Well, they gave it a good shot.
Literally, in some cases.
Wth needles.
Not so long ago, New York leadership had an idea: There were a bunch of people living on the streets instead of in homes, so someone should give homes to them.
Hence, in the name of public health amid a pandemic, the city freely welcomed its homeless into luxury hotels.
How could that go wrong?
As I covered last week, someone figured it out:
At 79th Street’s Lucerne — home of the 300 addicts — resident Angel Ortiz assured [the New York Post], “[W]hatever drug you can imagine is done there.”
Another resident chimed in:
“They shoot up, sniff up, crack, (synthetic marijuana) K2, everything.”
A third pointed out, “You got drunks — you got violent drunks.”
…
Across the street, a restaurant owner complained that homeless drunken arguments are chasing away his customers.
“Screaming, forget about it. It’s like a jungle. They get drunk and they start fighting.”
Nanny Michele McDowall recalled an offer she received while strolling with a toddler:
“You want to buy crack?”
Call it a crack in the veneer; it’s the end of an era: Bill de Blasio’s decided it’s checkout time.
Therefore, as conveyed by Politico, NYC will start transferring the homeless and hotel’d back into shelters.
Speaking to reporters, the mayor appeared to blame — or credit — improving COVID conditions as the catalyst:
“As the health situation has continued to improve, we’re going to start the process of figuring out where we can get homeless individuals back into safe shelter facilities, and reduce the reliance on hotels. Hotels [are] certainly not where we want to be in general, and we’re going to start that process immediately.”
Bill may be reticent to reveal some of the sordid sidewalk shenanigans, but Politico knows what can happen when people hang out:
Hell’s Kitchen residents told the Daily News they’ve been accosted by homeless men and witnessed public masturbation and urination on the sidewalks.
Previously, Bill had pushed to keep ’em swankily surrounded ’til there was a vaccine:
“It’s a matter of months until there’s a vaccine and the crisis is over — then we’re going to bring people back into the shelter system out of those hotels.”
Now he’s reversing gears — on what he was “forced” to do:
“What happened, again, was a crisis that forced us to have to use hotels. We’re now starting the process of reducing the reliance on hotels.”
I have a feeling the program’ll be hailed a success no matter what. That’s a rule a politics — never say you were wrong.
Plus, the mayor’s known for having original takes.
Case in point, as he relayed not long ago:
“We now have fewer people in our jails than any time since WWII, and we are safer for it and better for it.”
So empty the jails and fill the hotels for free; safety attained.
Except for the public masturbation and 49 people shot in 72 hours.
They’ve got their own thing going on in New York.
Hopefully, they’ll figure things out — before the Big Apple turns into a lemon.
-ALEX
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