Neighborhood safety

dakotas way · March 2007

Our daughter is moving into an apartment in the area of Franklin and St Johns with her partner and a friend. Looked at the Police Report for the 77th Pct and was concerned about their safety.
How safe is the area for young women and are there reasons to be worried??

brooklynleather · March 2007

I live on Washington, but I have a bunch of girlfriends who live son Franklin at Eastern Parkway and St Charles b/w St Johns and something else--everyone has been fine. It's New York, you keep your eyes open where ever you are. Use common sense, take cabs home late at night, lock your doors, etc. The only incident that I have heard of amongst the half dozen friends I have at that area is two girls I knew on Franklin had their apt broken into and an ipod was stolen. That was about a year ago.

77th Pct. covers a big terrain, also. I think they should be fine. I am a single young woman a few blocks away and besides cat calling, have had no problems.

dakotas way · March 2007

Thanks

brooklynleather · March 2007

welcome

apollonia666 · March 2007

Hey, that area's really more in Crown Heights than Prospect Heights, so I'm moving this to the Crown Heights board, as I think you're more likely to get responses from people who live there on that board.

That said, I live a few blocks from there and BrooklynLeather's assessment sounds dead-on to me. It's really close to the shuttle, so transportation is pretty good too. If your daughter's been in the city for a while and has her wits about her she should be just fine, I think.

breatheeasy · March 2007

I live in the area, I am a very young female living with another young female roommate. I think your daughter will be just fine -- someone mentioned catcalls, though, and that is definitely persistent when walking down the street -- along with stares, etc. and it is definitely something to have to get used to -- but I have never felt unsafe or intimidated in the area, not once. It's a good neighborhood, with a nice community feel. Like someone else said, you just need the city street smarts you'd need in any other neighborhood. : )

dakotas way · March 2007

Thanks everyone for taking the time to write these responses. My daughter was in college in Manhattan for a year and has hung in the city since she was in high school, so I don't worry about her being street smart. It was the safety of the neighborhood I was concerned about.
But with the responses I've gotten I feel much better about this move.
Take care 8)

loislane216 · March 2007

I live on St. John's between Franklin & Bedford (closer to Bedford). I am 26 and live with two other young ladies, 24 and 25. We have not had any incidents. It is very close to the subway and well-lit at night. Cat-calling does happen during the nicer weather especially, but it really only happens during daylight hours. Mostly, there are families on the block.

paraderest · March 2007

The 77 doesn't cover all that much terrain. The 77 is 1.73 square miles. Here are the other Brookly North commands and their sq. mileage...

73 1.8
75 5.5
79 1.2
81 1.7
83 3
84 1.07
88 1.42
90 2.8
94 2.34

The 77 is the sixth largest out of ten percincts in Brooklyn North. Compare the square mileages of the BN precincts with precincts in other boroughs. In Queens North the 109 is 12.7 miles, 104 is 7.5 miles, 111 is 9.4 miles.

dakotas way · March 2007

Thanks for the info. I was actually concerned with a police crime statistics report I found on a website and the numbers were not low. That's what prompted me to ask about safety. But I've learned that Prospect Heights covers a span of area that is changing for the better, safety wise. And what I wanted to know was.... what are the areas that are higher in crime so they could avoid them?

paraderest · March 2007

The area called Prospect Heights is a little bit "safer" then the eastern portion of the 77. There are still robberies on the west side as well as a number of burglaries, stolen cars, and larcenies from autos.

Just last week three black males all approx 13 years old approached a white couple (mid 20's). The three males attempted to rob the couple when a police prisioner wagon came down the block. The three kids fled. Seconds later the 77 patrol sgt. was also coming down the street. He did a canvass for the kids and found them on Flatbush Ave. They were detained at the 77 until their parents could pick them up. Because of their age and the nature of the crime they could not "go through the system".

Don't ask for any more details like "did they have weapons" because I don't know. I don't have all of the details, just a summary.

There was another incident on Carlton where plainclothes cops from the 77 observed a man leaning into a late model SUV. He had the drivers door open and was rummaging (sp) through the contents of the center console. As the cops got closer they could see that the window of the drivers door had been broken. They quickly detained the man as the as he began to walk away and found the owner of the vehicle who was cooperative with police. Hopefully this is the same perp that's been breaking into other cars in the area.

dakotas way · March 2007

I appreciate you're passing this on. It was fortuitous that the police were in the area when they were.

dakotas way · March 2007

Apparently my asking a question about safety angered those in Crown Heights. I was asking this question for women's safety, not any racial safety for or against anyone.
I never did say what race any of us are, so what does that matter?
Thank you to those who answered the question as it was asked.

jeffrey · March 2007

dakotas way wrote: Apparently my asking a question about safety angered those in Crown Heights...

dakota's_way,

You may have mixed the neighborhood threads here.

Looks like you initiated the question here in the Crown Heights forum (and received several positive-minded responses) but perhaps mistakenly went back into a similar thread started by someone else in Clinton Hill (which had several negative, sparring posts)
http://brooklynian.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=354541#354541

...then came back here to Crown Heights again with your latest post (above), and may have mistakenly labeled the more civil set of answers (here in this Crown Heights thread) with the less civil one that happened to occur in that particular Clinton Hill thread.

