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At the corner of Seventy-ninth Street and Amsterdam Avenue on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, Sunday strollers at Nice Matins restaurant sit and have brunch, complete with mimosas and French bistro food. They take the opportunity to enjoy the autumn sunshine before it gets too cold for the outdoor cafes.
A few steps down the street, in front of the same rust-brown stately building, other tables are set up. Here coffee is served and clothes and books are distributed. In one corner there are a lot of pumpkins lined up; soon it’s halloween.
The distance from the brunch restaurant is short, but those who gather at these tables are the opposite of the guests seated at Nice Matin.
Nestled between Central Park and the Hudson River, the Upper West Side has the Lincoln Center cultural district with opera and ballet in the south, and the prestigious Columbia University in the north. Most of them here are liberal, well-educated and white.
During the pandemic, they have new neighbors.
In most cases, the Hotel Lucerne offers “luxury accommodation in a listed building from 1904”. But since no one traveled to New York, no one checked into the hotel. Instead, New York City rented rooms here and at three other hotels on the Upper West Side. The city wanted to accommodate the homeless to slow the spread of the coronavirus. Up to 283 people, mostly men, moved to Lucerne. Another 500 people were transferred to three other hotels in the area.
But since the homeless were bussed here and moved, there have been strong protests. It is posted on Facebook groups about people who use drugs and relieve themselves on the street, and who are sex offenders among immigrants.
– People are worried about going out now. The fear is palpable, Gary Kokalari told the New York Times this summer.
Trump’s outburst against the mayor
Larry Thomas, 59, lost his partner and his job when the pandemic dragged on. He worked as a dishwasher and caretaker on a party boat that traveled through Manhattan. Boat work always slows down during winters when it’s too cold for boat parties, and since he was “way below par” he got rid of that work. He had an outburst earlier this year, when he was involved in making masks and other protective gear for hospital staff. But that job didn’t last long. He has lived in Lucerne since July.
– There was a lot of hostility and hatred towards us. That’s right, when there are some wealthy people in an area, then they don’t want to have color around the knot. It felt like they didn’t want to open their hearts. It affects you. I also. I don’t want to be in a place where they don’t accept me; to hell with that, I felt. But after a while it got better, we became a little community in the community. They began to realize that it wasn’t too bad.
President Donald Trump has taken the opportunity to savagely take on both Mayor Bill de Blasio and New York Governor Andrew Cuomo for how they have handled the entire crown crisis.
“The governor and the mayor are destroying the city!” he tweeted for example, in September.
Even conservative TV profiles like Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity on Fox News, President Trump’s favorite channel, have been tough on New York.
– A spectacular and epic failure. This is a preview of what America will look like from Joe Biden. Coumo and de Blasio should be ashamed. New York is falling apart, Sean Hannity said in an article that, among other things, dealt with the situation of the homeless. The cartoon was the nightmare of New York City, the nightmare of New York.
And yes, during the spring and summer, it was hard not to react to the number of homeless people in the area. Many residents with out-of-town summer homes left Manhattan, and those who remained ducked at home to avoid risk. Few people, other than the homeless, appeared on the streets.
“Don’t take it out on us”
Larry Thomas in Lucerne says he understands that people were concerned when the homeless moved into the hotel, but that has been disproportionately inflated.
– Sure, there are people with problems here. Addiction problems, mental problems. And there are many who live on the street. But how can you pull everyone on a comb and give in to everyone as in one place, like Lucerne?
– But I understand. This was not anchored in the area, it just sank. But that’s not our fault! It was the mayor’s decision. So don’t take it out on us here. Not like us wants stay in a hotel. I want to live in an apartment and be able to do the same things as everyone who has their own apartments.
– When we speak now, do I see myself as a rapist, a thief, as someone who is drugged all day? But this is how they paint you.
The fight for the homeless
In early October, riots broke out on the outskirts of Lucerne when homeless support groups met with a group advocating for “safe streets” and thus getting rid of the homeless.
According to the New York Post, no area struggled harder to get rid of the newcomers than the Upper West Side. The West Side Community Organization lobbied Bill de Blasio about “the chaos that has reached the level of crisis.”
Jazz saxophonist Kit McClure, 69, lives in the area and is one of those who supports the homeless. She is outside Lucernce with a sign that reads “Taxes on the rich – shelter for the homeless.” She agrees it was troublesome this summer, when she also avoided going out when she was at her worst.
– But it is not the men who live here in Lucerne who have caused problems. There are other homeless people living on the streets. But they should also get help.
Among those who support the homeless, Trump’s rhetoric is seen as a reason for the hectic mood:
– This absurd, ill-considered. It is dehumanizing for all of us. It is a vicious and malicious system, it is Trumpism. It’s really unpleasant, says Kit McClure.
“Now the rich face the poor”
But the protests have had an effect.
The homeless are now being evicted from Lucernce and relocated to the Wall Street financial district. Strong protests have already started to appear, even there. A lawsuit was filed to stop the move, but a judge rejected it.
Starting today, Monday, the hotel will be emptied. Larry Thomas says he doesn’t know exactly what day he will move out.
Although he grew up on the Lower East Side, not far from the hotel’s new hostel, he’s tired of getting around. This will be his sixth move since he entered “the system”, as he puts it. Social services promise him an apartment in the Bronx, but he doesn’t know what will happen to him either.
– I’m numb. I’m tired of being sent like this. This is the system. All I want is to get back on my feet. I can do it. Let me do it! Stop stopping everything with the bureaucracy.
But he has something in common with Donald Trump and Sean Hannity. Larry Thomas is also not a fan of Mayor Bill de Blasio.
– He’s a hypocrite. He bent. He said one thing first. But then there was some pressure from them with the money, and then they sent the rest of us out onto the streets. Politicians cannot be trusted. It has further divided the city: now the rich face the poor. It’s sad. But hopefully this will show, after all the protests, for there to be some change.
And the last word is not said in battle. Since Larry Thomas and a couple of other hotel residents protested Sunday against a judge’s move, the measure has been postponed, writes the New York Post.
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