By Daniel Katzive
It has been a weird month on the Hudson River. In addition to an oil spill and a stolen fireboat, we can now add an act of intentional immersion of furniture from the Pier i Café.
At some point overnight, a vandal or group of vandals threw into the river more than 30 chairs belonging to the restaurant, which is located in Riverside Park South at the foot of West 70th Street. Also tossed into the river were a table with an umbrella. Other tables and chairs were overturned on the cafe’s patio.
Morning dog walkers and joggers in Riverside Park spotted chairs and the table littering the rocky beach below the pier, and many chairs were submerged at the morning high tide before 8 a.m. Later in the morning, as the tide ebbed, workers on-site to set up for lunch were able to climb down and retrieve the furniture, using a long paint roller to catch some items bobbing in the water. Some chairs were returned to service but others were clearly damaged and had to be discarded.
“It kind of comes with the territory,” said J.C. Chmiel, an officer of the group which manages Pier i, along with the Frying Pan restaurant further down the river in Chelsea. Chmiel, who was on site as the restaurant opened for lunch Wednesday, told WSR the company has experienced vandalism in the past; operating in a public place makes it difficult to prevent, he said.
According to Chmiel, the café has security cameras whose footage might help identify vandals, and a report will be filed with police.
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This makes me sad. And I suspect that, even if they ID those heartless inconsiderate jerks, nothing will happen. This is why we can’t have nice things. 😢
Yup. But people want to protect the rights of the poor, underprivileged perpetrators over the rights of those of us who follow the rules.
An eye for an eye – if they catch the criminals, throw them in the water. Any of them who can swim back to shore can then get thrown in jail.
We have to stop feeling sorry for criminals in this city and institute some real consequences for behavior like this. I doubt the perpetrator are employed. Let’s have the spend 6 months cleaning up vandalism and picking up trash in the neighborhood. That’d make them think twice about doing it again.
Unfortunately, the current vibe in this city always resists this type of restitution. It creates shame. They prefer creating and offering new city funded services in the belief that people misbehave because their needs aren’t met. It’s also creates a new pool of jobs connected with city funded services that employ people who are then dependent on the city and part of the machine. The thing is funding has to come from somewhere? And if they then cut other programs, even those not needed as much, then not for profits might get shut down and those people will lose their jobs. So, the proposal will be to find ways to raise taxes for “rich” people, you know the ones who drive cars or buy expensive apartments. We need some vandals since without them, these jobs wouldn’t be needed. Do you notice the cycle and why so many chronic quality of life issues never get solved in ways that may seem obvious to so many of us?
— ” I doubt the perpetrators are employed.”
The perpetrators were probably a bunch of teenagers out having a good time. Given the number of items tossed into the river and the fact that no one saw or heard anything, it had to have been done pretty quickly, which would mean more than just a couple of isolated perps. It’s unlikely that a large number of adults would have committed to spending their time on doing something this silly during the middle of the night.
I think it’s a *brilliant* suggestion to “have them spend 6 months cleaning up vandalism and picking up trash in the neighborhood.”
Or cleaning up the restaurant and park. Until they have paid off damages plus more
Put ’em on poop duty with just their bare hands to clean it up.
Yes! Punishment appropriate to the crime!
And the ones who can’t swim back can drown? Isn’t capital punishment a little steep for this crime?
I understand your anger. I share it. I hope the culprits here are found, tried, and APPROPRIATELY punished. But I think inflammatory sentiments like the ones you just expressed cause a cycle of escalating anger and lead to uncontrolled rage and eventually violence — on either side.
It is most likely stupid teens. Make them smart by sending them to prison where they will forced to build chairs and learn the value of building something and not being destructive. Also, garnish all future wages and force them to pay for the damage. I am sick and tired of the destruction in this City by miscreants who contribute nothing to society.
If this behavior goes unpunished, the end of waterfront dining is inevitable.
This is not just a matter of wet chairs. It is about a threat to an industry along with hundreds of workers.
It is also a matter of wet tables and umbrellas.
You can minimize the vandalism, but it is a matter of the disintegration and destabilization of a civil society. If we permit the smaller infractions, the situation will only fester.
Agreed. We seriously need “wet table policing”, and let’s hope it works as well as its predecessor “broken windows policing”.
Of course it will go unpunished. Noone will lift a finger to even take a proper report, let alone investigate.
They’re not even arresting people pushing and threatening young children in this city now.
What?!?! 😂 😂 😂 Please tell me this is sarcasm
What don’t you understand Isaiah? Businesses can’t keep buying new furniture, or even pay their workers to get them out of the river, and still make a profit. So they will close if this kind of thing keeps happening.
Do you ever walk around early morning and see how many bus stops are trashed or even broken overnight? The workers just replace the glass and scrub the graffiti. It’s a city job. With all the cameras, they have to know who is doing this? Harder when it is the private sector but govt has unlimited money to spend.
Pretty clear to the rest of us.
