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.