Breaking news is awesome. But without details, I won’t know who to hate about this!

For most or all of the CB’s that I’ve seen, the executive committee and chair get to decide who the committee chairs will be. This sort of decision happens behind closed doors.

Democracy in action! The voice of the people!

Shameful.

As with the purging of Brooklyn Community Board Six members who opposed Atlantic Yards, this is an example of what happens when CB members try to act independently of Borough presidents and City Council members, or their fellow more-line-toeing board executives. What a farce.

Aaron, I know that the appointment of committee chairs is often at the sole discretion of the board chair. And, I also know that Vinny Abate is one of the more autocratic chairs that I am familiar with personally. But you wrote, the “executive committee voted unanimously,” so I assumed that they voted on a motion made in committee.

The community in Williamsburg opposed to the bike lane, the opposition is predicated upon any immodesty by Jews or Gentile bikers.

Get a grip, people. There is nothing offensive about the word “goyim.”

“Goyim” is one of the all-time great words in the Hebrew-to-Yiddish-to-English lexicon. It is used numerous times, in a very matter-of-fact way, in the old testament. “Goyim” refers to all of the non-Jewish nations and tribes. “Gentile” is nothing more than the Latin/Christian translation of the word “goy” from the King James Bible. It is, essentially, the exact same word.

Apparently, there are some people out there who use “goy” as a slur. This doesn’t mean the word is offensive. It means the people doing the slurring are offensive. There’s a big difference. Why, after 5,600 years of regular use as the term describing “non-Jew” would you want to cede this excellent little word to a small group of racists?

Think about: The only way you could be offended by the word “goy” in the first place is if you actually think that referring to someone as “non-Jew” is an insult. The only way you could think that calling someone a “non-Jew” is insulting is if you actually believe that the Jews are somehow superior or “Chosen.” In other words, you kind of have to be a racist to think that the word “goyim” is racist.

But we’re way off topic here. More to the point: Do you think the Hasids in Williamsburg use the word “gentile” when they see you riding along Kent Avenue or Bedford Street? They don’t.

You want to be offended? Be offended that a religious clique is using secular political power to dictate how I must travel and what I must wear while transporting myself on a public street in New York City and then threatening to run me over with their school buses if I don’t comply. Now, that’s offensive.

Teresa’s chair was taken because she was publicly complaining about the Chair and the District Manager signing a letter to take away part of the bike lane after DOT put the lane in, yet the board had voted to support the lane. I would be complaining too if I was undercut in such a way. It’s a terrible signal to send to your committee chairs that if they are innovative in any way that they will get the rug pulled out from under them.

It’s too bad that we aren’t hearing from the bicycle-riding members of the Hasidic community here. (though perhaps we already have and I missed the input) I imagine that the community itself is not 100% against the bike lanes, only perhaps the most visible and powerful faction.

(I just wanted to throw that in because I often see Hasidic people riding bicycles in Prospect Park and around Crown Heights, so it seems likely that there is a pro-cycling faction in the community itself. Let’s keep in mind that there is much to admire about the Hasidic and other observant Jewish communities. If you bike through their neighborhoods on the Sabbath, you know the riding is sweet and calm, and these communities one could argue help reduce both pollution and traffic during this time.)

I have a hard time believing that the dress code or any kind of cycling danger are really the issue here, even if the community has offered up these as reasons for opposing the bike lanes. I would imagine, that like most of the opposition to new bike lanes in the city, this is mostly a discussion about parking, car-traffic flow and business interests.

After some consideration, I think that a lot of the anti-bike lane reaction is not due to the transportation chair, but to the Community Board leadership itself. They have no one to blame by themselves for the backlash.

If the idea is that DOT didn’t have an inclusive enough or broad enough process, then the CB itself played a large role in making the process not inclusive or informative. The CB completely fails to notify the community about its agenda in a timely manner and it has ridiculous public participation requirements (you must show up 15 minutes before the start of the meeting to sign up to comment, even though your item may not be til the end of the agenda).

Karen- In my years here in North Brooklyn, I haven’t seen a Hasidic person over the age of 10 on a bike. It’s probably a cultural thing among the Satmars, which is the dominant group here, I’m sure the Lubavitchers and the other groups that live in Borough Park and Crown Heights ride bikes more.

Karen and MFS:

Just wanted to clarify something regarding your posts, regarding appropriate community outreach and opportunities for community input in the CB1 process.

The community board is made up of members who belong to community groups across the whole district — religious groups, civic organizations, business organizations, nonprofits, etc. That’s why we’re appointed — because of our special relatonships with community based groups. I firmly believe that CB1 representation must go two ways: on the board, we speak for those many different voices within the community; I also believe that it’s our
responsibility to report back to those groups we represent. It doesn’t make sense to me to do half the job.

There is a significant number of CB1 members who specifically represent local groups along the entire greenway corridor in Greenpoint and Williamsburg. If any groups didn’t know enough about what has been going on the past 2 years, they surely have a bone to pick with their representatives on CB1 and ask why they haven’t been kept properly informed. If those members are not representing their constituencies adequately on the board, that is a valid issue to address with them.

We also have really good coverage in community papers and blogs — Greenpoint
Star, Vos Iz Neias, Greenpoint Gazette, Brooklyn Paper, and the Courier just to name a handful. They have all reported thoroughly on CB1 meetings and discussions that happen month to month. So there’s not much excuse for people to claim ignorance. Outreach can always be better, but for those who want to be informed, the resources are there, and I believe the representation is there. (If if isn’t it needs to be addressed as I stated.)

As far as other comments… I have not been given an explanation for my removal, and I don’t believe in speculation, so we’ll have to wait and see if a formal statement is made. The next CB1 meeting is on Tuesday, January 13, and I hope to have some reasonable explanation then, or by then.

Thanks to all those who have offered kind words of support — it’s meant a lot to me this week especially.

Teresa

Teresa Toro = Sic semper tyrannis

Not soon enough. Thanks, Vinny. Let’s reclaim our streets from these hipster transplants.

Teresa’s ouster is a black mark on CB1, not on Teresa. I worked with her for years at the Tri-State Transportation Campaign, and I found her to be a tireless, intelligent and motivated advocate.

Shame on the chair and GM of CB1. Their actions show that they consider themselves above the process that they are supposed to uphold.