The Community Board is still serious business, even at Christmas time. — Photos by Aaron Short
Outside a festive Hope Gardens Community Center, decorated with tinsel and strings of lights, several community board members are bringing large containers of food. It can only mean one thing. A special Christmas-themed Community Board 4 running diary!
6:30 PM: Yes, it’s time for Community Board 4′s Annual Christmas Party, which is held in lieu of its monthly meeting. At the entrance of the room are three tables with sixteen foil food compartments, heated by small Bunsen burners. There are white paper snowflakes hanging from the ceiling and about two-dozen round tables with tartan tablecloths from the Martha Stewart Living Collection. The board’s familiar U-shaped table is missing. So is Chair Julie Dent.
6:32 PM: District Manager Nadine Whitted announces that Land Use Chair Martha Brown will be presiding as acting-Chair. Martha takes the floor in front of a six-foot Christmas tree weighed down by scores of silver ornaments and delivers an announcement. Julie Dent is not here tonight because her brother Edwin passed away this week.
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6:34 PM: Nadine makes two short announcements. Beginning on December 7, senior and Assisted Living Program units are available for rent at Moffat Gardens (22 Moffat Street). Applicants must be aged 62 or older at the time of the application, and those interested should apply to the Ridgewood Bushwick Senior Citizens Council at 217 Wyckoff Avenue. (There’s 55 1-bedroom apartments. Get ‘em while they’re hot!)
Also, Hope Gardens has a new center director, Ali Lopez, who will take the place of longtime center director Anna Gonzalez who passed away earlier this year.
"It’s been a joyous year for some and a sorrowful year for others," says Nadine.
6:40 PM: Ok, now it’s "short small announcements" from anyone else. Nadine adds one more thing:
"If anyone is interested in being served a hot meal on Christmas, they need to call 718-366-3038 or go to 319 Stanhope Street. That’s for senior citizens interested in having a hot meal," says Nadine. Mayor Michael Bloomberg came last year. Will Hillary be there this year?
*A Census worker is urging everyone to fill out the 2010 Census, which will be mailed to homes in March next year, and he wants to let people know that there will be jobs available for Census trackers who will knock on doors in Bushwick of those who don’t fill out the forms.
*CB4 member Rachel Devlin announces that Green Fitness Studio will open on Monday at 5 AM and there’s a party Monday night from 7-10 PM with free yoga and pilates. Have you seen the website? This thing looks huge!
*CB4 Public Safety Chair Barbara Smith thanks everyone for participating in the Christmas holiday fundraiser, which made $3,000 for the 83rd precinct. Also robberies are down 17.1 percent but burglaries are up 3.9 percent for the year.
6:50 PM: Time for food, and with everyone standing in line to get their goodies, let’s dive into the neighborhood gossip before we wish everyone a Merry Census Christmas!
While standing in line, I notice Allison Frost, staff member for Assemblyman Vito Lopez, former campaign manager for former Council candidate Maritza Davila, who is also waiting in line for food. The Davila camp sat at table six, mostly keeping to themselves, though Devlin came by to hand out a few Green Fitness Studio brochures and Parks Chair Austen Martinez stopped over to chat. Allison seemed to be in a good mood. I ask Frost if she knows about the lawsuit that a group of Manhattan-based atheists are filing at Brooklyn Supreme Court against the Catholic Church, Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio, and Lopez for those robocalls the Bishop made just before the general election. Yes, she knew about it. No, she’s not commenting. Positive stories. Think positive stories. Here’s one. Allison didn’t say anything about this, but I think she will be Vito’s new Chief of Staff, replacing Steve Levin, before the year is over.
You will be hearing a lot more about the 2010 Census and its political implications early next year. State Senator Martin Dilan (D-Bushwick) already had a town hall meeting about it in PS 250 on Wednesday night. Everyone is going to be holding forums about the Census, holding press conferences about the Census, how you too can get jobs working for the Census. All it really needs is a theme song by John Mellencamp and they’re set.
With my food piled high, I sat down next to Nadine and Academy of Urban Planning’s Adam Schwartz, who had a good tip too. After a year of delays, The Harbor School is set to depart for Governor’s Island, but who will replace the Harbor School at the Bushwick Campus? If it is a charter school, expect hell to be raised. There was significant resistance to Achievement First at IS 383 back in June of 2009.
Nadine adds something else. The New York Post called her asking for her suggestions about the best Christmas decorations in Bushwick. I nominate the block of Evergreen Street off Cedar. They always put up a completely dominating holiday performance.
Council member Erik Dilan arrives as members are helping themselves to dessert and hits the tables. I ask him about those four vacancies on the board and whether he will be filling them soon. He says he has three people in mind, but is looking for the fourth member. So, if you want to join the board next year, Dilan is taking a look at resumes. Here’s how to get in touch:
387 Arlington Avenue
Brooklyn, New York 11208
718-642-8664 (phone)
718-642-8639 (fax)
(And here’s the email: emdilan@council.nyc.ny.us)
Professional Alternative December 17th, 2009 at 11:19 am
That fact that someone can fax their interest in becoming a CB member but not email says so much about the way things are run here. Bunch of Dark-Age ass old people.
And $3000 for the precinct? That’s the taxes on a single railroad tenement. How is that even worth the effort?
All that said: nice tree. Food looks excellent!
And my condolences to Ms. Dent.