BROOKLYN — Can people who have shown a difficulty coexisting with society be expected to coexist peacefully as they pay a price for that problem?

From their point of view, that question probably never enters their mind — they have already paid a price and they are simply going through the last part of the rehabilitation process.

For those who “manage� them, “This is the last place they would ever commit a crime,� is the answer, and it is probably quite true.

For residents, parents, visitors, what have you, the question can be, “Why take a chance?�

Phoebe Neidl’s story in Monday’s Eagle brings forth those types of questions, comments and concerns, and the whole business is unexpected.

The business is that the federal probation office wants to open a large facility on the corner of Clinton and Pierrepont Streets to handle required paperwork and visits by those who are on parole. This ground-floor office will be the visible site. Other space, on the 16th and 19th floors, will be hardly visible at all.

A well-known private school, Saint Ann’s, occupies space in that building, near its main space across Clinton Street. This is not an ordinary corner in Brooklyn Heights.

This newspaper found out about it from the reliable Brownstoner blog, and in trying to get to the bottom of the story, staffers from the Eagle made telephone calls. They discovered that City Councilman David Yassky’s office found out about it the day before by an e-mail from a resident in Willowtown.

A prominent realtor was contacted, and he allowed that such a move wouldn’t “surprise me,� because he had heard they were looking for major space in the area.

As Neidl reports, the headmaster of Saint Ann’s had heard about it a few days before, but not from the Federal Probation Office. And therein is the mistake.

It is impossible to believe that the federal government, especially in the form of the General Services Administration, the feds’ real estate agency, or other federal managers hadn’t realized that moving into that building, One Pierrepont Plaza, wouldn’t create a community relations problem.

Of course, someone did this, and the decision was made to not do or say anything. Now, most people had to find out about it from a newspaper. That is not smart, and it leaves a taste in the mouth that need not be there.

Among other things, it permits people to ask the question, “Can they be trusted?� And this should not need to be asked.

I spent a large part of my adult life advising my employers that being out front is almost always the best policy; that trying to sneak around with something almost never works and creates problems that need not exist.

That old advice is still true, and now the feds have to make up for some lost ground.

In the end, if not the beginning, there is probably not much anyone can do about this. There is probably no legal standing to do so, and no laws will be violated as far as can now be seen. One hopes there will never be an incident. But that ill feeling is out there.

© Brooklyn Daily Eagle 2008
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Just a reminder, though -- It’s not considered polite to paste the entire story on your blog. Most blogs post a summary or the first paragraph,( 40 words) then post a link to the rest of the story. That helps increase click-throughs for everyone, and minimizes copyright issues. So please keep posting, but not the entire article. arturc at att.net

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