Deconstruction of a Neighborhood: Longstanding Problems Get Worse for Far West Midtown

There are many neighborhoods in the five boroughs which have problems. We are all aware of them, when we have to go there we will find ways to make our time there as brief as possible. Maybe we'll take a different train, maybe we'll take a taxi, maybe we'll call friends with cars and avoid the mess of landscape altogether. Still the neighborhoods which need attention often don't get the attention they need until something tragic and irrevocable happens.

Manhattan is made up of many different sub-sects and the neighborhood I'm talking about that's in trouble is the far west side of Midtown. Some would call it Hell's Kitchen but that's not quite right. I'd always imagined Hell's Kitchen sort of overlaying with the theatre district and being north of 42^nd Street.

No the section of Midtown I'm talking about extends from 41^st Street down to maybe 30^th Street or 29^th Street, west of 9^th Avenue for sure; maybe extending as far east as 8^th Avenue. The area of town known for being home to beggars, bums, swindlers, and fast talkers. Druggies, pimps, whores, and more. Call it: "The Times Square that Disney Forgot."

When I first moved to New York I worked in the theatre district and was always fascinated by this neighborhoods lack of care. It was astonishing to me that police seemed to turn their backs at 42^nd Street and let all the energy of the space at the crossroads of 7^th Avenue & Broadway flow northward, even in a time when the traffic was not. Pedestrian plazas make Times Square even more of a focus for the forces which need to give attention to the area just south and west.

A recent piece in DNAinfo said shop owners and businesses were getting upset from the NYPD's lack of regard for their area of Manhattan. Beggars and homeless are becoming a problem, they said.

"Becoming," I wondered, "when had they not been so?" I lived in this area of town for six years in the early part of the 21st Century, what I saw then and what I see still is a neighborhood that is more concerned as a platform for Lincoln Tunnel traffic and police who turn their head in disregard.

A recent study proclaimed the homeless in New York City was again at a crisis pitch. The Coalition for the Homeless titled the study, in part, "...A Plan to Reduce Record New York City Homelessness and Reverse the Failed Policies of the Bloomberg Administration."

While I wouldn't go as far as blaming Bloomberg (I moved into New York City in the immediate aftermath of 9/11 - we were all still on our Rudy high - the problems in this neighborhood of Midtown had existed long before that though) I definitely think something needs to be done.

Businesses are blaming the homeless and the NYPD for their woes. But if the businesses on the street level weren't the same dirty landlords who run the slum houses above, maybe better tenants would move in. I know this for a fact because my landlord was one of these street level businesses in the ramshackle, roach-infested, ill-maintained place I lived at in this very neighborhood. My landlord was a good guy but even his charms could not remedy the obvious problems with this apartment.

The homeless stay where the police are not and it was more days than I can recall that I'd step over sleeping homeless on my doorstep. This confounded me because just across the street was and remains the Metropolitan Community Church where all were welcome for the night. I guess the homeless on my doorstep had overstayed their welcome at this benevolent gift. Or maybe there was just no room at the inn. Once all the beds are gone, where is one to go?

It's interesting to me to see the patches of this neighborhood that care. On 9^th Avenue around 37^th Street or so, there is a block that's cleaned up nicely. The apartments are cared for and the businesses are bustling. Even though there are homeless, they don't linger too long on this block. Why? I'll bet that a majority of these homes are owned by the tenants. When tenants own their units they are a lot more likely to care for them and care for the street below. Even if the Lincoln Tunnel traffic is whizzing by below.

So if we want to lay blame, let's lay blame where blame is due. It's not the NYPD's negligence, it's not the infestation of homeless, it's not the flippant and uncaring renters, and it's not the tightwad business owners who should take responsibility, exclusively. It's every one of them together.

The homeless problem in the far west of midtown isn't going away. If efforts are going to spend their time focusing in on the flow of traffic in this section of town and ignoring the glaring homeless problem, then nothing is likely to change.

A child of a couple of Marine brats from Corona, Jesse Schmitt has New York City deeply rooted in his blood. Having lived in different neighborhoods in Manhattan, the Bronx, Queens, and Brooklyn and tasted every corner of the five boroughs possible, Schmitt has an informed New York voice.