Native New Yorkers who’ve lived in Manhattan for decades say recent migrant arrivals are bringing lawlessness into their formerly peaceful Upper West Side neighborhood and disrupting a residential building that’s home to elderly people with special needs.
The Stratford Arms hotel on W. 70th Street used to function as a student dormitory, operated by the American Musical and Dramatic Academy (AMDA). That is, until May, when “migrants showed up with suitcases,” Brenda McIntyre, who’s lived on that block since 2007 and in the city since 1999, told National Review.
The kids moved out and relocated to a building downtown. A couple of hundred illegal immigrants moved in. For roughly 30 years, she said, about twelve handicapped elderly people have called Stratford Arms home. One resident just turned 98 years old.
Now, they’re sharing the space with illegal immigrants placed there by the city, and “they’re very stressed out,” McIntyre said.
Practically overnight, the neighborhood devolved into chaos, she said. Before the migrants came, only two residents on the block had motorcycles in all the years McIntyre lived there.
“So, I’m going to work one day, and there’s 25 mopeds,” she recalled. “No license plates.”
When McIntyre called the NYPD precinct to clarify the rules for motor vehicles, police confirmed that these mopeds were not registered or insured and confiscated them.
“But as fast as the police are scooping them up, they’re getting them back or they’re buying more,” she said.
The migrants don’t appear to be asylum-seekers, she said, as they’re coming with brand new clothes, luggage, and cash.
Read more at Nationalreview.com
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