The Q at Parkside

(for those for whom the Parkside Q is their hometrain)

News and Nonsense from the Brooklyn neighborhood of Lefferts and environs, or more specifically a neighborhood once known as Melrose Park. Sometimes called Lefferts Gardens. Or Prospect-Lefferts Gardens. Or PLG. Or North Flatbush. Or Caledonia (west of Ocean). Or West Pigtown. Across From Park Slope. Under Crown Heights. Near Drummer's Grove. The Side of the Park With the McDonalds. Jackie Robinson Town. Home of Lefferts Manor. West Wingate. Near Kings County Hospital. Or if you're coming from the airport in taxi, maybe just Flatbush is best.

Thursday, May 21, 2015

ULURP Committee Meeting Minutes

UPDATE: Yes, a quorum was reached. Since Mike Cetera was not reappointed, and four other ULURP members resigned (Diana Richardson, Dwayne Nicholson and Rosemarie Perry, Laura Imperiale) that leaves just 19 members. 12 were present.

As I'm sure you were dying to know how the melee was officially described by the Board, below are the minutes submitted by Ben Edwards. Behind the scenes there is a call to protect Board members and in particular Pearl Miles with some sort of order of protection. We'll see where that leads. Needless to say, it is now officially impossible to conduct Board business with MTOPP present. They didn't even let us open the meeting. As noted by board member Kenya Sollas who lives at the building Crown Gardens where the community room was reserved, the crowd assembled had taken all the seats and refused to move to let the meeting begin. She did a terrific job of appealing to reason, but to no avail. The only way the committee was even able to vote was to create a scrum and shout to one another. Poor Evelyn Williams, longtime Board member and Hawthorne Street building president, suffered a cut lip.

Alicia spent the night in the pokey, as she most clearly resisted arrest and made dangerous flailings in an attempt, I guess, to keep from being handcuffed. She's been charged with various crimes, though short of felony assault, which the cops probably could have done. They showed considerable restraint if you ask me. Those are our Community Affairs guys by the way, hardly the "bad guys." It's all so horribly wrong. Her followers, many from outside the community, believe they are fighting to keep the neighborhood black and inexpensive. A few even expressed it as such, meaning that the very real illegalities perpetrated by landlords are not even their primary focus, but rather government officials and agencies. So here, under Boyd's guidance, they are targeting a bunch of appointed volunteers trying to reign in scattershot development.


In case you were wondering what other criminal charges were or weren't filed, there's this line from Alicia's follow up email upon her release:

You can see right there in the film.
One of the white board members grinning and smiling
who has been pushing to up zone our community.
This man has called people names at meeting
and even has an harassment complaint filed against him
because of his behavior and yet he has been empowered

to make decisions for us.

FYI that white man accused of smiling is Warren Berke. I don't think I broke into a smile the entire meeting. Felony "Smile 2" charges against Berke are likely to be knocked down to "Smirk 1" after plea bargaining.

11 comments:

Alex said...

Terrible that it came to this but perhaps this latest escalation will result in AB being banned from meetings.

babs said...

I hope Ms. Williams presses charges against the person who assaulted her.

Anonymous said...

Nothing says "fearless leader" like scooting awkwardly on your back while kicking at police officers like a tantruming child.

I hope Pearl Miles and any other board members are successful in getting restraining orders, because this increasingly hysterical, wild-eyed anarchy trend is not going to end well. I hope MTOPP's support peters out before someone gets seriously hurt on either side.

Unknown said...

Enough.

Mary said...

She is an embarrassment to REAL activists. Throwing toddlerlike temper tantrums and lying through her teeth is not activism. Since they've escalated the violence, here's hoping the CB can get a restraining order. Any chance that would keep them away out the meetings so something can actually get done?

Alex said...

And yet, the "up zoning" myth persists.

PLGRRRRRRR said...

I do love the self-diagnosis on MTOPP's website (http://www.mtopp.org/events.html 2 paragraph):

And in the middle you have Geoffry Davis, not being backed by any political party because of his affliction with MTOPP and his pro stance on Community input, involvement and empowerment.

Is there any treatment of such an afflicted with MTOPP? Sounds nasty.

Anonymous said...

If it turns out that Alicia's claims regarding a lack of quorum (she claims that only 12 of 24 members were present and that there needed to be at least 13 present) at the meeting are accurate, I hope that the full board just takes another vote of the members present (surely there will be at least 13 there) on Tuesday to get this out of the way. No more delays!

~prospectheightsresident

Alex said...

No, Alicia is the liar.

Look up the definition of a witch hunt before you try and get fancy.

Clarkson FlatBed said...

Police reports have been filed. I assure you that the authorities are not partial to the ridiculous claims by the increasing unhinged Ms. Boyd.

Anonymous said...

I know people who aren't part of mtopp but who engage in anti-police and anti-mayor rhetoric and are disdainful of wealthy people or of those who enroll at private schools wealthy or not and I just want to say all that encourages people like AB. She takes it way too far but in her mind maybe she's a warrior for all that. She disturbingly can't recognize she is harming others, physically now too, which would make me take out an order of protection too. But she actually thinks she's helping. Think about that everybody please before you go so far into lefty field. Reason it out a little better, seriously and with less anger and paranoia. Because it might be a fine line. AB is a cautionary tale.