about the long-term benefits. 'If you're a Nynex customer, the grass is always greener wherever you go, but I'd much rather see Bell Atlantic coming in and competing,' said Robert Ceisler, executive director of the New York Citizens Utility Board, a nonprofit consumer group. 'Everyone's talking about competing, but merging with another Baby Bell is not competition.' Utility deregulation, which is progressing in all three states in the region -- fastest in New York -- is expected to help mainly big business users of electricity in the early years. Utility experts say residents should expect lots of new choices in coming years, as utilities try to repackage and customize their services -- combining, perhaps, telephone, cable television and electric or gas service on a single bill. But they say rates could remain stubbornly high, or even go up. Competitive markets mean greater business risks, which mean higher capital borrowing costs. Analysts say those costs could postpone or eliminate rate reductions. Residents of the New York region -- especially customers of the Long Island Lighting Company, Con Edison and Orange and Rockland Utilities -- already pay some of the highest energy rates in the nation, according to Georgetown Consulting, a Connecticut firm that works with local regulators. 'I think you are going to see the utilities try to get closer to customers and try to provide better service, but it will be the larger customers first,' said Michael D. Dirmeier of the Georgetown firm. The New Dynamic Takes Hold Still, there are clear indicators that the new dynamic of competition is taking hold, bringing economic growth and improved service. Total retail sales rose in New York City in 1995, after falling steadily since 1988, according to figures from the Department of City Planning. Retail sales outside the city declined. Both changes were slight, but the implications are profound -- the first time such a pattern has emerged since at least 1982, city officials said. The administration of Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani is now pushing a revised zoning plan intended to keep that momentum going by encouraging new retail uses in manufacturing zones. In another sign of change, about 2,000 new jobs are expected from the new generation of huge Pathmark stores. It is the company's first expansion in the city since 1988. And in Harlem, where Fairway Market opened earlier this year at 133d Street and 12th Avenue, smaller groceries at first howled that the new store would drive them out of business. But in the world after Fairway, local stores are becoming better, cleaner and cheaper to win back shoppers. 'Fairway is showing that there is the capacity in low-income neighborhoods to support good food stores, and that's putting pressure on the stores in the neighborhood to begin to serve the consumer better -- prices have been affected,' said Pamela Fairclough, a project manager at the Community Food Resource Center, a nonprofit group. 'I think those operators are kind of realizing that they kind of have to get their acts together.' In Stamford, the 12 employees of Keyspan Energy provide further evidence of competition-fueled growth. The company began advertising for the first time last month on radio and in newspapers, urging customers to rethink their natural gas supplier. Under deregulation, consumers can buy gas from whatever company they want at whatever price they can negotiate without changing the utility that actually delivers the service to their house or business. Keyspan is also an example of the surprising turns that the competition can take. The company is a subsidiary of Brooklyn Union Gas, but part of its mandate is to woo customers away from its own parent. Brooklyn Union officials say it is an arrangement in which everybody can come out ahead: Keyspan buys the gas more cheaply than Brooklyn Union can because it pays lower Connecticut taxes; the savings is passed on to the customer; Brooklyn Union, which makes its profit on the actual delivery system anyway, and not the gas itself, makes its customers happy. Orange and Rockland Utilities also plans to offer industrial customers the option, beginning July 1, of buying their electricity from another source. The pilot program will be extended to some residential customers next January. On a smaller scale, competition has created new jobs at Mr. Jacobs'slittle empire, Jam Paper and Envelope. He hired two employees when he expanded his hours. And then he implemented all the changes inspired on the Avenue of the Americas -- from uniforms to shopping baskets handed out at the front door -- to his two other Manhattan stores. His workforce has expanded by 6, to 26. And the improvements, he said, build on one another. He encourages his employees to become spies on their lunch hours, scouting out the newest customer-service techniques in the big stores. When an idea is tried out, he said, the employees appreciate getting more attention, and feel they have made a contribution. 'I can't foresee the next thing, because I'm not as smart as the big guys,' he said. 'But I know it when I see it.' Caption: Photo: Ana Medrano, right, an employee of Jam Paper and Envelope on the Avenue of the Americas at 18th Street, helping a customer, Nancy Rosin, of Franklin Lakes, N.J. The store has made changes in its customer service. (Chang W. Lee/The New York Times) (pg. 24) Access No: 9300112143 ProQuest - The New York Times (R) Ondisc Title: L.I. OVER 25 YEARS: REALIZING A DREAM; DEEP ROOTS, BROAD CHANGES Authors: DAN BARRY Source: The New York Times, Late Edition - Final Date: Sunday May 5, 1996 Sec: 13LI Long Island Weekly Desk p: 1 Length: Long (2860 words) Illus: Graph, Photo Subjects: AGRICULTURE; LABOR; COMMUTING; POTATOES; AGRICULTURE; SOCIAL CONDITIONS & TRENDS ; RAILROADS; LONG ISLAND (NY); CALVERTON (LI) Names: FARR, CONNIE; FARR, REX; RATHER, JOHN Copyright 1996 The New York Times Company. Data supplied by NEXIS (R) Service. Article Text: CALVERTON -- THE rooster just outside the door greets every morning with a song of joy. But its small-brained enthusiasm is not shared by Connie Farr, Long Island Railroad commuter, and her husband, Rex Farr, Long Island farmer. Consciousness resurrects thoughts of work. If the weekday routine whirs along without interruption, Ms. Farr will be in nearby Riverhead an hour later, stepping aboard the 6:07, a mostly empty diesel train bound for Ronkonkoma. There she catches an electrically