aWANTEDmag.com, Inc

Downtown Park Row used to be a major thoroughfare on and off the Brooklyn Bridge.  It also served as the central lifeline into Chinatown, as well as lower Manhattan.  Under NYPD orders, it is now closed as is many surrounding streets of the outdated NYPD Headquarters at 1 Police Plaza.  For how long, Commissioner Kelly won’t commit, can’t say, and refuses to discuss.

Until a year ago, I was one of the most un-political people ever.  Activism was best left to the tree-huggers and minority groups.  However, after experiencing the injustices committed by the NYPD in the name of security, I had no choice but to get involved and let my voice be heard.  After all, in the age of Obama, I was motivated to stop complaining and become an agent of change.  Make no mistake, I whole-heartedly believe that the NYPD are our everyday heroes.  NYC could not exist without New York’s finest protectors, but ever since 9/11 they have lost their way and have become as un-American as the terrorists that created this hyper-vigilance.

We have all accepted that our way of life has forever changed since the bombing of the World Trade Center.   This is evident throughout every airport in our country.  Understandably this inconvenience has become a necessity, but ultimately it does not change the quality of American life.  We even boast that we will rebuild the WTC bigger and better than before.   We are proud Americans, who refuse to live in fear, but that is exactly what the NYPD is doing by keeping Park Row closed.  Take it from someone who is a homeowner in a co-op that resides on Park Row and next to 1 Police Plaza…I LIVE IN A POLICE STATE!

After 9/11, Park Row first became an NYPD parking lot.  The community fought this and won, but Park Row was still closed to traffic.  Hundreds of New Yorker’s who depended on the bus line through this thoroughfare were left stranded because vehicles were not allowed access.  The community then had no choice but to sue, and they won again.  However to this day, any visiting cars to my co-op are subjected to a checkpoint.  All other cleared vehicles are subject to a second checkpoint and search.   Sure, you can equate this to an airport inconvenience, but with this thoroughfare closed, what was once a thriving, all-night destination for Chinese food and tourism, has become a dwindling wasteland that rolls up at 9:00 pm.   Not to mention the eyesore of concrete barricades, noisy steel plates, and haphazardly placed stopgap planters that impact this community night and day.  The NYPD continues to make selfish and unharmonious changes without consulting this community.

The primarily administrative police HQ must be protected at all costs seems to be the thinking of Commissioner Kelly, irregardless of these impacts on the community and lower Manhattan traffic.  It is more than inconsiderate, it is a reckless and over board strategy considering that the Federal agencies like the CIA and FBI are located only three short blocks away in the Federal Plaza building and don’t require this kind of security.

If NYPD Headquarters justify their actions because they consider themselves such a nerve center, and target, perhaps keeping Park Row closed is not enough.   Maybe NYPD should be relocating out of this highly residential neighborhood instead of endangering it.   In today’s computer age, they really don’t need to be in Manhattan at all, as was evident in the move of FDNY and OEM headquarters.   In fact, if Manhattan were under siege, logically being outside of the center of the maelstrom would be beneficial.  Randall’s island anyone?   What could be more secure than a city owned island?  No chance of unwanted visitors, easy helicopter access, and an opportunity to modernize an outdated facility that currently does not instill confidence in protecting our city.  And while they are moving, why not relocate the jails, and detention centers that surround the neighborhood to an inescapable island.   Why must we live with this daily danger too?   There is additional talk of relocating Guantanamo Bay prisoners here as well.   Who’s bright idea is it to board terrorists in the very place where you are trying to safeguard against them?

Stop reading here, if none of this sounds logical or fair towards the NYPD, but the closing of Park Row was just the beginning of using a tragic event to justify negative impacts on the community.  It’s difficult which issue to select next, so there is no other choice but to cover them chronologically.

Attached to Police HQ, used to be a municipal parking building which provided around 400 parking spaces to the community.   In another security measure to self-protect, this facility was closed to the public.  They said that they needed it to house the OEM, but the OEM has since moved to Brooklyn.  No one knows what it is being used for to this day, but tell that to the 400 automobiles that are looking to park in the area.   Then add to that already congested parking situation by vehicles sporting parking placards.  NYPD and Civic Center government vehicles have been abusing and counterfeiting parking placards for years to park where they please.   Until city government stops using placards as a reward to their employees this situation will only worsen.   Of course in the past, the community filed a lawsuit, which exposed the counterfeit placard abuse, but to be honest, I still see an awful lot of placarded cars in my neighborhood.  Politically, how does a cop tow another cop’s car?  And who will ultimately pay the ticket of a city employee?  Why does the NYPD keep taking from this community?  BECAUSE THEY CAN.  

