Bronx beep encouraging community board applicants, citing steep decline in interested members

The public attends an in-person joint meeting of community boards 5 and 6 in Fordham on Monday, June 12, 2023.

Photo Camille Botello

Last year, the Bronx Borough President’s Office was sifting through around 300 community board position applications. But this year, with a looming March 1 deadline, only 75 applications sit on BP Vanessa L. Gibson’s desk. 

It’s the staggering drop in applications — an approximate 75% decrease from this time last year — that has inspired Gibson to try to recruit more applicants during a day of action on Feb. 21. 

“Our community board members play a crucial role in our democracy by advocating on behalf of their neighbors and by being the voice of their communities,” Gibson said in a statement when announcing the application period. 

Community boards are bodies that serve as the local advisers for policymakers — including New York City Council members, state senators and assemblymembers — as well as local and state agencies. While they don’t have actual legislative voting power, they are permitted to vote on and issue opinions about community issues. 

The BP’s office is specifically encouraging young people to apply to their local community boards — an initiative also set into action last application season. Last year the youngest community board member was Leona Teten, a then-17-year-old at Bronx High School of Science who said she brought perspective to Bronx Community Board 8’s Youth Committee and Parks and Recreation Committee. 

Mary Elhakam, currently a member of Bronx Community Board 11, told the Bronx Times she’d like to see more diversity on each of the borough’s 12 boards. Board 11 encompasses the neighborhoods of Allerton, Indian Village, Morris Park, Pelham Gardens, Pelham Parkway and Van Nest.  

“Learning by doing is one of the best ways to get out there,” the 23-year-old Manhattanville College grad student said. 

Elhakam started on her local community…