brewsterbrewster#5

On saturday the third of april .. i woke up unusually early to attendant the Canaries district 18 monthly community advisory meeting.. on avenue L's outreach center..when i arrived i was officially 30 mins late.. but to my surprise the meeting had just started.. as i settled down and began listening ..the speaker at the time (a representative from the 2010 census).. a fairly small man in his late thirties.. began explaining the following statistics of canarsies census count..in his efforts to persuade the attendees he explained how low our census numbers are and how it causes us to lose out on billions of government dollars for the next ten years.. and since our numbers are so low(about 36 percent) in conclusion to his speech he stated that there was going to be a march the streets (with bullhorns in efforts to remind and encourage residents to fill out there forms) .. in the about the next two weeks..groups like canarsie courage and canarsie bridge are planning on attending in support of this movement.. next up was canarsie's very own Lincinda Clark..(forgot the name of her program)but she has an organization that reaches out and supports mothers..especially those with autistic children.. in hopes of helping them cope and find programs that benefit them and their children in any way.. i think her purpose for speaking was to one: try to get viewers since she was going to be on Mytimeinc. on nbc.. on sunday the 12. and two: to bring attention to parents of special needs children .. in hopes of empowering parents.. with programs like parents supporting parents that plans to walk for financial support(fund raiser)and i believe it was to be in the following month but it was stated that she is going to be honored by the senator..even though the first two speakers didn't really peak my interest the third one was able to grab my attention because he came here bringing something new to the table.. by focusing on the youht the owner of brooklyn USA basketball (appearntly its known for getting some of todays bbstars where they are today).. came to inform the attendees that they would be establishing a branch in our area.. he then goes on to explain that there plan is to take kids at a young age and keep them until college.. through sports they aim to get kids into good schools on scholarships... what really caught my interest in his presentation was when he (the rep) reached out to Lincinda and said that he would like to have a talk about a program for special needs kids.. i mean even if he wasnt being genuine i thought that it showed some sense of people willing to reach out..and becoming incorporated.. another visitor to the meeting came on behalf of Homeland safety.. which is a program that certifies construction workers ..that part take in their four week program , and is one that is approved by the department of labor..going on the motto "that they want our people to build our building" .. this programs sets out to give their participants training for life .. and after listening to this shmeal it sounds as if things are already in motion.. and i think this is what impressed me about the meeting overall .. nothing really seems to be in limbo .. at least things seem to be moving along smoothly for now.. now my favorite part of the meeting was about the fourth and final presentation that was given by an enthused tall brown skinned lady who seemed to get all this fire after attending a parks and rec program at central park.. there she learned about it and then decided to research on how the same can be done for our community.. the fresh creek project..is a project that aims to attract and involve young people in community work... to me this was the one that stood out the most mainly because i actually felt the urge to part take in the program .. the fresh creek project is a volunteer program that works with parks and recreations.. that sets out to clean our creeks ,plant and nurture our trees.. and since this is a public ...after all of this i was beginning to loose focus because i was there for about an hour now and it seems as if the meeting was about to wrap up.. but to my surprise there was still more.. this latter part of the meeting was labeled the updates.. which consisted of updates on the memorial day parade.. that is in relation to the 69th precinct.. next was the about the medical waste transfer station which they are in strong opposition against, since it shouldn't be permitted in a residential areas.. even though they (the 69th precint) are trying to say that we dont have a say in the process because it doesn't concern the community board.. but these persistent old ladies on the board.. seem to be clearly ignoring these warnings and have been taking pictures of these doings (couldn't help but think of them staking out the area.. pretending to be spies) .. the most attendee participation came when some one brought up the "zoning" which they want to stop since there has been a building of a new condo..(two blocks from my house actually) which is taller than the other houses in the neighborhood and has been labeled an eyesore .. so they seem to be fighting against more of these condos being built so tall.. a parent at one point brought up the fact that since kids have no where to skate these days.. lately they've been skating in the streets which endangers them.. and drivers ..so as a result they aim to open up a school park so these kids can have a place to skate..another big discussion was about people parking in front of condos..and the distraction that it causes .. the upset elderly woman started out Whit "probably for about four years we have community driveways with a little space .. that is now open for others to park even if its in front of your property" apparently she and a lot of other people are outraged about people parking in front of their homes .. (making as much noise as they want with either music or the slamming of car doors) even though the police said they cant do anything about it.. someone did suggest that there is a program giving cops permission to come on the property to tow or ticket these people.. finally the meeting came to a conclusion .. even though it was better than i expected ..(thought it would be an argument between speaker and participant)overall every one was on the same page and really did come out to be informed about the things of there neighborhood.. the overall population (about 40 people showed up)did seem to be an equally mix of both men and women.. mainly west indian or african american.. with a few whites and spanish attendees in the crowd... as far as this meeting went there was nothing to vote on .. so the general atmospere was one of ease i suppose.. i mean i felt comfortable where i was and they all seemed to be on friendly terms with each other from what i can tell.. especially since some people stayed back to hold conversations while drinking the provided refreshments..as a result i would say the overall meeting would be at a level 3.. just because it was based more on what would be happening instead of an open discussion of what could be happening..