powered train for Manhattan, where she works as a knit-fabric designer. Her 77-mile morning commute takes 2 hours and 12 minutes. Theoretically. When not reading, or sharing in the fatalistic humor that comes easily to commuters, Connie Farr gazes through Plexiglas windows at the passing Long Island landscape. Since she began commuting from this farm town eight years ago, there have been constants: the remnants of pine barrens, the sadly beautiful headstones of Pinelawn Cemetery. And there have been changes: because of the huge layoffs at the once-mighty Grumman Corporation, fewer people get off now at the Bethpage stop. By the time Ms. Farr reaches Manhattan, her husband has already fed the couple's eclectic menagerie: a pony, two dogs, three goats, 20 sheep, some chickens, various ducks and about 30 cats. To keep track of their pride of felines, the Farrs have tacked a cat roster to the kitchen wall; thin pencil lines have been drawn through the names of Kitty and Spike. Then, for the rest of the day, on 55 acres that once produced the famous but low-profit Long Island potato, he now grows organic produce, from gourmet lettuce to yellow zucchini, from heirloom tomatoes to leeks. While his wife toils amid millions of people, Mr. Farr, a former entertainment producer, has days when he wonders how he got here -- standing alone on rich, eastern Island loam, talking to vegetables. In many ways, the Farrs of Calverton are Long Island today; they represent where the region has been, and where it is headed. And, in more intangible ways, they typify the region's 2.6 million residents: they work hard to realize their dreams while living on a 118-mile stretch of land that juts into the Atlantic Ocean like a snagged bluefish. The year 1996 finds Long Island the same as ever -- it keeps changing. Just as the various moods of the Atlantic continue to redefine the southern belly of the island, so too do demographics and economics continue to redefine who we are and how we live. Popular culture would have it that we live in one big Levittown; that our sons are Howard Sterns, our daughters Amy Fishers and our parents the Buttafuocos. In truth, we are the farmers in Southold and Southampton, who trace our Long Island roots back three centuries, and we are the Dominican and Guatemalan emigres in Hempstead, who trace our Long Island roots in terms of months, not years. And we are American Indiansof the Shinnecock and Poospatuck tribes, whose ancestors were here well before 1524, when Giovanni da Verrazano first laid eyes on Suffolk's sandy coast. We are the commuters, rocked and swayed inexorably toward Manhattan, and we are the engineers and bankers, clerks and laborers, fighting traffic to get from one part of the island to another. We are the affluent of Sands Point to the north, the poor of Patchogue to the south, and the middle class in between, whose heritage of tenement life in Depression-era New York City has spawned pride for the simplest of ranch-style homes. The Mad Dash Down L.I.E. and Onto L.I.R.R. We are Connie and Rex Farr. Connie Farr is 48, a macrobiotic vegetarian, and a veteran of many a commuter war. She knows to bring a small blanket to ward off the winds that whip about the feet of L.I.R.R. passengers. She knows that if she misses the 6:07 in the morning, she can race her Geo down the Long Island Expressway to catch the connection at Yaphank. And she knows that if the 5:41, the last train to Far East destinations like Riverhead, leaves without her in the evening, itmeans a $50 cab ride from Ronkonkoma back to Calverton. Commuting five hours a day, five days a week, can do strange things to a person. Ms. Farr and her buddies have imagined who might play them in a television sitcom about the largest commuter railroad in the nation. They have placed bets on the number of eggs beneath that swan they see every day, the one nesting in the shallow waters of the Peconic River. And, on more than one occasion, Ms. Farr has nodded off, only to wake with her body sprawled across the seat and her head jutting into the aisle. This is one reason why she tries to remain alert, she says: 'I try to find a clean window.' However tedious, Ms. Farr's daily commuting carries historical resonance. In the mid-1830's, teams of laborers in Brooklyn and in Greenport began laying track for what became the Long Island Railroad. They carved through the woods and pine barrens that once covered Farmingdale, Deer Park and Brentwood to lay down the original line, the Ronkonkoma line now traveled by Ms. Farr. Working People And Middle-Class Life From her window, she bears witness to Long Island's continuing development. Many of the houses she sees in Suffolk, the subdivisions of raised ranches, were carved out of potato fields and woods to accommodate the tens of thousands who moved eastward in the last 30 years. Since 1960, Suffolk's population has ballooned by more than a million, to 1.33 million people. As she continues west into Nassau County, Ms. Farr sees older homes, colonials and Cape Cods set on smaller lots. Some were built before World War II, but many more were built for returning soldiers and military workers who used low-interest government loans to trade city asphalt for suburban grass. In one two-year span, William Levitt, the developer, built 10,101 houses in what became Levittown. No wonder, then, that between 1950 and 1960, Nassau County's population doubled to 1.3 million. 'It became possible,' said Barbara Kelly, curator of Hofstra University's Institute of Long Island Studies, 'for the working people to have what the middle class had taken for granted. A house. A front yard. A backyard.' Ms. Farr is one of 110,000 people on Long Island who take trains to jobs amid Manhattan skyscrapers. It has been this way for most of the 20th century, ever since train tunnels under the East River connected the two islands in 1910. But time still moves slowly inside those railroad cars; Ms. Farr sees more of her fellow commuters during the week than she does of her husband. Thousands more commute to Manhattan by car and truck, along the latticework of pavement laid over the island by, among others, uber-planner Robert Moses. Just as experienced L.I.R.R. passengers know every lurch in the approach to Jamaica station, so, too, do Long Island Expressway veterans know every exit. Such knowledge comes not from mnemonic devices, but from hours spent in traffic, staring at green signs in the distance. But