Flip it! Make the Road New York rallies Bushwick community for key ballot measures

Last Saturday, a dozen volunteers from immigrant advocacy group Make the Road New York gathered at Bushwick’s Maria Hernandez Park, with banners and signs reading “Vote Yes for Prop One!” and “Defend Democracy in NYC.”

Over the next few hours, the group spoke with hundreds of Brooklynites, helping many register to vote and educating them about the six city provisions up for approval in November.

New York City has six proposals up for vote this year: proposal one adds protections for reproductive healthcare and sexual orientation to the state’s Bill of Rights, while proposals two through six concern the city administration’s jurisdiction over things like sanitation, budgets, women-and-minority-owned businesses and infrastructure.

During Saturday’s event, the group urged residents to vote for proposal one, and against two through six.

While proposal one would add necessary protections for the city’s vulnerable populations, Make the Road New York’s Senior Civic Engagement Coordinator Perla Silva argued that proposals two through six represent an overreach of the mayor’s power. Even proposals like two, which seem innocuous in giving the Department of Sanitation “increased authority to keep all city property clean,” actually include coded language, Silva said.

“It doesn’t really mean that [the mayor’s] going to plant more trees or actually have more employment for folks to help clean up the park,” Silva said. “He wants to use this ballot measure to have the power to kick out our houseless folks — folks that don’t have anywhere to sleep and are just resting on the bench. [He wants to] put more policing there, and that’s ‘cleaning the parks’ for him, or removing our street vendors, who just want to make a living.”

Silva contended that those are the situations “where it may seem pretty easy or nice on the ballot, but that’s not quite right.”

She also argued that Adams had pushed proposals two through six onto the ballot via a rushed Charter Revision Commission process. Though these proposals typically require 271 days of deliberation, this charter proposal commission lasted only 66 days. The proposals also made it to the General Election ballot just two days after they were publicly announced.

“The constituents of New York were not notified,” Silva said.”They did not have enough time for the decision on two to six to be on the ballot. The first step of putting those measures on the voting ballot was already unconstitutional, so now it’s our job to make sure that folks know exactly what is on the ballot.”

Meanwhile, opponents of proposal one argue it is “overly vague, too broad, and misleading,” while supporters of proposals two through six contend the measures will improve city operations.

When reached for comment on the ballot measures, the mayor’s office directed Brooklyn Paper to the head of the Charter Revision Commission, who emphasized that this year’s proposals were crafted thoughtfully, based on input from over 750 attendees across all five boroughs and 2,300 written submissions.

“After holding hearings attended by more than 750 people in all five boroughs and receiving more than 2,300 written submissions, the Charter Revision Commission put forth thoughtful ballot proposals reflecting the desires they heard from New Yorkers for clean streets, fiscal responsibility, public safety, transparency in the city’s capital planning process, and support for Minority- and Women-Owned Business Enterprises,” said Charter Revision Commission Executive Director Diane Savino. “Now, New Yorkers will have the power to flip their ballots and vote on these proposals in November.”

Savino also noted that multiple charter review commissions in the past were shorter than this year’s, including one in 2002 that lasted 38 days and three between 1998 and 2001 that concluded in under 60 days.

Make the Road New York focuses on supporting immigrants and working-class members through literacy programs, civic education, and access to healthcare and legal services. The group also has offices in Queens and Staten Island but held this event in Bushwick, a neighborhood with a majority Hispanic and Latinx population, including many recently naturalized citizens voting for the first time this election.

“We have citizens, and folks that just became citizens and are interested in voting, but have never voted before,” Silva said. “As an immigrant myself, I love what I do for that particular reason — I’m excited to find someone on a day like this that just became a U.S. citizen and has never voted, has no idea what the ballot even looks like, doesn’t have a clue, and we’re able to help them on multiple questions.”

Even regular voters often overlook or don’t notice down-ballot issues, Silva said. With a presidential election this significant, it’s especially challenging to draw attention to local and state-level measures.

“Historically, we’ve seen that folks do not tend to flip the ballot — they’re very focused on the presidential election,” Silva said. “This year, that’s very important, but everything else that’s on the ballot, folks forget that part in a rush. So we want to make sure folks are very well informed before they get to the poll sites.”

Voters can learn about this cycle’s down-ballot issues at nycvotes.org. For those interested in volunteering, Make the Road New York will hold more outreach events as the election nears, including one on Oct. 26, the first day of early voting.