An UWSer being overly dramatic? Shocking!
There are a lot homeless with mental issues that roam that area. A lot of them have a lot of anger at the people they blame for their problems, white people with money. That’s why all these “random” attacks are not really that random the victims are most often White or Asian women.
I somewhat agree but is it just me or are the perpetrators of these types of crimes from a very particular demographic? I’ve been thinking why that is and if I should engage with my friends of said demographic about it? I really do not know an answer but I would assume it has to do with some sort of trauma from generations past?
It doesn’t matter why. or what the perpetrator’s skin color is. We cannot excuse this behavior.
I agree with you and wish we could stop making it about a person’s skin color. Though, this messaging is driven by the electeds in this city and reinforced daily. NYC used to pride itself on being a multicultural and multiracial melting pot of New Yorkers. It was our strength and what made this place interesting and unique. Now it is a way to just divide us. It needs to stop. Visit places that are completely homogeneous, do they have no social problems?
What is the “very particular demographic” you’re referring to?
It has to do with people constantly being told they are a victim. Constantly being told that white people are racist and that they are responsible for all of your problems.
No mentally ill white people?
I agree that these are targeted attacks. The perps often are not “homeless with mental issues” — it’s angry, resentful teens and some older people, who find it fun and satisfying to cause pain and injury to specific types of others.
Vandalism and violence can be group-bonding recreation. Medical masks and hoodies provide anonymity and untraceability; still, let’s try high-res cameras, followed up with significant consequences for perpetrators.
What kind of society do we live in where a business owner accepts this type of behavior with a shrug and “It kind of comes with the territory,” ? When are we going to say enough is enough?
What would you have the business owner do? Hide out at night with a shotgun?
Ummm….
That works for me.
How do we know it was vandals? Are we sure it wasn’t the wind?
The wind could knock chairs over, but they’re not paper-light furniture that could go Mary Poppins airborne and over the river railing without some human assistance.
Nice try, Mr. Mayor, we know crime is not down.
you’re 100% wrong, and should delete your comment: “Continued declines across most major crime categories prevailed during January
2024, compared to the first month of last year, and included substantial drops in murder, rape, burglary, and felony assault. And for the second month in a row, the number of vehicles stolen in New York City was reduced by at least 3.8% (1,178 vs. 1,224)”. https://www.nyc.gov/site/nypd/news/p00099/nypd-january-2024-citywide-crime-statistics
The statistics are flawed, when so many crimes have been downgraded thanks to our DA, and when so many don’t even bother reporting crimes, knowing the perpetrators will not even be jailed.
I doubt it is down compared to 2019 though. Hopefully it will go down to those levels
Having spent some considerable time in the Upper West Side over many years I read this from the UK with sadness where this kind of behaviour is generally driven by excessive abuse of alcohol in the early hours … It’s a phenomenon we have become used to resulting in restaurants and bars having to clear and chain everything every night …. What a damn shame and so utterly pointless ruining so much for so many by so few! Ughh …
Haha, Jonathan, I spent a weekend in Dublin’s Temple Bar in 2001 and I have never seen so many happy (“happy”?) absolutely blackout drunk people signing and laughing and dragging outdoor furniture, traffic signs, etc around after midnight… around 3am a pair of lads had somehow gotten a whole mailbox off the ground! I don’t have to live with it, so I just thought it was kind of funny and impressive but 20 years later, interesting to hear it’s still a whole thing.
I love Pier i and feel bad this happened to them though, it’s a real neighborhood treasure
I lived in the UK for 15 years. This is not the act of boisterous boys just being boys after the pub closes—that was tolerable in London. Here, it’s the mentally deranged or those who have been fed victimhood propaganda from the media and who think they have a right to destroy other people’s property—it is constant and pervasive and NOT tolerable.
Just terrible. What is wrong with people? We need more cameras and police. Hopefully they will be caught.
Instant Karma will get to them…. it always does. And guess what? They will never know what they’re paying back from the karma they’re going to receive. LMAO
If only you were right. If only there were such a thing as karma.
Instant? So, shouldn’t it have happened already?
That’s a shame you can’t have anything nice….. The world has changed for the worst. They’re just no “common sense” out there anymore.
I appreciate these things that the restaurant did but to see this it is so sad.
It’s either homeless people or younger generation that have no common sense and very sick in the head.
These people are sick who do this… I say, bring back the draft!
And reopen the mental hospitals that Rockefeller closed in the 60s.
How terrible! This is one of the neighborhood’s best places to hang out when it’s open (such a fun outdoor place with great views when the weather is nice). I hope this doesn’t eventually lead to a curtailment of dining at pier I
— “I hope this doesn’t eventually lead to a curtailment of dining at pier I.”
Of course not. You’ll just have to stand.
OMG 😂 Y’all sound like the future of society hinges in the arrest of these chair tossing vandals. Let’s not be so damn fearful. The owner clearly said it’s happened before and guess what? They were OK! Sheesh, you guys find anything to blame the downfall of society it’s hilarious 😂 Someone littered in Columbus Ave — “WE’RE DOOOMED!!”
