They marched on Walgreens until they got a nicer new store. They took up arms and got more police patrols, and a drop in crime. Now Edgewoodâs rabbi-led ââdefense patrolâ is taking on a new target: absentee landlords they say are running down the neighborhood.
Patrol organizer Eli Greer and his sidekick, national Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sliwa (pictured from right to left), announced the new campaign Monday outside the police substation on Whalley Avenue. They promised to use publicity and patrols to pressure slumlords and the johns and drug-buyers frequenting their properties. And Sliwa promised to ââtake downâ criminals at the properties with citizen arrests.
The pair identified one building in particular, 255 Ellsworth Ave., and its Meriden-based owner as their first target.
Meanwhile, city officials, including the neighborhoodâs top cop, described the landlord as responsible and cooperative in efforts to fight blight and crime.
âDay of Reckoningâ
Greer and Sliwa blasted the building owner, Christine Bonito, at the press conference unveiling their plans. Greer said his group had repeatedly written to Bonito and called her to complain about continual drug-dealing and prostitution at the multi-family property, to no avail.
He displayed a picture of the property along with Bonitoâs name and the Meriden address of the limited liability corporation, Angel from Above, through which she owns it.
âThis property has been a constant nuisance in this neighborhood,â he declared. ââHer day of reckoning has come.â
Greer said his group has a list of ââsix to eightâ other ââslumlordsâ it plans to target if they donât take responsibility for crimes committed by tenants. He said a message is going out to these landlords: ââTake control of your property or donât be a landlord⌠Youâre the landlord. You milk it. You get the rent checks. Youâre responsible for who lives there, who hangs around your property.â
Click on the play arrow to watch Greer describe his message to absentee landlords.
When Greer was a kid, back in the 1990s, Rabbi Daniel Greer, organized a similar neighborhood group that targeted prostitution by posting flyers with names and addresses of ââJohns of the Weekâ who drove into Edgewood to patronize prostitutes.
In ââratcheting upâ their efforts now, Eli Greer said, his Edgewood Park Defense Patrol would similarly expose both johns and landlords to public shame. They would also use the ââsheer physical presenceâ of the armed citizen patrols they formed, along with Guardian Angels patrols, to keep deter criminal behavior.
Curtis Sliwa of the Guardian Angels vowed that, when his patrols see people leaving the building after buying drugs, ââWe will not hesitate to take them down, put the drugs out in the street, call the police, and make a citizenâs arrest.â
How will they avoid grabbing people on innocent visits to the building?
Through their ââstreet smarts,â Sliwa said. He also said the Guardian Angels have been watching the building, gathering intelligence on who goes there and why.
The Latest Step
Bonitoâs property is across the street from the Whalley Walgreens, where Greer-organized neighborhoods picketed to demand cleaner conditions. The company ended up agreeing to tear down its store and build a new one. It consulted with the neighborhood and agreed to use brick instead of stucco facing. The store is under construction.
The building is also in the Elm-Edgewood neighborhood, where the Greer family runs a yeshiva in the neighborhood and owns many properties (including one next door Bonitoâs). In June the Greers made national news by forming their armed citizens patrol in reaction to rising crime.
They came under criticism for the guns. But they also won increased police patrols. They drew the Guardian Angels to town to form their own, unarmed, citizens patrol to work in concert with the group; the Angels graduated a class of New Haven recruits on Sunday.
Greer claimed crime has dropped 50 to 55 percent from a year ago in the neighborhood. Mayoral spokeswoman Jessica Mayorga said the city doesnât have a statistical breakdown for Elm-Edgewood. Crime has indeed dropped there, as it has throughout the city, she said, adding that the drop cannot be attributed to the work of any one group.
Both Greer and Sliwa called their new landlord campaign a logical next step in their joint efforts to clean up the historic, racially diverse, Victorian-lined streets around Edgewood Park. Sliwa grouped Bonito among absentee landlords who ââthrow nickels around like manhole covers who just care if the check or the cash clears at the end of the month and donât give jack diddly squat ⌠whatsoever who the tenants are⌠The building will be shut down.â
Click on the play arrow to watch Sliwa talk like a tough guy.
âA Nice Girlâ
To Sgt. Stephen Shea, district manager at the Edgewood/Whalley police substation, Christine Bonito is precisely the kind of landlord he wants to see in the neighborhood.
He said ââonly recentlyâ did complaints start surfacing about criminal activity at the building. He said the problem stems from some problem tenants. Bonito has worked closely with the cops, according to Shea, to address the problems. She signed up for ââLight the Night,â a program to keep bright lights outside her property all night. She has begun evicting problem tenants, too, he said. That process takes time.
Bonito herself failed to return repeated phone messages left with Shoreline Property Management, the Meriden company whose number is listed at the building. Nor did Cheryl Wilcox, her attorney in two pending eviction cases, return a call by press time.
âSheâs been responsive,â Shea said of Bonito. ââItâs good. We have to work together. Sheâs a nice girl. Sheâs at that property at least two, three times a week. Sheâs in contact with me regularly about what steps we can take to eradicate problems.â
Mayoral spokeswoman Mayorga also said Bonito has been cooperative with building inspectors. Her building has two subsidized Section 8 apartments. The city inspected them recently, according to Mayorga; one apartment passed, one failed. ââWe are receiving cooperationâ from Bonito as she prepares for a Nov. 9 reinspection, Mayorga said. She said the city has no housing code violations or overcrowding complaints on record at the property.
John Zeng (pictured), owner of Aâ1 Oriental Kitchen, rents a first-floor Whalley storefront from Bonito; the store is attached to the apartment building. he said sheâs been a good landlord.
This man, who identified himself as the buildingâs superintendent, also praised her. He didnât give his name. He comes to the building Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, he said. ââI just clean and go. I donât know what they do around here. I just keep it clean.â