Controversy over rebuild of Flushing's Macedonia AME Church

From the Times Ledger:

In the midst of the $1 billion Flushing Commons project on Union Street in Flushing, community members are worried about the fate of the Macedonia African Methodist Episcopal Church and the human remains they believe are buried on the property.

Dr. Richard McEachern, the minister, told a Community Board 7 meeting on Nov. 9, 2015 that the church would be torn down and replaced by a new, but not “oversized” church, according to the meeting minutes. No construction plans have been disclosed publicly or at quarterly church meetings, however, according to church members. McEachern is a member of the community board.

Jim Driscoll, a member of the Queens Historical Society, said he is concerned about the human remains mentioned in an archeological report, originally created in 1988 and confirmed in 2006 by Historical Perspectives Inc., a firm that conducts cultural and archeological research.

The extensive report determined that “current A.M.E. Church property must be considered sensitive for possible human remains.” It also recommended a 15-foot perimeter around three sides of the church to prevent disturbance of potential grave sites connected to Flushing’s historical African-American community.

Macedonia Church not being replaced

From the Times Ledger:

Despite rumors that the Macedonia AME Church in Flushing was due to be torn down, the office of Queens Borough President Melinda Katz confirmed that there are no such plans.

In an email dated July 7 to Jackson Heights resident Stephen Barney, 62, who wrote an op-ed for the TimesLedger March 16 against the alleged plan, Susie Tanenbaum, director of immigrant and intercultural affairs for Katz’s office, said that the church does need to undergo renovations but that there are no plans to tear it down.

“Indeed, given the building’s longevity, there are renovations that need to be attended to in order to ensure the safety and well-being of the congregati­on,” Tanenbaum wrote. “But Macedonia AME as an institution remains very much intact.”

Macedonia AME Church may be torn down

From the Queens Courier:

A historic 19th-century Queens church that once served as a stop on the Underground Railroad could be facing the wrecking ball as leaders in the Flushing congregation consider a proposal to replace the aging structure with a new sanctuary.

The African Methodist Episcopal Church on Union Street dates back to the 1800s and today remains one of the borough’s two surviving stops on the Underground Railroad, a network of people and buildings used to shuttle slaves out of the South before the Civil War.

Flushing’s John Bowne House is the borough’s other surviving remnant of the network that brought an estimated 100,000 slaves to freedom in northern states and Canada.

But church officials, concerned about structural problems in the building, are considering building a new church on the site.

Revered McEachern confirmed that they are in the “developing stage” of tearing down the church so that a new worship site could be built. He said that the various historic elements of the building, like the church’s vaulted roof, would be preserved and used in the new building. But he declined to comment on the decision, which was made by the church’s board of trustees.

Flushing Commons construction is a pain in the ass for many

From the Queens Chronicle:

Work on Flushing Commons, the large mixed-use development, has not only affected area businesses but the historic church next door as well.

The house of worship, located at 37-22 Union St., is on one side of the $1 billion project that is also bounded by 138th Street and 37th and 39th avenues. So while construction work — which began officially in June — continues through 2021, the 203-year-old congregation will have to put up with noise, dirt and a definite hemmed-in feeling.

Although 1,144 parking spaces remain during construction, using them is no longer free at certain times. The site previously served as a municipal parking lot and parking was free on Sunday and for some evening hours.

The remaining piece of the former municipal lot is being developed by the church. It has constructed a 14-story, 142-unit affordable housing structure located adjacent to the house of worship.

It was completed months ago, but the city is taking its time in making inspections before giving the project a certificate of occupancy.

More than 40,000 applications were received by the city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development.

Prior to the start of Flushing Commons construction, Korean stores on Union Street feared a loss of business due to the work.

The city, however, has set up a $2.5 million small business assistance fund for all Flushing merchants that is being administered by Asian Americans for Equality and the city.

But Ikhwan Rim, president of the Union Street Small Business Merchants Association, said on Monday that businesses are closing down. “I’m okay, hanging on, but it’s not too good for business,” the jewelry store owner said.

He blamed the drop-off in commerce to lack of parking, the cost of what remains and additional traffic due to construction. “The developers need to work harder for us,” Rim said.

Macedonia project may become big headache

From the Daily News:

The 14-floor Macedonia Plaza, which recently received the funding it needs to move ahead with construction at 37-08 Union St., is not expected to include parking — a provision that worries nearby merchants in congested downtown Flushing.

“Everything’s just going to be very, very hard,” said Ikhwan Rim, president of the Union Street Small Business Association, which represents about 150 shops. “If you make it really harder to do business, everybody will go out of business.”

Customers have already begun complaining about the lack of parking, said Rim, who runs a jewelry store. And he fears it will get worse as construction continues.

