Harlem: Sometimes-aggressive raccoons are taking over the prime streets around Central Park, and some folks are saying, well, you didn’t see raccoons until the white people started moving in. Just sayin’…
Rampaging raccoons hit Harlem
BY EDEN UNIVER
DAILY NEWS WRITER
Sunday, June 8th 2008, 4:00 AM
Some unwelcome furry friends are on the prowl uptown.
Raccoons have become the scourge of Harlem, residents say, tearing up trash bags, ruining barbecues and even threatening kids.
“We can’t even come outside,” said Dorothy Burrell, 40, who lives on W. 111th St. “It’s a dead street after 8. I had to end my barbecue early on Memorial Day.”
There are more of the oversized residents in the neighborhood than in past years, and they’ve grown more brazen.
“They’re not scared by the cars, by sounds and by noises,” said Keri Denny, 40, a postal worker who also lives on W. 111th St. “I sounded my car alarm at one and it didn’t even move.”
Harlem residents believe the raccoons live in nearby Central Park and emerge from the urban oasis to forage on nearby blocks.
Residents regularly call 311 and complain to the city’s Animal Care & Control. But officials tell them to get a private exterminator or call back if someone gets bitten.
Virgie Spann said she used to think the raccoons were just a nuisance – until they tried to get into her apartment.
“They’re very bold,” said Spann, 70. “My son had his window cracked just a bit and one almost got in.”
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I’m just shocked that 311 wasn’t helpful.
A year and a half ago, my ex and I broke down on the Deegan (I-87) in the South Bronx. We called a random tow company and were told that each stretch of highway in NYC was contracted out to ONE specific tow company; no other companies could interfere.
…but they couldn’t- or wouldn’t- tell us which tow company had our stretch. They suggested we call 311.
311 had no information whatsoever. They suggested we call the cops to come sit with us while we tried each of the 500 tow companies in the city and found the one that handled our stretch of the Deegan.
After calling 20 or so companies, one finally sighed and gave me the name of the company that had our stretch of highway.
We rode with the tow truck driver to a car repair shop up around 220th Street (North Bronx). As we passed the scummy crack motels along I-95, he told me about various sexual affairs he’d carried out in many of them. And then, I asked how his tow company had gotten so lucky in obtaining much of the Deegan.
“I’ll tell you this,” he said, smirking. “There are a lotta government employees making thirty, forty thousand a year and driving new Mercedes and BMWs.”
Tags: 311, bling, bloomberg, bronx, central park, deegan, harlem, nyc, raccoons
