BellaOnline Forums Travel and Culture Polish Culture Bloomberg`s reelection and NY safety issue

Driving to work today, I heard that New Yorkers had just elected Bloomberg their mayor again. The comment was that he made New York the safest city on the east coast or something like that.

I spent 2 years in New York in early 90s. I remember some blatant crimes of that time, the most front-page one was the case of the white female runner from Central Park, attacked by a gang of coloured youths. I also remember a young boy who came to NY as a tourist from Ohio/Utah(?) and got murdered at the subway station. Or a young manager of a shop stabbed to death for 1 dollar by a homeless guy. And a few others.

Once walking in the street in Brooklyn I heard shots and like other people, started to run for cover.

In the tv/stereo shop I was pickpocketed and lost a few dollars. Nothing special.

Some of my Polish acquaintances were mugged in streets and lost money or wedding rings.

Walking past certain sites I could meet young people who offered to get me through on the phone to whichever country I wanted for 5$ only.

An acquaintance of mine showed me a big collection of parking tickets and even a court admonission to pay all of them because... But he was laughing at them.

A few times I was approached and offered to buy drugs.


I would like to know what exactly Bloomberg has done to improve the safety.
Is really successful in people`s opinion?
Don`t residents complain about the police actions? Or that their life became too uncomfortable due to some drastic measures introduced in order to fight crime?
Aren`t there such murder cases in NY any more?
Did NY students cease bringing weapons to school?

Welcome to the City and you walked out alive??? I'm sure that most of that is still probably going on. You just have to be very street smart when going there. Did most of these happenings occurr at night other than maybe the pickpocketing. When in the city you cannot look or be naive.

Jerzy, welcome to New York City (NYC). My wife:Fran&I live in New Jersey and often visit NYC. The next time you visit call 911 (police) on your cell phone if you see something suspicious, or hire an Albanian or Turkish bodyguard. Carl

Will it be effective to call the police? Even for minor things?

Funny but most of these incidents occured in broad daylight. Even my neighbour was mugged while walking back from work in the afternoon.



Nobody told me that at the time but I discovered it for myself. I used to come back really late from work, I chose to walk on foot, about 1 mile, in Williamsburg, north of Polish district Greenpoint, because I wanted to save on tokens and there was uncomfortable connection.
I did my best to look self-confident, even nonchalant while walking along.
Sometimes I got dirty looks from would-be rascals but they preffered to back off after seeing I kept my right hand in the pocket. And it was a little bulging ha ha ha ha. I had some innocent stuff in it but they didn`t know it.

Somehow I survived. I have always been lucky.

I have not been to the city in ages. My ex husband was from the Bronx. He probably could tell you stories that would make your head curl an that was back in the 60's. Things haven't changed much since then either. I would never walk by myself there...maybe in Manhattan but only in daylight.

Would calling an officer do any good I doubt it...they are too busy getting coffee and donuts.

Jerzy, it will be effective to call police. Carl

I lived in NYC for over 15 years and left just prior to Bloomberg coming into office. I was never a victim of crime-and believe me, I took many chances-i.e. I used to walk by myself through Alphabet City at 3 am, and take the subway out to Coney Island at 5 am, etc. etc. I remember helicopters buzzing our buildings on Cathedral Parkway during crack raids. Dinkins was mayor during the "wilding" incident you referred to in Central Park (btw-it turns out those young men were not guilty- http://www.newyorkmetro.com/nymetro/news/crimelaw/features/n_7836/ ) and when he left office in '93 Guilliani took office-well, that changed a lot. I would say Guilliani, as flawed as I felt he was, took a tough stance on cleaning up the city, and Bloomberg rode that wave, which was reinforced post 9/11 with anti-terrorism measures. I'd say Bloomberg has had a lot of help on the federal level.

It's interesting that you mention Greenpoint. My husband lived in Greenpoint when he first came to the US over ten years ago-he says it was a notorious draw for criminals, scams, etc. Perhaps they feel they have easy targets there. He was held up at gunpoint twice.

now that I think of it Koch was mayor during that Central Park incident-he was too busy making surprise appearances at free concerts in the park, yelling "How'm I doin'????"

I remember well that the mayor in 90-91 was a black man. So it must have been Dinkins.
Thanks for the link.