| Amid Cold
and 2d COVID Wave Grand Central Post
Office Locks Out Homeless and Customers
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Patreon
BBC
- Guardian
UK - Honduras
- ESPN
SDNY COURTHOUSE,
Jan 3 – As winter sets in in
New York, the daily lives of
homeless people not in
institutions become ever-more
difficult - in some cases,
intentionally so. The
responses hurt other New
Yorkers as well.
Take for example
Grand Central Post Office on
Lexington. While window
service cuts off at 9 pm, the
post office has historically
remained open, with a stamp
machine and access to post
office boxes.
As things
got colder, at times homeless
people would go in to warm up.
Now on January 2, without any
notice to the public or GSPO
customers, the post office was
closed with padlocks, from 1
pm Saturday on, and all day
Sunday.
Not only
are those needed heat pushed
out into the cold - US Postal
Service customers who used to
pick up their mail on Saturday
afternoon are locked out. Just
what dying USPS needs? These
type of decisions need notice,
and review. Watch this site.
Similarly with Grand Central
Station. Since March, with
restaurants and coffee shops
closed, the station's two sets
of men's and women's bathrooms
on the lower level have been
ever more central.
First, the set of
bathrooms to the west were
roped off. Then those to the
east were subject to more
frequently cleanings, or at
least closings.
Upstairs in
the large room with
constellations on the ceiling,
people ranging from those
waiting for trains to the
homeless have been able to use
the counters facing what used
to be the ticket windows.
But suddenly in
December, police barricades
were installed in front of the
counters so no one can use
them.
This comes
after the Apple Store took
over not only the second level
but the stairs leading to it
and the walls leading to the
stairs where customers wait
and are signed in. They are
not subject to police sweeps,
nor are most commuters.
Likewise on the
lower level, where cupcake
shops and hotdog chains still
make money catering to
commuters, not only the tables
with seats but even the stand
up counters have been roped
off.
Likewise many of
the hallway entrances to the
station are now closed, by
police, at 7 pm.
There are
homeless people, many of them
elderly, who use such spots as
places of quiet dignity and
respite: to read the
newspaper, or shuffle through
mementos. Now there is no
where to do that, and the
libraries are still closed.
Grab and go,
indeed.
While probably
rationalized as enforcing
social distance, why not just
put the ever-present 6-feet
foot stickers on the floor?
Who got notice or
an opportunity to be heard? As
the weather grows cold, other
changes are sure to follow.
And where will people go?
And where is the
claimed progressive politics
of Gracie Mansion and the City
Council? Watch this site.
***
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