NYC NOW - November 9, 2023: Evening Roundup

Episode Date: November 9, 2023

New NYPD data show crime continues to fall in New York City. Plus, WNYC’s Stephen Nessen looks into Mayor Eric Adams’ response to the tragic deaths of two toddlers. And finally, WNYC’s Michael Hill talks with Cheryl Roberts, executive director of the Greenburger Center, about a new facility providing therapeutic alternatives for New Yorkers dealing with mental health or substance abuse issues who have been convicted of crimes.

Welcome to NYC Now. Your source for local news in and around New York City from WNYC. I'm Jenae P. There's some good news about crime in New York City, according to new data from the NYPD. Officials say crime fell 3% last month, compared to the same period last year, and it's driven in part by an 8% drop in shootings.

Mayor Eric Adams attributes the decline to officers seizing more weapons. We're seeing officers taking. illegal guns off the street and is showing the results of all of our approaches to deal with violent act. The department says the decrease is part of a broader downward trend dating back to the start of the year. However, bias incidents investigated as hate crimes jumped more than 100% in the same period. Stick around.

There's more after the break. In Brooklyn, family and friends gather Thursday for the funeral of Camari Hughes. He's the seven-year-old boy who was struck and killed by a city tow truck in Fort Green last month. His death comes two years after a baby died in a separate crash just blocks away. WMYC's Stephen Nesson looks at how Mayor Eric Adams responded to both tragedies. On September 11, 2021, a driver sped down Gates Avenue in Clinton Hill going the wrong way on a one-way street. He ran a red light smashing into another vehicle. The cars crashed into a mother, her husband, and three-month-old Appaline Mong-Giamon.

The baby died. Two days later, then Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams spoke at the sight of the crash. And yes, we're tired of doing these conferences. We're tired of comforting parents experiencing their worst nightmare. We're tired of reading new reports about yet another child lost to vehicle crashes. Adams was campaigned. for mayor, and he had big plans, like converting 25% of street space for pedestrians, and cracking down on reckless drivers.

Less than two months later, Adams was elected mayor. And now, residents of Clinton Hill and nearby Fort Green are wondering what happened to the mayor's street safety promises? No, if anything, it's worse. I mean, the traffic is really bad. That's 53-year-old Enrico Cullen. He's dropping his son off at school, a boy. block away from where seven-year-old Kamari Hughes was killed last month by an NYPD tow truck.

The crash occurred only 10 blocks away from where Adams declared he was sick of traffic violence. Cullen blames the Adams administration for not doing more to prevent crashes. Anything else you want to say on this? No, just we got to restore the budget so we can have safe streets. It's pretty simple. At a recent press conference, Adams defended his record after Kamari's death. I have a long history on street safety, and I'm going to continue to advocate for that. And so we're not starting to do things about making our streets safe.

We have been doing that, and we're going to continue to do that. But it often takes a tragedy for the city to prioritize and implement street safety improvements. I went back to the Clinton Hill block where baby Appaline was killed. The intersection has been redesigned. There's a nursery school on the corner where parents are dropping off children. On the brick wall is a little plaque that reads, In Memory of Baby Appaline, in our hearts always. Across from it is the type of street design

that advocates have been clamoring for. It's called daylighting. That means cars are not allowed to park up to the corner of the intersection. They can't. There's a giant planter, there's permanent bike parking spots, and two massive slabs of rock, making it physically impossible for cars to park at the intersection. Across the street is one of those car-free.

plazas at Gates Avenue. It's another way to prevent cars from racing down streets. But 37-year-old Katie Drenoff, who lives on the corner, says it doesn't feel much safer. Even with this barrier, someone crashed into it earlier this year. I still noticed that there's a lot of traffic incidents and that I personally don't feel safe walking around here. Drainoff was there when Apolline was killed, mourning with her neighbors. Now she drops off her own three-year-old at the nursery school. She passes off her own three-year-old at the nursery school. She This is the plaque with Apolline's name on it every day. I feel like this intersection is cursed.

Back in Fort Green, there's a makeshift memorial to Kamari Hughes. Balloons flap in the wind, dozens of votive candles litter the ground with Halloween candy strewn about. The city says it will redesign intersections in the area of the crash, just as they did after Apolline's death. But for now, cars are still parking right up to the crosswalk where Hughes was run over. just as they did before the crash. That's WMYC's Stephen Nesson.

New Yorkers experiencing mental health or substance abuse issues who have been convicted of crimes may be allowed to enter treatment programs instead of serving time in prison. But some people are not eligible for those alternatives and end up incarcerated. Now, a new facility aims to provide a therapeutic alternative for people in that situation.

It's called Hope House and is currently under construction, in the Cretona neighborhood of the Bronx. WMYC's Michael Hill talked with Cheryl Roberts. She's executive director of the Greenberger Center, the organization behind the effort. Here's their conversation. How did the idea for Hope House come about?

It was very personal to Francis Greenberger who founded the center in 2014. His son, Morgan, was involved in the criminal justice system and also lived with substance use disorder and some mental health. issues. And he was accused of two crimes. One was robbery. And while he was out on bail, he became convinced that there was a drug dealer after him. So he called the police. The police came to his apartment and determined that he was having a mental health crisis. And at that time, 10 years

ago or more now, left him there. And he was still in fear. So he began a small fire. on his stove with some trash and watched it burn, called the fire department, and at that point, he was soon after arrested for arson. You know, at the time, the DA and judge involved made him ineligible for diversion, even though he had been accepted to a residential treatment program as an alternative to prison. And we decided to try and help other people to give alternatives for people who have serious mental illness and have higher-level felony charges. Because I think in the end, the truth is when these folks come out of prison and jail, they are often no better and often worse than they were when they went in,

which makes no one safer and costs far more money than had they gotten treatment. Well, tell us how you're treating those kinds of folks at Hope Health. So Hope House will offer a residential stay for up to two years for this population that is not typically eligible for diversion now. We will have round the clock residential staff and security staff, and the population will also be able to receive treatment on site. The other feature here is the security. We expect and hope will keep people safe. Two features in particular. One, there will be bracelets that the residents will be required to wear pursuant to a court-order plea agreement to enter Hope House. Second, they will be subject to bail. I know bail has rightly been

reformed in this state, but there is still a productive use of bail. When that person decides to leave, or if that person decides to leave in contravention of the rules of the house, a bondage can be called, and they can safely take this person back to court. So we don't have to call the police. Have you faced any pushback from people in the mental health community about this model, given the level of security involved? Yes. In the beginning, you know, we did have some real concerns by some of the treatment community saying, you know, we're widening the net here. You need to be careful with what you're doing because you're going to make it so that judges and DAs send everyone to places like Hope House, and the fact is not everyone needs this level. And I said, you're right. And we're going to be very careful with the people that we take. In fact, we're going to ask you, you know, the current providers in the city that have done a tremendous job for 30 years,

we're going to make sure that you all understand and know the people that we're taking. Because frankly, we're going to ask you all to step in and step these people down when they successfully or hopefully successfully reenter community after their time at Hope House. So, yes, these are very valuable beds. They're only 16. there are people who need them desperately who are not being diverted now. And that is the population that we are committed to serving. So we're not going to expand or widen the net for someone who doesn't need the level of security or resources, treatment resources that Hope House will offer. That's Cheryl Roberts, executive director of the Greenberger Center, talking with WMYC's Michael Hill.

Thanks for listening to NYC now from WMYM. YC. Catch us every weekday three times a day. I'm Jenae Pierre. We'll be back tomorrow.