“Practically overnight, the neighborhood devolved into chaos.” That’s what one Upper West Side resident said of the peaceful neighborhood she has lived in since 2007.

The Stratford Arms hotel on W. 70th Street was once the dormitory for students of the American Musical and Dramatic Academy (AMDA). But in May, “migrants showed up with suitcases” said Brenda McIntyre.

Students relocated and hundreds of illegal immigrants moved in. The hotel is also home to around twelve elderly people who are also handicapped. “They’re very stressed out” McIntyre said.

Primarily “shenanigans” occur on the busy street Broadway, a main thoroughfare, where migrants ride mopeds and electric bikes the wrong way down streets popping wheelies.

McIntyre has confusion about how and why these particular immigrants have arrived in that particular area. They don’t appear to be asylum-seekers, she said, because they are coming in with brand new clothes, luggage and cash.

“From what you see on TV, this is not the same group,” she said. “These people did not come through the jungles of wherever. As soon as they got here, they’re buying mopeds.”

Police confirmed the mopeds were not registered or insured and have confiscated them. “But as fast as the police are scooping them up, they’re getting them back or they’re buying more,” added McIntyre.

National Review writes that Mayor Eric Adams’s office announced in mid June that the city would be repurposing Stratford Arms as a “humanitarian emergency response and relief center” to “serve adult families and single women,” according to a press release . “As the estimated number of asylum seekers that have arrived in the city since last spring surpasses at least 74,000, these sites will serve more than 800 individuals in 516 rooms.”

However, McIntyre says most of the migrants are adults with no kids, and the city statement noted any single adult would be kicked out of the building after 60 days. “It’s supposed to be adult parents with children,” she said. “It just looks like they’re adults. It’s a co-ed building. There’s no families because they’re all hooking up. There’s no young children.”