Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sliwa was quoted in a recent NY Post article stating how he saw four moving trucks on the Upper West Side this Saturday. The author’s title connects this sighting to the “exodus of Manhattan’s troubled Upper West Side.” The individuals Sliwa spoke with told him they were moving out of state.
“The mass evacuation of Upper West Siders from NYC is in full effect,” Sliwa told the Post. The Guardian Angels founder attributes this trend to the city’s decision to house homeless people in temporary hotel-shelters. Sliwa also anecdotally stated that nine out of the twelve apartments in his building are vacant.
While four trucks is not a huge sample study, New York City’s vacancy rate has been very high in recent months. But it’s worth noting that the end of August has always been a busy time for people moving in and out of apartments. And the pandemic has widely been cited as the most common factor driving people out.
The high vacancy trend was also apparent in May and June, while COVID-19 was in full force and well before the influx of new homeless residents arrived at the Lucerne on July 27. This arrival sparked an increased divide between Upper West Siders and their positions on where these homeless individuals should be placed.
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According to a market report by Douglas Elliman, over 10,000 Manhattan rentals were listed in June, a year over year increase of 85%.
The report also attributes the trend to shelter-in-place restrictions and real estate brokerage industry regulations, further adding that “July was the third straight month to see a record vacancy in fourteen years of recording.”
NYC’s vacancy rate hit a record high of 3.67% in July.
De Blasio needs to leave ASAP. And NYs, next year, please don’t vote Democrat; and if you do, DON’T vote Maya Wiley, because we’ll be in the same mess as now (she’s a De Blasio flunkie).
I’ll be happy just to have a safer neighborhood and the afflicted men getting the medical and psychological treatment they need
Why would this web site give any credence to anything Curtis says?
Agreed, @Ron. His assumptions and hyperbole seems pretty self-serving – and not good for the UWS, no matter which side of the “hotel homeless” one is on.
Curtis is a champ. DeBlasio and his comrades are the problem. Reminds me of the Dinkins years until Rudy & Mike came in and cleaned things up.
I am sure many are leaving because of the decline of living standards – which has been going on since the beginning of DeBlasio’s Administration. BUT, I think the dumping of 730 homeless people on the UWS was just the straw that broke the camel’s back. No doubt many people with school age children are also leaving because of the indecisive way New York City is handling the school situation. There’s just no competent city leadership.
Vote Curtis for mayor and Deblaseo for dog catcher . Bye Bye Bill you should move to Venezuela they need a new idiot to run the place you will feel right at home . Thanks for destroying the UWS . What about the children who live here . They are scared to walk the streets . Do something for once and help the homeless move them out . The answer is not a hotel room and a flat screen TV . What a disgrace!!!
How much more do we need to see, to experience, to get it through everybody’s head that quality of life in the city has been in decline since this clown of a mayor was elected.
By every measure everywhere youlook, he has been a disaster, a failure.
To compound his awful results we have the joke that is his wife, wasting our money as if she was also elected….some $2 million a year in her personal staff (friends) on top of countless millions in her programs that have produced nothing and the money can’t even be accounted for.
If you don’t believe any of this you either don’t live here, or you do and you are one of the morons who voted for this confused joke of a man not once but twice.
More proof how hard it is to build something great and good and so easy to squander and destroy. He took us down so far so quickly.
How are we better for this bozo having been our mayor?
Yes…I am fed up.
As an UWS resident since the 60’s, I find these attacks on the Mayor, his wife, and praise for Sliwa, Mastro, Giuliani as persuasive as the lies of the RNC last week.
SEC
” … since the 60’s . . .”
Apparently you and Joe Biden have at least one thing in common.
Interesting that at this point Blasio has even one remaining supporter.
Oh well.
I’m sure there’s still a kid over age 12 someplace who believes in Santa Claus.
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I did not praise Sliwa or Giulani….you must see and hear everything thru BLINDERS.
