With all the negative changes taking place in New York in the last few years, our neighborhood and community has experienced some of these changes as well, from increased crime to antisemitic incidents.

The streets that we live on feel a bit more scary. We hear about incidents that make us think twice before venturing out at night, or letting our children walk to school or the store alone.

Baruch Hashem, we have many local organizations that have been instrumental in providing security to our shechuna, including Shmira, Shomrim and Chaverim.

But we still have much work to do to restore a sense of safety and security on our streets.

We believe this can be done. By improving communication and representation with our local police departments, we will work on bringing a more visible and active police presence to our streets. We will also lobby Albany for security grants and funding that our community needs and deserves.

There are of course many other programs available to raise the quality of life for our families, including funded after-school programs offering children a safe and comfortable environment for continued growth. Such programs have the added benefit of allowing parents the space and time to tend to younger children as well.

Other quality-of-life issues the community must look into are the ever-multiplying CitiBike installations, and New York City’s expanding network of bike lanes, some of which are being proposed in high-traffic areas within the neighborhood.

In all of this, we are committed to fighting for our community’s needs and always keeping its best interests in mind.

We will also be working on getting the playgrounds adjacent to public schools spread throughout Crown Heights to be opened on days and during hours when school is not in session so that the local community can enjoy them, as well as alleviate the overcrowding we experience in the few public parks we have in the shechuna.