Eric Adams, Brooklyn Borough President, spoke at Harlem’s “King Day Celebration” on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, and spoke out about gentrification throughout the city.
“New York City belongs to the people that was here and made New York City what it is,” Adams explained.
Continuing his denouncement of gentrification, Adams began to point out statistics, stating that Ohio and Iowa are 82 and 91 percent white, telling the crowd, “Go back to Iowa, you go back to Ohio.”
About 300 members of the community came out to the event hosted by Rev. Al Sharpton, in which Adams reminded them that they were in the city first.
“You were here before Starbucks,” Adams continued. “You were here before others came and decided they wanted to be part of this city.”
“Folks who [are] not only hijacking your apartments and displacing your living arrangements, they displace your conversation and say the things that are important to you are no longer important. And they decide what’s important and what is not important,” he continued.
During his speech, Adams also spoke about the social crises in the city, including drug abuse and gun violence, which he claims were ignored by the nation when it only affected the “black and brown community,” the New York Post reports.
“If you know the spirit and anything about Dr. King, he did not allow others to be comfortable while everyone else was living in horrific conditions,” Adams said.
However, many individuals found his words to be divisive to the community.
Jenna Hockman, 28, has lived in Brooklyn her entire life and spoke against Adams’ comments, saying he was “blaming individuals instead of the system that enables developers to build these high-rises that are pricing people out.” She added, “I am concerned about placing responsibility on the individuals that are moving to these neighborhoods and not the people who are making money from these individuals moving there.”
Ohio’s Cuyahoga County Republican Leader spoke on Adams’ comments, insisting that he, “took Martin Lither King Jr.’s message of unity and made it a divisive message.”
New York City Mayor Bill De Blasio’s spokeswoman Freddi Goldstein released a statement regarding the mayor’s view on Adams’ comments stating, “The mayor doesn’t agree with how it was said, but the borough president voiced a very real frustration. We need to improve affordability in this city to ensure New Yorkers can stay in the city they love, but New York City will always be a city for everyone.”
Adams is currently the leading fundraiser in the 2021 mayoral race, and he earned $437,099 in political contributions, which consisted of major donations from the real estate industry, the New York Post reports.
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