A simple question on StreetEasy.com about how much less a property is worth if it's next to a school unleashed a rant of epic proportions, alleging that Department of Education changes over the past five years have drastically reduced the quality of life for public school neighbors.
"We lived across from a NYC DOE elementary school for 20 years," says he or she. "We did not have problems with the school or DOE the first 15 years we lived there. We moved last year because the Bloomberg Era DOE has changed the system so that it is now torture to live near a school."
We won't go into all the details here (nor are we crystal clear about how the DOE is alleged to have changed, except in sensitivity to community concerns), but the objectionable activities involve kids hanging out, after-school activities, community groups renting school facilities and 6 a.m. truck deliveries, which apparently ended when the community threatened to boycott their products. ("Now they deliver after 9 a.m. and they shut off the truck motors.") Summer brings summer school or DOE construction projects, which start as early as 6 a.m. and can last until 11 p.m: "They don't recognize that they are breaking the noise laws, nor do they care."
The school in question is unidentified, though it's in a borough other than Manhattan. But the ex-neighbor (who said he or she took a 15% haircut on sales price because of the school) concludes: "It's absolutely not worth buying near a school....You may think your situation will be different but, having worked with civic groups across the city (including Manhattan) I can tell you that though the circumstances at each school may be slightly different, the living experience will not be better."
(StreetEasy.com)
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