From the Daily News:LOCALS WHO have been grappling with an influx this summer of homeless people to Astoria's largest park are hanging their hopes on the autumn chill to accomplish what city agencies found a tough problem to crack.
Astoria Park has been a homeless hot spot, residents said, despite the addition of a police squad car to patrol the area and more outreach by the city Department of Homeless Services, both of which began in August.
Homeless men and women sleep in the park nightly, defecating and urinating in public, dismayed residents said.
"It really is one of the jewels of Queens," said City Councilman Peter Vallone Jr. (D-Astoria). "But this problem shows that even safe neighborhoods are not immune to a bad economy and less police."
Vallone's office began getting complaints from the start of the summer. The cries for help grew louder after the murder and when another man was shot and killed nearby on 28th St.
"We met with the Department of Homeless Services and Deputy Inspector Stephan Ciribasi of the 114th Precinct," Vallone said. "The precinct responded and provided an extra squad car to patrol the area."
Queens has the lowest homeless population of the five boroughs, according to the Department of Homeless Services, but after agency officials met with Vallone, it upped the presence of outreach teams there.
Hey, it's not just Astoria Park!
Check this out from the Daily News:
Vehicle thefts are up 11.9% boroughwide in the first nine months of this year compared with the same period in 2009, new NYPD crime statistics show.
The number of major crimes in Queens has fallen about 1% overall, but the surge in auto thefts was just one of the surprising stats in the NYPD's latest CompStat figures.
In usually peaceful Astoria, violent crime spiked. Murders were up from two in 2009 to seven in 2010, and the number of shooting victims jumped from nine in 2009 to 19 in 2010.
One Astoria mom, who did not want to be named, described a recent scene at Astoria Heights Playground, on 45th St. near 31st Ave.
"There were a number of us there with small children," she said. "Then there was a gunshot and everyone ran. This was in the middle of the afternoon, in this neighborhood. I can't believe what is happening."
City Councilman Peter Vallone Jr. (D-Astoria) said what is happening in Astoria is "a microcosm of what is happening all over the city."
"When you have less cops on the street, violent crime is going to go up," said Vallone, who heads the Council's Public Safety Committee. "We don't have a single beat or bicycle cop and sometimes you only have two or three patrol cars in an entire district."
12 comments:
Who needs cops or schools or hospitals or firemen when the resources are focused on the really important things like out of control development and immigration.
Gotta get the Machine well oiled and reelected, eh boys?
You can only cook the books for so long.
http://www.astorians.com/community/index.php?topic=19553.msg204253#new
Typical of a community in decline:
1. not my experience and boy you should have been here in the 80s.
2. eveyone has crime and its a lot worse elsewhere.
3. I am so happy that Peter is on the ball and watching the situation.
(snicker, eyes rolling)
Just rent some school busses,get some food,and drop them off in front of gracie mansion and across the street from b- bergs pvt residence.....
love how these guys always say its due to less police. no you pols- its b/c people are losing their jobs and losing it. u got nothin to lose, no job, no future, and crime will spike. real UE rate is close to 22% nationwide. so whatever they claim it is in nyc, just double that stat...
With declining police protection I guess that Mr. Smith and Mr. Wesson will be engaged as my personal body guards.
Though one has a soft nose...the other makes up for it with a hollow point personality.
I work in Forest Hills and have noticed a marked rise of addled homeless roaming Queens Blvd. One slashed 3 random pedestrians last week.
Seems like the winos are starting to spill over from Hillside Ave. in Jamaica.
The location mentioned in the second part of the post is actually my neighborhood. The gunshot is news to me, but hardly a surprise. On 44th street, over the summer, there two stabbings and lots of fisticuffs witnessed- and someone was stupid enough to start selling heroin out of an apartment - right next door to a city councilman's sister. Kid stuff mainly, but we've got a developing issue around here with bars and clubs that are drawing in a clientele from outside the neighborhood. Slumming, I think, is what the kids from long Island and eastern Queens call it.
Slumming? In sunny side?
Slumming is what suburban kids call living/roughing it in less advantageous neighborhoods than yours.
Sunnyside is not slummy at all. Hell, Flushing/College point is more slummy than Sunnyside and it's closer to Long Island.
After Bloomberg is dethroned, all will better...
What crime? White people don't commit crimes.
BALANCE THE BUDGET:
TAX THE RICH
NOT THE POOR
THE CRIME WILL DISAPPEAR.
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