By Lesley Sussman
Citing escalating youth violence in the East Village area as one of its most pressing concerns, Community Board 3 has called for the establishment of a task force comprised of elected officials, city agencies and community groups to help create a strategy to address the situation.
The resolution for the task force came out of C.B. 3’s Executive Committee and was introduced at the full board’s monthly meeting on Tues., April 27, at P.S. 20, 166 Essex St. The resolution said that quelling such violence was “the highest priority for our community.” The measure was unanimously passed without any debate.
The resolution also recommended that once the task force was in place, a Lower East Side town hall meeting be held to hear local residents’ concerns and get their ideas on how to address the problem of local youth violence.
C.B. 3 Chairperson Dominic Pisciotta told The Villager after the meeting that the issue of spiraling youth violence was a “horrible” one. He said that for the past six months, he and the board’s district manager, Susan Stetzer, have been trying to raise people’s awareness regarding the situation.
“All of us on the Executive Committee have been working very hard on this issue,” he said. “We need immediate action, especially with the summer months coming up when violence always increases.”
Meanwhile, Bernice McCallum, chairperson of C.B. 3’s Youth and Education Committee, said that the problem has been a long-neglected one.
“Hopefully, this town hall meeting will get to the root of the problem and result in some action,” she said. “We need youth programs that will cater to the parents as well as the kids. If all this violence is because the parents need help themselves, then we need to help them.”
McCallum added that the violence was spreading beyond the schoolyards and involved more than just teens who join local youth gangs.
“This is more than just about kids fighting each other,” she said. “Now they’re going into the housing projects and robbing senior citizens because these seniors are frail and vulnerable.
“They’re not using guns,” she continued. “I never heard of that. But they’re using something to hit people with and robbing them. I’m not even sure they need the money because these aren’t homeless kids we’re talking about. They’re 14- and 15-year-olds, and they’re getting even younger.”
The proposed task force on youth violence got a nod of approval from Lisa Kaplan, chief of staff to Rosie Mendez, the District 2 councilmember. Kaplan said Mendez and Margaret Chin, the District 1 councilmember, have been in contact with police regarding the problem.
Kaplan also said that reports of increased youth violence on the Lower East Side were not exaggerated.
“There’s been a rash of youth violence against Asian seniors,” she said. “We recently had five attacks in a week, and they generally happen in front of New York City Housing Authority buildings.”
Kaplan added that while the police have been doing their best to reduce such violence, more needs to be done.
“This is why we need a C.B. 3 task force that will work closely with all the community boards in the area,” she said. “We need to get a handle on it and see if there is something more substantial that we can do.”
Last year the issue also came to the attention of state Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and Assemblymember Brian Kavanagh, who began to look into the problem. At one point, fliers with the headline “State of Emergency” were distributed throughout the neighborhood to promote a meeting that was held at the East Side Tabernacle Church, 254 E. Second St.
There was also a meeting at the Police Department’s P.S.A. 4 stationhouse, at Avenue C and Eighth St., where several residents expressed concerns about a series of incidents, some deadly, involving teens and young adults.
C.B. 3 in bake-sale mix
In other board business, C.B. 3 joined the Lower West Side’s Community Board 2 in condemning a new Department of Education regulation that would restrict home-baked foods from being sold at school bake sales, but would allow prepackaged commercial snacks to be sold at such events.
Under the new rules, students and parents raising money for trips and clubs could only sell specifically approved snacks, like baked chips and granola bars. But parents and students have bitterly complained that the new regulations not only stifled their ability to raise much-needed money for many extracurricular activities, but that these snacks were unhealthy.
The new regulations came under sharp criticism at C.B. 3’s meeting last week. The community board passed a resolution that described the D.O.E. regulations as “nonsensical” and “lacking common sense.” The board also urged D.O.E. to “repeal its ban” on selling home-baked foods at bake sales, and called upon elected officials to review the policy and seek its repeal.
The resolution further noted that offering home-baked goods not only let kids and parents sample foods from different cultures, but provided an opportunity “for parents to show off their individual skills.”
In addition, the board’s resolution, which is advisory only, said that such bake sales offered a variety of educational experiences for students, and were an important fundraising component of many schools. It added that home bakers “use healthier ingredients, having little or no access to industrial food additives.”
The resolution concluded: “Community Board 3 supports efforts to increase school-based opportunities for physical activity among youth and decrease their consumption of industrially prepared foods and beverages.”
After the meeting, Pisciotta said, “I strongly believed that the chancellor’s regulations should be absolutely overturned.” He added that the provision allowing only food from school vending machines to be sold at bake sales made it “look like it’s being driven by commercial partnerships.”
According to Marge Feinberg, a D.O.E. spokesperson, local community boards are misinterpreting the regulation when they say it completely bans home-baked goods at bake sales in the city’s public schools.
In a letter to the editor in The Villager’s March 31 issue, Feinberg stated: “Chancellor’s Regulation A-812 allows parent organizations to hold one bake sale per month during the school day, during which they can sell home-baked goods.”
Rodent-free restaurants
Turning to another matter, C.B.3 passed a resolution in support of a Department of Health “workshop of best practices for restaurants with rodent violations.” District Manager Stetzer said the board wanted those restaurants that failed inspections to be sent letters asking them to participate in the free workshop.
“After completing this course, a thank-you letter will be sent to them from Community Board 3,” she said, “as well as a letter to the New York State Liquor Authority and the Department of Consumer Affairs, saying that these businesses had cooperated with the community by taking this course.”
Stetzer said that there are currently 1,184 active restaurants in C.B. 3’s East Village/Lower East Side district, and that last year the city issued 360 violations for mice and 86 violations for rats to restaurants in the district.
