Free Republic

A string of moving trucks was spotted in Manhattan’s Upper West Side on Saturday, according to Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sliwa. “The mass evacuation of Upper West Siders from NYC is in full effect,” he told the New York Post. Sliwa blamed the city’s decision to house hundreds of homeless people in the neighborhood’s hotels for the exodus. “The moment I walked out on my block, near Central Park West, there was a moving truck. I asked where you going, and they said, ‘Virginia.’ They told me, ‘Curtis, first the pandemic hit us and now the quality of life is...

The guests arrived at the Lucerne Hotel, two blocks from Central Park, carrying their belongings, stepping off buses and filling the hotel’s empty rooms, which typically cost more than $200 a night. They were not tourists nor business travelers but residents of homeless shelters whom the city sent to the Lucerne to contain the spread of the coronavirus in the crowded shelter system. Over three days, 283 men moved into the hotel.

Forty-nine people were shot over the course of 72 hours in NYC between Thursday and Saturday, compared to eight shooting victims over the same time period last year, according to preliminary NYPD statistics sent to Gothamist Sunday morning. Eight people were murdered—at least six by gun violence—compared to three homicides last year over those three days. Those numbers do not yet reflect shootings on Sunday. But about 2 a.m. Sunday, a 47-year-old was fatally shot in the head near Parkside and Ocean Avenues in Brooklyn at the entrance of Prospect Park. The man was the ninth person in NYC murdered...

It’s not just a few Upper West Siders who are fleeing New York: Moving companies say they’re swamped with calls from residents looking to ditch the city — even though the COVID crisis has waned. One likely reason: The virus was but the last straw; New Yorkers are fed up with the shootings and lootings, homelessness on the streets, sub-par online schools, sky-high taxes and the sheer obliviousness of pols like Mayor Bill de Blasio and Gov. Andrew Cuomo. On Sunday, The Post highlighted families who’ve given up on the Upper West Side — now teeming with junkies, the homeless,...

Residents of Manhattan's Upper West Side are again raising safety concerns about the hundreds of homeless people being housed by the city in three luxury hotels there, after groups were spotted drinking and urinating, and records revealed that six convicted pedophiles appear to have been illegally housed near an elementary-school playground. On Friday evening, several rowdy groups were spotted openly drinking and carousing near 79th Street and Broadway, not far from three of the hotels where the city is housing homeless people for $175 per person each night. Among the hotels on the city's list are The Belleclaire, The Lucerne...

Start spreadin’ the news, they’re leavin’ today! However, the people packing their bags are not coming to New York City — they’re fleeing it for good. Due to increasingly squalid conditions on the Upper West Side, including two new homeless shelters packed with junkies and registered sex offenders, longtime dwellers are departing the Big Apple with no plans to ever return.

Under state law, a sex offender is allowed to live anywhere so long as the registry has their current address; only offenders who are still on parole are barred from living within 1,000 feet of a school. “No residency-restricted sex offenders are residing at these locations — and all individuals residing at these locations are permitted to reside there under state law,” a DHS spokesman said. “The City of New York places all clients in appropriate locations in accordance with state law — and we provide shelter to New Yorkers experiencing homelessness regardless of background. “This includes helping people rebuild...

Almost a million images of New York and its municipal operations have been made public for the first time on the internet. The city's Department of Records officially announced the debut of the photo database. Culled from the Municipal Archives collection of more than 2.2 million images going back to the mid-1800s, the 870,000 photographs feature all manner of city oversight --from stately ports and bridges to grisly gangland killings.