After hearing from a large number of concerned Upper West Siders, Helen Rosenthal sent out an email at around 5:20pm on Wednesday, July 29, with some updates about the temporary shelter sites at Upper West Side hotels.
JUNE 2021: COURT RULES TO CLOSE LUCERNE HOTEL HOMELESS SHELTER
First, Rosenthal states that “under no condition will we accept any more temporary shelters,” as we already have about 500 new residents living within a ten block radius (with 100 at The Belnord Hotel, 100 at The Belleclaire, and 283 at The Lucerne).
UPDATE (8/9/2020): Helen Rosenthal Clarifies Stance on Belleclaire Sex Offenders
While pointing out that “the vast majority of shelter residents pose no threat to our community or any other neighborhood,” she has acknowledged the concerns local residents have voiced over the registered sex offenders residing at The Belleclaire, a finding I Love The Upper West Side first exposed on Monday.
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Steve Banks, the NYC Commissioner of Homeless Services, confirmed that all level 3 sex offenders have been moved out of the Belleclaire, and Rosenthal states she is “demanding that all remaining offenders be moved out as well.”
Commissioner Banks also told Rosenthal that “no registered sex offenders will be allowed to live at the Lucerne.”
UPDATE: Helen Rosenthal Changes Tone on Belleclaire Sex Offenders
We’ll provide an update about these residents once it is confirmed that they have been relocated.
Rosenthal’s email also states the need to reduce the total number of shelter residents throughout the neighborhood, as a lower number will make both community safety and service to those residents much more manageable.
If you experience any issue or concern with the residents of The Lucerne, Project Renewal’s onsite staff can be reached at (646) 845-3339, and Helen Rosenthal can also be reached at (212) 873-0282 or helen@helenrosenthal.com.
So which of our glorious leaders is stepping forward to take full responsibility for permitting/tolerating/ignoring the placement of the sex offenders in the neighborhood to begin with until publicity and resident complaints forced them to take action which they were not on their own undertaking? Their conduct is abominable, and their failure to acknowledge their misconduct justifies removal from office and disqualification from future leadership positions, elected or otherwise.
Thanks for keeping us up to date on this.
You might consider changing the title of your newsletter to something like this: I used to love the upper west side.
Upper West Siders are very, very concerned about this homeless situation. Why put those person in an area they can’t afford and they could change quickly with muggings, etc. It could drive many persons out of NYC for good.
The area around the 72nd St. subway is already rather “gross” with many homeless “camped” in the area.
I have lived on the upper west side since the late 1960s. I sure hope this area doesn’t become like that again.
The city should consider restoring “rural” abandoned medical facilities for housing the “new hotel residents” instead of putting them in expensive hotels in expensive areas of the city.
God forbid Upper West Siders have to gaze upon the horrible visages of people less fortunate than themselves! Especially since I’m sure all these commentators have donated to charitable organizations just so they don’t have to feel guilty about treating fellow human beings like scum! What happened to compassion for your fellow man? My neighbors make me sick.
Why dont you give them a room and feed them?
How many have you taken in?
Thought so!
We have our normal number of homeless in the area. NOT FUCKING 500 in 10 square blocks!!!
It looks like a fucking cesspool right now. If I wanted to live in a cesspool I would live in a third world country!
And to think..they were all BUSSED IN from somewhere else!!!
What does that tell you?
How bad do the want to destroy the last businesses surviving which are outdoor restaurants.
Hate to tell you…60% of businesses have closed..AND THEY ARE NOT RETURNING.
NYC will not recover for at least 10 years…because now I see Apartments available signs on the UWS….bet these people are not coming back either.
Its over. DeBlasio and Cuomo..the civilization and nursing home destroyers!
I agree the UWS is an area densely populated by both the elderly, children and restaurants where people gather. There are plenty of hotels in areas that have less of a dense population and hotels that are large enough to house all these folks in one place so services could be delivered to that location instead of scattering them. The hotels that are housing up to a hundred are truly bad enough but at the Lucerne 300 is outrageous. Hundreds of at risk people in a small radius of 8 or 10 blocks is unconscionable.
Helen Rosenthal sent out a message to her constituents that conveniently omitted the fact that the 300 men scheduled for residency at the Lucerne are “recovering drug addicts”. It seems we can no longer depend on our local representatives to be honest and forthright with us. Are all politicians turning into mini-Trumps?
