Spread the Love đź’•
by Sonam VelaniYou may have seen my incessant posting imploring you to join your local Community Board in the shoutouts section below over the past several weeks. Today, I’ll tell you why. Tomorrow, you’ll show your city some love on Valentine’s Day and submit your application!
I do *lots* of career chats with people transitioning into climate – most of you know my mantra, the more the merrier fighting the food fight! One of the most frequent questions I get: “How can I start to get involved?” My answer: get your boots on the ground and change the equation in your own streets and neighborhoods!
Community planning meeting for affordable housing, transportation, and water + sewer infrastructure in Downtown Far Rockaway
For all the time we spend talking about the hundreds of billions of dollars coming down the pipe through the IIJA, CHIPS, and IRA, these funds have to be deployed in local communities across the country. It means funds for new, sustainable, affordable housing. It means green (and hopefully not too much gray) infrastructure on your waterfronts to protect against sea level rise. It means funds for solar panels on the rooftops of your kids' schools. It means wind turbines in the farms upstate and waters off your coasts. It means transmission lines to bring power from renewable generation sources to the population centers that need it most.
Unfortunately, naysayers abound left and right. The NIMBY phenomenon of “not in my backyard” not only runs deep, but very much so runs across every corner of our society. Case in point: a project I worked on when I was at NYC City Hall aimed to turn a giant parking lot on the edge of the South Street Seaport historic district into a state-of-the-art, energy efficient building with 270 new housing units, with 70 of them set aside for lower income residents. A few weeks ago, a judge ruled against the development and shut it down in the face of community opposition.
Mind you, this is one of the densest zip codes in America and one of the most expensive plots of land in the country – and we will continue using it as a parking lot for gas guzzling vehicles sitting 3 blocks from a train station that connects 8 subway lines. This is exactly where we should be building tall, beautiful, sustainable buildings. And a lot of them, as per my twitter rant!
The reality is that it often takes a village to get this stuff off the ground, literally. One of the best ways you can ensure that these types of transformative projects get going is by joining your local Community Board – showing up to make your voice heard on how we can make our city sustainable. Rather than community opposition, YOU can be the voice of reason and make the case.
So down to the details: There are 59 community boards across NYC that each represent up to 250,000 people. Each board has up to 50 members, all of whom are volunteers for two year terms and members spend about 10-15 hours per month on board matters. The Borough President’s office ultimately selects people from the pool of applicants - which varies between neighborhoods. Chances are fairly decent that you’ll get a spot if you show your enthusiasm for the issues at hand. Needless to say, you must live in the district where you apply and there’s a big push to diversify whose voices are represented (unsurprisingly, these boards tend to skew whiter, older, richer, and male than the neighborhoods they represent – you can change that!).
If you’re not ready to commit this year, not to worry! Applications are open every year and each borough has their own deadline (with my borough of Brooklyn due tomorrow!). In any case, you can attend your local board meetings at any point throughout the year and share your ideas. Community Boards by definition are the “entry level” to local government - where groups discuss everything from housing proposals to stormwater management to bike lanes (we need all of these and more!). The board’s vote serves as guidance, and they hold a lot of power to escalate issues to operational agencies across the city. Having spent many an evening explaining the merits of a new coastal protection project, dedicated bus lanes, or a new Citibike station to various Community Boards across the city, I and many others can assure you that it’s a fun and impactful way to learn how your city works! There are countless small ways to make NYC a better place, I’ll leave you with this!
by Sonam Velani