Sheila O’Neill has learned to avoid walking down certain streets late at night.
The 28-year-old construction manager, a resident of the Lower East Side for two years, said she sometimes feels nervous in areas of the neighborhood that appear empty or abandoned.
“I park by the FDR [drive] and I try to run pretty quickly under the [Williamsburg] bridge to my car,” she said. “And I’ll stay on streets that are usually bustling and busy.”
Since the murder of 28-year-old Nicole duFresne, the aspiring actress who was shot to death on January 27 on a Lower East Side street while walking with her boyfriend and two others, already cautious residents have become even more watchful. Some visitors say they avoid going outside after dark. Others wonder if the police are doing their job. And still others say they must employ their wits more than ever to keep from becoming crime statistics.
Statistics bear out the concerns. According to NYPD CompStat, there were 13.49 percent more crimes in March 2005 than this time in 2004 within the 7th Precinct, which covers the Lower East Side south of Houston Street and east of Allen Street. Robbery remains the leading crime, with a 12.2 percent increase since last year and an 8.9 percent increase from the previous year.
Mendy Erez, vice president of the 7th Precinct community council, said a large number of food service workers from local Chinese restaurants have become the target of violent assaults. As a result, the precinct suggested a buddy system where waiters walk home in groups. He said the precinct also plans to have decoys, where undercover cops dress as waiters, to apprehend would-be robbers.
A worker at the Happy Wok Chinese Restaurant on Delancey Street said the police have helped a little but that robberies still occur frequently among the deliverymen at her restaurant.
“It’s not too safe,” said the worker, who would only identify herself as Susan. “When they deliver, they’re very scared.”
Susan said the waiters are often beaten badly by their assailants when delivering to buildings on dangerous streets, including one on the same block as the 7th Precinct. But Susan said she does not feel anymore protected by the “so-so” efforts of the police to protect the neighborhood.
In addition, there have been three homicides so far this year, including that of duFresne. However, some see her murder as a horrific exception rather than a cause for alarm.
“That was such a specific situation,” said Courtney Allison, director of the Henry Street School for International Studies who also lives in the area. “Like any place in the city, it’s not where I would walk on the street alone late at night but I never felt threatened or unsafe.”
Annet Sroka, who has lived in the area for 20 years, said it’s all a matter of being “street smart.”
“Most of the crimes you hear about could be prevented,” Sroka said. “If you live down here, you respect the differences.”
“People feel they’re unsafe because they feel there’s no protection. But if you’re concerned enough to actually be worried, you’re concerned enough to come to the precinct and listen to what’s going on.”
A quick walk through the neighborhood shows why. One hardly thinks of the Lower East Side without being reminded of the bargain district where shoppers crowd along Orchard Street to haggle with vendors over clothing, leather handbags and other accessories. Nearby, artist types roam through art galleries on Ludlow Street and converse in front of vintage boutiques and sidewalk cafes. Working professionals rush past toward the subway station while chatting on their cell phones. The pace slows down once the workday is over, however, as trendy restaurants and lounges along Rivington Street open for business and the neighborhood is transformed into one of the city’s hottest nightlife destinations with music spilling out of bars on every corner. Only blocks away, however, families stroll through discount stores on Delancey Street. Mothers scold their children as they whiz by on scooters and bicycles, scooting in and out of traffic.
The streets begin to empty out closer to the Williamsburg Bridge near the Gompers housing project on Delancey and Pitt streets where there are fewer streetlamps and only an occasional passerby is heard trudging along darkened sidewalks. All around concrete has crumbled to form large clefts in the ground.
Although this abandoned area is directly adjacent to the booming nightlife scene, Susan Stetzer, district manager of Manhattan’s Community Board 3, which covers the Lower East Side, said she hasn’t received any complaints from residents regarding safety.
Visitors to the neighborhood have a different view. Yadira Castro, an office administrator at the New York University Medical Center who frequents the area to get her hair done, said she would rather take extra precautions. She’s afraid to be in the area at night because of the large groups of teens she sees by the Delancey Street subway station.
“They’re all ages 17 to 21, at that age where they don’t really care and they have no responsibilities,” she said.
Castro used to see her hairdresser at 8 p.m. but after hearing about the duFresne murder, said she moved her appointment up to 5:30 p.m. because she doesn’t feel the neighborhood is well-protected.
“It’s sad,” she said, while watching a police car drive by. “You wonder if they’re actually working at all.”
According to police officers on the Lower East Side, the neighborhood is patrolled 24 hours a day. If a crime has occurred on a particular street, police officers will patrol that area more frequently in the weeks following the crime.
“Immediately after, everyone’s looking for someone who fits the description,” said one officer who did not wish to be identified. “In certain instances, depending on how violent it was, there’s a more aggressive effort to apprehend the individual. [Other crimes] have less information about them and take longer.”
Officials of the 7th Precinct said they seldom receive complaints from the community regarding safety but said residents will speak out when worried about a specific matter.
“Every once in awhile we have a group that comes down when there’s something going on in the area,” Erez said.
Carlo Schiano, 29, manager of Piano Bar on Allen Street, regularly attends community board meetings at the precinct. When he grew up in Queens, the Lower East Side was considered to be “on the shadier side.”
“This was always one of the neighborhoods not to come to,” he said.
Now that more businesses are opening up all over the community, however, he hardly worries even after leaving his bar at 5:30 a.m.
“It helps knowing the steps [the police] take,” he said. “Coming to the precinct gives you insight. People feel they’re unsafe because they feel there’s no protection. But if you’re concerned enough to actually be worried, you’re concerned enough to come to the precinct and listen to what’s going on.”