Concord Village meeting draws official response

By: Stephen Witt

Feature article in the Courier Life Publications

Crime is down in the area and the High Street subway station is manned every day on every tour of duty, transit officials and cops told a packed town hall meeting of Concord Village residents recently.

Concord Village is one of the state’s largest private cooperative developments, consisting of 1,023 spacious apartments located at the foot of the Brooklyn Bridge on the northeastern side of the Brooklyn.

State Senator Daniel Squadron and Assemblymember Joan Millman called for the meeting to address residents’ concerns regarding public safety issues surrounding the development.

Residents complained that the escalator is often not working at the High Street station and requested the installation of cameras and other possible security measures such as an alarm in the station.

Transit officials at the meeting responded that the booth on one end of the station is manned 24 hours, seven days a week and that the subway also has a manned anti-terrorism booth there since it is a stop very close to the Brooklyn Bridge.

When the escalator stops working it is often a case of kids pushing the emergency stop button, requiring the MTA to send somebody out to reset it, transit officials said.

Transit officials said they didn’t have money for extra security measures at the station, but would put them in if local officials would fund it.

Squadron and Millman said they will seek state funding for the installation of safety measures in the subway station.

Police from the 84th Precinct told residents that crime around Concord Village is down 64 percent for the year.

At the same time, DWI (Driving While Intoxicated) arrests are up about 80 percent with 128 individuals arrested near the housing complex, police said.