Hold the line!
A historic New York youth group is calling on lawmakers to intervene to prevent them from being evicted from the Upper East Side building they’ve called home for more than a century.
The Knickerbocker Glades, founded in 1881 as a group of young cadets, are facing eviction from the Park Avenue Armory by the Conservancy, which manages state-owned buildings.
The Park Avenue Conservancy claims the Gray family’s space — an approximately 800-square-foot broom closet — must be vacated for renovations.
Meanwhile, he did not commit to finding another space for the group in the roughly 200,000-square-foot facility, which occupies an entire city block at Park Avenue and 66th Street, and said it would not move into the space once a vague renovation project is complete. Nor do I promise to bring them back. It has been completed.
“It’s very disconcerting and disappointing to me,” Col. Tom Pike, a former Knickerbocker Gray whose daughters are now Grays, told the Post.
Pike said the program played an important role in developing leadership skills that were later employed at prominent companies. military history – The same qualities he hopes to instill in his daughters.
“I learned a lot, I learned how to make friends, I learned how to obey. And I learned how to be responsible. And these are all things I want my daughters to have in the same way. “That’s an important quality to have,” Pike said of Glaze. Grey’s bills itself as America’s oldest after-school program for children ages 6 to 16.
In 2022, the Park Avenue Conservancy, the nonprofit organization mandated by the state to operate the historic armory, removed Gray from their space in the vast complex that had been home to him for more than 120 years. We have started eviction proceedings to do so.
The conservancy’s president, Rebecca Robertson, did not respond to inquiries from The Post.
Several other parents and former board members echoed Pike’s disappointment and embarrassment.
“Just the fact that they don’t care about the organization, the young people, the children… it’s really appalling,” said Fiona Hoban, whose daughter Niamh is from Grey.
She said the youth group gave Niamh a “sense of security and belonging”.
“It’s not that complicated. We just want to get back home,” Knickerbocker Glades board chairman Adrian Rogatnick told the Post.
“The kids really feel like this is their home.”
State Sen. Liz Krueger (D-Manhattan) is seeking to pass a bipartisan bill that would make it clear that the Knickerbocker Grays have a right to space in armories.
“It’s completely ridiculous and there’s no excuse,” Krueger told the Post. “They’re part of the armory.”
The bill would amend some of the state’s outdated military laws to make clear that conservation groups must provide space in armories to Grays.
Meanwhile, the Grays visited Albany earlier this month and met with members of Congress.
“The conservancy was created by statute and control of the armory was given to them based on a number of assumptions. One of them was that the Grays would remain, so I think the state needs to take action. ,” said Rep. Alex Boas (D-Manhattan), who is introducing the bill in Congress.
Both lawmakers are racing to get the bill across the finish line before Albany adjourns the Legislature next month.
While the Grays remain in the armory while the eviction case progresses through the courts, many are hoping for another, less painful solution soon.
“I think a small organization like this is a small organization, and it would be nice to have some good news for a small organization,” Col. Pike said.
