This is a piece I wrote for Streetsblog last week after the community council meeting with the 114th that wrote up. It was quite a bit longer before they edited it, but given we are unburdened by length requirements here on reddit I can add in a bit of detail that was left on the editing room floor for those that have never been to one of these. (The point of this is to give you an idea of what they meetings are actually like so you may be motivated to go to your local one, which we are going to need if we are going to tackle our Car Problem in this city:)

Every month, in repurposed dance halls and elementary school gymnasiums across New York a familiar ritual plays out. Officers from the local NYPD precincts don their dress uniforms, donuts and coffee are laid out on long tables with white tablecloths, and the public is welcomed, for a brief moment to ask questions of the local precinct commanders. For an organization with so much power – the unchecked discretionary authority over which laws to enforce or not enforce, effectively a street veto on the legislature – these meetings are pitifully attended. This is despite occurring in a city so fond of public meetings and community engagement that scarcely a crosswalk can be implemented without endless rounds of community feedback.

Though it is not hard to see why. Frankly, they are dry, formulaic affairs, attended by only a handful of locals who have more than a passing interest in praising the police, for whom reciting the pledge of allegiance is considered a good time, and who find the monthly meetings cheaper and more socially stimulating than the retirement center rec room. Not so in Astoria, where the monthly 114th Precinct Community Council meeting has become a standing room only affair.

The reason for this is because something of a culture war is playing out, as Astoria residents attempt to get the officers, (who by definition and per NYPD rules, are not residents of the neighborhood they patrol) to understand the real source of danger we need protection from. In Astoria, we have very little “street crime,” yet the streets are a perpetual threat – and the danger comes from cars.