there are dramatic changes taking place in Long Island's work force, as well as within the many homes that Ms. Farr passes every day. The region's economy continues to reel from the leveling blow it received in the late 1980's, when the recession and Government cutbacks hit Long Island square in its breadbasket: the military and aerospace industries. According to Dr. Pearl M. Kamer, chief economist for the Long Island Association, the region's military-related businesses lost more than 43,000 jobs between 1986 and 1994, a loss roughly equivalent to the population of Hicksville. Thousands more lost jobs in related fields. Today the collapse of those industries are reflected in sobering ways. Grumman Corporation in Bethpage was once the island's largest private employer; now that claim is held by Waldbaum's supermarkets, and Grumman's old headquarters is for sale. And on the grounds of the old Fairchild Republic aircraft factory in East Farmingdale, a 'multiplex' movie theater is under construction. There are some positive signs. 'Long Island is reinventing itself,' said Gary Huth, a labor market analyst for the New York State Department of Labor. 'You see some of the traditional businesses losing jobs -- banking, aerospace and defense -- but you are finding some of those companies related to defense reinventing themselves in some way. Some are going into electronic products, and some will benefit from the upturn in the civilian air market.' Mr. Huth and other economists say the jobs lost at places like Grumman are being replaced piecemeal: 10 jobs in a plant in Hauppauge, 20 jobs in a factory in Plainview. 'That's not nearly as visible to people,' Mr. Huth said. 'But is it encouraging? No question about it.' Dr. Kamer was less sanguine. She said that most of the 44,000 jobs created in the last three years were low-paying positions in health and social services, with few new opportunities in manufacturing and construction. 'The loss of high-paying defense jobs, being replaced by lower-wage retail and service jobs, certainly poses a threat to our living standard if we do nothing about it,' she said. 'Instead of relying on the one engine of the defense industry, we're going to need several engines of growth. And that's going to help us in the long run.' Dr. Kamer and Mr. Huth belong to a chorus of economists and planners calling for Long Island to improve and match the region's work skills with the needs of emerging businesses. The Long Island Association and the State University at Stony Brook, among others, are working on projects to identify industries, like biotechnology and graphics communications, that should create better-paying jobs for the region. All this has affected how people spend their money on Long Island. National retailers salivate over the region's general affluence and spending habits. The Wall Street Journal recently ranked the country's metropolitan areas by median household income: Long Island was first, with $70,091, and San Jose, Calif., was a distant second. It is an island of consumerism, where community pride often blends with retail needs. The mall in Huntington bears the name of the island's most celebrated poet, Walt Whitman, and the mall at Roosevelt Field, the gem in the region's crown of malls, sits on the approximate site where Charles A. Lindbergh took flight for Paris in 1927. The Changing Face Of Consumerism The success of Long Island's nine regional malls and its sprawling shopping centers has wounded the downtown businesses of Bay Shore, Patchogue, and even Garden City's Franklin Avenue. Once the self-proclaimed Fifth Avenue of Long Island, the avenue now has several empty storefronts; a 'for rent' sign hangs in the window of a closed furrier shop. The reason is Darwinian, said Barry Berman, a business professor at Hofstra University. 'I have 250-odd stores at Roosevelt Field,' he said. 'Why the heck do I want to go to Franklin Avenue to have Lord & Taylor's and Saks Fifth Avenue?' But 50 miles east of Roosevelt Field, where shoppers can have their cars parked by a valet while they browse the aisles of Bloomingdale's, Wal-Mart has opened two stores in the Town of Brookhaven. Meanwhile, other discount stores, like Caldor and Kmart, have proliferated throughout Long Island. 'One has to bear in mind that the mass market has basically divided itself,' Professor Berman said. 'You have less than affluent and more than affluent. Kmart wasn't here 25 years ago. Caldor wasn't here 25 years ago. There are plenty of people who are single parents, who have been downsized, who haven't done well for one reason or another.' Economics have wrought other changes as well. Long Island's postwar pioneers are retiring and moving to places like Florida, North Carolina -- and eastern Suffolk. Some of their sons and daughters have been able to buy homes on the island, even in the neighborhoods where they grew up. But many others have been priced out of the market, thanks to the high cost of houses -- averaging close to $180,000 -- and tax and utility bills that are among the highest in the country. The Levittown dream of yesteryear has proved elusive today. Young adults are having difficulty trying to replicate an experience their parents may have taken for granted: owning a house. And there is some indication that people are moving away. According to the American Movers' Conference, a moving-industry association, Long Island was not among the country's top 10 areas from which people were moving in 1994; in the first nine months of 1995, it ranked first. But the Farrs have decided to stay. And their attempt to carve a diverse niche in Long Island's competitive farming world represents what economists say is needed throughout the island's business world. Rex Farr is 49, with dark-blond hair that sticks out like straw from under his John Deere cap. His rural look of today contradicts the more urbane look of his past. In another life, he was an entertainment producer, known among the avant-garde of Greenwich Village and by the waiters at Elaine's. But his family goes back three generations in Southampton. And in 1984, after several years of living in Huntington, Mr. Farr and his wife decided to move east, with vague plans to buy a plot big enough to rehearse Busby Berkeley-like productions around the swimming pool. They bought a 60-acre farm, built a log cabin on the foundation of an old shed, and soon learned that the water in their well was laced with pesticides. Perhaps it was the fresh air, or maybe the re-evaluation that comes in midlife. But in 1989, Mr. Farr decided to try his hand at farming organically, using the marketing know-how the couple had acquired in the fashion and entertainment industries. They started slowly, taking classes, growing 'high-end crops' like yellow pear tomatoes and zucchini flowers on four acres. Mr. Farr would sometimes truck the produce into Manhattan himself, selling it to restaurants and shops he once frequented. Today, the Farrs have 55 acres in production, with the choice of vegetables changing with their reading of what is in demand. 