Unfortunately, I have never been a very active member of the community in which I live. I have no experience with the ins and outs of local policy making, and so taking the opportunity to become further familiarized with these institutions peeked my curiosity. It was interesting  to see just how “democratic” the process was, given that my relationship with government has always been on more macro levels, in which a lot of the decisions left up to the citizens are limited to their capability to elect a representative. In this setting, I felt what I imagined to be the aura of ancient Athenian assemblies, although the voting processes were not conducted due to the fact the quorum was not met. The meeting was short three participators in order to be considered a real meeting, so technically it wasn’t an official meeting at all. It was rather something of a community discussion in which the major points of concern in the neighborhood were discussed, and potential approaches to solving said problems are proposed.

Sunset Park is dealing with a number of problems that seem to all stem out of the over crowding which plagues the neighborhood.Sunset Park is statistically the most overcrowded neighborhood with an estimated 35% of its residents living in severely overcrowded conditions. The first of these is the the housing crisis in Sunset Park. There is a general acknowledgment that their very little supply of affordable housing in Sunset Park, but the homelessness statistics eschew this as most of the families unable to find housing resort to illegal arrangements in which they double up in apartments resided in by friends or family. This is both a source of income for the original inhabitants and a way to keep their friends and families out of the housing system. A system which often relocates families to far off neighborhoods, while the children of said families remained enrolled in Sunset Park schools, vastly increasing the difficulty of transportation. It was suggested that there be a Shelter built in Sunset Park in order to help keep struggling families within the neighborhood and allow them a chance to re establish themselves locally. Those opposed to this proposition rallied behind the lack of space to build such an establishment, while it’s supporters suggested a building with multiple uses would validate the use of the precious space.

The education system is also suffering as a product of the overcrowding. There is an already approved grade school in the works. The committee was confident they could obtain the much needed land, in order to find seats for the ridiculous amount of kids without seats in school. The problem is the location of the land, which is on one of the neighborhoods most dangerous avenues. Many suggestions were made in the hopes of finding a way to keep the children safe getting to and leaving school. Overpass bridges, tunnels and cross guards were among these.

Due to the lack of quorum all of these suggestions were saved to be voted on during the following months meeting.