Welcome wagon: The Church of Scientology moves into Ybor City

Three days after more than 2,000 Scientologists crowded into the historic Ybor Square courtyard to celebrate the opening of the Church of Scientology Tampa's new home — a landmark 88,000-square-foot former cigar factory in Ybor City — Creative Loafing editor David Warner and I found ourselves in a COS conference room facing several of the Church's top-ranking public relations officials. They were decidedly not happy with a blog post I'd written that quoted a handful of protesters from the group Anonymous who'd appeared at the grand opening.

Present were Peter Mansell, director of external affairs; chief spokesperson Pat Harney; Lisa Mansell (Peter's wife), the community relations director; Erin Banks, in from COS in Los Angeles; and Paul Wilson of St. Petersburg's Wilson Media, hired by the Church to handle advertising and other local media matters.

All to discuss one 590-word blog post.

As is well-known by now, Creative Loafing's offices are part of Ybor Square, and COS became our landlord when the church purchased the complex for $7 million in May of last year. The Church had told us its March 13 opening ceremony would not be open to media coverage, but I'd wandered by anyway and happened to spot four Anonymous protesters standing across the street in front of the Noriega parking garage on 13th Street and 9th Avenue. They told me, without going into specifics, about threats and assaults they claim to have suffered because of their Scientology protests. Although I called the Church for a comment the following day, I published without hearing back.

And now here we were.

Mansell expressed hurt and anger that, just as the relationship between this newspaper and his organization was about to begin, CL (in his eyes) had come out blazing with a negative attack featuring a handful of critics from their longtime nemesis. Wilson — brother of actor Patrick Wilson and Fox 13 news anchor Mark Wilson, son of Fox 13 anchor John Wilson, and, he pointed out, not a Scientologist himself — then handed me a 34-page document containing information about what COS calls "the hate-group known as Anonymous."

(Ironically enough, while Warner and I were undergoing this tribunal, a large posse of CL staffers was at the same time touring the facility; Todd Bates' photographs from that tour were in CL's Photo Issue March 24.)

We left with the mutual agreement that I'd write a follow-up to the blog post (but would not take it down from the site, which was the Church's initial request). So, early last week (13 days after that group encounter in the conference room) Peter and Lisa Mansell met me again at the new facility in Ybor Square, which is considered an "Ideal Org." (The term, coined by founder L. Ron Hubbard, connotes an ideal organization that can house all the functions a Church of Scientology can provide.) After a short tour of what is known as the Public Information Center, which features multimedia displays providing an overview of the Church's work on human rights and drug education, Peter and I talked some more.

He first expressed some regrets. He said that he and other COS officials had done considerable outreach to the Ybor community in the days leading up to the grand opening, but had failed to invite CL that day or immediately afterwards. (Mansell and other COS representatives had met with Warner in the months since the purchase, and with the present and former publishers of CL, but had never contacted me.)

We went on to discuss matters of press coverage. The Church has, no question, stirred controversy over the years. The St. Petersburg Times' investigations go back more than three decades, including a 1980 Pulitzer Prize-winning report by the late Bette Orsini on the Church's handling of perceived enemies. In 2009, the Times published a series of reports questioning the leadership of David Miscavige, who took over the organization in 1986 after the death of L. Ron Hubbard. In the series, former Church officials accused Miscavige of physically beating subordinates, a charge he and other officials denied. In February of this year, former Scientologist Paul Haggis, director of the 2006 Oscar-winning film Crash, delivered some more bad PR when he told Pulitzer prize-winning New Yorker journalist Lawrence Wright how he'd become estranged from the Church, saying that his daughter had been ostracized by Scientologists when she told them she was a lesbian.

To Peter Mansell, those articles aren't a big deal. When asked about the Haggis story, he replies, "Who reads The New Yorker?" As for the 2009 Times series, he reports general indifference among people he queries about it. "I'm not kidding you when I tell you, you would not believe how hard it is to find anybody who reads those articles."

In a later email, he elaborated. When asked about critical news reports, he says, he points to the availability of Scientology texts in 50 languages; the Church's expansion since the mid-1990s from 2,660 to 9,000 facilities; and the "nearly one million square feet of new Church space currently in design, planning or construction."

"That's what I say to people who ask about old newspaper articles," he concludes. "Take a look at what you see. Look at the facts. Look for yourself."

Given the decline in newspaper readership, Mansell may, sadly, have a point about the lack of attention to press reports. But if the press isn't hitting its mark, the Internet is another matter, providing Scientology critics a place to gather and spread their wings.

