Inwood Residents Want Action on Crime and Drugs

“It feels scary because in the streets I see a lot more police activity going on. I feel like they don’t do much to keep the neighborhood in order,” Briana Gonzalez said. The freshman at the City College Academy of the Arts (CCAA) and others in Inwood, in northern Manhattan, worry about crime, drugs, violence, and other problems. 

Neighbors see the police on the streets, but they say they don’t seem to help.  “They are always walking around and it feels like they don’t take anything serious. The stories I hear about the crimes going on in my neighborhood don’t make me feel safe. You don’t know when something could happen. It could happen at any time of the day,” Gonzalez said.

Residents remember the murder of Alejandro Ramirez on Father’s Day, June 2024. People in the neighborhood knew him from the Pizza Palace where he made pizza and served the slices.

Pizza Palace in Inwood. Photo by Sandra Gonzalez.

He was shot in the chest and killed while walking to the bus stop to go home to the Bronx. The gunman was allegedly a sixteen-year-old who also shot two others. Police did not reveal a motive. “I remember when my older sister was on her phone when she showed us what her friend had shared on her Instagram story,” Isaira Gonzalez, another CCAA student said. “My other sisters and I all gasped. We couldn’t believe it. We had just stopped by the pizzeria a week before. It felt crazy how someone we knew could be gone just like that. He was always nice to my sisters and I. Sometimes he would even give us an extra slice for free.” 

Neighbors honored Mr. Ramirez outside the pizzeria with a vigil wearing the colors orange and white and remembered him as a kind person and a good friend. 

But they think about his shooting and worry every day about the drug dealing that is also happening in the community and the random violence that comes with it. “Whoever has the power over Inwood or to anyone who works in the government that is in charge of Inwood’s rules, policies or whatever. I would want them to do something about the drug problem,” said Marisol Tlatelpa, who has lived in Inwood for over 20 years.

She and others point out vans that are parked around the area that are responsible for selling drugs,“They have overtaken the community. This all leads to violence. This causes there to be competition between them. It feels like Dyckman is the hub of all these drugs. So many people sell and distribute here. There are so many vans selling drugs that try to blend in but you can just tell which vans are selling just by looking at them,” Mrs. Tlatelpa said.