In reference to the Lucerne Hotel, An August 22 email from Helen Rosenthal states that “Seven residents have been transferred out of the building for not adhering to the shelter’s ‘good neighbor’ policy and/or shelter rules.”
While it has not been made clear what infractions caused the transfer of these seven individuals, we have received a copy of Project Renewal’s “Good Neighbor Policy.”
LATEST: All 283 Homeless Lucerne Hotel Residents will be Relocated
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The “Good Neighbor Policy” reads as follows:
“As temporary residents of the Lucerne Hotel, you will be expected to adhere to the good neighbor policy set forth in this document. Like all shelter residents and staff, you are expected to conduct yourself as mature and responsible members of the community. As such, you are responsible for upholding all state and city laws and ordinances; furthermore, you are expected to act in accordance with the following provisions:“Noise: Loud yelling, screaming or music playing are examples of disruptive behaviors and are not acceptable in the community. Please refrain from engaging in this behavior.
“Lingering: No one should be lingering in the surrounding area of the hotel. If found loitering, you will be engaged by Project Renewal and Security personnel and asked to leave the area.
“Use and/or possession of alcohol and other drugs: In accordance with city laws, use and/or possession of alcohol and other drugs in public is strictly prohibited. This includes cigarette sales.
“Smoking: Be mindful of how cigarette smoke may enter through our neighbors’ windows and affect those inside. There should be absolutely no smoking in front of our neighbors’ homes / businesses.
“Littering: It is your responsibility to properly dispose of litter and garbage by placing them in designated trash receptacles.
“Masks: You are expected to wear face coverings at all times when in the common areas of the hotel and/or in the community. Masks are available at all times in the access control area and are also provided at bed signing on Monday and Thursday.
“Failure to comply with the stipulations outlined in this policy may result in an immediate DHS administrative transfer.”
The Good Neighbor Policy concludes by asking each resident to print and sign their name and date it.
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Other updates referenced in the email include the following:
- While the city is strictly enforcing a 10pm curfew for all residents, there are some exceptions, including for those who are working night shifts.
- The security team at the Lucerne and Belleclaire are conducting two patrols per day.
- Two days of COVID-19 testing have just been completed. Positive results are minimal.
- The Lucerne has added “more robust programming for shelter residents, and is speaking with Goddard Riverside Community Center about access to additional space for programming.”
- “DHS reports that an individual who showed up on the State Registry as a Level 3 sex offender and staying at the Lucerne was never a resident there. The individual in question was a client of Project Renewal at their downtown location until February, 2020 and he then became homeless. DHS has advised the State to correct the registry.”
In addition, the email states that the 20th Precinct “has added extra officers to the area bounded by the temporary shelters, with six officers assigned to Broadway between 72nd and 86th Streets every day, between 12 and 8:30pm” and that the “20th (Precinct) will coordinate with local schools and the 24th Precinct to ensure patrols during student drop-off and pick-up times.”
Have not seen a single cop on foot patrol, but lots of them are hanging out on 82nd street, by the station house and at Columbus and Amsterdam, where folks are still forced into the street by randomly placed metal barriers.
“Two days of COVID-19 testing have just been completed. Positive results are minimal.”
So there were positive covid cases then.
I have yet to see any cops patrolling the area by the Lucerne and have never seen a cop when I am being yelled at in the street or have seen someone urinating or engaged in other questionable and disturbing behavior on the street. There are, however, cops by the AMNH statue on CPW at all times and by the Columbus statue in Central Park (usually two police vehicles). Statues over safety! Also great to hear about positive COVID results. I have yet to see someone emerge from the Lucerne and keep a mask on. Thanks all.
Maybe we should invite that reprobate DeBlaBla to come tour the area.. Maybe the bum should invite the detritus to live in Gracie Mansion. And that’s when the cops, what else do you expect from them?
Guardian Angels & Police everywhere, on one UWS corner it is starting to look a sub-station. Some should take comfort in this but I caution a pre-apartheid state against others?
It’s disappointing that high functioning folks with homes in this area use over generalizations, slander to hurt an already vulnerable weaken population that must be care for lest we all fail. What a waste of money in hiring a major Republican law firm is very telling. The area was a COVID ghost town because the affluent haul azzz out of dodge and right so! The poor infirm citizens have rights too but no lawyer. Think it is beneficial to all if every neighborhood helps, Gotham needs strong fair humane leadership . . . 38%?
