September 2011: 10 Years Ago in the Slope

 

President’s Perspectives, by then-Civic Council President Bernard J. Graham

Summer 2001

As a life-long Park Sloper, coming from a family with a long history of civic involvement, I could not be more proud to lead the Council. In the past few years I have enjoyed organizing the Halloween Parade, putting together some very substantive public forums and helping with such important Civic Council activities as the Grants Committee and House Tour. While there are many activities that the Civic Council does well — and will continue to do — there is always room to expand our role in the community and to look for new and exciting projects that will keep our hundred year plus organization relevant and active in this new century.

The Civic Council has benefitted in the last few years from having Dick Ferrara and Terri Ash as the two most recent presidents. Both Dick and Terri have kept the Council active and have carved a role for the organization in reviewing new development projects and expanding the Landmarks District. Political and other civic leaders pay attention to the Civic Council: they take our members’ concerns seriously.

Beginning in September we will have the additional bonus of a formal merger with the ROSAS [Revitalization of the Southern Area of the Slope] organization and the five new trustees that are joining our Board. This merger not only gives us the additional energy from the ROSAS volunteers but also allows the Civic Council to truly function as a civic organization for the entire Slope (North and South). The ROSAS members will stimulate the Council with their tendency to tackle issues immediately and their willingness to share their ideas.

When I joined the Civic Council as a Trustee I inherited activities involving children (being a parent, with my very supportive wife Rosemary, of three over-stimulated urchins, this was a natural!); I am most happy to report the most welcome development that several other current Trustees also are parents of youngsters. There is plenty of room on the calendar to schedule more family-friendly events, which, hopefully, will attract new Civic Council members and keep our organization growing. I will encourage new Trustees to make this a priority and hope that everyone will participate in organizing new events.

We must continue the efforts to expand the Landmarks District, lobby for zoning changes to protect the quality of life in our area and diligently address community issues as they arise. Our various committees must continue to act professionally and impressively, and our membership must always be growing.

I am optimistic that the coming year will be full of promise. What we can actually accomplish will involve the combined efforts of the Trustees and the support of the members. Do not hesitate to participate in our meetings, and let us know your ideas.

 

October/November

The October meeting of the Civic Council at the Ninth Street YMCA was one of the more substantive and energetic meetings in recent memory. Due to the long planned celebration of our merger with ROSAS, one hour had been allocated to address the business issues of the Civic Council. The celebration, which was scaled down to dessert and coffee, turned out to be tasteful and appropriate given recent events, and since it was not a more lavish catered affair, ROSAS was able to make a $3,000 contribution to the SQUAD ONE charitable fund. The merger party was well attended by our elected officials as well as our Trustees and ROSAS members, and would not have been complete without Carl Kaiserman’s slide presentation showing ROSAS’s history. Judy Kaiserman and Barbara Barran did an outstanding job in organizing this very successful event.

The issues before the October Civic Council meeting included the announced dissolution of the Park Slope Volunteer Ambulance Corps, and a heartfelt appeal by the volunteers of the organization to keep the Corps operating. We plan to hear more about this issue at the November 1st meeting but it appears that the Ambulance Corps has not proven the case for its continued viability in Park Slope. Its own board of directors, who are respected Brooklyn citizens, have chosen to dissolve; the Ambulance Corps admits it had operated poorly in recent years. The Park Slope Civic Council has always been supportive of the Corps, since its inception, and a good number of our organization’s Trustees have played a role in creating the Corps and maintaining it over the years. It is my feeling that a powerful rationale would have to be given to second guess the Ambulance Board, who has determined that its continued existence can not be justified.