Or something like that (hah).

Easy to confuse references to 2 utterly different (but neighboring) CHs.

javascript:emoticon(':lol:')
Laughing

Yeah, it was indeed a bit sparky there in that particular Clinton Hill discussion.

Don't let the few oddballs in the other discussion deter you though...I personally like both neighborhoods.

Good luck with however you (and/or your daughter) decide to proceed.

jeffrey · March 2007

Or wait. Both threads are Crown Heights (but not originally).

Dakota started this one, but may have accidentally happened into the other one, thinking that the other one was from her original question, and witnessed a rather fiery conversation there, and then came back here to mention the rather unfortunately-progressing other thread.

Or something like that.

Oh someone stop me already, my brain is dead.

/me runs away in search of coffee

dakotas way · March 2007

Someone moved my message to help because they thought where my daughter was moving was more in Crown Heights. I don't know the area, so I'm not at all certain what the area is called. What I didn't understand was the racist firestorm that ensued by asking an innocent question.
And I never once indicated what color we were so the mother of the African daughters (were they born in Africa or America? Cause if they were born in America........they're Americans.) took it upon herself to decide this was a question from a white person and that was presumptuous in itself.
Enough already. All I wanted to know was if women were harassed or threatened in the Prospect Park/Crown Heights districts. I don't care what color or gender the harasser is, only the experiences of those who live in the area. And if they read my original post, they would have noticed that she is gay and that is another issue for her safety.
Come on.......let's stop the rhetoric, take down these ridiculous walls and make attempts at understanding each other no matter what the differences are. Isn't that part of what makes neighborhoods special and safer???

anonymous · March 2007

Subject: please learn to use forums and email subscribing properly

dakotas_way,

Let me guess...

You are set up to get responses emails to any forum you post in, and can't even tell the difference between totally separate threads once you post iin several different places and emails start coming in.

You asked nicely here in this exact thread, and got all nice, constructive answers:
"Neighborhood safety" thread
http://brooklynian.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=354783

There were absolutely zero negative responses to your initial question. All friendly and supportive. So, um..what's the problem?

For some reason, you also wandered into an already-in-progress race-baiting flame thread that was NOT the discussion you started...
"Poor Little White Girl thread" (title alone should have tipped you)
http://brooklynian.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=354541
...then posted something there insisting that was the thread you initiated (not...), and in so doing subbed yourself for the remaining flow of negative posts emails there that had absolutely zero to do with what you posted elsewhere.

Then you proceeded to take offense as if your original honest question (posted *elsewhere*) was met with nothing but contempt.

Heh, wrong.

Sounds to me like you need to learn how forums (and email subscriptions to forums) work, as you clearly have no idea how to tell the difference between completely different conversations that you've subbed yourself to.

I personally don't even get them by email. I set my profile to not sub me with emails for any forum post I make, so I may browse online only, cuz I don't want my email filled with these things.

One question...why did you bother wandering into (and posting in) the other race-baiting thread? The title itself was a dead giveaway that it was a) going to be a bad scene and b) NOT your original titled thread. It had nothing to do with yours, and you would not have been subbed for emails there unless you deliberately went there and posted something (and subbed yourself to all subsequent posts there as a result).

Eh, probably a waste of time to discuss.

Please just consider that, if something seems amiss about what you are receiving, perhaps you initiated it. The forum app here was only doing as instructed by you...

apollonia666 · March 2007

n00b detector, I'm guessing you're probably right about this being the result of inexperience with forums like this one. However, there's no need to be condescending, and sockpuppeting so you can be so to a newbie is hardly the way to show someone the conventions of how forums like this one generally work.

jeffrey · March 2007

Okay, I'll do the right thing and confess, twas my doing.

Several folks (you, sweet tea, myself, heck..even Oiseau etc.) attempted to explain the situation to her with various levels of politeness and nicety, and yet her impulse was to ignore those and actually pile on additional unfriendly remarks and assertions.

So mea culpa, I was perhaps just a bit frustrated in the rather stubborn and increasingly negative pebcac nature of the situation here in spite of earnest help actually offered.

For that transgression, letting frustration color what should have been yet another post directing her to a solution, I do apologize to one and all.

The tone and approach above was not warranted, and actually served to underscore her point (oddly enough).

Anyone know where I can get some crow?

dakotas way · March 2007

OK. I was just someone's mother trying to see where her daughter was moving was safe. Imagine your mother trying to navigate her way throught this mess.
YES. Someone thought they were helping me by moving my initial question from Prospect Heights to Crown Heights (to where they thought it was closer to my daughter is moving.)
But you know what? I don't care what THREAD I landed in, what is the deal anyway???
YEAH. I AM someone who is inexperienced in this sort of forum.
Nice start to step into...don't you think?
Don't talk to me about the race issue.......I grew up in the 60'S and 70's.
I saw it first hand. I lived it and changed it in my everyday behavior all my life. So give it a rest and go on with your lives and be positive in all you do.
THAT'S how you make a difference in the world.

dakotas way · March 2007

I apologize for losing my cool and want to thank those who tried to guide me, and made me feel much better about my daughter moving into a new neighborhood.
Be well

Neighborhood safety

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