(The Center Square) — Nassau County Executive and Republican gubernatorial candidate Bruce Blakeman is blasting incumbent Gov. Kathy Hochul for allowing the state’s major airports and train stations to become de facto homeless camps and vowing to “clean it up” if elected.
Blakeman, who is seeking the party’s nomination to challenge Hochul in the November elections, cited recent news reports detailing how dozens of homeless individuals who have “taken over” the AirTran terminal at the John F. Kennedy airport, “panhandling travelers, confronting customers, and rendering public bathrooms unusable.”
“At JFK’s AirTrain terminal, commuters are being harassed by aggressive vagrants, bathrooms are taken over, and people are sleeping on the floor while authorities do nothing,” Blakeman said. “This is happening on Kathy Hochul’s watch, and she’s done nothing to stop it.”
Blakeman blamed Hochul and newly sworn-in New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani for pursuing a “soft on crime” approach to law enforcement, saying it “weakens quality-of-life enforcement, discourages clearing homeless encampments, and treats public disorder as acceptable.”
“This is the result — chaos in our transit system, bathrooms taken over, commuters harassed, and law-abiding New Yorkers pushed aside while no one enforces the rules,” he said.
Blakeman vowed to “clean up” the state’s commuter rail stations and airport terminals if elected to the governor’s office.
“That means enforcing the law, clearing transit facilities of people who don’t belong there, backing law enforcement, and making sure bathrooms, platforms, and terminals are for travelers — not encampments. This isn’t controversial. It’s basic governing. Kathy Hochul failed to do it. I will.”
The number of homeless people in New York skyrocketed by more than 53% in 2024 with more than 158,000 people living on the streets, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. That accounts for about 20% of the nation’s homeless, the federal agency said.
New York City has also been a flashpoint in the national immigration debate with more than 230,000 migrants arriving in the city since early 2022 following a surge of immigration on the U.S.-Mexico border. The city government has spent about $8 billion on housing, food and other costs for migrants in the past two years, according to data.
Meanwhile, New York City has been roiled by a series of horrific incidents involving mentally ill individuals on public transit over the past year, including a deadly stabbing spree in Manhattan by a homeless man with a criminal history and severe mental health issues.
Recent polls have shown New Yorkers are increasingly concerned about crime, especially on the subway system, despite recent data showing that violent crime is down in the city.
