Houses on these same blocks now start around 2 million. It was a shithole when I was young. Totally restored and far beyond the reach of people who grew up there back then.
Methodist can, wants and needs to expand? Good for it. However I am very leery of eminent domain cases- even though I still think it would be more utilitarian for them to take that approach. I also am skeptical of the government infringing on the market in the other direction- by arbitrarily drawing out what should and should not be developed for perpetuity- even though these brownstones stand in contrast to the architectural dreck that's been popping up in the last decade. I'm gonna go ahead and read up more on both sides.