Living in New York City, a person gets used to strange
sightings on the street, but even though I'm a lifelong New
Yorker I have been stunned by the sight of wild turkeys ambling
nonchalantly on the North Shore streets of Staten Island. I had
been skeptical of the reports until I actually spotted the fowl
with my own eyes. These turkeys are a welcome sight, but
neighbors in the St. George community are up in arms at what they
view as a real turkey: a mental-health facility scheduled to be
built in their midst by St. Vincent's Catholic Medical Center.
About 200 residents crowded a meeting of Community Board 1 on
Tuesday to protest plans to convert a convent on Fort Place into
housing for mentally ill patients. "Enough is enough"
seems to be the cry of a beleaguered community that has been
saturated by social-service agencies. The vice chairman of the
Downtown Staten Island Council, Kevin Barry, said to me,
"This is not a typical Nimby, knee-jerk reaction. Clearly
our community has, to its detriment, opened its arms to social
programs, and currently we shoulder the overwhelming burden of
housing the myriad of programs that exist in walking distance of
the ferry."
He went on to explain that St. Vincent's already operates three
medical service programs on the North Shore, which is an area
just emerging from an economic blight. Its proximity to Wall
Street and downtown Manhattan makes it an easy commute.
Relatively inexpensive condos and co-op apartments are being
swept up in the real estate market, and gentrification has
brought in a host of new residents who are not likely to be
ignored.
Mr. Barry explained that the North Shore is politically
Democratic while the power base on Staten Island is Republican.
"It is the Downtown Council's position that the hospital
intentionally places these programs in areas that are
socioeconomically disadvantaged within communities that are not
politically enfranchised," he said. "They claim that
this is the only affordable location in S.I. However, the
placement of these programs has the resulting effect of
artificially depressing our property values, resulting in a fait
accompli which is self-perpetuating."
I contacted a St. Vincent's spokesman, Jim McMahon, about this
charge, and he insisted that the hospital had checked other sites
but the convent became available and was accommodating to its
needs. When I asked if the hospital was determined to go ahead
with the planned facility, he said: "We will be discussing
this with the residents of the community. There will be ongoing
discussions."
Mr. Barry had told me, "The specious argument offered by any
one of these programs that their clients live in our ZIP codes is
dishonest. Factually they relocate to our communities to avail
themselves of all these programs, using the ample public
transportation that exists here. The question is, where did they
originally reside?"
I asked Mr. McMahon if the mental patients to be housed at St.
George were from the North Shore. He hesitated, then said:
"I don't have that information available. I don't
know."
I can attest that the social services that are situated in my
North Shore neighborhood, Stapleton, serve a clientele that lives
in other areas of the Island or in other boroughs.
The St. George neighborhood has a reputation for compassion.
There are already 11 rehabilitation facilities located within a
four-block radius. The hospital plans to convert the former
convent to 59 apartments, to house "stable" patients
with mental illnesses. Residents of the supervised facility could
include recovering drug addicts or people dealing with
depression.
A Fort Place resident at the CB1 meeting, Larraine Jones, said:
"P.S.16 is down the block, and two or three school buses
stop there. When you say stable, we don't know how stable these
people are going to be. You just don't know."
Considering the recent deaths of children around the country,
these concerns are not to be taken likely. I asked Mr. McMahon
why patients who required medication wouldn't be housed in a
hospital setting. He answered, "Not everyone who needs
medication needs to be in a hospital."
That is certainly true, but it doesn't explain why the $3 million
that St. Vincent's is spending to buy the former convent can't be
used to build an annex on the grounds of the Medical Center on
Bard Avenue. For that matter, the Daughters of St. Paul, who own
the convent, could probably get more for their property if the
bidding was reopened.
Another Fort Place resident, Lorelei Stevens, said:
"Ironically, this may be the one place on Staten Island
where residents wouldn't oppose it being torn down for
townhouses."
The large turnout this week and the expected one for next
Tuesday's CB1 meeting is an indication that this
"turkey" may have to roost elsewhere.