WASHINGTON HEIGHTS — Protests against corporate greed moved Uptown Monday evening as community members gathered on a Washington Heights overpass to call for the end of tight ties between politicians and Wall Street.
Members of Manhattan and Bronx nonprofit groups, including UnitedNY, La Fuente, Make the Road New Yorkand New York Communities for Change, stood on the 181st Street overpass during rush hour waving signs while also calling to passing cars entering and leaving Manhattan.
A sign read “Open Season on the 1 Percent” at a demonstration organizers described in a statement as “one of hundreds of protests by citizens who are fed up with politicians who side with CEOs and Wall Street bankers over middle class families, and have failed to create jobs.”
Demonstrators said their march would be followed by a several similar demonstrations throughout the week, citing solidarity with the Occupy Wall Street movement, which has marched on Downtown streets and in Zuccotti Park since September 24.
But in contrast to Occupy Wall Street, the group gathered on Monday set its sights on just one demand — calling upon New York legislators to support the Obama Administration’s American Jobs Bill, which is scheduled for a vote Tuesday.
City Councilman Ydanis Rodriguez joined the demonstration on Monday.
“I came out today to stand with the protesters for the same reasons that I’ve gone down to the Wall Street occupation — I believe that working and middle-class people have to come together to demand a fair distribution of wealth in this country,” he said in a statement.
Rodriguez also said he believed demonstrations of this sort might lead to the beginning of a “movement, which could actually push for more resources to come to communities like Northern Manhattan.”
Organizer Cara Noel, a spokeswoman for UnitedNY, said the event allowed community residents to voice support for the Obama jobs plan.
“Millions of residents … would be put back to work through its passage,” Noel said. “It’s not just about jobs, it’s about good jobs, and the people who are ready to get back to work as soon as possible.”
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