During the final days of his administration, former New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio joined Rachel Loeb, president and CEO of New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) to officially launch the NYC Ferry service in The Bronx’s Throgs Neck with the opening of a new landing at Ferry Point Park. The facility extended the Soundview route, which stops on the Upper East Side, in Midtown, and the Financial District.

 

[The former mayor has recently been fined over use of public money for his NYPD security detail during his unsuccessful presidential bid in 2019. As reported by The City publication, in response, de Blasio immediately filed a lawsuit against the board that had warned him against billing the City for police protection on his presidential campaign.]

 

Since its launch, the Bronx/Manhattan route now starts at the landing in Ferry Point Park and continues to existing stops in Soundview, East 90th Street, 34th Street, Stuyvesant Cove, and Wall Street/Pier 11. From start to finish, the total traveling time is 60 minutes. “The Throgs Neck ferry landing is a game changer for Bronx commuters,” said de Blasio said at the time. “This landing will provide affordable, accessible, and time saving transport, expanding transit options for all New Yorkers, further connecting the five boroughs and building a recovery for all of us.”

 

Former NYC Department of City Planning (DCP) director, Anita Laremont, also announced in December 2021 the release of the “Comprehensive Waterfront Plan,” a document that “puts forth a broad, 10-year vision for New York City’s 520 miles of waterfront and potential strategies to provide more equitable access to all the waterfront has to offer — such as parks, jobs, and affordable and resilient places to live.”

 

“To support and strengthen ferry services over the next 10 years, the City will continue to optimize routes and identify ways to make service more sustainable,” the report read. ”The City’s ferry fleet will incorporate new vessels with no or reduced air emissions. Ridership must increase to ensure the financial strength of ferry services. To broaden the reach of ferry services, the City will proceed by expanding NYC Ferry, including service to Coney Island, home to approximately 4,000 NYCHA residents. The City also intends to explore opportunities for regional collaboration on ferries.”

 

The report continued, “Over the past decade, New Yorkers have expressed excitement about the role that ferries play in creating neighborhoods hubs and expanding transportation options. The Whitehall and St. George ferry terminals, for example, are multimodal transit hubs serving as critical links in the regional transit network. The City will explore ways to connect other ferry landings to adjacent neighborhoods more effectively, for example, by adding more bicycle racks or wayfinding signs. As the City plans future ferry services, plans must include infrastructure that is resilient to sea level rise and coastal storms and ongoing support for operations and maintenance.”

Former NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio delivers remarks at the ribbon-cutting ceremony at the NYC Ferry Landing in Throggs Neck in December 2021. Video courtesy of New York City Mayor’s Office

The 2020-2021 expansion plan included the following:

 

As reported last month, on May 9, National Fentanyl Awareness Day, Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark and New York City’s Special Narcotics Prosecutor (SNP) Bridget G. Brennan called on the community to educate themselves about what they described as the ever-changing opioid crisis. Knowledge is power, they said, and in this case, that power can save lives.

 

“If the Bronx was a state, it would have the second highest overdose death rate nationwide, after West Virginia, Clark said at the time. “While we focus on disrupting large scale narcotics operations to reduce the supply of dangerous drugs, we also support treatment and prevention efforts. The Bronx needs more money and resources put into the community to fight this scourge. The financial settlement from opioid drug manufacturers needs to make its way to The Bronx.”

 

In April, federal authorities announced that nine people had been charged in a $2.5 million drug operation in The Bronx, Manhattan, Rhode Island & Pennsylvannia. In October 2022, we reported on another training session held in St. James Park in Fordham Manor on how to use the live-saving Narcan kits.

 

Walter Bell of Kingsbridge Road-based, KISS, the group which organized that event, told Norwood News at the time, “This has been a fantastic turnout.” He added, “It’s not a concert. This is a conscious event, an event with cause and meaning. This is a family event where children can come.”

 

He continued, “We already have 175 people trained on how to use Narcan.” Upon completion of the training, participants were presented with a certificate. Bell added, “This is about saving lives; it’s not about playing games.” Bell said people had come from as far away as Brooklyn for the training.

 

At Easter time this year, Norwood News discussed with a member of the local Catholic clergy the importance of differentiating drug addiction from the need to take prescribed medication for mental health purposes.

