It's the 5th Avenue Committee vs. the NIMBYs in Park Slope

"It isn't that we're saying NIMBY," explains Pacific St. resident James Vogel, "we're saying not in my backyard again."

What Vogel doesn't want in his Brooklyn backyard is the 5th Avenue Committee's acquisition of a boarded-up, city-owned building at 572 Pacific St., which the nonprofit promoters of "social and economic justice" are trying to convert into 10 units of transitional housing for ex-offenders from Park Slope, Gowanus, Sunset Park, Prospect Heights and Red Hook. Like many of his neighbors, Vogel is dubious about the wisdom of placing transitional housing for parolees on the stretch of Pacific bounded by Flatbush and 4th Ave., formerly known for its buyer's market in drugs and prostitutes. Residents of the brownstone-lined block have spent years shooing away pimps, pushers, johns and skeezers, but Pacific St. isn't quite Cosby Show Brooklyn yet. Vogel worries that the 5th Avenue Committee's proposal will "derail the direction this block is on" while simultaneously increasing recidivism among the ex-cons, and considers the location to be "like holding an AA meeting at a bar."

The 5th Avenue Committee cleared its first hurdle to acquisition on Oct. 10, when the local Community Board voted to approve the transitional housing proposal, a requirement by the city's Dept. of Housing Preservation and Development to sell its property in need of rehabilitation. Now that the committee has obtained a letter of support from Ken Fisher, the district's sitting city councilman?complicated, since traversing the procedures coincides with the council elections?before it can apply for a letter of site control from HPD, which says that if an organization can raise sufficient funding for property rehab, the department will sell the property to the organization. Committee Executive Director Brad Lander says he plans on applying to the state for subsidization imminently. If all goes according to plan, Lander counts on having transitional housing at 572 Pacific St. in two years.

It's been a rocky road for the proposal since the 5th Avenue Committee began seeking neighborhood support for it in the summer. "Ten years ago, this block was in terrible shape," Lander says. "Now, it's not the block with the highest property values in Park Slope, but it's in decent shape." He's seen community opposition?some of it vociferous?but in addition to the residents at the Oct. 10 community board meeting carrying anti-committee signs, he's secured the support of Pacific St. residents like Kate Collignon of 590 Pacific, who wrote to Community Board 6 Chairwoman Irene Lo Re that the proposal "not only will provide critical services to ex-offenders and the community at large, but can also positively affect the quality of life on our street."

To the contrary, neighbor Syble Henderson wrote "to all concerned" in July, "no matter how well-run and/or managed, inherent anti-social problems are generated... What we would like to see for the future of 572 Pacific Street is that it be rehabilitated privately into a two-family home to house decent law-abiding people."

The transitional housing proposal is part of the 5th Avenue Committee's Developing Justice in South Brooklyn project, an attempt to reincorporate paroled felons from the neighborhood back into the surroundings they left?meaning getting them jobs and finding them places to live. "Affordable housing's been by far the biggest barrier we've been unable to help people with," Lander says; of the 40-odd people who've come through the program looking for housing since its inception last September, the committee's found adequate housing for less than 10. "It has been very, very difficult to help people find a place to live."

So the committee went looking for available neighborhood space to develop its own supervised housing for ex-offenders, and since most of the clients of the Developing Justice project services come from Park Slope, it was important to find them residences there?bringing the committee to the boarded windows and dreary facade of 572 Pacific St., which overlooks a parking lot shared by Modell's and P.C. Richard and has an impressive view of the Williamsburgh Savings Bank building. When I visited the building one recent evening, I was impressed by the absence of whores and pushers, and the only danger I faced came when a concealed hooligan who throws like a girl lobbed an egg at me. Pacific St. struck me as no more or less dreary than most blocks immediately off of Flatbush Ave., and Vogel emphasizes that it took great residential effort over the last 20 years "converting it from a red-light district into a block where you can...raise children."

Lander doesn't deny that there's still some drug activity on the block, particularly near 4th Ave., "but my sense is it's not the worst drug spot in the community." But Pacific between 4th and Flatbush in 2001 isn't Pacific between 4th and Flatbush in 1991: "I think people have what this block was etched into their minds. This particular building [572 Pacific St.] was terrible?shootings in the building, people doing drugs, prostitution," Lander says. Now, "You'd feel perfectly safe walking up this block, and your mother would, too."

It's that safety Vogel wants to preserve, both for current residents and prospective ones. "How many people do you think are going to say, 'Hey, honey! I've found this great brownstone. And?it's great?there's a halfway house for ex-cons next door!'"

Responding to resident concerns, the proposal emphasizes safety and security: ex-offenders will occupy 572 Pacific for up to 24 months, supervised by case managers and security personnel, who conduct random drug tests. If an occupant fails one, he's got to find a new place to live. No sex offenders or arsonists will be allowed, and all potential occupants will undergo a multi-tiered screening process, including a review by a committee of two Pacific St. residents and one resident of nearby Dean St. Furthermore, the committee will establish a Community Advisory Board with Pacific and Dean Street Residents that can vote by a three-quarter majority to terminate the program after its first year if it thinks the ex-offender program isn't up to snuff.

The 5th Avenue Committee laments resident opposition, and Lander says he's trying to repair breaches with the neighborhood and demonstrate the worth of the project as the committee moves to acquire its letter of site control. The Democratic nominee to fill Fisher's shoes, David Yassky, tells me that he thinks the ex-offender transitional housing is a good idea, but qualifies his support with a desire to research the process for council approval of the HPD transfer before committing himself to anything. Vogel pledges continued resistance, saying the 5th Avenue Committee "will be very hard-pressed" to find Pacific and Dean St. residents willing to serve on the advisory board. Against the transitional housing that he fears will undercut the block's political clout, Vogel asks, "Don't you think this area is just a little overserved?"