PROTEST AT THE GREEN CHURCH

This morning saw a band of mighty preservationists (sans pro-Green Church Vincent Gentile and Janele Hyer-Spencer) protesting the sale and possible future demolition of the Ridge's infamous Green Church.

As we all know by now, the church is being sold to Abe "who needs heat?" Betesh of Abecoe Management. Local preservationists would like to see the church's life spared and used for another use. The church's congregation wants to go through with the sale, tear down the church, build a a new, smaller church (for the 20 or so congregants), and let Abe build 50 or so condos.

Complicating matters is how to move the 211 people who were reinterred from the original church. Maybe they won't move them and the condos will be built on a cemetery. Oooo, and we all know how that turns out.

So how did the protest go? Well, the Green Church is still standing so I say chalk one up for the preservationists.


Picture may not depict actual protest.

GANGLAND

I read two disturbing articles today about gangs in Bay Ridge. Graffiti crime was up 96% in Brooklyn last year, more than in any of the boroughs.

Graffiti often signifies a gang presence in an unsuspecting neighborhood, like Bay Ridge.

The Ridge had 185 graffiti crime complaints last year, up from 73 in 2006. That's an increase of 156.9%!! Only Williamsburg had more complaints with 186. Just one more than The Ridge, so I'm going to call it even. If I was getting that kind of increase in my investments that would be fantastic. But I'm not.

So what does that say about The Ridge!?

I'll tell you what it says and it isn't pretty. According to Deanna Rodriguez, head of the Brooklyn district attorney's gang unit,

"once you know how to read it, it can be frightening. When it comes to gangs, they are not tagging places because they have nothing else to do, they're making a statement. This is a precursor to other activities, and when we see it, we can pretty much tell when the violence is coming."

Oh good. That just made my day. Where's my Xanax? Evidently, The Ridge is popular with the Latin Kings, a Puerto Rican gang, and the Italian gang Hoodlums Doing Damage.

Maybe we should have less Gestapo meter maids and have more police to combat this growing problem.

CAN I GET A LITTLE 411?

The battle for the Green Church Belt shows no signs of slowing down. Not only were there articles in The Daily News and Curbed, but The Rover has dedicated his blogged week to the fight.

The Rover brings up some items that I'll add to my "Can I Get a Little 411?" list.

Drumroll --

My "Can I Get a Little 411?" List:

1. Why did Rev. Emerick and the Methodist congregation turn down the proposal from Gentile and the Con Edison Renaissance Housing Program?

2. What was the proposal from Gentile and Con Ed?

3. I read that the church is falling apart and I also read that it's not falling apart? Which is it? Have any architects given the church the once over and determined whether it can be restored?

4. How much would it cost to repair the church? And I mean an official estimate.

5. Why haven't any of the preservationists been able to raise the money to buy the church?

6. Why haven't the 2 sides gotten together since March?

7. How many years has this thing been going on?

8. Did Dorcas Kimball, who lives next to the house that will be torn down if the sale proceeds as planned, hate her parents for naming her "Dorcas?"

9. Does Dorcas come from the famed Malorkus family?

10. What other lost causes have Gentile, Katherine Walker, and Victoria Hofmo (whose name sound like a Bavarian slur for a gay man) been behind? I'm intrigued.

11. What were the dishonest objections of Katherine Walker's Committee to Save the Green Church?

12. What are the "intellectual half-truths that paint the congregation as 'liars?'" Sounds scandalous.

13. Has there been a study done on what the impact of the "at least 50 condos" will have on the community?

14. How the hell did a mid-level banker lose 7 billion dollars!!??

15. Why is Emerick's congregation less than two dozen?

16. Have they though of holding services at Our Lady of Starbucks?

Okay, by the looks of the list, I don't know anything and I'm going to hell.

But can someone please give me the 411?

TO PRESERVE OR NOT TO PRESERVE

Rover has posted quite the rant about preservationists, civic activists, and the infamous Green Church. And I think he hits the nail on the head when he writes -

Serious people who can find de jure solutions that put our community's shared truths (aesthetic, historical and infrastructural) on an equal administrative footing with those of developers'.
While, more importantly, recognizing a pragmatic and elemental truth in a compromise somewhere between an outright rejection of change, and unbridled development - with a watchful eye to beauty and utility.

Yes, the "activists" and politicians are up in arms about the fate of the Church and I think they should be rankled. I can't speak for anyone else but there are several issues that have me riled:

1. The Green Church comes right on the heels of the loss of three Victorians. The community was told by the Basile Builders Group that they were going to restore the Victorians and then they sneaked in under cover of night and tore them down.

2. Nearly three years ago, Congressman Vito Fossella created an “Over-Development Task Force” and even created a sub-task force to specifically study the Green Church, yet nothing has been heard from either - um - force.

3. The Preservationists and the Methodists have not come to the table since March to discuss options (and I thought the writer's strike was bad).

4. The Landmarks Preservation Commission has completely ignored the situation.

5. The possibility that a funeral home on 4th Ave. will be replaced with a seven-story condo complex.

Yeah, okay, number five seems a little out of place here but it has me riled and it comes back around soon.

6. The Methodists rejected a proposal from Gentile and the Con Edison Renaissance Housing Program yet I haven't seen what the details were of the proposal.

7. What seems like complete disregard of the community by Pastor Robert Emerick. (I hear he's a nice guy. Righty told me. But the Pastor hasn't come off too well in the press)

8. That freak chick from American Idol who's now getting more air time than she deserves.

Yeah, okay, number eight proves I need a life.

9. Where the hell has Marty Golden been during all of this?

It feels as if developers are coming in here with no regard for the community, for the aesthetics of the community, or for the community's infrastructure. We're being lied to and trampled on. I think the Green Church is a culmination of a lot of issues.

If The Ridge adds -- or what it feels like to me -- if The Ridge has thrust upon them fifty condos in place of the Church and a seven-story condo complex in place of a funeral home, who's going to come in and build new schools? Our schools are already overcrowded -

P.S. 170 Lexington School - overcrowded, so four classes are housed in trailers

P.S. 104 Fort Hamilton School - Unfortunately, the school grapples with overcrowding. Kindergarten classes, unable to fit into the main school, take place in a district building five blocks away. And middle school classrooms are too cramped to hold comfortably the 30 or so kids in each class.

P.S. 185 Walter Kassenbrock School - The school is overcrowded, with more than 700 children in a building designed for 500.

Who's going to come in and alleviate the new traffic problems? The new parking problems?

So, yes, Rover, we need a "compromise somewhere between an outright rejection of change and unbridled development."

CELEBRITY SHORTAGE

Bay Ridge is facing a celebrity shortage. How do I know this? Because I'm in the current edition of The Brooklyn Paper, talking about my resolutions alongside Marty Markowitz, Marty Golden, Vito Fossella, and Vincent Gentile. The paper lists me as an actor, which I was full-time until our daughter arrived and we moved east. Now I'm just a lazy layabout in The Ridge. But it's pretty cool to be alongside that company! Thank you, Brooklyn Paper!