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expertise and the direction for all of our projects; enabling us both to pinpoint the exact needs of the community and to muster the public support necessary for implementation of these projects. The active participation of a community on a large scale is unparalled in our knowledge and is the underlying cause of any successes we may claim. LEAA has provided the means to effectively utilize this groundswell of public participation.

6. Effects of other projects

It must be borne in mind that other projects of Midwood Kings Highway Development Corporation and/or other community organizations will create tem. porary security conditions which will need to be dealt with.

(a) Avenue K Redevelopment.-The housing rehabilitation project being done this summer under sponsorship of Midwood Kings Highway Development Corporation will involve the relocation of the resident families over a projected two year period. At the same time, construction crews will be working on the buildings themselves.

These efforts could create a potentially bad security situation on Avenue K itself and on the blocks immediately adjacent. We have prepared for this by organizing every block and building involved and by keeping open lines of communication to the people. We will concentrate at least two civilian patrols on this area nightly to monitor the site. We intend to cooperate and coordinate a three pronged coverage of the site with our civilian patrols, the contractor's private security guards and the NYC Police Department.

(b) Kolbert Park Restoration.-It is currently planned to revitalize and restore Kolbert Park, the only non-school connected public park in our area. Here, as on Avenue K, substantial construction will be taking place over approximately 8-12 months.

We have already organized many of the blocks surrounding the park and intend to utilize these block and tenant associations to ease the impact of the construction. We will also coordinate our car patrols, private security guards paid by the contractor and the NYC Police Department to see to it that no security problems arise from this construction and that the new park is maintained as a beautiful community asset after the work has been completed.

(c) Youth Center (Murrow High School).-As we have already been operating a two-night-a-week Youth Center at Edward R. Murrow High School, we have encountered some security related difficulty.

Since the youngsters tend to leave the center en masse, using local residential streets to walk on, some incidents of minor property damage to homes occurred. We have been able to meet this difficulty with coordinated effort by Night Center staff, NY Police Department patrols and civilian car patrols. This concentrated effort erased the problem completely.

It has been our experience that this coordinated approach of block and tenant organizing combined with patrol activity is an effective and versatile tool toward crime prevention. We intend to continue this concentrated approach wherever special conditions or past histories indicate that it would be appropriate.

7. Technical assistance to civil associations

A large amount of effort is being expended answering the needs of our local Civic Associations with expertise in various fields.

We have worked with all of the groups in setting up committees and training personnel extensively in the security field, including the organizing of car patrols; a processing of complaints against police; setting up of phone chains; and many other aspects of anti-crime activity.

Similarly, we have aided civic groups with formation of committees and training of personnel for dealing with complaints on education, sanitation, parks, trees and other areas of civic concern. The demand for a citizens advocacy agency in this area is tremendous, but it is not feasible at this time that staff working on LEAA lines be available to handle these conditions, so we have been seeing to it that each civic association is capable of handling these complaints on their own. When it has become necessary to take area-wide action, appropriate committees of the Midwood Kings Highway Development Corporation Board of Directors have taken responsibility. This system has proven extremely effective. Although it has required some extra efforts by our staff, it has provided the means to set-up permanent channels for citizen involvement and control, enabling an individual to have redress and input into many areas previously closed to him.

8. Concerned clergy of Midwood

We have now begun formation of a new group of all clergymen who represent a congregation in our area. We perceived a need for this type of organization through our efforts at the Senior Citizens clubs, most of which have been at religious institutions. We saw in talking to the priests and rabbis that a large segment of our community is only participating in any fashion through the family religious affiliation, and that the institutions themselves have a unique set of problems not addressed in any other way.

We have begun to form this group under the leadership of former Civil Court Justice Lester Sacks, and preliminary meetings have been held.

We have set specific goals and objectives for the group to meet and will work to insure its effectiveness.

We have provided that this new group will feed in to Midwood Kings Highway Development Corporation as a "sixth" civic association, providing effective input into all community development and security matters.

