Pols Gather to Pan Crown Heights Homeless Plan

I also should have mentioned that we also went to state representatives and they held a hearing (I was one of several community people who testified before them) because the issue was considered to impact Homeland security in NYC. And with all that, Bloomberg still closed firehouses.

My point isn’t to say don’t fight- just the opposite. But to find other ways of putting pressure on elected representatives and doing outreach to as many groups as you can. don’t stop at Brooklyn- every borough will be affected if the Manhattan is shelter is closed because the will mean the Manhattan can put every social problem they have everywhere but Manhattan. Don’t waste time on the city hall steps giving Markowitz yet another camera to hog. Put pressure on his office to do some real work.

people are very much against adding to the shelter and enraged- but not only is a M-F rally a major inconvenience, it’s also impractical for the average person. You can say all you want that if you really believe in something you will attend, but not when multiple rallies all fall in the workday. I think any politician who can’t be bothered to turn out on a weekend to support their constituents doesn’t deserve to represent them.

“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!!” I agree but from bitter experience fighting firehouse closings I can tell you the Mayor can and will ignore letters and petitions. We had thousands of signatures, and held numerous rallies across 4 boroughs, networked with numerous community groups and CB’s as well as coordinated with the fire unions and Yvette clark’s fire and safety committee, and they still closed all but 1. And that was because the City Council didn’t stand up to him on the issue.

For my part I think Gifford Miller was major part of the reason, but my point is that unless you make sure the City Council will stand up to the Mayor, it won’t matter. Put them under pressure- because the Mayor will be doing his part as well. If Quinn rolls over, so will the council. Unless you make sure your elected representatives understand what you want, not just on the day of a rally, but everyday, in front of a TV camera or not, they will simply let the Mayor have his way. And he is such an arrogant s.o.b that he will do as he pleases.

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.

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!!