“If people can’t find a parking space, why would they want to come here?” he asked.

But Macedonia Plaza has received support from local leaders who pointed out that the stalled Flushing Commons project next door is to include a 1,600-spot underground parking lot. It will also include commercial space, residential units and a YMCA.

City Councilman Peter Koo (D-Flushing) said the neighborhood desperately needs the 143 units of affordable housing that the plaza will provide.

Unholy parking mess in Flushing

From the Times Ledger:

The 14-story affordable housing building proposed by Macedonia AME Church will begin its rise over downtown Flushing next month, but parking provisions did not go according to plan.

On April 5, the construction company BRP Cos. that is building the church is set to erect a fence around the project site and stick a shovel in the ground two to three weeks later.

The project will go up on a 30,140-square-foot section of Municipal Lot 1 directly north of the church. The lot will be sold to the church at what city officials called a “nominal price,” while community leaders said that lot is being given to the church.

Macedonia Plaza will be home to 143 units of affordable housing, retail space on the ground floor along Union Street, a day care center and gated green space, according to the city Department of Housing, which is giving a property tax break to the developer as part of a city initiative to spur economic revival.

The structure, being built by BRP and Macedonia AME Development Corp., was initially supposed to be started after another, larger development got off the ground.

Flushing Commons, an $850 million proposed mixed-use project that would take up the rest of Municipal Lot 1, was set to be developed before Macedonia Plaza, according to the Rev. Richard McEachern, of the church.

“The intent was for Flushing Commons to start first, then the AME go second,” McEachern said at a meeting. “But if I may, as God would have it, Macedonia Plaza is now going first.”

But the switch negates the way parking was supposed to be provided.

In a City Planning report, the agency addressed CB 7’s concerns by saying the area is well-served by mass transit and that “the adjacent proposed Flushing Commons development will provide a total of 1,600 public parking spaces, which will replace the 1,101 parking spaces presently in the municipal lot.”

Yet Flushing Commons was not built first and does not currently have the funding to start. Instead of additional parking spaces, the area will lose about 50 of them, according to CB 7 Vice Chairman Chuck Apelian, who said that the Macedonia Plaza phase was supposed to go second.

Pols uneasy about cemetery at Flushing Commons

From the Daily News:

Leroy Comrie, chairman of the City Council's powerful land use committee, called on the city to ensure "gentle" treatment of any tombs at the plot set for Flushing Commons, a mix of housing and retail space.

The proposal is expected to be voted on by the land use committee on July 28 and then by the full Council. But Comrie said too many question marks remain.

"I'm not prepared to encourage the full body to vote because we have so many unresolved issues," Comrie said at a hearing Thursday near City Hall.

At Thursday's hearing, Comrie (D-Jamaica) pressed Seth Pinsky, president of the city Economic Development Corp., for details about new excavation plans.

"No one has said to date what will be done," Comrie said.

Pinsky defended the 1953 excavation as an "extensive investigation." But when Comrie asked how far down the hand-diggers went in 1953, Pinsky admitted, "I don't have that exact figure."

The News asked the city last month for records of the excavation to determine its scope, but the city has not yet produced any.

A spokeswoman for the city Law Department, which officially declared the cemetery nonexistent in 1954, said the agency is "still looking" for the report.

Pinsky also noted that community leaders did not mention the possibility of graves during numerous meetings with EDC.

"We have not received any evidence other than the story in the Daily News," Pinsky said. But, he added, "We would ensure the site would be treated with respect."

Later, Queens Borough President Helen Marshall echoed Comrie's calls for a careful check.

"There should be reasonable measures to ensure there are not human remains on the construction site," Marshall read from prepared testimony.

She lifted her head and continued off the cuff: "We treasure our people, both while they're alive and after they pass away."

Flushing Commons may unearth graves

From the Daily News:

Human remains from a 19th-century Methodist graveyard may still be buried beneath a Flushing parking lot slated for a controversial development, a Daily News investigation has found.

Research suggests 150 parishioners were interred between 1846 and 1857 at the proposed site of Flushing Commons, a housing and retail complex to be voted on today by the City Planning Commission.

An environmental impact statement for the plan noted that attempts to excavate the Methodist burial ground - near 37th Ave. and 138th St. - in the 1950s reportedly were unsuccessful.

Still, church leaders at the time did not consider that conclusive.

It's unclear how the possibility of graves - unknown to even the project's fiercest opponents before The News' digging - may impact the contentious project.

The city has already ordered archeological testing before work on Flushing Commons, believing artifacts or graves from another congregation may still be present.

But critics wonder if graves are scattered throughout the 5-acre site, given that the Methodist graveyard went undetected for so long.

