What is Fight Back Bay Ridge? (Updated Dec 2019)
I have seen a lot of incorrect information about the group Fight Back Bay Ridge online recently. Mostly, the incorrect information is coming from staff of one politician, who don’t want people to know the truth. I am not a member of FBBR, but I have watched them for a long time. If you have any questions about FBBR, leave it in the comments (comments don’t publish).
What is Fight Back Bay Ridge?
Fight Back Bay Ridge is a collaborative action group that seeks to activate community organizing and civic engagement in South Brooklyn. “We work towards the betterment of our neighborhood by forging connections, sharing knowledge, and building our collective power through projects implemented at local, state, and federal levels.” FBBR is the acronym of the group.
Fight Back Bay Ridge organized after Donald Trump became president. It started with some progressive residents, who wanted to do something: Sally, Cathy, Fawn, Larry, Mallory and Alan. They saw Republican leaders were complacent and not helping the community. These pioneers made a Facebook group and worked on started working on a Townhall Meeting. Justin Brannan and Kevin Peter Carroll (Sally taught him many years ago) went to the second meeting. Hear more about their startup here.
When does Fight Back Bay Ridge have meetings? The third Tuesday of every month at the Methodist Church – 4th Avenue and 74th Street from 7:30 – 9:00 pm. You can go to one meeting or many meetings. Once you are on the private Facebook group, you can participate in the group. It’s a group for people who want to get involved and make their neighborhood a better place.
Who is in the group Fight Back Bay Ridge? FBBR is composed of lifelong residents of Bay Ridge and newer residents of Bay Ridge, as well. The group does have some members from Bensonhurst and Marine Park too. Everyone and anyone who wants to do something about the unfair treatment of people or speak up and inform others about what’s wrong with a certain policy or politician’s response is welcome to join. At recent Summer Strolls, I saw more members of Fight Back Bay Ridge and realized they are residents I know who volunteer for a lot of other things in this community.
Are only women in FBBR? While it appears there are many women in FBBR, there are also men in the group as well.
When did Fight Back Bay Ridge become a group in our community? FBBR was started during the November 2016 elections.
Which candidate is Fight Back Bay Ridge supporting? FBBR has not endorsed any candidates in any elections. They do not allow candidates to campaign on their Facebook page. Since they don’t endorse candidates, they don’t often have in-meeting political discussions.
Whose funding them? This is grassroots group of individuals who work together for their community. No politician is funding them. They do use Go Fund Me to invite the community to help them if people want to.
Why is Fight Back Bay Ridge speaking out against Senator Golden who has been the Senator of Bay Ridge for years? Senator Golden may have started out as a fantastic representative of this community, but over the years Senator Golden has been involved in a lot of things which aren’t right. Fight Back Bay Ridge has been speaking out against Marty Golden’s lack of leadership and poor policies. In my opinion, Senator Golden is no longer representing Bay Ridge because he is too involved with Pay-to-Play politics.
Is FBBR a socialist group? No. As FBBR explained: “Because we work toward the betterment of the neighborhood, and that includes all people, our politics ARE left-leaning. We have no formal political ideology. Membership ranges from the center-left to the left, which does include socialists. But we are not a socialist group, and we aren’t a group of Democrats, either.”
What has Fight Back Bay Ridge done so far? These are the things I have seen:
- October 2017 – FBBR protested Dan Donovan’s policy on women’s reproductive rights. This silent protest was unique as they dressed as Handmaidens. See here and here
- November 2017 – FBBR informed residents on how ill-informed Dan Donovan was on Net Neutrality. See article here
- April 2017 – Fight Back Bay Ridge held a townhall meeting because Dan Donovan refuses to hold townhall meetings in Bay Ridge. It was one of the most organized events Bay Ridge has seen.
- August 2017 – When a local writer wrote an article entitled, “Stop Being So Hard on Nazis.” Fight Back Bay Ridge informed residents and advertisers of the publication (see here). The paper printed an apology and discontinued the column as a result.
- April 2018 – FBBR Informed everyone about the Republicans trying to bring Neo-Nazi, Sebastian Gorka to Bay Ridge for a fundraiser for Dan Donovan. See here Senator Golden, as a top Republican did not speak out against this.
