Residents flee - don't plan on returning... A mad rush for the exits as New York City goes down the tubes https://nypost.com/2020/08/11/a-mad-rush-for-the-exits-as-new-york-city-goes-down-the-tubes/ It’s not just a few Upper West Siders who are fleeing New York: Moving companies say they’re swamped with calls from residents looking to ditch the city — even though the COVID crisis has waned. One likely reason: The virus was but the last straw; New Yorkers are fed up with the shootings and lootings, homelessness on the streets, sub-par online schools, sky-high taxes and the sheer obliviousness of pols like Mayor Bill de Blasio and Gov. Andrew Cuomo. On Sunday, The Post highlighted families who’ve given up on the Upper West Side — now teeming with junkies, the homeless, convicts and others — and are headed for greener pastures outside Gotham. Meanwhile, Fox Business reports that moving companies are seeing a continuing surge in citywide business that began soon after the COVID outbreak. And while many of those fleeing may come from Manhattan, the trend is surely not confined to the Upper West Side. It’s been “insanely busy,” Roadway Moving president Ross Sapir told Fox. Indeed, he says this has been the busiest summer ever for the company. “For the last three months, we couldn’t keep up with demand.” Oz Moving says the number of relocations continues to rise at a “substantial rate.” It was booked to capacity earlier in the year than in any of the previous 27 years. United Van Lines, too, cites a whopping 95 percent spike, year over year, in interest in moving out of Manhattan between May and July, versus just 19 percent nationally. Sure, many of those who’ve headed out were merely trying to escape COVID, which socked the city in the spring. Some may even return; a reported spike in storage-space business is a sign they will. Yet the fact that the rush for the exits continues to grow, even as new coronavirus cases have plummeted, suggests other reasons. Like the crime wave: The number of shootings per day, for instance, has doubled since last year. Other crimes are up, too. City and state officials have fueled crime, setting inmates at jails and prisons free and handcuffing cops, and they refuse to do anything meaningful to roll it back. Prosecutors, too, are declining to prosecute. Judges are letting suspects walk. Last month, Bronx Criminal Court Judge Jeanine Johnson released an illegal-immigrant rape suspect, on no bail. Last year, she let a convicted killer and reputed gangbanger walk bail-free after a gun bust. Quality of life has plunged, as well. Even the owner of an Upper West Side hotel the city’s now using to house homeless derelicts has put his nearby mansion up for sale, as The Post reports Wednesday. Lousy schools and even worse online classes provide yet another reason for folks to skedaddle. Ditto for high taxes, which de Blasio — and fellow Democrats in the Legislature — are itching to raise even more. And remember, the Escape From New York actually began long before the pandemic: Data last year, based on the 2018 Census, showed that the metro area was tops in the nation in net population loss, with 277 people leaving, on average, every day — twice the rate in 2017. Take it all as a sad comment on the state of the city. And pray for a turnaround.
