LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

de Blasio doesn't like criticism

Posted

To the editor:

(re: “No secrets at charter review,” Oct. 11)

Shortly after Community Board 8 joined the borough presidents of the Bronx, Manhattan, Queens and Staten Island in condemning the proposal of Mayor de Blasio’s handpicked Charter Revision Commission to undermine all community boards by weakening their support from the borough presidents and removing experienced board members, the mayor’s corporation counsel’s office and his community liaison threatened all community boards that their public opposition to the mayor’s proposal would be viewed as illegal.

On the heels of that intimidative abuse of power and attempted free speech abridgement, the mayor’s acolyte on the Charter Revision Commission — and patronage appointee to the ineffectual Civilian Review Board — took his turn to weigh in, testing his lexicon of pejoratives in a baseless letter to The Riverdale Press.

The community boards, with the support of the borough presidents and city council members, are the primary voice, eyes and ears for residents of each of our disparate communities, and their citizens, especially when it comes to challenging incompetence, abuse and inaction by city agencies.

Obviously, the mayor and his appointees do not welcome such constructive criticism.

Community Board 8, for example, has challenged the New York City Housing Authority for its failure to properly maintain publicly assisted housing, and its month-long — and sometimes longer — deprivation of gas service to residents of Marble Hill, forcing the use of hot places, a perennial source of fires. The board challenged the city and forced the repair of a crumbling city retaining wall on Fort Independence.

The board has called the buildings department to account for permitting after-hours and weekend construction noise. It stands as the voice of merchants, whose businesses are being eroded on Broadway by DOT’s obstacle course. It remains the primary buffer against the city’s attempt to undermine the Special Natural Area District. It constantly reports and demands repair of potholes that make city streets dangerous.

The list goes on and on.

Not surprisingly, the mayor wants to silence that voice of constructive community comment.

The volunteers who devote two, three and more days and nights a month to community board service are entitled to support, not payback. Thus far this year, the vice chair and treasurer of CB8 have resigned those offices, following the district manager’s resignation.

The burdens they had to shoulder were significant. No one wants to be thanked for volunteer service by intimidation, ad hominem assaults, or the like.

If the community wants the continued assistance of the community board, it should resoundingly defeat de Blasio’s payback proposals.

Charles Moerdler

The author is chair of Community Board 8’s land use committee.

Charles Moerdler,

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