Significant racial disparities affect every community board in Queens
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Borough President Melinda Katz swore-in 345 community board appointees earlier this year. Photo courtesy of the Borough President’s Office
By David Brand
Queens has earned a reputation as the most diverse county in the United States, but the borough’s 14 local community boards — key conduits between communities and city government — rarely reflect the demographics of the districts they represent, according to an analysis by the Eagle and Measure of America.
White people are overrepresented on every board, and men outnumber women at a significant rate on several boards. In contrast, Latinx residents are underrepresented — sometimes by a huge margin — on all but one community board; Asian people are underrepresented on all but four boards. Women, meanwhile, make up less than 40 percent of members on six of the boards and only six community board members — of 663 total — identified as LGBTQ on their applications.
New York City’s five borough presidents are required to submit annual reports on the demographic composition of each 50-member community board, based on the information included in members’ applications. The report is newly mandated by the City Charter.
In October, Queens Borough President Melinda Katz quietly published Queens’ first report, which includes a breakdown of age, race, gender, ethnicity and other identifying information voluntarily submitted by members on their applications. Measure of America and the Eagle analyzed the data to identify disparities between community board composition and the demographics of the districts they represent.
Not all members completed the identifying information sections of their applications and the different rates of disclosure prohibit a complete analysis of the community board demographics.
Nevertheless, the information included in the annual report highlights several gaps.
Understanding community boards
Each community board is comprised of 50 unpaid members who live in, work in or have some connection to the district they represent. As of April 1, 37 seats across the borough were unoccupied, according to the borough president’s report. Half of the members are nominated by local councilmembers and the rest apply. Each community board member is approved and appointed by the borough president.
“Service on a Community Board requires a substantial commitment of time and energy, and the borough lauds and is grateful to these civic-minded individuals,” Katz said in April after appointing more than 340 members to the boards. Katz did not respond to multiple requests for comment for this story, including several questions related to the application and to her appointments.
Community boards play an important role in city life, casting advisory votes on land use proposals, weighing in on street design plans and hosting forums on key community issues. The boards meet monthly and are led by an elected chair and a district manager. The boards also feature various committees, including land use, that meet for additional public sessions.
“A lot of people who want to join the board don’t know what it is and they think its an honorarium, but it’s a lot of hard work,” said veteran Community Board 7 member Chuck Apelian, a former board chairperson. Community Board 7 includes Flushing, Bay Terrace, College Point, Whitestone, Malba, Murray Hill and Linden Hill.
In April, Apelian was appointed by Katz to the city’s new 15-member Civic Engagement Commission, a body designed to promote municipal participation, including on community boards.
“Community boards serve a really critical function in New York City,” said Civic Engagement Commission Chairperson Sarah Sayeed. “They’re really doorways for diverse New Yorkers to have a voice on issues that impact them or their neighborhoods.”
But in several community districts, the doorways have remained closed to many residents.
Latinx representation
Latinx residents are underrepresented on 13 of the 14 community boards, according to a comparison of the ethnic and racial composition of community boards included in the borough president’s report and the ethnic and racial makeup of the districts in DATA2GO.NYC, Measure of America’s online mapping tool. DATA2GO.NYC uses population data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey to determine specific community district demographics.
Latinx residents are most underrepresented on Community Board 3, which represents. Jackson Heights, Corona and East Elmhurst. Latinx people account for about two-thirds of the population in Queens Community District 3, but they account for only 15 percent of Community Board 3, according to the borough president’s report.
Demographics of Community District 3 vs Community Board 3
Image by Measure of America
Latinx people were underrepresented by 25 percent or more on three other community boards — Community Board 2 (Sunnyside, Woodside, Long Island City), Community Board 5 (Ridgewood, Glendale, Middle Village, Maspeth) and Community Board 9 (Woodhaven, Ozone Park, Richmond Hill, Kew Gardens).
Asian representation
Asian New Yorkers are underrepresented on every Queens community board except four — Community Board 1 (Astoria, Long Island City, Woodside), Community Board 3 (Jackson Heights, Corona, East Elmhurst), Community Board 12 (Jamaica, Hollis, St. Albans, Springfield Gardens, Baisley Park, Rochdale Village, South Jamaica) and Community Board 13 (Bellaire, Bellerose, Brookville, Cambria Heights, Floral Park, Glen Oaks, Laurelton, Meadowmere, New Hyde Park, North Shore Towers, Queens Village, Rosedale, Springfield Gardens).
Community District 8 (Briarwood, Cunningham Heights, Flushing South, Fresh Meadows, Hillcrest, Hilltop Village, Holliswood, Jamaica Estates, Jamaica Hills, Kew Gardens Hills, Pomonok Houses and Utopia) has the largest proportion of Asian residents of the 14 Queens community districts (34 percent). But Asians make up 22.2 percent of Community Board 8, according to the report.
Asian people are most underrepresented on Community Board 10 (Howard Beach, Ozone Park, South Ozone Park, Richmond Hill, Tudor Village, Lindenwood). Not a single Community Board 10 member identified as Asian on their application, though Asian people make up 22.4 percent of the district.
