In a warning of bigger trouble ahead for the city, Danny Meyer is closing two of his eateries in a secondary impact from the migrant crisis.
Specifically, they’re located in the historic Redbury Hotel, which has opted to become a migrant shelter.
“While we admire and respect the Redbury’s decision, the viability of our business relies significantly on hotel-related F&B operations, including event venues and the lobby bar, spaces that are now unavailable for our use,” explained Meyer’s Union Square Hospitality Group.
Oops: It had earlier insisted otherwise, but later realized that restaurants still recovering from the pandemic lockdowns need tourists and the kind of vibrant local scene that a shelter discourages.
Meyer says he’s still “fully supportive” of the Redbury serving as a shelter and will keep advocating for “policy change that expedites work permits for asylum seekers.”
But dozens of restaurant workers are headed to the unemployment line.
This kind of loss comes on top of the billions that Mayor Eric Adams warns the crisis will cost the city, and beyond any resulting cuts in city services.
Turning hotels into shelters crowds out tourists; packing ‘hoods full of migrants discourages normal business activity.
A city struggling to bounce back fully from lockdown, with countless workers still at least partly remote and commercial real-estate (and construction) ailing, will suffer more and more of ripple effects as long as the influx continues.
And President Joe Biden isn’t remotely stopping the tide: El Paso is as overwhelmed as ever, The Post’s MaryAnn Martinez reports, while Biden is selling off border-wall supplies to avoid having to make it any harder to sneak in.
Ex-Gov. David Paterson has it right: If Biden doesn’t reverse course, he’s courting a nationwide urban revolt.
This story originally appeared on NYPost
