{"id":755359,"date":"2026-04-26T22:59:17","date_gmt":"2026-04-26T22:59:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/755359\/"},"modified":"2026-04-26T22:59:17","modified_gmt":"2026-04-26T22:59:17","slug":"bruce-blakeman-slams-elitist-mamdani-at-site-of-controversial-nyc-homeless-shelter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/755359\/","title":{"rendered":"Bruce Blakeman slams ‘elitist’ Mamdani at site of controversial NYC homeless shelter"},"content":{"rendered":"

GOP gubernatorial hopeful Bruce Blakeman slammed Mayor Zohran Mamdani as a Manhattan elitist who is failing the outer boroughs during a Sunday rally at the site of a planned Brooklyn homeless shelter<\/a><\/p>\n

Blakeman, the Nassau County executive who is poised to take on Gov. Kathy Hochul in November, spoke to a crowd of about 50 supporters at the future site of a shelter on 86th Street in Bensonhurst, claiming kinship with Queens and Brooklyn and accusing the lefty mayor of being indifferent to their needs.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe share a lot of the same kinds of neighborhoods,\u201d the Long Islander said. \u201cThese are more suburban neighborhoods than urban neighborhoods. And people like the character. If they wanted a more urban environment, they can live in Manhattan.<\/p>\n

Bruce Blakeman said Mayor Mamdani and Manhattan \u201celitists\u201d don\u2019t care abou tthe outer boroughs. Gregory P. Mango for NY Post<\/p>\n

The site of the planned and controversial 150-bed homeless shelter in Bensonhurst. Gregory P. Mango for NY Post<\/p>\n

\u201cThey want local control. They want transparency, and they\u2019re not getting it from Zohran Mamdani or Kathy Hochul,\u201d he added. \u201cWe\u2019ve got to start letting the people in the outer boroughs\u2019 voices be heard, and when I\u2019m governor, their voices will be heard.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bensonhurst locals have been up in arms over the planned 150-bed homeless shelter at 86th Street and 25th Avenue for more than two years, claiming it will cause chaos in their peaceful neighborhood.<\/p>\n

The facility is expected to open by the end of 2027.<\/p>\n

Hundreds of protesters showed up at the site on March 30<\/a> in an attempt to halt construction, with as many as 100 NYPD officers called to the scene to try to quell the unrest.<\/p>\n

At the same time, officials in the Mamdani administration maintained that they would not back down<\/a> and are moving forward with the plan, which City Hall said is needed to serve the Big Apple\u2019s homeless.<\/p>\n

On Sunday, Blakeman and other critics of the plan made it clear they\u2019re also standing their ground \u2014 and said there are other ways to deal with the city\u2019s homeless crisis.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe way to do that is to take a multifaceted approach, not just stick them somewhere, and put a homeless shelter in the middle of a beautiful community,\u201d he said. \u201cSome of them have substance issues. Let\u2019s get them the treatment that they need. Some of them need job training. <\/p>\n

Elected officials and civil leaders joined in denouncing the planned Bensonhurst homeless shelter. Gregory P. Mango for NY Post<\/p>\n

Mayor Zohran Mamdani maintains that the homeless shelter in Bensonhurst is needed due to the homeless crisis. Michael Appleton\/Mayoral Photography Office<\/p>\n

\u201cLet\u2019s get them the training so they can get jobs and become productive members of our society,\u201d Blakeman added. \u201cThey need medical treatment, because they have emotional issues. \u2029Let\u2019s get them that help. We\u2019re not anti homeless. We don\u2019t want to hurt the homeless.\u201d<\/p>\n

State Assemblyman Lester Chang (R-Brooklyn) said Mamdani has other options.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are 9,000 available areas that can be occupied and renovated,\u201d he said. \u201cSeventeen billion dollars for neighborhood jails that nobody wants. We can take that $1 billion to fix up Rikers Island and the rest of the money can be for affordable housing and solve the city\u2019s budget deficit.\u201d<\/p>\n

The mayor\u2019s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Sunday. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"GOP gubernatorial hopeful Bruce Blakeman slammed Mayor Zohran Mamdani as a Manhattan elitist who is failing the outer…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":755360,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,5309,1121,22807,32459,5248,405,403,5226,5225,5228,5227,32134,67,586,132,5230,68,1154,2969,5301],"class_list":["post-755359","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-america","tag-bensonhurst","tag-brooklyn","tag-bruce-blakeman","tag-homeless-shelters","tag-metro","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-newyork","tag-newyorkcity","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-shelters","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-us-news","tag-usa","tag-zohran-mamdani"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116473493405254574","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/755359","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=755359"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/755359\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/755360"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=755359"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=755359"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=755359"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}