New York City Council Member Vickie Paladino put Brooklyn’s wealthy liberals on blast for neglecting to demand that Democrat Mayor Eric Adams place a shelter for illegal border crossers in their neighborhood, and she has the perfect facility for such a venture.
The 19th District councilwoman took to her X account on Monday to wonder why the wealthy leftists living in the city’s affluent Park Slope community seem to lack any migrant shelters, and she pointed to the neighborhood’s Park Slope Armory, which would be the perfect place for a temporary shelter.
Above a photo of the facility, Paladino wrote:
This is the interior of the Park Slope Armory, renovated only a few years ago. Look at all that open indoor space. Plenty of room for a thousand or so migrant beds. Onsite bathrooms and showers. Local to public transportation and a thriving, affluent, progressive community.
She then asked why the left-wing, sanctuary city-supporting residents of the community are not demanding migrants be housed there.
“Why aren’t all the Park Slope progressives asking — no, demanding — migrants be housed safely in their brand new community facility?” she asked. “I’m sure they’re all happy to give up their kids’ after-school programs, fitness classes, and tennis lessons so they can ‘live their values’ as the most welcoming community in the world for ‘refugees.'”
The brownstone neighborhood — whose residents average a yearly income of more than $150,000 and where the median home value is $1.46 million — currently has no migrant shelters.
“It’s so strange that we haven’t seen any petitions from the Park Slope community boards expressing to Mayor Adams their desire to help these ‘New New Yorkers’ feel welcome in their community,” Paladino continued. “Nor has the local council member volunteered this vast and modern space to aid our crisis.”
“Why should migrants suffer in the freezing cold at Floyd Bennett Field when this palace in Park Slope is available?” She wrote, “Come on, Park Slope. Show us how it’s done.”
Migrants evacuated from Floyd Bennett Field arrive at James Madison High School on Bedford Avenue in Brooklyn, New York City, during a storm on January 9, 2024. (Gardiner Anderson for NY Daily News via Getty Images)
Paladino is not the only city council member in an affluent area of a big city raising these questions.
Josh McBroom — who sits on the city council in Naperville, Illinois, a southwestern suburb of Chicago — also wondered why affluent community members were not stepping up to offer spare rooms in their large houses for illegal shelters.
McBroom took a few minutes to ruminate about whether wealthy members of the Naperville community would be interested in putting their names on a list to offer their homes to shelter a migrant or two.
“We do have a very affluent community, a lot of big homes, and what I’d like to do is direct staff to create a signup sheet for individuals that would be willing to house migrant families,” he said in the city council chambers in January.
Naperville is not as affluent as Park Slope, with a median income of just over $56,000 a year, but it does have some much higher-income neighborhoods. The average home value in Naperville is more than $520,000. By contrast, the average home value across Chicago is $279.000.
“I think we need to find out who would be willing to house migrant families,” McBroom concluded.
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