I think you mean mini-Pelosi/Clinton/deblasio/obama…any of them really
If you are on Facebook, join the upper west siders for safer streets
yesterday some of them tried to rob the liquor store directly across the street and my neighbor told me that other temporary residents started to fight with the cashier at Duane Reade. I can’t even imagine how this will impact the safety of outdoor seating situation of all the restaurants that are desperate for revenue.
First, was out, on camera, arguing with constituents of “how hard” she was fighting to stop this. Now, her “e-blast” says she didn’t have any say in the matter. Which is it? Did she not have a say or was she not fighting? Unfathomable how it only took the slightest bit of research to find out exactly what is happening in our neighborhood. Really a shame.
We all need to email or call Helen Rosenthal, Nagler, ect to relay our upset about this situation.
There needs to be a better solution than to have drug addicts and sex offenders moved into in our neighborhood by the 100’s! The quality of life has recently deteriorated as evidenced by just walking through the neighborhood and seeing vagrants and homeless encampments throughout.
A walk down to 80th and Amsterdam, and then at 79th and Broadway (in front of the church) around 8pm:
1. Two different folks who were asking restaurant patrons at the corner of 80th for money
2. Two men drinking in front of the newsstand at 80th and Bway (east side of the street)
3. 4 different men hanging on the steps of the church at 79th st and Bway. Another who followed our family, and then finally stopped to relieve himself near a motorcycle parked on 79th st, between West End and Bway.
None of these are offenses that can be called in. But as a parent of a very young child, do I not have the right to feel comfortable when I’m going out? Or is that a “privelege”?
I relate so much to your comment and completely agree. I moved to the UWS from the east village back in 2011 so that my baby would be in a more family friendly neighborhood. It is unbelievable that the UWS has been selected to receive more than a fair share of homeless men recovering from drug addiction. Homeless families would have integrated better in this particular community.
Atrocious! So many times I have walked up to wait for the 104 bus, going downtown at 86th Street, & couldn’t sit down on the bench because of residents from the homeless shelter there sitting on benches not wearing mask, smoking, eating & going off leaving their trash instead of putting in garbage cans on the corner. Although I am a 77 year old senior wouldn’t say anything because some are mentally unstable!!!
Oh my god, panhandling and drinking in public? How ever will your humours recover from such an afront?! Yes, it is privilege to want to live in New York City and never see a homeless person. Have some compassion for your fellow man or go to a gated community in Florida
I hope you carry pepper spray and or a stun gun..because mental health problems and homelessness go hand in hand.
Unbelievable. Action was needed before these hotels were filled with people. The streets were already a mess. Now its simply unbearable. I hope no one is satisfied with this response. In fact it should enrage you further and that we continue to demand a complete cleanup of our streets and neighborhood.
I wonder why they did not. Maybe because better public schoolS cannot accommodate them?
This is an outrage as the streets in a matter of weeks, have become as horrific and dangerous as the Tenderloin in San Francisco. Those of us who have to walk our dogs at night have to go in groups or we carry bats to fend off the possible and witnessed attacks. We just had scaffolding placed around our building this week. In two days, it’s become a shanty town. The police have been called to our building on W 73rd six times in the past two days. The police admit there is nothing they can do unless someone is harmed, which is then too late. The man on our corner, who is mentally ill and off of his meds, yet has a constant source of drugs and piles of six packs on his sleeping bag, has assaulted many of our residents. Many of our older residents are too frightened to go outside. This man, the police admitted has been arrested six times over the past few weeks and the next day he is either released from jail or Bellevue and returns to our corner with his buddies. I was dining at Nice Matin, the restaurant in the Lucerne and we were harassed and constantly walked up to and demanded we “hand over our money.” Many of the diners, just gave up and left. I felt so badly for the waiters and for our city. This will not be tolerated and we have to all come together or nothing will be done. Sadly, I feel the city is worse that it was in the 70’s and those of us old enough to remember that, are very concerned. Rosenthal, also claims in her letter, there is a curfew for these individuals in the shelters. Not true, the benches in the medians of Broadway our packed with all types of activity well after said curfew of 10PM. Most, sadly, all drug activity and threatening those who walk by to give them money. It a big problem and I wish I had the answer, but this is not it. It is now growing more and more dangerous every night.
this is going around in case you’re not aware: https://www.ipetitions.com/petition/fight-for-safety-and-clean-streets-on-the-upper
Helen Rosenthal’s recent email states: “Project Renewal has stated that shelter residents who cannot adhere to its “Good Neighbor” policy can potentially be transferred to other shelter sites.”
