Times Sq/Subway Safety... Where are the Canadian Mounties to Rescue Us?

[JayElle]

Posted: 7/19/21 at 9:49pm

Fear of the hassles/crime in the subway is real.  Even the walk to Port Authority post Springsteen was a gauntlet of panhandlers that I willfully gave dollars to feeling that would assure safe passage.  Too many  news articles re: "crime in NYC."  This article, concerning.

Disney got on Guiliani back then to clean up TS.  Can use that effort again. Where is the B'way League?  Got tkts to Brian Stokes Mitchell at Linc Ctr, but subway the turnoff.  Uber, the MTA alternative.

Long link, but doesn't require subscription.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/19/opinion/nyc-subway-crime.html?unlocked_article_code=AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACEIPuonUktbfqohkT1UaCibSRdkhrxqAwv7ey_knm3XhJTnQQixDyulTA5SF_w2FQ5tfUOYJ_mbRQs5dYvhoTeZuz-RbMgthRVOjqMCKldFaLntp7N_rVTlz1cmTBfVnqWK7MGCyc-4klOH19wiLPzmRLa_U0XQgLQ1uo4I0Ng35nCxVmdqWV7J9ydJ83v8-B55lRj5mZSGCvfLgDxoWK8zRJ1iHqVFwA7cFLGmVyd2M6LsAcBFQAEbETh594WU969BbPrAHLZHMhN4dAokpi9P6K5RQNKM&smid=url-share

[LizzieCurry]

Posted: 7/19/21 at 9:54pm

The... Mounties?

I actually used to follow Nicole Gelinas on Twitter until I couldn’t take it anymore. Be sure to check out who she works for. Updated On: 7/19/21 at 09:54 PM

[Phantom4ever]

Posted: 7/19/21 at 10:32pm

This is purely anecdotal, as was the OP's story, but I was last in Manhattan in mid-April and it was rather deserted of people but there were numerous people out yelling, catcalling, urinating, vomiting, etc, especially closer to 8th Ave.  I had comments yelled at me about my perceived sexual orientation, my perceived wealth/lack of wealth, and my weight. I actually yelled back at the person who commented on my weight and he apologized and said he just needed money and got upset when I said no. 

Many of us have romanticized the pre-Disney Times Square and lamented having lost the  prostitutes, muggings, shootings, etc. for the last 25 years or so, people loved to say they missed the gritty Times Square. Now that we have them back to a certain extent, nobody really cares all that much since the industry is still closed. It will probably take several high profile tourist murders/muggings before much, if anything, is done.  And it's worth noting that this is not just a Times Square or even a New York problem.  

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 7/19/21 at 10:34pm

I live around the corner from what was, until a few days ago, one of the homeless/drug addict hotels and i can tell you i feel a hell of a lot safer on the subway than I’ve felt just walking down my own street this past year. Now the hotel is boarded up and I have to imagine they’ll be changing the name and doing a complete renovation inside.

[Sutton Ross]

Posted: 7/19/21 at 10:36pm

Where is the Broadway League? Is that a fu&king joke? They were dead silent for a year and gave no direction or hope to everyone working in the industry. They will never help theater goers in Times Square feel safe. That's not their job.

[JBroadway]

Posted: 7/19/21 at 10:57pm

Wow, a lot to unpack in so few posts.

First of all, Sutton is right that bringing up the Broadway League is totally irrelevant. Like asking Actors Equity to clean the Subway cars. Do you maybe mean the Times Square Alliance? I doubt they have much power over it either. 

I sympathize with those who are catcalled, insulted, and attacked. I really do. But the OP mentions a "gauntlet of panhandlers" - these are poor human beings trying to get their next meal. The poverty is out of control, and getting the police to clear them out of the subway is not going to solve any of the underlying problems. It will just put them "out of sight, out of mind" for privileged theatre-goers who don't want to be bothered by the face of our failed system. 

And even if we're talking about the people causing actual harm (physical or emotional) to the people around them - yes, it's unacceptable. But again, the long-term answer is better mental healthcare, better support systems for addicts, better housing solutions, etc. And we don't get there by belly-aching about homeless people like they themselves are the main problem, when insidious poverty, systemic racism, and wealth hoarding are what's really bringing this country and this city down. 

[SouthernCakes]

Posted: 7/19/21 at 11:08pm

I agree with you J Broadway. But none of that seems to be physical actions we can do to keep ourselves safe. And it’s a lot of red tape and stuff that would take many moons to get passed.

I think both sides agree that there is an issue it’s just that no one has a great solution.

I’m staying in Times Sq in August and slightly nervous. I was there last November and didn’t feel that way at all.

