After watching local crime and thefts surge with his own eyes in recent years, one beloved New York City restaurateur has now allegedly experienced it himself.
"I just got attacked outside of my church… I was attacked," Joanne Trattoria, owner and father of Grammy award-winning artist Lady Gaga, Joe Germanotta, told FOX Business’ Maria Bartiromo on Wednesday.
"It was 7:30 in the morning, and I don't know whether he's homeless, he was a little disturbed," Germanotta detailed. "First, he pushed the pastor of the church. We were standing out in front, and then he came down the stairs coming after me."
The business owner and dad added: "I can't tell you what I did to him."
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Germanotta has served as an outspoken voice on the post-COVID rise in crime New York City saw in the wake of George Floyd protests, police defunding calls and continuing waves of unhoused illegal immigrants.
While The Wall Street Journal, this January, credited Mayor Eric Adams with lowering crime rates from 2022 to 2023 with law enforcement reform programs, Germanotta claimed the city still feels "unsafe."
"What's been so unsafe is a lot of people running around, just hanging out on corners, loitering," the restaurateur said.
"There's probably enough scooters and bicycles on the sidewalk to expand your delivery zone to Connecticut. They're everywhere, and they're buzzing around. You have to look both ways when you're walking down the street, because most of the time they're riding in both directions," Germanotta expanded. "The city's become unsafe in a couple of different ways, not just crime. Now there's chaos."
However, for small business owners like himself, it’s not just crime and chaos keeping a third of his regular customers away, but also sticky inflationary pressures.
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"I can tell you this, where we're getting hurt most is the economy," Germanotta said. "The customers that used to come in once a week, they come in once every three weeks… And you know who gets hurt? Not so much the restaurant or their payroll, but the workers and the salespeople."
"Business was booming four years ago. I was going to have the best year ever," he continued. "And it's been a steady decline since this new administration and the mayor and the crime and the newcomers. And just every time you turn around, there’s a 'gotcha' there."
