Harlem City Council candidates all oppose proliferation of drug-related services
NEW YORK — The large number of drug-related programs in Harlem has emerged as a major theme in the neighborhood’s City Council race between two sitting state lawmakers and a member of the wrongly convicted Central Park Five.
District 9’s Democratic primary is the most competitive City Council race this year. The major candidates are state Assemblymembers Al Taylor and Inez Dickens and exonerated Central Park Five member Yusef Salaam. All three recently received significant public matching funds, boosting the total amount of donor dollars raised led by Salaam’s $64,00, Dickens’ $50,000 and Taylor’s $38,000. In the final weeks of the campaign, Dickens has the most cash on hand with $127,000 while Taylor has $103,000. Salaam, who loaned himself $10,000 for the race, is in the red by $23,000, according to city records.
The candidates frequently field voter concerns about the so-called oversaturation of social services in Harlem from drug treatment centers to a supervised injection site and a possible marijuana dispensary. While the contenders are united in their opposition to the sites, they’re trying to use the issue to motivate voters in an off-year election that could be decided by a few hundred votes.
The race has no incumbent after Council Member Kristen Richard Jordan cut short her campaign last month citing the “Harlem Machine” and unfavorable media coverage.
The neighborhood houses opioid treatment programs that are responsible for 12 percent of the total capacity of New York City's services, but it is only home to 2.6 percent of the overdose deaths in New York City, according to an analysis by the Greater Harlem Coalition, an advocacy group aimed at reducing the number of local drug centers. Further, 75.4 percent of patients admitted to treatment programs in Harlem are not actually residents of the neighborhood, the coalition found.
The District 9 candidates argue that Harlem has been a longtime target of programs that critics say disrupt the area’s quality of life.
“Harlem is used as what could be considered a dumping ground,” Salaam said. “A place where people throw their trash and their rubbish and all of that other bad stuff.”
Taylor also said the neighborhood has become overburdened with services. He credited persistent stigmas about Harlem as a haven for drug use.
“There's addiction across our country,” Taylor said. “Why are all the sites only in Harlem? You want me to believe that everybody else in the universe of New York City does not have an opioid problem, does not have an alcohol problem, does not have any other type of drug problems and it only exists on the east side? Hell to the no.”
The New York City Health Department said in a January 2023 report that it plans to expand supervised injection site locations to other neighborhoods, but additional locations have yet to be announced.
Supervised injection sites are controversial facilities that allow open illegal drug use under the care of workers trained to prevent overdose deaths.
The East Harlem site, OnPoint NYC, is just across the street from a child care center.
Gretchen Buchenholz, executive director of the Association to Benefit Children, told POLITICO in an interview that parents have expressed concerns about the center. Buchenholz has heard their complaints about needles being on the street next to ABC’s building and worries about walking with small children past the site.
However, Buchenholz said that she believes the center has done more good than harm.
“I think that the community has been really unfair with regard to welcoming OnPoint,” Buchenholz said. “I think that they're very open to discussing solutions. For making whatever changes are smart, feasible and compassionate so that the community embraces what they're doing."
Salaam said that while there is a local need for drug addiction programs, there should be more done to counteract the negative effects programs may have on the rest of the neighborhood.
In particular, Salaam said that there’s room for more help from the Sanitation Department.
“We need Sanitation to work with us so that they clean up the needles,” Salaam said.
Dickens said that an initiative to provide job training at drug addiction programs would improve the impact on the community.
“Instead of being released onto the streets [after treatment], patients will be kept and be taught a trade so that when they graduate out of the program, they're able to be self-sustaining and get a job,” Dickens told POLITICO in an interview.
Beyond the injection site and other overdose programs, the candidates have also all opposed the establishment of a cannabis dispensary in the neighborhood.
All three candidates contend the dispensary itself isn’t the problem, but rather the fact that the neighborhood has too many drug-related services. The dispensary is supposed to be taking over a vacant storefront on 125th Street, but an ongoing lawsuit led by a local business group has delayed its opening. The 125th Street Business District Management Association argues that the chosen location is problematic due to already present crime, congestion and drug use in the area.
Taylor faulted state officials for not consulting local leaders about the new dispensary.
“It was insulting and they did not talk to any other stakeholders,” Taylor said. “When you have that backdrop and put that out there, no, it doesn't belong there. It's in the wrong space and wrong time.”
Dickens said the dispensary should go to another neighborhood that doesn’t have as many drug-related services.
“This is not about [being] anti-programs because there's a need,” Dickens said. “But the programs should be distributed equitably, amongst the five boroughs and in all communities of the five boroughs, not just in one community.”
Despite vocal concern about the issue from both the candidates and the voters, it’s unclear if the problem is pressing enough to actually drive voters to the polls in an off-year election where turnout is expected to be low.
Early voting begins June 17, and Election Day is June 27.
