New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio will meet with Jewish and Arab students during his visit to Israel this weekend. “He will speak about anti-Semitism in Western countries, and how cities around the world deal with it. His spokesperson said, “…the Mayor has spoken on anti-Semitism and security cooperation as a matter of interest to the residents of New York City”. The event is to take place Saturday at an olive grove and vineyard in Israel, the mayor’s office said.
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De Blasio defended his plan as the best solution to help low-income New Yorkers.
You should be aware that, since the brutal siege on Gaza of summer 2014 when over 2,500 Palestinian civilians were killed and many more injured and displaced, the military violence against Palestinians (murders of youth, house demolitions, punitive reprisals, incarceration, restrictions of mobility, lockdowns of Palestinian neighborhoods) has escalated massively.
The area around Washington Heights and Inwood has 53,500 rent-stabilized apartments, the most in the city.
De Blasio explained to the man concerned about affordability that the bulk of his affordable housing plan targets families who earn between $20,000 and $40,000 per year.
Though the attendees, most of whom hailed from working-class Washington Heights, were not prohibited from asking about topics beyond tenants’ issues, the night was steered to a discussion on housing.
At the end of the meeting, de Blasio promised he’d take action.
“Look, there are people of all walks of life that are going to get affordable housing in this city”, he said.
Another man asked de Blasio about his stance against the deportation of Haitians from the Dominican Republic, angrily saying that the mayor owed Dominicans an apology following his public statements calling the move a “racist”, “illegal” act.
Jeffries is reportedly considering running against de Blasio for the New York mayor’s office in 2017.
“You have a partner, you have a friend, you have an ally at City Hall”, de Blasio told the crowd as he wrapped up.
When a woman angrily related how she had sought assistance from HRA with a landlord issue, only to have a city employee make a derogatory remark about Latinos coming to America, the mayor turned solemn.
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Despite his inexperience in the town hall setting, he seemed comfortable. “The legal services for people who are being evicted-free”, he said.
