Garden City residents to vote on St. Paul's School

Garden City residents will have the opportunity today to register their opinions on what should happen to the landmark St.

[EPOA]

Current Status - A village-wide poll to gauge the public's opinion on St. Paul's was held on December 2nd, 2008. Out of 5,002 votes cast:

17.5%(873 voters) approved a development agreement between the Village of Garden City and AvalonBay for restoration and redevelopment of the St. Paul’s school, substantially as outlined in the Mayor’s Committee report.

45.4%(2,272 voters) approved demolition of the Main Building and Ellis Hall on the St. Paul’s property, which may result in estimated costs of $5.8 million to village taxpayers as outlined in the Mayor’s Committee report.

37.1%(1,857 voters) approved of mothballing the Main Building on the St. Paul’s property, which may result in estimated costs to village taxpayers of $13.9 million plus annual upkeep of around $200,000. as outlined in the Mayor’s Committee report.

[Old Money]

GC can vote themselves the most racist City on LI.

[Swing the wrecking ball]

The residents have voted. Take a bunch of photos and knock it down. It's a shame it's taken this long to bring this to a vote, albeit a non-binding vote. While it is beautiful, it has lived beyond its useful life...on life support. The land is a blessing and can be used and developed for the benefit of current residents.

To our esteemed School Trustees...consider a relocation of the High School to this location. Build a state of the art High School with bridge financing that can be retired or substantially reduced by sale of the existing HS footprint for residential development. Dead end Rockaway Ave. at the OCR/Herricks Rd intersection. It's what should have been done from day one...fifteen years ago. It's still not too late.

[Old Money]

In the case of the Garden City schools, black and white testers went to schools asking for school registration papers, and the report cites an incident in which a black man was told he could not pick up forms for his own grandchildren, but a white tester was given forms for her ''cousins by marriage.''

The Garden City schools superintendent, Stephen Leitman, declined to comment on the report.

In the case of the village park, the report said that the Garden City police asked black preschool children to leave a park because they clearly were not Garden City residents, while white parkgoers were not even approached to determine their residency.''This incident is frighteningly reminiscent of the Jim Crow South,'' the report states.

[Burn baby burn]

Why can't we find the sons and daughters of the teens who torched St. Mary's and hire them to repeat the feat!!!!

[Bob K]

One more piece of history to be destroyed on L.I. What a shame!!! In such an affluent area, nobody can find the resources to save this landmark? I guess everyone is too busy putting vinyl siding on their homes to take a look around to see what a real building should look like. Surely, there has to be some use for this building to take on and be saved. Please do not let what happened to the historic Garden City Hotel happen to St. Paul's.

[GC Racism]

Garden City is full of racist people, who cares what happens to them?

[Acorn]

Hey Old Money - why don't you give the whole story and credit ACORN as the author of the "Report" -

[Acorn]

Here's a link to the whole report - not just selected portions:

http://acorn.org/fileadmin/Community_Reinvest...

http://acorn.org/index.php...

Read the whole story - Know who wrote it and what their motives and prejudices are ant then make informed judgments.

[Acorn]

spelling. "and" - not "ant"

[Garden City RACISM]

EVERYONE knows GC is as racist as it gets.

[Boo hoo]

What makes Garden City a racist community? Believe it or not, there are people of many different races and ethnicities who can't afford to live in that community, including white people.

I do not live in Garden City because I can't afford to live there. Do you hear me crying and whining about it? No, because I understand that the world doesn't owe me a nice house in a weathy community.

What exactly do you expect the residents there to do? Should they drain their bank accounts and hand you the money so that you can buy some property there? Because I'm sure you would do the same for others who are less fortunate than you, right?

Lose your sense of entitlement. And stop being so jealous of people who are more successful than you.

[Garden City RACISM]

Boo hoo wrote:

What makes Garden City a racist community? Believe it or not, there are people of many different races and ethnicities who can't afford to live in that community, including white people.
I do not live in Garden City because I can't afford to live there. Do you hear me crying and whining about it? No, because I understand that the world doesn't owe me a nice house in a weathy community.
What exactly do you expect the residents there to do? Should they drain their bank accounts and hand you the money so that you can buy some property there? Because I'm sure you would do the same for others who are less fortunate than you, right?
Lose your sense of entitlement. And stop being so jealous of people who are more successful than you.

What makes Garden City a racist coommunity is the practices of the GC police actually targetting minorities and perceived minorities as outlined in a New York Times article concerning children in the Garden City park.

What makes Garden City a racist community is the practices of the school system refusing to provide information to minorities wishing to enroll in the school.

Wealth has nothing to do with it. I know many wealthy poeple who are bigger a.s.s. h.o.l.e.s than you.

[Acorn]

Not the Times.
An Acorn propaganda report.

[Acorn]

All residents can get information about the schools

[garden city parent]

Old Money wrote:

In the case of the Garden City schools, black and white testers went to schools asking for school registration papers, and the report cites an incident in which a black man was told he could not pick up forms for his own grandchildren, but a white tester was given forms for her ''cousins by marriage.''
The Garden City schools superintendent, Stephen Leitman, declined to comment on the report.
In the case of the village park, the report said that the Garden City police asked black preschool children to leave a park because they clearly were not Garden City residents, while white parkgoers were not even approached to determine their residency.''This incident is frighteningly reminiscent of the Jim Crow South,'' the report states.

FYI: Mr. Leitman retired two years ago. Get your facts straight and current!

[garden city parent]

Why not look at Long Island as whole and you will see that people have many choices of towns to choose to live in. There are many different types of communities that I can't afford to live in or chose not to live in like Muttontown and South Hampton-- but does that make them racist towns?
I have a great idea: get an education, work hard, make good choices and live where you want. And let others do the same!

[Old Money]

garden city parent wrote:

<quoted text>FYI: Mr. Leitman retired two years ago. Get your facts straight and current!

So GC racism goes back AT LEAST two years, thanks for pointing that out.

[Old Money]

garden city parent wrote:

Why not look at Long Island as whole and you will see that people have many choices of towns to choose to live in. There are many different types of communities that I can't afford to live in or chose not to live in like Muttontown and South Hampton-- but does that make them racist towns?
I have a great idea: get an education, work hard, make good choices and live where you want. And let others do the same!

Once again wealth has nothing to do with it.(Muttontown? oh yeah, the SLAVE case last year, good example)

[Classof89]

I graduated from St. Paul´s in 1989. Everytime I drive by the building my heart cries out for the grand old lady. Aside from my obviously biased personal feelings I do believe that if St. Paul´s is demolished it will be regreted immediately much the same way the demolition of the original Penn station. Residents of Garden City, I implore you to think twice about how you will vote and listen to the better angels of your nature.
As for Garden City being racist, well, the first black faculty member of St. Paul´s(84-90) whom I am still very close with today NEVER expirenced any type of racial incident by neither the residents or police of Garden City