BY LINCOLN ANDERSON | Three years ago, leaders of the Church of St. Luke in the Fields announced a bold plan to construct a 15-story residential tower on part of the church’s Village property, as well as a new “mission building” on another area of its grounds to provide 24/7 services to L.G.B.T. youth and other underserved people.
Fast-forward to today and the co-op tower is currently nearing completion. However, it appears the idea for an L.G.B.T. drop-in center may have been dropped — which comes as welcome news to a volunteer anti-crime patrol group and some neighbors who were gearing up to fight the center.
What’s more, the notion of even constructing a small building to house a mission center may now be in limbo, too. That project was originally slated for the school’s playground on Christopher St.
Under the plan, the Episcopal church — which owns the square block bounded by Greenwich, Barrow, Hudson and Christopher Sts. — granted a 99-year lease to developer Toll Brothers to manage the new residential tower at 100 Barrow St. Twenty percent of the project’s units were slated to be affordable.
The impetus for putting up the tower was to provide an “economic engine” to fund an expansion of the financially strapped St. Luke’s School and also the mission center.
“People, understandably, think it would be ideal if we could do those things without any new development on the block,” Reverend Caroline Stacey, rector of St. Luke’s, told The Villager back in January 2014. “But we need that residential building in order to provide the necessary income stream for the school to have what it needs, and for us to build the mission space.”
St. Luke’s has recently started doing outreach through an outside group, Wellspring Consulting, to try to discern what neighbors would like to see in terms of increased social services from the church for the surrounding community.
Last month, David Poster, president of the Christopher St. Patrol, got an e-mail from one of the consultants, who asked to talk to him on the phone. Instead, Poster went right up to meet her at her Midtown office and they spoke for an hour. Poster said, during their talk, he stressed that his patrol — which includes a small contingent of Curtis Sliwa’s Guardian Angels — has worked diligently over the years to help combat crime, including drugs and prostitution, and other bad behavior along Christopher St.
“We just spent close to 15 years trying to clean up the street, with kids hanging out on the street till 3 a.m.,” he said he told her. “Why do we want to re-attract these kids to an area that’s had all these problems with them?”
Most of the youth are black and Hispanic and lower income, while the West Village is overwhelmingly white and increasingly very affluent. Christopher St. and the pier at its foot have long been a gay stomping ground.
Then, last Tuesday, Poster received an e-mail from Wellspring notifying him that the consultants wanted to meet with community members the next day to continue the outreach and get their input on the church’s social-services plans.
“Please feel free to forward this e-mail to as many people as you think may want to attend,” the message added. “We hope to have broad attendance to get as much input as possible and answer any questions.”
Margery Reifler, treasurer of the Grove St. Block Association, said everyone was shocked that the meeting was so hastily called on just 24 hours notice. She, in turn, e-mailed Mother Stacey of St. Luke’s, stressing that community members wanted a second meeting scheduled with an appropriate amount of lead time, so that people would be aware of it well beforehand and able to attend.
“We hope that St. Luke’s or your consultant will attend to the publicity,” Reifler wrote Stacey, “and suggest using The Villager, Community Board 2 lists, the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation and other similar avenues to get word out, rather than relying on the neighbors to inform one another.”
Wellspring subsequently did schedule another meeting with community members on Thurs., April 20, at 6:30, p.m., in the church’s Laughlin Hall.
Heading into the first meeting, on Wed., March 29, Poster, Reifler and others didn’t know to what expect. The Villager called Mother Stacey to find out if the L.G.B.T. center was still in the works.
In a phone message left with the newspaper right before the meeting and then another one right after it, Stacey stressed that nothing had been set in stone, and indicated that the church is basically in outreach mode right now. She downplayed neighbors’ fears about the drop-in center.
“There is no story,” she emphasized. “Whoever was talking to you put the cart way before the horse and is just completely, in fact, not accurate. I just want to tell you, whatever information you’re working with is way off.”
In her second message, she said, “What we are doing is exploring ways in which we can serve the wider community.”
And, according to Poster and Reifler, that is basically how the meeting played out. Stacey opened the get-together, giving an introduction, then left three Wellspring consultants and the community members with each other to have a “candid” discussion.
“She disavowed the notion that they already had decided something,” Reifler reported. “Reverend Stacey did not use the word ‘dropped’ regarding an L.G.B.T. center, but just about said so in other language. She said she understood that some of the L.G.B.T. population had now migrated up to Chelsea and Hell’s Kitchen. They said no decision had been made to construct a building for a mission center, as opposed to using their current facilities and services or even the school. Both she and the consultants said this was preliminary research to help St. Luke’s make a decision what was needed in the community.”
Poster was happy how the meeting went, especially because, according to him, Stacey said the drop-in center is no longer part of the plan.
“It was very good, actually,” he reported. “She said because we don’t have the problem or the amount of L.G.B.T. youth on the street anymore, she’s not planning to have an L.G.B.T. center there, and I was quite pleased with that.” However, he added, “They did not commit to not building on that [playground] site.”
Community members told the consultants things they would like to see are day programs for seniors and their caregivers and daycare for young children. The consultants said those ideas are all in the mix, as well as “spiritual fulfillment” programming that would not necessarily be religion-based. They said they had done outreach to community leaders and local politicians. The consultants also noted that because the new 100 Barrow St. building is now leasing apartments, there will be more funding available for programs.
