Mayor Reaches Out to Crown Heightsers in Yiddish
Yesterday a video was posted online of an NYPD van informing Crown Heights residents of Mayor Bill De Blasio’s new “Vision Zero” plan, which seeks to reduce traffic fatalities. The loudspeaker blares the message first in English, then in Yiddish, in what is no doubt part of the mayor’s efforts to reach wider communities.
Tablet Magazine points out that Crown Heights is a funny place to reach out to in Yiddish, as census data shows there are only a few thousand community members who reported Yiddish as their primary language, and of those only a few hundred said they don’t speak English “very well.”
Reports Tablet:
According to census data, a total of 3,109 Crown Heights residents reported speaking Yiddish at home, with only 386 of those respondents reporting that they speak English less than ‘very well.’
Compare this to census data from the nearby Williamsburg neighborhood, which boasts 18,755 Yiddish speakers, of whom 6,621 reported speaking English less than very well, or Borough Park, which takes the cake with 32,314 Yiddish speakers, of whom 9,036 reported speaking English less than very well, and someone should probably tell the mayor his vans may be more useful elsewhere.
Publicity Stunt
He’s not reaching out. It’s all a publicity stunt.
Milhouse
The accent is also wrong for Crown Heights. But in WB and BP, where Tablet suggests they take the message, people — especially the primary Yiddish speakers — don’t use the web, or at least won’t admit in public to using it. So the message to look at the web site would be wasted!
awacs
How about speaking En Espanol to our garbage truck drivers, telling them not to run over our bochrim in intersections?
bp
I was hearing this message in Boro Park this past Friday. So it was not meant specifically for CH.
how about
Just take away cars and there will be a stop in traffic deaths. The speed limit won’t keep that down any more than gun laws keeping those deaths down.
awacs
When cars are outlawed, only outlaws will have cars.