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Protest Held In Support Of Woman Handcuffed While Selling Churros Inside Brooklyn Subway Station.
"She was very nervous, very stressed and absolutely devastated," said Wilfredo Florentino, acting as Elsa's translator. "At that point, he forcibly tried to remove the cart from her, and she said please don't do that and he removed it anyway."
Op-Ed: Tenants and Activists Must Play Offense And Defense
“A few days ago, hundreds of diverse New Yorkers packed into cramped buses from the farthest reaches of New York State— in below-freezing Albany— to advocate for equitable and accessible affordable housing and to address the homelessness crisis. Housing is personal and it’s an issue that impacts everyone. Activists are determined to not allow systematic discrimination and a pay-to-play culture to leave our most vulnerable citizens out on the streets.”
Advocate Seeks To Keep A Seat At The Table For Brooklyn Community
“[We] face many of the same issues that other black and brown communities in our city face: gentrification and its ripple effect, lack of real affordable housing and homeownership, under-resourced and underperforming schools, lack of jobs and access to education, training and the linkage between the arts and strengthening community as a foe to appropriation,” Florentino reflects. “Systematic disenfranchisement and disinvestment have guaranteed that these issues impact our community the hardest.” Within District 42, these are longstanding obstacles for residents that Florentino seeks to ameliorate and overcome in the Council. “Racial and economic justice must be prioritized to address decades-long inequities that have become the reality in Black and Brown communities.”
Police Face a Backlash After Woman Selling Churros Is Handcuffed
“The vendor spoke to reporters at the protest and said that the police had laughed at her. She also said she had been selling churros in the neighborhood for three years. The woman, who identified herself as Elsa, said she pleaded with the police not to take her cart. “Please don’t do that,” she said, speaking through a translator, Wilfredo Florentino, a member of a local community board.”
Op-Ed: Churro Vendors, Immigrants, and Workers: The Soul of Our City
“As New Yorkers, we need to continue organizing, protesting, pressuring legislators and support the work of leading organizations to challenge the racist, xenophobic, elitist, and misogynistic system that oppresses the very soul of our city: its people. The work of groups like Riders Alliance, Street Vendor Project, Make the Road NY and others.”
Child Struck And Killed In Brooklyn Street: Officials
Wilfredo Florentino, transportation committee chair of Brooklyn's Community Board 5, called on the Department of Transportation to conduct a street census to address safety concerns in Brownsville and East New York. "Our community is still grieving over Patience's death when we learned of today's horrific incident," Florentino said. "I am horrified at the frequency of vehicular accidents in our district and the ineptitude of the Department of Transportation at directly addressing the needs of the communities it's supposed to protect."
Op-Ed: More Basement Conversions, Less Red Tape!
“The palpable excitement for the program was immediately tempered as homeowners realized that, as with most city programs, which sound incredible in concept, the implementation lacked practicality, transparency, and cultural sensitivity. The city does a poor job at engaging the community as it steamrolls policy and programs. Particularly in East New York, a community that has traditionally been disinvested and disenfranchised, that reality must factor into the implementation of any program that aims to address a growing and imminent need.”
More aggressive Vision Zero upgrades sought after two Brooklyn children killed in 48 hours
Wilfredo Florentino, the chair of Brooklyn Community Board 5’s Transportation Committee, told reporters Sunday that his advocacy from the advisory board has been largely ignored by the Department of Transportation. “New York City and the Department of Transportation have been willfully negligent. They have failed our community time-and-time again. our demands for action on our streets have fallen on deaf ears,” Florentino said. “The [incident] that occurred on Crescent Street only a few days ago; right before that accident there had been a request in July 2019 [for street safety improvements], which was denied by [DOT]. They had all the evidence but unfortunately failed us once again.”
City’s Plan to Fight Coronavirus in NYCHA Buildings Off to a Slow Start
Wilfredo Florentino, a candidate for the City Council’s 42nd District, said residents also have reported to him their confusion around the program. “I’ve gotten calls from NYCHA residents asking about the tablets announced by the mayor, and where they can pick them up. Again, no details, leaving our NYCHA families with an expectation lacking process,” said Florentino. “Our community needs answers, a town hall, an opportunity to ask process questions about policies that are being crafted to keep us safe,” Florentino said.
