A homeless couple has commandeered part of a block in Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s old neighborhood and turned it into “a nauseating love nest where they booze it up, have sex, and poop in pizza boxes, ignoring disgusted locals who fruitlessly beg the city to take action.”
So reports the New York Post in its Saturday editions, saying the couple have been living in a “mountain of their own trash” on 30th Avenue near Steinway Street in Astoria for the last month, commandeering the sidewalk between a Duane Reade convenience store and a New York Sports Club fitness gym.
“I’m on the way to the gym, 8:30 a.m., the guy is squatting over a camp chair and the other woman is holding a pizza box under him to defecate in,” neighbor Chris Shingler told the Post.
“This is primetime, workday, kids going by to school, this is right out front in the middle of the sidewalk,” said the 46-year-old, who has been in the neighborhood with his wife for nearly 20 years.
“My wife goes to the gym at 5:30 a.m. and she saw the woman performing oral sex on the man,” he continued. “Tough way to start your day.”
At least four schools, including a preschool, are all within a five-minute walk, according to the tabloid.
A Post reporter recently went to the scene and watched the couple — who identified themselves only as Michael and Marabel — threaten a cleaning crew hired by an adjacent building to oust them.
They refused to budge.
“Fuck no!” roared Michael. “Go fuck yourself!”
“If you bother my wife, I’ll fuck you up!” he screamed in between guzzling Vodka.
He also warned the Post reporter, “I shoot people,” claiming to be a former U.S. Marine.
The maintenance workers eventually gave up.
Mayor Mamdani reversed his past opposition to removing homeless encampments when a winter storm killed 19 people earlier this year. But, according to the tabloid, the couple’s sprawl doesn’t qualify for removal because it doesn’t have any “built structures.”
Police told the Post they have received multiple calls about the couple but claimed they had no proof of illegal activities.
Astoria has become a desired, gentrified neighborhood in Queens but still maintains an ethnically diverse population.
As the city’s tourist site describes it:
Just across the East River from Midtown, this Queens neighborhood is a hotbed of international culture and dining — including a longstanding Greek presence and a Little Egypt centered on busy Steinway Street. Its film-related history and sights provide another draw, as does the attractive waterfront park that bears the neighborhood’s name.
Ironically, even the homeless couple with the trash heap are miffed how they have been able to camp without being tossed.
“You just don’t see this kind of thing in Astoria,” Marabel told the Post.
Contributor Lowell Cauffiel is the author of the New York Times true crime best seller House of Secrets and nine other crime novels and nonfiction titles. See lowellcauffiel.com for more.
