When the former Mets slugger Mo Vaughn company crime ridden Noble Drew Ali Plaza in Brownsville bought five years ago, they vowed to turn around by any means necessary.
First came hundreds of security cameras and blocked ports: access to the complex. Some residents grumbled, but many said that security improvements were worthwhile.
But now, residents say the company, Omni New York, went too far. They're in the process of ringing inside the compound with a set of feet tall gates, metal gates of people, cutting off access to the courtyard.
Ripped basketball hoops and benches, downed the solitary tree in the middle of the complex and tar on grassy areas.
Tenants say that now you feel like prisoners in their own homes.
"Our children are growing up in a gated community that is more like a prison than anything else. And there is nothing for them to play or sufficient experience, "said Felicia Robinson, 38, acting head of the tenant and a permanent resident of development.
"We can't even Mo Vaughn or any other big names attached to our plaza. Everything we see is management continuing to us to get rid of fundamental human rights ".
The five-building complex was known in earlier years Omni has taken. The courtyard was an open-air drug market. Two buildings were vacated and taken by squatters and drug dealers-including a shopkeeper who commandeered 20 apartments and sold $ 20,000 of heroin per day.
Police swooped and arrested 35 suspected drug dealers in 2007. The new owners spent 23 million dollars for rehabilitation of buildings and strengthen security. Crime has fallen after installing hundreds of security cameras and a complex system to monitor them.
But the security measures have just gotten more extreme.
"We've been through good and bad here, but this is by far the ugliest ever," Robinson said.
Many residents said they fear retribution from management to talk.
"I can't bear living here any more. Every time I walk out the door of my house, remembered that I'm living like an animal in a cage, "said a woman who wouldn't give his name.
Others said that the three levels of doors that ring of the complex are a safety hazard. "If there was ever to be a fire, please explain to me how the firemen would be able to get their truck through a series of doors ten feet ...People will get hurt, and eventually people will die because there is no way the emergency services might never get to us in time, "a tenant said.
While most residents blasted the measures, some said they were necessary to keep crime. "Someone was shot here two weeks ago, and people still think these ports are a crazy idea," a tenant said. "As we should to stop crime by not fighting against it with the use of cameras, gates and a heavy block?"
Omni officials did not return calls for comment.
SecureWatch24 Chairman Desmond Smyth, whose company installed the original security system after Omni bought the complex, said that the changes do not fit with his vision.
"It's not really the way we designed it. Which is too bad. We were really great image of non-fortress, said Smyth who
no longer works there and was not involved with the latest measures. "Nobody likes to live in a cage."
edurkin@nydailynews.com
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