War on Roosevelt Avenue: Sex workers push back as NYPD, City Hall cracks down on prostitution and illegal vendors in Queens

The raids continue on Queens’ Roosevelt Avenue a week after City Hall declared war on the prostitution and other illegal businesses that have long lined the thoroughfare.

Late Monday night, cops shuttered an alleged brothel located at 90-25 Roosevelt Ave. in Corona as part of the “Operation Restore Roosevelt” program. The darkened windows had been slapped with a handful of vacate orders, shutting down what a local mother cited as a disturbing business to live near with her children.

“I am happy they shut it down. I have four children and there would be a line of women standing outside begging men inside,” a woman who identified herself as Francy said.

In addition to the shutdowns, a stroll down Roosevelt Avenue on Tuesday afternoon revealed heavy NYPD and state police presence throughout the neighborhood, which deterred both street walkers and vendors from setting up shop on the sidewalk.

However, while some locals are celebrating the city taking action at long last, some sex workers and advocates have decried the operation as violent, racist and harmful to immigrants.

Gathering at Corona Plaza — the same location where Mayor Eric Adams and police brass first announced “Operation Restore Roosevelt” on Oct. 15 — sex workers, street vendors and supporters from immigrant advocacy group Make the Road New York rallied against the law enforcement presence declaring that they believe sex work, though prostitution is illegal, is legitimate work.

“For decades, sex workers have been surviving, demanding respect and good healthcare, and still yet we are still being criminalized. We urge investment in our communities, not more criminalization of our communities,” said Ceyenne Doroshow, founder/executive director of the group Gays and Lesbians Living in a Transgender Society (GLITS).

Sex workers of color and those who identify as transgender made up a large portion of the rally, telling reporters that they are among the community’s most vulnerable population who are not being trafficked, but instead are attempting to make a living through the oldest profession on the planet.

Speakers also denounced the flood of cops in Jackson Heights, Elmhurst, and North Corona, charging the operation is also displacing street vendors who are just trying feed their families.

“I have been a street vendor for many years. I have been discriminated against many times on the streets. Right now, I have four tickets and they are no less than $1,000 each. How am I supposed to provide for myself, pay my rent, and put food on my table if I am constantly highly policed?” said Eliana Jaramillo, a member of Make the Road New York. “And this doesn’t just impact me, it impacts many other street vendors like me. I am asking the governor, and the mayor to remove the state troopers and the NYPD from the streets—it’s inflicting fear on my neighborhood. We deserve more street vendor licenses, more resources, not more police to criminalize us.”

NYPD Chief of Patrol John Chell told amNewYork Metro that he understands the concerns of some food vendors, but notes that the department has been working with vendors to ensure they are on a path toward getting a license.

“In terms of vending and food vendors, we’ve done a lot of education on how to get a license, how to do it properly,” Chief Chell said. “I understand what you are saying, people; people are trying to work, and we appreciate that, but there’s got to be some sort of process and changes to help people get that.”

Police say they have less sympathy for what they describe as rampant prostitution that they believe traps and traffics women while also taking place near local schools.

“I would tell people that are complaining to go stand in front of the school on 95th Street and Junction Boulevard, stand in front of the school when the parents are going to pick up their kids and their husbands, their grandfathers are being accosted by women, giving them business cards — basically trying to proposition them,” Deputy Commissioner of Operations Kaz Daughtry told amNewYork Metro. “I would tell them to go speak to those people and then come back.”

Still, those in the sex work industry say they have always been on Roosevelt Avenue and, digging their feet in the ground, stay they will always be there no matter how hard the city tries to remove them.

This defiance was exemplified on Tuesday when disgraced former state Sen. Hiram Monserrate, now an Assembly candidate, was chased out of Corona Plaza by transgender sex workers and their supporters for attempting to criticize their trade.

“More resources, not more raids!” they cried in unison.