The borough president’s office released a new report regarding Bronx community board demographics on Wednesday, September 4.
The analysis measured mostly the split between boards’ male to female ratio and whether or not members were above or under 50 years of age in addition to their primary civic interests such as veteran status.
Belmont’s Community Board 6 has the most women serving in the Bronx with its 26 female members making up a major percentage of the 38-person board while also boasting the most military veterans appointed to any Bronx community board at 5. Meanwhile, Soundview’s CB 9 boasts reciprocal numbers as it has 20 men making up 65 percent of its 31 total board members.
Besides those two extremes, many of the other ten Bronx boards had relatively even ratios as far as gender is concerned.
Age diversity ranged very wide in the borough president’s data, though. Many of the borough’s community boards are made up of residents over the age of 50, statistically speaking.
Only eight of the 40 active members on Throggs Neck’s CB 10 are under 50 according to the findings, while Morris Park’s CB 11 saw the same number of under 50-year-olds within its 44-person body and Eastchester’s CB 12 has a similar lopsided ratio with only 10 of its 46 members under 50.
Hunts Point’s CB 2 has 26 of its 34 members aged 50 or older as well.
CB 9 is the only board to see a majority of members younger than 50 with a 16 to 15 person split between its 31 total board members.
Mosholu Parkway’s CB 7 also had a more even age ratio with a 22 to 20 split of members over and under 50-years-old.
The highest number of board vacancies were found in CB 2, 5, and 9, with each having 13 open spots per board as of Friday, August 23.
Throughout the summer many of the boards slashed vacancy numbers to nearly half of what they were in May.
Over the summer months CB 9 filled 15 of its borough high 28 vacancies while CB 6 filled 11 of its 20 openings.
CB 11 had the least vacancies in the borough at only two in August, adding eight new members for its ten openings.
“Word of mouth is an important tool for recruiting community board members. Members of the borough president’s staff, who interact with residents and community leaders throughout the borough, encourage them to consider applying for community board membership,” the report indicated.
CB 3 is still needs 11 members to complete is ranks.
Community board appointments and reappointments are made at the discretion of the borough president in consultation with the local City Council members, explained the borough president’s communications director, John DeSio.
“We have a long internal process. In the end we make the selections based on how we believe people will represent both our office and their respective communities,” he said.
