Pols Gather to Pan Crown Heights Homeless Plan

Judging from the photo, that's a low turnout. Could that possibly be because this rally was held during the middle of a workday?

Posted by: guest at June 26, 2008 10:18 AM

That's exactly WHY it had a low turnout. How many Crown Heights residents do you think can get out of work and travel to City Hall in the middle of the week?

Posted by: guest at June 26, 2008 10:40 AM

It's great that the Manhattan officials opted to participate and point out that this ridiculous plan would negatively impact Manhattan as well as Brooklyn.

Posted by: guest at June 26, 2008 10:52 AM

I agree, 10:40 (my post at 10:18 was sarcasm).

Posted by: guest at June 26, 2008 10:56 AM

I agree that the reason the City Hall rally was so sparcely attended was because it was in the middle of a work day. That's why I wasn't there, nor were many of the people I know who are against this, and have been spreading the word, working to get letters of protest out, and have attended weekend rallies.

I hope that we can somehow convey to the Mayor, as well as our elected officials, and community groups and organizers, that the sparse attendance of weekday rallies, marches, etc, only means that most Crown Heights people are hard at work, not indifferent. Even with a generous lunch break, unless you work in the City Hall area, it would be hard to get there, and be there for any meaningful length of time, and then get back to your job.

Too bad, as this is an important cause, and moving the intake center to Brooklyn will have repercussions in all of Brooklyn, not just in Crown Heights, and will not help those homeless men who need the services. We will need the support of everyone to change the Mayor's mind, not just protest from those in Crown Heights and Bed Stuy. This does not help the homeless, and Brooklyn is not the dumping ground for Manhattan's social responsibilities.

Montrose Morris

Posted by: guest at June 26, 2008 11:17 AM

These rallies are during a weekday because that's when the politicians are at work. It's a nice break from their office.

God forbid they give up a few hours on the weekend or evening to support "their" cause.

Posted by: guest at June 26, 2008 11:28 AM

It seems to me that if something is important to you, you WILL take the day off to be there if you have to. Although, it is much eaiser to just sit back and say "I would have gone but I had to work". It kills me that people will take the day off to go to a baseball game or to the beach and God knows many of you took the day off to go to Ikea the day it opened. When it comes to something that can ruin ALL of Brooklyn, not just Crown Heights everyone gets lazy and just waits for others to show up and do the hard work for them. What if the homeless don't feel like going right to the shelter and instead stop off in Park Slope or Brooklyn Heights and maybe stay a while. Gee, the Promanade sure is a pretty place to call home for a while. EVERYONE in Brooklyn and Manhattan should be at EVERY rally because this will affect us ALL!!

Posted by: guest at June 26, 2008 12:38 PM

If your logic is correct, 12:38, then the outrage over this plan is not as great as some on this board would have us believe.

Posted by: guest at June 26, 2008 12:43 PM

Hi 12:43. While I do think that people are enraged by this plan, I also think that they are not altogether informed or organized enough to put up any real fight. It will take more than the same few voices from CHARM and CHNA to have a real impact. People tend to just think that so and so will have their back so they just don't need to show up. It is no accident that this local was picked and the subtle way that Bloomy just tried to slide it in there just proves that he thinks that there won't be any real fight because people will just be too lazy to do anything about it. This not only goes for the people in the area but as i said before ,all of Brooklyn. The lack of organization in the Black community has always been a problem that has kept us from getting services when we need them and has had us shoulder far more than our fair share of shelters and rehab clinics and the like. Sure ,you have a few, hard working voices in every one of our neighborhoods that get things done, but something of this magnitude takes each and every one of us. No matter what race, what religion or what area we live in we all need to be at the rallys and sign the letters to the Mayor and make sure that this is not another Mayoral Done Deal!!

Posted by: guest at June 26, 2008 1:19 PM

Sorry . I wrote so fast that I forgot to put the e at the end of locale.

Posted by: guest at June 26, 2008 1:21 PM

I was one of the few from the community who was able to attend this rally. What you don't see in the pictures is the gaggle of press at the event - about as many people as were on the stairs. For whatever reason, this event brought out the reporters. The Press Rally held about a month ago, on a Sunday, at the Armory, for whatever reason did not. That Sunday rally did, however, bring out Tish James, Al Vann, Bill de Blasio, Marty Markowitz and a half dozen other local elected officials, suggesting the commenter above might be off in their complaint of elected officials keeping an exclusive M-F schedule. Whether yesterday's press presence leads to any actual coverage, I guess we'll wait and see...

I'm finding that a lot of people in the community still don't really know about this issue, or only have a vague understanding of it. For those of us that are actively fighting the plan, I would say that we have a big outreach and education challenge on our hands. The good news is that when people do hear the details (ALL intake for All 5 boroughs, 11,000 men in the last 6 months, in addition to the existing shelter, with the neighborhood already shouldering 5X the city average) outrage is, in fact, the most common response.

Many also don't want to be associated with opposition to services for the homeless in our neighborhood (since most of us actually support such services) and this also dampens turnout. Unfortunately, the mayor and DHS are cynically relying on that generosity to bully the change through. We're going to have to get it straight in our heads that we're not against the homeless, we're against this plan (and, as United for the Homeless, Picture the Homeless and other organizations have pointed out, being against the plan is actually being FOR the homeless). We have to get over it, and get out there.

My sense is that our elected officials are actually ahead of the community in terms of organizing around this issue. ALL the local elected officials, the Manhattan BP, the Public Advocate, the Comptroller - pretty much everyone except the (silent) Mayor and his (largely silent) commissioner have lined up with us. I can also feel the community waking up to this issue. I just hope we get it together in time.

Posted by: guest at June 26, 2008 1:23 PM

Just think. ALL of the homeless men in New york let loose on the streets of Brooklyn, just in time for summer. Although, no matter what the season this is a VERY BAD idea.

Posted by: guest at June 26, 2008 1:32 PM

Gosh, it sure doesn't look like this event was well attended. Wow.

Posted by: guest at June 26, 2008 2:57 PM

gdamn I hate Errol Louis.
Suburban hypocrite

Posted by: guest at June 26, 2008 7:59 PM