Brooklyn residents gathered at Hunter College Saturday for a conference to learn how to raise their voices about the rising development in the borough.

The Livable Neighborhood conference was organized by the Municipal Art Society to encourage residents to use their voices to affect change in Brooklyn. Residents from all over the borough and city attended, harboring concerns about waterfront issues, pollution and traffic issues.

Organizers enlisted city planning experts and community leaders to address residents? concerns about development.

The conference also focused on issues like land use, sustainability and environmental impact.

City planning professor Tom Angotti says the first step towards exercising neighborhood power is getting involved. ?Talk to your neighbors. Talk to people down the block and find out what?s going on and you?ll find there?s an awful lot to do,? he says.

Conference-goers say they learned that building booms come and go, but it is the people who stay. That?s why they say it?s important to speak up about community development.