What are Community Boards? Here's how to apply and a sample application
My first post of two about the Community Board application process
Note: In this post speak only for myself, not on behalf of Manhattan Community Board 3.
A year ago, I successfully applied to join a Community Board. I’m publicly sharing my experience in the hopes that it helps future applicants and ensures a diverse group of candidates succeed in this process.
What are Community Boards?
In short, they are neighborhood-level advisory groups in New York City. In particular, they give recommendations on housing projects that need re-zoning to be completed (this process is called ULURP) and requests for liquor licenses.
Do CBs have any power? A cynical but grounded take is that they are not elected officials and do not oversee major budgets, headcount, or implementation of policy.
A more generous take is that CBs do influence the decisions of higher levels of government and seeking CB feedback is a fairly common step in local and state policy proposals. This post talks more about this:
Here are some numbers, key players, and fun facts to keep in mind when approaching the CB interview process:
There are 59 total CBs with at most 50 members, so there are in theory 2950 CB members across the city at any given time
I applied to a Manhattan CB. Manhattan has 12 CBs, so 12*50 = 600 CB members
CB members serve two year terms, although appointment to CBs are staggered so that half are selected each year (e.g. 300 per year in Manhattan)
You do not have to live in the district a CB represents to apply to it. For example, I live in Brooklyn but applied to the Manhattan CB my church is represented by.
CB members are appointed by someone called the Borough President (BP). As you might imagine each borough has their own BP, so each Borough has its own application and interview process. This post discusses Manhattan’s process.
BPs defer to City Council members for half of the CB appointments
Is it fun to be on a Community Board? Maybe. The experience varies board-to-board. Personally, I’ve been surprised that the time commitment on my board hasn’t been as much as a drag as expected. I wrote about that and more in a recent post:
That said, it is the base form of participatory democracy in New York City. Maximum New York points out that about 40% of City Council members previously served on a CB, so consider it the default stepping stone into local governance.
What is the Acceptance Rate for new Manhattan CB Applicants?
This would be nice to know so new applicants have a sense of how easy or hard it is to be appointed to a Manhattan CB.
Actually calculating this number is tricky without some key data points. But, I believe the acceptance rate for new applicants is low. This is because new applicants are applying for the handful of vacancies in CBs left by incumbents not re-applying (Incumbents have a very good chance of re-appointment).
In 2024, the Manhattan BP received about 800 applicants; if we subtract out 300 applicants as incumbents, that means there are ~500 applicants applying for a handful of vacancies across 12 CBs.
Note that this math will change when term limits come into effect later this decade.
How to apply?
You get more details on how to apply to Manhattan CBs on the Manhattan BP’s website: https://www.manhattanbp.nyc.gov/resources/communityboards/
In 2025, the deadline for Manhattan CBs is 5pm ET on February 28th (Note that in 2024, the deadline for Manhattan CB applications got pushed down to March 8th).
A sample 2024 Manhattan CB Application
The application has two parts: your resumé and application responses. I don’t know if this would help anyone, but here are links to my application if it provides a frame of reference:
A lot of my responses were molded in direct response to needs highlighted by my CB’s District Needs Statement, so definitely search for that before writing your responses.
I’m a part of Open New York, so a couple of their members reviewed my application. If you can get someone from the CB you are applying to to review your application, that seems like the ideal situation.
I am publishing tips for the group interview in a separate post. So stay tuned for that and let me know if you have any questions!