“I still remember the day I went to sign my papers. The lady in front of me said, ‘Once you sign this piece of paper, you’re obligated to put the people of the City of New York first.’ When you’re a civil servant, you put your job ahead of everything else.”
It was only a few years out of high school when Artie took her first job with the City of New York. She officially joined HPD in 1980, and nearly forty years later she bid farewell to the agency she’s seen through many ups and downs — still passionate and optimistic about what her colleagues can accomplish for the city.
I started with the Mayor’s Office of Economic Development as a temporary worker in 1978, and over the two years I was there, I took my civil service exam. I was number 7,000 among 10,000 people who were looking for jobs at the time, but eventually my number did get called. At the hiring pool, I came across HPD’s table and was captivated by the agency’s work. That’s how I first got my start as an office worker for HPD in January of 1980.
Over the course of nearly 40 years, I’ve worked in several different units and many different jobs, but the one division I kept coming back to was Intergovernmental Affairs. In 2011, I landed my final position as Director of Land Use. My job was to be a kind of liaison between our planners and elected officials. At the end of the day, I’d feel a sense of accomplishment. I helped resolve problems for people, and that’s probably what encouraged me to stick around for so long. Plus, I was absolutely fortunate to have the best colleagues. I went to work with people I could laugh with, and people willing to help me out and go the extra mile.
I still remember the day I went to sign my papers. The lady in front of me said, “Once you sign this piece of paper, you’re obligated to put the people of the City of New York first.” When you’re a civil servant, you put your job ahead of everything else. That time has come to a close for me, but I know that there are some very smart and dedicated people around who will continue to do the work that needs to be done. Yes, we’re having a health crisis. This is not going to be the last crisis that affects this city, but the really, really, smart people in the room will figure out to get out of it and make things better.
