2005/06/15 Council Agenda Packet

Community Boards Four and Five Community Board Five covers the Times Square area and reaches througn most of the BID district to the east side of Eighth Avenue. Board Four covers the west side of Eighth Avenue, the Clinton residential and manufacturing communities to the west, as well as the Chelsea community to the south, where there has also been a recent increase In the presence of adult establishments. We interviewed the District Manager and the Co -Chair of the Public Safety Committee of Board Four, and the Assistant District Manager and ,Co -Chair of the Public.Safety Committee of Board Five.` All four told of an Increase in complaints and concern being directed to the Boards over the past two years. For Board Four; many of the complaints -focused on the area along Sixth Avenue In Chelsea, aswell as .on the area just south of the BID boundaries, on Eighth Avenue. There were specific complaints about particular establishments, Including the: documen.ting_of.'criminal activity along Sixth Avenue, along Eighth Avenue south of the BID, and at Forty Sixth Street and Eighth Avenue.. In terms of effects, one representative may have summed up the feeling by saying that. the presence of these businesses makes "people feelthatmy neighborhood is no longer my own: people who are apolitical begin to organize against. these stores." Another said "the block is taken away from the -residents, you can't walk down the street. Other people who use the street to walk or shop cross over or avoid these businesses." ..All these respondents described instances of loitering, late-night drinking, and, in the case of some establishments, documented criminal activity. Yet, because these activists also had experience with the negative impacts of non -pornographic bars and discos as well, they did state that perhaps every establishment had to' be judged -on Its own effects on a block ora community. -if any of these users could be good neighbo!aAf they could blend In with the community,. then perhaps some could be tolerated :But 'they also said that the experience has been that If there. one establishment, then others follow, leading to an unacceptable concentration of adult use stores. - This is what has occurred In Chelsea, and this Is the ' case on Eighth Avenue. When there comes to be "a critical. mass" and When theatores_are poorly run, the area becomes a point of attraction for all sorts of undesirable activities. - These informants expressed their concern about impacts on their residential communities, but they also saw their interests linked to the prosperity of the theatre community in Times Square, for example, and to the continuing growth of other businesses in Clinton and Chelsea. EVER00231 45