By Carol Tannenhauser
Community Board 7 (CB7) will hold its first Full Board Meeting of 2022 this Tuesday, January 4th, via Zoom. “The public is welcome and encouraged to attend, and may access the meetings using a computer or tablet (with or without video), or by using a phone,” according to the website. Here is the link to register:
https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_g4y8EjKaQDCAcupnBZQJ2g
Tops on January’s agenda is approving the list of street fairs for the coming season — usually there are about a dozen, though the schedule and the impact on the local community has been contentious in the past. The committee will also discuss the proposed $77 million renovation of the Delacorte Theater in Central Park — a plan we first wrote about here.
They’ll also be talking about the M96/M106 bus layover, as well as facilities construction and scaffolding at schools in the CB7 district.
The meeting will begin at 6:30 p.m. and end at, basically, your guess is as good as mine. Estimated times are given on the agenda for the start and duration of each issue being addressed, with an emphasis on “estimated.”
See the full agenda for Tuesday’s meeting here:
https://www1.nyc.gov/site/manhattancb7/meetings/full-board-agenda.page
The meeting also includes reports from the NYPD 20th, 24th & Central Park Precincts and FDNY, as well as from the Manhattan Borough President and other elected and agency officials or representatives. They are granted one minute and encouraged to share their top two priorities and post their newsletters in the Chat for additional information.
Finally comes (what this reporter considers the most important segment of the evening): the Community Session, which is estimated to start at 8:05 p.m. “We welcome all members of our community (residents, businesses, community-based organizations) who would like to speak on issues of interest to them,” the website says. “Members of the community are granted two minutes for remarks, and we will also accept a written copy for the record.”
Upper West Siders can get pretty passionate, especially when the subject involves their children, their parents, their community, or bike lanes! This is the time and place for your voice to be heard — not only in WSR’s comments!
Again, the meeting is on Zoom on Tuesday, January 4th, at 6:30 p.m. CB7 asks for pre-registration at least a day before the meeting. Click here to register.
The link for the street fairs article is for 2016. Is that correct? Or was it showing the impact on the neighborhood?
When I clicked the link to register for the CB7 meeting I was really distressed to discover that if I wanted to complete the brief registration form I must fill in my “Organization” and they would like my job title as well although that wasn’t mandatory.
Why should CB7 demand my “Organization” affiliation before I can attend a meeting? Looking further it seems the form they’re using comes from Zoom who has a purpose in gathering data about us. But I’d rather not participate than have CB7 or Zoom force the release of personal, irrelevant information
“The public comment” sections are frequently used by lobbying groups and asking affiliation helps in that respect.
If you want to speak on an issue and you’re with an organization with skin in the game on that issue, it’s obvious that the CB (and the public) would like to know.
The request isn’t mandatory. But if a group favoring an outcome you don’t want “salts” the monthly meeting with shill speakers that oppose your view, well, wouldn’t you want to know?
Such requests are no reason to be frozen out of the process. All you need do is put in a fictional organization and job title.
When people are asked to set up security questions and answers for an online account, does anyone actually enter their mother’s actual maiden name? To do so would expose that information to a breach. The point is to provide an answer you can remember. There is no need (unless it is a credit application) to give out actual identifying information.
You can just enter “n/a” for organization