The red lights are back on in Queens, and the chaos is happening right in the backyard of Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
Along Roosevelt Avenue, one of the most notorious prostitution and crime corridors in New York City, the scene looks more like a third-world marketplace than a neighborhood in the United States. Sex workers are once again lining the sidewalks, openly soliciting customers while vendors grill meat, sell knockoff electronics, and peddle suspected stolen goods in broad daylight,” Fox News reported.
This stretch of Queens has become a no-go zone for many longtime residents, and they’re fed up with being ignored. Local families say they’ve begged Ocasio-Cortez and Meng to act, but nothing has changed. They’ve even nicknamed the strip the “Avenue of the Sweethearts” due to its reputation, and some say it feels like living inside a “Red Light District.”
“All the criminal activity has reverted to the way it was last year,” local activist and Republican City Council candidate Ramses Frias told Fox News Digital. “Our residents feel like prisoners in their own homes while criminals walk freely, preying on helpless victims.”
According to Frias, violent gangs such as 18th Street and Tren de Aragua are using graffiti to mark their territory and conducting their operations in plain sight.
Following a recent Ocasio-Cortez town hall, Fox News Digital walked Roosevelt Avenue and counted as many as 30 women on one block alone, appearing to offer sex to Friday night partiers, all while children and families passed by.
The prostitution is hard to miss, and so is the split in responsibilities. Most of the alleged sex workers operate on Meng’s side of the strip, while Ocasio-Cortez’s side is packed with vendors selling counterfeit Apple products, tools, and street food, often stored in unlabeled containers under the subway tracks. Health standards appear nonexistent.
Even after months of police crackdowns under a special initiative called Operation Restore Roosevelt, not much has changed.
Despite a visible police presence, enforcement seems to fall short. Residents warned that once the warmer weather returned, so would the prostitutes, and they were right.
NYPD Deputy Mayor for Public Safety Kaz Daughtry said their operation, which brought in more than 200 additional officers, did make a difference on paper.
“There has been a notable difference,” he said. “Robberies are down 23%, felony assaults are down 33%, burglaries are down 47%, and grand larceny is down 30%.”
But even Daughtry admits the work isn’t done. He said 15 brothels were shut down following 30 court filings by police. Just days after Ocasio-Cortez’s town hall, officers raided a notorious “bodega brothel” operating above a corner store near two schools in her district. Inside, they found filthy, makeshift rooms split by wood and shower curtains — barely big enough for a single bed.
Then, on Tuesday, police hit two more brothels on Meng’s side of the avenue, the same block where Fox News Digital had witnessed dozens of alleged prostitutes days earlier.
Frias says the problem is far from solved. “Three to four other brothels are still operating on that same block,” he said. “People are scared to even leave their homes.”
“Our laws need to become stricter, and it’s time to elect representatives who have the best interests of the community and its safety as a priority,” said Frias, who is challenging Councilman Shekar Krishnan in District 25. He blasted Ocasio-Cortez for refusing to use her massive online platform to even acknowledge the issue.
Daughtry also called out the congresswomen. “Never seen her,” he said of Ocasio-Cortez. “She’s never reached out to us. We would really love her assistance to help us, but at the end of the day, we have to do what’s right and restore some law and order back to Roosevelt. I would like AOC to partner with us… use her platform to help us get funding or connect women to services.”