Around two years ago, the community caught wind that NYPD had plans to build a high-tech security bunker at 1 Police Plaza to enhance what they are currently working with, centralize their computers, and coordinate with other anti-terrorism agencies.  When asked, NYPD denied that they had plans for such a building.  However, on a reader sparse Sunday, the New York Post included an article which introduced said bunker. How easy it will be, now that saboteurs know exactly where to hit to cripple our protectors.  Why not just “X” mark the NYPD central intelligence bunker?  Not to mention that NYPD has installed a gas filling station which to excuse the pun, can only add fuel to the fire of this already dangerous situation.  The community then asked, “Is this bunker a capital expenditure?”   NYPD, said “No, of course not,” because if it were, the bunker would be subject to environmental impact studies, ULURP (land usage) protocols, and community input.   After some digging around in public records, community lawyers discovered that the NYPD requested 13 million dollars from city funding for this project, hence making it a capital expenditure.   Currently the issue is in litigation, but the construction chute located outside the new bunker tells me they are still steamrolling ahead.  When I first heard about these lies, my response was shock.  How does the NYPD make bold faced lies to the community like that, and not expect to be held accountable?  BECAUSE THEY CAN.   If you wave the security flag, no one will dare oppose.

However, the latest and most expensive issue to date is the reconfiguration of Chatham Square.   It has been one of the most controversial and challenging issues facing Chinatown, but I will try to summarize it as best as I possibly can. Chatham Square is the central hub of Chinatown, and is basically a major artery in downtown traffic.   Located at the end of Park Row, it funnels in traffic from five directions coming from the Brooklyn Bridge, the Manhattan Bridge, and the Holland Tunnel.   It’s also worth noting the additional congestion contributed by the City Court houses and the newly anointed Marriage License Bureau on Worth Street that runs into Chatham Square.   As well as the Canal Street overflow caused by the raised one-way tolls of the Verrazano Bridge.   I mean have you seen Canal Street lately?  Besides the bumper to bumper, how many deaths have to occur at where Canal Street meets the Manhattan Bridge before the DOT and NYPD do something about that?  

There is no dispute that this is a highly congested area, and in 1999 DOT already reconfigured what was their ultimate solution for traffic flow.   In 2008, DOT decided that they had a new and even better traffic solution.   Basically it was a plan to align street connections and provide Chinatown with much needed green spaces to the cost of 50 million.   On the surface, it sounded like a great idea, but the plans were not provided to the community until far too late in the game.   After some pressuring, the plans were made public, but it didn’t take long for the community to realize that this was all just a ruse to insure Park Row’s closure.  The plans showed that the realignment takes Park Row out of the picture.  The plan now reinforced the funneling of traffic onto a back street that is home to two schools and a church.   I’ve already been a witness to a child struck down in a crosswalk due to this forced traffic redirection due to the closure of Park Row.  The street was never meant to handle this kind of traffic and it is obvious to everyone in the community but the DOT and NYPD.   If you’ve been following the gist of this article, you will know that there is only one group that benefits from a plan that centers on keeping Park Row closed.  This plan had NYPD influence written all over it.  Out of the 50 million cost of the project, NYPD put in millions of their own money to upgrade the checkpoint booths, and install a massive number of bollards around and through the parkland that they said was supposed to make this area greener.  I can’t even begin to tell you how sneaky NYPD tactics have been to keep those bollards out of the beautiful renderings and plans that they have presented to the community.

Needless to say, the pros of the project were heavily outweighed by the cons.  The DOT did not do their homework, never conducted safety studies, and never considered the impact to the community.   The idea of introducing a four-year traffic construction project in the middle of a recession, and to an already suffering economic community, is not just ludicrous, it is an outrage.   However, the good news is that due to community pressure and other factors, the project has been suspended.   The bad news is that this is an election year, and if Bloomberg wins the project will resume.

If NYC were really interested in helping this community, they would invest money in building much needed green spaces, upgrading the community, and improving traffic safety conditions. They would more importantly override NYPD’s closure of Park Row.  The LMDC has promised to help and the community has been asking since 9/11, but so far nothing.

I may be new to understanding the complete workings of politics, but to me it is a no contest situation when we are talking about the American way and our quality of life.   I get that no politician wants to contradict NYPD when they are hiding behind the banner of security, because no one wants to be responsible if something ever were to happen.   But as we have learned the hard way, terrorism strikes from the darkness.   There is no rhyme or reason, when or where it can happen.   Security can be an illusion.  I admit I am still naïve enough that I believe that the people behind the system should simply be doing what’s right for the people, instead of furthering their own agendas.

It is almost eight years since 9/11.  Security measures have been incorporated and instilled into the American consciousness, and yet the NYPD is still using  “in the name of security,” to maintain and further their stranglehold on the community.   Safety measures are important, but there is such a thing as overkill.  I have to laugh that recently in the name of security, NYPD even removed 5 year-old bike racks that were located just outside their barricade, without ever consulting the DOT who put them there.  

I thought we were the greatest city in the world.  I thought that no one would ever keep us down.  We are afraid of no one!   By closing streets, commandeering neighborhoods, and enforcing multiple checkpoints it sure sounds like fear to me.   I don’t think it is un-American to say, that it looks like the terrorists have already won.

Written by Triple Edwards