Wednesday, November 16, 2022

9th Precinct to address community concerns about Tompkins Square Park

The 9th Precinct is hosting a community meeting in Tompkins Square Park tomorrow (Thursday, Nov. 17) at 10 a.m. "to discuss community concerns" about... Tompkins Square Park. 

Based on the 9th Precinct's tweet, it sounds as if other local elected officials and Community Board 3 members will be in attendance. 

There has been an uptick in resident complaints about drug use and sales in the Park. 

Meeting spot: Inside the Park near Ninth Street and Avenue A.

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good hopefully the NYPD will clear out the chess table area in the southwest corner of the park that has been overrun with homeless drug addicts who have piled up all their personal belongings all over the area and openly shoot up heroin all day long. It would be great for us chess playing LES/EV citizens to be able to play chess there again.

Anonymous said...

Why not do the meeting around....let's say 9PM so they can see first hand what our concerns are.

Anonymous said...

Neds and karens not picking up after Lexie and woofer

John Penley said...

Make Narcan available to anyone at the meeting who wants it. RIP Toasty

John Penley said...

The 9th Precinct needs to investigate all Fentanyl OD deaths in the Park , including past deaths , as Homicides and not ignore the fact that these deaths were probably caused by TSP dealers. The dealers need to be aware that if their dope causes a death they will be investigated and prosecuted. Stop sweeping these homicides under the rug NYPD.

Anonymous said...

For starters, how about having the meeting at a time when people who have to work 9-5 for a living could attend?

Anonymous said...

Sorry previous had a few typos:

The most pressing curiosity we have is what on earth do all of them do together in that building on 8th and Avenue C?

All we have ever noticed beyond double parking of squad cars (to be expected) is what are presumably officers’ private vehicles (late model SUV/Long Island plate frames, etc.) squealing up Avenue C from Houston like bats out of hell and careening right around the corner on 8th Street before disappearing into their secret parking lair.

The sidewalks and planters around the place are by far the most neglected and unkempt in the entire EV. This makes them literally the worst neighbors on the block.

Otherwise, we truly appreciate efforts to step up patrols in the park but someone should tell them that their social media messaging with the customer service driven tone (“we’re listening!”) is unfortunate and opens them up to ridicule which is also unfortunate.

Anonymous said...

10 am? Do they assume people don't work?

Anonymous said...

You’re talking about PSA4. This post is about the 9th precinct. Two totally different things.

Anonymous said...

good intentions awful execution 10AM weekday meeting? outdoors in 40 degrees? and really NYPD you don't know what the problems in TSP ...come on ..here's a hint it's the smack/fent/ dealers/users that have taken over and are bolder than ever start there please and thank you

Jose Garcia said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

The disgustingly entitled and oblivious and thoughtless and selfish people who use the middle lawn as their own personal dog park as if there is not one RIGHT THERE. I am NOT talking about someone who plays a quick game of fetch with their dog, or runs their dog quick because they don't get along with other dogs. Fine, that's whatever, they need exercise. I'm talking about the daily morning groups that look at their phone while their dogs all runs around together and tear the shit up when they can just as easily go into the dog park. They're such entitled yuppies. If your dog is playing with multiple dogs and you're not even looking where they're running off to, take it to the dog park numb nuts

Chris Flash said...

Closing off sections of the park because a small number of people do the wrong thing, thereby punishing the rest of us who use and need OUR FUCKING PARK, is absolutely UN-acceptable.

I attended the meeting today in the park. The ninth precinct CO was there with various other cops, as were members of the Dept of Sanitation and Parks Enforcement Patrol [PEP - the Parks Dept's equivalent of a police force]. For about half an hour, they listened to members of the public talk before they retreated in order to have a "private meeting" elsewhere.

A few people there demanded that the park be closed each night. They claim that the park is "unsafe" due to homeless people and drug users. Nevermind that drug use is rampant all over the city, that drug use takes place in EVERY city park, at ALL hours of the day, and that those who want to get into Tompkins or into any city park after curfew simply jump the fence around the park. Several others bravely countered those pushing for the park to be closed, demanding that the park remain OPEN at night.

The rhetoric used to justify closing the park sounds like the same shit we heard back in 1988 when a handful of creeps, cajoled by aspiring politician (and shill for real estate interests) Antonio Pagan, demanded that Tompkins Square Park be closed because of homeless persons, drugs and needles.

Unscrupulous cops in 1988 used this as a justification to impose a park curfew that led to the bloody Tompkins Square Police Riot of August 6, 1988 and subsequent riots and skirmishes between cops and community residents over the following three years. Many wised-up cops we spoke with then did NOT like being used as tools to facilitate the gentrification to come!

Those of us who USE our beloved Tompkins Square Park, that we shed BLOOD for, know that there are only a few homeless and semi-homeless people in the park at any given time and that drug use, if any, is done discreetly. Yes, there are needles left behind, which is very fucked up, but that does NOT justify closing sections of the park or imposing a curfew on those of us who love and respect our park.

The REAL problems that should be addressed in our park were NOT addressed at today's meeting. They include renovating/repairing the public bathrooms (the women's room has NO doors on the stalls!), adding more garbage receptacles and reducing the rat population. Those who are less fortunate than the rest of us, who have NO place to live, are NOT rats to be removed from the view of the public. They have as much right to use the park as anyone else.

Also attending was political aspirant Carlina Rivera, who tried to control the public input part of the meeting, but failed. From what we heard, she has allocated $150,000 to close off parts of St Marx Place and Avenue B on weekends, but has allocated NOTHING for the park. 150 grand to get someone to put barriers at intersections? REALLY?? That kind of money could be used for addressing REAL issues in the park, but if the park had no issues, politicians like Rivera would have no issues to pretend to be concerned about, would they??

There are no easy answers, but closing the park and removing the homeless is NOT the solution. The majority of my neighbors that I speak with want that park open 24 HOURS a day. And that is what we are going to fight for.

Chris Flash
Publisher/Editor
The SHADOW