Another Church on Fulton (As If It Needs One)
Fulton Street already has its fair share of churches, though many of them are of the storefront variety. Now just feet from one of the highest traffic prostitution corners in Brownstone Brooklyn, the Universal Church is erecting this large new home. (Check out the excavation underway on the jump.) Frankly, we can’t see why the…
Fulton Street already has its fair share of churches, though many of them are of the storefront variety. Now just feet from one of the highest traffic prostitution corners in Brownstone Brooklyn, the Universal Church is erecting this large new home. (Check out the excavation underway on the jump.) Frankly, we can’t see why the area needs a new church when beautiful old churches like St. Bartholomew are having such a difficult time remaining solvent. GMAP
What really bugs me is that all these “fringe” churches, that require their members to donate, support things like Atlantic Yards because of the affordable housing component. Why don’t they use some of those member contributions to build some decent housing on their own?
Additionally, and this really inspires the conspiracy theorist in me, why is it that the lowest socio-economic groups in this society tend to spend the most time going to church (often all day Saturday and/or Sunday, and during the week as well)? It really seems like a good way to keep somebody down — just pray to the Lord and everything will be all right (meanwhile the powers that be a making sure that it won’t).
it would be kind of lame picketing town hall or wherever to stop the construction of a church. I’m not sure that anyone wants to take up that cause. The church is probably here to stay. Get used to it. I don’t understand why, time after time, they’re these ongoing discussions about what should and shouldn’t be built when its often after the fact and probably a done deal. I would rather spend my creative energies lobbying city govt to get the property owners of these decrepit building to fix them up or sell them. If anything lowers property value it is the endless stream of abandoned or under-utilized buildings that line fulton street.
A Church can lower your appraisal value for those two reasons.
I actually wouldn’t want another church. They are generally very loud and create parking issues.
I know where biggie hails from and that people living in what is Clinton Hill (and has been Clinton Hill since the 1830s) have called it bed stuy for the past 40 years for whatever reason. Didn’t mean to start a neighborhood name game.
LP, because years ago the entire area east of Clinton Ave was typically referred to as Bed-Stuy. Biggie Smalls and Chubb Rock (ohhh, I’m dating myself now ,) who lived on neighboring landmarked blocks on St. James, rapped about the “Do or Die Bed-Stuy” as the area was commonly reffered to. They didn’t boast about coming from “Dollar Bill Clinton Hill”! Though it has a nice ring to it! LOL!
Universal Church of the Kingdom of God is considered a cult by many. They originated in Brazil in the mid 90’s and now can be found in other parts of the world. Most of their members are Latinos who have fallen out of the grace of the Catholic Church. They are what is known as a “seed faith” based church in that you MUST give money for the lord to find you in his favor. (self-sacrifice?) They have a place on 4th Avenue for some time now. They offer healing miracles for many incurable sicknesses like AIDS for cash. They also do exorcisms.
http://www.rickross.com/groups/universal.html
Restoration controlled that area because until about 4-5 years ago Bed-Stuy ran all the way to Washington Avenue. (Jeez, folks have any of you listened to “Ready to Die”? Biggie lived on Fulton and St. James!)
As for the church, I would hazzard a guess that this is being built by a long-time congregation that has existed in a smaller facility (perhaps storefront) somewhere in the neighborhood. Like tenants and homeowners, churches often scrimp and save their money to be able to afford larger, newer, or more appropriate facilities in the community.
I think the design is ugly, and I for one love most of the historic religious facilities in the neighborhood but this is the borough of churches and I’d much rather have a church next door than an American Apparel, or a Starbucks or some other attempt by corporate america to turn Brooklyn into Indanapolis.
take these non-profit groups to task!
retrieve the lost/stolen millions of dollars.
Someone has to be culpable for this sort of wholesale theft.
The upside is that the new church probably will probably have well kept grounds, great landscaping and adequate lighting. And their congregation (this seems to be a large church) might do a lot of shopping on fulton when services let out.