By Dan Katzive
The Public Safety Task force of Community Board 7 (CB7) held its inaugural meeting Wednesday via Zoom. The Task Force is led by co-chairs Joshua Cohen, William Ortiz, and Polly Spain.
Co-chair Spain noted that the overarching mission of the task force will be to identify priority issues for public safety in the CB7 district, incorporating feedback from residents, the business sector and the precincts covering the neighborhood. Ultimately this information can support policy initiatives to improve the quality of life on the Upper West Side.
A survey of task force members identified three broad areas of particular concern, and these will form the basis of sub-committees to be formed:
1) Guns and gang violence;
2) Fire safety; and,
3) Safety on the streets and subways.
The task force is planning to work with the commanders and community affairs officers of the 20th and 24th precincts, and also reach out to the Neighborhood Coordination Officers (NCOs) covering the various sectors within these precincts. Members emphasized the need to get better and more granular data on crime and safety concerns, rather than relying on top level numbers or anecdotal reports. Outreach is also planned to PSA6 of the Housing Bureau.
Representatives of the Lincoln Square and Columbus Amsterdam Business Improvement Districts attended the meeting, and they indicated they were prepared to work with the task force and offer input from the local business community. They highlighted concerns about increased larceny and pedestrian safety, as well as complaints around vehicle speed and reckless driving of cars and bikes.
The task force agreed to meet again later this month ahead of the main CB7 meeting, with a specific date still to be determined.
I’m glad CB7 has a “task force” that will continue to meet with different community organizations to discuss crime in the neighborhood.
In other words, bureaucratic nonsense. Nothing will get done.
I know, right!?
What we really need is Batman or something like that. I mean, I would even settle for a Black Widow or Hawkeye at this point…
Or here’s a crazy idea, maybe the NYPD could actually do their jobs.
I am constantly reading over and over again that the NYPD “should do their jobs.” Can you please provide specific examples of what you would like them to do to prevent crime in our neighborhood.
NYPD could start by not breaking the law themselves. Take a look at the illegal parking of personal NYPD vehicles directly in the left turn lane at 81st and Columbus. This slows traffic and endangers pedestrians.
I also had a stolen car parked in front of my building for many months. It took about 20 calls over 10 weeks to get it towed away. The 20th told me to call 311! REALLY?
Agree. Blatantly against the law and I have submitted numerous photos to 311 of the illegally parked personal vehicles of police officers and the cases were closed by the NYPD in a matter of minutes with no action. Huge quality of life issue and dangerous. I saw a 12 year old boy hit by a car while riding his bike to school because of a policemen’s vehicle illegally parked.
I could site several examples I have witnessed of police congregating in groups chatting and gazing at their cell phones. Several months ago I contacted the 20th precinct to complain. I suspect this behavior has changed, at least temporarily, given the heightened scrutiny of policing in light of the crime surge that NYC and the UWS have experienced.
Very excited for the community board to address the ongoing crisis in our neighborhood. Nine deaths in one years is too many. We need action promoting safe streets and cracking down on unsafe drivers now!
A conceit! Social justice achieved through progressive political leadership and permissiveness are very different each from the other. We have become so inured to the unaddressed insults to the quality of life on the UWS. We have come to accept them as the status quo without hope of resolution. To believe that Eric Adams or any other politician who put food on their table with the taxpayers dime will resolve the issues that confront the everyday lives of New Yorkers is magical thinking.
When will these meetings shift back to in-person? It’s a wonder nothing is getting accomplished when the attendees are just sitting in front of their computers, and closing them when finished to return to their lives at home. Imagine if these board members actually had to experience some of the discussion topics while on their walk/ride home following a meeting. Maybe then we’d see some actual action.
AMEN!!!
This is a hopeful step.
I fully support the NYPD, but someone needs to direct the officers to please please please look up from their phones occasionally.
They seem generally disengaged.
Police are doing drastically less ticketing.
Criminals are processed quickly and sent back onto the street.
The mentally ill aren’t given support, and aren’t institutionalized (thus can opt to live on the street).
NYC politicians don’t back the police.
NYC politicians back reduce sentencing.
