Blatant drug use, sales and prostitution has made an area of Marcus Garvey Park off limits to everyday citizens. It has gotten to the point a separate curfew is enforced in order to keep residents safe. For years this area has been a playground for criminals due to its landscape and elevation above other surrounding areas of the park. Click below for more info.
A large plateau in the center of Marcus Garvey Park in Harlem has been rendered off limits, the Daily News has learned. Parents, children and seniors have been scared away by flagrant drug use, drug sales and prostitution.
The hilly, 4 -acre portion of the 20-acre park is known as a local haven for druggies — and a virtual “no-go zone” for law-abiding citizens, according to News interviews with joggers, bikers, picnickers, chess players and dog-walkers.
“I wouldn’t want my children or my grandchildren up there, I wouldn’t even want my worst enemy up there,” says 82-year-old Alma Johnson, a retired home health aide who’s lived near the park for 48 years.
Syringes, condoms, glassine envelopes, marijuana bags and other obvious drug paraphernalia were found littering the stairs, footpaths and landings in the elevated section of the park in nine separate visits over a three-month period.
The more things change,the more things stay the same!