If that were true, Community Board Maven wouldn't be reading and sniffily responding. Demean online activism all you want, but NYC public policy was pretty brain-dead before the internet and in the past few years we've seen a dramatic injection of thoughtfulness. Thoughts, typed into friggin' keyboards, shockingly spreading all the way to the unwelcoming minds of community board mavens. Excuse me if I'm not grateful to those that volunteer to advocate terrible policy on my behalf, but thinking is work too, some would say it's even harder—or at least more valuable—than tireless defense of the status quo by pushing various tribal (locational, social, and generational) buttons. Oh noes, my middle-class outer boroughs motorist big red button isn't working anymore! We'll still be here thinking through all the angles (anonymously on a blog, or working more directly as many commenters here do) long after most people currently serving in the political button pushing capacity have moved on.

"why don't you do some old fashioned research and activism yourselves? Or is that too much work?"

TDK!

"Okay, what do you call it when community board members want every development, every change, to increase the amount of parking in the district? That's not an ideology - or an agenda?"

Clearly you guys don't engage much with your own community boards -- otherwise there'd be more progress and/or more awareness on your part about what's going on in the city. Not all CBs are comprised of wannabe politicians or non-progressives. Not all embrace car dependence. One recent example:
http://www.riverdalepress.com/full.php?sid=6503&current_edition=2008-11-06

I'm with Maven on this one. You guys should take your Streetsblog comments and send them to your respective CBs and demand change. THAT is activism. Here you're just preaching to the choir. Instead of asking Maven to prove his/her (well stated) case, why don't you do some old fashioned research and activism yourselves? Or is that too much work?

Community Boards represent the families, residents, block associations, small businesses, mom&pops, PTAs, church groups established in a neighborhood. They do not represent developers, rowdy club owners, landlords, ideologues or people with an agenda. They are your neighbors on the street, not your enemy. Unless you are an ideologue with an agenda.

Okay, what do you call it when community board members want every development, every change, to increase the amount of parking in the district? That's not an ideology - or an agenda?

Can you support your claim that "Community Boards represent the families, residents, block associations, small businesses, mom&pops, PTAs, church groups established in a neighborhood."? Please provide some evidence of this assertion. Why is it that most New Yorkers don't even own a car, but most community board members do?

What does it take to get onto a community board, and what happens when board members vote against the position of their appointers? I think you need look no further than Brooklyn community board 6 to answer this last question.

Yes, they are appointed, but 99% of the people involved in governmental functioning are appointed, including Sadik-Khan. The rest are called politicians.

So, I am amazed when I read here the irresponsible comments regarding CBs. I guess some people, when they don't get their way, lash out at people who try to do what is best for their neighbors and their community.

Bitterly typing away anonymously on a blog is a lot easier than devoting and volunteering one's time and effort for the common good. The latter takes commitment, maturity and responsibility. The former requires only a computer, solipsism, and mean-spiritedness.

W/ Councilman David Yassky & The Commissioner of the Dept. of Transportation

6 p.m. Monday November 24 th.
Swinging 60's senior center
211 Ainslie Street (corner of manhattan ave.)

Topics will include: Subway& Bus service
Bike lanes/racks
Truck traffic
Street Parking solutions
Traffic on kent ave. and MORE.......

All BIKE LANES ARE BEING IMPLEMENTED UNDER A MAYORAL DIRECTIVE
THRU THE DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION AND ARE NOT SUBJECT TO
COMMUNITY BOARD APPROVAL (or review) !!!!!!!!

And a good thing too! We probably wouldn't have an inch of bike lane in the city if they had to go through these unelected bodies.

I am on my phone and cannot copy and paste. But if you google: "captaindisko kent ave" both show up.

It seems to me, the people opposing this bikelane, are the very people that give cause to have it there in the first place.

Especially construction trucks. They are chilling in the wide open new bike lanes, sitting in their cabs, eating breakfast. They seem to really love it. Maybe they should show up and support the new bike lanes.