If New York City First Lady Chirlane McCray, and former Secretary of State and former White House First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton want to get out the word of their new initiative urging parents to talk, read and sing to their babies from birth they may want to start by telling the elected officials representing Brownsville.
McCray and Clinton made the announcement at the SCO/FirstStepNYC Early Education Center, 225 Newport Street in Brownsville. The center is located in Assemblyman Charles Barron and City Councilwoman Inez Barron‘s district, and not far from Assemblywoman Latrice Walker and City Councilwoman Darlene Mealy‘s district.
All four said they didn’t know anything about the press conference. Walker and Mealy both said they felt slighted that a presidential contender like Clinton and the city’s First Lady would come to the neighborhood, which is screaming with issues affecting low-income people of color, and not even merit an invite.
Charles Barron was much more blunt in saying the disdain that McCray and Clinton showed in not reaching out to the local elected officials goes both ways.
“They could have had a meeting in front of my house and I’d probably stay inside. That’s how much I could care less about being invited to something with Hillary and Chirlane,” said Barron. “We have much bigger issues in our district that go way beyond the two of them.”
One veteran reporter, who has been covering the area for the past nine years, said the event was perhaps Clinton’s way of trying to establish a toehold in Brownsville. She hasn’t been here for a long time, if at all, the reporter said.
The Clintons and de Blasios go back a long way and they are calculating politicians so it’s the way they do things, the reporter said.
The “Talk To Your Baby, Their Brain Depends On It” initiative will feature major public awareness campaigns and a new partnership with Scholastic Inc. to distribute baby book bundles to hundreds of thousands of new New York City parents.
