'This is a good thing': Community reacts to Bronx heroin hub closure

THE BRONX, N.Y. (PIX11) — Siraj Bhaiyat and his neighboring business owners, all collectively breathing a sigh of economic relief Thursday.

A day after Mayor Eric Adams came here and pledged to clean things up, the once drug-ridden pedestrian plaza in the heart of the South Bronx remains barricaded… and patrolled, around the clock, by the NYPD.

"This is a good thing, sir. No more drugs outside. I hope it is going to be long last. Not like temporary. Because it affects my business too much. Honestly, I'm 30 percent business down," Bhaiyat said.

Bhaiyat is hoping the rebound continues.

One homeless man named Scott told PIX11 News he both slept in and used drugs in the plaza — before it was shut down.

But the rule of cause and effect is certainly in play here, as the dozens of homeless people who slept and used drugs here are now simply hanging out on the periphery of the plaza by day – and sleeping somewhere else at night.

Scott says he slept on the train.

"Because of the fact that you shut down the plaza, where people can go and actually sleep, where you could have them watched and keep a visual eye on them, now they're going to spread all across the city," Scott said.

In addition to increasing the police presence and the number of sanitation patrols, the Adams Administration also ordered a boost in social services outreach from the many non-profits that serve this community.

"Narcan kit. We try to have a lot of these on hand. We try to have a lot of these always available. These are called fit packs. They open up and you can store used syringes," Boom! Outreach worker Gabriel Schwartz said.

Schwartz set up at the edge of the Plaza and told us he’d been handing out – almost non-stop - a host of harm reduction materials.

"Since nine, I'd say roughly two to three hundred, maybe," Schwartz said.