By Daniel Katzive
A vandal or group of vandals appears to have gone on a tire slashing rampage this past weekend, striking multiple vehicles along Riverside Drive and West End Avenue in the West 80s into the West 100s. The damage appears to have been done overnight Saturday into Sunday morning.
Several readers reached out to West Side Rag Sunday and Monday to report cars that were targeted in the incidents. From those reports, it would appear at least a dozen cars were damaged. and possibly significantly more.
A walk up Riverside Drive, heading north of West 79th Street on Tuesday morning, found at least four vehicles still parked along the park side of the drive, all with a single passenger-side tire deflated. Two drivers who happened to be with their cars confirmed they had been parked there over the weekend, and one pointed out an apparently deliberate puncture in the sidewall of his front right tire.
This was not a normal weekend, confirmed Abraham Rubio, service advisor at 96 Auto Repair on West 96th Street between West End Avenue and West Side Highway. Rubio told WSR he had three or four customers come in with damaged tires Sunday or Monday; another came Tuesday morning with two tires punctured. In each case, Rubio said, a single small cut or puncture had been made. He said he has been at this location for three years and has not seen this before, though the shop did have a surge of customers with broken windows following a spree two weeks ago.
The NYPD was only able to confirm one incident of weekend tire slashing in the neighborhood, which occurred at 99th Street and Riverside Drive overnight Saturday into Sunday. Some of the vandalism may not have been reported or even discovered yet. West Side Rag will update this article as we get more information on the scale of the problem.
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This is what tactical urbanism is sadly. There were anti car zealots on the UES called the tire extinguishers targeting SUV’s in 2023 too.
Since we are speculating wildly, I prefer to think this crime was perpetrated by NJ radicals who covet our parking spots.
I do not think New Jersey residents have the same visceral hatred of Manhattanites that Manhattanites seem to have of New Jersey.
Cue the idiot who will claim that it’s still better than the 80’s
Really?!?!?! Because a few tires are being slashed? Were you even here in the 80s?
Followed by the other idiot who will say it serves them right because cars are evil, no one needs a car, everything you need in life is on the UWS and on the very rare occasion one needs to enter or leave the city, public transit will be perfect.
Victimless crime. Probably not eligible for bail. Even if caught you people just need to roll with the punches. After all. The 70’s were worse
It is not victimless.
What about the person who needed their car that morning ?
(work/Dr. appointment etc )
A victimless crime has no victim until it happens to you.
So tired of reading about this so called “victimless crime.” No repercussions for almost anything these days.
Democrats are completely focused on equity and not justice. For equity reasons people that commit non violent crimes rarely are being punished. This will continue until we get a more conservative city council and mayor. Elections have consequences.
I’m a Democrat and focused on equitable justice for all.
People are so caught up with bail reform. Bail or no bail is not punishment. Justice comes AFTER being found guilty. Bail is BEFORE trial. Why is it so hard to understand? Why are people so caught up in punishing people before they are tried? Our laws clearly say “INNOCENT UNTIL PROVEN GUILTY.”
“Innocent until proven guilty” is a legal fiction. An offender is not “innocent” until proven guilty, he/she simply isn’t “guilty” until proven “guilty”. If an individual is caught on video camera assaulting young women, that individual is not “innocent” until his trial, he simply hasn’t been found guilty yet. Point being there is a significant difference between “innocent” until proven guilty and simply not having been proven guilty yet. And therein lies why “bail reform” is a problem, the courts are releasing individuals who aren’t “innocent”, they just haven’t been tried yet.
So if a repeat offender is picked up on RSD as the perpetrator of the tire slashings, everyone will think he’s guilty. Unless he’s not. We don’t always have the benefit of incontrovertible video evidence. And bail reform is too frequently misunderstood. It’s about treating those who can afford bail and those who cannot the same way for the same offense. Maybe it would be better to eliminate the possibility of bail altogether for low-level offenses, so one’s ability to pay would not matter.
If a “repeat offender” is picked up on RSD then we’re doing something wrong because there should be no “repeat offenders”. It’s really remarkable that you are advocating for the “repeat offenders”. How about the tax paying victims of the crime??
Cuomo to the rescue?
Yeah, I am not crazy about him, but the other moderate Dems seem pretty far back in the pack. I don’t see Stringer getting in there.
Keep your eye on Zohran Mamdani. He’s surging and is very appealing. Cuomo did not help us. I sincerely hope people actually research the candidates this election .They clearly did not when it came to Adams.
Check our Zohran.
Does he want to defund the police,close Rikers,legalize drugs and prostitution?
Zohran has zero understanding of economics or how to administer a city. Hard pass
But, but, but ….. it was worse in the ‘80’s.
The 1880’s were rough for sure
What a shame that this is what the city is coming to. Back in the 80s we never had any of these problems! No one’s cars were ever vandalized: we didn’t even have cars! We used to build great things like the Brooklyn Bridge and the Statue of Liberty. People drove their horse drawn carriages with no cares whatsoever: we didn’t have to worry about those stupid bike lanes or ebikes! We need to vote back the Whig party to make NYC great again like the 1880s!
😀 😀 😀
Sometimes I’m glad these articles come out, because I feel like a lot of you wouldn’t have anything to do or talk about otherwise. This is like the weird version of a cognitive exercise, like wordle or spelling bee, for the neighborhood watch types and it keeps your mentation sharp. Hopefully the quality of life crime keeps up so for your sake we can stave off the development of any dementia.
It’s working learned the word “mentation”.
Thanx
I once knew a locksmith who went out at night and put krazy glue in locks near his store to drum up business. Just saying.
Too bad that they weren’t all Tesla’s.
Oh well.
So it’s ok to harm someone or something that doesn’t hold your political view? Ridiculous
Lighten up Francis, it was said in jest, unlike Musk’s firing of
thousands of hard-working Americans. Not so funny. That is what is really REDICULOUS.
TDS at work, it seems. Sigh….
What is a TDS ?
Asking for a friend.
Something really needs to be done with non stop vandalism and hooliganism on the UWS. More patrol cops, more cameras, more lighting, more arrests.
Probably pro congestion pricing vandals.
The Department of Sanitation was established to deal with the accumulation of horse manure in the streets. For those who think we were better off with horses instead of cars, know that every era has its issues.
There was also several vehicles with broken windows a couple of weeks ago in the same area. Maybe the NYPD should pay a little more attention in that area.
How hard is it to find who’s doing this? Night patrol?