Brooklyn Community Board 12 is New York City community board that encompasses the Brooklyn neighborhoods of Borough Park,

Kensington Kensington is a district in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in the West End of London, West of Central London. The district's commercial heart is Kensington High Street, running on an east–west axis. The north-east is taken up b ...

, Ocean Parkway, and

Midwood Midwood is a neighborhood in the south-central part of the New York City borough (New York City), borough of Brooklyn. It is bounded on the north by the Bay Ridge Branch tracks just above Avenue I and by the Brooklyn College campus of the City ...

Geography

Brooklyn Community Board 12 is delimited by 61st Street on the west, 8th Avenue, 37th Street and Caton Avenue on the north,

Coney Island Avenue Coney Island Avenue is a road in the New York City borough of Brooklyn that runs north-south for a distance of roughly five miles, almost parallel to Ocean Parkway and Ocean Avenue. It begins at Brighton Beach Avenue in Coney Island and goes nort ...

, 18th Street, MacDonald Avenue and

Long Island Rail Road The Long Island Rail Road , often abbreviated as the LIRR, is a commuter rail system in the southeastern part of the U.S. state of New York (state), New York, stretching from Manhattan to the eastern tip of Suffolk County, New York, Suffolk Co ...

on the east, as well as by Avenue P on the south. The land area is .

Population

As of the

United States Census 2000 The United States census of 2000, conducted by the Census Bureau, determined the resident population of the United States on April 1, 2000, to be 281,421,906, an increase of 13.2 percent over the 248,709,873 people enumerated during the 1990 cen ...

, the Community Board has a population of 185,046, up from 160,018 in 1990 and 155,903 in 1980. Of them (as of 2000), 120,697 (65.2%) are White non Hispanic, 5,398 (2.9%) are

African-American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American ...

, 26,030 (14.1%)

Asian Asian may refer to: * Items from or related to the continent of Asia: ** Asian people, people in or descending from Asia ** Asian culture, the culture of the people from Asia ** Asian cuisine, food based on the style of food of the people from Asi ...

or Pacific Islander, 206 (0.1%) American Indian or Native Alaskan, 2,089 (1.1%) of some other race, 6,224(3.4%) of two or more race, 24,402 (13.2%) of Hispanic origins. 44.1% of the population benefit from public assistance as of 2004, up from 25.6% in 2000.

Leadership

The Board's current chairman is Yidel Perlstein, and its district manager is Barry Spitzer.Cohen, Shawn and Golding, Bruce (October 26, 2016
"Community Leader Boasted about Snagging Favor from Future Top Cop"
''New York Post''

Controversies

Perlstein, the first

Hasidic Jew Hasidism, sometimes spelled Chassidism, and also known as Hasidic Judaism (Ashkenazi Hebrew: חסידות ''Ḥăsīdus'', ; originally, "piety"), is a Jewish religious group that arose as a spiritual revival movement in the territory of contem ...

to fill the position, was elected in March 2012, unseating 19-year veteran Alex Dubrow. Perlstein's win was controversial due to his having served only nine months out of the twelve required in order to qualify for a candidacy. Perlstein was vigorously supported by New York City Councilmember

David G. Greenfield David G. Greenfield (born September 26, 1978) is an American politician, law professor, and non-profit organization executive. He served as a Democrat in the New York City Council from the 44th district from 2010 to 2017. The district includes B ...

, his intervention being called "an unprecedented act of intimidation by an elected official" by board members. During a taped phone conversation, Perlstein described how at a September 2015 breakfast meeting in

Williamsburg, Brooklyn Williamsburg is a Neighborhoods in Brooklyn, neighborhood in the New York City borough (New York City), borough of Brooklyn, bordered by Greenpoint, Brooklyn, Greenpoint to the north; Bedford–Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, Bedford–Stuyvesant to the s ...

he convinced a

New York City Police Department The New York City Police Department (NYPD), officially the City of New York Police Department, established on May 23, 1845, is the primary municipal law enforcement agency within the City of New York, the largest and one of the oldest in ...

assistant chief to appeal to future Police Commissioner

James P. O'Neill James Patrick "Jimmy" O'Neill Jr. is an American police officer who served as the 43rd Police Commissioner of New York City from September 2016 until November 2019. Prior to his appointment as Police Commissioner, O'Neill served as NYPD's Chief o ...

to keep a friendly promoted lieutenant at the 66th Precinct, a police station in Community Board 12. This went contrary to standard procedure of transferring promoted officers to other precincts in order to prevent animosity from peers, and corruption. The officer was later found to be connected to Alex Lichtenstein, a Shomrim leader who was convicted in 2017 of bribing police officers almost $1 million in order to receive 150 gun permits for resale to community members. The lieutenant was subsequently stripped of his badge and gun, and transferred.Cohen, Shawn and Golding, Bruce (October 24, 2016
"NYPD Lieutenant Stripped of Badge, Gun over Ties to Bribery Scheme"
''New York Post''

References

External links

Profile of the Community Board
(PDF)
Brooklyn neighborhood map
{{Brooklyn Community boards of Brooklyn Borough Park, Brooklyn Midwood, Brooklyn