Friday, June 28, 2024

Chaos Reigns With Carlina Rivera

Carlina Rivera's office recently spoke with The Village Sun about the deterioration of 14th Street that has unfolded under her watch for the past seven years, referring to the situation as a "chaotic area."

In the article, her office supplied a familiar tweet they have fed the press and her constituents this week before shifting blame to the ambiguous "various compounding factors" and "underinvested mental health". It is reasonable to question if Carlina Rivera fully understands the situation or how to fix it. The illegal street vendors, open air drug dealers, and early morning prostitution have been on public display on 14th Street between First Avenue and Avenue A for the past seven years.

Rivera's office continues with their previously released statements about being committed to working with various city agencies.

“My office remains committed to working with city agencies like NYPD, Department of Consumer and Worker Protection, and Sanitation, Bellevue Hospital, Community Board 3 and local community-based organizations to address and resolve ongoing quality of life and public safety issues.”

Rivera says she has made progress with the situation yet does not refer to any specific accomplishments. With nothing new to offer, why speak to the press at all?

Rivera: Addressing 'chaotic' E. 14th Street strip has been a 'priority for me for years' [The Village Sun]

Thursday, June 27, 2024

An Update From Keith Powers on Sunday's 14th Street Murder

City Council member Keith Powers issued the following statement via email to his constituents regarding Sunday's murder on 14th Street. (ht / EV Grieve)

"Thank you for writing to me about 14th Street and the awful attacks that took place on Sunday. I have attached a copy of my statement from Sunday evening, which once again calls for immediate intervention from the NYPD and other agencies on 14th Street. We have been working on this since Sunday, so I wanted to give you an update. 

One of the challenges in dealing with the situation on 14th Street has been that despite our efforts to make progress, all it takes are a few bad actors to return to the location to undo that progress. That is why I am again calling for consistent and sustained resources on the ground until the conditions on 14th Street are back to normal.

I wanted to share a few updates on the situation since Sunday:

● Earlier this week, the NYPD announced that they are stationing a foot patrol on the block to address the issues. As you will see in my statement, this was my top request. As I have stated repeatedly, the need for more resources here is apparent for any of us living in the neighborhood. 

● I am making an updated request of the Archdiocese and Immaculate Church to end the flea market. Myself and other elected officials have made this request in the past but they have not been responsive or cooperative. While I support the church, it’s indisputable that the flea market has created huge problems in the neighborhood. 

● On Monday, I personally walked the block with small business owners on 14th Street to provide them with my personal information to allow them to contact us on any issue from cleanliness to illicit behavior. 

● The Sanitation Department confirmed to me directly today that they will begin new joint operations with the NYPD and the Department of Homeless Services. My office will stay in close contact to ensure that the efforts here are maintained and properly targeted. 

● I am also coordinating with my colleagues in the city and state who represent this area to set up a walkthrough of the site with all relevant agencies. 

We hope this will help demonstrate and reinforce the need for immediate and sustained action here. On the larger scale, there are a number of proposals in the City Council that would exacerbate the situation on 14th Street by restricting the ability of city agencies to conduct enforcement against illegal vendors. I am not supportive of these measures and I have discussed the way that they would negatively impact our neighborhood with my colleagues.

As the City Council finalizes this year's budget, I am advocating for more resources for the 13th Precinct — which covers the Stuyvesant Town portion of the block (the area of 14th Street that’s in my district). I have always been proud of my good working relationship with the 13th Precinct and hope to continue coordinating with them to make our neighborhood safer."

Keith Powers' immediate action is in stark contrast to the hands-off approach by that of Carlina Rivera, who represents District 2. Her office has responded to emails from her constituents with a cut and paste of a tweet she previously issued on the matter. 

Today there was a noticeable NYPD presence on the block including patrol cars posted at either end of 14th Street between First Avenue and Avenue A, NYPD officers walking the block and checking in with the local businesses, as well as setting up flood lights to deter night time drug dealing and illegal merchants. When an illegal merchant showed up this afternoon they were removed by the NYPD within minutes.

Wednesday, June 26, 2024

A 'Day In the Life' of a 14th Street Worker


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."

They also included links to incidents from 2024, 2023, and 2018 pointing out that Carlina Rivera has let this situation fester for seven years.

Monday, June 24, 2024

3 People Stabbed In East Village, NYC


The brutal crime happened yesterday on 14th Street between First Avenue and Avenue A around 5:45PM. A 38 year-old male died from a stab wound to the neck, a 51 year-old female is in critical condition, and a 31 year-old male is in stable condition. Alejandro Piedro, 30, seen below wearing a headband, was taken into custody.


Carlina Rivera who represents the 2nd Council District issued the following statement on X, formerly Twitter. "Our community faces serious challenges related to homelessness + mental health. I remain committed to working with agencies and community-based orgs to ensure we're connecting people to services and investing in programs that improve wellbeing, quality of life, and public safety."

The East Village will have to wait and see how committed Rivera is in the following weeks and what actionable steps she will take to keep the neighborhood safe. 

Related

Reports of Multiple People Stabbed on 14th Street [EV Grieve]
38-Year-Old Man Killed, 2 Others Injured In Broad Daylight Stabbing [NY Post]
1 Dead, 2 Other Injured In East Village Stabbing [PIX11]
Video: Deadly East Village Stabbing [Yahoo]
1 Killed, 2 Injured in East Village Stabbing [ABC 7]
Deadly East Village Stabbing Raises Alarms Over NYC Safety Fears [Fox 5 NY]