METHADONE CLINICS PLAN DRAWS FIRE

South Bronx residents and business owners gathered yesterday to protest the
planned placement of three methadone clinics in their once drug-embattled
neighborhood.

Plans by Albert Einstein Medical College call for opening the clinics in a
building on E. 138th St. south of the Bruckner Expressway in industrial
Port Morris.

But the location is only a crack vial's throw from Brook, St. Anns and
Cypress Aves. in Mott Haven, whose streetcorners were once the epicenter
for drug trafficking - and violence - in the neighborhood.

About a dozen people, holding small placards, protested in front of 804 E.
138th St., near Willow Ave., the possible site for the Einstein methadone
clinics now located in a highly trafficked area of 149th St.

"For them to come in here and do this, it's going to sink our
neighborhood," said Leslie Lyga, a local homeowner and member of Community
Board 1.

There was no community notification or request for input, Lyga said.

She also expressed concern that clinic patients would loiter in the
neighborhood, where residents are already troubled by a new homeless shelter.

Several residents said people from the shelter defecate and have sex in
front of their homes.

"The quality of life is going to go down drastically," said local resident
John Arena.

But a spokeswoman for Einstein contended that the location for the clinics
was ideal and said the institution had, in fact, sought community input.

"We engaged in a collaborative effort with Community Board 1 to find the
new site," said Dorrie Burke, director of community relations for
Einstein's substance abuse division. "We worked really closely with the
community. Everybody's been involved, and we're still asking for input."

There was no immediate response from Community Board 1 officials.

Einstein has been looking for a larger space for the clinics for 20 years,
she said.

The medical school applied for a zoning variance for the Port Morris
building, now zoned for manufacturing, and could move into the space as
soon as a year from now, she said.

"There is so little pedestrian traffic over there," Burke said. "If there's
a concern, we will be able to identify whether or not it has to do with our
patients, and take care of it."