A group of power-hungry politicians is trying to sell you a bill of goods on Tuesday — and voters need to take a stand to strengthen our very democracy.
Four borough presidents are opposing Ballot Proposal 3, which proposes eight-year term limits for community board members before allowing members to reapply after a two-year hiatus. We urge you to defy the pols and vote Yes.
We know. The last thing you want to think about right now is New York City's 59 community boards. But do so for a moment: Community boards may be the lowest rung of democracy, but they remain one of the most important. Before city agencies unveil major land-use changes, street-safety improvements, or other civic plans in a given neighborhood, they present them to volunteer-staffed boards, which propose changes that can often improve projects.
But there's one major problem: The only constant in New York City life is change — except on community boards. Over time, demographics in all neighborhoods change — and those changing demographics reflect the shifting desires, needs, perspectives and values of growing segments of the population.
This is what makes our city great. Whatever your metaphor — melting pot or gorgeous mosaic — New York is at its best when all its voices are being heard. New York is living up to its values when newcomers are given a chance to work the same levers of power as the old-timers.
Community boards could be true laboratories of democracy, but instead, many are lockboxes of backwardness, bigotry and pettiness. As demographic research shows, many community boards are far whiter and older than the diversifying neighborhoods they supposedly represent.
How does that play out? Horrifically. Last year, in fact, a member of a disproportionately white community board in Queens suggested that bike lanes were unnecessary because no one would use them once President Trump deported all the "illegals." And plenty of worthy projects get voted down by the "Not in My Backyard" crowd that dominates community boards.
Indeed, as David Meyer reported last week, community boards often — defiantly so, even! — defend the interests of the car-owning minority over basic street-safety improvements for all their residents. That's why StreetsPAC, Reinvent Albany, Transportation Alternatives, Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams and livable streets champion Council Member Brad Lander (D-Park Slope) support the term-limit proposal. The four borough presidents who oppose the term limit proposal do so to retain their control of the boards, whose members they appoint and whose loyalty they crave.
This is not to say that community board members don't work hard; they do. But New York's democracy thrives best when new voices are given a space at the table (a table that none of us owns, by the way). We've seen the positive effect that term limits has had for the City Council, which is a far more aggressive, responsive and, yes, demographically diverse body than it was two decades ago.
Several future mayors are likely sitting there right now. The same will one day be said about community boards — once the old guard is forced to give way.
Election Day is Tuesday, Nov. 6. Polls are open from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. In addition to races for governor and the state legislature, three ballot proposals are on the back side of the ballot. Don't forget to flip your ballot!
