A look at the Lakeview Council

Viberta Caesar is all about action. If it needs to get done, Caesar gets it done.

But the single mother of two doesn’t do it alone: she has help from members of the Lakeview Council, a local civic group whose mission is to improve the quality of life for Lakeview residents.

Shortly after moving to Lakeview from Brooklyn in 1999, Caesar turned to the group for help in getting the county to repair the road outside her Smith Street home. When it became clear that through the Council she could get things done, Caesar decided to join it and eventually run it: she is now the Lakeview Council’s president.

When she first moved into the neighborhood and asked about repairing the broken road, Caesar was told no repairs could be made until the completion of construction on a nearby property. Long after the construction had ended, still nothing was done. Caesar turned to her neighbors for answers. “Will our street be repaired?” she had asked.

“No,” her neighbors had answered. “This is it. This is the condition [of the road]: this is how it’s always been and this is how it’s going to stay. Nobody cares about us.”

Upon hearing this, Caesar gathered her neighbors and approached Julian Jones, who was the council’s president at that time and now serves as its vice president. Together they launched a campaign to combat that impression of neglect and, with the help of a $75,000 grant from Assemblywoman Earlene Hooper (D-Hempstead), got the county to repair the road.

“Now, when you’re able to do that with the help of the council,” Caesar said, “why not join it and see if you can do the same thing for the  rest of the neighborhood?”

From day one, Caesar has felt a connection with her community; Just as it has not let her down, she refuses to disappoint it.

“I settled in Lakeview because of what I was told by the neighbors,” Caesar recently told the Herald in an interview. “They said this is an affluent black neighborhood. We have many doctors and lawyers that live here and its a great community to raise your children. So, I decided to build there. So far it seems to be true: I’ve lived there since 1999 and it’s 2010. It hasn’t let me down.”

The neighborhood, Caesar said, is significantly different from Brooklyn in the sense of community. “Being able to just stand on your front porch and people pass by, saying good morning, good afternoon and good evening,” she said. “That down-home country feeling that you would usually experience in the south, you get here in New York, and that’s what I like about Lakeview.”

Caesar, who works for the NYC Transit Authority and holds a degree in mechanical engineering from City College in Harlem, said the council’s mission is to maintain that country feeling “where everyone knows everyone [and] you can say hello to everyone on the street.” But the council — which is an umbrella organization comprised of several local civic associations, including the Tanglewood and Pinebrook civic associations, and the Lakeview Youth Federation, among others — also puts works to achieve tangible change.

Bringing programs and information into the community is one way the council works to improve quality of life in Lakeview. It keeps open the lines of communication with local elected officials, and a keen eye on construction and other neighborhood activities and developments. Through its civic association members, the council remains abreast of ongoing local issues, particularly concerning the conditions of schools, street aesthetics and safety.

She and another board member sat on a task force in 2009  aimed at addressing education and school matters. They had to review local schools and provide input on the status of their safety, physical conditions, competitive nature and overall progress.

When a development on Orlando Avenue was being constructed in 2007-08, with a plan to build 325 apartments on a 10.9-acre property, the council and its civic associations launched a campaign to combat the overcrowding. “The whole neighborhood pretty much got together and fought against them,” Caesar said.

Another issue the council is currently reviewing is the installation of the ShotSpotter Gunshot Location System in Lakeview. The Nassau County Police Department is considering placing system — which picks up the sounds and determined the locations of gunshots within certain parameters — in the small community in response to a recent uptick in crime there. Some area residents and organizations believe it will cause more harm than good, creating a stigma for Lakeview as a crime-ridden community.

Real estate professionals who sit on the council’s board have advised the council of the implications and negative associations that may accompany ShotSpotter.

“We do not want anything negative to be associated with Lakeview on that level,” Caesar said, but added she was reluctant to give the council’s stance on the issue because it is up to Lakeview’s citizens to determine whether they want the system installed.

The community is also currently having problems with water quality, according to Vice President Jones, who joined Caesar and two other board members for the Herald interview.

“The water is constantly cloudy: some of our members have found debris in the water,” he said. “We’ve put a complaint in with the water company and they’re still flushing the water system.”

Jones said the water company is repairing water filtration stations in Malverne and should do the same for the three Lakeview stations. The council brought the problem to the company’s attentions and hopes to see a prompt response.

In addition to working with the county to address the pot holes and jutting manholes that dot Woodfield Road, Lakeview’s main thoroughfare, the council is trying to put an end to the graffiti that “runs rampant” in the neighborhood, according to Caesar.

While it addresses serious safety and other issues, the Lakeview Council often highlights positivity and growth in the community. It represents everyone, from the youth to the elderly: community activist Adela Harris, who co-founded the council, is still an active and vocal member at 97 years old, while 24-year-old Chemaal Evans serves as president of the council’s youth organization.

According to Jones, the council is made up of people who have various levels of expertise in a variety of issues, and, therefore, can address wide-ranging matters, big or small.

“All of our members on the board bring something specific to the board like real estate, law enforcement, transportation, health and hospitals,” Jones said. “Everyone brings something to the table.”

While membership varies based on issues — from as low as five participants to as many as 100 — the Lakeview Council continues to forge ahead with its goals. The council meets on the first Monday of every month, which exceptions for holidays, at the Harold Walker Memorial Park across the street from the Lakeview Public Library on Woodfield Road.

The council will hold its tree-lighting ceremony on Dec. 6 at 7:30 p.m. at the park and a children’s holiday party on Dec. 20 from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. While Caesar urged those interested in learning more to come out to general meeting, she noted that the council is launching a website, blyness@yahoo.com.