Also anticipated is the opposition to the relocation of the Methadone Treatment Clinic from New York Methodist Hospital’s property on Eighth Avenue to a new location at Second Avenue and Twelfth Street. Residents of blocks near the proposed location are vigorously resisting the move and looking for allies to prevent the move. Strong emotions are involved and there appears to be a heavy dose of anti-Methodist Hospital feeling among those opposed to the move. In fairness to New York Methodist Hospital it should be noted that they have housed this clinic for almost thirty years and they ought to be given some deference in terms of the use of their own property. My personal feeling, having lived one block away from the Methadone Clinic for many years, is that this is not the awful blight that the CATS (civic group) is claiming it to be. Furthermore, Beth Israel who is the parent of the Methadone Clinic, is trying to reach out to the neighbors and agreeing to provide additional security. We will hear the issue more fully but it very well may turn out that this is a situation where there is not a compelling basis for fighting a relatively harmless medical clinic.

In some sense, the fact that the Civic Council is back to dealing with land use issues and zoning and landmark disputes may be a sign that our Community is returning to a relative normalcy (to the extent that is possible) since the terrorist attacks in September. It is my hope that we can move forward with our plans to create substantive public forums, such as the issue of expanding the Landmarks District; arranging for fund raising benefits to support our grants program; expand our outreach to the many new families who have chosen in live in Park Slope; and, work with and strengthen our ties with the merchants association to improve our commercial avenues.

My personal observations, based on recent events, is that it is more important than ever to have an active civic association through which we can work to improve our quality of life and work towards building a strong sense of community.

 

November/December

The Thanksgiving holiday has just passed and I have to admit the long weekend provided a welcome rest from the busy fall calendar of civic events this year. One especially successful event was this year’s Blood Drive held at Old First Church with New York Methodist Hospital on November 17th. Mat Kaplan has been organizing this event for many years and still manages to do so with a youthful exuberance. This enthusiasm was contagious as the many Trustees who arrived to do their share seemed to genuinely enjoy the beautiful and warm sunny day as they passed out flyers encouraging community residents to donate to the drive. The event was not without a small problem which arose when a competing blood donor mobile vehicle sought to seek donors on the same comer we were operating on. Doris Clarke, however, chased them off with a bare knuckles brand of civic activism we do not often see.

We have also been busy working with the Seventh Avenue Merchants Association on several matters. On Sunday, December 16, we will be co-sponsoring a holiday concert (“Jingle Bell Jamboree”) with the Merchants Association. The event is free — donations are welcome — and is organized by the Brooklyn Youth Vocal Ensemble; it will include several youth choirs and dance troupes. Concert-goers are asked to bring unwrapped toys to be collected as part of the Civic Council’s annual Toys for Tots Drive. Anyone looking for a boost of their spirits this season need look no further than this concert.

Our discussions with the Merchants Association also led to a promise to tackle the never-ending garbage problem on Seventh Avenue. We will meet in January for a multi-faceted, combined effort to address the growing garbage …. There is a consensus that the problem is worse than ever and will have to be a focus of our organization in conjunction with every other interested organization.

Finally, I would like to share a part of my recent afternoon with you. With the satisfaction of seeing the Blood Drive successfully completed, I walked my kids over to the Squad One firehouse.! My job (as Little League coach) was to ask the firemen to come to I.S. 51 that day to accept the St. Francis Little I League’s dedication of a pee wee team (to be named the “Squad One Dalmatians”) in honor of Squad One members missing in the September l1th tragedy. As I spoke with the Captain, I noticed three men with guitars taping a written piece of music to the firehouse. The more senior of the three was Pete Seeger, who graciously greeted the firemen and my kids and introduced the song as a Tom Paxton piece written about September 11th. The musicians were on their way to the main library at Grand Army Plaza for a concert, but first proceeded to sing the song to the small assembled group on Union Street. The firemen were no doubt affected by this warm moment. They later appeared at the designated time at I.S. 51. The dramatic entrance of eight firemen in full gear caused an eruption of applause from the assembled six and seven year olds and their parents which lasted a seeming eternity. This was about as good as it gets.

This may appear to he a small bit of civic pride but, at least for myself, I know I will treasure those wonderful events for years to come. Not to mention that the celebration of Thanksgiving it is helpful to be reminded of the many small treasures for which we can be thankful.