Maybe it’s because she just cost their community 25,000 high-paying jobs (plus hundreds, maybe thousands, of ancillary jobs supporting those workers) by helping to drive Amazon out of New York. Or maybe it’s because, after nearly four months in office, she still hasn’t found space for an office in the Bronx. Or maybe it’s because she’s too busy “engaging” with her nearly 4 million twitter followers to respond to constituents’ messages.
Whatever the case may be, the New York Post reported on Sunday that “Girl from the Bronx” Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has angered many activists in her district. And now they are complaining to their hometown tabloid that the rep they voted for over Democratic Party leader Joe Crowley has ignored them since arriving in Washington.
AOC
Constituents seeking help from AOC, or her office, for issues involving the preservation of a local animal shelters, cleaning up parks, fixing problems at a local post office branch and forcing Amtrak to clean up graffiti on its property in the borough, have been unable to reach anyone from her team. Calls to phone numbers for her Queens and DC offices lead to automated voicemail services that direct constituents to her website. From there, they can request time to meet with AOC.
“I thought AOC would be our savior, but that’s not the case,” complained Roxanne Delgado, a local activist who said she has tried for months to get in touch with the congresswoman for help saving an animal shelter and to clean up parks in the district.
Delgado, 40, says she has made numerous calls to Ocasio-Cortez’s offices in Washington and Queens and sent a barrage of tweets after the freshman lawmaker encouraged residents during a recent visit to a Bronx public library to hit her up on social media.
When the Post tried to call AOC’s office, it met with a similar response: radio silence.
“NO email or contact on @AOC’s page except DC number which has full #voicemail and no one picks up,” Delgado tweeted on Monday.
The Post made several calls to both the Washington and Queens offices last week. The same recording at both numbers gives Ocasio-Cortez’s Web site and doesn’t allow a caller to leave a message.
Indeed, despite all of AOC’s boasting about being “Alex from the Bronx”….
🎶 Don’t be fooled by the plaques that we got, I’m still / I’m still Alex from the Bronx 🎶 pic.twitter.com/eO68AGxn2z
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) December 27, 2018
…Many of her constituents are already convinced that she has abandoned them in favor of appearing on Late Night TV, pushing her ‘Green New Deal’ and planning lunches with Elizabeth Warren.
Another Bronx constituent told a community gathering last month that they needed Ocasio-Cortez for a sitdown with post-office officials to sort out difficulties he was having with mail delivery.
“I want AOC or a representative from AOC to be there,” Anthony Vitaliano, a former cop and Community Board 11 member, said at a Feb. 28 board meeting.
Vitaliano, 78, also wants Ocasio-Cortez to pressure Amtrak to clean up graffiti at property it owns on Tremont Avenue.
“You know, I appreciate what she’s doing, but she has to represent us,” he told the board gathering, where other elected officials – from the city and state but not AOC’s office – sent staffers.
Vitaliano told The Post: “She has to address these local issues. Her district is everywhere else in the US. Her heart is not in The Bronx.”
AOC’s indifference to her constituents’ needs has made some nostalgic for Joe Crowley, the Congressman and boss of the Queens Democratic Party, who always had his people at community meetings, willing to listen to constituents’ concerns.
By contrast, he said, residents’ needs received much more attention under Rep. Joe Crowley, whom Ocasio-Cortez unseated in a surprise primary upset last year.
The longtime congressman’s Bronx district representative, Thomas Messina, regularly attended community board meetings, according to Vitaliano.
“Tommy cared about us,” Vitaliano said.
Further insulting her constituents, Ocasio-Cortez’s team brushed off these complaints when approached by the Post, saying only that they are trying their best to find office space in the Bronx, and that “if anybody has any leads”, to let them know.
via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/2CL5fO8 Tyler Durden