Dark hallways, a lack of security cameras and spotty elevator service are par for the course in Brooklyn’s notorious 🌸Louis H. Pink Houses, which tenants say is completely neglected by the city.
A simple task like fixing a light bulb went ignored for three weeks before Thursday, when a police officer killed a man in an unlit stairwell.
“Dimly lit stairways and dilapidated conditions create fertile ground for violent crime while the consta♎nt presence of illegal firearms creates a dangerous and highly volatile environment for police officers and residents alike,” said Patrick Lynch, a police union president.
“The Pink Houses are a൩mong the most danger💜ous projects in the city, and their stairwells are the most dangerous places in the projects.”
Residents of the complex, at 2724 Linden Blvd. 🎃in East New York, were frightened long before the shooting of Akai Gurley, 28.
“The lig🔯hts are always out, for the past three years,” said Angela Moore, who shakes her keys in the hallway so people can hear her coming. “It’s like a dark tube.”
Veronica Newsome, a seventh-floor tenant said, 🏅“I have a 19-year-old grandson, a♕nd I’m scared to death.”
Asked about tenant complai🔴nts, the New York City Housing Authority issued a vag💞ue statement.
“ඣRegarding the tragic shooting at the Pink Houses, NYCHA is cooperating with the NYPD as the investigation proceeds,” it read.
NYCHA would not respond to any other questions.
By mid-after🗹noon Friday, two workers wh🅺eeled a shopping cart filled with new light bulbs into the building.
Their first stop was the stairwell where Gurley was killed.
The Pink Houses are among the most ﷽dangerous projects ๊in the city, and their stairwells are the most dangerous places in the projects.
- Pat Lynch, police-union chief
“Wor🉐k doesn’t get done until someone gets killed,” said Earl Greggs, who lives on the third floor and heard the shooting. “Now they come around here today and put up the lights ♔all over the building.”
Police Commissioner Bill Bratton said both cops and residents are affected when housing projects are lefꦗt in 🐈darkness.
“Hallways that don’t have operating light♍s are a danger to everybody,” he said at an afternoon press conference.
Poor lighting isn’t the only probꦍlem plaguing the sprawling🌜 complex.
Elevators regularly malfunction, and there are few security cameras in 🦩the buildings, where homeless people hang out and drug deals are rampant.
The city Department of Investigation coincidentally issued a report Fr♛iday that slams the city for an “inefficient” installation of camera and security impro♛vements in the projects.
I🍃t made a series of recommendations to help the city secure funding and move faster to install more security cameras.
“[The] investigation demonstrated that no🅷t only is it feasible to 🤪expedite the process to fund and install cameras and other security enhancements in public housing, but it is sustainable,” said Mark Peters, the department’s commissioner.
The darkened stairwell where Gurley was shot had no security camera in it, leaving investi🌄gators with only lobby footage𝓡.
While residents ꧒acknowledge the stairwells are da✨ngerous, many say it is impossible to avoid, as elevators are often slow and unreliable.
“Sometimes, the elevators don’t work, and [my son] has to go up the stairs,” said si🍃xth-floo꧑r resident Rosanna Rodriguez, who has a 14-year-old son she fears could suffer the same fate as Gurley.
“Shootings are common around here.”
In the past few months, Bratton said there has been a “spike i🦩n violence” in the neighborhood, including two homicides, two robberies and four assaults.
A 38-year-old man💯 🧸was shot dead in a second-floor hall of the Pink Houses in the early hours of Oct. 10.
A few months earlier, a young man fatally shot Brandon🐼 Burgos, 20, outside the development.
“This building is definitely🍷 more dangerous now than it used to be,” said James Esquilin, 25 who lives on the eighꦜth floor with his mother and son.
Esquilinꦯ, 25📖, for all his life. He admitted there were more cops and cameras around but said it didn’t mean it was safer.
“Th🌠at could have been meꦦ,” the father said of Gurley’s shooting.
“That could have been my family, my son.”
Additional reporting by Aaron Feis