Clinton Rally in Sunset Park Brings Out Supporters and Protesters

SUNSET PARK, BROOKLYN — Hillary Clinton was greeted by an ecstatic crowd of several hundred supporters inside Industry City on Saturday, even as several protesters used the appearance as an opportunity to object to gentrification in the neighborhood.

"We were stunned to hear Hillary would come to Industry City," said Eddie Bautista, a 35-year-old Sunset Park resident.

Bautista was one of about five protesters on the sidewalk outside the event. Also present was local activist Elizabeth Yeampierre — executive director of UPROSE, a community org that, according to its website, "promotes sustainability and resiliency through community organizing, education, leadership development and cultural/artistic expression in Brooklyn, NY."

"They are commercializing a blue-collar space," Bautista said of Industry City developers. Other protesters chanted, "Sunset Park is not for sale!"

Bautista said he thought the yard should be used for industrial work, as it has been historically, and for progressive projects focused on climate-change adaptation.

A 29-year-old Sunset Park resident named June said development in the complex is "causing a domino effect" and "driving out a lot of industrial jobs."

Both expressed skepticism about Industry City's new jobs-training initiative, the Innovation Lab, which opened Monday. They questioned whether it would produce jobs that would sustain the community long-term.

Inside, Clinton's rally was attended by a generally older and more diverse crowd than at two Brooklyn rallies held by Bernie Sanders on Friday, but the gathering was still predominantly white.

Even so, the event was heavily geared toward Hispanic voters.

Daniel Padilla Peralta, pictured below, a 31-year-old immigrant from Santo Domingo who now teaches classics at Columbia University, said in a speech Saturday that back when he was a college student, Clinton's senatorial office helped him overcome legal issues stemming from his status as a then-undocumented resident.

Clinton, he said, "has been backing the hopes of Dreamers for a long time," and has the experience and knowledge necessary to "take concrete steps to make comprehensive immigration reform a reality."

Roselly Rosario, 20, a student at Crown Heights' Medgar Evers College and a member of the human-rights group El Puente who grew up in Bushwick, also addressed the crowd.

Rosario said she was concerned with ongoing attacks on the rights of Hispanics, as well as low societal expectations for them.

"I want to be a Congresswoman," Rosario said. Clinton, she said, "gives us hope."

After a performance by Puerto Rican singer Toby Love, Clinton took the stage to raucous cheers. She was joined by Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez, the first Puerto Rican elected to the House of Representatives.

But Velazquez's introductory remarks were briefly interrupted by shouts from protester Lenina Nadal, who is listed as the communications director for anti-gentrification organization Right To The City.

Patch caught up with Nadal, who said she's a Bernie Sanders supporter, after she was escorted out of the event by security guards.

Nadal began by criticizing Industry City itself, which she said has been developed without "a lot of community involvement," producing "low wage jobs" in the process.

Nadal said she grew up in Flatbush, but has a lot of family in Sunset Park.

"The people who have been here for a long time can't afford to live here," Nadal said. Instead, she explained, well-paid executives are moving into the area and displacing locals.

Asked what she would say to Clinton if she met her, Nadal said: "Clinton policies helped the deregulation of Wall Street, which helped gentrify this neighborhood."

Back inside, Clinton was greeted with warm applause as she told the crowd that the country "cannot go back to the snake-oil policies of trickle-down economics."

The Democratic front-runner promised she would work for "comprehensive immigration reform with a path to citizenship."

Clinton said her first experience with immigrants was as a teenager, when she babysat the children of agricultural workers in Illinois. "These are people just like me," she recalled thinking at the time. She then conjured the Statue of Liberty in New York City's harbor, calling it a symbol "reminding us who we are and where we came from. We are a nation of immigrants."

Below, some of the other voices we heard at the rally.

John Lee, 30, from Crown Heights, said "it's important to keep the gains of Barack Obama." He said Clinton is "the most prepared and the most qualified" candidate running.

"I care about human rights, gay rights, economic equality for all," said Fred Verillo, 65, a Carroll Gardens resident wearing a gay-rights button on his shirt. "I love Bernie Sanders," he said, before coming back to Clinton's experience. "I'd like to see a woman president," he added.

"I'm looking for more of a fiscal plan," said Bushwick resident Thomas Cooke, 24. He said that although he liked Sanders' ideals, "with Hillary, I see more of an actual plan. I think she's more of a qualified candidate."

A Sunset Park local named Pilar, 36, said she was still on the fence. She said she looked forward to "really listening to Hillary's view on education and immigration reform" — an issue that mattered to her as the child of Mexican immigrants.

After the speech, Pilar said Clinton's comments about immigrants had effected her emotionally and gave her more to consider before the New York presidential primaries on April 19. "I think it made my decision a lot harder," she said with a laugh.

Banker Tabita Kaneene, 35, described himself as "very socially liberal" and a "hardcore capitalist."

Kaneene called Clinton "way more intelligent" and "a far better political tactician" than Sanders, he said, which maker her "way more likely to pass progressive legislation."

He added that "her plan to regulate finance is way more robust" than that of the Vermont senator. "She understands it better," Kaneene said.

"I like that she's going to be talking to neighborhood voters," said Sunset Park artist Joell Baxter, 48. Baxter said she was undecided about Clinton, as well as the direction of Industry City itself.

"This area's sort of contentious," she said. Baxter said she has "a lot of friends who had studios" in the complex before its redevelopment. But on the other hand, she said much of the space in the buildings wasn't been constructively used previously.

Bed-Stuy resident Angela Fussell, 44, said she has "always been a Hillary Clinton supporter."

"She's the best person for the job," Fussell said, emphasizing Clinton's foreign-policy experience.

Fussell said she wasn't bothered by Clinton's Iraq War vote. "Everybody had the same bad information back then," she said.

Hillary Clinton "inspires me to be brave," said Rachel Milkovich, 24, who lives in Williamsburg. She said she liked Clinton's calls for new gun-control legislation, and noted her foreign-policy experience, which is "important in a globalized society."

Milkovich, too, said she liked Sanders. But when it comes to his plans, she said, there's a "gap in the specifics." And regarding the Iraq War vote, which happened when she was in fourth grade, Milkovich said she thought Clinton's stance "reflected her constituency" at the time.