The Sixth Street Community Center conflict between the board of directors and former executive director, Howard Brandstein, continues to play out, but citizens of the East Village still remain largely in the dark. Brandstein and his organization, the Friends of Sixth Street Community Center continue to protest his firing outside of Flower Power, a local herb store where the board chairman, Amikole Mareasa, sells a line of shea butter products she created. The Friends of Sixth Street continue to share their story and message, yet the board of trustees for the community center remains silent.
I stood outside both Flower Power and the community center to ask passersby what they knew about the conflict, and was surprised at the large lack of knowledge.The silence of the board has created an information gap while those who do know about the conflict lack a depth of knowledge about the complexities of the situation. One East Village resident told me that “the board’s silence is counterproductive to the board. It’s allowing the other side to get out.”
Many of the people I spoke to didn’t know much, and the ones that did seemed to side with Brandstein and the Friends of Sixth Street because they haven’t been able to learn about the motivations behind his firing. “Howie built up the community center,” says one resident. “Why get rid of him?”
Another spoke to me in depth about her thoughts and was largely in favor of reinstating Brandstein and the old board. She expressed feelings of sadness about the lack of affordable housing and property in the East Village and felt that Brandstein fought to keep spaces affordable.
Less democracy?
She says the new board isn’t dispersing information as willingly and the neighbors have less of a say in the happenings of the center. She even added that boards are shrinking in size at multiple community organizations in the East Village and is frustrated that smaller amounts of people are making decisions on behalf of the entire community.
Through my conversations with East Village residents, I found that they are wanting to hear from the board of directors at the community center. There has been a lot of staff turnover with little explanation, which has created feelings of confusion and frustration at the lack of communication.
In order to try and figure out exactly what’s going on, I paid a visit to Flower Power in the hopes of speaking with Maraesa. I wanted to hear her side of the story in order to paint a more holistic picture about the conflict, and I wanted to help East Village citizens understand what’s going on in their community a little bit better. She told me that she was unable to talk about the community center while at a different workplace. She also didn’t want to conduct an interview without the entire board’s presence in order to avoid speaking on behalf of all of them since she is just one person. The board most likely wants to present a united front in order to best represent the interests of the community and the community center.
I, like many East Village residents, remain confused, but will continue to stay tuned into the conflict. The story doesn’t seem to be grinding to a halt anytime soon and will continue to develop over the coming weeks and months.
