{"id":112622,"date":"2026-01-26T11:24:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-26T11:24:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/112622\/"},"modified":"2026-01-26T11:24:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-26T11:24:08","slug":"junkies-booted-from-nycs-washington-square-park-didnt-go-away-they-relocated","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/112622\/","title":{"rendered":"Junkies booted from NYC’s Washington Square Park didn’t go away \u2014 they relocated"},"content":{"rendered":"

A horde of junkies and vagrants who were kicked out of Washington Square<\/a> Park by the NYPD last year didn\u2019t disappear \u2014 they just found a new neighborhood to terrorize.<\/p>\n

Sara D. Roosevelt Park on the Lower East Side has turned into the Big Apple\u2019s newest eyesore with addicts shooting up just steps from young families while spent needles litter walkways next to playgrounds and babies in strollers, The Post has learned.<\/p>\n

Locals said many of the crowd were booted from Washington Square and simply found a new haunt.<\/p>\n

Junkies shoot up at Sara D. Roosevelt Park on the Lower East Side, just steps from families and residents. Georgett Roberts\/NYPost<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t take them into the park,\u201d said Christy, a 32-year-old mother of two. \u201cI\u2019m definitely worried about my kids\u2019 safety. The park is supposed to be for kids, it\u2019s supposed to be a peaceful place, right?\u201d<\/p>\n

Another mom of two youngsters, Jessica, 29, said she\u2019s lived in the area her whole life and had never seen conditions in the neighborhood deteriorate to this level before. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m very angry because I grew up in this area, so seeing the change is very unsettling \u2014 and not in a good way,\u201d she said. \u201cAlso ruins the experience for the kids when they see these types of people in their play area and what they are doing.<\/p>\n

\u201cChildren should not be exposed to that,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

The invasion of the tranquil park near Pace High School is heartbreaking.<\/p>\n

Vagrants and addicts kicked out of Washington Square Park last year are now at Sara D. Roosevelt Park. Georgett Roberts\/NYPost<\/p>\n

A handful of spent needles were found dumped along a path at Sara D. Roosevelt Park on the LES. Georgett Roberts\/NYPost<\/p>\n

A cleanup crew at Roosevelt Park recovered 400 needles during a sweep in late November, and a recent visit by The Post found discarded vials and a group of junkies shooting up \u2014 including one woman injecting her eyelid \u2014 in broad daylight next to families enjoying the park.<\/p>\n

The popular Hester Street Playground at the southern end of the park is now a dumping ground.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe used to go regularly, but then it started getting really bad here, so we don\u2019t come as much,\u201d said Destiny, a neighborhood mom of two young children. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe did notice a lot of shady people recently. I noticed a lot of drug dealers lately,\u201d she said. \u201cI grew up my whole life in Brooklyn, and I never saw stuff as bad as I see here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Signs of trouble: drug vial caps next to a playground at Sara D. Roosevelt Park on the Lower East Side. Georgett Roberts\/NYPost<\/p>\n

Those used to be the gripes from Greenwich Village residents, who were terrorized by aggressive vagrants and brazen open-air drug peddlers<\/a>, making Washington Square Park virtually unusable.<\/p>\n

Conditions at the onetime bohemian mecca were the subject of hundreds of neighborhood complaints in recent years \u2014 a survey last year found<\/a> that of 600 residents polled by the Sixth Precinct Community Council, 487 of them \u2014 83% \u2014 wanted more cops on the streets.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, 74% said the state needed stronger penalties for drug dealing, and 80% thought New York needed stricter bail laws, according to the first-of-its-kind survey, conducted in February and March.<\/p>\n

Dozens of used needles were recovered from Sara D. Roosevelt Park on the Lower East Side recently. Georgett Roberts\/NYPost<\/p>\n

An addict shoots up in her eyelid at Sara D. Roosevelt Park on the Lower East Side last month. Georgett Roberts\/NYPost<\/p>\n

That all changed on Halloween, when dozens of New York\u2019s Finest swooped in<\/a> and flooded the park in a massive operation designed to knock vagrants and drug dealers out of commission.<\/p>\n

But the sweep didn\u2019t solve the problem \u2014 it just relocated it less than a mile away, critics said.<\/p>\n

In a statement to The Post, the city parks department said additional cleaning crews have been assigned to Roosevelt Park, which is slated for upgrades, including new turf and improvements to the playground areas, noting that \u201cpositive activities drive out the negative.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOur staff engage with individuals experiencing drug addiction\u00a0on a daily basis\u00a0in parks across the city,\u201d the statement said. \u201cWe work with our partners to offer resources and aid while treating people with compassion and dignity and promoting improved quality of life for all New Yorkers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Washington Square Park was overrun with junkies and vagrants, including this suspect, until cops moved in last year. Stephen Yang for the New York Post<\/p>\n

NYPD cops swarmed Washington Square Park late last year \u2014 but the trouble makers just moved somewhere else. Michael Nagle<\/p>\n

But for neighborhood parents, it\u2019s too little too late.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur children deserve playgrounds that aren\u2019t littered with fentanyl capsules,\u201d Brian Chin, a community activist and the father of two young children.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a situation created by misguided and reckless policies, implemented by politicians who live in ivory towers, and who never step foot in the parks used by ordinary people,\u201d he said. \u201cInstead of pushing mandatory treatment, the city is enabling and encouraging drug addiction among the most vulnerable in our society, by funding and pushing failed \u2018Harm Reduction Centers\u2019 and free syringe programs. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not compassion,\u201d Chin added. \u201cThis is torture, both for the addicts trapped in an endless cycle, and the residents who live here who are forced to endure these conditions every day.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A horde of junkies and vagrants who were kicked out of Washington Square Park by the NYPD last…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":112623,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[13888,7317,68,2000,57,9,56,63,65,64,103,58,15081],"class_list":{"0":"post-112622","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-addiction","9":"tag-drugs","10":"tag-exclusive","11":"tag-homelessness","12":"tag-metro","13":"tag-new-york","14":"tag-ny","15":"tag-nyc","16":"tag-nyc-headlines","17":"tag-nyc-news","18":"tag-nypd","19":"tag-us-news","20":"tag-washington-square-park"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112622","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=112622"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112622\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/112623"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=112622"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=112622"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=112622"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}