There hasn’t been an official news release from Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, but new members of the city’s community boards learned about their appointments in the past few days. A check of CB3’s web site indicates there are five new members. They include:
- MyPhuong Chung, an architect, who was already serving on Community Board 3 as a public member assigned to the transportation committee.
- Ben Landy, a real estate broker.
- Jamie Rogers, the co-owner of Pushcart Coffee on East Broadway. Rogers was formerly a corporate lawyer.
- Bill Strom, a New York City native who returned from Chapel Hill, North Carolina three years ago, where he was a member of the City Council and chaired the regional transportation authority. Strom lives in the Seward Park Cooperative.
- Wilson Tang, the owner of the Nom Wah Tea Parlor on Doyers Street. Tang left a career in finance to take over the family business, Chinatown’s oldest dim sum parlor.
Additionally, William LoSasso, who works for the Port Authority, is now serving a full term on the board. He was previously appointed to fill a vacancy and is CB3’s treasurer.
Three members were not reappointed. They are Lois Regan, Simon Huang and Janet Riesel. Riesel will be continuing with CB3 as a public member of the Personnel committee. Regan is a longtime board member who once chaired the waterfront subcommittee. At last month’s full board meeting, Chair Dominic Pisciotta praised Regan for her dedication to the community and expressed the hope that she would stay involved with CB3 as a public member.
In June, the board will elect a new chair and executive officers. Pisciotta has indicated he will not run for another term, so CB3 will be getting a new leader.
Community board members are selected by the borough president, in consultation with City Council members (in our case Margaret Chin and Rosie Mendez). The Council members choose half of the appointees; Stringer chooses the other half.
In the most recent appointments, Stringer and Pisciotta sought out small business owners and residents with expertise in land use issues (the Seward Park Development Project will continue to dominate CB3 in the next year). Stringer has also made it a major priority to diversify the boards by seeking out more Asian candidates as well as younger residents.
