Tania Damiano - Activity 5 - Community Board Visit

The Community Board 2 in Queens represents Sunnyside, Woodside, Long Island City and West Maspeth. This zone consists of mostly one and two family houses as well as a large number of apartments. These four neighborhoods are a rapidly expanding residential district, large commercial, industrial and manufacturing areas. Many subways lines and buses run through them as well as many highways, bridges, the Queens Midtown Tunnel and the BQE. The land area is about 5.2 square miles and as of the 2000 Census it has a population of 109,924. A majority of the population is White (mostly Irish, Polish, Italian), with a second largest population of Asians or Pacific Islanders.
The meeting was located in the Sunnyside Community Services Center at 43-22 50th Street in Sunnyside, NY. It meets every first Thursday of the month at 7pm. I was surprised and shocked to find out that the meeting was here since I took SAT classes in this same building for two years. I knew many activities occurred here since it is a community center, but I never imagined that the board meetings were there, even more so since I was there on Thursdays at around that time in the top floor taking classes. Anyways, I went to the site, had to sign in at the front entrance and then again when I arrived to the hall where the board meeting was to happen. The lady that was at the main table (with the agenda, flyers, etc) was very nice and kindly welcomed me and asked me if I was going to be speaking to please sign up. I said “No, I’m just here to watch.” She smiled at me and pointed me to please take the agenda and any other flyers that catch my attention. I think I grabbed every single flyer on the table, just for the fun of it. They wasted paper already anyways. I wanted to sit towards the front once I was set. But there were printed signs in almost all the tables saying “reserved for board members only.” Oh, okay. So I went and sat all the way in the back and center- not too far from the speakers anyways. It was past seven already and not everyone had made it yet.
It started with the pledge of allegiance as costume goes. The agenda written and what actually happened did not coincide and I kept getting lost on what was going on. Three out of Six committees didn’t even show up. How responsible. Aren’t they supposed to say they are not going at least? Moving on…It actually started off with public comments. Persons that signed up had a strictly timed 3 minutes to present their case. The first man that stepped up was highly upset that his now 6-month-old petition has had no response whatsoever. He simply asked for reliability on civil service and had had no answer. He claimed that government officials such as firefighters were not ready to work when called upon and many civilians were getting hurt. The only response he received right away from the board was “Go to the councilman.” He stepped out of the stage frustrated and disappointed, and left the meeting in a flash. Another man, Justin Park, confused me greatly with his claim and petition. I think he was talking about flower shops that are right in front of a supermarket that are not really part of the supermarket- that they are just renting the space and not legally allowed to work there. I didn’t get it. The city council’s response was “we are working on it.” Mr. Park was not satisfied either. Another citizen stepped up and said that the department of transit had put up signs changing the street flow that prevent people from exiting his building. He also mentioned that parking was very limited and restricted. The public comments were very useless; the city council didn’t really care. They paid more attention the board members and this is what I really want to mention: the issue that took up the most time- The PS 1 Project. A 16-foot concrete wall is being built up in LIC’s best-know museum. The Community Board has granted PS 1 $186,000 to build this wall but it now regretting it. They claim that the wall is dividing the community and giving it a worse feeling that of the “prison on Van Dam St.” The council was getting highly upset and claimed that it was their money being wasted on something that will not contribute to the community at all. The said to the PS 1 representatives that they must construct big windows or something that will allow the public to see to the inside of the museum from the outside like it always has been. The council said that unless they did something about that wall, they would have to move somewhere else to grant that area to build a school again. It was a very heated argument that ended in yells and curses. The council mocked the PS1 representatives greatly.
Also, there were many institutions and groups wanting to be represented and taking donations and asking for help. For example, the Boy Scouts of Astoria, Academy of Medicine, Child Care of NY, Home-owners Association, Troop 65. I actually spoke to a nice lady that sat at the table where I was sitting- she was from the Home-owners association and she told me she was there because she once belongs to the community board members but decided to leave. She told me some general info about the meetings. She claimed them to be “interesting” –which they were- and that it was just a meeting to discuss issues in the community. She said it would all be very organized and time- all she said was true. Oh, and surprise surprise- she graduated from Hunter and took Urban Studies as a course!
I was quietly sitting in the back and wanted to yell at the CB members many times! They were being so useless and rude! I hated how they mocked the PS1 people. I don’t even care much about the wall. I mean, I know how important PS1 is to the community and I think the wall is a stupid thing to do, but the attitude of the member was so rude, so unprofessional, so annoying. There was a guy sitting at the table in front of me that wanted to voice a simple opinion about the topic, so he raised his hand. The chairman bluntly said “I’m sorry young man, but public comments are closed. This discussion is only for public officials.” The young man response was: “I just want to say something quick.” The chairman said “I’m sorry young man, but public comments are closed. This discussion is only for public officials.” And seriously prohibited him from talking. Although the meeting was overall interesting, I find them so useless since nothing ever seems to get resolved anyways.