The regular monthly Board Meeting of Community Board  #7 will be held on Wednesday, November 17, 2010 @ 6:30 P.M. at our Board Office, located at 4201 4^th Avenue (Entrance on 43^rd Street & 4^th Avenue).

Following is the proposed agenda:

1.       The Pledge of Allegiance

2.       Opening of the meeting

3.       Adoption of the agenda

4.       Adoption of the Minutes of the Board Meeting of October 20, 2010

5.       Presentation: Frank Laghezza, Executive Assistant District Attorney

6.       Committee Reports:  Economic Development Committee, Health & Mental Health Committee, Housing Committee, Membership & Attendance Committee, Parks  Committee, Youth Committee, Youth Committee

7.       Acknowledgment of Elected Officials & Elected Officials Representatives

8.       Chairperson’s Report/Executive Committee

9.       District Manager’s Report

10.   Old Business

11.   New Business

12.   Public Comment

13. Adjournment

IF YOU ARE UNABLE TO ATTEND THE BOARD MEETING, PLEASE CALL THE BOARD OFFICE AT (718) 854-0003 AS EARLY AS POSSIBLE.

*Cutbacks at the MTA are mixing up bus routes through Sunset Park—the B37 and B70 will diverge from their well-known paths, and many aren’t happy about it, the Brooklyn Eagle reports.

*The Eagle takes a look back at “Operation Blockbuster,” the big South Brooklyn crack bust of 2008

*Legit or scam? The diet product Herbalife has carved out a firm foothold among immigration groups. Feet in Two Worlds reports.

*Mayor Michael Bloomberg at the end of May announced a huge biotech facility will go into the Brooklyn Army Terminal in Sunset Park. The Wall Street Journal gives some additional background on the mayor’s startup projects.

*In case you haven’t found your spot yet, the Brooklyn Eagle has links to suggestions for the best spots to watch the World Cup.

CB7 announcement below:

COMMUNITY BOARD #7 
 

PUBLIC SPEAKOUT 

ON COMMUNITY ISSUES CONCERNING

4^TH AVENUE 

TUESDAY, JUNE 1, 2010 

CB7 OFFICE – 4201 4^TH AVENUE

(ENTRANCE ON 43^RD STREET)

6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.

“Tee Gee” left this long and comprehensive reply to a short news update about Councilwoman Gonzalez’s vendor legislation for Sunset Park. I had noted it has been controversial, based in part on this article I came across quite a while ago, as well as some general tensions I know exist between local businesses and street vendors. I’ll continue to report on this, but in the mean time, here’s one neighborhood take on the proposed legislation. Keep scrolling to see the P.S. on local pols. Read and reply!

The Sunset Park Street Vending bill is one of the more amazing pieces of business to come before the City Council. For years, store-based businesses have complained about unfair competition from street vendors. They pointed out that the vendors were unlicensed, didn’t give receipts, didn’t guarantee goods, didn’t post prices, didn’t follow department of health regulations and were just unfair to rent paying businesses.
But when the Sunset Park Business Improvement District investigated on behalf of its member businesses (all store-based), they found that there were at least 3 different types of street vendors. One, were opportunistic folks who had regular jobs but came out just before holidays to sell inferior goods and knock-offs of name brands. The second type, were often recent immigrants who were selling on behalf of greedy business people who “charged” the vendors a ridiculous fee to vend their goods. These vendors were victims forced to vend aggressively just to break even for the day after prepaying the folks who sent them out. And the third type of vendor (which is predominant in Sunset Park) are recent immigrants who live in Sunset Park and are providing foods and goods that for the most part are not available in local stores.

After much investigation, the BID determined:
1. The city has not given vending licenses in so long that the wait is many years and thus most vendors do so illegally.
2. Sunset Park vendors want to be licensed and follow the regulations that stores follow but are subject to constant fines and sometimes arrest.
3. Daily sidewalk vending (not the ones who just appear before holidays) actually helps store-based businesses by increasing business throughout the district.
3. The BID and the local vendors agreed to develop a pilot program that would permit vendors on side streets (and not near stores with similar products and not on 5th Avenue). The vendors would follow a detailed list of regulations that the stores follow and in addition would provide assistance in maintaining the cleanliness of the avenue and especially the street corners. Their presence on the side streets would greatly promote the store located on side streets.
4. The Brooklyn Public Library and several other not-for-profits agreed to provide a package of free services for the vendors (mainly recent immigrants) and their families (and also for the store owners & their employees & families).
5. The BID put together this coalition of service providers that would provide these services:
a. English language development
b. Business skill development
c. Citizenship & Naturalization Assistance
d. Housing assistance
e. Assistance in navigating the school system
f. Career planning
g. Legal services
h. Health services.

