BY JESSICA PARKS
A community board representing
historically white
southern Brooklyn neighborhoods
including Mill Basin,
Marine Park, Bergen Beach,
and Canarsie has undergone
a rapid demographic shift over
the past two decades, transforming
from a civic organization
with only a small minority
element to a group with a solid
black majority, according to its
fi rst Carribean chairman.
“When I joined the community
board, I could count on my
fi ngers how many black members
we had,” said Gardy Brazela,
a Haitian immigrant, who
signed on as a member of Community
Board 18 in 1998. “So,
we have come a long way.”
When Brazela joined the
civic organization — which is
responsible for advising the
city and state on various civic
matters, including liquor license
applications and zoning
variances, in addition to
providing feedback on public
works within the community
— there were only two other
black civic gurus among the
50 volunteer members serving
Community Board 18, a disparity
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that can be blamed on
the then small minority population
dwelling within the district,
according to Councilman
Alan Maisel.
“The community board has
become much more diverse
by virtue of the communities
that are moving in,” Maisel
said. “The demographics have
changed and therefore the representation
of the community
has changed.”
According to a 2017 report
released by Comptroller Scott
Stringer’s offi ce, the population
of white residents living
in Community Board 18 plummeted
by 29 percent from 2000
to 2015, while the area’s black
population grew by a whopping
40 percent during that time.
And throughout that period
of rapid change, the community
board was not always
refl ective of its new constituency,
according to Brazela. In
2018 only 49-percent of board
members were black, while the
area’s African-American and
Caribbean populations had
ballooned to represent 62-percent
of residents living within
the area, data shows.
That disparity is becoming
less pronounced by the year,
however, and today black volunteers
represent 58-percent of
the board’s total membership,
according to Brazela, who said
he looks forward to making the
board even more representative
of the district.
“It’s a fact that the community
was not well-represented,”
Brazela said. “Now, we have
better representation than before.
But can we do better, yes
we can.”
In addition to providing
residents a platform to petition
the city, community boards
often serve as a gateway to
elected offi ce. Among the two
other black board members
who served with Brazela in
1998 was a young Jumaane
Williams, then only 21 years
old, who would go on to become
councilman representing Canarsie,
and later the city’s Public
Advocate.
Now Brazela, more than
a year after he replaced longtime
Gardy Brazela (left), the fi rst Carribean-American to serve as chairman
of Community Board 18, with his predecessor Saul Needle.
Photo by Steve Solomonson
chairman Saul Needle to
become the board’s head honcho
in 2019, is pursuing his
own Council run, this time angling
for the seat Maisel will
vacate when he’s term limited
at the end of 2021.
If elected, he would become
the 46th Council District’s fi rst
black representative.
“I want to be a councilman
for all the people of my district,
whether you are black, white,
Asian, you name it. That is
the way it is supposed to be,”
Brazela said. “I will be there
to serve all of the people in my
district.”
Changing with the times
Historically white community board welcomes black majority
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