[LizzieCurry]

Posted: 7/19/21 at 11:19pm

JBroadway said: "And even if we're talking about the people causing actual harm (physical or emotional) to the people around them - yes, it's unacceptable. But again, the long-term answer is better mental healthcare, better support systems for addicts, better housing solutions, etc. And we don't get there by belly-aching about homeless people like they themselves are the main problem, when insidious poverty, systemic racism, and wealth hoarding are what's really bringing this country and this city down."

AbsoLUTELY.

I work near Carnegie Hall (currently WFH 95% of the time, but the office is an option for us now if we like) and was last in the area of Times Square two weeks ago. It was the late afternoon, but it was fine. And I was briefly at the office one evening last week. I didn't go into Times Square that night, but it was also fine. The increased visibility of the people who might make you uncomfortable is still there, likely because of lack of other foot traffic to add to the noise, but I felt safer than I did a few months ago. (Mainly this is because I'm Asian, though.)

[Sutton Ross]

Posted: 7/19/21 at 11:19pm

Yeah, the lack of compassion for people struggling due to mental illness, unemployment and lack of resources to help people is appalling. I was so goddamned ashamed of my neighborhood last Summer when all the Nimby bitches on the UWS were complaining 700 times a day and calling the police because a homeless person living at The Lucerne Hotel "peered at their child". I lost many friends due to how fake they turned out to be.

It's called compassion. Sympathy. Empathy. One can still protect ourselves but not be awful to people and act like they are low life scum. They are human beings. They hit a rough patch. They are struggling. They are traumatized. They have a progressive brain disease known as addiction. 

Act goddamned accordingly to your fellow human being and show a little kindness.

Updated On: 7/19/21 at 11:19 PM

[sabrelady]

Posted: 7/19/21 at 11:35pm

 Where are the Canadian Mounties to Rescue Us?

Ummm they are up in CANADA  trying to get their act together re charges of sexual harassment and racism in the force so they are going to be otherwise occupied for the forseeable future. 

Thanks for asking tho!

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 7/19/21 at 11:47pm

Sutton, the problem (at least on my block) with those hotels is they turned my block into makeshift tent cities where junkies would either pile used needles on the sidewalk or just throw them out of the hotel windows so my whole block had to be careful to not walk down the street we lived on and cross over to go anywhere otherwise there was risk of being hit with a needle or another animal stepping on them. Also, the amount of people passed out with needles in their arms rushing people for money or just screaming at them.

I have compassion. I really do. But this past year, parts of Hells Kitchen have reminded us why it has that name.

Updated On: 7/19/21 at 11:47 PM

[GiantsInTheSky2]

Posted: 7/19/21 at 11:54pm

Reactions like this just show that people pre-pandemic lived in extremely closed off bubbles from the rest of the world.

If you’ve lived in New York for even a year, you should know how to manage when people are asking you for money, etc. They’re not all violent weapon-baring criminals who are gonna cut you if you just keep walking. Often times they are just simply asking everyone that walks by.

There were a lot of comments last year about “fear mongering” and how “unnecessary” the fear of the virus was. I think this fear is just as ridiculous. Welcome to the rest of New York that real, every day humans experience every single day. Does it shake the notion that this is the most beautiful amazing incredibly special blah-blah-blah city to you? Maybe it should. The system, the city, society at large, all of it has been like this. It took a pandemic for people to realize it.

[Highland Guy]

Posted: 7/20/21 at 12:01am

Go get 'em!  Clear our streets and subways of those filthy homeless people!  This city is for US, not them!  You can do it!

 

 

[MemorableUserName]

Posted: 7/20/21 at 12:04am

She's a columnist for the NY Post (so...why is the Times publishing an editorial by her?) who works for a conservative think tank.

Just typical right-wing "New York is a crime-ridden hellhole!" nonsense. No thanks.

Signed, Someone who hasn't had any trouble on the subway over the past year (as if anecdotal evidence means anything)

Updated On: 7/20/21 at 12:04 AM

[HogansHero]

Posted: 7/20/21 at 12:30am

This city, like just about all cities and many smaller places, has challenges. Coming out of a pandemic, that had the major social confrontation in a half century right in the middle of it, that should surprise no one. But that article is filled with BS. (That's a term I use to mean that it was written by someone who knows not whereof they speak.) I walk around this city every day. I ride the subway just about every day. I know conservative lies when I read them. 

The city is not as comfortable for some as it was in the years after the Giuliani experiment. We are paying the price of that experiment now. The city is not upholding its responsibilities to a lot of those suffering here. We have to do better. We've had enough Karens to have learned that people who have been let down by society, or grossly mismanaged, are not the equivalent of "unsafe" no matter how some may feel. 

[bwayobsessed]

Posted: 7/20/21 at 6:59am

The fact that you like Giuliano’s approach shows your true colors and it’s not a good look.

[JBroadway]

Posted: 7/20/21 at 10:08am

bwayobsessed said: "The fact that you like Giuliano’s approach shows your true colors and it’s not a good look."

 

Are you referring to Hogan's post? If so, I'd recommend reading his post again more carefully. Unless I'm grossly misunderstanding, it sounds like Hogan is saying the opposite. Only that it Giuliani made it more comfortable for SOME (i.e - the wealthy elite), and even that comfort was temporary, because it didn't actually address the problem. 

 

[LizzieCurry]

Posted: 7/20/21 at 10:14am

Honestly still confused about the OP mentioning mounties.

[JSquared2]

Posted: 7/20/21 at 11:47am

Sutton Ross said: "

Act goddamned accordingly to your fellow human being and show a little kindness."

LOLOLOL  Coming from you dude, that;s rich!  Maybe try practicing what you preach!!

 

[HogansHero]

Posted: 7/20/21 at 1:29pm

JBroadway said: "bwayobsessed said: "The fact that you like Giuliano’s approach shows your true colors and it’s not a good look."

Are you referring to Hogan's post? If so, I'd recommend reading his post again more carefully. Unless I'm grossly misunderstanding, it sounds like Hogan is saying the opposite. Only that it Giuliani made it more comfortable for SOME (i.e - the wealthy elite), and even that comfort was temporary, because it didn't actually address the problem."

You understood what I was saying but I think that bwayobsessed was referring back to the OP, not to me. 

[JBroadway]

Posted: 7/20/21 at 1:46pm

Ah I see, I forgot that the OP even mentioned Giuliani. Too focused on the "panhandlers" and the "Canadian Mounties" comments I suppose.

My apologies, bwayobsessed! 

[Kad]

Posted: 7/20/21 at 8:09pm

The only period during the pandemic during which I felt unsafe here in NYC was when I started riding the subway again at the end of last May / early June. The lack of riders made it a haven for many of the most mentally disturbed of the homeless, and I was accosted on several occasions and nearly assaulted once. But, again- it was because there was nobody on the train.

But ridership is back up, and I have not had a single bad experience on the street or on the transit since then. I travel all around the city and the boroughs. I'm regularly in midtown and the East Village, and live in northern Harlem. It's largely back to a pre-pandemic feel.

Can't wait for Mr. Roxy to chime in about how he was never going to see another Broadway show anyway but even if he would, he wouldn't.

Updated On: 7/20/21 at 08:09 PM

[SouthernCakes]

Posted: 7/20/21 at 8:59pm

That’s comforting to know, Kad. I didn’t take the subway last time I visited but probably will this time.

[JBroadway]

Posted: 7/20/21 at 10:01pm

If we're piling on anecdotal evidence, I will also attest that I ride the subway every day, at a variety of hours, in a variety of neighborhoods, including Harlem, Washington Heights, Midtown, areas of Brooklyn, etc. And yes, I do see mentally ill homeless people, and I see drug addicts. And yes, sometimes they ask me for money, sometimes passionately. But I've never felt endangered by them, except in the sense that they are often not wearing masks, and do often get somewhat close to me. So I do get a bit uncomfortable for COVID-related reasons, but not because I'm afraid they'll attack me.

I'm not discrediting those who say they've felt endangered for legitimate reasons, or have actually been assaulted. Of course it happens. But it's not so frequent that the average person should feel afraid to ride the subway, even at night. 

I've gotten in the habit of breaking a $20 bill at the beginning of the month, and always keeping a single in my back pocket to give to any homeless person who asks. Even on my limited, minimum wage pay I can afford to set aside that money without breaking the bank. And when you do give them money, they are usually very grateful and kind, which is an important reminder that they're not out to "get" you, they're just trying to get some help. 

[JayElle]

Posted: 7/20/21 at 10:41pm

LizzieCurry said: "The... Mounties?

I actually used to follow Nicole Gelinas on Twitter until I couldn’t take it anymore. Be sure to check out who she works for."

Sorry Lizzie,  Old cartoons and silent era movies had damsel tied to RR tracks only to have Canadian Mountie Dudley DoRight rescue her.  Need Dudley in subway.  Generational gap.

NYPD and MTA reported increase in crime. Pushing folks onto tracks and hoping someone helps you up before train comes. One lunatic did it in front of a cop.

 It feels like no self-defense available in NYC and the flip side like the Floridian stand-your-ground law which gives you the legal right to shoot someone if you feel threatened.  Imagine that in NYC. Daily News has become a daily obituary of shootings, slashings, subway crime.

I never hesitated to go to a night performance, but nervous now. Have the Stokes/Linc Ctr event. Won't attempt the subway.

Updated On: 7/20/21 at 10:41 PM