Crown Heights, a tale of two cities at least

Thanks to Facebook I've learned of an episode of gunfire in Crown Heights on Crown St. near Utica Avenue which makes it the Eastern side of Crown Heights to some or as long term residents would recognize the part of Crown Heights furthest from the warm glow of the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens.

Yesterday I learned from reading the IloveFranklinAve blog of a shooting that wounded a man on Franklin Ave & St Johns Place.

Two shootings in one area in less than a week may very well provoke the worn conversation among new comers of whether Crown Heights is "going back" to something dangerous and negative. I hate that conversation. it's simplistic, reactionary not supported by facts and I hate the what it implies and what the conversation omits, namely that for some crown heights residents hard times never ended.

Crown Heights is a large area. It measures two miles long by a mile. Part of it is seeing a boom of new activity shops that were redundant are having their rents raised by their owners in the hopes of attracting the next artisanally prepared cash cow. Vacant spaces are being cleaned up for the same in the areas around Franklin, Bedford & Nostrand Avenues. Personally I think the new consumer options are great and the process by which their made unfortunate and sometimes unfair.

This past weekend while enjoying the sun and sounds of teens playing in Brower Park on Brooklyn Avenue near Prospect Place I noticed across the street on the wall of a school annex a mural created in 2009 by high school students and the non-profit Groundswell dedicated to the problem of gun-violence. Gun violence never stopped being a problem for many in Crown Heights.

Despite all the fuss about things of relative little consequence like bike parking spaces, there are people in Crown Heights who are working class, and spend much of their time trying to make ends meet in a section of the neighborhood that doesn't get the New York Times and New York Magazine coverage so generously bestowed on the Crown Heights just one mile west.  

Meanwhile on commercial strips like Kingston and Utica Avenues (between St. Johns & Atlantic) there is nearly the opposite situation with some addresses looking ready to collapse under the weight of time and disregard.

It's nearly a tale of two cities. Go ahead, google "Crown Heights Shooting" see which comes up first and which has more listings. The Franklin Ave shooting barely comes up. I doubt that's the story anyone wants to tell of gentrified Franklin Ave. The story of the shooting near Utica Ave is hard to miss.

You have one Crown Heights where owners decide to unleash building improvements and investment spurring increases in city services, police protection, beautification, bike racks and the other where many commercial and rental owners haven't made investment possibly because they're waiting for a community different from the current one, to take root. This is a big part of why it's destructive and simplistic to sub-divide Brooklyn neighborhoods as has been commonly done and at a hyper rate for the last ten years. Once there was Crown Heights. Now there is Prospect Heights, Crown Heights and there appears to be attempts at making distinctions between West & East Crown Heights. Before I drag out my soap box to shout about the past when a resident didn't need geographical distinctions to the name of their neighborhood, because they knew their neighborhood, I'll bring up what I think the bigger issue is. Changing the name of the "improved" part of a neighborhood only increases the likelihood that the "unimproved" part of the neighborhood won't get better.

Imagine braking your leg and rather than give aid to it, you cut it off. That's what happens if points East of Kingston Avenue (to pick a street) become unhinged from Washington, Classon & media daring Franklin Avenues. Separating one part of Crown Heights from the other means separating the stories that are told of those places, and those stories become the public realities. So shooting on Franklin get's a certain type of media attention if for no other reason than it's contrary to the expectations now existing (and reported) for Franklin Avenue. While a shooting near Utica is reported as the same old song.

The conversation I've heard after almost every violent crime is committed in this neighborhood of over 150,000 people is "Is it going back?!?" The reality is there are a lot of people who never got to go forward.

Crown Heights will have occasional violent episodes, just like most New York City does. Those tragedies when they occur will less a harbinger of new comer doom than a sign that long term residents are still struggling in crisis.

