INBOX: 451 Kingston Avenue – Crime HQ
by A Crown Heights Resident
There are some addresses that become more than just buildings. They become symbols of the problems a neighborhood can no longer afford to ignore.
451 Kingston Avenue has increasingly become one of those addresses.
It is owned by a Lubavitcher, and has over 160 apartment rentals yet over the years the building has been connected to a disturbing number of incidents, including an attempted kidnapping of a Jewish child, reports of shots fired, antisemitic threats against a Jewish resident, fires in the building, and reports of criminal activity on the premises.
For many residents, it has become a recurring theme: when something goes wrong in Crown Heights, somehow the trail seems to lead back to 451 Kingston Avenue. Whether it is a crime, a disturbance, or another troubling incident, this address has repeatedly come up in conversations about safety in the neighborhood.
But when serious incidents repeatedly involve the same address, our community has every right to demand answers.
Why does this keep happening? What is being done to address the problems? And why should residents have to wait for another tragedy before action is taken?
Crown Heights is a neighborhood of families, children, and hardworking residents who deserve to feel safe walking down their own streets.
Children and adults should not have to feel afraid walking down Kingston Avenue. As one resident put it, “Walking past that intersection is like the Rafah Crossing of Crown Heights.”
Enough is enough.
Our community deserves safety, accountability, and action—not excuses, silence, or another tragedy. Everybody should call on the property owner, city agencies, the NYPD, and the elected officials and our Rabbanim and Askonim to act now. Kingston Avenue belongs to the families who live here, and they deserve to walk it without fear.
We cannot wait for the next crime to ask why. The time to act is now.
Y H
I personally spoke with the management (YMH) as well as to the owner (YP) they gave the courtesy to hear me out.
But said nothing.
It’s a business. The rent gets paid thru NYC. So the owner doesn’t have any headaches about collecting rent.
A few Benjamins are more important than the Rebbe’s shechuna.
You can see the 2 buildings on that same block. NOW they are owned by a yid and full of Yidden..
meyer chein
Did you expect anything diffrent?
Andrea Karshan
You know if you tell a child they are trouble they internalize it and believe they are trouble and make trouble. The Crown Heights Chabad community treats the people in this building like they are pariahs. And I am not excusing anyone’s bad actions. But I don’t think the way people treat them around here helps the situation.
G.Singh
The only one that does is the Landlord
Israel
Suicidal empathy. Next you’ll say this about Islamic terrorists too.
Israel
Pathetic and absurd comment. No way of explaining why. If your comment makes sense to you, there’s no explaining the absurdity of it to you. Just when you thought you heard it all.
Ridiculous
These people are grown adults with agency who have their own free choice how to act. It’s not always the Jews’ fault when people act badly.
even worse
The new building for thousands of addicts will not be helping this situation
TH
What building for addicts?
Anash
If that’s Rafa the new development on Clarkson is Iran.
Anonymous
What exactly is the call to action here? Are we going to do community days and offer youth afterschool programs, food assistance, and counseling? Are we going to demand that there is security? Are we just going to call the landlord and yell at them to ‘fix their tenants’? Are we going to demand better living conditions from the landlord for these residents?
Rabbi g
I wasn’t even aware that the building was owned by a yid, I’ve always walked around that block because I fear for my safety even getting within 500 ft of that building and im a full grown man i cant imagine kids or women walking by its absolutely terrifying! The fact that I was made aware that a yid has ownership is already doing something
1625 President St.
1625 President St. was once the same story. Everyone knew that walking past that building, especially at night, meant you’re asking for trouble. Mrs. Leah Lapine’s murderer came from that building. The owner finally got his act together and now it is a building of decent people, many of whom are Lubavitchers.
Shmully
Jewish owners of buildings and crimes spent considerable time and effort to clean up their buildings. Ie one real estate owner from Isreal.
This owner seemed not to cure whatsoever about the community.
Rabbi G
Why should our whole community have to suffer because of these people, the owner needs to get his act together! And now we have a mega shelter being built right in our backyards and nothing is being done, its time we take our community back!