Before we proceed, let’s check in. How are you? How are you feeling? If you’ve come to our corner of the internet for a break from the general madness of a national election cycle, then welcome. But there’s work to be done, so here we go.
The results are pretty bad, and I’m not even going to equivocate with a “Well, there were some bright spots overall!”
It was not a particularly fraught election on a hyperlocal level. Greenpoint officially reelected three incumbents—Assemblymember Emily Gallagher, State Senator Kristen Gonzalez, and Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez.
City-wide, New Yorkers overwhelmingly voted to enshrine abortion access to the state constitution. Last night also saw the passage of four out of the five ballot propositions pushed forth by Mayor Eric Adams.
“The four propositions that passed will increase Adams’s power to sweep street vendors, slow down the City Council in passing legislation that impacts ‘public safety,’ and require further fiscal analyses before the passage of other legislation,” Hell Gate reports.
The fight against fascism starts in your own backyard. We recently reported that Nazi propaganda has been popping up near McGolrick Park. A reminder that if you encounter any more of it, leave it in place, and call 911.
And the only way to fight is through community. NBK Mutual Aid is hosting a get-together tomorrow evening to “share ongoing work, new ideas, and support one another.” Join them in McCarren Park tomorrow, November 7, at 6:30 pm.
If there’s one thing Greenpoint knows how to do, it’s fight back. While I’m not feeling overly sanguine about the state of the world, my belief in our neighborhood’s resolve and indefatigable kindness has never been stronger.
So get out there and be a good neighbor.
I am old …too old a relic perhaps; Still, I’m old enough to have experienced far far more elections than many readers. And that’s far different & much more complex than merely reading about them in stale history books. If it’s any consolation, there have been many recent times when the country has been nearly evenly split, even bitterly split –where history took a different turn because of a few percentage points: Kennedy/Nixon, Bush/Gore, Trump/Biden and now Trump/Harris. Democracy is difficult. The pendulum swings back and forth. Social media is too often anti-social. And sadly some yearn for the simplicity of the fast fix that the lure Fascism – especially Fascism posing as populism – promises. At this juncture many of us may feel devastated & drained. But in this time, in OUR time, in our all-too-brief & fleeting slice of time, we must make the best of it …and make it better – better in own own innovative & small ways, the small ways that can combine into crashing waves of hope, of solidarity, of healing, and of change. Yes, these are only words. But words can be powerful – powerful in shaping & communicating with others, and with our own deepest desires, dreams & nightmares. John Lennon, while in despair of our politics and culture once wrote: “Keep you doped with religion and sex and TV. And you think you’re so clever and classless and free. But you’re still f***ing peasants as far as I can see. But Lenard Cohen perhaps framed it a bit more hopefully, when he wistfully wrote “We are so small against the stars, so large against the sky, and lost among the subway crowds, I try to catch your eye”. The Persian Sufi poets of old likely summed it up the best when they wrote: ”And this too shall pass”. Alas, so shall we pass – but let’s make it matter while we’re here, while we’re here to yearn & learn & seek, while we;=’re here to love & lose, while we;re here to breathe the air and feel the warmth of the sunshine upon on our face – and in out hearts.