New York Immigrants Turning America’s Streets Into Trash Cans – Neighbors Have Had Enough

Daily Report July 22,2024

The chaotic scene outside an abandoned pharmacy in Astoria which has turned into a location where drunks and drug addicts gather, along with immigrants who were moved to the building months ago by Bloomberg administration officials is “completely unacceptable” says one Queens official.

Michael Gianaris, the Democratic deputy majority leader in charge of this district said he has also reached out to the NYPD and even Mayor Bill de Blasio’s office about removing “this two-story abandoned building that looks like a scene from ‘Fallout’.”

“I’m waiting to hear from both,” Gianaris told The Post on Sunday. “Completely unacceptable. The landlord should be held to account, and police should enforce all applicable laws to ensure the area is safe.”

Seven or so months ago, mostly middle-aged derelicts and vagrants began occupying the building with its walking dead of a parking lot. Neighbors and officials are outraged at the post-apocalyptic landscape being fashioned by its new inhabitants.

A City Hall spokesperson said in a Sunday statement that Mayor Eric Adams’ administration takes a “multi-agency approach” to clearing such encampments — and has already taken action at the Astoria site.

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“We are aware of these concerns here and have already revisited the site and cleaned it up,” the statement said.

By Sunday, photos of the shocking scene were splashed on The Post’s front page — yet some of it seemed to be picked up. There was already less furniture and garbage there, some of the old graffiti had been painted over. The drunks were also down, with only four men sighted and just one sleeping on the footpath.

But the problems continued at the lot between Newtown Road and 47th Street, by William Cullen Bryant High School. The trip they were documenting featured less jubilant scenes – one man rummaged through the pockets of a comatose figure before stealing spare change, as others shared drinks poured from aluminum cans into plastic cups.

The two men, who were clearly drunk and appeared almost to be gibbering incoherently, ignored reporters’ demands for comment. When they had to go, they would stagger next door into the old loading area of the Rite-Aid and relieve themselves in a corner manner that scared pedestrians so much that most people walked on the road instead of along these sidewalks.

The shuttering of the Astoria location stems from bankruptcy proceedings for Rite-Aid that began earlier in the fall. The questions arose after new owners applied for permits to expand the building, which sits on a corner lot and is currently one story high, into a five-story mixed-use project with both residential units and some retail. But the Department of Buildings in March opposed those plans, saying they did not comply with regulations among other issues.

Now, it’s unclear where the project stands.