NEW YORK—Community boards are an often-overlooked level of government. But if you ask Craig Hammerman, the district manager of one of the most active community boards, it is an essential one. “It is the best job in the world,” he says.
Members of the community boards are advocates for their communities, as well as a liaison between the community and the city government. Members of community boards are chosen by the borough president and are mostly volunteers. Brooklyn’s Community Board 6 represents Carroll Gardens/South Brooklyn, Cobble Hill, Columbia Waterfront, Gowanus, Park Slope, and Red Hook.
Hammerman joined the community board in 1990. After his predecessor passed away in 1993, he assumed the role of district manager, earning the title of the youngest district manager in NYC.
The Epoch Times: “Best job in the World”-why?
Craig Hammerman: It gives you a chance to help people every day. You get to see immediate results from your work. I can walk around the community, and I can point at things I had a hand in improving. You get to improve people’s lives and give back. You are working for a cause, a mission, which is the betterment of your community. For people who find that kind of job fulfilling, it is a fantastic job.
The Epoch Times: Do the residents of these communities use this channel of government effectively?
Hammerman: We represent one of the most active districts of New York City. Each of our neighborhoods has an active civic association and a merchant association and we have over 200 bloc associations. People do call us. They reach out to us because they see that we are in the news a lot, that we are out there and that we are effective. It is a blessing and curse.
It is a blessing that people see that the community board is an invaluable aspect of city government, that they know they have a voice, that they can be heard on a local level, that they do not need to cross the harbor to city hall to be heard or demand something from an local elected official, where there is sometimes politics attached.
It is also a curse because, as you can see, we are a very small office. We serve 104,000 residents. It is the size of the city of Gary, Ind. We do not have the resources the city of Gary, Ind., would have. You can imagine how it is to serve such a large population with such a small office. The better we do the more demands are made of us and the more thinly we become stretched.
The Epoch Times: What is your vision for the district?
Hammerman: I would like to see even more people engaged in the work of the community board. That is something we challenge ourselves to do. We were one of the first community boards to launch a website, in 2001 it was. [We strive] to really put ourselves out there so the community can reach us when they need to. We were one of the first community boards to use Facebook. We were the first to use Twitter. Most community boards still do not have Facebook pages or use Twitter. The vision is ‘How do you empower citizens and give them access to government and give them the resources they need, so they can lobby for what they want and make changes in their community?’… I believe it is our mission to be there for citizens and support their role in city government.
