Wayne Street Watch


Dear Neighbors,

In light of the recent shooting and other criminal activity on our street many of your neighbors have decided to join together and form a Block Watch. It is only through a group effort that we will increase awareness on the part of the police and the City. We are strength in NUMBERS and need all residents to join together to do our part to finally clean up Wayne Street. Please join us for our first meeting where you will have the opportunity to meet your neighbors and learn more about the Wayne Street Watch. We will be joined by members of the Downtown JC Watch who will talk to us about implementing the block watch/phone tree. We will also provide follow up to some of the other solutions that were explored at the September 22nd Captain?s meeting.


WHEN: Tuesday, October 6th, 2009
7:00 pm

WHERE: Barrow Mansion

WHO: Residents of
Wayne Street (Varick to Grove)
Barrow Street (Mercer to Columbus)



*Please email questions or concerns to
waynestreetwatch@googlegroups.com

Hope everyone can make the rally.

Van Vorst Park
Association



83 Wayne Street
Jersey City, NJ 07302
www.vvpa.org


Attention VVPA Membership, Friends and Neighbors :


On the afternoon of Tuesday, September 15th, there was a shooting on Wayne Street between Jersey Avenue and Barrow Street. This block is home to St Matthew's Church, the Barrow Mansion, a playground as well as both single and multi-family residences . It is a block notorious for criminal and drug-related activity. This shooting happened at 3pm.


The police are aware of the problems with this block and have managed problems as they've arisen in the past. There are plans in discussion to improve the safety of the block including installing security cameras, increasing the height of the fences around the playground and locking the playground at night. As of yet, none of these strategies has been put into place.


Any shooting, especially those happening midday along a well-traveled street, should not go unrecognized. East District Captain Gallagher will be holding his monthly Captain's Meeting at PS 4 on Bright Street at 7pm this Tuesday, September 22. There will be a group gathering first in front of the playground on Wayne Street on Tuesday evening at 6:30pm. At 6:45pm, the group will then walk to the Captain's Meeting in a show of solidarity against this senseless and dangerous street violence.


You are encouraged to attend.


Thank you.
The VVPA

I think we can all agree it is not THE PARK itself but the majority of people who hang out in the park.. Sadly, the park is not used by many in the community for its intended purpose and has become a well known hang out for shady characters. Unless there is a major intervention made by police to clean up and monitor the park which they have yet to do thus far, I personally would rather see the City do something else with the space.

I was a witness to the 3pm shooting. I spent until 6pm giving statements to detectives and trying to ID the car involved. Just to clarify there was only one shot fired and the victim was shot in the thigh (definitely not head and neck). The victim drove away by himself in a double parked vehicle. He drove himself to Christ Hospital. There were many witnesses most of whom fled the scene. The few who remained did not say a word to police when they arrived. I think the detectives thought I was making the whole thing up until they actually found the shell and the report came in from Christ that they had a gun shot victim matching my description.

My husband attended the VVPA meeting tonight to discuss todays incidents and I believe the board has decided to try and organize a rally for next Tuesday. I'm sure details will be posted.

I discussed my concerns about safety on Wayne St. with the police/detectives.. They seem to think that closing the park would obviously resolve many if not most of the problems.