On November 12, 1937 the New York Times reported that 6 NYPD patrolmen and one sergeant were dispatched in plainclothes to crack down on unruly “revelers” on the streets of Brooklyn Heights. The special unit patrolled the area “bounded by Joralemon Street on the south, Middagh Street on the north, Fulton Street on the east and Columbia Heights on the west from 9PM to 5AM.
Residents had been kept awake in the wee hours for “months” according to the report. New York City Corporation Counsel Paul Windels and other members of the Brooklyn Heights Association had been complaining for several months about the noise with most of it blamed on “boisterous couples” attending affairs at the St. George Hotel, the Towers Hotel and the Bossert Hotel. The hotels claimed the noise was more likely coming from people passing through the St. George on their way to the subway.
Windels, was regarded as one of Mayor LaGuardia’s top advisors and was credited with cleaning up the financial and legal mess caused by years of Tammany Hall control of the city. Earlier in his career, he proposed the treaty between New York and New Jersey that made the construction of the Holland Tunnel possible. Later in his life, he served as president of the BHA. He died in 1967 at the age of 82.
