BP Levine Focus On Inclusion With 2022 Class Of Appointments To Manhattan’s Community Boards

Former Community Board 12 member and current Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine announced his 2022 class of community board appointments.

This is the first since taking over the Manhattan Borough President’s Office (MBPO) in January.

Manhattan’s 12 Community Boards are composed of 50 volunteer members each serving staggered two-year terms with 25 members appointed (or reappointed) each year.

For 2022 the MBPO received 885 applications (the second-highest number of applications received by the MBPO) for the 319 appointments open this cycle. Of those, 91 are first-time appointments to the boards.

Half of all appointments were recommended by the City Council Members to boards representing their respective districts.

“We need to ensure our community boards are composed of diverse local leaders so that we can recover from this pandemic equitably and stronger than we were before,” said Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine. “My experience serving on a board showed me firsthand how having diverse and potent perspectives can turn a good community board into a powerful engine for change. This new class of appointments is the culmination of our efforts to begin to transform Manhattan’s Community Boards into a more fair and representative body that includes all the wonderful voices that together make Manhattan the most well-known community in the world. I look forward to the good work we will do together.”

Borough President Levine has made it a priority to shift the boards to better reflect the diverse make-up of the borough during the selection process.

This has included adding a car ownership question to the applications for the first time and emphasizing outreach to New Yorkers who have traditionally been underrepresented.

The 2022 class saw a more reflective representation in gender, racial and LGBTQ+ identities; age; car ownership; non-native English speakers; tenants; and caretakers among first-time appointments.

• Of the 91 first time appointees, 70% identify as BIPOC, including a greater percentage of individuals who identify as African Americans, Hispanic/Latinx, and AAPI Manhattanites;
• 48% of first-time appointees identified as women, 42% identified as men, and 1% identified as gender nonconforming;
• 26.4% of the new appointees are under the age of 30 years, with six individuals falling under the age of twenty. This represents a significant increase, which reflects MBP Levine’s desire to get younger Mnahattanaties interested in civics and government;
• 17.6% identify as LGBTQ+, which is a reflection of Manhattan’s vibrant queer culture and community;
• 79% of first-time appointees do not own a car, a percentage more closely aligns with Manhattan communities and emphasizes the Manhattan Borough President’s desire to ensure that the perspective of pedestrians, cyclists and transit riders is well heard;
• 40% of new appointees live in rental units across the borough compared to less than 30% having some sort of ownership stake in their domicile. This representation is crucial as we work to address our affordability crisis in Manhattan.

“As a whole, the 2022 class in Manhattan,” said Borough President Levine. “While we have a lot of work still to do to make the Community Boards fairer, more equitable, and more representative, I am tremendously proud of our new appointments and believe we have begun the process of making the shift to what representation should look like on our Community Boards.”

The Manhattan Community Board appointments for the 2022-2024 term are:

CB1: Alice Blank, Rosa Chang, Devon Charkoudian, Susan Cole, Eric Flores, Cody Lyon, Jason Friedman, Kenisha Mahajan, Megan McHugh, Desiree Kristina Robinson, Jimmy Sung, Andrea Jue, Alan Eric Yu, Megan Brown Kennedy, Justine Cuccia, Bruce L. Ehrmann, Mimi Flynn, Jeff Galloway, Kathleen Gupta, Tricia Joyce, Tammy Meltzer, Morton Minsley, Robert Schneck, Laura Starr, Robert Townley

CB2: Akeela Azcuy , Ritu Chattree, Valerie De La Rosa, Susan Kent, Ryder Kessler, Jeanine Kiely, Michael Levine, Edward Ma, Mostafa Osman, Brian Pape, Frederica Sigel, Chenault Spence, Eugene Yoo, Anita Brandt, Amy Brenna, Cheryl Wu, Shirley Smith, Antony Wong, Keen Berger, William Benesh, Mar Fitzgerald, Cormac Flynn, Patricia Laraia, Daniel Miller, Shirley Secunda, Stella FitGerald , Natasha Avanessians

CB3: July Yang, Alistair Economakis, Ana Calderon , Laura Lugo, Michelle Kuppersmith, Amanda Liu, Olympia Kazi, Jake Gold, Paul Rangel, Robin Schatell, Anisha Steephen, Larry Fenn, Annette Scott, Lee Berman, Vaylateena Jones, Kathryn Freed, Sandra Thomas-Strother, Rodney Washington, David Adams, David Crane, Andrea Gordillo, Lisa Kaplan, Joshua Waterman, Tareake Dorill Ramos, Thomas Rosa, Sarah Batchu

CB4: Theodore Arenas, Christine Berthet, Maarten de Kadt, Pete Diaz, Rae Tina Eskreis-Nelson, Charlie Todd, Wendy Gonzalez, Frank Holozubiec, Kerry Keenan, Christopher LeBron, Jeffrey LeFrancois, Kathryn Stokes, Alice Wong, Jessica Chait, Tina DiFeliciantonio, Peggy Kauh, Lowell Kern, Michael Noble, Jean-Daniel Noland, Matt Green, Joe Restuccia, David Solnick, Aurora Cruz, David Warren, Josephine Ishmon, Carl Wilson, Yadira Jiminez

