Corona residents complained of increased crime, some of it exaggerated, some of it not. It wasn't so much horrible crimes, like murder. The New York Police Department's 110th precinct, which covers Corona, reports a 75% drop in murders from two years ago. Rather it was a perceived rise in the less violent infractions of shoplifting, illegal vending and prostitution. 

Unlicensed street vendors lined the commercial thoroughfare of Roosevelt Avenue, selling food or merchandise. That was not only in-the-face lawbreaking; it took business away from the shopkeepers paying rent and taxes. The street vendors would routinely pour their grease into the sewers, which attracted rats to store basements.

Residents were angered by an explosion of sex workers soliciting customers outside makeshift brothels. Prostitutes even beckoned to boys going to school. Many of the women were believed to have been working to pay off the smugglers who got them over the border. ...

AOC understood none of this -- or didn't care.