On Fri, Jun 15, 2012 at 5:51 PM, Ows Abe <[email protected]> wrote:
this is some info about Trinity Church, and their ugly past as one of the top real estate holders in New York, originally collected to help build a narrative for the D17 action. fond memories. sorry I can't be at the court hearings. --Abe


http://is.gd/trinitynytimes
http://www.nytimes.com/1995/04/02/realestate/commercial-property-trinity-church-landlord-turning-hudson-square-area-into.html?pagewanted=print&src=pm
But Father Jamie, as everyone calls him, does not flinch when the talk turns to Trinity Church as a tough commercial landlord. Over the years, the church has been as quick to evict deadbeats, as steadfast in keeping rents up and concessions down, as adamant about getting personal guarantees to back up leases, as any developer around. Indeed, Father Jamie and the real estate folks sound a lot alike. "We find it difficult to evict tenants but we do it all the time," said Joseph T. Palombi, Trinity's executive vice president of real estate. Now hear Father Jamie: "In the grimmer days of the 90's, we cut grants in half and laid off 38 people, but we still put millions into the buildings. We have to preserve our patrimony." And quite a patrimony it is. Trinity Church owns close to 6 million square feet, most of it in 27 buildings around Hudson Square, an area bounded roughly by Canal and West Houston Streets, Avenue of the Americas and the Hudson River. Over the last few years the church has pumped more than $100 million into its properties, all in hopes of converting the area, which Trinity got from Queen Anne of England in 1705, from a printing and manufacturing bastion to an office hub.

http://is.gd/trinitynytimes2
http://www.nytimes.com/1997/06/15/realestate/trinity-church-reinvents-a-neighborhood-again.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm
The church leased the ground to landlords, some of whom built crowded, unsanitary tenements or used their buildings for even less savory purposes.
''BY the late 1800's, the church's leaders realized they owned the red-light district of New York,'' Mr. Heyman said. ''So the rector decided to sell or trade those properties for locations where commercial buildings could provide the church with an economic base.'' By the late 1920's, the basic industrial nature of the neighborhood was established.
Trinity generally leased the land to developers who had the capital to build factory buildings. That arrangement worked fine during the early decades of the century, but during the Depression many building owners defaulted on their mortgages and the properties were in danger of being seized by the city for unpaid taxes. A bank lent the church money to satisfy the tax payment, which is how Trinity came to own the buildings as well as the land. [Abe: by borrowing from banks during the great depression and spending it on buying the properties built up on Trinity's land, Trinity could now collect rent on all buildings instead of just the developers who built the properties! Interesting to spend money on this DURING THE GREAT DEPRESSION!!!]

http://www.nytimes.com/1988/07/20/nyregion/about-new-york-a-hard-choice-between-lunch-and-eviction.html
About New York; A Hard Choice Between Lunch And Eviction
...Trinity Church are involved in its operation...St. Margaret's is a low-income, congregate-care center hard by the South Street Seaport in lower Manhattan...
To live in St. Margaret's, you must agree in advance to have either lunch or dinner in the cafeteria....The cost for this is $130 a month, unless that amount would leave a resident with less than $120 a month left over, after rent and food, in which case the meal fee is reduced accordingly...''I never heard of a lease that demanded you eat in a private, profit-making cafeteria every day for the rest of your life and pay in advance!'' ... ''I don't know what I'm going to do,'' said Mrs. Gonzalez, who pays $80 in rent for a one-bedroom apartment from her $400 monthly income. ''I have no money.''
''I'm reserving us benches at Grand Central,'' said Mr. Smith. ... St. Margaret's House expressed its pleasure with the latest court ruling ... if they ''will not cooperate with St. Margaret's House, there will be no alternative other than eviction.''
 Trinity Church. It is a free ebook on Google. It seems to be very spun in favor of the Church, but contains lots of factual information.

Case of Anneke Jans. England stole her family's property (she was Dutch) and then handed it to Trinity. Apparently Trinity evicted the women and children from the land when most men were off fighting in the revolutionary war.
1. http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=gCdEAAAAIBAJ&sjid=ELEMAAAAIBAJ&pg=1403,5479002&dq=anneke+jans+trinity-church&hl=en
2. http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=wdITAAAAIBAJ&sjid=hAYEAAAAIBAJ&pg=5779,2480625&dq=anneke+jans+trinity-church&hl=en

http://occupywallst.org/article/message-solidarity-archbishop-desmond-tutu/
Trinity Church is an esteemed and valued old friend of mine... supportive voice I heard when no one else supported me or our beloved brother Nelson Mandela. That is why it is especially painful for me to hear of the impasse you are experiencing with the parish. I appeal to them to find a way to help you.

religious leaders and elder activists back us up:
http://occupywallst.org/article/letter-council-elders-trinity-church/
We are veterans of the Civil Rights, Women’s, Peace, Environmental, LGBTQ, Immigrant Justice, labor rights and other movements of the last 60 years  ….  We are concerned to hear that Occupy Wall Street has asked Trinity Church for use of the Lent-Space on 6th and Canal to gather, and has been refused.
Trinity Church articles - books


http://is.gd/historyoftrinity
This is a full book dedicated to the History of


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