Brooklyn Loves Harris! She Came to Bed-Stuy… and left something behind

by Bernice Elizabeth Green
At her Tuesday debate with former President Donald Trump at Philadelphia’s National Constitutional Center, Vice President Kamala Harris talked about – in a roundabout way – caring and ethics, plus including the underserved in the balance sheet.

It doesn’t sound like a tough economic strategy until you talk to young families who are impacted by not having enough and struggling with uncertain futures.

The debate revealed legal prosecutor Harris’ tough side, touching on the Presidential candidate’s plans for housing, immigration, women’s rights, foreign affairs, and more. A part of Harris’s economic plan pushes the “opportunity and cost of living” agenda. She’s espousing expanding the child tax credit by giving $6,000 to parents with newborn children and tax deductions for small business startups.

She said Tuesday that her plan stems from her belief in the “ambitions, aspirations, and dreams of the American people.”
She is consistent about that because she is professional and believes in it – enough to fight for it. This part of Harris was revealed to the national and world stage earlier this week, which may not surprise some here in Bed-Stuy Brooklyn. Harris expressed similar ‘thoughts, visions and values’ two years ago, where this week’s debate-watch took place – the Bedford-Stuyvesant Restoration Center on Fulton Street/Harriet Tubman Blvd.

Thursday, July 28, 2022, from the stage of the site’s theatre, Harris announced the Biden Administration’s creation of a National Economic Opportunity Coalition to invest billions in underserved communities such as Bed-Stuy. At the time, she said: “All across our nation, there are places like Bed-Stuy – reservoirs of ambition and aspiration—waiting to be tapped,” according to BK Reader. She also chose Bed-Stuy specifically because she wanted to “Lift it up to show folks around the country what is possible.”

Harris’s current economic plan proposes, in addition to her Child Care Program, $25,000 for first-time homebuyers and a $50,000 tax deduction to start small businesses. “I love our small businesses, knowing they are part of the backbone of America’s economy,” she affirmed during the debate.

She also laid out a vision centered around care. Her plan called for young families to afford to purchase a crib, a car seat, and clothes through her plan—those simple things.
Now, Harris undoubtedly scored high on women’s rights issues in her face-off with Biden. But if this is the tip of a doable economic plan, she may give young voters—hopefully in a swing state or two—something to build a dream on.

Yesterday’s Wall Street Journal gave her the debate win. The largest newspaper in the swing state of Pennsylvania did, too.