Let’s Fight Crime By Being Friendly To Those Ruthless Thugs!

I’ve been attending the 69th Precinct’s National Night Out Against Crime almost as long as I’ve been working at the Canarsie Courier – over a decade now. Whether I covered it as a reporter or represented the Courier for a few hours dispensing information on our newspaper, I observed the fun and informational event sponsored every year by the NYPD and local elected officials.

This Night Out is hosted all over the country – with every precinct or district doing their own thing to “fight crime” in their small communities. From my understanding, National Night Out Against Crime is supposed to be a community effort to rally against violence while improving partnerships between residents and the police department.

Years ago, when I covered the Night Out for our precinct – and from what I saw other reporters cover – hundreds marched in the streets chanting anti-violence messages up and down residential blocks. Sometimes, our civic leaders sounded very upset at the rise in crime and they’d shout their grievances until they got back to the location where the Night Out festivities were taking place.

Isn’t anyone angry about crime anymore? And when the hell did the “Against Crime” part of the program disappear? Nothing personal against the NYPD or local civic organizations – but there’s seemingly very little “anti-crime” activities taking place at our National Night Out Against Crime.

I have the following recommendations for the evening – instead of just playing music and setting up tables filled with paper flyers people collect and then throw away at the end of the night – that would make this national event more proactive, rewarding and less like a casual social function:

•Have a designated NYPD unit set up a station where they teach children and adults self-defense techniques and provide real-world safety tips. They should also conduct demonstrations and lectures on street safety and keeping your cell phone away while you’re walking in the middle of the street! They can have also have the NYPD’s Gang Unit teach kids to say “no” to getting involved with the wrong crowd. Create an imaginary scenario where a pretend “gang member” approaches a youngster and offer them a prize for handling the situation safely and diplomatically.

•While the Office of Emergency Management sends local emergency response teams to sit at a table at the Night Out to disseminate information, how about showing off what they do? Have them set up a station with a dummy and teach residents about CPR, packing a “Go-Bag” and do test drills with families every half hour to prepare them for an emergency situation. They could also host “game show” style events – quiz residents on their emergency preparedness skills for chances to win fun prizes!

•We’re all complaining about car accidents and pedestrian safety – what about having a traffic safety officer talk to residents about being safe on the roads? Have a road simulating machine at the Night Out and see if adults can dodge oncoming traffic safely without running a red light! This is not only about crime-prevention – it’s about accident prevention and awareness.

These are just a few suggestions, which I know would be costly, on making our National Night Out mean a lot more than it presently does. Some precincts have bands performing – which is nice, but how does that enhance or improve relations between the NYPD and the community.

Let’s get real! Most young people don’t think too highly of police officers, hence the never- ending battle that resonates between cops and youths in our community. Is the NYPD REALLY using the Night Out to repair the broken links which connect residents to police officers?

With all of the tension that exists – with all of the incidents happening in our community leading to gun violence, why do we have insurance companies, health facilities and businesses like banks setting up shop at a Night AGAINST CRIME! Their representatives sit there for hours with informational flyers and brochures. Take THAT you no good hooligans! We’ll collect freebees while you’re perusing the neighborhood for your next robbery or shooting target. Hey, for all we know, there could be criminals attending our Night Out! Lovely!

Maybe it’s good for the sake of getting the information out – but it’s NOT playing a part in taking our streets back – which is the original intent of the nationwide event!

I love that the Explorers are part of the evening. This is a group of teens who are enrolled in a youth organization that teaches them about law enforcement. The Explorers program helps instill morals, values and a sense of discipline in children who may not have a healthy path ahead of them. Teaching them to respect authority when they’re young is one tool they need to be equipped with early on in life.

So we’re entertaining them with dance performances and face painting? Really? This event is supposed to help fight crime?

I don’t want to be a killjoy, but dancing and face painting are available at tons of other community events such as street fairs, which are sponsored by various organizations.

The National Night Out is meant to be a night out AGAINST crime. Maybe we’ll ward off would-be criminals with paper cuts from all of those handouts and brochures that wind up blowing into the overflowing trash receptacles along our desolate avenues…

Park Yourself Somewhere You Can Take Your Mess With You!

After years of literally running to crime scenes and getting winded, I finally put the exhausting sport to good use. A couple of months ago I decided to make running in the park a regular activity – and I now have a goal to complete a 5K in less than an hour.

What better place is there to try to reach my goal, than Canarsie Park! Rounding the biggest track in the park near Seaview Avenue near East 85th Street about three times, I didn't realize what a release running was… How exhilarating it is…I also didn't realize how people could turn our beloved park into a disgusting pigsty! It’s really sad to see the condition of our park after visitors have hosted their “parties” – you'd think a tornado swept through the community!

Last week, activist Wayne Clarke sent us photos of our renovated park following the 4th of July weekend. There was garbage scattered all over the place – debris from food, drinks and fast food joints. I can't say that I couldn't believe what I saw, because when I went jogging one Monday evening, I saw garbage bags and receptacles exploding with party leftovers.  Trash also scattered the manicured grass, blowing all over the place.

