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What are the streets in particular where small gangs are active west of Parkchester? It always seems really quiet around White Plains Road.
This newsletter that I just got says the crime happened on Noble Av over the weekend. Some guy on a scooter passed by a parked car, and shot the other guy who was sitting in the parked car. I had read in the news over the years about small gangs ("crews") named after streets west of Parkchester Condo, including Leland and Taylor. I don't know whether these gangs are friendly or hostile to each other, I'm not familiar with details of the gang universe. Several years ago, one gangbanger was gunned down by another one in Parkchester on a nice summer weekend day while the one who was killed was holding his infant daughter, and I remember the name of the baby was Taylor (same as the name of the street, and the name of her dad's gang). Man, what a family legacy at the start of your life...
Parkchester condo complex is an almost unbelievable oasis of low-budget normality, surrounded by horrible areas. I just described what is to the west of it. To the east of it is Castle Hill, where in recent years an innocent bystander was shot (in the middle of the day, in front of a medical clinic) by a stray bullet. To the south (mercifully separated from Parkchester by large traffic structures) is Soundview, one of the highest crime areas in the city even during the years when crime was down overall. To the north is Tremont Av with car businesses and similar stuff, rather desolate at night. My belief is that the condo complex owes its unbelievable peacefulness and normality chiefly to the immigrants (who are trying to put food on the table, and put their kids through as good as possible schools, rather than having idiot fantasies of driving a Lambo :-).
I get a police blog and newsletter for Parkchester and surrounding areas (since I own a crashpad in the condo complex, though do not spend much time there), and White Plains Rd figures fairly prominently in the crime reports.
This newsletter that I just got says the crime happened on Noble Av over the weekend. Some guy on a scooter passed by a parked car, and shot the other guy who was sitting in the parked car. I had read in the news over the years about small gangs ("crews") named after streets west of Parkchester Condo, including Leland and Taylor. I don't know whether these gangs are friendly or hostile to each other, I'm not familiar with details of the gang universe. Several years ago, one gangbanger was gunned down by another one in Parkchester on a nice summer weekend day while the one who was killed was holding his infant daughter, and I remember the name of the baby was Taylor (same as the name of the street, and the name of her dad's gang). Man, what a family legacy at the start of your life...
Parkchester condo complex is an almost unbelievable oasis of low-budget normality, surrounded by horrible areas. I just described what is to the west of it. To the east of it is Castle Hill, where in recent years an innocent bystander was shot (in the middle of the day, in front of a medical clinic) by a stray bullet. To the south (mercifully divided by large traffic structures) is Soundview, one of the highest crime areas in the city even during the years when crime was down overall. To the north is Tremont Av with car businesses and similar stuff, rather desolate at night. My belief is that the condo complex owes its unbelievable peacefulness and normality chiefly to the immigrants (who are trying to put food on the table, and put their kids through as good as possible schools, rather than having idiot fantasies of driving a Lambo :-).
I remember that, it was a big story for a couple of weeks. Eleanor, did you own the apt in Parkchester when this happened?
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"The man who sleeps on the floor, can never fall out of bed." -Martin Lawrence
I remember that, it was a big story for a couple of weeks. Eleanor, did you own the apt in Parkchester when this happened?
Yes, I had already owned my Parkchester condo for several years when that happened (otherwise I would not have noticed the news about the crime), but the condo was tenant-occupied at that time.
It is quite pathetic that any civility still existent in some parts of the city has to rely on importing normal people from Bangladesh and Gambia, while the local geniuses continue to defend the cultural right of local kids to kill each other in the imbecile competition for a Lamborghini (the car best known for being driven by that character in the movie "Dumb and Dumber" :-).
That says it all! I'm a known left-winger and I agree with you.
You asked, so I'm pasting in the appropriate few paragraphs. If they runs afoul of the copyright restriction of this site, read them then delete them but leave the link
Quote:
Mayor Abe Beame took the first hesitant steps to tame Times Square's disorder in 1977, when he enacted nuisance abatement laws to shut down some of the neighborhood's ubiquitous massage parlors. But the first really effective measures came courtesy of a now-retired deputy inspector named Richard Mayronne, assigned to the Midtown South precinct that includes Times Square during the mid-eighties. As former NYPD deputy chief John Timoney (now Philadelphia's police commissioner) remembers him, Mayronne was "a big tough guy, a cop's cop, and easily the most imposing police commander I've ever met." He was also something more, Timoney stresses: an innovator in police tactics. Mayronne covered his office with neighborhood maps, and used pins to chart crime patterns in order to employ his forces efficiently creating a crude, pre-electronic version of Compstat, the computerized crime-tracking system that has since revolutionized New York City policing under Mayor Rudolph Giuliani.
Even more important, Timoney recounts, Mayronne instructed his men to make arrests for low-level crimes such as prostitution and minor drug transactions that, when left unpunished, create a climate of lawlessness that encourages criminals to act on their darker impulses, leading to ever more serious crime. Such quality-of-life policing, as most observers now recognize, is a major reason for New York's sharply lower crime rates, and the absence of it had contributed to Times Square's decay. The new techniques paid off: as Mayronne's Midtown South successors continued to monitor crime patterns and keep up the pressure on quality-of-life infractions, crime dropped. By the end of 1991, Times Square's crime rate was 12 percent lower than in 1984—nothing like the 68 percent citywide reduction that Giuliani would achieve, but a healthy start nonetheless.