This will bankrupt the city': Nearly 20% of New York's hotels are being used to house 13,000 homeless people for more than $2 million-a-night 139 of New York City's 700 hotels are being used by the city to house homeless people who they removed from shelters to avoid COVID-19 outbreaks The Lucerne, Belnord and Belleclaire on the Upper West Side and the Rixby, SpringHill Suites, DoubleTree, Best Western and Hampton Inn in the Garment District are among them The city is refusing to release a full list of the hotels and they won't give details on how much it is costing A source close to the initiative previously said it was costing $175 per person, per night With 13,000 homeless people currently being looked after, the cost is more than $2million per night Residents on the Upper West Side are fleeing because, they say, it is bringing more crime to the area https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...hotels-used-house-13-000-homeless-people.html Nearly 20 percent of New York City's hotels are being used to shelter the homeless in a widely criticized initiative that some say will 'bankrupt' the city and drive its wealthy residents out for good. Since the start of the pandemic, 13,000 homeless people have been moved out of shelters and into hotels around the city. Currently, 139 of the city's 700-odd hotels are being used. De Blasio is paying the hotels $175 per person per night, according to sources who are familiar with the scheme, which puts the cost at more than $2million a night. The city is refusing to release a list of the hotels being used and the hotels themselves are also reluctant to identify themselves for fear that it may put off future guests. So far, nine have been identified. They are The Lucerne, Belnord and Belleclaire on the Upper West Side - where residents have fled in fear because of the escalating crime - and the Rixby, SpringHill Suites, DoubleTree, Best Western, Hilton Garden Inn, Hampton Inn in the Garment District. '(This) will eventually bankrupt the city. With more and more people fleeing the city because of the homeless problem and defunding the police where they don't feel safe, the city will not have the funds to sustain this. The mayor's office repeatedly refused to give details of the system last week, including which hotels are being used. They say though they will seek reimbursement for the cost from FEMA and claim it as an emergency expense. It's unclear if any other cities are operating similar programs. For the hotels, many of which were forced closed by the lockdown with a sudden stop to tourism, it is one of the only ways to make money. De Blasio said last week that it will carry on until there is a vaccine, which may be another six months from now, and that then he will be looking to buy buildings that he can turn into affordable housing. But for residents, it is another reason to leave. 'Once you place the homeless in hotels, you can't get them out. When you drop thousands of homeless in different communities in the city, you will see an uptick in crime and drug use on the streets. 'What the city should be doing is putting the homeless in the Javits Center where there are thousands of beds, have the federal government assist in building portable shelters and the federal government can also assist in reformatting the inside of the current shelters to make them safe,' Fischer said. Many of New York's wealthy residents fled months ago - taking their disposable income and their tax dollars with them - and there are fears they may never come back. THE HOTELS BEING USED The city is refusing to release a list of the 139 hotels being used. These are the establishments that have been identified so far; Upper West Side The Lucerne The Belnord The Belleclaire Garment District The Kixby SpringHill Suites DoubleTree Best Western Hampton Inn Hilton Garden Inn Crime is on the up but de Blasio has stripped the police force of $1billion in response to Black Lives Matter protests. Some retailers and restaurants have been forced to close permanently and those who are hanging on face continuously changing and difficult rules, like having to sell 'substantial' amounts of food to customers to avoid crowds gathering. Many of New York's wealthy residents fled months ago - taking their disposable income and their tax dollars with them - and there are fears they may never come back. Crime is on the up but de Blasio has stripped the police force of $1billion in response to Black Lives Matter protests. Some retailers and restaurants have been forced to close permanently and those who are hanging on face continuously changing and difficult rules, like having to sell 'substantial' amounts of food to customers to avoid crowds gathering. On Friday, after wealthy residents on the Upper West Side took to social media in their droves to complain about homeless people from three of the hotels terrorizing their streets with urinating, loitering and drug-taking, de Blasio said the system was not permanent but would likely continue until there is a vaccine - something that is still months away. 'The goal here continues to be to deal with the short term which, let's say is six months-ish, while we're dealing with this crisis until people are vaccinated. 'Once we get out of that, we're going to move out of hotels and go back into the shelter system. We're going to constantly try to reduce the number of people in shelters. 'We are going to have an opportunity here to be creative and get people into other, better housing,' he said. He was asked if the city would consider turning the hotels into permanent housing and answered vaguely: 'There are buildings we control already and that's where we're looking to, or want to control or purchase, where we're looking to do permanent affordable housing.' A spokesman for the mayor's office later insisted that the hotels would not become permanent shelters but they refused to disclose which types of buildings he was talking about 'out of privacy concerns'. They said the city would be asking for reimbursement from the federal government for the money spent on placing the homeless in hotels because it was an 'emergency' expense. The city is also refusing to release the list of the 139 hotels where the homeless are currently being cared for. On the Upper West Side, remaining residents are now taking to social media to share photographs of people lying in the street and being antisocial. A Facebook group, in which residents have shared pictures of men urinating, masturbating and laying sprawled out on sidewalks near the hotels, has been set up and there are other complaints on Twitter. 'Our community is terrified, angry and frightened,' one organizer of the 1,700 member group, Dr. Megan Martin, told The Post. The homeless were moved from dorm-style accommodation around the city to the hotels so that they can be housed one or two to a room in order to protect them from Covid-19 more effectively, officials have said. Department of Homeless Services (DHS) Commissioner Steven Banks said last week: 'In order to defuse that ticking time bomb, we implemented a massive emergency relocation of human beings from those congregate shelters throughout the city, more than 10,000 in about eight weeks.
