Six candidates for BP tackle community board disparities

Queens Borough Hall. Eagle file photo by David Brand.

By David Brand

When the next Queens borough president takes office after a special election in early 2020, they will control appointment power for the borough’s 14 community boards — each one affected by significant racial, gender and age disparities.

White people, for example, are overrepresented on every single board compared to their population in the corresponding district, according to an analysis by the Eagle and Measure of America. Women account for fewer than 40 percent of the members on six boards; only six board members — out of 663 — indicated that they were LGBTQ on their applications.

Councilmember Costa Constantinides, former Councilmember Elizabeth Crowley, Assemblymember Alicia Hyndman, police reform advocate Anthony Miranda, Councilmember Donovan Ricahrds and Councilmember Jimmy Van Bramer are all running to replace current Borough President Melinda Katz who leaves office Jan. 1 to take over as Queens district attorney. They each say they will address the community board inequities.  

The Eagle and Measure of America revealed the specific demographic disparities after analyzing the first annual community board member demographic report published by Katz. The City Charter mandates that borough presidents compile demographic information gleaned from member applications and include it in an annual report. Not all members completed the identifying information sections of their applications, however, so the data is incomplete.

Nevertheless, it provides a window into inequities on each board.

Blaming the councilmembers 

Whoever wins the special election will have the ultimate power to address the community board disparities. For all the talking points about how each candidate would reorient the direction of the office, community board appointment authority is one of the tangible powers borough presidents actually wield.

As past or present councilmembers, Constantinides, Crowley, Richards and Van Bramer have each had a hand in elevating residents to boards that overlap with their districts: half of the community board members are nominated by councilmembers.

Miranda, the lone candidate to have never held elected office, blamed the councilmembers for the disparities.

“They have all been part of that process, and it is either direct neglect or inattentiveness to that facts that there has been this lack of representation,” Miranda told the Eagle. “If they felt the borough president wasn’t handling it correctly, they were all in a position to say, ‘We have a problem here and we need to fix it.’” 

Miranda has never served on a community board, but he said he would assist councilmembers with community outreach to ensure underrepresented communities, especially Latinx residents, are motivated to apply. Latinx people are underrepresented on 13 of the 14 boards.

Hyndman, an assemblymember, does not have a direct impact on community board appointments either. She said in an email that she would form a “designated team” that would attend meetings and “report on the flow, attendance and growth of boards.” 

She said she would also promote community board vacancies “through blast and district wide marketing (in different languages).”

“It’s important people can be inspired to, at the minimum, get involved and apply,” she added.

Map by Fitnr via Wikimedia Commons.

Defending their records 

The four councilmembers — Constantinides, Crowley, Richards and Van Bramer — each defended their record on community board nominations and pointed to specific nominees who represented diverse ages, backgrounds and experiences.

Constantinides represents Council District 22 and nominates to Community Board 1 (Astoria, Long Island City, Woodside) and Community Board 3 (Jackson Heights, Corona, East Elmhurst). On both boards, Latinx people are significantly underrepresented. So are people under age 45. Women are significantly underrepresented on both boards.

“The community board process is broken,” Constantinides said. “We need to do a better job of reaching out to the diverse communities [and] then we need to have a more open and transparent process for appointing community board members.”

He said he nominates very few people Community Board 3 and focuses on “diversity of thought” in his Community Board 1 nominations. “I attempted to make it more diverse in ideology, renter-owner, ethnicity and gender, gender inclusivity,” he said.

Crowley represented Council District 30 until 2018. She made nominations for Community Board 5 (Ridgewood, Glendale, Middle Village, Maspeth), where white people are significantly overrepresented and Latinx people are significantly underrepresented, Black and Asian residents are also underrepresented. No Community Board 5 member indicated that they were an immigrant on their application. 

Crowley said “diversity was critical” for her nominations. “Ensuring community boards reflect the neighborhoods they represent was a top priority for me,” she said.

In an August interview, Crowley said she would focus on recruiting young people to serve on the community board. No Community Board 5 members said they were 25 or under on their applications. Only four boards have a member who is younger than age 26, according to the analysis of application data. 

“It gets to the point where these community boards are out of touch,” Crowley said. “I don’t know if there is a board that truly reflects the changing demographics of the communities they represent.”

Richards, who represents Council District 31, makes nominations for 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) and Community Board 14 (Rockaway Peninsula, Broad Channel).

Of the 14 boards, Community Board 13 members most closely reflected the actual racial and ethnic demographics of the district, though Latinx people were underrepresented.

Women, however, made up only 30 percent of members — one of the worst gender disparities in the borough.

On Community Board 14, Latinx residents, immigrants and parents of K-12 students were all significantly underrepresented.

Nevertheless, Richards said that the community has “made great strides recently to ensure just that by working with Borough President Melinda Katz and other measures like lowering the age to be on a community board.”

“I would like to see more public housing residents on our community boards and also look at ways to make it easier for people to join,” he added. “People all have different lived experience, and it's crucial that we have those different viewpoints."

Van Bramer’s campaign team provided the most thorough breakdown of his nominee demographics. Van Bramer represents Council District 26 and makes nominations for Community Board 1 and Community Board 2 (Sunnyside, Woodside, Long Island City).

Latinx people and immigrants were both significantly underrepresented on both boards. Women accounted for 31 percent of Community Board 1 members, but 55 percent of Community Board 2.

Van Bramer’s Community Board 2 nominees include 12 women, 14 people of color and one person who identifies as LGBTQ. His Community Board 2 nominees include six women and four people of color.

Van Bramer said he would specifically appoint “local advocates, housing leaders, union members [and] small business owners” in order to “achieve 50/50 gender parity, reflecting the district's demographics, while empowering and building capacity.”

This article is Part Two in a series on Queens Community Board demographic disparities.