Reifler forwarded to the newspaper an e-mail to Stacey written by a fellow Grove St. resident, in which she pleaded for the church not to build a mission center or have a drop-in center.
“I really am not excited about more construction noise for the next year or two, or a local hangout for kids — likely to be after school hours,” the resident wrote, “as we already tolerate the noise from the ongoing St. Luke’s construction, both St. Luke’s and P.S. 3’s playgrounds, the even-louder noise from our street being used as a ‘play street’ [by P.S. 3] each day, and the noise pollution from morning traffic congestion and excessive honking resulting from double-parking parents and buses from both St. Luke’s and P.S. 3 since the bike lane was installed.”
Stacey this week reiterated to The Villager, “St. Luke in the Fields is in an exploratory process discerning how we can best and most effectively expand our services to the wider community.”
Poster recalled that a previous drop-in center on Christopher St., not connected to St. Luke’s, backfired and just became a magnet for problems.
“We had one before, the Neutral Zone, in 1995. It was a total disaster,” he told The Villager. “I actually had supported it. We had a lot more kids. There were a lot more problems. It took 20 years to reach this point where we are today.
“The Neutral Zone was just like a pit stop. It seemed to draw drug dealers and johns around it outside. Inside, it was great.”
Poster said the Village area already has some drop-in centers for gay youth, including at The Door, on Broome St., and at the L.G.B.T. Center, on W. 13th St. Plus, he said, his understanding is that, due to “more acceptance” in society, there are now also similar facilities in places in New Jersey where many of the gay youth hail from.
The Christopher St. Patrol, now 26 years old, used to do its once-weekly rounds on a weekend night. Now, it only goes out every other weekend, and Poster said that’s because things have quieted down so much on the streets. Fewer gay youth seem to be hanging out in the Village nowadays, he said.
“It’s very limited,” he said. “It’s nothing like it was. It’s like a totally different atmosphere now. Lots of kids used to come in on the PATH train. Behavior was always what it was about. It’s a mindset — once they’re on Christopher St., they can do whatever they want, it’s O.K. … It’s not O.K.
“The last couple of years, it’s gotten better and better, and I would say this year was the best year. I ought to give myself a kinehora,” he said, using another expression for “knock on wood.”
Poster said the seasonal cafe in Hudson River Park at the foot of Christopher St. Pier has had an impact, as well.
“Now it’s wonderful,” he said. “Residents are going to the park. They’re using the restaurant.”
Some bars that Poster and police saw as trouble spots have also been shut down, while restaurants have replaced porn shops, also helping change the famed gay boulevard’s character.
A spokesperson at the L.G.B.T. Center noted that, in addition to the Center and The Door, there is also the Ali Forney Center, which provides beds for homeless gay youth, including at its new Bea Arthur Residence on E. 13th St. The spokesperson declined comment on Poster’s comments and the St. Luke’s situation, saying she did not feel familiar enough with the details of the story to offer an informed statement.
In addition, St. Luke’s sent out a Community Needs Assessment to its own church members in February. Responses were due in early March.
“As you know, our parish community, as well as the larger community beyond our block, continues to grow and change,” a note from Mother Stacey and Troy Bailey, a member of the church’s Strategic Planning Committee, enclosed with the assessment form said. “We remain committed to serving and supporting those who are traditionally underserved and marginalized in our community, including those living with H.I.V.-AIDS and L.G.B.T.Q. youth. In addition, we want to ensure that our values and mission meet the changing needs of the changing community. To this end, St. Luke’s is inviting the congregation to enter into a time of prayer and discernment around the values, concerns and ministries that are most meaningful to its members.”
When St. Luke’s officials originally described the mission-center plan to The Villager three years ago, Stacey said the church had a Saturday night feeding program for L.G.B.T. youth and H.I.V.-positive people that accommodated 80. But the program was outgrowing the space, she said — which was why St. Luke’s wanted to build a center on the site of the playground at the corner of Hudson and Christopher Sts.
“It’s an incredible ministry,” Stacey said.
At that time, the plan was for the mission to be “townhouse scale,” with a 24/7 drop-in center. Individuals would be able to get a change of clothes and take showers. It would not be “a homeless shelter,” Stacey said, though the church is allowed under regulations to have an eight-to-10-bed facility.
In the future, she said back then, the mission building could be “repurposed” to meet whatever the community’s needs might be, perhaps serving seniors, for example.
Asked this week if that ministry for L.G.B.T. youth is still going, Stacey said it is.
“Yes, we still have that program called ‘Art and Acceptance’ for L.G.B.T.Q. youth,” she said in an e-mail. “It is not particularly ‘expanding’ — current attendance numbers vary but usually range between 30 to 45 — but it still serves a need.”
As for the playground that the mission would have replaced, the plan for the expanded school includes recreational space on its rooftop.
Regarding the parts of the redevelopment project that have happened, Stacey said this week, “100 Barrow is coming along and is at its full height now and has been for several months. The co-ops at 100 Barrow are in the process of being advertised and sold, with the distribution of the affordable units being processed through the city housing authorities. The renovated townhouses on Barrow are being advertised and rented out. The school has been under construction and still is. It is at full construction height now but the interior work is continuing.”
