‘Bagels’ Protest AIDS Cuts Outside Library

As part of World AIDS Day, Mayor Michael Bloomberg held a bagel breakfast Wednesday inside the Brooklyn Public Library's for leaders of AIDS organizations as well as people with AIDS and government officials.

Outside, dozens of people dressed as bagels held a "schmear" campaign, protesting Bloomberg's budget cuts to HIV/AIDS services. Nine people dressed as bagels were arrested for blocking traffic in Grand Army Plaza.

"Every December Bloomberg meets with members of the AIDS community and says he supports all their policies, and every January he cuts funding for their programs," said Silas Munro, a Prospect Heights resident who attended the protest. Munro works for Housing Works, the HIV/AIDS organization that organized the protest.

Shouting, "cream cheese with chives won't save lives!" the bagel-costumed protesters were arguing against Bloomberg's proposed $20 million in cuts over the last two years, largely to housing for people living with HIV/AIDS. Although the majority of the cuts were later restored by the New York City Council, the protesters worry that AIDS services will once again be on the chopping block during the next round of budget negotiations.

They were also reacting against the strong pressure the Bloomberg administration placed on Governor Paterson to veto a bill that would have capped rent for people living with HIV/AIDS at 30 percent of their incomes. After budgetary concerns caused the Bloomberg administration to weigh in, Paterson issued what he said was his "hardest veto."

Housing Works also organized a protest outside Bloomberg's bagel breakfast on World AIDS Day last year at Gracie Mansion, where the breakfast has traditionally been held. This was the first year the breakfast was held in Brooklyn.

Brooklyn has the highest number of people living with AIDS of all the boroughs. In 2008, the most recent year for which statistics are available, 25,475 people were living with aids in Kings County. Minority residents are hit disproportionately hard: 86.9 percent of all people with HIV/AIDS in Brooklyn in 2008 were Black or Hispanic.

One of those people is Felicia Carroll, 44, who currently lives in Bushwick. A mother of four, Felicia was diagnosed with HIV in 1990. She was dressed as an everything bagel at the protest Tuesday because she said Bloomberg's cuts to HIV/AIDS services affect her entire life.

"What Bloomberg's doing is a shame," she said. "The Mayor is ready to cut out services that we as people with AIDS depend on to keep us healthy."