Endangered Bay Ridge Church Subject of Community Meeting
From The Brooklyn Paper
Wild meeting over the Green Church
By Matthew Lysiak
Everyone in Bay Ridge believes the Green Church should be saved — everyone except the parishioners at this century-old house of worship, that is.
Church officials and preservationists squared off with parishioners on Monday night at an “emergency meeting” over the fate of the cherished church.
And parishioners of the Bay Ridge United Methodist Church weren’t happy.
“This whole meeting is an ambush,” said Raquel Cortizo. “[Councilman Vince] Gentile is pitting this community against the church, and I don’t think it is right.”
The trouble began after reports of the sale of the Methodist cathedral, which has graced the corner of Fourth Avenue and Ovington for more than a hundred years and is on the National Registry of Historic Places.
The news came as a shock to Gentile and other officials, who said church elders had assured them that there was still time to save the church from being torn down to make room for condos.
Gentile is still pushing for a deal that he, the Bay Ridge Conservancy, and Con Ed worked out that would create 87 units of subsidized housing on the church campus while generating $300,000 in annual revenue annually to pay for upkeep of the church building itself.
The church would also have complete control over the property as part of a 99-year lease, said the optimistic Gentile.
From Courier-Life
03/15/2007
Black day for green church – Many rush to save building, but officials say it’s over
By Helen Klein
Hackles and voices were raised as the fate of Bay Ridge’s beloved Green Church was debated in a community forum.
Indeed, congregants of the Bay Ridge United Methodist Church – who plan to sell the venerable structure to a developer who is likely to raze it to build an apartment building on the site – clashed with community residents during the meeting, called by City Councilmember Vincent Gentile, at Public School 170, 7109 Sixth Avenue.
Why the conflict? “It’s church property but it’s a very public place,” stressed Gentile, who moderated the meeting. “The church will continue as an entity. The question is whether the building continues. That’s where the community comes in. To many of us, it (the church) is seen as a signal that you are now in Bay Ridge. I think we’re all on the same page. We would like to see the church saved if we can save it.”
Among the congregants’ concerns was a feeling that they had been left out, because they were not specifically invited to the forum on the fate of the church, which stands at the intersection of Fourth and Ovington Avenues, and which has been on the State and National Registers of Historic Places since 1999.
They also expressed anger at the idea that others in the community could define their mission for them, and repeatedly said that the church was in such deteriorated condition that it was beyond saving without putting a tremendous amount of money into it.
The extent of the church’s deterioration, however, is a bone of contention that was chewed over by both sides. Those who want to save the church, and have looked into it, say that it is structurally sound, and that its condition can be improved gradually, with a slow but steady infusion of money.
While the serpentine facing stones have been falling off the tower, which is now swaddled in netting, other churches faced with the same soft stone, serpentine, in Albany and Kingston, N.Y., are being restored in just that way, said Victoria Hofmo, the chair of Gentile’s preservation committee and the founder of the Bay Ridge Conservancy.