QUEENS, N.Y. – The red lights are back flashing along a notorious prostitution strip in New York City represented by progressive Democratic Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Grace Meng.

Along the crammed, grimy sidewalks of Roosevelt Avenue in Queens, sex workers are once again openly soliciting clients while vendors grill meats and hawk suspected stolen or counterfeit goods – despite police waging a months-long crackdown to stop the chaos.

It’s become a way of life – and a years-long blight – for residents in the migrant-dense neighborhood who say they have grown tired of calling on Ocasio-Cortez and Meng to act and liken conditions to a “Red Light district” or a third-world flea market. Others have nicknamed the strip the “Avenue of the Sweethearts,” given its reputation for women purportedly turning tricks. 

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez represents part of Roosevelt Avenue, where residents have complained about crime taking over their neighborhood. (Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call, left; Michael Dorgan/Fox News Digital, right.)