Well informed but not asked for opinion...

Oceane Mercadal

Activity 5#

Community Board 5 takes care of the midtown part of Manhattan. Attending a full board meeting was interesting because I got to see that people were actually concerned about the environment we live in. What was shocking though was that the first part of the meeting was public speakers coming to say what they where working on and the second half was the board discussing issues amongst one another. There was no communication with the two parties or even the audience. The public speakers also only had 2 minutes to say what they had t, which was odd. A man was asked to wrap up his speech because he was over time. He was discussing the fact that St Vincent’s hospital needed financial aid rapidly in order to pay the doctors and allow to continue operating patients.

Though out the meeting, the audience got various information about what was going on and how the board was working to making things batter. Like Sherry Arnstein’s article “Ladder of Citizen Participation”, the board meeting I attended was a “one way flow of information- from officials to citizens- with no channel provided for feedback and no power for negotiation.” I was perfectly aware that The Yard on 55th West 21st Street was applying for a liquor license renewal but at no time did I know if the application had been processed or was asked if it would affect me.

In the middle of the meeting 3 public speakers stood next to me and started having a conversation. At first it was annoying because I was trying to pay attention and understand what the board was discussing. When I realized that they weren’t going to stop I turned around and started listening to their conversation instead. They arguing over the fact that one of the public speakers talked about a fuel tank, which was being installed next to a building on 6th Avenue. The 2 oldest men were telling the younger one now what he said was not relevant to the meeting. Tey were basically manipulating him into a therapy of how it did not affect the majority of the people but only the ones living in this particular area. It was interesting to see how their conversation contained 3 different levels of Sherry Arnstein’s Ladder of Citizen Participation. They manipulated the man by saying that the tank was probably needed in the area, that it wouldn’t be harmful to the surround or else the company would not have been able to install it in this area. The conversation ranked all the way to citizen control, which consists of citizens taking power and fighting for what they consider important to their community. Like Sherry Arnstein’s article states: “…and be able to negotiate the conditions under which ‘outsiders’ may change them.” Their conversation ended by the 2 oldest men telling the youngest one he should get together with his neighbors and do a petition if they thought the tank was really harmful for them.

Attending this board meeting allowed me to realize that yes, meetings are opened to the public but the people don’t have a saying about what is being discussed. In the end what’s the point of attending the meeting if I’m not going to be able to say something? Might as well not go, wouldn’t make a difference after all weather I go and sit listening to people who don’t know my concerns and not go at all.