New York Post By and
Business owners and residents along Midtown Manhattan’s “Strip of Despair” are so frequently robbed and harassed by drug-addled “psychopaths” that they’ve stopped trying to resist — or even bother calling the cops for help.
“Almost every day someone comes into my store to steal,” said 45-year-old Arun Kumar, who owns A’s Coffee Spot on W. 39th St. and 8th Avenue.
“They take beer the most — they take it and walk out,” he said.
“It’s too dangerous to try and stop them.”
Kumar’s shop is located in a stretch of Midtown between Port Authority Bus Terminal and Penn Station that’s come to be known as the “8th Avenue Corridor,” where hard drugs are used in the open and emotionally disturbed people wander the streets screaming at passersby.
Several locals told The Post that they’re fed-up and scared of what the neighborhood has become — despite New York Mayor Eric Adams insisting on Monday that it’s actually getting better.
Recent data from the NYPD shows a mixed bag of progress for the Midtown South Precinct — which stretches from 9th Avenue to Lexington.
There have been 172 reported robberies so far this year, down 24% from the same period in 2023, but felony assaults are up nearly 12%, with 245 reported.
Grand larceny is down 16%, but petit larceny is up 11% and retail theft reports are up 3%.
Drug arrests are also up more than 25%.
But it’s clear that lawlessness remains rampant. The Post caught one man urinating in the street in broad daylight on Monday.
Public defecation is also a common sight, residents and shop owners said.
Open drug use often escalates into violence.
The Post obtained horrific footage of a brutal knife fight in April between an alleged drug dealer and a user outside a building which led to one man being badly injured.
Last week, one woman was stabbed to death outside Port Authority, and an emotionally disturbed man was shot in the leg near West 33rd St. and Broadway — both in the same night.
Locals say many of the troublemakers are drawn to the neighborhood by a concentration of homeless shelters and drug addiction treatment clinics in the area…
READ FULL ARTICLE HERE… (nypost.com)
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