Another great new restaurant!

I'm posting this as an experiment. From what I can tell, all anyone is interested in is new and better food. Check out how many times a community meeting post is viewed. Maybe 139 times? How many times is the bogus post about a new coffee shop viewed? Over a thousand. All of you that are so excited about the prospect of a great new hang or a good cup of coffee, might do yourselves a service by actually getting involved in the community. Attend a community board or precinct council meeting. Find out who your local reps are. You know, meet them. March, dammit.

Your "experiment" isn't going to work because it's inherently biased (in a scientific way, not a social one). Brooklynian is made up of many neighborhood boards. Many people, especially the regulars, read the boards for all of the neighborhoods, not just their own. Many more people at least read about the nearby neighborhoods. People from outside the neighborhood are specifically looking for information like new restaurants to try. They're not going to be interested in a community board meeting in a neighborhood they don't live in. So those type of posts will always get fewer hits, unless it provokes some kind of discussion that gets people checking back multiple times.

I'm sorry, but it's just not in my (slightly bovine) nature to be very politically involved and doing so makes me feel demoralized and like I'm wasting my time.
For the most part, I hate most forms of conflict and am not very good at arguing because I just let the other person win to get it over with as soon as possible. I was never in student government in high school, I only vote out of an abstract sense of ""I have no right to complain if I don't participate" not that I complain that much anyway although I recognize that we are mostly FUBAR.

But mmm...food sure is good!

I agree with Carny.
I'm not a CH person, but I do like to know what goes on there.
I'll read about a community affair once, but because I don't live there I don't revisit the post (not adding to the hits it gets) once I already have the information.
On the other hand posts about services, food, rants, raves, crime,
I'll not only read once, but check in though out the week to see each reply. Because I might want to go to these places on the weekends.

Keep on posting about your community. It's a good thing, and maybe we can get more CH people joining the boards (and more hits on your posts!)

very interesting...i hadn't taken all of those things into account. i guess i wouldn't click on a park slope community board meeting post, even though i might visit the board. sometimes i am so dense! thanks!

I like your experiment.

To be fair, the community meeting posts usually come 1 or 2 days before the meeting and then they are quickly out of date, unlike the restaurant and related posts, which don't really go out of date.

I would love to read more about Crown Heights community and political organizing, but I only live here a few days a week, and am usually not here on Monday nights for the community meetings.

But still, I think its an interesting point.

Anonymous wrote: To be fair, the community meeting posts usually come 1 or 2 days before the meeting and then they are quickly out of date, unlike the restaurant and related posts, which don't really go out of date.

Another excellent point.

They also always seem to love to have these meetings when I am at work

Yep, meetings do fall at inopportune times for many of us. I used to work five nights a week, and so getting involved in anything that required evening meetings was all but impossible. I'm lucky enough now to have my work schedule and school schedule fall mostly during the day. It's good that you're there in spirit, Kid. Someday maybe your schedule will change and you'll be able to attend the meetings. They are frustrating and often not really all that productive, but they do bring people together. Sometimes that yields new activity, which is great.

bolletje,

I don't really understand why attending a community meeting is political. For example, the Crow Hill Association is holding a meeting tonight. Their flyers all ask questions like what would you like in the neighbourhood?

I can see how that might turn political but not everything has to be politicised to the point of conflict (whether verbal or physical).

Maybe you should try attending one of these meetings and see for yourself if they really are as political as you seem to think they would be.

Lucille,

Your post is cracking me up. I love it!

I do feel like our anemic CH board needs some "beefing up" with better topics. I've been trying to think of more issues, etc. that we could discuss.

I suppose it would help if we could get a wider variety of CH residents on this board.

How can we beef up the board? Anyone have anything especially pressing on a non-restaurant level to add? I started to type a long thing, but I'm at the end of my day and too tired to pull it off.

where is this new restaurant located?

Hmmmm.

For me getting away from the TV is the absolute best reason for going to a community meeting. TV just encourages passivity and callouses on your butt. Getting out and meeting folks in a community setting is just so much more real and interactive and energizing for me.

Don't you folks like talking to real people about what they're thinking about stuff? It's kind of like this forum except more real and immediate and, at the risk of offending the powers that be, better.

Having spent 25 years living in Park Slope, CH by contrast is just so much more interesting. The newer residents are a lively lot and much more engaged in their community than was the case in Park Slope.

After all, Crown Heights still not the obvious place to move to, so the folks who do move here are by definition, exceptional. They're more likely to be risk takers and activists. This is what Park Slope was like 30 years ago and is no more. Back then you had to be a little edgy to move to PS. Now that is true of CH. As any gardener will tell you, the edge is where the action is. And right now CH is the edge. Get out there and enjoy it!

Amen, Captain.
And bolletje and Kid, check out the sticky at the top of the board. You can participate without having to make a meeting!