'Woke' NYC Starbucks now a haven for junkies, drunks and homeless - New York Post

2 years ago 47
The seedy country   astatine  a NoHo Starbucks is giving customers grief. The seedy country astatine a NoHo Starbucks is giving customers grief. Helayne Seidman

A NoHo Starbucks is dealing with much than conscionable a changeless travel of caffeine junkies looking to get their fix. 

The café astatine the country of Astor Place and Lafayette Street regularly contends with cause users, mentally disturbed radical and stateless folks looking to instrumentality a nap, The Post witnessed.

“Starbucks got excessively woke excessively fast,” said java associated regular Constantine Dobryakov. “Now immoderate customers are excessively frightened to spell successful due to the fact that you’ve got a clump of stateless radical sleeping successful there. They got to beryllium acceptable to footwear radical retired and not springiness everyone a escaped cupful of coffee. You springiness them a digit and they’ll instrumentality a hand.”

This past week, The Post saw stateless radical nodding off, washing their hairsbreadth successful a nationalist descend and being transported to the infirmary from the precocious unionized Starbucks. Among the eye-openers:

Customers person  complained astir  the storefront's fertile  odor  and crowded seats.Customers person complained astir the storefront’s fertile odor and crowded seats.Stefano Giovannini
  • One antheral brought successful his ain container of Cinnamon Toast Crunch, a carton of beverage and immoderate Entenmann’s mini crumb cakes earlier passing retired look down connected a table. Afterward, helium rolled spliffs arsenic nearby, paying customers tried to bask their lattes and Frappuccinos.
  • A mentally disturbed antheral successful a achromatic trench overgarment talked to himself and screamed obscenities astatine the communal reflector adjacent the bathrooms for 30 minutes. “There’s a feline implicit by the bathrooms making radical truly uncomfortable,” 1 lawsuit told an worker down the counter. Two constabulary officers, 1 of whom carrying a riot shield, yet removed him without incident.
  • There’s besides the foul odor and garbage physique up astatine the determination — newspapers, nutrient wrappers and bare java cups litter the indoor patio. “Nothing similar the odor of BO and urine with your greeting coffee,” a Nextdoor idiosyncratic commented successful effect to a photograph that showed snoozing squatters lying successful a booth surrounded by trash, tote bags and luggage.
  • On Friday, EMTs were called to assistance a antheral who had passed retired connected the steps, blocking an exit. He regained consciousness and entered the ambulance with the assistance of the paramedics.
A stateless  antheral   sleeps wrong  the Astor Place Starbucks.A stateless antheral sleeps wrong the Astor Place Starbucks.Helayne Seidman
The Post saw radical   nodding off, washing their hairsbreadth  successful  a nationalist   descend  and being transported to the infirmary  from the location.The Post saw radical nodding off, washing their hairsbreadth successful a nationalist descend and being transported to the infirmary from the location.Helayne Seidman

Once Manhattan’s largest Starbucks — present outsized by the 23,000 quadrate ft Starbucks Reserve and Roastery successful Chelsea — the Astor Place determination is simply a go-to spot for the destitute, said Dave, a 28-year-old stateless antheral from Boston.

“They’ve got telephone chargers and bully couches,” helium said. “Ever since those black guys were arrested astatine 1 successful Philadelphia a fewer years ago, cipher truly wants to interaction you. Employees mightiness travel implicit and precise softly inquire sleeping radical to aftermath up and determination on, but past those aforesaid guys spell close backmost to sleep. The cops volition lone amusement up if idiosyncratic is dangerous.”

Critics accidental it’s Starbucks’ ain responsibility its shops person been commandeered by derelicts, drunks, and dope pushers, aft they made their bathrooms nationalist and adjacent put syringe disposal boxes successful immoderate of them.

"The cops volition  lone  amusement   up   if idiosyncratic    is dangerous," a neighbour  complained.“The cops volition lone amusement up if idiosyncratic is dangerous,” a neighbour complained.Helayne Seidman

“They let anybody to usage their restrooms, which sounds similar a bully idea, but erstwhile you’ve got a state that uses nationalist abstraction arsenic stateless shelters and intelligence wellness wards, that assures having radical shooting up heroin successful the bathrooms and halfway moving into them,” said Kevin Williamson, a governmental commentator.

The java elephantine has taken immoderate large blows this summer.

Starbucks precocious announced it would shutter 16 profitable stores, 2 of which are unionized, crossed Seattle; Los Angeles; Philadelphia; Washington, DC and Portland, Oregon, owed to information concerns, convulsive transgression and rampant cause usage successful and astir the shops.

Another sleeping vagrant extracurricular  the store   getting aesculapian  attraction  from the FDNY.Another sleeping vagrant extracurricular the store getting aesculapian attraction from the FDNY.Helayne Seidman

“It has shocked maine that 1 of the superior concerns that our retail partners person is their ain idiosyncratic safety. And past we heard the stories that spell on with it astir what happens successful our bathrooms,” CEO Howard Schultz said during an interior gathering that was first reported by the Post Millennial successful July. “We are facing things successful which the stores were not built for. So we’re listening to our radical and closing stores. This is conscionable the beginning. There are going to beryllium galore more.”

A Starbucks spokesperson said idiosyncratic locations person the authorization to alteration hours oregon spell “drive-thru only” arsenic a mode to “do what they request to make a harmless environment.”

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