We as residents of New York City, demand that Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams begin to uphold his oath of office and represent his constituents! Once again, Adams will be the featured speaker at the latest of a series of “Brooklyn Real Estate Summits” regularly held in our borough. These summits bring together real estate developers and investors—the vast majority wealthy white men—to plot the further “development” of Brooklyn—code word for the continued reaping of huge profits by making neighborhood after neighborhood (“frontiers,” in their racist parlance) a new playground for the well off.

Eric Adams, elected to represent the 2.6 million residents of the borough, has consistently chosen instead to serve as a cheerleader for the continued gentrification of the Brooklyn which benefits only developers and the newcomers who continue to displace vulnerable residents. The latest targets (chosen by the developers simply by following maps of subway lines) are some of the poorest communities in the borough, from which a disproportionate percentage of NYC’s record number of homeless families comes from.

This is no coincidence. As Brooklyn has become a global “brand,”  hundreds of thousands of affordable housing units have been lost in Brooklyn and around the city. And, just as New York City Mayor Bill Di Blasio will largely be continuing the same housing policies as his predecessor Michael Bloomberg that devastated poor communities (and has been met with open arms by the unelected real estate moguls), Eric Adams will be continuing the policies of Marty Markowitz.

Among the projects Adams is pitching to the developers is his pet project of the “Broadway corridor,” a plan to cut a swath through the heart of a predominately Black community within Brooklyn that will drive up costs in one of the few parts of the borough the non-wealthy can still (barely) afford. This seems as no surprise. Handpicked to be chief executive of the borough by the long-corrupt political machine, and financed largely by the real estate industry, Mr. Adams, like Mayor Di Blasio, is skillfully trying to funnel the anger and suffering of long-suffering communities with a kinder, friendlier sounding approach to gentrification.

Enough is enough! We, the undersigned insist that Borough President Adams withdraw from the Brooklyn Real Estate Summit on November 17th and immediately begin holding forums addressing the needs of the people of Brooklyn! This means representing and carrying out plans that fulfill these needs—not the needs of developers. No more elite meetings behind closed doors where decisions affecting thousands are made without their consent and then are “sold” to the community as scam affordable housing plans.  Do the right thing, Mr. Adams, and withdraw now and begin fulfilling your oath of office to Brooklyn.