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Yesterday’s press conference at the corner of Grand and Putnam avenues about the recent wave of violent crime in Eastern Clinton Hill (photo on the jump) must have touched a nerve: Less than 12 hours after Councilmember Letitia James and Deputy Borough President Yvonne J. Graham finished decrying the lack of resources being devoted by the city to the 88th Precinct, a traffic cop was shot at just yards away. According to a detective we spoke with this morning, the shooter fired on a traffic policeman in his patrol car between 2 and 2:30 a.m. this morning; the bullet missed its mark. The street is now closed off and the detective going door to door, in marked contrast to the shrug-like response that last week’s drive-by shooting on the corner elicited from the law enforcement community. The casual attitude taken by the precinct towards the situation was crystallized by a comment the same detective made to us. Because the corner was much worse a decade ago, he suggested, everyone should just be happy and stop complaining about it now. (This sounds remarkably similar to a comment another cop made to someone we know a couple of years ago that if she didn’t like the way things were in the neighborhood she should move out.) This from a guy, we can assure you, who lives nowhere near the neighborhood he works in. We’ll see whether this latest attack on their own gets the police to focus on this problem that has been under their noses for years. A good place to start might be the hours of videotape that the landlord of the problem building has of drug transactions going on in broad daylight. Up to now, the police have shown zero interest in viewing them. Maybe DA Charles Hynes can make the time.
Another Shooting on Grand and Putnam [Brownstoner]
Turning Up The Pressure on Grand and Putnam [Brownstoner]
Murder on Putnam: Will The Cops Show Up Now? [Brownstoner]

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  1. It might be worth pointing out that the police making the princely sum of $75K a year can’t actually AFFORD Clinton Hill.

    Growing up in a gentrified neighborhood, I noticed that crime was often worse there than in neighborhoods that were actually really bad. I thought the same thing about PLG vs Park Slope when I lived in PLG… and then also Williamsburg vs. Park Slope, or Williamsburg vs. the east village.

    I don’t have any solutions for that, but one thing I think that does help is if community involvement actually involves everyone in the community, not just the people who paid a hell of a lot for their brownstones. It sounds like you guys are on the right track though, and I guess since it’s sort of my neighborhood too, I try and get involved.

    BTW, we walked by that corner last weekend and it did look extremely sketch, and in an aggressive way that gave me the creeps. And I am not easily spooked.

    The other thing I’d like to see is the pro-marijuana crowd to acknowledge that crap like that is part and parcel with their lifestyle.

  2. I have to agree with THE WHAT. Individuals that have recently bought housing in fringe areas (i.e. Clinton Hill, Bed-Stuy, Crown Heights) are likely going to suffer from this economic downturn. I believe this credit crisis coupled with inflation is going to impact the NYC economy greatly. Even well established neighborhoods are seeing significant price drops.

    This article from the AEI Short Publications, gives a good prediction of the US economy and how it could affect NYC residents spending/savings and its affect on our economy, which correlates to housing:

    “From 1990 to 2000–the period of most rapid American wealth accumulation–the measured savings rate out of disposable income fell to 2 percent from its long-run average of 8 percent. With real returns on investments rising at twice the normal rate…American behavior adjusted to what was perceived as a new reality. Disposable income could be virtually all consumed while wealth accumulation took care of itself through investments in the stock market and, later on, in housing. A generation of American heads of households has grown up under the impression that wealth accumulation can be left to the natural appreciation of stocks or houses.

    Even a modest effort by U.S. households to increase savings could cut U.S. growth substantially. Just 2 percent of U.S. disposable income is $200 billion. If U.S. households attempt to boost the savings rate from the current zero level to 2 percent, the drag on GDP would be about 1.5 percentage points.

    The Fed’s measures in March of this year to avoid a credit meltdown that would have resulted from the collapse of Bear Stearns and perhaps other investment banks has helped to calm credit markets. But the U.S. economic crisis resulting from a collapse of the housing bubble and falling stock prices that combine to hammer U.S. household balance sheets is just beginning…..While tax rebate checks may boost growth slightly in the third quarter, the persistent drag from wealth losses as house prices and stocks fall and households begin saving again–coupled with bank deleveraging–will undercut the Fed’s forecast for a sustainable growth rebound. Instead, a prolonged U.S. recession looks like the more probable outcome.”

  3. Cant say that I was disappointed at the lackluster turnout of people for yesterdays “rally” yet another dud by Tish- I like the idea of the grand plan and am willing to donate time , money & space to make it happen- but it was good to point out the blatant drug dealing going on in right in front of everyone

  4. Brownstoners post seems typical of the liberal BS that surrounds us everywhere these days. Yes, it’s not the CRIMINALS out there causing the problems, it’s the police. yes, of course.

    reminds of the idiotic press release put out by the 475 tenants where it’s “not their fault” that they’re on the street (even though they broke the law), it’s a “conspiracy” by the fire department.

  5. while your crusade against drugs and violence on this corner is noble, brownstoner, this is your corner in your nabe. if you broadened your call to bring better law enforcement to similar corners in other parts of Brooklyn, it would seem less motivated by self interest.

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