845 Broadway, a proposed subsidized rental building applying for a residential variance from CB4. — Photo by Aaron Short

The street corners on nearby Wilson Avenue are quiet, but inside the Hope Gardens Community Center is bustling and orange and yellow tinfoil streamers hang down from the ceiling, which means it’s time for a special Thanksgiving edition of Community Board Four. 

6:30 PM: District Manager Nadine Whitted calls the meeting to order as a group of board members finish helping themselves to the catered meal in the back of the room (chicken and broccoli stir fry and meatballs in marinara sauce).  I find a seat next to Brooklyn Public Library librarian Dennis Stewart, the branch manager for the local cluster, who is here to keep tabs on everyone.  It’s the safest seat in the house.  No one ever crosses librarians.

We begin with a street co-naming and a long list of people who want to speak on behalf of A. Chineda Carter, a former Bushwick activist who’s advocacy predated the existence of Community Boards.  She died in February and the proposal before the board is a street co-naming on the corner of Bleecker and Knickerbocker Avenue, where the 83rd Precinct sits.  Former District Manager and esteemed public gadfly John Dereszewski explains the significance during the meeting’s public session.

"The intersection was the site of one of the worst fires in New York City," he said. "I said to Chineda, ‘Isn’t this horrible, isn’t this awful?’ and she was very quiet, but she said ‘This would be a wonderful site for the 83rd Precinct.’  You couldn’t plan it better, and of course, nobody did." 

7:00 PM: Nadine closes discussion and turns the microphone over to a guest speaker, Laura Sheinkopf, who gives a presentation about natural gas drilling in upstate New York.  Sheinkopf is part of the Safe Water Movement (SWM) and she is addressing an issue that CB4 member Rachel Devlin raised through the board’s Environment and Transportation Committee.  Several energy companies are moving to drill for natural gas very close to the city’s watershed and this is potentially a problem, according to Sheinkopf, because the drilling activity could kick up toxins into upstate reservoirs and contaminate the city’s water supply.  It’s a serious issue and the state and the city have held hearings about it. 

"Estimates of a plant are $10-50 billion to filter the water from the watersheds if the water is contaminated. This is an issue for us because we would be paying for this.  The energy companies get cheap energy, which is shipped around the world and not just for New York. Chesapeake Energy, which is drilling for natural gas, holds leases for property in the watershed…" 

This is becoming an extremely tedious and wonky environmental presentation that makes Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth look like a Michael Bay film.   The community board, which barely has an advisory capacity over land use and rezoning issues, may not be the best place for this kind of presentation.  At least members are asking lots of questions about it.   

7:25 PM: The last item on the public session is a developer’s application for a zoning variance at 845 Broadway (Broadway and Park Street). Right now, there is a three-story dilapidated building on the 15,000-square-foot lot that will be demolished to make way for a seven-story, 48-unit development. The units will be for those who make 60 percent of the adjusted median income, with 1 bedrooms at $600, 2 bedrooms at $800, and 3 bedrooms at $1,000, with commercial tenants occupying the first floor.

We have lots of questions, and the most incisive one is from Karen Cherry, a constituent liaison with Congressmember Ed Towns’ office. 

"Have you met with tenant leaders at Tompkins Houses and other areas?" says Cherry.  She is looking to find out whether residents in nearby Bedford-Stuyvesant projects would be eligible for this new property.

"Now wait a minute, this project is on our side of Broadway.  The north side of Broadway closest to Bushwick Avenue," says CB manager Whitted.  "I know that everybody needs housing, and we sound crazy talking about a line, but if there’s any development, we have only to advocate for those who live in Bushwick.  I’m hoping that 50 percent or more are marketed for those who live in Bushwick."

The developer, POKO’s Ken Olson says that 50 percent occupancy will indeed be reserved for Community Board 4 residents and Chair Julie Dent chimes in.

"I want to see this in writing," she says. "There have been people who have come before the community board asking the same thing.  I’m just asking you that we would like to have something in writing that 50 percent of these apartments will be allocated in Bushwick."

Olson says that it will indeed be in writing.

7:52 PM: The public hearing closes and Whitted takes roll.  There are forty members present and Dent begins her report, recognizing representatives from local elected officials.  Julie notes that Irving Park Playground is proceeding ahead of schedule but the DeKalb Branch of the Brooklyn Public Library will be closed for the next four weeks for renovations to fix a leaky roof.

8:03 PM: Whitted gives her report about the meetings she attended in the last month and notes a new online system that people use to apply for street permits and licensing. She also recognizes board member Jason Andrew whose art gallery, Norte Maar, is part of an art tour sponsored by Brooklyn Tourism and Borough President Marty Markowitz’s office.  She segues quickly to the 83rd Precinct Community Council meeting where officers revealed that 282 graffiti arrests were made in the past year and that there will be more police activity at the Bushwick Avenue and Myrtle Avenue intersection during the holidays.

"Don’t leave the keys in your car and keep the car running, because people will steal it… it happens," Whitted says.

8:20 PM: We shift to committee reports.  Environmental Committee Chair Rachel Devlin delivers a succinct rehash of the gas drilling argument. Martha Brown gives her land use report, followed by Barbara Smith, chair of Public Safety. This meeting is starting to drag and the microphone malfunctions are not helping.  All night long the amplified sound has been on the fritz and Whitted has finally quit using them.  She was beginning to sound like a backup singer for The Flaming Lips.  Willie, a CB1 staffer, brings along another amp that looks like a record player and may actually be older than he is. 

8:43 PM: On to new business. Hey Laura Braslow, can you motion to bundle these four items into one item to vote on?

Braslow looks up from the puzzle game she’s been playing on her Blackberry.

"That’s not going to work," says Braslow.

We’re onto voting.  Chineda’s co-naming passes easily.  The second co-naming, a street off Suydam dedicated to a former physician at Wyckoff Heights hospital, passes unanimously too.  The third item, Rachel’s "Save Our Drinking Water" resolution, passes sluggishly with general consent. The variance at 845 Broadway is up.  It’s a quick voice vote and the motion carries.  Now it’s the liquor licenses, a collection of nine of them mostly along Myrtle Avenue.  Those pass too. 

8:51 PM: Finally, announcements. 90 seconds only, people!

*Barbara Smith says that the 83rd Precinct is still collecting cans and donations for their toy drive at 422 Central through November.

*Rachel Devlin, who is everywhere tonight, announces the opening of the Green Fitness Studio on November 21 from 10 AM to 6 PM at 232 Varet Street.

*Noel Alain from the Bushwick Starr, an increasingly regular presence at these meetings, notes that the next event is The Montessori Circus Show, which will feature trapeze artists, acrobatics, puppets and antics.  It is on for two weekends in December (December 3-5 and 10-12) at 8 PM at the Bushwick Starr.

*Julie Dent notes that if you are looking for a place to volunteer there is nowhere better than the Ridgewood Bushwick Senior Center at 319 Stanhope Street, which will be preparing and serving meals to 500 seniors on Thanksgiving Day.  Get there before 9 AM and they will put you to work.  Go!  Help some people!  You’ll have a good time too. 

Somehow we must award an MVP tonight.  Rachel Devlin was an early contender, but she wasn’t helped by that gas presentation.  I like the environment as much as the next guy, but I kind of want to grab a jackhammer and a pickup truck and head up to the Catskills.  Sorry Rachel, we’re going with Dereszewski and the way-back machine, which was chugging along at full throttle all meeting.  Have a happy Thanksgiving!