NYC NOW - August 5, 2024: Evening Roundup

Episode Date: August 5, 2024

Mayor Adams is attacking the city's Campaign Finance Board for releasing a 900 page draft audit of his 2021 mayoral campaign. Plus, an explainer on New York City’s procedures to properly, legally and safely dispose of wildlife. And finally, WNYC’s Brittany Kriegstein reports, the difference between feeling safe and under threat in New York City can be just a couple of streets.

Welcome to NYC Now, your source for local news in and around New York City from WMYC. I'm Jenae Pierre. New York City Mayor Eric Adams is criticizing the city's campaign finance board for releasing a 900-page draft audit of his 2021 mayoral campaign. WMYC was the first to report on the audit, which shows a failure to document over $2 million in expenses. Speaking to reporters Monday afternoon, Adams characterized the release as a leak. How did a draft report get leaked? Give us an opportunity to look at,

we're missing a person's name, we're missing an address. Give us an opportunity to respond to that. I'm really disappointed. WMYC got the documents through a freedom of information request. The campaign finance board didn't immediately comment on the mayor's remarks. Adams' campaign has until the end of the month to respond to the audit. It could owe up to three million dollars in penalties. Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. says he stuffed a dead bear into his van and dumped it in Central Park 10 years ago as a prank. But if you don't know, New York City has procedures to properly, legally, and safely dispose of wildlife. WMYC's Baha Oestadon explains.

If you find a dead animal or cluster of dead animals on the sidewalk, highway, beach, or in a park, call 311. If it's on your private property, you can put it. the carcass out with your regular trash in a heavy-duty plastic bag, but the city says you have to stick on a note like, quote, dead dog or, quote, dead cat. You can also drop it off at an animal care center and pay $50 to get it cremated. Or if you own the property, you can bury it there as well. Coming up, we look into an analysis of NYPD gun violence data and which neighborhoods are dealing with the threat of gunfire the most. More on that after the break. Police data shows gun violence continues to decline in New York City, yet residents of some city blocks still live with a daily threat of gunfire.

In an analysis of NYPD gun violence data, WMYC found most shootings in the city are confined to a very small number of blocks, year after year. And as WMYC's Brittany Crickside reports, the difference between feeling safe and under threat can be just a couple of streets. On this stretch of Sterling Place in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, residents are out and about, some tinkering with their cars, others walking their dogs. Turns out, this barely quarter mile block between Rochester and Buffalo Avenues has had more shootings in the last four years than almost anywhere else in the city. Sometimes when the officers be out here, I'd be glad they'd be out here because if they're not, the shooting's going to start back. That's resident Sean Johnson. He's gesturing to a police cruiser down the street. It's idling with its lights flashing. This block has seen 12 shootings since 2020,

and at least five of them were fatal. It's just so sad because we raise our kids to do good things, and then they get around people that do bad things, and then they get caught in the crossfire. For Gail Howard, it's personal. Her son Taekwon was just 16 when he was shot on Sterling Place in 2020. He was like, I got shot. I got a hole in my back.

I was like, oh my God. I was praying he was going to make it. But they say God don't make no mistakes. He later died at a hospital. Neighbors placed candles near his old building to mark his birthday this year. According to WNIC's analysis, just 4% of the city's 120,000 blocks account for nearly all gun violence across the city.

That stretch of Sterling is one of 10 hotspots, city blocks where 10 or more people have been shot, 2020. Fritz Umbach, a historical criminologist and associate professor at CUNY's John Jay College helped analyze shooting data from the last four years using the NYPD's Open Data Portal. I'd like to tell my students that New York City is not a city of dangerous neighborhoods. It's a city of dangerous street corners. The 10 hotspot blocks, mostly residential streets spanning the city from Crown Heights and Brownsville in Brooklyn to West 133rd Street in Harlem to Concourseville. in the Bronx share some similarities.