'Farming is not like having a hit record,' Mr. Farr said. 'If you have a hit crop, you have to go back.' There have been setbacks. They are still paying debt on problems they had during the 1991 season, and their irrigation pump -- as important as the loam -- broke down last year. And they are aware that some Suffolk farmers, whose families go back generations, first considered the Farrs to be hopeless neophytes (a reputation enhanced in 1991, when two valuable heifers fled the Farr farm and wandered about the area for two months -- including an occasional jaunt down the streets of Riverhead). Now, Ms. Farr said, 'They don't laugh as much.' Joseph Gergela 3d, executive director of the Long Island Farm Bureau, is among those applauding rather than laughing. The region's farmers, once known almost entirely for their potato and cauliflower crops, have been forced by production costs and the market to diversify or hang up their coveralls. Indeed, more than 1,000 acres of farmland are lost every year, mostly to make way for subdivisions. Agricultural Sales Lead the State But the farming community's ability to shift focus has paid off, Mr. Gergela said. Twenty-five years ago there were no vineyards on Long Island; now there are 16 wineries producing 3 million bottles of wine a year. Where potatoes once grew, there are now sod farms, nurseries, specialty produce -- all of which have made Long Island the state's leader in agricultural sales. Each weeknight, Connie Farr races to Pennsylvania Station to catch the 5:41 back home. There have been times when she reached the platform just as the train's doors closed, and the urge to scream had to be stifled. Once, and only once, her desperate pleas persuaded an engineer to open the door for her. She looks forward to the return home, especially on Friday evenings. She and her East End buddies used to be so excited that they'd have Friday-night mixers on board -- one person would bring pretzels, another some beer -- until complaints from other passengers ended the reverie. Still, those nights heading east remain sweet. With the sun setting, the evening light can set the drabbest of suburban homes aglow, and the possibilities of Long Island seem good and many. The beaches. The parks. The crops. Heck, even the Mets. 'It's a quality of life that you can take for granted, that you only begin to realize when you go to other parts of the country,' Dr. Kamer said. 'We tend to focus on the negatives, I guess because New Yorkers like to gripe.' Back home in Calverton, Connie and Rex Farr might go to a restaurant, where they have been known to barter for a meal with produce. On Sunday, their only day off, they might go to the beach. Or Connie Farr might just sit at her kitchen table with a cup of herbal tea by her elbow, peering through binoculars to make sure that their animals don't stray from the homestead. 'Duck on the road,' she might say. Caption: Photos: Rex and Connie Farr with sheep at their farm in Riverhead. (Michael Shavel for The New York Times) (pg. 1); Connie Farr walks between her Long Island Rail Road trains at Pennsylvania Station and her office at the Avenue of the Americas, where she designs knit fabrics. (Dith Pran/The New York Times); Rex Farr tends farm chores on the 55 acres in Riverhead where he grows organic produce like lettuce and zucchini. (Michael Shavel for The New York Times) (pg. 18) Graphs: 'How Nassau Has Changed' show population, race, age, income and other figures. (Sources: L.I.R.R., Census Bureau, County Clerk's office); 'How Suffolk Has Changed' show population, race, age, income, and other figures. (Sources: Market Statistics, Census Bureau, County Clerk's office) (pg. 18) Access No: 9300100647 ProQuest - The New York Times (R) Ondisc Title: IN THE REGION/CONNECTICUT; DESIGN REVIEW FOR A SEAMLESS COMMUNITY FABRIC Authors: ELEANOR CHARLES Source: The New York Times, Late Edition - Final Date: Sunday Mar 24, 1996 Sec: 9 Real Estate Desk p: 11 Length: Long (1290 words) Illus: Photo Subjects: RETAIL STORES & TRADE; DESIGN; CONNECTICUT Copyright 1996 The New York Times Company. Data supplied by NEXIS (R) Service. Article Text: TWO years ago Richard Chernevak, partner in the Madison development firm of Heflin Properties Ltd., submitted plans to the Litchfield Planning and Zoning Commission for a new CVS store, confident that the renderings he presented complemented the town's architecture and even the brick firehouse next door. 'To his chagrin,' said Thomas McGowan, Litchfield's Town Planner, 'his proposal was roundly rejected at a public hearing, where townspeople said it did not fit in.' His application was subsequently turned down by the commission, but not based on the building's appearance. To reject a building solely for its design is illegal in Connecticut. Instead, the focus was on the driveway configuration, signs, siting and a small wetland, all legally covered in the regulations. 'The residents didn't like the somewhat generic CVS store that we presented,' said Mr. Chervenak, 'so we tried a mansard roof and they told us, 'You still don't get it.' We did four new designs, rearranged our site plan three or four times and spent about $100,000 during a year of negotiations.' The fourth design was accepted, and the completed clapboard Colonial CVS opened last October. Mr. Chervenak estimates that the design cost was twice what it would have been if a design advisory committee had been in place, like the one that Litchfield's Planning and Zoning Commission created on March 4 of this year. 