Jonathan Greenspun leads the city’s Community Assistance Unit – the only agency in city government, he said, that has “assistance” in its name. His 25 staff members, sprinkled throughout the city, collaborate with the 59 community boards to solve problems ranging from construction questions to graffiti cleanup, and to ensure that city government is working for New Yorkers. The Sun’s City Hall bureau chief, Dina Temple-Raston, sat down with Mr. Greenspun to discuss the unit’s activities, Mr. Greenspun’s role with the Jewish community, and other matters.

Q: I think most people think of you as the agency that was focused on helping the 9/11 families. What does the CAU do more generally for city residents?

A: What we do on a regular basis is act as the mayor’s eyes and ears in the roughly 300 neighborhoods in New York City. Our staff acts as ombudsperson to specific geographic areas. e are the live voice of the mayor’s office.

You personally are seen as the unofficial liaison between the mayor’s office and the Jewish community in New York. Can you talk about that?

That is true. I held that portfolio for the governor for seven years prior to joining the administration. I have people on my staff who are very responsive to the community.

Sometimes people come to you with specific problems based on their particular religion. If there was a problem with religious accommodation, for example. If there was a problem with added sanitation pickup in Jewish neighborhoods around Passover time. There’s a classic example of where city service meets a Jewish religious need. Let’s say there was a problem with that (and there hasn’t been).

… Every time the mayor has traveled to Israel, I have come with him on the trip. … He’s been rock solid on his support long before he met me. He was a businessman who admittedly did not have that broad an outreach to the broader Jewish community, and to the extent I have helped to acquaint him with that, I am certainly satisfied with that role. I’m very impressed with Mike Bloomberg, the Jewish citizen of New York. I think he is very active. His philanthropy prior to becoming mayor was beyond impressive. His generosity to Jewish organizations has been incredible. …

But the truth is, what I have learned in this job is that everyone’s problems are not that different from everyone else’s. here is no Jewish or Catholic or Muslim way to take out the trash.

What was the last project you worked on in the Jewish community on behalf of the mayor?

We’re trying to bring into the 21st century some of the old zoning laws. They were written in 1961. These are rules that will basically bring more common sense into … creating a house of worship in a low residential neighborhood. There are adverse effects in terms of parking. So the issue the Jewish community brought up was that they don’t drive to synagogue on Saturdays, so therefore they should have an exemption. We worked with the Jewish community, the City Planning Department, and the City Council, we were able to hammer out some of those issues to the satisfaction of everyone. …

The CAU was working a lot with the 9/11 families. What sort of role did you play with them?

We had acted as a repository for comments, feedback from families to the mayor’s office. The truth is, short of assisting with the planning of the commemoration ceremonies, there is very little left in this agency about 9/11 on my plate.

And 311 doesn’t take a big bite out of what you do?

No. The fact of the matter is, there are just some problems that 311 alone is not sophisticated enough to solve.

Let me give you an example. A slaughterhouse wants to open up in a community, and given the communities that rely on fresh meat, this has actually become an issue, and clearly the community is upset, so what do they do? The complication is that there are basically five or six agencies that are involved in a slaughterhouse. If you want to complain about the health of the food, you have to go to the state’s Agriculture and Markets, because they regulate that. If you want to worry about smell that is emanating from the slaughterhouse, then it is the Department of Environmental Protection. If you want to know whether or not you can construct it in the neighborhood, you have to go to the city Planning Commission and then probably after that the Buildings Department. If you want to make sure the food in there is clean and safe to eat, the Department of Health may have something to say about that. So if you are in a situation like that, there is no way 311 can really solve that.

Three-one-one has a great one-to-one ratio. What we deal with is really community issues. If you have an individual complaint, chances are this is not the place you should go. But when there is something going on that is unique and specific to a community, then that’s when we’ll get involved. Our specialty is multi-agency coordination. …

If there is something CAU does that is overlooked, what do you think it is?

Probably neighborhood improvement and quality of life. We are all about rapid response and improvement of quality of life and, really, neighborhood beautification. … If you have a dirty lot, you have to find who owns the lot. Number 2, you have to find out who is responsible for it. Number 3, you have to get the agency whose responsibility it is to clean it. And you know what? That’s a lot of red tape. We break through red tape every day and we do it quickly.

… Since January of this year, we’ve cleaned over 6,000 locations citywide.