The Nation - News from Aug. 18, 1988

The city of Yonkers, N.Y., got another temporary reprieve from financial disaster, as an appeals court extended a stay of the fines that had been ordered by a federal judge to punish the city for resisting his desegregation order. After a two-hour hearing, the three-judge panel said that the fines would be suspended pending its ruling, which appears to mean that Yonkers will pay no more penalties unless the appeals court upholds the judge. The appeals court did not indicate when it will make its finding. The City Council has voted twice to defy the judge’s demand that it allow public housing to be built in its primarily white neighborhoods. Judge Leonard B. Sand imposed fines that double every day and could wipe out the entire city treasury in about three weeks. The four councilmen who voted against the order were also required to pay $500 a day and face eventual imprisonment.