"It intensifies the fact there are human remains," said recently named Queens Borough Historian Jack Eichenbaum.

Opponents of the project also stoked speculation about graves where the nearby Macedonia AME Church wants to erect affordable housing.

Historic newspaper reports seem to verify Macedonia's stance that the parishioners buried in the former graveyard were reinterred beneath the church.

But two sources close to the plans contended the church excluded a basement in its affordable housing component due to fears that crews might unearth bodies and halt or delay work.

Um, it was known to the projects fiercest opponents. It was mentioned at the farce of a hearing by several testifiers. But nothing is sacred anymore in the city that never stops building.

Digging for the past while forgetting it

From the Daily News:

RESEARCHERS are hoping the excavation of a municipal parking lot in Flushing will reveal vital clues about 17th-century life - a rarely discussed effect of the controversial Flushing Commons development.

Archeological work slated for the Union St. lot could turn up artifacts from farms, a school and other sites that occupied the area over the last three and a half centuries, preservationists said.

...historians are salivating over the prospects of unearthing the past - during testing required by the city Landmarks Preservation Commission.

The commission ordered tests because of the project's proximity to the Macedonia AME Church, which began in 1811 and is considered the third-oldest religious organization in Flushing.

Eichenbaum figured Dutch settlers in the 1600s also might have crossed the plot, located between early downtown and where they docked boats in Flushing Bay.

Starting in the early 1800s, the site housed a school for the poor run by the Flushing Female Association. Archivists crave the school's long-lost student records.

"It's a longshot, but I'm hoping it will be recovered," said Jim Driscoll, the historical society's longtime president.

The Landmarks Preservation Commission instructed the site's developers, TDC Construction and the Rockefeller Group, to hire an archeological expert as part of any underground work.

Michael Meyer, the president of TDC Development, said the developers will likely pick a consultant early next year.

"We don't expect, frankly, there will be much of anything," he said. "But you never know. We may be surprised."

Others held out hope.

"Excavation could fill in gaps in the documented history we have in our collection," said Marisa Berman, executive director of the historical society. "It would ultimately give historians a better understanding of that area."

How could all of these historians and preservationists fail to mention the artifacts most likely to be discovered there and the population they belonged to? HELLOOOO?

An open letter to Community Board 7

From the Times Ledger:

I had the misfortune to attend the CB 7 hearing March 22 regarding the proposed Flushing Commons project. I arrived at 7 p.m. when the hearing began, but I did not get to say my piece until the early hours of the next day — more than five hours later. The preparation for and organization of the hearing was inadequate and disrespectful to the people who attended.

First, the board leaders should have realized this project would bring out a large segment of the community, both in favor of and against the project. The room at the site of the hearing was too small to handle the hundreds who showed up. Of course, there were not enough seats and people had to stand for hours in the aisles. The room was hot and uncomfortable. It was difficult to hear the speakers and see the rendition pictures of the project in the front of the room. Building security had a hard time managing the crowd.

My church, the Macedonia AME Church of Flushing, attended in full force to support the affordable housing aspect of the project, known as Macedonia Plaza. But instead of dealing with that part of the project in a timely manner, we were the last to be heard. It was like we were told to sit in the back of a bus.

Sitting there, I thought back to the 1857 Dred Scott Supreme Court decision, which held that a free black man does not have rights that a white man is bound to respect. That sentiment is still alive today.

It was also infuriating because that land where the project is to be built — Municipal Parking Lot No. 1 — was once a predominantly African-American community of homes and businesses. Back in 1954, New York City callously took by eminent domain all of that property to make the parking lot.

It paid the people little for their land and homes. Macedonia AME, located on the lot, escaped being swallowed up at that time. But many of the church’s members had their property taken away from them. And some of their descendents were present at the board hearing.

And here we sat at this hearing waiting for our turn to be heard. Many of my sisters and brothers could not wait to speak. They were tired from a hard day’s work and had to get their sleep for the next day’s labors. Many church members attending were senior citizens like myself, but we were made to stay for hours, biding our time while others debated about parking and traffic.

Yes, they are important issues, but the board should have showed the proper respect to my people.

Construction workers and others present at the hearing got to have their say before my people. My people, many of whose ancestors had connections to that land, had to wait into the early morning hours.

I believe those who run CB 7 could have done better. They need to get their act together and, in general, show more consideration and respect for the people who come out to the board’s hearings. The board is there to serve the residents of the community. It is an arm of our democracy, where it operates for and by the people.

Unfortunately, on the night of March 22, it did not serve my people well and a public apology is in order for what happened to the people of Macedonia AME at that hearing.

Mandingo Tshaka
Bayside

There's a nice little exposé about CB7 coming up tomorrow.