{"id":5127,"date":"2009-07-15T09:32:23","date_gmt":"2009-07-15T14:32:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/?p=5127"},"modified":"2009-07-15T09:32:23","modified_gmt":"2009-07-15T14:32:23","slug":"leading_economic_indicators_gutter_punks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/archives\/2009\/07\/leading_economic_indicators_gutter_punks.html","title":{"rendered":"Leading Economic Indicators: Gutter Punks!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Is it Williamsburg or <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nydailynews.com\/ny_local\/brooklyn\/2009\/07\/15\/2009-07-15_hordes_of_hobos_set_up_shop_in_williamsburg_punks_invade_neighborhood.html\">Big Rock Candy Mountain<\/a>? Hahahahahahaha:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>Heroin-addict hobos from around the country are overrunning hipster haven Williamsburg &#8212; living in stalled luxury condo projects in the trendy Brooklyn neighborhood.<\/p>\n<p>The newcomers, who call themselves &#8220;gutter punks,&#8221; are stirring outrage among residents and shopkeepers who charge the bums brawl on the sidewalk, shoplift and shoot heroin in trendy cafe bathrooms. <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s like St. Marks in the &#8217;70s,&#8221; said Williamsburg activist Philip DePaolo[*], referring to the notorious East Village hangout. &#8220;It&#8217;s the bad old days all over again. There&#8217;s crack and heroin all over the neighborhood.&#8221; <\/p>\n<p>The squatters, from middle-class families, hop freight trains to the city, where they can earn up to $150 a day panhandling in Manhattan. At night, like plenty of other borough commuters, they return to their homes: grubby hideaways inside boarded-up lots that pock the once-booming neighborhood. <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ve got to sleep somewhere, and I might as well do it in Williamsburg,&#8221; said Stuart, 22, a Florida college dropout. <\/p>\n<p>The admitted alcoholic and heroin user makes $15 an hour panhandling in Union Square, holding a sign that reads &#8220;Traveling Broke and Sexy.&#8221; <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The girls here like it that I&#8217;m dirty and I ride trains,&#8221; he added.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>*<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/archives\/2009\/07\/ironically_degentrifying_williamsburg.html\">He&#8217;s gotten a couple of mentions recently<\/a>; Honey, is the BS detector still in the garage?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Is it Williamsburg or Big Rock Candy Mountain? Hahahahahahaha: Heroin-addict hobos from around the country are overrunning hipster haven Williamsburg &#8212; living in stalled luxury condo projects in the trendy Brooklyn neighborhood. The newcomers, who call themselves &#8220;gutter punks,&#8221; are stirring outrage among residents and shopkeepers who charge the bums brawl on the sidewalk, shoplift [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,68],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5127","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-brooklyn","category-follow_the_money"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5127","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5127"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5127\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5128,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5127\/revisions\/5128"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}