New York Post Jan 19th 2003

01/19/2003/NYPOST
CRIME WAVE JOLTS ‘NEW' LOWER EAST SIDE
By SAM SMITH
Frank Stringer was walking home two months ago through the Lower East Side when he was jumped by a group of young men and kicked until his scalp was torn lose, his ribs were broken and his wallet and jacket were gone.
The chef, who worked for 71 Clinton Fresh Foods, one of the flag-bearers of Lower East Side gentrification, said he hadn't previously felt scared or nervous about walking through the neighborhood.
"It took me off guard," he said. "I would spend all day walking up and down Clinton, cutting through these groups of kids. I guess I got desensitized to them. I cut through this group one night, ‘Excuse me, excuse me,' and when I got through, one of them hit me on the back of the head with something."
After the attack, Stringer decided the Lower East Side and his $1,000-a-month studio apartment on Rivington Street weren't living up to the hype he had heard, and he recently moved to Jersey City.
His case is typical of a social tug-of-war currently under way between the old Lower East Side and the new that some say also is responsible for a spike in street crime there - a claim underlined again last week with the murder of 25-year-old banker Burke O'Brien after his friend was robbed of $12.
The Lower East Side has experienced a wave of gentrification over the last five years. Hot spots like Alias, Suba and 1492 have flooded the area, and rents have risen as high as $60 per square foot, more than some places on Park Avenue. Also on the rise in the area last year was crime.
Reported incidents at the Lower East Side's two police precincts (the 7th and 9th) jumped by a combined 6.3 percent from those reported in 2001.
Police say the numbers are up last year only because they went down drastically in 2001 when cops were everywhere downtown after Sept. 11.
But crime dropped in 2002 in other lower-Manhattan precincts, areas similarly affected by 9/11.
Lower East Side residents see changes in their neighborhood.
Angela Cefaratti, who lives on Allen Street and bartends at the Motorcity Bar on Ludlow, says her apartment building was broken into four times last year, more than in all of the six prior years she has lived there.
"I feel less safe now than I did when I first moved here," she said.
"People are concerned," says Enrique Cervera, who has lived on Rivington Street for four years. "You don't see as many police at night as you used to. You didn't see all these groups of kids on the streets three years ago. It's like the New York of the '80s is coming out again."
Some say the increased crime is linked to rising tension in the neighborhood as property values continue to drive out longtime residents and businesses.
Roberto Napoleon, chairman of Hispanos Unidos, a new organization formed to help staunch the flow of Hispanics and African-Americans out of the Lower East Side, says the crime spike is not surprising. As every Spanish bodega closes and a new bar opens, friction intensifies, he says.
"We formed this organization to help stop a bloody situation from happening here," he said. "People are very angry. They are being pushed out, the stores are closing, new people are coming in, and they don't like it."
Hispanos Unidos brokered a deal last year to keep 67 units across three new buildings as low-rent apartments. More than 10,000 applications were received for the units, which open in May.
Dewey Dufresne, who helped launch 71 Clinton Fresh Foods and is general manager of WD50, a new upscale restaurant now being built just up the street in an old bodega, says he's aware of the local anger focused on businesses like his.
"There is part of it that's true," he said. "We came here because it was desolate. We made it hip. I think any increase in crime is because of the bad economy. I don't think opening a restaurant has anything to do with it."
Unsafe streets
Recent crime incidents in Lower East Side neighborhoods include:
January
* 75 Orchard St.: man murdered and robbed
* Bowery and Division Street: man stabbed in the face
December
* East 12th and Avenue D: man murdered
* Ludlow and Stanton streets: woman kidnapped and robbed
November
* Suffolk and Houston streets: man beaten and robbed
* 105 Second Ave.: bank robbery
* East 8th and Avenue D: woman robbed and sodomized
October
* 216 Avenue B: bodega holdup
* 80 Columbia St.: man shot
September
* Madison Street: woman raped at gunpoint

Other major crimes there last year:
June
* 504 Grand St.: 3 murdered in their apartments
* 175 Second Ave.: 3 shot and hostages sprayed with gasoline in bar
CRIME TRENDS: From 2001 to 2002:
Lower East Side 7th and 9th precincts......... +6.3%
Other Lower Manhattan precincts
1st Precinct........ - 8.8%
5th Precinct....... -5.2%
6th Precinct...... -2.2%
Source: NYPD

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