In his current column in The Villager, Scoopy reports that City Councilmember Rosie Mendez is planning to crack down on the crusties. A report that Mendez's office recently issued to Community Board 2 last week said that she is aware of the complaints about the seasonal transient population, and is working with outreach teams to help get them off the street.
Per the report, as quoted by Scoopy: "The challenge in removing them is that people have the right to refuse services and to live in the street. Rosie is researching the laws that protect such transients with the intent of tightening up loopholes, so that in the future, these individuals will not have the opportunity to take over the sidewalks in the East Village and Lower East Side and thereby reduce the quality of life of residents."
We asked Mendez's copy of the report, but did not receive any response.
37 comments:
Right, this is where her focus should be. Rosie Mendez voted for the NYU expansion plan and helped to push the SPURA plan through. She has not staged any press conferences in front of our buildings that have been taken over. The only one i could think of is that building with the market rate tenants. Other than that nothing. nothing for Cabrini, nothing for the hotel Toshi, nothing for the Ben Shaoull buildings, Icon..... She is indebted to the gentrifiers in the area. You know who they are. They are situated on the community board, building owners, controllers of the park, the arts, the businesses.............
In terms of staging press conferences, do i think that they work? Absolutely. The more negative press that is out there regarding landlords and other gentrifiers the better the chance of saving a little piece of the EV. I believe that the tremendous effort from everyone regarding the BMW/Guggenheim Lab, the activism, writing, protests and media coverage is what shut the whole thing down at the original location in Germany. No doubt they were prepared.
Yup, 9:55. I don't love the crusties and their irresponsible animal-parenting ways, but they are basically harmless.
Call me when Rosie Mendez starts giving a fuck about Ben Shaoul. Until then she is a useless, soulless, worthless excuse for a "representative."
Its truly sad that some people seem to care more about transitory weekend partiers than actual transients who make the decision to sleep on our streets. Some of us have children and anyone who consciously makes the decision of sleeping on the street is capable of any other number of anti-social behaviors. At least the bridge and tunnelers are gone by morning.
This is f*cking bullshit.
Leave the crusties alone.
POLICE THE RICH and save the poor.
There is something called the criminalization of poverty that is running rampant in our country.
It destroys civil liberties.
Really Rosie???
I once thought you were one of the good guys.
You greenlighted NYU and SPURA, you're in the developer's pockets, and now this.
Send the right message, not the wrong one.
Do the right things for the future of New York.
What's needed is for some animal organization to yearly round up the poor dogs these filthy wastes drag around with them and maltreat, clean the poor beasts up and find them good homes. (Clarification - talking about the dogs, not the crusties here. They made their choices of their own free will.)
The crusties are by no means "harmless". They need to be taken off our streets as I have seen them commit countless crimes and severely impact the lives of local residents. I am sorry if you think these people are harmless you obviously have had very little interactions with them and have only observed them from far away and for brief amounts of time. They have no place to be roaming the streets and they should be cracked down on.
10:16AM, "but they are basically harmless"
In the sense that no one is getting murdered, that is true. Assaults on vendors and rampant theft (particularly bicycle theft) are a different matter. Heroin isn't free.
If our elected officials including Rosie Mendez don't do something to fight the predatory developers like Shaoul, Icon, the Crowman's, Tower Brokerage and the nightlife activists who they are in bed with, then we will all be crusties sleeping on the streets, the park and sidewalks. Frankly the crusties take up less space on the sidewalk than the crowds who stand in front of Westville, Momofuko, Drop-off Service, the Yuca Bar and Solas. Has anyone seen the shit that happens outside of Solas, please! C'mon Rosie keep your focus on things that really matter in this community, like the developers, nightlife operators and gentrifiers and leave the homeless kids alone.
OK so they are NOT "basically harmless" - what about the larger point, that Rosie Mendez finally acts and this is what she chooses to do something about? If you think crusties pose anywhere near the threat that Shaoul does to the neighborhood, you are delusional.
Pumpkin Patch, you are a pedant. Your comments are always so smug. Ever since you showed up here it's been one lecture after another.
Rosie Mendez is an opportunist. A lifetime politician because not enough people can get rid of her. Where's the camera??? Wait I suddenly care??? I am only worried that Bloomberg's friend Quinn will be elected. What a joke. Maybe the Villager was attempting Onion-like humor?
Lucie Gato
I think the crusties should be arrested for animal abuse. They are far from harmless, they abuse animals on a daily basis. Do what you want to yourself but don't drag innocent animals into your wasted life. I hate them.
Most of the crusties are homeless by choice and are not harmless. I've personally seen crustie thefts in action and crustie street fights. And, yes, the crustie dog situation is out of control - like that crustie dog who got shot by the cops a month or two ago!
I could care less about the Crusties that show up every year in the spring and leave in the fall - but I do second the comment about the homeless animals they own. They place their own dogs and surrounding bystanders in constant dangerous situations.
