What Do The People On The Street Think About The People On Their Street?

New York City politicians and residents are up in arms that migrant shelters are not contributing to the quality of life in their neighborhoods. A New York Post story over the weekend showed which neighborhoods have had the most migrant shelters pop up on their streets in the five boroughs since the migrant crisis began about two years ago, and the story clearly indicates that the city’s poorer neighborhoods are receiving the brunt of the burden. Meanwhile, residents and politicians alike claim the migrants are creating an overall drain on the quality of life in the city.  

WOR street reporter Natalie Migliore went to Long Island City, which is home to no fewer than 23 migrant shelters; she appeared on 710 WOR’s Len Berman and Michael Riedel in the Morning program to talk to neighborhood residents and find out what is their overall impression of the shelters.

Migliore found one LIC resident who says the downturn is noticeable. “It’s just dirty and nasty,” he told Berman and Riedel. “Definitely must dirtier. You can see; I don’t need to tell you anything, I mean, everybody can see it. They don’t do anything about that and it’s just unpleasant. You’re walking by every hotel here, and you see them all hanging outside, doing what they want to do. They don’t obey the laws. This neighborhood has become like hell. It’s dirty, it’s not safe, it’s not fun. My wife, I don’t let her walk the dog outside in the evening. I have to order her a mace; it’s illegal, so now I’m doing something illegal because I believe the police can not help me out.”

Migliore found a woman who is Hispanic and has lived in the neighborhood for more than thirty years. She worries that the actions of the migrants now cast all Hispanic people unfairly in a bad light. “That breaks my heart, when I see the news…I said, oh my gosh, they see us like we are all the same, you know. That makes us look really, really bad. So, we hate that. I hate that, you know when you see the types of things they do. They’re gonna say, oh they all are the same. They do dirty things outside. They don’t behave at all, you know.”

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