The acoustics were horrible; there was no mike, and there was a mix up on how to and who had signed up to talk. Nonetheless, Community Board 12 heard 15 Kensington residents speak during the public comment session at its first ever Kensington meeting. This happened Tues., May 24 at 7 p.m. at P.S. 230 on Albemarle Road off McDonald Avenue. Approximately 60 people showed up.
On the right sat the community board members, mainly men in beards and black. The public, along with two women CB 12 members, took seats to the left and rear. The executive board sat below the stage and took notes.
Several people announced they had never before attended a community board meeting: they’d come out of curiosity and Kensington pride.
Among the issues raised:
* The first speaker, an Asian man who’d lived in Kensigton since 1989, said Kensington’s “diversity should be heard.” CB 12 was weighted too heavily to one community: the Orthodox Jews. It needed more representation of others. Moreover, he thought the chairman had been in office too long. He ended by encouraging like-minded people to meet with him later.
* Bridget, a local and a regular at CB 12 meetings, praised CB 12 for holding this meeting in Kensington and for its new website. She urged it to install benches along Kensington’s streets, like the ones in Bayridge. Two people said the Board should make Walgreen’s Plaza a reality.
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* Another woman, a newcomer to the neighborhood, applauded Kensington’s diversity, but did not like its slovenly streets, the kids playing after dusk on the P.S. 230 playground, or the dogs running there free.
* Women are being hassled by some Bangladeshi men at the Church/McDonald Avenue corner, said a man, who’d made the same complaint at the 66 Precinct Community Council meeting the Thursday before. Noted a woman, she avoided that corner. Then another woman complained that even when you show the cops a guy beating up his girlfriend on the street, they do nothing.
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* At Caton, someone said, tractor trailers use streets marked “local” and run red lights. Next, a resident from Albemarle and E. 3 said conditions on her block were the worst she’d seen in 9 years. Calls to the 66 Precinct, she added, produce no results. Trucks come rolling down the street at midnight; young men get held up at gunpoint. Immediately 66 Precinct Officer Wright sat down next to her and took notes.
“To voice your complaints” said Councilmember (CM) Brad Lander and CB 12 District Manger Wolf Sender, call us or email us anytime. “We are the bridge to the community.” Both CMs Brad Lander and David Greenfield described their joint efforts to restore the Mayor’s proposed budget cuts, which will affect funding for teachers, child care and senior centers, library hours, and the survival of Fire Company 220 in Park Slope.
The meeting then wound its way through a zoning variance and a street renaming in honor of local community activist Zachary Sansone. By then most of the visitors had drifted away, although Sansone’s service as a WW 2 Lieutenant in Mussolini's Italian army turned out to be sufficient reason to table the renaming.
The next Community Board 12 meeting takes place at Amico Senior Center, Tues., June 28 at Amico Senior Center, 5901 13th Avenue, 3rd floor, at the corner of 59th Street. The meeting starts at 7 p.m. This time, you'll need to take the bus.