Friday, 3 May 2024

Gun Violence: New York’s Own Problem

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It’s Tuesday. And there’s a cat that doesn’t want to be rescued from a sewer, Bklyner reported.

Weather: Chance of rain and thunderstorms in the afternoon, with a high in the mid-80s.

Alternate-side parking: In effect until Sunday (Eid al-Adha).

With the nation grieving over the mass shootings in Dayton, Ohio, and El Paso, Governor Cuomo talked about a gun control law he passed six years ago. Mayor de Blasio took the unusual step of agreeing to go on Fox News tomorrow to talk about the news of the day.

But even as New York officials were responding to the bloodshed over the weekend, the city continued to grapple with its own gun violence problem.

Yes, crime in New York is at a two-decade low.

Still, a mass shooting on July 27 at a block party in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn that left one person dead and 11 injured underscored the unsettling increase in violence in recent months, especially in parts of that borough.

How many shootings are there in New York City?

As of July 28, 521 people had been shot this year in New York City, in 441 shooting incidents, according to the police. That’s up from 501 people shot in 413 incidents in the same period a year ago.

The shootings are not spread evenly across the city. Some precincts in Queens and Manhattan have not reported any shootings this year. Others have logged quite a few.

In North Brooklyn’s 79th Precinct, which includes Bedford-Stuyvesant, 24 people have been shot this year, including those at the block party.

What happened in Brownsville?

The Old Timers Day block party drew a large crowd to the Brownsville Playground on July 27.

Gunfire erupted at about 11 p.m. Police investigators said several victims had gang ties. The police have also said that gang violence is fueling the rise in gun violence throughout the city.

Immediately after the Brownsville attack, Eric Adams, the Brooklyn borough president, and others wanted it labeled a mass shooting.

Mr. de Blasio initially resisted calling the attack a mass shooting. (He later used the term.)

“That is basically saying mass shootings are three or more that do not take place in the African-American community,” Mr. Adams said in an interview on Monday.

“We’ve become numb to gun violence in certain parts of the city,” he added. “Eleven people on Park Avenue in Manhattan, it’s a mass shooting and a crisis. Eleven people shot on Park Place in Brooklyn, it’s another day in the neighborhood.”

How does New York State compare with other states in terms of gun laws?

New York has an A- rating from the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence. The center ranks New York sixth out of 50 states for the strength of its gun laws, and 48th out of 50 for having among the lowest rates of gun deaths.

The center says there is a direct correlation between stricter gun laws and fewer deaths by guns. Gun-rights groups believe that these laws penalize law-abiding gun owners.

What are New York’s gun laws?

After the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut in 2012, New York State pushed through stricter gun laws, called the Safe Act.

The new rules required assault weapons to be registered every five years with the state police, and made background checks mandatory in an effort to prevent people with serious criminal records or mental illness from buying guns.

How many crimes are committed with guns in New York State?

Last year, there were 7,885 violent crimes committed with firearms in New York, according to state figures. More than 4,200 of those crimes were in New York City’s five boroughs.

Many of the guns used in crimes here are not from here. Guns are coming into New York from places that don’t have laws as strict as New York’s, according to the state attorney general’s office.

What more needs to be done?

Mr. Adams served in the State Senate when the Safe Act was passed. He said it was ineffective for the kinds of shootings that plague some parts of New York City.

“We immediately pushed forward legislation that targeted assault rifles and high-speed ammunition,” he said of the Safe Act. “That is not the crisis in Brownsville. No one is walking around with an assault rifle” there.

Handguns are the more pervasive problem, Mr. Adams said.

A focus on assault rifles, he added, means neighborhoods that need help can be overlooked.

From The Times

Driverless cars arrive in New York City: Six autonomous vehicles will shuttle passengers around the Brooklyn Navy Yard.

A nanny asked her ex-boyfriend to return a key. He arrived with a knife.

Cesar Sayoc, who mailed pipe bombs to critics of President Trump, was sentenced to 20 years in prison.

President Trump echoed “Fox & Friends” on mass shootings. The New York Post dissented.

Barneys, a global symbol of creative cool, filed for bankruptcy.

A swarm of 25,000 bees was removed from a Staten Island Ferry terminal by the police.

