{"id":4686,"date":"2026-07-17T08:36:03","date_gmt":"2026-07-17T08:36:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/metrotransitreview.com\/?p=4686"},"modified":"2026-07-17T08:36:03","modified_gmt":"2026-07-17T08:36:03","slug":"midtown-eyesore-turns-into-homeless-magnet-thanks-to-mamdanis-apathy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/metrotransitreview.com\/?p=4686","title":{"rendered":"Midtown eyesore turns into homeless magnet \u2014 thanks to Mamdani’s apathy"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

The burgeoning encampment spreading along Manhattan\u2019s West Side has become a symbol of Mayor Zohran Mamdani\u2019s wrongheaded homelessness policies \u2014 and nine blocks east, a mini-Skid Row in Midtown is sad evidence of his economic neglect.<\/p>\n

Read more \u2018The Big Bang Theory\u2019 star Jim Parsons says he paid a steep price for fame<\/a><\/p>\n

Under the scaffold surrounding the shuttered Roosevelt Hotel, on a prime block just steps from Grand Central Terminal, two or more homeless people have taken up residence this month,\u00a0storing their belongings \u2014 dozens of stuffed-full garbage bags and two shopping trolleys \u2014 along the facade.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Neighbors have made at least 14 calls about the encampment to 311 since early July.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Fred Cerullo, president of the Grand Central Partnership business-improvement district, said the repeated attempts at agency outreach have had no effect.<\/p>\n

\u201cNone of this shows compassion for the individuals who are clearly in need of\u00a0assistance,\u201d Cerullo told me, \u201cand it also creates a quality-of-life nightmare, with 20 to 30 bags along the sidewalks.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a blight on an economically booming neighborhood\u00a0\u2014 and it highlights the beautiful old building\u2019s needlessly sorry state.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Roosevelt, built\u00a0in 1924,\u00a0is a classic railway hotel.<\/p>\n

The 19-story\u00a0edifice, spanning\u00a0a\u00a0city\u00a0block,\u00a0is part of the original Terminal City, the mini-metropolis built around Grand Central a century ago to serve commuters and long-distance travelers.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

As the\u00a0real-estate\u00a0plots around it become a mono-crop of glass towers,\u00a0the Roosevelt\u2019s\u00a0crisp stone window borders, neat brickwork and mock-serious\u00a0statuary\u00a0flourishes\u00a0are even more unique, and thus more valuable.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It holds a special place in entertainment and political lore: Guy Lombardo\u2019s orchestra called it home for three decades, New York Gov. Thomas Dewey\u00a0crowed\u00a0\u201cvictory\u201d over President Harry Truman there, and it\u2019s featured in classic movies like \u201cWall Street\u201d and \u201cThe French Connection.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yet the city is letting it molder.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

To\u00a0see how a\u00a0well-run old\u00a0hotel fits well into a modern urban environment, consider Chicago.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Windy City\u2019s downtown Palmer House\u00a0is a\u00a0similar\u00a0stone-and-brick complement to the glass towers that\u00a0now\u00a0surround it.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Like\u00a0the Roosevelt, the Palmer\u00a0shut\u00a0down for more than a year during the COVID-19 pandemic \u2014 but it used that time to renovate.<\/p>\n

That bet paid off: Its\u00a01,641 rooms\u00a0were\u00a0sold out throughout the July 4th weekend, with hundreds of guests and visitors eating and drinking in the block-through lobby\u00a0restaurant.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The\u00a0activity\u00a0generated by the Palmer creates a positive effect on surrounding\u00a0streets, adding thousands more people to the neighborhood each week with money to spend.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

It\u2019s\u00a0a depressing\u00a0contrast to\u00a0the Roosevelt, which the city has abused\u00a0since the hotel\u2019s own 2020 pandemic closure.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In\u00a02023, Mayor Eric Adams signed a contract\u00a0with the hotel\u2019s\u00a0owner, state-owned Pakistan International Airlines, to use its 1,025 rooms\u00a0as a migrant shelter.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Since Adams ended that deal last year, the Roosevelt has\u00a0remained\u00a0empty, metal bars obstructing its lobby.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It\u2019s\u00a0now surrounded\u00a0by\u00a0scaffolding,\u00a0festooned here and there with World Cup flags.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0building\u2019s\u00a0east side, fronting on Vanderbilt Avenue, has been scrawled in graffiti for years.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The\u00a0hotel\u00a0has\u00a079 active violations with the city\u2019s Buildings\u00a0Department and\u00a0owes\u00a0a quarter-million dollars in fines.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It\u2019s\u00a0not landmarked, despite several\u00a0attempts \u2014 and although the\u00a0Trump administration earlier this year\u00a0 touted a mysterious agreement\u00a0with Pakistan to redevelop\u00a0the site, its future remains uncertain.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

After such willful neglect,\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0no surprise that vagrants are drifting in.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The best way to crowd out anti-social uses is with social uses \u2014 that is, by getting this\u00a0historic\u00a0building back into circulation, pronto.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

It needs renovations, true, but\u00a0a bunch of\u00a0key interests can align here.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

First, basic economics: Gotham\u00a0needs<\/em>\u00a0more hotels, particularly in core Manhattan.<\/p>\n

As analysts at CoStar report,\u00a0the city has boasted the highest occupancy rate of all of this year\u2019s World Cup cities \u2014\u00a0often above 90% \u2014 and even\u00a0before\u00a0the tournament, rates\u00a0have\u00a0broken\u00a0records.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Roosevelt\u00a0still\u00a0maintains\u00a0some retail tenants, from a pizza store to\u00a0clothiers, showing how\u00a0stubbornly\u00a0New York wants to thrive.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Then, union\u00a0voters:\u00a0The revenues possible in core Manhattan would make it possible to\u00a0keep running the\u00a0Roosevelt as\u00a0a\u00a0union\u00a0hotel,\u00a0especially if a giant such as Hilton or Marriott were to run it efficiently.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Satisfying the unions is\u00a0another\u00a0key Mamdani interest.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

And\u00a0it will please preservationists.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Roosevelt Hotel is an elegant and urbane building by noted architect George B. Post\u201d \u2014\u00a0he also built the original\u00a0New York Stock Exchange building \u2014\u00a0\u201cthat deserves\u00a0landmark status,\u201d says Peg Breen,\u00a0president\u00a0of the New York Landmarks Conservancy.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mamdani\u00a0still hasn\u2019t\u00a0figured out how to put his\u00a0Economic Development Corporation to use \u2014 apart, of course, from handling his\u00a0city-funded grocery-store boondoggle.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Cobbling together a\u00a0Roosevelt\u00a0deal that satisfies the owner, the hotel\u00a0union and nearby businesses would be a worthy project.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Nicole Gelinas is a contributing editor to the Manhattan Institute\u2019s City Journal.\u00a0<\/em>\u00a0<\/p>\n

Read more Seth Rogen confesses he kept thanking Pen\u00e9lope Cruz while filming \u2018The Invite\u2019 sex scene<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A mini-Skid Row in Midtown \u2014 nine blocks east of the huge homeless encampment on Manhattan\u2019s West Side \u2014 is sad evidence of Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s fecklessness.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4685,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[60,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4686","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nicole-gelinas","category-opinion"],"yoast_head":"\nMidtown eyesore turns into homeless magnet \u2014 thanks to Mamdani's apathy - Metro Transit Review<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/metrotransitreview.com\/?p=4686\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Midtown eyesore turns into homeless magnet \u2014 thanks to Mamdani's apathy - 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