Red Hook Town Hall at the Miccio, by Nathan Weiser

There was a Red Hook community town hall event at the Miccio Community Center with lots of neighborhood organizations represented on July 28.

The Red Hook Community Justice Center’s MAP department and NSTAT team hosted the town hall. The idea behind the town hall was giving residents an opportunity to discuss their experience with community police relations in Red Hook and gain resources from local vendors.

All the people who came and tabled at the event had an opportunity to find out information about what the various community organization had to offer.

Some people from the Justice Center, from the community and councilwoman Alexa Aviles talked about public safety, community-police relations and goals for the community.

Antoniqua Roberson-Dancy, who is the MAP engagement coordinator, organized the event. She thanked everyone who came during the heat wave.

The event started with opening remarks from Roberson-Dancy and from NSTAT team member Betty Bernhart.

The Red Hook Rise Up documentary that was originally going to be shown is about the clean up project that Joshua Pacheco, who used to be the MAP engagement coordinator, did with NSTAT team members around the Red Hook Houses.

The NSTAT members went around the neighborhood and cleaned up a lot of the streets. It lasted a few hours during a clean up day in the community.

The documentary also talked about the NYCHA development and how having a clean community makes the community feel safe.

The NSTAT team is comprised of 15 residents from the Red Hook Houses.

“We go out into the community and put on different community events like this to give the community an opportunity to be able to talk about different things that are going on,” Roberson-Dancy said.

The community will get to voice what they want improved upon.

Recently some residents had issues since it was too dark especially with all the construction going on. It was very dark at night so they tried to find out how they could put up more lighting in the area with all of the scaffolding.

On May 17, there was a local neighborhood STAT event at Coffey Park. That was an opportunity for the community to vote to decide which five different issues the $30,000 from the Mayor’s office would be allocated for in the neighborhood.

The options included working on the physical space in Red Hook. This could include improving parks or a community clean up.

Other options that the community had to vote on were youth services or financial services. This could include bringing in financial literacy workshops or hosting events for people to learn how to get their LLCs.

The NSTAT team was still waiting for al the results to come back so they could analyze the ballots to decide the next steps in the process. They might decide to split the money between a few projects.

“It could be one project or it could be a plethora of projects,” Robertston-Dancy said. “We received the $30,000 to address what the community highlights.

The Red Hook Community Justice Center had a table with information on national night out against crime. They had other resources including their community healing and wellness department with free and confidential services.

The Center’s housing resource center had a table with a tenants rights guide.

The Red Hook Art Project had a table at the town hall. There were student bios that included their artwork, where they go to school and their activities like visual art, music and homework help.

Red Hook Initiative had a table with a number of resources for the community including CPR classes and support with rent, bills, emergency funds and referrals for housing, social services and vaccine appointments. The new executive director was at the table.

RHI is offering notary assistance with Betty every day of the week. For an appointment, call 347-733-7948 or email [email protected]. RHI also had information with coupons for getting free organic vegetables at farmers markets.

The Civilian Complaint Review Board, which is a city-wide agency that investigates allegations of police misconduct by the NYPD, had a table.

The Board concentrates on excessive force, abuse of authority, offensive language, racial profiling and bias based policing that covers ethnicity, religion, nationality, disability status and housing status.

All over Brooklyn and the city, they will present information about the Board and educate people on their rights and responsibilities when they encounter police. In addition, they will advocate for groups affected by police misconduct.

They have monthly board meetings where community members can voice opinions.

The Brooklyn Justice Initiative had a table at the town hall as well as Councilwoman Alexa Aviles’s office.

Aviles talked about the importance of stable housing and about the importance of kids having all of the services they need. She wants the vision of safety to be fully funded.