‘Board at work,’ protests district manager

Our recent article on Chinatown residents’ protest over the East Village/Lower East Side rezoning (April 11-17, “Chinatown group fears gentrification from rezoning”) may have wrongly given the sense that a Community Board 3 member and the board’s district manager were distractedly piddling around with a laptop and BlackBerry during the discussion.

In fact, Susan Stetzer, the board’s district manager, said David Silversmith, C.B. 3’s assistant secretary, was entering the board meeting’s minutes on the laptop, while she was sending herself important reminders on her BlackBerry, which she purchased out of city funds and only uses for work.

“I send myself e-mails and notes all the time on things I have to remember to deal with,” Stetzer said, adding, “This is a 50-member, volunteer board that really works hard for the community.”