By: Rusty Brooks
The UWS continues to be the center of controversy between residents, city officials and the homeless, the battle this time took place in the area known as “billionaires row”, near Carnegie Hall.
The NY Post reported: A state appeals court last week overturned a ruling that the 150-person men’s shelter — planned for the former Park Savoy Hotel on West 58th Street — could go forward because the building was deemed to be safe.
A spokesman said the city was “disappointed” by the decision.
“Nevertheless, the city remains committed to opening this shelter to help these New Yorkers get back on their feet,” said the rep for city Law Department.
It is unknown what kind of residents were to be placed in the Park Savoy, however with what happened further uptown, residents have plenty to be concerned with.
The Lucerne, on 79th Street and Amsterdam, the Hotel Belleclaire, on 76th Street and Broadway, and the Belnord, on West 87th, were recently converted into homeless shelters, with nearly 300 vagrants between them. Among the residents are six pedophiles and 10 sex offenders in total, including convicted rapists and child molesters, NY Post reported.
Last week de Blasio announced the homeless would be removed from the UWS hotels, the time frame is unknown
NY Pot reported: The city hopes to put the shelter back-to-back with One57, the most expensive high-rise in the Big Apple and home to computer king Michael Dell’s $100 million condo.
An activist group contends the structure is unsafe — and shelter occupants would ruin the ritzy neighborhood.
“Considering the overwhelming evidence of a multitude of dangerous conditions in the building, we are confident that the trial court will find that this building must not be permitted to open,” said Rivkin Radler lawyer Jeremy Honig, who represents the West 58th Street Coalition.
TJV previously reported: A Facebook group, in which residents have shared pictures of men urinating, masturbating and laying sprawled out on sidewalks near the hotels, has been set up and there are other complaints on Twitter,” the Daily Mail reported.
“Our community is terrified, angry and frightened,” one organizer of the 1,700-member group, Dr. Megan Martin, told NY Post
The Daily Mail reported on de Blasio’s plan, which includes $175 a night per homeless person lodged in a hotel.
