East New York

[spatulashack]

How bad is the area around Broadway Junction station? I know it is East New York and I've heard horror stories but honestly the areas immediately near this station complex didn't look too bad to me on a recent trip. Does it turn into hell at night?

[Schadenfrau]

It's hard to predict how others are going to interpret a neighborhood (I'm sure there are people who are terrified of Hell's Kitchen, as well), so why not check out the neighborhood at night? Only you can know your own comfort level.

[spatulashack]

It's hard to predict how others are going to interpret a neighborhood (I'm sure there are people who are terrified of Hell's Kitchen, as well), so why not check out the neighborhood at night? Only you can know your own comfort level.

I'm not easily spooked by these types of urban environments. I'm talking more about safety concerns in particular around that station when it comes to muggings and shootings. I'm not a nervous nelly but I also don't feel like getting shot to save a few bucks on rent.

[Schadenfrau]

If you place that much value on random stats, check the crime statistics for the precinct. And like I said before, check out the neighborhood for yourself.

Would you really place any value upon some random person on the internet typing, "Oh my god, you're going to get shot at the Broadway Junction station?" You're smarter than that.

[ablarc]

Crime's mostly in your mind.

Criminals only attack the fearful.

(So I've been told.)

[spatulashack]

If you place that much value on random stats, check the crime statistics for the precinct. And like I said before, check out the neighborhood for yourself.

Would you really place any value upon some random person on the internet typing, "Oh my god, you're going to get shot at the Broadway Junction station?" You're smarter than that.


I have visited the neighborhood. And I take anything I hear with a grain of salt and it wouldn't make or break my decision but advice from people who happen to live in the area could be taken into account as well. I'm just trying to gather information. I take trains very late at night all the time so if anyone takes the A train to that area often, they could provide some insight.

[Marty]

Rough tough part of town looks like gentrification has ended there. I drove around Saratoga Atlantic Easternparkway 5 years ago allot was blighted but new construction goin on, today new housing and buisinesses, but I did not see anything going up now!

One of the worst streets in the city in my opinion has to be Van Sinderen around Livonia under the EL and LIRR take a drive looks like NYC from the 80’s garbarge boarded up buildings, broken road sidewalks, New Lots Ave and Livonai as well madd rough.

Don’t know the stats for this area today but it’s always been a leader in the terms of homicides could have been 340-40 a year much less then the 110 15 years ago, with all the Housing Project in the 7-5 I doubt it will ever get any better than it is today. Get out there see for yourself you can get a vibe .

[meesalikeu]

i work a bit of a hike from the junction 1x/wk for the past 10yrs -- i take my trains to there and walk or bus. i work in the south bronx too other days of the week if that helps.

i've been walking all around the junction even at night fairly often, tho i try not to do that too late. at night it's ok, but it's no picnic either. i feel best when the businesses and the bus garage are wide open. i would not rec living around there.

if you visit do so on multiple trips -- fyi pitkin is the local shopping street, that's where i get lunch. i'd suggest you walk around to there from the junction for starters.

if you have any other questions maybe i can help.

[spatulashack]

Just as a follow up to everyone... I moved from Hell's Kitchen to Bed Stuy Brooklyn right off the A stop on Nostrand Avenue about a week ago. I'm on a beautiful brownstone block and have a wonderful newly renovated one bedroom for $1,100. I'm very happy. :D

[NYatKNIGHT]

Congrats! Best of luck there.

[Merry]

Numbers show Brooklyn is safer than it's been in years, but residents still afraid of crime

BY Jake Pearson

Brooklyn may be safer than it has been in years, but East New York residents like Mac McNeill are still afraid to walk through their neighborhood at night.

"If anybody is saying crime is down then they're lying," said McNeill, 64, who manages a laundermat on Atkins and Hegemen Aves. and routinely hears gunfire.

"There are good people here but they're living in fear, afraid to walk at night or let their children play like normal kids."

NYPD statistics for 2009 show that crime across the borough plummeted last year in every major category - from murder to rape to robberies.

Brooklyn still had the most murders in the city last year with 202 - but even that number was the lowest it has been since 1963, when 186 people were killed in the borough, according to police.

But when it comes to crime, East New York continues to be a world apart from the borough and the rest of the city:

Murders rose, logging a 41% increase last year to 24 - up from 17 in 2008.

East New York's 75th Precinct also led the city in rapes (47), robberies (666), felony assaults (789), shooting incidents (84) and shooting victims (109) last year.

Overall crime in the precinct went down 6.4% last year, though neighbors said the statistics don't tell the full story.

"The guns are the issue," said McNeill, who named his stretch of Atkins Ave. between Hegemen and New Lots Aves.

"Gunsmoke Island" after four people were shot and one murdered over 12 hours one day last August.

"You don't hear about people doing drive-by stabbings - if you don't have a gun, you don't shoot it," he said.

East New York led both the borough and the city in shootings last year, making up nearly 25% of all shootings in North Brooklyn.

NYPD officials insisted that despite last year's 41% increase in murders in the 75th Precinct, the 2009 total was still 31% lower than it was eight years ago.

"Crime in general in East New York in 2009 was the lowest in modern history," said NYPD spokesperson Paul Browne, noting that Operation Impact - which sends rookie cops into high-crime neighborhoods - is continuing this year.

That news comes as a relief to Wilfredo Cruz, who said the neighborhood has improved in the 20 years he has lived on Dumont Ave. and Inwood St. because of more police.

"It's still not in my best interest to hang around outside at night," said Cruz, 60. "But the evildoers see the uniforms and they run away. "

Crime dropped in every precinct in Brooklyn last year - by just over 12% in South Brooklyn and by 10% in North Brooklyn. Burglaries in Williamsburg's 90th Precinct jumped 15% from 2008 and shootings in Bedford-Stuyvesant's 79th Precinct climbed nearly 32%.

The 75th Precinct in East New York, the 73rd Precinct in Brownsville and the 67th Precinct in Flatbush were the only three citywide with 20 or more murders last year.

"The NYPD is trying their best but drugs and guns are an epidemic," said Sharon Malloney, 49, a home health aide from East New York.

City Councilman Charles Barron (D-East New York/Brownsville) said the solution is beyond putting more cops on the streets.

"We don't have the employment opportunities, youth centers and the entrepreneurial programs ... to combat crime."


http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/brooklyn/2010/01/12/2010-01-12_numbers_show_brooklyn_is_safer_than_its_been_in _years_but_residents_still_afraid.html#ixzz0cT592E s3

[ablarc]

^ A frequent "solution" to this kind of thing is gentrification, but in East New York neither the architectural housing stock nor the location is good enough for that.