I was walking down Amsterdam near the Lucerne last week and saw a man urinating with his pants down in the middle of the street in broad daylight. Yesterday I had to step over another man rolling around on the sidewalk. Unbelievable.
Don’t fret, folks, by the time De Blasio leaves office next year, NYC will be one big, violent ghetto.
Can you tell those of us who have escaped the UWS & NYCity until this craziness is over when we can come back : )
unfortunately Gotham doesn’t have any leadership right now.
I take it no one has screamed in your face maskless demanding money yet. Or harassed your wife or daughter. Report back after that happens. Thanks.
Helen Rosenthal is useless and so full of herself. Like de blah-sio. Why don’t they say what the infarctions were and how come when i report crapping and masturbating on the sidewalk to police , i get told there’s nothing they can do unless they see it themselves!!
And what’s a minimal amount of cases and are the sock people being isolated with medical personnel?
Fill in the blanks!!
To: Leaving NY If everyone of the good residents tested negative, of course we all would feel very confident that no one is at risk, those living at hotels.
To: “Mook.” to refer to unfortunate human beings as “detritus” says a lot more about you than about them
To: Leaving NY If everyone of the good residents tested negative, of course we all would feel very confident that no one is at risk, those living at hotels.
To: “Mook.” to refer to unfortunate human beings as “detritus” says a lot more about you than about them
Interesting that few sign using their name. Possibly ashamed to say some of the things I read here. I suspect those who have the money to hire an expensive lawyer also dine at Nice-Matin and bemoan the terrible inequality in this country. To think these men should be returned to sweltering shelters with no privacy, etc., instead of for a brief time have a comfortable bed to sleep in, a private bathroom. They probably thought they had died and gone to heaven until they encountered the cruelty of so many of the community who are expressing their right to white privilege.
The KKK is alive and well.
Sarah Johnson, your approach to this situation is to preach to people how horrible they are. How about looking to the people who you say “thought they had died and went to heaven” . Wouldn’t you appreciate having a comfortable bed and private bathroom so much that you wouldn’t go out on the streets and break the law? No one would be reacting to homeless temporarily having a place to stay during a world wide pandemic if they didn’t have to deal with horrible behavior in our streets day in and day out. Do you hear the incidents that people are reporting. People accosting pedestrians, shooting up heroin in broad daylight. Lets get rid of the bad apples so our new peaceful neighbors can enjoy there stay here and we all can be safe. Maybe the Lucerne doing 2 patrols a day is woefully inadequate and the police presence is non existent. People just want to be safe in their own neighborhoods. And here is my real name, like it matters.
Lucky yours is a socially preferred addiction and preferable for business in your heavy Angel founded and funded lifestyle then.
I am surprised by the number of people here complaining about lack of enforcement around 79/Bway. I do two rounds per day on my bike, b/w 77 (Belleclaire) and 86th. I also sit on the mall on 79th with a friend on occasion. I have seen patrol cars regularly stationed on one or another corner of 79/Bway. Yesterday, there were three patrol vehicles on three different corners. I have also seen regular foot patrols b/w 77th and 8st, including the Auxiliary Police Officers (APOs), who are uniformed, and add “eyes” on the street. As well, there are two guards from the Lucerne who patrol 79th b/w Amst and Bway, and Bway b/w 79/80. I see them regularly throughout the day.
Re Covid, there was actually only one potentially positive case, and that person was removed to a quarantine location immediately. Had these men still been in the shelter, it is possible that that single man could have create an entire cluster by himself. And moving them into the hotels was for this very reason: to avoid creating “petri dishes” in the shelters.
Re harassment, etc., if anyone, “hotel homeless” or not, harasses or menaces you on the street, call 911. That is the correct thing to do.
Re the hiring of a lawyer, that was done by one group that has formed around this issue; there are actually groups on both “sides,” some of whom do not buy into the philosophy of those who hired the lawyer.
Frank: You are regurgitating right-wing talking points and gossip. Did you personally SEE anyone “shooting up?” And if you did , did you test the substance so that you can claim that it was heroin? Obviously not. So making claims like that is simply repeated others’ claims (which may not be accurate) and making assumptions. The worst behaviors I have seen are not wearing masks (which is actually more worrying to me than the other behaviors), drinking alcohol, smoking pot, and urinating in the street (which according to the NYPD is done by more collegiate types coming out of the bars on Amst and Col than by homeless people). And while none of these things is “good” or even pleasant, the truth is that enforcement HAS been stepped up, and 79/Bway, at least, has been much, much quieter and cleaner of late.
