Exclusive | ‘Now we know why’ 311 complaints were ignored: NYers put pieces together after Post reveals NYPD scandal

Inwood residents who say their quality of life complaints about rowdy bars and restaurants have been ignored think they finally have smoking gun evidence to crack the case.

The Post exclusively reported last week that NYPD Commissioner Edward Caban’s twin brother James allegedly used his relationship with 34th Precinct commanding officer Aneudy Castillo to stop 311 enforcement at businesses he represented, many of which are in Inwood.

Maria Quinones is among the locals who believe those meetings led to the lack of enforcement last summer on noise, double parking, trash, and other issues around restaurants and bars — some of which transform into raucous clubs at night — around Dyckman Street and Broadway.

“We wondered who is letting this all happen and why isn’t anyone doing anything about it,” Quinones, 62, said. “Now we know why.”

Residents have been complaining about the string of bars for years but said the situation was unbearable last summer.

“It definitely has gotten worse,” said longtime Inwood resident Maggie Clark. “More recently, you use your 311 app so everything is all written down and you see the time that you registered your complaint and then within minutes you see that it’s closed.”

There were about 8,500 service requests made to 311 in Manhattan Community District 12, which covers Inwood, between last August and September alone, city data show.

About 375 were for noise and 900 for parking issues.

“I have never felt so vindicated as I did when I read that article,” added resident Liz Demayo, 68, who griped about how police began allowing valet parking at the bars recently to prevent thieves from preying on customers.

But the vehicles were double and triple parked on sidewalks and in the streets, creating havoc but her complaints were futile, she said.

Resident Tanya Bonner, 55, said the businesses became unbearably loud in the summer.

“We’ve asked for audits of 311,” she said. “We’ve asked for an update on noise codes. We’ve asked for many things and we’ve been going around in circles.”

Added Quinones: “It’s terrible that this community of working people really got sh-t on.”

James Caban, a former NYPD officer who was fired after a fight with a cabbie two decades ago, allegedly met with Castillo in the Washington Heights stationhouse up to five times between January 2023 and September, according to a federal whistleblower complaint, which claimed he impersonated the top cop.

A police source has said there were two meetings.

James Caban did not respond to a request for comment.

Mayor Adams appointed Edward Caban as commissioner in July 2023, but he resigned just 14 months later in September 2024 after his phone was confiscated amid a federal probe involving club enforcement.