Arts & Entertainment
Lady Gaga's Papa Not Gaga Over UWS Migrant Housing: Report
The pop star's dad plans to lobby New York City for more security on an Upper West Side block now also home to hundreds of asylum seekers.
![Recording artist Lady Gaga, left, with father Joe Germanotta, right, attends a Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga concert taping on Monday, July 28, 2014, in New York.](https://patch.com/img/cdn20/ap/22926829/20230810/110941/styles/patch_image/public/ap679128339202___10101312276.jpg)
UPPER WEST SIDE — Lady Gaga's papa ain't gaga over the city's management of migrant housing near his Upper West Side home, according to a new report.
Joe Germanotta, 66, wants to see more security on West 70th Street at the Stratford Arms Hotel, where the city is currently housing hundreds of asylum seekers, he told the New York Post Wednesday.
“I don’t mind having them there," the pop artist's papa told the Post. "But at least manage it. Put the proper security in place, have a police presence and a code of conduct."
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Also Read: NYC Designer Who Dressed Lady Gaga Died In Homicide, Officials Say
Germonatta, who lives at The Pythian and owns the West 68th Street restaurant Joanne Trattoria, has concerns for his neighbors but also the 500 people housed inside the former American Music and Dance Academy dorm.
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“I think, for the most part, the 500 that are in there are good people,” Germanotta told the Post. “And I think they’re locked into very small rooms."
The Stratford Arms is one of three AMDA dorms converted to Humanitarian Emergency Response and Relief Centers for about 800 people — adult couples and single women — in June, amNY reported at the time.
The 11-story building has 387 units, according to the Housing Preservation and Development department.
Single rooms at The Stratford Arms are about 84 square feet, and double rooms are about 108 square feet, a brochure for incoming AMDA students shows.
New York City’s efforts to house the nearly 100,000 asylum seekers sent to New York City since 2022 has seen people sleeping on cardboard boxes on city sidewalks, tents, cruise terminals, and in recreational centers at public pools.
Mayor Eric Adams, lobbying hard Wednesday for federal assistance, estimated caring for the influx of asylum seekers could cost New York City $12 billion.
"Let me repeat: almost 100,000 men, women and children have asked for a place to stay," he said. "That’s almost the population of Albany, New York."
But the restaurateur argued in his interview with the Post that mismanagement had exacerbated the crisis.
Germonatta plans to take his concerns to cops and lawmakers, he told the Post. He said young girls are getting catcalled in the neighborhood where he raised the "A Star Is Born" star and her sister.
“If it was like this when my girls were growing up," Germonatta told the Post, "I wouldn’t be living in New York."
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