'If we initiated a project today,' he said, 'we would get the guidance we were looking for.' Many, but far from all, of Connecticut's 169 towns have some sort of design advisory committee. They began appearing in the 60's after the state, particularly Fairfield County, had experienced a decade of virtually uncontrolled residential and commercial growth and the cherished New England look of the towns had begun to erode. Litchfield's committee is made up of three members and two alternates; two are architects, another is a landscape architect, the fourth an interior designer and the fifth a local businessman. The panel reviews are architects, another is a landscape architect, the fourth an interior designer and the fifth a local businessman. The panel reviews construction and renovations of all structures except detached single-family homes from an esthetic standpoint.lity in style and scale with the immediate neighborhood and the town, presents recommendations to the Planning and Zoning Commission and is available to developers for consultation on a continuous basis until a project is approved or denied. Design review statewide is at present limited to institutional and commercial buildings, including apartment complexes. AN attempt to form such a body in Litchfield was made about eight years ago, but it never materialized. 'The difference now,' said Carol Bramley, vice chairman of the Planning and Zoning Commission, 'is that Litchfield has become a hot spot for the big chains.' Famous for its classic Colonial homes, churches and village green, Litchfield, a town of 8,500 people living in 58 square miles, feels the need to take firmer control of its appearance into the 21st century. In Greenwich, one of the first architectural review boards was created as an independent body around 1965. Without its approval, said Robert Barnum, an architect who was its first chairman, 'the Planning and Zoning Commission could make it very difficult for you.' 'We never had any statutory clout,' he said, 'but if we did not recommend a project, Planning and Zoning could create long delays.' This, of course, discouraged developers from pursuing their plans. 'Some people who came before us resented being told what to do and threatened to go to court,' said William Rutherford, an original and current committee member. To eliminate the growing number of confrontations, the independent board was disbanded and the Architectural Advisory Committee was formed in its place, serving at the behest of the Planning and Zoning Commission. 'We are extremely effective in maintaining the integrity of streetscapes, architecture and landscaping,' said the committee chairman, Paul Pugliese. Its most important current project is the new $62 million Greenwich Hospital, to be built in stages on the site of the existing 1917 complex, most of which will be demolished. 'We have had 16 meetings this past year,' said Mr. Pugliese. Several changes in plans have resulted. One of the more recent design advisory committees was formed in Torrington in 1992. 'The Planning and Zoning Commission was interested in improving the appearance of downtown,' said Daniel McGinnis, town planner. 'There was a lot of strip development along East Main Street and Winsted Road, and when we would recommend something the developer would flat out refuse. We got buildings we didn't want. That's still happening, but on balance the committee is worth having because we are able to effect some change.' One of Torrington's problems is signature buildings. 'We couldn't have any say over Wal-Mart,' said Jeffrey Bellows, an architect and committee member, 'and one Dairy Mart-type store essentially told us to go fly a kite. We've had more success with larger corporations like McDonald's, who want to put on a good public face.' TOWN by town the committees may set uniquely local agendas. Wilton, for example, lying in the path of ever more commercial and congested Route 7, has had a Design Advisory Committee since 1976, but only for its 1,000- by 1,700-foot retail center on Old Ridgefield Road. Now it plans to expand the committee's purview to include Route 7. Danbury initiated a similarly limited Architectural Advisory Committee last year, solely for its downtown business district, where improvements in paving, lighting, facades and signs are under way. Some Fairfield County towns, including Stamford, New Canaan and Weston, have never had such committees and do not plan to create them. Darien has had a design review mechanism since the 60's according to Ray Nurmi, the Town Planner. Facades and street improvements along its Post Road retail strip have benefited from the committee's input. Some 20 years ago Ridgefield started an Architectural Review Board, and John Kinnear, the chairman, notes with satisfaction that 'even the newer buildings fit the character of the village.' One of the original members is Joseph Hayman, who has a master's degree in city planning from Columbia University. 'Downtowns,' he said, 'which may be only 5 percent of the land, are what give towns their flavor.' 'Most competent developers welcome an A.R.B. because they get professional critiquing for their projects,' he said, and he observed that architects appreciate the committee's support when they are trying to dissuade a client from presenting unsuitable ideas. Westport's advisory board started in 1979. 'There was concern for the kinds of growth taking place,' said Michael Calise, the board chairman, 'but not in the sense that we were striving for a particular type of design. We have a wide range, from extremely contemporary to very traditional.' 'I find the board very effective,' said Catherine Barnard, the Wesport Town Planner, 'because planning and zoning board members do not have expertise in design, and an architectural review board just focuses on design.' 'We have all driven through communities that have no rhyme or reason, no planning and seen beautiful buildings redone inappropriately,' said Barbara Goodrich, assistant city manager of Norwich, and City Council representative to the Design Review Board. 