On Thursday night, I went to my first town hall. Mayor Adams came to speak at Beis Chana School on Bedford Avenue in Williamsburg. I live nearby and went with my dad — but I got there a little late because I had a math test.
There were about 150 people in the room. Most of the audience were Hasidic men from the Satmar community. Some Hasidic women were there, too, seated separately according to custom, and the rest were other residents from Williamsburg and Bedford-Stuyvesant. The auditorium wasn’t full, and the mood wasn’t tense. People seemed mostly content. There wasn’t a lot of anger in the room, despite predictions of conflict that stemmed from fliers posted all over the neighborhood to encourage participating by anti-bike locals.
It was clear the mayor had strong ties to the crowd. Many of the speakers said they knew him from when he was a police officer in Brooklyn. People greeted him like an old friend. The meeting stayed respectful, and the questions brought up real issues — but there weren’t any fireworks…