A New York City subway underpass has become an open-air drug market, making it unsafe and occasionally unusable for residents, according to the district's city council member.
"The illicit drug selling and use, as well as other quality of life issues, has made the underpass unwelcoming and in some days unwalkable," City Council Member Oswald Feliz, a Democrat, wrote in a Nov. 25 letter sent to the city's Department of Transportation and obtained by the New York Post.
The Kingsbridge D-train station underpass — a pathway below the tracks that connects the two sides — has become a hotspot for the New York's growing drug epidemic. Illicit dealing and abuse is increasingly seen across the Bronx-based subway station along with needles and trash covering the walkway, leading residents and local parents to feel unsafe, the New York Post reported.
"It’s not safe," Draya Michelle, the mother of a 2-year-old girl, told the Post. "I take the Metro North just to avoid coming up this way, and I wouldn’t recommend anyone going down into that underpass because you don’t know what’s going to happen to you."
"And no one’s coming to save you," Michelle continued. The cops "just stand there and watch."
Brian Calle, a local resident and father, told the Post that it's scary to walk around the area.
"We can’t really walk through there because a lot of people are sleeping there and doing drugs," he said. "I don’t want my kids to grow up in a neighborhood like this."
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New York City reached a 20-year record-high of 3,026 fatal drug overdoses in 2022, more than doubling 2019's total, according to the New York City health department. The Bronx's residents had the highest rate of overdose deaths citywide.
Feliz blamed DOT for not taking action at the Kingsbridge station to deter illicit drug activities.
"Your agency has received many ideas of simple steps that can be taken within your power, but your agency refused to do anything," Feliz wrote in his letter.
A DOT spokesperson told Fox News the department is working to resolve the issue.
"These complex challenges require a multi-agency approach and the Adams administration is marshaling its resources to deliver safe streets and welcoming public spaces in the Bronx," the spokesperson said in a statement.
