Practically a yr after The Submit reported junkies turned the 181st Avenue No. 1 practice station right into a taking pictures gallery, the transit hub’s situations have spiraled additional, with half-naked addicts roaming the human feces-covered platforms.
The Submit noticed this week a well-recognized scene of tons of of needles and orange caps tossed by addicts onto the tracks on the Washington Heights station, whereas a person with out pants lined in observe marks stumbled alongside the uptown platform affected by sharps.
At reverse ends of the platform sat mounds of human feces.
Exhausted passengers, many with kids in tow, rushed previous the needles whereas holding their noses to dam the wretched stink.
“In case you have been … down by Manhattan the place wealthy New Yorkers dwell at, then they’d give a f–ok, however we’re in a minority space,” NYCHA janitor Candido Betances informed The Submit, referring to the MTA and metropolis officers.
“You’ve received to keep watch over the man within the nook waking up or screaming,” the 23-year-old added. “You’ve received to remember, you may’t chill out.”
The transit hub’s descent right into a drug den “exploded” in the course of the pandemic, coinciding with an overdose prevention heart opening simply three blocks away in November 2021, an MTA employee and straphangers informed The Submit.
“This station has grow to be a crack den,” straphanger Jesus Ayala raged on X, posting a photograph Monday of an encampment with 5 zonked-out vagrants on the subway platform.
“We shouldn’t be subjected to this.”
Narcotics arrests in Transit District 3, which covers the 181st Avenue station, have jumped 136% up to now this yr, as much as 78 by March 31 in comparison with 33 throughout the identical interval in 2023, in keeping with the NYPD.
General crime within the transit district has dropped to 35 incidents as of March 31 versus 50 throughout the identical interval in 2023.
Nonetheless, straphangers pleaded for extra police presence on the subway platform to discourage lawless drug exercise.
“Generally you see individuals utilizing on the platform … and there isn’t a constant police presence,” mentioned second-grade trainer Stephanie Jacobo.
“If town goes to make an try to scrub up the subway, it’s received to be constant.”
An NYPD spokesperson mentioned officers have been addressing native complaints in regards to the 181st Avenue Station, noting officers have carried out greater than 700 directed patrols there.
“There’s nonetheless work to be performed, however our officers are extra engaged and centered than ever,” the spokesperson mentioned.
“The NYPD deploys our officers the place crime is reported and in response to neighborhood complaints.”
Subway platforms are swept each day whereas the tracks are cleaned each 30 days, an MTA spokeswoman mentioned, warning that cleansing the tracks extra usually would hinder service.
