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In new video backing 2016 DNC in Brooklyn, Queens business owner poses on Ratner's mall with Barclays Center in background

NYC rolls videos to lure 2016 Democratic National Convention to Brooklyn the Daily News's Celeste Katz reported today, citing new videos posted by the host committee.

One celebrity video is Rose Perez, "actress, native New Yorker" at Valentino Pier in Red Hook. (She also has ties to the Barclays Center, having contributed to a welcome video.)

Another involves Josh Tower, who portrays Berry Gordy in Broadway's "Motown." Katz reports:
And representing the average New Yorker in a third video filmed on a rooftop overlooking the focal point of New York's DNC bid, the Barclays Center: Mackenzi Farquer, a small business proprietor from Astoria, Queens.
"There's every kind of person in New York," Farquer tells the camera over a montage of cityscapes.
"We're kind and we're humble and we're hard-working -- and we deserve to have this."


Oh, the "average New Yorker" who just happens to be filmed on the top of Forest City Ratner's Atlantic Center mall, with the Barclays Center in the background. Perhaps the Brooklyn small businesses nearby are a little more wary about the potential impact of the convention.

Issues: money, symbolism, logistics

While New York has seen its fundraising pace slack, according to the Daily News, it still has "significantly outraised Philadelphia and Columbus," said de Blasio spokeswoman Marti Adams.

But New York has other irons in the fire. "New York City Promotes Diversity in Bid for 2016 Democratic National Convention," the Times reported today:
New York’s diversity, beginning with more than 2.4 million Hispanic residents, puts the city ahead of its rivals for the 2016 Democratic National Convention, supporters of the bid said.
...Aides said Hispanics and immigrants had benefited from several of Mr. de Blasio’s policies, including the expansions of paid sick leave and prekindergarten classes, an increase in living wage and an end to stop-and-frisk police tactics.
Mayor de Blasio's problems with the New York Police Department, a Democratic National Committee aide told the Times, was not an issue. “Primarily what’s being discussed,” the aide said, “are logistical, financial and security considerations.”

By contrast, a Bloomberg Politics piece suggested other complications for the Democrats, including the dicey issues of economic inequality and gentrification.

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