Friday, April 11, 2014

Nautical homeless shelters on Newtown Creek

So Miss Heather took a walk on the Pulaski Bridge and spotted something interesting yet scary:

I was stunned at how many boats were moored, illegally I’ll add, on the Queens side of the creek. I have it on excellent intelligence that yes, some of these boats are being pressed into service as residences. Residences on Newtown Creek. Please take a moment to mull this one over, gentle readers.
Not only is it disgusting that people are basically sleeping on top of sewage and pollutants, but how does this go unnoticed in a post-9/11 NYC? Boats parked under bridges ... hello, Homeland Security?

26 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hello! Queens used to be affordable. This is what happens when people are priced out of their city. It's sad, not scary.

georgetheatheist said...

Mitch Waxman and Yours Truly commented on this a week ago. Check it out here.

Anonymous said...

There have been boats there for at least the last 3 or 4 years - I've seen people coming and going from them with some regularity. I'm pretty sure the larger 'hipster ferry' is still parked further down the creek at an old oil refinery on Morgan Ave. Probably at least 20 people living on that one.

NYC's out of land, but we've got waterways. Sooner or later this is going to grow a bit out of control.

Ned said...

Words gotten out both national and worldwide that laws are no longer enforced in NYC ensuing this massive influx of every scalawag, squatter and illegal on the planet.
Just wait till upcoming summer's under diBlasio's one immense piss in the street free for all.
All these America hating democrat bastards may as well fly a massive "COME AND GET IT" banner atop the Empire State Building.

J said...

its not a homeland security issue because these are the Blaz's constituents.

so since this so called enviro-mental group got money and unofficial permission you get this sense of entitlement and transparent impunity.

Pete Seeger managed to organize and clean up cripple creek,I think these bozos think they are doing the same thing,although I don't think the late singer didn't do some sneaky lobbying to get what he achieved.

J said...

correction:Pete Seeger cleaned up the hudson river upstate,cripple creek is a song.

these boats still should be towed.

where is the coast guard on this if this is a homeland security issue?Since this is in NY State,shouldn't Cuomo intervene?

Anonymous said...

This should be a homeland security issue! These are waters that are on USA territory and if these boats had no authority to be there, then the USA is definitely entitled to look into it!

Anonymous said...

those boats have been there for YEARS. excellent detective work

Roger said...

It may be illegal to moor a boat there, but it isn't illegal to live on a boat. Many people live legally on boats in marinas and mooring fields. They aren't homeless. Even Quincy, M.E. lived on a boat!

Anonymous said...

True, not homeless.....I'm sure you would be surprised if you knew who the boat owners are.....

J said...

re:quincy

so If I become a fictional character,I can live in a boat in Newton?

Queens Crapper said...

You can't legally live on a boat without sewage and water hookup. And that many boats definitely have not been there for years.

Anonymous said...

" that many boats definitely have not been there for years."


i walk that bridge daily. i disagree.

Anonymous said...

Sonny Crockett lived on a boat in Miami, no?

Those boats show up around 2009 in Google Earth's imagery. First three, and most recent imagery shows 14. A real flotilla. (How is that for detective work???)

Queens Crapper said...

Yes, there likely were three there in 2009. But the most recent imagery is from last summer, not "years ago".

People, I think Miss Heather and I would have noticed a "flotilla" since we've both been blogging for more than 7 years.

Anonymous said...

Back in the 50' and early 60's there was an old three mast schooner, minus the masts and bowsprit, docked on the west side of the Newtown Creek where it meets Metropolitan avenue at Onderdonk avenue.

At the time there was, I believe, a cement products and coal company located there and they employed an ancient friend of my grandfather as the night watchman. This night gig morphed into an all day security job with a room on the schooner. Eventually the old guy moved in on a full time basis.

I got to visit the old hulk one day when my dad paid a New Years call (remember them?) to the old timer. The place smelled of creosote and the room he resided in had an old wood/coal stove for heat and cooking, a sink with a cold water spigot and a bucket that masqueraded as a toilet that got a daily heave flush into the creek whether it needed it or not.

My dad brought him a bottle of Four Roses and they shot the sh!t about old times and friends. I listened until bored and then made my way to the deck for some winter sightseeing. The old man warned me to be careful of the rats which he claimed were the size of small dogs.

The aromas rising from the frigid water weren't that bad if you liked the smell of oil, gasoline, tar, smoke, sludge and sewerage. There was absolutely no life or wildlife to be seen that day or any day. The only things that moved were the wind blown weeds ashore and my breath in the frosty air. The place was dead.

Anyway, that summer I drove my bicycle down Metro and low and behold the hulking remains of the ship were gone and work was being done on the bulkhead.

That night at dinner I told my dad and he made some inquiries as to where the old man went. No one knew. It was like he just disappeared.

A week or two later I screwed up enough courage to go into the cement/coal company and ask about the old codger. A bespeckled chubby guy waved me away telling me to get off the property and don't come back.

I had thoughts of the old man being thrown overboard into a grave of polluted water. Who knows? We never learned what happened to granddad's old buddy.

If the creek is ever cleaned up I bet they'd find the preserved remains of the old man.

The creek gives up nothing.

Anonymous said...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wpFuFBWjoCw

Video from 2006.

This has been going on a long time, and will only become a bigger trend as land becomes unobtainable to everyone but billionaires.

Anonymous said...

That video shows a guy sailing. This has been going on at Newtown Creek since the dawn of time. It doesn't show a flotilla of moored boats with people sleeping on them.

Anonymous said...

Wow!! Some of those boats are in the $50-$100,000 range.

Aren't hipsters great? $2 million condos, $100,000 boats, $75,000 cars.

I'm gonna sue my parents for abuse of the monetary type.

Anonymous said...

Newtown Creek in 2018...

Anonymous said...

No one is living there,relax.

Anonymous said...

There used to be a bunch of people living on boats in Whitestone, some were families with children. They were forced to move 6 or 7 years ago when the townhouses were built.

Anonymous said...

Can one not live on a boat legally near NYC? You can in many other large cities. The people doing so are not necessarily terrorists - some just teach Pilates and like the water.

Queens Crapper said...

Yes, you can live on a boat legally in NYC. However, you can't just tie your boat up wherever the hell you feel like it, which is what these people have done.

Anonymous said...

Newtown Creek 2020

Anonymous said...

That is a 2020 photo of Flushing Creek, not Newtown.