Jul 18 2008
Underneath The Bridge, The Tarp Has Sprung A Leak
Right across from the building I work in is the entrance to the Lincoln Tunnel. About a month ago, a homeless man began collecting cardboard boxes on the sidewalk next to the entrance to the tunnel. He had one big box that looked like a fridge may have been in it. He laid that box on the ground and that became the main section of his shelter.
Everyday for the past month he could be seen making improvements that ranged from adding new boxes on the ends to make it longer to taping a blue tarp over the entire thing to stay dry when it rained. I think he may have been stealing packing tape from post office on 33rd and 8th because he seemed to have and unending supply of the stuff.
After a week or so of this constant fxing and adding, it seemed like he had a pretty solid little shelter. There were no other homeless people in the area, so he pretty much had the space to himself. It isn’t the best place for a homeless person to decide to live because it is so easily seen by the public and spends the hottest part of the day getting baked in the sun. However, he seemed to be thriving.
A week or so ago, someone had dropped off a box of 30 granola bars next to his box. He opened them and displayed them on top of the box. I couldn’t tell if he was hoping to sell them or if he was giving them away. I did see him eat at least one of them and you would think if he was keeping them for himself he’d hide them in his box.
He wasn’t in bad shape for a person living in a box by the Lincoln Tunnel. You see homeless people wandering the streets of New York all the time and some of them look like they’ve been outside for years. I think maybe this guy was new to the homeless scene. His clothes were clean and he didn’t talk to garbage cans at all. People left him alone because “he don’t bother nobody.”
After work yesterday, I walked past his box and it was completely trashed. It looked like someone threw a stick of dynamite into it. I went over to the mess and noticed that the inside walls of his shelter were made from science projects from the girls high school down the block. He had displays about photosynthesis, a project on the planets and something about how solar power works. I don’t know if he was using them as decorative pieces or if were they strictly to keep out the elements. There was also writing on one of the walls that had kitchen with an arrow pointing to the left, bathroom with an arrow pointing to the right and bedroom with an arrow also pointing to the right. There is no way to know if the writing was already on the box of if he wrote it himself.
As I walked to work today, I noticed that all the old boxes were gone and new boxes took their place. Nothing was built yet, but it looks our man is going to rebuild.