Bit this bozo mayor and his wife are the worst thing to happen to this not too long ago THRIVING safe and clean city.
Hit me back later after you get the latest numbers on how many more New Yorkers were shot, or even worse, killed, this wekend.
And most of them…black lives.
Or maybe take a ride on the 7 line and see how many smashed windows on the train you can count.
Or go visit the mayor down in front of Trump Tower where he is most likely repainting …. black lives matter….in the street…and say hello to the police we are paying around the clock to protect it.
And if he is not there…check his gym in Brooklyn!
Wake up!
You might as well quote Sliwa on a cure for cancer. He’s a racist windbag. Do something about homelessness, then you won’t have to deal with the homeless.
How is Curtis a racist? Many of the Guardian Angels I’ve seen patrolling are non-white. Pretty sure they know Curtis better than you do.
Curtis Sliwa cares about one thing: Curtis Sliwa. I have “known” him and the GAs for almost 40 years. (I actually had reason to interact with them back in the 80s.)
From the beginning, he was a shameless self-promoter who never met a camera or microphone he didn’t like. And it was always about HIM. Everything he does – all his claimed “altruism” – is tempered by self-aggrandizement. He is, in as blatant a way as possible, a self-aggrandizing PR whore.
As for the GAs, they are not without their controversies. First, although the NYPD remained cautiously optimistic about them when they first appeared on the scene, the GAs very quickly began doing things to piss them off, including interfering in NYPD business, bad-mouthing the NYPD (at a time when this was NOT as common as it has become), and even getting into trouble. In one incident, a GA was arrested for being “overzealous” in his actions. GAs have no actual legal or other authority. They are not permitted to harass, roust or even touch anyone. Yet they have violated that many, many times. I witnessed it myself recently on the UWS.
Mr. Sliwa did not show up on the UWS until he had a group of 5,000 people who think like him. And since he’s running for mayor, this is not coincidence. He is “using” the UWS group as a platform for his campaign, and sees them more as potential voters than as people who need his services. In fact, he has been breaking one quality of life law in order to “assist” in attempting to prevent other quality of life laws. Not a good start. Again, Curtis Sliwa cares about Curits Sliwa. Period.
The people in that group may well not care that he is doing this. That, of course, is their prerogative. However, they at least should know what is happening, and that Mr. Sliwa rarely does anything without ulterior motives and hidden agendas.
As someone else here brilliantly said, “You might as well quote Sliwa on a cure for cancer.”
We will be successful in having them removed.
In the end, you will all thank us.
You’re Welcome.
This site, this city, and the people in it, would do well, to live their own ‘stated and expressed’ political beliefs of inclusion, respect, and tolerance for others. This should include other points of view, differences of opinion, agreed or not. Far too many feel there is only one way to think anymore. It’s expressed in the comments above, in the city’s conversation about safety, and in our national politics.
Review the definitions of tolerance and respect for others, which UWS supposedly prides itself on. This does not mean listening only to those who agree with you. nor shouting down, or dismissing, dissenting opinion. All deserve, and should have, opportunity to express themselves and their opinions here, without being denigrated, demeaned, silenced, or ‘cancelled’. To those above that don’t feel this site should entertain opinion of those they don’t like, or those above and elsewhere that want to assign a negative, hateful trait to anyone that expresses a differing opinion, please check your judgement, and your own hate. Anyone that lives here has right to opinion and be heard.
Dear Considerate Neighbor,
I couldn’t agree more.
The only speech that the 1st Amendment protects, is that which you do not agree with.
Joseph:
Simply a word on “free speech.” Free speech is not adjudicable between private parties. It is sole a compact between the government and people. In other words, it is simply not legally possible for me to violate your right of free speech, no matter what I say or do, and the same goes the other way. This also applies to media: if this site decided to remove your comment, or even remove you, solely due to your political or other views, you would have no legal recourse. The ONLY time you would have legal recourse is if the government itself – or any of its related arms – attempted to stifle your speech, whether verbal or written.
