Mayor Adams orders crackdown to halt the continuing decay of Roosevelt Avenue
By Cristina DC Pastor
Community leader Flo Coronel has seen them all on Roosevelt Avenue: bellowing, beer-drinking men; pushcart vendors crowding the sidewalks; and scarcely dressed women soliciting massages which could be a prelude to prostitution.
As recently as two weeks ago, Coronel, a resident of Woodside for more than 23 years, said he witnessed an altercation close to the corner of 69th Street and Roosevelt where Filipino restaurant Amazing Grace has a commanding presence.
“The middle of Little Manila has become a hub for men who look like they are day workers, some of them dressed like construction workers, movers or landscapers. At night, they are huddled in this corner drinking beer or liquor covered in brown bags. Pedestrians coming out of the subway are afraid to pass by the areas they occupy,” he said in a phone interview with The FilAm.
Coronel has seen a deterioration in the quality of life along Roosevelt and surrounding areas. A devoted Queens resident, he frequents this popular hangout hub where the best Filipino restaurants sit side by side, and doctors and tax preparers hold office. There are all sorts of businesses here owned by immigrants, from Nepalese restaurants to Korean nail salons to dollar stores operated by South Asian and Chinese entrepreneurs. He laments the steady disintegration of Queens’s iconic thoroughfare over the years.
He has heard of Mayor Eric Adams’s “Operation Restore Roosevelt,” a recently announced campaign aimed at addressing public safety and quality of life in the Elmhurst, North Corona, and Jackson Heights neighborhoods of Queens. As a member of the advisory council of Assemblymember Steven Raga of District 30 which intersects parts of Roosevelt, Coronel takes note and reports on what he has observed.
“We have constituents in District 30 coming from different nationalities,” he said. “We try to make sure they are safe when come out of the subway when they go home at night.”
Over the past year, Adams said members of the NYPD have been addressing community concerns about prostitution, illegal brothels, unlicensed vendors and food carts, retail theft and the sale of stolen goods, and other quality-of-life offenses.
To expand its efforts to address these continuing challenges, the administration said it is bringing together over a dozen city agencies as part of a “collaborative, sustained, and intensive multi-agency response to address persistent quality-of-life and public safety issues.”
“Roosevelt Avenue is one of the most diverse avenues in our city — it is home to businesses from all over the world and New Yorkers from all over the world live and raise their families nearby. This road should be the pride of our city, but for too long it has been plagued by persistent public safety and quality-of-life issues,” said Adams.
Coronel said ambulant and some illegal vendors have taken over much of Roosevelt.
“The pervasive smell is weed,” he said.
Outside spa and massage parlors, he has seen women dressed in revealing cropped and tight shorts. They usually come out in early evening like 5 p.m. and activity reaches its peak, from what he has heard, in the wee hours of the morning. He thinks the timing is just right because many construction workers leave the job sites around that time. It is not known if the women are trafficked or they willingly engage in the trade. Either way, he said, “They don’t complain for fear of reprisal or maybe they have no papers.”
While he has witnessed the occasional altercation – “sigawan lang” – he has not seen any actual violence. He said the police usually take time to arrive at the scene to intervene.
“The launch of ‘Operation Restore Roosevelt’ is proof that small business owners who have sounded the alarm about activity and conditions along the Roosevelt Avenue corridor, have been heard and are supported,” said SBS Commissioner Dynishal Gross. “Whether their concerns are related to impacts on their businesses or activity impacting vulnerable community members, this multi-agency strategy shows that they are not alone.”