Chickens Threaten to Divide Brooklyn Community

By VIVIAN YEE

The month-old dispute that has turned neighbor against neighbor in Brooklyn has spawned petitions, door-to-door campaigns and reams of fliers. There have been shouting matches, and even an intervention from a city councilman. And it all started with eight clucking hens. Ten days ago, members of the Warren-St. Marks Community Garden in Park Slope brought the hens to their temporary home: a wood-and-metal coop, nestled into one side of the garden, that members began building in late September. Although the garden members say they handed out fliers announcing their plans to residents on nearby blocks, many have complained that the garden made its decision without consulting anyone. Since then, a somewhat atypical not-in-my-backyard battle has emerged over the chickens. The opponents many of them residents long entrenched in the neighborhood have pilloried the garden as an exclusive club that has trampled on the communitys concerns. The dispute has also prompted some who live near the garden, which has coexisted peacefully with the surrounding blocks since its inception in the 1980s, to re-evaluate how a community garden ought to balance gardening with its community. There is a pattern here of being untruthful, not really reaching out to the neighbors, not being community-spirited; there is a history of being exclusive, said Ahhalia Smith, the most prominent of those opposed to the chickens. Ms. Smith and members of her family dominated a rancorous and sometimes profane meeting on Sunday over the chickens future. It was frequently conducted at top volume, prompted much muttering and head shaking on the sidelines, and featured eloquent speeches about the meaning of community alongside detailed discussions of rat history, coop wiring and composting. (A city rat consultant, whom garden members had invited to inspect the garden, was also on hand to proclaim the chickens rat-free.) Supporters say the chickens, which normally live on Governors Island but winter in various foster homes around the city, have attracted far more visitors than normal, and that they help fulfill the gardens environmental mission by eating scraps and contributing to the compost pile. The anti-chicken faction, which has gathered about 160 signatures on a petition protesting the hens, charged that they would bring stink, vermin, flies, lead poisoning and possibly even avian flu into the neighborhood. Garden members say the outcry has taken them by surprise, especially since six Governors Island chickens spent last winter in a private yard on the same block without anyone complaining. They say they tried to pre-empt concerns about rats and noise by building the coop, which is supposed to be rat-proof, next to an empty lot and by consulting chicken experts. But they acknowledge that they should have told their neighbors sooner, and they say they hope the chicken squabble will encourage more open relations between neighborhood and garden in the future. Community gardening is really just as much about the community as the gardening, and chickens can sometimes point out ways in which thats the case, said Siena Chrisman, a garden member. If people on the block are not feeling like its an open space, thats an issue. The people on the block were not shy about sharing their opinions Sunday afternoon, often shouting over one another despite the efforts of the moderator, Lisa Bloodgood, a community liaison from City Councilman Stephen Levins office, to keep peace. The chicken farmer whom garden members had

invited to speak was silenced by several scolding, finger-wagging women, saying in unison: You dont know this neighborhood. Shame on you! Still, the opponents efforts may come to nothing. Because it is on privately owned land, the garden has a legal right to keep the chickens until April when they will return to Governors Island, according to Mr. Levins office. By meetings end, however, most attendees appeared to agree t hat they wanted to honor the spirit, rather than the letter, of the deed to the land, which stipulates that the garden is privately owned but for public use. Garden members said that, because of the community outcry, they would hold a vote on the chickens fate and would invite residents to join the garden so they could participate. That seemed to defuse the tension, at least for the afternoon. I want to get along with my neighbors, said Ibon Muhammad, who has lived on Warren Street since 1980. I dont want a chicken to get between me and my neighbor.

1. Should the chickens be allowed to stay in the Warren-St. Marks Community Garden? Why or why not? Porque los opositores (personas) no estaban de acuerdo con la decisin de haber trado a los pollos al jardn, puesto que con ellos traeran enfermedades como la gripe aviar, ratas, mal olor moscas y envenenamiento por plomo. Y siempre si podran quedarse puesto que el jardn donde estaran es de propiedad privada pero de uso pblico. 2. Make a list of the reasons you would or would not want chickens in your own neighborhood. Mal olor, ruido, atraeran a las ratas, habra muchas moscas, no habra un espacio propicio para tenerlos. 3. Brainstorm issues over which neighbors have been divided in your area. What, if anything, do those situations have in common with this text? Se considerara una mala idea, puesto que la zona no es propicia para el cuidado de estos animals, aun as no habra disposicin de tiempo para cuidarlos y limpiar la zona donde pudiesen llegar a estar. 4. Using information in the article, make a list of pros and cons for having chickens in a residential neighborhood. Pros: se consumira pollo, se creara composta para las plantas Cons: producen mal olor, son poco higinicas, propensas a enfermedades, habra ratas. 5. What issues have divided your community recently (whether you define community as your neighborhood, church, school or even extended family)? Consider interviewing people on both sides of the issue and writing it up as a newspaper article, using Chickens Threaten to Divide Brooklyn Community as a model. En mi comunidad no ha habido problemas de enorme magnitud que hayan implicado un rompimiento social entre los vecinos. En mi casa no pasa de un coraje por ideas

diferentes. Lamentablemente en la escuela si hay un conflicto pero por el momento me es difcil contactar bien a ambas partes. 6. Many people have been taking chickens into residential neighborhoods as a way to gain access to fresh eggs and poultry. Not all towns support this. ltimamente por la crisis de huevo que se vive en el pas, mucha gente a optado por esta iniciativa, la de criar pollo, comerlo y consumir el huevo de gallina, inclusive unos han adaptado un espacio en su residencia para poder criar a estas aves. 7. Find out how livestock is handled in your neighborhood. En mi vecindario no se puede manejar mas ganado puesto que los terrenos que se haban dedicado a ello, eran granjas pero por la excesiva sobre poblacin estas desaparecieron 8. Can you have chickens on your property? En mi propiedad hablando de mi casa, si, hace algunos aos mi abuelita se dedicaba a la crianza de pollos en la azotea. 9. Are there specific laws governing livestock in your neighborhood? Desafortunadamente esa informacin no la conozco, aun as la zona en la que vivo no es propicia para mantener a algn tipo de ganado 10. Write a summary of the text. Los habitantes de una comunidad estn molestos con unos miembros del jardn en Park Slope, puesto que estos no les haban comunicado que traeran algunos pollos al jardn lo cual genero dicha molestia, puesto que pensaban que con la llegada de los pollos habra una plaga de ratas, as como olores desagradables. Los miembros del jardn argumentan que trajeron a los pollos que viven en Governors Island para resguardarlos un poco del invierno y que asi mismo los pollos ayudaran a la composta del jardn y al medio ambiente al comer sobras de comida. Sin embargo los dems habitantes no estn muy conformes con dicha decisin por lo cual organizaron una junta para discutir el destino que tendran los pollos que haban trado al vecindario. Este era un gran problema puesto que este conflicto estaba dividiendo a una comunidad. Uno de los habitantes y que estaba presente en la junta grito que quera llevarse bien con sus vecinos, que no quera tener un pollo en medio de su vecino.