Teenagers were arrested in a series of incidents on the Upper West Side and in Central Park.
We reported on one of those incidents already: witnesses told police there was gunfire around 92nd street and Columbus Avenue on Friday, April 11 around 11:30 p.m. A group of young men were involved in a fight, but police said at the time that there were no arrests.
Captain Marlon Larin, however, said at a meeting last week that they had arrested four teenagers — three for disorderly conduct, and one on a previous warrant. The fight was apparently a gang battle between teenage crews from the Wise Towers between 90th and 91st and the Frederick Douglass Houses, which are between 97th and 100th. It began when one person rammed another with a scooter. One shot was fired from a .357 caliber weapon but no one got hit. The gun was not recovered, and police couldn’t determine who had fired the shot.
A Columbia Spectator reporter followed up with residents from the Douglass Towers, who said they were worried about the fights:
“There seems to be a little gang war,” Carmen Quinones, a tenant activist who lives at Frederick Douglass, said on Saturday. “There’s been a feud for a long while, and it’s starting to really come in these buildings. They’ve been coming from 94th to Douglass.”
Quinones said that there was graffiti in Frederick Douglass buildings on Thursday night, though police said that there were no reports of graffiti.
“My lobby two days ago was painted in black. They spray painted the whole lobby,” Quinones said about her building, 840 Columbus Ave. “In 825 they painted the lobby red, and then they put a black cloth over it. The glass to the lobby door was painted outside, you couldn’t see in or out.”
Late in 2012, local officials also raised the specter of gang activity on the Upper West Side in connection to muggings outside a school on 93rd street.
In another incident this week, four teens and a 12-year-old were arrested in Central Park on Monday after a series of muggings, the Daily News reported.
Police said the boys first struck about 5:15 a.m., confronting a 31-year-old man jogging in the park on the Fifth Ave. side near E. 95th St.
The youths, one wielding a small wooden bat, demanded the man’s money, cops said. When the victim resisted, one boy punched him in the face and then took off with the rest of the group, police said.
A short time later, the gang mugged two women ages 48 and 46, near the reservoir, police said.
File photo by vpickering.
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Hate to break it to you…. This kind of stuff has been happening a long time before DeBlasio entered the picture. Been living on the Upper West side off and on since 1968.
This ‘war’ has been going on since Giuliani and has nothing to do with the current mayor.
These same “gang” members have been running wild since the Mayor of 9/11-Town decided to start fixing broken windows and inadvertently gave these roustabouts a better view from which to scope out their victims. Enter Billy D and next thing you know, we are on the precipice of these “gangs” taking over the UWS. I just hope they leave the waxing salons alone when they start offering their protection “services” to local businesses. The last thing we need is for the cost of hair removal to go through the roof. We are already paying too much for hummus.
Put a sock in it.
Put a sock in it? More like stockings! Just wait until universal pre-kindergarten has these same “gangs” wearing pantyhose on their heads and storming the private schools. That, however, will be nothing compared to the impending assault on Central Park South once Billy D gets rid of the carriage horses. These rowdy youths, led by Liam Neeson, won’t stop until we UWSers know that the bad old days were nothing compared to where we are heading. One thing is for sure, they won’t have a shortage of banks to rob or macaroon shops to spend their ill-gotten riches.
These kids are so aware of Bill DeBlasio’s policies, that they waited to start a “gang” war until he had firmly settled into office. If this is indeed a result of DeBlasio’s election, then they will definitely come after you Bill.
I hope this is not a trend.
I don’t understand why anyone thinks that actions which happen 4 months into a new mayor’s tenure are the result of anything that new mayor is doing. I would bet that if you asked a variety of petty criminals around town, many of them couldn’t even tell you who is mayor, no less explaining anything about a change in policies with the new administration.
The West 90s…what a shame. I have lived on the UWS for more than 15 years and I can’t believe how grim that stretch of Amsterdam and Broadway have become.
Well, isn’t this what so many UWS Kvetchers want? a return to the good old days. crime, mayhem, disorder?
