In Roger Sanjek’s article, Color-Full before Color Blind: The emergence of Multiracial Neighborhood Politics in Queens, New York CIty, Sanjek starts by examining how the United States are both changing dramatically. These two regions will no longer be comprised of primarily whites; there is a shift in the majority minority: African, Asian and Latino-Americans altogether make up a larger population than just whites. Sanjek then references Jane Jacobs and her vision that there would be “district-level political power…’big and powerful enough to fight City Hall’ ” a vision which seems to represent an ideal democracy. Sanjek did his research on the local level by studying and researching the Queens neighborhood of Elmhurst-Corona, specifically examining Community Board 4.
One of the first interactions for this community board was when the residents of Elmhurst-Corona met with the residents of Lefrak City, and from there, the community board came to represent the community. Indeed, reflected in its minutes, the community and the board expressed a negative attitude towards “‘welfare cases'” and “‘illegal aliens'”, general terms that were given African-Americans and Latino-Americans. Overall, Sanjek’s article takes on a positive view towards community boards, stating that “without a community board there would have been no public forum at which white, black, Latin American, and Asian leaders had a place to interact.” Sanjek truly believes that it is through community boards that neighborhood and community issues can be resolved. In fact, community boards are essential because it brings together all the different ethnicities and viewpoints.
In Tarry Hum’s article, Planning in Neighborhoods with Multiple Publics: Opportunities and Challenges for Community-Based Nonprofit Organizations, Hum disagrees with Sanjek’s view on community boards, stating that they “often lack autonomy…and fail to promote the inclusion of disenfranchised community members such as immigrants.” Unlike Sanjek, Hum conducts her research in the neighborhoods of Sunset Park and Flushing, with Community Board 7.
Hum found that community boards, while perhaps a nice idea, “are constrained in their ability to act independently”. She gives several examples of board members that were removed because of their opposition: nine were removed for opposing Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz. Hence, community boards are not there to serve the people, but rather, one person, or a small group of people in a community. Most importantly, she undercuts Sanjek’s argument that community boards were able to unite white, black, Latino and Asians by providing evidence that “community boards proved to be ineffective venues in mediating conflicts about race, capital, and neighborhood planning [in Flushing and Sunset Park]”.
While Sanjek argues that a community board has helped to unite the Elmhurst-Corona community in addressing several issues, Hum finds that such a situation never occurred, or has yet to occur in neighborhoods such as Sunset Park or Flushing.
