Second Safest City Blog

Peter Janoff, general manager at the Palisades Center Mall, may soon be out of work according to the Rockland Journal News. According to the paper, “Postings on Monster.com yesterday showed ‘immediate openings’ for both a general manager and the newly created position of assistant manager.” Naturally, mall management refused to answer questions on the subject. We imagine that Mr. Janoff’s resume highlights his experience in helping run the mall into the ground. Given the recent surge of negative publicity surrounding the mall, his departure is somewhat unsurprising. We don’t imagine it’s an easy job, so future applicants, consider yourselves warned.

Former Rockland Journal News editorial page editor Arthur Gunther published a stinging review of the Palisades Center Mall in today’s paper. This is truly a must-read.

There was just one problem with the article, regarding the quote beginning, “The scenes are there to be photographed …” You can’t photograph anything at the mall.

According to Pyramid management, to take photos anywhere at the mall you need to set up an appointment, have a $1 million insurance policy, and have the approval of mall management. There are no exceptions for amateur photographers. This also applies if you are taking photos on your phone. Even if you just bought a new camera at the mall, you couldn’t use it until you got home. When asked how this rule could be enforced, they couldn’t answer, likely because Pyramid will only enforce the rule if it suits their needs.

If you’re spending money like a good consumer there likely won’t be a problem. But taking a picture of the rusted stairwells, where doors are smashed in, where walls are covered in graffiti, where the smell is reminiscent of a Port Authority urinal, where discarded drug bags litter the floor — taking a picture of those stairwells could get you kicked out of the mall. Then again it might show people that Clarkstown isn’t the la-la-land “safest city” fantasy world we always hear it is.

Anyone else remember how the mall was supposed to lower our property taxes with all the revenue it brought in? Whatever happened to that?

Clarkstown police were called to the Victoria’s Secret store in the Palisades Center today after it was reported that a man stole 100 bras, estimated to be worth about $4,000. Police got only a vague description — that is, if you consider “a man with 100 bras” to be a vague description.

Joe Queenan, writer for the New York Times, recently spent a day at the Palisades Mall. He wrote about it in the paper, in an article that tears the Palisades Center Mall a new one. This one is a must-read! Couldn’t have said it better myself:

From the outside, the Palisades Center has little to recommend it. Vast, inert, lacking any discernible architectural theme, and plunked down next to the cheerless Interstate that leads to the Tappan Zee Bridge, the mall is often described as a series of interlocking coffins. The Brutalist exterior conveys the impression that some senescent, unemployed Eastern Bloc architect was summoned to the developer’s office and threatened with severe reprisals against his family if he dared to introduce a single visual nuance suggesting that someone had actually designed the building. The visible trash gondolas that greet visitors when they enter from the I-287 side do not help.

Inside the cavernous structure, things improve dramatically. With pipes and panels and air-conditioning vents laid bare, the four sprawling floors suggest a retail version of the Centre Pompidou. The gargantuan, airy building is built around a series of atriums, suggesting that it had been modularly assembled by an industrious but agoraphobic child.

Clarkstown Police arrested 24-year-old Jessica Toodle of Vallejo, California on charges that she possessed a forged North Carolina driver’s license and nine forged credit cards. She was arrested when police responded to the Best Buy at the Palisades Center mall after she allegedly attempted to purchase merchandise with the forged documents. Store employees claimed Toodle tried to purchase three cell phones valued at $1,650 with the forged documents. Police also discovered she had eight other forged credit cards and receipts totaling over $20,000 for merchandise.

Toodle was charged with 21 counts of possession of a forged instrument in the second degree, nine counts of criminal possession of stolen credit cards and four counts of grand larceny in the fourth degree.

Eyewitnesses reported seeing more than 100 kids running amok in the Palisades Center yesterday, screaming and breaking glass. Police were unable to locate any one of the teens. Rockland Journal News reported police spokesperson Sgt. Harry Baumann as saying, “We did have several calls of suspicious incidents with kids, but every time we got to the location, there was nobody there.” Broken glass could still be observed where the teens had been hours later. The story also mentions the February 2006 McDonald’s riot, when fight broke out between 40 children aged 12 to 19, resulting in felony arrests and charges of rioting.

Clarkstown Police and fire officials are investigating a small albeit suspicious fire at the Palisades Center IMAX theater that caused a temporary evacuation of about 50 people. The fire started around midnight, and the local fire departments responded to find that a tarpaulin had apparently been placed over a light, leading to the fire.

So, did the fire alarms at the mall go off this time?

Two Acura Integras and one Audi A4 went missing from the Palisades Center mall between 2:30pm and 9pm yesterday. One of the Integras belonged to a Yonkers resident, the other Integra and the Audi belonged to residents of Nanuet. The Audi was recovered in Newark this morning. No arrests have been made. Anyone with information is asked to call Clarkstown Police at 845-639-5800.

The problem is that we don’t have an undercover stolen car unit driving around with a computerized, camera equipped automatic number plate recognition system, constantly running license plates looking for stolen cars.

Wait, we do have one of those.

Interestingly, unlike other unmarked units that carry around undercover or plain clothes officers, this special stolen car unit is said to always be manned by a uniformed officer despite its complete lack of markings. Hopefully this makes these officers easy to distinguish as real police as opposed to impersonators interested in hijacking FedEx trucks with fake badges.

A couple from New York City was arrested after they were found to have stolen $3,500 worth of merchandise from Woodbury Commons and the Palisades Center mall.

Crimes happen on a daily basis at the Palisades Center, no matter how small.  Ever been in the stairwells around and in the parking garage?  You’d think you were in the bad guy’s underground lair in a Ninja Turtle movie, seeing leaks, rust, burned out and flickering fluorescent lights, and a seemingly endless amount of graffiti and discarded drug bags.

While Clarkstown is claimed to be the second safest city, this statistic would seem to ignore the fact that we have one of the largest 5 malls, connected to three major state highways — 59, 303, and the Thruway.  The mall, and the community at large, have a connectedness that provides an easy entrance and escape for people going to and from New York City.  The size of the mall provides a great deal of anonymity during busy times.  And despite the fact that the mall has more cameras per square foot than the Big Brother house, the responsiveness of the security guards watching it and handling it are the weakest link.  With 30 million people in the New York metropolitan area, how many bad apples pop up at the mall?

But maybe these criminals wouldn’t have shoplifted in the first place if Mayor Darden was on patrol at the mall with his police lights like last week. Mayor Darden may have just pulled these people over and then took their parking spot, causing them to get frustrated and leave, preventing them from ever reaching the stores they stole from.

According to the Rockland Urinal News, crime takes no holiday vacation, not even in the Second Safest City.

Clarkstown Police are on the lookout for criminals this holiday season. According to Clarkstown Police Detective Fred Parent, who works with the mall stores on security and crime issues, “There are organized [criminal] groups coming to the mall.”

Even Mayor Darden from Spring Valley got in on the action and tried to help fight crime at the mall … passing traffic with police lights to keep people safe during the holidays.