Brooklyn Borough President Would Rather Bernie and Hillary Debate in Brownsville

The Brownsville Rec Center. Photo via NYC Parks

BROWNSVILLE, BROOKLYN — Not everyone is stoked on the trendy Brooklyn Navy Yard venue chosen by the Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton campaigns for their Democratic presidential primary debate on April 14.

Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams told Yahoo News in an extensive interview Monday night that he will not attend the debate unless Sanders and Clinton agree to move it six-and-a-half miles east, to the heart of "a community that's really in crisis."

Aka, the Brownsville Recreation Center.

“I think the Navy Yard is a success story that is at the top of its game,” Adams told Yahoo correspondent Hunter Walker. “We need to go create more success stories, and no place in New York personifies the need to start a success story more than Brownsville.”

More highlights from the interview:

“All that we’re doing to attempt to turn around Brownsville, this would give it a great shot in the arm. It’s almost like what Carter did years ago when he walked in the South Bronx and saw the devastation. We can’t continue to just drive by these communities in our motorcades. We have to pull over, roll down our windows, get out, and see and speak directly to the people. Trust me when I tell you this, at the Navy Yard, you’re not going to have any Brownsville residents.”

“Brownsville deserves the city services. It deserves the quality of life that the gentrified communities are now receiving because they were gentrified. You don’t see Citi Bike in Brownsville. … All of the nice things that are the signatures of gentrification, you don’t see in Brownsville, and you darn sure don’t see presidential debates in Brownsville.”

“We don’t want a pristine beautiful location. We don’t want Carnegie Hall. We don’t want some luxurious place. … It’s time for us to leave our comfort zones. I think that if while they’re there they hear police sirens going by, if while they’re there they hear some tragedy, this is the real America. The real America is not some sterilized environment. It’s the dirty reality that people are being left behind, and they’re giving up on government.”

"Everyone has said on this campaign trail … ‘Black Lives Matter,’ but look, I’m going to tell them something else: Black votes matter as well.”

Neither campaign responded to Yahoo's request for comment about the proposal.

But whether or not Sanders and Clinton agree to a last-minute venue change, Adams told Yahoo he plans to travel to "the projects" on the evening of Thursday, April 14, and "sit in the community center with residents from the housing development, and we’re going to do our own straw poll and a discussion after the debate."

Sanders and Clinton's much-anticipated Brooklyn debate is currently scheduled to stream live on CNN from the Brooklyn Navy Yard between 9 p.m. and 11 p.m. (East Coast time). Here are all the deets.