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Famed writer Bret Easton Ellis hasn’t been back to New York City in years, and during his recent trip, he wondered ‘how the f**k can anyone live here?’
Ellis, 58, who is currently engaged in a multi-leg tour promoting his first new book in 13 years, ‘The Shards,’ recounted barely recognizing parts of the city he once lived large in.
In a recent interview with Vanity Fair, Ellis told of his recent jaunt to the Big Apple.
‘I arrived Wednesday night during this horrible storm, and then the usual problems of getting your luggage, an hour waiting at Delta carousel, and then the ride into New York,’ he said. ‘I thought, How does anyone live here? How in the f**k does anyone live here?’
Author Bret Easton Ellis (right), 58, delivers a book talk with the New Yorker’s Naomi Fry in Brooklyn last month
Ellis is currently promoting his new novel, The Shards, which is loosely based on his experience at an elite Los Angeles day school in the 1980’s
Despite the book (and subsequent film) that made Ellis extremely famous – American Psycho – being set in New York City, the author says the town hasn’t been the same since the 1990’s.
‘It was a glorious time to be in New York,’ he said. ‘I talk to a lot of people who just simply agree – to be youngish and living in New York during that period, and to be involved in the magazine world, the glorious magazine world.’
The interview notes that, in late January, Ellis drove through the downtown Astor Place neighborhood and didn’t recognize anything – his old stomping grounds – noting as well that the author does ‘not miss’ the city he no longer recognizes.
Fans who attended his recent talk with Naomi Fry of the New Yorker at a downtown Brooklyn high-rise wondered what hip spot the high-talent, high-society novelist might swing by after his discussion.
They may have been disappointed with the answer.
He chose to return to his hotel bed – at the Loews Regency on 61st and Park Ave. – and to room-service, wine, and the food network, instead of going out on the town for a night of debauchery following his work commitments.
Though Ellis doesn’t elaborate further on his decades-long retreat from New York City, his current apathy bordering on distaste for the city may stem, at least in part, from the multitude of problems facing the concrete jungle.
From the seemingly ceaseless stream of illegal migrants arriving, to the unabating homelessness crisis and garbage piled waist high, New York City has seen finer days.
Until recently, many of the thousands of migrants who have arrived from Central American countries were being housed at The Watson Hotel on 57th and Tenth Avenue in tax-payer provided hotel rooms.
Bret Easton Ellis, 58, said he no longer recognizes his old New York City neighborhood and is generally happy to stay out of the Big Apple
Ellis has acquired a number of young fans, many of whom were not yet born when American Psycho made its debut
Though fans wondered where Ellis (right) might swing by to party after the event, he told Vanity Fair that he headed back to his swanky Upper East Side hotel for a glass of wine and a scroll through his missed emails
The Loews Regency hotel on 61st and Park Avenue in Manhattan
Bret Easton Ellis (left) with writer Jay McInerney at Club MK in New York City in 1990. The two young, hotshot writers were part of the so-called ‘literary brat pack’
Dozens of migrants slept outside of The Watson Hotel for days after getting removed from the hotel to make room for migrant families. The men were bundled in sleeping bags, blankets as to stay warm in freezing temperatures. Many of the items seen here were donatedÂ
New York City Mayor Eric Adams has been desperately trying to solve the city’s migrant crisis
The migrants from Venezuela, Columbia, Peru, Honduras, and the Dominican Republic are now being provided with free bus tickets to Canada, where they seem to believe they will be embraced with open arms.
‘We don’t want to stay in New York … we want to go to Canada because we think we will get more help there,’ one migrant told the DailyMail.com last week.
One Venezuelan migrant said the military ‘gave me and my family free bus tickets.’ He plans to join his son, who is already in Canada getting assistance finding a job and housing.
NYC Mayor Eric Adams, who frequently socializes at members-only club Zero Bond with sorts of New Yorkers Easton Ellis has spent years writing about, has repeatedly expressed extreme frustration with the migrant crisis.
As the migrants arrive in NYC, National Guard soldiers have been stationed in the Port Authority bus terminal to hand out free tickets for shuttles heading upstate towards the Canadian border.
City Hall sources said the move was part of a ‘re-ticketing’ plan to help migrants work their way to Canada, according to The New York Post, where president Justin Trudeau has been outspoken about building a haven for people in need.
The buses that are shuttling the migrants are traveling as far north as Plattsburgh – just shy of the Canadian border – where they are met by local van and taxi services that transport them the rest of the way and drop them where Canadian police can gather them.
Driver Tyler Tambini, 23, told The Post that he has been transporting at least a ‘100 people a day,’ and his fare for the drive is $50 for individuals and $90 for families.
‘I do this all day. They get dropped off and I take them the rest of the way,’ Tambini said.
A midtown Manhattan block covered in heaps of uncollected garbage
Trash piles up on Manhattan sidewalks weekly as trash collection standards have become increasingly relaxed in the last years
The drug-addicted homeless population has soared in NYC to new heights in the last several years, disrupting several facets of public life, including most daily commutes
Law enforcement in NYC have been given an order to stop allowing the city’s homeless population to ride the subway all day
A homeless man sits with his sleeping bag at a TD Bank ATM in Midtown
The significant uptick in undocumented migrants in need of shelter, as well as common criminals, have led many an NYC business to alter its business model in accordance with the city’s current state.
Recently, the site of NYC’s homeless population slumped over in bank vestibules at Citibank, Chase, TD, Wells Fargo, and Bank of America has become commonplace.
Residents have reported regularly seeing drug use in the vestibules, finding them strewn with trash and sleeping bodies, and harassed or even assaulted by vagrants who have taken over the spaces.
Banks have been forced to hire security guards to monitor ATMs after dark, and last week Chase Bank announced it would be closing some of its ATM vestibules after 5pm to combat the situation.
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