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The New York City migrant population is bursting at the seams and city officials say the “city is stretched to its breaking point,” a characterization most recently displayed by the hundreds of migrants sleeping outside of the Roosevelt Hotel (which has since become national news). In the midst of this discussion, Mayor Eric Adams is considering housing migrants in tents in Central Park and other green spaces.
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“There is no more room,” he told reporters on Monday, and this could be his temporary solution to the migrant problem.
He was expected to appear at a briefing on Wednesday at City Hall about the Asylum Seeker Response with Anne Williams-Isom, the Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services, but canceled that appearance shortly before the start time. The newly announced Asylum Seeker Application Help Center receiving 1,300 applications was something Williams-Isom touted to show they are responding to the issue. When asked specifically about the report on housing people in Central Park, she said “we are making the best decisions that we can given the information that we get,” before admitting that “right now everything is on the table.” Politico got a quote from New York City Emergency Management Commissioner Zach Iscol saying nearly the same thing: “nothing’s off the table.”
The mayor’s press secretary, Fabien Levy, would also not confirm nor deny the potential plans, while Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine said he was concerned about putting people in Central Park but acknowledged they are running out of traditional spaces.
A reporter for 1010 Wins managed to ask Adams about the Central Park issue as he was walking into an elevator, but he merely smiled and ignored the question.
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If this plan goes through, it wouldn’t be the first time Central Park is used as an emergency housing site as desperate New Yorkers built shacks on Central Park’s Great Lawn during the Great Depression. More recently, the Christian organization Samaritan’s Purse set up a field hospital there during the Covid-19 pandemic.
This has to be a literal joke. How do we fight this? There is nowhere left in this city to enjoy anything. More garbage everywhere and in the park no less. Those poor people who run the conservancy to make it such a beautiful place.
I doubt this could be done without it being a mess like the tent areas of unhoused people in SF, LA, and Portland.
That would be an absolutely horrible idea. Here’s a better one: whoever supports this plan should house at least 2 migrants in their own apartment.
Meanwhile my building has been warehousing empty rent stabilized apartments for years on the UWS. Three quarters of the building is empty!
Yup…there is no incentive for a landlord to rent out the units and have a life long tenant there at below market rate. They rather sit on it and lobby the law to change. I honestly don’t blame them.
With 1,000,000 people in those apartments, I don’t think this will turn out great. also why not just collect what you can? I wonder what is the average market stabilized/market rate percent is? Even if they could get 50% of market, still seems better than nothing.
The problem is, once someone is in those units, they will remain rent stabilized and people don’t give those up. The landlord is taking a short-term loss for a few years, hoping lobbyists can get the law changed. It is a long play. If you figure the average 2 bedroom in the UWS is renting for $5k+ on the free market and the landlord can only get $800 for it as rent stabilized, it isn’t worth it. They could make their money back and more quickly once it is rented for the market rate.
Get your facts straight, I live in a rent stabilized apartment for 20 years I pay about $100 less as the exact same apartment 2 floors down. I am on the 5th floor of a walk up which is usually lower rent the apartments on the lower floor. During covid, the exact same apartment on the 2nd floor rented for 300 LESS than what I am paying. None of those apartments are stabilized. People forget that during the Bloomberg years my rent was going up 6-7% every time my lease was renewed. There are only 2 or 3 apartments that might be way below market with people there 40+ years. Do you want to throw elderly people out of their apartments? Don’t let these landlords sob stories fool you. My landlord owns half of the upper west side and parts of Brooklyn and his wife has a full time driver. And yet still fixes NOTHING in the building even though 90+ % are at or even above market. It’s a myth that these landlords are going broke.
Not to mention if the landlord does renovations to the apartment they can raise the rent higher than the standard vacancy increase based on the amount/cost of said renos. Again don’t fall for uber rich landlord sob stories.
Thank you for this! Also in a stabilized unit for 13 years and same thing. During the pandemic, the market rate units fell below what we pay. A lot of misconceptions about stabilization.
This is a horrible idea. I understand the problem, but there is an entire country that could be used to help in this crisis. Where is the Governor, where is the President? The city residents and tax payers deserve to have green spaces to relax and renew. We deserve a livable city, just because the wealthy can escape to their country homes the rest of us can not. Between the over abundance of tourists and now this, we are literally being driven out of our beloved city…..and we are the ones that financially support upstate and most of the south. The ABUSE of New Yorkers needs to stop.
Another terrible “idea” from the people who NYers voted for. This crisis was created by Joe Biden. This will never be solved until he is out of office. Since NYers also voted for Joe Biden, I’m not sure you have any right to complain. None of this insanity should come as a surprise to you. If it does, then you clearly did not do any research on who you voted for.
To house migrants in an urban park is a terrible idea.
There is limited potable running water, too few bathrooms, no place to prepare food, at night people would be too vulnerable, and what would happen to them in hurricane season, and then, when cold weather comes?
There has to be some arrangement that combines getting asylum seekers prompt work authorization, with safe and humane interim living circumstances.
I didn’t realize that this wasn’t an issue with prior presidents.
Yes. 100%. This is the logical conclusion the Progressive agenda was visible years ago.
Jaleen, I’m guessing you cheered when Trump put migrants in cages and separated them from their infants and children. While tents to house migrants in Central Park is a poor idea for many reasons, you are misinformed in thinking that this is a new problem which started with President Biden. Maybe you aren’t aware that politicians like your homeboys DeSantis and Gov. Abbott send busloads of migrants to New York and are partially to blame for the overcrowding and current crisis.
What about all the vacant buildings on Governors Island?
There are thousands of rooms there that could be fixed up. Central Park is our sanctuary. It’s going to start getting cold soon. What will you do then? Move them in to the mall at Columbous Circle?
Meet with the President Biden. There must be other solutions.
What a mess!
Use the empty office space downtown and Midtown that’s not being used!!!!!
Including the empty hotels!!!
That’s ridiculous praying them out in tents in Central Park. There will be more clutter and garbage and crime at night everywhere..
Very unhealthy.
Get rid of Mayor Adams!
Washington doesn’t like him.
It has nothing to do with Mayor Adams, we in NYC have a law on the books from the ‘80’s that states we will provide safe shelter for anyone who needs it. The city is scrambling to live up to its values. This is an international crisis that will only increase. The REAL issue is that the state and the rest of the country also need to step up and aid in this situation and share in the burden.