PortraitNew Yorkers (6/6). Billionaire, former dealer, artist or immigrant’s daughter, they all have a love for their city. Meeting with the city councilor who led the fight against the installation of the distribution giant in Queens.
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When the alert fell on his phone, Jimmy Van Bramer had to apologize. He was visiting his mother in her small apartment in Queens: ” My God. Mom, I think I’ll have to go. ” To his surprise, this Thursday, February 14, the New York city councilor had just won an ungainable fight. Amazon threw in the towel and gave up establishing itself in Long Island City, a working-class neighborhood in Queens, along the East River, across from Manhattan.
Jimmy Van Bramer is one of those who led the fight. Against the tax assistance granted to Amazon, against the fear of gentrification that would lead to the arrival of 25,000 executives paid 150,000 dollars (135,000 euros) per year when a resident of Queens earns on average three times less. “I was dumbfounded that they gave up establishing themselves”, confides Van Bramer, who had had, in full session of the city council, very harsh words against the firm of Jeff Bezos, which stubbornly refused to accept the presence of unions.
The sudden notoriety of 50-year-old Van Bramer is a good opportunity to remind people that New York is not just Manhattan and finance, Brooklyn and artists, or the Bronx and its bad reputation. It is also the popular district of Queens with its 2.4 million inhabitants.
Appointment was made at Sunnyside: ancient sunny hill bought by French Huguenots in the 17th centurye century, it is today a small bobo district, with its organic market gardener, its French bakery and its skytrain line, drawn up in the 1970s, which goes straight to Manhattan.
The embodiment of a popular city
This is where we meet Jimmy Van Bramer, a little white man with short hair, sympathetic but determined, who constantly evokes her husband with whom he has been in love for twenty years and whom he married as soon as the law allowed him in 2012. Their house bought a bite of bread in the 1990s is now over a million dollars.
In the streets, Jimmy is well known and talks regularly with his constituents. “Did you hear the helicopter?” There was a shooting this morning ”, says Van Bramer. Two men killed each other. On Facebook, the elected member reassures his voters, without forgetting to thank the police. “It is very important to work hand in hand with the police. I want to know when there is a murder, I want to be able to explain. “
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