The plan is much more detailed than my limited comment here. But basically it would recognize our local vendors as legitimate members of the business community and the community at large. It would embrace rather than attack these hardworking individuals. It would “jump start” our newest wave of future Americans into the role of active citizenship. Unlike the parents of many of us, who came to the U.S. two or more generations ago and had to wait for their children or children’s children to be viewed as “valid” citizens, our newest neighbors would be welcomed into the American dream. And America (I should point out that many of these immigrants are already Americans – South & Central & North, we misuse the term when what we mean is United States of America) would get a new boost of patriotism from these new citizens as they become proof that the American dream is real and not a trumped up scam.
In closing, this is not a compromise plan where everyone loses equally. This is instead, a very rare case of a true “win-win” situation. Needed services would come to the vendors, and numerous benefits would come to store-based businesses. And in the end, Sunset Park’s Main Street would be cleaner, offer a greater variety of goods, and become a fulfillment of the American dream.

P.S.

I would like to add an additional comment about the Sunset Park Vending bill. The “family” of Sunset Park elected officials: Congresswoman Velazquez, Borough President Markowitz, our three State Senators – Montgomery, Adams & Savino, Assemblyman Ortiz, and City Councilwoman Sara Gonzalez are all strong supporters of the plan. Our Community Board has signed on and the Speaker of the City Council – Quinn has made its passage a priority.

But yet, the plan faces stiff opposition! And here is the reason why – street vending has two camps that have been fighting for generations. It is almost like the two sides in World War I. The sides are so deeply entrenched that “peace” seems impossible. There are vendors (not local ones) and there are store based businesses (again, not the local ones) who fear this bill’s passage. They mounted a stiff campaign of demonstrations at City Hall, letter writing and the lobbying of various elected officials.

The two sides have been enemies for so long that neither is willing to trust any changes in position except for total surrender by the other side. They have lost all ability to negotiate – and for good reason – thru the years, the City has modified the vending laws from time to time and each time, only made the situation worse by hurting both sides. So government in general has lost the trust of the two sides.

Another major problem is that Mayor Bloomberg’s advisors have backed away from the plan. When the plan was first proposed, they were in such strong support that they wanted to immediately begin the plan in several neighborhoods without even going before the City Council for passage of a bill. They were going to do it thru an Executive Order of the Mayor.

Sunset Park agreed to changes asked for by the Mayor’s people but insisted that the plan NOT be imposed on any community. We felt it was essential that a community ask for the plan to be tried – the general community and both the stores & the street vendors. Just like we wouldn’t want something imposed on Sunset Park, we wouldn’t want to impose our plan on another community.

But when the two deeply entrenched sides began lobbying the Mayor, his people dropped the plan like a hot potato. Their excitement became silence. They avoided phone calls from Sunset Park and adopted a cowardly policy worse than neutrality. They ignored that the plan was on the table at all.

For people who are fearful of the bill possibly not working as we imagine it will work, the response is simple. This is a pilot program that would end after one year if not renewed.

Some of us in Sunset Park will not forget that the Mayor had a chance to do something of major benefit for Sunset Park’s street vendors & businesses and instead took on the role of the Wizard of Oz’s Cowardly Lion. The Sunset Park plan could have been the first step in resolving street vending problems throughout the city.

*Lots of Greenway coverage this week, including a piece in the Daily News, and some live blogging here at Sunset Park Chronicled.

*Remember Federal Building No. 2? The Times did a multimedia package on the full-of-potentials-with-a-hint-of-problem piece of waterfront real estate this week. The photos have a touch of Nathan Kensinger’s style to them I thought. Take a look.

*The Village Voice’s Sarah DiGregorio put out her list of the top ten spots to fill your belly in Sunset Park.

*The New York Time’s Fernanda Santos has a piece (with graphics, video, etc) tracking the 2010 Census. Convincing people to fill out and return the forms is still proving a hard sell it seems. Do it! It’s how you get money for schools, transpiration, hospitals–and we reporters love us some census data.

digenger captures another side of parking...

Here are some of the goings-on with the Sunset Park politicos…

City Politics:

Councilwoman Sara Gonzalez has been elected Brooklyn’s budget negotiator for the third year in a row. Budgetary gloom and doom abounds at the state or city levels this year, and Gonzalez recognized the climate in a statement she released, saying, ““I will continue to seek innovative ways to ensure my constituents, as well as all New Yorkers, feel as little negative impact as possible as we navigate through the twists and turns of these troubled times.”  Affordable housing, jobs, and education topped her list of priorities.

