Some Bushwick Seniors Had to Salsa Alone After Vito Lopez Stood Them Up

A small group of protesters and a festive group of old folks congregated today at the Borinquen Plaza Senior Center in Bushwick. The seniors were there to party with a salsa DJ while the protesters looked for a man who would never show up: Vito Lopez.

The disgraced former assemblyman, accused of sexually harassing eight female staffers, is running for a seat on the Brooklyn City Council. In an unexpected move, Lopez scheduled a presser for noon today at Bushwick’s most thumpin’ destination for seniors — only to cancel the appearance without explanation.

Esther Blanco, director of the Borinquen Plaza Senior Center, said the Ridgewood Bushwick Senior Citizen Council told her office yesterday that Lopez would be a no-show. She was given no further information.

As the seniors mingled, played pool and drank coffee to some seriously bumpin merengue beats, three young protestors arrived in front of the building wearing pins that said “Vito” with a big red X across the middle, passing out anti-Lopez literature and toting a poster board describing Lopez’s questionable past.

“We wished we could have gathered more people but this was a last-minute thing,” said Rafael Diaz, a 24-year-old resident of Queens who recently moved from Brooklyn. “We’re here to support women’s rights and not support the not-so-humane Lopez,” said Diaz.

In recent days, Lopez’s campaign has been criticized for accepting taxpayer funds and for doctoring a photo in which he appeared with Hillary Clinton. Yesterday, City & State published a sweeping overview of the Ridgewood Bushwick Senior Citizen Council, which Lopez founded, that noted that “the neighborhood’s political upheaval and changing demographics have put the charity at a crossroads.”

Diaz said his small group was brought together in part by a local “old-school community organizer,” whose name he couldn’t provide because “she knows some of the women who were harassed.”

Meanwhile, inside, the significant congregation of local seniors continued the party, oblivious to political machinations, while elsewhere in New York City Vito Lopez might have been enjoying a good laugh.