THE NEW YORK TIMES, SUNDAY, OCTOBER 25, 2020 MB 3GREGG VIGLIOTTI FOR THE NEW YORK TIMESON MONDAY, A GROUPof Upper West
Siders who had organized against the
placement of 235 homeless men in a resi-
dential hotel in their neighborhood re-
ceived some unwelcome news. On the
morning the men were supposed to move
far downtown, a judge ruled that they
could remain where they were. Relocating
would be too disruptive and traumatic to
people piecing their lives back together
amid a pandemic.
Until that point, it seemed the antago-
nists had civic power on their side; self-
interest was coming up ahead as it so
often does. Last month, Mayor Bill de
Blasio agreed to get the homeless men out
of the complainants’ way — removing
them from the Labradoodle serenity of the
West 70s, where a vocal minority was
maintaining that their lives had been
upended by ugliness and disorder.
The idea that it would take at least a
month before the homeless men could be
relocated prompted rage in a closed Face-
book group, where little effort was made
to conceal the most unsettling prejudices.
As one woman, a corporate executive,
theorized, the men probably sought to
stay in the neighborhood, not in pursuit of
some stability but rather because there
are “lots of stores to shoplift from” and
“unmanned vestibules they can vandal-
ize.” In fact, the overall crime rate in the
neighborhood over the past month is down
from the same period last year; there
have been no murders, no shootings.
The anger among some of those op-
posed to the temporary shelter wasn’t just
that they hadn’t been given what they
wanted but that they didn’t get what they
paid for. In this instance, they had hired an
expensive lawyer, Randy Mastro, a former
deputy mayor to Rudolph W. Giuliani, to
help them get the unhoused out of view.
Now in their private social media postings
they wondered where he was and what he
had really done for them. Clearly his con-
tributions were sufficient enough to ignite
the fury of protesters on the other side of
the debate, who defaced Mr. Mastro’s East
Side townhouse this past week, marking it
with red paint and profanities (“Randy
Mastro You Can’t Displace Us”).
The fight over sheltering exemplifies
just one of the ways the pandemic has
deepened the class divide, while para-
doxically revealing that old-style transac-
tionalism no longer reliably yielded the
same gifts. The privileged were now play-
ing on a game board that had changed.
This bewildered entitlement is not con-
fined to those hoping to buy their way to a
version of the Upper West Side that felt
like Westchester. It was echoed by parents
in New York’s private-school world, as
plans for reopening were announced in
August. Many schools — because of
teacher resistance, building constraints
and so on — were not going to be able to
offer live instruction five days a week.
This infuriated many parents, who
believed their high tuition fees ought to
serve as a hedge against inconvenience
during a crisis that was full of unknowns
and, from the perspective of management,
entirely unfamiliar. One email I came
across from a father sent to the head of his
children’s school began by calling the
proposed schedule “a failure” and pointing
out that for $50,000 a year, his exposure,
essentially, should be minimized.
An excellent article in the new issue of
The Atlantic that ignited the schadenfreu-de of parents from Bethesda, Md., to New-
ton, Mass., made similar observations
about the diminishing returns on a partic-
ular kind of loaded investment. In the
piece, the writer, Ruth S. Barrett, outlines
the shifting fortunes of wealthy and mani-
acal parents who immerse their children
in boutique sports — squash, fencing —
purely as a means of lubricating the path
to the Ivy League.
For a long time, a commitment to 10,000
hours, live-in pros and sports psycholo-
gists on speed-dial could position a child
toward that goal well enough. But the
coronavirus killed sports at a time when a
focus on equity was already causing uni-
versities to re-evaluate the patrician lean-
ings of their athletic programs. The course
was shutting down; the dream of Dart-
mouth was becoming the reality of Michi-
gan State.The Privileged Hear a Curious Word: ‘No’
Randy Mastro’s house was defaced in retaliation for his role in efforts to move homeless men from an Upper West Side hotel.Increasingly, the rich are
finding they can’t bend
the world to their will.[email protected]; follow
Ginia Bellafante on Twitter: @GiniaNYT
GINIA BELLAFANTE BIG CITYDuring the seven months the pandemic
has had us by the scruff, millions of people
have been propelled into crises of jobless-
ness, grief, fear, faith, poverty, dislocation.
But even as the rich have managed to
accelerate their gains in a perpetual war
against fairness, the victories have be-
come more complicated. This has become
especially obvious at the level of urban
policy, where the disparity is the most
pronounced.
If the world were not in such chaos at
the moment, the fate of a luxury condo-
minium building on West 66th Street
would surely have gained much more
attention. Last month, a New York State
Supreme Court judge unexpectedly over-
ruled the city’s decision to allow the con-
struction of what would have become the
tallest building on the Upper West Side.
Extell, a major developer and birther of
Billionaire’s Row, had planned to fill the
tower with 198 feet of empty vertical space
to create more apartments on higher
floors, which command more money.
But the effect of what the judge equated
to “putting a frankfurter in the middle of a
hamburger” was “too brazen to be called a
subterfuge.” Instead, he wrote, “the devel-
oper simply thumbed its nose at the
rules.” (Earlier, the same judge, Arthur F.
