Change the board game(Page 3 of 3)
Posted 6/6/12
He said he will continue to show up to housing meetings so that he can weigh in on the issues and help fill the gap that will inevitably be left when he steps down as the committee leader. But he also thinks the system should be reformed. In 2005, Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer set out to make community boards more transparent and representative of the neighborhoods they cover.
He set up a Community Board Reform Committee that focused on targeted recruitment of members — distributing thousands of applications to community groups. He created specialized community liaisons to get the word out about community boards and publicized them by airing them on a public access channel. “It was refreshing,” said Gene Russianoff, senior attorney for the New York Public Interest Research Group, who sat on the committee. Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz should meet Mr. Stringer’s gains and take it a step further. He should allow board members and community leaders a say in reappointment decisions and provide a reason to those being dumped. If and when he does, you can expect more civic-mindedness and less butt kissing on Community Board 8.
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I served very briefly on CB8 in about 2006 or so, and I became somewhat friendly with Tom Durham. The guy really did, and does, care about the community and it is indeed a shame he was kicked off.
And although I eventually broke with the Cassino crew, I also saw those guys (Scheinbach and Trebach) as well intentioned fighters for the community. In fact, with my help as a reporter for this newspaper, those guys were singlehandedly responsible for changing the alternate side of the street rules which now allow people to move their cars only two days a week. Not one local politician helped with that issue at all, nor lent any support whatsoever to making those changes. In fact, they tried to poo poo it once they realized that they hadn't been invited to that particular party.
But having said all that, I think a little reality is in order. Quite simply, the CB is an organization that likes to think they have influence, and boy do they love their formal meetings, but I am hard pressed to think of what they actually get done. In reality, they have zero power and influence, and I've been hearing the same ineffective people making the same ineffective arguments and porposals now for 6 years. Even though Durham was a great community leader, he had, though no fault of his own, no power to do anything. The power is locked up with career politicians that will probably live to ripe old ages still holding their seats in government. All this to the detriment of the community. Of course, the whole system itself is broken beyond repair, and anybody who aspires to be part of that disgusting club (elected office) will simply be hacks that will replace the current hacks.
Nice editorial, but let's stop pretending the people have any power whatsover. The sooner we realize that we don't have any power, the sooner we can get on with making the individual changes in our lives to extricate us from this insane political system. Let's stop voting for one, and start ignoring the politicians. They do us no good. Sunday, June 17, 2012|Report this