Community Board 11’s Meeting: Graffiti And The Law Of The Gavel

Community Board 11 met last night. As no resolutions or proposals were in the agenda, the members of the board discussed various community issues.

Chairman of the Community Board Bill Guarinello started the meeting off as he usually does, by hitting his gavel, just like one you might see on television, onto a wooden base. And with it, public officials’ representatives made their usual public announcements.

• Diane Savino’s representative recalled an encounter she had with an old man that morning. After leaving Savino’s Coney Island office on West 15th Street she saw an old man lying on the floor. When she called the ambulance they said he was suffering from hypothermia. With that grim account, the representative reminded everyone to check on the elders in their neighborhood and to not just step over frozen senior bodies. Savino is a New York State Senator representing parts of Staten Island and Southern Brooklyn.
• Councilman Vincent Gentile’s representative updated the board on his recently announced graffiti program, in which a local non-profit has received public funds to power-wash graffiti away. In the cold, the representative noted, they may not be able to power wash right away.
• New York Police Department 62nd Precinct’s Captain William Taylor said that the police were closing in on the graffiti artist who spray paints the face of Abraham Lincoln on the sides of walls. After the meeting, the Bensonhust Bean asked him to elaborate on what it meant to be “closing in” on a suspect. Taylor, the commanding officer of the 62nd Precinct, took his words back and said they actually weren’t closing in on anybody.

After this portion of the meeting, Guarinello and Marnee Elias- Pavia, the district manager, attended to other issues. Guarinello urged the Community Board members who were involved with the board’s committees to actually show up to the meetings for those committees.

“Otherwise it’s just a room with the public and maybe one community member,” Guarinello said. “Let’s be respectful of the public’s time and show up to these meetings.”

Elias-Pavia then explained why the city’s Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) is performing construction on Shore Parkway between 21st Avenue and 16th Avenue. Apparently, she said, some manhole covers in that area had become so corroded that they weren’t able to open them anymore so they were replacing them. She also noted that new benches would be put on 7th Avenue and New Utrecht Avenue.

With that, Guarinello ended the meeting by once again using the gavel.

(Editor’s note: This article was shortened from a previous version to remove a segment of information we determined to be irrelevant.)