Owner of NYC homeless hotel says there are ‘no problems’ — as he sells his nearby mansion https://nypost.com/2020/08/11/nyc-hotel-turned-homeless-shelter-owner-insists-no-problems/ The owner of the Upper West Side’s Lucerne hotel insists that there are “no problems” at the joint, now housing hundreds of homeless including recovering drug addicts — even as he’s put his own area mansion up for sale since the new neighbors moved in. But at least three apparent residents suffered medical episodes on the block Tuesday — two of them in the span of just 20 minutes — adding to residents’ growing complaints of brazen drug use, broad-daylight masturbation and public urination since the move-in at the Lucerne and two other area hotels. But owner Sam Domb insisted to The Post in an exclusive phone interview prior to the day’s episodes that all is well. “We have no problems at the Lucerne,” he said. At first, Domb claimed he was “forced” to welcome the homeless into the hotel at West 79th Street and Amsterdam Avenue, part of the city’s effort to empty packed congregate shelters to stem the spread of the coronavirus. “The contract was from FEMA,” he said, referring to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which is picking up 75 percent of the program’s costs in a split with the city. “I didn’t have a choice.” But by the abrupt end of the interview, Domb conceded that he had a say in the matter — which he would use to terminate the arrangement when the contract expires in October. “I will not renew,” he said, before suddenly hanging up the phone. Domb’s remarks came as The Post learned that on Aug. 4 — just over a week after the homeless moved into the Lucerne — Domb put his West 81st Street mansion on the market for $12.9 million. The six-bedroom, six-bathroom spot near Riverside Drive dates to 1898 and features views of the Hudson, a garden and an 18-person dining room, according to a listing with Leslie J. Garfield. Domb previously listed the 8,200-square-foot sprawl for $16 million in 2017, but is trying again at a time when many of his fellow well-heeled Upper West Siders are pulling up stakes, citing the tanking quality of life. “This was not well thought out,” said Dr. Sejal Shah of the city’s dropping hundreds of homeless people into the neighborhood without warning to the community. Shah, who lives in the neighborhood, says she treats homeless men with drug addictions and wants them to get the help they need, but that dropping them en masse in hotels in residential areas doesn’t benefit anyone. “I take care of these people, but at the end of the day, they shouldn’t be here,” she said. “It isn’t safe.” Shah, 44, said that she and her husband aren’t looking to leave, but that they will switch to home-schooling their kids to minimize their exposure to the new arrivals. “We want to stay at the school, but safety is a concern,” she said. “There was just a woman stabbed at Broadway and 72nd Street in broad daylight, and men [are] masturbating in public,” she said referring to the noon-time stabbing of a woman in a subway station last Thursday. “My office is at 75th and Central Park West and it doesn’t feel safe to walk. I don’t want to expose my kids or have to explain it.” She would have had plenty to explain on Tuesday morning. In the span of just 20 minutes, there were two medical emergencies on the Lucerne’s block. At around 10:30 a.m., a Lucerne shelter resident got into a spat with a street-corner coffee vendor and attempted to yank him through the window of his cart. The spooked clerk told a Post reporter who witnessed the incident that the man appeared high and flipped out over an issue with the toasted muffins he ordered. “He order and throw on the floor and grab my hand and pull me,” the vendor said. “It’s getting bad, out of control here.” Just minutes later, the man clutched the corner of a building and began screaming incoherently. Five staffers ran from the building to try to render aid, as he yelled, “No! You can’t! No!” while slapping and punching the sidewalk. The man was ultimately loaded into an ambulance that arrived on the scene — joining another emergency vehicle already on the block treating a second man who’d suffered an apparent overdose at 10:15 a.m. During the chaos, three residents of the Lucerne screamed at a Post reporter documenting the scene. “People OD everywhere, go cover 125th Street,” one man yelled. “Get the f–k out of here!” Just hours after the second man was taken away by ambulance, he was back outside the Lucerne, palling around with a group of other men, one of them clutching a bag of what resembled marijuana. A third man required medical attention later Tuesday afternoon. Frank Scagluiso, an Upper West Sider and retired NYPD lieutenant who once worked in the department’s now-defunct Homeless Outreach Unit, has become fed up with the decline. “Last night, in front of the ice cream place on Amsterdam, families [were] sitting with little kids and this guy is screaming ‘Suck my d–k!’ while thrusting his hips at them,” Scagluiso recounted. “I’m across the street in front of my home and this guy comes by and yells at me to mind my f–king business!” Scagluiso, 56, said that he is no longer comfortable letting his 11-year-old daughter walk to school in the neighborhood he has called home for 18 years. “I’m fairly confident I can handle myself but what about these women and kids around here?” he asked. Curtis Sliwa and his Guardian Angels safety patrol have recently begun regular safety patrols in the neighborhood in an attempt to restore order and ease worried residents. “I’m happy to see them out here. At least they can call 911 if they see something. Better than nothing,” Scagluiso said. Though the former Finest questioned why there isn’t a stepped-up police presence. “I don’t understand why there is no foot patrol, no car here right now,” he said. “It’s that bad. “This is as bad as it has ever been.” City Hall did not respond to a request for comment.
People.finally waking up and realizing that instead of paying $3k a month for a shot hole small apartment and not being able to afford a car you can pay the same amount in a mortgage and have a huge house well outside the city with better schools and a car.
Forget his ridiculous far left politics, he is totally incompetent and has absolutely no business being a mayor. He is destroying lives of hard working people and getting people murdered with his “ easy on criminals “ agenda. He needs to be removed from office. The alternative is just as bad and even more incompetent. I think its the public advocate that would take his place.
The most amazing fact of all, is that stupid people keep voting year after year for the same stupid people that create the shithole in the first place. Then they are forced to move because of the people they voted for, and then KEEP VOTING for the same people again once they have moved to a new place. Talk to me about stupidly retarded.
They all inevitably move to Long Island and F up that once beautiful place to live. I'm sure there are still some good towns left, but from what I have heard it has been slowly going down hill.
More tone death "leadership" from New York City's mayor... De Blasio 'brushes off' NYC bakery manager who tells him, 'We're all hurting' https://www.theblaze.com/news/de-blasio-brushes-off-nyc-bakery New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio (D) was stopped by a bakery manager while walking through Chinatown on Wednesday, and video of the exchange indicates the mayor was anxious to leave the conversation over what he called "a difference of opinion." The manager explained that the lockdowns amid COVID-19 have killed businesses, saying, "We're all hurting," and arguing that people need "confidence." What are the details? Footage of the conversation was posted online by New York Post reporter Elizabeth Meryl Rosner, and shows the manager — later identified as Patrick Mock — telling de Blasio, "We've been taking a hit since January. We lost our Chinese New Year, our busiest day of the year of our community. The most festive holiday that we have. "Then COVID happened," he continued. "Now, we're all hurting so bad. What we need is people's confidence." Someone off camera pushed back against the manager's claims, and de Blasio turned to walk away while telling Mock, "It's just a difference of opinion, that's the bottom line." "We need help, we need more confidence," Mock pressed. Then de Blasio turned his back, saying, "That's very unfortunate." According to Meryl Rosner, Mock told her after the exchange, "[de Blasio] brushed me off." He added that the mayor "was only in Chinatown today for a 'photo op mission.'" A Twitter user identifying herself as a special education teacher in New York City reacted to the exchange, saying, "This is Patrick Mock of 46 Mott who gave out free meals to Chinatown residents from end of March to mid-June to make sure Chinatown was okay. @NYCMayor you turning your back on our Chinatown and to Patrick is not okay." Chinatown isn't the only part of New York City where businesses are hurting from the dramatic loss of foot traffic brought on by the strict coronavirus lockdowns. The New York Times reported Tuesday that retailers and restaurants are fleeing Manhattan, saying the high cost of doing business in the city along with a drastic drop in crowds makes staying there "unsustainable." Tourism has also come to a screeching halt in The Big Apple, contributing further to the loss of sales. But most of the people who do make the trek to the city are not allowed to roam: De Blasio has set up checkpoints at entrances to screen visitors and enforce the 14-day quarantine required of anyone coming from 35 states considered COVID-19 hot spots according to directives by New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D).
