Despite pledges to clean up the city, the Bronx’s hub is still full of addicts

The “Broadway of the Bronx” is a drug-filled wasteland where hordes of drug addicts openly buy drugs, commit shootings and overdose in broad daylight – despite city officials’ constant efforts to clean up the mess. Despite years of promise.

The Post spent several days in “The Hub” – the commercial area between Melrose and Mott Haven that surrounds Roberto Clemente Plaza – and witnessed scenes of drug-filled corruption and the ever-present unwanted haze of crack smoke.

Two addicts were seen apparently suffering from overdoses and dozens of others were seen decapitating or inadvertently contorting their bodies into “fentanyl folds”.

A potential overdose victim lay face down on the sidewalk for 10 minutes until a fellow addict gave him a dose of life-saving Narcan. A few feet away, an exhausted man casually injected a syringe into a woman’s neck.

“These streets are full of corpses,” said Emilio Morales, general manager of the historic Opera House Hotel, a 3-star inn on East 149th Street. “It’s never been as bad as it is now.”

Morales’ concerns aren’t new – he and other local business leaders in 2021 Sent a letter to then Mayor Bill de BlasioThere are calls for action to be taken on The Hub, which tackles drug dealing, homelessness and crime.

They are still waiting.

Frustrated locals and elected leaders said efforts by City Hall and the NYPD to permanently ban open-air drug markets have failed.

“It’s very bad, very bad, very bad,” said Siraj Bhaiyat, owner of local variety store Willis Discount. “It’s been like this for three years, but it’s getting worse and worse.”

‘You can’t walk through it’

A cadre of local leaders cut the ribbon on Roberto Clemente Plaza in 2018, with the hope of transforming it into Herald Square of the Bronx,

But one by one, locals said, the sunny vision for the plaza and the entire hub was soon overshadowed by darkness.

“When they opened the Plaza, they had jazz music and everything, it was great,” said Morales, the hotel manager. “Now you can’t walk by and sit there.

“Drug use is out in the open and it is rampant.”

By 2021, the Hub became so crime and drug-ridden that leaders of the Third Avenue Business Improvement District wrote a desperate letter De Blasio appealed to the city to “protect the small business lifeblood of our neighborhoods and our community.”

face to face after the letter Beware Business OwnersDe Blasio promised to hold a walkthrough and $8 million dedicated To fight the opioid epidemic in the Bronx.

Mayor Eric Adams’ administration continued efforts to clean up The Hub in what City Hall calls a “comprehensive, multi-agency approach” against drug activity and related problems.

But efforts driven by City Hall — including a targeted enforcement sweep from October to November — cleaned up thousands of syringes, handed out overdose reversal kits and made dozens of arrests, still disappointing conditions are returning.

The Hub remains on the front lines of New York City’s opioid crisis About 139 overdose deaths per 100,000 residents. in surrounding neighborhoods — more than three times the citywide rate in 2023, according to health department data.

NYPD data shows that crime in the 40th Precinct, which covers the corridor, has increased about 4% so far this year compared to last year — and is up 94% since 2010.

Pedro Suarez, executive director of the Third Avenue BID, said much of the problem with The Hub is that Roberto Clemente Plaza itself has become a hub for New Yorkers struggling with addiction.

“It’s been hard for us as a community to reclaim that space,” he said.

‘Dealers are everywhere’

The deadly habit of drug addiction is nurtured by hordes of unscrupulous drug dealers selling drugs in large numbers in Roberto Clemente Plaza and the surrounding streets, shouting without fear: “Methadone, methadone, methadone.” “I got K.” “Klonopin. Single.”

Dealers also offered a menu of other drugs, from crack cocaine to synthetic marijuana.

Their illicit goods are also scattered on the sidewalk, as used syringes and thousands of orange safety caps cover every road leading out of the intersection.

Piles of used glassine bags can also be seen, many of which are stamped with drug brand names including “Passion,” “Prada,” “La Sabrosura,” “Bugatti” and “Hummer” – and contain heroin and synthetic A powerful combination of opioids. fentanyl, xylazine and carfentanil, according to chemical testing by the outreach group St. Ann’s Corner of Harm Reduction.

The drug deals in Roberto Clemente Plaza are also not subtle. The same dealer takes the cash, turns their pockets and hands over the drugs, completely out in the open.

The Post saw dealers taking money for pills they placed directly into the hands of buyers, selling syringes from freshly opened boxes and – most discreetly – taking yellow bags out of shoes after sorting through bank notes.

Dirt, human waste and bombastic junkies also litter the ground – sometimes all at once.

Many addicts were nodding off with overdose-reversing Narcan kits hanging from branches under the trees in Roberto Clemente Plaza.

The post showed a middle-aged man wearing jet gear fainting from the cold in a flower bed and was revived only after a friend repeatedly punched him in the chest. After a few minutes, he vomited on a flyer labeled “Prepare to meet God”.

While he was smoking a cigarette, the pigeons ate the vomit from his feet.

“This area is full of garbage, but no one cares,” lamented Halima Akhtar, manager of Shurovi Beauty Spa, where pigeons eat food.

“It’s been like this since they opened (Roberto Clemente Plaza). But it is getting worse. More and more people come here to consume drugs.”

One such addict is Edwin Gonzalez, 43, who injected heroin while speaking to The Post in a rocky area in St. Mary’s Park.

Surrounded by bright orange syringe safety caps, Gonzalez incorporated into his daily regimen 10 to 12 “John Doe” bags of heroin, a speedball, and a K2 outline to help him sleep at night – all of which he did in the Hub’s Third Avenue subway. Buys from dealers at the station. ,

“I shop there at least three times a week,” he said. “Dealers are everywhere.”

“I go through 10 or 12 bags (of heroin) a day and a speedball. A speedball is $20 because you’re buying dope and coke.”

City Hall spokesman William Fowler pointed to ongoing efforts to clean up the hub.

“In addition to deploying additional police officers, our health partners have cleaned and safely disposed of more than 7,300 syringes, placed more than 860 people in addiction treatment and provided additional treatment to 89 people,” Fowler said. Sent for services.”

“We have also distributed more than 13,000 overdose reversing naloxone kits in the surrounding Hunts Point-Mott Haven neighborhood. We will continue to vigilantly address issues in the area to ensure that community members feel safe walking their streets and that people suffering from lack of housing, employment and health care are connected to supports and services so they can Can get well.