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I found myself asking some big questions today: Is Boerum Hill safer than Tribeca? Is crime really down in this city? Should I move to New Hampshire?
Here’s how it all started. We park our car on the street – usually in Boerum Hill but this week on Hubert near the corner of Washington. When we got to the car this afternoon, the two curbside tires were slashed. A one-inch knife slit in the sidewall on both. On Hubert Street.
So since we are clearly not driving anywhere any time soon, I get on the 2/3 to pick up a kid at school, and while I’m hammering out an email with my thumbs, a guy grabs my phone as we pull into 34th Street and sprints out the doors. The whole car is stunned into silence for a few beats — save for one passenger who yells and tries to grab the guy — and then in what turns out to be one of the only bright spots of the afternoon, we commiserate the way only New Yorkers can.
The whole series of events got me thinking about the city in the ‘80s, when my car was stolen at gunpoint, where I used to pull my stereo out with prongs every day, where the lock was broken so many times on our trunk, we finally just tossed the cylinder and opened it by tripping the latch with an index finger. When I never walked down the quiet side streets of Chelsea at night; I would go around the long way to stay on 23rd with its lit storefronts and traffic. Those days are long gone, and today’s incidents didn’t convince me that they are coming back.
So after my heart rate slowed, I was able to figure out the answers to those questions: No, and never for a minute should we take for granted the fact that we live in one of the safest zip code in New York City, and not everyone is as lucky as we are. Of course it is, but it’s still a big city and being aware of your surroundings instead of buried deep in your phone is a smart practice. And hell no. This place can really suck sometimes, but there’s nowhere I’d rather be.
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Yikes! Sorry to hear. But good that no one was hurt.
if you download and start using the Citizen app, you will not believe de Blasio’s nonsense about how safe he’s made the city. And btw murders up 55% esp. in brooklyn.
https://nypost.com/2019/02/20/city-murders-up-55-percent-from-last-year-amid-surge-in-northern-brooklyn/
since I have Citizen App I totally agree. Plus I know a couple of people that work in the court system. Both say Crime is way up!!! Which it is! Our neighborhood isn’t patrolled at all! The mayor is a waste. Store fronts are out of business making it dark at night. We are slowly heading back to that nightmare time in the city. The city isn’t safe. Train Crime way up! Very sad.
While phone snatching is rare in America, it is common in other countries. I just sent an email to Tim Cook of Apple suggesting that they either build in something you could secure a cable to or develop a case with a solid metal ring which would serve the same purpose. At $1,000 for a phone, this is an increasing concern.
Perhaps you should email Cook too.
Perhaps people should just pay attention to their surroundings. When I grew up a would have been slapped and scolded for staring at a phone while walking or being in a public place. The city is no doubt safer but the world is not an entirely safe place. One should always be present and alert. Especially in a large wild place like NYC
Or: How about a “Fry My iPhone” option?
There’s already a “Find My iPhone” option which lets you locate an iPhone, using any other device and logging into Apple’s iCloud. You can then make the phone emit a test tone so you can find it in your laundry machine.
So, why not add an additional feature, that “bricks” the phone permanently? “Fry My iPhone” would fry the circuitry and make it unusable. Seems like that would deter thieves.
Then again, you might foolishly use “Fry My iPhone” when you thought the phone was stolen, and later find it smoking in the pile of laundry….
This exists and is part of the find my Iphone feature…you can also set your phone to permanently delete after 10 incorrect passcode attempts.
Thankfully you were not injured, but this experience no doubt will haunt you. Reading this publication, or others in our neighborhood that carry “police blotters”, criminals are more brazen now than in recent memory as they simply no longer fear apprehension. They read about fare evasion, public urinating, marijuana use, and other quality of life crimes being decriminalized and feel anything goes. Former Police Commissioner Bratton wanted that position in the worst way and embarrassed himself by repeatedly praised Mayor DeBlasio as a great Mayor. Now retired, he turns around and calls recent decriminalization as the beginning of the “bad old days” before the Giuliani administration. I guess he no longer fears for his job and is more candid. Unless voters elect a no nonsense tough on crime Mayor this City is doomed..just read George Santayana.
Eek…we park on the street, too. That’s awful. I guess we read on our phones on the subway, too. I hate that loss of faith in humanity feeling after people treat other people so badly like that.
While living in Tribeca, I had one car sideswiped while parked (hit and run), another (new one) stolen off the street from in front of my building, my loft burglarized, I was once robbed at gunpoint, and the store I had right above Canal was robbed at gunpoint TWICE. Since leaving there for Brooklyn, I’d say Brooklyn is safer. The 1st Precinct doesn’t seem to have 1 beat cop and seemed clueless when it came to the robberies. They’re used to the days when only 1000 people lived South of Canal and haven’t made the “jump” since in my opinion. The 84th Precinct in Downtown Brooklyn I’m not thrilled with for numerous reasons but they seem to keep it safe (I once saw them stop and frisk a kid who was about 10 with a backpack full of school books! And, they “entrapped” me for $300 in traffic tickets for windows 2% “too dark” on my BMW after driving it that way for 10 years– who knew window reading meters even existed? BTW I got NY State Legislature to change the law after that and require you being told at inspection if the tints are “too dark”.) Anyway, if I were the writer, I wouldn’t park on Hubert St. (way too dark & quiet– lighting doesn’t seem adequate on that street for some reason) and keep it in lively 24 hours Brooklyn.