[Want more news from New York and around the region? Check out our full coverage.]

The Mini Crossword: Here is today’s puzzle.

What we’re reading

Summer meal programs at schools should be expanded to include parents, the City Council speaker, Corey Johnson, said. [Chalkbeat]

What it’s like to ride in bike lanes: This video shows a trip in New York. [Patch]

A rally on Staten Island was held in support of Officer Daniel Pantaleo, after a Police Department judge recommended he be fired in connection with Eric Garner’s death. [Staten Island Advance]

Coming up today

Watch the movie “Finding Dory” at Sherman Creek Park in Manhattan. 7 p.m. [Free, includes popcorn]

Punderdome, a monthly pun competition, and its “human clap-o-meter” return to Littlefield in Brooklyn. Read about what to expect here. 8 p.m. [$12]

The National Park Service hosts a campfire at Great Kills Beach on Staten Island that includes music and stories. Bring your own blanket or chair. 7 p.m. [Free]

— Amy Osorio

Events are subject to change, so double-check before heading out. For more events, see the going-out guides from The Times’s culture pages.

And finally: Is the show over for Dean & DeLuca?

New York is famous for its characters. And its characters have made some Manhattan coffee joints famous.

Jerry, George, Elaine and Kramer had Tom’s Restaurant.

Ross, Rachel, Chandler, Monica, Joey and Phoebe had Central Perk.

And Felicity Porter had Dean & DeLuca.

Television shows seemingly live on forever, thanks to reruns and streaming services. Coffee shops sometimes do not.

Yes, you can still visit where Jerry and his “Seinfeld” gang discussed “yada yada yada” at Broadway and 112th Street.

Central Perk wasn’t a real place, but a pop-up in SoHo will soon offer seats on the couch that the friends from “Friends” occupied.

But the future of Dean & DeLuca, where the titular character on “Felicity” worked as a barista, is uncertain.

Dean & DeLuca, now a global chain of luxury food shops, has defaulted on payments to former employees and delayed payments to current employees in the United States, The Times reported.

[Read more about Dean & DeLuca, which is facing financial pressure.]

“According to multiple employees, both former and current, landlords served eviction notices at two New York stores that have now closed, citing hundreds of thousands of dollars in unpaid rent,” Julia Moskin, a Times food reporter, wrote.

Small vendors in New York City also said they were owed hundreds of thousands of dollars.

In 2014, Dean & DeLuca had more than 40 locations across the country. But five years later, only four are left — including the flagship location in SoHo, which was opened in 1977 by Giorgio DeLuca and Joel Dean.

The original storefront offered delicacies that many New Yorkers had never tasted. Decades later, the city is now teeming with specialty food stores, and Dean & DeLuca’s new showpiece location in the meatpacking district closed after three months.

It’s Tuesday — drink good coffee.

Metropolitan Diary: After Sandy

Dear Diary:

It was four days after Hurricane Sandy. I had moved to New York just three months earlier. I was living in a shabby one-bedroom in Kingsbridge in the Bronx, and I had serious cabin fever. As soon as the trains started to run again, I decided to go into Manhattan.

The train was more crowded than I had ever seen it. I bailed at 72nd Street and decided to walk down Broadway. I texted some friends in Park Slope and made plans to meet for lunch.

I kept walking on Broadway until I got to Chambers Street. It was the first time I had seen a significant portion of the downtown area, and the power was still out. I walked across the Brooklyn Bridge for the first time that day, too. I remember it being wickedly cold.

Later, when it was time to go home, I lined up for a shuttle bus outside Barclays Center. A young woman approached me and asked if I wanted a free ride to Manhattan. The mayor had imposed a minimum of three riders per vehicle, and she said that she and her friend needed a third.

I agreed, and followed her around the corner. Her friend, it turned out, was her father’s personal driver. I got a limo ride across the Manhattan Bridge and had them drop me off at the New York Public Library.

We made small talk along the way. I explained that I had moved to the city to study architecture history. The young woman pointed out random buildings and asked questions about them. I did my best to answer.

When they dropped me off, she asked for my card. It was the first time that had ever happened to me, too.

— Juliana Antoninus

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