TOLERANCE IN VILLAGE WEARS THIN

For Jessica Berk, the last straw was when a transvestite with a blond
wig and red nail extensions slapped her in the face near her home on
Christopher Street. For Steve Shlopak, it was when he walked out of
his restaurant on Bedford Street and found people smoking crack and
others having sex in the vestibules of nearby buildings.

Something has gone horribly wrong in the West Village, many longtime
residents say. For more than a year, this quiet maze of angled streets
nestled against the Hudson River has been overrun by truculent bands
of drug dealers and transvestite prostitutes.

Although there has been hustling and drug traffic for many years near
the piers on West Street and in the meatpacking district nearby,
residents of the West Village's quiet side streets say they now
routinely interrupt drug deals to get into their apartments, and
emerge in the morning onto front stoops, where they are confronted by
condoms, crack vials and urine.

Many of those residents say they are fed up, and at two recent
community meetings, many people, including Mr. Shlopak, criticized the
police and local government officials for not doing more to help. Two
weeks ago, Ms. Berk, who has lived all her 42 years in the West
Village, announced the formation of a new coalition called Residents
in Distress.

Most of the prostitutes who have migrated here are transsexuals or
transvestites -- transgenders, in the politically correct umbrella
term. Most of the young people who loiter in the area on weekend
nights are both gay and black. And in a neighborhood with a large gay
population and a longtime reputation for broadmindedness about sex and
drugs, that is a serious obstacle to any sort of crackdown.

"People are really fed up and disgusted, but there has been this issue
- -- that we'll be called bigots if we take action," said Aubrey Lees,
the chairwoman of Community Board 2.

Police say the West Village's new problems stem from the city's
success in fighting crime elsewhere. Prostitution arrests in the Sixth
Precinct, which includes Greenwich Village, increased to 436 in 2001
from 324 in 2000. Drug arrests have risen too, to 3127 from 2,992. But
what is really new in the last year or two is the movement of crime
from the Village's seedy frontiers to its residential heart.

"As the meat market area gets more developed and the clubs there are
open late at night, the prostitutes are moving south into the
Village," said Detective Mike Singer, the Sixth Precinct's community
affairs officer. The police campaign against drugs in Washington
Square Park has pushed some dealers westward, he said.

The result, many locals say, is that the West Village is becoming a
sinkhole for vice, especially on weekend nights -- "Times Square
South," in the words of one longtime resident.

"This isn't a group of people trying to maintain a quaint Village
lifestyle, it's about safety," said Dan Bergman, as he stood outside
his brownstone on Barrow Street. "What do you do when there's a drug
deal happening on your front stoop?"

Elaine Goldman, president of the Christopher Street Block and
Merchants Association, agreed. "We're liberal but we love our
neighborhood, and this is getting way out of control," she said.
"There's only so much a human being can take."

Many residents said their elected officials, three of whom are gay,
would not help because they feared that a crackdown might be construed
as anti-gay or racist.

"They've refused to do anything about it, and it appears their
politics are to blame," said David Poster, the president of the
Christopher Street Patrol, a volunteer group. "It's not a gay issue,
it's not a race issue, but I don't think our elected officials see it
that way."

Last August, Mr. Poster and hundreds of other residents tried to block
a liquor license renewal for Two Potato, a gay bar at Christopher and
Greenwich streets that they called a haunt for drug dealers and
prostitutes. They circulated petitions and the police contributed
records of illegal activity at the bar, including a drug sale
involving the doorman. They asked Christine Quinn, the local City
Council member, for help, but she did not write the letter of support
they had requested.

Ms. Quinn defended her decision not to send a letter, saying other
residents were supportive of the bar. She said she had been working
with community leaders to address the recent crime problems in the
Village.

But she also said it was important not to rely solely on the police
when dealing with drugs and prostitution. Other elected officials who
represent the area agreed, saying that prostitutes often needed help.
"We have people in this area who haven't gotten the services they
need," said Assemblywoman Deborah J. Glick.

State Senator Thomas Duane seconded the thought. "Only recently has
the transgender community become empowered and visible," he said, "and
I welcome them as partners. Maybe they will help us find some
alternatives to incarceration."

At least a few residents feel the same way. "What we're trying to do is
create a safe place for people on the fringe of our culture," said Melissa
Sklarz, the chairwoman of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender
Committee of Community Board 2. "I admit, the behavior lately seems out of
bounds. But let's talk about the real problems of the Village:
million-dollar condos, not wild young black kids."

On a recent Friday evening, Ms. Sklarz offered to accompany a reporter
on a tour with the Christopher Street Patrol, a volunteer group that
walks through the area on weekend nights.

It was very cold, and a trip up and down Christopher Street at 10:30
p.m. found some signs of rowdiness but no real trouble. Ms. Sklarz,
saying she was satisfied the problem appeared to have been
exaggerated, excused herself.

But after 11 p.m., as the patrol members began moving onto the darker
side streets, they encountered a number of young men loitering,
clutching cell phones or counting money. Each time, the patrol's seven
members stopped and stood shoulder to shoulder, staring wordlessly at
the men. Eventually, the men cursed and moved away.

By midnight, there were several dozen young people crowding around a
deli on the corner of Christopher and Hudson Streets, shouting and
carousing. Among them were a number of bulky black women in high
heels, wigs and thick makeup. One of them, Dominique Bryant, 29, was
willing to talk in a nearby pizza shop. "I call myself a preoperative
transsexual," she said. She said she was not a prostitute, but knew
others who were. "They just do it because it's easy money," she said.

As she emerged onto the street, a shiny maroon S.U.V. with New Jersey
license plates drove past, stopped just beyond the intersection, and
honked.

"Who's beeping me?" Ms. Bryant said as she strode up to the
car.

Some residents say there are not enough police officers patrolling the
area. The number of officers in the Sixth Precinct has declined from
more than 200 five years ago to 157 now, Detective Singer said. Last
summer, when the warmer nights attracted more drug dealers, the
Bleecker Area Merchants and Residents Association voted to invite the
Guardian Angels to patrol. Within days, the police flooded the area
with additional officers, and the problem subsided for a time. But the
police say there is a limit to what they can do. To arrest a
prostitute, officers must witness three attempted solicitations within
40 minutes, said Deputy Inspector Kevin Fitzgerald, the commanding
officer of the Sixth Precinct.

Many of the drug dealers and prostitutes in the West Village have been
arrested dozens of times, Detective Singer said: Suspected drug
dealers can be convicted only of misdemeanors as long as the amounts
of drugs found on them are small, and one veteran streetwalker has
been arrested more than 300 times. Referring to the prostitutes, he
said, "The judges just give them time served, and they're back on the
street."

A number of residents have written to judges urging tougher penalties
on recidivists. But they said they would have to craft their message
carefully to get support.

"If we talk moralistically about the dangers of prostitution and
drugs, it's clear that people will resist," Charles Wolf, the
presiding officer of the Bleecker Area Merchants' and Residents'
Association, told his neighbors at a recent community board meeting.
"But if it's framed as a public safety issue, then I think the
politicians will eventually be willing to help."