The Federation of Italian American Organization (FIAO) is having their 6 story Community/Cultural Center (Il Centro) being constructed adjacent to peoples' private houses. This Center will have Social Services, Senior Citizen Center, Meeting Rooms, Banquet Hall, FitnessCenter, Pool, Entertainment, etc., etc.

Also, the FIAO is also having their 31 Car underground garage being constructed adjacent to a private property owner's driveway on a narrow 1-way street whereas this persons' driveway is before their garage. Which means all these cars will be lining up day and night going past peoples homes or just standing their idling while waiting to get into this underground garage forcing these residents to be inhaling these fumes and listening to the engines of these cars idling 7 days a week, morning till night. This organization also got 47 parking spaces on a street level parking lot from the local church. These parking spaces are right next to the Heartshare Residence and School for Autistic Children. The CEO & President of the Heartshare Program is Mr. William Guarinello, who is also the Chairman for our local Brooklyn Community Board 11. Also, I would like to mention that the Board Members of the Federation of Italian American Organization are and continue to be on the same Community Board with Mr. Guarinello. You would think that Mr. Guarinello would keep the children out of harms way instead of adding more pollution to their environment. These children do not have a say in what is happening here in this community. We believe Mr. Guarinello has his own agenda and could care less about these children or the residents living in this community. It seems his only priority is having this Community Center constructed.

A secondary problem that these poor children have to deal with is a Motorcycle Repair Shop across the street from this Residence. The Owner of this Motorcycle Repair Shop leaves the motorcycles idling for long periods of time. On many occasions Owner and his friends have motorcycle races back and forth past this Residence which is located on a 1-way street.

I had called 311 on several occasions to complain about the noise and emissions and nothing was ever done about that. I spoke to the owner of the Motorcycle Shop and he told me “if people don’t like the noise and the smell they should move to the suburbs”. I guess he means people in the community? I even mentioned this to the Priest from St. Finbar’s Church and he said he would look into it but I don’t believe he could be bothered with this. This Church is involved with the Federation of Italian American Organization.

I do not believe that Mr. Guarinello (President & CEO of the Heartshare Program and Chairman of Brooklyn Community Board 11) has never come to this facility because I would hope if he had heard the noise and smelled these emissions he would try and protect these children and the community from this type of thing. But I think Mr. Guarinello is only interested in winning points from the business owners.

No one from the Brooklyn Community Board 11 or The Federation for Italian American Organization live anywhere near this monster building. On the top floor of this building I have read that they could see 3 boroughs and that is why they have no problem looking into the neighboring properties taking away our privacy.

In addition you would think that the FIAO and the local Community Board would discourage people from driving their cars into an already extremely motorists populated neighborhood. In a 2 block radius of this Community/ Cultural Center (Il Centro) there is a Post Office, 5 Churches, Home Improvement Center, 8 Auto Repair Shops, several Restaurants, 2 Department Stores, 2 Super Markets, Fire Station, Children's Learning Center, Medical Building, and more.

In this community just 1 block away from this Community/Cultural Center there is a train station and right across the street from this center is a bus stop. This organization has taken away all of the residents quality of life and is killing the residents with noise and air pollution We cannot even enjoy our homes or even have privacy in our own backyards. This is pretty sad to be awoken early in the morning listening to car engines and smelling fumes as they fly in our windows from these cars lining up to go into the underground garage or to the street level parking lot. Unfortunately, this will be going on all day and night.

The FIAO hasn't been a good neighbor nor do they care about their neighbors’ problems which are caused by having this Center in this location. The FIAO’s hours of operation and the present and long term effects of the air and noise pollution and what the environmental impact will cause this Community.

