Queens BP Appoints New Community Board Members

The Queens Community Board 6 office on Metropolitan Ave. in Forest Hills (Google Maps).

By Iryna Shkurhan | [email protected]

Younger, less white and more reliant on public transportation. This is what the newly appointed members of community boards across the borough look like. 

Queens Borough President, Donovan Richards Jr., announced the appointees for 2023-2025 term in a press release on April 5. In an effort to make the boards more representative of the communities they represent, new appointees are more diverse than in previous terms, especially in age. 

Half of new members are under the age of 45 and close to a quarter are between the ages of 16 and 35. Before Richards took office in November 2020, almost three quarters of board members were over the age of 45. 

An investigation conducted by The City found that community board members are often whiter, more male and older than the neighborhoods they represent. Some argue that older members who remain on their respective board after serving countless terms should make room for members of younger generations. 

“I would say that the new board is pretty diverse. I saw it at the first meeting,” said David Aronov, a first time member at 26-years old. 

Some boards which meet early in the month, like Community Board 6 — which represents the Forest Hills area — already had new members present at their April meeting. 

Aronov, a long time Forest Hills resident, is no stranger to the community board. He attended CB6 meetings as a representative while working for former council member Karen Koslowitz’s office in District 29, for over seven years. Then he ran for her council seat in 2020, and attended the meetings as a political candidate. 

“It’s just the way to continue advocating for the community, for my neighbors,” said Aronov, a Russian-speaker part of the Bukharian Jewish community. “And making sure that people’s voices, who have felt for quite some time that they were underrepresented, will be heard on the board.”

As a board member, he hopes to help support small businesses in the community emerging from Covid related strains. And work towards increasing access to public transportation. 

Out of a pool of 938 applicants, Richards selected 366 individuals to represent 14 community boards in Queens — 116 are new members. Members are unsalaried and serve in two year terms with each board having a maximum of 50 members.

“Now I get to be a part of impacting change and in fighting for equity right here in my home, and I get to do it alongside like minded individuals,” said Marcelle Lashley-Kabore, 45, after attending her first CB6 meeting as a board member. 

Lashley-Kabore is the founder and CEO of Girls with Knowledge, a nonprofit that provides girls in marginalized communities with education, support and resources through female leadership. She is also the CEO of Xposure Foundation, which provides financial literacy initiatives and a range of after school programs  for youth across the city and in Westchester county. 

While she is engaged strongly in improving communities through her nonprofit career, Lashley-Kabore said she felt disconnected from her own community in Forest Hills, where she has lived for over a decade. Before that, she graduated from China Europe International Business School and lived in Kew Gardens for a decade while working in the corporate world. 

“I’m really excited about joining with a collective, to be able to help advise our leaders in government on things that they can do to help make sure that all of us have a better life,” said Lashley-Kabore. “I’m excited to bring my culture, my perspective, my gender, I’m excited to bring all of that.”

She began attending CB6 meetings during the early days of the pandemic. Shortly after she also ran for city council in District 29.  

“The historic 2023 class of community board appointees represent the best of Queens. I’m immensely confident in this diverse, dedicated and determined group of public servants and I look forward to the great work they will do on behalf of their neighborhoods over the course of their term,” said the Borough President in a release. 

Another diversity factor in consideration was mode of transportation. Slightly more than half of appointed members reported they “mostly” or “often” navigate the borough by using the subway. Nearly a third said that they “sometimes” used a bicycle or other form of micro transport to get around. 

“It’s important for young people to be involved because we are now able to make decisions for our generation and our future instead of other people making those decisions for us,” said Aronov. 

To continue serving on the board, members are required to reapply at the end of their two-year term and are subject to reconsideration. 

 

CB5 member booted for racist language

By Jessica Meditz

[email protected]

A member of Queens Community Board 5 (CB5) has been removed from the board after using racist language at the last monthly public meeting.

Richard Huber, of Glendale, went on a two-minute-long rant during the Jan. 11 meeting — where he doubted the effectiveness of the COVID-19 vaccine, claiming that it alters DNA and that healthy people are dying or becoming ill as a result. Both arguments have been debunked by medical experts.

