Bklyner Attempts to Change Bay Ridge’s History
Three years ago, Khader El-Yateem and Justin Brannan were both running to for the City Council seat to represent Bay Ridge/Dyker Heights.
El-Yateem gained a lot of media attention when he focused on having a plaque dedicated to Robert E. Lee removed. (See here) Very few people cared about the plague as it was attached to a tree outside of a church that was no longer being used.
El Yateem and Brannan protested for Fort Hamilton Army Base to change the name of some of their street signs. Governor Cuomo also agreed that the signs should be changed. (See here) Justin Brannan won the City Council seat and the statues at the Fort Hamilton Army Base were never mentioned again – not by politicians, civil groups or anyone.
In 2017 and the start of 2018, NYC still discussed the removal of the Christopher Columbus statue. Brannan didn’t support the removal of the statue. (Source) Eric Ulrich had a bill which would require NYC Council to approval of any removal of statues on NYC property. Brannan joined the bill, but the bill didn’t go anywhere and is no longer active. (See here)
In 2019, Inez Barron had a bill to create a task force to examine the monuments, statues, public art and historical markers on city-owned property. Justin Brannan did not co-sponsor the bill. The bill passed through City Council and was enacted, but Mayor de Blasio returned the bill unsigned. (See) If this was important to the Mayor, wouldn’t he have signed it?
Fight Back Bay Ridge, Radio Free Bay Ridge, the socialists and all of the politicians forgot about the statues….because it was never about the statues.
The Black Lives Matter Movement made people question statues and all of a sudden Councilman Brannan chimed in.
If this topic was so important why was it dropped? Brannan hasn’t pursued it in any way for years! When something is important, people talk about it. This would be like me not mentioning property taxes for years.
Surprisingly, Radiofree Bay Ridge knows no one has spoken about the topic for three years and they didn’t say a word about that.
We were surprised to see Bklyner leave out most of the history of this issue. El-Yateem’s name wasn’t even mentioned in the article. The journalist failed to mention that this was a 2017 campaign issued and that no politician has mentioned the issue for years!
Why do journalist want to change Bay Ridge’s history with their articles? The history of this community is important to the people who live here. I sent a tweet to Bklyner and there was no response. Swaying articles in favor of politicians, who seek the media’s attention, instead of being committed to doing the work, doesn’t create an accurate picture.
Hugs,
marlene
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