Carroll Gardens Organizes To Fight Assault On The Historical Integrity Of The Neighborhood

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Community Meeting On Hannah Senesh's Proposed Expansion Onto Public Land
Satrday December 12th at Carroll Gardens Library

Despite short notice, approximately 30 people gathered at the Carroll Gardens Library on Saturday morning, December 12th to discuss the plans recently unveiled by the Hannah Senesh school. The school has apparently painted itself into a corner by moving into a building which is not large enough or good enough for their needs after spending several years planning the move and spending millions of dollars to renovate and expand the old PS58 extension/District 15 building at the corner of Smith Street and First Place.
Since the school's board failed to anticipate growth requirements, they now intend to ask the city of New York to hand over one of (the first one !) the
signature courtyards (front gardens) of Carroll Gardens so that they can enlarge the school. The fact that the school (and the District 15 office before them) uses the courtyard as a parking lot in contravention to the community's requests and the requirement that the courtyards be maintained as open space does not diminish the fact that this proposal would, if enacted, forever change the streetscape. This would set a very dangerous precedent and make it more difficult to defend the nearly 160 year old city law which established the courtyards and resulted in the unique character of Carroll Gardens.
The Carroll Gardens Neighborhood Association And C.O.R.D. have long fought to protect these courtyards against development and parking incursions and cannot support this action despite their wishes for the long term success of the school. Other neighbors and organizations have also stepped forward to fight against this assault on the historical integrity of our neighborhood. They intend to take this message to our elected officials, local residents, and the press in order to make sure that this does not come to pass.



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