Residents Decry a Lawless Land at 100 Freedom Place South

In the middle of the afternoon on Friday, Jan. 20, Geraldine Martinez got a call from her mother that sent her into a panic severe enough that she transferred from the subway to a cab, to catch her breath above ground. Someone had broken into her apartment at 100 Freedom Place South, where they stole hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of cash, expensive Cuban link chains and designer purses, among other belongings, she told The West Side Spirit.

Martinez, a city call center supervisor, instructed her mother, who had been returning to the apartment after picking up her grandchild from school, to call the police from the lobby while she contacted the doorman in an adjoining part of the building, at One West End Avenue. While nobody was home, the apartment had been “ransacked,” as Martinez described it. “I was hyperventilating,” she said. “I had to actually make an appointment to see my doctor, because I was having bad anxiety.”

She’s lived in a lottery apartment at 100 Freedom Place South, between West 59th and West 60th Streets, since 2019 and allowed her two brothers to store their valuable jewelry there for safe keeping; they’ve now been robbed of nearly $500,000 worth, according to Martinez’s estimate.

The incident was reported to police, who confirmed the break in but did not provide further details about their investigation. It’s among the most alarming of a series of events that have contributed to a growing sense of danger in the affordable housing building, which residents paint as the Wild West of the Upper West Side. “No one’s held accountable for things that are done in the building,” said Veronica Ortega, who’s lived there since the complex opened.

“I Still Can’t Sleep”

Over a week after the robbery, Martinez remains on edge. “I still can’t sleep,” she said.

But even before the incident, she didn’t feel particularly safe. In December, a visitor vandalized the lobby and “sliced” the sofas with a knife, according to Martinez. She also recalled a time when unknown people roamed the hallways through the early hours of the morning.

Prior to the building’s opening in 2017, it received flack for featuring a “poor door” for residents of the 100-plus affordable units. There’s no doorman for that section of the building, unlike in most other nearby residential complexes, and the super doesn’t live on site, according to residents.

The recent robbery sent a shockwave through some of the building’s residents, including Ortega. “It’s scarier,” she said.

A Range Of Problems, With Actionable Solutions

Ortega informed The Spirit of a range of incidents that she said added to the sense of chaos at 100 Freedom Place South; neighbors have noticed people camping out in stairwells, prying the building’s door open without a key and flashing women in the laundry room. When a bike belonging to Ortega’s husband was stolen from a storage room, she said, hardly any action was taken.

Recently, Ortega installed a Ring camera to better protect her family. “It’s a fear of even walking up to my door,” she said.

Some residents have begun alerting others when their packages arrive—marking them with their apartment numbers—to mitigate theft. Others keep each other appraised of troubling or bothersome incidents via a WhatsApp messaging group.

Kifa White, who is part of the group of neighbors who text about the antics at 100 Freedom Place South, said she hasn’t been a victim to any crime herself. But she worries about what’s happening to others—and believes that if the building hired a doorman to keep guard, the madness would quiet down. “People would feel much safer,” she said. “Everybody in our community has a doorman in their building except for us.”

Ortega attributed the lawlessness in part to a lack of intervention from the building’s management company, which she said has changed multiple times since she first moved in. The Spirit’s efforts to contact the current management company for comment were unsuccessful.

For Martinez, it all boils down to a sense that living in affordable housing has left her and her neighbors vulnerable. “We are being neglected,” she said.