Let’s Make Bellerose Great Again: the Sad State of the Bellerose Inn

The things that are happening in Bellerose Inn are crazy. A hotel that was beautiful and very welcoming has become a homeless shelter where people who look like delinquents congregate. People came to my nearby place of employment telling us that the people are using drugs and there may be prostitution going on in there. This hotel is located in front of the Food Town supermarket and has a lot of other family places near it like pizzerias, ice cream shops, restaurants and so much more. What happens if at 8 pm you would want to leave your house and grab something to eat? Would you really want to walk near a place so shady? Something must be done about this situation, and these people need to leave my neighborhood or properly assimilated into various communities: by assembling them in this one location, something that was once peaceful and safe feels anything but.

Enter the Bellrose Hotel..if you dare!

Enter the Bellrose Hotel..if you dare!

The hotel is not really big but is very nice on the outside and also in its lobby. There are lights that glow and change colors at night. From a distance it seems like it’s a regular hotel and that nothing is going on in there, but you know what they say: “Don’t ever judge book by its cover,"  and the Bellrose hotel is a true example of this cliché. The people working there were very nice and very understanding when I investigated, however, as I walked inside, a horrible scent hit me. The smell of smoke which means that somebody had been smoking inside an area that clearly said no smoking. “Oh, you smell that too?” said Jack, a security guard at the hotel. “I can’t wait until they do something about this, all these people do is come in and out of here, smoke whenever they want and doesn’t care about if someone’s allergic or not, plus we have babies here.” Smoking is not the most serious of crimes but it shows a basic lack of respect by the people staying here.

As I walked out the hotel, a tall dark skinned  girl holding a baby boy, made eye contact with me. I assumed she lived in the hotel, so I asked her how she felt about living in there. “Well,  the girls there are nice, but it’s just the men that scares me a little," she said. The men scare me too, girl!

This was dropped in resident mailboxes and posted around the community

This was dropped in resident mailboxes and posted around the community

Bellerose, a small community within Queens that’s so quiet you  barely hear of anything dangerous happening there, now has a dangerous situation brewing. I heard they recently held  a protest about it. A man who withheld his name came to my job telling me the story, and said that he hopes that the city council does something about it: “I don’t want to see the neighborhood that I grew up and raised my children in get mess[ed] up because of this bad situation. I really hope that this protest work[s]. I recommend more security in stores because of the stealing, and also a police presence so that people can feel safer again when walking outside... Tourists used to love this hotel. They used to come for Christmas and ...during the summer.”

The Bellerose Inn could be again be the way it was once. It is a very beautiful hotel that is not as inviting anymore. The people of Bellerose needs to feel safe and happy, and the situation is a complicated one. People need a place to live, but a location like this is a breeding ground for trouble: should a resident get robbed, raped, or killed before real change happens?

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