By Michael Morton
The boards include elected officials who are respected by the community, but Gloria Black, the chairwoman of Jamaica's Community Board 12, said Tuesday that positions must be created for those directly affected.”One foot soldier should be on those boards,” she said.The latest controversy began last week, when residents attending an airport meeting last week realized they had been left off a board charged with recommending how $100 million from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey for community projects should be spent. For some, it marked the second time in two weeks that one of their own had not been selected to weigh in on important neighborhood issues.”That blows my mind,” Community Board 12 Chairwoman Gloria Black said at the meeting March 15, referring to the Community Advisory Board. The board was selected by Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and it includes City Council members whose districts abut JFK or LaGuardia airports, with the notable exception of controversial Councilman Allan Jennings (D-Jamaica).At a meeting about the renovation of the veterans' hospital in St. Albans two weeks before, Black and area residents found out that an advisory board for the project included a representative from the borough president but no one from the neighborhood.”It's like playing telephone,” Yvette Sledge of South Jamaica said at the airport meeting, held at St. Peter's Lutheran Church in Brookville and attended by about 50 people. “The translation gets lost as you pass it along.” Other speakers at the meeting expressed concern that those in charge would once again appear to listen to southeast Queens residents to placate them, then not take their needs and desires into account. The southeast Queens residents are vying for a substantial slice of the $100 million designated for community projects around the borough's two airports that was included in the lease deal signed last year by the city and the Port Authority. It is to be spent in the next five years. For years the facilities' neighbors have said their communities were subject to noise and air pollution from both planes and trucks servicing the airport and its businesses. While the project funding was hailed as an attempt to heal past wounds, Councilman James Sanders Jr. (D-Laurelton), the chairman of the advisory board, cautioned that only projects which entailed construction geared toward explicit economic development were likely to be considered. He said the policy might change, however.”That conversation is ongoing,” Sanders said.During the meeting, residents and community leaders proposed creating a noise and pollution monitoring station, rebuilding Brookville Boulevard with an elevated roadway, redoing the bridge over Brookville Creek, rehabilitating wetlands at Idlewild Park, creating a new Jackson Heights library, adding an extension onto the Far Rockaway branch, supporting the proposed business village around Jamaica's AirTrain terminal, retooling the southern end of Sutphin Boulevard, and expanding the family center at Roy Wilkins Park for a new, small high school for returning drop-outs.It appeared the various civic associations and community groups at the meeting realized $100 million would only go so far in the borough and were trying to explain why their neighborhood was the most hurt by JFK and the most in need. Councilwoman Helen Sears (D-Jackson Heights), a member of the advisory panel, said of the money “it's so tiny compared to what the problems are. We have to look at it realistically and rationally.”A meeting was already held in January for the community surrounding LaGuardia. Sanders said the board would take 30 days before sending its recommendations to the mayor's office, where the final decisions will be made.Reach reporter Michael Morton by e-mail at news@timesledger.com or by phone at 718-229-0300, Ext. 154.
