On Thursday, February 12th, I attended a meeting of Community Board No. 8 at the Weeksville Heritage Center in Crown Heights. The venue appeared to be out of place in relation to the larger Crown Heights neighborhood and a visual misrepresentation of the area. The meeting began as scheduled with a call to order, roll call, acceptance of minutes and correspondence. It was when the “action items” were introduced that audience members began to vocalize their opinions. During the first hour of the meeting, for which I was present, the primary topic was the construction of a hospital facility. This proposal was introduced by two white males, who appeared to be corporate puppets and wildly out of place. According to the two men, construction of the facility would be complete in eighteen months. Upon completion, the men boasted that the facility would create 150 jobs in addition to current staff. In response, audience members began to question the permanence of such jobs and who would hold these jobs. Older, African American residents posed the majority of questions. The audience members posed questions quicker than the two men could answer. In response, one audience member was told to “Wait to be recognized by the chair.” This strikes me as a futile effort to bring order to the responses of residents who obviously feel passionate about this issue. In an ideal world, dispassionate residents would voice their concerns in a uniform, “one at a time” manner. This exchange of important questions and empty answers continued and hostility from residents continued to escalate. At one point, a community board official passively remarked, “Community board members did not read the packet.” The topic was left unresolved with a community board official stating that further questions and opinions could be communicated via email. The meeting was what one who watches Parks and Recreation could expect. However, the ideal government employee Leslie Knope would not leave any questions unanswered. Upon my departure, the community board had only addressed half of the items on the agenda. This begs the question of what time the meeting ended and were there any topics as time-consuming as first? Did the audience members receive any direct answers about later questions they may have raised?
Lacking any background information about this facility and the political make-up of Crown Heights, I am unable to really understand the significance of this facility. Some questions that could have helped me better understand are: When had the audience members first heard of the facility? Was it at an earlier community board meeting? Did those audience members who spoke out, belong to a larger neighborhood association? If so, is there any one specific association spear heading this opposition? Will there be any future protests at the construction site or community board meetings?