Bill de Blasio's financial leadership is bankrupting NYC... De Blasio: Threat of 22,000 layoffs is 'painfully real' The mayor has also asked state legislators for authority to borrow money to pay expenses, but Albany lawmakers have so far balked. https://www.politico.com/news/2020/08/12/de-blasio-threat-of-22-000-layoffs-is-painfully-real-394452 New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said the city is moving forward with “painfully real” plans to lay off 22,000 public workers on Oct. 1 unless another source of cash comes through. De Blasio confirmed the layoff plans are progressing after POLITICO first reported Tuesday that agencies have been ordered to come up with a list of employees being considered for job cuts by the end of next week. “The overwhelming cost of local government is personnel. Where we put our money is into the people who provide services to New Yorkers, whether they’re first responders, health care workers, sanitation workers, educators, you name it,” de Blasio told reporters Wednesday. “If you’re going to keep cutting and keep cutting, it has to at some point reach personnel. It’s just pure logic of budgets, and it’s very sad logic. I don’t like it one bit, and I want to avert this at all costs. So that 22,000 number is painfully real," he said. De Blasio has been hoping for a multi-billion dollar federal aid package to bail out the city after the coronavirus pandemic decimated its bottom line. But he acknowledged Wednesday that “appears to be dead now.” The mayor has also asked state legislators for authority to borrow money to pay expenses, but Albany lawmakers have so far balked. And the city is in talks with municipal labor unions on other cuts that could save $1 billion in labor costs, a number required by the city budget passed at the end of June. If none of those three options comes through, de Blasio said layoffs will happen — on a scale not seen since the 1970s fiscal crisis. “It’s a massive, painful number. It resembles the kind of things we had to do decades ago. But the job here is to try and avert it if we can,” he said. De Blasio’s budget team has reached out to high-ranking officials within city departments to instruct them on how much of their individual budgets must be slashed through shrinking the workforce, according to several people involved in the calls. They said the NYPD — whose nearly $6 billion budget was the source of tremendous controversy amid anti-police-brutality protests in recent months — is being given different orders and will not be asked to do layoffs, though they will have to cut in other areas. De Blasio did not deny that police would be spared from layoffs when asked about it Wednesday. “Every agency has to come back with a lot of savings, every single agency. There’s more than one way of doing it,” he said. “Every single agency will experience cuts, every single agency will have to save a lot of money, and generally it will take the form of layoffs.” The mayor also said he would oppose requiring NYPD officers to live in the five boroughs, as most other city workers are required to do, because of the high cost of housing. A slight majority of cops live outside the city. The NYPD’s civilian employees, however, are covered by residency requirements and 94 percent of them live in the five boroughs, according to data obtained by Streetsblog. “It’s really apples and oranges,” de Blasio said, adding he would support incentives for cops to live in the city but not a mandate. “To be a police officer in this city is a very high calling, and we are trying to find the very best talent from the city, from the surrounding area, and also a lot of people who want to, need to in their view, live in a place where they can afford more especially if they have a family.” The mayor has faced protests from his own staff in recent months over his handling of policing, and his comments did not sit well with some city workers, especially with the threat of layoffs looming. “The mayor, my boss, openly stating cops deserve greater comfort and quality of life than I do,” tweeted Aaron Ghitelman, who works in the city’s census office.