Catholic Church and City Stick It to Fort Greene
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….
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.
It would be great if the community and neighborhood would embrace the facility and volunteer to work with the kids, helping them to imporve their lives and helping the bonds of community to grow stronger.
Then NIMBY isn’t an issue at all and the neighborhood can all sleep well at night, not only because there will be no disturbances and catcalls, but from the joy and satisfaction that comes from doing something good and positive.
brownstoner rocks, even when i disagree, precisely because i can! thanks b’stoner. ignore the haters and keep it coming.
ps. i don’t think you’re brooklyn curbed. talk about sanctimonious and snug…
Don’t worry this will be balanced out by the fact that they are closing down the Walt Whitman houses…-300K for the new juvie-hall…+500K for the adult juvie-hall…net-net big win…
what is Da Vinci Code about this? the Catholic Church has been in social justice work forever and it means sometimes you gotta get down and wash the feet of the unwashed.
Yes, it’s very snobby to repair old buildings and not want criminal halfway houses in your neighborhood, what jerks… lmao
Seriously, Brownstoner’s tone may have been a bit off but I think people are being a tad sanctimonious here. We don’t know exactly what the background of these kids is but let’s face it, ‘juvenile delinquent’ is a fancy way of saying ‘young criminal’. Where to house and rehabilitate kids like this is a thorny issue but honestly, what homeowner – or renter for that matter – welcomes convicted criminals next door? That’s not even liberalism; it’s masochism.
If these were genuine sentiments we wouldn’t have a problem. The open-armed among you could divvy up the delinquents to your hearts’ content. My guess is that many of those protesting Brownstoner’s original post are not homeowners themselves or are comfortably ensconced far from the intersection in question. And, of course, talk is cheap, especially when it’s an opportunity to bash people you envy.
The other thing I wanted to say is that this isn’t just about property values. (Although who in their right mind, saddled with mortgage debt and worried about a cooling market welcomes a new threat to the value of their single biggest asset?)
This is about crime and safety. I live on the block where, a couple of weeks ago, two people were shot and killed. We already have a methadone clinic, complete with dealers touting for business. Why would I want an infusion of new criminals into the neighborhood? As we discussed in another thread the local cops have basically washed their hands of the most crime-ridden corridor in the neighborhood. Councilwoman James has said the problem is insoluble. It doesn’t exactly inspire confidence in the way this would pan out.
Well if “roadblocks” will keep you nasty, selfish snobs out of Brooklyn. I saw bring on the roadblocks. You people make me want to hurl!
I actually live on Clermont between Greene and Fulton. I’d appreciate some info on how to figure out what the Church is actually doing instead of 70 social commentaries on the pros and cons of juvenile delinquents.
If Fort Greene and Clinton Hill do not have a fair share of social service facilities then we should not be alarmed by this. However, as the successful protests over 80 Hanson Place Drug Treatment Center (I think about a dozen years ago) indicated, the neighborhood already had a fair share and refused to be a dumping ground because we lacked a strong voice and the will to protect our quality of life. So we should ask where are similar facilities as this are and maybe Far Rockaway or Brooklyn Heights is a fairer location for it.