Graffiti and Crime in Park Slope
A reader forwarded a couple of Park Slope emails to us dealing with issues of crime and graffiti. The first email says that burglaries have increased recently in Park Slope (there a community meeting tonight at 7:30 at the 78th Precinct at Bergen and Flatbush) and that there have been about 12 break ins in a ten-block radius in the last several months. (It doesn't say what radius. The other notes an upswing in tagging. Here you go:The recent increase of graffiti extends all the way down to where we live 21st St. between 5th and 6th aves. The apartment building on the corner of 17th and 6th ave is constantly being tagged (and constantly being painted over..); the greek school on 18th and 5th ave was tagged right before school began."Some new LI apartments"? Well, we don't think it means Long Island, so we think the writer is talking about "low-income apartments," aka affordable housing. Given that the likely culprits are the usual--teenagers--we think we'll put aside people angry about being priced out of the Slope and tagging it up and residents of the "LI apartments." We will note that our favorite spot, the Wall of Satan on Prospect Park West (pictured here) is still going strong although it appears that the "Hail" in "Hail Satan" has been re-tagged, possibly by people that can't afford $500,000 one bedroom condos.
My husband & I have varying ideas on the recent stepping up of the graffiti to include those who have been priced out of the slope, teens who don't have much else to do, and some new LI apartments that went up about a block away from us on 20th St. & 6th Ave.
What we have done when our property is vandalized is taken a picture of the graffiti, then immediately gotten rid of it. The picture gives the police a 'look' to the graffiti so they can get to know the 'artist'. This has required a lot of work, but the immediate taking away of the graffiti sends a sure sign that it will not be tolerated. We've also contacted the police about it.
Labels: Park Slope
posted by rsguskind at 8:00 AM
15 Comments:
Well OBVIOUSLY it just HAS to be the low income people because the darling teenagers of Park Slope (like the ones I see hanging out on 7th Avenue) would NEVER put up satanic graffitti!!! NO not them!
Also if they ARE talking about Long Island kids they could very well be the culprit as metal never went out there...and it is (was )also the home of Ritchie Casso (has anyone ever read the book "Say you love Satan?" )
I would put my money on the upper middle class kids in the slope. "The Vandal Squad" is the anti Grafitti patrol the city has formed(which is usually only mentioned in the newspaper), and the Satan thing just screams maladjusted rich kids with nothing better to do after their piano lessons.
Most of the bad grafitti in Brooklyn Heights is done by the kids who live up there, little cretivity, alot of angst.
The poorer income kids tend to be a little more creative with names, and designs. The quicker you paint it over, the quicker it will be painted on. best bet is to put a mural there, that will slow it down. any blank wall in the city is crying to get written on.
-Former South Brooklyn Grafitti writer
Perfect example, Brooklyn Heights graffiti
http://gothamist.com/2007/09/25/swastikas_found_1.php#comments
I doubt that was done by minorities or "Lower Income" kids-
Ladies and Gents of park slope:
Stop blaming the have-not's for any and everything that goes wrong in your little utopia. Here is the deal: Park slope has a middle/low-income community. They were there before PS became a cool place to raise children and they are still there now. I know you would love to round up the rent stabilized community and send them to LIC but you can't. They made that community and they continue to give back by working in the community. When is the last time the residents of park slope gave back anything but a few hours at their little exclusive co-op?
Poly Prep, St. Ann's Packer, etc.: It is your children that are a pain in my ass: Running into me on 7th ave in their drug induced stupors and cackling outside my window about whose parents aren't home so they can get messed up.
So parents, check your AMEX's, the graffiti paint is on there.
I think some classicism is going on here - low income families are the hardest hit in what's going on in the economy, so you think the kids are all tending gardens or something while they watch their lives ruined? Why wouldn't some of them resent and hate the wealthy people living around them who they probably feel are contributing to coming hard times?
Crime's definitely on the rise in Brookklyn - and it's not the rich kids. In Williamsburg at least, it's a lot of the Latino kids from the South Side involved in the rash of beatings. Let's be realistic here.
Yes, Willliamsburg, but this thread is about the slope. The people getting beat up in Williamsburg are pompous young drunk hipsters.The context of the crime here is grafitti. The subject mater is satanism, a path usuallly trodden by white folk.
Welcome to New York...
The REAL New York.
If you get tired of painting it over (which is what you should do) and patrolling the area, then get OUT of the city.
that same spot on 9th st has been getting "bombed" for the past 20 years
its a low outcropping of brick sticking out of the building's facade & shrubbery calling attention to itself right at the entrance or exit to the park.
you paint it, kids dont say oh shucks i guess i wont bother,
they say, oh snap a nice wall that sticks out and catches your eye, all my graffiti wanna-be vandal friends will think im cool even if they only see my name on the wall over the next 24 hours
wow ill be more famous if i get noticed on a blog for park slope pansies,
how silly it is to blame low income displaced people with nothing better to do...
WAKE UP ITS YOUR KIDS, !!!
THE ONES WITH THE LAPTOPS AND IPODS!
THE ONES YOU PAMPER!
THE ONES YOU NEGLECT!
THE ONES YOU DO NOT SUPERVISE!
I guarantee it's not rich kids
Not everything has to be about class or race or gentrification. Just a bunch of alienated kids or a few really sad/pathetic adults (i.e, BackFat in WT/Kensington) runnin' around tagging. Still doesn't make it acceptable.
I look forward to the day when can rid the slope of all low income residents. Isn't about time they moved to Bed-Stuy or something?
Everything about it says 12-14 year old white kid. This is vandalism NOT graffiti.
I look forward to the day with all these new yuppie/hipster/elitest condos fall apart at the seams because of the shoddy worksmanship, and all the people who live in them go back to some "nice" neighborhood from whence they came - and leave us lower income sorts to live our lifestyle. We were here first, stop trying to change it.
My Lord, what are you going to blame on the low income residents next?. Park Slope is no different than any other neighborhood in Brooklyn and now I hope you realize it. Low income kids to blame? I doubt it. They are more supervised, not left with a nanny to raise .Some of you so called parents dont even see your kids let alone spend time with them, you cant fit them in your schedule.They are obnoxious and misguided and have no upbringing. All the fancy schools cant replace raising your own children and instilling morals and values in them. WElcome to reality, Park Slopers.People are people. Crime is everywhere and so are unruly residents and neighbors.
The schools are back in session ... and so there are more kids passing through (in my end of the Slope on their way to Bishop Ford H.S., M.S. 88, etc.) and leaving more tags (i.e., in addition to the locals') in their wake. I don't think economic class has a lot to do with it.
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