70th Precinct Community Council December Meeting/Holiday Party
Tuesday, December 20th, 2011
This month’s meeting of the 70th Precinct Community Council was extremely brief, probably owing to two factors: 1) the fact that the meeting was bumped back to mid-month because of the holidays and 2) the fact that the room was full of young children eagerly awaiting the arrival of Nate the Great and Santa Claus. Who’s Nate the Great you ask? Read through to find out.
The meeting began as usual with the Pledge of Allegiance. Not so usual was the person who led it–a highly enthusiastic boy named Derrell who did a perfect job leading everyone in the pledge.
Ed Powell, President of the Community Council, followed with acknowledgment of the local officials present and thanks to various community leaders for their work over the past year. He then introduced Inspector Eric Rodriguez, Commanding Officer of the 70th.
Rodriguez asked everyone present to observe a moment of silence in remembrance of Officer Peter Figoski, who was killed in the line of duty last week and laid to rest yesterday. Most of those present also stood during the moment of silence, after which Rodriguez offered, “Rest in peace, Peter Figoski.”
He then moved onto some good news. Along with recent news that the NYPD made 141 arrests of people accused of selling stolen electronics, the 70th will end the year with crime down 4.5%. According to Rodriguez, crime was up 8% when he took over in June, so that’s a drop of 12.5% during his tenure so far. There were no audience questions this month as everyone seemed fairly anxious to get to the festivities.
Roz Sokol of Assembly Member Steve Cymbrowitz‘s office briefly thanked the 70th for their extraordinary work and encouraged everyone to attend Community Board 14 meetings the 2nd Monday of every month.
Side note: Not sure what a Community Board does or why you should care about going to CB14 meetings? Check back on the blog soon for an interview with CB14′s (relatively) new District Manager, Ms. Shawn Campbell.
After a brief introduction of the Council’s officers, Powell adjourned the meeting and introduced Nate the Great, otherwise known as Nathan Thompson, Assistant Secretary of the Council. If you’ve been to any community meeting around the area, you’ve probably seen Nathan, but beneath his community activism lies a surprising talent for magic. Apparently, he grew up doing magic on Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco, and he was really great. Lots of oohs and ahs from the kids in the room. His daughter even got involved, pulling a bearded dragon named Bizzy out of a box and walking around introducing it to everyone. They do also own a rabbit, but I guess he only plays the bigger houses. For more on Nathan, check out this NY Times profile on him and his family from 2010.
As Nate the Great’s wrapped up, Santa made an appearance and distributed toys donated by the Flatbush Avenue Business Improvement District, before a holiday meal was served. There was definitely a lot of fun had by all present.
Speaking of “all present,” the next meeting will be (as they are every month) on the last Wednesday of January, so the 25th. 7:30pm at 175 Lawrence Ave.
And, if you’re looking for a New Year’s resolution that’s easy to keep, how about “Show up to at least one 70th Precinct Community Council meeting in 2012.” Give it a try. It’s not nearly as hard as quitting smoking (although you should do that too).
-
Andree Thompson
-
nathan