So while I may not support it, people can say or do anything they want on a platform like this to TRY to “shut people down” or “shut people up.” The only recourse is to simply keep posting, since there is nothing anyone can do about it.
Sliwa needs to get out of the UWS. We do not want his vigilantism here. I have lived in this neighborhood for 40 years, no plans to leave.
Harriet: “I’ll be happy just to have a safer neighborhood and the afflicted men getting the medical and psychological treatment they need.”
Why do you keep ignoring the accurate information I have been providing?
The men and women in the hotel are being provided ALL of the medical and psychological services they need. In addition to an on-site nurse at each of the hotels, all of the providers at the hotels do several wellness check a day, including taking temperatures. As well, Covid tests are available on demand at two of the sites. If anyone is even suspected of having symptoms, they are removed to a quarantine facility. (E.g., there was one positive result at the Lucerne, and that person was transferred out the same day.) Two of the facilities have either on-site or off-site psychiatrists or psychiatric nurses. Two have medical vans that appear twice or three times per week. There are case workers on-site at all three hotels, helping with IDs, benefits, housing, jobs, etc.
Why do you keep insisting that they are not getting the services they need? The truth is quite the opposite.
Can someone please educate me on the following issue that I do not understand?
The homeless people at these hotels who have clearly fallen on hard times and need help should be permitted to remain until more permanent housing and/or a job becomes available for them. I would disagree with those who want them kicked out.
However, what about those homeless who have a mental condition that are urinating/defecating on the streets, screaming at children and women (and in some instances chasing them down the street), etc. Clearly those folks are not receiving the help they need or they are not being properly supervised. What can be done to help them while at the same time keep the community (including the other homeless people who do not fall into this category) from being harmed or harassed by those who are suffering from mental issues?
Mary: “The homeless people at these hotels who have clearly fallen on hard times and need help should be permitted to remain until more permanent housing and/or a job becomes available for them. I would disagree with those who want them kicked out.”
I agree with this.
“However, what about those homeless who have a mental condition that are urinating/defecating on the streets, screaming at children and women (and in some instances chasing them down the street), etc. Clearly those folks are not receiving the help they need or they are not being properly supervised. What can be done to help them while at the same time keep the community (including the other homeless people who do not fall into this category) from being harmed or harassed by those who are suffering from mental issues?”
The “street homeless” is a much more complicated issue. There ARE outreach groups, including (in many areas of Manhattan) Goddard-Riverside Homeless Outreach. They know most of the homeless in our area. If you see someone you think needs help, you can always call them, and they will come out. (212-873-6600: if they do not answer, leave a detailed message (approximate age, gender, exact location, any identifying marks, etc.).
The NYPD used to have a fabulous Homeless Outreach Unit (HOU); however, they were a victim of the partial defunding of the NYPD.
Other than that, there is very little that can be done. And keep in mind that it is not legal to “force” someone to accept help; if Goddard (or others) go out to offer assistance and the person refuses, they cannot do anything, but continue to visit that person and try to convince them to accept assistance.
Finally, you might want o know the statistics show that homeless people, including mentally ill homeless people, are far more likely to be a VICTIM of crime or violence than they are to perpetrate it.
But your concern is very admirable, and I, too, wish there was more that could be done.
Hi Ian,
Thank you very much for your response and the information. This is very helpful and much appreciated.
Kind regards,
Mary
What they need is jewelry. Watches, rings, bracelets, anything you can spare. Jewelry makes one feel better about themselves and gives one a sense of worth. Not to mention, it can really snazz-up an outfit.
If you find yourself with spare jewelry, especially 24k and 14k gold, please consider offering it to our homeless neighbors (even if it’s silver). You may make someone’s day. it’s a small gesture that can boost the moral of these individuals. Every little bit helps.
My wife and I moved out of the Upper West Side last week and I can assure you it had nothing to do with these shelters for the homeless.