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Yonkers Officials Begin Focus On The Little Things

YONKERS, N.Y. – City Hall is ratcheting up its community presence, hoping a focus on the “little things” will bolster the quality of life in many neighborhoods.

Standing inside Trinity Plaza in southwest Yonkers, Mayor Mike Spano and a contingent of police, public works and city officials announced Thursday they are joining forces with the community in the “Neighborhood Protection Partnership."

The collaboration between city brass and residents will help resolve the “little things” plaguing different neighborhoods, which, in turn, will help clean up the city on a larger scale, Spano said.

“Yonkers is a city of many beautiful neighborhoods and each neighborhood has a unique set of qualities, as well as issues that require attention,” he said. “The goal of this program is to bring residents of our neighborhoods together with the city, coordinating and tailoring efforts that address specific concerns while fostering a better quality of life.”

With the Yonkers Police Department’s Mobile Command Center behind him, Spano pledged residents will see cleaner and safer streets in a partnership that includes scheduled deployments of the command center and various “community watch” training programs.

The Department of Public Works will pitch in, too, with organized clean-ups and targeted neighborhood improvements, the mayor said. Residents will be able to air their questions and concerns directly to city officials in regular community forums. 

“We want to continue to communicate with the people who live in this community, find out what the issues are and address them,” Spano said. 

The kickoff ceremony of the partnership came at Trinity Plaza in the Hollow, a neighborhood that already is seeing effects of the collaboration. 

After years of concern expressed by neighbors and community leaders in the area, city employees recently cleared away much of the brush that had overgrown an abandoned building.

Police also have increased their presence in the area the past two months, and neighbors say it’s working.

Since the effort began, police have made more than 50 arrests, mostly for drugs and prostitution in an area that "attracts criminals," said the Rev. Leroy Leach, pastor at Holy Trinity Lutheran. 

“It’s a neighborhood on the surface but it gets pretty dark and dismal around here,” he said. "We're going to make sure they don't ignore us anymore."

With the city’s increased efforts, Leach said things finally may be improving for the Trinity Plaza neighborhood, a sentiment the mayor said he hopes echoes around Yonkers.

“When you fix the little things, when you focus on them like a laser, the big things take care of themselves,” Spano said.

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