- Summer 2017 – FBBR continued to share information and protest politicians about the upcoming health care vote. See here
- Spring 2018 Created the NY 11 Voter’s Guide – they created this guide to help residents see which Democratic candidate represented their views
- Spring 2018 – Contacted local businesses in Bay Ridge to participate Celebrate Voting with Specials for people who had a voting sticker. #WinWin for businesses and residents
- Spring 2018 – FBBR members tried to meet with Marty Golden to discuss money which wasn’t given to school in our area. Golden staff initially made an appointment, but then Golden cancelled it. Marty Golden’s office will not schedule an appointment for these residents to meet with Marty. FBBR informed the public that Marty Golden is not getting the NYS funding that is owed to these schools. See here.
- March 2018 – FBBR informed Bay Ridge residents about Golden’s plans for body scanners, which even Senator Golden didn’t seem to be clear about.
- April 2018 – Marty Golden has made poor environmental choices – this city is ready to move away from plastic bags. On Earth Day, FBBR gave out reusable shopping bags with these two handouts: one two
After the last Summer Stroll, I saw a Golden supporter make a comment that Fight Back Bay Ridge was only giving out bags for a short time during the last stroll. The group gives out bags until all the bags are given out. Once their nightly supply is in resident’s hands, FBBR members go and stroll with their friends and family. People really like these bags so they go quick:
- April – June 2018 Informed residents about the NRA holding gun raffle events in our community. See here
- June – July – Protested against Pablo Villavicencio being held as he was on the road to citizenship. In July, a court ruled in Pablo’s favor for that reason.
- Summer 2018 – Informed residents about about how Marty Golden’s wasted time in the Senate with his weaker speed camera bill so the bill the NY Assembly passed was not voted on. The printed this paper that shows the 14 School Zone Speed Camera Violations that Senator Golden has made from 2014 -2018.
- July 2018 – FBBR Spoke out against Marty Golden and Nicole Malliotakis blocking residents on social media. Malliotakis unblocked residents. See here
- FBBR spoke out about Senator Golden voting against legislation to help child victims of sexual violence. YES, Senator Golden voted against these sex abuse survivors.
- Summer 2018 – FBBR have informed residents about fake accounts on Twitter – see here
Was Fight Back Bay Ridge disruptive at Summer Stroll? No. At the Summer Stroll, Marty Golden gave out yellow balloons and Fight Back Bay Ridge gave out reusable yellow shopping bags with the #NotSoGolden logo, as well as these stop signs. Two employees of Senator Golden didn’t like that FBBR were giving out items. One employee went over to members of FBBR and took a bag and stop sign (see picture 3 and 4 here)
After the stroll, one member of Golden’s staff made drama on Facebook by calling the Summer Stroll a battlefield. Yet, the only people who were complainingabout FBBR were the two staff members from Golden’s office. Residents are seen smiling and posing in pictures that FBBR posted . Marty Golden’s staff has to work at these events so some of them may not have been happy (as seen here). The media reported to see the same Summer Stroll vibe as always – see here, here, here. Residents seemed to love the bags and fans.
- October 2019 – The Gerrymandering Art Show. This is one of the most unique events of FBBR.
- November 2019 – They worked on defeating one lazy Congressman and one corrupt State Senator by supporting new leadership with Max Rose and Senator Gounardes. After the election, FBBR didn’t gloat, but their support of elected leaders and the win was obvious.
- December 2019 – When visitors to the Dyker Heights Christmas Lights were making a mess and exhausting everyone with garbage, Fight Back Bay Ridge organized their own crew of people to change garbage bags. Some of their members stayed in the area and held bags for people to throw away their garbage. No one asked them to do this, but they did because they are residents who take action to help when they can.
- Spring 2019 FBBR talked about the environment and they said they were partnering with the Dept of Sanitation. The Dept of Sanitation was setup on 85th and 5th Avenue, but they are no longer there. FBBR mentioned sharing composting bins, but then that topic dwindled….maybe the demand didn’t exist.
- June 2019: FBBR is working with local restaurants on Meatless Mondays in Bay Ridge, but I didn’t see anything other than the logo below. I didn’t see anything online or any signs in restaurants.