Amid his declaration, Huber went on to refer to COVID-19 as the “Wu flu,” an improper name for the disease and known racial slur against Chinese people and Asians as a whole.

The unofficial term refers to Wuhan, China, the city in which the virus first appeared, as per the CDC’s reports. However, most of the medical community condemns its use or other forms of it, as it can cause stigma and discrimination against a certain racial group.

The terms are also associated with former president Donald Trump, who came under fire for using labels such as “kung flu” and “Chinese virus” during the height of the pandemic.

“All you ever heard about the so-called vaccine for the Wu flu…it was only safe and effective, and it would prevent transmission and it would prevent you from catching it — yet that seems not exactly to be true,” Huber said at the meeting.

His remarks came as a response to Gary Giordano’s district manager’s report, where he shed light on the recent nurses’ strike, highlighting the shortage of nurses nationwide.

Neither Giordano nor Walter Sanchez, chairman of the meeting, responded to Huber’s statements during the meeting; however, Derek Evers, a board member, condemned the language shortly thereafter.

“Not gonna comment on the unhinged anti-vax rant we just heard, but I would just like to condemn the racist language that was used,” he said. “I don’t think the Community Board is any place for that, so I just want to put that on the record.”

Two days after the meeting, a spokesperson for Queens Borough President Donovan Richards told the Queens Ledger that “The Borough President has removed this individual from Community Board 5 for cause, effective immediately.”

Members of all Community Boards in Queens are required to abide by the centralized Code of Conduct issued by the Borough President, which requires board members to act respectfully and in a non-discriminatory manner.

Back in May of 2021, the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act was signed into law by President Joe Biden, which was co-sponsored by local Congresswoman Grace Meng (D-Queens), the first and only Asian American member of Congress from New York State.

The bill denounces all discrimination against Asian Americans and formed a new position in the Justice Department to expedite the investigation of potential COVID-19-related hate crimes. It was penned in response to the spike in anti-Asian hate crimes that occurred nationwide, including the killings of six Asian women in the Atlanta area in March of 2021.

Many Democrats, including Meng, feel that the inaccurate language, such as referring to COVID-19 by names with a geographic location attached to it, is part of the reason for the increase in hate crimes against Asian Americans.

“The increased use of anti-Asian rhetoric, particularly from our nation’s leaders such as the President [Donald Trump], and their use of terms like ‘Chinese virus,’ ‘Wuhan virus,’ and ‘Kung-flu,’ is not only irresponsible, reckless, and downright disgusting, it threatens the safety of the Asian American community; such language demeans, disparages, and scapegoats Asian Americans,” Meng said in a 2020 statement.

“Asian Americans, like millions of others across the nation, are worried about the coronavirus; however, so many Asian Americans are also living in fear following the dramatic increase of threats and attacks against those of Asian descent. During this time of heightened anxiety and fear surrounding COVID-19, we cannot lose sight of protecting the health and safety of every single person – no matter their race, ethnicity, or background.”

Walter Sanchez, who is also the publisher of this newspaper, said he could have handled the situation differently.

“As a facilitator of a Community Board meeting I always want to encourage people to speak, but we are not there to hear political views. I felt if I commented on his speech it might have sparked a debate that would have led the meeting down the wrong path. I do respect every member of the board and have respect for their time commitment.  The borough president appoints us for input on local issues affecting our neighborhoods. He has the expectation that we conduct ourselves in a way that reflects the diversity of our borough,” Sanchez said.

“Mr. Huber’s remarks were obviously derogatory towards a certain race and the borough president felt his removal from the board was necessary,” he continued. “His words were quite uncomfortable for me to digest while I was running the meeting. My job was to stop the discussion in its tracks.”

Huber did not respond to a request for comment by press time.

Editor’s note: Walter Sanchez is the publisher of this news organization. His recent remarks were made in his capacity while chairing CB5’s public monthly meeting on Jan. 11.

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