Sawt Falasteen - NYC immigrant hubs eye FIFA bounce after Trump crackdown woe

In Brooklyn's "Little Haiti," street blocks once busy with merchants were quiet earlier this week.

Mahalia Desrosiers, a project manager for the civic group Little Haiti BK, has seen some businesses shut down even though the neighborhood has not actually been raided by immigration agents.

But she is becoming more confident the community will rediscover its joie de vivre as Haiti's first World Cup appearance in more than 50 years quickly approaches.

"I think the World Cup will give people a sense of life, of hope, energy," Desrosiers told AFP. "Haitians will put their flag on everything. We will paint this town red and blue."

City officials have been canvassing immigrant neighborhoods ahead of the first games on June 11 to publicize FIFA-related opportunities.

The city's tourism agency is preparing a FIFA calendar of events so visitors can experience matches in neighborhoods with the most passion at stake. They also plan to post short videos promoting watch parties to social media.

Another program, the Five Borough Winners Special, will supply eating and drinking establishments with complementary drinking cups celebrating the soccer extravaganza.

"With FIFA it's an opportunity to maybe reach a new market, reach a new group of people that may not have visited your business before," said Jacques Brunvil, a senior liaison executive with the New York City Department of Small Business Services (SBS).

There are five dishwasher-friendly commemorative cups, one for each New York City borough. The city is hoping tourists will collect all five and post the bounty online.

The set consists of "taxi yellow for the Bronx, coffee cup blue for Brooklyn, ferry orange for Manhattan, thank you red for Queens and Liberty green for Staten Island," said an NYC Tourism spokesperson.

As of May 20, about 600 businesses had signed up for the program.

Brunvil envisions the boroughs as the backdrop to a kind of roving sports festival celebrating New York's diversity.

"We think that depending on the game, we'll see groups of people migrating to different parts of the city, whether it be Little Haiti to watch the Haiti game or an area like Little Senegal to watch that game," Brunvil said.

"People will move so that they can feel the vibrancy with the fans of that different country."

- Cheaper than going -

Immigrant communities in New York have felt under siege since Trump returned to the White House and launched his mass deportation drive.

City officials have described the toll anecdotally but say they lack the tools to quantify the economic impact.

At a City Council hearing this month, SBS Chief of Staff Haris Khan said his agency doesn't collect sales data from individual businesses or employ software to monitor foot traffic.

SBS does track real estate indicators, but "just because occupancy rates are healthy, doesn't really mean we're in a great place for our immigrant communities," he said.

Khan told the hearing his agency saw the World Cup as an opportunity, but he was "certain it won't completely alleviate a year and a half worth of pain for some of these businesses."

At Golden Blue Bar & Restaurant, business has been uneven, with the Little Haiti venue's initial opening in 2020 hit by the pandemic before the more recent worries about immigration raids.

But Amantha Chery, who helps manage the restaurant owned by her parents, expressed confidence the community will come out to celebrate. Tickets for Haiti's first match against Scotland on June 13 are currently more than $600 on Stubhub.

"Because of the (ticket) prices, it's better for us," Chery said.

The restaurant, known for its "Mini Golden Delight" plantains and empanadas, has two televisions in the main dining room, plus a garden room that can house a wide screen.

"It's been a struggle with how Haiti has been represented in the press ... with how 'Haiti's so dangerous' and all that stuff," she said.

"But there's so much resilience and beauty in our culture with our people. I'm just happy that we're finally in the press for something amazing."

R.Shaban--SF-PST