An East Village resident shared the following email sent to Carlina Rivera's office this week giving graphic detail on what what daily life is like to work on this stretch of the block.
"Mrs. Rivera,
I work at a store on 14th Street close to yesterday's stabbing and the store owners in this area, their employees, and our customers all need for you to step up to the plate and handle this ongoing situation of open drug use, illegal merchants, and criminal activity on this block.
I arrive at work each morning and on any given day I have to navigate prostitutes, homeless people digging through trash and tossing what they can't salvage all over the sidewalk, crack vials, meth pipes, and people sleeping on the sidewalks appearing to be dead. I have lived in this area since 1998 and I have never seen such a consistent downfall of society on display like I do today. The NYPD do their best to clear this element away but they are back within an hour.
Currently we have three Asian ladies well known to the NYPD who steal from the Salvation Army, local food pantries, and the store I work in and sell their bounty on the open streets. Their patrons, homeless people and drug addicts come into the store and steal, shoot up, OD in our bathrooms, smear feces on the walls, and throw merchandise at our employees.
There's a homeless man who stands outside every afternoon begging for money for a "cheeseburger". One day he was confronted by a drug user who, after a brief fight, got him to admit that he was looking for drug money. A co-worker of mine was nearly sliced in the face by a homeless man with a knife attached to a broomstick riding a Citi bike on the sidewalk.
The manager of my store, along with several business owners on the block, met with the NYPD this morning to address this spiraling situation. During the pandemic people like me were referred to as "essential workers" but in 2024, nobody cares about us. I know this because the situation on this block gets worse everyday and the people we elect to office do nothing. If this keeps up, major retailers like Target and Trader Joe's will eventually close these locations as you've seen with other chains in California and Washington. When that happens the neighborhood will be laser focused on you.
Please step up with some actionable solution to resolve this devolving situation.
Thank you"
Levi Skipper from Carlina Rivera's office responded with a cut and paste from her previously issued tweet.
"Hello [Name withheld],
This is Levi from the office of Councilmember Rivera. Thank you for your email and advocacy for public safety and quality of life on 14th Street. The Council Member was upset to hear about this incident, and has been in touch with NYPD, DSNY, Bellevue Hospital, the Archdiocese and the District Attorney regarding this incident. This area has been and remains a priority for our office and we are continuing to work with community stakeholders and agency partners on addressing these serious issues.
Carlina released a statement regarding the situation, which I am including below:
“Our community is saddened to hear of the troubling violence that took place on 14th Street last night. We are also upset that this area remains chaotic and unkempt since the pandemic. I have personally been in touch with the NYPD, Bellevue Hospital, the Department of Sanitation, Manhattan District Attorney, and the Archdiocese to work together to address local conditions. Just moments before the incident, the NYPD approached multiple aggressive individuals transient to the area, and have identified the individual involved as an emotionally disturbed person with a record of assault. I want to thank the officers who responded to the call, Sanitation for clearing out debris related to yesterday in addition to their regular cleanups, and every agency we have partnered with in attempts to improve this challenging corridor. We will continue to work with them and the Bellevue Street Health Outreach & Wellness Mobile Unit to support those with mental health issues. We will also continue our conversation with the Archdiocese about the future of the market. I remain grateful to Community Board 3 and the community-based organizations who host the interagency meetings our office coordinates to discuss how best to keep all of our neighbors safe.”
Again, thank you again for your advocacy."
The local worker responded to the email in part "I appreciate your getting back to me in a timely manner. Unfortunately, I've already read these statements online and they lack a plan of action with regards to what is being done today as well as in the future to address this problem. The statement was infuriating the first time I read it and to have it lazily cut and pasted back to me has me livid."
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