BY JOHN BAYLES | New York State Senator Daniel Squadron came into the community room at Southbridge Towers on Monday night, took off his jacket and rolled up his sleeves.
“It’s like getting ready for a fight,” joked Squadron. “But I’m sure that’s not what we’re doing tonight.”
It was Squadron’s annual community meeting, at which he invites his constituents to ask questions about practically anything concerning life in the 25th Senate District. Approximately 100 people were in attendance and Squadron fielded questions on everything from rat control in local parks to school rezoning to helicopter noise. But it was Occupy Wall Street that garnered the most questions and took up much of the meeting.
Catherine McVay Hughes, vice chair of Community Board 1, brought up the quality-of-life issues that have been at the center of the O.W.S. debate over the last few weeks. Squadron, in turn, asked the audience if they thought the noise and sanitation issues concerning the encampment at Zuccoti Park had improved, noting the removal of some of the barricades along Wall Street and the fact that the demonstrators had found space for three portable bathrooms.
The audience responded with a resounding “no.”
Linda Gerstman said she believed public support and support from elected officials such as Squadron was “encouraging” the demonstrators to “push the boundaries” in terms of the park’s “rules.” As for the First Amendment right to protest, Gerstman said it does give the demonstrators the right to be there, but “it does not allow for breaking the rules.”
“You have to start advocating for us and not for out-of-towners,” said Gerstman.
Squadron then began to explain how he and other elected officials had been both advocating for the demonstrators as well as the community, citing a letter he, with Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and NYC Councilmember Margaret Chin sent to Mayor Bloomberg last week specifically asking for such issues to be addressed and enforced.
“Neither issue is a small issue,” said Squadron.
Another audience member piped in and accused Squadron of not directly answering the question about the rules of the park, specifically pertaining to tents. Before Squadron could offer an explanation, he was again interrupted as other members of the audience brought up his involvement with stopping the planned “cleaning” of the park by its owners, Brookfield Properties, some four weeks ago.
The intervention occurred, said Squadron, “Because that event in that moment would have turned and gotten very ugly, very quickly.”
As for the question about the park rules, Squadron said, “If those rules came out after the protests started, then the burden is very high.”
On Tuesday, Squadron said, “There are different standards applied to rules that are promulgated in direct response to First Amendment speech. That’s one of the [issues].”
Squadron said the other issue is the city’s role in enforcement.
“The city’s role is to enforce the issues that we’re pushing them on,” said the Senator.
Squadron noted that he has asked the city to publicly acknowledge whether or not they are indeed enforcing rules concerning noise resulting from drumming and other issues like sanitation.
As of press time, the city did not return calls for comment on enforcement of such rules.
“I certainly knew [O.W.S. would come up] and I wanted everyone to have the opportunity to raise that issue,” said Squadron after the meeting.
Other issues were addressed at the meeting, such as the “Millionaire’s Tax.”
Squadron said the NY State Senate Democrats, on Monday, released an analysis of the state’s projected expenses and revenues. Squadron said the analysis showed “a $200 million deficit for the rest of this fiscal year and a $2 billion deficit for the following year.”
The Senator plans to support legislation, along with Speaker Silver, which come January when sessions in Albany resume, would extend the tax cuts to people making between $250,000 and $1 million per year. Anyone making over $1 million would not benefit from a tax cut come 2012.
“When you have a $2 billion deficit, it’s not a great time for tax cuts, especially for those who can most afford it,” said Squadron.
At the end of the meeting, which lasted almost two hours, Squadron said, “This was a classic town hall. A lot of community frustrations came out. Please keep coming back, keep complaining. It really does make a difference.”
