Do something already!<\/p>\n
Mayor Zohran Mamdani\u2019s hands-off homeless policy is handcuffing New York\u2019s Finest, who are being forced to sit back while a putrid shantytown continues to grow<\/a> and grow on Manhattan\u2019s West Side.<\/p>\n And despite weeks of complaints, a seven-day clock to clear the lawless encampment just started ticking Tuesday \u2014 with Mamdani\u2019s new policy blocking the NYPD from cleaning out the lawless encampment until one week after city social workers and homeless advocates are sent in to sweet-talk vagrants who are shacking up along a 12-block stretch near the Intrepid Museum.<\/p>\n Mayor Zohran Mamdani has largely shrugged off complaints about the unsightly West Side shantytown. James Keivom for NY Post<\/p>\n A sleazy encampment has continued to expand in Manhattan in the shadow of the Intrepid Museum Lone Pine Press for NY Post<\/p>\n It isn\u2019t clear why the one-week window wasn\u2019t triggered earlier, according to sources, but locals said no city workers showed up at the site Tuesday until 3 p.m.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, experts warned that the site reminds them of the Big Apple\u2019s \u201cBad Ol\u2019 Days.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe mayor is too young to remember the eighties and early nineties and what a mess New York was,\u201d former NYPD Commissioner William Bratton told The Post. \u201cThose who don\u2019t know their history are doomed to repeat it. It all began with non-enforcement of quality-of-life offenses. <\/p>\n \u201cRemember the squeegee men at every entrance to the city?\u201d Bratton said. \u201cRemember the rampant street prostitution and graffiti? Remember the 8,000 open air drug selling locations? Remember the rampant subway fare evasion? I remember, and it\u2019s happening again.\u201d<\/p>\n Cops patrol the disheveled encampment but are barred from doing anything under Mayor Zohran Mamdani\u2019s policy. Lone Pine Press for NY Post<\/p>\n One vagrant taps into a utility pole to steal electricity at the illegal West Side encampment. Lone Pine Press for NY Post<\/p>\n The growing encampment resembles a shantytown with semi-permanent structures. Stephen Yang for NY Post<\/p>\n There\u2019s all manner of discarded trash along the block. Stephen Yang for NY Post<\/p>\n The Post blew the whistle<\/a> on the gritty encampment on Friday, but locals said the ratty tents and makeshift shelters have dotted the area for weeks, with panhandlers nagging tourists while sex workers, drug dealers and thieves ply their trades in broad daylight.<\/p>\n The brazen squatters even tapped into public utility poles<\/a> for electricity on Tuesday. <\/p>\n \u201cIn just half a year, Mayor Mamdani\u2019s policies have managed to turn the West Side into Skid Row,\u201d city Councilwoman Joann Ariola (R-Queens) told The Post Tuesday.<\/p>\n \u201cThe\u00a0administration is repeating the same ridiculous hands-off approach to the homeless that destroyed LA and San Francisco, and now we have a 12-block homeless campsite in Manhattan.<\/p>\n \u201cWay to go DSA,\u201d she added, referring to the Democratic Socialists of America, the lefty group that counts Mamdani as a member.<\/p>\n Mamdani wasted no time repealing former Mayor Eric Adams\u2019 policy that called for cops to take an aggressive stance to clear encampments and at-risk homeless folks off the streets.<\/p>\n