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Michael
Carter, a retired salesman, got fed up a few years ago. Carter,
77, was tired of teen-agers stealing from the yard of his two-story
red brick corner house in Brownsville, Brooklyn. "I just have had
a lot of problems," he says. Thieves were stealing "anything they
could get their hands on," including garbage cans. Over the years, Carter put up several fences for protection but the teens would just climb over them, he says. As a last resort, Carter erected a $3,200 barrier of iron gates, pad locks, barbed wire, circular razor wire and the occasional "Danger Keep Off" sign (see this story's cover page). "What you see is my final step," he says. "It has been effective." Since the elaborate fence went up, Carter says he has had no problems, though he says the all-night noise from the shelter is as bad as the theft. Overall, though, Carter says Brownsville is a decent neighborhood, but that on his block, it's better to be safe than sorry.
Laura Regan, an actress who lives on the third floor of an Upper West Side brownstone, didn't give security much thought when she bought her apartment. "I have a good lock," she says, "and I'm not terribly worried." One reason she isn't worried is because of the very nature of her small building. There are only eight apartments, she says, "and I have very cautious neighbors. They know who's in and who's out, and everyone knows one another." For instance, they would know if she were moving out, says Regan, so if one of her neighbors saw someone walking out of her apartment with a television set, suspicions would rise.
However,
in other sections of New York, brownstone residents sometimes take
more security precautions. Manfred Krueger, a software consultant
who rents the ground floor of
a Clinton Hill brownstone in Brooklyn, likes that his landlord has
installed a security camera for added protection. The camera monitors
the entrance to Krueger's building, sending the images to a closed-circuit
TV in Krueger's apartment. This allows Krueger to see who he is
buzzing in to his home. Krueger, who has lived in Clinton Hill since
September, isn't too worried about burglaries, having heard of none
in the neighborhood. Car break-ins are the main problem, he says.
Margaret
Marshall has lived in two buildings with doormen since she moved
to New York six years ago. The first, located on East 62nd between
Madison Avenue and Fifth Avenue, was a veritable fortress and
not unlike Florida's gated communities. The front door was always
locked, and there were cameras everywhere: in the lobby, in the
elevator and even on the roof. If the doorman stepped away for
a minute there was no question of entering the building - visitors
and residents had to wait outside. "It was secure, but not convenient,"
says Marshall.
It was also very expensive. Residents paid $3,500 a month in common
charges, most of which went to the salaries of the doormen. Marshall
says the service was indispensable because a majority of the owners
in the small building - it has only 13 apartments - didn't live
there year-round. Initially, the attraction to a building with
a doorman was one of convenience, says Marshall, "although we
appreciated the security once we were there."
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are
examples of how New Yorkers defend themselves from break-ins.
