Notorious Crackhouse at 474 Greene Avenue Up In Flames
Sad and disturbing news this morning from Bedford Stuyvesant. The beautiful brownstone at 474 Greene Avenue between Bedford and Nostrand was gutted by a fire in the early morning hours today, the result of a raucous all-night party gone terribly wrong. According to an email we received from a block resident, who fell asleep finally…
Sad and disturbing news this morning from Bedford Stuyvesant. The beautiful brownstone at 474 Greene Avenue between Bedford and Nostrand was gutted by a fire in the early morning hours today, the result of a raucous all-night party gone terribly wrong. According to an email we received from a block resident, who fell asleep finally at 4:30 a.m. only to be awakened by the sound of shattering glass at 6:15 am., the building “is a well known crack house that has been in operation for at least 3 years.” A group of neighbors has been trying to work with community leaders, the NYPD and DA Charles Hynes for much of that time to no avail. There have been daily calls to the NYPD but concerned residents “have been told repeatedly that it is near impossible to shut down.” The photo, at right, from Property Shark, shows the house pre-fire with windows and doors covered in sheets to keep out unwanted eyes. “Clearly we are all in immediate danger when people are living without electricity, using candles and making crack and NO ONE in the NYC system can close down the house,” writes the tipster. “That fire was big and we were all in danger this morning.” We’ve seen the same thing on the corner of Grand and Putnam where law enforcement officials know what’s going on but are hamstrung by laws that make it close to impossible to arrest and successfully convict members of the drug trade. GMAP P*Shark
Update: Here are a couple of photos from a few minutes ago. Send more photos or comments to brownstoner@brownstoner.com.
If you are planning to make an offer on the building, Property Shark shows multiple Lis Pendens on the property.
Lis Pendens filed
2/23/2007
Judgement Expires 2/23/2010
Book Lis Pendens
Document Type Appoint Conservator
Index number 100290/06
Debtor Joan Taylor
Creditor Egglestonverna
Doesn’t Verna Eggleston work for Bloomberg?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verna_Eggleston
John Ife said this earlier on the thread and it’s worth repeating:
” “near impossible to shut down” my ass. I guarantee you that if it was going on in Sutton Place or even the tonier blocks of Park Slope (i.e. rich-white-people neighborhoods) there’d be something done about it tout de suite. It’s just another example of the cops’ “couldn’t give a damn” attitude as exemplified by the seemingly endless anecdotes from crime victims in minority neighborhoods being told by the police, “what do you expect, living around here?” ”
That’s exactly what I was going to say too, but Ife said it better. That’s an outright lie from the city that they couldn’t shut the place down. They are fully equipped legally to take care of these situations. It’s TOTALLY about the neighborhood and how that relates to the cops’ perception of what is acceptable in that neighborhood, and how important it is to them. To the NYPD, Brooklyn is so much better than it used to be they think we should just shut up and put up with everything. I’ve absolutely seen that attitude in Brooklyn cops when I had another kind of complaint. It’s really unacceptable.
ditto…If Guiliani were still in charge it would be!!!!
I’m in the Slope on pricey, up-market Lincoln Pl. between 6th & 7th & we had a crack house here that took over 5 years to eradicate even though we had a super-cop living on the block! The laws that are friendly to tenants make it incredibly difficult for law enforcement to act. The only way our house was shut down was when the house finally was sold to a new owner.
bebklyn…please post the block where you live so that those crack house occupants who were not hurt can take up residence on your street.
credible tip – thats the problem isn’t it Dave? Suspicious activity, “that’s a dealer’s house”, strange comings and goings – none of that is sufficient grounds.
was anyone hurt?
amazing that everyone’s mourning the loss of historic architectural detail.
Pursuing the “crime will abate if its made legal” argument is at best unrealistic. WhatI’d like to call it is not printable. Besides, we’re talking about a crack house here, not a marijuana garden in someone’s yard.
I don’t understand the “hands are tied” approach of the police and the DA. If there’s a credible tip then get a warrant and bust the place.
If this is occcurring large scale on your block you may want to investigate how to go about getting the Feds involved if the local precinct is ineffective.
Ms. Elkins, the naivety that comes forth in the first paragraph of your post is just sad. Moreso when contrasted with the level headedness of your second paragraph.