During April’s school spring break, teens in Hunts Point took a look up in the sky to see if it was still daylight out. It wasn’t natural sunlight they were seeing, but a set of floodlights mysteriously installed at Bryant and Seneca avenues. 

On a recent weekend, most teens interviewed said they felt safer with the new floodlights lining the edge of rooftops, its fluorescent lights shining down on teens like Jazmin Avelo. “I feel like it prevents bad things from happening,” said Jazmin, who has lived in one of the buildings her entire life. “Now I feel I can walk home at any time.”

 

She also felt scared when walking home late. “The neighborhood’s not good,” she said. She enjoys the fact that the lights “keep tabs on people.”

Dominique Garcia, 16, echoed Jazmin’s sentiment, seeing a higher level of calm. Before the lights were installed, Dominique’s sister was mugged. She also noticed that in the cover of darkness the riffraff surfaces. “People are always outside and fights happen.”

The Hunts Point area is somewhat of a peninsula in the Bronx, insulated by the Bruckner Expressway. While mostly industrial, residential homes do pepper portions of the neighborhood, comprised of working class minorities. The area falls within the busy 41st Precinct, where crime has seen a spike of 10 percent. Reports from CrimeStat, the NYPD’s official statistics, show that burglaries and felony assaults have jumped 24 percent and 30 percent respectively.

But while glowing lights add a layer of safety to the mostly barren neighborhood, some residents balked at being put in a so-called spotlight.

Fernando Arias, 18, said “the lights are a bit too much. People could look into my house now.” He added the lights make him feel like he did something wrong. “They don’t trust us,” he said.