SECTION II

It is expected that by the end of year two, real solutions to the problems delineated above will be in effect and maintained. We anticipate benefits to be tangible and affecting the entire target community.

The end of year two should see a stronger, more highly organized community mobilized against crime, and a citizenry more involved than ever before in a wider range of community action programs designed to prevent crime.

1. Demographic impacts

As the proportions of our community consisting of elderly and minority residents grows, it would normally be expected that crime rates would increase. Housing stock would be expected to deteriorate, with effects flowing out to our schools, parks, merchants and other community assets. This pattern has been repeated over and over again in community after community in New York and in other cities.

While we could not be expected to reverse the demographic trends, we have, In fact, been able to minimize the possible negative effects. In fact our crime rate reports indicate that we have successfully reversed the traditional patterns.

We have yet to quantify the effect of our program on the perceptions of crime and safety in the community but we do have qualitative feedback in this direc tion. Many people have approached us, as individuals, stating that they have either taken their homes off the market or have extended their apartment leases. Many senior citizens clubs have changed dramatically in the past year, in a positive sense. A drive through the area reveals fewer "For Sale" signs and more improvements being made to homes, multiple dwellings and properties. We expect this trend to be more evidence by the end of year two. Civic Associations under our umbrella report that the general rate of occupancy turn-over has stabilized at 8 percent to 10 percent annually, a reasonable figure. Merchants Associations report a scarcity of vacancies and a general rise in rental rates indicating a healthy business atmosphere. These reports are of significance to us since they come from the very sectors of our community whose perceptions we are seeking to change. It represents a groundswell of confidence from neighborhood residents never visible before. We plan to have a more formalized measure for these impacts during the second year.

2. Crime

The data delineated above is extremely encouraging. It shows that crime rates can be drastically reduced, and that those rates can be maintained. We have been told by each precinct that September through December will show similar trends. We have also been told that we might expect slight increases in January and February due to the extremely heavy winters of 1977 compared to an extremely mild one in 1978.

These adjustments notwithstanding, we expect to have lowered the instance of crime in our community substantially by the end of year two. We do not know now what the minimum figures might be in a community such as ours, or even if such figures exist. We expect that eventually a stabilization will develop below which the level of crime will not drop. It is interesting to note that the 63F Auto Larceny figures, an area representing fully 40 percent of our

project area and one of our most highly organized communities, seems to indicate that this particular crime can virtually be eradicated.

Future results will be significant only if we can achieve a change in the perception of crime concomitant with the actual changes in crime itself. We keep publicizing these trends as they come to our attention. We discuss them at block and tenant meetings, we have published them in our own paper and in local publications.

3. Community organizing

As stated above, community organizing is the cornerstone of all of our efforts. As shown in the institutionalization charts, we expect at least 50 percent of new organizing to take place without our direct aid by the end of year two. We also expect that the three civic associations, whose car patrols we are now totally supporting financially, will be able to move to a 10¢ a mile reimbursement operation by the end of year two.

The civics are also expected to take over a substantial proportion of the program components. We expect that this will not only result in stronger civic associations but will also establish the mechanisms for continuation of all programs without interruption when LEAA funding terminates.

The results of the community organizing effort can only be more positive. As a citizen joins an organization and gains a real voice in his/her community she/he begins to feel a stronger degree of control. This sense of control over his/her environment should bring an end to frustration and hostility; the very cycle which has destroyed neighborhood after neighborhood in our city. This is effectively how we define the sense of "community" which we are attempting to engender. It affects every other aspect of community effort whether crime or non-crime related. The effects of this growing base for community action have already begun to be felt and are expected to grow.

4. Coterminality

It is expected that while the negative effects of co-terminality are serious, they will be short lived and that the long term effects should be positive. The fact that one precinct will be dealing with a cohesive organized community rather than three precincts dealing with fragments thereof, can only result in smoother more effective police performance. This is coupled with the fact that the community, through the Community Planning Board, has much more input into policy and planning under the new system.

This will be analyzed thoroughly as progress is made.

