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With the summer approaching many residents of Washington Heights are looking forward to the sunnier days, fireworks, and the ice-cream man. A growing number of residents however, are dreading the the season for it brings more kids (since school is out), more block parties, and more noise.
“These kids don’t have to get up to go to school, but I still have to get up to go to work,” said Juanita Vasquez, a community resident, on the noise the summer brings. “I go to bed at 12 o’clock just to get awakened by the noise three or four hours later.”
According to community board records, noise complaints to the 33rd and 34th precincts spike in the summer months. Andrew Capul, deputy inspector of the 34th precinct stated that school being out, a rise in block parties, and the opening of many nigthclubs were factors for the spike in noise complaints, at a recent community precinct meeting.
The close of April brought two rather warm and sunny days and also brought over one hundred calls to 311 over quality-of-life related complaints in the Washington Heights area. It seems this is a sign of things to come. With the opening day of summer about a month away, both local precincts and many local neighborhood-watch groups are gearing up for what is sure to be a sticky, noisy, complaint riddled season.
Once nicknamed “Crack City” for the amount of the drug peddled on the streets of this neighborhood, it seemed that Washington Heights had come a long way. Two recent events have shocked local residents and police and questioned how far the area has really come. In late March 2007 on the corner of 161st Street and Broadway a late night shooting left one man dead and another seriously injured. The Drug Enforcement Agency, with the help of local police, also seized over 700 marijuana plants in the raid of an apartment on 154th Street and Amsterdam. “We have come very far as a community, but still have a long way to go,” said 157th Street resident Martha Hernandez. “This neighborhood is still home to some nasty people, though some might think otherwise,” said City College student Junior Garcia . Related issues are sure to arise at the 33rd and 34th Precinct Council meetings on the 25th of April, where the precincts discuss their crime rate statistics for the month.
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The members of Community Board 12 recently met to discuss important information. At the board’s monthly meeting, held on March 27, 2007, they released their list of district needs for the 2008 fiscal year. The list included additional monies for local libraries, community centers, and schools. The following week on March 4, 2007 a meeting was held to brainstorm different uses for the George Washington Bridge Redevelopment Project. The multi-million dollar project is meant to stimulate local businesses and services. Both the list of district needs and the brainstorming process seem to be an attempt from the neighborhoods to thwart the negatives of gentrification. The list of district needs called for additions to affordable housing and the brainstorming process listed possible local recipients of the project’s money. As always both meetings were held open to the public at the familiar Columbia University auditorium. For further information and updates on both communities, visit the Community Board 12 website.
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Washington Heights is a community made up of many poor, immigrant families. Having financial issues is a common occurence amongst these families. Thanks this year to The Northern Manhattan Coalition for Immigrant Rights (NMCIR), tax season won’t be one of those. NMCIR has recently instituted a program called “Cash Back 2007″ which is meant to assist recent immigrant and low-income families, who are residents of upper Manhattan, with their taxes free of charge. Services are available from 4:00 - 8:00 pm, Monday through Friday. Anyone seeking further information should contact them by phone at (212) 781-0355 or by email at info@nmcir.com.
Recently a dropout summit was held at, of all places, Baruch College. The summit was held to help brainstorm possible ideas of what could be done to lower the dropout rate in New York City’s public schools. Check it out.
On the morning of Feb. 21, 2007 a fourth grader fell from his fifth floor window. The young man was apparently trying to retrieve a fallen air conditioner with some sheets. The boy’s father, a livery driver, was so distraught that after the occurrence he was sent to New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center for treatment. The fall is currently under investigation by the NYPD. Check out the full article at AM New York.
Washington Heights is in the middle of a land tug-of-war between long time residents and money hungry realtors. Incredibly this condition is contagious. Check it out in this article.
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