- June 2019 – Brannan, Gounardes and Frontus overrode Community Board 10. On social media, I blocked a lot of FBBR members because they thought the area needed painted bike lanes and wanted to tell me how great they were. Covered bike lanes are needed in this area because of the way people drive. I was shocked to see Brannan and the other overrode Community Board 10. My student died just outside of Bay Ridge while she was riding her bike. The driver was not held responsible.
- July 2019 – Fight Back Bay Ridge and other groups held a rally outside of Max Rose’s office that was well attended. They wanted Max Rose to help the children that were in border camps.
- August 2019 – Fight Back Bay Ridge presence at the Summer Stroll. They collaborated with groups to bring a book wagon with free books AND an environmental group to work with children. It was VERY nice!
- August 2019 – Fight Back Bay Ridge and other groups rallied Max Rose again. This time it was a lot smaller of a crowd. They wanted Max Rose to support impeachment of the president. Rose waited to support the impeachment.
- December 2019 – FBBR did not participate in Dyker Lights like last year. The garbage problem continued in Dyker Heights because there weren’t enough garbage cans. on street corners.
- December 2019 – One of the leaders was strange on social media. Senator Andrew Gounardes failed to do anything about property taxes. He likes to send out a lot of press releases, his press releases aren’t revealing anything new. Gounardes also didn’t do anything to get the missing money for schools. While I tweeted that, Sally thought I needed to know about the group who was advocating for school money (I already knew it….most people do) and then she didn’t want me to talk about property taxes with that topic of school money……even though that’s where the money is supposed to be going. If you don’t care about people who are being unfairly taxed or don’t understand, don’t join the discussion. There’s no reason to go after someone for advocating for fair property taxes.
Is Fight Back Bay Ridge an antifa group? No. I have seen Republicans in the area try to discredit these hard-working people who are standing up their community.
Is Fight Back Bay Ridge dangerous because they are “fighting back”? No. They are peaceful residents who are speaking up or verbally protesting about things that aren’t right or just in the community.
Why is they symbol a fist if they are a peaceful group? The fist represents that they are standing united in authentic actions, both large and small, with a goal of both fostering and creating an equal society for all individuals, regardless of their differences.
Did Fight Back Bay Ridge have an attorney serve a Cease and Desist letter to Marty Golden? Yes. Fight Back Bay Ridge had an attorney serve Marty Golden with a cease and desist letter for freedom of speech. FBBR is holding Senator Golden accountable. You can read the letter here. Senator Golden did not respond to the Cease and Desist letter.
Did Fight Back Bay Ridge Break Campaign Finance Laws by Campaigning Against Marty Golden? No. Fight Back Bay Ridge contacted the NYC Board of Elections and filed the necessary paperwork for electioneering. Normally, FBBR does not get involved with electioneering, so they were unaware they needed to file the paper. Electioneering means that they collected money with the purpose to defeat a candidate in a political campaign. Usually FBBR just informs the public about what a candidate is doing (like with their handouts or bags). The paperwork they needed to file was not due yet because they just collected it. Anyone stating that they broke campaign finance laws is incorrect.
Is Fight Back Bay Ridge involved with Councilman Justin Brannan? Originally, Fight Back Bay Ridge was not connected to Councilman Justin Brannan. Some of their members supported Brannan’s opponent in the primary. Now (2019) FBBR is connected with Brannan. They do not call him out if the issue isn’t important to them.
Would they speak out against Councilman Brannan if he was doing the wrong thing? While Brannan ran for office, Fight Back Bay Ridge spoke out against Councilman Brannan. A hotel was being placed across the street from a school. Councilman Brannan spoke out at the rally against the hotel/homeless shelter with Marty Golden and FBBR challenged Brannan. In 2019, they have not spoken out against Brannan.
Can anyone join FBBR? Anyone is welcome as long as their thinking is in line with FBBR insofar as using progressive activity to better the neighborhood. Contact FBBR through their Facebook to Twitter account.
As for me, I think Fight Back Bay Ridge has changed a lot. Originally, I saw them as community builders, but there’s been a real change in that.
Hugs,
marlene
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