DUMBO Manhattan Bridge Arch Riskier Than Stabber Alley?

"Stabber alley" or Manhattan Bridge archway, choose your poison. (Jen Carlson/Tien Mao)

Yesterday around 1:45 p.m. a man was walking through this archway under the Manhattan Bridge in DUMBO when, according to his wife, he was jumped by "a huskier, young guy (probably late teens), african american, wearing a tan jacket," in an unprovoked attack. "Unfortunately that was all my husband was able to see as the guy came up to him from behind and broke his glasses as he punched him. He didn’t demand money or anything, so don’t know if it was an attempted mugging or the guy was just mentally unstable."

The incident might not merit mention except that the Gothamist office is right across the street from this archway, and, like many people who work and live in DUMBO, we pass through it every day around this time en route to Foragers' overpriced but adequate salad bar. This archway is also part of an ongoing neighborhood saga—after being closed for 17 years, it finally reopened for good last April. Previously, to get around the bridge one had to walk all the way to Front Street or around the west side to Plymouth Street. Inconvenient, ya know?

But there was a third way... More intrepid souls often dashed through a narrow passageway through the bridge foundation, about 50 yards from the archway. Fondly dubbed "stabber alley" (despite any known stabbing incidents) this long, isolated path seemed the perfect place to get mugged without any witnesses or escape route. But yesterday's incident has some in DUMBO wondering if we should again start taking our chances with the alley. Maybe, like the stairs of Cirith Ungol in Mordor, it's such a foolhardy approach that the enemy doesn't expect it? Or maybe a giant spider's waiting to drop down on us. This much is certain: we'll be ordering delivery until they install surveillance cameras and armed guards in that archway. The city should just close it!

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By John Del Signore in News on February 19, 2010 1:30 PM

Comments [rss]

Wobbie

Wow, glad I didn't go to work yesterday!

How can you guys go to Foragers for food? The smell of their weird curry permeates the entire block making me hold my breath every time I walk past.

Spirit of 76

Come on, guys. Stop taking it so seriously. Obviously, this is just another JDS attempt at making a mountain out of a molehill in the name of page hits. It's professional trolling. It's irrelevant where it is or how close the projects are. This was just all of one isolated incident blown completely out of proportion and you guys fell hook, line and sinker for it. There isn't one neighborhood in NYC where a violent crime hasn't occurred in the last few years.

Earthdog

Darkened passageway in post-industrial loft neighborhood located just a few blocks of a shithole housing project.

Cue "Duh" factor now...

JacqueMehoff

aren't you guys like a hip urban loose relaxed dot com type place? get some communal bikes and just bike over to get lunch for the office. I hear ya about the convoluted way to get to the bridge and walking sucks unless you really have to do it.

theLtrain

Man I sure do love when people get jumped/robbed in good neighborhoods and it gets this much attention.

"Your husband was assaulted by an african american male you say? Surely in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, yes?

Oh-ohh..in Dumbo??? Oh dear.."

*blogs*

citizenerased

So you guys are the reason there are never any caprese sandwhiches left at Forragers by the time i get there.

Bastards

DumboBridgeTroll

You work under a bridge in an old waterfront factory area , next to a housing project. Yet, you feel it is too inconvenient to walk half a block to Front Street on your way to Foragers, which is ON Front Street, anyway.

There really isn't much to write about, I guess.

John Del Signore

Yeah, but see the bridge angles north, so you have to walk not just east toward Front, but Northeast! Then south again? Not me. No way.

Billiamsburg

ahh the peas and pickles vagrants! where's that racist stop and frisk when you need it?

But there's also that "community thing" place down the block for the mentally handicapped, so it may have just been one of them got loose and was in a punching mood.

WorksInDUMBO

This is a good tip if you work in DUMBO (please note my name). Hey JDS, let's get lunch at the falafel stand!

and yeah, DUMBO has a surprising amount of crime, considering how freakin expensive it is to live down here. Let's not forget that good ol' Peas & Pickles allows 1-3 menacing drug dealers/panhandlers to set up shop in front of their store every single day.

longacre

The fact that this doesn't happen more often in DUMBO, when it's situated a couple of downhill blocks from a housing project with all sorts of skels walking around, is the eighth wonder of the world.

sjack

I always thought that Gothamist staffers were a bunch of naive, sheltered transplants that never went further north than 14th street or further east than Prospect Park...

and this is the news story that confirms it.