Dear Editor:
On April 15, I wrote a letter to the Reporter regarding the eviction of the Men’s Catholic Club from the parish property, which eventually saw print in the April 22 issue.
A couple of hours after I sent it, however, I passed by 14th Street and saw on the front door to the property was an order from the Union City Buildings Dept. to cease all construction on the property, dated April 5th, the same day that the Reporter said construction started.
How club president Joe Rocca managed to do this, and what the legal basis was for this order to cease work on one’s own property, I haven’t a clue, but I thought I’d point it out.
I subsequently sent an updated version of the letter, but the version that saw print was the original one, without the new information. I also thought I’d voice some discussion on the matter I had with my mother. She said there had to be a reason why the Club was evicted. I agreed that something was amiss, and that I put that in my original letter. She asked why she thought the Church evicted them and I cited the Church’s reasons that, according to the story, they wanted to rent it out to other clubs. She responded that the Church may have wanted to do this at a higher rent, and that this was illegal. But if the Club’s lease ran out, is the Church forced to continue renting to them?
As I said, I’m no lawyer, and I don’t know the precise parameters of a lease, and I wish the Reporter would follow this up, because something’s going on here that was not included in the original story, and I’d like to know what it is.
Luigi Novi