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North Babylon, Town
of Babylon, Letter to Steve Bellone Supervisor, Babylon Town Council, Richard Schaffer
The following letter is
being published at a member's request.
It was originally sent to Town of Babylon Supervisor, Steve Bellone.
The North Babylon writer chooses to remain
anonymous.
Letter dated: October 2002 - Published here December 2002
Replies and responsible input from Town representatives published here if received.
On May 26 2003, Frank updated the report via email to say..."The town finally got around to putting up SOME of the truck restriction signs in my area. A massage parlor was shut down on the east bound sunrise highway....AND my community may be getting another topless/ bottomless bar.. That would make three x-rated bars all within less than 60 seconds traveling distance from each other... About 2 weeks ago those Crime Control officers who are in the webpage letter to Bellone, arrested 10 "johns" in like 2-1/2 hours. The many cars of all these johns were abandoned all over the service road and on my road.
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Greetings Steve,
Unfortunately I can't claim that all is well, but it could be worse I suppose. I do need to tell you a few things though, and I hope you aren't one of those people that can't stand details.
Hooker in BabylonThe quantity of prostitutes who stroll from their base at the Hotel down to the supermarket on Hubbards Path, has decreased due in part to several police "John" stings but also mostly due to the fact that the season has changed. Over the many years I've noticed the prostitution out of that Hotel increases and decreases on a seasonal basis. Warmer weather and warmer seasons are literally hell for my wife and two little daughters because the presence of these prostitutes makes it almost impossible for my little girls to even play in our yard without being directly exposed to the activities of these prostitutes.
Over this summer I have accumulated quite a few photographs of these prostitutes, so don't let anyone tell you that there aren't any. I say this because I recall Mrs. Kaphan saying that she felt there was no more a prostitute problem here that there is in front of a church! That's simply inaccurate. I don't know who she heard such a thing from, but it completely discounts the fact that I have photographs of these women flagging down cars and trolling for male clients. I know of no churches where prostitutes provide oral sex services at curbside. But I have seen it here right on my street.
'' I have photographs of these women flagging down cars and trolling for male clients."
Over this summer I have caught up with prostitutes providing sex for money services directly in front of neighbor's homes,
(during daylight, in the afternoon) in front of the -- Riding Academy over on Peconic Ave and in the Supermarket parking lot in North Babylon.All during the daylight hours where anyone and everyone could see them. If you really want accurate information, please talk to Crime Section Detectives Rich and Hughs and Fitzpatrick.
Over the summer I was forced to call the Crime Section directly over 25 times, and my Neighborhood Watch partner called them more than a few times also. A photograph catalog of 6 different prostitutes, can't be dismissed so easily.
Hooker waving for "John"
At the "Office""There were in fact more than 6 different prostitutes, but I simply was not quick enough to photograph them all."
There were in fact more than 6 different prostitutes, but I simply was not quick enough to photograph them all. As far as the XXXXX Hotel itself, I believe the Crime Section Detectives can tell you if there have been enough arrests there of the type needed to satisfy using the "Crack house" law. I also believe that there is a land use violation going on there. I say this because the XXXXX Hotel is not being operated as a Hotel. It doesn't advertise rooms for rent in the Yellow Pages. It has no telephone number listed in the business section of the White Pages, and the 411 operator says there is no such place listed. What kind of Hotel doesn't do ANY advertising or list it's phone number? This Hotel is not a Hotel at all and is really being used as a boarding house or multiple residential dwelling. If it is being used for long term residential rental units, it is in violation of it's current Hotel zoning. Hotels are places of short stay temporary occupancies, not long term permanent residency. I hope you will look carefully into this.
My wife and I find it very interesting that all summer while the XXXXX Hotel was operating as the base for many prostitutes, the owner's wife and children were kept far away. Before the warmer season begins the owner's wife and teenage daughters can often be seen making trips several blocks to the Walbaums at Hubbards path. ( The same exact route that the prostitutes use, ) Then when summer comes his wife and two children disappear. Perhaps the owner is somehow recruiting these prostitutes, and then doesn't wish to expose his own family.
But while his family is shielded from his crew of prostitutes, my family along with those of my neighbors is directly exposed. I hope you will please look carefully and critically at this so-called hotel. The prostitution is giving our town a very bad reputation. I don't think we of this community and this town want to be best remembered because of the availability of prostitution. Believe it or not, I really did not plan to give you some huge long email to read, but it's way to easy to make a pest out of one self with community concerns, especially when you are a person who knows that looking the other way serves no good at all. My Grand Parents may have lived here for decades, but I have lived all over Long Island and I've never lived in a place where there are such obvious low expectations.
