UWS residents furious as city quietly opens 2 new emergency shelters

 The city has quietly opened two new emergency shelters for migrants on the Upper West Side — totaling nearly 250 rooms within a three-block stretch — The Post has learned. 

The new facilities come in addition to a 108-bed “safe haven” shelter on West 83rd Street operated by the nonprofit Breaking Ground.

That controversial shelter is set to house vagrants without conducting criminal background checks, across the street from an elementary school.

“Bottom line is, they are bombarding us,” said Donna Grace, who attends her Redeemer Presbyterian church’s community group on West 87th Street, near one of the emergency shelters.

“It’s going be the beginning of a gradual decline of our beautiful, historic, desirable neighborhood,” she said.

The new emergency shelters — among 98 in the city have opened in response to the migrant crisis — will be in the New York Institute of Technology’s Riverside Terrace Residence Hall on West 88th Street, which has a capacity of 125 rooms, and the 119-room Belnord Hotel on West 87th Street, according to emails obtained by The Post.

During the pandemic, the Belnord, along with the nearby Lucerne and Belleclaire, was turned into a shelter for homeless men to purportedly prevent COVID-19 outbreaks in shelters — resulting in soaring complaints of public drug use, urination, and even sexual activity in the street, according to residents.

The two new shelters have come in addition to a 108-bed “safe haven” shelter that will house the homeless without criminal background checks.

J.C. Rice

That controversial shelter is set to house vagrants without conducting criminal background checks, across the street from an elementary school.

J.C. Rice

“We did not have a positive experience during COVID with how things were communicated and or implemented and overseen,” said Upper West Sider Nicole Metzger, 47, who recounted walking by homeless men shooting up, passing out, and even receiving oral sex. “We have heightened fears that this is a repeat of the situation.”

And the Upper West Side has been completely saturated with shelters, neighbors complained.

“We all know that we have a crisis with homeless people and that they need housing, but every neighborhood has to step up and do its fair share, and the West Side is clearly doing much more than its fair share,” said community activist Maria Danzilo. 

The new emergency shelters come in addition to the 1,352 people already living in city Department of Homeless Services facilities in the neighborhood, compared to just 41 on the ritzy Upper East Side and just 438 in the Financial District, according to city data as of Feb. 28 

“We all know that we have a crisis with homeless people and that they need housing, but every neighborhood has to step up and do its fair share, and the West Side is clearly doing much more than its fair share,” said community activist Maria Danzilo. 

Instagram / Maria Danzilo

Community Board 7 District Manager Max Vandervliet urged the city Department of Social Services to give local leaders and the neighborhood more advanced notice for shelter openings.

“We do not intentionally leave constituents in the dark,” Vandervliet said. “I can state accurately that in some instances we have been notified about a shelter the day of, the day before, and on occasion after its opening.”

Public hearings are not required to open emergency shelters, according to DSS, which would not confirm the shelter locations or share costs.

Upper West Side residents complained that their neighborhood is oversaturated with shelters and homeless residents compared to others in the city.

J.C. Rice

“We need every community to come together to respond to this humanitarian crisis as we continue to use every tool at our disposal to ensure that we are meeting the unprecedented need for shelter services on the ground,” a DSS spokesperson said. 

It is unclear how much the city will fork over to cover the new Upper West Side emergency shelters. 

The Adams administration last month said it was costing $364 a day to provide shelter and food for one migrant household.

33,400 migrants out of the 53,000 that have come to New York City since last spring are staying in city-run hotels, according to the latest City Hall data. 

Overall, the migrant influx has cost the city $420.44 million and counting in emergency shelter spending.

The West Side Rag previously reported the shelter population data.

https://nypost.com/2023/04/08/uws-residents-furious-as-city-quietly-opens-2-new-emergency-shelters/

Standard Charted Bank helped Al Qaeda buy bomb materials: lawsuit

 A New York-based bank helped finance Al Qaeda’s bomb-making operations in Afghanistan despite warnings from government officials, the families of two U.S. military members killed by the terror group claimed in a lawsuit.

Relatives of Wilbel Robles-Santa, 25, of Puerto Rico, and Christopher Ward, 24, of Tennessee — both of whom were killed by improvised explosive devices on April 6, 2013, in Afghanistan — sued Standard Chartered Bank in Manhattan federal court Tuesday.

The families claim the bank provided financial services to the Fatima Group in Pakistan despite knowing it was sending “an unending supply” of calcium ammonium nitrate — the primary component in IEDs — to Al Qaeda, according to the court filing.

