Residents Hope to Transform Closed Treatment Center
Mott Haven Herald
By Alana Pipe
Some want shuttered facility to be converted into community center
Activists and residents squeezed into the BronxArtSpace gallery on Oct. 1 to weigh in on the future of a long-abandoned spiritual healing center for drug addicts in the heart of Mott Haven’s historic district.
During the 1980s the city-owned, 28,000 square foot building at 359 East 140th Street, formerly known as the Lincoln Recovery Center, offered acupuncture and a touch-based stress relief technique known as Reike, which relied on sunlight that beamed through the skylight, to help heal. The building closed in 2010.
“What we don’t want is a methadone clinic,” said Mychal Johnson, a Mott Haven resident and spokesman for the grassroots group South Bronx Unite, at the Oct. 1 gathering. Many in the neighborhood contend that the numerous methadone clinics in and around The Hub have led to a profusion of drug users who panhandle and contribute to crime.
Others proposed that the building be converted into a community center dedicated to providing health care, education, and the arts.