Canarsiens don't mind visitors making the best of our park – which took millions of dollars to clean and revamp so that it could stand out as one of Brooklyn's best recreational sites. Hello! This is one of Brooklyn's DIRTIEST recreational sites.

Here’s another thing that puzzles me. When I went running last Saturday morning, the park was clean and quiet. However, there were picnic tables cordoned off with string and yellow tape. Who's reserving space in the park for themselves – and why? There was no community event going on that day...There were families setting up styrofoam coolers and foil pans of food inside of the “lines” they created with string and rope.

Let’s get real! Isn't the park supposed to be a space for everyone? Why are people allowed to claim park space as their own and why isn't anyone removing these “separation” methods used by park visitors?

Usually, when I'm jogging, I see Parks Department personnel hard at work – planting flowers near some of the paths and raking grass along the trails. No one is enforcing any rules – no one is tearing down the yellow tape telling park-going partiers that they can't create their own “space” within a public park – I guess it’s not illegal, but it should be! Some people who host their parties at the park just have an understanding how much grass they've been allotted…on which to litter!

What’s worse, the “No barbecue” signs go ignored and so do all the other sanitary advisements that are posted on small green plaques at the entrance to the park.

Maybe some of you don't care if you've got visitors at your house who turn the whole place upside down when they're only staying for a few hours. But those of us who enjoy a clean and serene park DO mind when visitors treat our recreational space like a dump! Is this what you would do in YOUR backyard after a party – leave a mess behind like animals who ransacked garbage pails – like raccoons in the middle of the night? How would you like it if your neighbors had a big party and left all their trash in YOUR hallway or staircase, so you had to smell the rotting food and leftovers?

Even though there aren't enough maintenance workers to keep up with the trash on the weekends at Canarsie Park, visitors should bring their own gallon-sized garbage bags in which to throw their refuse. Don’t let garbage fly away into the grass – and if it does, just pick it up and put it in a garbage bag!!! How hard is THAT?

While they're at it, visitors should teach their children about cleanliness, too. Don't let kids drop their candy or food wrappers all over the freshly cut grass. Teach them to respect their environment and wherever they DO see a garbage pail, USE IT for crying out loud!!

I'll admit, when I'm jogging through a clean park, it makes me feel better and helps clear my mind.  I’d feel much better trekking in the middle of an open space where no one has soiled – and spoiled – the atmosphere with chicken and sparerib bones…where there are no foil pans piled up against a tree swarming with flies.

I know summertime is when everyone looks for the perfect – and free – spot to host their shindigs, especially when you don't have your own backyard or terrace you can host your guests. But YOU'RE a guest at our park! Abusing and ruining the space authorities work so hard to improve and keep safe is just ignorant and animalistic! 

You're not an animal, right??????

Some New Yorkers Can’t Have Anything – Without A Dirty Fight!

Every time I do a story on a deplorable apartment within New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA), I feel like taking a scalding hot shower afterwards to rid myself of whatever germs lurk in the air. The mold….The roaches…The peeling paint…The crumbling plaster…If the Canarsie Courier could provide me with a hazmat suit to wear during these assignments, I might not feel so grossed out. However, it’s part of my job to endure an environment where I could be breathing in toxins and unhealthy air.

Comptroller Stringer fights for NYCHA tenant rights.

Wait…Residents who LIVE in those apartment buildings have to breathe in that dangerous air every day! And what does NYCHA have to say about these disgusting conditions that go unfixed for years?

According to New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer’s recent audit, NYCHA is looking worse and worse every month. I believe – and have proof – that NYCHA doesn’t have a leg to stand on when it comes to defending the horrible state of their apartments.

When I went to Bayview Houses a couple weeks ago, I saw one woman’s apartment literally crumbling.  It’s a sad day (or month) when you have to patch up a hole in your kitchen ceiling with a slab of cardboard. I’m sure it was embarrassing to bring in a guest when the plaster and paint in your apartment is disintegrating, cracking and opening. What is this – a third world country where we have to tolerate contracting asthma and other respiratory diseases from our deadly environments?

 NYCHA’s response to the Comptroller’s audit – which demands the agency have a more efficient system of reporting work orders – was that the information was “old” and not based on what new leadership has enforced since February 2014.

If that’s the case, why do so many apartments STILL look like they’ve been through an earthquake? Walls aren’t just cracking – I’ve seen layers of paint in large patches coming apart from a foundation that’s black and moldy – with some pink substance exposed underneath.

From my personal experience, NYCHA’s irresponsible maintenance workers – and their excuses for why they won’t fix tenants’ problems – are part of the problem. Does a resident have a leaky toilet bowl? Is there a clog in a pipe? Are the incinerators not working properly?

If NYCHA wants to fix their reputation, why not send the right person for the job to DO the job the FIRST time they evaluate a work order? Send the plumber, plasterer, painter, electrician – or whoever – to the apartment to complete the work the same day they visit the irate tenant. I’ve been to tenant’s apartments at the same time maintenance workers appeared to size up the repairs that had to be made. A couple of guys came in, looked around and pointed, took some notes and slowly left the apartment with no reassurance of what would be done or when they’d return.