**It made me sick and extremely disappointed this summer when a dog got shot by a cop in the middle of the day on 14th street because its Crusty owner was having a seizure / passed out on the sidewalk.
They are nasty. I pay over $3k a month in rent alone (zip it, I know it's a lot), I've lived here for over a decade, I have roots here. This is my goddamn home, my community and I would be relieved to not have to rub elbows with these creeps all the time. Our cost of living is so freaking high here, we deserve better. I don't want homeless drifters hanging around my home. If that makes me elitist then so be it. At least I have standards.
12:28PM, I'm not sure why you think that trying to remain generally positive is a negative trait. I do have a number of negative personal traits, but smugness is not one of them (I don't even own an iPad).
I don't understand why opposing Rosie Mendez's (and her pals) direction for the EV is mutually exclusive with trying to work to discourage other unwanted elements from the community. Or are crusties now a protected class, while "fratty douches" have not yet been assigned that classification?
Do people post in Ben Shaoul entries that Shaoul isn't a problem because of increasingly aggressive groups of crusties? There is more than one issue facing the EV.
I applaud Mendez and agree completely with Pumpkin Patch. I live on East 6th where the "kids" sleep and live in large numbers.
A week ago I witnessed a knife attack (crustie on crustie) and it was shocking - a slashed arm with blood pouring into the street. Also, if you want to see the innocence of the kids, check them out in action around 2 or 3 a.m., when they shoot up, puke on themselves and beat their hapless dogs and their women. Did I leave out anything? - yes, plenty.
If that type of thing doesn't reduce the quality of your life then it must be extremely debased already.
Or it is that this is just not in your direct view, and on an intellectual level?
Do both of these issues have to be mutually exclusive? Just asking. And I think we all know on whose side Christine Quinn, the chosen one, will be on. I am rather depressed regarding the future of NYC politics. I see parallels to “Via Zapata” and “Bananas”.
The "Crusties" aren't harmless. They litter constantly. Like, an exorbitant amount. They beg people endlessly. And unlike other homeless people, if you tell them "Sorry, I don't have any change on me" they get hostile.
The dog situation is a whole other story. It's really so sad.
And I don't like how when they sleep on the streets they camouflage themselves as garbage, so when I walk past unsuspecting, their rustiling can frighten me. This must absolutely terrify the yuppies in the neighborhood!
Oh FFS. I shouldn't have said "harmless," OK? It is true that my individual encounters with crusties (which I have had for well over 15 years now, 2:18) have been mostly benign, but I believe all of you when you report that they are a nuisance at best and dangerous at worst. I do not believe that crusties should be a "protected class" -- that is ridiculous (and WTF with the "fratty douche" non sequitur?). "Harmless" was an uncareful comment, I admit. Let it go.
Pumpkin Patch, it's not what you say; it's how you say it. You always come off as so superior. But please pat yourself on the back some more and call it "positive."
My point stands that Rosie Mendez does fuck-all about the biggest problems facing the EV.
I witnessed a crusty take a shit on the hood of some poor old women's car for no reason. Then a different occasion so a 10 person plus crusty brawl where they were using weapons in the middle of the park while kids were playing near by. I have seen crusties try and steal a handful of bikes on my block. I have seen crusties literally take a trash can dump it all over the street for no reason. I have seen them beat and starve their innocent dogs. I have seen them having sex in broad day light in the middle of the park. I have seen one of them smash all the flowers in a section of the park that the poor women works so hard to keep and look nice. And the list goes on and on.
DIE CRUSTY SCUM
Crusties, crusties, crusties! Lots of arguing about crusties, but strangely everyone seems to agree about Rosie! It seems as though La Rosie has lost any credibility she once had. How sad for us!
"The law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich and the poor alike to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread."
Anatole France in Le Lys Rouge
Please remove these obnoxious vagrants. The sidewalks around Cooper Union's new monstrous building becomes a shanty-town at night. 6th Street is a festival of fighting and urinating on cars on doorsteps. The mail and package delivery people say they can no longer leave the carts unattended for a moment on 6th street because these "harmless" people will steal the packages. It's a disgrace. This is still a neighborhood, and still a community, and it deserves better treatment than this. It's one thing to be homeless and down-and-out and that deserves compassion, but to behave as these do deserves no sympathy.
- East Villager
Anytime one of the folks referred to as crusties ask me for change, I am happy to oblige. I once saw one girl grab some food off the plate of someone eating brunch at the nasty illegal sidewalk cafe of the Yuca Bar. The yunnie was appalled and I laughed my a** off, and thought if this is what it takes for the yuppies and yunnies to go somewhere else then so be it. Thus my reason for handing over some change. Hey if having some of these folks join us in the summer helps keep some of the yuppies and yunnies out of the hood, I'm all for it.