'Design review has a place in assuring some kind of standard, but richness of diversity should be promoted, not stifled.' After all, she said, 'it's very difficult to legislate good taste.' Caption: Photo: Richard Chernevak at CVS store in Litchfield that his firm built. Earlier proposal above was rejected by townspeople at a public hearing. (Alan Zale for The New York Times) Access No: 9300086950 ProQuest - The New York Times (R) Ondisc Title: ESSAY; THE NEW SOCIALISM Authors: WILLIAM SAFIRE Source: The New York Times, Late Edition - Final Date: Monday Feb 26, 1996 Sec: A Editorial Desk p: 13 Length: Long (712 words) Type: OP-ED Subjects: ECONOMIC CONDITIONS & TRENDS; UNITED STATES ECONOMY Abstract: William Safire asserts that the specter of New Socialism is haunting free enterprise. Safire says that the world's leftists, unable to command the economy directly, propose to coerce corporations to act as government's surrogates under the banner of 'social responsibility.' Copyright 1996 The New York Times Company. Data supplied by NEXIS (R) Service. Article Text: WASHINGTON -- A specter is haunting free enter prisethe specter of the New Socialism. The old Socialism failed. The Marxist notion that state ownership could triumph over capitalism led to the disintegration of the Soviet Union. In its other form -- the democratic welfare state -- the old Socialism is being abandoned. Privatization is in; from Sweden and Britain to Israel and throughout Asia, tight state control of business is unraveling. In the U.S., even the majority of Democrats read the public mood against tax-and-spend and turned away from the stultifying excesses of income redistribution. For more than a decade, the pendulum has been swinging toward free enterprise and its handmaiden, free trade. What were the world's leftists to do? How to reassert central control in the face of public revulsion of corrupt or intrusive state bureaucracy? After years of thrashing about, they have come up with an answer: the New Socialism. Unable to command the economy directly, leftists propose to coerce corporations to act as government's surrogates. Under the banner of 'social responsibility,' the idea is to place the costs of education, health care, training, day care and environmental purity -- costs that voters are unwilling to assume -- on companies that now measure success in terms of profits and dividends. This goes beyond 'industrial policy,' that liberal scheme to let Washington decide which industries to subsidize and which to let fail. That cherry-picking didn't fly. Enter the New Socialist Person. He or she is called the 'stakeholder.' Remember that word; it has replaced 'proletariat' in the lexicon of the left. The leader of Britain's resurgent Labor Party, Tony Blair, advocates a 'stakeholder society.' The leader of House Democrats, Richard Gephardt, told the annual gathering of A.F.L.-C.I.O. executives in Bal Harbour, Fla., 'We've got to encourage, cajole and persuade our corporations . . . to recognize the role of their stakeholders as well as their shareholders.' At Bal Harbour, Clinton Labor Secretary Robert Reich went further, urging that Washington reward companies who practice 'good corporate citizenship' and punish, by taxation or regulation, those driven only to make profits (by delivering quality products at a low price). Who are the stakeholders? Workers, often seeking protection from competition; middle managers, even the unnecessary; the local community, including extreme environmentalists. In the New Socialism, share-owners come last -- including all those investing through pension funds and mutual funds -- despite the fact that these investors provide the capital to support profitable business and generate jobs. The fifth stakeholder, usually unmentioned in the New Socialism's attack on 'corporate greed' and demonization of the downsizers, is the consumer. His stake is his cost of living, which would shoot up if Reich punishments and Buchanan tariffs were slapped on the goods the middle-class family buys at Wal-Mart or Sears. The protected worker is also the cheated consumer. Capitalism's defenders know that only stupidly shortsighted executives overlook the need for a loyal, motivated work force; we also know that good community relations help attract the best managers and innovators to a company. And easing the shock of necessary belt-tightening on workers who are not producing is 'good P.R.,' which makes business sense -- provided it does not squander assets on ego-satisfying do-gooding or becoming the new delivery system for politicians' largesse. What are the primary 'social' responsibilities of a corporation? To serve its owners by returning a profit and its community by paying taxes; to earn the allegiance of customers by delivering value, and to provide a secure future for employees who help it succeed in the marketplace. A new responsibility is to resist the wave of resentment stirred by politicians whose geese cannot lay those golden eggs. The old business-bashing populism of Buchanan and some unions has linked up with the new business-using socialism of Clinton's advisers. If this pernicious bedfellowship is not rejected now, at a time of low unemployment, who will stand up for competition, productivity and free trade when the recession bites? Access No: 9300086552 ProQuest - The New York Times (R) Ondisc Title: IN THE REGION: CONNECTICUT; COPING WITH THE BIG HEADACHES 'BIG BOXES' BRING Authors: ELEANOR CHARLES Source: The New York Times, Late Edition - Final Date: Sunday Feb 25, 1996 Sec: 9 Real Estate Desk p: 10 Length: Long (1278 words) Illus: Photo Subjects: RETAIL STORES & TRADE; ZONING; ECONOMIC CONDITIONS & TRENDS; CONNECTICUT; WALLINGFORD (CONN); STAMFORD (CONN) Copyright 1996 The New York Times Company. Data supplied by NEXIS (R) Service. Article Text: DIFFERENT as they are from each other, urban Stamford and semirural Wallingford face the same issue -- what to do about an influx of 'big-box' stores that they perceive as threatening their prized community characteristics. 'Unlike some municipalities that try to prohibit 'big boxes,' we welcome them,' said John Condlin, chairman of Stamford's Downtown Special Services District, a business improvement organization, referring to the trend toward superstores. 'We just don't want the city to allow them into noncommercially zoned areas, drawing away from our downtown retailers and converting much-needed industrial space on the outskirts to commercial.' In defining big boxes, Neil Sherman, director of the Stamford Chamber of Commerce, drew distinctions. 'Really big boxes like Home Depot, that require loading docks, warehousing and outdoor space, belong near the turnpike,' he said. 'But 'category killers' like Toys 'R' Us, Staples, Barnes & Noble, should be downtown, maintaining our strong retail core.' It has taken many years for Stamford's local retailers to overcome the powerful competition they faced with the opening of Town Center Mall in 1982, and to reach the current state of peaceful coexistence. But in the small Town of Wallingford, the arms aren't quite so open. David Smith of People for a Better Wallingford, fears that 'the proliferation of big-box retailers here is hurting the town.' 