NEW YORK — Harlem will see this weekend increased police presence as gun violence increases across the city, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Friday.
De Blasio, tasked with combating both an uptick in violent crime and mounting outrage against the NYPD, couched this announcement in details of grassroots plans to engage young people in the neighborhood.
More than 20 undisclosed streets and New York City Housing Authority development sites will see more cops on patrol, de Blasio said.
But there will also be an occupation movement, youth town hall and basketball pop-up games, de Blasio added.
“We cannot have people live in fear,” de Blasio said. “We cannot have our young people in the crossfires.”
De Blasio said he held a meeting on gun violence earlier this week with the NYPD and Harlem community leaders, including State Senator Brian Benjamin who joined the press briefing Friday.
Benjamin told de Blasio police presence did not make all New Yorkers feel more safe and called for increased programming to engage local kids.
“It’s been a rough couple weeks,” Benjamin said. “We have to give our community and our young people something productive to do.”
To that end, the city will host a youth town hall in Harlem next week and pop-up basketball frills hosted by the NYPD, local groups and the Parks Department.
“All these pieces need to come together with a vision for turning things around on the ground in Harlem,” de Blasio said.
There will also be this weekend a peaceful occupation by local residents on the corner of West 143rd Street and Lenox Avenue, which has seen multiple shootings in recent weeks, hosted by anti-gun violence group Street Corner Resources.
“We have to incorporate those folks with helping us to end gun violence,” CEO Iesha Sekou said. “We need to see more of our young people feeling valued.”
Sekou detailed the tactics her group uses to disrupt and deescalate street fights which said often spiral out of control, which sometimes involves physically separating people who may or many not be armed.
Her team, none of whom wear uniforms or carry weapons, are often thanked by parents of those teens, Sekou said.
‘“They’d rather that than bury their child,” Sekou said.
De Blasio also took a moment to address the incoming Tropical Storm Fay, urging New Yorkers to order takeout instead of going out to dine Friday night and assuring them the city was prepared to deal with the weather.
“We do expect that we’re going to have some damage to trees because of the wind,” NYC Emergency Management Deanne Criswell added.
The mayor released Thursday’s COVID-19 tracking indicators which showed numbers below the reopening thresholds, with 62 hospitalizations, 293 Intensive Care Unit patients and a 2 percent positive testing rate.
While de Blasio celebrated the low numbers, Senior Health Advisor Dr. Jay Varma said New Yorkers remain at risk of contracting the virus because the city had likely not developed a herd immunity.
“Immunity is a very unlikely explanation,” Varma said. “There are still far too many New Yorkers susceptible.”