WILLIAMS-BURGLARS
By HEATHER GILMORE and LORENA MONGELLI
November 7, 2004 -- Williamsburg — long regarded as the hipster capital of the country — is facing a crime backlash as petty thieves and drug users try to reclaim the streets after more than a decade of plummeting crime rates, residents say.
In interviews with more than 50 residents and business owners in the northwestern pocket of Brooklyn, The Post was told of a spate of recent robberies, car and home burglaries, violent assaults and rapes.
Cesar Ruiz, a Williamsburg resident and the owner of the Bottle Shoppe on Bedford Street near Metropolitan Avenue, said he knows five people, including one of his staffers, Daniel Mensch, whose homes were broken into in the past week.
Ruiz said another friend had his car broken into twice in the past month, but many people fail to report the crimes. Mensch, 20, said his apartment on Broadway at Havemeyer Street was robbed of expensive computer equipment last Sunday.
Complaints of crime to the 90th Precinct, which covers Williamsburg, have more than halved over the past 11 years. The rapid decline in crime has left people feeling overly secure and not mindful of protecting their possessions and themselves, according to police and residents.
Ruiz and other store owners said the NYPD have visited their businesses in recent weeks, warning people to keep their shop fronts gated at night and to keep apartment vestibule entrances locked at all times.
"We need people to report these incidents for strategic deployment and evidence gathering," said a police source. "If you don't report it, it's like it didn't happen."
Loco Burrito waitress Liz Melfi, 26, said the Bedford Street restaurant was robbed in July.
"It woke us up to how much crime there is around here," she said. "This is the first time we have been robbed since we opened over three years ago."
Signs were posted last month on several Bedford Street café windows, warning patrons to look after their belongings after a spate of robberies, said Williamsburg resident Miles Bellamy, 39, the owner of Spoonbill & Sugartown.
Havemeyer Street apartment building supervisor Ted Buenz, 40, said he's seen a return of junkies to the neighborhood. "I sweep up crack vials on the street every morning," he said.
Susan McGowan, a local resident for 14 years, said she now takes a car service home late at night for fear of being attacked.
"I've seen it clean up and get better, but now crime is going back up. I was mugged last year right in front of my building, and a week later, my friend was mugged. It's scary," she said.
Police statistics for the month of October include three rapes, three shootings, 17 assaults, 48 burglaries, 29 grand larcenies and 23 car thefts — which are similar to figures for the same month last year.
http://www.nypost.com/news/regionalnews/33556.htm