And it does matte that people use their real names, or they are simply “hiding” behind pseudonyms.
What is this business about no” loitering”? Does this mean that these people can’t sit on a bench and enjoy the outside, or stand on the sidewalk or street corner to socialize with friends? This seems very close to vagrancy laws from past generations. Both vagrancy and loitering laws have questionable constitutional status.
Actually, part (i) of the “Loitering Law” (Penal Code Section 240), which criminalized some types of loitering, including panhandling, was found unconstitutional many years ago, and is no longer enforced.
Thank you to all of the reasoned and reasonable replies to the shameful hysteria in these comments. The alleged behavior — by a few — might be awful; unpleasant; annoying; uncivil. It seems that many of my UWS neighbors think that those behaviors by some mean that homeless men shouldn’t live in those rooms. But if it isn’t illegal, we do not have a right to banish it. Most of those men are guilty of nothing more than being homeless and poor and mostly non-white. The circumstances of the men at the Lucerne– probably many of them veterans — warrant a social response, and if we are mad at our government about this — city, state, federal — if should be because the response doesn’t exist. Get angry about that!
Out eating with the wife the other night on Amsterdam this guy walks by and yells at the customers ” Give me money Give me money Im Fucking crazy so you better give me money” Yep we should welcome these people. You probably wont post this because it has undesirable language but it is a direct quote.
A homeless man without a mask came up to me, an adult woman who can pass as a teenager, and my father while we were eating. He asked for money to buy food. I gave him a dollar (I did not have change) and he yelled at me that it was not enough money to buy food with. I don’t have a job right now. I told him he could ask more people for money. My father supplied the man with a dollar in quarters. The homeless man was angry that I would not give him more and then used his full force to slam both hands and the two dollars onto our table. He left and harass nearby people – including crossing the street with someone and then came back to our table again. The money he rejected was still on the table. We offered him pizza and he would not accept it. We offered to let him take the money he previously rejected: he would not take it. He said his mother was a frontline nurse during Covid-19 who committed suicide by jumping off the Tappan Zee Bridge – and asked again for money. We ended up tossing the pizza because he was not wearing a mask or social distancing. I tried my best and was courteous and sympathetic to him the whole time. I don’t feel safe with people like him wandering the neighborhood anymore.
@concerneduwser, my experience is that the already aggressive panhandling in the neighborhood has escalated into extortion using close physical proximity and mask-lessness as a clever weapon. The police will not do anything if the hotel residents threaten you by spraying spit in your face yelling obscenities. They simply will not. If signing and adhering to the “good neighbor policy” was realistic behavior to expect, many of the residents wouldn’t be homeless. Likely not all of them are engaging in uncivil or criminal behavior, but it sure feels like a critical mass of them are – enough that the neighborhood feels destabilized and unsafe.
I agree, Theo, that panhandlers appear to be using mask-lessness as a weapon. This is not the first time I was approached for money. In the past, people would line the sidewalk and ask from a distance. Behavior like this is hostile and menacing.
I was in Belleview shelter years ago
A friend and a quiet man who read all the time was moved to the harlem shelter
The next night his head was cut off
I believe most of the homeless need psychiatric care
But the city won’t provide it
These are the homeless in the news
RSP: Thank you for your own reasoned approach. It is sorely needed.
John: Sorry to hear that you had to go through that. But you are making an unprovable assumption that the man was from the Lucerne. He could have been from anywhere. There are plenty of non-Lucerne homeless in the area, some of whom can be troublesome. What is “wrong” is scapegoating the men at the Lucerne when you have no proof that it was one of them. As of today, there have been exactly three felony arrests at the Lucerne – none for crimes against persons; one for stealing a CityBike, one for stealing a package from a lobby, and one for drugs. As well, seven men have been transferred out for violating the “Good Neighbor Policy” that they are supposed to follow.
So please don’t be so quick to judge an entire group, particularly when you cannot even say for certain that the ONE interaction you had was with someone from the hotel.
Adam: Wow. Amazing that you knew that man, since the story is quite infamous! That said, while it is true that~1/3 of all homeless are somewhere on the mentally ill spectrum, not all require psychiatric care. And it may be that those who are not getting it ARE being offered it; no one can be “forced” to accept help against their will. So the City may well provide and even offer that service, but some simply don’t want to accept it. The only way around this would be to lobby lawmakers for stronger laws. Unfortunately, I doubt that would go very far, since people’s right not to be forced to accept help is (perhaps sadly) always going to trump other peoples’ right not to be potentially harmed by them.
