The residents of The Bronx have long been sounding the alarm about the open-air drug markets in the Hub of the South Bronx, but see that our concerns have largely fallen on deaf ears.
If I were elected Governor of New York on Day 1, I would order the State Police to work with the NYPD to dismantle every outdoor museum. drug market in the city.
It would send a message that New York is no longer in the business of accepting the unacceptable.
An open-air drug market is more than a broken window.
It is a window into a broken system that is fundamentally failing the people of New York where it matters most: in the core functions of government, public safety and public health.
There is nothing compassionate or progressive about allowing people with severe mental illness and chemical addiction to languish on the streets of New York, threatening not only themselves but those around them.
Tolerance for open-air drug markets is cruelty wrapped in compassion.
Gov. Hochul would never tolerate an open-air drug market outside the governor’s mansion.
Mayor Adams would never tolerate an open-air drug market outside Gracie Mansion.
Why should the residents of the South Bronx be forced to watch drug addicts inject themselves with fentanyl in front of their children?
While we in The Bronx cannot maximize political contributions and deploy an army of lawyers and lobbyists to do our bidding at City Hall and in Albany, the people of The Bronx are nevertheless entitled to the same standard of public safety and quality of life as all others.
The political establishment can no longer expect us to simply keep our mouths shut and accept open-air drug trafficking as the new normal.
Tone-deaf government
It’s no secret that we are ruled by political insiders who are quick to congratulate themselves but slow to admit failures and learn from them.
Exhibit A is Governor Hochul, who took a victory lap – bragging that “crime is down” and the “subway is safe” – on the same day a woman was burned alive in Brooklyn and two men were stabbed in Queens.
The tone-deafness of Governor Hochul, who rules like a deer in headlights, is as baffling as the broken system she inherited but has neither the resources nor the will to fix it.
The governor doesn’t run New York. She simply manages its decline and calls it a success.
The Governor’s self-serving declarations that the mission is accomplished are fooling no one, because the reality of rising costs and declining quality of life and public safety is staring us all in the face.
New Yorkers deserve better than what a broken system can deliver.
We need a return to the basic principles of affordability, public safety and quality of life, starting with ending open-air drug markets in America’s largest city.
Ritchie Torres is the Democratic U.S. Representative for New York’s 15th Congressional District.
Leave a Reply