While this is more of a local news story, I thought some of you might get a kick out of it. By this time you are doubtless aware of the total crap show that New York City has turned into lately, with shootings and violent crime seeing spikes to levels not seen in decades. Meanwhile, City Hall is busy defunding the police and closing down the NYPD’s plainclothes violent crime unit. (How’s that working out for you?)

But another thing to know about New York if you’re not familiar with the region is that there’s a lot more to the state than just the Big Apple. The upstate region is vastly larger by raw landmass, though only accounting for less than 40% of the state’s population. It’s in one of those smaller, upstate burgs in the Hudson Valley, Fishkill by name, that this story takes place. Fishkill is a village of barely 2,000 people, best known for the prison found out in the even less-populated township. But the Village Council still needs to look out for the safety of the hamlet’s residents. Having kept track of all the mayhem engulfing New York City, one of their councilmen decided to take action by issuing a travel advisory for anyone considering going to Gotham because the place is simply too violent for tourists to safely visit. (Westchester News 12)

East Fishkill Councilman Anil Beephan is warning his constituents about visiting New York City due to the recent uptick in violence.

Beephan released a statement on Facebook saying, “it is recommended that area residents exercise increased caution while visiting New York City.”

According to the NYPD, there were 205 shootings last month, compared to 89 in June last year – a 130% jump.

“I just thought it would be important for residents in my town to know that there is an uptick in crime and they should be careful when they go down there,” Beephan told News 12. “Keep their wits about them, try not to go into the city and travel down dark areas by yourself.”

Here’s the advisory posted to Anil Beephan’s official Facebook page.

As you can see, councilman Beephan is providing all of the specific information that travelers should require. Rather than declaring all of New York City to be a danger zone, he identifies specific “hotspots” to avoid. Those are The Bronx, Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens. Presumably, Staten Island and parts of Long Island are okay if you want to visit. And to be fair, the Hamptons still tend to be lovely this time of year, assuming you can afford to go there on your prison guard salary.

All joking aside, this isn’t the first time that United States cities have fallen under travel advisories and some of them have come from much larger areas than Fishkill. The entire nation of Uruguay issued a travel advisory for the City of Baltimore last year. During the same period, Amnesty International issued a travel warning for all major cities in the United States because of our “gun crisis.” Other countries, including Germany, France and Denmark have issued similar gun-related warnings to their tourists thinking of going abroad.

With all that in mind, is it really so unusual (or such a joke) for someone to warn people about going into the Big Apple while the mobs control significant portions of the streets? It may sound like some snarky humor, but I personally wouldn’t book a trip to Brooklyn right now if my life depended on it.