Bay Ridge Fights Back
I’ve been talking about the new political activist groups in Bay Ridge a lot lately.
Tonight, Fight Back Bay Ridge held a Town Hall because Dan Donovan wouldn’t. I have to tell you, I was cautious about this group because of their logo. I’ve been seeing the fist (above) representing a lot of groups of people. I was pleasantly surprised how organized these Bay Ridge and Staten Island residents were. This event was well planned out and informative. I hope the organizers would think about running for office in Bay Ridge because they are passionate and want the people’s voice to be heard.
Panelists
There was some very good panelists. (Tomorrow I will add more)
Particularly impressive was the passion of Andrea Shapiro. I never heard her speak before, but she was a powerhouse.
Participants
There were some great panelists – I really felt for the parents who spoke up about funding public schools. otably, there was a pre-teen named Althea who spoke out and really brought up something I have been meaning to talk about (more tomorrow as I have to get to bed).
City Council Candidates
Finally, some City Council candidates were present at the meeting and we saw some true colors tonight.
a) Liam McCabe didn’t understand why this evening wasn’t for him to promote himself. McCabe worked for Donovan and knows that Donovan should have ran this evening. While McCabe worked for Donovan, McCabe didn’t push Donovan to have a town hall in Bay Ridge. Donovan has the funds to rent a catering hall and run the event for Bay Ridge. I was surprised that McCabe took the low road as he has been in politics a long time and should have known better. Donovan didn’t want to attend because he was afraid of a rowdy audience and actually McCabe was the only one who was acting out. Watch the video. And of course Donovan has endorsed McCabe.
b) I caught Reverend Khader El-Yateem not being so supportive! The camera happen to capture El-Yateem not throwing up his emoji panel when the panelists encouraged more women to run for office. Moments later, El-Yateem threw the emojii up in the air when the panelists said that people who care should run for office. Check the video – it’s online.
c) Justin Brannan was there sending out humorous tweets
d) I didn’t see John Quaglione or the carpetbaggers, Bob Capano or Nancy Tong on the video – they could have been there, but there were no social media entries from any of them either. I’ll check with someone who went to confirm this for sure.
My Question
My question was asked during the meeting. Bay Ridge, you may not know this, but property owners are turning apartment buildings into SRO and no representatives are talking about it. The apartment building owner says he couldn’t find enough renters to rent the building so he turned the apartments into SROs. Residents find out when the police keep showing up at the building because the people living in the SROs like to fight with each other. It has to be someone’s job to tell the residents because this type of housing wasn’t present here when most purchased homes here.
Well done Fight Back Bay Ridge! You are amazing activists and organizers. :)
Hugs,
marlene
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