To me, the word “community” has never really held much strength for me. Maybe, it is because I am so disconnected from the current events of my own neighborhood and do not know about the concerns that people have about my neighborhood, but to me community has always seemed like a weak force against a very strong force (the city/government) in that a community’s strongest possible contribution would be a protest or a signed petition. What I often overlook is that these small moves made by the community coming together, really does help to regulate/control urbanization for a community/neighborhood that is just not ready to handle that growth. Normally, for the government the top down approach takes economic interests first, with the effect on current residents not fully considered.
This reading relates very strongly to my group’s Flushing project as it made me remember when my group attended the Flushing Town Hall meeting that MinKwon Center for Community Organization helped to organize. The meeting was held in a small church in Flushing and the attendees probably only represented a small fractions of the actual population of Flushing, however, the similar concerns that people shared made Council Member Peter Koo, stumble a bit with his words and votes that he claimed that he would make. It was a small group, but they were coming together as a community to prevent gentrification as a result of the new rezoning which would lead to new developments and higher rents. This friction that the government is running into the trying to make these changes causes delays which helps to slow the growth process to something that current inhabitants can handle. So even though it seems like writing your name on a sheet of paper does not seem like it would do anything, it is more important to make the effort to be involved and the rest should come naturally in your interest of keeping your community and your happiness from dropping without understanding why.
Discussion question: What happens to a community that restricts itself too much, not regulating growth. Is that beneficial/detrimental to the power of the community?
