. . .Or Town Supervisor Kate Murray
Mother's Day gift idea: Shut Hempstead's seedy Courtesy Hotel
BY NICHOLAS HIRSHON DAILY NEWS WRITER
Friday, May 9th 2008, 4:00 AM
BY NICHOLAS HIRSHON DAILY NEWS WRITER
Friday, May 9th 2008, 4:00 AM
The Courtesy Hotel in West Hempstead will be the site of a protest on Mothers' Day
Before heading to Mother's Day brunches Sunday, outraged moms said they will rally against an alleged hot-sheet hotel they say makes West Hempstead unsafe for kids.
For the second year in a row, scores of carnation-wearing mothers plan to lash out at Hempstead Town officials who broke promises to close the Courtesy Hotel, which locals have blasted for being a haven for drug addicts and prostitutes.
"We want to recapture what had been a very vibrant part of our town, where you sent your children without any supervision," said rally leader Rosalie Norton, 73, who has three adult children.
The moms support a deal the hotel's owners inked in 2006 to sell the land to a developer as long as the town changed the zoning to accommodate a high-density apartment complex.
But the town instead opted for a controversial urban-renewal plan for the area in January, stalling the closure of the hotel.
Norton's daughter, Susan DeFilippis, 46, said she always warns her teenage sons, Mike and Mark, not to walk past the Courtesy because "they run the risk of being mugged."
Others said they didn't mind sacrificing part of their Mother's Day to attend the half-hour protest - as long as it gets results.
Others said they didn't mind sacrificing part of their Mother's Day to attend the half-hour protest - as long as it gets results.
"It's better than sleeping in and getting breakfast in bed," said Barbara Ejnes, 43, who said she worries about her son, Jake, 13, and daughter, Kelly, 14, riding their bikes past the hotel.
At last year's Mother's Day protest, Town Supervisor Kate Murray vowed to help close the hotel by the end of 2007 - a broken pledge that angered this year's attending moms. Murray won't go to this year's rally, town spokesman Mike Deery said.
But Deery said the supervisor "did expect and hope" the Courtesy would have been demolished by now, and still wants the seedy inn to be shuttered soon.
"We're working as hard as possible to end the hotel's reign of terror," Murray said in a statement.
The Courtesy's demise can't come quickly enough for Karen Crowley, 37, of West Hempstead, who has a 6-year-old son and 2-1/2-year-old daughter - and another child on the way.
"The Courtesy Hotel limits the potential of West Hempstead," Crowley said. "As hard as we fight and as long as we scream, nobody seems to be responding."
