Pubdate: Wed, 05 May 2004
Source: New York Daily News (NY)
Contact:  2004 Daily News, L.P.
Website: http://www.nydailynews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/295
Author: Lindsay Fortado, Daily News Writer
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?136 (Methadone)

METHADONE CLINICS PLAN DRAWS FIRE

South Bronx residents and business owners gathered yesterday to protest the 
planned placement of three methadone clinics in their once drug-embattled 
neighborhood.

Plans by Albert Einstein Medical College call for opening the clinics in a 
building on E. 138th St. south of the Bruckner Expressway in industrial 
Port Morris.

But the location is only a crack vial's throw from Brook, St. Anns and 
Cypress Aves. in Mott Haven, whose streetcorners were once the epicenter 
for drug trafficking - and violence - in the neighborhood.

About a dozen people, holding small placards, protested in front of 804 E. 
138th St., near Willow Ave., the possible site for the Einstein methadone 
clinics now located in a highly trafficked area of 149th St.

"For them to come in here and do this, it's going to sink our 
neighborhood," said Leslie Lyga, a local homeowner and member of Community 
Board 1.

There was no community notification or request for input, Lyga said.

She also expressed concern that clinic patients would loiter in the 
neighborhood, where residents are already troubled by a new homeless shelter.

Several residents said people from the shelter defecate and have sex in 
front of their homes.

"The quality of life is going to go down drastically," said local resident 
John Arena.

But a spokeswoman for Einstein contended that the location for the clinics 
was ideal and said the institution had, in fact, sought community input.

"We engaged in a collaborative effort with Community Board 1 to find the 
new site," said Dorrie Burke, director of community relations for 
Einstein's substance abuse division. "We worked really closely with the 
community. Everybody's been involved, and we're still asking for input."

There was no immediate response from Community Board 1 officials.

Einstein has been looking for a larger space for the clinics for 20 years, 
she said.

The medical school applied for a zoning variance for the Port Morris 
building, now zoned for manufacturing, and could move into the space as 
soon as a year from now, she said.

"There is so little pedestrian traffic over there," Burke said. "If there's 
a concern, we will be able to identify whether or not it has to do with our 
patients, and take care of it."
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