Adams Boycotts Verrazano Bridge Celebration
In a bipartisan show of support, Democratic Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams is joining with his Republican Staten Island Borough President James Oddo and all of Staten Island’s lawmakers in boycotting today’s 50th anniversary of the Varrazano-Narrows Bridge because of the MTA’s proposed toll fair hike on the bridge between Staten Island and Bay Ridge.
It currently costs $15 to cross the Verrazano on a westbound trip, though eastbound is free. MTA officials are looking at a proposal to increase tolls to $16 in March. It will be voted on in January.
“I am joining my colleagues in Staten Island in a boycott of the celebration of the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge’s 50thanniversary. This bridge physically unites our two boroughs, and it has again united its elected representatives in response to the exorbitant tolls that Brooklynites and Staten Islanders pay to cross this span, at a time when the MTA is considering what would be the fourth fare and toll hike on commuters in seven years,” said Adams.
Adams called on the State to apply its surplus towards addressing infrastructure challenges, including helping us establish a truly fair fare on both sides of the bridge.
“There is nothing to celebrate until our city’s commuters can finally receive the Verrazano toll relief that they deserve,” he said.
Opposing Initial Responses To Obama Immigration Amnesty Plan
Two of the borough’s elected officials reacted differently to President Obams’s executive action that would grant amnesty to some 5 million undocumented immigrants, granting them rights to work legally and pay taxes.
Democratic City Councilman Jumaane Williams said as a “proud first generation American of Caribbean decent, I commend our country’s Administration for developing this well thought out, fair initiative, which, in addition to protecting immigrants already here, will help promote safe and legal immigration to the United States.
“These changes will affect thousands of constituents in my district and multitudes of people across the city, as they will soon be able to enjoy many of the rights and liberties that come with being a New Yorker. Until a few years ago, my own brother was subject to deportation. Thankfully he was never ripped from his home here in the states and sent back to the country he left as a child, unlike the fate of so many Americans,” Williams added.
Williams concluded, “For too long our country has closed its doors to immigrants who need our protection or who try to move here for better opportunities. But this is the Land of Immigrants. Immigrants built this country and today without them the USA would not exist economically or culturally, figuratively or literally. It’s my hope that this initiative is the first step in continued efforts to fix our country’s broken immigration system. Congress must build on this plan to bolster broader immigration reform and cut the barriers of bureaucracy so many immigrants face, instead of focusing on childish threats of government shut-down.”
But GOP Congressman Michael Grimm, who represents Bay Ridge, Bensonhurst and Dyker Heights along with Staten Island called Obama’s order a unilateral executive action that is a “shameless act of defiance against the will of the American people, as evidenced by the fact that even countless Democrats begged the President not to grant blanket amnesty before the recent midterm election.
“I’ve made clear since day-1 that I reject amnesty and believe that we cannot have an honest discussion about immigration reform until we first secure our borders. Unfortunately, the President’s unilateral executive order does nothing except create a class of non-citizen residents that further complicates our already convoluted immigration system, and proves that he has zero interest in actually working with Congress to accomplish long-term, meaningful reform,” he said.
Grimm concluded, “The priorities of this President and the left-wing base this move is aimed at pleasing are completely backwards, especially at a time when our focus should be on strengthening our economy to put middle class Americans back to work and taking care of our seniors and veterans.”
Today’s Events:
12 noon – Brooklyn Congressmembers Hakeem Jeffries and Yvette Clarke hold press conference to discuss President Obama’s executive order on immigration at the Shirley Chisholm State Office Building, 55 Hanson Place, Suite 603.
6 p.m. – Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams holds a town hall meeting, Medgar Evers College, 2nd floor, room 2008, 1650 Bedford Ave.
