November 11, 2007
Daycare Center to Be Expelled
The city is showing the door to a daycare facility that has called P.S. 122 its home for 26 years. The Children's Liberation Daycare Center (CLDC), which serves 88 kids between the ages of 2 and 6, is going to court later this month to object to its ejection from the building, with no plan for the daycare center's return. The CLDC shares P.S. 122 with three arts organizations and it's the city's Dept. of Cultural Affairs that appears ready to displace it. The Villager reports that the Administration for Children's Services, which oversees publicly funded daycare facilities, has asked the CLDC to relocate to a building on Houston and Stanton Sts. because the building it currently occupies is in dire need of renovation. Parents and workers at CLDC are unhappy that there are no plans for them to return to the building once renovation has been completed.
A group from the daycare on First Ave. and E. Ninth St. marched three blocks uptown to P.S. 19 where Bloomberg and Schools Chancellor Joel Klein scheduled a major news conference to release the city’s first progress report on the city’s public schools.The primary complaint about the nine-block relocation is that it would deprive a neighborhood of a city-funded childcare facility. Mayor Bloomberg spoke with the protesters outside of P.S. 19 and said that he'd look into the matter, but stressed that children shouldn't be occupying an aging building filled with asbestos. The New York Times described Tuesday's protest and two-minute meeting with the mayor. We wish we could have been there. "A toddler, strapped in her stroller, joined the chant of “Save Our Day Care,” while a trio of 5-year-old boys walked hand in hand, singing an anthem of resistance, “Get up, stand up, stand up for your rights!”The daycare delegation, led by Elizabeth Acevedo, a member of the Children’s Liberation board of directors, was herded to the end of the block, away from the school’s main entrance, and chanted “Mayor Mike, listen to us,” and “Save our daycare.”
It got so loud about 10:30 a.m. that a P.S. 19 teacher came out of the school and told them to hold it down, which they did.
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The Children's Liberation Daycare for many years has waged a campaign of misinformation against the arts groups that has culminated in this current action.
The facts of the matter are that the rooms in the building that they occupy are filled with lead based paints that numerous tests by the EPA have shown are of levels that are extremely dangerous to children. The levels in the other parts of the building are lower due to the vigilant maintenance of the other groups.
Added to this is the exterior of the building which is falling apart, requiring the use of the scaffold bridge since 2000.
Performance Space 122, using its own funds, lobbied the city and successfully procured 15 million dollars for the renovation of the building, with the aim to create something the neighborhood could be proud of.
This work was scheduled to begin in 2003, but has been blocked by the daycare many times.
The daycare, for the safety of the children, is to be relocated to a newer, larger and more suitable location during this construction. Whether they return is a matter for the ACS and not the decision of the arts groups as the management of the daycare have erroneously claimed.
The daycare fails to mention in its protests other facts about its tenancy of the building, including:
It has not accepted or paid a rent increase for the last five years, forcing the other four tenants to cover the extra financial burden themselves.
Last winter they prevented a heating oil delivery under false concerns for the children, during which they verbally abused the delivery driver and jeopardized the price structure the building had arranged.
They have blocked access to at least one major fire exit and stairwell.
Finally, the daycare was originally to service low income families in the neighborhood. However in the last five to seven years, the neighborhood has changed dramatically, and it is not uncommon to see children dropped off in Lexus SUVs and Town Cars. The planned move would bring them closer to the very families they are supposed to to serve.
Hiding behind children to push your own agenda and personal attacks on those that are just trying to do something good for the area is shameful, and one wonders how the management of the Children's Liberation Daycare sleep at night.
Yeah I was disturbed by kids and toddlers protesting. Those parents must be real asses. Maybe they want the daycare to be a selling point for their condo.
Thanks for the thoughtful response, Murgus. It's a shame that Children's Liberation Daycare has been appealing to the public using such skewed and misrepresented facts. For anyone out there who cares about the welfare of these kids it should be pretty clear that getting them out of a 100-year-old building full of lead paint and asbestos which has been literally crumbling for the last five years is a good start.