Let’s get real! It seems like the city feels that just because NYCHA tenants are low-income or disabled, they don’t deserve to have their needs met. Just because tenants can’t afford their own roofers, contractors and plumbers, they have to wait months and years before a qualified city worker can complete a job that most private handymen could probably take care of in one day.

The more complex question is, who’s going to monitor repairs and enforce action after the Comptroller’s audit goes through its due process? Who’s going to go to the worst apartments in the city – some of them located right here in Canarsie at the Breukelen Houses – and order NYCHA to send someone to the rescue.

There are also simple quality of life issues that NYCHA neglects. We know there are a lot of residents and litterbugs out there – but come on! Household trash, including food and diapers, overflows along various NYCHA development grounds, spilling out into the streets. It’s like passing a landfill! What’s their excuse for this disgusting sight? I’ve seen maintenance workers on the grounds of Bayview and Breukelen Houses talking amongst themselves and doing menial work instead of keeping the grounds clean. I understand it’s the Department of Sanitation’s job to remove the trash – but can’t maintenance workers sweep the scattered debris neatly into a big garbage bag so passersby don’t have to trip on dirty containers and broken electronics?

I’m more than just a little upset and disturbed by the conditions NYCHA tenants are forced to endure. It’s also upsetting that there’s NO proof of work being completed. The photos we publish in the Canarsie Courier don’t even come close to showing the horrible conditions some residents have to live in every day.

NYCHA can justify their lackadaisical management skills whichever way they want – for however long they want. The list of violations and unethical practices will continue indefinitely.

That’s why NYCHA most often stands for New Yorkers Can’t Have Anything!

Photo courtesy of the NYC Comptroller's office

Here’s Why You’ll Be Safer On A Broken Roller Coaster In Coney Island

Don’t tell me you didn’t roll your eyes a couple of weeks ago when the Cyclone Roller Coaster in Coney Island broke down for the second time since opening day back in March. So all of those anxious passengers – who love the thrill of being tossed around on top of rickety wooden tracks – had to walk down to safety. So what!! They could be caught in the crossfire of a gang shooting only a few blocks away.

I know the feeling of being on a roller coaster – I’ve been on the Cyclone ONCE and hurt my elbow from the careless and dangerous whipping – which all amusement park-goers endure. If you’ve taken a chance on other rides like the Thunderbolt – which I won’t be trying any time soon – your love for thrills and danger has only begun.

How about the danger and thrills that lurk less than a mile away from Coney Island’s packed amusement park – where a game of “shoot the clown” is more real than any arcade game and no one wins a prize for that gun-popping sound that comes along with your victory. And where’s the real gun? Probably buried in the sand! If you recall, a mother and her 10-year-old daughter stumbled upon a loaded gun on the beach in August 2014.

Sure, people screaming because of the adrenaline they feel on a ride is part of the fun – but it seems like more people should be screaming because of the danger they feel simply walking the streets. Making Coney Island a fun, touristy attraction and safe place to spend your summer is getting less and less feasible. It almost seems like there are more shootings and violent crimes happening in Coney Island than in Canarsie.

If you’ve ever seen one of the freak shows in Coney Island – where the sword swallower wows the crowd – you’ve said MORE than “wow” in early June if you witnessed a police officer being attacked with an 11-inch hunting knife! Thankfully, they shot the 58-year-old wacko who also attacked a woman on the street.

Let’s get real! Some people want their bodies thrown in that sling shot ride just feet away from the Atlantic Ocean. Others are LOOKING for bodies, like 74-year-old Crucita Alvarado, who went missing for a month last year and was then reportedly found dead and decomposed on the roof of a building on West 30th Street.

News12 Brooklyn recently reported that Coney Island residents want more police to be on foot patrol on the streets, making sure dangerous individuals from mental health clinics and homeless shelters in that area are being watched more carefully. 

Escaping roller coasters or gunshots???

Still, the 60th Precinct is right in the thick of the action and they’ve got patrol cars constantly…on patrol! The westernmost streets on Mermaid Avenue and Neptune Avenue have properties and apartments with gated windows as if residents are prisoners in their own home! You’re safer being in a caged seat on the Wonder Wheel hundreds of feet above the air!

On some blocks, shady characters hang out outside bodegas and youths from the nearby housing complex run into the streets, in the middle of traffic. Yes – I’ve witnessed all of that and it’s NO freak show or teacup ride through the ’hood!

So what scares you more – being hurled around in the air for about a minute while you’re strapped to an opened seat, your stomach cavity convulsing to stay intact with gravity – or entering territory where bloodshed takes place on a regular basis? Believe it or not, it’s all happening in the SAME PLACE – even if you’re looking for a day trip away from the war-zones we call home within Canarsie, East New York, East Flatbush and Flatbush.

Hold on tight and buckle yourself in – summer’s only begun and there’s nowhere you can escape from the dangers of a violent amusement park.