Representative Nydia Velázquez came to the Cooper Park Houses in East Williamsburg with a $1 million check for security lighting, and the residents council president framed it less as a gift than as an overdue acknowledgment. “Today it’s about more than a check, it’s about being heard,” council president Debra Benders said. “For years the residents raised their voices about safety, about visibility.” The money is real. So is the “for years.”