By Brian Maloney | In 2022, The Village Sun broke the news that the Greenwich Village borough had decided it was necessary to hire armed security guards to protect the people who live and visit the historic neighborhood, including seniors, families, NYU students, and tourists.
Back then, drug deals were happening in broad daylight. Our front door was used as a “shooting range” and a drug den. There was public defecating and urinating, trespassing, trash and needles. Packages were stolen on a daily basis, and neighbors of all ages felt truly unsafe and worried. And this was happening all the time, day and night. On our block alone, there were 25-30 incidents every day.
In a meeting with the State Senator, we were told, “All of New York City has these problems,” as if to reassure us. But in reality, nowhere are these problems more concentrated, intense, or dangerous than in Washington Square Park and the surrounding Village Streets. The State Senator added, “These quality of life issues are more of an inconvenience than they are life threatening.” Um, well… OK.
The Village Sun article went viral, making national news headlines in the New York Post and FOX News (a fact that many thought was “right”). But more importantly, it raised awareness among the residents of my Village, asking not only “why is this happening” but “why is this being allowed to happen?”
The questions continued to arise: … Do we need more NYPD officers in our neighborhoods? Why have homeless and mentally ill people ended up in our parks and on our streets? Would the people we elect provide a greater sense of safety and a better quality of life for both our residents and New Yorkers trapped in cycles of addiction and homelessness?
So a group of us got together to try to find answers to these questions and make some change – or at least, that’s what we hoped.
The Importance of Calling 311/911
We arranged a meeting with NYPD leaders, who said they were “unaware of the issues on our block,” and our jaws literally dropped. Our street is a major feeder into and out of the park from the West 4th Street subway station, and it would have been hard to miss the unrest on any given night (if you dared to venture outside after dark). But this statement was the moment the light bulb went on for many of us. With high beams on. I’ve lived in New York City for nearly 40 years, and for 38 of those years I’ve deferred to “activists.” Until now.
As the police sergeant said, our area did not receive a single 311/911 complaint. Perhaps many of us just hoped that someone else would file a complaint. In fact, 311 (download the nyc311 app) is a vital tool in raising awareness of local issues to local police departments and elected officials, and putting more resources into the area to help solve the problems.
What have we been doing for the past two years?
We’ve created a Neighborhood Action Group (NAG) that connects over 3,000 neighbours, business owners and residents with group chats (e.g. WhatsApp), emails, newsletters and updates. When something happens on our block, photos and videos are taken, addresses are given and a description of the problem is listed so everyone can file a complaint at once on 311/911.
Does this work? Sometimes it does. … It takes a lot of time, effort and consistency, but it gives us a stronger position to discuss neighborhood issues with the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, the NYPD, the Department of Health and other city agencies, and it helps us build closer-knit neighborhoods.
We have built relationships with the community
We now regularly attend Police Station Block Construction and Community Council meetings, and participate in Community Board 2 discussions. We are in ongoing dialogue with the Village Alliance, the West Village Business Improvement District, several Village Block Associations, and the organization that manages Washington Square Park. We are in regular contact with representatives from the Mayor’s Office, the District Attorney’s Office, and the Homeless Outreach Team. And we do all of this in our spare time.
We strongly support the NYPD and the Neighborhood Coordination Agency. They have listened to us, responded, and proactively offered solutions to the chaos we are currently facing. However…
I’m doing exactly what the mayor says…
Yet again, all these efforts seem to have produced no results. Today, two days into the summer, we are still experiencing the same horrible, dangerous, creepy and unsanitary conditions in our own neighborhoods as before, and we are actually being told that “it’s only going to get worse.”
During a recent press conference, Mayor Adams urged New Yorkers to “get involved,” “speak up,” and “contact your elected officials.” The mayor said that if we don’t, “we have no reason to complain,” and that if we don’t, “we can’t really do anything to effect change.”
Hmm. …Mayor, what do we do now? We’re stumped.
Clearly, we are going above and beyond our call of duty. Enough is enough. We are tired of complaining more, shouting louder, and being told to “add more 311/911 numbers.” How about we demand our local politicians “get involved,” “speak up,” and “listen to us”? Oh, and to the representatives of City Council District 2, how about you attend a meeting once in a while and help solve this crisis we are facing?
All roads lead to the person you choose
As a lifelong Democrat, I can say this: Democrats are to blame for this mess we’re in. Voters, please take the time to find candidates who are tough on crime and who also support quality of life issues. Will you blindly vote Democrat? Yes, I have been guilty of this, but now I pay much closer attention to candidates I believe can bring about real change.
So what should we do?
We need more NYPD officers. The police are overwhelmed with other things and can’t respond to many of the 911 calls (probably doing the paperwork while the perpetrators end up being released without bail).
We need to continue to look at what parts of bail reform are working, what parts are not working, and what needs to be adjusted. Most of us agree that bail reform was necessary, to some degree. But we can see the impact that bail reform and the decriminalization of a lot of things that were once criminalized is having on our neighborhoods. It’s just spilling back into our cities, unfettered.
Dear elected officials: Simply saying you are “investing millions of dollars on the mentally ill and drug users” without providing a success matrix only reinforces the fact that nothing you do “works.”
Park Enforcement Patrol officers are needed to enforce the law in Washington Square Park.
Again, we return to the question: why is this being allowed to happen? Our voices are not being heard, we continue to bang our heads against the wall with no sign of progress. This cannot be tolerated anymore. Our elected officials are unable to balance the needs of those in crisis with prioritizing them at the expense of local residents, creating a worsening and dire situation in our village.
Maloney is a founding member of the West 4th Block Association.
