A group of New York City agencies have been working to improve the conditions in Midtown, amid complaints from community members who are concerned about issues they see in the neighborhood.
Composed of twenty city agencies, the Midtown Community Improvement Coalition has been working to address retail theft, substance abuse, mental health, and unlicensed cannabis shops, from West 34th to West 45th streets between Seventh and Ninth avenues. But the coalition’s efforts are garnering mixed results from community members who want more systematic issues addressed.
John Mudd, the president of the Midtown South Community Council, a non-profit that focuses on health, housing and hunger in Midtown, said the city needs to be doing more around homelessness.
“This is nothing but optics, like everything else,” said Mudd, who added that tackling homelessness should be a top priority.
“We can, you know, do some incremental things, but there’s a lot of pain out there,” said Mudd. “I mean, do we really want to keep walking the streets and ignoring the pain until we get colder and find ourselves in this predicament?”
Officially announced in July by New York City Mayor Eric Adams and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, the coalition began coordinating its activities in April with bimonthly meetings to discuss complaints and solutions.
The coalition is led by three co-chairs who run Midtown non-profits: Barbara Blair, the president of the Garment District Alliance, Tom Harris, the president of the Times Square Alliance, and Brian Weber, the president of the NYPD Midtown South Council.
Blair said the group is focused on addressing immediate issues, not systemic ones. “The idea of changing public policy, which is the root cause of these problems, is a big, overarching, long term legislative process — that is not the purpose of this committee.”
But Harris said the coalition’s efforts have led to the closing of eight illegal cannabis stores by law enforcement agencies and the placement of over 30 people in supportive housing.
The group also has developed a sub group, working with the Department of Homeless Services, that canvasses Midtown to help place people in transitional housing if needed, said Harris.
“They’re going between 24th and 54th Street for 21 consecutive days now, from 7 a.m. to 10 a.m., and then from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m., and the joint outreach resulted in 39 individuals placed in transitional homes,” he said.
“Our goal is to meet people where they are, address the challenge where it is, and look for creative solutions,” said Harris. “We’re not looking to displace the unhoused and mentally ill. We’re looking to provide them service and support and build trust with them.”
Doug Cohen, the press secretary in the Manhattan’s D.A. office, said the coalition has been helping to reduce crime in Midtown.
“We are also working with the NYPD to address recidivism and have identified repeat offenders for offenses such as shoplifting. That information is shared with our Trial Division, which ensures our office is prepared to take appropriate action when a recidivist is arrested,” Cohen said.
A poll in April by Hell’s Kitchen news outlet W42ST found that almost 80% of people in Hell’s Kitchen believe there is more crime now than five years ago. And 40% said they’ve experienced crime in the past year in the neighborhood.
Aleta LaFargue, the president of the Manhattan Plaza Tenants Association, said she’s observed a lack of police presence in Hell’s Kitchen that has contributed to a rise in crime and theft.
“There’s not even police walking around on the streets to support or protect — they’re just not,” LaFargue said.
Public data from the Manhattan Institute shows that 2023 was the second highest year on record for shoplifting, as Business Improvement Districts saw a 74.1% increase in theft since 2019.
But the coalition has made improvements in a smaller issue such as the removal of sidewalk sheds.
“We’ve persuaded a lot of the restaurants to take down sheds down on their own,” Blair said. “There are nine still on the map that we’re trying to have taken down.”
The coalition has removed 15 inappropriately built dining sheds and cleaned up a hundred syringes off the streets, Blair added.
Madelyn Wils, the president of the 5th Avenue Association, an organization of businesses along 5th Avenue, said she appreciates the coalition’s work. Since it started monitoring the area, she’s seen more businesses open on Fifth Avenue.
“We’ve had a lot of the big luxury brands buying buildings, staking the ground long term, with the promise that the city is going to be putting public money into improving the streetscape there and matching the kind of investment that these groups are putting in,” Wils said.