Activity #5

Jennifer Rios

Activity #5

For the community board visit, I decided to take part in a community board meeting that was held in Intermediate School 227. This meeting was held by Community Board 3, which covers the East Elmhurst, North Corona, and Jackson Heights area. In East Elmhurst, one can generally find people of the upper-middle class, which consists of moderate-income residents. This area consists of more houses rather than apartment buildings. On the other hand, the people in North Corona and Jackson Heights are more likely to consist of the lower-middle class, which consists of lower-income residents. In these neighborhoods, apartments are seen more often than houses. In all three areas, the majority of the population is usually Hispanic and Latino. Despite the dominance of this ethnicity, there are several Caucasians and Asians scattered around the area as well.

The goal of Community Boards is to address issues on social, economic, health, and safety issue, issues that I was interested in seeing how the Community Board handled. By having residents attend these meetings, “It is the strategy by which the have-nots join in determining how information is shared, goals and policies are set, tax resources are allocated, programs are operated, and benefits like contracts and patronage are parceled out” (Arnstein). Desptie the power that people may have in these meetings, the community board meeting I went to was the complete opposite of what I had expected it to be. This meeting was held in the small lunchroom of I.S. 227. I thought that this meeting was going to be filled with people who were there to complain about the many things that are wrong in these neighborhoods, since I live in Elmhurst and have been witness to the local residents complaining to their neighbors in front of the corner grocery store about a need for change. Surprisingly, this meeting lacked the people I hear complaining on a daily basis, who should be there to fight for what they believe should be changed in their neighborhood. Unfortunately, the meeting consisted of about thirty people, most who consisted of the community board members.

Some issues that were raised in this meeting consisted of the Department of Health and Sanitation complaining about there being a rat problem in the area and an excess of garbage in the streets. I believe that this was the most interesting issue that was brought up throughout the whole meeting because of the fact that I have noticed garbage bags being left outside on the streets for days. I was never too sure if the problem was that residents were not paying attention to the times that sanitation trucks would pass by the area or if the sanitation workers were not doing their jobs. Despite this personal inquiry, I was glad that this issue was brought up in order to make a possible difference.

Another issue that was discussed in the meeting was the renewal of liquor licenses for a restaurant in Jackson Heights. This restaurant is called Antojitos 37 Corp. and it began to operate on January 1^st, 2010. The current owner was using the previous owner’s liquor license because he did not think it was needed to renew the license just because of a change to the name of the restaurant. The new owner never requested a temporary license after he took over the business, which the community board members seemed to have looked down on. After a heated debate about what should be done in this situation, the community board members decided that he can no longer use the current license he was using and must attempt to get his own, since it is legally a new business in operation and must have its own legal documents.

What intrigued me to this specific community board meeting was the fact that there was a lack of people. I had expected there to be many more people eager to fight for the rights of their community but was shown otherwise. Also, I believe that other issues such as gang violence and endangered youth should have been addressed, since these are issues that are most prevalent in these neighborhoods. “In short, it is the means by which [people] can induce significant social reform which enables them to share in the benefits of the affluent society” (Arnstein), meaning that these communities will be the ones to suffer if they do not decide to take a stance now.