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Halfway through the $2-billion AirTrain project, the bulk of it constructed over the mostly black neighborhood of Jamaica, contracts awarded to women- and minority-owned businesses barely have reached half the goals set by the Port Authority.
In the shadows of the elevated light-rail are dozens of minority contractors who say they've been excluded from a project that could help revitalize their neighborhood.
The Port Authority, the quasi-public agency in charge of the AirTrain, aims for 17 percent women and minority participation on all projects. But AirTrain's first phase has seen just 8.6 percent. Of $968 million awarded, $83.7 million went to women- and minority- owned businesses.
"They said the community would reap the benefits of this project," said James Heyliger, president of the Association of Minority Enterprises of New York, a Richmond Hill- based advocacy group for minority contractors. "This reverts back to the old boys' network, and the old boys' network will never share."
With promises of a 36-minute ride from midtown Manhattan to Kennedy Airport, AirTrain is slated to rumble from Howard Beach to Kennedy by late next year. By 2003, it will link a terminal at Jamaica Station to the airport.
"I have seen the trucks ride by my place," said Clinton Graham, a black plumbing supplier with offices just one block from Jamaica Station. "People are buying merchandise from their good old boys and not coming around to us."
The Port Authority requires contractors to make "good-faith efforts" to subcontract at least 17 percent to women- and minority- owned businesses. In the case of AirTrain, a consortium of contractors and consultants led by Slattery Skanska, a construction company in Whitestone, landed the lion's share of the project, $1.5 billion for the trains and elevated track. The nearly $316-million contract for an AirTrain terminal at Jamaica Station, the main Long Island Rail Road station for Queens, was awarded to Perini Corp., a construction company based in Westchester County. The primary contractors then seek bids and dole work out to the cheapest and most qualified, from laying down tracks to laying down tile.
A Port Authority spokesman said the agency does not penalize contractors who don't meet the 17 percent standard.
"It is taken into consideration for future contract awarding," said Pasquale...