Community leaders and residents gathered at a press conference to address the severe crime and lawlessness along Roosevelt Avenue.
MOHAMED FARGHALY
mfarghaly@queensledger.com
A community press conference held at 90-20 Elmhurst Avenue on September 5 brought urgent attention to the deteriorating conditions along Roosevelt Avenue. District Leader Hiram Monserrate, along with other community leaders and local residents, voiced their growing frustration over what they describe as an escalating crisis of lawlessness and crime in the Roosevelt Avenue Corridor.
Spanning from approximately 104th Street through Corona, Elmhurst, Jackson Heights, and extending to 72nd Street, Roosevelt Avenue has allegedly become increasingly dominated by organized crime syndicates, drug traffickers, human traffickers, pimps, and unlicensed street vendors. The area has also seen a surge in illegal marijuana shops and shoplifting rings, contributing to a pervasive sense of insecurity among residents and small business owners.
“Our community deserves better, and we demand it now,” District Leader and former Councilman Hiram Monserrate said. “We are asking the NYPD to bring back the Roosevelt Avenue Task Force, as well as the Operation Take Back initiative. These initiatives will bring hundreds of police officers into this extremely troubled section of Queens.”
Monserrate, who previously served as a council member and police officer, emphasized that during his tenure, Roosevelt Avenue faced challenges but never the level of lawlessness seen today.
“When I represented this community as a council member, we never allowed this,” Monserrate said. “Roosevelt Avenue has always had its challenges but what we have here now is complete lawlessness, it’s disgusting and must be fixed.”
Ramon Ramirez of the Let’s Improve Roosevelt Avenue Coalition also weighed in, condemning the criminal enterprises that have taken root.
“Police officers need to do their jobs and arrests must be made,” Ramirez said. “These people are not shop-lifting because they are hungry this a criminal money-making enterprise that includes the same stolen items being sold by the unlicensed street vendors right here on Roosevelt Avenue and 91st Street. It must stop.”
Amanda Lopez, a coalition member and Elmhurst resident, expressed her personal fear and frustration.
“I was born and raised in this community, and I live here,” Lopez said. “Roosevelt Avenue at present is very scary. As a woman I am in fear just walking home at night or traveling on the 7 Train. Are our elected officials blind? We need positive change immediately; we need to be safe in our neighborhood”.
Ramses Frias, a local resident and candidate for City Council in District 25, expressed deep concerns about the escalating crime and disorder in the area. Frias highlighted the rampant prostitution, illegal street vendors, and overall deterioration that have plagued the community over the past few years. He emphasized that these issues are negatively impacting local businesses and making the neighborhood unsafe for residents, particularly children.
“We need to come together, we need to grow our voices together and become one, to understand that this is no longer tolerated, that we are going to be here, that we are standing up for each other, and that we will proceed and move forward to start a new day,” Frias said.
Drawing on his 43 years of experience living in Elmhurst, Frias urged for immediate action from the NYPD and city officials to address these problems. He called for increased community engagement and support for new leadership that will prioritize restoring safety and vitality to the area.
District Leader Hiram Monserrate, alongside other officials, criticized the failure of elected representatives to tackle the issues plaguing the community.
Marty Dolan, a congressional candidate, addressed the press conference by highlighting the broader implications of the issues facing the community. He emphasized that the deteriorating conditions in neighborhoods like the one in question reflect poorly on New York City as a whole, tarnishing its global image. He criticized the city’s leaders, questioning the absence of figures such as Mayor Eric Adams, Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in addressing these issues.
“We’re all connected,” Dolan said. “New York is connected to the world through the media, through social networks. When you have conditions like you have here in this community, it’s a black eye for New York all over the world.”
To address the ongoing crisis, Monserrate unveiled the “Five Point Plan for a Better Roosevelt,” a strategic proposal designed to restore safety and order:
The “Five Point Plan for a Better Roosevelt” proposes a comprehensive strategy to address the escalating crime and disorder along Roosevelt Avenue. It calls for the expansion of the Roosevelt Avenue Task Force to 120 officers, who would be permanently assigned to the area to ensure consistent law enforcement. Additionally, the plan recommends augmenting the 110th and 115th Police Precincts with 50 more officers each to bolster their capacity. To enhance oversight and accountability, it suggests reconfiguring precinct boundaries so that a significant portion of Roosevelt Avenue falls under a single precinct’s jurisdiction.
The plan also advocates for a multi-agency response to enforce quality-of-life violations, such as issuing summonses and seizing goods from unlicensed vendors. It emphasizes the need for community involvement by establishing partnerships with local organizations to gather intelligence, support beautification projects, and strengthen community bonds. Furthermore, it supports legislative changes to amend bail laws to prevent the release of repeat offenders without bail for crimes like shoplifting, which negatively impact local businesses. The plan also calls for increased funding for police, encapsulated in the movement to #refund the police.
During the Q&A session, District Leader Hiram Monserrate strongly criticized the failure of elected officials to address the severe issues plaguing the community. He emphasized that the residents, many of whom are immigrants or their descendants, are subjected to conditions that would be unacceptable in other neighborhoods.
He highlighted the neglect in basic community responsibilities, such as ensuring safety, cleanliness, and adequate protection for vulnerable populations. Monserrate pointed out that the current state of Roosevelt Avenue has turned the area into a national embarrassment, mocked on social media, and that the community deserves much better.
“Everything that we are confronting right now, we are confronting because all our representatives have failed us, every single one of them, even some that are my friends, they have failed us,” Monserrate said. “We should not be subjected to this, Queen is better than this.”
As community leaders and residents rally for immediate action, the pressure mounts on city officials and law enforcement to address the escalating crisis and restore order to this vital Queens thoroughfare.
The “Five Point Plan for a Better Roosevelt” was unveiled, calling for increased police presence, better oversight, and community involvement to restore order and safety to the area.