Gonzalez last week introduced a bill to limit alternate side of the street parking days in many residential districts to two days per week. The community board has been vying for this for a while, feeling it an onus on local residents to have the rules in effect four days each week. In fact, I heard a resident griping about just that as she walked out of the subway last week. The limit has already been implemented in Park Slope, Fort Greene and other neighborhoods northward.

Lastly, Gonzalez was one of several members to float another idea–making March 31 a national holiday honoring union-organizer and farm worker César Chávez.

In Albany:

Assemblyman Félix Ortiz is back the news, this time stumping for legistlation to requires skiers to don helmets when they before hitting the slopes, the New York Times reported. Though no salt ban, this too might face some opposition. The legislation, originally introduced in 1998 after the deaths of Sonny Bono and Michael Kennedy, would penalize slope operators for bareheaded patrons.

Representative Nydia M. Velázquez made the news this week in a NY Times article on the March for America immigration rally in Washington. She’s not the only one from Sunset Park speaking up on the issue–La Union and it’s youth arm Y-ACT also made the trip south for the march.

Community Board 7’s Youth Committee

Tuesday, April 13 at 6:30 p.m.

Community Board Office, enter on 43rd Street at Fourth Avenue in Sunset Park in the old court building.

I’m going to be covering the event live, so you can tune in at 6:30 to see what the Committee has to say. Show up! Or, if you can’t make it, leave questions and/or comments for the committee in a comment, and I’ll bring them to the meeting.

Just got a note that the meeting has been canceled. I’ll keep you posted on re-scheduling.

Councilwoman Sara Gonzalez with teacher Maria Diaz and students at P.S. 24, photo by William Alatriste

Local Politics–Councilwoman Sara Gonzalez keeps busy:

*Councilwoman Sara M. González last week joined Schools Chancellor Joel Klein, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn and others at P.S. 24 on 38th Street for the official launch of ‘Respect For All Week’, a citywide program to address bullying, harassment and discrimination in New York City Schools. “We will be instilling a most valuable life lesson to children at a young age, that bullying, harassment and discrimination are not acceptable in today’s society,” said Councilwoman González in a press release.

*On March 12, the councilwoman took part in a panel discussion chaired by Senator Velmanette Montgomery as part of an emergency meeting at Borough Hall in Brooklyn to address the slated closures of day cares and Head Start programs throughout the city.  DC 1707, Council of School Supervisors and Administrators and the Day Care Council called the meeting in response to the threatened cuts.

*Friday was supposed to be the final voyage, but the Rockaway Ferry will forge on, NY1 reported. A last minute deal brokered between the City Council, including Councilwoman Sara Gonzalez, and the mayor’s office will extend the ferry service until July, including its service to the Brooklyn waterfront.

In State News:

*Congressman Felix Ortiz raised the ire of many local restaurateurs when he proposed a bill to ban salt, yes that is the use of all salt, in New York restaurant. Ortiz advocates the ban as a way to address health issues such as hypertension that have skyrocketed in recent years. But you can imagine how fans of salami, pastrami, French fries, salt cod, soy sauce and, well, most dishes with flavor felt about the Sunset Park Democrat’s plan. Tom Colicchio, star of “Top Chef” and owner of Craft restaurant, served as token foodie in the Daily News coverage. “New York City is considered the restaurant capital of the world,” he said. “If they banned salt, nobody would come here anymore.”

After much tomato-tossing, Ortiz last week he backed down from the ban, the YourNabe reported. It seems, in the long run, good for Sunset Park’s many eateries. The tears of the Top Chef crowd might not tug on any heartstrings in Sunset Park, but the end of savory banh mi and chorizo-laden pambazos is another story.

*Congresswoman Yvette Clark joined with two other House Democrats in to oppose the reduction in the number of station agents in New York City subways, Gothamist reported. Clark is the Chairwoman of the Homeland Security Subcommittee on Emerging Threats, Cybersecurity and Science and Technology. The letter to MTA chairman Jay Walder implied the reduction could have serious consequences: “We strongly urge you to re-evaluate the current plans” and not, potentially, “compromise” subways, they wrote. You can read more at the NY Times.

Please be advised that the next meeting of Community Board #7’s Transportation Committee Meeting will be held on TUESDAY, MARCH 2, 2010 @ 6:30 P.M. at the Board Office, 4201 4^TH AVENUE (ENTRANCE ON 43^RD STREET).

The agenda is as follows:

• Rehabilitation of ramp from Gowanus Expressway to Prospect Expressway

Please make every effort to attend this meeting.  Please contact the Board Office to confirm your attendance.