Op-Ed: City Must Stop Racially Biased Policing — During COVID and Beyond
The city needs not only to discourage police misconduct but also to provide appropriate consequences for excessive behavior. The distinction between policing and protecting, as we learn to live in a world where we’re increasingly masked and scared, is a matter of life and death.
Op-Ed: East New York Demands Action to Protect Against Vehicular Accidents!
The frequency of vehicular accidents in our community, and the ineptitude of the Department of Transportation (DOT) at directly addressing the needs of the communities it’s supposed to protect, is unacceptable but not surprising. For decades, East New York’s voice has been disregarded and dismissed in housing, education, and transportation.
Vecindarios hispanos de NYC son los más afectados por el coronavirus: informe
This inequality is directly related to the inequality that exists in our community, Black and Brown, and immigrant communities as it relates to accessible, safe housing, access to healthy food and security. The city should be ashamed.
Esta desigualdad está directamente relacionada con la desigualdad que existe en nuestra comunidad, comunidades latinoamericanas, negras, inmigrantes en lo que son las viviendas accesibles, seguras, el acceso a la comida saludable y la seguridad. La ciudad debe de tener vergüenza.
OPINION: NYCHA in the Time of COVID-19 and Beyond
A comprehensive post-shutdown NYCHA plan must include:
COVID-19 testing sites at each NYCHA development
Food pantry expansion to include a pantry at every NYCHA Community Center
A NYCHA Residents’ Bill of Rights
Free wifi for all NYCHA developments
Development-specific emergency relief plans
Hazard pay for NYCHA Tenant Associations
Community-based-organization partnerships to ensure mental health effects of the pandemic are being addressed
Our leaders must have the political courage to plan for a future where the government both anticipates better and responds more aggressively and efficiently to emergencies, ensuring that our most vulnerable communities are not disproportionately impacted.
Historic Number of LGBTQIA+ Black and Brown Candidates Running for 2021 NYC Council
New York City is experiencing an overdue reckoning, as we take to the streets in solidarity with Black lives, demand systemic policing reform and work to change discriminatory legislation that targets our trans siblings for simply existing. We are proud to form a coalition of Black and Brown progressive candidates this Pride Month that offer an historic choice to voters in next year’s elections. We represent the complex intersections of identities that embody many New Yorkers who have never before had the opportunity to see themselves reflected on the Council.
East New York Demands A Cease and Desist Zone — Comment Period Open Now!
Affordable housing should be a human right for all New Yorkers — especially Black and brown communities like East New York. Yet for years, outside investors have been intentionally buying up houses in our neighborhood, selling them at inflated prices and displacing long-time residents. Allowing this practice to continue ensures that housing costs will continue to increase, becoming out of reach for owners and renters alike. When real estate interests “flip” houses, re-selling them soon after purchase at an unreasonably high price, they cause rising real estate prices and rents in our neighborhood.
Black History Matters: The Case for an Arturo Alfonso Schomburg Subway Station
Black history exists as an ever-present reality, and honoring those who dedicate their lives to advancing Black history is incredibly important. As our nation is rightly talking about the need to remove confederate statues, and odes to colonizers, we must also talk about lifting up our freedom fighters and those who paved the way, when it was popular. Connecting the Black and LatinX communities through research and love for the Black diaspora, opening the door and advancing the study of Black history, Arturo Schomburg is more than deserving of being recognized with an MTA station renaming in Harlem.
Op-Ed: An Elected Civilian Complaint Review Board Means Justice for All
As temperatures increase, and the unofficial beginning to summer behind us, we are faced with an unprecedented pandemic summer without economic opportunities, actionable alternatives to take the place of the Summer Youth Employment Program and recreational opportunities. Unfortunately, our current crisis has made it abundantly and unarguably clear that the NYPD “police” folks in East New York, Brownsville and other Black and Brown communities, while they “protect” those in North Brooklyn and Chelsea.
“Brownsville is not a sacrifice zone,” Activists Cry At Protest Against North Brooklyn Pipeline
“Climate change disproportionately impacts Black and brown folks that live right here in Brownsville and East New York,” Wilfredo Florentino, resident and chairman of the transportation committee of Community Board 5 told the crowd.
“Our community is not being engaged in the process of things that are happening in our backyard,” Florentino said. “That is unacceptable. When our voices are muted and the voices of shareholders and big businesses are elevated, therein lies the problem.”
