Reader Comment Of The Week

Yes I know it’s only Tuesday but I seriously doubt (hope? pray?) Ihave to moderate a comment of this caliber for the next five days. After all, It’s not every day you:

• ask the police what you can do about drug activity in your apartment building only to be told it is “a tenant landlord matter”
• have a friend of your landlady’s son, an alleged drug dealer, die in the basement of your apartment building…
• and there his body remained for over 12 hours

Then again this is the 94th Precinct we’re talking about. Nothing— no matter how crass— surprises me anymore. Even so, I have to confess this is one very special story. Rebecca11222 writes (in regards to this post):

Hi, Laura – My 2 cents as to who to also contact at this point: The NYC Parks Department.  In McCarren and McGolrick Parks there is a Manager on site.  I can say that the fellow at McCarren is very helpful.

I guess the question to have answered is: do they have a Manager on site at the new park?  Find out the name & what his/her hours are.  My bet is that weekend availability is patchwork. Report the incident and ask what they advise if you are in that situation again.

My concern is the threats of violence (albeit alcohol-fueled) with which you & your family were met.  I’m sorry that happened and when calling the 94th, I’ve found to place the emphasis on behavior that they can either get arrests out of or at least big $.  Like “driving while intoxicated” or ” behaving violently around children”  You’d think that a nice steep fine for littering would be incentive; but I guess not.

Personally, I live in a building w/ a junkie/ low-level drug-dealer in the basement.  He is the landlady’s son.  People who fall asleep standing up around the nabe are his only friends.  I see deals going down around my apt building  (Calyer at Eckford) frequently.  All my neighbors (some of whom have lived in Greenpoint for over 50 years) have seen him make deals around the blocks and in front of the house.  Yet she is in denial about his habit and he manipulates her.  When we first moved in, we found used syringes an glass vials in the fireplace ashes.  The son had been living in our apt before we moved in. When we brought this to her attention, our landlady said “this is a drug-free house.”

My husband & I asked some 94th officers what we could do b/c people who do heroin or crack tend to steal or fall asleep w/ lit cigarettes (or become violent in the case of crack).  They said it was a landlord tenant dispute until “something” happened.

Well, early this Friday morning, one of the son’s “friends” died in the basement.  The landlady told me, “my son wanted to move the body & dump it somewhere else, but I said he couldn’t.” She attributed his desire to move said body to a desire to protect her rather than, oh, say, hide some evidence.  The body stayed there until about 8pm Friday & there was a cop posted outside the building.  I wonder if this will be enough of a “something” to warrant further police investigation or action.  Or maybe someone else has to die.

Btw: if anyone wants 2 awesome, quiet, responsible tenants, my husband & I are looking for a new place.

So there have you.

Miss Heather