STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — Emergency shelter options have been one of the main prongs of the city’s response to the ongoing migrant crisis, sometimes drawing pushback from locals, including on Staten Island.
The seriousness of the city’s response and local communities’ reaction brought two local elected leaders, City Councilman Joseph Borelli (R-South Shore) and Councilman David Carr (R-Mid-Island), to dispute what they call false claims about future shelter sites on the borough.
Curtis Sliwa, the onetime standard-bearer of the Republican party in New York City, claimed on his WABC radio show last week that shelter sites would be coming to the former campus of St. John Villa Academy and the St. John’s University campus on Grymes Hill.
In one segment, Sliwa claimed that “engineers from the Department of Homeless Services” were looking at the former Villa site in Arrochar, and in another that a shelter was planned for the college campus when it closes in 2024.
Borelli didn’t mince words in his response to what he called false claims made by the radio host, referencing a court case from the 1990s during which Sliwa admitted to making up actions taken by his Guardian Angels group, as reported in the New York Times.
“The migrant crisis is bad enough without this village idiot making up nonsense,” Borelli, the leader of the minority party in the Council said. “Unfortunately, I’ve learned the hard way that people shouldn’t take this court-proven serial liar seriously.”
In late May,...
A US judge has dismissed veteran singer Smokey Robinson's defamation claim against four former housekeepers who have accused him of sexual assault. The women sued the Motown star, 86, last year fo...