Arrests for prostitution on Queens' Roosevelt Avenue drop 60% under new mayor

Arrest records indicate that NYPD officers made 193 prostitution-related arrests on Roosevelt Avenue through September 13, a 59% drop from the 468 arrests recorded during the same period the previous year. The decline coincides with Zohran Mamdani’s tenure as mayor, during which a 2021 repeal of a loitering statute allowed street-level sex work to proliferate along the two-mile red-light corridor that runs through Jackson Heights and Corona.

The area, nicknamed the “Market of Sweethearts,” features numerous illegal brothels where workers from Asian, Latin American and other backgrounds solicit clients openly, often in view of police patrols. Critics, including former state senator Hiram Monserrate, argue that the mayor’s de-criminalization agenda has weakened enforcement, while a city spokesperson says the administration is combining targeted policing with services for victims and survivors. Recent arrests of repeat offenders such as John Maddox and Mario Sanchez illustrate that law-enforcement continues to target buyers, even as overall arrest numbers fall.