(Daily360.com) Before the 2023-24 migrant crisis, New York City’s Queens borough boasted some of the safest, cleanest, most culturally vibrant and ethnically diverse neighborhoods in America. Times have unfortunately changed in the northwestern area of the borough, specifically in Jackson Heights, Corona, and Elmhurst, to the extent where Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez might now be hard pressed to recognize these parts of her own district as belonging to a First-World country, let alone to the United States of America.
According to the write-up in Fox News, the streets of Northwestern Queens now resemble an open-air flea market choked with trash, where “unsavory and unhygenic” conditions dominate. Locals complain that crime dominates the area, with shoplifting, gang violence, and prostitution high on the list, and that the illegal shanty-town trading posts that have sprung up are robbing local businesses of foot traffic and depriving the city of tax revenue.
The official census puts the population of the area at 22% Asian and 56% Hispanic, two culturally-conservative ethincities that find the spike in prostitution and chaos most upsetting. The migrants who now populate the streets are “open about it and not discreet” about their unlawful activity, according to 43 year-old resident Ramses Frías, noting that provoatively-dressed women frequently set up shop in front of the local dollar store and the neighborhood pizzeria to entice johns from the high foot traffic in these otherwise family-friendly establishments. The problem is worse in warmer months, as the weather allows for more immodest clothing than in the winter.
In Januarty 2024, the NYPD, in response to complaints from neighborhood residents, orchestrated raids on six makeshift brothels, but the results were discouraging, as the businesses simply moved and set up shop elsewhere in the neighborhood the following day. Curtis Swila, founder of the community action group Guardian Angels, complained that the city is not living up to its responsibilities, pointing out that no arrests were made during the raids.
What does the future of New York City look like?
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