Adventures of Urban Life

On Thursday March 11 I attended the community board meeting on education for my district in the Bronx. District 9 covers the areas of Parkchester, Unionport, Soundview, Castle Hill, Bruckner, Harding Park, Bronx River and Clason Point. Before attending the community board meeting I researched my district to gain a better understanding of some of the situations that may be discussed. I knew that my neighborhood was not one of the better ones in New York City, but I was honestly shocked and saddend by what I found through statistics on my area.
In 2000 the Census determined that there are 167,859 people living in district 9 and I am sure that the number has risen dramatically over the last 10 years. Not surprisingly, the area is predominantly Hispanic with 55% of the population being of Hispanic origin. 33% were African American and the last 12% of the population was distributed between Asian, White, and “other.” When it came to housing there are 63,459 housing units dispersed over 80,000 square feet. 31% were multifamily residential homes (meaning 3 or more families in one house.) The average income of district 9 is 25,000 dollars annually and 39% of the population is government assisted. The unemployment rate is 11%. What makes me even more upset is that I know we are probably not even close to the worst situation in NYC.
Afterwards I looked up the location of the community board for district 9. I knew the general area of the address but I wasn’t really sure exactly where it was. I took a cab there and gave the driver the address and when he left me in the middle of Bruckner Plaza Shopping Center I was very confused. Turns out that our community board is located on top of a Rite Aid next to what seems to be a Discovery Zone. I climbed the stairs and entered the tiny space used as their community meeting space. Upon entering I noticed everyone was at least over the age of 50. Two women were sitting at the far end of the table conducting what seemed to be a job interview. At the other end of the table were two elderly women gossiping and laughing. True to form, every person in the room was either Hispanic or Black.
I chose a seat in the outer circle of the long table, I figured I was just there to observe so the seats at the actual table should be reserved for participants. I didn’t last very long back there; I was soon asked to join other 6 people up at the front of the table to begin the meeting. I explained to them that I was only a student attending for observation, but they seemed really enthusiastic about my being there so they insisted on my participation. The meeting started with an announcement from one of the chairpersons about a college fair that is being held at one of the after school facilities in our district. He handed out flyers with all the information on it to all the members. The lead chairperson, a Hispanic woman in her 70s, seemed to be concerned about transportation of the children to the fair. She was soon reassured that most of the children would be bused to the location, while others would be taking public transportation.
The topic of conversation soon turned to Public School 106, which has recently been using outdoor portable classrooms due to overcrowding within the building. Mold was found in one of the portables, and although the classroom went through extensive cleaning the parents of the children did want to use them anymore. The Board seemed to be in favor of the portables seeing as there would be no where to fit the children inside of the building. Since all of the members of the board felt the same way about the portables, but realized that they would not be used if the parents did not see fit, they decided to petition elected officials to build new schools in the area.
The topic soon turned to a debate between charter schools and public school, which became heated very quickly. The head chairperson was obviously very opposed to charter schools, complaining that they were stealing funding from the public schools in the area. Another chairperson shared his experience, stating that his children had won the lottery in order to attend the school and they were gaining a much higher education than they were in public school. There was a lot of intense back and forth between the members of the meeting, in addition to constant interruptions from every person. Some quotations from the arguments are “not all charter schools are the same and are not statistically better than public schools,” “it is best to implement charter school teachings in public schools,” “Nobody knows the real owners of charter schools.”
Another topic of discussion was the low quality of teachers in inner city public schools, saying that when college students want to learn how to teach they are thrown into the inner city as though we are guinea pigs for testing. The students suffer from the lack of experience the teachers have and the lack of passion for the student’s capabilities. The Board was also concerned with racism in schools, with cases in Brooklyn and Manhattan of different races using different entrances to the buildings. They were concerned about school evaluation systems and the location of one south Bronx school that is directly across the street from a jail… the list goes on.
I really admire the passion of the board. The lead chairperson states “I speak with my heart in my mouth.” Although I did not see that many members, they did not let their size affect their initiative. However, the way the meeting was conducted was a bit chaotic. I feel like more would have gotten done if it were more organizationally constructed- not necessarily calling for a timer, but to at least let one speaker have the floor at a time. Overall I really did enjoy myself and I intend to return to the general board meeting next month and hopefully gain a volunteer position there over the summer. It let me know that there are people in my neighborhood that care, and I am definitely one of them.
Desiree B. Caro