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Washington Heights: Decrepit Or Just Whiny?
By
Jaya Saxena
Published Jan 23, 2011
Modified Jan 23, 2011
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By
Jaya Saxena
Published Jan 23, 2011
Modified Jan 23, 2011
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According to city data, Washington Heights residents have called 311 the most since the program started in 2005, complaining of things like heating, noise and construction. (And we're guessing dog poop.) Some complaints seem normal; mother Reina Martin has called 15 times to complain about lack of heat and water in her building. However, other complaints have the city's younsters coming off as incredibly unhip. Older residents say all the newcomers do is complain about people blasting salsa music and loud trucks rolling down the streets. Well yeah, they need to do their yoga in peace!
Other frequent 311 calling neighborhoods include Jamaica, Queens; East New York, Bed-Stuy and Flatbush in Brooklyn; and St. George in Staten Island—all lower income areas. Joan Byron of the Pratt Center for Community Development in Manhattan said, "Those are neighborhoods where there are tons of quality-of-life and health and environmental issues that are pretty underaddressed by city agencies. The data validates what people in those neighborhoods are saying, which is they are on the receiving end of really problematic stuff." Residents in Coney Island and Hunts Point, Bronx complain the least of anyone in the city, so with this logic we can assume that they're the nicest neighborhoods in the city. Or they just don't have phones.
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