building
Here’s a rumor straight out of The Da Vinci Code…The eight-story pre-war building on the corner of Clermont and Greene has been home to a group of priests for years. According to a tipster who lives nearby, the priests began moving out last week to make room for the building’s new occupants: 155 juvenile delinquents. The Catholic Church reportedly has leased the entire building to the City which obviously feels that Fort Greene is getting too nice. After a neighborhood has spent a couple decades pulling itself up by its heels, why not throw up another roadblock. Anyone have further details?
Update: It appears that the Church is partnering with a non-profit group called ANCHOR to create an urban boarding school, 15 or 20 of whose students will be housed in this building. It’s unclear if the rest of the building will continue to house priests.


What's Your Take? Leave a Comment

Leave a Reply

  1. CHP, how big was the transition program on your old block? Just curious. The Clermont/Greene building is huge and would house something like 150 juvenile delinquents (if not more). I’m curious to see if you and OhLord! are comparing apples to oranges. If so, then the “quiet neighbor” case in point that was provided to comfort nearby and potentially affected residents has absolutely no merit. Further, if you know of another location closer to your home perhaps you should make a recommendation to the Church and City and have the JDC relocated to Crown Heights. I mean lets put all the liberal, PC, “help save the children” BS to a true test! Any volunteers?!?

  2. So sorry I couldn’t get to a computer all day. Wow.

    How about waiting until more official information is forthcoming before circling the wagons?

    Besides that, even if it is a home for wayward youth, the Catholic authorities who run the place are not going to let kids run amok in the streets. The Church’s problems with sexual abuse notwithstanding, they have run thousands of homes across the country over these many years and have helped a great many kids straighten their lives out. Catholic programs are generally run very strictly and efficiently. While the stereotype of the strict Jesuits and the disciplining nuns certainly leave plenty of room for both rude jokes and concerns about abuse, the fact is that this tough love has produced more than a fair number of stellar, productive, (and some well known)citizens.

    Unlike Anon 8:34, who wants to send the kids to Siberia, it would stand to reason that keeping kids in the city they call home, and working with them to become productive citizens where they live, would be more successful and even more cost effective than shipping them out to some upstate boot camp and then expecting them to come back and avoid temptation.

    Finally, I lived on the same block that OhLord! is talking about, and we fought tooth and nail to keep the boys home out. We lost, mostly because it was a done deal long before we even got wind of it. She is right, we never even knew they were there, after the program was started up. I worked at home then, and can say I hardly ever even saw the kids, and when I did, they were always accompanied by staff, and were well mannered and behaved. They have been there at least ten years now, and are not even mentioned as a negative on the block, and I still have relatives there, so I know.

    Maybe this program should be given a chance before mobs storm the castle with torches.

  3. Why would they want to house delinquent youth in the city? Aren’t they better off out in the country where it is less stressful and where they are less likely to get themselves back into trouble? As an added benefit, wouldn’t it be cheaper to house them in the middle of nowhere?

1 3 4 5 6 7 14