Mayor launches controversial crackdown on Roosevelt Ave

Mayor Eric Adams, City Councilmember Francisco Moya, NYPD Interim Commissioner Tom Donlon and other officials announced a new plan to crackdown on issues on Roosevelt Avenue on Tuesday.  Photo by Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Unit

By Ryan Schwach

Mayor Eric Adams said on Tuesday that the city would up its effort to cut down illegal vending, littering and sex trafficking on Queens’ Roosevelt Avenue. But critics said the mayor’s dedication to cleaning up the notorious street in Western Queens sounded eerily familiar to his past efforts to cut back on crime on Roosevelt, leading some to wonder if the new plan will actually lead to any lasting change.

The mayor said Tuesday that the city would be launching an inter-agency operation to address the long-standing issues on Roosevelt Avenue.

The effort, dubbed “Operation Restore Roosevelt,” will focus on enforcement along Roosevelt from 74th Street to 111th Street over the next 90 days, and will see city agencies target brothels and illegal vending. The task force will specifically aim to help women the city said are victims of sex trafficking, forced into prostitution along the busy block.

However, Tuesday’s announcement wasn't the first time Adams or his allies have tried to address crime and quality-of-life problems on Roosevelt.

For years, sex trafficking and solicitation, illegal vending, sanitation and other issues on Roosevelt – a road known for its cultural significance and diversity as well as its problems – has been top of mind for locals and elected officials.

In April, local Councilmember and Adams ally Francisco Moya launched the Roosevelt Avenue Task Force, which the councilmember said would “bring together key city agencies to restore order, uphold community standards, and preserve the essence of our neighborhood.”

Despite the efforts, the issues have more or less persisted.

According to NYPD crime data, while the seven major crime categories are down 2 percent citywide in the year to date, crime in the local 110th Precinct is up 7 percent. Those crimes are also up 18 percent in the neighboring 115th Precinct, according to the NYPD.

Burglary is up 28 percent in 110th Precinct, and 47 percent in the 115th, while being down 7 percent citywide.

Some sex crimes are up 6 percent citywide, but 11 percent in the 110th.

Adams himself even admitted that the task force didn’t get the job done this year.

“After seeing that the results were not where we wanted them to be, Commissioner [Kaz] Daughtry put in place this task force,” Adams said at the Tuesday press conference, which was announced only two hours before it began.

Adams’ announcement came only hours after Governor Kathy Hochul had made an announcement of her own regarding the Queens street. The governor committed the state to sending a number of troopers to Roosevelt, Hochul said on Tuesday, following a request from Hiram Monserrate, the former state lawmaker who was kicked out of the Senate after being convicted of misdemeanor assault and who later served time in prison for corruption. Monserrate is running to replace Moya in the City Council next year when the incumbent is term-limited out of office.

In January, Mayor Eric Adams and the NYPD temporarily closed 12 brothels in the Roosevelt Avenue area. A new initiative aims to close them for good. Photo Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office

“We will end sex trafficking in this area,” Adams said. “We're not here for one day and [then] go away. We're here for the problem to go away.”

What’s different and why now?

With efforts already underway at the local and state level to address Roosevelt, critics wondered on Wednesday why the mayor chose to make the announcement this week, and how the new efforts will be different from previous attempts.

State Senator Jessica Ramos represents Roosevelt Avenue and is one of Adams’ opponents in next year’s Democratic Primary. She said that the mayor is reaching back into his trademark policies as he faces a criminal indictment, investigations into his administration and a number of high-level resignations.

“It seems like everything else he does, a photo op,” Ramos told the Eagle. “I think the mayor feels like he's up against the wall, and he falls back to what he knows – performance policing.”

Ramos said that Tuesday’s announcement was “reminiscent” of previous, unsuccessful plans for enforcing quality-of-life issues on Roosevelt.

“I don’t understand what’s new,” she said.

Queens Borough President Donovan Richards shared a similar confusion.

“I thought we had a task force,” he said. “I'm trying to understand why all of a sudden they’re beefing up police presence.”

Ramos said that even with the new operation, the mayor should have taken more decisive action years ago.

“There's been traffickers along Roosevelt Avenue for nearly all of the 40 years of my life that I have known, and that I have seen,” Ramos said. “[The mayor] could have started an operation to help the women being trafficked and exploited years ago, when he first took office.”

Richards, who argued that criminal enforcement cannot be the only way to solve the problems on Roosevelt, said he was happy with the multi-agency approach. However, he said that he was also unsure about how it would lead to results.

“We've been here before,” he said. “They're going to have this task force established for 90 days. What happens on the 91st day?”

“When you're dealing with human trafficking, it just becomes a sponge for me,” he added. “You squeeze them off Roosevelt, now do they go to Flushing? Do they go to another particular neighborhood?”

