More Town Hall Coverage

The Greenpoint Gazette gives us a view of the recent NAG Town Hall meeting.

Irene Palmese, a longtime resident of Williamsburg who has lived in the neighborhood for over 40 years, agreed.

"I realize that there are major changes going on in the neighborhood, and so we too must make some changes," Palmese said. "New and old residents, we all have common problems and concerns. There has got to be multi-generational involvement in the easing some of the pressure. I just don't want to lose our sense of community altogether. I don't want this neighborhood to become overly commercialized. I don't want to live in a Times Square environment."

On the other end of the spectrum, new resident Blair Blanchard, who has lived in Greenpoint for less than one year, also showed up to the meeting, ready to get involved and try to ease some of the tension between old and new residents that often comes with the territory of any rapidly gentrifying neighborhood.

"I have lots of questions about the neighborhood and I'd like to be a part of the answer," Blanchard explained. "There is a lot of tension in this area. For example, I never go into Polish businesses, and I'm sure they view me a certain way too. But I like that it's diverse here, and I want to make sure that I'm part of this dialogue too."

The Greenpoint/Williamsburg Courier talked to a couple of our organizers:

Allison Davis, who learned about NAG while she was volunteering during a voter registration drive at McCarren Pool, was interested in NAG's work on a variety of community issues.

"I like how they combine open spaces with transportation issues, tenant advocacy, and quality-of-life issues," Davis said. "It's really nice to be able to address everything in one place."

Alison Levy, an art curator, was similarly interested in community development and wanted to work with NAG before she is priced out of Williamsburg.

"All these different communities, old and new, have a lot of work to do to respect each other and I want to be a part of that," Levy said.