An OTBKB reader wrote in with some information about the Berkeley Carroll eviction story. I’d like to thank her for doing so. She said that she was having trouble posting a comment. A lot of people say that to me. Just so you know, I moderate all comments so your comment won’t show up immediately. I thought there was a message about this but I guess not. Will look into it.

The tenant dispute concerning
BC school is about a building on Carroll St., not the Child Care Center
building owned by Methodist Hospital. We got a letter from Head of
School today and I thought you’d be interested.

I thought it was the building that houses the Berkeley Carroll Child Care Center, which is actually owned by Methodist Hospital. The building is on Carroll Street near the school. Oh so that’s why the want to use it for extra classroom space. Got it. Sorry for the mistake. The original article is below with the corrections, cross-outs, etc.

Ella Taliercio moved into her Park Slope two-bedroom on Carroll
Street in 1958, the year I was born. She’s been living in that
apartment for as long as I’ve been alive and has raised three
kids there. Two of them died and are buried in Green-Wood Cemetery.

Now the Berkeley Carrol School, which bought the building a few
years ago, wants Taliercio out so they can turn the building into
classrooms. Why do they need classrooms so far away from the school buildings on Carroll Street and Lincoln Place? The whole things sounds fishy to me.

According to Gothamist: "The
apartment is rent-stabilized—Taliercio paid $33 a month in ’58 and
$147.08 today—but Berkeley Carroll has non-profit status, enabling the
school to evict the couple. Taliercio tells the Daily News through tears, "It’s my home. How do you just shut the door on something where you’ve been for so many years?" Don’t worry, Ella, Berkeley administrators will have the eviction marshal help you with that."

This is a publicity nightmare for Berkeley Carroll, portrayed in
various local newspapers as a fancy school that charges more than
$25,000 per child a year. There must be a better way to handle this. Is
Berkeley Carroll  finding Taliercio a new home in the Slope. I heard
they offered her $20,000 but that doesn’t sound like enough to me.

There must be a way that Berkeley Carroll can handle this situation with grace and humanity.