New Community Board Members Announced

Downtown community boards welcomed new appointees last week

By Helaina Hovitz

Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer appointed new additions to Community Boards 1, 2, and 3 on Monday, April 1st.

The newest members of Community Board 1 are:

- Marco Pasanella, owner of the Sandy-surviving South Street Seaport wine shop Pasanella and Son, who has been active in various efforts to help rebuild the Seaport area. The former Parsons professor and Yale graduate has written a column for the New York Times and been featured in Vanity Fair, Vogue, and Food and Wine.

- He is joined by fellow Yale alumni and Tribeca resident Elizabeth Lewinsohn, who is a member of the Jewish Community Project, Friends of Hudson River Park, and the Hudson River Park Mamas. Lewinsohn has a background in policy analysis and homeland security.

- New member and longtime Battery Park City resident Kathleen Gupta, former Chief Development Officer of the Lower Manhattan nonprofit Henry Street Settlement, is also the co-founder of Liberty Community Gardens in Battery Park City. She received the Battery Park City Community Service Honors Award last year.

- Also appointed to CB1 were Tribeca resident Sarah Currie-Halpern and South Street Seaport resident Jason Friedman, an architect with Joseph Pell Lombardi and Associates.

Community Board 2 has added:

- Katy Bordonaro, President of West Village Houses Tenants' Association and Co-Chair of the Greenwich Village Community Task Force.

- Nolita resident Daniel Ballen, a Junior Associate at MoMA, Committee Member at HelpUsAdopt, and vice president at investment firm Pine Brook Partners.

- Greenwich Village resident Tom Connor, Chair of Caring Community Senior Center's Senior Advisory Committee and Executive Member of the Village Independent Democrats. Connor is also a member of the borough Presdeint's Senior Advisory Group.

Community Board 3 appointed:

- East Village resident Justin Caroll volunteers with the YMCA running the "Youth and Government" program - a weekly program for teens to help build their understanding of state government, and was named one of the "Best LGBT Lawyers Under 40" by the LGBT Bar Association. He is also Vice Chair, Vanderbilt YMCA Board of Managers.

- Teresa Pedroza, a lifelong LES resident, successfully campaigned to co-name Delancey Street in honor of her granddaughter, who was killed using the crosswalk. She is a housing advocate and member of Good Old Lower East Side (GOLES).

- Shoshannah Frydman, Director of Family Violence Services at Met Council on Jewish Poverty.

- Ayo Harrington, President of the All the Way East 4th Block Association.

- National Labor Relations Board Senior Field Attorney Julie Ulmet.

- Two Bridges resident Josephine Velez.

- Former President of the Interagency Manhattan Borough-Wide Council on Aging Penina Mezei.

- NYPD Citizens Academy Graduate and 10 Stanton Street Tenant Association President Alysha Lewis-Coleman.

According to the Borough President's Office, all of the city's 12 Community Boards have become more diverse, and membership among LGBT, Latino, African American and Asian American communities has grown 40 percent. There are also more young people getting involved, as half of last year and this year's new appointees were comprised of New Yorkers in their 20s and 30s.