By Carol Tannenhauser
Two more local businesses have been added to the list of seven that were burglarized last week — and police have released a video of the suspect.
At approximately 5 p.m. on Sunday, January 15, someone entered Chris Dasig Salon, at 528 Amsterdam Avenue (85-86), “by unknown means,” and took $20 from a drawer before fleeing. Owner Chris Dasig told the Rag that “the salon was closed at the time” and “I am very grateful that they didn’t vandalize it or steal any of my expensive tools.” Hours later, on Monday, January 16 at approximately 3:50 a.m., someone entered St. James Gate, at 441 Amsterdam (81), through a side window, and took $600 before fleeing.
No one was hurt in either incident. The police are calling it “a burglary pattern.”
Spiga To Go, Gazala’s, Blossom, Billy’s Bakery, Rosetta Bakery, Luke’s Lobster, and Joe Coffee — all in the same vicinity — were also burglarized during that timeframe. See details here.
Anyone with information in regard to these incidents is asked to call the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782). The public can also submit their tips by logging onto the Crime Stoppers website at WWW.NYPDCRIMESTOPPERS.COM, or on Twitter @NYPDTips.
All calls are strictly confidential.
Editor’s note: The police originally reported that $2,000 was stolen from Chris Dasig Salon, but the owner corrected them, saying the amount was $20. We have updated.
5:00 p.m. is a pretty brazen time to be breaking in somewhere, but maybe that’s why I am not a criminal mastermind?
Not in our brave new world. It’s a free-for-all-(criminals). What’s the worst that will happen? Get their fingerprints taken (for the 25th time) for an hour of their precious time?
Nothing will come of this even if they catch these crooks who have absolutely no respect for our city!! We have Alvin Bragg to thank for the rampant crime. Who in their right mind actually voted for him??
Lots of commentators did. One actually said “now that NY Times endorsed him”…
Alvin Bragg is part of the Democratic Party, machine, and philosophy. Thus, to answer your question, we did.
But that isn’t true at all. He won thanks to ranked choice voting. There were law and order Democrats running, but with ranked choice voting, numbers are manipulated in a bizarre way.
Actually, the DA election did not have ranked choice voting. Because I’m hindsight I regretted voting for the very anti-crime candidate (blanking on her name) rather than Weinstein – if there was ranked choice I wouldn’t have wasted my vote.
The DAs race wasn’t run as a rank choice election.
Ranked Choice is a GREAT system. It prevents a fringe candidate from winning if two (or more) mainstream candidates split the majority vote. Please do some research on ranked choice.
The Rag has, very admirably, been conscious of the way that news coverage of crime can drive inaccurate perceptions of crime in the neighborhood. I would like to point out that there has now been more coverage of these break-ins than there has been of the death of Young Kwon, who was killed by a car at 96th and Broadway on January 15. There is a tendency to see pedestrians killed by cars as natural and unavoidable. I think the way that news organizations relentlessly cover property crime while quickly moving on from traffic deaths contributes to the sense of defeatism and lack of action on traffic deaths. There have been 11(!) pedestrians killed around 96th and Broadway in the last 12 years. I would love to see those deaths covered with the same urgency as these broken windows.
All these comments are valid. I will add many pedestrians have zero respect for a 3000 pd vehicle. The corner of Broadway and 96 is nerve racking to turn west. I’ll be at the red left arrow while, to the right, those drivers have a green light. ALWAYS, people stand in front of me to cross Broadway. They get pissed when I honk to let them know, I will be getting the left green before they have a walk sign. It’s unbelievable how many people walk against the light. Every single time I’m waiting for the walk signal to walk across a street and someone is there, on the sidewalk, with a stroller, I thank them for not being in the street. Pedestrians have to do their part as well as drivers/bicyclist.
Yes. Large numbers of pedestrians act like lights are optional for them. And don’t get me started on people who push baby strollers right into the street because they are so anxious to cross.
Large numbers of drivers act like lights are optional for them too. I can’t tell you how many times I have had to hit the brakes as I start off when the light turns green because a driver tried to make the yellow but missed by a long shot. Scarier is that I see it more often when I am walking because as I start to cross with the walk signal, a driver blows the light. Walking from 96 to Columbia yesterday, I had to jump backwards twice as I was crossing with a walk signal. Twice.
When I was an Auxiliary Police Officer in the early 1990s, I used to patrol that extremely dangerous intersection. With the advent of e-bikes, everything has gotten more and more dangerous for pedestrians across the entire City. I wholeheartedly agree that more attention must be paid to all of the pedestrian issues, especially deaths because of cars speeding around corners, etc.
You blame e-bikes for making the intersection more dangerous when none of the 11 deaths were caused by them. Perhaps relatedly, I think the only traffic death the Rag has devoted more than one article to recently was the one caused by an e-bike. Coverage drives perception, whether it reflects reality or not. (I’m critical of the Rag here only because I think they might listen – the analysis they did of their crime coverage after the election showed a dedication to improvement that I wish the Times would copy!)
