Disastrous Concentration of Services for Troubled People in Three South Bronx Neighborhoods

Yesterday, I was taken on a walking tour of a beautiful Bronx park- St Mary's - that was littered with needles and needle caps from addicts who shoot up in and near the park and which contains three boxes where people can discard their used drug works I do not pretend to have a solution to problems of addiction, homelessness and care for the mentally ill. What I do know is that is extremely damaging to concentrate treatment centers and residences for people suffering addiction, mental illness or just leaving prison in three Bronx neighborhoods which already have a high concentration of low income families-Mott Haven, Morrisania and Melrose. Even though these neighborhoods have been substantially been rebuilt since the fires of the 1970's, they suffer greatly from the extraordinary concentration of facilities that middle class neighborhoods refuse to allow in their midst. In my view, this is a form of environmental racism as damaging as the concentration of waste transfer stations along the South Bronx Waterfront and the four huge expressways, filled with truck traffic, that surround these communities on all sides Worse yet, it appears that the gentrification of Bronx neighborhoods along the Harlem and East Rivers is making matters worse, as addicts and the homeless are being pushed out of those areas into places like The Hub and St Mary's Park. I do not have a long term strategy to care for the victims of economic policies in this country which have impoverished many while concentrating wealth at the top, but it is profoundly unfair to warehouse these victims in already struggling communities, filled with children and families. That is what I saw yesterday in St Mary's Park. It was devastating to think of children playing basketball , handball, and kickball or jumping double dutch, while addicts shoot up on benches and rocks adjoining the places where they play