Norwood News

In June, every single speaker at the Community Board 7 general meeting lamented about some problem in their neighborhood that was diminishing their quality of life. All summer long, calls flooded into the board office with complaints about everything from excessive noise to blatant prostitution.

Sensing the growing unease, Board 7 leaders decided to call a hearing, to be held Oct. 13, where local residents can air their grievances and, hopefully, get some answers from city agencies and public officials.

“We want to make sure the quality of life does not deteriorate,” said Board 7 District Manager Fernando Tirado.

Greg Faulkner, Board chairman for the past four years, said he’s often heard about isolated quality of life problems. “But when you start getting various segments of the community, all unrelated, and everyone’s talking about the same things, it’s a problem,” Faulkner said. “[We] need to raise the alarm before we have a more serious problem.”

Faulkner is hoping for a big turnout that will include elected officials and representatives from city agencies, especially the Police and Parks departments.

Many of the complaints stem from issues in and around area parks, Tirado said. At Williamsbridge Oval Park, graffiti and litter problems are out of control. On the periphery of St. James Park, specifically on Davidson Avenue, residents say prostitution is literally on their doorsteps. And in Devoe Park, locals say there are serious gambling and gang problems.

Tirado blames a lack of enforcement. There are only eight Parks Enforcement Patrol (PEP) officers who cover the entire borough, he says. The 52nd Precinct, which is contiguous with Board 7, is down about 90 officers, from a high of 340 last year to around 250 this fall, according to Commanding Officer James Alles.

But Faulkner doesn’t want to turn the hearing into a blame game. “No one’s the target,” Faulkner said. “We want to have a conversation.”

According to city records, total quality of life complaints in Board 7 have remained about the same over the past three years, but noise complaints to 311 have increased significantly over that same time period. In August, noise complaints spiked considerably.
Compared to Board 8, which includes Riverdale and part of Kingsbridge Heights, Board 7 is like a raucous dance party. In fiscal year 2009 (from July 1, 2008 to June 30, 2009), 311 received 547.48 complaints per 10,000 Board 7 residents. The city call center received only 315.69 noise complaints per 10,000 Board 8 residents.

The police are doing the best they can with limited resources, Alles said. Still, his number one priority is to stop violent crime. “Not to make a slight on noise complaints, but violent crime always comes first.”

Aside from the quality of life complaints, Alles said the precinct is doing a good job. Murders are down from eight last year at this point, to just six this year. Shootings are down from 18 last year to 12 so far this year.

In interviews around the precinct, most residents said trash and a lack of parking were their main concerns.

Kingsbridge resident Vivian Martin, 64, complained about the garbage cans in Van Cortlandt Park on Monday afternoon. “This morning, the garbage cans were turned upside down,”  she said.

Steve Scialdone, 55, who lives in Norwood, said the neighborhood is much quieter than it was in the 1980s, when he moved there. He said graffiti was probably worse now than a year ago, but that the problem was cyclical and he hadn’t really noticed much.

At St. James Park on a recent sunny afternoon, local residents were jogging and hanging out on park benches. Most said they thought the park was relatively safe. One 24-year-old woman who wouldn’t give her name said there was drug activity in the area, but that she hadn’t witnessed any prostitution.

At board meetings, Faulkner said police representatives downplay the complaints about quality of life issues. “You can’t placate us by saying this isn’t as bad as other communities,” Faulkner said. “We need to get people out and talking about it.”

—Additional reporting by Katie Riordan and Molly Ryan