CBH Talk | Democracy on Your Block: Inside Brooklyn’s Community Boards

Community boards are one of New York City’s most vital engines of grassroots democracy. From shaping land use and transportation decisions to advocating for city services, resources, and quality-of-life improvements, community boards offer a direct way for residents to influence the future of their neighborhoods and ensure that local voices are heard. This panel brings together four leaders who know these institutions from the inside. They explore how democracy is practiced—not in theory, but in meetings, negotiations, and persistence – and reflect on the realities of serving on and managing community boards, navigating bureaucracy, balancing competing neighborhood interests, working with city agencies, and sustaining public engagement, alongside the deep rewards of helping communities be heard and effect change. Moderated by Jeffery C. Mays, award-winning politics and investigative reporter for The New York Times, panelists include Josephine Beckmann (District Manager, Brooklyn Community Board 10), Naomi N. Hopkins (Chair, Brooklyn Community Board 18), Ethan Norville (1st Vice Chair, Brooklyn Community Board 9), and Brad Lander, who has just concluded his term as New York City Comptroller and served on a community board himself towards the beginning of his career.