Crime & Safety

East Harlem Public Housing Residents Design Safety Improvements

A group of residents at the Wagner Houses worked with city agencies and partners to develop a community-based safety initiative.

EAST HARLEM, NY — Residents of East Harlem's Wagner Houses revealed a community-based initiative Thursday that will utilize environmental design to improve safety at the public housing development.

A stakeholder group of 15 Wagner Houses residents worked with city agencies and community organizations to develop the new initiative, which will see expanded social programs at the development as well as renovation of underutilized green space. The initiative is part of the Mayor’s Action Plan for Neighborhood Safety, which launched in 2014 after a spike in violence at public housing.

The initiative will result in the transformation of a dilapidated lawn within the development near East 120th Street and Paladino Avenue into a community gathering and event space. The space will feature new planters, lawn furniture, a removable stage and space for an inflatable tent so programs can be held rain or shine. A mural will also be painted nearby to make the space more inviting.

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Creating a new space for events and activities will offer Wagner Houses residents a greater sense of community and will give children a safe space to spend their time, residents on the stakeholder group said.

"We believe that a connected community is a safer community, and that's something that we are working on," Wagner resident Julie said Thursday.

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Here's what the lawn looks like now (rendering of improvements above):

Photo by Brendan Krisel/Patch

The residents' proposal also calls for an expansion of social programming at the development dedicated to issues such as mental health, peer support, conflict resolution, restorative justice and youth development.

Renita Francois, director of the MAP program, told Patch that the city supported the initiative, but it was mostly resident-run. Wagner Houses residents in the MAP stakeholder group attended a seminar on crime prevention through environmental design, interviewed other residents to determine community safety priorities and conducted safety audits by analyzing crime data and performing observational studies, Francois said.

"We made this a very structured process we want to leave residents with tools of their own," Francois said. "We realize that the administration is not going to last forever, so we want people to understand the process — what it's like to put together a proposal and a budget and to pitch for a project."

Work to renovate the underutilized green space will begin in 2019, Francois said. The project involves the pouring of concrete, which requires warmer weather for greater success. In the meantime, the city will be implementing other aspects of the residents' plan such as social programs.

Rendering courtesy Mayor’s Action Plan for Neighborhood Safety


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