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First Syringe Drop Box Installed in City Park Comes to Washington Heights

 Staff members from the Corner Project and Parks Department officials demonstrate how the syringe drop box will be maintained.
Staff members from the Corner Project and Parks Department officials demonstrate how the syringe drop box will be maintained.
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DNAinfo/Carolina Pichardo

WASHINGTON HEIGHTS — The first syringe drop box in a city park was installed Tuesday in the hopes of keeping the local green space clean and safe, officials said.

The daisy-shaped, green kiosk was unveiled in the Haven Park Underpass along 177th Street and New Haven Avenue, one of the highest-density areas of improperly disposed syringes, said Sarah Deutsch of the Corner Project, whose mission is to help drug users.

The nonprofit, which has provided health services for intravenous drug users in Washington Heights since 2009, works closely with the Parks Department, the Department of Health and Community Board 12 to house the homeless and link them to health services and safe supplies, Deutsch said.  

"The purpose of the kiosk is so that there would be public access to syringe disposal 24 hours a day, seven days a week and to improve the safety of the parks around us," Deutsch said, adding that the organization has collected an average of 18,000 syringes per year in Washington Heights over the past four years.

The highest concentration of improperly disposed syringes, she noted, has been near the George Washington Bridge and Highbridge Park.

Deutsch said the organization was able to determine what were the most popular locations for syringes by using GPS tracking over three months to tally the areas with the most syringe pickups.

"Highway" Mike Bailey, a formerly homeless drug user who has worked with the Corner Project since it launched and does outreach for the nonprofit, said he's noticed the difference the organization's work has been made through the years.

"People would just go down there to use," he said, pointing to the areas near the bridge, below the staircase. "Now, normal folks go this way to get to where they're going, because they don't see too much of the drug activity."

That doesn't mean drug use isn't still prevalent, added the Corner Project's Estee Lavitt.

"It's just maybe more hidden, but not hidden from the parks, so our goal is to keep parks safe and clean," she said. "Here we are — parks that are used for children, and the community benefits from having these clean parks."

Lavitt said the Corner Project's outreach team is going to maintain the drop box daily. 

"We installed this with the intention of replicating this throughout New York City," she explained, "and the Parks Department has allowed us to install so that we can hopefully keep all our parks safe."