The FIAO has encouraged their construction crew to harass neighbors as they hang out in front of my/and neighbors homes and throw their cigarettes, food, coffee cups, etc in front of our houses. As well as they have thrown their garbage from their construction site onto our carport and our backyard narrowly missing our feral cats which we have tried to protect from these people. We are trying to protect these cats, as well as the cats living inside the construction site. Unfortunately we had tried to trap these 3 feral cats but it was unsuccessful and no one from this organization even care about their plight. These cats have lived on their property for many years and now are inhaling dust and dirt from their site. We would very much like to trap them and have them live on my property but these people have not been community friendly and they have made themselves very unavailable to the community.

We have tried unsuccessfully to meet with the owners of this building who we believe they have encouraged the construction workers into harassing us and causing other problems.

We spoke to the Chairman of Brooklyn's Community Board 11 (Mr. William Guarinello), and the Police Community Team which didn't really care about what was going on. Sadly, we have also spoken to the local Politicians, Public Advocate, COIB, DOB, DOT, DEP, etc., etc. regarding the above and other issues and unfortunately due to this organizations political clout no one has given us any help with the exception of one politician who did not want his name mentioned due to the people who are involved with this Community/Cultural Center. The FIAO has board members that have jobs in many of these agencies or is on their Boards and that is why many of complaints were closed. I was told from the Commissioner of the Department of Buildings after meeting with him regarding this construction that one of the names on a document that I had showed him was on the FIAOs Board and also worked for the Department of Buildings. I do believe that might be a conflict of interests, but so is the fact that they are also on the local Community Board and also, had one of their board members working for the Brooklyn Borough Presidents office as the Chief of Staff. The Federation of Italian American Organization has a lot of clout.

Even the DOB Inspectors who have come due to complaints with this building, most of the time the complaints were closed saying e.g., complaint unsubstantiated, etc.

We had called in many complaints regarding fumes from cars and trucks which belonged to the construction workers and nothing was ever done about these complaints and they were closed. Most of our complaints with the DOB were also closed. We even have pictures of them doing things they should not be doing and none of these agencies have requested to look at these pictures talk about collusion and corruption.

Most of our other complaints were closed saying things like complaint unsubstantiated or worksite closed which was not the truth.

We have gone to a lawyer and after telling him the whole story (which would be much too much to write here) he felt that there is collusion and corruption going on and that is why no private or public agencies would help us.

We are fighting for our/and neighbors rights especially for the Children who live in our community as well as the children who live in the Residence for Autistic Children. We certainly see that Mr. William Guarinello (CEO & President of the Heartshare Program, Residence and School for Autistic Children) has his own ideas on who he helps and it doesn’t look like he is helping the children. It certainly looks like it is the FIAO (possibly because the FIAO gave him the use of one of their rooms in this Community/Cultural Center and probably free use of their gym, pool, etc.

We want to live in a neighborhood where we are able to breathe clean air as well as have certain amount of privacy and enjoyment of our homes which they have already taken away from us. Once the FIAO's Cultural Center is opened it will only get worse. We feel like Big Brother is watching us and everyone around us.

Please help us in our fight for environmental and quality of life issues as we feel helpless and depressed over our present and future situation. We hope by getting signatures on this petition that it will help in our fight against these people and help us/and the residents of this community have some quality of life. People in this community are afraid to fight this organization or anyone else for that matter. Residents have told me they will not win so why bother.

We know this building is going up and perhaps we can not fight the windows looking right into our homes and backyards. But possibly we could do something to fight their hours of operation since it will affect our quality of life due to the fumes and noise from their cars idling from approximately 6:30AM till approximately 11PM 7 days a week and later on the weekends. WE THE RESIDENTS OF THIS COMMUNITY WILL NEVER HAVE ANY PEACE FROM THESE PEOPLE. WE HAVE NO POLICAL CLOUT OR A VOICE IN WHAT IS GOING ON IN OUR COMMUNITY! THEY HAVE TAKEN AWAY ALL OF OUR RIGHTS.

We would like to fight to change the traffic pattern so traffic will line up on a street that has businesses instead of people’s homes. Also, hopefully change the street that the traffic will go to for the street level parking lot so the Autistic Children living there will not be as badly affected by the fumes and noise.