CB5: David Achelis, Vikki Barbero, Catalina Muneton, Sarah Dowson, Laura Garcia, William Heyer, Kathy Kahng, Edward Kalafarski, Katherine Ellington, Craig Slutzkin, Sarah BJ Sung, Brad Sherburne, Mary Brosnahan, Renee Kinsella, Samir Lavinga, Pete Webb, Joseph Frewer, Seth Borden, Nancy Aber Goshow, Kimberly McCall, Aiden Blake, Tristan Haas, Michael Kaback, Zona Xu, Charles Miller, Johnathan Cedillo, Bridget Killian

CB6: Neil Barclay, Elvy Barroso, Majed Abdulsamad, Beatrice Disman, Nadeem Kilani, Adam C. Hartke, Abigail Krusemark, Anton Mallner, Philip Napolitano, Rajesh Nayar, Ann Seligman, Seema Shah, Mark Thompson, Hannah Singleman, Matthew Weingtraub, Jason Froimowitz, Matt Roberts, Kyle Athayde, Claire Brennan, Jim Collins, Paige Judge, Reshma Patel, Jayson Littman, Sandro Sherrod, Charles Fernandez, Sadie Howard, Jonathan D’errico, Ayisha Siddique, Gabriel Turzo

CB7: Andrew Albert, Richard Asche, Elizabeth Caputo, Joshua Cohen, Robert Espier, Steven Brown, Anthony Thomas, Blanche E. Lawton, Courtney Metakis, Seema Reddy, Susan Schwartz, Erana Stennett, Kristen Berger, Mark Diller, Natasha Kazmi, Ira Mitchneck, William Ortiz, Madge Rosenberg, Ethel Sheffer, Polly Spain, Sonia Garcia, Kevin Corte, Audrey Isaacs

CB8: Elizabeth Ashby, Lori Ann Bores, Billy Freeland, Paul Krikler, Sahar Hussein, Lindsey Cormack, John Phillips, Elizabeth Rose, John McClement, Lynne Strong-Shinozaki, Russell Squire, Anju Surresh, Bill Angelos, Judy Schneider, Michele Jane Birnbaum, Taina Borrero, Jane Parshall, Sharon Weiner, Sarah Chu, Anthony Cohn, Saundrea Coleman, Felice Farber, Craig Lader, Sharon Pope, Cos Spagnoletti, Addeson Lehv, Mohit Agrawal

CB9: Kelsey Bettis, John George, Daniel Cohen, LaQuita Henry, Tina Lumley, Iliana Mercado, Ken Miles, Georgiette Morgan-Thomas, Solomon Prophete, Carolina Ramirez, Carolyn Thompson, Walter Alexander, Jane Arendell-Johnson, Joyce Adewumi, Maritta Dunn, Jenny Garcia, Hugo Torres, Patricia Ramos, Carlton Davis, Lydia Gerson, Monique Hardin-Codero, Edwin Torres, Patricia Watler Johnson, Sean Farrow

CB10: Shawn Brannon, Hazel Dukes, Donna Gill, Cicely Harris, Marquis Harrison, Karen Horry
Kamaria Milford, Dana Points, Staci Ramos, Shadawn Smith, Keith Taylor, Charles Powell, Elvin Garcia, Asena Tuione, Mikaela Berry, Jaran David Manzanet, Ma’at Mack, Nathan Quist, Lydel Tyson, Brianna McClure, Leevert Holmes, Valone Brown, Fatoumata Magassa, Bailey Jeremie, Tiffany Bowen

CB11: Jose Altimirano, Adem Brija, Juhaib Choudhury, Claudia Perez, Ann Marie Vasquez, Jewel Jones, Marissa Mack, Devan Cronshaw, Jennifer Meyer, Arturo Perez, Russell Shuler, Hilda Candy Vives-Vazquez, John Green, Stephanie Arroyo, Jessica Morris, Isaac Scott, Malik McCollough, Giselle Malave, Rosa Diaz, Eugene Rodriguez, April Autry, Ernando “Jason” Villanueva, Briana Dacosta, Kenneth Crouch, Brandon Gillespie, Wanda Hopkins

CB12: Hector Bonilla, Daryl Cochrane, Nobles Crawford, Domingo Estevez, Jacob Banas, Sally Fisher, Emily Marte, Carl Unegbu, Elizabeth Lorris-Ritter, Bruce Robertson, Kimberly McCoy, Steve Simon, Mansita Diawara, Luiz Cruz, Maria Del Valle, Richard Allman, Robin Cruz, Jay Baez, Fe Florimon, Jonathan Frometa, Yosef Kalinsky, Jay Mazur, Isidro Medina, Deb.

Find out more about Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine.