Hold the line!
A historic New York youth group is calling on lawmakers to step in and save them from being evicted from the Upper East Side building they’ve called home for more than a century.
The Knickerbocker Greys — founded as a youth cadet corp in 1881 — is facing eviction from the Park Avenue Armory by the conservancy that oversees the state-owned building.
The Park Avenue Conservancy argues that it needs to boot the Grey’s from their space — an approximately 800-square-foot broom closet — because of renovations.
Meanwhile, it won’t commit to finding the group another space in the nearly 200,000-square-foot facility that occupies an entire city block on Park Avenue and 66th Street — nor will it promise to return them to the space once the vague renovations project is completed.
“It’s so perplexing and disappointing to me,” Col. Tom Pike, a former Knickerbocker Grey whose daughters are now Greys themselves, told The Post.
Pike says the program played a key part in helping him to develop leadership skills that he later employed in a distinguished military career – the same qualities he hopes are instilled in his girls.
“I learned a lot, made friends, learned how to follow. and learn how to be responsible. And these are all important qualities that I hope my daughters get as well,” Pike said of the Greys — which bills itself as the oldest afterschool program in the US, serving kids ages 6 to 16.
In 2022, the Park Avenue Conservancy — a non-profit charged by the state with running the historic armory — initiated an eviction proceeding to remove the Greys from their space in the sprawling complex, where the group has been headquartered for over 120 years.
The conservancy’s president, Rebecca Robertson, didn’t reply to inquiries from The Post.
Multiple other parents and former board members echoed Pike’s disappointment — and bewilderment.
“The mere fact that they don’t care about the organization or the young people, the kids… it’s absolutely appalling,” said Fiona Hoban whose daughter, Niamh, was a Grey.
She said the youth group gave Niamh “a sense of security and belonging.”
“It’s not really complicated. We just want to be back in our home,” Knickerbocker Greys Board President Adrienne Rogatnick told The Post.
“The kids really see it as their home.”
State Sen. Liz Krueger (D-Manhattan) is trying to pass bipartisan legislation to clarify that the Knickerbocker Greys have a right to space at the armory.
“It’s just ridiculous and there is no excuse,” Krueger told the Post. “They’re part of the institution of the armory.”
The legislation would amend parts of the state’s old military laws to make it explicitly clear that the conservancy must provide space in the armory to the Greys.
The Greys, meanwhile, traveled to Albany earlier this month and met with members of the legislature.
“The Conservancy was created by statute and control of the armory was given to them on a number of assumptions, one of which was the Greys would stay and so I think the state needs to take action,” Assemblymember Alex Bores (D-Manhattan), who carries the bill in the Assembly said.
Both members are racing to try and get the legislation across the finish line before Albany wraps up its legislative session next month.
While the Greys remain in the armory as their eviction lawsuit works its way through the courts, many hope for a separate, less bitter, resolution soon.
“I think small little organizations like this are the little guy and it’d be nice to have some good news for the little guy,” Col. Pike said.
