On Tuesday night, the city abruptly closed the Mary Mitchell Family and Youth Center in Crotona, following a disagreement over permit fees. Tomorrow, staff, local residents, and others will rally outside the building to protest the decision.
The Department of Education took over the building's lease in 2000. At the time, a deal was struck allowing the center to continue running its programs after school and on weekends, Mary Mitchell staff say. The DOE also agreed to maintain the building and waive the permit fees for the space.
Now, ten years later, the department's gone back on its word, says the center's Executive Director Heidi Hynes. When payment was requested - and not received - DOE custodians locked the center's staff out of the building.
Located on Mapes Avenue near East 178th Street, the Mary Mitchell Center serves hundreds of children each week. It also supports other local groups and organizations (including one of our newspapers, the Tremont Tribune, whose reporter has desk space there), and has long been a force for good in the neighborhood. The center has played a key role, for example, in raising awareness of, and drawing attention to, gun crime in the area. And it's been raising funds to build a new community center in a nearby park where a derelict building currently stands.
Check out the flier below for details of tomorrow's rally. We'll be there and will have more coverage next week.
Rally Details
Thursday, September 23, 2010
Tomorrow: Rally to Save the Mary Mitchell Center
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