Methadone’s effect on addicts and communites

Eric Alamo shielded his eyes from the sun as he walked out of the Carmen Iris Capeles Treatment Clinic on Westchester Avenue.  It was an unusually hot and humid August day in Hunts Point. Alamo had walked three miles for a fifteen-minute appointment, his shirt drenched with sweat from his trek. It wasn’t much better inside—the air conditioner wasn’t working. Read the full story

Murder is down, but petty crimes on the rise in bad economy

Residents say prostitution is on the rise in Hunts Point, where in the evenings, several can be found on the corner of Lafayette and Hunts Point Avenues.

Amar Ndiaye calls his street vendor stand a “luxury item boutique.”

While passersby of the five-foot long plywood table may not define the 51-year olds’ street stand as either “luxury” or a “boutique,” it nevertheless has been a prominent fixture on the corner of Westchester Avenue and Southern Boulevard for the past eight years. Read the full story

Hunts Point residents keep up the fight

Photo Credit: Rob Sgobbo

Argentina Perdomo, 34, struggled to get into the front door of apartment 4G. With her two young daughters, Maria and Cynthia, ages 12 and 8, by her side, Perdomo tried to unlock the deadbolt, then jiggled the handle, then slammed her body against the door. “Try the lock again, Mommy,” Maria said. Read the full story

Reading Between the Crime Statistics in Hunts Point

Dried leaves swirled about Maria Ortiz as she stood sweeping the street outside the Mount Sinai Christian church. During the crisp autumn days, the summer’s sweltering heat and winter’s withering cold, Ortiz has kept the block between Coster and Spofford tidy for many of the 23 years she has been a member of Mount Sinai church in Hunts Point. “I see calm,” she said of the neighborhood. “I always clean out here and I don’t see what I used to: marijuana, needles, condoms. Now I could show you the garbage. I sweep up just what God brings – dried leaves.”

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