Theo:
And you are CERTAIN that all of these incidents are connected specifically to the “hotel homeless” HOW?! You actually DON’T know. You are simply making an ASSUMPTION. There are plenty of street homeless who can be aggressive. Why automatically scapegoat the men at the Lucerne?
@Concerneduwser: While the NYPD may not do much about aggressive panhandling, if you believe that someone is truly menacing you, you must call 911. “Menacing” is an actual crime for which the person can be arrested. It is not something you should ignore.
According to New York State law, this behavior is “truly menacing.” From the government website:
“Section 120.15
Menacing in the third degree
Penal (PEN)
A person is guilty of menacing in the third degree when, by physical menace, he or she intentionally places or attempts to place another person in fear of death, imminent serious physical injury or physical injury.”
https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/laws/PEN/120.15
Proving that a person had mens rea is also an essential element to convict a person of a crime. If a person strolls up with a mask under their chin and asks for money (as has happened to me), they know a) the danger they are putting you in and b) the mental duress it causes.
I believe the law is on my side:
https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/laws/PEN/120.15
If you go to the NY State Senate website and look up Section 120.15, Menacing in the third degree, I believe that you will find the legal definition of menacing and it will prove to you that this behavior is “truly menacing.”
To Ian Altermann: i have a question about your reply to Adam. While what you say may indeed be true, i.e., that “people’s right not to be forced to accept help is (perhaps sadly) always going to trump other people’s right not to be potentially harmed by them”, does it make any logical sense? What you are basically saying is that without doing anything untoward you can be seriously injured or even murdered by someone who Is violently mentally ill because he or she won’t accept treatment which is available. Is that OK with you?
Healthcare Proxies are IT for this hard to contain population. When this population has to come to the hospital, this is where catchment is breaking down. A good healthcare proxy is a better way for helping vulnerable people into longer term care, both voluntary and involuntarily admitted. My personal experience.
Margaret: I never said it was okay with me – which is why I included the parenthetical comments. And I agree that it seems to defy logic. I’m not sure what the answer is, though. I would not want to be put in the position of forcing someone into treatment since it is impossible to determine beforehand whether that particular person is going to, or is likely to, commit a crime, especially murder or other violent crime, so I really will have violated their rights in a huge way. Also, if I were mentally ill (and mental illness is on a spectrum, so it is not like everyone who is mentally ill needs the same level of care or treatment), i would not want MY rights violated that way.
Finally, given that most murders, rapes, etc, are NOT done by the mentally ill (in fact, the mentally ill are 3x more likely to be the VICTIM of a crime), then we have to ask whether those “normal” violent offenders should have had THEIR rights violated – again, not even knowing whether they might commit a crime.
Sadly, there does not seem to be a “good” answer here.
@Tracie: Not a bad idea. But how would you determine who the health proxy should be? And what if no one steps forward to do it? You absolutely cannot legally force a health proxy on someone.
The education provided from the emergency room during any admission into the hospital is no thing at all. I’m saying if there’sa suggestion where evaluation, assessment and rehousing can take improvement over the next year at the hospital, emergency room. A healthcare proxy isn’t guardianship. It’s short term planning during illness, this population is already contact with case management. How about calling the mobile crisis unit, maybe? 911 for an ambulance?, have them evaluate the individual… we’re all only talking.
I agree re emergency rooms being one important nexus for evaluation and assessment and that contact with case management at that point would be important. The question is whether hospital emergency rooms have the time and staff to do that. Perhaps this would be a good ting to lobby for.
Given the choice towards life and death, I have known many people on the fringe to choose to be treated at the hospital than thrown into jail, if they were in their right mind. I just think people Assume Sick people choose to be ill and can somehow plan or decide to be stuck in public, like being sick is a job …. anyway. I’m just glad to see people see themselves as neighbors because many people act like they’ve never actually looked up from their handhelds until now.
Tracie: Thanks for this. I spent 12 years working with the street homeless on the UWS b/w 72nd and 86th Street. I still work with a few. I have also been heavily involved in the broader issue for over two decades. A couple of interesting facts about homelessness.
First, the vast majority of people become homeless due to economics; loss of job, loss of housing, etc. Another remarkably significant number lose their homes due to fire. Very few BECOME homeless due to alcohol or drug abuse. In fact, the homeless tend to BECOME alcohol and drug abusers during what is referred to as the “homeless spiral”; i.e., the longer they are out there, and are unable to get services, the more likely they are to use alcohol and drugs. And, of course, those who may have started out as very mildly mentally ill get worse, due to both lack of access to medication and the “spiral.”