"Strolling" to Work
Soliciting a potential clientWe are in fact losing much of the qualities that once attracted people to want to come and live here. I've never before lived in a residential community where tractor trailer truck drivers park across people's driveways to eat, sleep urinate and sometimes camp out. After much observation we now know that many of these truck operators are hanging around here just to locate one of the prostitutes. How would you feel if your 8 year old daughter went outside to play on her swing, and observed two male truck operators urinating and exposing their genitals? I wish I could say that such events were rare, but it happens here at least twice every month.
ON TRAFFIC VIOLATIONS
For a decade now I've been phoning 9-1-1 two and three times a week to report illegally stopped vehicles in front of my home ( violating the "No Stopping..." zone, ) and out of at least one hundred calls, I've never seen even one summons written out and issued to one of these motorist. Many truck drivers keep coming back because they NEVER get in trouble. There is no deterrent. There is no bad consequence for them. There has been no reduction in the amount of speeding and reckless driving either.
The sign you put up near Hubbards was well intentioned but it is more of a challenge to the regular speeders who frequent this area. They have not slowed down and that's because your sign was not backed up by a real Police commitment to get after the chronic violators. The Police are not being serious enough. It might be helpful if they actually handed out a few summons, but quite honestly I never see any motorist being stopped here. The truth is that I literally see the same exact dozen or so drivers recklessly speeding and driving through stop signs each and every day. That tells me that the Police are not around enough to put any fear into these reckless motorists.
There is no deterrent so that's why I see the same cars with the same drivers tearing up and down the roads, and many of these motorists are the local auto repair and auto body shop owners and their personnel. They all workers or the owners of repair shops that are located in the industrial zone that's adjacent to my road. It might be beneficial if you asked the Police if there has been any increase in traffic stops in the vicinity of the sign you installed at Hubbards Path.
Nearly one month ago you sent Mrs. Kaphan to met me to discuss the installation of truck traffic restriction signs. But there has been no further contact from Mrs. Kaphan or anyone else from Town government on the much needed weight restriction signs. Around a week ago I mailed you a letter, and still no official word about our request for the signs. I can't help wondering whether Mrs. Kaphan really sees the seriousness of decades of problems caused by tractor trailers trucks driving up and down our roads at all hours of the day and evening. These huge trucks are even lumbering in and out of our block at 3 am!
There are dozens and dozens of police records of accidents involving trucks that were so large in height that they got caught up on utility wires and ripped them down. The house next door to me lost it's electricity one day when a tall truck got tangled up in the utility wires that were strung from his home's service pole to the utility pole. The homes service pole along with part of the shingles were torn away. I once retrieved a stack of letters from the Town Clerk's office written by various residents who down through the years wrote to Supervisor Richard Schaffer and prior Supervisors about many of these exact same problems that I've reported here.
Every family currently living on this block of Rutgers road signed a petition in favor of a plan to install signs that restrict the trucks. But when is Mrs. Kaphan going to follow through? It is very hard to maintain a level of pride in ones community when there are so many unaddressed extra-ordinary problems. It's bad enough to have to live with these conditions, but the problem is compounded when the reporting of same is inappropriately dismissed, or falls on deaf ears of the authorities who have the power to make a difference.
Believe me when I say that I'd rather not bother you and make a pest out of myself, but where else is my community to go for help with these problems? Over the summer my daughter saw some one dump a load of trash bags out onto the sidewalk near our home. ( Dumping is another big problem around here. ) With the frequency of bizarre occurrences being such as it is here, I decided to officially report it. I called Police and also called your Code Officer Varley. Officer Varley insisted that either I had to clean up the dumped material, or I would receive a summons! Isn't that nice? My little daughter who is a Brownie wanted to call to report the dumping that she witnessed.
Would Officer Varley have threatened a little 8 year girl with a summons for trying to do a good deed by reporting a crime? She sees the town signs posted all around that say it is a crime to dump and is punishable by fine. If I had told my little daughter that Officer Varley threatened me with a summons for reporting the dumping, my little daughter might not want to be a good and honest citizen if she knew that good deeds bring such punishment. I don't think our Enforcement Officers should do anything that would discourage citizens from wanting to call them in the future.I think you can probably see how such a policy of discouraging citizens from doing the right thing, could have seriously bad long term effects. Well sorry to have made a pest of myself and I am rather ashamed to have to do so, but as a crime victim ( I was attack and beaten one evening several years ago, ) I have hopes that my new found vigilance may help to create some good that might save someone from the lingering pain that I go through while struggling with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Can you believe I originally started this email solely for the purpose of inquiring about the progress of the weight restriction signs? Sorry to heap all my concerns on you all at once.
Best Regards, (Name Withheld and Family)
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