Thanks to all of you for attending. On your chair tonight is the new issue of Civic News, thanks to Judy Antell and Ezra Goldstein. We just picked it up from the printer this morning. The issue leads off with a long article about our e-bike safety survey, which I’ll talk about more in a minute. On page 2 is a letter from me about the past year, and to my way of thinking, the past year was nothing short of remarkable.
With the pandemic pretty much in the rear-view mirror, we resumed almost all of our historic activities: Food for Thought, Civic Sweeps, the Halloween Parade, Toys for Tots, the Winter Coat Drive, Mulchfest, fighting for affordable housing at the Key Food site and Atlantic Yards, meetings in person, and more.
And we launched significant new initiatives, forming a new Trees Committee, conducting the e-bike safety report in concert with our friends at Good Neighbors of Park Slope, and re-launching our effort to expand the Park Slope Historic District.
And of course, we never paused giving out our college scholarships or handing out Ortner and Lovgren Awards.
All that’s in the letter. Take a look at it if you wish. Now, I’d like to highlight a couple of things I didn’t have space for in the letter and then talk about next year.
I’ve mentioned a number of times increasing our reach into the community and adjacent neighborhoods through closer relationships with other organizations. Without going into endless specifics, in this past year, we collaborated on events or in other ways created or deepened our partnerships with important organizations and institutions: Preserve Park Slope, Good Neighbors of Park Slope, Community Board #6, the 78th Precinct Community Council, the Prospect Park Alliance, Park Slope Parents, the Fifth Avenue BID, Brooklyn Speaks, the Park Slope Chamber of Commerce, the Park Slope United Methodist Church, Forth on Fourth Avenue, Park Slope Neighbors, the Plaza Street Block Association, CHIPS, and others. And of course, our best friends here at the Old Stone House.
Our rejuvenated activity is getting noticed by our City agencies and elected officials. This year alone, our meetings and events have been attended by, in alphabetical order: Assembly Member Bobby Carroll, State Senator Andrew Gounardes, Council Member Shahana Hanif, Attorney General Letitia James, Comptroller Brad Lander, State Senator Zellnor Myrie, Borough President Antonio Reynoso, Senator Chuck Schumer, and Assembly Member Jo Anne Simon, as well as by senior executives from the City Police Department, Parks Department and Transportation Department.
It’s all a sign of the growing importance of this organization.
As we look ahead to next year, I’d like to highlight a couple of priorities:
We have several needs in our committees. It would be great to have a chair of the Livable Streets Committee, which focuses on issues like street and sidewalk safety, mass transit service, and traffic congestion.
We have a new Memberships Chair, Donna Stein, who’s going to bring new ideas and energy to our membership recruitment efforts, starting with Seventh Heaven a week from Sunday, as you heard a moment ago. A couple of volunteers for a membership committee would be super-helpful.
Jarrett Brilliant, Tiff Ziter and Stephen Copek built our new website, which I think is fantastic, and Jarrett has agreed to head a marketing committee. We need some additional volunteers for that.
The Trees Committee, under Mitch Szpizek, completed a major project in its very first year, surveying the neighborhood for empty tree beds and asking the Parks Department to replant trees as soon as possible. Working to encourage homeowners and building owners to install tree guards and beautify tree beds is something that could really enhance the neighborhood significantly.
I do want to discuss two items about which I was disappointed this past year. First, were our financial results and second was our inability to relaunch the House Tour. And the two things are related.
I had hoped to relaunch the House Tour this year, which has been suspended since 2019 due to the pandemic. And I had hoped to do it with a bit of a twist, a Sustainability House Tour that would highlight sustainable building technologies like rooftop solar, heat pumps, replacing gas appliances with electric, triple insulated windows, geothermal, and so forth. I had the idea that people could tour brownstones and other homes and buildings that have these technologies, and meet with engineers and contractors about whether their own properties might be candidates. We had several meetings, but we just didn’t have sufficient participation to make it possible.
So, how are the House Tours and our financial results related? Well, since it began in the late 1950’s, the House Tour has been a significant source of revenue, along with Food for Thought. Food for Thought was very successful this year financially, but without the House Tour, we project to be in the hole by 6 thousand dollars more or less. It’s not a disaster, as we have significant savings due to prudent financial management by my predecessors, but we definitely need to address it going forward.
We’re planning a few changes to Food for Thought, raising the ticket price for one thing, and working more aggressively on sponsorships. Separately, we’re saving several thousand dollars a year, because we can manage our new website on our own, without the need for an outside vendor.
But I definitely want to have a House Tour in the spring of 2024, and my current thought is we might hold a more traditional house tour, highlighting great renovations, adaptive reuses, architectural gems, historic homes, etc., with a subset of properties that have implemented sustainable technologies. I’m hoping our Sustainability Committee, chaired by Rory Dineen and Christina Gutiérrez-Williams, who have done such a great job with Civic Sweeps, can play a part in the planning, along with at least several others, including those with an interest in real estate.
I think we need to start planning this fairly soon, in order to pull it off and make it a success.
If you’re interested in any of the things I’ve discussed: Livable Streets, Memberships, Marketing, Trees Committee, House Tour, I’m not taking volunteers right now, but talk to me downstairs or send me an email or call my mobile. Or speak to a committee chair. And if you can’t find my direct email address or phone, you can always address an email to president@parkslopeciviccouncil.org.
And if you’re free a week from Sunday, June 18th, please let Donna Stein know you could help out at Seventh Heaven. In the past, we’ve been very successful at recruiting new members at that event.
The final priority for next year is Succession. And I don’t mean watching a TV show.
This will be my third year as President, and the term is three years. So, we need to plan for a successor. I’m not planning to disappear. I’ll be a trustee for one more year after that, until I rotate off, and I’ll certainly be engaged and maybe lead a committee or a project, or whatever the next President wants me to do. But we’ll need a new President. So, if you’re interested in being involved in leadership, I’m very eager to talk with you. I’ve discussed this with the Executive Committee, and we all need keep it in mind.
I want to express particular thanks to our Executive Committee and full Board of Trustees for their leadership in everything that we do. And a particular shout-out to Judy Antell, our Communications and Data Manager, who has really helped us up our game.
Thanks again, everyone, and with that, do I hear a motion to adjourn?
Without objection, the motion is adopted. And the party is on!
Timothy Gilles, President