Mendez would be smart to plant her ass on the corner of Second Avenue and 9th Street any random Friday or Saturday night before she rages war on the Crusties. The 20-something drunks that make the sidewalks and streets IMPASSIBLE are a bigger cause for concern. That and the lack of ANY Police presence.
the crusties think of themselves as a special class of people that are superior and hip.
said with disdain and hostile superirity the other day on second avenue where they were camped out: "this neighborhood doesn't get us"
and their poor animals, their treatment is another measure of their lack of humanity.
http://www.thememagazine.com/blog/q-sakamakis-tomkins-square/
As another longtime resident of Sixth street I'm also sick of the crusties and the large amounts of trash, vomit, urine and feces they constantly leave behind. Multiple times we have caught them sleeping in our foyer and blocking residents from entering and leaving the building.
At least the "Bridge and Tunnel" crew leaves after a few hours and only comes a few days a week.
At least in the "bad old days" rents were lower. But let's face it, rents aren't getting any lower and yunnies aren't going anywhere. So what we have now is a neighborhood that isn't only expensive, its expensive, unclean and unsafe.
"anyone who consciously makes the decision of sleeping on the street is capable of any other number of anti-social behaviors."
This sums up the issue in a nutshell. To all of those defending crusties, think about it. You live in an apartment don't you? You sleep indoors don't you? If you suddenly lost your apartment you would probably find another indoor place to crash while you sorted yourself out wouldn't you?
I'm pretty sure you wouldn't decide to sleep in building wells, covered in your own urine, vomit, and body funk shooting up heroin with dirty needles, harassing total strangers and committing animal abuse.
Think about it.
As a streetkid who doesnt do heroin or shit on cars, i think im gonna round up the crusties and the union square kids as well as the old neighborhood activists and pay the CB a visit. It is not us making life miserable for the yuppies and hipsters but them moving into the neighborhood and driving the rents to 3k a month so that we are forced to the street. -ellis
Wow, so much crusty hate! Trying to find "loopholes" to harass the homeless is a pretty low blow. Being homeless should not be a crime and should not subject you to endless harassment. While there are crusty assholes, we have laws against things like knife fights, shooting up heroin (especially in the street), stealing shit, etc. Maybe what we need is better enforcement of existing laws, not more blanket harassment of the homeless.
Being homeless is a horrible thing, no doubt. Winos, and "bums" (God, can anyone say that?) have lived on the streets forever and we get used to the men urinating into gallon jugs and generally laying down where they fall. I used to call 311 (no kidding, I did that) and not only does the city not want to deal with it, the homeless don't want the services either.
Crusty hate. I hate to see people who are young and can work, who are living off the system they despise by begging from the working schmucks. At Cooper and Seventh they have dislodged an electrical plate on a light pole and use it for shaving heads, and yes, recharging electrical devices like IPhones. Some have IPhones.
And I defy you to name any neighborhood in Manhattan where this infestation is permitted other than the EV. Can you imagine crusties at Rock Center, or on Park or living in front of Bloomingdales?
This is the new skid row. With new Bowery bums. Just younger and with IPhones.
in addition to iphones don't forget they are regular shoppers/thiefs at Whole Foods.
@Anon 10:51: Despite the widely reported electrocution of both a woman and a dog due to leakage of current from cables running to streetlamps, Con Edison still does not properly maintain the poles. Covers are often open and missing and they stay that way for months if not longer. Although Con Ed claims to be "working on it" by installing more durable cables and painting the streetlamps with nonconducting paint, all that is pointless if the electrical box is completely exposed.
www.nytimes.com/2006/03/04/nyregion/04voltage.html
Complain that Con Ed still will not protect the electrical cabling of the streetlamps properly instead of complaining that someone who realized that there's no trick to exposing the guts of the lamp used it to briefly connect a phone charger.
The winter is coming soon and with it the heavy salting of the pavement and road, providing execellent electrical conductivity for stray voltage.
For you who focus so much hate on a group less fortunate than you is patheric and small, nice karma you have there. This tiny group of people is not causing any real problems to the east village. Yes you are elitist scum to focus your energies on "eradicatng" the poor and homeless rather than HELPING THEM, i bet you just LOVED IT when bloomberg propsed starving all the homeless people to do death by making it illegal to donate food to shelters and centers, sorry but it is you who sound like the real pigs in this dialogue.
The real problems in our neighborhood are all aptly stated above and yeah you'll all be crusties pretty soon if you don;t wake up and smell the freakin stumptown!!!
No one likes what Ben Shaoul and kind are doing around here, but the crusties are MOST CERTAINLY NOT HARMLESS. On no less than three occasions have I or my wife been physically threatened as we simply passed by. This has happened to other friends of ours as well. So fuck them and this 'less fortunate' idea. They lost any sympathy or empathy I had for them the minute they crossed the line and became abusive.
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