Midtown eyesore turns into homeless magnet thanks to Mamdanis apathy

The burgeoning encampment spreading along Manhattan’s West Side has become a symbol of Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s wrongheaded homelessness policies — and nine blocks east, a mini-Skid Row in Midtown is sad evidence of his economic neglect.Under the scaffold surrounding the shuttered Roosevelt Hotel, on a prime block just steps from Grand Central Terminal, two or more homeless people have taken up residence this month, storing their belongings — dozens of stuffed-full garbage bags and two shopping trolleys — along the facade.  Neighbors have made at least 14 calls about the encampment to 311 since early July. Fred Cerullo, president of the Grand Central Partnership business-improvement district, said the repeated attempts at agency outreach have had no effect.“None of this shows compassion for the individuals who are clearly in need of assistance,” Cerullo told me, “and it also creates a quality-of-life nightmare, with 20 to 30 bags along the sidewalks.”It’s a blight on an economically booming neighborhood — and it highlights the beautiful old building’s needlessly sorry state. The Roosevelt, built in 1924, is a classic railway hotel.The 19-story edifice, spanning a city block, is part of the original Terminal City, the mini-metropolis built around Grand Central a century ago to serve commuters and long-distance travelers.  As the real-estate plots around it become a mono-crop of glass towers, the Roosevelt’s crisp stone window borders, neat brickwork and mock-serious statuary flourishes are even more unique, and thus more valuable. It holds a special place in entertainment and political lore: Guy Lombardo’s orchestra called it home for three decades, New York Gov.Thomas Dewey crowed “victory” over President Harry Truman there, and it’s featured in classic movies like “Wall Street” and “The French Connection.”Yet the city is letting it molder.  To see how a well-run old hotel fits well into a moder...