Uh, excuse me, you — do not give Ms. Nadine no sass. — Photos by Aaron Short

We welcome you back to Hope Gardens for Community Board 4′s October meeting.  This meeting is Halloween-themed.  There are several pumpkins, spiders, and ghouls attached by fishing lines to the ceiling at the Hope Gardens Community Center.  None of the community board members are in costume.  They’re here for official business and the first item of business is the biggest Halloween scare of all: H1N1 Swine Flu. 

6:30 PM: Okay, I admit, I was stuck in traffic.  Do not take the B54 bus line.  It stops at every corner on its way to Ridgewood.  On the bus, there was a man reading a binder about the proposed Ridgewood North Historic District, which is different from the Ridgewood South Historic District, but none of that has anything to do with the flu.   

At the CB4 meeting, representatives from New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene gave a short report about flu vaccines and preventing influenza in city schools.  In terms of vaccines, the Health Department is recommending that pregnant women, health care workers, children ages 6 months to 18, adults 50 and older, anyone living with children younger than 6 months, and anyone between ages 18 and 49 with underlying health conditions like heart disease or diabetes get a flu shot.  The Health Department is also strongly encouraging parents to get their children immunized against H1N1.  For more information, visit www.nyc.gov/flu.  And wash your hands.  I’m washing them right now. 

	Hey kids, go see art. Click for more.

6:45 PM: Onto budget priorities.  This is Community Board 4′s wish list of capital and expense budget priorities for the city’s FY 2011. Mostly it’s the same list of priorities from years past that the city’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB) briefly glances at before filing it under the stack of budget priorities from the other 58 community boards throughout the city.  Actually, no, they do give the boards a response.  While CB4 may want more after-school centers, resources for day-care services, school repairs, roads fixed and fire equipment purchased, OMB cannot make a recommendation unless the city agency in charge of a particular issue submits a proposal to increase funding for a project.  

The Board’s top expense priority, as it was last year, is to increase manpower for the 83rd Precinct, Housing Authority and Transit Authority.  OMB’s recommendation?  "The NYPD’s total uniformed staffing levels depend on decisions made in the preliminary and executive budget process.  Allocation of personnel is scheduled only after graduation of classes from the academy."  The top capital priority?  Constructing additional units of "affordable" apartments for residents who are not eligible for newly constructed 2-3 family homes.  And the OMB’s response?  "The agency will try to accommodate this issue within existing resources."  So there.

7:01 PM: After Chair Julie Dent gives her report, District Manager Nadine Whitted talks about Bushwick resident Mario Vera, the man who was assaulted on September 23 just outside his home on Lafayette and Broadway.  At the same time Whitted spoke, a vigil was occurring outside Beth Israel Hospital in Manhattan to raise money for Vera’s family.  Though it has been reported in several news outlets that the attack was a hate crime, the NYPD is offering a reward for news on the attackers, and the investigation is being handled by the NYPD’s hate crimes unit and not the 83rd precinct, Whitted and many board members were hesitant to label the assault in any way until more facts were known about the case.  Whitted has been involved early in this case, as Vera’s social worker placed a call to her office asking whether an address on Lafayette Street was in Bushwick or Bed-Stuy.

"The one thing I know is our community has many issues, one of those issues is not race relations between African-Americans and Latinos.  We have other issues. The media has never treated Bushwick nicely.  When we were burning in the 1970s, they were calling, looking for ugly stories to write about.  Today, I can tell you that we have some good stories going on.  We need to band together, not tolerate anything like this crime, and tell people we live in harmony in this community," said Nadine.

"This was in general area of the Jose Sucuzhañay attack.  The attackers used the word ‘mojado.’  That’s one word that I never learned.  We should let the police determine what happened here.  We don’t need anybody or anything to upset our applecart," said Nadine.   

7:18 PM: CB 4 member Deborah Brown gives her first Health Committee report, which, she explains, is designed to "acquaint members with health services available, hospitals, and insurance plans that are out there and organize this information for you."  That’s a big task.  Woodhull Hospital officials came to the last meeting to talk about flu-prevention protocols and their geriatric wellness center’s new initiative: Fall Into Health (no, we’re not kidding). Evelyn Ortiz at the HHC Clinic located directly behind Hope Gardens piggybacks on the report and talks about when to get the flu vaccine:

(HHC Clinic at 335 Central is open every day 1-8 PM and 11 AM-3 PM on Saturdays….apparently.)

7:23 PM: Public Safety Chair Barbara Smith details liquor licenses that were approved and denied.  This sounded like a fun meeting.  A toast is raised to El Salvador Restaurant at 1544 Myrtle Avenue who received the go-ahead from Barbara, but three others were REJECTED.  Mango Tropical (15 Jefferson Street), La Kalle (241A Knickerbocker) and Babylon (1518 Gates Avenue), were not supported by the Public Safety Committee because of alcohol violations and police activity.

