That tent city NYC mayor Eric Adams is planning for Randall’s Island, a 520-acre island in the East River, is beginning to take on an Escape from New York vibe.
As you may recall, Adams had kicked around a few other ideas for housing the roughly 17,000 migrants New York has received so far this year: shipping them upstate, putting them up in hotels, sequestering them on Norwegian cruise ships, etc. But once tent cities began to appear the most practical–and affordable–option, Adams initially began setting up a tent city in the flood-prone Orchard Beach neighborhood in the Bronx.
That idea lasted only until the next rain, however, at which point the mayor turned his attention to Randall’s Island, which he says is “less prone” to flooding because it “has a higher peak.” There he is planning to open a tent-based shelter housing 500. (The Orchard Beach facility had been slated to house twice that.)
Randall’s Island, as indicated, has its own share of flooding potential, having just suffered flooding after a light storm. Critics have also pointed out the obvious fact that winter is coming, and enduring a New York City winter sleeping in a tent is less than appealing.
Aside from the environmental objections to the mayor’s project, it turns out that Randall’s is already home to some sketchy institutions. Consider, for example, the Kirby Forensic Psychiatric Center, a 200-bed maximum-security insane asylum, many of whose residents are lunatics accused of heinous crimes such as serial killings and cannibalism. The island is also home to some of the city’s most dangerous men’s shelters, housing addicted and mentally ill homeless men, who are required to return by a 10 p.m. curfew.
The island actually has a long-time reputation as one of New York’s “Islands of the Undesirables.” In 1854, the notorious “House of Refuge,” a reform school for boys (Irish mainly), was founded there. A few years later, it was joined by the Idiot Asylum, the Inebriate Asylum, and the City Insane Asylum.
One Twitter commentator, cognizant of the island’s history, referred to the island as a “penal colony,” which isn’t far from the truth.
New York City already has a homeless population of more than 61,000; projections see that rising to 100,000 by the end of the year. Adams estimates the city’s cost this year alone of dealing with the migrant crisis will be $1 billion, which he is asking the state and federal governments to assist with.
Critics point out that pedestrian bridges from the island lead to Harlem and the Astoria neighborhood in Queens, potentially setting off violent confrontations between migrants and natives. To help prevent that, the state of New York has assigned 100 National Guardsmen to the island.
Meanwhile, politicians–including many Democrats–from all over the city and elsewhere have urged Adams to reconsider. Curtis Sliwa, founder of the Guardian Angels and Adams’s Republican opponent in last year’s election, predicted that if the mayor goes ahead with his plan, “There’s going to be a riot on the island.”
So, if Randall’s proves another non-starter like the rest of hizzoner’s plans, what’s next? CNN is reporting that New Yorkers may be asked to “host asylum seekers and the ‘unhoused’ in their homes.” [Emphasis added.]
“New Yorkers want to help,” Adams told CNN, “and we’re going to make it straightforward and easy for them to do so.”
We’ll see how well that goes over.
For more, see Fox News.