The Park Hotel, from the northwest
Consider the 'Parkies' gone.
The term 'Parkies' is used by those of us who worship in churches near the Park Hotel and have residents from the Park Hotel among our congregants.
Though they can be among the most faithful and devout of attendees, their behavior sometimes sets them apart.
We have occasionally had persons who are having a particularly bad day disrupt services or adult ed classes. They are famous for gorging themselvs at coffee hour.
They are sometimes inconvenient. But they are truly our brothers and sisters, a constant reminder against the sin of hubris.
The 'Parkies' have also always stood in as a sort of shorthand for all the other residents of group homes scattered throughout Plainfield (many of which I'll bet you are unaware are even there).
The Park Hotel, from the northeast
I have always thought these agencies put their group homes in Plainfield because it was an unspoken policy encouraged by powerful County interests -- meaning, in Union County, Democratic Party interests.
My only gripe about all this was that other communities were being deprived of having the same character-building experiences as we Plainfielders and were consequently lacking in some moral dimension. Tough for them.
As of last night, all that is about to change.
How was this night different from all others?
At the May 21st Council agenda-setting session, Assemblyman Jerry Green broached for the first time a topic that has been swirling in the rumor mill for weeks -- that he would like to get rid of the Park Hotel. (Courier story here, and archived here.)
None of the complaints listed by the Assemblyman are new. Many of his statements can be rebutted by the Park Hotel management and others who work with the residents as clients. Hopefully they will be.
What intrigues me is WHY NOW?
Friends in the mental health field have always told me that the Park Hotel is considered among the best-run of such facilities in the entire state. Could there be more and better services and activities? What agency wouldn't answer such a question with a 'yes' -- providing there were the financial and professional resources?
So if there is nothing NEW in this 'news', I return to my question -- Why now?
As with everything else in Plainfield these days, I suspect it is being driven by the big 'D': Development.
What we have here is a choice piece of real estate with plenty of parking space, within three blocks of the train station, near shops, the Library and a park. There have been rumors in the past of turning it into luxury condos.
So?
Make no mistake, if the Assemblyman wants to see the Park Hotel gone, it will be gone.
And those of us who learned to welcome the 'Parkies' into our congregations will once again be spared the inconvenient demands of inclusiveness.
Now, perhaps, we can be, with the Assemblyman, at ease in Zion.
-- Dan Damon
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ARCHIVED POSTS OF PLAINFIELD TODAY FROM 11/03/2005 THROUGH 12/31/2006 ARE AT
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3 comments:
Dan, are you being tongue in cheek about this, or merely pious? I know liberals have elevated the biblical statement "judge not, lest ye be judged" to a fetish, which they love to jam down everyone else's throats, but this is ridiculous. The problems caused by "Parkies" and others like them--even when they are not intentional and simply reflect the symptoms of their disorders--outweighs any good implicit in letting them live in regular society. I think the movement to de-institutionalizing them was a tragedy, and still is, but it should not be our problem. I hope Jerry Green succeeds in getting rid of that eyesore. It stands in the way of our efforts to heal Plainfield's problems, precisely because most people will not tolerate having to look at those poor souls who aren't capable of living up to society's standards, and take their money to places where they won't have to.
William H. Michelson, Esq.
Good reporting, Dan! I live two blocks from the Park Hotel, and although the residents' behavior is at times a little odd, and they do panhandle for cigarettes, still they don't do anyone any harm, and we have become accustomed to their presence. I feel uneasy about moving them, particularly just for the purpose of lining Jerry Green's (and others'!) pockets.
There but for the Grace of God go I. May they find comfort and support wheter in Plainfield or elsewhere.
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