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EditorialsClean House. Now.Over the past decade, the movement to provide more citizen input into the processes of government has gained many advocates. The vision of a legal place for local review and reaction was a right won by hard-fought battles and campaigning. Community School Beards are one important result of that movement. Community Planning Boards are another. Both potentially hold promise for elimination of the charge that %u201c big brother%u201d style government agencies are turning the wheels of bureaucracy without regard to individual neighborhoods, their different needs and aspirations.Even though performance has not always met promise, the movement has obvious merit. Community School Boards are finding poor participation in public election of board members suggests that some kind of appointment method might be a more efficient way to organize those boards. W ith a few catastrophic exceptions, the public school system is certainly no worse off than it was before those boards received their expanded powers eight years ago. In many, many cases, the quality of education has been considerably improved, we think. Certainly this has been the case in Districts 13 and 15 which cover communities in and around downtown Brooklyn.If the community-based school powers were an improvement over an earlier system, however, the creation of Community Planning Boards is a potential revolution. As community boards throughout the city begin to react in advance to the development of public and many private projects in their neighborhoods, and as they explore the use of their powers of review over the work and performance of city agencies, we are beginning to see a healthy and exciting new level of citizen participation in city government.Yes, things go wrong with the process: timid boards, faulty advice, ego trips and personality clashes, and appointed members who can%u2019t or won%u2019t carry their share of this unique new public responsibility. Those are things that any new way of operating produces. But problems aside, the movement is right on target, we think, and we believe it should be encouraged, supported and expanded.That%u2019s why we are particularly sad to read the story on page three of this paper this week about how one local board, Community Board Six, couldn%u2019t even muster a quorum of its members to hold a regular monthly meeting last week. Board Six, which covers Park Slope, Cobble Hill, Carroll Gardens, Red Hook and Gowanus, has 50 members, all of whom asked to be appointed to the board; only 17 attended its regularly-scheduled monthly meeting October 18, and that number was achieved by waiting an hour and a half after the official start of the meeting. Among those missing from the meeting were Chairman Gerard Carey and Vice Chairman Anita DeMartini. This failure to produce enough members to even hold a meeting is the culmination of an increasingly serious attendance problem of members.We respectfully request that City Councilman Thomas Cuite and Borough President Howard Golden, the two public officials who by law each appoint half of the members of this board, review the decisions they made which have put people in positions where they have responsibility they either don%u2019t want or can%u2019t meet. We think this performance demands a housecleaning.Sound Off Feedback from ReadersOn CharityWith reference to Richardson Pratt, J r.%u2019s Community Forum article of October 12, while not wishing to pass judgment on Pratt Institute programs, it would seem conceptually that they do not equate to cash payments in lieu of taxes (i.e., Real Estate) Pratt is spending on programs of its own determination. Taxes are spent on programs and services instituted by our elected representatives and in many instances on programs that individual tax payers would never wish to spend on. Mr. Pratt is confusing charity with taxes. %u2014Mark Zulli, Pacific St.Factual inaccuracy and incorrect English merely embarass a newspaper. Open disdain for readers, however, is another matter.The Phoenix, for October 12, reports that Brooklyn libraries have cut the borrowing period from four weeks to three. In fact, the four-week borrowing period ended some years ago; the new cut is from three weeks to two. Here, accuracy suffers. But the sun will rise in the morning anyhow.In the same issue, an article about programs sponsored by the Women%u2019s Works bookstore refers to %u201cconscious building (sic)%u201d and to %u201cone program that fill (sic) and plan (sic) your time....%u201d Here, English suffers. But all copy editors nod sometimes.Now consider the headline and lead paragraph of the article on Women%u2019s Works: %u201c Working With Women From The Inside Out. Ladies, if your evenings are mostly spent wondering what to do withthe following evening, something's definitely wrong with your schedule.%u2019%u2019 Here, a double entendre is followed by arch condescension.Local women%u2019s events ought to elicit straightforward, professional treatment from The Phoenix, not sophomoric snickering. Similar gibes have appeared in previous issues.Imprecision offends purists. But jejune scorn for women offends grown-ups of both sexes and sensible children to boot.%u2014 Marie Shear, E. 35 Street.A PleasureA friend of mine, who was enchanted by %u201c A Ramble Through the Past and Present on Parascourt%u201d forwarded same to me. I wanted you to know how very much I enjoyed it also.Mr. Pantano writes well and is most interesting. It%u2019s most refreshing to read something today th at%u2019s not lurid or depressing.Many thanns from a grateful reader!%u2014 Barb Handel, Birmingham, Mi.Added ThoughtsEnclosed is my check for a one year subscription. I enjoyed reading your Sixth Annual Brownstone Report of October 12, 1978. I would like to %u201c Sound Off%u201d on two articles.Kay Holmes Sear%u2019s piece on the expense of brownstones fails to note where sound, detailed brownstones can be bought for less than $60,000. To quote and paraphrase the first paragraph - %u201cJust a simple, one family, three-story brownstone, with parquet floors, (wood) mantels, decorative molding, a country kitchen with exposed brick and, oh yes, a rose garden in theback. It doesn't have to be in the Heights but a tree-lined block is a must, good schools, of course.%u201d In my area of SunsetLet us hear from,yoii.Post haste!TUg PH0%u00a3NIX\\ 395 Atlantic112.17Park I have seen several homes fitting this description sell for approximately $40,000 within the last year! I%u2019m sure there are other brownstone neighborhoods with similar attributes. Future brownstoners, take heart! A well kept, detailed brownstone bargain can be yours if you look beyond the downtown brownstone areas.In the article on brownstone cooperatives, it was reputed that 35 Prospect Park West was the oldest cooperative in Brooklyn since its inception in 1928. According to the A1A Guide, 816 - 43rd Street, built in 1916, is %u201c reputedly the first cooperative dwelling in New York.%u201d Around that time many other cooperativeapartments were also built by the Finns in the Sunset Park area. They are still successful cooperative ventures today.%u2014 Joseph V. Svehlak, Sunset Farit Restoration Committee.Please CancelWith regret I ask that you please cancel what is remaining of my subscription to your newspaper, The PHOENIX. I have been reading your paper for quite a few years since I had begun working for a local concern, and more recently subscribing myself. I was amazed at the article on Jehovah's Witnesses in the October 12, 1978 issue under BOOK BEAT by L.J. Davis. It is a vulgar article at best and I was very surprised and disappointed The PHOENIX permitted this.%u2014Jean Sharac,42nd St., Brooklyn.Easily AvoidedThis might be classified as nitpicking, but in your Oct. 19 edition I saw a mistake that could have been very easily avoided had the reporter merely asked his source one question: How do you spell that?The article, entitled %u201c Woodhull Reports Fuels Controversy,%u201d was written by one Gary Frederick. In it, he described Mildred Tudy as the director of the \Addicts Community Center%u201d%u2014a ludicrous mistake to put it mildly. The actual name of the community center is Crispus Attucks, named after the first man slain in the Revolutionary War (or one of the first, as he was killed at the Boston Massacre in 1770).Try to have your reporters do a more conscientious job in order to avoid such embarrassments in the future.%u2014NathanielGravesEditor%u2019s Note: Onch!Inklings By Bene SwchmaPage 8, T H E P H O E N IX , O ctobe r 2 6 ,1 9 7 8