E-Biker Attacks DOT Worker; Drug Bust in Washington Sq. Park

| 21 Jul 2025 | 08:10

In a shocking clash of common interests, an employee of the very e-bike friendly NYC Department of Transportation was slashed with a box cutter by an angry e-bike delivery worker on July 16.

It happened at approximately 6:50 a.m., with cops from the 1st Precinct responding to an assault in progress at the corner of Cedar Street and Broadway soon afterwards.

Upon arrival, officers were informed that the DOT employee, a 28-year-old male, had gotten into a verbal dispute with an unknown male e-biker, who then slashed his left arm and back with a box cutter.

The e-biker fled and the victim was transported by EMS to NYC Health and Hospitals/Bellevue in stable condition.

According to the Daily News, the DOT worker, and his partner were parked on Broadway, adjacent or perhaps slightly into the protected bike lane, doing some early morning sign work, which the e-biker claimed caused a near-collision with himself.

Visiting the location—which happens to be the southeast corner of the plaza fronting 140 Broadway, home to both the HSBC Bank Building and one of lower Manhattan’s greatest public art works, Isamu Noguchi’s “Red Cube”—this reporter did see what appeared to be some recently affixed One Way signs.

Also evident in the plaza were multiple surveillance cameras so, if he isn’t apprehended by other means, a photo of the e-bike slasher is likely forthcoming.

A DOT spokesman deplored the attack as an “abhorrent assault of an NYC DOT employee who performs critical work to keep our city moving.”

Drug Bust in Washington Square Park

As part of NYPD’s ongoing quality of life cleanup of Washington Square Park, 6th Pct. cops—whose station house is located at 233 W. 10th Street, between Hudson and Bleecker Streets— arrested a suspected crack dealer on July 16, 2025, at 39 Washington Square South.

His name is Kenny King, 61, of 249 Varet Street, Brooklyn—which is an East Williamsburg homeless shelter run by Project Renewal, a non-profit contracted by the Department of Homeless Services.

Of Project Renewal’s six shelters, three are in Manhattan, with a another scheduled to open in midtown in 2026.

In 2024, Project Renewal reported revenue of nearly $123 milllion, with President Eric Rosenbaum earning $372,632, with $41,749 in other compensation.

Washington Square Park, meanwhile, has been so bad for so long, many despair it will ever change. It may yet but it won’t be easy.

In September 2024, Council Member Eric Bottcher published a letter calling the West Village drug situation a “humanitarian crisis.”

In March 2025, Mayor Adams and D.A. Alvin Bragg announced the creation of a “Village Interagency Task Force” to “create a cleaner, safer, more vibrant community.”

Yet rampant public addiction—including many doubled-over junkies in the tell-tale “fentanyl fold”—and drug dealing persists, on 6th Avenue and in Washington Square Park especially.

The Parks’ western side, bounded by MacDougal Street, in particular is a den of drug addiction and those who service it. That it’s also near the Park’s children’s playgrounds and a local public school and NYU says much about the government’s will to solve the problem, especially when well-funded “harm reduction” advocates are actually promoting safer drug use—in the park.

On July 17, Kenny King, alleged crack dealer from a homeless shelter in Brooklyn, pled not guilty and was released without bail. He is due back in court on September 11.