1 Shot on Franklin Av

Yesterday afternoon in the midst of a beautiful summer's day there was that most unfortunate activity on Franklin Avenue. According to eyewitnesses a verbal altercation between two young (possibly teenaged) males turned lethal as one male pulled a handgun out and began firing at the other. Eyewitness report one shot fired followed rapidly by two more. The intended target was shot once in the leg. He was said to bleed profusely and was taken away by ambulance. Police arrived shortly after, and again according to eyewitnesses a suspect was apprehended within hours.

I was showing my cousin how the neighborhood changed when I ran into people who told me what happened.

In my mind of course this is arguable the worst aspect of crime taken place in the area, my sources indicate the shooter was erratic, which may account for him shooting three times at nearly point blank range and missing twice. Not that I am wanting professional marksmen to be committing gun crimes, but the only thing worse than criminal behavior to me anyway is wild unfocused criminal behavior.

The shooting took place on Franklin between Anyone passing by could have gotten shot. Which brings up my next thought, as much as people want to talk, or imagine, what the "bad ol' days" were like, let me tell you, people did not pull out guns at 2pm in the middle of a crowded street. Granted there were those crack days where anything goes and a drive by would happen, but and understand I am not condoning anything merely stunned by the lack of logic, those idiots doing drive bys had an escape planned. Apparently the shooter had so little awareness of what his actions would lead to that he then ran, down Franklin Av, past dozens of people. More baffling to me is Franklin Av is heavily policed these days. Since the shootings that happened a few months back (this brings the total of shootings on ten block strip of Franklin Ave this year to at least three) and an increase in robberies (which I personally experienced in May) local Police authorities and representatives have saw to an increase in foot patrols that is visible on and around Franklin av, day and night.

Again I'm not really seeking logic from the type of individual who would pull a gun in broad day light as a means of winning a verbal disagreement, but it just increases the concern factor. As I have written my belief is personal vigilance lowers the risk of being caught up in a crime/violence situation. But random ignorance is a lot harder to protect against. Stray bullets even harder.

A friend was attempting to walk down the street when it happened and he had to duck for cover. Thank goodness for his quick reactions but who wants to be dodging bullets in their neighborhood?

Street

My niece's "baby father" was shot and killed last night in Brooklyn.

I didn't know the "kid". But his shooting was the result of a beef, and that men and boys of color continue to wrap themselves in the circle of street life, while I work in companies who's scarcity of brown male faces is nearly equivalent to being in the suburbs of China is ridiculous.

Frankly I don't know whether to feel bad or relieved for his son.

It's 2010, and while elements of society do in fact conspire, the path to self destruction is still led by the self.

Unfortunately 5 shot

Been hearing sirens and seeing helicopters flying all over downtown.

I turned to 1010wins and 5 people were reported shot in barbershop on Fulton, I think I know the shop that would put it within a block or two of South Portland. One of the wounded may be an off-duty cop, makes me think many layers of story to come. Oh brooklyn when will you stop buckin'?

No media reports online as of 2:27pm.

Update: Four shot, one dead, the wounded expected to recover, apparently it was a 2 on 1 gun battle up Fulton St, and the targeted man ran into barbershop/beauty salon.
As of 5:30pm the streets seem to be open.

This really is ridiculous, and not typical of what life has been like over the last ten-fourteen years but sadly it's still not outside the realm of possibility.

There are guns on the streets, there are depraved individuals who wield them and until we decide that these problems are important enough to address as a society, until we stop thinking that the building of stadiums and vacant overpriced condos can prevent these occurrences, they will happen. We are a society, a community, and the problems that are left untreated will reach us no matter how hard society tries to push those problems away.

I took that photo above to illustrate where this happened, and then I remembered that the Cake Man Raven's shop is just up the street, and during the summer the celebration held in his honor and attended by the Councilwoman Tish James and Marty (i wanna be Boro Prez for life)Markowitz took place basically a several feet away from today's shooting.

Here's a photo and my post from that day (the Hanson place entrance to the shop would be on the left side of the photo):
http://umbrooklynborn.blogspot.com/2008/07/cakeman-raven-celebration-in-fort-green.html
This photo is more indicative of what the neighborhood is than the events of today.