Josh, Your neighbors write about what is on their minds. This article is about crime. Everyone commenting here, whether they choose to write about it or not, sees ebikes break the law, and come close to hitting pedestrians, practically every time they take a ten minute or longer walk in the neighborhood. Usually the first reckless ebike rider will be seen the moment you reach Broadway. I had a cyclist zoom by me from behind yesterday on the WEA sidewalk at midday. She had a regular bike (as far as I could tell, not an ebike) and was going full tilt while missing me by an inch. This is what we are seeing and thinking in 2023. I think there has been little coverage of the constant recklessness—in the Rag or elsewhere. But reality drives perception, even if folks generally refrain from raising the topic here or elsewhere.
I really appreciated the Rag’s candid interview with delivery drives, most of whom ride ebikes. They admitted that they often won’t report collisions/ injuries since they are uninsured, which is sad but makes sense. Also agree the traffic situation has gotten dramatically worse even since 2019
People are constantly talking about e-bikes. They come up in half the comment sections here. The question for me is why do people notice and comment about the ebike that almost hit them (which absolutely does happen!) and not the car that almost hit them when we know many more people are hit by, injured, and killed by cars. The fear people have of e-bikes vs cars is exactly the opposite of what it should be if you look at the data. One is new and the other has been here a long time. You notice the danger that’s new more, but that doesn’t mean it’s more dangerous.
Josh-
Lifelong Westsider and pedestrian here.
Family and friends have been hit by bicycles – “regular” bicyclists and Citibike.
“Regular” bicyclists and Citibikers routinely ignore traffic laws, go the wrong way, through red lights, ignore bike lanes etc – and endanger pedestrians. Bicycles have made things worse for pedestrians.
Feel sorry for food delivery workers and actually think they are more careful than Citibikers etc
Josh, I see, and directly experience, near misses regularly—and as you note, other WSR readers are seeing the same. I occasionally see reckless driving, such as a driver of a car running a just-changing red light. But I have a hard time even coming up with the ratio. Could it be 100 ebike moving violations to every 1 moving violation by a car? I think the number for bikes might be more like 200:1 or 300:1, but I am watching out for them on the street—not taking notes. Pedestrians in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City cross at intersections by walking into oncoming traffic. Those driving cars and riding the (more numerous) motorcycles, ebikes and mopeds zoom around the pedestrians. That is the law in Vietnam, and pedestrians adapt. In Manhattan, pedestrians are constantly looking out for ebikes and, as with Vietnamese pedestrians, have adapted and move about without (generally) getting getting seriously injured. But the law is being broken by the ebike riders here—unlike Vietnam.
E-bikes certainly cause lots of injuries and deaths, maybe not recently on the UWS, but I work at the Bellevue ED and we see many e-bike injuries, both the rider and bystanders.
But I completely agree that traffic safety is an important issue and needs attention.
I wish people would be clear what they are talking about with “e bikes”. – is it pedal assisted bikes – per city Bikes – throttle bikes that often hit 30mph – or electric motor bikes/scooters that are both in traffic, bike lanes and sidewalks? The latter has become out of control indeed and yes – the speed they move at – are well likely to kill just as much as a car – at least the car driver passed a road test and isn’t,t on the sidewalk or driving the wrong way
Chris Dasig and other store owners or proprietors should not be telling the public about all the expensive equipment, goods, cash, etc. they are glad were NOT taken in burglaries. This info constitutes a tempting invitation to try again.
Am interested in finding out whether the new Chinese restaurant will open in the La Mirabelle space on West 86 street?
And everyone thought the 70s was dangerous.
UWS 40, I thought you meant the West 70s, because these 2 robberies were in the West 80s lol
It was. I like to look at murders as a proxy for all crime as the numbers are very difficult for police to manipulate. In the 70s there were 2,000+/- murders/year. We had 438 last year. Lets all take a big breath and smile. Here are the annual numbers: https://www.disastercenter.com/crime/nycrime.htm
thank you
I just read this great New York Magazine article from 1968 https://nymag.com/news/features/47182/
It’s amazing what hasn’t changed (West Siders fear that our neighborhood will become as sterile as the East Side), but one thing that clearly has changed is crime. “The 20th Precinct on West 68th Street and the 24th on West 100th encompass most of the Upper West Side, and their combined records show 36 homicides, 86 forced rapes, 8,478 burglaries, 1,097 felonious assaults, 3,233 robberies (muggings and stickups) and 6,762 larcenies (mostly pocketbook snatches) last year.” One murder every 10 days! 30 burglaries every day! We should always do what we can to make the neighborhood safer but it’s important to keep things in perspective.
Gotta say, I got home after 11pm on Monday evening (a rare dinner with a friend in the outer boroughs) and was very surprised to see two police officers literally standing in front of my door, between 83rd and 82nd on Columbus. I was worried something had happened in the building but they said they were “just out.” Figured it had something to do with these incidents
I moved to the Upper West Side in 1983 and lived there until 2004 when I married the love of my life. What a change. God Bless to all on the Upper West Side and be safe!!!