Kingston: Lousy with Prejudice

TO THE EDITOR:

I own my own home on Andrew Street, a nice slice of Kingston just behind the high school, with Kingston Hospital on one end of the street and Benedictine on the other. I've owned my home for four years but only recently been able to upgrade the house from its 1932-vintage heating, elecricals, plumbing and windows.

This week my contractor and his men are doing windows and preparing for an outside paint job. 

We're used to people coming up and asking us about the work, so I wasn't surprised when an elderly gentleman stopped in front of the house and said that he was the "inspector".

He went on to say that my windows were "in wrong", my porch stairs "didn't seem right", and he had the gravest doubts about the house in general. He was going to have to ask for a Stop Work order, he said. And, of course, I would need a Permit.

I'm from Manhattan, where people generally respond to this overture by saying, "Get the **** outta my house" or "How much?". Because, let's face it, it sounds like this guy (with no ID or license, just that vague "Inspector" title) is about to tell me that he can make my troubles go away with only a $500 check, and make it out to cash, please.

Also, my contractor had already checked with the City to see if he needed any kind of a permit, long before we had started work.

I called the Kingston Fire Department on the idea that they could identify this man and answer some questions. The polite lady there told me that if he said he was an inspector, he was an inspector. (The man had not yet offered his name, along with not offering ID or any kind of license).

I asked if I needed a permit to paint the exterior of my house. She said she didn't think so, but it was up to the Inspector. I asked her if I needed a permit to put in new windows, or new porch steps.

She said she really didn't know and I would have to ask the Inspector.

I asked her if there were any laws, rules, or ordinances which dictated the actions taken by the Inspector--rather, the actions he had threatened to take. Surely this couldn't just be up to one individual?

She repeated that she had no idea and I would have to ask the Inspector.

I said, "Well, what if he's drunk?" which seemed to displease her very much and that's how we ended the conversation.

Do I need to mention that my contractor is dark-skinned and speaks Spanish? He's an American citizen--there was an article about him in the Freeman when he passed his citizenship test. He owns his house and his business and, like both my grandfathers and a lot of other people, he came to America with a little money and a lot of brains and made a nice business for himself.

He works harder than anyone else I've ever had at this house and he pays plenty of taxes. He doesn't take anything from the government except education for his children, who deserve a lot better than what Kingston can give them. Kingston being the place that allows tattoo parlors to move in, cosily, right across the street from the High School. 

As far as the "inspector" or anyone else is concerned, my contractor could be named Leonard Bernstein or Paddy O'Gill and be as blond as JFK or as black as President Obama, and speak any language he wants to speak. He shouldn't get any different treatment.

Why, then, was the "inspector" calling on his cell phone and saying that I had "a bunch of immigrants" working at my house? Why was he asking me where my contractor was from? ("Mary's Avenue," I responded, which made the inspector look slightly confused.)

Why, for that matter, do teams of men delivering materials to my house try to speak to a white male visitor in my yard, instead of any of the Hispanic men or me, even after I identify myself as the homeowner? Why do so many of my white acquaintances giggle nervously when they see I'm employing a Hispanic crew?  Why do they say I should have called O'Brian or Connelly or Fouchard or Klein? 

I try to have respect for Kingston. I'm not flipping my house--I mean to live here for a good long while. In the course of these renovations, I've given plenty of business to local merchants and work to local professionals.

Maybe some people would say that I don't understand the way the city government works, because I'm not "from around here".

But even if the prejudice is only personal, not institutional, the sloppy way in which the Building Safety unit is run, and the Old Boy's network by which it seems everything in Kingston is run, leads to an amplification of prejudice.  

My contractor tells me that this "inspector" is well-known for giving Hispanic people a hard time. Nobody stops him, of course.

The "inspector" himself told me that he was looking at my house because "the neighbors" had told him "something's going on." What, several Hispanic men working hard on repairing a house? Scandalous. No good can come of that.

Can some or any of your readers, or yourself, explain to me why this arrant bigotry is not a scandal, and is perfectly acceptable to my fellow Kingstonians?

Sincerely,

Annie Newman

I sent this letter to the City Editor of the KIngston Freeman tonight after the events described. I don't think they're going to print it, so I wanted to record it here, at least.

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