Last August, Norwood News reported how over 13 pounds of heroin/fentanyl were seized at a drug packaging mill in Bedford Park.  As also reported, on Aug. 5, 2022, New York City Mayor Eric Adams and the City’s health commissioner, Dr. Ashwin Vasan, announced then- new measures to reduce the number of overdoses in New York City. They said they intended to reverse what they said was the staggering increase in overdose deaths since 2020 by expanding access to technology that tests pre-obtained drugs for fentanyl and other possibly lethal substances. They planned to do this at sites running syringe service programs (SSP) co-located at overdose prevention centers (OPC).

 

The mayor said at the time that countless families in the city had been torn apart by opioids, and added that he was proud that New York City was leading the way in overdose prevention and taking action to save lives. “A crisis does not wait, and neither can we,” he said. “Overdose prevention centers keep neighborhoods and people struggling with substance use safe. Now is the time to expand access to OPCs and do so in an equitable way across New York City.”

 

For his part, Vasan said the overdose crisis required bold and innovative responses. “That’s exactly what this initiative represents,” he said. “Our aim, by co-locating drug-checking services and the overdose prevention centers is that we can work to save even more lives. Thank you to our incredible partners in this effort, OnPoint NYC, for their determination and dedication to promoting the health of New Yorkers.”

 

In June 2021, Norwood News reported how NYPD officers were able to intervene, using their training to successfully administer the drug, Narcan, to a man, preventing him from dying from an accidental overdose when they discovered him at Kingsbridge Road subway station.

 

In 2019, we reported that 16 men and two women, including at least two suspects connected to Kingsbridge Heights and University Heights, were arrested in the South Bronx following a drug seizure worth $7 million on May 28 that year. They were charged with dealing heroin and enough fentanyl to “kill the population of New York.”

 

Those arrested allegedly had ties to the Sinaloa cartel, formerly led by El Chapo who, as reported, was found guilty on July 17, 2019, on ten federal charges, including murder conspiracies, engaging a continuing criminal enterprise and other drug-related charges. Guzman appealed the decision, but in 2022, the conviction was upheld by a U.S. appeals court that, according to the Associated Press, praised the trial judge for his handling of the case which had drawn international attention.

 

On Aug. 8, 2022, we reported how $5 million of street-ready heroin and fentanyl was seized from a Bronx packaging mill in the Crotona section of the borough. Later that month, a Harm Reduction Forum held in Monroe College addressed drug use in Poe Park.

 

During the event, some residents had highlighted that Boom!Health, “a nonprofit organization that supports program participants on their journey towards wellness and self sufficiency in The Bronx,” and a panelist at the forum, had been providing syringe kits in Poe Park. The group was specifically asked why they chose to drop off such kits at the Park, across from a church and public school, and right next to one of the neighborhood’s most active drug dealing corners. The group was also asked if they helped drug-users not to use drugs.

 

“We do not target schools, we don’t target public areas,” Pedro J. Briones, assistant director of Harm Reduction Services at Boom!Health, responded at the time. “We target where they [drug users] convene, and if they happen to convene in that area…”  He went on to explain that the distribution of clean syringes was a way to reduce the spread of infectious diseases like hepatitis C and HIV. “That’s the goal. We do not want the spread of those diseases,” he said.

A major drug takedown had previously taken place in the Mt. Hope section of The Bronx in late June 2022, which involved the seizure of around 110 kilograms of heroin, fentanyl and cocaine, plus 50 pounds of a substance believed to be crystal meth, and up to 75,000 counterfeit pills believed to contain fentanyl. The drugs, which law enforcement officials said were intended for citywide distribution, carried an estimated street value of approximately $24 million.

 

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) had previously alerted the public to a sharp nationwide increase in the lethality of fentanyl-laced, fake prescription pills. Officials from the Office of the Special Narcotics Prosecutor said DEA laboratory testing in 2022 revealed that six out of ten fentanyl-laced, fake prescription pills contained a potentially lethal dose of fentanyl, and that this was an increase from the agency’s announcement in 2021 that four out of ten fentanyl-laced, fake prescription pills contained a potentially deadly dose.

 

For New York City wellness resources, visit NYC Well. DOH provides training sessions and regularly updated information on how to obtain and administer naloxone (Narcan).