UWS Facebook Group, NYPD Team Up For Public Safety Forum

UPPER WEST SIDE, NY — An Upper West Side Facebook group born out of common opposition to homeless residents getting moved into The Lucerne hotel on the UWS, and the 20th and 24th police precincts are holding a public forum Thursday night to address recent crime in the community.

The online forum will take place at 5:30 p.m., but registration for the event is now closed.

Officers from the two Upper West Side precincts will answer pre-submitted questions about crime in the neighborhood. The Thursday meeting comes on the heels of an April 8 meeting where the two precincts also answered questions submitted by the public.

In regards to April 8, meeting Unfortunately we have reach our Covid allotted capacity. those unable to attend please see link for @savetheuws Zoom meeting where you can send questions to be discussed with the @NYPD24Pct and @NYPD20Pct on April 15.https://t.co/VLpYdD4ulY
— NYPD 20th Precinct (@NYPD20Pct) April 7, 2021

The event's primary organizer is the Upper West Side Together Facebook group, formerly Upper West Siders for Safer Streets, which now has over 15,000 members.

The group was created at the end of July when 283 homeless residents moved into the Lucerne Hotel. The page was used as a platform to share photos of the new UWS residents and vent frustration about the city's decision to use the neighborhood hotel as a temporary shelter.

The Facebook group would go on to help raise over $200,000 to hire attorney Randy Mastro to take legal action to move the residents out of the neighborhood — a process that is still being fought out in the courts.

The Facebook page describes its goal as "continuing to take positive action to this end while also ensuring city agencies uphold their commitments to providing much needed mental health, addiction, and other services to the city’s homeless."

Upper West Side Together also says that while it is a "non-partisan page," it will continue pivoting to sharing information about candidates running for local office.

One of those candidates is Maria Danzilo, who is running for City Council on the Upper West Side.

Danzilo writes the following as her No. 1 priority for the neighborhood:

"The UWS must be a place where every single person can live and work without fear. Maria will fight to ensure that our city government provides our neighborhood with our fair share of resources to ensure public safety for all and will work to return the neighborhood to the safe community that it has been."

Danzilo listed Thursday night's public safety forum on her official City Council campaign Facebook page as an "Event by Maria Danzillo for City Council District 6 UWS." However, a spokesperson for the Upper West Side candidate told Patch on Friday that the campaign chose to create the event to promote sign-ups for the public safety conversation — not to say it was an official campaign event.

Not everyone in the Upper West Side community is happy about Thursday's forum, though.

"Why are you (NYPD) hosting a forum with a group that has taken actions non-congruent with safety, like sending private investigators to a homeless man's apartment or if anybody looks at the original Gothamist article, talking about using wasp spray and knives on homeless people," a concerned Upper West Side community member told Patch. "Why are they cosigning this event?"

The Upper West Side Together Facebook group is not officially affiliated with West Side Community Organization, which is the group that had its attorney send private investigators to the new home of a former Lucerne resident and take pictures without his knowledge, according to court documents.

However, the organization was founded by multiple members of the original Upper West Side for Safer Streets Facebook group and shares many of the same beliefs regarding the neighborhood.

"While we try our best to monitor and remove unwelcome comments, it is impossible to screen every single comment," Upper West Side Together told Patch. "We regret that there have been instances of hateful speech made by some members who have since been removed, however, that in no way reflects the feelings of our 15,000 member strong group or delegitimizes the group."

Council Member Helen Rosenthal, who community members expressed concerns to about Thursday's meeting, told Patch she spoke with members of the Upper West Side police precincts and urged them to invite the new Chief of Community Policing.

The new position is tasked with connecting precincts with community organizations to address problems that police are not equipped to handle. The Chief of Community Policing will be at Thursday's event after the push from Rosenthal.

"The community has decided to be proactive and learn how we can work together to make the area safer for everyone who lives here and works here," Upper West Side Together told Patch about the reasoning for the forum.