Many experts and city leaders believe that a key part of New York City’s economic recovery from the pandemic will be the return of office workers and tourists to Manhattan. As officials seek to ensure this recovery, they increasingly seek to remove the homeless from the streets of the borough.
Sometimes, city workers clean up dozens of camps. Advocates say these raids use aggressive strategies to disrupt the lives of the homeless, and these strategies prevent people from seeking or accepting help from the city.
"They tried to make life on the streets so miserable that people would enter shelters, but it was a cruel and ineffective method," said Josh Dee, founder of Human.nyc, a policy organization focused on street vagrants. En (Josh Dean) said.
[Since late May, sanitation workers, police, and outreach personnel have been patrolling Manhattan every day to demolish camps. ]
The cleanup went against the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s recommendation that if private rooms cannot be provided for people sleeping on the street, the city should “allow people who do not have shelters or camps to stay where they are.”
Nonetheless, the city increased the number of cleanups during the pandemic. In 2020, from March 1 to December 12, the city conducted 1,077 cleanups, compared with 543 in the same period in 2019, according to the data released by the city in response to the Freedom of Information Law requirements of the Urban Safety Net project. Judicial Center.
This year, between January and March 23 - even before the city stepped up its efforts in May - there were 873 sweeps, compared with 94 sweeps during the same period in 2019.
Last week, Mayor Bill de Blasio stated in a HOT 97 radio interview that the city needs to “find a better way” to deal with the problem of street vagrants. But he also said that in the past eight years, "intensive outreach" in New York City has helped about 160,000 homeless New Yorkers find permanent housing.
“If it takes 10, 20, 100 times to convince someone to come in, we will now send the outreach staff back to the same person,” he said.
The city’s Homeless Services Department stated that it will only clean up in cases of “persons who resist service” and is committed to helping people find their homes.
The mayor’s spokesperson, Bill Neidhardt, said in a statement: “The name of this game is compassionate and consistent outreach.” “The ultimate goal is always permanent housing.”
Have questions for the Democratic New York City mayoral candidate Eric Adams (Eric Adams)? Our city hall director Emma G. Fitzsimmons will interview him at an online event and would like to share your questions in the form of a video. Click here to submit a copy.
A 30-year-old man was accused of shooting another man near the Brooklyn Quality Hotel this month and surrendering to the police. [Daily News]
After the tricycle was knocked down by a car in Midtown Manhattan, a tricycle driver was killed and three passengers were injured. [New York Post]
A proposed development in Crown Heights was opposed by residents and environmental advocates, who said it would cast a shadow on the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. [WCBS]
The 6.5-acre bluestone labyrinth rises from a quarry in Saugerties, New York. It is one of the miracles of the Hudson River Valley. This is a masterpiece of art by a self-taught sculptor who spent most of his life. Thousands of stones created it, with infinite patience and no cement.
The name Opus 40 evokes the gritty spirit of its creator, Harvey Fite, and it is a monument to the highest level of hard work and dedication that took most of the 37 years to build.
But now, some people say that this exciting victory has been tainted by the ordinary: the nearly 400-foot-long chain fence surrounds one of its edges, destroying its beauty, and is the product of a long-term smoldering dispute.
"One person built this whole thing-it's incredible," said Alva L. Wicks, Jr., the town's building inspector. "Sorry, this fence. Why can't you solve some problems?"
Participants in the dispute include the Fite family, the non-profit organization that runs Opus 40, and surrounding neighbors. Although the quarrel is full of unproven theories and unsolicited accusations, it boils down to a quarrel about the house Harvey Fett built adjacent to his masterpiece.
The house is still owned by Fite’s 81-year-old stepson Tad Richards and his wife Pat. It is run by their 20-year-old grandson, who rents out online, allowing guests to camp nearby and use it as a gathering place.
Neighbors complained about these incidents and Airbnb guests, they said they had been arguing until wee hours. The small non-profit organization that runs the website believes that these activities constitute security risks and legal responsibilities.
Entering the fence in May, the non-profit organization erected a fence to separate Fite's genius (which they own) from Fite's house (which they don't have).
Recently, on a sunny Saturday afternoon, when I was on the N train from Manhattan to Queens, a lady in a brightly printed vest skirt and big round glasses came out from our subway door at Lexington Avenue Station and said: "Alfredo!"
I laughed. Among the dozen passengers nearby, I was the only one who seemed to have heard and heard this joke.
A few minutes later, when the train surfaced under the East River and drove into Queens Square, the man got up and left the train.
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Post time: Aug-04-2021