Is the saga of the Upper East Side an tiques dealer vs. the vagrants squatting outside his store just a 2007 version of Dickens’ Scrooge tale?
Not at all.
Karl Kemp filed suit this week against four street people who’ve taken up “residence” on a grate in front of his store at Madison Avenue and 69th.
Claiming that the bums’ refusal to move is damaging his business, Kemp sued for $1 million.
We’re no fans of frivolous lawsuits. But kudos to Kemp.
He’s a law-abiding, hard-working guy, striving to bring customers into his store. He’s contributing to the city economy, and paying taxes, too.
But it’s a bit hard to do that when a gaggle of dirty, unemployed, often abusive bums – one of whom was arrested this past summer for disorderly conduct – make the store’s warming grate their preferred home.
And use it as a place to change and relieve themselves.
Decades of court decisions have given the city homeless all sorts of rights. But with rights come responsibilities.
As the saying goes, one person’s right to swing his fist ends just shy of his neighbor’s nose.
In the 1990s, the city successfully shut down the “squeegee” men who’d become the scourge of motorists – rushing into traffic, “cleaning” windshields, and then demanding payment.
The Kemp Antiques bums are the functional equivalent of the squeegee men – and should be dealt with accordingly.
Of course, Kemp won’t ever collect $1 million – but that’s not the point.
Even a preliminary injunction preventing the bums from bedding down within 100 feet of the storefront would be good enough for Kemp.
It would be good for the city, too.