Conditions are worsening in the outer boroughs of New York City, especially on the infamous Roosevelt Avenue in Queens, that’s become overrun with obvious prostitutes swarming in the the wee hours of the night and in broad daylight, as well as other illegal activity.
Fox News reports:
In “Squad” member Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s district in New York City, those who are described as scantily dressed migrant prostitutes line blocks of a long commercial strip during all hours of the day and night, brazenly soliciting sex to passersby while their pimps strike fear into local business owners, one of whom told Fox News Digital he’s been threatened for speaking out and is on the verge of closing his store.
Business owners that have reported the police have faced threats and intimidation from pimps. As Fox News was investigating, one entrepreneur rushed the crew inside of his shop, warning that a pimp was surveilling them.
Fox News continues:
The trash-filled streets of Roosevelt Avenue in Queens, which encompasses the migrant-heavy communities of Corona, Jackson Heights and Elmhurst, has become a veritable hotbed for one of the world’s oldest professions, and residents say that most elected officials and police are turning a blind eye to the neighborhood nightmare, which looks more like the famed brothel-filled red-light district streets of Bangkok than one of America’s biggest cities.
Many residents believe that police and city officials have been paid off to ignore the growing issue. It’s drastically decreased the quality of life for residents of the area, and can’t be avoided by law-abiding locals, given it’s central location in Queens — especially for those that commute to Manhattan.
Known to locals as the “Avenue of the Sweethearts,” this epicenter of vice is not some desolate area on the outskirts of a city but rather the heart of the borough of Queens underneath the area’s main subway track that serves as a vital cog connecting Manhattan and its local schools to families, many of whom stream down the subway steps and are then inescapably met by armies of prowling solicitors.
Brazen prostitution isn’t the only problem on the street. Migrant vendors have set up shop on the sidewalks, interfering with shop owners’ operations, not only physically blocking entrances to stores, but offering prices that legitimate, taxpaying businesses can’t compete with.
Nearby, vendors sell everything from used clothes to pots and pans or tools. More recently, female vendors have begun cutting hair and painting nails under canopies on the cluttered sidewalks, with all of these illegal vendors operating feet from legitimate brick-and-mortar stores whose owners rage they are being undercut in prices while also having to pay taxes, unlike the illegal vendors.
Lifelong resident turned activist Ramses Frías said, “it feels like Bangkok with women outside locations and pulling men off the street…This doesn’t feel like my home. I’ve been here my whole life, and this feels like I’m a tourist in a Third World country. This is not how this is supposed to look, this is not how it’s supposed to feel…our quality of life just continues to drop.”
The hotbed of crime falls under socialist congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s representation, but locals say that despite the district’s enthusiastic support for her in election years, she’s nowhere to be found and has done nothing to address the mounting plight of her constituents.
Frías continued, “She does not visit this area; this is actually an area where she campaigned the hardest and a lot of people went out [to vote] for her, and she doesn’t come over here. She has totally neglected us.”
City Council member Francisco Moya said, “Some elected officials don’t see this as a problem, suggesting that ‘work is work’ and we should let it be. I believe that if a state representative wants to legalize prostitution, it should be done with strict rules and regulations, in designated areas like the city of Amsterdam – not in our community, especially near schools where children pass by and witness these activities daily.”
He continued, “I’ve lived my entire life in this district, and I’ve never seen it this bad. After COVID, the situation has worsened significantly. The influx of migrants plays a part in this issue, as many have no other means of survival. The federal government has turned a blind eye to the situation and there’s only so much the city can do, since we don’t have the authority to grant work permits or legal status to those in need.”
While the Democratic councilman has expressed sympathetic views towards migrants, “legal status” and “work permits” don’t necessarily mitigate the risks of admitting large populations of unskilled workers into the United States, because despite the Temporary Protected Status the Biden-Harris granted thousands of Haitian migrants, crime is still exploding in locales like Springfield, Ohio, where they’ve been settled.
Another activist said, “This would never be tolerated in Manhattan. They tolerate it because it’s … a poor and impoverished area in the eyes of many New Yorkers, but that doesn’t give you a reason to allow this to exist. This is so unfair … and the mayor is allowing a culture of corruption to exist. These police officers are on the take. It’s the only way they could operate openly.”
