By Daniel Katzive
Overall violent crime numbers are stable or lower compared to last year in the Upper West Side’s 20th and 24th police precincts. But that is little comfort to residents at the NYCHA Amsterdam Houses, who are concerned about large groups of young people hanging out and a rise in crime at the complex. In the past month, there have been two non-fatal shooting incidents, prompting residents to request an increase in police patrols.
That request was delivered Monday night at the 20th Precinct Community Council meeting by residents of Amsterdam Houses, located between West 61st and West 64th streets from Amsterdam to West End Avenue, and the nearby Amsterdam Houses Addition on West 65th Street. Yvette Powell, president of the Amsterdam Houses Resident Association, told the meeting that when she first raised concerns with the precinct back in January, she was told there were no resources available for additional patrols. After the two incidents in which people were shot, she said, police have been more visible, but this did not prevent two later additional incidents, in which shots were heard by residents but not confirmed by police.
Powell said some senior citizens living in Amsterdam Houses are now afraid to leave their homes after 4 p.m. She added that there are a number of schools near the development. “We cannot have this going on,” Powell told the Rag.
The first shooting occurred on the evening of May 7, as reported by West Side Rag, when a 17-year-old was shot in the back within the Amsterdam Houses complex. The second shooting appears to have occurred last week, but details were not immediately available. According to NYPD CompStat data, crime in NYCHA properties has nearly doubled in the 20th Precinct over the past 28 days compared to the same period last year. In contrast, reported crimes in NYCHA developments in the 24th Precinct to the north are slightly lower for the same period.
During the Monday night meeting, 20th Precinct commanding officer Deputy Inspector Candida Pun-Sullivan said police had met with the victims of both shootings at hospitals, but both refused to cooperate with investigators. She said the precinct remains short of manpower relative to levels in past years. Precinct officers recently have also been diverted from patrol duties to respond to protests at Columbia University and on Fordham University’s Lincoln Square campus. Officers have also been detailed to patrol migrant facilities on Randalls Island, she said.
Other NYCHA housing developments, such as the Douglass Houses in the West 100s, are patrolled by one of the NYPD Housing Bureau’s Police Service Area commands. But policing at Amsterdam Houses falls under the local precinct; two of the 20th Precinct’s eight Neighborhood Coordination Officers are assigned full time to the development.
Some residents think that is not enough for a complex the size of Amsterdam Houses, with 13 buildings and over 1,000 units. “We’re not asking for the whole precinct,” Powell told WSR. “We just want two more officers.”
More after-school programs are also part of the solution according to Powell. “And jobs,” she adds, noting that many of the young people in Amsterdam Houses have finished school but cannot find work. Programs designed to help them are not always available if the young person’s name does not appear on an Amsterdam Houses lease, Powell said.
Powell said she is organizing a meeting with her counterpart at Amsterdam Addition, with Goddard Riverside, the non-profit which operates the local community center, and the Gateway School, an independent school serving children with learning disabilities on West 61st Street. The goal is to identify additional steps that can be taken, in the absence of more help from police. The group has also reached out to the state Attorney General, the District Attorney, and State Senator Brad Hoylman-Sigal’s office.
Amsterdam Houses has been a safe housing development in the past, and it can be safe again, said Powell: “We can take care of it, with the right resources.”
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“But look what we have built with the first several billions: Low-income projects that become worse centers of delinquency, vandalism and general social hopelessness than the slums they were supposed to replace.”—Jane Jacobs
Prescient comment from Jane I wonder what her thoughts were for a better solution.
It’s the presence of guns in so many young people’s hands that’s so concerning. Nearly everyday, I read about another teen shot. Gun culture is tragic c and something can be dune about it, starting with our Mayor making the time to talk withbteems a lot more than he does. It may not be as much fun as partying but doing good for the City’s youth matters ,more.
1. Why did the victims refuse to cooperate? Is there a gang issue that they are afraid of? Something else?
2. There are plenty of jobs out there. I see help wanted signs in lots of places. Sorry if the jobs are beneath you. Get a job. Go clean up trash. Whatever.
3. Lifelong Democrat here. But I’m guessing there are a lot of people in the community who would be quite fine with the return of stop and frisk assuming it is done properly. I have nothing to hide and would be fine if they did it to me. No different than TSA, entering a stadium, or anything else these days. Yes, there were a few bad incidents. But the good far outweighs the bad.
If I was a bad guy and knew “stop and frisk” was in effect I’d leave my gun at home under the mattress. One less gun on the street, times the number of bad guys out there might save someone, and get the bad ones off the street for a day or so.
I recently did a lot of work as a real estate agent uptown, and about half my business was helping people use housing vouchers. I got to know many people, especially older and single woman, many moms, but also some single dads, mainly African-American, seeking housing under Section 8 and other programs, and they nearly all spoke, unsolicited, of their desire for more policing. They care a lot less about whether PoC are disproportionately arrested than they do about whether they and their kids can live in a safe neighborhood.
Confirmation bias!
Amen. I have found that it is mainly do-gooder bleeding heart white people who think they know what is best for minorities who are dictating policy, rather than asking minorities what they actually want for themselves. Welcome to the UWS.
Please note that I am a lifelong Democrat. But I am also a realist and I actually listen to other people rather than thinking I know everything and what is best for them. Which is the fundamental flaw with the far left wing of the Democratic party today and is why Trump is unfortunately going to win and destroy our country.
So…is this an ix-nay on defunding the po-po?
More police? What about defunding the police? Sorry but the NYPD is shrinking. Those who pushed for this now request more cops? Is this a joke? Maybe BLM could take the tens of millions of dollars they got from corporate America to hire these kids. They want more cops but protest when cops arrest criminals. SMH.
Why is the onus always on the community? Not enough jobs,, not enough programs, not enough services, other neighborhoods have more this that and the other and we don’t.. List goes on. I don’t recall any community making it easy for me to find my way. My parents instilled in me what was expected and I was held accountable. When will the responsibility for all this violence shift to the parents who are responsible for these teens? The community provides school so they can learn skills and take care of themselves. At some point we need to start expecting a higher bar for performance and stop blaming everyone else for your choices. Living in NYC is not a human right and if it’s too hard here or too unfair maybe it’s time to find places that make it easier for your to raise your family in the manner you want without placing the burden on everyone else.
Jane Jacobs’ recommendation was to retain the streetscapes, keep development low and in keeping with the facade patterns of the street-scape to maintain the vitality of the neighborhood
Like many UWS streets
There are many schools surrounding these houses. I walk my son by them every weekday to get to his school, a preschool for special needs that services 3-5 year olds from all over the boroughs. I never see police officers on the block of 64th. I do see adults smoking weed often, right at the back steps of LaGuardia High. There should be an increase of officer presence.
“. Programs designed to help them are not always available if the young person’s name does not appear on an Amsterdam Houses lease, Powell said.
Drop the requirement that the name appears on the lease.