[Saturday]
As you can see, the school and rectory are gone from the Mary Help of Christians lot on Avenue A between East 11th Street and East 12th Street ... There are a few remnants of the church left in a pile.
Meanwhile, on East 12th Street ... someone left messages for developer Douglas Steiner on the plywood protecting the remains of the church late Saturday night/early Sunday morning...
Steiner bought the property last fall for an unspecified residential complex. One retail listing mentioned a "140 unit market luxury rental building." In some previous comments, a few readers said that anger should be directed toward the Archdiocese of New York, who sold the lot in first place.
H/T EVG reader Kym Gomes
17 comments:
As painful as it was to watch these buildings come down it is only the overture to a year or two of construction, noise, and hassles for its neighbors. At least the construction crew will be able to get slurppies from the new 7-11 across the street, the horror.
In regard to who the 'bad guys' are here; the people who sold the church or the people who bought it one thing is clear, because of several different circumstances a market was created so that this outrage could actually take place and that's the saddest an most infuriating part. It's not just economic but cultural as well and as we've seen the culture of New York City has been all but destroyed. I've said it a million times: I've lived here for 30 years and the first good opportunity I have to leave, I am getting the-frick-out.
Anonymous, my boyfriend and I are leaving in December. Can't wait. Am going to sublet my apartment and hope for the best!
Greed is the word
Greed is the word, is the word that you heard
It's got groove, it's got meaning
Greed is the time, is the place, is the motion
Greed is the way we are feeling
The only one to blame is the Archdiocese. They sold the property. Someone was going to buy it whether it was Steiner or some other developer. NYC property is too valuable to sit empty. You can't blame the purchaser. If it wasn't listed for sale there wouldn't have been someone to buy it. The Church sits on billions of dollars. They made a business decision to sell.
It's already been painted over. Guess it bothered someone.
Didnt bother anyone actually! But it's against NYC building code, so thanks for the job security!
Help our fellow New Yorkers have job security. Do it to Bloom62 next!
"Against the NYC building code", Anon. 6:57? Tearing down a church is against the moral code, whether the filthy Archdiocese saw fit to sell the building or not (and we, the impacted neighbors, had not an iota of say in the matter), so how do you square that? Against the building code - you tool.
To those impacted neighbors, what would you like to see there... a building full of one/two bedrooms for $500/$900 a month?...
Thats a dream that will never happen, and any affordable rents in the new construction might have a separate entrance like the new building going up on the UWS
Its the new reality of what this nabe has become, still better than seeing abandoned buildings
Job security for who? Bloom 62 has out of state crews( head guy from Maine) and illegals working. I live 200 ft away have 20 yrs local exp in carpentry and elec and couldn't get hired. I hope the new homeless crowd pukes and pisses all over it..
oh wah wah wah...more babies crying after the fact...should put up some cash to keep the church around, don't blame the developer for buying up the properly, if not him someone else would have
bunch of complainers
Oh Fashionable... it is the death of a church that many people really loved. Unfortunately, no one on this thread had the $20 mil it would have taken to keep it going. And yes, probably a good idea to have made a louder noise with the Archdiocese.
As someone said on another comment thread, MHoC has died so that St. Brigid's lives... And St. Ann's, and on and on.
It is a shame that people lost a valuable spiritual sanctuary in their lives - in these shit times it is a soothing place for many. Perhaps if we paid attention to what really matters and did away with all the bollocks of consumerism and greed (and that includes the archdiocese) all of these money driven, quality-of-life destroying losses would stop. To people like @Fashion - piss off - people have a right to express their anger and loss (and yes - to complain).
I wouldn't mind an abandonded building or two - mind lend a bit of reality (and some squat opportunity) to this soon to be glass and stainless aquarium land...
Scooby,
I think you hit the nail right on the head. To give up the illusions, you need to give up the conditions that require illusions.
@scooby just as you have the right to complain i have the right to tell you to stop
express your anger and loss all you want...not sure why you are so sad though...how much money was raised to try and save the church?
Really NOT sure how this can be considered greed...church couldnt afford the land...someone else bought it and is building apartments...
pretty sure its that simple...apartments are in demand, so someone is capitalizing on the opportunity...seems very not greedy, just smart
By not seeing just why this is an issue proves my point. The church owned the land - they can afford it. The greed within the church to make more and more (and yes - they do that too - look at the money machine known as Trinity Wall St "Church") caused this without regard to longtime parishoners. I am not a religious person myself but respect those that are - and I respect their loss. The "capitalizing" is the issue here - thank you for summing it up in that last paragraph. It is greed - not "smart". It is capitalizing on greed... The very thing that is tearing down this neighborhood, city and country.
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