Today in Tompkins Square Park I noticed a bin labeled Syringe Disposal/Biohazard near Seventh Street. I couldn’t find any reference online to syringe disposal or needle exchange in the park and wondered if it's "official" or maybe just put there by someone wanting to help out. Do you know anything about it?
We do not know anything about it... does anyone else?
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The NYC parks syringe disposal chart doesn't list a TSP location. I wonder if this is a prop?
ReplyDeleteMaybe from the Law & Order shoot from earlier this year? (Not sure why I hadn't noticed this...)
ReplyDeleteSeriously, with everything that park needs, THIS is what we get?!?
ReplyDeleteIf that isn't a prop or sick joke, somebody at Parks should be fired for making this look about as scary as possible. Red stencil text and a biohazard label? This looks like something dreamed up in a Post columnist's fantasy.
ReplyDeleteI hope it's real because it's much needed and there are needles strewn all over the park. There was a disposal box in the bathroom for a while, but I'm not sure if it's still there. If this is a real thing, who is responsible for maintaining it?
ReplyDeleteThis kiosk is indeed real and is serviced and maintained by a local not for profit harm reduction program as an effort to keep dirty needles out of public spaces.
ReplyDeletethis is real. Parks, Housing Works, and Community Board 3 worked to have these kiosks installed. Housing Works paid for them and is maintaining them.
ReplyDeletePark is such a shithole.
ReplyDeleteThe stench emanating from the dog run. Only one in the entire city that smells like that.
I hope this isn't an alternative to policing and/or getting these people help. We really don't need to encourage open air drug use
ReplyDeleteNow we need a heroin vending machine. This will stop the junkies from having to roam around looking for a dealer and potentially getting bad stuff.
ReplyDeleteI saw one like it at Sara Roosevelt Park. It'd be great if the needle-users used it instead of dropping them in the bushes and on the ground. But they probably won't.
ReplyDeleteIn the 1990's I remember seeing syringes stashed in the air vent of the toilet of Leshkos ( Ave A/ 7th St) by local drug enthusiasts. I guess they wanted a nice quiet private place to shoot up a little afternoon or early evening bump before they go looking for the serious shit. The needle and the damage done. Some things never change.
ReplyDeleteEven if not all of the syringes get put in a designated safe place like this, at least some of them will, and that is a good thing, no?
ReplyDeleteCall me skeptical. How many times do you see a homeless/drug addict using a trash or recycling can to dispose of their waste. I'm sure after an injection, the first thing on their mind is to properly dispose of the syringe
ReplyDeleteThis is great and I hope it is effective. Kudos to the nonprofit that financed this. Too bad our government can't get behind more enlightened drug policies like those in Europe that, proven by data, help cut down the use of drugs, the impact of them on society, and the incarceration of so many people in our for profit prison system.
ReplyDeleteHow silly to reject a partial solution because it won't save the world. Every used sharp that's not on the ground to injure or spread disease is a win.
ReplyDeleteAnd yes--if we could bring ourselves to provide users with therapeutic opioids and the like, then fewer people would die senselessly, not to mention the bystanders who would be spared the trauma of ODs, the paramedic costs, etc.
If we could arrest our way out of this problem, surely in the past FIFTY GODDAMNED YEARS we would have done so.
The park, and the entire LES for that matter, deteriorated the past two years. The Avenues are filthy and in the morning there are empty food containers everywhere. Sad what has happened to the city but with a team that has no clue what it's doing starting with DeBlasio Administration, I can't see NYC going anywhere except toward Detroit.
ReplyDeleteThere is an identical one in Sara D. Roosevelt Park, been there at least a year or so. Seems to be maintained and emptied periodically but not sure by who.
ReplyDeleteGolly some of y’all should hang out with more struggling drug users!
ReplyDeleteYes. I had put it in working in conjunction with the Parks Dept. and the NYCDOH. This is a public health intervention to address syringe litter and make the park a safer place for everyone. This has been done elsewhere in the city with great success and with public drug use on the rise with COVID this has proven to be been a successful intervention in TSP and other locations on the LES where we've seen an increase of drug usage. .
ReplyDelete