Can anyone please point to a definition of Project Renewal’s Good Neighbor” policy? This phrase is used but not specified anywhere.
Also, it it curious that residents not adhering to this policy *CAN POTENTIALLY* be transferred… what does this even mean?
Homeless bums give the U.W.S its beauty.Enjoy hope we get 1000’s more.
Helen Rosenthal’s recent email states: “Project Renewal has stated that shelter residents who cannot adhere to its “Good Neighbor” policy can potentially be transferred to other shelter sites.”
Can anyone please point to a definition of Project Renewal’s Good Neighbor” policy? This phrase is used but not specified anywhere.
Also, it it curious that residents not adhering to this policy *CAN POTENTIALLY* be transferred… what does this even mean?
Clearly, our local politicians are ineffective, indifferent or uninterested. What can we do to make ourselves heard at the city level? Is the UWS not the home to some of the most vocal and prominent private citizens? If they are reading about this situation, please make this an issue. Or perhaps they are all away at their second homes, and just don’t care enough to help.
I agree, when the other half of the UWS returns from their second home they will be shocked. This is a sneaky tactic.
Be sure to vote for DiBlazio, the destroyer of New York City!
Compassion and empathy for fellow New Yorkers is not something you are going to find from the Nimby posters in these comments.
Compassion and empathy are hard to muster when you’re being accosted on the street, while stepping over used needles and human feces.
Ah yes, compassion that notoriously easy act.
No compassion from the rest of the United States silent majority All American Patriot voter who was warning you about the democrats for years!!!
Ask Detroit and California /San Francisco and NAFTA and being under democratic party control.
You are just seeing the beginning of the end.
Also..let me ask…Do you think Trump, who never held an office before 2017 is responsible for 40 years of economic destruction of the US? I will let you all figure that one out.
Also..if Trump is Hitler and a Dictator…why did he let your governors and mayors be in charge to handle their covid response?
Sometimes people can’t be told…they need to be shown.
It’s not about compassion, it’s about safety. I was followed by a man in Riverside Park at 6:30am while walking my dog, the incident was captured on a police camera and they confirmed that he was a temporary resident of the Belleclaire Hotel. Now I’m afraid to leave the house without pepper spray. 500 new residents living within a ten block radius is a bit much for any neighborhood.
The nerve of someone to walk in the same direction as you. Pepper spray first. Ask questions later!
Tell that to the police who confirmed he was stalking me in the park, ON VIDEO. Grow up.
A notoriously trustworthy bunch.
I wonder whence all the wealth concentrated on the UWS derives? Could it be that to live in grotesquely overpriced gerbil cages with park views one might need to immiserate more than a few people.
And to think, the sans culottes have the nerve to degrade the UWS’s public streets, sidewalks, benches with their mere presence.
You’re trying too hard. No one is impressed with your thesaurus
Welp, a little before 3pm on West 77th St outside the Belleclaire I saw an Medical Examiner/Forensics Investigations van along with a police SUV. I hope nothing happened, but that can’t be a good sign.
Depending on your perspective it could be a wonderful thing.
https://newyork.cbslocal.com/2020/07/29/washington-jefferson-hotel-shelter
Their good luck became our predicament. But they united and got their neighborhood back. Local politicians are hoping that a few days pass and we get complacent and accept. What will it be UWS?
I’m rather surprised by these indignant reactions; I’ve always known New Yorkers to be tolerant, hip to ugly truths and humorously cynical, but always willing to dig in and fix shit. Some of you folks sound as if you just moved to the big city from Marin County, California, and you want neighborhood value for your money and police protection in the park. Guess what? Control over those conventional paradigms has been lost.
Someone mentioned San Francisco’s Tenderloin [SF’S SOMA hood is also packed with the unsheltered, and take a look at all other big US cities]. Don’t be surprised if many hoods in NYC start crawling with thousands of peeps who’ve been spat out by the Machine, despite the colder temps.
The homeless are a product of America’s failed and corrupt capitalist system, products just like Pontiacs and Evil Politicians, so before you condemn the homeless as a product, remember that old saw “There but for the Grace of God go I.” That may sound ludicrous but there’s deep metaphysical truth to it.
