18
COURIER LIFE, SEPTEMBER 22, 2019
phants with state of the
art materials. Come grab
a beer and compete for
more prizes, awarded by
celebrity judges, who are
on the hunt for local creative
talent,” she said.
Dumbo Drop prizes
include a $1,000 Grand
Prize, an all-you-caneat
ice cream party at
Oddfellows, and a VIP
pass to Juliana’s pizza
spot that allows the winner
to skip the long line
of tourists outside. The
Disco Drop will feature
two prizes: a private
rooftop party for 10 at
the Time Out Market;
and an evening at Beat
the Bomb, an escape
room extravaganza.
The block party will
also feature booths from
local Dumbo restaurants,
including Westville,
Time Out Market,
and Front Street Pizza,
along with live music,
street games, and a virtual
reality experience.
Elephants fall from the sky
during a previous DUMBO
Drop. Photo by Phil Greenberg
The Great Dumbo
Drop Block Party (at
Washington and Water
streets in Dumbo, www.
dumbo.is/dropping-elephants).
Sept. 27; 4–9
p.m. Dumbo Drop at 6
p.m. Disco Drop at 7:45
p.m. Free admission;
$20.
BY AIDAN GRAHAM
State Sen. Kevin Parker
introduced a bill on Sept. 9
to give 10,000 New Yorkers
a $600 check every month
for two years — no strings
attached — in an elaborate
and costly test of a proposed
“Universal Basic Income”
program that he eventually
wants to expand into a
statewide subsidy.
“We see robots taking
over the jobs of people,” said
Parker. “We have to take
care of those people. We
have an obligation to take
care of them.”
Under Parker’s scheme,
10,000 low-income participants
from around the state
would be randomly selected
to receive checks every four
weeks for 24 months — giving
state bean counters a
chance to study the economic
impact of the program.
Selected individuals
would receive $7,200 per
year, and couples would get
$14,400.
The pilot program would
cost taxpayers a whopping
$144 million, with a potential
cost for statewide implementation
that even Parker
called “eye-popping.”
But the legislator — who
represents several neighborhoods,
including Park
Slope and Flatbush — said
the bold welfare program
was necessary to combat
what he sees as a grim economic
situation right here
in Brooklyn.
“It would give people
the ability to simply live
decently for a change, instead
of struggling in the
way that their families are
struggling right now,” said
Parker. The “Universal Basic
Income” program would
be more easily implemented
on the federal level, according
to Parker, although the
senator admits he’s skeptical
State Sen. Kevin Parker introduced a bill to give thousands of New
Yorkers a monthly check as part of a pilot program he hopes will
someday be implemented statewide. Photo by Colin Mixson
of Congress’s ability to
establish that kind of sweeping
social program.
That could potentially
change given the presidential
candidacy of entrepreneur
Andrew Yang, who has
championed the idea during
his long-shot bid for the
White House — although
Parker remains steadfast
in his support of Yang’s rival,
California Sen. Kamala
Harris.
“I like Andrew Yang. He’s
got some good ideas,” said
Parker. “But there are a lot
of other issues that are important
for Americans, and
particularly Brooklynites.
I feel that Kamala Harris
best speaks to those issues,
and has more of a solution to
some of those issues.”
So for now, Parker is
focused on delivering a
monthly check to his fellow
New Yorkers — and that includes
yours truly!
“In the full rollout of this,
everybody gets the money
— from Michael Bloomberg
to an underpaid reporter
at the Brooklyn Paper,” he
said. “All of them are going
to get this money.”
A wage just
for living!
Dumbo drop
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