Exclusive | ‘Uneasy’ Javits Center convention-goers blame lefty leaders for blighted NYC shantytown: ‘It’s horrible’
Javits Center convention-goers Friday said the lawless shantytown marring Manhattan’s West Side makes them feel “uneasy” — and blamed the sprawling skid-row blight on do-nothing lefty leaders.
The shocking homeless encampment — which sits roughly five blocks from the center, near 45th Street and 12th Avenue — made attendees of the “Fanatics Fest” sports convention feel “like you’re watching over your back,” said Candace Martino, who was in town for the event.
“It almost comes down to a Democratic state versus Republican state, because I lived in both. And I can tell you, it’s a day and night difference,” said Martino, 33, who lives in Florida and was previously a Pennsylvania resident.
“When you come up to a Democratic state, the cities are not clean,” she said. “The buildings are empty. It’s almost like these states are not progressing the way those other Republican states are.
“And with that, you’re seeing, like, all this homeless population increase, so it’s almost like they’re not trying to help, in a sense,” she said of Dem leaders.
Martino said the blocks-long Manhattan tent city — which Mayor Zohran Mamdani vowed Thursday to finally clean up — made her “a little scared.
“I don’t think it’s safe,” she said.
Martino said she already moved hotels last week because of a homeless issue.
“The first hotel had a bunch of homeless sitting outside, and being a female, you know, when they’re trying to talk to you, you feel a little, little scared,’ she said. “
“You’re always watching over your back, and I feel like in a family event like this one, they shouldn’t be around this,” she said of the Fanatics Fest, a massive multi-day sports culture convention.
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“It’s just, you get an unsafe, uneasy feeling,” she said.
Christine Baize, a crew member for the event, said the tent city reminded her of the Big Apple’s bad old days.
“It’s horrible. I don’t know what the answer is, but they gotta figure out something,” said Baize of Queens.
“They don’t want it looking like, I don’t know how familiar you are with New York, like in the 70s and 80s. It was bad. They don’t want it looking like that. They have to find a place for them.”
Others complained about an “odor” and said they saw a vagrant injecting drugs.
“You have people coming from all over the world. It’s sold out,” said Edgar, who attended the Fanatics Fest. “I’m disappointed. I feel like the police should have moved them somewhere else, you know — they definitely should have, this is only for a couple of days.”
Mamdani told reporters Thursday that he has “noticed” the encampment between the Intrepid Museum and the Jacob Javits Center and said he planned to do something about it.
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.
The encampment has irritated locals for months, with the city effectively running a valet trash service for the houseless rather than clearing the eyesore.
