Reeder said that she cannot name a dollar-amount goal of what she needs to raise for thr project until the facility’s needs analysis is complete, at which point she will better know the square footage and be able to use a multiplier to estimate the cost of the project.
Reeder explained that the funding would occur by multiple resources including earned income, donations and fundraising through a “first-ever capital campaign.” The program is to be funded exactly as it is now, she added. “When we cater events, an 18 percent service charge is added that is directed to the training program. That same service charge will extend to restaurant sales. Private-chef functions and private classes are also sources of income.”
As for the restaurant and soup kitchen’s employees, Reeder explained that they would be paid through the same means that they are currently paid, including health insurance.
Ward 4 Alderwoman Shirley Whitlock, in whose bailiwick the King’s Inn sits, said she is not opposed to Queen’s Galley relocating to her ward. But she is also not in favor of any more low-income housing for the King’s Inn site — or anywhere in the Fourth for that matter — and would most like to see a senior-housing complex with a restaurant occupy the space. Whitlock added she was in favor of a design which featured the restaurant’s entrance on Broadway and the soup kitchen’s entrance on Cedar Street.
“We have enough low-income housing right here, which makes it really hard to get people to come in and buy property here,” said Whitlock. “The low-income housing has to be distributed better throughout the city. I did like the idea of the art gallery; something that is going to lift the face of the Midtown area in that open space. Something that is going say, ‘Hey, look at us! We are not all about low-income.’ … I would like to see something that is going to make people smile as they go by. Midtown is a wonderful place to live … It’s not the only place that crime happens. It’s not the only place where prostitutes hang out. It’s just that’s the way that the media shows it.”
There is nothing sober about the residents of the Washington Manor, period. They curse at the top of their lungs, throw cigarette butts with no regard of where they land, and terrorize the residents of that part of Main Street. We cannot even keep anything on our porches without the items being stolen within hours. I would love to see this place move to midtown where the animals belong.
John,
There is everything sober about the residents at Washington Manor. The house has a non negotiable drug and alcohol policy that is strictly enforced.
The residents are not animals. Neither are the guests of Queens Galley. Many are mentally ill. All need a meal. Many need much more.
This is not the first time that you have erroneously stated negative things about the galley or residents at Washington Manor. You have been invited to come and see for yourself to meet exactly who lives there and you have always declined that invitation. They are ALL adults, mostly seniors living at or below the poverty line. Some are retired disabled veterans that made this very country a safer place for YOU to be and preserved your right to speak so harshly without validity about innocent people.
There are 45 residents there now. Not a single one of them on parole or probation, not a single one of them having had a run in with the law for the time that they have lived there.
If you hear or see something why are you not calling the police? Or why are you not calling the office at Washington Manor? (The number by the way is 338-3468).
If you see/hear something and choose not to do anything to fix the problem you are as guilty of making the city a less comfortable place to live than the people doing the very things you stated.
I would rather have the poor disabled veteran as my neighbor any day of the week than live near someone who does nothing to fix a problem but just makes a wound fester and relishes spreading the disease of hatred. At least when that veteran had the chance to make the world a better place he wasn’t a coward, he was a hero. And,now that he is elderly and poor and has chosen to live at Washington Manor he must deal with a scourge like you. He sacrificed his life and safety for YOUR liberty and how do you treat him? By saying he is an animal.
Shame on you for your bigotry. Shame on you for bringing down the city in which I live. Shame on you for nuturing hate, intolerance, ignorance and apathy. Shame on you for spreading antagonistic lies that in the end cause harm to innocent people.
In a way I feel that I must thank God that you wrote what you did. It reminds me to be ever so grateful to be helping the very people that helped to protect your right be be nescient, iniquitous and morally repulsive. For them to have protected you it is obvious that they are the ones that are ethically superior.
I am ashamed to call you neighbor.
John, I regret that you’ve been subject to rude, coarse behavior. I agree no one should throw their cigarette butts anywhere (I smoke & I too am offended by the practice.)
I take exception to your suggestion that they should “move to midtown where the animals belong.” First, the individuals you have issue with are human beings – their behavior doesn’t change that. Your choice of words are as rude and coarse as the behavior you condemn. Second, you have insulted all the residents of midtown. I chose to live in midtown over 20 years ago. I admit there are challenges here not found in all neighborhoods. I know that there are many decent, caring people, working hard to provide for themselves and their families living here in midtown. I know that attitudes like yours, shared by others have painted all of us with the same brush and have added to the issues we face.
Rude and coarse behavior is not exclusive to those at Washington Manor or midtown. Theft is not exclusive to any single group.
The Queen’s Galley provides a service needed in these unstable economic times. The Galley should be in midtown, because that is where the need is greater.
John and Amiee your both right I was involved with the QG for a number of years and yes John they can be rude, crude, and disrespectful. when you mix families with children with ex-cons and people who are out of work, with people on drugs or who have mental problems, remember a lot of these people live on the streets, some have just been released from prison, some are sex offenders and some are teen-age runaways with nowhere else to go for a meal.
No it is not good to mix all these different groups together and expect them all to get along with each other, now mix them with home owners in a family neighborhood or on a busy Midtown city center with bussinesses with pedestrian traffic right next to the only draw to Midtown the performing arts center, we now have a receipe for disaster.
On the other hand if we just close all the soup kitchens, the people in need will walk our streets, begging and panhandeling from downtown to uptown through all of our neighborhood streets, uncontained, causing havoc all over our city.
Thus crime will surely climb robbery, theft, break ins, stealing, child abandonment, because people have to eat-so what is the right decision?.
Should all social services be based in Midtown? and hasn’t Midtown homeowners and bussinesses already paid their fair share? and why should’t some of these services be placed in other areas of Kingston?.
The REAL answer is nobody wants this on their block on their street or in their neighborhood, everyone wants it somewhere else but not where they live.
But the other side of the coin is when you go into the QG and you see a 4-year old boy or girl sitting eating a meal are they considered an animal John?, aren’t they innocent? is it their fault their parents lost their jobs or are mentally ill or have fallin on hard times and the fact is that they probably won’t get a meal anywhere else doesn’t that child deserve the right not to starve after all we Americans pay for, and feed people all over the world, so how about right here at home in our own neighborhoods?.
Now ask yourself how many of us want that 4 yr old on our concious?. see John that’s what seperates US from ALL the other animals… compassion.
It may help Diane Reeder to know that a church on Elmendorf and Tremper has recently had to close it’s doors and will soon be up for sale.
As sad as this maybe it may have a silver lining for the Queens Galley it has a fully furnished kitchen in the basement with stove, oven, tables, silverware, dishwasher and is quite large with many rooms.
It is in Midtown but not right on a busy City street in the center of town and it is easy to get to on the bus or on foot and it is already off the City tax rolls, I am not sure but it also use to own two homes on either side of it for rooming students for Diane’s vision of creating a restaurant training center and it’s already built and ready to move into-just a thought!.
Sometimes god works in strange ways, but as the saying goes when he closes a door he opens a window!!.