Tuesday night's PlaNYCBrooklyn Town Hall Meeting was held at Long Island University's Paramount Gymnasium, an airy room filled with dozens of large round tables covered in white cloth, each with seats for about eight people. Attendance was fair considering the brisk weather, with many of the seats filled. Nobody seemed to know quite what to expect, but I have a feeling no one was disappointed.
Town Hall Meetings are one of the ways New York City's Office of Long Term Planning and Sustainability is reaching out to share its goals and give voice to its constituents. The agency's director, Dr. Rohit Aggarwala, started off the evening by introducing himself and PlaNYC, and the profound challenges his office is charged with addressing. He framed his talk around the plan's three main pillars, punctuating each with a video:
- OpeNYC: the city is growing. "What impacts will we face from one million more people?" (video)
- MaintaiNYC: our infrastructure is moving from old to ancient. "What infrastructure needs should we get ready for?" (video)
- GreeNYC: global warming, brownfields, the highest asthma hospitalization rates in the country, and 2 billion gallons of raw sewage dumped annually into the estuary; our environment is at risk. "How will our environment become more vulnerable?" (video)
While the presentation painted a picture of overwhelming challenges ahead, Dr. Aggarwala's talk was saturated with optimism and rich in ideas for how to turn our problems into opportunities. He listed scores of ideas suggested by New Yorkers via email and past meetings -- congestion pricing of midtown traffic, low impact development, brownfield remediation, and more -- just to get us warmed up. Then it was our turn.
A cadre of city agency officials from the Departments of Transportation, Planning, Parks, Operations, and the Office of Long Term Planning and Sustainability spread out among us. Dr. Aggerwala asked us to paint our own picture of the city we'd like to live in. How did each of us imagine addressing the great challenges that lay ahead?
Conversation was awkward at first. We were given a worksheet to guide our discussion and record our thoughts. Chris from the Transportation Department sat himself at my table as the agency ear, and the conversation got off to a great start. Smaller groups joined to form larger groups, and people gave their heartfelt opinions about what they loved and would love to see in New York City. As the energy grew among us, Dr. Aggerwala sat with our table for five minutes to listen in. The entire room was lit up with enthusiastic discourse.
After about 20 minutes, our facilitator reconvened the whole group and invited a spokesperson from each group to report on its discussion. People aired concerns about water and air quality; dreams about safe and bikeable streets; a serious interest in protecting affordable housing; creating more water access and new recreation opportunities; and much more. Presentations were invigorating and hopeful.
I'm not sure what will come of the information collected in PlaNYC's outreach efforts. But if only to share your dreams for the city's future with fellow New Yorkers, the Town Hall is well worth checking out -- so check it out. Two more Town Hall meetings are scheduled for the coming week. You can also give your input to PlaNYC via the web.
Image: franco folini/flickr
