Between ten and twenty people usually attend Community Board 12 meetings. Most of them live in Borough Park, where the meetings are held, and a few travel from Kensington and Midwood. But at last night's meeting, held at P.S. 230 in Kensington, about sixty people showed up!
So many people had something they wanted to talk about during the public comment period that it lasted for forty minutes instead of the usual fifteen. Residents commented on increased crime and the slow response by police, harassment of women by groups of men congregating on sidewalks, the failure to lock up Albemarle Playground at dusk, overflowing public litter baskets, and the litter baskets at busy intersections that were removed by the Sanitation Department.
A few preventable glitches occurred.
- We were told that we didn't have to sign the attendance sheet, which means that it doesn't show how many of us were actually there.
- We weren't told that we had to fill out a form in order to make a comment. So, when the end of the public comment period was announced, several people called out that they hadn't had a chance to speak yet. They were then allowed to fill out the form and speak.
- Nobody arranged to have a microphone there, so it was difficult to hear everyone's comments.
The next meeting (and the last one until September) will be on Tuesday, June 28th, at 7:00 p.m., at Amico Senior Center, 5901 13th Avenue, 3rd floor, at the corner of 59th Street. Enter on 59th Street. Take the B16 bus to 56th Street, then walk three blocks along 13th Avenue to 59th Street.
Keep making your voices heard!
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