In her last State of the City Address, term-limited City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito, spoke to hundreds of elected officials, advocates and Brooklynites – delivering her address at the historic Kings Theater, 1027 Flatbush, in the heart of Flatbush.
The Madame Speaker’s speech centered around the progress the City Council has made under her watch its goals for the future in a speech titled, “Who We Are.”
“And now when our resolve to do what is right is being tested, and when history has pressed us into action. This is a time to remember who we are. We are New York City,” said Mark-Viverito.
Mark-Viverito highlighted a couple of successes under her administration, in particular lowering penalties for minor offenses, expanding the city’s human rights laws to include protecting all gender identities, bringing feminine hygiene products to all schools and shelters, creating more affordable housing for residents, making city services more accessible to all New Yorkers, among other progressive policies.
The out-going Speaker also announced the recent legislation passed in tenant rights protections. “Going forward, the Council will pass legislation so when a landlord threatens a tenant, or commits another bad act, the burden will be on the landlord to prove it wasn’t harassment.”
Currently the borough of Brooklyn is experiencing an affordable housing crisis as the city looks to keep current residents from getting displaced by landlords looking to make money off of big developers.
Early last year the Rezoning of East New York Plan was passed in the Council as a revitalization project to bring more affordable housing to the area and bring in economic growth, according to DNAinfo. Though the plan has already been approved many current residents feel that the project could eventually push the local population out instead of keeping them in their home.
“Anyone living in Brooklyn especially is facing that fear of being displaced from their home. The market pressures are really squeezing people out of their communities and we have to do more. In East New York we passed a very comprehensive plan to get people the tools they need and the assistance they need to stay in their homes. Whether that is getting them better paying jobs so that they can afford the higher rent prices or getting them free lawyers so they can combat tenant evictions, tenant harassment,” said Council Member Rafael Espinal (D-Bushwick/East New York), who was at the meeting.
Mark-Viverito also doubled down on the city’s promise to support its immigrant population and keep families united without having to face deportation or ICE.
“While the federal government has already taken drastic measures to vilify our countries immigrants and make an already broken immigration system worse. This City Council has done more to support immigrants than any other city in the nation. In 2011, we [city council] passed a law I sponsored, limiting the city’s role in federal immigration enforcement unless there is a true threat to public safety. Since then we have made it even stronger by banning ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] from Riker’s Island, where detainees charged with low-level offenses were targeted for deportation, even if they were never convicted of a crime. And we created the New York Immigrant Family Unity Project, its first of its kind program, so that New Yorkers in immigration detention have legal representation. And created IDNYC, a government issued ID, available to all New Yorkers,” said Mark-Viverito.
The Madam Speaker continued with the city’s position on protecting IDNYC holders’ information and not allowing the federal government to use it to track down undocumented immigrants.
“I was proud that she doubled-down on us being a sanctuary city. We are not going to be intimidated by a buffoonish President,” said City Council Member Jumaane William (D-Flatbush, East Flatbush, Midwood), who is in the running to succeed her as Speaker next year.
“We have seen this issue play out in the federal government in the past four weeks and he [President Trump] is jeopardizing national security, jeopardizing the infrastructure of this country and we are going to do whatever we can to protect our immigrants. My family came from Grenada. I’m a first generation. Without immigrants, this country doesn’t exist,” he added.
