When NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard) becomes IMBY (IN My Back Yard).
Amazing how it changes attitudes and perceptions.
New York City has been a proud “sanctuary city” for years and years. What a wonderful attitude – dear illegals, just come here, come one and all, and we’ll take care of you.
But now there is a problem: they’re actually coming. Instead of talking a good game and feeling proud of its liberality, New York City has to actually come across. And suddenly it’s a different ball game.
From Adam Shaw’s article at foxnews.com:
Nearly 2,000 migrants being sheltered in a tent shelter in New York City are being transferred to a nearby high school, where the students will have to pivot to remote learning due to the disruption it is causing – sparking outrage from residents and local politicians.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams’ office said it is moving 1,900 migrants from the tent shelter at Floyd Bennett Field for safety reasons due to the incoming storms and potential high winds. According to the New York Daily News, Adams told reporters that it was being done out of an “overabundance of caution.”
“We want to make sure people are safe,” he said.
But it is controversially moving them to James Madison High School, which confirmed it was being used as a “temporary overnight respite center” and would be closed as a result on Wednesday — with students being forced to “pivot” to remote learning as a result.
In a statement, Republican Councilwoman Inna Vernikov called the move “unacceptable,” arguing that Floyd Bennett Field is “not a sustainable housing facility.”
“Our public schools are meant to be places of learning and growth for our children, and were never intended to be shelters or facilities for emergency housing,” she said.
NYC Comptroller Brad Lander, a Democrat, said that placing migrants at the Floyd Bennett Field “highlights the mismanagement and waste of money that is all-too-present in City Hall’s approach to shelter and services for asylum seekers.”
The New York Post reported how the move has infuriated parents of students at the school, with one woman screaming at buses as they arrived: “How does it feel that you kicked all the kids out of school tomorrow!”
Abraham Lincoln High School has been in existence since 1929. It has graduated many famous people, including authors Arthur Miller and Joseph Heller, entertainers Mel Brooks, Neil Diamond, Harvey Keitel, Barbara Eden, etc. Three Nobel Prize Laureates graduated Lincoln High School.
Currently, Lincoln has a mixed demographic, with (as of several years ago) about 40% Black students, 30% Hispanic, 15% Asian and 13% White. Academics-wise, the school struggles.
But now, in addition to the factors which already have resulted in its academic issues, the school’s students have to take a back seat to illegals who have no right to be here in the first place. And the people who Lincoln High School serves – understandably – don’t like it.
Quite a difference between NIMBY and IMBY, wouldn’t you say?
Quite a difference in the attitudes of people who are affected by the loss of that N….which means they have to actually deal with the issues that somehow didn’t count when people other than themselves had to do so.
And, I am certain, quite a learning experience for the NIMBY crowd served by Lincoln High School. I wonder if it will result in different political attitudes.
You’d think the answer would be a slam-dunk “yes”. But this is New York City…..
