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 ...
They should relocate to a friendlier community and let Philly continue to rot.
The reason they call it Boy Scouts is because the people they serve are boys-- boys who are stuck in Philadelphia by circumstances of their family's living arrangements and, thus, unable to relocate anywhere.
Yes, I'd like the city out of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. But I'd like even better to remove the vermin infesting the city so it would become liveable again.
What the B.S.A. should do is bring a discrimination and breach of contract lawsuit, for starters. It sounds like they have grounds for both.
It is fairly common for a governmental entity to rent land at a nominal fee (usually $1.00 a year) when the community (including its politicians) wants to give a conspicuous location in the public square to an organization.
Even if the Scouts decided to pay the rent, this is just the beginning of the effort to drive them out.
Personally, I hope they either demolish the building or take it apart and relocate it to a piece of land (outside of Philadelphia) that they own.
The first sentence in the (poorly-written) article says the building is city-owned. If the scouts own it, I stand corrected. That still doesn’t change my opinion on the below-market rent of government land by a private organization.
So therefore, every non-profit organization in Philadelphia should get free land from the city.
So churches that qualify as tax exempt should be paying “fair market value” as well? The BSA provides a valuable service to the community, you could call it a barter system but you seem to be quite contrarian in your opinion of that.
SZ
I may not agree, but as a private organization, the Boy Scouts should be able to admit whomever they wish.
OTOH, as a private organization, what makes them entitled to free government office space?
The benefits from the Boy Scouts more than make up what the city would collect in rent.
The article is confusing. It starts out calling it a “city-owned building.” Then later it mentions the Scouts built the building on city-owned land. Did they build it and give it to the city?
The BSA essentially has a “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy in place. If they find out a scout is gay, he will be asked to leave. Same for a leader.
http://www.sldn.org/templates/press/record.html?section=5&record=1859
excerpt: “Romulo L. Diaz Jr., the first openly gay appointee for Philadelphia city solicitor, never thought about hiding his sexual orientation when his appointment was announced last week.
“I know who I am, and I’m confident about who I am, which includes my sexual orientation,” Diaz told PGN. “And, frankly, I don’t want to be a member of any club that doesn’t accept who I am.”
The city of Brotherly Love?
Come one...say it ain’t so!
SO the new rent proposed breaks down to 16,666.66 per month. I wonder if all those 6’s had anything do do wiht determining the value of the rent.
Come on BSA...get out of the entitlement handout scenario. many churches are providing your space at the local level at no charge. This alone should allow ou to buy a steel building in a BSA-friendly community and never have to deal with the “brotherly love” crowd any more!
Young people are not working yet and the community at that time must have thought is was a good thing to do with their youth so they didn’t become juveniles delinquent.
It was an excellnet investment!
In those days cynics like you were rare!
How do you think most of the western US was settled? Free land.
assets
gassets
or grassests
...nobody ridests for freests!
No churches, temples and mosques are tax exempt organizations however, unlike the Boy Scouts religious organizations do not receive free land.
Yes, they SHOULD move from Philly and take their building with them:
http://www.experthousemovers.com/
The last time I checked downtown Philly was not the Western US in the 19th century.
Good should the Scouts leave they should blow up the building!
These Boy Scout families will not now be able to afford health insurance for their children.
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