CROWN HEIGHTS, NY — Plans to shelter migrants in local schools — including one in Crown Heights — seemingly slowed down a day after parents protested across Brooklyn, according to reports and electeds.
Crown Heights’ P.S. 189, located on East New York Avenue between East 96th Street and Rockaway Parkway, was expected to shelter migrants along with five others across Brooklyn, according to multiple news reports and NYC School Safety Coalition.
On Wednesday — after parents protested outside a Williamsburg and Coney Island school — migrants were transported away from P.S. 188, where they had arrived over the weekend, according to The City and City Council Member Ari Kagan.
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Officials said the move away from Coney Island was not a reverse course on the schools plan, which will remain a back-up, but Brooklyn schools celebrated the return of their gyms, The City reported.
Mayor Eric Adams on Tuesday told FOX5 the plan to house migrants in schools was never a done deal, but electeds and news reports said prep work had already started at two of the schools on the shelter short-list.
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Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso on Wednesday called on electeds and Brooklynites to step up in addressing the migrant crisis.
“Just because we here in Brooklyn can’t do everything, doesn’t mean we can’t do something,” Reynoso said Wednesday.
A day before, Reynoso visited a Williamsburg school where parents protested its potential use as a shelter. Reynoso said on Instagram Tuesday the school was slated to house about 70 migrants.
Parents on Tuesday said they were concerned about their children’s safety, according to The City — a stance Reynoso said he found “frustrating.”
“Safety has never been an issue. Over the year that we’ve been here, we’ve never once talked about migrants being a safety concern in this city and all of a sudden it’s a narrative that’s being built. I just don’t accept that and it’s very frustrating to hear,” Reynoso said.
Reynoso reminded parents that crisis solutions will never look perfect.
“A crisis means that we are going to be put in very uncomfortable situations or positions. What we’re seeing here is sites like these have to be used so we can house people in an orderly way,” he said.
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