Enough is enough.
Lower East Side residents aren’t the only ones ticked off at the influx of junkies and vagrants at a popular local park — neighborhood storeowners say the bums are robbing them blind.
The gripes come after The Post reported recently that hordes of addicts who were booted from Washington Square Park have found a new home at Sara D. Roosevelt Park smack in the middle of a neighborhood teaming with young families — and hardworking merchants.
“Sometimes it’s like a parade,” a business owner said. “They come in, grab what they want and go to the park to sell it. They come in almost every day.
“The park — it’s full, full, full” of vagrants, he said. “You can’t even walk in there after six o’clock.”
Neighborhood merchants said they feel helpless as they watch the addicts peddle their swiped merchandise for drugs — adding the outrageous scenes cost them both money and customers.
“Sometimes I see needles in front of my store,” a local bakery shop owner said. “It’s hurting my business. [But] you can’t touch them. We can’t hurt anybody. We get in trouble for that.”
The situation has drawn the ire of local community leaders, who maintain that City Hall has turned its back on the neighborhood — even as the new surge of junkies has overtaken the park.
“Once again, city agencies show they only move fast for wealthy neighborhoods while pushing their problems on poorer ones like Chinatown,” Democratic District Leader Jacky Wong said last week.
“Instead of cleaning it up, the city boxed the park in with five homeless shelters, including one for parolees,” Wong said. “That kind of concentration didn’t happen by accident. It created a built-in clientele and a wide-open market for drug dealers to move in and cash out.”
Locals maintain problems at the park only got worse last year when the NYPD stormed Washington Square Park and booted the bums who had turned it into a neighborhood nightmare.
Start your day with all you need to know
Morning Report delivers the latest news, videos, photos and more.
Thanks for signing up!
The junkies simply found a new spot to invade — Sara D. Roosevelt Park.
The Post previously revealed how dozens of needles are now dumped at the park, with addicts shooting up in broad daylight just steps away from children at the playground or parents with babes in strollers nearby.
“Drugs and alcohol have long been a problem with Sara Roosevelt park,” Community Board 3 member Marlin Chan said. “But I have noticed it was exasperated when the dealers were out of WPS into our area.
“Enforcement is nonexistent until someone gets hurt or attacked by a crazed junkie or unhoused individuals,” Chan said. “NYPD arrests a disorderly drugged up individual and the court throws it out. Vicious cycle.”
Kathryn Freed, a retired state Supreme Court justice and former city council member who has lived in the neighborhood since 1969, and said she’s also seen the uptick in drug activity.
“The park department has plans to improve SDR, but without the same sort of effort that was used in Washington Square Park, nothing is going to change,” she said. “The community and the [community board] have literally been screaming about the condition of SRK, which has been bad for years.
“There have been murders, rapes, assaults and just plain menacing of people trying to use the park for years,” Freed said. “It’s gotten worse.”
