Around 11:30am on Sunday morning, a group of people, including many children, decorated the street in front of the Lucerne Hotel with welcoming chalk-art messages.
Sara Lind, who is running for City Council on the UWS, had encouraged the community to show up and greet the men staying in the temporary hotel shelters to let them know that, yes, they are welcome on the UWS. The letters YIMBY (“yes, in my backyard”) were scrawled across the pavement.
One of the organizers for the event said she blames Donald Trump for the anger neighbors are expressing about the new shelter residents. “It comes from the top,” she said. When asked if she meant De Blasio, she said “No, I mean Trump.” However, there was agreement amongst the participants that the city should have done a better job with communication. “Not that the community should get a vote, but they should have told our council members,” the organizer said.
The general sentiment from those who participated in the event was that these men need a place to go, and every community should do their part to welcome them. It was not confirmed if those participating in the event were residents from the UWS.
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Security also appeared to be heightened several blocks away at Hotel Belleclaire, where we saw staff members encouraging their residents to use the side entrance. One doorman was seen waving his hands to keep people moving.
Curtis Sliwa, founder and CEO of Guardian Angels, held a second meeting Sunday at 2pm. At his first meeting on Saturday, he noted the concerns of residents and committed to helping.
“I’m going to check this out on my own,” Sliwa said about making sure curfew is obeyed. He spoke to the group about reported drug use by shelter residents, in addition to a lack of police oversight. He vowed to personally go to the commissioner’s home, which is on the UWS, to ask him what he’s doing about these issues.
Sliwa noted that many of these men he has seen before in other shelters. “Many of them have serious alcohol problems. Serious drug addiction. And many of them should not be in shelters to begin with, they need mental health treatment.” This comment was met with cheers.
“I’m being portrayed as a NIMBY, but what I really want to see is these men get the services they need. They need rehabilitation and mental health services,” said one of the women at the Sliwa event.
If there’s one thing the UWS can agree on right now, it’s that the UWS is very divided.
Many of the people interviewed about this seems to be willfully ignoring the fact that the shelters are operated by organizations that co-ordinate the services they say they want to see these men receive. Project Renewal, for one, transferred all of their staff up with the Lucerne residents to maintain existing relationships that were formed at the original site (that the men will return to). The arguments for not moving the program include not bringing further disruption to the relationships and services that are part of sustaining people’s health and jobs while they are experiencing homelessness.
Why would children decorate a facility that houses child molesters?
Good question. I walked by and asked the same question. Some of them looked at me like ..shhh.pleasr dont say that
There are no sex offenders in the Lucerne. Please check your facts.
To make their dopey, koolaid drinking parents proud
This is sickening. Now watch the tax paying citizens start leaving NYC in droves.
That process has already begun.
NYC is turning into a real shithole. What Guiliani and Bloomberg built up this current mayor has destroyed in four years with his idiotic policies.
Just like the president said. Manhattan is primo shithole country territory. Just look at the UWS commentors.
Lol at people blaming Trump for this. Yes it’s Trump’s fault that I don’t want sex offenders who have literally gone to prison for raping a child living near my six year old’s school.
What is the city’s plan to get these guys into a better living situation? Or are the taxpayers just going to be paying for luxury hotel rooms for them permanently?
The organizer quoted in this article who alleges that Trump supporters are the people oppose 10 men standing on the median at 79th St. WITHOUT FACE COVERINGS is clearly confused. The Trump supporters are those people, like the organizer, who dismiss the public health risk to those of us who are merely trying to cross the street and stay safe. Perhaps the organizer is injecting Lysol and taking hydroxychloroquine to be able to walk around the UWS.
These people are delusional to think that the “community” rallies behind their viewpoint. Not even sure how this welcome event should get any attention. Just look at how this ever growing petition ( and comments) represent a unified viewpoint for the Upper West Side. https://www.ipetitions.com/petition/fight-for-safety-and-clean-streets-on-the-upper
The headline should be Unified Community demands the removal of homeless shelter and clean streets on the upper west side.
These people aren’t even from the upper Westside! So they have not fully experienced what happens at night. I wonder if they’ll let their children draw on the sidewalk when a guy is pissing on the wall, or hanging slow when his heroine kicks in… I doubt it!! They are NOT from the upper Westside!
Yes, most of them are. Sorry to have to pop your bubble.
I attended this as a lifelong resident of the UWS (75th and West End) and every single person I spoke with was also a resident of the neighborhood. Every person in these shelters is a human being with the same rights as each of us, and I am disgusted at the classist, racist, overblown “white panic” reactions of some of my fellow residents.
Well said. Thank you Julia!
I don’t think that hard core drug users, pedophiles and regular sex offenders have the same rights as law abiding citizens. Why are you being foolish and encouraging the ruination of our neighborhood. Between the mayor and the foolish citizens we’ll be doomed
Oh, Harriet, they don’t. They’re disenfranchised, harassed, and generally made to feel unwelcome while we all watch Law and Order SVU and cheer gleefully when someone makes a “don’t drop the soap” threat to some bit rate perv.
These poor residents of the Lucerne would probably rather be somewhere else, but are forced to endure the endless UNMASKED horrors of 79th and Broadway.
I love the Upper West Side!
get them out of here!!!!!
