Four Ways to Improve Our Community’s Safety
By Dominick Romeo
As a third generation New Yorker and building superintendent, the safety of our buildings and neighborhoods are of the utmost importance. We must deal with the challenges that come as byproducts of bad policies like Bail Reform, Defund the Police, and preventing criminals from being arrested if they steal under $999. We see addicts freely smoking their pipes in front of our buildings, and we chase them away when they attempt to steal packages from our lobbies.
It is true that we cannot arrest our way towards a better society, but it’s also true that we cannot “mental health service” our way towards one either, by overlooking crime and the addiction that those with mental illnesses are prone to. We must start making arrests again so our court system can place those suffering from addiction into treatment centers for help they so desperately need.
I’m a former addict who was shooting up meth in the last two years of a ten-year run. I would not be writing today had I not faced any consequences for my actions. Nor would I be alive today had those around me been enabling my self-destructive behaviors by pretending that they didn’t exist. This is the case today when it comes to these dangerous policies written by socialists in City Hall.
Auxiliary Policing
Like many young boys who want to make a difference in this world, I wanted to be a cop so I joined the Auxiliary Police at the 10th Precinct on 20th Street. I found it to be a bridge between the community and the hardworking officers who served our neighborhood. I learned that it was easier to talk to us “fake-cops” than those “real cops,” since we lived in the neighborhoods we were serving. They knew us by our first names, and we would often be invited to shoot a few hoops with our neighbors while in uniform.
Expanding the Auxiliary Police program and having NYPD walk the beat again, instead of driving past us with suspicion, will be a priority of mine if given the opportunity of becoming your next City Council Member. This should help bridge the “us against them” mentality that some in the NYPD seem to have, and they wouldn’t feel so foreign to us anymore.
Locking Up Parks at Night
It is important to make sure parks and playgrounds are locked up at dusk. Unfortunately, that’s often not the case. The Parks Department is responsible for locking them up at night, but they are understaffed. With 30,000 acres to cover in NYC, it’s just not feasible for them to open them up in the morning, and come back to close them at night, so they are often left open 24/7. If elected to the City Council, I would like to place this responsibility with NYPD and relieve the Parks Department of this duty.
Bringing back the beat cops and having them interact with our neighborhood again, is pivotal in improving community relations with law enforcement.
Large ID Numbers on Rented Citi Bikes and E-Scooters
One of the biggest problems in our city today is self-propelled bicycles, e-bikes and e-scooters that race through the city. I know three elderly folks who have been knocked down by one. All three still suffer the aftermath of their injuries. Currently, there are no means to report these crimes accurately because these vehicles are not numbered, and therefore, cannot be identified.
There isn’t a better example of blatant disregard for our community’s safety than Citi Bikes. The bikes are not properly identified and are sometimes used as escape vehicles by those who steal packages in our buildings, as well as being involved in hit-and-runs.
Auxiliary Police Officers can report when a Citi Bike is on the sidewalk using the ID numbers, and that member would get a warning from Lyft. Or, in other legislation I would like to pass, in cases where a Citi Bike was used in a crime, their membership information will get handed over to NYPD to further investigate and their membership to Citi Bike would be suspended.
This would be in addition to the legislation I would like to pass that requires all delivery personnel to wear a yellow construction vest, with their ID numbers on three sides of each vest, in large lettering.
Better Street Lighting
We all love trees, and we should have a lot more of them, but some Council Members spend too much time planting them. We live in one of the darkest neighborhoods in Manhattan which only gets darker the further south we go into the West Village.
Recently, the DOT has been swapping out the old yellow high-pressure sodium lamps in favor of LED lamps which are significantly dimmer. This causes more criminal activity, as darkness gives cover to shady individuals who look for their next victim to prey on. We must insist that these new lamps have enough LED cells inside them to brighten up our city sidewalks and streets.
In addition, according to transportation literature I’ve read, light poles should be spaced out anywhere between 80 to 130 feet. There are plenty of areas in our community where they stretch out further than that and are in dire need of more light poles.
Dominick Romeo is a candidate for City Council, District 3.
You lost me with your pointless blame game at the top. Anyone can play. But let’s level the field with some facts: Crime is down. This constant alarm sounding is a narrative not supported by numbers and only serves as a self-fulfilling prophecy. Keep saying the city is falling apart and the sector I work in, tourism, will continue to collapse. Aided by this President’s reckless foreign policy and whose failed response to the pandemic his first go around is the reason for much of the despair and misery you blow out of proportion.