Kids, we need to CHANGE THE WAY AMERICA WORKS if any of us want to see our country get better. If we can’t do that NOW ~ and there are powerful arguments that say it’s TOO LATE [corruption & greed, like chronic alcoholism, have inevitably bad, final consequences] ~ we might as well GIVE UP AMERICA.
Because believe me, griping online about it ain’t gonna do a damned thing. I would suggest much more radical solutions such as ABANDONING YOUR APARTMENTS to the homeless and go OCCUPY CITY HALL, kick out the greedy assholes who’ve been hired to maintain the CORRUPT STATUS QUO, and try to clean up America before it truly is too late.
Sound like a fantasy? Try imagining what the UWS will be like when it becomes UNLIVABLE. What are you gonna do then, REFUSE TO PAY RENT?
There’s no turning back, kids. I leave you with this quote I ran across online ::
“113-Year-Old Woman Survives Coronavirus and Warns Humanity Needs a ‘New Order'”
“And don’t think about redoing, recovering, rebuilding. It will have to be done all over again and differently.”
“I won’t be able to help you. In fact, for my age, I will no longer be there,” she continued. “But, believe me, you need a new order, a change in the hierarchy of values and priorities, a New Human Age . . . .”
The cause is a failed CRONY CAPITALIST system. It went OVER -REGULATED for the small business citizen and UNREGULATED for BIG INDUSTRY and MULTI-NATIONAL Corporations. They sold us out to CHINA 30 years ago. It was a slow drip. They took over hundreds to thousands of our politicians in DC and local…and ran amok benefiting from corruption from Corrupt judges to Senators..who all most likely had a seat to Epsteins Island or the Playboy mansion where they weer ready to video tape ANYTHING.
Lets be clear..what you are seeing is the death throws of the deep state as hundreds of CORRUPT people have been removed from the FBI and other agencies…while 170,000 sealed indictments starting rising on EO 12/21/17… from the normal 2000-5000 nationally in any given year. Those 170k sealed indictments ARE NOT FROM PAST TRUMPs administrations.
The media slaughter on Trump is because they do not CONTROL HIM… so they have to control you. He’s just in the way from your economic freedoms.
Anyone who doens’t think the deep state isnt being drained…need to start looking at those sealed indictment numbers.
The State runs deep and wide. That may be changing.
Gerry–
So now the ideologues are showing up to teach all of us the lessons that they draw from every disturbing or traumatic event and which we are otherwise too stupid to perceive. What we can see without their help is that on a wholesale basis hotels in local neighborhoods are being transformed, rapidly and quietly, into housing for people with substance abuse problems, mental illness and sex crimes. Just follow the money. I am guessing this is financially welcome by the hotel owners in the absence of their normal clientele who are kept away by the pandemic, but why would our politicians go along with this when the horrified reaction of their constituency is perfectly predictable? I am guessing that the hotel owners who are being supported by govt funds for taking in the newly transferred transients have been making or promising (explicitly or with a wink and a nod) political donations for use in the next election. If so, this is classic corruption which explains the otherwise inexplicable conduct we are seeing. Maybe the press will peel back a few more layers of this onion skin to show us what is really going on here.
Start with Shimmie Horn for the Belleclaire and WJ Hotels.
Gerald Barad and Shimmie Horn – owners of the BelleClaire, and Sam Domb owner of the Lucerne. Worthless sh*t heads of the highest order.
Shouldn’t much of the ire in this thread should really be reserved for these f*ck stick a$$ holes? Capitalists of the highest order, no doubt. Happy to internalize their gains while socializing “losses” throughout the neighborhood. So quick to feed off the government teat when times get tough. Hypocritical f*cking maga chuds.
Every single fucking penny they collect on this trade should be taken from them. Bankruptcy and acute financial pain for them, their children, and their children’s children. Scum of the f*cking earth. Rot in f*cking hell trashbags.
Unfortunately it is not only the UWS dealing with a larger homeless situation. I’ve lived on Park Avenue South off 29th Street and more recently in lower Chelsea near 14th and all I can say is that there is a noticeable increase in homelessness all over. I get the impression that these people are being shuffled around from neighborhood to neighborhood as they wear out their welcome. Until the mayor seriously comes up with a real solution to help these people things will only get worse.
Where is my progressive Upper West Side? These men have to live somewhere. Are you all implying that some less well-to-do neighborhood should absorb them rather than us? Why? When the city is trying to address homelessness and addiction, our neighborhood can do its fair share.
(FWIW, I live a block away from the Lucerne.)
