Grand and Putnam Goes Legit
The Daily News picked up on a trend that’s near-and-dear to our heart—the turnaround of the corner of Grand and Putnam Avenues from one of the borough’s most notorious drug corners to an increasingly thriving center of legitimate storefront commerce. “A neighborhood is just like a human body: if you don’t nourish it, it will…
The Daily News picked up on a trend that’s near-and-dear to our heart—the turnaround of the corner of Grand and Putnam Avenues from one of the borough’s most notorious drug corners to an increasingly thriving center of legitimate storefront commerce. “A neighborhood is just like a human body: if you don’t nourish it, it will die,” Michael Allen, proprietor of Desserts by Michael Allen which has been located at Grand and Fulton since 2008, told The Daily News. “If you want to stop crime and drugs, you have to clean and build.” Recent openings include the Fulton Grand Bar, directly across the street from the bodega and payphone that have been ground zero for illegal activity for years, and Mago, a creperie across Fulton Street. The transformation should be secured if and when the Greene Hill Food Co-op signs its lease for the space at the corner of Putnam and Downing. And don’t forget, as The Daily News did, Kush, the pioneering restaurant which has held it’s ground on Putnam between Grand and Cambridge for years as the drug trade swirled around it. All the openings don’t mean the drug dealers have just packed it in and moved away: We were offered weed yesterday as we walked down the block, the first time that’s happened in five years. Maybe the drug dealers are just evolving as good businessmen do by beginning to target the new batch of potential customers.
Dangerous Drug-Ridden Clinton Hill Corner Transformed [NY Daily News]
I’m shocked that Letitia James did not insert herself into this article and take credit for the transformation, when in reality she has done absolutely nothing of significance to help.
Hahahaha! Rich kids are the biggest drug addicts in America! Who told you their kids didn’t have drug problems?…their parents? Of course they don’t tell you. That’s the dirty little secret. Puhleez. Pure boredom causes drug use. Why do you think all those meth labs exist in Iowa and Nebraska and Mississippi?
Do you not know about the bomb sniffing dog jokes? After 9/11, all the bomb dogs (also trained as drug dogs) were in Downtown Manhattan. But for some reason, they kept barking at gangs of stockbrokers. Hmm…agents stopped them, as they are supposed to. No bombs in the briefcase here, but plenty of drugs on Wall Street the reports found. Yeah…poor people smoke weed dude. Rich people do heroin and meth, but they start as kids. Catch an episode of the show “Intervention” for laughs.
I do wish we could hear from the What on this article though, just for the giggles.
winelover–the nearest projects to this location are the ones at Lafayette and Classon, which is a pretty good distance from here, so the statement “there are so many projects around there” is ridiculous. In terms of what I get from living around here, as well as the many other Brownstoners that live around here, is that i have a quiet, friendly neighborhood with a house I could afford and some nice local amenities. There is a lot to like around here. You could come check it out before you make ridiculous statements.
“The more money a parent earns, regardless of race, decreases a child’s likelihood of falling victim to the things you mentioned.”
really? i went to private school with a bunch of rich kids and all it meant was they could afford better drugs and nicer cars. indifferent parenting, rich or poor, is what leads teens astray.
I began laughing hysterically halfway through this thread and had to concentrate on finishing.
wine lover, you can’t possibly believe that urban youth are in any greater danger of living a wayward life than suburban (lets take Park Slope as an example) teens? The biggest drug problems in this country aren’t just found in the projects.
Also, almost all of my friends here grew up in FG/CH/CH/BS and not a single one of them fell victim to any of the things you mentioned. Wanna know way? Because socioeconomics matters. The more money a parent earns, regardless of race, decreases a child’s likelihood of falling victim to the things you mentioned. My friends have generally have professionals as parents (doctors, lawyers, bankers, teachers, etc.) and a few have parents who were well paid gov’t employees. They managed to keep their kids out of trouble and off the streets because they had the means to keep them involved in activities and didn’t leave them much time for hanging out around the neighborhood.
i hope that these changes do work to clean up CH, but with so many projects around there, it seems ultimately that it will not ever really become safe. i was in CH last week for the first time in awhile, and saw a guy getting arrested in the early evening while it was still light outside.
aren’t any of you worried what will happen when your kids become teens? or sooner? think that kids will be curious and get involved with these thugs and will get themselves in trouble.
i do not understand what you get out of living in an area like that? what’s the benefit? there’s no way those projects are moving anytime soon. i don’t get living somewhere where you have to pay attention for your safety constantly. and, please let’s not pretend that sh*t happens everywhere – it doesn’t. just heard another story of a guy getting beat up for his phone (someone i know) in this area – and it was early in the day!
At the end of the day, the morality questions should be asked of the users not just the dealers. Can anyone today defend being part of the drug economy when huge swathes of Mexico are rapidly becoming lawless murder zones? To say nothing of the continuing negative impact on our own communities. Sorry to be a drag but — as cill says above — this discussion really needs to stay real.