The homeless encampment rapidly spreading across twelve blocks along Manhattan’s West Side is a warning to New Yorkers in every borough: Under Mayor Zohran Mamdani, this city has no interest in protecting you, your business or your property.
The stretch of real estate from the Intrepid Museum to the Javits Center attracts tourists year-round, a boon to nearby stores and restaurants — but not if visitors have to step over human waste, navigate around half-conscious drug addicts and hold their breath against the stench.
“If a mom (moms usually plan the trips) sees the stories and photos near the Intrepid, they will go elsewhere,” warned Cristyne Lategano, New York City’s former tourism czar.
“Tourism is a choice, not a requirement.”
Yet when Mamdani was asked this week what he’ll do about the growing eyesore, he waved away such worries.
Not a word about the impact on working people, families and property owners.
But their concerns are real: Homelessness turns a city street into a petri dish, encouraging communicable diseases like hepatitis A and tuberculosis to fester.
They spread illnesses like typhus, a bacterial infection spread by lice and fleas that California Gov. Gavin Newsom has labeled “medieval.”
Bartonella quintana, a bacterial infection carried by lice that can cause heart failure in humans — common in the trenches of World War I and thought to have disappeared — is also popping up in homeless sites.
“Homeless encampments are infectious disease time bombs,” according to Louisiana coroner Dwight L. McKenna.
Tuberculosis prevalence in New York City is already double the national average. Who needs more?
Encampments also mean crime, victimizing both the homeless and anyone nearby.
A study in Portland, Ore., found that crime within one block of an encampment is nearly triple the citywide average.
But it’s the tourist hit that should make Mamdani sit up and take notice, said George Lence, an NYC tourism expert with Nicholas & Lence Communications.
The city and state stand to lose $7.5 billion in tourism tax revenue from this debacle, Lence warned — money “the mayor desperately needs to fulfill his campaign promises.”
In Los Angeles, where leftist pols have allowed encampments to blanket iconic neighborhoods and landmarks, international tourism has plummeted.
New York’s landmarks are next.
But Mamdani cleaves to the ideology of the Democratic Socialists of America, which opposes common-sense measures like clearing encampments.
Your rights, your health and the value of your home or your business are not legitimate concerns, according to the DSA.
And Mamdani has a City Council majority on his side.
Carl Wilson, the Democratic council member representing Manhattan’s West Side, admitted the encampments in his district “threaten public health, undermine public safety, hurt our small businesses.”
But he stopped short of saying they must be swept immediately, suggesting the “root causes” of homelessness have not been addressed.
Council Republicans, a small minority, recognize encampments as a signal of widespread city deterioration to come.
“You can call 311. You can call 911. Your business can suffer. The sidewalk can be blocked,” said Staten Island Councilman Frank Morano. “But the city may simply decide it doesn’t have the will to enforce basic standards of public order.
“That’s a dangerous erosion of the social contract between New Yorkers and their government.”
Raw opportunism is also to blame: The homelessness industrial complex is raking in money so long as the homelessness problem grows.
“Sheter providers are paid to operate shelters. Outreach organizations are paid to conduct outreach. Contractors are paid to manage facilities,” Morano said — but no one is rewarded when a homeless person becomes self-sufficient.
New Yorkers have two options: Move — or vote for political leaders who will put public safety and order first.
Florida bans municipalities from allowing public sleeping or unauthorized camping.
“Florida will not allow homeless encampments to intrude on its citizens or undermine their quality of life like we see in New York and California,” Gov. Ron DeSantis said.
At the other extreme, some blue states are legitimating sleeping in the rough, public health and safety be damned.
Connecticut passed a law this year barring towns from closing down encampments. Crazy.
But even some deep-blue localities have turned away from such madness.
San Francisco did it: Newly elected Mayor Daniel Lurie’s homelessness program, “Breaking the Cycle,” sweeps encampments, rather than tolerating them, and puts most of the homeless into addiction and mental-health programs as a condition for housing.
San Franciscans finally wrested control from the homelessness-industrial complex and the far-left loonies, and they’re saving their city.
New Yorkers should start preparing now to oust these enemies of public order in their next election.
Betsy McCaughey is a former lieutenant governor of New York.