'They are pulling enormous amounts of traffic through our historic National Register neighborhoods, devaluing the community,' he said. He noted that a crossing guard was hit by a car last year at Christian and North Main Street, an intersection near an elementary school and bordering the campus of Choate Rosemary Hall, one of the nation's most prestigious prep schools. Some 900 students on their way to classes and dormitories criss-cross Elm, North Main, Christian and other streets that have become alternate routes for motorists headed toward the big new stores on Route 5. 'We are actually teaching some remedial street-crossing skills to survive the increased traffic,' said Charlotte Murphy, a spokeswoman for Choate. Wallingford is a prime target for regional retailers. Just 12 miles from New Haven and 23 miles from Hartford, with direct access to Interstate 91, Routes 68, 150, 70 and 71 and the Wilbur Cross Parkway, its commercially zoned Route 5 runs through the center of town. Not everyone supports the campaign to limit growth on Route 5. Fred A. Valenti, who owns Valenti Auto Sales, said 'Wallingford is growing, building a lot of new homes on the east side -- that's where the traffic is coming from. They have to come downtown to shop.' Indeed, planning department figures show 583 single-family homes and 541 multifamily units have been built since 1991. Like some other auto dealers in town, Mr. Valenti owns land on Route 5 that is available for development. 'Kmart and Wal-Mart had enough faith in Wallingford to spend $15 million apiece on new stores where they will employ 300 people each,' he noted. 'Free enterprise built the country. I think that's what we need.' But even real estate agents are divided on the issue. Lucille Trzcinski, a local realtor, said she regretted that 'we did not have the foresight to follow a mayor's committee report five years ago that could have resulted in keeping the stores out.' 'People have to look to the long term,' she said. 'If we let Route 5 become unmanageable, homes that are still on it, and the centuries-old houses on Christian, North and High Streets, will decline in value or become worthless.' Both Wallingford and Stamford are trying to stanch or at least direct the tide of mammoth retailing. Stamford's planning commission will hold a public hearing on March 17 to scrutinize proposed changes to its master plan, recommended in a study by Farandino Associates of Elmsford, N.Y. Under consideration will be a category for large sites near Connecticut Turnpike interchanges where big-box stores could locate, but only if 50 percent of the sites are maintained for industrial development. Wallingford's planning commission passed an interim regulation in November stating that any development that generates 100 or more peak-hour vehicle trips a day cannot submit plans until September -- in effect, a moratorium on big-box stores. O N March 4, a controversial application by Shaw's Supermarket that predates the moratorium will seek approval at a public hearing to build a total of 115,146 square feet of retail space on an 11.45-acre Route 5 parcel, including its 69,406-square-foot-store. 'Wallingford is approaching saturation,' said William Kane, a partner at Wellspeak, Dugas & Kane, real estate consultants and appraisers in Cheshire. Mr. Kane believes that the retail property market is saturated throughout much of the state. Last month a Super Kmart and a Wal-Mart opened on Route 5, covering a total of 300,637 square feet on 28.9 acres. An existing Kmart, Bradlees, Caldor, Super Stop & Shop, Marshall's, Staples, and other stores make up an additional 582,033 square feet on a total of 65.2 acres. 'Not all will survive,' Mr. Kane said. 'Caldor and Bradlees are in Chapter 11, and there's just not enough population to support them.' Wallingford's population is 42,860, but the stores draw from surrounding towns as well. A two-part study of traffic and land use in Wallingford by Milone & MacBroom of Cheshire and Harrall-Michalowski Associates of Hamden will soon be released. Linda Bush, the Wallingford town planner, said, though, that some of its findings for Route 5, where an added 102 acres are ripe for development, suggest that part of the road south of North Street would have to be widened from two to six lanes, and that the current 35 percent land coverage should be reduced to 10 percent. Stamford, on the other hand, 'is not over-stored,' said Mr. Kane. 'The city has few large sites appropriate for big boxes, and anyone interested in building one is looking at over $1 million an acre.' 'A few years ago,' said Robin Stein, Stamford's planning director, 'nobody wanted big-box stores downtown, but they are going into cities now with a modified, upscale approach.' He received the first application relating to big-box stores three weeks ago. Heymann Properties, which owns the former Yale & Towne Lock Company complex on Canal Street between Exit 7 and 8 of Interstate 95, wants to amend the zoning regulations to redevelop the property with a big-box store. It is in a mixed-use zone and does not require a change in the master plan to become a big-box location. The master plan changes would apply directly to two industrial-zoned sites off Exit 6 of I-95: 30 acres on Commerce Road and the 35-acre former American Cyanamid property, now called Cytec. If the changes are enacted, 'there will be some unhappiness among developers who will not be able to sell or lease 100 percent of their property to big boxes,' Mr. Sherman said. The inevitable increase in traffic that more retail would bring to downtown Stamford, which is already clogged during the day and strangled at rush hours, is thought to be surmountable, Mr. Sherman said, with more on-street parking and retail incentives for a new parking garage. 