How Do New Yorkers Deal With "The Strip Of Despair" On A Daily Basis?

A stretch of Eighth Avenue in Manhattan that runs from the Port Authority Bus Terminal to Penn Station has quickly become the symbol of the despair and ruin that have befallen the city in recent years. The homelessness, crime, drug use, mentally ill and garbage are strewn all about, and nobody in charge of New York City seems willing or able to think of a fix to what is now being called “the strip of despair.” WOR street reporter Natalie Migliore, who sometimes walks that stretch of Eighth Avenue in search of a story, went there Tuesday morning for 710 WOR’s Len Berman and Michael Riedel in the Morning program to talk to pedestrians about their experience on the avenue.

One woman told Migliore she usually feels okay walking on Eighth, but still feels a little uneasy every now and then. “I avoid it at certain times of day, especially, like, walking down to work. I’ve had people yell at me or harass me. I’ve had someone try to pull the scam, where they bump into you and they drop the sandwich and they yell at you that you need to pay for it. I just said I know this is a scam and kept walking. I usually don’t feel like I’m going to get hurt by someone because there are so many people out there, but it does feel uncomfortable, for sure, at times.”

Another woman told Migliore about an aggressive man who startled her on Eighth as she was walking to her job. “I was walking, it was the same time, just got off the train. This guy just completely jumped out- ‘Give me some money now!’- and I was like, oh my God, and I stepped back. But, lucky thing, there was some construction workers, and they came over like, “Are you okay?’ and they got rid of the guy.”

It's not only women who are wary of the corridor; Migliore found one man who tries to keep his guard up on the walk to work. “It’s a little shady. I mean, I’m a little- I shouldn’t say my situational awareness is down, but, uh, you do get used to things, so… [today] I didn’t see a pile of orange caps from needles.”

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