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Upper West Siders Upset Over Motor Homes Invading Neighborhood
By
Ben Yakas
Published Dec 15, 2013
Modified Dec 15, 2013
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By
Ben Yakas
Published Dec 15, 2013
Modified Dec 15, 2013
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The Upper West Side is a refined community where luxury condos have separate entrances for poor people, movie theaters have motorized recliners, and celebrities feel comfortable enough to occasionally hitch. So you can understand why some locals are clutching their pearls over some RVs that have been spotted in the neighborhood recently.
“Why is this ugly piece of junk here?” Gretchen Berger told the Post, referring to an RV parked at Riverside Drive and 74th Street. "It just sort of creeps me out that somebody is living in a parking space, and this may give rise to other people thinking that it’s a cheap way to live on the Upper West Side, where the rents are high. Is Manhattan going to become a trailer park?"
Berger, who is identified by the Post as an "area activist," apparently lives around the corner from the spot where the RV is parked—West Side Rag first reported on her complaints last week: "For several years, it was parked on West End Ave. between 73rd & 74th St., but about 6 months ago, it turned up on Riverside Dr., where it still resides," she explained. "Many of us in the area have complained about it’s presence to the 20th Precinct, but apparently it’s legal, as long as it obeys alternate side parking regs."
The person who owns the RV is 62-year-old Queens-born Rabbi Steve Blumberg, has been living on and off inside the '84 Chevy Pathfinder since 2007. "If you want a gated community, you should live in Creedmoor [Psychiatric Center],” he told the Post in response to the complaints. "Otherwise-liberal West Siders have very serious middle-class scruples about what should or should not be in their neighborhood."
Blumberg has been living in the RV ever since he lost his apartment in Riverdale, and realized he could shop around for a new place while living in a "mobile studio apartment." Even though he's now staying in a rent-free pad on 74th Street, he realized he liked living in the RV part-time, and lets friends stay there as well: "I’m in way better shape than the people who are renting closets."
Blumberg's RV isn't the only one in the neighborhood, lest you think this is just a petty neighborhood beef: there's also a 19-foot, 1975 Dodge Sportsman with gold rims and two cameras affixed to its exterior parked on Central Park West. “It looks like it would fit more in the mountains of West Virginia than on the Upper West Side,” said local Ron Hoffman. Mostly, it sounds like people are annoyed that the RVs are taking up precious parking spaces on the street: “We’re all waiting to park," said 86-year-old Mario Parisi. "Sitting there all the time is not a good idea — it’s a monster.” I think we all know who is really to blame for this.
Tagged
manhattan
motor home
precious
rvs
trailer park
Upper West Side
uws
Ben Yakas
Ben Yakas is a former Gothamist reporter.
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