Brooklyn LGBTQ Democrats Endorse Four Queer Council Candidates
“In District 42, Florentino — who told Gay City News earlier this year about his experience as a foster parent — described himself as a gay Afro-Latinx husband, father, veteran, lifelong community advocate, and Brooklynite. He informed club members about his experience navigating the military during Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell and segued that point into a broader message about policing. He denounced the over-militarization of law enforcement and stressed that weapons of war should not be used in residential communities.
In accepting LID’s endorsement, Florentino said, “LID’s support is an acknowledgement of our fight toward equity, justice, and transparency, and a repudiation of politics that have worked for the few and not the many.”
Deadline Looms For East New Yorkers to Have Their Say on ‘Cease-and-Desist’ Zone
Wilfredo Florentino, a longtime CB5 board member and Council District 42 candidate, told BK Reader real estate speculators were also uprooting renters. Many of the homes in East New York are small three-family houses with tenants.
“They are buying houses and flipping them to ensure that prices continue to balloon,” he said. “When house prices balloon it also impacts the rental market. That’s why we are seeing rents increasing in the community. It’s meant to displace longtime residents who are majority Black and Brown folks.”
Florentino and Franco said they predicted affordable housing would disappear in East New York after the city rezoned the area in 2016.
New York City Council 2021 Candidates Demand Immediate Action on an Elected Civilian Complaint Review Board (ECRB)
Legislation for an Elected Civilian Review Board must center around three key tenets:
That the board be elected by members of the communities.
That the decisions of the board be binding, and that the police commissioner is legally bound to carry them out.
That a position of independent prosecutor be created for cases of criminal police misconduct.
The full measure of an Elected Civilian Review Board (ECRB) action must be prioritized, and accelerated by the New York City Council.
The 2020 NYC 40 Under 40 Rising Stars
In government, community voices should be the most audible, according to Wilfredo Florentino. The candidate for the New York City Council’s 42nd District has had many roles in government and advocacy, including having served on the Brooklyn Community Board 5 Transportation Committee since 2014. He says that title best describes his interest in transferring power to the most local level possible.
“Holding the city accountable is something that is a constant in community board work,” he says, citing the 2016 East New York rezoning as an example of a failure of city government to listen to regular people. “It wasn’t something where the community voice was heard.”
The community board isn’t Florentino’s only job. During the day, he is senior grants manager for the NAACP. He co-founded the reform-minded political club New Kings Democrats, is an ordained minister, and runs the Rooted Theater Company with his husband, Kareem Nemley. He’s worked on a number of major political campaigns, and he’s a military veteran who counts raising his two daughters as one of his most rewarding experiences.
Florentino’s exposure to politics began with his mother, Lydia Osorio, who moved to New York City from Puerto Rico and was enthusiastic about Nydia Velázquez, the first Puerto Rican woman elected to Congress. Florentino continues to be inspired by Velázquez. “Some people look at (politics) through a very cynical lens, and I look at it as a means to ensure that people are empowered,” he says. “That started with her.”
Progressive activist Wilfredo Florentino looks to topple East New York political dynasty
Community advocate Wilfredo Florentino has launched a progressive campaign to represent East New York and Brownsville in the City Council. East New York and Brownsville have become the epicenter of multiple crises — including COVID-19, gun violence, deteriorating public housing, and porous economic prospects — the would-be politico hopes to secure a legislative perch to address the inequity, and to empower the community in the important discussions about the future of the neighborhood. “Our campaign is focused on ensuring that the issues are at the forefront of any discussion,” he said. “Folks want change, folks want to see progressive policies that impact them on a daily basis, issued around housing, issues around employment, issues around education, issues around safety. That’s what this campaign is going to be about — it’s going to be about the issues and it’s not going to be about anything other than the issues.”
ENY City Council Candidate Florentino Charts Nabe Course
“Florentino, was born and raised and educated in the borough before going on to serve in the army and rising through the ranks to become a Lieutenant.
“It gives a really unique perspective. I served during the ‘Don’t ask, Don’t tell’ era which was extremely challenging to live in one’s truth. And being a secondary citizen just wanting to serve was really challenging. But service has been in my family’s blood, going back generations we have military folk,” said Florentino.
Florentino said that his experiences as a Latino, a member of the LGBTQIA+ community, and a vet have definitely informed his policies. He said he was also proud of the recent wave of representation in the city council and thinks electing a more diverse crowd that actually reflects the city is critical.”