Hear hear! These chalk-wielding children have to go!
I love the Upper West Side!
And anyone who is going to describe people opposing this situation at the Lucerne as Racism, is out of touch! There was a white homeless guy from the Lucerne who crossed the street towards the Duane Reade in his cowboy hat and pissed on the telephone booth. He has a nice luxury hotel and bathroom… Why can’t he use that?! So, I don’t care if the person is white, black, green, or whatever… But if they are doing wrong in the neighborhood then they are doing wrong! A couple was found having sex on 78th bet Amsterdam and Broadway… Is that okay to do? Please! Don’t get me started because I have a list!
Do you know how many people I have seen doing the things you mention even before this situation happened. You must be living under a rock. Try going up Amsterdam on a crazy Saturday night when the bars are open and every person is drunk doing these things. You live in New York City.
Marvin your spreading lies and rumours. There are NO sexual offenders nor child molesters being housed at the Lucerne. You are part of the problem. Stop spreading lies about the men housed at the
Lucerne. Im glad these children have good parents as role models.
Amanda, one of the organizers is selling her apartment and moving to Connecticut where she bought a home. Will Amanda be housing some of these men in her Greenwich house?
Anyone who lives in NYC and pays NY City and NYState taxes should not be intimidated in their own neighborhood. People should not be afraid to walk outside of their homes at any time day OR night. No one deserves to be assaulted with public masterbation, drug & alcohol overdoses and street defecation/urination. These sad chemically dependent drug and alcohol addicted, criminally insane homeless people can easily be placed on the many vacant islands around the city: Randalls island, Rat Island, North Brother Island and Governors Island. DiBlasio is a sadistic monster.
Well said
Well said, indeed! Cops out of New York!
Except no one seems to give a shit when it happens in other parts of the city right? Where are all the UWS residents rallying behind residents in neighborhoods in BK or the Bronx that for years have dealt with these conditions, amongst other things. There’s a global pandemic, NOTHING is normal right now and we’re all supposed to give a shit that people that live in a neighborhood that is NEVER inconvenienced now have to endure *some* inconvenience because the city relocated homeless individuals.
I am a non-white long time UWS resident. I feel that the only thing accomplished when those concerned about the situation are labeled as “racist” is shutting down rational discourse. There has been cero transparency from the powers that be regarding the services the men housed at The Lucerne are receiving in order to thrive. We have cero information on security measures or how potential trouble will be addressed. Individuals with a history of mental health and substance abuse problems deserve our compassion, but many (depending on where they are on their recovery and the profesional support they receive) also suffer of different degrees of impulse control impairments. In light of this, as a community we deserve transparency, at the very least. This is of particular concern during a pandemic; if there is an outbreak in one of these hotels, which measures will be taken by those in charge ensure isolation and the protection of the community at large?
Get molested,than sue and get millions from City,hotel and careless Helen Rosenthal and then enjoy your life. You have to be younger then 18.
This is horrible. Place these people in reasonable housing. Not hotels that the city pays for. This is killing our neighborhood. Deblasio is a joke as is Lowenthal . Vote them out . What about the children on the streets . This is not safe . You put 500-600 homeless in 10 blocks and then gates around the mayor’s residence. Get real . The big apple has turned rotten
I live by the Excelsior where there were homeless families living for a few years. To my knowledge and observation –I could be wrong–there was no one peeing, shooting up, whatever nearby and I walked by there a lot. But the Lucerne is housing addicts and mental patients –yes, all human beings who need help–for the purpose of trying not to spread Covid. What mental services are offered to these people? A man literally OD’d in an aisle of the Duane Reade across the street. Filthy men are walking around with their pants wrapped around their ankles. And, let’s face it, they are not wearing masks. My question is, how are they hastening the spread of Covid????
“And, let’s face it, they are not wearing masks.”
pun DEFINITELY intended.
I love the Upper West Side!
Just want to say that being liberal on social issues (which I decidedly am) does not mean endorsing poor, hasty policy decisions made without the support of data-driven research and community input. The people bringing their kids to welcome dangerous (at worse) and disruptive (at best) placements in Hotel-gate may rethink their naive, sentimentalizing of their new neighbors when they or a loved one are victimized. I worked in corrections for a decade and have no false illusions about who we as a community are dealing with.
Perhaps these men just need a hug. These “welcoming” parents should have their children put down the chalk and have them give hugs to our new neighbors as they lay in the street. It will certainly make them feel welcomed. Who knows, your child just might get a “hug” in return.
In fact, if you really want to lend a helping hand, I’m sure these new neighbors might be willing to watch your child while you work or go to dinner. It gives them the opportunity to earn a little extra cash, and gives you the “me” time you deserve. Not to mention the new “special friend” your child now has.
Chalk messages are empty gestures. Put you children where you mouth is.
IT’S JUST A MYTH!
Karma. Gotta love it.
One of the organizers for the event said she blames Donald Trump for the anger neighbors are expressing about the new shelter residents. “It comes from the top,” she said. When asked if she meant De Blasio, she said “No, I mean Trump.”
WHAT A DOUCHE BAG STATEMENT!! REALLY??? YEAH IT’S TRUMP’S FAULT- RIDICULOUS. I’LL SAY IT AGAIN….WHAT A DOUCHE BAG.