GREENPOINT — State and city lawmakers are calling on the NYPD to assign more school crossing guards to the neighborhood as the North Brooklyn construction boom continues to draw more residents to the area.
“Many newcomers to the area have moved to the area to begin new families, which has also added to the number of school-age children within Greenpoint and Williamsburg," said Assemblyman Joseph Lentol, who sent the Jan. 31 letter along with State Senator Daniel Squadron and City Councilman Stephen Levin.
The surge in pedestrians has made for more likelihood of crashes, the letter argues, as in the case of a January incident where a young child was hit at the intersection of Nassau Avenue and Russell Street.
"[There are] more and more children on our streets and we need the proper crossing guards resources to ensure their safety," Lentol said.
Joint Request for 94th Precinct Crossing Guards by egbaker on Scribd
In late January, Mayor de Blasio announced he was allocating $400 million to hire 200 part-time and 100 full-time crossing guards in the coming months as part of his Vision Zero initiative.
The demand in Greenpoint comes as constituent have reached out to Lentol and Squadron's offices about the dearth of crossing guards in the neighborhood.
Principal Christina Cieloszczyk, who oversees St. Stanislaus Academy at 12 Newell St., has been asking the 94th Precinct to replace a crossing guard on the busy corner of McGuinness Boulevard, a four-lane through fare, and Driggs Avenue.
"Parents are concerned especially about our older students who often have permission to come to school on their own," Cieloszczyk said of her 217-student school. "It's a bad intersection...Especially in the morning, during rush hour people will do whatever they feel is necessary to beat the lights."
Cieloszczyk said that they've been in touch with the 94th Precinct multiple times asking for someone to be reassigned. While the precinct has responded that they're working on it, they've said that there currently don't have anyone they can assign.
A nearby school on Kent Avenue has had similar issues getting a crossing guard at their school, though it's located in the adjacent 90th Precinct, DNAinfo reported.
A spokesperson for the police department said they would review the Senator Squadron and Assemblyman Lentol's letter and didn't comment further.
