Business as usual at the grimy, drug-infested ‘Broadway of the Bronx:’ ‘Worst I’ve ever seen it’

A seedy South Bronx neighborhood dubbed the “Broadway of the Bronx” remains a grimy, trash-strewn nightmare, crawling with garbage, strung-out junkies and used syringes — more than a year after The Post blew the whistle on the unsightly “Hub.”

“It’s the worst I’ve ever seen it,” neighborhood resident Margarita Rivera, a 70-year-old retired teacher, said Wednesday.

“This is called the Roberto Clemente Plaza. It’s in his honor. He must be turning over in his grave,” she said of the baseball great.

“It’s disgusting. It’s horrible, horrible. I try not to walk by here anymore. I don’t even come here to shop anymore. I avoid this area.”

A 50-year-old local store maintenance worker identifying himself only as Mamadou said he has to keep a close eye on the neighborhood junkies, who have a tendency to relieve themselves in and around his store.

“They pee and they poop over there,” he said. “They’re around my store, the exit area. Every day I have to clean around there. If they don’t see anybody they poop on the escalator.

“They’re crazy people. They drink, they smoke, they use needles,” he added. “Oh, it’s too much, it’s too much. The ambulance comes there every day and take people who fall on the ground and can’t get up.”

The Post, which exposed the unkempt neighborhood in a report last year, revisited the area after a troubling report on the commercial hub was released Wednesday by US Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-Bronx).

“The City of New York has fundamentally failed to deliver a durable solution to a crisis that continues to spiral out of control,” he said. “The city’s response has amounted to little more than a game of whack-a-mole — briefly suppressing illicit activity, only for the drug market to re-emerge with greater intensity.”

According to Torres’ report, the neighborhood sees as many as 20 drug overdoses in a week, with zonked-out junkies using Roberto Clemente Park as a waiting room for Daytop Village, a nearby drug treatment provider on the block.

Meanwhile, used syringes litter the sidewalks and career drug offenders roam the streets.

“The plaza needs a complete reset,” said Pedro Suarez, executive director of the Third Avenue Business Improvement District. “The drug dealers don’t even have to try hard. It’s a captive audience.”

Despite a series of promised enforcement efforts, the issues appear unchecked — and even have city and state lawmakers each pointing the finger at one another.

Local leaders said the blame falls on both city and state lawmakers, who have failed to adequately address the dilemma.

The state Office of Addiction Services and Supports has approved too many licenses for drug treatment facilities that are concentrated in The Hub, oversaturating the area with addicts, according to City Councilman Rafael Salamanca, who represents the area.

“The state has to take responsibility for this,” Salamanca said.

But State Assemblywoman Amanda Septimo, who also represents The Hub, said it’s “a zoning matter.”

“That is the heart of the issue,” she said. “You can’t police your way out of this problem.”

NYPD cops did show up in the neighborhood Wednesday and conduct periodic patrols, but city officials said the issue clearly needs more extensive attention.

The area between Melrose and Mott avenues encompasses more than 300 storefronts and 50 commercial properties, and draws over 3.3 million visitors a year — yet has a vacancy rate of 15%, according to Torres’ report.

“The fact of the matter is is we put these community links in place and then periodically we come through to make sure everything is happening as it is and where there are challenges we have to whether or not we need to intense our efforts,” Deputy Mayor for City Administration Camille Varlack said during a visit to the area on Wednesday.

“Clearly, we need to intensify our efforts here,” Varlack said. “The team is going back, we are going to refresh the plan, some resources and we’re going to be back out here. 

“But this is the worst.”

However, Deputy Mayor of Operations Kaz Daughtry disagreed with Torres’ assessment of the area. 

“That’s completely not true,” he said. “This administration, we hear the congressman‘s concern, but I wouldn’t say that we definitely relinquished the area to drug dealers, that’s completely not true.”