{"id":299301,"date":"2026-07-18T04:54:14","date_gmt":"2026-07-18T04:54:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/299301\/"},"modified":"2026-07-18T04:54:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-18T04:54:14","slug":"javits-center-convention-goers-blame-lefty-leaders-for-blighted-nyc-shantytown-its-horrible","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/299301\/","title":{"rendered":"Javits Center convention-goers blame lefty leaders for blighted NYC shantytown: ‘It’s horrible’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Javits Center convention-goers Friday said the lawless shantytown<\/a> marring Manhattan\u2019s West Side makes them feel \u201cuneasy\u201d \u2014 and blamed the sprawling skid-row blight on do-nothing lefty leaders.<\/p>\n

The shocking homeless encampment \u2014 which sits roughly five blocks from the center, near 45th Street and 12th Avenue<\/a> \u2014 made attendees of the \u201cFanatics Fest\u201d sports convention feel \u201clike you\u2019re watching over your back,\u201d said Candace Martino, who was in town for the event.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt almost comes down to a Democratic state versus Republican state, because I lived in both. And I can tell you, it\u2019s a day and night difference,\u201d said Martino, 33, who lives in Florida and was previously a Pennsylvania resident.<\/p>\n

The West Side\u2019s blocks-long homeless encampment makes Javits Center convention-goers \u201ca little scared\u201d Friday. Lone Pine Press for NY Post<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you come up to a Democratic state, the cities are not clean,\u201d she said. \u201cThe buildings are empty. It\u2019s almost like these states are not progressing the way those other Republican states are.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd with that, you\u2019re seeing, like, all this homeless population increase, so it\u2019s almost like they\u2019re not trying to help, in a\u00a0 sense,\u201d she said of Dem leaders.<\/p>\n

Martino said the blocks-long Manhattan tent city\u00a0\u2014 which Mayor Zohran Mamdani vowed Thursday to finally clean up<\/a> \u2014 made her \u201ca little scared.<\/p>\n

Mayor Zohran Mamdani vowed Thursday to finally clean up the encampment. Lone Pine Press for NY Post<\/p>\n

The sprawling encampment has irked neighbors for weeks. Georgett Roberts\/NY Post<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s safe,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

Martino said she already moved hotels last week because of a homeless issue.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first hotel had a bunch of homeless sitting outside, and being a female, you know, when they\u2019re trying to talk to you, you feel a little, little scared,\u2019 she said. \u201c<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re always watching over your back, and I feel like in a family event like this one, they shouldn\u2019t be around this,\u201d she said of the Fanatics Fest, a massive multi-day sports culture convention.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u201cIt\u2019s just, you get an unsafe, uneasy feeling,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Christine Baize, a crew member for the event, said the tent city reminded her of the Big Apple\u2019s bad old days.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s horrible. I don\u2019t know what the answer is, but they gotta figure out something,\u201d said Baize of Queens.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThey don\u2019t want it looking like, I don\u2019t know how familiar you are with New York, like in the 70s and 80s. It was bad. They don\u2019t want it looking like that. They have to find a place for them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Florida resident Candace Martino said there is a \u201cday and night difference\u201d between living in a Republican or Democratic state. Khristina Narizhnaya\/NY Post<\/p>\n

The Javits Center hosted Fanatics Fest, multi-day sports culture convention, Friday. Anthony Oliveira\/TheNEWS2 via ZUMA \/ SplashNews.com<\/p>\n

Others complained about an \u201codor\u201d and said they saw a vagrant injecting drugs.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have people coming from all over the world. It\u2019s sold out,\u201d said Edgar, who attended the Fanatics Fest. \u201cI\u2019m disappointed.\u00a0 I feel like the police should have moved them somewhere else, you know \u2014 they definitely should have, this is\u00a0only for a couple of days.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mamdani told reporters Thursday that he has \u201cnoticed\u201d the encampment between the Intrepid Museum<\/a> and the Jacob Javits Center and said he planned to do something about it.<\/p>\n

But Hizzoner refused to give a timeline and said he had no idea when his own mandated seven-day waiting period to act kicks in.<\/p>\n

The encampment has irritated locals for months, with the city effectively running a valet trash service for the houseless rather than clearing the eyesore.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Javits Center convention-goers Friday said the lawless shantytown marring Manhattan\u2019s West Side makes them feel \u201cuneasy\u201d \u2014 and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":299302,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[2000,8906,57,9,24,55,54,56,58,82],"class_list":["post-299301","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-homelessness","tag-javits-center","tag-metro","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-city-headlines","tag-new-york-city-news","tag-ny","tag-us-news","tag-zohran-mamdani"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299301","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=299301"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299301\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/299302"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=299301"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=299301"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=299301"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}