Does street safety include arresting delivery guys on e-bikes who continuously and flagrantly break the law endangering pedestrians?
Sorry, illegal guns can be hidden. But it’s real easy to see a guy going 15MP+ through a red and across a crosswalk with pedestrians legally using the crosswalk.
I also worry about off duty cops working security at Duane Reade shooting bystanders on the streets/avenues.
It’s pathetic you are still talking about the Duane Reade incident where the perp with a knife lunged at the cop and the cop shot him directly in a non-lethal way so everyone lived and no bystander was hurt. And you have a problem with the action they took when it went perfectly? No wonder this neighborhood looks the way it is and is so unsafe because there are others that think like you do.
exactly. Why do people think the shoplifting epidemic is rife? No one will arrest you or challenge you if you rob the whole place in case you hurt them. I say bravo for the off duty cop who shot the guy with the knife – what did you want him to do – let him go a stab someone? You would’ve been complaining about that too!
On duty, off duty, the fact is that any cop can accidently shoot a bystander.
So your logic compels the result that a knife wielding (or gun wielding) criminal, observed in the act of knifing (or shooting), can get away because if the cop’s gun stays holstered then, obviously, the cop is outmatched and can’t arrest the criminal.
That makes a whole lot of sense (/s).
The problem is the shooting out on the street when the threats aren’t clear.
Hardly a new problem for the NYPD. There’s was an infamous case on the 8th avenue side of the PABT about 5 years ago. So indeed, there is real cause for concern.
And then there’s the Sean Bell case.
Last, even when the cop/s shoots someone dead on the street, because that someone won’t drop a gun — that the someone hasn’t raised at the cop/s, there remains the very real (as in this happened in Murray Hill) bullets flying wild problem.
You sarcasm can’t vitiate your lack of knowledge regards this subject.
Irony you missed the murders by rental truck and the guy with the hammer on 8th in the 30s. Those are 2 cases in which the cop (single) was justified in shooting out in public.
Great first step. I hope they set specific actions in place in concert with the precincts by the next meeting.
Hopw about street and sidewalk safety w regre to bikes.
The Task Force is a welcome addition to our neighborhood public safety is a priority for us and our families. I wish to remind and encourage residents to attend our monthly Community Council meetings to communicate directly with the NYPD and to discuss important issues that affect all of us. The next 24 Precinct meeting is .March 16, Wednesday at 7 pm conducted at the Library across the street from the Precinctt on 100 th Street. Tom Burnett, President of the 24 Precinct CC
I did not see any mention of the car that knocked down the school crossing guard on the corner of 70th St. and West End Avenue. The driver did stop, but there could have been several more casualties.
Yay for CB7, doing the Right Thing!
The police can do their jobs but it’s up to the judges and prosecutors to do theirs as well too.
The guy who just smeared his feces all over a woman’s head and face in the subway was already set free. He has a lengthy criminal history and it’s only going to get longer with each violent attack and desk warrant/release after each attack. Does this type of bail reform make sense? What about that woman’s rights as she was sitting there minding her own business waiting for a train?
No More Crap, So I guess you are fine with rich people smearing feces on others being let out. That is how the prior bail system worked.
I think we need a system where individuals who are a risk are denied freedom and others are sent home. That is what this bail reform was supposed to do.
Phew, what a relief! The CB7 task force is on the case. Now I can sleep easy knowing that despite arrests not being made and crooks not facing any sentencing, the CB7 will generate enough hot air to warm a ten foot radius. Bravo.
This may sound kind of obvious. But perhaps we cease actively attracting residents with criminal tendencies and risk factors. Here’s the profile of someone who’s likely to commit a crime here: they have a past criminal history; they are additionally mental ill (schizophrenic, bipolar); they struggle with hard drug addiction; they have no strong social connections here and no fond memories of the area.
Yet, this is the exact profile of the thousands of people who were brought to live here over the last 3-5 years. In 2022, 2023, 2024 more will come. The crime cannot be traced necessarily to this demographic change nor shall we place blame. But one must be a fool to deny the fact that criminals know when they’re in a ‘hood and when they’re in an upstanding and organized place. Parts of the UWS are beginning to look really very much like a neglected dump.
What about trash and vermin?