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Upper East Side is bars, bars, bars.
The only substitute for lower floor bars is a full time doorman and only big buidings can afford them. Buidings with commercial space on the ground floor have padlocked pull down gates.
Once population density gets to a certain point, those with valuables in street level homes will bar them in.
All you have to do is walk up and down the streets of any "good" neighborhood and observe.Especially on apartment buildings.Check out 473 West End Avenue @ around 83rd St.Pretty good neighborhood, right ? Well,guess what? Bars on the windows of the first floor !
There are countless examples like the ones linked all over the best Avenues and cross streets of Manhattan and they are not brownstone ornaments.There are bars on the windows of the first floor of apartment buildings on 5th Avenue,Park Avenue,Riverside Drive,Central Park West,E 79th St,E 86th St,etc,etc,etc...wherever you care to look really.
Now,here are links to views of a few buildings in my neighborhood in The big bad Bronx.No bars on the windows of the first floors.
So much for the meaning of bars or no bars on the windows.Bars or no bars on windows in NYC might mean something or might mean nothing.
I guarantee that if you start really looking you will be amazed(and surprised) at where there or aren't bars on the windows of buildings.
I was especially surprised about houses near housing projects that were completely unbarred. There is a spot in the Brooklyn I drove by the other day where the hosing projects surround this stand alone home and everything else in the area are multi-floor buildings. The home had no bars...it looked out of place because there wasn't a row of houses nearby, it was literally the only home within the 2 block vicinity everything else was buildings.
I have no stats to back this up, but I'll bet that most intrusions on unbarred ground floor apartments/homes are from windows being left open/unlocked and not from people actually breaking the windows to get inside. I think breaking the window, with all the noise and glass, is more trouble than most burglars want to deal with. They go for whatss easy- like an open window. My friend had her place broken into (in Midtown East) TWICE because the window was left open. Of course, if she had bars, she would have been able to leave the window open...
I agree, and especially nowadays with all the apartments have the double pane glass, when they break it sounds like a mini explosion because of the air between the windows, so i too, dont believe they will break a window.
burglars look for the open window, and they do find them.
I moved to NYC going on my 3rd month now and I have family in some areas that occasionally take me through some bad areas and also I have been to places that border bad areas and I noticed the lack of bars on the windows.
I moved from Miami, FL where it is standard to have every window barred up if you're in a bad area. It is a way I could always distinguish between which neighborhoods not to move into.
Maybe I am over observing, but does anyone in NYC use the barred window method to deter crime or is everyone armed with shotguns waiting behind their doors!!
With that being said, what is the best form of security you use when your in your apartment/home/condo etc...???/
No my sugar, in NYC its the crappy 2 family homes that are armed whit bars, in ghetto areas like Bonx and Brooklyn. WE live in tenement or projects in South Bronx. Cant say bout Brooklyn.
First and foremost a house should be a place of refuge and safety for you and your family, not some gingerbread fantasy house you saw on HGTV.
LOL... exactly especially in an urban environment...If you live in North Dakota and your closest neighbor is 10 miles away and have bars on your home then something is wrong with you,, but in NYC I wouldn't mind bars if I was on the first floor in a high crime area or any area for that matter. Also if your in a home, which would have more items of worth inside of them and in a densely populated high crime area I wouldn't mind the bars either.
Home is a place for safety as you said, not a false sense of safety by ignoring the problem...I'm all for being prepared and having the cameras, alarms and bars if it is needed.... In Miami I lived in a great area and didn't need those thing so I didn't have them, but you must be aware of your environment and act accordingly. Luckily my building in Manhattan is secured with a doorman and cameras and I'm also nowhere near the first floor.. I hate first floor apartments anyway.
Why people keep saying my neighborhood is middle/upper class and there are few/no bars on the windows?
Doh! Thieves love well to do houses! Chances of getting really good stuff. So don't think just because it's a good neighborhood they don't get robbed too.
Furthermore, you don't know if they're houses are wired with an alarm or a vicious dog unless you've been in there.
Thieves in the hood are more likely to be of the not very skilled set vs. cat burglars in the upper classes are more skilled.
In some instances bars are cheaper and best than the not so higher end alarm systems.
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