Eco-warrior or neighborhood nudge?
Ethan “Freckles” Schneider introduces himself as a “Central Park yogi” and “extreme minimalist” who lives on the streets and attempts to leave every place he goes “a little when I found it” Cleaner. “
The 29-year-old Missouri native – known for camping at West 74th Street and Columbus Avenue and surrounding streets – puts most of his worldly possessions on a modified mountain bike with an electric wheel with a mini plastic porta potty.
“My mobile command station consists of several human-powered carriages and wagons as well as three electric vehicles that were rescued and awaiting repair. I use this collection of vehicles to include transportation and secure various projects To do, which I am working on, ”Schneider told The Post.
His Instagram story quotes Ralph Waldo Emerson (“To be understood to be great”) and Charles Darwin (“It’s not the strongest or smartest to survive, but the best who can manage change”) Are included.
He states that he is not an asana: “I am a yogi and live a yogic lifestyle but I am not much as a yoga instructor and I am not certified.”
Schneider said his goal is to “promote health, discourage disease” and live a lifestyle “that produces zero noise, zero air pollution, zero water pollution and zero waste.”
“To live a minimum life and create less pollution, it is important to live in an environment that does not require a lot of physical property,” Schneider said.
But some Upper West Siders allege that Schneider is a “neighborhood nuisance”, whose behavior has made some residents uncomfortable. A woman on the Facebook group claimed that Schneider stole her son’s blue wagon because she has been seen with a wagon that looks like her son. “This bike was chained to the parking pole overnight and he stole it. My son saw it when we were riding a bike on Columbus and said ‘Mother, this is our wagon’ and it certainly was. All the scratched and tinted front wheel is definitely the hour (sic), ”the mother posted.
Schneider categorically denied those allegations and claimed that he knew nothing about any stolen blue wagon. When The Post visited Schneider on April 14, he had a wagon consistent with that description.
“The fact that you all came together in this group to bully homeless people is simply absurd,” one Schneider defender posted on the UWS Facebook page, “that he did something to violate your life or your freedom Haven’t done it either. “
“Most of the struggle is that I am young, athletic and intelligent and they are old, fat and silly,” Schneider said.
Over the years, Upper West Side vocal activist Judy Cisco said, “I have no problem with the homeless. Ethan is not on the street because he is homeless. … He is a nuisance. There are people who need protection and help.” . He’s not that. He thinks he’s a visionary. He thinks he’s saving the neighborhood. “
Cisco said Schneider was sleeping in front of the Unitarian Universalist Church on 76th Street from Central Park West during the epidemic “and it slowly expanded. No one on the street cared until he started spreading his belongings on the street and became uncomfortably familiar with people giving him food and talking to him. “
Schneider warned, “If Upper West Siders want to legislate on the sidewalk, they are welcome to try at their own risk and their own harm.”
A spokesperson for the Department of Social Services-Homeless Services said they were “aware of the situation” and “a multi-agency effort to address it”.
Raylead Schneider: “DHS is trying to take me back and forth and has finally brought me into its socialist court over the years. … They are complaining about me rather than acting in accordance with my interests and desires.” Continue to work on behalf
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