"The police are all trying to help, there are too many dangerous things going on in these places; selling alcohol to underage individuals.  I’m so happy we have the police backing us in this," said Barbara. 

Chair Julie recognizes two police officers including Community Affairs lifer Damarys Franco.  And Victoria Hernandez gives her report on collecting information for seniors.

"We’re going to take this committee on the road. We’re going to visit the senior centers.  Seniors don’t come out at night.  We’re taking this show on the road.  We’re taking it to the seniors.  And Vicky will give her report in English and Spanish," said Julie. 

7:29 PM: Julie takes it over and asks about old business and new business. Nothing old and not much new, so Nadine talks about the Expense Capital Budget Priorities in 2011 in New Business.  Voice vote, and it’s approved. Francisco Mercado from Councilmember Diana Reyna’s office explains what will happen with the OMB:

"Nothing is set in stone, a lot of it is working with OMB.  A lot of them don’t get funded year to year, so they just get carried over to next year." 

7:32 PM: We’re into announcements!  Let’s go to the highlights…

*John Garcia is talking about Joseph Angel’s new newspaper, Bushwick Today.

"It’s a community paper.  That’s what this paper is about.  Positive things that are happening.  We are the only independent newspaper doing this."

He presents check of $100 for a turkey drive and $200 for a  childrens’ toy drive, for the 83rd Precinct.  Barbara wants to clarify something…

"Let me know for those in the media, I know you’re all taking notes, THAT DONATION WAS NOT FOR COMMUNITY BOARD 4!  That was for the 83rd precinct community council for their Turkey Drive."  Thanks.  We got it Barabra. 

*CB 4 member Rachel Devlin wants everyone to know about a movement to protest natural gas drilling in upstate New York near the state’s watershed.  The group is called the Safe Water Movement (another unfortunate name. It sounds like a cult). A presentation by Safe Water Movement will occur on  November 5th at 315 Wyckoff Avenue at 6 PM. 

*Barbara Smith notes that Friday Dec 4th there is an honoree dinner 83rd Precinct Community Council Christmas fundraiser at Latino Americanos Unidos, 218 Wyckoff Avenue.

*Laura Braslow, another CB4 member, is reminding everyone that Arts in Bushwick’s BETA Spaces will occur on November 8 from 11 AM to 7 PM.  

*CB4 member Jason Andrew of Norte Maar notes the art walk he organized with BushwickBK and several other exhibition spaces called This Beat Is Sick.  It is this Saturday, October 24, from 6 to 10 PM.  He also spoke about a back to school event in late august where Diana Reyna read a children’s story to a crowd of families using a megaphone from a police car because another microphone didn’t work.  That’s as Bushwick as it gets. 

*Noel Allain of The Bushwick Starr announced a collaboration with PS 145 in which students will eventually direct and write plays about environmental issues that impact the community. First, they need to find out what are the major environmental issues concerning Bushwick residents so they are launching environmental surveys over the next few weeks. After collecting the surveys, a 5th grade class will engage in a playwriting workshop on what they’ve learned about the neighborhood and then put on the productions for the public at the Bushwick Starr.

*Francisco Mercado mentions a gang prevention meeting with 83rd Deputy Inspector Steve Capasso and reminds everyone to vote on November 3rd. 

"Rumors that there are gang initiations going on at Halloween.  Halloween is on a Saturday. We’ll have extra cops on the streets.  Be careful, be mindful of your children and grandchildren," said Francisco.

Um…. What?

"There’s a text going around that the bloods will be slashing kids faces during the week of Halloween.  No calls to 911 so far.  If you talk to people in the community, it did happen, but it wasn’t reported." 

*Raul Rubio from Family Services Network is looking for some more youth to get involved in that Bushwick brownfields project (BOA grant) he’s been talking about for six months.  He swears there won’t be a luxury condo built on that site. 

*Gladys Puglla, Make the Road New York member and CB4 member.  She’s talking about landlords harassing you and youth programs for you teenagers out there, especially writing newspapers.

Two additional thoughts:

Both Congressmember Nydia Velázquez and Speaker Christine Quinn were at the Myrtle-Wyckoff L stop, and the NYPD Hate Crimes Task force handing out flyers about the Vera attack.  Make the Road New York held a vigil.  Diana hasn’t gone that far yet, referring to the beating as an "alleged hate crime."  Clearly we have a disconnect here, until more facts come out, but an assault did happen off Broadway and that’s something that everyone is concerned about. 

Two real estate agents took in the meeting as well just to see what issues were going on in the neighborhood.  I asked them about the prices of houses in the general area where the assault occurred (multifamily townhouses were going for between $650,000 and $700,000). 

"Bushwick is still up and coming.  It is close to Manhattan, crime is down. 10 yrs from now?  You’ll see changes in price. Property values are rising," one said.

I argued they’re overpriced.

"Not when you look at the rent roll.  If you look at the rent roll, took away expenses, divide it, you’ll get better returns from that than putting it in a bank," the other said.