Posted on 10/18/2007 9:41:25 AM PDT by Pyro7480
The Boy Scouts of America's refusal to bend its rules to permit gay scouts will cost the organization's local chapter $200,000 a year if it wishes to keep its headquarters in a city-owned building on Logan Square.
Representatives of the Boy Scouts of America's Cradle of Liberty Council were notified that to remain in their 79-year-old landmark headquarters, they needed to pay the city a "fair market" rent, Fairmount Park Commission president Robert N.C. Nix said yesterday. Currently, the rent is $1 a year....
(Excerpt) Read more at philly.com ...
Does everyone realize that they have a counter argument that the city is violating the 1st amendment by seeking to establish a association requirment?
The issue is what has the city done with like situations?
Are other organizations given similar token rents for use of public lands? Then they have a claim.
IF ALL organizations get the same market value rents then ouch. IF only some get the market rent because the don’t meet the government religion requirement then it is an issue.
That would be a violation of the constitution of the USA. The Government can't interfere with the church. Church property is sovereign in a sense.
“And the Boy Scouts have violated their lease.
“Now, perhaps you could invent a time machine and stop the law that states that the city could not rent to an organization the discriminates.”
Have you seen a copy of the lease? I have been attempting without success to find the 1928 ordinance or the original lease to see exactly what it says. From what I understand, the agreement was to be in perpetuity. Whatever it says, I sincerely doubt there is any reference to discrimination in a 1928 document. Now if the agreement made any reference to the Cradle of Liberty Council having to be in compliance with any future ordinances, the city may have a case. But lacking that, it seems to be the city that has changed the terms of the agreement, thereby violating the lease.
Judging from the story there was no lease, just a unwritten agreement that the city would rent the Scouts the land for a buck. Well, as any lawyer will tell you unwritten agreements are not worth the paper they're printed on. So now both parties are over a barrel. As the story points out, the city cannot legally continue renting to an organization that discriminates. And the Boy Scouts have no plans to changing their membership and leadership standards simply to satisfy the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. So either the Scouts pay fair market value or they move. There doesn't seem to be any legal alternative as the law is currently written.
All demolition requires permits, there are probably historic site restrictions on it (considering its prominence and age) such that even the city would be prevented from razing it.
Again, more assumptions due to lack of information here.
Reading the story, it sounds like there was no contract. Merely an 'agreement'. That left the Scouts wide open for something like this to happen. Hopefully their other chapters are taking steps to prevent something like this from happening elsewhere.
Just because they say it, doesn't mean that is so. In fact the do it all the time. For example, Womens only health clubs are discriminatory, and they rent city property. This is clearly, fags vendetta against the boy scouts. Nothing more.
The Boy Scouts built the property they are renting for the city in 1928 with the agreement that it could rent the property for $1.
The only REASON to renege on that agreement is bigotry by the city of Philadelphia toward the BSA's religious views.
The lease was supposed to be “in perpetuity.”
That’s a long time.
The Scout meetings are held in many other locations around the neighborhoods, so families can walk to meetings. This building houses the administrative work for the entire region, and PA is a huge state.
plus it was made in a time where no law was being violated.
it has to stand because of that. Laws change, but usually they aren’t retroactive.
All: don’t bother trumandogz with the facts; his mind is made up.
Exactly. We should stand tall and proud for the things we believe in especially in the face of adversity which we are bombarded with daily. It’s all a game of the left. Just keep bombarding us until we give into their demands.
No way.
Oh I'm sure that the Boy Scouts assumed that was true but as it turns out there was no lease and no contract. They're at the mercy of the city and state.
Surely there has to be a compromise. The building is worthless without the city lot it's built on. The lot is worthless to the city so long as the historical building sits on it. Sell the lot to the Scouts for a token amount and that should settle everything.
It stops with you. Who says you have to do tit for tat. Stand proud and tall for what you believe in. Dig your heels in. What they do is not the point. What we do is.
Because this building is not just a meeting place for a Den or Pack. It is a large building to house the entire administrative apparatus of the region. The scale of the space needed and the time required for regular employees to work 8-to-5 is beyond what an individual church could donate.
Yeah, hopefully.
BUMP
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.