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 ...
Albion,
He looks like a perfectly normal pedophile. What’s the deal?
What are your thoughts on this crazy situation?
I think we should all write in and suggest that the Boy Scouts get free health care, too. After all, they are so nice and positive and all... we should "...honor this organization and what it stands for..." out of the PUBLIC coffers. </sarc>
OTOH, some of us would rather our taxes go down...and those people who want to donate to the Boy Scouts can do so, but those of us who can't even afford our own real estate shouldn't be forced to subsidize the Boy Scouts'.
Besides...
From the article...
Unlike the scouts, public officials are also bound by a line of Supreme Court opinions barring taxpayer support of any group that discriminates.
In Philadelphia, officials wrestled for months for a way to let the scouts remain at their longtime headquarters.
(However, I'm not certain the SCOTUS opinions are as clear on "discriminates" (with regard to homosexuals) as they want the reader to believe. Anyone have details?)
As of 2003, the ban was on Scouts in general, not just leaders. From a June 9th, 2003, press release/position statement on the BSA National Council site:
Applications for leadership and membership do not inquire into sexual orientation. However, an individual who declares himself to be a homosexual would not be permitted to join Scouting. All members in Scouting must affirm the values of the Scout Oath and Law, and all leaders must be able to model those values for youth.
Alrighty then. Good catch. I’m not a lawyer, so I don’t understand how adopting a “resolution to use land in perpetuity” is in all practicality different from issuing the “lease in perpetuity,” but it appears you’re correct on the terminology.
Both sides are making good points here. On the one hand, the BSA built the building and continued to maintain it and paid for refurbishments, all on their own. On the other hand, the BSA didn’t build the building on land they own. So, LEGALLY, the BSA may not have a chance. But, it’s a shame that the city may be able to charge them so much in rent or take the building.
I thought NYC or Boston was SF East. BTW this sort of
thing happens elswhere but I don’t feel I can give details.
Then who pays the rent?
You want the parents to pay the government MORE money for an organization that helps children? Should the scouts, in order to pay the higher rent, charge little old ladies for helping them cross a street?
The Scouting movement is designed to foster better-educated, moral children. Of course, the big-government types and the sodomites can't stand the thought. One wants to make money, the other wants to.........you get the point.
The supposed legalities have been thrown in for cover.
It ill be very interesting to see which group(s) gets to rent the building for $1.00 if the Boy Scouts are forced out! I don't think this came out of the blue. some cronies of the mayor and political elite in Philly want this building.
Sounds like these guys wrestled more about what to charge them than anything else. Yeah, right. $199,000 in rent from $1.00. That’s quite a difference.
How about all of the government people who get free rent for favors and how about people like the Clintons who have lived off us most of their lives?
We can be a charatible people; and I would rather it go for something like the Boy Scouts instead of the graft that the Congress puts in their pockets. That is, of course, the money they steal from us.
IANAL, either, but here's how I see it...let me use an analogy or two.
Say the US Congress passes a resolution to consider Saddam Hussein an ally...but then Saddam invades Kuwait. Does that resolution mean that we have a treaty and can't back out of it? No...it was an internal decision regarding our posture toward someone.
Likewise, as I understand it, the $1 idea was a resolution passed by the City Council, but it was not put into a contract, perpetual lease, etc. Therefore, the Council may simply change its posture in light of its view of SCOTUS opinions.
No doubt this is politically motivated; doubt that there's truly the SCOTUS backing for this. But regardless, I don't think that this can be fought on the idea that there is some contract being broken. But again, IANAL.
Ninety percent of the most powerful lawyers in Philly are Democrats. This is a lost cause and a tragedy.
Au contraire. In Philadelphia, the BSA has been politically correct since 2003.
The Philadelphia Council is the third largest local council in the country, serving 87,000 boys and men. It is an unfortunate addition to a list of councils that have eagerly given the finger to the Boy Scouts of America and its associated moral codes. Last year, San Francisco and Boston became the first branches to reject the concept of “moral straightness.”
It seems that this struggle has been going on for several years. The Council even tried, as one of you noted, to institute a non-discrimination policy in 2003 towards gays in an attempt to resolve the dispute, but that move was rejected by the National Council, throwing the Liberty Council back on the mercy of the City politicians determined to force the acceptance of gay scout leaders.
This Cradle of Liberty Council is a merger between the Philadelphia Council, which houses the Scout Executive and District Executives for the districts within the city limits (the building this thread is about) and another Council in the western suburbs. Therefore there is another suitable building in the Valley Forge area scheduled for further enlargement, but, "[although] the city office has less space for training, [it] has been maintained mainly for easier access to city residents, who would otherwise have to use either mass transit (which has limited stops in Valley Forge), or drive on the Schuylkill Expressway (Interstate 76), which is notorious for backups between Center City and Valley Forge." I can attest that the drive to Valley Forge takes at least 40 minutes, is difficult, and is next to impossible for the parents of impoverished inner city kids.
Further, the article says "the city could lose $62 million in federal funds with the eviction because of the Support Our Scouts Act of 2005 and the Boy Scouts of America Equal Access Act."
Wow!!!
Sounds to me like the BSA should call Homodelphia's bluff.
Thank you for this post, great find!
I see no purpose in admitting any NAMBLA-minded leaders to the Boy Scouts. It would be like hiring an alcoholic to work in a liquor store.
Screaming “I am normal!” just does not make it so.
I grew up 15 minutes away. We used to go to Valley Forge for picnics or just to drive through. Yes, that would make an excellent location for the BSA.
They used to have a headquarters there.
I wonder if they still do?
It was on the road that connects to 202 at the Devon exit and goes through to Valley Forge.
My family is not religious - we’ve looked into different churches to no avail - but we hold deep moral values. Most of those BSA mothers I mentioned who were pro-homosexuality also were very active in their Christian churches. (That’s where I met them.) Needless to say, I’m not a big fan of the BSA, as my own children might not be accepted, yet the parents who say they’re religious are presumed to have moral values.
Still, I think it’s terrible what Philadelphia is doing to the BSA, considering the BSA built and paid for the building itself.
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