Tackling the issues along Roosevelt has long been a priority for a handful of local officials, including Moya and his political foe, Monserrate, who has, in recent weeks, driven attention to the street.

In recent months, he helped start a group called the “Let’s Improve Roosevelt Avenue Coalition.” It was partially his push that led to Hochul sending state troopers to aid in enforcement on Roosevelt Avenue.

Monserrate blamed “failed leadership” for the issues in the community, which he represented in office from 2002 to 2010 before he was ousted due to a domestic violence conviction.

“That leadership cuts across every single level – local, state and federal,” he said. “No one can escape it.”

Monserrate applauded Adams, and said what the mayor plans to do on Roosevelt would go deeper than previous attempts.

“This response was a long time coming,” Monserrate told the Eagle on Wednesday.

While Monserrate said the issues should have been addressed sooner, he doesn’t want to blame the mayor alone.

“If the mayor did not respond to this issue, I think he would have been crazy,” he said. “He had to respond to this issue. The issue was so blatant, and because the people in this community were revolting against it.”

Monserrate called a crackdown on brothels in January led by City Hall a “photo op,” but said he wouldn’t describe Tuesday’s event in the same vein.

At first look, the new operation looks similar to Moya’s task force and other attempts to address the long-standing issues. However, officials maintain that it will be a more comprehensive, consistent and coordinated program.

“We're here to take clear action on Roosevelt Avenue and address the issues of the quality of life issues that have impacted my community for far too long,” Moya said Tuesday. "This initiative will ensure that no issues get lost between agencies and that we are all working in tandem to provide the people of my district with the safety and quality of life they deserve.”

State Senator Jessica Ramos and other locals are unsure about Adams’ police-centered plans for Roosevelt Avenue.  Eagle file photo by Ryan Schwach

Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz’s office was also named as one of the agencies participating in “Operation Restore Roosevelt.”

In recent years, her office stopped prosecuting sex workers, but said Wednesday that it will help address sex trafficking concerns.

"DA Katz is focused on prosecuting human traffickers and individuals operating and patronizing illicit brothel establishments,” a spokesperson said in a statement on Wednesday. “Those arrested for prostitution are arraigned and connected with services to enable them to exit the sex trade if they so choose.”

Worries with over policing

While most locals agree issues with sex trafficking and prostitution need to be addressed, some advocates worry the policing-centered operation could harm immigrant vendors and other locals trying to make ends meet.

On Tuesday, the mayor and Moya focused their remarks on sex trafficking and prostitution, but policing unlicensed street vending is also a goal for the operation.

“The NYPD will be working to reduce retail theft and the sale of stolen goods, additionally, removing illegal, unlicensed vendors and illegal vehicles in the surrounding area, which is important to all of you,” Interim NYPD Commissioner Tom Donlon said.

Previous attempts by the Adams administration to address illegal vending along Roosevelt have been met with strong opposition.

Last summer, the city ordered the eviction of several street vendors in Corona Plaza, a location on Roosevelt well known as a cultural hub characterized by its diverse offering of street food.

Hiram Monserrate, a local district leader who has led the push to bring attention to Roosevelt Avenue in recent months. Photo via Monserrate/X 

The overnight eviction led to pushback from elected officials, and ultimately resulted in the city’s first legal street vending market.

But with Tuesday’s announcement, the same advocates who fought the administration on its Corona Plaza efforts said they were worried street vendors who struggle to get proper documentation will be swept up in the enforcement.

“Residents of Queens want what we all want: affordable housing, a well-paying job, and a safe community for their children,” immigration group Make the Road New York and the Street Vendor Coalition said in a joint statement. “Instead of making sure that this is a reality for everyone, Mayor Adams and Governor Hochul have instead decided to launch a quasi-military operation designed to criminalize people just trying to put food on the table and keep a roof over their heads. It is absurd and dangerous for elected officials to scapegoat an entire neighborhood to cover up their own failures of leadership and agency mismanagement.”

The organizations characterized Roosevelt as a “vibrant, dynamic community.”

“Mayor Adams and Governor Hochul talk about New York City as a city of immigrants, yet they put them at risk of deportation every time that they increase policing on the streets, which is especially concerning now given the national political environment,” they said.

Ramos and Richards – who nearly withdrew his sign-off on the new New York City Football Club soccer stadium to get the Corona Plaza vendors market done – were in agreement.

“You're going to go and take the churros lady’s cart again, how does that help with ensuring people have long-term, sustainable opportunities?” Richards said.

Both were also worried that the increased policing in the area would lead to adverse effects.

“With all of the police presence and so little actual investigation of the traffickers, you're basically sending the traffickers into hiding,” Ramos said. “The people who are left walking the street are honest people who most likely are parents and are trying to do the right thing. They came here to work, and they should be allowed to work, and it'll be very unfortunate if and when innocent people end up being caught up in the aftermath of this.”

City Hall did not respond to requests for further comment.