A Threat to the Security and Future of Crown Heights

From a Concerned Resident

It was a beautiful summer afternoon several weeks ago when I went on a walk with my kids in Southern Crown Heights. The birds were chirping and the sun was shining. Everything was calm, but suddenly, out of the midst of the peaceful Crown Heights streets, as I was approaching the intersection of Clarkson Avenue and Albany Avenue, the sound of the scene changed rapidly with a screeching, aggressive tone of intense, large-scale construction.

Surprised by the heavy noise, I looked up at the site and was shocked to see what was coming. It felt really dark to stare at the construction of the biggest homeless shelter in North America right here in front of my eyes, in the Crown Heights backyard.

It was concerning and fundamentally alarming, to say the least.

As soon as I was able to, I did some research on 681 Clarkson Avenue and was horrified to find out what was planned.

It was an imposing 1,081 apartments for mentally ill, chemically addicted vagrants. Some larger apartments will have multiple beds, so it will be thousands of criminals moving into our neighborhood, all this being built at an accelerating, intense speed, probably violating many NYC 311 construction laws in the process.

Racing thoughts of intense concern for the future of Crown Heights started running through my mind at night.

What will be the future of Crown Heights?! Will our neighborhood become the center of homelessness, crime, drug usage, mental illness, and poverty in New York City?! Is this what we really want for our future?

What I wrote here is only a little note about how horrifying a reality can come if we don’t take action now. All this is besides the multiple homeless shelters rapidly expanding, bike lanes, and the soon-to-be Albany Avenue MTA city bus route directly running through the heart of Crown Heights, taking away critical parking at a rapid pace and on a scale that we cannot keep up with at this rate.

The shocking silence from our local leadership is just as concerning as the future of Southern Crown Heights, but I am optimistic that, with a unified, community-approved plan of action, hopefully we can turn things around.

I am doing what I can, but I am also calling upon all those who don’t want Southern Crown Heights to become worse than Downtown San Francisco, with dozens of dangerous drug addicts loitering 24/7 at every single corner, to get involved as well and do what you can.

This is inherently unfair and strikingly concerning for Crown Heights residents.