The government shutdown has been great for some lower Manhattan hobos — who are now able to catch up on their beauty rest during the day on the steps of Federal Hall.
As the national memorial on Wall Street went unstaffed for the second week, The Post on Friday observed one man resting comfortably at 12:30 p.m., just feet from the giant bronze statue of George Washington.
“Excuse me, you go!” building security would have directed the snoozer if Federal Hall was open, according to vendor Rooby Abdelrehim, who was selling hot dogs and drinks a few feet away.
Behind Rip Van Winkle, there was evidence his pals also knew of the now-plum sleeping spot, with cigarette butts, papers, flattened cardboard boxes — and even a deflated blow-up neck pillow — sitting on either end of the building’s grand portico.
“Just sad,” said Jeffrey Spitzer, 30, who cursed when he saw the shuttered building — and the trash.
That mess was nothing short of unpatriotic, according to some disappointed visitors — who climbed to the locked entrance only to see a sign that said “AREA CLOSED because of a lapse in federal appropriations.”
“Our first president took his oath of office here and our [current] leader can’t get it together enough to keep it clean,” said Emma Barfield, 25.
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A single homeless woman often sleeps under the Greek Doric columns — but Federal Hall workers at least toss her cardboard boxes in the morning, said a man sweeping the sidewalk.
The partial government shutdown that began Dec. 22 closed that Greek revival building, which is run by the National Park Service, along with seven other sites in the Big Apple, including Grant’s Tomb and the Hamilton Grange.
Only the Statue of Liberty and Castle Clinton at the tip of Manhattan remain open.
Meanwhile, at another National Park site, the Gateway National Recreation Area on Staten Island, garbage cans were overflowing last week.
Some National Parks out west, which have remained open but with little or no staff, have been overrun with trash and human waste during the shutdown. And three people have died in park accidents during the shutdown, the Washington Post reported.
Tim Stack, 57, a Staten Island resident who works in finance and was taking a smoke break at the bottom of the Federal Hall steps, said he supported the government shutdown but thought the state or city should at least step in and pick up the trash.
“We’re all supposed to be in this game together,” he said.