A restaurant-rich corridor is promised safer streets
Originally published in
Staten Island Advance
on
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STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — An afternoon press conference last week bucked the normal Monday ebb-and-flow of Bay Street in Stapleton. Twenty-five Staten Islanders — elected officials, business owners and community activists — gathered in front of Massimo and Deya Felici’s Michelin-lauded restaurant VINUM.
New York State Sen. Jessica Scarcella-Spanton scheduled the event to announce upcoming changes, a culmination of outcry from neighborhood entrepreneurs like Felici. He maintained, “VINUM will close its doors unless something drastic happens.”
‘Safe to come out to eat here’
Working with the NYPD, Scarcella-Spanton’s office secured funding to install a sophisticated NYPD camera near the wine bar.
Scarcella-Spanton emphasized, “I want to send a message. It is safe to come out to eat here. We encourage you on Staten Island — and wherever you come from — to eat here.”
The Monday press conference was a star-studded event, by Staten Island standards.
Attendees included Scarcella-Spanton, McMahon, Assemblyman Charles Fall and, Michael Arvanites, the latter standing in for the office of an under-the-weather Councilmember Kamilla Hanks.
NYPD brass included First Deputy Commissioner Tania Kinsella, Assistant Chief Joseph Gulotta of Patrol Borough Staten Island and Jermaine Williams.
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