New York - A 23-foot 1984 Chevy Pathfinder RV, which is
owned by 62 year-old Rabbi Steve Blumberg and has been parked at Riverside
Drive and 74th Street in New York’s ritzy Upper West Side, is drawing the ire
of local residents who want the rusted-out monstrosity moved.
THE NEW YORK POST reports that local activist Gretchen Berger
said, “Why is this ugly piece of junk here? It just sort of creeps me out that
somebody is living in a parking space, and this may give rise other people
thinking 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?”
Blumberg, who purchased the camper in 2007 after he lost his
apartment, says he has lived out of it off and on, but currently has housing
and is now using it as a sometimes-office or mobile hotel room for out-of-town
guests.
One such guest, a 54 year-old Romanian friend of Blumberg’s
who visited last summer and stayed in camper, said he thoroughly enjoyed his
stay.
“I think the greatest thing about it is having the comfort
of sleeping in a real bed, while being, at the same time, in the middle of
everything going on on the street,” the friend said. “I could hear the bus, the
cars, people walking their dogs, passersby talking, police with the sirens on.
It’s even more special, this being New York.”
Admittedly, Blumberg said he’s not exactly sure what the
city’s laws are concerning RVs parked for periods of time, but despite that
he’s yet to receive a ticket.
In answer to the complaints from Upper West Siders, Blumberg
said, “If you want a gated community, you should live in Creedmoor [Psychiatric
Center]. Otherwise-liberal West Siders have very serious middle-class scruples
about what should or should not be in their neighborhood.”
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