photo, 7 story hotel going up at 314 Pennsylvania Ave. 2 blocks from Thomas Jefferson HS
Just last week a 15 year resident of East New York wrote an OpEd on EastNewYork.com complaining about a hotel being built just one block from Maxwell High School in East New York, on the exact block where there is rampant prostitution. The hotel she referenced is located at 367 Glenmore Avenue, and looks like it is ready to open in the next couple of months.
Unfortunately that’s just one of many hotels preparing to open in that same vicinity. Another hotel is halfway built at 314 Pennsylvania Avenue, just 2 blocks from Thomas Jefferson High School. According to YIMBY, the permit papers were filed for this 7 story hotel back in 2016, so the local elected officials and Community Board 5 should have been well aware of its development.
On social media concerned residents went back and forth about which Council person should be responsible for allowing these hotels and prostitution to exist just one block from schools. Councilman Rafael Espinal and Councilwoman Inez Barron both have sections of East New York in their districts, with hotels on both sides of their districts, within 1 to 2 blocks from schools, which puts the blame on both of them.
With all of the development and rezoning happening in East New York, these hotels and the increased level of prostitution is hard to understand. The question of the day is how can this happen? Are the elected officials blind to what is going on or are they just ineffective or incompetent when it comes to dealing with quality of life issues in their districts. In either case, this is a problem that will have a negative impact on the East New York community for years to come. They should have seen this coming and they should have been able to come up with a solution.
It’s a sad day for East New York. Thank goodness for term limits. Both Council Members are in their final term, which will open the door for someone with new ideas to tackle these issues. Prostitution in East New York seems to have increased throughout the years, while developers are running through the neighborhood grabbing all the property for hotels. Who wants their children going to school 1 to 2 blocks from prostitution and hotels? This can’t be right.
Telephone numbers to know.
Councilwoman Inez Barron – 718-649-9495
Councilman Rafael Espinal – 718-642-8664
Community Board 5 – 929-221-8261
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Pursuant to your Op-Ed pieces which site a few major issues going on within the East New York vicinity dated September 19th and additionally on September 26th, namely a problem of open and blatant prostitution taking place in front of all people including Residents, employees of neighborhood businesses and most egregiously children of all ages. Additionally from what I’m told, there is a new indoor soccer stadium which has recently opened which I drove by in interest and unfortunately actually witnessed this deplorable acts first hand. In fact,
I was approached at a red light. What both articles fail to mention is that the majority of the problems are emanating from the Women’s Shelter on Williams Avenue from what I’m told.
Where is that center’s administrator?
Where is the Mayor?
Where is the Police Department?
Where are our Congress People?
WHERE ARE OUR ELECTED OFFICIALS !
Prostitution in ENY is nothing new, it needs to be pushed back indoors. The problem is the elected officials who do nothing about it. ENY cannot afford to go back to the 80s too mich progress has been made. New LEADERSHIP is needed and residents need to mobilize. The City needs to stop dropping off addicts in our neighborhood hotels as well.