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The situation on the Upper West Side of Manhattan has been receiving some coverage. More than a few of our media titans live there, ergo....
Now, it appears that the uproar about resettled homeless people has reached the empty head of Comrade de Blasio. Shortly, we are told, the homeless will be evicted from hotels on the Upper West side, and returned to shelters in less trendy parts of the city.
Apparently, those who live and work in Midtown West have been having more difficulty getting their story out. Their neighhborhood runs from Penn Station to the garment district to the theatre district; it is not filled with expensive coops and condos. It also comprises the area between 6th Avenue and the Hudson River.
Now, a group of civic leaders from Midtown West has written an op-ed for the New York Daily News.
They explain their problem:
In response to COVID-19 and the critical need to reduce density in our shelters and jails, the city acted quickly, but without community consultation, to place single adult male homeless individuals in empty hotel rooms. A disproportionate number of these temporary shelters went in West Midtown, flooding the area with more than 4,000 temporary shelter residents, according to information from the NYPD and community boards.
What happens when you flood a neighborhood with 4,000 drug addicts, criminals and sex offenders? About what you would expect?
Our streets are now overrun with destructive and anti-social behaviors, including blatant intravenous drug use, aggressive panhandling, spitting and coughing on pedestrians, verbal harassment and menacing, thievery and fighting. All day, all night, on our sidewalks and other public spaces.
With Penn Station and the Port Authority Bus Terminal, West Midtown is a gateway to New York City for millions of people. We cannot allow these to be tourists’ and commuters’ first observations when they set foot in Manhattan.
So, New York’s homeless are not the Welcome Wagon. Are you surprised?
Yes, it’s true that there are few tourists and commuters today. But as people slowly return to rebuild the vitality of the city, they are being greeted by people passed out on the sidewalk, some with needles still stuck in their arms, the smell of human waste and confrontations with aggressive and agitated individuals.
Now, New Yorkers are frightened to walk the streets or to take the subway. A man was shot in Grand Central Station the other day; for the record it is in Midtown East.
The authors continue. People are leaving town. Restaurants that offer open air dining see their patrons harassed and bullied:
We hear daily from New Yorkers who are now frightened in their own city. In some cases, local business employees are refusing to return to their offices because they fear for their health and safety.
“I am getting calls now from tenants on 36th and 37th Sts. that want to move out ASAP because of the numerous homeless hotels,” one building owner told us.
Residents, horrified by conditions, are fleeing the area to stay with friends or family in other neighborhoods, according to several media reports.
Restaurants, struggling to stay in business with outdoor dining, see their customers harassed and intimidated, their food spit on and individuals exposing and relieving themselves.
Funnily enough, the authors exclaim that Midtown West had already had its fair share of shelters. It has done its part.
The city has created a dangerous and unmanageable situation by placing too many people from this vulnerable population in an area already hosting its fair share of social service facilities, including 10 shelters, methadone clinics, a needle exchange and a parole board, among others.
They propose a solution. Move the homeless somewhere else. Duh:
Years of community improvements and investment in the area are being undone. The immediate impact is severe, but the long-term outlook will be even worse if the city does not take action now. Better protocols, procedures, policing and coordination between the city, shelters, street outreach teams and communities are needed, but these measures alone will not solve this situation.
We call upon the city to distribute the temporary shelters far more fairly throughout the city. In this way, we may all support efforts to resettle this vulnerable population until they can return to congregate housing, but we will be able to do so in a safe and manageable way.
3 comments:
Better protocols, procedures, policing and coordination between the city, shelters, street outreach teams and communities are needed, but these measures alone will not solve this situation.
Oh, so now you want real government?
"Our streets are now overrun with destructive and anti-social behaviors, including blatant intravenous drug use, aggressive panhandling, spitting and coughing on pedestrians, verbal harassment and menacing, thievery and fighting. All day, all night, on our sidewalks and other public spaces."
You forgot defecation, urinating, and everyone's favorite, public masturbation.
Go Bums! I think the bums could be mobilized into a pretty effective force to make life hell for New York's leftist elites. And I know just the guy for the job. Bum army!
The city paid for rooms in otherwise empty West Side hotels to temporarily house the homeless in an effort to prevent the spread of COVID-19. An influx of homeless people will put a strain on any neighborhood. This neighborhood, however, Penn Station all the way to Central Park, has the highest concentration of hotel rooms in the city. This explains why they chose it; the neighborhood has the rooms.
But every neighborhood has hotels right? Why were they concentrated here? Look to the CEO's who run the hotel groups. It's the hotels who took the money and welcomed their new guests. Sure, they were starving for guests but PPP loans were already in the bank. Did they really need to fill their rooms too?
For the record, Grand Central Station is in Midtown East and the shooter is from Queens. There is no connection between this assault with a deadly weapon and the homeless-hotel issue at hand.
"With Penn Station and the Port Authority Bus Terminal, West Midtown is a gateway to New York City for millions of people. We cannot allow these to be tourists’ and commuters’ first observations when they set foot in Manhattan."
Taken out of context this is correct. We cannot allow Penn Station and the Port Authority Bus Terminal to be tourists' and commuters' first observations when they set foot in Manhattan. Otherwise they might even come to expect the hellscape they'll find outside.
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