Locals say a section of Midtown Manhattan has become a “city of despair” where drug addicts inject drugs, smoke marijuana and sleep beneath the feet of commuters and tourists.
“There’s a lot going on around here,” one store owner told The Post about the so-called 8th Avenue neighborhood near Penn Station, which is home to a concentration of addiction treatment clinics and homeless shelters. “Fighting, drugs, oh my god, it’s all bad.”
“I don’t know if they have knives or guns,” she said, explaining that people who appear to be very high and extremely mentally ill regularly show up at her store near the Port Authority Bus Terminal, demanding money and harassing tourists.
The corridor, which stretches roughly 10 blocks from the Port Authority to Penn Station, serves as the gateway to New York City for hundreds of thousands of commuters and tourists visiting the Big Apple each day.
But the area is also home to at least four needle exchanges and clinics, numerous homeless shelters, New York State Parole Board offices and other social service facilities dealing with mental illness and addictions.
Frustrated locals blame the concentration of services for turning the area into a crime hotbed.
Now, business leaders and workers have been fighting behind the scenes for years to get the city to clean up the neighborhood and kick out the troublemakers.
“It’s just a feeling of total despair,” said Leah McVay, who works at IMCD Lighting just off Eighth Avenue.
“It seems the city has decided not to pay attention to this issue in an inappropriate way,” she told The Post.
As The Washington Post reported in 2021, it’s been an ongoing problem in the area for years, with police sources saying Midtown South has one of the highest rates of drug arrests in the entire city.
McVeigh’s office moved to a building on 8th Avenue in January 2022, but quickly experienced a “night and day difference” as employees found drug addicts passed out on their doorstep and dealers set up shop under the scaffolding at a construction site next door.
“From the moment we moved in, it was clear we were no longer in Kansas,” she said, describing how employees moving expensive lighting equipment into the office would frequently encounter shady characters offering help in exchange for money after late nights at work.
“It only takes one crazy person for something bad to happen. You never really feel safe, and you feel like you’re constantly avoiding potential disaster,” she said. “24/7. There’s no safe time.”
McVay is not the only resident living on edge in the area.
James, a 50-year-old university administrator, said he has “learned to be cautious” when walking the streets.
“I don’t feel good about it. We pay a lot of tax money for city services. I would like to see the city step in and take a bit more of a proactive role in providing assistance to people who need it,” he said.
Shelley Barda, 57, who has lived in the area since the 1990s, said the current condition of Eighth Avenue reminds her of the rough times just after the crack cocaine epidemic hit the area.
“Sometimes people have mental illness,” she said. “I’ve seen a lot of people like that, but you never know if they have a mental illness, they have a drug addiction, or both. That’s a dangerous combination.”
Neighborhood community board meetings have taken on the appearance of support groups as residents and business owners talk about the horrors they see every day.
“I was at a public meeting with people who have apartments on 37th Street, and they were talking about trying to get their kids to school at 7 a.m. while kicking needles away from the needle exchange on 37th Street,” McVay recalled hearing at one meeting.
“Even if their intentions are very well-intentioned, I don’t think you can bring that many social service and homelessness organizations together and not expect an outcome like this,” she said.
According to the NYPD’s latest statistics, the Midtown South precinct, which stretches from 9th Avenue to Lexington Avenue, has one of the highest drug arrest rates in the city, rivaling Harlem and the South Bronx, sources told The Post.
At least 423 drug-related arrests have been made in the Midtown South precinct’s two-square mile area so far this year, up about 100 from the same time last year.
At least 1,888 drug-related arrests were made across the precinct last year, down slightly from 1,244 in 2022 but continuing an upward trend since before the pandemic.
Sources told The Washington Post that things have gotten so bad that a special narcotics prosecutor has been assigned to make drug arrests in Midtown South.
City officials acknowledged that Midtown South is a problem, but officials said they are actively dedicating resources to solving the problem.
“There has been an overall decrease in crime in the area so far this year. This is the result of strong police efforts, including holding those who break the law accountable, but to be clear, our work is not done yet,” a city hall spokesman told The Post.
“We will continue to work to reduce crime and improve quality of life in this area and all communities within the city,” they said.
A woman who runs a business near the Port Authority said she fears help may not be on the way soon.
“When tourists come to shop, they look anxious. You can see it in their faces,” she said. “We are losing business because of this.”
Additional reporting by Amanda Woods and Craig McCarthy.
