The crime-infested area of Jackson Heights — where prostitutes openly ply their trade and brazen burglaries take place — has gotten worse since The Post reported on it nearly five months ago.
Roosevelt Avenue near 91st Street in Queens, which has become notorious for an illegal open-air migrant market and dozens of sidewalk sex workers, now has twice the number of prostitutes roaming around, locals say.
Locals said on Sunday that the thieves have become so daring that they now threaten to take revenge on traders if they are caught.
“It's getting worse,” said Jesus Diaz, manager of the Bravo supermarket on Roosevelt Avenue. “Before, when we would catch them stealing, they would say, 'Oh I'm sorry, please, I'll never do it again.'
“Now, they're getting angry. They're trying to punch you, telling you, “You're going to have trouble,” telling you, 'We're coming back and you're going to have some real trouble,'” Diaz said. “You call the police and tell them you caught them stealing and you hold them and wait for them and the police, they don't even want to come, they don't want to arrest these people.”
meanwhile, “The Market of the Beloved” What is thriving on the block is doubling down.
“I have a lot of beautiful women standing outside my door,” said the owner of a jewelry store in the neighborhood. “I just tell them not to stand right in front and not to block the door. What can I do?
“There are a lot more women in front of my door. It's not like it used to be. It was much cleaner here before.”
He added: “There's a brothel across the road and then there's a brothel behind us. Everybody knows.”
Post Problematic blocks reported in AprilWhen residents and shop owners complained that migrants were looting their shops and then selling hot items on the pavement outside.
He complained that stolen items, from power tools to mouthwash, were available at a discount – and retailers were powerless to do anything about it.
Meanwhile, sex workers roam the blocks, approaching potential clients and, when they find one, retreating to makeshift brothels set up inside local apartments.
in July, when Sent back to view post againThe traders were angry.
“The police do nothing – nothing!” an employee at a nearby cellphone store said then. “Drugs, prostitution, alcohol – it's terrible.”
He was furious even on Sunday.
“People don't want to come to the pharmacy here because of the sidewalks,” said Jenny Lee, a pharmacist at Mi Farmacia, pointing to more than 50 illegal vendors along the block.
“The police come and clean it up. Two weeks ago, two Sundays ago, the police came and cleaned it up and last Sunday there was no one here. But look, today, everyone comes.
“The number of prostitutes has doubled in the past two months,” Lee said. “They are now behaving like they are part of the community. We see them every day.”
A neighboring resident who gave his name only as Bill said he had given up hope that things would ever return to normal in his area of Jackson Heights.
“I give up,” he said. “See, this is it. They’ve got this, they better get used to it.
“We went to the police post and it's not like the police aren't doing their job or they don't care,” he said. “They're outnumbered – they're outnumbered, really.”