Your attitude is why things in NYC are declining.
Statistically the people that frequent neighborhood news sites like these are pearl-clutchers, this is basically another version of Nextdoor. People that aren’t as fearful are too busy living their lives to worry about things like this. It’s why if you do frequent these sites, it seems like the sky is falling because the statistically more fearful bunch are always on here saying so.
Which is why, when reading these comments, when I see one from Will I say “a-WAY!”.
Bingo, Will! Thank you for so eloquently stating what so many here don’t get.
But you and Will are on the site too. Maybe people who come on here just…want news of what is going on.
Dear Will,
Speaking of pears to clutch – I no longer can clutch them as wearing jewellery now is not advisable. If it is snatched people like yourself would be saying it wasn’t street-smart and blame the victim. While continuing their saga about how crime is decreasing and how great their life is without pearls, outdoor tables and chairs and other nice things.
Your acceptance of the unacceptable is the problem. If it was your property, would you be so nonchalant? This is but one instance of the constant vandalism in this City.
These are the services and amenities that add to my quality of life. It actually feels a bit spiteful. Jealousy, boredom, anger, untreated mental issues, lack of parental love or supervision, trauma, etc. it really doesn’t matter. I’m getting exhausted sacrificing things that matter to me because vandals and law breakers aren’t held accountable for their destructive behavior since the DA will choose not to prosecute even if they are caught. And all the workarounds that businesses need to create, which carry higher prices to those who pay. Talk to me again about compassion and what a person deserves or is entitled to have because they exist?
If outdoor dining goes, people will starve.
Knowing that there are people around who will do this kind of thing, there is a reasonable standard of care that business owners need to exercise to prevent something like this from happening. Especially for a business such as this where it has happened in the past, why would they even purchase chairs and tables that cannot be chained and padlocked together overnight? And then endanger their own employees to go down onto the rocky, slippery shoreline to retrieve the tables and chairs? You don’t see restaurants, hardware stores or other businesses leaving expensive merchandise outside all night.
I hope they find the perpetrators and make them spend 100 hours each cleaning the shoreline.
“You don’t see restaurants…leaving expensive merchandise outside all night.”
Isn’t that exactly what we saw here?
OK, I should have written you don’t see other restaurants leave expensive things outside all night unattended.
A new form of victim shaming. Amazing.
This is NYC, you have to take some responsibility for your property if you want to keep it. I lock up my bike when unattended, maybe you leave your stuff on the sidewalk?
Bigger issue is the kitchen workers going onto the slippery stone shoreline without even one life jacket, throwable PFD, or safety line. Going to be interesting if OSHA gets wind of this.
Where should they put the tables though?
Lock them up at night along with the chars.
Chain them!
To youthful drunks this would have seemed quite hilarious.
The nets on the pickleball courts in Riverside were all slashed about a month ago. I wonder if it’s the same people who threw the chairs and tables in the river.
Wow. Hadn’t heard about that. Maybe all these places will have to have protective fencing around them?
May the perps be caught and put to cleanup or building work for at least a year. May they learn the satisfaction of doing good.
I love how people are assuming this is the work of some hardened criminals or crazy homeless person, when it’s just as likely this was done by some bored rich teenagers who live on Riverside Blvd.
Doesn’t matter what demographic – not acceptable regardless.
The messages imply that certain demographic won’t be help responsible.
Disgusting
Identify the vandals? So that they can be slapped on the wrist and come back again and again? Unbelievable how this is happening more and more. Yet we are told repeatedly that things are better. I pass by the cafe every single day and have seen unhinged men and women who obviously need help, or prison, walk around and up to no good. Of course, our very nasty and lost green shirts will always address dog violations. Never anything serious like vandals, speeders or people throwing garbage. .
This is horrible. But what is worse are the attitudes of people who think this is no big deal. You are a major part of the problem.
A possible cause is teens on motorbikes using the Hudson River Greenway. Greenway cyclists have been after the NYPD for the past few years, to begin regular patrols and get rid of the motorbikes.
All the city’s highways have police cameras, but the greenways have nothing. Now, petty criminals know that they can go anywhere in the city and never be observed.
I love Pier I. I was actually thinking of going fishing there very very early in the morning when it gets a bit warmer. I think I’ll scratch that idea as somebody may throw me off the pier. I’m surprised they don’t have a security camera.
And Mayor Adams will do nothing about this type of vandalism which is common in the City. He’s too busy using City funds to pay attorneys for his “official misconduct” issues!
This is so infuriating. The cafe on the pier is one of the most beautiful and relaxing as well as affordable places to enjoy having a drink or dine Al fresco in the city and these low- lives destroy this. Also, I’m surprised the workers had to jeopardize their safety to climb down to the river to retrieve the furniture? They got no assistance from the parks department? I’ve never seen any vandalism like this before. Sad times indeed.