Mayor Eric Adams held a town hall meeting in Corona Monday night with residents demanding answers as to how the city plans to address increased prostitution, illegal vending and the proliferation of unlicensed smoke shops in the neighborhood.
More than hundred attendees attended the event in the gymnasium at Elm Tree Elementary School on 98th Street and peppered the mayor with questions primarily dealing with quality-of-life issues. Several questions also dealt with an uptick in homelessness in the parks as well as crime and street flooding.
A hot topic dealt with the prevalence of sex workers, particularly on Roosevelt Avenue, where residents say the blatant display is hard to avoid.
One resident who brought up the issue handed the mayor a pink pamphlet, listing available services, that she says are being distributed along the stretch lined with massage parlors.
Adams noted that he had seen the same pamphlet himself when he made a late-night visit to the area earlier this year with Deputy Mayor Philip Banks.
The mayor said that steps have been taken to address the problem, noting the NYPD had taken action. For instance, officials identified 40 locations after he visited the area where prostitution was being conducted and sent officers to conduct undercover operations. Officers visited 20 locations, conducted buys and handed over the video surveillance and other evidence to the Queens District Attorney’s office. Banks, who was at the meeting, said that 18 of those locations were submitted for nuisance abatement and will likely be shut down sometime in January.
The NYPD, while targeting the locations, also hit the property owners with summonses dealing with Department of Buildings and FDNY violations to increase the likelihood of shutting down the establishments.
But Adams partly blamed the federal government for the worsening of the issue, which coincided with an influx of migrants arriving in the city. The mayor added that President Biden had largely…
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