'If you want successful retail you've got to have traffic -- that's the good news/bad news,' said Edward Stockton, the former state Commissioner of Economic Development who now heads the Stockton Associates economic consultancy in Bloomfield. But with the state's population dwindling and worries about unemployment rising, he warns that retailers should pay close attention to supply and demand. Caption: Photo: North Main Street and street bordering Choate Rosemary Hall campus in Wallingford. Super Kmart-bound traffic is heavy. Wallingford streets in historic district bordering Choate Rosemary Hall campus are alternate routes to big boxes like Super Kmart. (Photographs by Gale Zucker for The New York Times) Access No: 9300084183 ProQuest - The New York Times (R) Ondisc Title: TRIBE SAYS DEVELOPER THREATENS SACRED SITE Source: The New York Times, Late Edition - Final Date: Thursday Feb 15, 1996 Sec: B Metropolitan Desk p: 6 Length: Long (861 words) Illus: Map, Photo Subjects: RETAIL STORES & TRADE; INDIANS, AMERICAN; SUITS & LITIGATION; MOHICAN INDIANS; LEEDS (NY) Companies: WAL-MART Abstract: The Mohican Indian tribe, which sued to live in the Catskills community of Leeds NY, has filed suit in Greene County Court to block construction of a Wal-Mart superstore on a 30-acre cornfield the tribe considers sacred. The tribe contends that the town of Catskill, which includes Leeds, conducted only a cursory archaeological review before granting a zone-change requested by Wal-Mart. Preliminary excavations have turned up a wealth of Indian artifacts. Copyright 1996 The New York Times Company. Data supplied by NEXIS (R) Service. Article Text: For more than 1,000 years, archaeologists say, the Mohican Indians lived on land in the Catskills community of Leeds, N.Y. The tribe has long since left the area, settling in Wisconsin, but its lawyer returned yesterday to fight plans to build a Wal-Mart superstore on a 30-acre cornfield the tribe considers sacred. The tribe contends that the Town of Catskill, which includes Leeds, conducted only a cursory archaeological review before granting a zone change requested by Wal-Mart. It filed suit yesterday in Greene County Court to block construction of the store. 'We're asking the court to restrain the town from moving forward on this project until the archaeological work is complete,' said George Rodenhausen, the lawyer representing the tribe. He added that the Town of Catskill and Wal-Mart had been unresponsive to requests to protect the site, where preliminary excavations have turned up a wealth of artifacts. 'What we're talking about here are whole deposits of artifacts that have been sealed in by the flood plains,' said Dr. Christopher Lindner, an archaeologist with Bard College. 'If we had to pick a wish list, it couldn't be better than this.' The cornfield lies next to a stream and abuts the site of a historic Dutch trading post. Dr. Lindner said the site could merit a full-fledged archaeological dig, which could cost more than $1 million. The battle here is part of a nationwide fight over Indian archaeology. Backed by recent political gains, the wealth from casinos on Indian reservations and no small dose of moral indignation, American Indians are increasingly trying to reclaim pieces of their heritage, forcing developers and local administrators to balance economic growth against the cost of destroying sites spiritually significant to Indians. 'You find it from Alaska to the Virgin Islands,' said Dr. Muriel Crespi, an Indian specialist with the National Park Service. 'The confluence of legislation, public awareness and a more politically sophisticated Indian people is changing the scenario.' According to Dr. Robert Kuhn, the program coordinator for the State Historic Preservation Office, which oversees the 10,000 archaeological sites in New York State, the Hudson Valley has become particularly fertile ground for these kinds of conflicts. Once the home of the Mohican tribe, the area from Lake Champlain to Manhattan has also been one of the most heavily developed regions in the Northeast. Those two competing interests, Dr. Kuhn said, pit expensive excavations against low-cost development. 'In each of these projects, we have to balance that,' Dr. Kuhn said. 'Our goal is to find a way that the project can go forward and still protect the resource. In many instances, there are ways to do both.' In Leeds, however, the lawsuit came after negotiations with the retailer had stalled. Wal-Mart officials canceled a January meeting at the tribe's Bowler, Wisc., reservation and turned down a Mohican offer to use proceeds from their casino there to buy out the company's option on the land, said Steven Davids, vice-chairman of the tribal council. 'We want to learn from this site,' Mr. Davids said. 'If an excavation is to occur, we want it to be full and thorough. We don't want it rushed so they can get a Wal-Mart in there.' Wal-Mart officials did not returned phone calls yesterday. But earlier, Betsy Reithemeyer, a spokeswoman for the retailer, said it had consistently worked with Indian groups on preservation issues. She cited efforts to preserve a burial mound at a Wal-Mart in Paso Robles, Calif., as well as an artifact display at a store built on an Indian site in Canton, Ga. She also said the company would await the results of the next round of state-mandated excavations, scheduled for this spring, before making any decisions on the land. The lawsuit, however, could become an interesting test case for Wal-Mart, which has often been at odds with local communities over development plans. Part of the suit contends that the Catskill Town Board did not fully consider the economic impact of the superstore on Leeds and surrounding communities. 'Historically, Wal-Mart has been a predator,' said Michael Smith, a member of 'It's Not Easy Being Greene,' a preservation group formed to fight the development, which first notified the Mohicans of the site's significance. Mr. Smith, a lawyer in Manhattan who grew up in Leeds and has a weekend home there, complained that Wal-Mart monopolizes local business by driving prices down and forcing out small merchants. In addition to the Mohican tribe, two members of the preservation group are plaintiffs in the lawsuit. In this historic community, though, some residents say Wal-Mart is needed to bolster a flagging tourism economy. In December, the County Board of Legislators passed a resolution unanimously supporting the retailer's plans. 'It's a very sensitive issue, and the Town of Catskill will take great care to recognize the rights of all the parties involved,' said Joseph Izzo, the Catskill Town Supervisor, who said he had not yet seen a copy of the lawsuit. 'It is a very important economic issue, too, though.' Caption: Photo: The Mohican Indians say a field in Leeds, N.Y, where Wal-Mart wants to build a store, is sacred. Stephen Comer, the Eastern representative for the tribe, stood near excavations being done to search for artifacts. (Alan E. Solomon for The New York Times) Map of New York state showing location of Leeds.