With Giuliani's election as mayor in 1993, the war on crime dramatically intensified. Together with his police commissioner William Bratton, the mayor completely transformed New York City's approach to policing: Compstat soon allowed the NYPD to deploy personnel and resources efficiently, and quality-of-life policing became the norm throughout the city. Thanks to the new techniques—a quantum improvement over Mayronne's early innovations—Times Square's crime rate dropped to an infinitesimal level. Felonies committed on 42nd Street between Seventh and Eighth—the "worst block in the city"—fell from 2,300 in 1984 to a mere 60 in 1995, prompting a city official to enthuse that "crime has reached such a low level on that block that we don't keep statistics anymore." In the entire Midtown South precinct, felony complaints fell 50 percent, from 20,000 in 1992 to 10,000 in 1997. Giuliani and Bratton also sent a powerful message through their public rhetoric that the city would no longer tolerate crime and disorder, heightening New Yorkers' and tourists' expectations about safety and soothing the jangling nerves of the business community.
Encouraged by dwindling crime, tourists began crowding back into Times Square—always potentially one of New York's biggest draws—bringing much needed revenue into the city. Giuliani had grasped the connection between cutting crime and reviving Times Square's tourism even before his mayoralty began. The mayor recently told me about how, during the 1970s, he watched Martin Scorsese's film Taxi Driver, which depicted Times Square as a hellish nightmare, and wondered how adversely it might affect tourism. During his 1993 mayoral campaign, Giuliani got a firsthand insight into the answer. Driving down Broadway in his campaign car, he saw a tourist frantically chasing a thief who had snatched his wife's purse, bruising her hand in the process. Giuliani, jumping from the car, joined the chase, but only caught up with the tourist, not the purse snatcher. No cops were around, and none arrived until 30 minutes had passed, assuring the crook's clean getaway. Again, Giuliani thought: what would these tourists think about visiting Times Square in the future?
Quote:
Originally Posted by SeventhFloor
No not both. What steps did the NYPD specifically take to reduce crime in Times Square in the late 1980s - 1990s then? You have the floor.
You asked, so I'm pasting in the appropriate few paragraphs. If they runs afoul of the copyright restriction of this site, read them then delete them but leave the link
An opinion article?
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"The man who sleeps on the floor, can never fall out of bed." -Martin Lawrence
To the east of it is Castle Hill, where in recent years an innocent bystander was shot (in the middle of the day, in front of a medical clinic) by a stray bullet.
Wait a minute...Castle Hill! Isn't that JLo's old nabe? I recall at the time she got some flak over it. Her street cred was reduced because Castle Hill wasn't this rough and tumble area as she portrayed but rather relatively safe and middle class. Or does Castle Hill cover a large area?
Wait a minute...Castle Hill! Isn't that JLo's old nabe? I recall at the time she got some flak over it. Her street cred was reduced because Castle Hill wasn't this rough and tumble area as she portrayed but rather relatively safe and middle class. Or does Castle Hill cover a large area?
When I am in the Bronx, I do not go anywhere outside of Parkchester. I sleep at my crashpad in Parkchester, take subway train 6 from Parkchester station into Manhattan in the morning, and the same subway train back to Parkchester in the evening. If I stay in Manhattan later than 8 pm, I take the express bus back to Parkchester. So, I do not know any other part of the Bronx very well, but what I know about Castle Hill (which borders Parkchester, and does not cover a large area - I think it is smaller than Parkchester) is that it is NOT relatively safe and middle class. It is not in the category of the absolute worst of the Bronx (like Soundview), but it is not safe, it is definitely nowhere near as safe as Parkchester condo complex. Yes, I knew Jennifer Lopez grew up in Castle Hill (everyone in the world seems to know that piece of info), and if she portrayed it as rough and tumble, she portrayed it correctly.
When I am in the Bronx, I do not go anywhere outside of Parkchester. I sleep at my crashpad in Parkchester, take subway train 6 from Parkchester station into Manhattan in the morning, and the same subway train back to Parkchester in the evening. If I stay in Manhattan later than 8 pm, I take the express bus back to Parkchester. So, I do not know any other part of the Bronx very well, but what I know about Castle Hill (which borders Parkchester, and does not cover a large area - I think it is smaller than Parkchester) is that it is NOT relatively safe and middle class. It is not in the category of the absolute worst of the Bronx (like Soundview), but it is not safe, it is definitely nowhere near as safe as Parkchester condo complex. Yes, I knew Jennifer Lopez grew up in Castle Hill (everyone in the world seems to know that piece of info), and if she portrayed it as rough and tumble, she portrayed it correctly.
I would compare Castle Hill to slightly better than South Jamaica
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"The man who sleeps on the floor, can never fall out of bed." -Martin Lawrence
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