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Planned walking tour of Queensbridge rankles residents
Tenant: “One hundred of us can’t go into their neighborhoods and do that. They’d call the cops.”
A planned weekend walking tour of Queensbridge Houses, the city’s largest public housing complex, has residents concerned about crowds of tourists invading their privacy.
The tour, devised by Jane’s Walk NYC, a Municipal Arts Sociey initiative that typically tours public spaces like Brooklyn Bridge Park, is a free two-hour visit to the 26-building Queensbridge complex that focuses on the sites of several infamous shootings and the former homes of famous ex-residents. Organizers are also attempting to secure police permission to view the complex from the roof of one of the buildings, the New York Daily News reported.
Mary Rowe, a spokesperson for the Municipal Art Society, told the Daily News that the tour would not interfere with residents’ lives, but could spark discussions between them and visiting tourists. But some residents told the paper they fear the tour will invade their privacy, bringing strange faces to their homes.
“It’s an invasion,” one tenant, who declined to give his name, told the paper. “One hundred of us can’t go into their neighborhoods and do that. They’d call the cops.” [NYDN] — Julie Strickland