By Forum Staff
Queens Borough President Donovan Richards Jr. on Monday announced the release of his office’s 2024 Queens Community Board Demographic Report, providing both an overview of the current demographic profiles of Queens community boards and a detailed, multilayered breakdown of this year’s diverse class of community board appointees.
Richards said his initiative to digitize the community board application in 2021 continues to be “a major success” in generating a deeper and more diverse pool of candidates for appointment to Queens’ 14 community boards. Since 2021, over 3,600 applications were submitted — the vast majority of which came from individuals who had not previously served on a board.
Richards said that the heightened interest also stems from his 2021 announcement of a series of good-government reforms aimed at establishing a centralized code of conduct for all 14 community boards, as well as a call for a holistic review of each board’s bylaws, making boards more welcoming places for new members.
“I am thrilled to see our efforts to create community boards that look like the communities they serve are generating great results,” Richards said. “There’s still a lot of work to be done, but I am confident that we’re building better representation on our boards with every passing year.”
As detailed in the report, there were significant achievements across the community board appointment process in 2024. In total, the Queens Borough President’s Office received 848 applications. Of this year’s 355 appointees, 117 are new members who were not previously serving on a board — the largest number of new members appointed during the Richards administration so far.
People of color were strongly represented amongst the 117 new members. People who identify as Hispanic/Latinx make up 27.4 percent of new appointees; African Americans make up 26.5 percent of new appointees; and East Asian/Pacific Islanders or South Asians make up 23.9 percent of new members. Over 80 percent of new appointees do not identify as “White” or “European,” a demographic category that has been historically overrepresented on community boards. Overall, this year’s class of new community board appointees is likely the most racially and ethnically diverse in Queens history.
In line with Borough President Richards’ efforts to appoint younger members to their local community boards, more than half, or 54.7 percent, of new appointees are under the age of 45, and nearly a third, or 31.6 percent, are 35 or under The youngest new appointee is 19 years old, reflecting persistent growth in interest among young people in community board membership. Prior to the Richards Administration, less than 25 percent of community board members were younger than 45.
Of the 117 new community board members this year, nearly 55 percent identify as female. When combining all four of Borough President Richards’ community board application cycles, more than 52 percent of his new appointees have identified as female. Prior to the Richards administration, just 43 percent of board members identified as female.
Additionally, 24.7 percent of new members are parents or guardians of a school-age child, while 17.9 percent are immigrants. In terms of LGBTQIA+ representation, 10.3 percent of new members identified as such, up from 3.4 percent of community board members as of 2020 prior to Richards taking office.