Engoron, ordered Eric Trump to sit for a
deposition in an investigation of fraud into
his family’s real estate business.)
For a brief time, the homeless men
housed at the Lucerne, the residential
hotel on the Upper West Side where they
have been permitted to stay, were to be
sent to a Radisson Hotel near Wall Street.
There, too, some residents balked at the
prospect of their arrival. At a community
meeting a few weeks ago, one woman
living in a 408-unit building on Pine Street,
where the condominiums were designed
by Armani/Casa, said that it was “inevita-
ble” that congregating 235 men, some with
substance-abuse and mental-health issues,
would “increase violent events throughout
the neighborhood.”
When it was determined that the men
would remain at the Lucerne, it looked for
a moment as if the residents of the Finan-
cial District had “won.” But as it hap-
pened, other homeless men were soon
going to be coming to the Radisson. And
eventually, it would be made into a perma-
nent shelter.At Guerrilla Car Meets, Noise Is Point
Readers responded by letter and at
nytimes.com to Sarah Maslin Nir’s article
last Sunday on the unauthorized, and very
loud, car rallies that have been taking place
in less crowded parts of New York City.
Comments have been edited.WE HAVE LIVEDon the Upper West Side for
25 years. Be it Central Park West or a side
street, these very loud speeding cars driv-
en by young men present a real danger to
those of us who live and work here. Why
there is little enforcement is beyond me. I
can hear these cars as far away as three or
four blocks and should think New York’s
Finest sitting in their police cars, even with
the windows rolled up, could hear them as
well. I thought there was a city ordinance
on loud noises, or is it a motor vehicle
infraction? Either way, it is a distressing
disturbance to peace and quiet and needs
to be addressed by an active Police Depart-
ment. With millions of residents, in a walk-
ing city, and one with more and more peo-
ple on bicycles and scooters, there is no
place for such car madness.
JOHN T. FITZSIMONS, NEW YORK
YES, YOUNG PEOPLE EXPRESSINGthem-
selves in desolate areas. Except it’s not
desolate at all as is evidenced by the resi-
dential houses in the vicinity. Therefore, we
can hear this “self expression” like it’s in
our living rooms every single weekend. We
can even smell the exhaust. It’s a fully
immersive experience! Please let me know
the addresses of some of these young peo-
ple so I can stand by their houses as they
are trying to relax or sleep and randomly
deliver bloodcurdling rage screams, as that
is how I express myself.
TMG1119, ASTORIA
NOISE POLLUTION ISsomething that really,
really bothers me! I know we have a mil-
lion more pressing problems, but I wish
this were something that more people paid
attention to. I live in a rural part of the
state, and for us, every time it’s a nice day
out, as I sit in my sun room trying to read, I
hear the long strings of people on loud
motorcycles streaming down our street
making a horrendous noise. I find it so
obnoxious and self-centered. Do they get
up in the morning and say, “Hmmm, let’s
go annoy as many people as possible this
afternoon!” Why is their “right” to make
noise more important than my “right” for
peace and quiet?
MARIE, CONNECTICUTLOTS OF GATHERING,little mask wearing.
These enthusiasts have little to no regard
for others’ rights to quiet enjoyment of
their lives. I support any effort to limit loud
car modifications.
PRACTICALITIES, BROOKLYNONLY THE L.I.R.R.separates my building
from the Home Depot in Queens where this
took place. It’s more than “noise pollution.”
It starts at midnight and goes on for hours.
When I called 311, they could hear the noise
over the phone with my windows closed!This isn’t a subculture. It is a countercul-
ture with very little regard for any sense of
community, during a time when we need
community most.
EILEEN, SUNNYSIDE, QUEENSTHE PHOTOS ARE TELLING:almost zero
mask compliance. It also reflects their
attitudes toward the rest of society. They
don’t care if they become infected and pass
it on to the weak, the old or the immune
compromised. They certainly don’t care
about disturbing whole communities and
filling those communities with poisonous
vapors for all to breath. I did get a chuckle
out of “My mom don’t like it but whatever.”
I guess he lives at home when he is not
burning rubber.
STEVE, NEW YORKNOTHING NEW ABOUT IT,only back in the
day we were more into street racing. You
think these guys are loud — try a 440 with
open headers. I had a Dodge Charger not
too unlike the one you filmed here doing
doughnuts. Being obnoxious with a loud car
is as American as it gets.
DUNCAN, LOS ANGELESTHESE PEOPLE WORKtwo jobs to buy a
muscle car and endless pairs of tires?!
With that kind of diligence you would ex-
pect one to be able to buy a home in a
matter of years, or God forbid have an
appropriate retirement account. May my
taxes not go to people like that when they
become unemployed? Please?
YUSSUF, NEW YORKSADLY, THIS SUBCULTUREis emerging into
other cities as well. Our city has been inun-
dated with these blankety-blanks racing
down the mostly empty highways. I never
thought I’d be longing for the good old days
of traffic congestion.
LIZ, RALEIGH, N.C.READER COMMENTS
BRITTAINY NEWMAN FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
Burning rubber in the parking lot of
a Home Depot last month in Queens.Sherbee
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