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Mott Haven releases anti-jail video The East Coast Doughboys hosted its third annual Great War Swap
and Sale on Sunday, February 10 at the Samuel H. Young American
Legion Post 620. Aidan Palmer was fascinated by WWI and its artifacts.
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The Bronx Times
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Vol. 25 No. 7 www.bxtimes.com
February 15-21, 2019
Landmarks’ OK will give housing complex a ‘GO’
Swapping War Stories
ST. PETER’S: NO
BODIES FOUND
Continued on Page 73
Continued on Page 73
See spread on page 55. Photo by Silvio Pacifi co
BY PATRICK ROCCHIO
A community group has
formed to investigate the possible
existence of a centuries
old Quaker burial ground
where a developer has announced
plans to build a large
housing project. The property’s
owner vehemently denies
the group’s claims.
The Ad Hoc Committee
for the Preservation of the
Friends (Quaker) Cemetery,
believes that the proposed
site of an 11-story affordable
housing complex at Herschell
Street and Westchester Avenue,
located on St. Peter’s
Episcopal Church grounds,
may be landmarked and contain
a Quaker gravesite.
Their concerns are based
on documents they reviewed
dating back to the 1800s and
their own observations of the
parcel in question. They claim
that they have located several
small Quaker burial markers
from the late 19th on the site.
The AHCPFC has made
NYC Landmarks Preservation
Commission aware of
their concerns.
According to the LPC, only
part of the land in the lot in
question, known as lot 6, is
protected in a 1976 landmarking
of St. Peter’s Church and
its churchyard.
Tom Vasti, a member of the
group and an East Bronx History
Forum offi cer, said the
construction site was a Quaker
meeting hall into the 19th century,
which is evidenced in
maps from the 1800s.
According to historical records,
there could be a 17th
century burial ground, containing
at least 75 burials, according
to burial list dating
back to the 1850s, he said.
Sandi Lusk, a committee
member, said that a group of
the amateur historians and
community activists which
include members of her group,
the Westchester Square Zerega
Improvement Organization,
believes that Quaker site was
sold to St. Peter’s Church in
the 1920s with the explicit condition
that the Quaker burial
ground at the location would
be maintained by the church.
“We asked LPC to visit,”
said Lusk. “There is a lot of
confusion as to whether the
lot is landmarked.”
The committee asked LPC
to determine where exactly
the landmarked area of St. Peter’s
Church and its graveyard
starts and ends, an archeologi
BY ALEX MITCHELL
Diego Beekman, a Mott
Haven affordable housing developer
and its CEO Arline
Parks have set their sights on
exposing the culprits that are
responsible for ramming the
jail construction proposal for
320 Concord Avenue down the
community’s throat.
They have released a 47-second
video targeted at Mayor
de Blasio and Councilwoman
Diana Ayala, the two primary
advocates of the jail plan.
Produced by community
advocates Parks, Walter Nash
and Maria Ortiz, the video is
part of a campaign to educate
and organize Bronx residents
against the jail. Other videos
will be released as the city
moves forward with its plan.
The campaign will also
target state and city elected
offi cials including Councilwoman
Vanessa Gibson,
whose successful efforts to
block the jail from going near
the courthouse, led to the current
site being selected.
“Mayor de Blasio, Council
Member Ayala: if you really
want to do what’s safe and fair,
put the jail where it belongs,
next to the courthouse,” Park
says in the video.
“A jail in Mott Haven will
move us backwards, not forwards,”
Nash states in the
piece airing on various media
platforms such as Facebook.
“It’s the height of hypocrisy
to say you’re for a ‘fairer’ New
York and fi ghting inequality,
and then drop a 26-story jail
in a lower-income community
of color. Mayor de Blasio
and Council Member Ayala
clearly do not care about the
people of Mott Haven, who
have been working for years
to clean up their own streets.
The jail must go next to the
courthouse.”
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