Check out the video of Eric Adams grandstanding to cheering crowd of activists on MLK Day. He's decided that transplants from Iowa and Ohio have silenced and stolen from native New Yorkers. Don't get me wrong...there's a vital conversation to be had here. But it's a generation of politicians, like Eric Adams who have held power in parts of this borough, and who should be talking about structural change and explaining why they haven't come up with effective solutions to what essentially boils down to a SUCCESSFUL American city dealing with growing pains.
Easier, I guess, to blame a bunch of job seeking apartment hunters who, for the most part, play by the rules assigned them by the greedy and powerful of this City. They don't come here to steal; they come here to live, work and contribute. Do they need some tips on how not to be rubes? Hell yeah. But "go back to..." rhetoric will get you, Eric, sent back to the private sector quicker than it will win you the Mayoral election. It's not going to make life easier or better for anyone, and only encourage more division and mistrust. You sir, a child of the Black Panther generation who admires the trailblazing work of Louis Farrakhan and Al Sharpton, should know that the "GO BACK TO..." phrase has an ugly history of its own.
I've been in Brooklyn for more than 30 years, and I laugh that REAL New Yorkers like Eric Adams will never give me a pass. But you know who else are New Yorkers? Rudy Giuliani, Donald Trump, Robert Moses and generations of outright out-in-the-open racists. Surely these aren't the native New Yorkers you want protected from Iowans?
The race-baiting is on and it's a real shame. Also calling out Starbucks is just plain weird in this day and age. It's one of the most integrated coffee houses around (barring the occasional dumb-ass managers), second only to Dunkin' Donuts, our de facto community center in the early evenings.
Shit. I liked this guy once. After taking a steamroller to our community board back in 2013, I started to wonder if his hench-woman Ingrid Lewis-Martin was more interested in settling scores than making the neighborhood more harmonious.
What I'm realizing is that politicians will rarely be real to your face. I think the guy in this video is speaking from the heart. And that's what disappoints me too; that I thought maybe he was one of the good guys, someone who knows that our sum is more than the parts of our story.
1 comment:
Simple-minded scapegoating and pandering to the base. Gee, where else have I heard this kind of rhetoric?
I thought Mr Adams had a lock on my vote for mayor. Not anymore. Had expected far better, which makes this, as you say, very disappointing.
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