Community Op-Ed: Quality of Life and Ending the Culture of “Anything Goes”

Every day, everywhere I go — whether it’s at a town hall, on the streets, or when participating in an interview — I hear about the quality-of-life issues that affect New Yorkers’ daily lives. I am proud of the progress we have made bringing down crime and violence over the last three and a half years — and equally proud of our efforts to improve quality of life all across the five boroughs because that is what New Yorkers see and feel every day in our city.

Over the next week, we will complete the deployment of the NYPD’s Quality of Life Teams — or “Q-Teams” — to every precinct across New York City to address the everyday issues that degrade life in our city, including noise, parking, encampments, public drug use, and more. We are also working to expand our response to these quality-of-life concerns with the “End the Culture of Anything Goes” campaign.

Simply put, “End the Culture of Anything Goes” means New York City is doubling down on our efforts to change the culture, laws, and investments that improve quality of life and prevent public disorder. While we have made great strides in addressing subway safety, severe mental illness, and chronic homelessness, we still see too many people struggling on our streets, often as a result of drug addiction. From “The Hub” in the Bronx to Washington Square Park in Lower Manhattan, public drug use is affecting quality of life and public safety for residents, visitors, and small businesses.

A key part to finally ending the culture where “anything goes” in our city requires Albany’s help. In the upcoming legislative session, we are proposing the New York state Legislature debates and passes the ‘Compassionate Interventions Act,’ a follow-up to our largely successful ‘Supportive Interventions Act.’ If passed, the Compassionate Interventions Act will allow clinical professionals like doctors, nurses, and others to send individuals to a hospital for evaluation if they determine that a person’s addiction makes them a danger to themselves or to others. And it will allow a hospital doctor to seek a court order to retain the person for treatment, if they are unwilling to accept treatment on their own.

This is an expansion of the work we first proposed on severe mental illness three years ago, and it would be an important tool in helping to end the drug addiction crisis we see all around us. Thirty-seven states already authorize involuntary commitments for substance use disorder, and it is time to bring this option to New York.

In the name of public safety, public health, and the greater public interest, we must rally together to pass the Compassionate Interventions Act. This piece of essential legislation will help those caught in the grip of addiction recover, improve quality of life, and build a culture of compassion.

In addition to legislation, we are looking to take more immediate actions as well, including through a $27 million investment in outreach workers and treatment. Specifically, among other initiatives, this funding would support a new drop-in space in “The Hub” in the Bronx to address the urgent needs there, and a new ‘contingency management’ program at NYC Health + Hospitals that focuses on solutions to keep people in treatment. This program gives people incentives for staying in treatment and not using drugs, and it has achieved positive results in other cities across the country and at U.S. Department of Veterans’ Affairs facilities nationwide.

The need to address public-safety and quality-of-life issues is at the core of what New Yorkers rightfully expect from their city government, and these are issues we have championed since the start of our administration. New Yorkers must be able to go about their lives without having to court chaos and dodge disorder at every step. Most importantly, we can no longer leave behind the New Yorkers most in need. We must make the investments necessary to support outreach, harm reduction, wraparound services, and housing — services that make lasting impacts in lives and communities.

It’s time to finally end the culture of “anything goes” because when anything goes, nothing is possible. New Yorkers deserve more than that. We must keep New York City the safest big city in America, the greatest city in the world, and the best place to raise a family.