Stop being sanctimonious. It’s not about “well-to-do”, it is about the placement of these facilities without any obvious process to assess how it will affect the local residents. We’re talking about nearly 300 people with addiction issues being wedged into an already-dense area filled with children, all as part of a “de-densification” program. That shouldn’t happen in any neighborhood, well-to-do or not. There ought to be a process, with criteria that are transparent, and that process ought to be followed every time, everywhere. We’re told nothing. Are there criteria? Were the followed here?
On “fair share”, two things: 1) show me the placement criteria, and then maybe we could have an actual conversation on that topic, but 2) absent that, all I can do is point to the fact that UWS already has many more facilities based on any metric I can imagine (number of facilities, number people receiving services, per unit of population, per unit of geography).
Almost certainly we’re being treated worse than other neighborhoods. Why? Because people here leap to cloying statements about welcoming and don’t actually make informed judgments considering the facts and circumstances at play, or asking local leaders to be at all accountable for those decisions, or, at a minimum, explain them.
The scene around 79th street is getting worse every day. Maybe Helen Rosenthal and her team should spend an hour on these blocks in the evening. Would they feel safe and comfortable with the going ons here? I know I felt uncomfortable getting out of the subway at 6pm, with a bunch of men drinking near DSW. If the folks in Hell’s Kitchen could make them selves heard, how can we do the same?
So the owners of the Lucerne received $1 – $2 million in Federal bailout loans in April AND still decided to accept FEMA money in connection with Project Renewal for these drug addicted men? Can someone please investigate?
https://projects.propublica.org/coronavirus/bailouts/loans/201-west-79th-street-realty-corp-5061af7c36421c299f85e98662772b24?fbclid=IwAR1UvhQlKCwglUNPeWOmoOm3t3yiM18lb01vFb-0cZJGC9cMDsU4_2_5LzQ
Do you mind also posting this on the upper west siders for safer streets Facebook group?
I live across the street from the Lucerne. My teenage daughters are afraid to walk home and have been the subject of inappropriate comments. Four of the residents asked me for money yesterday and today one of the younger residents tried to rob the liqueur store by running out with bottles of vodka. This morning my neighbor told me another resident was fighting with the cashier at Duane Reade on the corner. The two security guards posted in front of the Lucerne do nothing except talk to each other. We all feel unsafe, this is outrageous.
You ought to report it, every single time. Project Renewal, Helen Rosenthal’s office, 20th Precinct (if there is an actual crime).
Nothing can ever happen otherwise.
The situation on W 36 St is far more serious than the UWS. The city doesn’t seem to be aware there are renters and owners here in buildings with C of O’s. There are around 500 homeless residents on W 36 between 7th and 8th Ave, alone, and about 800 more in the general area.
I can’t say I object to a few hundred homeless being housed in my neighborhood, as they have to go someplace. But the density here is too high, and that’s what make the situation worrisome. The situation on the UWS (I was there not long ago), is nowhere near as scary as here. If you don’t believe me, take a walk through here.
Atleast 25 people gathered on the two medians on 79th and 78th and Broadway. All maskless. Most drinking or smoking.
For everyone here welcoming these folks – for all their rights, do they not have responsibilities? I’d like to see if there is an uptick in COVID cases in our zip code after the shelters were put in place.
Please make sure to document it (pictures help) and email it to helen@helenrosenthal.com (our “representative” at city council) and rosenthall@nyassembly.gov (our representative at the NY state assembly). We need to constantly show them the nightmare they have allowed the UWS to become for hardworking, tax-paying families
Please also send all documented photos and videos to savetheuws@hotmail.com
You people have no issue with these offenders being dumped in low income communities like the Bronx. Privileged pos!
“You people”? You know nothing about the people commenting and likewise no one knows anything about you. Who suggested that “offenders” be “dumped” anywhere? If you read the comments which express disappointment and disapproval, you will see that people are objecting to various things: sex offenders housed near schools, consultation within the neighborhood being ignored by our representatives, security concerns by people walking in their neighborhood, a concentration of men with substance abuse, legal and mental illness being moved into a neighborhood where they have no family or roots, and palpable fear. Maybe you do not care about any of this, but lots of people feel differently from you — I suspect most people disagree with you. Maybe you are right, but maybe you are wrong. This forum allows different views to be expressed, and maybe you could further the discussion by suggesting remedies rather than excoriating people who are expressing legitimate views. Shame on you.