My beloved New York has become a Third World nightmare

Back in 1920, a writer for the New York Morning Telegraph coined the city’s now-famous nickname, ‘The Big Apple’.

However, by the early 1970s, Manhattan was being referred to as the rotten apple—after violent crime had swept through it, turning the once-gilded metropolis into a danger zone. 

Things got especially bad during the late 1980s and early 1990s, when the crack epidemic took hold. 

During this period, NYC was a dysfunctional, crime-plagued, vermin-infested hive filled with violent psychotics, deviants and criminals. 

It often seemed the decline was terminal.

Then, in 1994, Republican lawyer Rudy Giuliani became the 107th mayor of New York City. He quickly undertook a major policy shift, implementing a zero-tolerance approach to BS.

It worked. 

Within months, crime statistics dropped dramatically. The urban decay was swiftly swapped-out for clean streets, glamor, and wealth. It marked a new era in America’s greatest city, and—like millions of other Brits—I quickly fell in love with it.

So you can only imagine my disappointment when I returned to Gotham, earlier this month, only to find it suffering from a brand new decline-—one that was impossible to ignore.

As soon as I stepped outside the terminal at JFK airport, the place reeked of weed; plumes of marijuana smoke filled the air, despite a heavy security presence just yards away. Nobody seemed to care. 

Especially not my taxi driver, who proudly told me (in broken English) that his favorite new side-hustle is picking up illegal migrants from a little-known place called Mountain Mart, near the Canadian border, and driving them 300 miles to NYC, where they’ll be looked after by the state. 

For this gig he earns $200 per person. 

The irony did not escape me. At passport control I’d been confronted with infomercials warning me against bringing plants into the country—because doing so might upset the ecosystem. Yet, somehow, illegals can flood the US border, upsetting NYC’s own ecosystem, but that’s fine.

It was laughable.

Sure enough, by the time I’d reached Midtown Manhattan, the consequences of mass immigration were obvious. 

Scores of African men loitered in the street, often looking utterly bewildered and without purpose. 

Many of the hotels I’d previously stayed had become exclusive migrant centers, paid for by the taxpayer. Outside them, families of Hispanic migrants sat on garden chairs in the street. Some played music and drank sodas, others urinated in the gutters. The smell of stale urine would go on to become a recurring blight on my visit. 

Meanwhile, near Chelsea, there were rows upon rows of unlicensed street vendors selling random junk, from counterfeit designer goods to Eritrean ‘art‘. The surrounding sidewalks were strewn with boxes and litter.

Think I’m exaggerating? Footage has since emerged of one street vendor cooking suspicious-looking meat.

Over in the East Village, I then noticed that a Catholic school, St.Brigid’s, had been repurposed as a migrant center. There, crowds of people-—mostly military-aged men from the sub-Sahara—were seen congregating near to Tompkins Square Park. They only spoke in Swahili.

According to the New York Post, the exact same migrant center was the scene of a recent mass-brawl, after one man cut in line for ‘free’ food. Two were arrested, while two police officers were injured.

Spoiler alert: this is not enrichment.

Of course, not all migrants act this way. And illegal migrants often have complicated stories. To some extent, I sympathize.

But many of them are criminals or opportunists who are simply exploiting the West. Recent data showed that migrants comprise 75 percent of all arrests in Midtown.

And the tensions are already spilling over.

On more than one occasion I saw suspected migrants clashing with native New Yorkers; the latter appearing blindsided, as if their liberal utopia was malfunctioning.

A similar incident was recently caught on camera and posted to X. It shows a man attacking waiters and diners at Keith McNally’s upscale eatery, Balthazar, of all places.

I kept thinking: you voted for this.

Meanwhile, in one of the upscale neighborhoods of NYC… pic.twitter.com/LRRHtafYVf

— I Meme Therefore I Am 🇺🇸 (@ImMeme0) September 16, 2024

Then, I experienced the other element of a rapidly-changing New York population: the pro-Hamas marches I witnessed along Fifth Avenue. To my utter dismay, thousands of people — many of them white liberals — promoted prescribed terror groups and called for death to Israel. Swathes of them wore the keffiyer and waved the Palestinian flag. 

How could such anti-Semitism be so shameless in New York of all places? It was astonishing.

The only thing more astonishing, I suspect, is the fiscal cost of importing, and hosting, thousands of state-dependent illegals.

Earlier this year, The Wall Street Journal reported that New York government will increase its spending on the illegal immigration situation by another $2.4 billion.

Currently, the cost of the crisis is projected to reach $10 billion by the summer of 2025, state officials say.

This is despite the fact NYC is running a $7 billion deficit.

“Without real immigration reform and a decompression strategy at the border, there will be no end in sight,” New York City Mayor Eric Adams said.

It also ignores the many legal residents who need help first; during my stay I witnessed a number of drunk and drug-addled people, many of whom were homeless and literally lying on the streets.

How could New York’s ruling class betray them?

The answer is simple: it’s the liberal policies that promise so much, yet never deliver.

The proof is everywhere: Democrat-run cities across America are frequently orgies of violence and dysfunction. We’ve seen it time and time again, from San Francisco and Portland to Chicago and Philadelphia.

It would be such a shame if NYC were to follow suit.

For me, and millions of others, the Big Apple deserves a much better future.

But, for that, it must fall far away from the branch of Democrat rule.