Opinion

That ‘80s show

The only folks who want a return to the New York City of the late ’80s and early ’90s are those who slept through that tumultuous, often terrifying, period.

This may explain what Picture the Homeless was up to last week.

The pro-vagrancy activist group was milling about outside Penn Station, urging folks to “let them sleep.” That is, the “homeless” have a right to sleep in subways and train stations because . . . well, just because.

“If the only place to find rest is a subway station, we’d like to not be disturbed,” says member Michael-Vincent Crea. “I cannot go to any group setting,” he claims, since shelters don’t offer enough “respect.”

Picture the Homeless has actually been around for a while, formed in 1999 by vagrants opposed to an alleged policy of “criminalizing homelessness.”

That was actually just Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s attempt to address street crime in the wake of such violent incidents as the death of Kendra Webdale and the savage brick attack on Nicole Barrett.

But the idea of a “right” to sleep anywhere has deeper roots. In the 1980s, liberals practically adopted insane street person Billie Boggs (a k a Joyce Brown).

From her perch on a Second Avenue steam grate, Boggs cursed passersby, ran into rush-hour traffic, covered herself in excrement and destroyed any money donated to her.

She was, sadly, insane — but the ACLU fought attempts to get her treated. An equally unbalanced judge, Robert Lippmann, allowed Boggs to remain on the streets — with a pointed message that his order was designed to move public opinion and, eventually, policy.

Sadly, that approach helped contribute to the city’s social and quality-of-life decay that the Giuliani years only began to push back against.

New York is a better city than it was 20 years ago, but the cost of keeping it that way is perpetual vigilance — starting with resisting the entreaties of the Picture the Homeless types.

While they want to be allowed to sleep, everybody else had better stay awake.