Column: People Get Together, by George Fiala

I have this theory which I first thought of about ten years ago that there is a special school for people who run public meetings. I’m not sure if that would be the field of public relations, or government relations, or facilitating, but what they are teaching is how to make people think they are taking part in a Democracy without actually being in one.

The first time I encountered this was during the process that former Council member Brad Lander dubbed “Bridging Gowanus.” That first meeting, in a large school auditorium was unlike any meeting I had been to previously, where people sit in seats and after a presentation, raised their hands and in an orderly manner ask questions that would be answered for all to hear.

This is how Katia Kelly described that December 2013 meeting  in her popular blog Pardon Me For Asking:

“The community, as a whole, seemed to agree that it wanted “to preserve the overarching character of Gowanus,” its “grittiness,” its human scale, and the view of the sky.

Personally, I was impressed  that so many people showed up last night.  It indicates that people really want to be involved and want to have a say in the area’s future.

I did, however, have a real problem with the way the meeting was set up.  It seemed very strange that Pratt’s presentation did not include a map of the area we were discussing.  How can a meaningful, informed conversation  take place without knowledge of the boundaries  and present uses of the area in question?

I was also surprised that residents were separated into groups, so that discussions were limited to individual tables.  The conversation that followed Pratt’s presentation would have been more inclusive if it had engaged all the residents at the same time.

Most importantly, there was no indication at all either by Brad Lander or by Pratt Center of how to actually achieve a zoning plan that incorporates all of the community’s wishes. Hopefully more details will come from the working groups and further discussions.

According to Councilman Lander’s office, “the end result of the Bridging Gowanus process will be a community supported blueprint, released in Summer 2014, for an environmentally safe, vibrant, and sustainable Gowanus to inform the DeBlasio Administration.”

We need to make sure that the blueprint is a real reflection of what the community wishes. That means we all need to stay involved, on our guard and make sure that incoming Mayor DeBlasio actually listens to us.

You should read the above very carefully. Katia understood right away what I also got, that this new method of community engagement was a way to make people think they are having a voice, but really they are being spoon-fed a master plan already decided behind closed doors, but made to believe it came from them.

The end result of Lander’s “process” became a proverbial wet dream for developers. If you don’t believe me, just take a walk over to Gowanus.

Anyway, it’s more than ten years later and now we are talking about the Brooklyn Marine Terminal, with the EDC proclaiming loudly that a grounds up community process will inform the plan.

Except that in the two months since the process began, there have been two top-down engagements. The first a webinar where nobody saw anybody, and then the art gallery opening style meeting described in this issue. And PS – the “community driven process” has so far neglected any communication at all with your local community newspaper.

So on the one side, there is the City of NY which has finally figured out a politically viable way to redo the Columbia Street and Red Hook Waterfront, and on the other side there are the people who live here that will see outside forces re-doing our neighborhoods hoping for some hope of control.

Here is my two cents about the way forward. First of all, we – the various neighborhoods which include Cobble Hill and Carroll Gardens as well, need to figure out their own priorities – say each group  pick five things. John Leyva has become the community leader of CWD; Cobble Hill and Carroll Gardens have their respective organizations; and Red Hook has, well, lots of groups that occasionally work together. A big pow-wow with representatives from all these groups should get together privately and hash out a unified agreement on a community-led vision for the future.

Once that unified vision exists, then DEMAND (I don’t use that word lightly), a public meeting with the head of the EDC, Andrew Kimball, and present the vision.

The most important thing is to be unified, because the powers on the top are already unified with their own vision. They win when the opposition is not together – they can pick and choose disparate parts of various factions to incorporate into their plan and pretend they are doing what the community wants.

I don’t pretend that my ideas are any better than anyone else’s. My particular local hero is Jim Tampakis who discusses his ideas elsewhere in this issue.

But I will reprint my thoughts which I first published in this space a few months ago. I encourage local groups to unify and discuss any and all ideas and come up with a plan which will offer an alternative to the City’s, which I’m sure is basically an extension of Brooklyn Bridge Park, and with it a new Dumbo.

1 – Modernize the container terminal with a new lease for Mike Stamatis

2 – Mixed housing with ground floor commercial

3 – Create a logical truck route

4 – A small stadium

5 – Open Space

6 – Restaurants

7 – A museum

8 – Possibly some maker space

9 – NO public/private partnerships

10 – NO truck parking.