New York City Council Member Andy King led dozens of Northeast Bronx residents in a protest rally Wednesday night against the planned placement of a juvenile prison that is not zoned for a residential neighborhood.
The facility would house 20 beds, including 8 intensive care beds, for the Administration for Children’s Services’ (ACS) “Close to Home” program at 3030 Bruner Ave., in the Baychester section of the Bronx.
The premise of the program, which Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo signed into law in 2012, is to place New York City youth who have been sentenced for certain crimes into local facilities where they would be closer to their families and attorneys.
The building on Bruner Avenue features a 6-foot fence, gated windows, locked doors and surveillance cameras. Long ago, the building was used as a group home for boys. Most recently, the building was a site for a daycare.
Among the arguments made by King and others is that the residential neighborhood is not zoned for an “I-3” classified institutional facility.
Use group I means "institution" where residents are restrained or supervised for reasons such as security, mental health, or physical health. Use group I-3 is for reformatories, prisons, and other secure facilities where individuals may not leave unrestrained or without supervision for security reasons. These facilities may only be placed in manufacturing or industrial zoning areas, according to the Department of Buildings. The developer is the Downtown Group.
“Our outrage is based on ACS’ blatant attempt to skirt zoning laws--and consequently compromise community safety--by mis-categorizing their youth facilities,” said Council Member King, who wants ACS and the Department of Buildings (DOB) to reverse its decision on the placement of the planned Limited Secure Placement facility. “The community was told that this building will be a group home for girls. That was a lie and this facility received an ‘I-3’ classification, which voids it right to place this type of institutional facility in a residential community. We can plainly see with the big black bars in the yard and over the windows that this is going to be a jail!”
In addition misrepresentation in zoning, protesters argued that the community was not made aware of the plan and they fear with just limited security the delinquent offenders could escape and cause harm to the surrounding community, which is surrounded by private family homes and is near a community park and nursing home.
"Why does the City of New York feel that it is acceptable to locate a facility with bars on its windows for a troubled population in a beautiful, bucolic neighborhood such as this? The lack of respect for the good, hard-working, taxpaying homeowners of Bruner Avenue is obvious and disgraceful. The need for the Municipal Administration to be disingenuous in locating this facility further and pointedly underscores its contempt for the citizens of Community Board #12, who it allegedly serves,” said Father Richard F. Gorman, Chairman of Community Board #12 (The Bronx).
King said the philosophy of the “Close to Home” program is flawed and there have been more warrants and re-arrests of the young in the program than successes. “I don’t support the program for a number of reasons, mainly because offenders should not be situated in locations convenient for them, where they can see their friends and family at will. What lesson is learned by that? If they commit an offense and are sentenced to go upstate, it’s my hope they’ll learn a lesson and won’t commit a crime again.”
During the rally, community residents marched through the neighborhood and various streets chanting “3030 Bruner Has Got to Go!” Residents were also urged to sign petitions opposing the planned Close to Home site.
In addition to Council Member King, speaking at the rally were Min. Abdul-Hafeez Muhammad, a representative of Min. Louis Farrakhan, Nation of Islam, who covers the five boroughs and Westchester and Long Island; Maxine Sullivan, representative of Congress Member Engel; Carl Lanzano, Community Board 12 board member and Jamaal Bailey, representative of State Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie.
At the close of the rally, Council Member King announced that during the rally he had received a text from the mayor’s office stating that ACS wanted to meet.
