Seniors Demonstration NYC 1975

Produced and reported by Gail Pellett

Writer: Gail Pellett

Presented by: WBAI-Pacifica New York

Aired on: Pacifica | Date: 1975

Breaking News
Clip Duration: 6:06

 

People demonstrating after President Ford said "Drop Dead" to bailing out NYC

In 1975 New York City experienced a severe fiscal crisis.  Every week communities demonstrated against the drastic cuts in city services — fire houses, libraries, swimming pools and schools were closed.  City College students faced increased tuition fees and everyone dug deeper for increased subway fares while services were cut.  President Gerald Ford made his infamous response:  Drop Dead to bailing out the city.  In October, 1975, some ten thousand senior citizens demonstrated in front of City Hall to protest the closing of a hundred senior centers.  This report was so popular it aired numerous times during the fiscal crisis on WBAI.

March, 2011, senior demonstration opposing the closing of centers

Breaking News

This piece of reporting resonates with the severe fiscal challenges facing cities and states today. Once again, in the spring of 2011, seniors in New York City demonstrated against the closing of senior centers. But their numbers were nothing like the outpouring in 1975.

Partisan Reporting

This is one of the few pieces of reporting -- perhaps the only one aside from "Safe Haven" a personal radio essay - where I describe the affect upon me as a reporter covering a story. I was overwhelmed by so many seniors demonstrating and pressing around me to speak into the microphone. While I don't believe that there is any such thing as neutrality in reporting, I do believe in fair and responsible reporting. I was not doing a "he said, she said" story here with equal time to the powers that be who were determining where and how much cutting of social services was taking place during this painful period. The mainstream media was doing an excellent job of covering those voices. I was there to give voice to the voiceless -- senior citizens (Remember, this is before AARP! -- to the very people who were most affected by all these cuts.

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