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This is such a beautiful labor of love for the community! Many thanks to all the helping hands who made it possible.
Wow. So beautiful and inspiring.
Well done to the neighbors who made that garden happen! Thank you. What a beautiful space you made for all of us to enjoy.
I just visited this garden yesterday, it is glorious.
Thank you to all who made it happen.
It is beautiful. I remember when we had to fight to keep this abandon lot which we had transformed into a garden where neighborhood people could come and relax. Now our garden is so famous news stations come to photograph it.
I wanted to leave this comment on the post about the robbery/assault on a woman by 5 girls however it seems that the comments on that post are closed. I am relatively new to the upper west side having lived in the mid-90s for only the past ten years. For the first time in ten years I can honestly say that when I walk around the neighborhood at night (anytime between 8pm-11pm), I fear for my physical safety. I own and work in a mental health center here in the neighborhood and as a small business owner I often leave the office late (anywhere between 9-11pm) to walk the three blocks home to my apartment. Due to the increase in violent crime, I am deliberate in the route I take making sure to avoid one particular block on the walk home as it is poorly lit and isolated. I make sure to call or text a friend or family member when I leave the office and notify them when I get home safely. My elderly parents fear for me when I leave the office alone at night because they are aware of the crime spike.
Yesterday, at around 9pm while walking on 93rd street and Amsterdam, I saw a pack of teenagers who were getting out of hand. One girl in particular was cursing, screaming, posturing in a threatening manner and making aggressive statements toward the rest of the group. While I am not a world expert, I can recognize when someone is not in emotional and/or behavioral control of herself and this girl was out of control. It immediately registered as a dangerous situation and I felt unsafe, and wanted to get away from them as quickly as possible. Right on 93rd street was a police car with the window down. The driver was talking with the girl…except, no police work was being done. The police officer and girl were shouting at each other and the last words I heard the officer say to the girl were something to the effect of “Fuck off….fuck outta here,” as he laughed and drove away. This is what counts for police work now?
Tonight, while walking my dog around 10:45pm, I witnessed one drug sale, and one exchange of money for prostitution service (you don’t want to know how I know this). This occurred on west 96th street. If I wasn’t there to see it, I wouldn’t have believed it either, but this did happen. We have an additional problem now in the neighborhood at night due to the 2/3 line which is undergoing maintenance. Busses now line Broadway from 94th to 96th street. You know what else lines Broadway there? Hoards of people! At least 30 at a time congregating on the sidewalk so you can’t walk by without pushing someone out of the way. This is not really a “problem” and is generally more of an inconvenience as most people are just the average joe trying to get home. The exception is of course the people who are not in good control of themselves. Tonight, I narrowly missed getting hit in the face, and my medium sized dog barely avoided being stepped on by two teenagers who were a part of the bus crowd, and were “play” fighting with each other. They were yelling, jumping on each others backs, running through this tightly packed crowd, and hitting and kicking one another with absolutely no regard for anyone near them. This was a situation that easily could have escalated into something dangerous. Once again, I felt vulnerable, and in a dangerous situation. There was, as usual, absolutely zero presence from the MTA or the NYPD to monitor the situation and ensure safety for all. Public transportation situations in a big city are of course subject to events like this, but someone should be responsible for making sure these crowds of people are safe.
I will not blame the SROs, I will not single out DeBlasio, I will not make any one thing the scapegoat here. All I can say is that crime is up and whether the “statistics” support that or not, the increase in violent crimes in this neighborhood is truly frightening. I am not a person who scares easily but the lack of police presence, the total disregard for performing their job when they are present, combined with an influx of people who do not follow rules, laws, and social mores, has made me genuinely afraid to be out after dark, in a way that as a NY’er (proudly born at NYU hospital many years ago), I have never ever felt. I am begging my fellow UWS’ers to ban together and help make this neighborhood safe again. We need stronger police presence. We need to give power back to the police officers to actually be able to protect us. And Westside rag, please please stop censoring comments. I know this is done to avoid racist vitriol and trolling, but it silences too many of us who rely on the exchange of this information and the forum to share our experiences.