A Tibetan restaurant is sandwiched between a Mexican Taqueria and a New York Deli, with nearby immigration and income tax lawyer offices advertised in Spanish and Bengali, and a dozen different languages floating up toward the cacophony of the 7 train passing by. At night, the street roars even louder to life with vendors, bars, and music, maintaining its chaotic clash of ethnicities and cuisine.
“You can’t even walk on Roosevelt because there’s so many vendors after 5 or 6 o’clock,” said Rahat Khan, business owner of IR Fabrics and Design, selling Indian garments.
Commonly dubbed as “America’s Tastiest Street,” Roosevelt Ave. in Jackson Heights, Queens, is not only famous for being the melting pot of America but also for its notorious nightlife activities. The street was hotly contested by New York City mayoral candidates in the first debate of the election season regarding combating crime in this area, including decriminalizing illegal prostitution. The candidates argued over how to handle illegal brothels and prostitution, but local residents and business owners say the issues important to them are about quality of life: cleanliness, illegal vendors, and better community spaces.
In April, outgoing Mayor Eric Adams implemented a new task force to help with these quality-of-life issues and formed the Q-Teams, or quality of life police teams. Q-Teams is an organized effort among different community services and the NYPD to provide a task force responsible for non-emergency 911 and 311 calls. According to Mayor Adams, the Q-Teams have responded to over 31,500 non-emergency calls and reduced response times by an average of 47 minutes citywide, as well as a 28 percent drop in crime this year through June. The Q-Teams were rolled out in Queens two months later.
Despite this new task force, many business owners and residents of Jackson Heights have complained about long response times and inadequate social services. While some residents still say the candidates’ arguments were misplaced, many feel cautiously optimistic about Mamdani delivering on preventing these quality-of-life issues.
The NYPD, however, says there isn’t an easy fix.
Overlapping jurisdictions can cause delayed response times as Roosevelt Ave. belongs to three different police precincts: 110th, 114th, and 115th. If the police receive a call from one block and it’s not in their jurisdiction, they need to call the other precinct for their response, hence furthering longer response times, Sgt. Ranpreet Jaswal of the 114th precinct explained.
Officer Daniel Bellucci offered another reason for delays: large quantities of requests versus available police manpower.
“If I’m working at midnight on a Saturday and we have 20 jobs holding in the precinct and 2 assaults come over, we have to get to the assaults,” he said.
Another reason is the priority line in which the police take calls.
“We answer them by whichever job is oldest, not by priority,” Bellucci explained.
The Q-teams were specifically created to better delineate police forces for handling quality of life issues. But the creation of these teams has not been straightforward.
“Unfortunately, what happened was they took the traffic components…combined into the quality of life team…pretty much rebranded it, gave them some enforcement options, gave them a long, specialized training,” Juswal said. “So, the main objective of the Q-Team is to address these long-term chronic conditions.”
During the debate, the candidates focused significantly on stating their proposals for handling illegal prostitution in the area.
“I walked down Roosevelt Ave. with prostitutes there at 9 o’clock in the morning,” said Former Governor and Independent candidate Andrew Cuomo.
Cuomo pushed for more law enforcement, Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa to “lock up the Johns,” and Mamdani pushed for “zero tolerance” against women and to follow the advice of District Attorneys.
However, Officer Bellucci said the 115th precinct has not been allowed to prosecute illegal prostitution along Roosevelt Ave.
“If the DA’s office would like us to prosecute them, they should let us know because the few times that we have tried to prosecute prostitution, or at least clean it up a little, or redirect it, it’s been thrown back in our face,” Bellucci said.
While the candidates argued over this topic, Roosevelt Ave. residents and workers want the police to focus on the issues that affect them the most and to employ services that will help residents long-term. Some, like Vinnie Arizmendi, rely on social services and police resources daily and call for better reform and treatment.
“I’d rather die before I call the police,” said Vinnie Arizmendi, a New York native who is part of the Queens homeless population.
Arizmendi and his “found family” have been approached by many police, MTA employees, and social workers, but he has issues with how he’s been treated.
“We are homeless, but we’re not bums,” he said, pointing to his blue Calvin Klein shirt and Transformers cap.
The issues most important to him are cleanliness and better treatment of the homeless.
“Instead of anybody asking for help for us, they just record us,” on the citizen app, he mentioned.
The citizen app is an informal citizen crime watch app where people can record and share videos of public safety concerns occurring in real time. Arizmendi saw this lack of help for the homeless not only from citizens but social services as well. Social services have tried to help him in the past, but he said they don’t try to establish any trust with him or the other homeless.
“Start a conversation and then build up to it,” he suggested. “You don’t just come over here and say, ‘Hey, do you need help?’ No, you come over and say, ‘Hey, how you doing?’ and chill with us for a little bit.”
The New York City Department of Social Services could not be reached for comment.
26-year-old business owner Khan shares the same plaza where Vinnie and his friends often reside, and he shares similar values. Cleanliness is Khan’s number one quality-of-life issue he wants to see Mamdani improve.
“New York is the garbage city,” he said. “I know this is the diverse city, but the city should be cleaned.”
Khan said he often sees illegal vendors selling in the plaza in front of his storefront and “drunk people and teenagers” causing trouble. Khan also expressed feeling neglected by the NYPD, but he does appreciate their presence in the area.
“It doesn’t matter if you add more NYPD…nowadays, if you call NYPD, they come 3 or 4 hours later, if it’s not a serious crime,” he said.
Khan wants a respectful community that will encourage each other to be more socially conscious about cleanliness and community efforts, and he voted for Mamdani. Khan has attended Mamdani’s campaign events three times and thinks he will be a leader who can motivate people.
Mamdani also has critics along Roosevelt Ave., like housekeeper and babysitter Rosa Valleres from East Elmhurst. Valleres voted for President Donald Trump in the last election and said she believes in the value and reward of hard work. She is critical of Mamdani’s affordability and free busing platforms, and said it’s unfair for the government to give free amenities to non-workers.
“I’m a working woman, and I think you get anything when you work,” she said. “But when you decide to not work, you have everything. You have help for rent, help for food, help for internet, help for cellphone, for everything. What is the reason you need to work?”
Valleres voted for Cuomo, despite identifying as a Republican and in favor of Sliwa. She cites Cuomo’s proven political track record as her main reason for voting for an Independent, although she also said she does not care for his personality or politics.
Like the other Roosevelt Ave. residents, she’s noticed illegal prostitution and vending, but the issues important to her and her family are much more everyday. Her daughter has called 911 for fights and garbage in their neighborhood, but was told by the police that they could not do anything.
“My money is the same money as another person’s,” Valleres said as a taxpayer. “Why is this area so different?”
Many Queens residents support law enforcement, but for issues that directly affect the quality of their daily lives. Those, like Khan, want stricter enforcement around cleanliness and illegal vending, not prostitution.
“You need a hard rule, and then you can be soft,” he said.
Regardless of who they voted for, their hopes are for Roosevelt Ave. to be not just policed but more livable. Khan spoke for many along Roosevelt Ave. when he asked, “If the city doesn’t take any response, who should we call?”
