Eagle: Watchtower Officially Bugging Out of Brooklyn Heights

By on February 23, 2010 6:03 pm in Brooklyn Heights, Real Estate

The Brooklyn Eagle reports today that the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society has decided to move its headquarters out of Brooklyn Heights.  The current state of the real estate market will slow the group’s departure, the article says.

The group, while eventually complimented for saving some historic buildings like the Bossert and Standish Arms Hotels in Brooklyn Heights, was characterized by preservationists as part of the “gathering storm” of destruction in the 1950s.

Heights Hero Otis Pearsall told New York Magazine in 1987, “As the Witnesses buy up more and more there is a sense that a critical mass might be reached. When this happens there will be so many Witnesses that Brooklyn Heights will be a less attractive place for regular families to live.”

Now that the end of the Watchtower’s residence in Brooklyn Heights seems to be nearing, do you think this will open the door for more “regular families”? How do you think it will impact the quality of life here?

Brooklyn Eagle: “We have submitted a proposal to the Town of Warwick to build a complex there that we’re calling the World Headquarters of Jehovah’s Witnesses,” Richard Devine told the Eagle Tuesday. “We have started the land use process there.”

Devine, who is in charge of real property for the religious organization, was confirming what was contained in a document forwarded anonymously to the Eagle last week.

That document included several pages from a public scoping session held Nov. 18 by the Town of Warwick Planning Board.

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  • Andrew Porter

    Robots that drink beer: the most recent example is from “Futurama”, but Lewis Padgett wrote a series of wonderful stories in the 1940s about Joe, a beer swilling robot invented as the ultimate beer can opener by an inventor named Gallagher who did his best work only when he was drunk. And, of course, when he sobered up he never remembered exactly *how*. Collected in the book ROBOTS HAVE NO TAILS (Gnome Press, 1952).

    Oh, and I don’t believe in the existence of NYer’s god. Sorry, she doesn’t exist.

  • No One of Consequence

    You should know that all your banter is not helping your case in any way.

    As for being a Walentas lover, I think not.

    No more replies from me. It seems to just be encouraging you and FFS I hate being preached at.

  • Observer

    Just want to comment on someone’s comment about googling “Jehovah’s Witnesses Child Molestation”. Anyone who looks for the negative in any large organization, can find it by googling it. But to judge or characterize an entire organization based on the comparatively little negative they found is tantamount to prejudice in my opinion. I google and found the following: Jehovah’s Witnesses child molestation 23,600 sites(plus a wiki article about how unrepenting molesters are excommunicated no matter how high up they are in the organization.) Google Baptist child molesters 122,000 sites. Catholic child molesters 424,000 sites. Do you judge those entire organizations based on the negative you find? In my opinion, it is not much better than someone who judges an entire race because they were mugged by one person.
    Observer

  • Observer

    My point is, if we regard an average Catholic person as a regular resident, or an average Baptist person as a regular resident, it seems that to the open minded person to regard JW’s as a regular people also, and not judge them based on some comparatively little negative that can be found with searching. Also, by comparison, just from the public news, you don’t hear of JW’s in top positions getting away with molesting hundreds of children over 30 years, and ruining untold lives like you hear of in the Catholic faith. If it were true, it would make it in the news. It seems their (JW’s) system of 2 witnesses, even if not liked by some, is at least better then their system. And it does seem like it would reduce instances of people spending decades in jail for being falsely accused by a single little child who wants revenge for being disciplined or who was egged on by a hateful spouse. I personally know of a very good man who was falsely accused of child molestation by his child who was coached by his spouse who was leaving him. She wanted full custody of the children. He spend years in court fighting it before the child matured and admitted lying about it because of his mother. I don’t think that 2 witness system is very bad, as some may say. Even outside of the family situation, many innocent people have spent their entire lives in jail because of the testimony of one girl who claimed he raped her. Maybe not be so hard on the JW’s attempt to protect innocent people. I am sure that if YOU were an innocent person accused of something so bad by one person, you would be happy if his or her single testimony did not tag you as a child molester, a rapist, a murder, etc. or worst, not send you to jail for life. My comments
    Observer

  • The Where

    Religion is the opiate of the stupid. Wake up!

  • No One of Consequence

    When you’re talking about “some comparatively little negative” are you taking into account the actual ratios of search results to members?
    I don’t think I’m alone in having a tainted view of the Catholic clergy.
    While I’m sure the 2-witness system does work well for the accused, I can’t help but wonder how it might squelch the voice of the abused, especially because it’s the voice of a child.
    Of course you don’t hear about top-level JWs. Didn’t I already make that point?

    Final word to newyorker regarding if I’ll “think more of [myself] one day than just “no one of consequence””…
    “INCONCEIVABLE!”

  • Observer

    My point about the ratio of child abuse was that, although it exiist among the clergy to an alarming degree, the average Catholic is not regarded as being in a cult or as abnormal. That would include many politicians in the U.S. However, the relatively few cases that some search for and find googling is, many times, used to judge ALL JWs as being in a cult, or abnormal neighbors, as was insinuated in this blog. That smacks of a subconscious prejudice, in my opinion.

  • Observer

    Also, please keep in mind that the number of search results do not pan out, in any way, to reflect the number of cases at all. It more so reflects the concern the public has about the problem within each organization.

    You are right to be concerned about the abused child, as they can be the most innocent and powerless victim. There is no perfect system of protecting them. That being the case, society can indeed go off balance in efforts to honestly bring justice. Many historical examples. For instance, history shows that 90% of witch hunt victims who were tortured and executed were innocent victims of society. Many at the hands of accusations from children, like at Salem. The 2 witness system could be viewed as a deterrent against that kind of run away injustice.

    My point about the hi level JWs is that, although there was a system of hiding hi level Catholic child abuse, that evidently was very effective because many individual cases were successfully hidden for decades until victims grew up, it eventually came out. The same would happen, at least to some degree, for hi level JWs (or Baptists, for that matter) who successfully hid it for decades if it was nearly as rampant. Too many people would be involved to keep it out of the public eye. To assume it is nearly as bad without such exposure, feeling instead that it just havent come out yet, and to judge the entire organization based on such assumption, could be a tint of prejudice against them. Are they that bad to you?

  • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TAB0upri3T0 gubberningbody

    Another thing was the great dancing done by their fearless leaders, the Governing Body.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TAB0upri3T0

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