It was business as usual on Manhattan’s frenzied West Side on Monday, with brawls breaking out in the streets in broad daylight and drug addicts sleeping on concrete fences within walking distance of tourists.
The day after The Washington Post reported on a “humanitarian crisis” plaguing the Gateway District, a man writhed in agony outside a Dave & Buster’s, a shirtless tramp wearing a Burger King crown urinated outside the Yankees clubhouse, and two tramps got into a fistfight in the bike lane on Eighth Avenue.
Another homeless man, wearing Spider-Man underwear, dozed off on a concrete barrier that served as a makeshift bed, while tourists watched in amazement as a man smoked a cocaine pipe outside an AMC Cinema.
“There are too many homeless people, too many mentally ill people, too many drug users,” Jay Hunt, a Hell’s Kitchen resident and native New Yorker, told The Washington Post on Monday.
“[Former Mayor Bill] “This started when Mayor de Blasio turned a blind eye to fare evasion, and now the police won’t even stop a drug-addled, mentally unstable man on the street,” said Hunt, 64. “The whole area around Times Square is a disgrace.”
The dire situation comes as New York City’s homeless and mentally ill find safe haven in the glitzy atmosphere of Times Square and the surrounding areas.
A Midtown Holiday Inn employee said the hotel had tried turning on outside sprinklers to scare away vagrants, but they only got an opportunity to take a shower.
While overall crime is down across New York City, the NYPD’s Midtown North Precinct, which includes the northern end of Times Square, the Theater District and Hell’s Kitchen, saw a 71% increase in felonies in the week ending July 28, compared to the same week in 2023, according to the statistics.
So far this year, felony crimes are up 10% compared to the same time last year.
“The homelessness and mental illness that plague our city [Mayor Eric] “It’s Mr. Adams’ top priority,” said Leah Brandt, a Brooklyn resident who was in Times Square to watch the movie on Monday.
“You see the good and the bad of New York around here. You see the bright lights of theater, but you also see a lot of homelessness and mental illness,” Brandt said. “It’s not safe for anybody here. You really need eyes in the back of your head.”
In a recent letter to Mayor Eric Adams, Ward 3 City Councilman Eric Bottcher pleaded with City Hall for help.
“We have people who have been arrested 50, 100 times without any meaningful intervention,” Bottcher told The Post. At what point is it going to happen that someone does something to break this cycle?
He called the current situation a “humanitarian crisis.”
