Community Corner
'Hostile' Complaints Force UWS Community Fridge To Close
The West End Fridge sat in front of an UWS church for nine months before it was forced to close due to "increasingly hostile" complaints.
UPPER WEST SIDE, NY — A community fridge first appeared nine months ago outside the West End Collegiate Church on West 77th Street between West End and Broadway. Since September 2020, it has served as a resource for a growing group of New Yorkers who found themselves food insecure due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Last week, the West End Community Fridge announced it was closing because, "not everybody was a fan of the West End Fridge, and due to the increasingly hostile nature of the complaints being made to the church, they have been forced to make this difficult decision."
The West Side Rag was the first to report on the fridge's closure at the Upper West Side location.
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The fridge was exclusively filled with products donated by neighborhood residents.
Rev. William Critzman, a minister at the West End Collegiate Church, told the West Side Rag that a "small but very vocal" group of neighbors demanded the fridge needed to be shut down and that marijuana smoking in the area was one of the concerns expressed.
Find out what's happening in Upper West Sidefor free with the latest updates from Patch.
“Our block has gone through hell in the past 14 months,” an anonymous Upper West Sider told the West Side Rag. “The main issues were: constant noise (day and night), excessive loitering, public defecation and urinating, littering and loud music/singing. Weed smoking was coming more from the Belleclaire Hotel, I think. The church has been running a soup kitchen for years on Tuesdays and there has never been a problem. They could have tried to tweak their pantry program in many ways, but decided not to. I guess it is easier to blame the evil neighbors…The sad truth is that since the Church closed the food pantry, 80% of the problems went away….”
While the West End Fridge is still looking for a new permanent home on the Upper West Side, it opened a pop-up pantry outside the Hotel Belleclaire, currently a temporary homeless shelter, at West 77th and Broadway on Saturday.
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