BROWNSVILLE — Dozens of Brooklyn residents gathered at a Brownsville community center on Thursday for a Democratic debate watch party, calling on presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Sen. Bernie Sanders to make their way to the neighborhood.
Attendees at the Van Dyke Community Center on Blake Avenue chanted “Brownsville matters!” throughout the night, watching on a projector as the presidential hopefuls went head-to-head at the Brooklyn Navy Yard.
The viewing party, hosted by Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams, Sen. Jesse Hamilton and Assemblywoman Latrice Walker, came after Adams urged the candidates to move their debate from the Duggal Greenhouse to Brownsville.
“Democrats have been in office for a long time in the presidential level, but they have forgotten the Brownsvilles of America,” Adams told attendees Thursday.
With 37 percent of locals living below the federal poverty level, Brownsville is the poorest neighborhood in Brooklyn and the seventh-poorest in New York City, according to city data.
The area has the highest injury assault rate, and the second-highest incarceration rate.
“Brownsville leads the chart in all the negatives,” Adams said. “Neither candidate has been here. That’s a sad indicator.”
Whether they supported Sanders or Clinton, residents agreed with the borough president’s call for a visit.
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Theresa Hargrow, 64, said she’d be voting for Clinton on April 19 because she’d love to see a female president.
“I support her wholeheartedly,” Hargrow said. “She’s addressing the issues that affect me: poverty, children, education, especially criminal justice and the incarceration of these young people. I believe she’s going to help make a change with that.”
Alan Waxman, 29, said Sanders’ support of affordable housing will help garner his vote, adding that the senator “represents human interests.”
Viewers at the watch party were invited to share issues most important to them in the election and take a straw poll at the end of the debate. Among the topics highlighted by the audience were gun violence, vocational training programs, and job opportunities.
READ MORE: Brooklyn Gathers to Watch Democratic Debate at Navy Yard
Crown Heights resident Mark Parkinson said he hadn’t made up his mind on who to vote for and wanted to hear more from the candidates regarding “a war on poverty, restoration of minority communities, and stopping gentrification.”
“They need to come to Brownsville,” Parkinson, 56, said. “They need to see what has happened when you allow a community to decay.”
“They need to come and see what they have done, what they have contributed to over the decades, so that they can now understand that they need to change.”
