'29 Million Dreams': Museum Shows Cost Of Broken Windows Policing

WEST VILLAGE, NY — What else could New Yorkers do with $29 million a day?

The Museum of Broken Windows, a pop-up museum in lower Manhattan is open form 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily at 216 Lafayette St. Originally slated to close Saturday, its stay was extended through May 20.

The "29 Million Dreams" exhibit — which was briefly displayed at the same location in 2018 — asks visitors whether NYC's massive police expenditures "truly create the safe, connected, and thriving city we only dream of," according to the exhibit's website.

Organizers said the exhibit was intentionally timed around New York City's budget negotiations.

Critics say Mayor Eric Adams' proposed budget prioritizes violent policing over other community programs facing severe cuts, like libraries.

The NYPD costs taxpayers at least $29 million per day, according to the New York Civil Liberties Union, which presented the exhibit with The Soze Agency.

"Three years after the country’s largest racial justice protests demanded a reassessment of the role of policing in society, the Adams administration relies even more on the NYPD to be the catch-all response to our city’s complex and unmet needs," organizers wrote on the exhibit's website.

The exhibit asks New Yorkers how other services would benefit from a drop of that NYPD budget.

"Of course, in order for any of us to thrive, we have to be safe. But that doesn’t mean we have to rely on police to solve all our problems," said Donna Lieberman, NYCLU's Executive Director.

"There are more effective ways to promote public safety that don’t involve law enforcement and can actually prevent crimes before they happen."