The Crown Heights Revolution

The Crown Heights Revolution

By: Jeanette Knotts

Two decades ago, the Crown Heights neighborhood in Brooklyn, NY, could be described as gritty, poverty stricken, strife and murderous. There were moments during the early-to-mid 1990s where you couldn’t get anyone to walk the gloomy and dreadful blocks of Crown Heights, let alone live there.

Police try to diffuse a rowdy crowd during the 1991 Crown Heights Riot
(Pic courtesy of: Angel Franco for NYTimes)

Most known for its 1991 riots, this neighborhood’s crime rates reached roughly about 7,000 major crimes per year, according to dnainfo.com. Longed were the days its residents wished the streets could get safer, where innocent children could play outside without worries.

Having to live with such an abundant amount of fear of a dangerous community was all too familiar to me. I was born in Brooklyn and raised in Crown Heights during this neighborhood’s violent era. I can remember being told to stay indoors once the sun was down because most of the murders, random shootings, rapes and robberies happened at night.

Newly renovated apartment buildings on St. Johns Place
Photo Credit: Jeanette Knotts

The sound of helicopters hovering closely above my apartment building, with blinding search lights fishing for suspects instilled a fear in me that will never go away.

It is now 2013, 20 years later, and the desperate call for change in the community has been answered. The streets are now glowing with light, even when it’s dark. Old, run down buildings have been renovated, condos have been built alongside crisp green grass and tall trees, and crime rate has decreased tremendously within the past decade.

A newly built condo (2007) located on St. Johns and Grand Army Plaza
Photo Credit: Jeanette Knotts

I recently spoke to an old neighbor of mine, Willie Mae Terrell, and asked her how she felt about the new neighborhood; she said “I’m very pleased with the change in this community. Having lived here for nearly 30 years, it’s been a long time coming!” she continued, “I witnessed so many muggings and violent fights living in Crown Heights, I’m just thrilled to see that a change has finally come, although I’m not too happy with the major raise in rent”, she laughed. People who wouldn’t dare to breathe in the once dreadful Brooklyn neighborhood are now packing up with their families and migrating to Crown Heights. This is the revolution that has been televised!