They're not the streets with abandoned lots and weeds and piles of garbage. They're the streets with lots of bodegas and commerce and retail. It's the places where people are brought together. The technical term in the biz is social aggregators. The causes of gun violence are varied and complex. But experts say places where people tend to gather, like parks, courtyards, late-night bodegas and liquor stores. can become magnets for violence,

especially when they are located on blocks with dense populations. Chris Herman, another John Jay professor who helped look through the data, has been researching these ideas for years. Whenever we kind of smush a lot of people into a small area, it causes friction between people, but it also makes it kind of easy pickings for likely offenders or for motivated offenders. He and other experts say social stressors,

like high unemployment and lack of housing, can also play a role. Take that hot spot on Sterling Place. It's heavily populated. It has high-rise buildings with courtyards where people hang out late into the night. Residents say some of the gates don't lock. Some of the buildings are public housing complexes, which criminology experts say can be sources of violence, mainly between small rival gangs called crews.

NYPD captain Rebecca Buchoffser-Tavarez commands police service area 5, which patrols public housing in East Harlem. One development will fight with another development simply because they live, you know, in opposing developments. Harlem resident Dennis de Leon says he's noticed the same patterns around West 129th Street and Frederick Douglas Boulevard. They're living in the same, you know, community. And, you know, when they see each other, it's like war. Police officials say they use a variety of strategies to combat gun violence in the hotspots. They monitor arguments between gangs and crews, which sometimes start on social media.

and they dedicate officers to the blocks and buildings where they expect conflict based on their data. More than a dozen residents we spoke with in those hotspot areas say they welcome the police presence. 65-year-old Ida Singleton lives near a hotspot on Livonia Avenue in Brownsville. 11 people have been shot between Rockaway Avenue and Mother Gaston Boulevard in the last four years.

Got cops around front of our building, so like I said, they're doing their job, doing a good job. You know, because if they see it, I'm around. I'm going to think twice to do something. Shooting spiked in the early pandemic, but have been calming down citywide since then. And CUNY's Fritz-Umbach says, while residents in certain areas are deeply affected by gun violence,

the city is relatively safe overall. The risk of being involved in a gun incident for most New Yorkers approaches zero. WNYC's analysis produced another stark finding. The experience of residents in certain neighboring areas can vary dramatically. Francine Doyle lives on Sterling Place. She's just two blocks west of that hotspot

with 12 shootings in the last four years. But she says she feels safe enough to sit out on the sidewalk for hours. We talk about that while she's eating lunch in the shade with a neighbor. We have in Chinese food, chicken and broccoli, white rice, bread. They've both lived here for decades

and say it's a very safe block. And the data mostly backs that up, at least compared to the nearby hotspot. Their part of Sterling Place had two shootings in the last four years. What about at night? You're comfortable to come out here. We'd be out here sometimes. Yeah, especially in the summer.

Yeah, we stay's over like 9, 10 o'clock. Francine's block has mostly low brown stones with leafy trees and small gardens in front. There are no areas where big groups can gather. One of the few shootings that has happened on the block took place at a bodega on the corner. Gail Howard, from the nearby Sterling Place hotspot, moved away after her son Taekwon was killed. She says it's still hard to come back and visit. At least one dream, when he comes to me and he'd be like, Mom, okay.

You know, don't worry, live your life. The police identified a person of interest in connection to her son shooting, but he was also gunned down in Crown Heights earlier this month, just four blocks from where Taekwan died. That's WMYC's Brittany Crickstein. On Tuesday, communities across the country will mark this year's National Night Out campaign. Organizers bill it as a night to promote police community partnerships. National Night Out has traditionally been an opportunity for neighborhoods to throw block parties and festivals.

More than 200 cities in New Jersey and more than 100 across New York State are participating this year. In New York City alone, events are planned at 70 locations. ranging from parks and playgrounds to police precincts. The complete list of New York City locations is available by searching National Night Out at nyc.gov. Thanks for listening to nyc now from WMyC. I'm janei Pierre. We'll be back tomorrow.