Second, like autism and mental illness, homelessness (i.e., homeless individuals) is on a spectrum: there are many high-functioning homeless (I know one who did the NYT crossword in pen), and many severely mentally ill, with most in between.
Homelessness is NOT monolithic, as some people seem to think. And like the mentally ill, the homeless are much more likely to be the VICTIM of a crime than to commit one (beyond, perhaps, “victimless” crimes like petty larceny).
There is a great deal more. But what you say is quite true.
Thank you for keeping that in your head because people depend on the UWS whether we do care in an alliance, anonymous or through the eye of a needle, and by that I mean any church, we get to choose how to be a good neighbor. And I’m a whole schizophreniac speaking only for my own self, what I’d hope my hood would do in my defense. Be a good proxy and call an ambulance or the crisis unit. If people really think they can diagnose an illness or a crime in progress, select the process and see it through.
Why are the police from the 20 th mostly not wearing masks?
@concerneduwser. Then you should report it when it happens.
Sarah Johnson
It’s very heartening to read some of posts which are thoughtful and helpful rather than accusatory. Regarding treatment for those with mental illness, the first step has to be diagnosis so the appropriate medication/treatment can be offered. One of the failures of DeBlasio’s administration is that these services are NOT provided on our horrible shelter program. It is also true that some ill people refuse intervention and that is a real conundrum. I have had an emotional response when I’ve seen some of the nasty and downright cruel remarks. I have a brother who has mental illness which has gotten worse for exactly that reason. He is now lost to us. I have been looking for him for 10 years, and is incredibly painful not knowing even if he is living. If he is, he probably is homeless and it breaks my heart.
Sarah: I agree with you, I would simply add that it is important to separate out the CITY shelter system from those run by service providers. The City shelter system is a mess, and few if any social services available, cramped quarters, thefts, fights, etc. However, the homeless at the Lucerne, Belleclaire and Belnord do not come from the City shelter system. They were transferred from “private” shelters that already provided a variety of social services, both onsite and off. Project Renewal (Lucerne), Help USA (Belleclaire) and Center for Urban Community Services (Belnord) are all long-time shelter and social service-assisted living facility providers.
That said, I, too, am saddened by some of the tones, attitudes, demonization and scapegoating that I have seen and heard over the past few weeks. As I noted earlier, mental illness is on a spectrum, and not everyone who is mentally ill is in the same category. In fact, I am guessing that more people here know someone who is mentally ill than are realizing that.
@Anita: I, too, have noticed that some officers do not wear their masks. As far as officers in the 20th Precinct are concerned, I have contacted the Commanding Officer (with whom I have a very good relationship) and even sent him a photo. He thanked me, said he would remind his team that that is not acceptable, and asked me to continue to send him photos if I see other officers not wearing their masks.
To Sarah Johnson: You have remarks about my use of the term “detritus” to describe some of these individuals? How these people got to their current state is NOT the issue. The issue is the current reality, and the current reality is that several of these fine personages are now conducting themselves as DETRITUS, and they are disrupting the lives of those who live in the area. It is NOT “white privilege”, or any other privilege to expect safety in one’s back yard. Believe me, your brand of pseudo-liberalism says much about you. The first thing that it says about you, is that you have not been harassed yet. And as for the complaint about the use of pseudonyms: What’s the problem? Do you want real names so you can “go after” the person? People have a right to anonymously express themselves, and that says NOTHING about their character.
MOOK: The fact that you are “doubling down” on the use of your term “detritus” to describe human beings in ANY condition or for ANY reason tells us all we need to know about you. Very sad.
To Ian Alterman: Until one of your darlings punches you in the face, as I have seen happen to another. Let’s face it , you are wonderful. You are also full of sheisse, and you love to position yourself, at least in your own mind, as morally superior. Last remark for the over-privileged, sheltered-life-living clown, named Ian Alterman, who clearly suffers from middle class guilt. If you know “all you need to know” about me then why is there no pity? I must be sick! Or maybe it’s you who have an illness. Stupid self-aggrandizing, bleeding heart blockhead, who puts himself on a moral pedestal. PLENTY of FAMILIES could have used the hotel rooms, but you just keep defending the ones they put in there, I await the day that one of your poor darlings cracks you in the face as he is aggressively panhandling. Shut up.