For all the complaints about gentrification, it seems what this area needs is more market rate (again not luxury, just not subsidized) and owner occupied housing. The concentration of “affordable” is too much. The NYCHA projects has so much wasted space where new housing can be built with mixed income levels as has been down in most other cities where the high rise projects have been torn down.
But of course, not in New York where the culture of entitlement is entrenched.
it’s always so attractive when people try to use various incidents to advocate an extremist political agenda — such a “tearing down public housing.” the people who say things liek this are isolated from the reality of their neighbors’ lives.
by the way, so called “owner occupied” housing on the UWS is vastly subsidized, as i’ve pointed out many times before. Start with the mortgage interest tax deduction, and proceed to all the local tax property tax deductions we receive. (I think I counted 5 on my last statement.)
it’s always so attractive when people try to use various unrelated issues to advocate an extremist political agenda — like the FEDERAL mortgage tax deduction – out of the control of any New Yorker. While not mentioning all the state and local taxes homeowners pay each year to New York.
In addition, there is very high mortgage recording tax
ew York State imposes a tax on the privilege of recording a mortgage on real property located within the state. In addition, New York City, Yonkers, and various counties impose local taxes on mortgages that are recorded in those jurisdictions.
Tax rates
The following tax rates apply:
basic tax of 50 cents per $100 of mortgage debt or obligation secured.
special additional tax of 25 cents per $100 of mortgage debt or obligation secured.
New York State charges a mortgage recording tax of 0.5 percent of the loan, and with other special taxes added in, New York City residents pay a total of 1.8 percent on loans under $500,000, state tax included, and 1.925 percent for those at or above that amount.
the mortgage recording tax is a one time tax… and I believe it is often paid by the seller. However, it mainly impacts real estate speculators who are quickly “flipping” homes and buying and selling.
regarding the mortage interest deduction, one amo ng many subsidies to condo and coop owners:
your argument is that housing subsidies are ok as long as they are federal and not state/city?
of course there are many state and city property tax credits and subsidies, both at the building level (J-51) and at the individual level.
btw, advocating “tearing down” public housing is right wing class warfare.
Developers won’t build medium income housing but the City seems likely to continue giving the big bucks to do whatever they want.
As to grim streets when developers and commercial land lords get the go ahead to smash small local business by pricing them out and leaving store fronts empty or filled with useless chains that add noting to the neighborhood grim is what you get.
No one is entitled to commit violence no one.
I am curious..does anyone know what the UWS crime statistics are over the past 5 years compared to the Upper East Side crime statistics?
I don’t know off hand, but these two resources should give you what you’re looking for:
http://www.nyc.gov/html/nypd/html/crime_prevention/crime_statistics.shtml
http://maps.nyc.gov/crime/
UES is 19th, 23rd districts. UWS is 20th, 24th (ends at 110th)
Wow you really do not know what you are talking about. I always thought that you are somewhat special needs, but now I know for sure.
1. mortgage recording tax is paid by the person taking out the mortgage. i.e. the buyer. and everyone taking a mortgage pays it, rich or poor. and not flippers but all borrowers.
Every City in United States has torn down or plans to tear down high rise projects; a failed concept of warehousing the poor replaced by a mix of income and commercial uses. Chicago’s infamous Cabrini Green is gone, as are Newark’s high-rises. not class warfare at all but the opposite. Lets get the underclass brought into main stream society in every way.
I never said subsidies are okay if they are federal, I am saying that we New Yorkers have no say on it . its federal law and clearly very popular in a country of home owners.
Wow you really to hate home owners (yes condo, co-op, townhouses) and our capitalist system. Why not move already .. to Cuba or North Vietnam?
I don’t necessarily want you to even answer this, but what makes you think it’s OK to describe someone as “special needs”? Whether or not it’s even true, and an incredibly inappropriate way to attempt to belittle someone. Grow up.
How come only black kids and rich white men can get guns in NYC?
Carmen Quiones is not telling the truth. The lobby of her building was written up in black paint that said F…k tenant patrol cuz of most of the tenants in that building dislike for her. It had nothing to do with Gang activity in that building. NYCHA allows Carmen to have tenants evicted and I guess those people have not forgotten what she did