Lady Gaga‘s father has led the charge against hundreds of migrants who have ‘taken over’ his ritzy New York City neighborhood – claiming they are abusing residents.
The pop star’s dad Joe Germanotta, 66, lives in The Pythian on the Upper West Side – just down the street from the Stratford Arms Hotel, which has been transformed into a shelter for 500 migrants.
The reason for his action
He claims that the streets are overrun with partying, prostitution, and reckless behavior because of the new neighbors.
He told the New York Post: ‘There’s now 500 migrants living in that dormitory. That’s when all the mayhem began. Hookers are coming and going. In the mornings, you see prostitutes coming out of the building.
‘The worst part’s at night. The noise. It starts at about 10 o’clock, and it’ll go until 4 in the morning. Playing music and racing their motocross and motorbikes up and down the streets.
‘Put the proper security in place, have a police presence and a code of conduct. They’re guests in our neighborhood, and they have basically taken over.’
Germanotta said none of the UWS residents were given any notice about the migrant shelter – and trash and needles now litter the once-clean sidewalks.
While he said the migrants are probably good people, he said their anti-social behavior was becoming a problem, and the people who decided to place them in the building have ‘screwed’ the locals.
They are even catcalling teenage girls as young as 14, New Jersey-born Germanotta said.
The now-migrant center used to house the American Music and Dance Academy.
He said about Eric Adams’ response to the crisis: ‘In my opinion, you should have just suspended ‘sanctuary city’ status until we had enough housing and then said, ‘Yeah, OK, you can send some more.
‘It’s a joke. Why doesn’t he get one of the cruise ships? The cruise ships hold more people, and it’s a more controlled environment.
‘The city is spending a tremendous amount of money that could be spent towards building affordable housing.
‘The really sad part is that in the neighborhood, we still have our share of veterans and homeless — but we’re not taking care of our own. ‘They don’t get food every day. It’s really sad. I feel for them.’
The fate of migrants
One of those migrants, a Columbian named Luis, on Wednesday recalled how he and his family have spent a month at New York’s Roosevelt Hotel after making a grueling journey across several borders, including through Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua and Mexico.
Per DailyMail, their journey included an eight-day trek through the jungle, said Luis, who spoke little English.
New York is bound by a decades-old consent decree in a class-action lawsuit to provide shelter for those without homes.
The city is scheduled to open a shelter on soccer fields on Randall’s Island, and a relief center at the former Creedmore Psychiatric Center in Queens — both of which would reportedly be state-funded.
Migrants will now live in temporary housing in the park’s recreation center, which is popular with residents of the affluent and uber-liberal Williamsburg neighborhood thanks to its swimming pool and gym.