Demographics of Community District 10 vs. Community Board 10
Image by Measure of America
Black representation
Black New Yorkers were underrepresented on four boards: Community Board 1 (Astoria, Long Island City, Woodside), Community Board 5 (Ridgewood, Glendale, Middle Village, Maspeth), Community Board 8 (Briarwood, Cunningham Heights, Flushing South, Fresh Meadows, Hillcrest, Hilltop Village, Holliswood, Jamaica Estates, Jamaica Hills, Kew Gardens Hills, Pomonok Houses and Utopia) and Community Board 11 (Bayside, Douglaston–Little Neck, Auburndale, East Flushing, Oakland Gardens, Hollis Hills).
Black people were most underrepresented on Community Board 8, where not a single board member identified as Black on their application.
Demographics of Community District 8 vs. Community Board 8
Image by Measure of America
Black people were most overrepresented on Community Board 3 (Jackson Heights, Corona, East Elmhurst). In Community District 12 (Jamaica, Hollis, St. Albans, Springfield Gardens, Baisley Park, Rochdale Village, South Jamaica), black people account for 61.1 percent of the population and 72 percent of the community board.
White representation
According to the analysis, white people were overrepresented on every community board in Queens.
White people account for more than 50 percent of the population in just one community district — Community District 5, where they comprise 51.1 percent of the population — but white people make up more than half of board members on six Queens community boards.
White people are most overrepresented on Community Board 9 (Woodhaven, Ozone Park, Richmond Hill, Kew Gardens) where they make up 55 percent of the board, but 17.9 percent of the district.
Demographics of Community District 9 vs. Community Board 9
Image by Measure of America
Additional disparities by gender and identity
Community boards skew disproportionately male, according to the analysis of member applications.
Women made up fewer than half of the members on nine community boards, and less than 40 percent of the members on six boards. Only two boards have members who identified as transgender and gender-nonconforming on their applications.
Women were most underrepresented on Community Board 7 (Flushing, Bay Terrace, College Point, Whitestone, Malba, Murray Hill, Linden Hill), where they account for 28 percent of members.
Community Board Gender Breakdown
Image by Measure of America
The community board applications also include a space for members to identify as LGBTQ. Just six of the borough’s 663 current community board members indicated that they were LGBTQ.
“I know from personal experience that being an openly gay person on my own community board has had direct positive results,” said Stonewall Democratic Club President Rod Townsend, a member of Community Board 1. “The lack of LGBTQ members and more generally of members of marginalized communities makes for boards that aren’t reflecting the broad mosaic of people living in the most diverse borough.”
“Their voices aren’t being lifted up and heard.”
Addressing the ‘disconnect’
The Civic Engagement Commission is tasked with addressing the disparities evident across community boards in Queens and New York City. The commission, which formed less than a year ago, has begun planning how to support community boards in conducting outreach and recruiting members who reflect the communities they serve, said Sayeed, the executive director
“It’s been on an ongoing challenge that we’ve had to deal with in New York City — how do we continue to keep up with the changing demographics of the city?” Sayeed said.
She praised the annual report on community board demographics as an important step for identifying the issue, and she said the information will help councilmembers and borough presidents understand the need for more diverse nominees
(Queens will elect a new borough president early next year after Katz takes over as Queens district attorney. Tomorrow, the Eagle will examine how the candidates for borough president have addressed community board demographics and what they will do as borough president.)
Apelian, the Community Board 7 member, also acknowledged the disparities, but he dismissed the importance of representation.
“Just because you might align 100 percent with the statistics — which is hard as it is — all that guarantees in that moment are the best political optics, nothing else,” Apelian said. “Just because you have X amount of black people, X amount of Asians, X amount of women doesn’t mean they have the best land use knowledge, the best transportation background.”
“Optics aren’t better than knowledge,” he added.
The disparities trouble other community board leaders, however.
“It’s important not to downplay people’s identities and to highlight what people bring to the table,” said newly elected Community Board 6 Chairperson Alexa Weitzman. “We want a cross-section of people who run small businesses, parents with young children, a full representation of the racial make-up of the community we represent.”
Weitzman said her goal is to increase awareness of the board to attract more applicants who reflect the racial, ethnic, age and gender composition of the communities they serve.
“We’re letting people know when meetings are, what we do, what it means,” Weitzman said. “We’re ramping up engagement, promotion and awareness.”
The borough president’s report indicates that the office already spreads the word about community boards and works with community-based organizations “reach a pool of potential candidates that reflects the diversity of our borough.”
But Community Board 6 member Anisia Ayon, one of the few Latinx members on her board, said the current efforts are not enough.
“I used to go to the meetings and I saw there was not too much representation of Latinos, now we are three latinos — only two women,” she said, adding that she worked for years to gain recognition in the community before finally getting nominated.
“It’s a disconnect,” Ayon said. “Maybe there’s not enough communication with the community.”
Renee King and Naomi Tinga with Measure of America contributed research using data from DATA2GO.NYC.
This article is Part One in a series on Queens community board demographics and what local leaders intend to do about it.
