We embedded the video of the meeting below. Iscol starts speaking (and answering questions) at the 23-minute mark...
Wednesday, February 28, 2024
You can watch last night's Community Board 3 meeting right here
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Ok a lot to take in. Around 22 minutes in, Andrea Gordillo, CB3 Board Chair, said "A Few weeks ago, we held a community round table which I hope everybody read about in the EV Grieve" so a nice shout out there. Re Zach Iscol, he did mention his Marine Corps service record* at least 3 times during the meeting. That being said, he has a point that the previous migrant crisis's, the Vietnam war refuges, the Cuban Boat people, the Haitian boat people, etc., these were handled at the Federal level. It does not excuse NYC incompetence but it a major crisis that overwhelmed NYC as well as other cities as well. Anyway, I advise everyone here to review the imbedded CB3 vid meeting and thank you EV Grieve for providing the thread.
From Wiki:
"Iscol served two tours and served in Iraq from 2001 to 2007 as a Captain in the U.S. Marine Corps, 3rd Battalion, 1st Marines. During his service in Iraq in the Iraq War, he fought on the front lines in the Second Battle of Fallujah, as commander of a combined action platoon composed of 30 U.S. Marines and 250 Iraqi soldiers. He was awarded the Bronze Star Medal for bravery in combat in that battle, with Combat-Distinguished V device, and the Combat Action Ribbon. After returning from Iraq, he successfully lobbied to bring his threatened Iraqi translator to the United States."
What I extrapolate from this is that every migrant that ends up at St. Brigid’s has come from a 30 day stay in one of the city’s homeless shelter — and they could have been easily re-ticketed there! This entire ordeal was designed by Mayor Adams to create turmoil & chaos for them (and local residents) so that some scatter or accept a plane ticket out of the city.
notes from the first part of where Iscol starts talking and first few questions. (paraphrasing, not exact quotes)
- been at this 18 months
- opened 200 emergency shelters across city, now all at full capacity
- before the crisis started, the entire city shelter system was 47k people. now it is 120k. 68k of those are migrants
- city has now taken in 180k migrants total
- of those total 180k people, 110k have left the system
- 2k to 5k people arrive in city per week looking for care
- 15-18 different languages spoken at some sites
- about 40k people have been processed to work authorizations and temporary protected asylum seeker status
- families with children are now prioritized; single adults get 30 days of services, then reticket @ St. Bridget
- reticking waitlist causes the lines
- it takes about 8 days of waiting for these single adults to get through the reticketing process waitlist
- there have been over 20k on waitlist at times; waitlist today is 3.5k
- new policy is to let people know what numbers are going to get called what day so the entire list doesnt show up and mill around
- wait time (outside, once you get told your number will be called soon) is now < 45min
stopped listening at 38:53
After the back slapping/kudos segment of the meeting, CB3 explained to us how wonderful and culturally enriching it is to have 300+ migrants at the North West corner of Tompkins SQ Park all and every day without a housing solution in site.
It's truly disappointing that feckless decision makers in NYC have so little practical life experience in dealing with situations that have a major impact on the rest of us.
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