As the local community board prepares to vote on a moratorium on new liquor licenses in Greenpoint and Williamsburg, the Post reports that low-level drug busts are on the rise. Drug arrests have risen 33 percent so far this year compared to the same time period last year in Greenpoint and Williamsburg, an area the Post describes as "ground zero for the city's hipster community." Most of the 51 drug busts in the 94th Precinct were for heroin and marijuana, and according to the tabloid, the majority of the busts happened on Manhattan Avenue, north of Greenpoint Avenue. Along that stretch you'll find establishments like The Mark Bar and Papacitos, where, let's be honest, you probably wouldn't be ostracized for being high on drugs.
"These are mostly user-type people, not organized distributors," NYPD Deputy Inspector Frank Cangiarella said of the arrests. "[But] even though it's a small number, if the community is upset about it, we respond to the community complaints because it's important to them." And yet, a local motorcycle mechanic tells the Post drug use isn't on the rise—he speculates that some members of the local community are just fed up with gentrification and want the NYPD to send a message to the party people. "It's no different drugwise than it was three years ago," says Alex Christod, 30. "There seems to be a police crackdown because this is turning into a different kind of area—wealthier people are moving in."
On Thursday Community Board 1's Public Safety committee will meet at the Polish National Home on 261 Driggs Avenue to discuss a number of pending liquor license applications, and the proposed moratorium is expected to come up for a vote at the full board meeting on May 10th. The Community Board doesn't have the authority to impose a moratorium, and although the SLA tends to defer to community board recommendations on specific bars, the SLA has said that a blanket moratorium isn't feasible.
