Mieszko Kalita Vies for CB1 Chair

Mieszko Kalita sits in the small back room of his delicatessen, Beata Deli, which he lovingly named after his wife 21 years ago when he bought the business. Though Mieszko and Beata may have been thousands of miles from their homeland of Poland, they were business owners, and had already begun planting roots that would prove to be strong and enduring, right here in Greenpoint.

“We got married, right here on Eagle Street, when we were 22,” Kalita said of he and his wife. “Then we lived here, above the store, for 11 years.”

Though he and his family have since moved away from Greenpoint, Kalita is still very much a part of the community. He serves as a dedicated member of Community Board 1, and hopes to take his commitment to the next level in the very near future: He hopes to be voted in to replace Vinny Abate as Chairman of the Board in the upcoming election. As a small business owner with a history in the hood and an ear to the street, it seems that Kalita could just be the one for the job.

“I am in Greenpoint every day, from 6AM to 9PM,” Kalita said. “I know more about the neighborhood than anyone around. I’m a grassroots kind of guy, always ontop of the news. I know what people complain about to each other over coffee in the morning.”

Kalita first joined CB1 eight years ago, originally serving on the Parks and Public Safety Committees. He is currently the chairman of the Public Safety Committee, and sits on the board of the Transportation Committee. As someone who firmly believes in civic service and involvement, Kalita was excited to join the board, hoping to represent the needs, opinions and interests of his community and his neighbors.

“In public school, high school, even college I was always a part of my student government,” Kalita said. “After coming to the U.S. and making it here—owning a business, buying a house, having children—I thought joining the community board would be the next step.”

As Chair, Kalita would work tirelessly to get the word out around the neighborhood about CB1, trying to inspire the active involvement of residents new to the neighborhood as well as maintain the loyalty of longstanding community members.

“CB1 really needs a Chair who is a business person, an organizer, somebody with a fresh point of view and a set of clear goals to be achieved,” Kalita said. “It’s not easy to please everyone, and a chairman must try as hard as he or she can. I would really want to get more young people involved, those who have just moved to the neighborhood. People don’t even know we exist. I want to get the word out, that we are a city agency, we are party of the government, but really we are a place for the people.”

In addition to heavy recruitment and outreach, as chair Kalita also vows to reorganize the community board as a whole, reordering the subcommittee system and creating a newer, more practical set of priority issues based on the most pressing needs of the community.

“I think we need a bigger police force in the 94 precinct,” Kalita said, explaining that public safety is one of the neighborhood’s hottest issues. “We also must reexamine our relationship with the State Liquor Authority. We must make sure our voices will be heard, because this is our neighborhood and we should be able to decide who and where, in terms of bars and clubs. I would also reorganize CB1 subcommittees—we need fewer committees that meet more frequently. And I’d create a goal, to make sure that members of the board really attend the meetings of their respective committees.”

While he certainly has a set of specific ideas he’d love to implement as chair, Kalita understands that the most important contribution of a chairperson is to act as a moderator, a peace keeper and a middle-man.

“It’s about listening to people, communicating,” Kalita said. “I’d use a soft sort of power, the kind that brings everybody into the decision-making process, because it’s about everyone working together, in and for the neighborhood.”