Friday, April 20, 2012

Claim: Crusties will be returning to Tompkins Square Park this spring and summer

As you may recall, last spring/summer, there were fewer travelers/crusties hanging out in Tompkins Square Park. Instead, the group took to Washington Square Park, Union Square, parts of Brooklyn... However, in The Villager this week, Scoopy hears from Black Ops-Bob that "the 'travelers' will be returning to Tompkins Square Park this season."

Previously on EV Grieve:
Crusty Row, now with a vacancy in Tompkins Square Park

From the Times:
In East Village, Harbingers of Spring Are Missing

[Photo last year by Melanie at East Village Corner]

32 comments:

glamma said...

Great news. I welcome these people. Plus, they repel yuppies.

Crazy Eddie said...

They are already here, I saw around 6 of them, hanging out in front of the NYU Palladium dorm around 10.30 PM last Sunday night. They had the usual uniforms but no dog. I guess they ate him, times are tough.

Kurt said...

"Plus, they repel yuppies."

Yes, they've been doing a great job. I notice the lack of "yuppies" every summer.

Anonymous said...

This is great news! I'm sure the ASPCA missed my weekly calls to them about all of the animal abuse I witnessed by these oh so upstanding members of society.

Look. I don't care if you want to waste your life sitting on some sidewalk, begging passersby for money and shooting up whatever drug you can get your hands on, that's your business. But leave the dogs out of it. Yuppies might be annoying, but I've never seen them kick their dogs, force their dogs to walk on a clearly broken leg, drag their dog away from defecating so that it has to do its business while being yanked along down the sidewalk. This isn't responsible dog ownership and you bet I'm going to report it whenever I see it.

Anonymous said...

yeah, great. i sure hope they don't abandon their benevolent annual traditions of relieving the local merchants of their stock and leaving uneaten food around the park so the rats don't go hungry.

Hey19 said...

@ Kurt
HA!

I assumed my boat shoes were repelling them, since the noted decline, but maybe they have built up a tolerance.

Kimberley said...

Anonymous 3:51pm. I applaud you.

Anonymous said...

Hate these guys. If you don't work in the area you don't understand the mess you have to deal with when they hang out around St. Mark's and the park. I've had to wipe up their fecal matter off bathroom walls and counters, deal with them nodding out and falling on other customers and generally take abuse and harassment on a daily basis. They're worse than yuppies, though just barely. Yuppies occasionally tip.

Anonymous said...

I love seeing them, classic East Village shit and if it keeps away one more little "foodie" young urban narcissist cuntling it would be a blessing!

Crazy Eddie said...

Yuppies are so 80’s, can we all please use the phrase that the Great Jeremiah Moss coined, Yunnie or Young Urban Narcissist. Please go to his blog, the link is found in this blog, for further info. Thanks

Uncle Waltie said...

I love the crusties.
They make me look good.

Anonymous said...

Travelers typically refers to the Roma people who live in RVs. These people aren't travelers.

I don't understand anyone who lives or works in the neighborhood who welcomes them. They don't deter yuppies in any way (It's not like they drive down Manhattan real estate prices), and they are a constant drain on local businesses.

Anonymous said...

Sorry, nothing charming about this summer tradition.


- East Villager

Anonymous said...

cant wait to start kicking these idiots off the stoop of my building while they shoot up

Anonymous said...

One day we'll miss them. No, they're not upstanding citizens, but they add diversity to a neighborhood that loses a little something every year.

Anonymous said...

I went to college with kids who did this every summer. They chilled out in NYC or Boston, listened to Black Flag, never took a shower or changed their clothes then went back to school in the fall. And they all came from upper middle class or wealthy families. They partied and had a great time. I was always kind of envious that I didn't have the time to do this. I had to continue working during breaks. Sure, they are dirty, but they are free, and they don't have to work! I remember some of them even "squatted" in an apartment in the East Village paid for by one guy's parents.

dmbream said...

"squatted"

...

"in an apartment in the East Village paid for by one guy's parents."

Uhm...I think you're doing it wrong.

Anonymous said...

I LOVE THEM> THEY ARE YOUNG BEAUTIFUL SOULS TRYINMG TO GET A HARD MESSAGE ACROSS TO A VERY DIFFICULT AUDIENCE.

