Rippling the Kensington Calm

At last Thursday’s Albermarle Neighborhood Association (ANA) meeting, the sudden rain storm put no damper on the turnout or squelched the audience’s frustration at three ongoing Albemarle-area problems: sidewalk litter; rowdy strangers regularly congregating on McDonald Avenue and nearby streets, blowing residents' cool; or the kicker: the claim by an E. 4 Street woman—and others at the meeting—of a pattern of assaults, some sexual, on neighborhood women and girls, not given eagle-eyed attention by the 66th Precinct.

In answer to the audience’s questions about how often NYC Sanitation picks up Kensington’s trash; its placement of litter baskets; and other issues, Bruno Icarno, the Liaison from the NYC Department of Sanitation’s Community Affairs Unit, recommended first—and foremost—creating a record of litter complaints at 311, which assigns each complaint a tracking number.  Should an additional push be required to resolve the problem, he said to send him an email at biciano@dsny.nyc.gov along with the complaint’s tracking number, summarizing the problem.  One immediate result of his ANA visit was that the four trash baskets marking the corners of Albemarle Road and McDonald Avenue near PS 230 were empty on Sunday afternoon, when usually they are overflowing.

Veronica Guzman, a Latino Community Advocate and PS 230 PTA Co-chair, spoke for herself and 7 other Albemarle neighbors who live on the block defined by Dahill, McDonald, Albemarle, and Church, saying they feel invaded and harassed by groups of 5-10 nonresidents who show up each evening around 5:30 p.m., park their cars in residents’ spaces, and hang out near the Brooklyn Medical Group at 446 McDonald Avenue and the subway elevator. Often the visitors stay until 3 a.m. drinking, talking loudly, urinating and defecating on the sidewalk in front of local homes.

According to Sayd, a homeowner at 440 McDonald, these people are a nuisance, whose loud, drunken conversations and rowdy behavior penetrate his home’s sanctity.  Although the 66th Precinct answers their complaints, the 66th says it cannot prevent these people from hanging out. While annoying, loitering, the 66th says, is not illegal.

Next, a woman who lives on E. 4th Street between Caton and Albemarle, introduced herself and asked the women present to please report all assaults to 911. Without such a record, she felt the 66th Precinct would not pay full and consistent attention to how widespread these attacks against women in Kensington are. She herself had been sexually assaulted by a deliveryman in mid-August, unsuccessfully. By posting on Facebook and elsewhere, she learned of other women in the neighborhood who had had similar experiences. Several women present agreed, saying assaults by neighborhood kids are recurring events.

Because of the evening's discussion, an officer from the 66th will be asked to speak at the next ANA meeting, scheduled for Thursday, October 21, 7 p.m.