LAST GASP: Live From The 94th Precinct Community Council Meeting

Tonight’s proceedings were short and sweet. However, there were plenty of items of interest and naturally I shot footage. Without further ado, here it is along with a little commentary.

INTRODUCTION

• A general run-down of the previous month’s meeting is given.
• Attendees are made aware of the City’s Community Liaison’s web site.
• The first guest speaker of the evening is announced: Dennis Gagan of the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office.
• When asked if crime is up or down he says down.
• Phyllis (a 94th Community Council institution) disagrees and quotes Winston Churchill.
• Mr. Gagan then proceeds to outline a stringent jail-time versus drug treatment program.
• One Greenpointer mentions that a regular offender seems to be in and out of jail for drug-related crimes on a regular basis and asks what he should do if he catches this chap breaking into his car. The following discussion elicits dark laughter from the audience. D. I. Hurson steps in.

PART II: Tim Duffy, the LGBT Liaison for the NYPD introduces himself and D. I. Hurson gives a rundown of crime statistics.

• Any and all interested parties can get Mr. Duffy’s contact information by clicking here.
• Here’s the skinny per D. I. Hurson:
  1. Narcotics arrests were up 50%
  2. Traffic-related citations were up 25%
  3. Overall crime was down 4% HOWEVER:
  4. Robberies were up.
  5. Domestic violence was up.
  6. Car break-ins— especially on the “Northside” (specifically between North 4 and North 7 Street)— were up.
  7. In regards to last month’s bank robbery at HSBC: the perpetrators were arrested.
  8. The hate crime which occurred at North 4 Street and Wythe Avenue has yet to be solved.
  9. There was an arrest regarding the shooting.

PART III: Community Board 1 Member Tom Burrows Speaks and the Q & A Session Commences

• Mr. Burrows disambiguates (once again) the hoopla regarding a so-called moratorium on liquor licenses.
• The issue of the Brooklyn Night Bazaar is addressed. Once again.
• Mr. Burrows implores people to call 311 about eating and drinking establishments which pose a public nuisance— and to forward this information to the local Community Board. If the Community Board does not know such an establishment poses an issue to the community, they cannot do anything about. In others words: if you see something, SAY SOMETHING@
• The issue of truck and— get this— MTA bus traffic on Kent Street is raised. NOTE: Kent Street is not on a bus route. The issue of motorcyclists and installing speed bumps is brought up as well. Hurson says speed bumps cannot be installed on bus routes. The ladies present assure him Kent Street is not on a bus route and he  offers to lend a hand. (Ed. Note: I later advised these ladies to take up the matter with our Community Board’s Transportation Chair, Karen Nieves.)

PART IV: Q & A Session Continues

• The subject of graffiti is once more raised and D. I. Hurson explains how to get it fixed.
• Diane Jackson of the Cooper Houses voices concerns about men from the adjacent homeless shelter breaking curfew and sleeping in the halls of said housing. Apparently 60 Kingsland Avenue has the biggest problem.
• More about the drug-dealing situation on Kent Street.

At this point it seemed like everything was over. But it wasn’t.

PART V: Carlos Menchaca of Councilwoman Christine Quinn’s Office Introduces Himself

NEW YORK SHITTY ANALYSIS/WRAP-UP

After this meeting adjourned I arrived home to find this in my inbox.

Jan (who sent me the above photograph) writes:

Hi Heather –

The attached is what I was greeted with yesterday afternoon when I went to go pick up the car at the parking lot on N.9th St. to do errands.  Since the interior wasn’t wet, I am going to assume this happened really late Saturday or early Sunday.  Oh, and my cover was taken off too, so someone was interested in seeing what was under the wrapping.

This is my 64 Impala that I’ve had through thick and thin since 1983.  Apparently someone thought it would be fun to walk over the car with ladies sized shoes (with a steel heel) and went into my windshield.  We have this problem with someone leaving the gate open and stuff getting stolen once in a while, but I bet that bar across the street has something to do with it.  Thanks kiddies, your little bit of fun walking across my 48 year old car is going to cost me a cool grand to fix the busted windshield, not to mention figuring out how to fix the dents in the roof.

Here’s the deal: as a result of virtually no awareness raised by the powers that be and/or lack effective outreach by our local Community Board I receive a lot of complaints. I gladly field them and post the most relevant ones here. However, it has come to my attention that a great many of these complaints are redundant in nature. Follows is the “top three”:

• Complaints about “eating and drinking” establishments— usually about noise, disorderly behavior, property damage and litter.
• Traffic/transportation-related complaints.
• Parks-related complaints.

What I would like to do so as to address this problem, serve my community; and perhaps preserve some semblance of my own sanity is create some customized version of a page which Jeremiah, of Vanishing New York, has on his site. It is entitled “How To Complain”. Follows is an excerpt.

You can (and should) read the rest here. In order to make this happen here’s what I need from you, dear readers from Brooklyn’s Community Board 1:

What do YOU want to complain about “effectively”? We have a number of very dedicated people on our Community Board. What is lacking is communication— and you! Do I need to hyperlink to Community Board 1’s calendar— including sub-committee meetings? Would monthly reminders about the 94th (and/or 90th) Precinct Community Council meetings be helpful? Contact information for elected officials, perhaps? Please tender your suggestions via comments or email at missheather (at) thatgreenpointblog (dot) com.

Thank you.

Miss Heather