U.S. government officials met with senior bankers at Standard Chartered’s Manhattan office in 2013, to urge them to stop aiding the terrorist attacks, but the bank’s response was “utterly useless,” according to court papers.

“Standard Chartered knowingly and wantonly sacrificed American lives to increase its own profits,” the Anti-Terrorism Act lawsuit alleges. 

The U.S. official who tried to warn the banks about its dealings with the Fatima Group was Lieutenant General Mike Barbero, The Mail on Sunday reported in December 2019.

Christopher Ward, 24, was killed in 2013.

Wilbel Robles-Santa’s family is also part of the lawsuit.

Ward and Robles-Santa’s families claim Standard Chartered Bank helped finance Al Qaeda’s bomb-making operations.

South China Morning Post via Getty Images

It’s at least the second time Standard Charted Bank has been accused of aiding terrorism.

More than 100 military families sued the bank alongside Deutsche Bank in August 2021 in Brooklyn Federal Court for acting as “laundromats” for groups like Al Qaeda and the Taliban to secretly move their money, according to the filing.

The case was dismissed on Jan. 3, 2023, but is under appeal in the Manhattan-based 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals.

Standard Chartered Bank did not respond to requests for comment.

https://nypost.com/2023/04/08/standard-charted-bank-helped-al-qaeda-buy-bomb-materials-lawsuit/

Smoke shop robberies continue to surge: police

 Robberies at Big Apple smoke shops continue to soar — even as more of the stoner-friendly storefronts continue to open across the city.

Police Chief of Patrol John Chell said at a March 20 City Council public safety hearing that robberies targeting storefronts hawking pot paraphernalia — and in many cases unregulated cannabis — have jumped 10% this year, up to 87 robberies as of March 6 from 79 during the same period last year.

The surge follows 2022’s own massive surge in smoke shop robberies, totaling 599 violent thefts compared to just 251 in 2021, Chell said.

“Right now, the trend continues,” he said. 

Smoke shops also continue to sprout up like weeds across the city, with an increase to 1,590 this month, the top cop noted.

News about the crime spike came just days after a worker was fatally gunned down during a botched Queens smoke shop robbery, the latest in a bloody trend that has left employees on edge. 

“I think about it every day. That could happen to anyone,” said Smoke City employee Yusif Ali, 20, who was pepper sprayed by thieves at a lower Manhattan smoke shop where he worked earlier this year. “I asked to have security guards. That’s the best thing to have these days.” 

Smoke shop robberies have shot up 10 percent as of early March compared to the same period in 2022.

Kevin C. Downs for NY Post

Smoke shops also continue to sprout up like weeds across the city, with an increase to 1,590 this month.

Kevin C. Downs for NY Post

Some illegal cannabis shops have even begun arming themselves with BB and pellets guns, which could quickly lead to further bloodshed, according to New York City Sheriff Anthony Miranda.

“We’ve recovered a number of other types of firearms, things that look real,” Miranda told The Post. “If it looks real, then the person trying to rob you, they’re going to anticipate that it is real. They might be firing back at you with real bullets.”

The unending increase in smoke shops comes despite various efforts by city officials and agencies to crack down on illegal pot shops, which have been hampered by lax enforcement laws and paltry fines.

Ali said crooks pepper-sprayed him during a smoke shop robbery.

J.C. Rice

There are roughly 1,590 smoke shops in New York City as of this month.

J.C. Rice

Mayor Eric Adams trumpeted the creation of a cannabis task force — which included the sheriff’s office, NYPD, and city Department of Consumer Affairs — to snuff out businesses brazenly selling weed without a license.

Manhattan D.A. Alvin Bragg also promised his office would begin eviction proceedings against unlicensed weed dispensaries.

“Our investigation into illegal cannabis shops is ongoing and we are actively gathering evidence with our law enforcement partners,” a DA spokesperson said. “Our investigating incidents of robberies at smoke shops throughout Manhattan continues as well.”

Susan Ameel, head of the West 44th Street Better Block Association, said that the proliferation of smoke shops in her Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood — combined with the spike in robberies at these stores — has many residents on edge.

“We already had a public safety concern before this, and this just exacerbates the overall safety concern of the citizens that things are not getting better,” Ameel said.

https://nypost.com/2023/04/08/nypd-reports-smoke-shop-robberies-and-openings-continue-to-surge/