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Catholic Church Takes a Long Look At The Lower East Side



      The Archdiocese of New York announced early this February that, after 163 years, they will be closing St. Brigid's on the corner of 7th and Ave A –– as well as four other schools serving a large base of low-income students across the city (one in Harlem, two in the Bronx, and one in Staten Island). Citing low enrollment rates, this news came as a shock to many of the students, parents, and staff of these schools who must now suddenly navigate the vast NYC school system. Throughout the 20th century as schools crumbled, shuttered, and were re-built, affordable private education like St. Brigid's has provided a reliable and safe environment for low-income predominantly Black and Latino communities across the city. The Archdiocese's lack of commitment to these "underperforming" schools only mirrors the deeper struggles facing perhaps the most segregated school system in the country.

St. Emeric's School on Ave. D


       The St. Brigid School is not the only site the Catholic Church is reevaluating on the Lower East Side (itself no stranger to helping convert "unused" Church land into private luxury real-estate venture, selling the former Mary Help of Christians Church and School at 11th and A in 2012) –– the Archdiocese announced it was considering a proposal from the Cooper Square Committee, a local advocacy group, to sell their 300,000 square foot property which currently houses the abandoned St. Emeric's School, Church of Saint Emeric, and a parking lot, to the Cooper Square Community Land Trust. The Cooper Square Committee is hopeful about their plans to develop this site into mixed-income housing, however, they come after the Archdiocese rejected their $18 million offer, and similar plan, for the Church of the Nativity on Second Avenue, which was closed in 2014 in another wave of Archdiocese shutterings. After receiving an estimate of over $40 million for the site on Second Ave (and officially moving the status of the Church of Nativity to "profane use", the precondition for its sale, in 2017), the Archdiocese indicated they would most likely be placing it on the market.
         While some decry the sale of Church land to private real-estate developers as itself a sordid use, the question of providing access to affordable housing for the LES (with about half its residents rent-burdened and a median income 20k below the city average), even in the case of a land trust's involvement, is no done deal. As of now, there are no specific numbers to reflect how "below-market-rate" the units of affordable housing the CSC proposes are, or how the median income is being calculated –– many ask why more units, if not all of them, built at the site could be for low income residents, as well, why the Church is not more open to similar arrangements for other properties throughout the neighborhood and city. For now, we wait to hear the Archdiocese' response, and as Curbed reported a few days ago: "The Cooper Square Community Land Trust is in the midst of organizing a May town hall—with the support of Community Board 3—on the fate of the Church of Nativity, the St. Emeric’s site, and on the issue of how decommissioned churches can be best utilized by the archdiocese and the communities they once served. A venue and exact date have not yet been set." 


(Church of Saint Emeric - built in 1949 and designed by Voorhees, Walker, Foley & Smith)

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