{"id":52983,"date":"2020-08-24T23:04:00","date_gmt":"2020-08-24T20:04:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/de-blasios-homeless-hotels-plague-struggling-restaurateurs\/"},"modified":"2020-08-24T23:04:00","modified_gmt":"2020-08-24T20:04:00","slug":"de-blasios-homeless-hotels-plague-struggling-restaurateurs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/de-blasios-homeless-hotels-plague-struggling-restaurateurs\/","title":{"rendered":"#De Blasio\u2019s homeless hotels plague struggling restaurateurs"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#De Blasio\u2019s homeless hotels plague struggling restaurateurs<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

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August 24, 2020 |<\/span> 4:04pm <\/p>\n

\n Enlarge Image<\/p>\n

\"Homeless<\/img>
\n Homeless people seen on the Upper West Side.<\/span>
\n Kevin C. Downs<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

\n Upper West Side restaurateurs struggling to survive COVID say the city did them no favor by moving hundreds of homeless men dealing with drug addiction into the neighborhood just as outdoor dining was getting underway.<\/p>\n

Now, in addition to making sure customers and staff are happ<\/a>y and safe, eatery owners also have to worry about diners being accosted or harassed as they eat. It\u2019s driving business away and the city has done little to help, they say.<\/p>\n

Marjanne Motamedi recalled the night a homeless man walked up to a display table at her eatery, Cibo e Vino, grabbed a bottle of wine and threatened to smash it into a diner\u2019s face. A restaurant worker intervened, and the homeless man left with the bottle, Motamedi said.<\/p>\n

On another night, a homeless man walked by the restaurant\u2019s diners swearing obscenities and spitting, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve had a few unpleasant situations, where homeless people will verbally attack and even try to spit at our customers and there\u2019s nothing you can do,\u201d Motamedi said of the Italian eatery she co-owns on Broadway and 89th Street. \u201cWe tried to reason with them but there is no point as they are either not present mentally or on something, and the police say it\u2019s out of their jurisdiction,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Like other restaurateurs interviewed by Side Dish, Motamedi made a point of saying that she is sympathetic to the homeless population and that Cibo e Vino often donates food to them. But she and others also fear that their only hope for surviving the pandemic \u2014 outdoor dining \u00a0\u2014 has been put at risk by the city\u2019s decision to move men from homeless shelters known for catering to substance abusers to three tony UWS hotels owned by two supporters of Mayor de Blasio.<\/p>\n

The three hotels at issue \u2014 the Lucerne, the Belleclaire and the Bellnord \u2014 are contracted to house the homeless until the end of October, which also happens to be when the city\u2019s program to lend restaurants the city\u2019s street and sidewalk space ends.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was not well thought out,\u201d said a community board member who asked not to be identified. \u201cThe city should have placed families who could benefit from the schools here, not homeless men who are bringing their drug dealers into the neighborhood. We are sympathetic to the displaced population but they are not getting the services they need and they are hurting businesses that are already struggling to survive.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOur guests tell us that they can\u2019t eat in the cafe anymore,\u201d lamented Jeremy Wladis of his Brad\u2019s Burgers & BBQ on 85th and Columbus Ave., where a homeless man camped out across the street \u201cthreatens, swears and harasses every human who walks by.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wladis \u2014 president of The Restaurant Group, which has ten restaurants including Good Enough to Eat, Harvest Kitchen and Brad\u2019s Burgers \u2014 \u00a0tried to fix the problem by adding planters, he said. When that failed to drown out the obscenities, he installed three 40-inch flat screen TVs to keep his customers \u201cdistracted,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are limitations on what you can do,\u201d he said. \u201cYou can still hear people scream.\u201d<\/p>\n

Larry Bellone, managing partner and owner of Mediterranean eateries Tessa and Asset, says he now finds hypodermic needles in the planters he installed to beautify his restaurants and separate them from the cars and the streets.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe new homeless people from the hotels are more aggressive. They aren\u2019t just harassing diners, they are also threatening them. It is discomforting.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI live in the neighborhood and I can feel the difference,\u201d Bellone said. \u00a0\u201cIn just a few short weeks, there are more homeless people and garbage has piled up on the streets. It feels more uncomfortable and less safe. I think that people are more on edge,\u201d Bellone said.<\/p>\n

Linda Alexander, a publicist and longtime resident of the community who also serves on the community board, said she has been harassed by homeless men who weren\u2019t wearing masks while she was dining, which also put her at greater risk for COVID. \u201cIt was uncomfortable. I didn\u2019t feel safe,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

But in typical New York fashion, other residents say they are OK with the change of scenery \u2014\u00a0 for now.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt feels very Parisienne,\u201d said one resident of the new outdoor dining scene \u2014 despite a recent incident in which a homeless person knocked a cell phone out of her friend\u2019s hand for no apparent reason.\n <\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“#De Blasio\u2019s homeless hotels plague struggling restaurateurs” August 24, 2020 | 4:04pm Enlarge Image Homeless people seen on the Upper West Side. Kevin C. Downs Upper West Side restaurateurs struggling to survive COVID say the city did them no favor by moving hundreds of homeless men dealing with drug addiction into the neighborhood just as…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":52984,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[57990],"class_list":["post-52983","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","tag-de-blasios-homeless-hotels-plague-struggling-restaurateurs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52983","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52983"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52983\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52984"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52983"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52983"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52983"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}