A Safer Midtown

A Safer Midtown: Step into the arena

While conditions in Midtown and Times Square have improved, we hear from many of you that we still have challenges. The state budget will be decided in the next few weeks, and we have the opportunity now to impact what is included.

This is our time to get off the sidelines, step into the arena, and fight for a vibrant and safer midtown. The Times Square Alliance, in partnership with other Midtown Manhattan Business Improvement Districts, urges our elected officials in Albany to support a budget and policies that:

  • Remove the “least restrictive standard” in the bail law so judges can better address chronic repeat offenders
  • Fund expanded mental health services
  • Provide incentives to increase the supply of affordable housing 

If you are part of the 92% of New Yorkers* who view crime as a serious problem, then now is a critical opportunity to tell our elected officials it should be a priority for them. Join our advocacy campaign, and forward to your friends and colleagues so they can too.

Email your elected officials that you want a safer midtown

Or, call Speaker Carl E. Heastie and Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, the leaders of the New York State Assembly and Senate, who are key decision makers in the FY2024 budget.

Speaker Carl E. Heastie
The New York State Assembly
(518) 455-3791
 
Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins
The New York State Senate
(518) 455-2585
 
Request their support on the following critical budget proposals:

Public Safety: 

  • Removal of “least restrictive means”
  • Effective strategies for dealing with repeat offenders
  • Changes to burdensome discovery laws and adequately fund District Attorneys’ offices.

Mental Health

  • Increase the inpatient psychiatric treatment capacity
  • Boost insurance coverage for mental health care
  • Dramatically expand outpatient services and Crisis Stabilization Centers
  • Create much needed transitional and supportive housing to serve New Yorkers with mental illness
  • Make hospitals accountable for the admission and discharge of mentally ill patients

Housing

  • Incentivize office to residential conversions
  • Implement J-51 tax incentives
  • Increase Floor Area Ratio
  • Funding for asylum seekers

Questions? Email Regina Fojas at rfojas@tsq.org.

 

*This finding was reported by a Siena Research Institute Poll, February 27, 2023