Residents say day laborers at Inwood station pose threat

Lawrence working on a plan to accommodate both groups

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The Village of Lawrence is trying to craft a solution that balances the needs of residents to feel safe in their neighborhood with the rights of the day laborers who congregate daily waiting to be hired by construction contractors and landscapers along Doughty Boulevard near the Inwood Long Island Rail Road station.
Four Doughty Boulevard residents made their concerns public at a Dec. 15 village board meeting. The residents who spoke said that some of the laborers who stand across the street from their homes in the village parking lot on the south side of the train station have become more than a nuisance.
“My kids are scared. [The men] are not there for jobs anymore, it is steadily getting worse. It’s a danger to everyone. They know we are gone from 7:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.,” Mendy Bornstein said.
Richard Gordon said that he took out his trees and bushes because a few of the men “were doing inappropriate things” such as urinating near them.
“I have been living here 18 years and I hate where I live, I’m thinking of leaving,” Carey Gruenbaum said. “They whistle at my daughter. She is so uncomfortable. It’s a fight every day. All we need is for them to go to the other side.” That would be the north side of the train station, away from the Doughty Boulevard houses and where the men would stand further away from the apartment units on the west side of Doughty.

Mayor Martin Oliner said he and the other trustees are working on a plan that involves what he termed the “redevelopment” of that area. Oliner said he was not prepared to reveal details of the plans until early next month, but it could involve landscaping and making the area “more comfortable for the people and a better place for the men.”
“We have to change the atmosphere completely,” Oliner said. “We know what the residents are saying, but the men have a right to congregate. We are trying to understand everyone’s situation and accommodate both sides.”
Oscar Lazo, a Far Rockaway resident who typically waits for construction contractors to come by Monday through Friday and sometimes on Saturdays from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. on the south side of the station by the homes, said he has not seen any of the men bother the residents. “We don’t cause any problems for nobody,” he said.
Inwood resident William Corleto said that he is typically on the Inwood station’s north side from about 8 to 10:30 a.m. most days when his usual employer doesn’t have work for him. “The police come by, they don’t want us inside the parking lot, we have to be on the sidewalk,” Corleto said. “There is no trouble from us.”
Another Far Rockaway resident, Jose Corvero, said he is a 10-year veteran of waiting for work near the train station. “No, I don’t see anyone causing problems,” he said. “It could be others, but it’s not us.”
Oliner said he views this more as a clash between two cultures and not a police matter. “It would seem to me that we should be able to control our own property,” he said. Ideas such as creating a more stringent village trespass ordinance and asking for an increased police presence are not on the table, the mayor said.
Allan Kohn said he is looking for a concrete solution to the problem, and not just having the police write tickets. “There was a man across the street staring at our children and wives,” he said. “We live in Lawrence. We shouldn’t be going through this.”