Photos by Stacie Joy
The mobile lights are ON this evening on Seventh Street and Avenue A at the entrance to Tompkins Square Park.
The solar-powered lights via the Parks Department arrived last Friday morning ... a day after a delivery man was slashed in the face during an attack around 3:30 p.m.
This is the first time that we've seen the lights illuminated...
This corner of the Park around the chess tables has drawn complaints from residents who've reported fights, drug use and the sale of stolen property... the Parks Enforcement Patrol and NYPD have placed barricades around the chess tables multiple times in recent years.
11 comments:
Great start. Hopefully this helps deter all of the drug use there.
Wow. It kind of begs the question why this wasn't done sooner?
Who knows, maybe in a couple of years they'll even get to deal with all the stolen citibike lying around there.
The drug selling and use goes on in the daylight, as does the violence. How is a bright light supposed to help? We need beat cops to get out of their cars and WALK around.
As someone who lives on this street, this is a beginning, for which I am grateful, but more needs to be accomplished, as many other commenters have already suggested. Rampant drug abuse and selling in this area is out of control. Watching others shoot up, pass out with needles in their arms, as you walk your little nephew to the playground in the park during broad daylight before noon is not cool. I just told him the man was playing a game with a friend and walked quickly. Then on the way back, another odd man approached me asking if I wanted to buy "some real good shit," which was on the entrance of B and 7. We as adults know and understand the real truth. I have said on earlier posts that many parts of Tompkins, even Washington Square are breeding grounds for illegal and dangerous activity. Our city and local government need to come together to repair this growing situation. And from what I have read in the NY Times, NY Daily News, even my least favorite, the NY Post, many NYPD cops are either retiring earlier or resigning in large numbers due to the enormous spike in crime, lack of internal support and morale not to mention the ineptitude with the mayor, the DA and so forth. It's astonishing how there are over 50k cops in the entire city and it still doesn't seem adequate enough to make us safer. Given how the Uber delivery man was sliced in his face last week, I understand the need for the light now. Hope it remains indefinitely. Hope he is okay too and receiving some mental health counseling for what he endured.
Well said, 10:25am. We really need cops to be much more present to deal with all of this.
NYPD needs more foot patrols in Tompkins Square Park and with cold weather coming NYC social services and homeless outreach NGOs should visit the park and actually speak to individual homeless about their needs. Homelessness is not a crime, but some of the individuals who appear to be homeless in the park are clearly unable to cope and at risk when cold weather starts. The park itself needs maintenance and resurfacing. (Meanwhile, NYC seems more concerned with proposing to create a permanent “Pedestrian Zone” on Avenue B, begging the question, Why do we need a pedestrian zone right next to the park?” ….The risk that an Avenue B pedestrian zone would become just another drug zone that needs to be patrolled is not insignificant.
I agree with the need for more active enforcement but the problem with that lies with "active' and "enforce", two things the NYPD are capable of doing. The police are an extension of the will of the people so we, the people, need to have the will to stand up for the police if they need to go "hand on". Modern technology with the instant upload from cell phones along with the instant overreactions from many of the people have hamstrung the NYPD. I don't blame them, risk losing a pension or leave time for these types of offense? I'd sit in the car too. No, I'm not a cop.
50k cops and except for the rare occasion when some major incident happens and it draws a couple dozen out of their hidy holes, I very consistently see from 0 to 4 cops while out and about on ALL day city wide jaunts.
It improved somewhat after pro cop Adams was elected but what those guys get away with in terms of their budget to public presence is ridiculous.
I have never once seen anybody actually play chess at those tables; why not take them out and make this a green space instead? Put in plants and trees!
"It's astonishing how there are over 50k cops in the entire city and it still doesn't seem adequate enough to make us safer."
Maybe that should make you wonder whether the police actually do anything to keep us safe, or whether they serve more as an extremely well-funded jobs program for violent men without college degrees.
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