Christine Quinn’s Plan for the Christopher Street Pier
I previously posted about the conflict between New York City Greenwich Village residents and gay teens who claim the Christopher Street pier as their safe haven here and here.
Today’s New York Times features an article titled “The Kids of Christopher Street” that highlights City Council Speaker Christine C. Quinn’s plan for the pier:
Ms. Quinn’s idea offers something for both sides. To appease residents, the police presence around the pier would be increased, with up to eight officers patrolling the area overnight from Thursdays to Sundays. To help the teenagers, staff members from a youth aid organization called the Door have begun visiting the pier from 11 p.m. to 1:30 a.m., counseling the youths about issues like HIV testing. The Door is receiving $157,500 from the city to cover its program through June.
“We can’t prevent every last incident from happening, but we will try to create an atmosphere of mutual respect,†said Kate Gunther, the group’s director of development. The Door also has a youth center several blocks away on Broome Street, which will stay open two nights a week until 10, two hours later than usual. The center has a weight room and a dance studio, and it stages activities like fashion shows put on by gay teenagers.
It’s not a perfect plan. It’s most obvious flaw, as Bob Kohler, a veteran gay rights campaigner, is quoted on in the Times article: “The problems happen after 1 a.m., when the pier closes and the kids have nowhere to go.â€
Read “The Kids of Christopher Street” here.
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The good as I see it is:
The Door’s involvement. THe Door is a good organization and will work with members of the community.
The problems as I see it are:
1) A group of social service providers, queer youth organizers, and community members were attempting to come up with a plan and I wonder how much their input and feedback were really heard. Beefing up police presence was NOT one of the goals of this group. In fact, I think that’s going to lead to more criminalizing of queer youth of color, many of whom already talk about being targetted unfairly.
2) What also saddens and annoys me is that the discourse about this issue assumes that the Pier is not a public space, but a public space for “acceptable” citizens and residents. Queers have been gathering at the Pier long before this debate began. Sticking a social service provider and cops in the area is not gonna make those pesky queer youth of color go away. Whose space, our space, has been FIERCE’s motto and it bears repeating. (FIERCE has done so much work on this issue that the lack of quotes in the article from them is notable).
3) When will an article touch on the network and community these young people form on the Pier instead of giving us the usual stereotypes about disaffected youth. Yes, there are marginalized, homeless, and disenfranchised youth who hang out at the Pier. But that’s never been the whole story of who these youth are, individually and collectively. Yes, there needs to be more social services, HIV/AIDS prevention, shelters etc. But the solution is not going to lie in one social service agency or 10 more cops patrolling the area. I think the residents want a quick fix, a way to not see/hear these kids, and they want a social service agency to come in and do the “dirty work.” I doubt it’ll work.
4) I am not so naive to make a claim that there’s no drug dealing or loud and disruptive behavior by youth at the Pier. Guess what I deal with it too in my neighborhood, but because it’s NYU students or white kids from Jersey no one is protesting or writing articles about it.