Anonymous said...

there are always stooges planted amongst the good. Do not condemn the good..they are cool sweet spirits trying to be heard.

Anonymous said...

A rich kid knows a corrupt parent2

Jeremy said...

At anon 8:57 - what exactly is this hard message they are trying to get across?

Just passed a pack of them on 10th. Their dog is shivering from the rain/cold and hobbling from who knows what. These pieces of garbage don't add anything to the community, and there has never been a valid argument on this blog against that.

And no, they don't scare away the yuppies. If anything, they make the yuppies want to come here, so they can feel tough.

Anonymous said...

Someone above mention these kids listen to Black Flag. I listen to Black Flag. But I'm involved in the whole work-for-money-to-be-used-for-goods-and-sevices deal and I'm also into the whole hygiene thing and I also believe in not exploiting innocent dogs for panhandling purposes. So...you know...

As I recently saw on the Internet, a great recent photo of Henry Rollins and Ian Mackaye. They're both a little gray (where there is any hair). And the caption says "PUNK isn't dead: It just goes to bed at a more reasonable hour." When are these chumps on the street going to pick up that lesson?

Anonymous said...

Worst news I have read in a long time. IFHC!

Dave - everywhere said...

Sorry - I don't get the romantic vision whenever I see these folks. Panhandling, using the street or someone's stoop or garden or store front as their toilet isn't charming and doesn't give me pause to think about how they are "striking back against the man" etc. etc. Personal hygene, courtesy, responsibility are all big things in my book.

Anonymous said...

I think they may be moving farther east. I saw a few on side streets between B and C, and a few on Ave C, where I've never spotted them before.

glamma said...

Wow. It's amazing how much fear and hate you people have spewed in reaction to this group. I guess the idea of going against the system is really terrifying and threatening to you. Do you people spit on the homeless and kick them as you walk by? Do you have any compassion whatsoever for your fellow man or are you only interested in artisanal cupcakes?
Read their stories before you judge so highmindedly.
it's not just about spanging and doing drugs.

http://crustypunks.blogspot.com/

Crazy Eddie said...

This is my major beef about them which I am not alone as per other posts on this tread. Having a dog is a major personal (a true choice) commitment, a ten year run that goes from A to Z. Unlike the usual homeless who live on the street, these people wear uniforms and have dogs. What would you think of a homeless person who begged with an infant or a child? One would call child services immediately. The Crusties use their dogs as part of their begging routine. These animals look like and are abused. These people are not free spirits, they are A-holes.

Anonymous said...

You think they are messy..YOU ARE THE MESS
You think they stink..Your shit smells 2
afraid of them..they are more afraid of your actions than your little bodies/corpses..you adderrall ladeled entitled son of bicchchches

Snugglebunny said...

Can't decide who is more entitled, the crusties or the yunnies? Hey, kids, play time is over. 2nd generation Lower East Sider, born and raised, and you do nothing to challenge the mainstream by pissing in my doorway and nodding out in the park while your dog is panting to death and getting eaten by fleas. Go home to your parents in CT or whatever white suburban "hell" you came from, and go try to catch some authentic someplace else, k? If you haven't noticed, there is no culture here for you, no art scene, no music, no punk. It's all fro yo and heroin, and you can shove both up your asses in your way back to mom and dad in the burbs.

I HATE crusties, and no, I have no compassion for them bc they're not real people they're a mock up of what they think is cool or I treating or counter culture. I don't care about their stories. You wanna live alternatively, then go find a spot and homestead and farm, stop asking me for my change, stop harassing my sister on the street, stop abusing your dog, OK? Can't wait till they find someplace else to park their stinking car asses so normal people can sit in the park in PEACE.

Anonymous said...

Exterminate the entire herd. I prefer classics like cockroaches, pigeons, and rats.

Anonymous said...

I fought in the TSP riots of '88. These johnny-come-lately wannabes are just a collective of menacing panhandlers. Their scene could use a big batch of the ole Tango & Cash.

Anonymous said...

They're hypocrites. Supposedly rejecting society, but meanwhile leeching off society.

Please, reject society completely, and go away.