5. Government agencies

Our various projects have had dealings with and impacts upon many varied governmental agencies, on Federal, State and City levels. In varying degrees, cooperation from all levels of government has been satisfactory, once they became familiar with the goals and objectives of our organization. Once MKDC is recognized by a governmental agency as a legitimate and effective aegis through which programs can be accomplished, we have almost always received the cooperation required to meet our goals.

It is important to appreciate that the first such governmental recognition came from LEAA, which enabled us to effectively open up communication and dealings with all other levels of government. The following chart attempts to show how these relationships have grown to the point today where government and the people of Midwood have achieved a cooperative working relationship.

LEAA/MKDC: NYPD (Crime Prevention); NYC Board of Ed (Youth Program); CPB 14 (Citizen Complaints).

NYC Board of Ed/MKDC: NYC Youth Board (Recreation); Dept. HEW (Recreation & Education).

NYC Board of Ed/MKDC: P. S. 197 (Education); P. S. 193 (Education); J.H.S. 240 (Education); Murrow H.S. (Education).

CPB 14/MKDC : NYC Capital Budget-Kolbert Park (Recreational).
CPB 14/MKDC: NYS Dept. of Education-Midwood Field (Recreation).
CPB 14/MKDC: U.S. Dept. HUD 4-story walkups (Housing).
HUD/MKDC: NYS Div. of Housing-4-story multiples (Housing).

CPB 14/MKDC: NYS Supplemental; CB IV; Bklyn ED 368-Commercial Strips.

CPB 14/MKDC: NYC Dept. of Sanitation; NYC Dept. of Parks-Citizen problems.

1. Security

PROJECTS UNDERTAKEN BY MKDC

(a) Received $156,750 from United States Department of Justice, Law Enforce ment Assistance Administration for Community Anti-Crime project June 1, 1978 through June 15, 1979.

(b) Applied for $125,400 LEAA Continuation Grant (on above) June 16, 1979 through May 31, 1980.

2. Recreation

(a) Secured $14,000 for design work and $200,000 for construction from New York City Capital Budget FY79 for rehabilitation of Kolbert Park.

(b) Secured $1,000 Self-Help Neighborhood Award Program grant for park improvement.

(c) Secured $600 for planting in Kolbert Park (Civic Assoc. Kolbert F.W. Prvt Citizens).

(d) Applied for $88,128 grant from the Department of Health, Education and Welfare for supplemental education program at Murrow High School.

(e) Applied for $93,000 New York City Youth Board Grant for recreation center at Murrow High School.

(f) Received grant $4,763.61 from New York State Board of Education for Murrow recreational center.

(g) Channeled $750,000 New York State Department of Education funds (5/79) to rebuild Midwood Field.

3. Housing

(a) Received New York State grant $50,000 for rehabilitation and redevelopment of area four story walk-ups effective 4/1/78.

(b) Received $10,000 New York State housing grant to rehabilitate multiple dwellings on Ocean Avenue effective 4/1/78.

(c) Currently not-for-profit sponsor of nine million dollars in federal funds to rehabilitate local four story walk-ups effective 5/15/79.

4. Education

(a) Achieved release of $1,440,000 for completion of Murrow High School shops from Public Works money to N.Y.C.

(b) Attempting release of $29,000 for modernization of P.S. 197 from New York City Board of Education.

(c) Attempting release of $1,100,000 for modernization of J.H.S. 240. Economic Development Administration funds. Public Works money to N.Y.C.

(d) Has secured through School District 22 $250,000 Emergency School Aid Act funds for P.S. 193.

(e) Have submitted $163,000 grant to H.E.W. for pilot program for elementary schools.

5. Commercial strips

(a) Received 1/1/79 $96,500 New York State grant for the planning and design of commercial strips in the area.

(b) Received 7/1/79 $40,000 CD IV monies for capital improvement on Avenue J.

(c) Received 7/1/79 $150,000 in ED368 funds (Borough of Brooklyn for capital improvement on Kings Highway. Tentative total: $13,761,427.

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Epter All figures represent family units rather than individuals.

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