If “MOOK”, who prefers the undemanding cloak of anonymity, can’t state his positions in a civil way, he should leave the conversation. We do not need more insults, ad hominem slurs etc. Trump supplies more than enough of those.
Mook: Not sick, just misguided and angry. As for “guilt,” I am an ordained minister who does outreach to the homeless as part of my ministry. If you feel that is from “guilt,” you are welcome to believe that, though it is entirely incorrect.
as for being “punched in the face,” thankfully that has not happened, though I have been spit on, shoved and threatened several times; it comes with the ministry, and I don’t worry about it.
As for moral superiority,” I don’t have to “position” myself that way; YOU make it all too easy to BE so. (And I don’t feel any “guilt” about saying that.)
If you are so upset about what you are seeing, why do you stay here? Why not move? Frankly, I would rather have 10 mildly aggressive homeless people than ONE of you.
But that’s just me.
R. Wayne Parsons: Any guess on who he DOES support? 😉
Wow, I live and work on the upper west side for the last 27 years and this is by far the worst it has ever been and if you can’t admit that and see something has to be done than you are lying to yourself. Our government is failing us and you are all pointing fingers at each other and calling names. Making political jabs and an angry minister and an angry mook. Stop being distracted by the infighting and we should all be pressuring our elected officials to do something. Make the streets safer and find suitable housing for the homeless. These hotel rooms are a short term solution at best, not to mention these hotel owners are making a fortune off of us the taxpayer who is footing the bill for all this.
Wow, I live and work on the upper west side for the last 27 years and this is by far the worst it has ever been and if you can’t admit that and see something has to be done than you are lying to yourself. Our government is failing us and you are all pointing fingers at each other and calling names. Making political jabs and an angry minister and an angry mook. Stop being distracted by the infighting and we should all be pressuring our elected officials to do something. Make the streets safer and find suitable housing for the homeless. These hotel rooms are a short term solution at best, not to mention these hotel owners are making a fortune off of us the taxpayer who is footing the bill for all this.
Gus: I have lived on the UWS for 55 years, and this is FAR from the worst I have seen it. That said, it IS worse than it was 5 years ago, but not by much. There have always been street homeless (including aggressive ones), and even encampments, as well as the fact that, despite all the inaccurate information out there, crime, as a general matter, is down from 5 years ago.
What we have is a perfect storm of things, but people are only looking at ONE, and blaming everything on that. The hotel homeless situation is a temporary matter, but has exacerbated an issue that had been growing prior to it. The issues with the NYPD were caused by the mayor, who partially de-funded, and largely de-fanged, it from doing its job – hardly the fault of the homeless.
Ultimately, the homeless are being scapegoated. Yes, their presence – both prior to Covid and now with the addition of the “hotel homeless” – has casued many quality of life issues. But they are not responsible for everything – as many people seem to be suggesting.
As for the hotels “making a fortune off taxpayers<" that is wildly inaccurate. First, the money comes from FEMA, and while our federal taxes do pay for FEMA, our federal taxes pay for almost EVERYTHING, so singling this out (particularly given it comparatively low cost) is unfair. And the hotels usually charge up to $400/night for a room, for which they are now getting $175//night – hardly a fortune.
Please stop making claims that have no basis in fact. It only serves to confuse, and to undermine your own stated goals.
Ian Alterman: A point, and then I am done with you. What does being an ordained minister have to do with anything? Do not tell me, I already know: It is yet another attempt at placing yourself on some kind of moral high-ground.
MOOK: My mention of my ministry was simply in response to your accusation that I do what I do out of “middle class guilt.” I do what I do out of love and compassion as both a human and a minister. Sadly, love and compassion do not seem to be things you know or understand very much about.
And I will bet dollar to dime that you are not “done with me,” because you cannot help yourself, and will respond to this comment as well. LOL.
I don’t agree with a single thing Mook has said but Ian you come off as a real Pompous ass.
Larry: I am sorry you feel that way. People speak (or should speak) from what they know: their actual knowledge and life experience. I have been an UWSer for over 55 years, and have been active in the community for 45 of those years. I have been on CB7, I was president of the 20th Precinct Community Council, sat on several Community Advisory Boards, spent 12 yeas working with the street homeless and two decades working on the issue of homelessness. And that’s just a start.
So I speak from that knowledge and experience. If that sounds “pompous,” I’m not sure what to say. But I hardly feel I have to apologize for it.