Some habits are difficult to break.
‘The Hub’ in the Bronx was a drug-riddled business as usual, a day after a post-exposé on the armies of junkies and depravity occupying the commercial corridor.
Addicts were openly mixing and shooting opioids into their arms and necks, sometimes spilling blood on the sidewalk, in broad daylight when The Post returned to the area Monday. You may have even overdosed outside a Dunkin’ Donuts.
Many junkies lay passed out on benches in Roberto Clemente Plaza, where dealers shamelessly peddled their wares—with apparent impunity and without any increased NYPD presence.
The Post’s reporting prompted the Rev. Ruben Diaz Sr., a former assemblyman and senator from the Bronx, to call for President-elect Donald Trump to intervene and fix The Hub.
“The shocking show that never ends,” he tweeted. “I’m calling on @realDonaldTrump to please come back to the boogie in the Bronx and help our seniors and residents at large enjoy our recreational areas.”
The desperate plea for the new president to tackle crime comes as there have been years of persistent — but failed — efforts to eradicate the drug-ridden problems plaguing the “Broadway of the Bronx.”
‘A dumping ground’
The last attempt to clean up The Hub took place in October and November, when the multi-agency “Community Link Operation” saw NYPD officers and Sanitation and Health Department workers address quality of life issues.
The effort led to 35 arrests, 150 moving violations and 25 criminal citations, police said.
Department of Homeless Services officials also saw 366 “active substance users,” 28 drug deals and placed 47 people in shelters, City Hall officials said.
But apparently nothing had changed when The Post spent days at The Hub in late November and early December.
“It’s just gotten worse, in my opinion,” said Councilmember Rafael Salamanca (D-Bronx), who represents The Hub.
Salamanca details years of frustration, with former Mayor Bill de Blasio dropping the ball on a ball $8 million anti-overdose effort to the NYPD failing to crack down on dealers.
He supports their efforts, but is concerned that the commercial center is oversaturated with social programs, ultimately leaving the area a haven for drug users.
“You have almost two dozen non-profits, providing needle distribution, substance abuse programs, methadone distribution, methadone clinics and you have a problem with homelessness in that immediate area, with homeless shelters, it’s a recipe for disaster. he explained.
“If you overpopulate a specific area with a drug abuse problem of that magnitude, you will never achieve the results you want and that area will remain that way forever until you start moving some of those programs. ”
Pedro Suarez, executive director of the Third Avenue Business Improvement District, also questions whether the addiction clinics could be more spread out, although he — like Salamanca — broadly supports their work.
He said the bigger problem is that addicts are being pushed out of many other neighborhoods in New York City, and few neighborhoods are interested in hosting services for them.
“It almost feels like the South Bronx is becoming a dumping ground,” he said, before emphasizing that he “wouldn’t directly blame” substance abuse service providers.
Volunteers at St. Ann’s Corner of Harm Reduction routinely hand out syringes, bandages and drug supplies, such as distilled water, bottle caps and cotton wool, in their efforts to protect addicts from overdosing, HIV infections and other side effects of their dangerous habit.
However, Steven Hernandez, the group’s chief of staff, said treatment services follow addicts, not the other way around.
He said The Hub has been attracting junkies since the 1960s.
“The Hub is where everything happens,” he told The Post. “It’s where people do their shopping, go to their doctor’s appointments and go to the bank. And it’s also where people buy their medications. It’s been that way forever.
“There’s always a chicken-and-egg conversation of trying to blame first responders or harm reduction programs because ‘you’re there offering services, that’s why the drug dealers are there.’ No, we are there because the drug dealers were already there,” he continued.
“Our goal is that our services are no longer needed and we have to close.”
Additionally, The Hub may have many drug counseling services, but it lacks physical substance abuse counseling services, forcing addicts to use on the streets, Hernandez said.
Many locals, meanwhile, complained that the NYPD is not doing enough to crack down on dealers.
These concerns were amplified by Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-Bronx), who sent a message to Mayor Eric Adams in September letter calling on the city to take tough action at the ‘open-air drug market’.
“When I went to see the drug hotspot for myself, I was left in shock, not only by the severity of the situation, but also by the lack of anything resembling a robust police presence,” he wrote. “It was a scene of lawlessness and disorder.”
Torres’ visit and letter yielded results, but only temporarily, said Siraj Bhaiyat, the owner of local variety store Willis Discount at Roberto Clemente Plaza.
“When Ritchie Torres came here about two months ago, the police were coming two to three times a day and there was less drug use,” he said. “Once Torres was there and gone, everything went back to normal.”
A designated group of NYPD officers patrols The Hub seven days a week, both on foot and in vehicles, a police spokesperson said.
Police made nearly 1,200 narcotics arrests in The Hub’s 40th precinct in December, a 20% increase from the same point last year, police said.
‘The police are not interested’
On a cold Monday, Nyleen, a 23-year-old South Bronx resident, walked through the open-air drug market—a monument to toxic persistence and the helplessness of New York City’s government.
“It’s so normal to see people shooting on the sidewalk here, the police don’t even care,” Nyleen said. “It’s normal in the South Bronx for police to walk past drug deals and drug addicts.
“We have a new police station there,” she said, pointing to the NYPD’s new 40th Precinct building on the same block, “and they don’t care.”
The Post saw no sign of any additional police presence and any indication of deep-rooted drug depravity.
On Brook Avenue across from the Horizon Juvenile Center, where the Post previously watched a man overdose and be revived with naloxone, addicts mingled openly and shot up opioids.
Five addicts sat on the sidewalk, where they had prepared grocery catalogs to mix their shots of heroin or fentanyl, putting distilled water and the drugs together in bottle caps. They drew doses through cotton wool into syringes.
One addict, who had applied a tourniquet to his bicep before injecting, messed up his vein and drew a steady stream of blood that spilled onto the sidewalk.
Another crawled on his hands and knees with a long string of snot hanging from his nose before collapsing next to another addict who was preparing more shots.
Just around the corner from the Dunkin’ Donuts on East 149th Street, a man wearing mismatched shoes foamed at the mouth and collapsed unconscious before FDNY EMTs took him away.
The Post was unable to determine whether the man had overdosed or had an unrelated seizure, but Dunkin’ employees say the store often sees addicts.
“He was foaming at the mouth, then he was drooling, then he was shaking, then he fell,” a Dunkin’ employee said.
“Maybe it was drugs, maybe he did too much.”
Bhaiyat, a variety store owner, said he believes pushing the dealers away by police is the solution.
“If you get rid of the dealers, the addicts will leave too,” he said.
“The addicts are here because this is where the dealers are. The charities are here because this is where the addicts are. The addicts come here to buy drugs, not for charities.”