In 2008 the group of critics calling themselves Anonymous began to amass online, and in February of that year they organized a series of protests across the globe at which many protesters donned Guy Fawkes masks made famous from the 2006 film V for Vendetta (to minimize Church retaliation, they say).

Among the Anonymous-related data culled by Scientology and given to me by Paul Wilson were police and news reports of Internet threats against church leader David Miscavige and other members of the Church. Two of the allegations concerned bomb threats made to churches in California and Nevada; the rest of the packet contained info on cyber attacks and Internet chat, some of it related to Scientology directly but some to other actions by Anonymous, including attacks on the websites of organizations that stopped working with Julian Assange's WikiLeaks, such as PayPal and MasterCard.

Scientology critics who take the Anonymous moniker insist that the Church is their sole focus, and that they have nothing to do with those later offshoots. Anonymous spokesman Julius Stahl (not his real name) told CL,"We didn't create them and we're not responsible for them." And he says, "Despite numerous false accusations by Scientology, no 'anon' has been convicted of any serious offense."

Kathryn Harvey was one of the four Anonymous protestors who gathered outside Ybor Square on March 13. She told me in a follow-up phone conversation that she's attended somewhere between 50 to 80 such protests since 2003. When asked what she hopes to achieve, she said she'd like to see the "various injustices" inside the organization fixed, but doesn't believe it's ultimately possible, referring to charges that the Church goes after their critics. (In my initial blog post, Harvey had said the Church was "Fair Gaming" her, referring to a practice of systematically going after critics — charges reminiscent of reports by the St. Petersburg Times' Orsini.)

Peter Mansell says he isn't worried about Kathryn Harvey (whom he spoke with on the day of the opening ceremony). It's Anonymous as a whole that concerns him. "They are an unruly mob… and the danger of an unruly mob is you never know who's in the mob." He mentions the bomb threats and cyber attacks, and disputes Anonymous criticisms that the Church is out to stifle protesters' freedom of speech. "It's when they do things that are intentionally threatening or a violation, that's when I get concerned."

As for press coverage, Mansell says it's the little things that are bothersome.

For example, the morning we spoke he said he'd just heard a WFLA radio announcer say that the Church "doesn't pay property taxes." In fact, Mansell says the Church paid approximately $800,000 in property taxes in Pinellas County last year.

That tax was for property, such as hotels and other "accommodation facilities," that is not exempted for religious use. In Ybor, the Church will pay full property taxes for the part of Ybor Square not exempted — that being the Italian restaurant Spaghetti Warehouse and CL.

So what do the neighbors think?

La Gaceta Editor & Publisher Patrick Manteiga serves on the board for the Cuban Club, which sits across the street from Ybor Square. He said the club was certainly concerned about COS changing the atmosphere of the area. But as far as he can tell, "They have been great neighbors," and have sent volunteers to help out with certain events.

Tom Keating, president & CEO of the Ybor Chamber of Commerce, says that he's had only positive exchanges with COS leaders so far. His only major concern is that parishioners don't evangelize in a heavy-handed way on the streets of Ybor City. "Take it on the road. This is home," he says.

Last year, upon hearing that Scientology was moving into the district, Carrie West, the president of the GaYBOR District Coalition and a recent Tampa City Council candidate, said their arrival would "ruin the historical nature of Ybor City." And now? "I'm not really saying much," he says. "I've had meetings with them, we've talked a little bit about what they're doing, what their operations are. What they're doing now seems to be legit. What happens in the future, who's going to know that? My concerns were about them being in Clearwater buying up properties and not being on the city's tax rolls."

What has been a bit unnerving for employees at the two establishments that still reside in Ybor Square, CL and Spaghetti Warehouse, are the armed security guards who stand watch at the 9th Avenue entrance to the square. When asked why such a presence was required, Mansell said that there had been "several incidents" of vandalism by members of Anonymous in both Clearwater and in the new Ybor location.

But security cuts both ways. Though Patrick Manteiga says the guards might be reassuring for those who believe the old stereotype that Ybor isn't safe, their presence could create a chilling effect for others who frequent Ybor Square. That's something that COS officials say they want to change.

Lisa Mansell says, "This is a national historic building. It's everyone's building. We're using it, we're custodians, but everybody should feel that they can come here."

The church is open seven days a week for the curious, from 9:30 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. Monday-Friday, and 9:30 to 6:00 on weekends.

As to what the future will bring, MC Film co-owner Carrie West says that he remains in a wait-and-see mode: "You fear what you don't know." That's a sentiment Scientology officials might actually agree with, which is why they're encouraging people to check out their operation in Ybor Square to make up their own minds.

This article appears in Apr 7-13, 2011.