EXCLUSIVE: Post-pandemic New York City is laid bare as homelessness, mental illness and crime escalate and rattled locals and tourists alike believe the town 'has lost its essence' while city cheerleaders insist 'the ship has turned'

Daily Mail ^ | 27 May 2021 | MARTIN GOULD IN NEW YORK CITY FOR DAILYMAIL.COM and SHAWN COHEN IN NEW YORK CITY FOR DAILYMAIL.COM

[conservative98]

• • Exclusive DailyMail.com photos show an influx of homeless people on the streets as Manhattan struggles to get back on its feet after the coronavirus pandemic cut off its lifeline of tourism 
  • The pandemic upped the ante on homelessness, mental illness and crime - particularly random assaults and stabbings as homeless men and women are seen strung out on the streets 
  • In 2021, almost every type of violent crime is on the rise in New York City
  • According to recent figures from Compstat, the NYPD's data gathering unit, crime is up 30 percent city wide 
  • Still, city officials are optimistic, 'The ship has turned. We are headed towards recovery,' Chris Heywood of NYC&Company, the city's official tourism organization, told DailyMail.com 
  • A Times Square business owner said, 'There's a lot more crime and a lot more drug addicts and vagrants everywhere. In the last three months, I've seen three or four people shooting up right in front of me'
  • A cop patrolling the area told DailyMail.com, 'Times Square has lost its essence. People come here now and just sit' 

These scenes come from across Manhattan as it struggles to get back on its feet after the coronavirus pandemic cut off its lifeblood of tourism, sent many of its wealthiest residents scurrying to places as diverse as Vermont and Florida and upped the ante on homelessness, mental illness and crime - particularly random assaults and stabbings.

'New Yorkers don't feel safe and they don't feel safe because the crime rate is up. It's not that they are being neurotic or overly sensitive - they are right,' Governor Andrew Cuomo declared on Wednesday. 

'We have a major crime problem in New York City.

[escapefromboston]

That sadly seems to be the case. I’m old enough to remember what it was like in the 70s. The “new normal” seems more like the “old normal” to me.

[simpson96]

Democrats!

[bk1000]

Broken window 2.0? Who has the nerve?

[boycott]

I am sure the NYC bleeding heart liberals will show great compassion for their homeless by dumping them on other cities.

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2019/10/27/nyc-exports-homeless-across-country-without-telling-receiving-cities/

[Blood of Tyrants]

There is an eerie episode of Travelers on Netflix where a man-made virus is unleashed on the people. One scene is in an overcrowded hospital with dead and dying people and another is of an empty street because the people are holed up in their homes.

[AlaskaErik]

There is nothing in that leftist hellhole cesspool that would make me ever want to go there.

[Shady]

Gee, Chirlane, I thought mental illness is why we gave you $850 Million to help fix it.. oh wait, your “mental health” is just fine…

[Steely Tom]

Ahhh, back to the Seedy Seventies.

The movie The Seven-Ups, which starred Roy Scheider, showed some of NYC in the seedy seventies, which is a good term for that time.

I wonder what other pictures captured the cruddy state of NYC back then. I guess The French Connection is certainly one. Taxi Driver might be one (it came out in 1976).

[Grampa Dave]

[MinorityRepublican]

The “new normal” seems more like the “old normal” to me.

I've been to Rio de Janerio. It's what New York City was supposed to be like. Well, it will be like that, sure enough. I guess if you're really wealthy, you can hire a bunch of bodyguards to protect you.

[Grampa Dave]

[A strike]

“Utter nonsense. I just biked down broadway today from harlem to the ferry and it was great.
The mood was amazing.
NYC will be better than ever this summer.”

Fantastic !
Really great news that the facts and all those other people are lying !

[wjcsux]

I won’t set foot in NYC ever again!

[rxh4n1]

“Serpico”.

[colorado tanker]

The problem is, I don't see any Rudy G. poised to rescue NY this time like he did from the Seedy Seventies.

But, thinking back on where I was after the Dems got Nixon, the econony was truly awful, the Commies were on the advance everywhere and our only hope was a mild mannered nice guy who got beat by a peanut farmer wholly incompetant to be President I had little idea that Ronaldus Maximus would arrive to lead an American Renewal.

So, not even NY should abandon hope even in their present troubles.